Russel and Nome

[Guest guest]

By Nome

 

What is it that is needed for Self-Realization? The Maharshi

said, "The only thing needed for the highest goal, or Self-

Realization, is loss of individuality. " This one instruction sums

up the entirety of practice, or the path, and Realization.

……All that is necessary is the loss of individuality. The

individuality is the false assumption of being a particular being, an

ego. If you believe yourself to be such, that is if you believe

yourself to be other than the Self, the one Absolute, called by the

names Brahman, Siva, That, etc., when will you ever reach it? ……If

this notion of a separate "I" is absent, what would you need to

attain, and what attainment could there be?

……If, everything that constitutes "you" and "yours" would be

thoroughly investigated, you would find that none of it – not one bit

of it – has anything to do with your actual Being.

 

Thus, being naturally free from all that extraneous, conceptual

nonsense, you would find the Self to be only yourself, the only `I"

there is. That is, there are not two "I's" or two selves in the one

of you…….There is just one, the only Existence, be it

called "God", "Brahman", or "the Self". That One alone exists,

eternally. So, then, who are you?

 

 

By Russel Smith

 

 

THE FORTY LEAST ASKED QUESTIONS or THE FORTY OF WHO IS

 

1.

Q. What is Enlightenment?

 

A. Enlightenment is the Awakening to the absence of an assumed

entity to be "enlightened" or "unenlightened".

 

2.

Q. What stands in the way?

 

A. The open secret is that there is no-thing and no-one in the way of

awakening.

 

3.

Q Does enlightenment exist?

 

A It neither exists nor does not exist.

 

4.

Q Does the world exist?

 

A It neither exists nor does not exist.

 

5.

Q Do I exist?

 

A Who is asking the question?

 

6.

Q When I search for the "Who" – I cannot find someone who definitely

eternally exists nor do I not exist. Am I confused?

 

A No – you are undefined – free of all conceptual opposites.

 

7.

Q Surely here must be something I can do to get Enlightened – what

actions lead to Liberation?

 

A No action leads to Liberation. Self-Knowledge reveals the already

free state.

 

8.

Q Are you saying that all the rules and regulations used by

spiritual teachers such as the restriction of : diet, sex, talking,

reading, questioning, etc. are unnecessary?

 

A Yes, as are the teachers. We do not need external means to see

our inner nature. A true guide tells you this from the beginning.

 

9.

Q Isn't Enlightenment given by the Guru when the disciple is

purified and ready?

 

A Our true nature is already pure. Just awaken to it. It is not an

object or experience that is given to a "you" by "another". All that

is needed ins the right approach.

 

10.

Q What is the right approach?

 

A The right approach does not divide experiences, persons or things

into right versus wrong. A wrong approach assumes that division.

 

11.

Q Does practice make perfect?

 

A Our true nature is already present in perfection. Real practice

is being aware of this.

 

12.

Q When will the two become one?

 

A Since when did the One become two?

 

13.

Q How long will my practice need to be if I approach being aware of

the One?

 

A This is the way to sudden Awakening – it includes the sudden

understanding that there is no time and no one traveling through it

to a distant goal.

 

14.

Q It cannot be my ordinary mind, my simple everyday Awareness – can

it?

 

A How many minds or kinds of awareness do you have? This is

inquiry, To tell the Truth, ordinary mind is the Buddha-nature,

everyday awareness is the Supreme Consciousness—Your concepts of

either mind or Buddha, awareness or consciousness miss the point

altogether.

 

15.

Q I hear you often talk of inquiry of self-inquiry. What is inquiry?

 

A It is the aware investigation of the assumed entity you call

your "self" and the unassumed non-entity you call the Absolute or

Consciousness. It utilizes our two natural inclinations – to be

aware and to wonder, question or be curious.

 

16.

Q Should I ask myself "Who am I?"

 

A Yes ask yourself that question and hear the answer of Silence.

 

17.

Q Where is the Silence?

 

A Where "where" is not.

 

18.

Q Maybe self-inquiry is the constant repetition of the question "Who

am I?" in my mind?

 

A Talking to yourself is only talking to yourself – a futile

exercise of split mind. Stay whole and see! Awareness is itself is

ever-fresh, ever new, yet ancient and eternal. It is not a "product"

of repetition but rather the ending of the need and habit of mental

repetition.

 

19.

Q What is my real nature?

 

A The same Awareness without any "my" or "what", it is non-

objective, impersonal and ever-clear.

 

20.

Q What is meditation?

 

A It is not a physical posture nor a way of thinking. It is not a

self-hypnotic trance nor is it a state of mental concentration. It

does not entail associative process, visualization or memory.

Meditation is done in the immediate present – the timeless moment.

It is being with Being or conscious of Consciousness.