Guest guest Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 What is 'true happiness' -- it must be that which has neither beginning nor end. It cannot be something fleeting, because then it is neither 'true' nor 'happy' because it must bring 'sorrow' upon its cessation; anything that 'brings' sorrow cannot be 'happiness'. Such happiness that is double-sided isn't happiness at all. True 'happiness' must come from annihilation of the mind contemplating even itself -- awareness of awareness does not imply awareness of mind, mind and awareness are mutually exclusive; if mind exists, then there is no awareness, there is only mind contemplating the sense objects; where there is no mind, there is only pure awareness -- i.e., no active will or ego. Pure awareness is meditation. It cannot come from guarding the mind -- which becomes yet another burden to carry. God is, where "I" is not. God and "I" cannot co-exist... So, the meaning of this quote must be qualified and taken a step further, analyzed deeper... "Invisible and subtle is the mind, and it flies after fancies wherever it likes; but let the wise man guard well his mind, for a mind well guarded is a source of great joy." ~~~ The Dhammapada ______________________________ The centipede was happy quite until a bird said, in fun, "Which foot goes after which?" This raised his mind to such a pitch he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run. Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Pradyumna, I disagree with 'Pure awareness is meditation. It cannot come from guarding the mind -- which becomes yet another burden to carry'. Guarding the mind is the first step towards self realization. Its not a burden, its a necessary first step. Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 I have to agree with Rao, Prad. The mind has to be focussed on dharma Mind has to be guarded against adharma. Its an important step i have no doubt about that. .. Adharmamo Naashanamo Naashanamo! .. Jai Guru Datta, Win .. .. rao bhogaraju <vrbhogaraju wrote: Pradyumna, I disagree with 'Pure awareness is meditation. It cannot come from guarding the mind -- which becomes yet another burden to carry'. Guarding the mind is the first step towards self realization. Its not a burden, its a necessary first step. Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more Latest News and Additions http://www.dattapeetham.com/additions/new.html Upcomming events at Datta Temple and Hall of Trinity, Baton Rouge, LA http://www.dattatemple.com/uevents.htm Post message: JAIGURUDATTA Subscribe: JAIGURUDATTA- Un: JAIGURUDATTA Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 26, 2003 Report Share Posted February 26, 2003 All Rishis have pointed out that absolute things like meditation and truth, love and compassion and so on cannot be found in dvaita,i.e. in the state of duality, whether it be Buddha or all the others. This is in all the scriptures, too. Isa Upanisad, or whereever you may search. Because all is one, and by thinking one can never get an experience that all is one. So e.g. if Swamiji said:"Victory to Truth" He cannot have meant with it "Destruction to Untruth". Untruth is not permanent, again this is to be found everywhere and also it can be experienced very easily. What may appear (to the thinking process) to be untruth today may appear in a different light tomorrow. thus it has never been either truth or untruth in an absolute sense. in the middle ages they considered it untruth that the earth moves. and now? later on it was still considered untruth that a human being can fly or reach the moon. and now? Swamiji has alluded to this several times. Swamiji e.g. told a story about a king who had some wound or blemish, don´t remember what it was exactly, but somehow the king had been hurt. at first it appeared to him that having been hurt was a great calamity. this was truth for him in his thinking process. and considering the wound as something good was untruth for him/his thinking process. later on he was caught by some enemies who wanted to sacrifice a human being of high rank to their gods, or what they believed to be their gods. they seized the king, but upon realizing he had a blemish or wound, considered him unworthy of that sacrifice. so his life was saved by that wound he had. so the truth/untruth in his thinking process changed, he now thought it was good to have that wound, and that it was untruth that the wound was bad. All of you may have experienced this already, e.g someone was laid off/dismissed, only to find out later that this was a blessing in disguise. someone falls ill and later on finds out this was a blessing in disguise as it brought him closer to God etc a truth/untruth that changes is no truth/untruth at all.it is in dvaita state and thus all unreal. thoughts change all the time, so they cannot be real at all. (not only because Ramana has said so, everyone can watch - not guard - his own thoughts and see how they change.today you may consider someone your friend, next day you may not think so anymore.and so on.) So the relative thoughts, belonging to the dvaita realm of judging and pairs of opposites such as good and bad etc, cannot ever reach the absolute realm of advaita, where no pairs of opposites hold good, as the very term advaita already says, and where nothing ever changes. Yet then again, if it is of no avail to guard one´s thoughts, what then can be done? I mean related to Inana. as related to Bhakti one would of course say: leave it all to Him. so where some people may some day get by just leaving it all to Him (i.e. strong Faith), others, whose path maybe slightly different, may have to get by in the end realizing the futility of their thoughts and thus the thought process may stop, just as it may stop if someone has a very strong belief and is able to leave it all to God/Guru. Yet here again, this strong belief will also make the thought process stop, so the Bhakta,too ends up in a stage where he has to let go of judgements or otherwise he will make no progress. Just as Jesus has said, do not jugde/condemn in order not to be judged/condemned. Jai Guru Datta In JAIGURUDATTA, Winand Abhelakh <dhiyoyonahprachodayat> wrote: > > I have to agree with Rao, Prad. The mind has to be focussed on dharma Mind has to be guarded against adharma. Its an important step i have no doubt about that. > . > Adharmamo Naashanamo Naashanamo! > . > Jai Guru Datta, > Win > . > . > > > rao bhogaraju <vrbhogaraju> wrote: > Pradyumna, > I disagree with > > 'Pure awareness is meditation. It cannot come from guarding the mind -- which becomes yet another burden to carry'. > Guarding the mind is the first step towards self realization. Its not a burden, its a necessary first step. > > > > > > Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more > > > > > Sponsor > > Latest News and Additions http://www.dattapeetham.com/additions/new.html > > Upcomming events at Datta Temple and Hall of Trinity, Baton Rouge, LA > http://www.dattatemple.com/uevents.htm > > Post message: JAIGURUDATTA > Subscribe: JAIGURUDATTA- > Un: JAIGURUDATTA > > Terms of Service. > > > > > > Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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