Shoshi Shophrony - Lucy Ma's Letters

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Lucy Ma's Letters

by Shoshi Shophrony

Bhagavan's guidance lead me to Lucy Ma on the last two days of my stay at Ramana Ashram, on December '87. This was my first visit to Arunachala after 16 years longing. I was very much impressed by the spiritual influence of the Ashram, had wonderful experiences and would hardly restrain the tears of happiness.

 

One could see on Lucy Ma's face a strong will and well-disciplined character with radiating intelligence, but first of all she was modest and humble. She received me kindly and talked to me frankly , asked questions about 'how I came to Ramana' and impressed me with her humble attitude. Her good sense of humour created a natural atmosphere , she laughed easily , but , most important for me was what she told me when I took leave of her : "If you want to write me , I shall answer you."

 

These words of her brought to a wonderful correspondence which meant to me 'The Message of Arunachala" for the coming two years.

 

 

Now , after Lucy Ma passed away , I would like to share with all of you her precious letters , in which she instructed me and guided me with much love , wisdom and also in a very practical way. She was so intuitive that she always wrote me the most actual advice which I needed at that time . She could understand things around me with her fine sensitivity ,as she wrote :

 

"Words are at any case a poor means of communication when the Heart is wanting to talk to Heart !"

 

I wrote her after arriving home , that on one end , I have only to close my eyes and I find myself at the Feet of Ramana Maharishi , feeling the wonderful experience , I Am Here and Now , - but on the other end , when I open my physical eyes , I become involved again in the worries and problems of everyday life . Especially , since I live in Israel , a country full of stress , where news are

broadcast 24 times daily, a country to which I belong through my family and karma.

 

 

To that Lucy Ma answered :

 

" You have the magic wand : you radiate the higher happiness,

which is at the end stronger than all else . Elsewhere I find a

quotation which may mean a possibility to live in spite of all

fire and death : the secret of the living for one day.

It is a blessed secret. Anyone can carry his burden ,

however heavy , untill the night fall. Anyone can do his work,

however hard , for a day. Anyone can live sweetly , patiently,

lovingly and purely until the sun goes down . And this is all

life ever really means to us - just one little day.

Is it not also that which is radiating out of Ramana's eyes ?

 

We are unhappy only when we want things to be other than

they are. This is meant by desireless. We may enjoy all

sweet and lovely things , even when they are offered amidst

blood and tears - if only we know that it is not accidental

where and in what conditions we are born to .

 

What are we in reality ? Points of consciousness , radiating

as such. And the source of this point is within us . A point

only - but this is the Divine in everyone . Leave alone all

theory of 'Who am I' or Advaita philosophy. No phylosophy

has ever succeeded to reveal that Point of Coinsciousness.

What does is the surrender to Ramana Maharshi or to

Arunachala who never , never abandons us alone.

 

But there also is a secret : the Spirit waits for us in the

innermost of our Heart , never outside ! There is a beautiful

saying of Sri Sankaracharya , which Ramana Maharshi

used to repeat :

"What is all this trouble of pujas , flowers , prayers ,

praises and what not ? It is only troublesome .

Take the single flower of your Heart, put it at the Feet

of the Lord and live in Peace !"

"You know it but not consciously . You are radiating it.

You need nothing else. If you keep this attitude, then

'you have arrived '. There is no greater wisdom."

 

 

In her letter of 13.5.88 :

 

" You are welcome at any time , and so I hope , that you feel yourself in

my humble hermitage as a kind of second 'home'. You need not be sad

that your duties now and then seem to overwhelm your real Be-ing.

They belong together , The Great Dream of your personal life

(which is only a fairy-tale ) and the greater Reality , which is the silent,

luminous and never changing World of Light , wherefrom we come

and where we return , when we do not allow the colorful fairy tale to

distract us.

 

Keep in your heart to the world of animals and plants:

there maybe terror and murder and all the horrible happenings around;

the grand trees and the smallest flowers next to your feet , when the

sun comes , they open their buds , they do not ask , neither what date

it is nor what kind of weather they will have . They seem to live according

to an inner compass which is inborn . Be, as You Are ! They need

nothing else , nor do we. It seems to be the one and the only way

to Truth, that Truth , which we are.

 

I wish so often and so deeply that you and your near dear ones need not

live in immediate danger. The awful hurricane has a quiet centrum.

Cling to this center and leave everything else to the Saving Power ,

which responds to genuine faith in this mystery , which those ,

who know it , name - Grace.

 

Arunachala is a manifestation of Grace ; may He guide

and protect you and all around you!"

 

 

So she writes on 25.07.88 :

 

"Well , everything in this life has to be paid (for).

We can only give our signature to the credit-bill:

'His will shall be done.' And then there should be

a change in your destiny, place or conditions -

it will be prepared already . I made several times

the experience , that an important change was

prepared by karma long before I learned of the necessity.

And it was always for the best. By the by , in this way

I came to Bhagavan and this place and all things that

followed."

 

 

In my previous letter I asked Lucy Ma if there is anything I could

send her (medicine or anything else she might need or wish .

Her answer brought in evidence not only her modesty ,

but also her loving wisdom:

 

 

"Thank you, my Darling , for your kind intention of looking for

something 'to do' for me . You must confess that that would

not be very reasonable , though very lovable of you.

What I need , I have got , and what I do not have , I certainly

need not. We met at the feet of Bhagavan , that's all and is

enough . Don't you think so ?'

 

 

In my next letter I asked her to tell me the 'story' of how she came

to Bhagavan. I also wrote about my students ( I am teaching Yoga)

and others close to me , who are basically good people , though not

yet awaken to spirituality - they breath it a little bit indirectly.

I learned to make no effort to influence them . Then I mentioned a

highly developed friend of mine , to whom I read Lucy Ma's letters ,

which she enjoyed very much and noticed : how beautiful that such

people ( as Lucy Ma) live on earth !

 

To all these , here are parts of her answer on the 25.09.88,

in which she reveals how the German translation of the "Talks"

came to being by Bhagavan's Grace :

 

"My dear Shoshy ! Thank you so much for your loving letter ,

only please do not praise me such a lot ! It was the trouble of

my younger life : a person gets spoiled and has to fight all the

time against it ! The only help and cure is to perceive the very

miracle , how people are guided from far away together when

the time is ripe , that they shall meet - as it was the case with us.

That is karma.

 

How I came to Bhagavan ? Well , I was a writer by profession and

people brought me the very good book of Heinrich Zimmer (Indologist)

on Bhagavan , soon after the (second) world war,' The Way of The Self'

(or similar) . That had not started the 'spiritual wave' , so for real

spiritual people that book was quite enough in Germany of those times.

I didn't give a minute to the idea of writing on Bhagavan , since there

would be most probably no publisher for it. But there came strange

circumstances together , which finally prompted me , against my

better judgement , to translate the 'Talks' of Bhagavan and write

a short biography on him.

 

When I finished , I went to Tiruvannamlai to compare my translation

 

with their experience. Before leaving again for the West , I went into

the Meditation-Hall , which you know , and 'talked ' to the Master -

only half jokingly :' look here , Bhagavan , I fulfilled your wish about

this translation into German , but I certainly will not find a publisher.

If you want the publication, you have to find also the publisher

yourself '.

 

It was 5 days before Christmas , and 5 days in those time (1956 )

needed a letter, airmail , between here and there. And 5 days was

all that was needed for the letter of a german publisher , who asked

then and there for the copyright - and for a change in my personal

Karma !

 

Now let me reply to your other questions . Of course you can show

my letters to whom ever you want - and give my kindest regards on top ,

because she is your friend 'on the Path'.

 

 

As to lack of spiritual understanding of other people ,

there is a strict rule in spiritual life , that every change ,

each experience comes only when the person is ripe.

And yours is the absolute right attitude to it: not interfering.

 

In trying to help by direct interfering you can only spoil the

complicated network of inner life. It seems that the Inner

Guide , which works in everybody , does not tolerate other

influence than His own. And certainly , He knows best.

For your own work to serve people in their spiritual way :

Do not encourage them to more and more activity, not

even in spiritual things! The way is Growth and Growth

is natural, but slow .

 

Let them remember that nice slogan :" Everything comes to him,

who waits - in full confidence."

 

 

She wrote on the 22.1.89 :

 

"A most important problem in your loving and long letter is your

mentioning that very seriously Liberation has been chosen as

your aim. More important , because the time may be only short ,

which we can change letters , having met 5 minutes before the

12th hour , so to say. You will not learn more , as you already

know, but you will learn how to unlearn much.

 

So your remark , that you are still very far from realization , is

quite wrong. Your means is certainly surrender. To practice it ,

as a matter of your everyday life and that is lying directly before

your nose - as Ramana says. Only remember as often as

possible : 'Accept what comes , let go what will go'.

 

You have the power to live your life as a wonder - in spite of its

seeming cruelty. Enjoy it, but take care, not to cling to it.

Take care - means - be aware !

 

The search of the Self is not changing outer conditions , much

less other people , not even ourselves. But by the grace of 'God'

(Whatever we understand under this word ), we can change

ourselves just by surrendering .

 

Something else : don't talk about your spiritual struggle ,

because it is rather obvious that you would not be understood,

and in this case the talk is destroying whatever you have got

as insight.

 

Remember : Everybody is his own Path to the Truth.

 

Any special problems ? Please tell me .

Arunachala be with you !"

 

 

In my next letter I mentioned two burning problems :

 

How to live in the world which is not only seemingly cruel-

when people suffer, for them , in their relative world the pain

is as real as themselves. Even as I try to look on the world

with a spiritual insight, yet I get involved . Can one without ?

Even our Ramana wept with tears out of compassion.

 

The second question , how to be non-stop aware in everyday

life , remembering who am I, to surrender and get rid of the

calculating mind; I have been searching for a clue , wanted

a recipe . And then I also asked Lucy Ma to write a little bit

about herself - I knew almost nothing about her.

 

At that time both of us became aware of the 'miracle' as she

called , the love which developed not only as a relationship

between Master-Disciple , but even more , as between

Mother-Daughter.

 

 

Her answer to my questions on 13.3.89 :

 

" Your letter is such , that it is almost impossible to be replied.

Well , I have to try. "One's heart is without rest , oh God ,

because you have created us to rest with Thee , and it will be

restless , unless it is resting within Thee'. The author was one

of the greatest Catholic saints , Augustinus , who also sent

thousands of people into the fire ! Such is life , we will never

understand it. And therefore my basic teaching is : Problems

are not to be solved ,but to be dropped ! And you know the

switch : Surrender .

 

Among all the different attempts to express the one and only Truth,

there is a group of Indonesian prayer-healer devotees - I am not

going to talk about them , only one thing , which shows that they

too have special experiences of Grace. They were shown two kinds

of surrender , total surrender and intensive surrender.

As long as we exercise intensive surrender , it is the personal I ,

trying to realize . Succeeding is only in total surrender.

Attaining that , you stop trying to understand the problem of God ,

Man and World.

 

And you , clever child of mine , ask of course immediately: where

is the clue ?

- You have to find it yourself , by the experiences of your life and

the life of your near and dear ones. The great secret of God , Man

and World is not to be solved before you may worship it.

We have to learn to worship It , never asking Who or What it really

is . Stop the search - and you are face to face with Truth !

 

5 minutes to 12.... My dear Shoshy , you ask for some means

to get a clearer picture of me . Tell me where shall I start , telling

of a life of a century ! But dear , it is a fairy tale . What use , when

you want Reality.

 

I got another call from the Angel of Death : a rather massive

heart-attack , sharp , at midnight about a fortnight ago. Maybe

a rehearsal , or what else ? I do not ask. I am obeying only.

I learned to worship the mystery without trying to solve it before.

 

My prayers are with you and your beloved ones. May you be

blessed by that mystery without Name and Form , which we

sometimes worship as Arunachala . Be embraced

Mami. "

 

Parts of my answer:

 

"Thank God that the Angel left you behind , I hope and pray for a long peaceful period without any ugly rehearsals . I should like to receive

many so wonderful letters. - Your last one gives me tremendous

strength. You succeed , Mamy, to do the 'impossible' and replied

all my problems also, so that there are no questions anymore .

 

True , I am struggling very hard , knowing that it is effort which leads

to effortlessness , even if it is a paradox. Sometimes the surrender

just happens - to live the moment just as it is , without any

intention to change. Yet , many times it is difficult - the attachment

to worldly affairs is still hindering. But Mamy, you did show me the Path,

I am climbing and shall never give up.

 

There is a story about a Zen Master , who sent his disciple to a great

teacher for ultimate instruction. The new Master turned out to be a poor,

sick old woman , who didn't seem to have much to offer. Slowly the

disciple got her message :"I have no wishes and no complaints".

You are this woman , Mamy, my great Teacher - thanks to Bhagavan.

And I ask Him to bless you with Light and Happiness for ever. "

 

 

Lucy Ma wrote in her next letter on 19.4.89 :

 

"I am glad that you found some useful hints in my tips.

And I trust that you are eager to practice.But do not fall

in the trap of trying to force some results. Don't forget :

we do not deserve anything , everything is a gift -

spontaneous or not at all. There is no jumping on the

spiritual Path, that is , we do not need to change

circumstances - that is not possible - but we have to

be aware , where we have to look critically on ourselves .

But you know that."

 

As I read Lucy Ma's letters , I become more and more convinced that as we met at the Feet of Arunachala , our friendship contains

not only her and me , but between us stands our common Father:

Ramana . It seemed that Bhagavan suggested to us the thoughts

that we wrote ; Often , when I was finishing a letter , I got

surprised to read things which I didn't intend to write. Our

relationship was happening on a mysterious plane and here

the words were used only as superficial tools - Ramana made the

click in our minds and we felt one another much more than words

could explain.

 

This period of two years , until my next visit to the Ashram had been

a most difficult time for both of us. Her loving support was much more

than I could expect to receive - she helped me tremendously.

 

My karma allowed me to be with her during the last three weeks

before her Mahasamadhi. May she be One with the Supreme

Light of Arunachala.

 

 

___ The Mountain Path, 1991