The direct experience of all phenomena as Original Mind is the beginning of spiritual discipline rather than the sudden release from responsibility that the egocentric seeker may imagine Enlightenment to be. The discipline implied in Catching the Ox does not involve the strict practices and doctrinal concepts used by a seeker or beginning practitioner. It is a refining and expanding process carried on without ambition or striving.
— Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions(1978)
The commentary on [the] first Ox-herding picture ends suggestively: “At evening he hears cicadas chirping in the trees.” The music of the cicadas provides a subtle clue to the seeker’s True Nature. This humming sound pervades the jungle as Original Mind pervades all the structures of seeking. The seeker is exploring the trackless wilderness, frustrated and weary, but the soothing song of the cicadas is omnipresent, subtly permeating all dimensions of his mind and senses.
— Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions (1978)
When we consciously turn toward Enlightenment as a goal, we ironically separate ourselves from it. In our longing to attain the Ultimate, we inadvertently project the goal far beyond our present awareness, whereas Ultimate Consciousness is already here, sustaining the ordinary function of mind and senses. Even after the aspiration to Enlightenment awakens, we will travel along countless byways before returning home to primal awareness. This process of spiritual evolution is a house of mirrors. Knowing that we must move through a mirror maze does not help to discover the shortest path. We will have to explore various corridors, colliding with mirrored walls that appear to be open doors.
— Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions (1978)
[A] significant dimension of Ramakrishna’s teaching centres around the insight that the universe is neither solid nor permanent but is a dream projection of Ultimate Consciousness. This can easily be misunderstood as a rejection of the world or an escape from responsibility. But Ramakrishna never regarded the dream of relative existence as meaningless, for Divine Presence is continuously being revealed through it, particularly through the life of spiritual aspiration. Our dream of life is a precious treasure, a stream of archetypal images of Ultimate Consciousness. The awakened exploration of this universal dream includes a sense of loving concern for all beings. This is the Tantric Way: all phenomena are to be recognized as the dream play of Consciousness. Knowing that all is a dream gives one the freedom to move through this single, flowing life as a fish swims gracefully through water.
— Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions (1978)
In life you cannot live without making decisions, and my answer is to make decisions as if you have free will. Consider all the consequences and alternatives—then come to a decision. But deep down you know that that decision could not have been different from God’s will; otherwise, that decision wouldn’t have happened. A decision will not happen if it is not God’s will; a decision will not turn into an action unless it is God’s will; and a decision will have consequences strictly accordingly to God’s will. Where do ‘you’ come in apart from the fact you make a decision as if you have free will? The difficulty happens with—what will happen to ‘me’? There is no ‘me’! Therefore make decisions knowing deep down it is not ‘my’ decision, it is God’s will.
When that final understanding is about to happen, the one who is so anxious to know whether the final understanding has happened or not will finally say, ‘Who cares?’ Has the understanding happened or not? Who cares? When that stage is reached it is almost synonymous with the understanding having happened because there is no ‘one’ to care anymore.
The illusion (the maya) consists in the fact that instead of collectively considering ourselves as sentience which enables us to cognize the manifestation (including sentient beings) which has appeared in Consciousness, we consider ourselves as separate individual entities. And therein lies our suffering and bondage. As soon as there is realization (awakening to the fact) that we are not separate entities but Consciousness itself (with sentience acting as the means for cognizing the manifestation), the illusion of separateness—the cause of our suffering and bondage—disappears. There is then the clear apperception that unmanifested, we are Noumenon, and while manifested, we are appearance—no more separate than substance and its form (gold and the gold ornament).
Once it is realized that the Self, the I Am, Consciousness—which is What-we-really-are—is the doer and the witness, it will be seen that it is not only unnecessary to renounce our daily activities but that it is desirable to continue our normal life. We continue with the deep understanding that we (as phenomenal objects) are ‘being lived’ in the totality of the functioning of the manifestation. The supposed doership of the ‘me’ is nothing but an illusion. Normal daily activities, continued without a sense of doership, are the best possible preparation for sudden enlightenment to happen.
The monosyllable ‘Om’ denotes resonance of Akshara [the imperishable] and encompasses the three states of oscillations in the universe—the ‘ā’ sound in ‘Om’ symbolizes the rajo guna (the tendency to spread), the ‘ū’ sound signifies tamo guna (the tendency to contract), and the ‘ma’ sound signifies sattva guna (the tendency to remain stable and balanced). The sound waves and the cyclic potency of all the pulsing energy fields of Akshara are based on this resonance. Each sound is a rhythm, a wave. The function of all the rhythms in Akshara right from nuclear transmutations to sound waves in the air and including the spectrum of electromagnetic rays is based on the Supreme One, so also are human beings and their energetic ability.
— C. Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad Gita: Modern Reading and Scientific Study(2016)
“You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are Pure Consciousness, the all pervasive Self. Pay your attention to that. Be aware of it all the time even while you are working”
Even though the way we behave has to be different with different types of people, Vedanta advises us to see the ātma [true Self] equally in all these at the same time. We may have to show disapproval or act disinterested in certain situations, but no longer can we hate or be angry with anybody or anything in this universe once the truth strengthens in our heart. (A wise person will have nothing to do with anger anyway.)
— C. Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad Gita: Modern Reading and Scientific Study(2016)
The opposite of witnessing is observing. In the observing there is an individual observer which is the ego, the ‘me.’ When there is an ‘individual’ observing something it is the nature of the programming of the body-mind organism, which the individual thinks he is, to judge it. So the observing by an observer is almost always accompanied by judgement. And the judgement means happiness or unhappiness. In witnessing there is no individual witnesser, therefore there is no judging.
Concentration means exclusion, and therefore, distraction: there is a constant conflict going on when you are trying to concentrate on something while your mind flies off in various directions. Meditation truly does not mean a seeking, a probing, an exploration. It does not mean taming of the brain to conform to a discipline, nor is it a self-analytical introspection. On the contrary, meditation must happen naturally; thought happens naturally, and all that’s needed is a very keen awareness of the thought as it appears and disappears. Out of such awareness of thought arises keen all-inclusive attention, not concentration and exclusion. It is attention that is open to stillness and silence, leading to something creative, something sacred, something infinitely holy, whereas concentration is a process that causes the mind to build a wall to stop other thoughts arising.
Eternal salutations to Sri Durga, to Sri Kali, the boundless ocean of spiritual Wisdom who is the Divine Mother of the Universe. This ever-present Goddess epitomizes both the bliss of unlimited Awareness and the enthralling play of universal projection. She manifests countless beings abiding in an infinite set of worlds, seen and unseen, gross and subtle, hidden and exposed. Her existence is confirmed by the holy scriptures, for She is perceived intellectually by means of the Six Darshanas, Her perpetually flowing streams of eternal spiritual knowledge. She is approached and contacted by the devotees through intense sadhana, spiritual disciplines prescribed by the guru, and She is accessible through contemplation and meditation. Ultimately, She is realized as the essence of limitless Con-sciousness, infinite, indivisible, all-pervading and absolute.
The Devi, known as Sri Durga or Sri Kali, is acclaimed throughout the three worlds as the Deva Devi Svarupaya, the essence of all gods and goddesses — the ancient, primordial Mother of the Universe whose nature is nondual Truth. She is the primeval Goddess of Wisdom, Sarasvati, whose august name is the oldest existing reference to a Divine Mother figure in the world’s history, appearing in the Vedas many thousands of years before the advent of Christ. She also appears in these eternal scriptures as Uma/Parvati (Himavat), the dynamic shakti power of Shiva, the God of Wisdom. Under such powerful and time-honored names as Ambika, Lalita, Chandi, Lakshmi, Bhagavati, Narayani and hundreds of others, She makes multiple appearances in the ancient Puranas and Tantras. In short, She emerges periodically throughout the long march of time, teaching humanity the lessons pertinent to the existence of the immortal Soul (Atman) abiding within them.
Introduction to Twenty Four Aspects of Mother Kali by Babaji Bob
