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Nama Japa - Chanting the Name - Historical times

I, the Lord God ... pronounced this Saying ... before the creation of Heaven, the Sacred Word of Ahunavairya, (1) ... the Word which was before the Earth, before living beings, before trees, before Fire the Son of the Lord, (2) before the Holy Man, before the demons, ... before all bodily life, even before all God's good creation which holds the seed of Righteousness. (Zarathustra in GZ, 8-9.)

(1) Zarathustrean version, probably, of Aum. (2) Zarathustrean name for the Soul, Atman, or Self.

This word of mine (1) ... chanted ceaselessly and without a break is equal to a hundred other chants ... for a recitation of that Word of Truth ... increases strength and victory in the soul and piety. Whosoever in this bodily world of Mine repeats this Word ... his soul will I, Ahuramazda, bring over the Chinvat Bridge to the Best World, to the Best Righteousness, and to the Endless Lights. (Zarathustra in GZ, 9-10.)

(1) Ahunavairya.

[Righteous men] shall so sit up in devotional prayer [chanting 'Ahunavairya'] that they may grow in wisdom ... and wax strong in holiness. (Zarathustra, GSR, 90.)

So great is this Lord of ours, His very Names stand round us [as] a protecting army when we call on Him. (Zarathustra in GZ, 5.)

If you wish to destroy the malice of demons and men, ... then repeat these My Names all day and all the night. They who think of me are themselves increasing that benefit which is eternal. (Zarathustra in GZ, 16.)

And he who in this bodily world ... shall chant or mutter these Names of Mine, either by day or by night, ... when he rises up or lies down ... -- that man shall ... not be wounded by the weapons of the furious and treacherous foe ... but those Names shall come in to guard him from the rear and to protect him in front; ... It will be as though a thousand men were watching over one. (Zarathustra in GZ, 15-6.)

Reveal Thyself to me, O God the Lord, through Thy very words. (Zarathustra in Greenlees in GZ, 180.)

I will call on the Lord, (1) who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. (II Samuel 22:3-4.)

(1) Probably referring to chanting the names of and praising the Lord.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who has set thy glory above the heavens. (Psalm 8:1.)

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. (Psalm 9:10.)

Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent. (Psalm 148:13.)

Let them ... that love thy name be joyful in thee. (Psalm 5:11.)

Because he hath set his love upon me, I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. (1) He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. (2) (Psalm 91:14.)

(1) Chanted my name. (2) "Shew him my salvation" - Enlighten him and save him from the cycle of birth and death.

All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing ... thy name. (Psalm 66:4.)

The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. (Proverbs 18:10.)

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8.)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21.)

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. (Isaiah 12:2.)

Nama Japa - Chanting the Name - Contemporary times

In this kali yuga God's name is the essential thing. Chanting God's name will bring the results of meditation, worship, and sacrifice. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna as quoted by Ramlal Chattopadhyay in 1931, in RAWSH, 53.)

Have faith in the name of God. Then you won't need even to go to holy places. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 292.)

One should always chant His name. Even when one is performing one's duties, the mind should be left with God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 162.)

One must always chant the name and glories of God and pray to Him. An old metal pot must be scrubbed every day. What is the use of cleaning it only once? Further, one must practise discrimination and renunciation; one must be conscious of the unreality of the world. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 215.)

One should constantly repeat the name of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of yoga is not possible in this age, for the life of man depends on food. (1) (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 241.)

(1)On dependence on food, cf: "In the Kaliyuga, man, being totally dependent on food for life, cannot altogether shake off the idea that he is the body. In this state of mind it is not proper for him to say, 'I am He.' When a man does all sorts of worldly things, he should not say 'I am Brahman.' Those who cannot give up attachment to worldly things, and who find no means to shake off the feeling of 'I,' should rather cherish the idea: 'I am God's servant. I am His devotee.' One can also realize God following the path of devotion." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 103.)

To feel that one is a free soul is very good. By constantly repeating, "I am free. I am free," a man verily becomes free. On the other hand, by constantly repeating, "I am bound. I am bound," he certainly becomes bound to worldliness. The fool who says only, "I am a sinner. I am a sinner," verily drowns himself in worldliness. One should rather say: "I have chanted the name of God. How can I be a sinner? How can I be bound?" (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 274.)

Make japam. Repeat the name of the Lord. Whatever you do, let the name of God flow like a current within you. (Swami Brahamananda in EC, 56.)

[The paths] are (i) stuti, (ii) japa, (iii) dhyana, (iv) yoga,(v) jnana, etc. ... (ii) japa is uttering the names of the gods or sacred mantras like Om either mentally or verbally. (While following the [method of] japa the mind will sometimes be concentrated (lit. closed) and sometimes diffused (lit. open). The vagaries of the mind will not be evident to those who follow these methods). (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 3.)

Sound is the seed of all matter. The "Word" of the Bible is considered the same as the Shabda-Brahman (1) of Hindu Tantra. "Word," Sound, Mantra are integral parts of Indian cosmology. Japa (2) or mantra repetition puts cosmological principles to work pragmatically - "as a path from microcosm to macrocosm [japa is] the vehicle that carries the individual back to the Source." (Sister Vandana, NJ, 190-1.)

Nama Japa - God is not different from His Name

God and His name are identical. ... There is no difference between Rama and His holy name (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 222.)

God is not different from His name. Satyabhama tried to balance Krishna with gold and precious stones, but could not do it. Then Rukmini put a tulsi leaf with the name of Krishna on the scales. That balanced the Lord. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 386.)

Nama Japa - Chanting the Name of the Lord purifies the mind and makes sins disappear

He who dwells in thee becomes king over himself. He controls his wandering thoughts. He becomes master of his speech and of all his organs of sense. He becomes master of his intellect. (UPAN, 54.)

Chant the name of the Lord and his glory unceasingly That the mirror of the heart may be wiped clean And [quench] that mighty forest fire, Worldly lust, raging furiously within. (Sri Chaitanya in SHI, 331.)

Man becomes pure by repeating the name of God. Therefore one should practise the chanting of God's name. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 309.)

If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind, and everything become pure. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 138.)

Chant His name and purify your body and mind. Purify your tongue by singing God's holy Name. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 159.)

One should constantly repeat the name of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. ... Clap your hands while repeating the name of God, and the birds of your sin will fly away. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 241.)

All the sins of the body fly away if one chants the name of God and sings His glories. The birds of sin dwell in the tree of the body. Singing the name of God is like clapping your hands. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 181.)

Repeat His name, and sins will disappear. Thus you will destroy lust, anger, the desire for creature comforts, and so on. ... Pray to God with a yearning heart that you may take delight in His name. He will certainly fulfil your heart's desire. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 203.)

Loud or silent repetition of inspiring words has been found effective in various systems of psychotherapy; the secret lies in the stepping-up of the mind's vibratory rate. (Paramahansa Yogananda in AY, 10n.)

Nama Japa - Chanting the Name fosters love of God

One obtains love of God by constantly chanting His name and singing His glories. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 158.)

One gradually acquires love of God through the practise of chanting God's name and glories. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 131.)

Bhakti is the only essential thing. One obtains love of God by constantly chanting His name and singing His glories. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR,158.)

Chant the name of God, and with it pray to Him that you may have love for Him. Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 190-1.)

With beaming face chant the sweet name of God Till in your heart the nectar overflows. Drink of it ceaselessly and share it with all! If ever your heart runs dry, parched by the flames Of worldly desire, chant the sweet name of God, And heavenly love will moisten your arid soul. (Narendra sings to Sri Ramakrishna in GSR, 120.)

Nama Japa - Chanting God's Name will lead to enlightenment

You will attain God if you sing His name and glories and pray to Him with a longing heart. There is not the least doubt about it. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 171.)

By repeating 'Om' one goes beyond the Nada (1) and attains samadhi. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 263.)

(1) The Word-Brahman, Aum.

Suppose there is a piece of timber sunk in the water of the Ganga and fastened with a chain to the bank. You proceed link by link, holding to the chain, and you dive into the water and follow the chain. Finally you are able to reach the timber. In the same way, by repeating God's name you become absorbed in him and finally realize him. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in TLWG, 298.)

One should cultivate a taste for God's name. Any name will do -- Durga, Krishna, or Siva. Then if, through the chanting of the name, one's attachment to God grows day by day, and joy fills the soul, one has nothing to fear. ... The grace of God will certainly descend. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 204.)

There is great power in the seed of God's name. It destroys ignorance. A seed is tender, and the sprout soft; still it pierces the hard ground. The ground breaks and makes way for the sprout. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 210.)

Assume the tamasic aspect of bhakti. Say with force: 'What? I have uttered the name of Rama and Kali. How can I be in bondage any more? How can I be affected by the law of karma?' (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

[Chaitanya] laid special stress on japa -- repeating the name of God to the count of beads. Patanjali, also, the father of Yoga philosophy, approved the practice of japa as one of the methods of spiritual attainment, for the name of God and God, he said, are inseparable. In chanting God's name one necessarily meditates upon his presence. (Swami Prabhavananda, SHI, 329.)

At all times the repetition of the Lord's Name should be kept up. Through the practice of the Name [come] enjoyment, liberation, peace. All these will blossom forth. Invoke Him by the name that appeals to you most, for as much time as you can, the longer the better. In this way you will at some auspicious moment discover the rosary of the mind; and then you will continually hear within yourself the praises of the great Master, the Lord of Creation, like the never ceasing music of the boundless ocean; you will hear the land and the sea, the air and the heavens reverberate with the song of His glory. This is called the all-pervading presence of His name. (Anandamoyee Ma, MD.)

The mantra given by a satguru will take you to the state of the supreme swan, the Paramahansa. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, IX, 86.)

Nama Japa - The mantra

In the West they preach to masses of people and that is what is understood as religion there. But in India one man whispers one or two words in the ear of another in a solitary place and this is religion according to the Hindus. Man receives religion through the Mantram. The spiritual power is transmitted through the Sacred Word. (Swami Ramakrishnananda, GDI,16.)

In the West they give you one God and expect Him to suit everyone, but in India every man is given the aspect of God fitted to his peculiar need. That is the meaning of the thirty-three million gods about which you hear; and it is the Guru or spiritual teacher who determines what aspect of God is specially suited to the disciple. (Swami Ramakrishnananda, GDI, 17.)

[The Sacred Words or ''Mantram] must be made known to none. The wife must not tell it to the husband or the husband to the wife. It is the person's individual property. So religion in India is altogether an individual thing. (Swami Ramakrishnananda, GDI,16-7.)

Repeat the Gayatri mantram every day as much as you can. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna's advice to Ganghadar Ghatak, later Swami Akhandananda in RAWSH, 231.)

Nama Japa - Proper way of doing japam

Sri Ramakrishna also taught [Yogin-Ma] how to practice japam, showing how the four fingers of the right hand must be kept tightly together. "The result of japam goes away," said the Master, "if there is any gap between the fingers." Another time he said, "In this Kali Yuga a Gopala mantram [a name of Baby Krishna] or a Kali mantram produces quick results." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in TLWG, 143.)

Please eat your meals regularly and then practice your japam and meditation. The Divine Mother is not a stranger. She is your very own. She will not be angry if you eat first and then call on her. In this Kali yuga the human body cannot bear excessive austerities, and it is hard to practice spiritual disciplines if one's health is not good. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in TLWG, 164.)

By repeating the name of God secretly and in solitude one receives divine grace. Then comes His vision. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 588.)

Japa means silently repeating God's name in solitude. When you chant His name with single-minded devotion you can see God's form and realize Him. ... By repeating God's name, you become absorbed in Him and finally realize Him. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 878-9.)

D: While making Nama-Japa for an hour or more I fall into a state like sleep. On waking up I recollect that my japa has been interrupted. So, I try again.

M: "Like sleep," that is right. It is the natural state. Because you are now associated with the ego, you consider that the natural state is something which interrupts your work. So you must have the experience repeated until you realize that it is your natural state. You will then find that japa is extransous but still it will go on automatically. Your present doubt is due to that false identity, namely of identifying yourself with the mind that does the japa. Japa means clinging to one thought to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That is its purpose. It leads to dhyana which ends in Self-realization or Jnana.

D: How should I carry on Nama-japa?

M: One should not use the Name of God mechanically and superficially without the feeling of devotion. To use the Name of God one must call upon Him with yearning and unreservedly surrender oneself to Him. Only after such surrender is the Name of God constantly with the man.

D: Where is, then, the need for enquiry or vichara?

M: Surrender can take effect only when it is done with full knowledge as to what real surrender means. Such knowledge comes after enquiry and reflection and ends invariably in self-surrender. There is no difference between Jnana and absolute surrender to the Lord, that is, thought, word and deed. To be complete, surrender must be unquestioning; the devotee cannot bargain with the Lord or demand favours at His hands. Such entire surrender comprises all: it is Jnana and Vairagya, Devotion and Love. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, MG, 25-6.)

Nama Japa - One must chant with faith and zeal

With beaming face chant the sweet name of God Till in your heart the nectar overflows. Drink of it ceaselessly and share it with all! If ever your heart runs dry, parched by the flames Of worldly desire, chant the sweet name of God, And heavenly love will moisten your arid soul. (Narendra sings to Sri Ramakrishna in GSR, 120.)

Nothing whatsoever is achieved by the performance of worship, japa, and devotions, without faith. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 286.)

The spiritual wisdom of worldly people is only seen on rare occasions. It is like the flame of a candle. No, it is rather like a single ray of the sun passing through a chink in the wall. Worldly people chant the name of God, but there is no zeal behind it. It is like children's swearing by God, having learnt the word from the quarrels of their aunts. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 208.)

One should feel great restlessness of soul for the vision of God. Suppose a man repeats the name of God mechanically while his mind is absorbed in [lust and greed]. Can he achieve anything? Mere muttering of magic words doesn't cure one of the pain of a spider or scorpion sting. One must also apply the smoke of burning cow-dung. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 190.)

Nama Japa - Mata Amritanandamayi on chanting a mantra

The vital force of a perfect master has been sublimated and is completely pure. There is no lust is such a being. He or she is like a vast transformer which can transmit an unlimited amount of power to others. By receiving mantra initiation, you imbibe some of the master's spiritual power. By doing sadhana you can become that pure 'Essence' itself. In other words, you become like the master, or you become one with the master.

The mantra given by a satguru will take you to the state of the supreme swan, the Paramahansa. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, IX, 86.)

To begin with, chant the mantra quietly, while moving your lips. Then chant it mentally. Then with each inhalation and exhalation, chant the mantra until it becomes spontaneous and continuous. You will eventually reach a state of meditation in which the mind becomes still, and the japa (repetition of the mantra) will stop of its own accord. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, IX, 87.)

Some people want to know the meaning of the mantras. But when you are traveling in an airplane it isn't necessary to know what type of metal the plane is made of, how the instruments work, or who the pilot is. You don't have to know those details. The only important thing is that you reach your destination. By simply repeating the mantra, you will reach the goal.

The ultimate goal of life is Self-realization. Knowing this, we should try to understand the transitory nature of the world. Then, with strong determination, and full concentration, we should chant our mantra during every possible moment.

You are trying to cross the ocean of transmigration, the cycle of birth and death. The mantra is the oar of the boat; it is the instrument you use to cross the samsar of your restless mind, with its unending thought waves.

The mantra can also be compared to a ladder that you climb to reach the heights of God-realization.

The mantra can be chanted anywhere and at any time. You should chant it always - even when you're in the bathroom. If you constantly repeat the mantra, while visualizing the deity that the mantra represents, you yourselves will gradually take on the characteristics of that deity. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, IX, 89-90.)

Nama Japa - It takes time to show its effect - See Spiritual Practice (Sadhana) - All spiritual practice - bhakti, jnana or karma yoga - is gradual; takes a long time; and should be done ceaselessly

The name of God has very great sanctity. It may not produce an immediate result, but one day it must bear fruit. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 146.)

One gradually acquires love of God through the practice of chanting God's name and glories. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 131.)

Nama Japa - Practise now to remember God at hour of death

For these are the best of words .. and do you utter these words at the last end of life, for if ... you (do so), I Ahuramazda [the Father] will keep your soul away from Hell. (Zarathustra in GZ, 10.)

Whosoever in this bodily world of Mine repeats this Word (1)... his soul will I, Ahuramazda, bring over the Chinvat Bridge to the Best World, to the Best Righteousness, and to the Endless Lights. (Zarathustra in GZ, 9-10.)

(1) Ahunavairya.

The way to remember God in the hour of death is to practise, now, the repetition of His name and the chanting of His glories. If one keeps up this practice, then in the hour of death one will repeat the name of God. ...

It is good to prepare for death. One should constantly think of God and chant His name in solitude during the last years of one's life. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 309-10.)

Day and night a man should practise worship, japa, meditation, and other spiritual exercises. Only then, by virtue of practice, will he be able to think of God in the hour of death. If one dies thus, thinking of God, one will acquire God's nature. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 820.)

If only I pass away repeating Durga's name, How can Thou then, O Blessed One, Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

Nama Japa - When can we stop?

Such actions as japa (1) and austerity drop away when one spontaneously feels love and attachment for God. Who, indeed, will perform the ceremonies enjoined in the scriptures, when mad with love of God? (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 173.)

(1) Chanting the names of the Lord.

Nama Japa - Go forward!

"Practice, practice," [Swami Brahmananda] would tell us: "Through practice of the spiritual disciplines the heart will be purified and a new realm will open. You will realize that God alone is real and that everything else is unreal. But when through japam (1) and meditation a little awakening comes, do not imagine you have achieved the end. Light! More Light! Onward! Onward! Attain God! Gain his vision! Talk to him!" (Swami Prabhavananda, EC, 61.)

(1) Chanting a name of God.

One attains God through japa. ... Higher than worship is japa, higher than japa is meditation, higher than meditation is bhava, and higher than bhava are mahabhava and prema. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 588.)

Nama Japa - Examples of successful japa practice

The only idea that occupied the whole of [Sri Ramakrishna's] mind was how he could see the Divine Mother in all beings at all times. His chest became reddish again on account of continuous Japa, remembrance of God and reflection and meditation on Him. The world and all talks thereof appeared to him as deadly poison; that terrible burning sensation came on him again; and sleep vanished as it were into air. (Swami Saradanana, SRGM, 179.)

[The Bhairava Brahmani] helped me in the performance of the worship of the Divine Mother according to the prescribed rules with [the] aid [of articles she collected], asking me at last to merge in Japa and meditation. I acted accordingly. But I had to perform almost no Japa; for, hardly did I turn the rosary once when I merged completely in Samadhi and realized the rites proper to those rites. (Paramahansa Ramakrishan in SRGM, 195.)

While he was still on the verandah he noticed that the Master was coming out of his room. Sri Ramakrishna suddenly came up to Ram and asked, "Well, what do you want?" Ram was utterly amazed. He felt as if his whole body was charged with electricity. Although he realized that Sri Ramakrishna was standing in front of him like a kalpataru (wish-fulfilling tree), ready to grant any boon that he wanted, he was at a loss to know what to ask from the Master. ... Finally, overwhelmed with emotion, Ram replied: "Lord, I don't know what to ask for. You decide for me." "Give me back the mantram I gave you in the dream," said Sri Ramakrishna as he entered into samadhi. Immediately Ram prostrated himself before the Master and offered the mantram mentally at his feet like a flower. Sri Ramakrishna touched Ram's head with his right foot and Ram also lost outward consciousness. He did not know how long they stayed in that state. Gradually the Master came back to the normal plane of consciousness and took his foot away. Ram stood up. "If you wish to see anything," said the Master to Ram, "look at me." Ram looked and saw that Sri Ramakrishna had taken the form of his Chosen Deity, the form of God that was dearest to his heart. Then Sri Ramakrishna told him: "You do not need to practise any more spiritual disciplines. Just come here and see me now and then, and bring with you a pice worth of something as a present." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna of Ram Chandra Datta in TLWG, 85.)

Gopaler-Ma arose at two o'clock in the morning, washed her face and hands, then started her japam, which continued until eight o'clock. Next, she cleaned the Radha-Krishna temple, washed the worship vessels, picked flowers, and made garlands and sandal paste. She was neat, clean, and meticulous. She would bathe twice a day, mornings in the Ganga and evenings in the pond. After bathing in the Ganga, she meditated for some time under a vilwa tree in the temple garden. Next, she collected dry wood and leaves for her cooking fire. She usually cooked rice, dal, bitter squash, and potato. Her food offering to Baby Gopala was worth seeing. She would place a wooden seat on the floor for Gopala and offer cooked food on a banana leaf-plate, which we set before him. Afterwards she would partake of the Prasad and then rest for a while. She practiced japam again until evening, when she would attend the vesper service of Radha-Krishna and listen to devotional singing. Her supper was always very simple, usually consisting of a few offered coconut balls and a little milk. Again she would start her japam, which continued until midnight. With rare exception, she followed this routine daily for over thirty years - from 1852 to 1883. Perhaps the only break of any consequence in her routine came when she went on a pilgrimage with her landlady to Gaya, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mathura, and Vrindaban. (Swami Chetanananda describing Gopaler-Ma in TLWG, 338-9.)

I could not perform japam all that day. Gopala (1) sat on my lap, snatched away my rosary, jumped on my shoulders, and moved around the room. At daybreak, I rushed to Dakshineswar like a crazy woman. Gopala also accompanied me, resting his head on my shoulder. I distinctly saw Gopala's two tiny, rosy feet hanging over my bosom. (Gopaler-Ma in TLWG, 341.)

(1)The baby Krishna.

Gopaler-Ma's ecstacy was boundless. Her vision, conversation, and play with her beloved Gopala continued: "Here is Goapala in my arms... Now he enters into you [''pointing to Sri Ramakrishna''].... There, he comes out again.... Come, my child, come to your wretched mother." (Swami Chetanananda in TLWG, 342.)

When the mind is pure and saturated with Spirit, ... high states of consciousness are possible. Gopaler-ma meditated on her beloved Gopala so much that her mind became very pure. As a result, she entered the superconscious realm, and wherever her eyes fell, she saw Gopala. In this realm of mystical experience, verbal expression, mental cognition, and intellectual reasoning do not function. The only consciousness is the direct consciousness of God. (Swami Chetanananda in TLWG, 343.)

While [Gopaler-Ma] was doing japam in the concert room, Sri Ramakrishna came there and said: "Why do you practice so much japam now? You have plenty of visions."

Gopaler-ma replied: "Shall I not practice japam any more? Have I attained everything?"

"Yes, you have attained everything."

"Everything?"

"Yes, everything."

"What do you say? Have I really accomplished everything?"

"Yes, you have. It is no longer necessary for you to practise japam and austerity for yourself." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in TLWG, 343.)

It is very important for spiritual aspirants to know the daily routines of illumined souls. Holy Mother once said, "Golap has attained perfection through japam." Golap-ma's routine at the Udbodhan house was as follows: She would get up before 4:00 A.M. and after washing would sit for three hours in her room for japam and meditation. Then she would go to the shrine to salute the Master and Holy Mother. (Swami Chetanananda in TLWG, 362-3.)

Names and Words - See also Discriminate betwen the Unreal and the Real - Self-Enquiry - The nature of the mind

The threefold world does not announce, 'I am the threefold world.' Rather it's you, followers of the Way, who do so, this person here in front of my eyes who in marvellous fashion shines his torch on the ten thousand things and sizes up the world - it's he who assigns names to the threefold world. (Lin-Chi, ZTML, 54.)

The ultimate principles that make up the Way are not something to be thrashed out in contentious debate, clanging and banging to beat down the unbelievers. This thing handed down by the buddhas and the patriarchs has no special meaning. If it were put in the form of verbal teachings, it would sink to the level of the teaching categories.... But the teaching of the sudden and immediate enlightenment is not like that. (Lin-Chi, ZTML, 78.)

The Natural Law - The Father makes the natural law through the Mother

He who in the beginning thought, (1) and the Light was filled with lights, Himself through wisdom (2) created (the Law of) Righteousness. (3) (Zarathustra in GZ, 187.)

(1) The Heavenly Father (2) The Divine Mother. (3) The natural law of cause and effect, or karma.

God the Lord hears (us) through the Holy Spirit whose glory is sung by Love, who teaches me ... through Wisdom, whose two awards are received by seekers....: the righteous soul rejoices in immortality, (while) ever-increasing are the miseries of the wicked, and ... God the Lord decides these things. (Zarathustra, GZ, 227.)

Something ... imposes on [these elements] the law of their being, and what could that be but the Womb, the matrix of original and indestructible matter, the plasm which moulds the universe and out of which it is moulded? (Sri Aurobindo, SOY, 3.)

The Natural Law - The Mother's law is perfect, just, and unfailing

The law of God will not deliver you into pain. (1) (Zarathustra in GZ, 11.)

(1) It is not following the law that delivers us into pain; following the law would deliver us into peace and tranquillity.

There is no sin for which there is no atonement. (Zarathustra in GZ, 147.)

Afterwards (if) [the sinner] does not commit (that sin again), then it becomes just as a sweeping from his body, just as the swift and powerful wind ... carries away ... any broken fragment. (Zarathustra in GZ, 147.)

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.... (1)

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalm 19:7-8.)

(1) Gradually, but infallibly, winning the soul over to righteousness.

Wisdom is justified of her children. (1) (Jesus in Matthew 11:19.)

(1) That is, the unfailing natural law perfects every living being in time: their perfection reflects her perfection.

Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (1) (Jesus in Matthew 5:18.)

(1) Many levels of meaning are contained here. "Heaven and earth will not pass until all the law's provisions are fulfilled" would be the best short summary.

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. (Jesus in Luke 16:17.)

The Natural Law - It accounts for everything and takes everything into account

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (Jesus in Matthew 10:29-30.)

"All creation is governed by law," Sri Yukteswar concluded. "The principles that operate in the outer universe, discoverable by scientists, are called natural laws. But there are subtler laws that rule the hidden spiritual planes and the inner realm of consciousness; these principles are knowable through the science of yoga. It is not the physicist but the Self-realized master who comprehends the true nature of matter. By such knowledge Christ was able to restore the servant's ear after it had been severed by one of his disciples." (Sri Yukteswar Giri in Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 113.)

Nature has succeeded in registering everything and this is what moral law is based upon: the memory of nature. Yes, ... nature has a memory that never forgets, and so much the worse for the person who does not take this memory into consideration! It goes on anyhow, registering his jangling thoughts and inner turmoil until the day comes when he can stand no more, he is overcome and gives up. No one can avoid this law, no one has ever been powerful enough to succeed in escaping it, neither emperor nor dictator, not Hitler nor Mussolini, nor Stalin, no one. In nature's memory, everything is recorded. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 19.)

People say: "Of course, such and such a thing is said in the Bible and in the Gospels, but what I want to know is, does God really exist?" My answer is, do not bother to know whether God really exists, nor if the Gospels are true or not, just know that [the] law is the truth, that is enough. It will be able to put everything right for you and show you the truth. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 18.)

The Natural Law - As above, so below

Whatever is in the microcosm is also in the macrocosm. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 389.)

Microcosmically each lifetron (1) ... is composed of the elements God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or of transcendental Cosmic Consciousness, of Christ Consciousness, and of Cosmic Energy. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 89-90.)

(1) Paramahansa Yogananda's term for the smallest of particles. Cf. the Buddha's use of the term "kalapa" in S.N. Goenka, DS, 41.

The Natural Law - God unaffected by conditions

The world consists of the illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to [lust and greed]; righteousnsess and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness, but Brahman is not at all affected by them. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 152.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Impermanence

The nature of the relative world is mutability. (Sri Krishna in BG, 74.)

All formations are transient. (The Buddha in BB, 27.)

Whatsoever is originated will be dissolved again. All worry about the self is vain; the ego is like a mirage, and all the tribulations that touch it will pass away. They will vanish like a nightmare when the sleeper awakes. (The Buddha in GB, 41.)

As long as the bikkhus exercise themselves in the perception of: impermanence in all things; the non-existence of a permanent ego; ... so long may the bikkhus be expected not to decline, but to prosper. (Buddha in BPM, 151.)

All forms or phenomena are transient and illusive. (Sutra cited in SHN, 15.)

All phenomena, existing and apparent, Are ever transient, changing, and unstable; But more especially the worldly life Hath no reality, no permanent gain [in it]. (Milarepa in TGYM, 17.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Compensation

The dual scales of maya ... balance every joy with a grief. (Paramahansa Yogananda in AY, 92.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - God the Father created the law of karma through God the Mother or Holy Spirit

He who in the beginning thought, (1) and the Light was filled with lights, Himself through wisdom (2) created (the Law of) Righteousness. (3) (Zarathustra in GZ, 187.)

(1) The Heavenly Father (2) The Divine Mother. ( (3) The natural law of cause and effect, or karma.

God the Lord hears (us) through the Holy Spirit whose glory is sung by Love, who teaches me ... through Wisdom, whose two awards are received by seekers....: the righteous soul rejoices in immortality, (while) ever-increasing are the miseries of the wicked, and ... God the Lord decides these things. (Zarathustra, GZ, 227.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Karma is an inescapable law

The whole world is under the law of causation. (The Buddha in GB, 61.)

Karma [is an] inescapable law. (Shankara in CJD, 43.)

The Creator remaining everywhere makes each one play his role in life according to their Karma. That which is not destined will not happen despite every effort. What is destined is bound to happen. This is certain. (Sri Ramana Maharshi in BRM, 11-2.)

If a person is going to die he will die whatever happens, you cannot prevent it. He may walk across the road and be killed by a car. Anyhow, he will die. (Sri Ramana Maharshi in SRRM, 76.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Karma keeps the soul tied to birth and death

The law of Karma ... chains men to rebirth. (Sri Krishna in BG, 40.)

As long as a person keeps creating karma, he keeps passing through birth and death. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 20.)

[Gripped by tamas] his mind becomes perverted. His consciousness of the Atman is swallowed up by the shark of total ignorance. Yielding to the power of rajas, he identifies himself with the many motions and changes of the mind. Therefore he is swept hither and thither, now rising, now sinking, in the boundless ocean of birth and death, whose waters are full of the poison of sense-objects. This is indeed a miserable fate. (Shankara, CJD, 54-5.)

They travel upward or downward, impelled by their own karma. (Shankara in CJD, 43.)

The Secret Doctrine teaches ... the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul - a spark of the [Universal Over-Soul] - through the Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity") in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term. In other words, no purely spiritual Buddhi (Divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the ... OVER-SOUL ... has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara [round of life], and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha). The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosopjhy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations. (H.P. Blavatsky, SD(A), 13.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Karma helps us evolve towards enlightenment

Karma, my child, is really unlearned lessons. ... Thank God for the opportunities which are presented to you to learn lessons and dispose of your karma, for these are steps by which you mount into the Great White Lodge. (White Eagle, QM, 84.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The bound action of ego and desire ("I want") produces karma

Bound action produces karmic debts. (Sri Krishna in BG, 121.)

To those who have not yet renounced the ego and its desires, action bears three kinds of fruit -- pleasant, unpleasant, and a mixture of both. (Sri Krishna in BG, 121.)

Those deluded beings who are tied to the objects they experience by the strong cord of desire, so hard to break, remain subject to birth and death. (Shankara in CJD, 43.)

If you allow the idea of separateness from any evil thing or person to grow up within you, by so doing you create karma which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul recognizes that it cannot be isolated. (Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, speaking through Mabel Collins, LOP, 8.)

Karma - which I always mean in the negative sense - is created through action, through acting out of ignorance or selfishness in ways that cause suffering to others. So purity of motive and integrity of action would mean that you aspire to become so undivided that the motive behind the action and the action itself are free in a fundamental way from ego-centered motives. It means that now there's a deep and profound integrity in what motivates you to act. And in this, a life is created that is a clear expression of an undivided self, and is free from the burden of karma. (www.andrewcohen.org, downloaded on 21 April 2004.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Everything about our present life's circumstances is a result of karma

The physical body ... is born through the karma of the previous life, and is the vehicle of experience for the Atman. (Shankara in CJD, 45.)

The body [is] the result of fructifying karma. (Ramana Maharshi in SMSLS, 53.)

The kind of brain and body you have, the family and society, the time and history you were born into, all these and more were determined by you yourself, by your degree of expansion, by your willingness to love. No one did anything to you. No one forced you. There is absolute justice in the experience that each of us is having every second of the day. In one sense we can all relax, because nothing is secret, nothing is lost, nothing is forgotten, no one is abandoned. (Thaddeus Golas, LMGE, 17-8.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The Self is unaffected by karma

The Atman witnesses everything, but it is not in the least contaminated. ... It is free forever, and untouched. No karma created by its covering bodies can ever contaminate it, even to the smallest degree. (Shankara in CJD, 47-8.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The essence of the law of karma is what we sow we reap

That which is sown is not always begotten; (1) but that which is begotten is always sown. (Hermes, DPH, 4.)

(1) That is, in this particular lifetime; it will be gotten though in a future lifetime.

Thou shalt give the fruits of actions and of what is spoken - bad to the bad, and a good blessing to the good. (Zarathustra in GZ, 211.)

All good thoughts, ... words, ... and deeds will attain Paradise, (while) all evil thoughts, ... words, ... and deeds will go to Hell. (Zarathustra in GZ, 12.)

There is no happiness whatever for the wicked. (Zarathustra in GZ, 146.)

All things that exist are not without cause. However, neither Ishvara, nor the absolute, nor the self, nor causeless chance, is the maker, but our deeds produce results both good and evil. (The Buddha in GB, 61.)

If a man speaks or acts an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. ... If a man speaks with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. (Buddha in TCB, 52.)

If a violent man does not come (To a violent death (I shall choose him to teach me. ( (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 95.)

And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book [of life]. (1) (Exodus 32: 33.)

(1) He shall not achieve enlightenment or "eternal life" in that lifetime. No human being can be blotted out of life itself, because all human beings live eternally as spirits, whether in or out of a physical body.

Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. (Exodus 22:22-4.)

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1.)

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate. (Psalm 7:14-16.)

The wicked worketh a deceitful work; but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.

As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. (Proverbs 11:18-9.)

The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. (Proverbs 10:24.)

God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail. (Ecclesiastes 2:26.)

According to their deeds, ... he will repay. (Isaiah 59:18.)

Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. (Isaiah 3:10-1.)

The seed (1) of evildoers shall never be renowned. (Isaiah 14:20.)

(1) This could also mean the karmic consequences of the act of evildoers.

For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. (Job 34:11.)

As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. (Obadiah 1:15.)

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Jesus in Matthew 7:12.)

By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Jesus in Matthew 12:37.)

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. (Jesus in Matthew 7:1-2.)

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Jesus in Matthew 6:14-5.)

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. (Jesus in Matthew 18:21-2.)

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Jesus in Matthew 5:7.)

For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. (James 2:13.)

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (St. Paul in Galatians 6:7-8.)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (St. Paul in II Corinthians 5:10.)

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:11-2.)

Each man is the hostage of his own deeds. (Koran, 115.)

You shall be rewarded according to your deeds. (Koran, 172.)

If a misfortune befalls you, it is the fruit of your own labours. (Koran, 153.)

He that does good, does it for his own soul; and he that commits evil does so at his own peril. (Koran, 158.)

Man reaps the harvest of his own actions. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 208.)

Man must reap the fruit of his own karma. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 237.)

Good produces good, and bad produces bad. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 250.)

If you commit a sin, you must bear its fruit. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 369.)

Sin begets its own result. This is God's law. Won't you burn your tongue if you chew a chilli? In his youth Mathur led a rather fast life; so he suffered from various diseases before his death. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 97.)

Everyone must reap the result of his past karma. One must admit the influence of tendencies inherited from past births and the result of prarabdha karma. (1) (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 275.)

(1) "Prarabdha" karma is the karma that is already enroute to us in the present lifetime.

Action yields fruit, (For so the Lord ordains it. ( (Ramana Maharshi, CW, downloaded from http://www.ramana-maharshi.org, 10 September 2005, n.p.)

Each man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment. (Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, IWL, 114.)

Karma never forgets, and it takes no account of the fact that men forget. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 72.)

The law of cause and effect [is] "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 13.)

According to the way you behave now, you are preparing your future. ... The future is easy to create, the past is very difficult to erase. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 29.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - All sin is known

Be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23.)

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3.)

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. (Proverbs 5:21.)

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14.)

There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. (Job 34:22.)

I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:10.)

Thine eyes are open upon all the works of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruits of his doings. (Jeremiah 32:19.)

There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. (Jesus in Matthew 10:26.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Recompense belongs to the Lord through His law

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence. (Deuteronomy 32:35.)

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (St. Paul in Romans 12: 19.)

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. (1) (Jesus in Rev. 13:10.)

(1) I.e., the saints know that the law is perfect and leave matters of vengeance to God.

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The law of karma is perfect, seeing that we are chastened in proportion to our sin...

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. (Genesis 9:6.)

He that smiteth a man, so that he shall die, shall be surely put to death. (Exodus 21:12.)

Life for life, (Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, (Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:23.)

Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. (1) (Leviticus 21:20.)

(1) In this or another lifetime.

The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. (II Samuel 3:39.)

Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee; when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. (Isaiah 33:1.)

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (Jesus in Matthew 7:2.)

All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword. (Jesus in Matthew 26:52.)

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. (Jesus in Revelation 13:10.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - ... at a time of the Lord's choosing

That which is sown is not always begotten;(1) but that which is begotten is always sown. (Hermes, DPH, 4.)

(1) I.e., not right away, but at a time of the Lord's choosing.

[The fruits of karma] will be reaped in due season. (1) (Sri Krishna in BG, 121.)

(1) That may be in another life.

Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. (Ecclesiastes 8:11.)

Their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. (Deuteronomy 32:35.)

The same lack of justice, the same cruelty and violence that you distributed, will be waiting for you, maybe not for twenty, thirty or forty years, but it will be there, standing in your way, and then you will realize that cosmic Intelligence does put everything down. If you are ill-intentioned and malicious, sooner or later you will receive the same treatment, inevitably: it was you who created the situation. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 18.)

Everyone thinks that if justice existed, it would show itself more quickly, they don't understand the reason for delaying either punishment or recompense.... I know the reason for this slowness. It shows the goodness and mercy of Cosmic Intelligence. who wants to give humans the time to see, to consider things, even to repent and better themselves, to erase their mistakes. If the laws were there to punish immediately, humans would be reduced to nothing, they would be too crushed to improve themselves. Whereas, if they are given time in which to feel disadvantages, little pricks and hurts, they will perhaps start to think and make amends themselves. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 24-5.)

We have the freedom to choose the way we want to think and act and, yes, we reap the results of what we sow. However, this does not happen in any kind of linear way. Hence, some people who do all the right things still get cancer and die and some people who kill and rape get away without consequences. (Paul Ferrini, Ask Paul Archive 1, http://www.paulferrini.com/html/b_-_home.html, accessed 8 Jan. 2002.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The means of our sinning will be the means of our chastening

The punishment is adapted to his sin and comes to him from the fiendish spirit of his own sin in that way and degree in which he harassed and vexed (others) and revered, praised and served what is vile. (Ahuramazda in Zarathustra, GZ, 127.)

A man is punished by the things through which he sins. ("The Wisdom of Solomon," APO, 198.)

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. (Proverbs 5:22.)

He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it. (Ecclesiastes 10:8.)

The wrongdoers are led unwittingly by their own appetites. (Koran, 189.)

Inasmuch as you put your trust in your own judgment, not having God in sight and not recognizing that everything proceeds from God, God therefore converted that very means and endeavour into a means of bringing about [your] diminishment. (Rumi in DR, 17.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The law sees that the gain of the wicked goes to the just

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. (Ecclesiastes 2:26.)

A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. (Proverbs 13:22.)

As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. (Jeremiah 17:10-1.)

There are some who are miserly even though they have money. There is no knowing who will enjoy their money afterwards. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 398.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Karma takes no account of custom

As to cruelty. This is of two kinds, intentional and unintentional. Intentional cruelty is purposely to give pain to another living being; and that is the greatest of all sins -- the work of a devil rather than a man. ... [Inquisitors, vivisectors, schoolmasters, etc. all] try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 69-70.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - It may require us to be born into a lower species

Sri [Ramana] Maharshi [would not] allow any of the inmates of the Asramam to treat the animals roughly. "We do not know what soul may be tenanting those bodies," he would say to his devotees, "and for fulfilling what portion of their unfinished karma they seek out our company." (Subbaraya Karnath, SMSLS, 29.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - A little spiritual knowledge considerably reduces negative karma

It is said that a little attention to Occultism produces great karmic results. That is because it is impossible to give any attention to Occultism without making a definite choice between what are familiarly called good and evil. The first step in Occultism brings the student to the tree of knowledge. He must pluck and eat; he must choose. No longer is he capable of the indecision of ignorance. ... And to step definitely and knowingly even but one step on either path produces great karmic results. The mass of men walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal they aim at; their standard of life is indefinite; consequently their karma operates in a confused manner. But when once the threshold of knowledge is reached, the confusion begins to lessen, and consequently the karmic results increase enormously, because all are acting in the same direction on all the different planes; for the occultist cannot be half-hearted, nor can he return when he has passed the threshold. ... The individuality has approached the state of responsibility by reason of growth; it cannot recede from it. (Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, speaking through Mabel Collins, LOP, 34-6.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Liberation ends karma

All evil effects of deeds are destroyed, when he (1) who is both personal and impersonal is realized. (UPAN 46.)

(1) God the Father or Brahman. That is, we are free of the law of karma after we realize God as Mother and Father, the conditioned and the unconditioned Brahman, the Personal and Impersonal Deity. Sri Ramana says that the level of enlightenment at which liberation occurs is (cf.)

sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

The blazing fire turns wood to ashes: The fire of knowledge (1) turns all karma to ashes. (Sri Krishna in BG, 55.)

(1) God-realization.

If your heart is united with me, you will be set free from karma even in this life, and come to me at the last. (Sri Krishna in BG, 84.)

In the way of righteousness is life; (1) and in the pathway thereof is no death. (Proverbs 12:28.)

(1) Eternal life, consequent upon the attainment of liberation or sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

The law of the Spirit of life ... hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (St. Paul in Romans 8:2.)

As long as a person keeps creating karma, he keeps passing through birth and death. But once a person realizes his original nature, he stops creating karma. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 20.)

It's only because people don't see their nature (1) that they end up in hell. (2) (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 20.)

(1) In the experience of enlightenment, as one with the Father. ( (2) That is, in the hell of duality and rebirth, compared with the tranquillity of the Father's heaven.

Such is [a buddha's] power, karma can't hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a buddha transforms it. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 16.)

I saw a tall white person with tawny matted hair walking with solemn steps to each pyre in the [Benares] burning ghat, raising carefully each jiva (1) and imparting into his ear the mantra of supreme Brahman; while, sitting on the pyre on the other side of the body was the all-powerful universal Mother, Mahakali, untying all knots of the bondage of karma, sending him to the indivisible sphere by opening with Her own hands the door to liberation. Thus did Siva grant the soul that which ordinarily results only from the practice of yoga and tapas for many lives. (Sri Ramakrishna, VSR, 64.)

(1) Individual soul.

In nirbikalpa samadhi (1) the yogi dissolves the last vestiges of his material or earthly karma. Nevertheless, he may still have certain astral and causal karma to work out, and therefore takes astral and then causal re-embodiments on high-vibrational spheres. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 409n.)

(1) Specifically, sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

By the instant of one's birth one's experience of life is conditioned: but the Supreme Instant (1) that is revealed in the course of sadhana leads to the completion of action, to the exhaustion of one's karma. (Anandamoyi Ma, MD.)

(1) Liberation or sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

I felt the Ambrosia-like quality in the breath with the purifying benediction that it casts over the whole personality, even including the physical body. I found myself above the universe, not in the sense of being above space, time, and causality, My karma seemed to drop away from me as an individual responsibility. I felt intangibly, yet wonderfully, free. I sustained this universe and was not bound by it. (Franklin Merrell-Wolff, PTS, 5.)

As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma is ended. This is the state of eternal Liberation. (Ramana Maharshi, FVR, verse 38.)

A couple of days after my enlightenment experience with Poonjaji, when I was in my hotel room in New Delhi, I sat up in my bed and said without any premeditation, "My life is Yours. Do with me what You will." I wasn't speaking to my guru personally. I was speaking to this energy that was taking over my physical form and my life. I knew that if this process didn't stop there, there wouldn't be anything left of me. I knew that my life was over.

At that moment, I saw the image of a whirlpool. My life, my plans, my karma, all went down into that whirlpool. And I didn't know then about becoming a teacher or about anything else. (Andrew Cohen, OE, 251-2.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - Not all are able to rise to the highest

In spite of extraordinary realization, the influence and weight of karma can and usually does remain to some degree.

To what degree? To the degree that that individual is able to create suffering for themselves and others due to ignorant actions motivated by selfish desires. The range of influence can go from the gross to a degree of subtlety almost imperceptible. How many have realized that immaculate condition to such a degree that it remains immaculate, untouched forever and ever again? Very few. (Andrew Cohen, AOA, 125-6.)

Not all are equally able to rise to the highest. This is an evolutionary fact and has historically been called the law of karma. Karma cannot be avoided and the light itself can only serve to reveal the actuality of any individual's karmic circumstance. The sincere interest in an individual to face the entirety of their karma in the light of the Absolute Truth and their ability to bring it all to an end will be the degree to which they are able to Awaken. Not all people are the same and different people have differing capacities for this rare evolutionary leap. (Andrew Cohen, AOA, 62.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The liberated master, whose karma has come to an end, cannot sin

When a man merges himself in God, (1) he can no longer retain wicked or sinful tendencies. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

(1) Note however: In the experience of sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi and not in the experience of kevalya nirvikalpa samadhi (or Brahmajnana).

One who attained perfection, realized God, cannot commit sin. An expert singer cannot sing a false note. A man with a trained voice sings the notes correctly. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 369.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must confess and repent our mistakes

The duty of openness is this: that the sin which he knows has attacked him is to be specifically confessed by him; and the mental duty is this: that he should repent with this thought -- "Hereafter I will not commit sin." And it is well for him if what occurred before the repentance ... be not overlooked or kept secret by him; for when he ... keeps a sin ... concealed ... he is worthy of death. (1) (Zarathustra in GZ, 148.)

(1) That is, the cycle of birth and death.

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must take refuge in God

If your heart is united with me, you will be set free from karma even in this life, and come to me at the last. (Sri Krishna in BG, 84.)

If a man keeps following my teaching with faith in his heart, and does not make mental reservations, he will be released from the bondage of his karma. But those who scorn my teaching, and do not follow it, are lost. They are without spiritual discrimination. All their knowledge is a delusion. (Sri Krishna in BG, 48.)

The effect of karma wears away if one takes refuge in God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 817.)

A true lover of God has nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. He is aware that the Divine Mother knows everything. The cat handles the mouse one way, but its own kitten a very different way. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must renounce ego and desire

Those who have renounced ego and desire will reap no fruit (1) at all, either in this world or in the next. (Sri Krishna in BG, 121.)

(1)That is, will incur no karmic debt.

You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. ...

Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits. (1) Be even-tempered in success and failure; for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga. (Sri Krishna in BG, 40.)

(1) Note however Sri Ramakrishna's caution: "One cannot renounce by the mere wish. There are prarabdha karma - inherited tendencies [vasanas] - and the like." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 336.)

He whose mind dwells Beyond attachment, Untainted by ego, No act shall bind him With any bond. (Sri Krishna in BG, 121-2.)

Let us surrender self and all selfishness, and as all things are fixed by causation, let us practise good so that good may result from our actions. (The Buddha in GB, 61.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must stop seeing ourselves as the doer

[The end of the path of jnana] is to know the truth that the "I" is not different from the Lord (Isvara) and to be free from the feeling of being the doer (kartrtva, ahamkara). (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 1, Chapter 1, Question 10.)

The old vasanas pertaining to the body, (mind and so on) are destroyed. Being free from body-consciousness one never has the sense of doership.

Since such a one has no sense of doership, his karma, it is said, is completely destroyed. As nothing but the Self exists, no doubts arise for him.

Once the knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power supreme and peace supreme. (Sri Ramana Maharshi in SRG, 53 and 55.)

As there is no rule that action should depend upon a sense of being the doer it is unnecessary to doubt whether any action will take place without a doer or an act of doing. Although the officer of a government treasury may appear, in the eyes of others, to be doing his duty attentively and responsibly all day long, he will be discharging his duties without attachment, thinking 'I have no real connection with all this money' and without a sense of involvement in his mind. In the same manner a wise householder may also discharge without attachment the various household duties which fall to his lot according to his past karma, like a tool in the hands of another. Action and knowledge are not obstacles to each other. (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 23.)

When you begin to realize that you are not the doer, you drop the subconscious attachment to playing to lose. As a result, you are no longer the victim of your life. When you cease being the doer, you also cease being the victim, for the two always go hand in hand. The doer is the victim and the victim the doer. This is the cycle of birth and death, the karmic wheel on which you have been mercilessly turning.

When the wheel stops turning, you enter the unknown courageously, without bringing the past, without projecting the future. You learn to face your fears of the unknown directly. And, as you do, you discover the gifts and miracles that lie on the other side of your fear.

The price of the miracle is not great. You must simply give up what you think you know. When the past drops and all of your knowledge comes to an end, your innocence is restored. You enter the moment fully conscious, allowing it to unfold in you and through you. This is not some idle fantasy, but an invitation to experience, an invitation to participate in the ongoing miracle of life. (Paul Ferrini, SOH, 22-3.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must accept what life brings with equanimity

To go from mortal to buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness and accept what life brings. If you're always getting angry, you'll turn your nature against the Way. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 17.)

Once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty, and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 22.)

[These events] are the result of past actions, and when they come you must bear them cheerfully, remembering that all evil is transitory, and that your duty is to remain always joyous and serene. They belong to your previous lives, not to this; you cannot alter them, so it is useless to trouble about them. Think rather of what you are doing now, which will make the events of your next life, for that you can alter. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 48-9.)

You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honour that suffering comes to you, because it shows that the lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse. Remember that you are of but little use to the Master until your evil karma is worked out, and you are free. By offering yourself to Him, you have asked that your karma be hurried, and so now in one or two lives you work through what otherwise might have been spread over a hundred. But in order to make the best of it, you must bear it cheerfully, gladly. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 56-7.)

You must give up all feeling of possession. Karma may take from you the things which you like best -- even the people whom you love most. Even then you must be cheerful -- ready to part with anything and everything. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 57-8.)

Old man Zibo is leaving the mountain Relax, you Zen men in the hall Above your head there's the sky Opening the correct eye [we see]: In any situation, disaster and blessings All come from past causes. 16th Century Ch'an master Zibo, just prior to his death in ZIBO, 23.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must quiet the mind and destroy the vasanas (habit patterns)

When a thought arises, there's good karma and bad karma, heaven and hell. When no thought arises, there's no good karma and no bad karma, no heaven or hell. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 30.)

Only one who is free from all the latent tendencies (vasanas) is a Sage. That being so how can the tendencies of karma affect him who is entirely unattached to activity? (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 26.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must love God and our neighbour

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (Jesus in Matthew 5:44.)

Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. (I Peter 3:9.)

Recompense to no man evil for evil. ... for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saieth the Lord. (St. Paul in Romans 12:17 + 19.)

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (St. Paul in Romans 13:10.)

All actions drop away of themselves [when one achieves divine love]. The fruit of action does not touch him. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 251.)

A true lover of God has nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. He is aware that the Divine Mother knows everything. The cat handles the mouse one way, but its own kitten a very different way. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

Assume the tamasic aspect of bhakti. Say with force: 'What? I have uttered the name of Rama and Kali. How can I be in bondage any more? How can I be affected by the law of karma?' (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - To end karma, we must serve God and our neighbour

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee to drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Jesus in Matthew 25:34-40.)

Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. (Jesus in Matthew 10:42.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - A yogi who fails to achieve full realization is born again, propelled by his good karma

No one who seeks Brahman ever comes to an evil end. Even if a man falls away from the practice of yoga, he will still win the heaven of the doers of good deeds, and dwell there many long years. After that, he will be reborn into the home of pure and prosperous parents. He may even be born into a family of illumined yogis. But such a birth in this world is more difficult to obtain.

He will then regain that spiritual discernment which he acquired in his former body; and so will strive harder than ever for perfection. Because of his practices in the previous life, he will be driven on toward union with Brahman, even in spite of himself. For the man who has once asked the way to Brahman (1) goes farther than any mere fulfiller of the Vedic rituals. By struggling hard, and cleansing himself of all impurities, that yogi will move gradually toward perfection through many births, and reach the highest goal at last. (Sri Krishna in BG, 69.)

(1) Sri Krishna does not mean the man who asked the way to Brahman in a casual way, but one who has asked a guru, been told, and has practised sadhana sincerely but has not the purity or determination to needed to reach the final goal in this lifetime.

The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain sufficiently to express [nirvikalpa samadhi or] cosmic consciousness. ... A yogi who dies before achieving full realization carries with him the good karma of his past ... effort; in his new life he is naturally propelled toward his Infinite Goal. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 239.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - A genuine master may take a portion of a devotee's karma upon him or herself

If I awaken their spiritual consciousness I shall have to accept the burden of their sins. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 970.)

The people whose karma I have taken [on] think that they are attaining salvation through their own strength. They do not understand that it is because I have taken their karma on me. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in RAWSH, 157.)

A master who achieves ... final freedom may elect to return to earth as a prophet to bring other human beings back to God, or like myself he may choose to reside in the astral cosmos. There a saviour assumes some of the burden of the inhabitants' karma, and thus helps them to terminate their cycle of reincarnation in the astral cosmos and go on permanently to the causal spheres. Or a freed soul may enter the causal world to aid its beings to shorten their span in the causal body and thus attain the Absolute Freedom. (Sri Yukteswar Giri in Paramanansa Yogananda, AY, 421.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The Guru or the Lord can also mitigate karma

Allah ... forgives sin and accepts repentance. (Koran, 159.)

Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their heart. (Koran, 140.)

To those who avoid the grossest sins and indecencies and commit only small offences, Allah will show abundant mercy. (Koran, 113.)

He who has made the law can also change it. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 817.)

[Babaji's] disciples were sitting one night around a huge fire that was blazing for a sacred Vedic ceremony. The guru suddenly seized a burning brand and lightly struck the bare shoulder of a chela who was close to the fire.

"Sir, how cruel!" Lahiri Mahasaya, who was present, made this remonstrance.

"Would you rather have seen him burned to ashes before your eyes, according to the decree of his past karma?"

With these words Babaji placed his healing hand on the chela's disfigured shoulder. "I have freed you tonight from painful death. The karmic law has been satisfied through your slight suffering by fire." (Swami Kebalananda of the avatar Babaji in Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 301.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - However, usually a master does not interfere with the working of the law

We cannot take from you your freewill, nor rob you of your experience; we cannot free you from your karmic debts. You must accept for payment debts that you have incurred, and sweetly surrender yourselves to the infinite love of God. But we can assure you that your karma can be softened by the love of the Lord Christ. You can work out your lessons joyfully. (White Eagle, QM, 77.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The responsibility of the knowledgable is higher than that of the ignorant

It is said in your world that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but in the Father's realm ignorance of the law is an excuse. But once we have learned the law, if we falter and make error, then we are indeed in a different category than those who through ignorance perform the same thing. You see, the sin or error is not in stepping into the hole in the ground; the error is in stepping in it twice, once we know it is not the thing to do. (Brother Andre, SA, 75.)

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - The law cannot be studied until we are free from it

Is it possible to understand God's actions and his motives? He creates, he preserves, and he destroys. Can we ever understand why he destroys? ... The aim of human life is to attain Bhakti. As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come to the orchard go eat mangoes. What is the use of calculating the number of trees, branches and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don't need to know the number of trees and leaves. (Paramahansa Ramakishna in SRBP, 15.)

The operations of the actual laws of karma are not to be studied until the disciple has reached the point at which they no longer affect himself. The initiate has a right to demand the secrets of Nature and to know the rules which govern human life. He attains this right by having escaped himself from the limits of Nature and by having freed himself from the rules which govern human life. He has become a recognized portion of the divine element and is no longer affected by that which is temporary. He then obtains the knowledge of the laws which govern temporary conditions. Therefore, you who desire to understand the laws of karma, attempt first to free yourself from these laws; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by those laws. (1) (Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, speaking through Mabel Collins, LOP, 38-9.)

(1) That is, on God.

The Natural Law - The Law of Karma - A nation also has its karma

Remember that the sin and shame of the world are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your karma is inextricably woven with the great Karma. And before you can attain knowledge you must have passed through all places, foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled garment you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be yours tomorrow. And if you turn with horror from it, when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling the more closely to you. The self-righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is right to abstain -- not that yourself shall be kept clean. (Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, speaking through Mabel Collins, LOP, 8-9.)

Some of the assemblies in which the Comte de St. Germain taught his philosophy were held in the Rue Platiere; other meetings of the "Philaletes" were held in the Lodge "des Amis-Reunis" in the Rue de la Sourdiere. ... It appears the members were studying the conditions of life on higher planes, just as Theosophists of to-day are doing. Practical occultism and spiritual mysticism were the end and aim of the Philaletheans; but alas, the karma of France overwhelmed them, and scenes of bloodshed and violence swept them and their peaceful studies away. (I. Cooper-Oakley, CSG.)

The Natural Law - It remains a mystery

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. (Ecclesiastes 11:5.)

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. (Isaiah 56:9.)

The sutras say that the impartial Dharma (1) is something that mortals can't penetrate (2) and sages can't practice. (3) (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 25.)

(1) "Dharma" or the natural law = the Mother. (2) Only "immortals" (that is, the fully enlightened) can understand the workings of the natural law; "mortals" have not the vision or insight to see. (3) Because they are beyond the need for action, or "karma."

The operations of the actual laws of karma are not to be studied until the disciple has reached the point at which they no longer affect himself. The initiate has a right to demand the secrets of Nature and to know the rules which govern human life. He attains this right by having escaped himself from the limits of Nature and by having freed himself from the rules which govern human life. He has become a recognized portion of the divine element and is no longer affected by that which is temporary. He then obtains the knowledge of the laws which govern temporary conditions. Therefore, you who desire to understand the laws of karma, attempt first to free yourself from these laws; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by those laws. (1) (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 38-9.)

(1) On God.

The Natural Law - Those who fear the Mother's law have begun to act wisely

(Man must) act in accordance with the Laws which are given at the beginning of life. (Zarathustra in GZ, 199-200.)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. (Proverbs 1:7.)

Give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes. (Exodus 15:26.)

Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Proverbs 12:13.)

Intelligence is rightly guided only after the mind has acknowledged the inescapability of spiritual law. (Sri Yukteswar Giri in Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 125.

You must study deeply the hidden laws of Nature, and when you know them arrange your life according to them, using always reason and common sense. (Krishnamurti, AFM, 25.)

The Natural Law - Those who obey the law will be blessed with happiness, illumination, and eternal life

O men, if you remember these laws of happiness and pain which God has given ... then in the future the Light will shine on you. (1) (Zarathustra in GZ, 184.)

(1) You will be enlightened.

Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them. (1) (Leviticus 18:5.)

(1) Again, the two levels are implied: shall live peacefully under the law and shall find eternal life.

In keeping [the Law] there is great reward. (Psalm 19:11.)

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of the sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; ... whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3.)

My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments.

... Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, (1) and the man that getteth understanding.

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies: and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her. (Proverbs 3:1 and 3:13-5.)

(1) The Divine Mother.

He ... said unto me, ... keep my commandments and live. (1) (Proverbs 4:4.)

(1) Have eternal life. Solomon did not keep the Lord's laws and thereby incurred his wrath: "When Solomon was old, ... his wives turned away his heart after other gods.... And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord ... and the Lord was angry with Solomon." (I Kings 11:4-9.)

My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind [it] continually upon thine heart, and tie [it] about thy neck.

When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. (1) (Proverbs 6:20-3.)

(1) "The way of life" has two levels of meaning here: the way everyday life unfolds and the road to eternal life.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. (Proverbs 11:30.)

In the way of righteousness (1) is life; and in the pathway thereof is no death. (Proverbs 12:28.)

(1) In the way of conformity to the Mother's laws.

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Jesus in Revelation 22:14.)

The law of the Spirit of life (1) ... hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (St. Paul in Romans 8:2.)

(1) That is, the higher law and grace of the Holy Spirit has saved me from the workings of the lower law of cause and effect, or karma.

The Natural Law - Those who obey the law shall live in peace and plenty

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them:

... I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid....

And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight....

And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. (Leviticus 26:3, 6, 8 + 12.)

Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. (Proverbs 1:33.)

The Natural Law - Those who obey the law shall be wise

O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. ...

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through thy precepts I get understanding. (Psalm 119:97-101 and 103-4.)

Because of [Wisdom] I will have glory among the multitude, And honor with the elders, though I am young, I will be found keen in judgment, And I will be admired in the presence of monarchs. When I am silent, they will wait for me to speak, And when I speak, they will pay attention. ("The Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 192-3.)

The Natural Law - Those who disobey the law shall be punished

(To one led) by the Holy Spirit ... through deeds and words to Righteousness - to him shall God the Lord give Perfection and Immortality through Power and Devotion. (Zarathustra, GZ, 239.)

O God (our) Lord, through this Holy Spirit Thou givest a different destiny to the two parties by means of Fire. (1) (Zarathustra, GZ, 240.)

(1) Fire the Son of the Lord: equivalent to saying, "To them give you the Atman" or "They shall enter into the Christ."

O God, by this Holy Spirit the wicked are severely wounded, (but) not so the righteous. (Zarathustra, GZ, 240.)

There is enduring punishment for the wicked and bliss for the righteous. (Zarathustra in GZ, 184.)

The law[s] of thy mother ... shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. (Proverbs 1:8-9.)

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. (Proverbs 5:22.)

The wicked worketh a deceitful work; but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.

The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. (Proverbs 10:24.)

As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. (Proverbs 11:18-9.)

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. (Isaiah 3:10.)

There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. (Isaiah 48:22.)

The cat handles the mouse one way, but its own kitten a very different way. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 252.)

Those who reject this law [of cause and effect] are moving further and further away from the truth, their souls are torn with doubts and uncertainty, they go from pillar to post, eternally hesitant. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, CML, 17.)

Non-Duality - Duality

As long as a man associates himself with upadhis, (1) so long he sees the manifold...; but on attaining Perfect Knowledge, he sees only one Consciousness everywhere. The same Perfect Knowledge, again, makes him realize that the one Consciousness has become the universe and its living beings and the twenty-four cosmic principles. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 319.)

(1) The coverings, sheaths, or bodies; lit., the containers.

Time and space exists only at the level of two, of comparison, judgment, separation. My body, your body. My idea, your idea. My house, your house. This is where the body begins. Without male, there would be no female. Without parent, there would be no child. Without black, there would be no white. All things exist in relationship to their opposites and are indeed defined by them.

The mind that engages in comparison, engages in separation. Knowledge, in this sense, is based on separation. That is why is it impossible to "know" God. As soon as you "know" God, you lose the experience of unity. (Paul Ferrini, SOH, 34-5.)

Non-Duality - Seeing duality is the source of delusion

When you're deluded, this shore exists. When you wake up, it doesn't exist. Mortals stay on this shore. Those who discover the greatest of all vehicles stay on neither this shore nor the other shore. They're able to leave both shores. Those who see the other shore as different from this shore don't understand zen. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 25.)

Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray. (Kabir in Huxley, PP, 10.)

At the very moment when we try to examine and observe what it is that we are experiencing, (1) we slip back into the activity of reasoning, at which we become aware of distinction between ourselves and God. (John Ruusbroec in JR, 176.)

(1) That is, take a subject-object stance on what we are experiencing; a subject-object stance is a dualistic stance.

Non-Duality - Dualistic experiencing is the cause of fear and grief

So long as there is the least idea of separation from him, there is fear. (UPAN, 56.)

Those who see duality are always submerged in an ocean of grief. (Dattatreya in AG, xxi.)

Once grasp the great Form without form, And you roam where you will With no evil to fear, Calm, peaceful, at ease. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 88.)

Since the world points up beauty as such, There is ugliness too. If goodness is taken as goodness, Wickedness enters as well. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 54.)

When [one] directly experiences that he is his own loneliness, then only can there be freedom from fear. (Krishnamurti, COL, 3, 105.)

Abide as That ... and be ... free from the fear arising from duality. (Da Free John in HRG, 20.)

Abide as That which does not, when scrutinized, show any duality in the form of these various objects or the least trace of cause and effect, That in which, when the mind is absorbed in It, there is no fear of duality at all. (Da Free John in HRG, 20.)

Non-Duality - Dualistic experiencing makes one subject to death and rebirth

He who sees the manifold universe, and not the one reality, goes evermore from death to death. (UPAN, 21.)

The cause of death is the conflict of two opposite tendencies in one nature. (Zarathustra in GZ, 96.)

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (1) thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. (2) (Genesis 2:16-7.)

(1) I.e., duality. (2) I.e., your unitiveness will cease and you shall become subject to death and rebirth.

Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. (1) (Jesus in Matthew 12:25.)

(1) Most Biblical passages have more than one level of meaning. This passage has obvious interpretations on the material level. But a spiritiual interpretation of it is that the soul that apprehends duality must remain a mortal, destined to die and be reborn; it will not stand in the presence of God as long as it perceives duality.

Non-Duality - The unreal and the real exist together (mithya)

Mortality and buddhahood share the same nature, just as wutou and futzu share the same root but not the same season. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 34.)

The world consists of the illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to [lust and greed]; righteousnsess and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness, but Brahman is not at all affected by them. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 152.)

Non-Duality - When we see singly or unitively, duality ceases and enlightenment comes

When everything in this world, including the body, becomes unreal and void like space, then truly one knows [God]. Then there is no longer any parade of dualities for him. (Dattatreya, AG, 20.)

Only a man of samesightedness, only he who sees nothing but the Atman in all things, everywhere and at all times, can attain to this lofty state. (1) (Dattatreya, AG, xxi.)

(1) God-Realization.

Who sees the separate Lives of all creatures United in Brahman Brought forth from Brahman, Himself finds Brahman. (Sri Krishna in BG, 105.)

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (1) (Jesus in Matthew 6:22.)

(1) This passage is rich in interpretations. One interpretation of it is that he who sees only unity rather than duality will be illumined. Another is that when the single Third Eye opens and we see through it, enlightenment comes.

People capable of true vision (1) know that the mind is empty. They transcend both understanding and not understanding. The absence of both understanding and not understanding is true understanding. (2) (Bodhidharma, 27.)

(1) Perhaps again when the Third Eye is opened. (2) The absence of both dualistically-based and word-meditated understanding and ignorance is true understanding.

When the Ten Thousand things are viewed in their oneness, we return to the Origin and remain where we have always been. (Sen T'sen in PP, 14.)

[When] the aspirant goes into samadhi..., for him, the forms or attributes of God disappear altogether. Then he does not feel God to be a Person. Then he cannot describe in words what God is. And who will describe it? He who is to describe does not exist at all; he no longer finds his 'I'. To such a person Brahman is attributeless. In that state God is experienced (1) only as Consciousness, by man's innermost consciousness. He cannot be comprehended by the mind and intelligence. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 859.)

(1) Realized.

The one does not come into being until the many cease. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 37.)

The experiencing of the integral, unitary process frees the mind from its dualism. Thus the total process of the mind, the open as well as the hidden, is experienced and understood -- not piece by piece, activity by activity, but in its entirety. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 69.)

Non-Duality - Enlightenment reveals that there is no other; it ends division

Most human beings spend their lives battling with opposing inner forces: what they think they should do versus what they are doing; how they feel about themselves versus how they are; whether they think they're right and worthy or wrong and unworthy. The separate self is just the conglomeration of these opposing forces. When the self drops away, inner division drops away with it.

Now, I can't say that I never make a mistake, because in this human world being enlightened doesn't mean we become experts at everything. What does happen, though, is that personal motivations disappear. Only when enlightenment occurs do we realize that virtually everything we did, from getting out of bed to going to work to being in a relationship to pursuing our pleasures and interests, was motivated by personal concern. In the absence of a separate self, there's no personal motivation to do anything. Life just moves us. (Adyashanti, TE.)

Inherent within the revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no other. The implications of this realization reveal that in order to manifest that unity in the relative world, one must renounce the dream of being a separate self seeking to obtain anything through relationship with another. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.advaita.org.uk/teachersa_g.htm, 16 May 2004.)

Enlightenment means the end of all division. It is not simply having an occasional experience of unity beyond all division, it is actually being undivided. This is what nonduality truly means. It means there is just One Self, without a difference or gap between the profound revelation of Oneness and the way it is perceived and lived every moment of life. Nonduality means that the inner revelation and the outer expression of the personality are one and the same. So few seem to be interested in the greater implication contained within profound spiritual experiences, because it is the contemplation of these implications which quickly brings to awareness the inner divisions existing within most seekers. (Adyashanti, "Selling Water by the River," Inner Directions Journal, Fall/Winter, 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Then it just gets clearer and clearer, until our realization and our self-concept have gotten full enough and complete enough that we don't need to create a relationship of apparent two-ness to remind us of what we already know. But even when we see that, we'll keep doing it for the fun of it.

It's a circular process. I love this Truth so much - and by this I mean Self-love in the biggest sense - that I create you, and, through you asking questions, which is really me asking questions, I get to tell myself the answers. I get to display who I am and what I know to myself. But it's actually one being: I'm not stuck being Adya. You're not stuck being you. We are stuck being It.

And we realize it doesn't matter which side we're on. We're either looking for our Self with the help of creating a so-called somebody else, or we're just in the joy of revealing our Self to our Self over and over. The more we realize it's all one, the more we realize, "You know, we're really having fun." (Adyashanti, "Actually One Being," 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Awakening to the truth of perfect Unity, means to awaken from the dream of a personal self and personal others to the realization that there is no other. Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses of the absolute unity of all existence, but few are capable of or willing to live up to the many challenging implications inherent in that revelation. The revelation of perfect unity, that there is no other, is a realization of the ultimate impersonality of all that seems to be so very personal. Applying this realization to the arena of personal relationships is something that most seekers find extremely challenging, and is the number one reason why so many seekers never come completely to rest in the freedom of the Self Absolute.

Inherent in the revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no personal me, no personal other, and therefore no personal relationships. Coming to terms with the challenging implications of this stunning realization is something that few people are willing to do. Because realizing the true impersonality of all that seems so personal, challenges every aspect of the illusion of a separate, personal self. It challenges the entire structure of personal relationships which are born of needs, wants, and expectations. It is in the arena of personal relationships that the illusion of a separate self clings most tenaciously and insidiously. Indeed, there is nothing that derails more spiritual seekers than the grasping at and attaching to personal relationships.

The revelation of perfect unity reveals the true impersonality of all relationships. The ego always interprets "impersonal" as meaning cold, distant, and aloof. However, "impersonal" simply means not personal, or void of a separate me and a separate you. The mind cannot comprehend of a relationship without separate entities. Much as a character in a dream cannot comprehend that all other dream characters are simply manifestations of the same dreamer. Yet when the dreamer awakens, he instantly comprehends that the entire dream, and all the characters in it, were none other than projections of his own self. In the dream there is the appearance of separate, personal entities in relationship, but upon awakening one comprehends the impersonal (Adyashanti, non-separate) Self that is the source of all appearances.

To deeply inquire into the question "Who is another?" can lead to the direct experience that the other is one's own Self - that in fact there is no other. However, I have seen that for most seekers, even this direct experiential revelation is not enough to transform the painfully personal ways they relate. To come to this profound transformation requires a very deep investigation into the implications inherent within the experiential revelation that there is no other. It is in the daily living of these implications that most seekers fail. Why? Because, fundamentally, most people want to remain separate and in control. Simply put, most people want to keep dreaming that they are special, unique, and separate, more than they want to wake up to the perfect unity of an Unknown which leaves no room from any separation from the whole.

There is a powerful tendency in most spiritual seekers to avoid probing deeply into the implications inherent within profound spiritual experience and revelation, because these implications are always threatening to the sense of a separate self, or ego. It is the implications inherent within profound spiritual revelation that demand the transformation of the apparent individual.

Inherent within the revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no other. The implications of this realization reveal that in order to manifest that unity in the relative world, one must renounce the dream of being a separate self seeking to obtain anything through relationship with another. Indeed, personal relationship appears to happen in the relative world, but in reality, all appearances simply arise as temporary manifestations of a unified whole. In the relative world these appearances are in relationship, but not as separate entities. Rather, they are the play of the one Self projecting itself as apparent entities in relationship to one another.

As long as you identify yourself with the projection of separateness, you will continue to deny that you are the Source of all projections. When you truly and absolutely awaken to this fact, and comprehend the overwhelming implications inherent within this awakening, you will continually experience that all apparently personal relationships are in truth nothing other than the play of your Self. To realize that the personal me is an illusion born of false identification with the body, thoughts, and emotions, brings a profound sense of freedom. This is fundamentally the realization of emptiness, of what you are not. But contained within the realization of emptiness (Adyashanti: formlessness) is also the realization of what you ARE. In the most absolute sense you ARE this conscious emptiness which is the source of all appearances (Adyashanti: existence). But you are the appearance as well. Not just one part of the appearance called "me", but all of it, the entire whole. This is the challenge, to let your view get this vast. To let your view get so vast that your identity disappears. Then you realize that there is no other, and there is nothing personal going on.

Contrary to the way the ego will view such a realization, it is in reality the birth of true love. A love which is free of all boundaries and fear. To the ego such uncontaminated love is unbearable in its intimacy. When there is no clear separating boundaries and nothing to gain the ego becomes disinterested, angry, or frightened. In a love where there is no other there is nowhere to hide, no one to control, and nothing to gain. It is the coming together of appearances in the beautiful dance of the SELF called Love.

To the seeker who is sincere, an experiential glimpse of this possibility is not enough. If you are sincere you will find it within yourself to go far beyond any glimpse. You will find within your Self the courage to let go of the known and dive deeply into the Unknown heart of a mystery that calls you only to itself. (Adyashanti, "The Heart of Relationship," 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Non-Duality - When we attain detachment and equal-mindedness, duality is transcended and enlightenment comes

You must be free from the pairs of opposites. (Sri Krishna in BG, 40.)

You are one and the same. You cannot change or die. (Ashtavakra, HA, 39.)

When your mind is detached, simple, quiet, then all things can exist in harmony, and you can begin to perceive the subtle truth. (Lao-Tzu in HHC, 14.)

Once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty, and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 22.)

Samadhi is the state in which the Divine and the human become one; it means "the attaining of sameness." (Vivekananda in VIV, 528.)

Those who have attained sameness are said to be living in God. (Vivekananda in VIV, 528.)

Non-Duality - When we transcend all opposites, duality ceases and enlightenment comes

To transcend motion and stillness is the highest meditation. Mortals keep moving, while arhats [the Liberated] stay still. But the highest meditation surpasses that of both mortals and arhats. People who reach such understanding free themselves from all appearances without effort and cure all illnesses without treatment. Such is the power of great zen. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 24.)

To see nothing is to find the Way. To understand nothing is to know the Dharma. Because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing. And because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding. Seeing without seeing is true vision. Understanding without understanding is true understanding. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 27.)

It would be a better world if each one of us were aware of true inaction, (1) which is not the opposite of action. But that is another matter. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 99.)

(1) Not imply a cessation of physical, but also a cessation of mental, movement.

What I call a "silent mind," therefore, is a purely relative experience belonging to a self-conscious state wherein silence is relative to its absence, its opposite, or to some degree of mental quietude. But in a fully established non-relative state -- which is non-experiential by ordinary standards -- there are no longer the variations, degrees, or fluctuations that could be known as a silent mind. This does not mean we cannot pass beyond the mind to "that" which remains when self-consciousness falls away, but it does mean that whatever lies beyond the mind has no such tool for its description. (Bernadette Roberts, ENS, 87.)

Non-Duality - When there is no consciousness of the body or "I," then duality ceases and enlightenment comes

[Modification of the mind depends] on the awareness of 'I,' 'I'. If the consciousness of 'I' vanishes or is stopped altogether for some time, there can be no modification in the mind. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Saradananda, SRGM, 439.)

If there is not evaluation, no screen, between the observer and the observed, is there then a separation, a division between them? Is not the observer the observed? (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 232.)

Non-Duality - Use dualistic knowledge to transcend duality, and then discard it

Know you are one, Pure awareness. With the fire of this conviction, Burn down the forest of ignorance. (Ashtavakra, HA, 2-3.)

Erroneous views keep us indefilement While right views remove us from it, But when we are in a position to discard both of them We are absolutely pure. (Hui-Neng, SHN 33.)

If a thorn gets into your foot, a second thorn is needed to take it out. You have to procure the thorn of knowledge to remove the thorn of ignorance; then you must set aside both knowledge and ignorance. God is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 899.)

Non-Duality - Then the knower and the known are seen to be one

See Enlightenment - (3) God-Realization - Knower, knowing, and known become one

Non-Duality - When enlightenment comes, dualism ends See also Awareness - God-Realization or unified awareness will swallow up everyday awareness and The Worldly - Any worldliness prevents Self-Knowledge

When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. (St. Paul in I Corinthians 13:10.)

The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water, And all the moons in the water are embraced within the one Moon. (Yung-chia Ta-shih in Huxley, Perennial Philosophy, 8.)

When there is awareness of the world there is no awareness of the Self. When there is awareness of the Self, awareness of the world is not there either. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, I, 39.)

Non-Duality - Ultimately, God could be said to be non-dual

Brahman alone is -- nothing else is. (UPAN, 21.)

The world consists of the illusory duality or knowledge and ignorance. ... But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness, but Brahman is not at all affected by them. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 152.)

Brahman is beyond vidya and avidya, knowledge and ignorance. It is beyond maya, the illusion of duality. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSRA, 151.)

Abide as That which does not, when scrutinized, show any duality..., That in which, when the mind is absorbed in It, there is no fear of duality at all. (HRG, 20.)

Non-Duality - But the formless God becomes form or dual

Once, while I was meditating in the temple, screen after screen of Maya (1) was removed from my consciousness. Mother showed me a Light more brilliant than a million suns. From that Light came forth a spiritual Form. Then this Form melted away into the Light itself. The Formless had taken Form and then melted again into the Formless. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in VSR, 86.)

(1) The Mother's illusory power.

I saw everything passing from form to formlessness. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 933.)

The vision of the Brahmayoni, the womb of Brahman, came to the Master when he was engaged in sadhana under the vilva-tree of the temple garden. What he saw was a large shining triangle of living light. This was also seen by Swami Vivekananda, much later, who reported it to his guru. "Very good," said the latter, you have seen the Brahmayoni; I also saw it, but further, I observed its giving birth to innumerable worlds every moment." (Yohesananada, VSR, 41.)

Non-duality - The Father cannot be made an object of attention

To be known, a thing must be made an object. Brahman, as pure consciousness, cannot be made an object of knowledge. 'You cannot see that which is the seer or seeing; you cannot hear that which is the hearer of hearing; you cannot think of that which is the thinker of thought; you cannot know that which is the knower of knowing. ' (Nikhilananda, HIN, 32.)

"It" ... so surrounded me I could hardly divert my eyes from it. This went on for several days until I knew the greater my attempts to ignore it, the greater it increased the pressure to "Look!" So eventually I did look, and the moment I did so, it vanished and was gone, but in the same instant I knew why.

You cannot look at what Is, for it cannot become an object to the mind, nor for that matter, can it be a subject. What Is is "that" which can never be a subject or an object. Thus, the moment you look with your relative (subject-object-oriented) mind, what Is is gone because you have tried to make it an object, and it won't work. The relative mind cannot apprehend this reality; only a non-relative mind sees because what Is is equally non-reflective or non-self-conscious. Since what Is is all that Is, it has nothing to see outside itself nor within itself and thus, has no such thing as a relative, reflective, self-conscious mind. Nor is it a mind at all, nor consciousness, for no man knows what it is, only that it is. (Bernadette Roberts, ENS, 67.)

A knower of Brahman destroys the idea of duality, which originates from ignorance. At that time, who will see whom? Who will know whom? (Swami Chetanananda in Dattatreya, AG, 15.)

Nothing - Total negation is positive

Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all those things that thought has brought about psychologically, only then is there love, which is compassion and intelligence. (Krishnamurti, CHT.)

Nothing - The enlightened mind is empty

Once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty, and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 22.)

To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha. The buddhas of the ten directions have no mind. To see no mind is to see the buddha. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 24.)

The essence of [the mind's] function is emptiness. And emptiness is essentially motionless. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 22.)

Nothing - This emptiness is fulness

This Emptiness is Absolute Fullness but, as such, never can be comprehended from the perspective of egoistic consciousness. (Franklin Merrell-Wolff in PTS, 12.)

I saw that genuine Recognition is simply a realization of Nothing, but a Nothing that is absolutely substantial and identical with the SELF. This was the final turn of the Key that opened the Door. I found myself at once identical with the Voidness, Darkness, and Silence, but realized them as utter, though ineffable, Fullness, in the sense of Substantiality, Light, in the sense of Illumination, and Sound, in the sense of pure Meaning and Value. The deepening of consciousness that followed at once is simply inconceivable and quite beyond the possibility of adequate representation. (Franklin Merrell-Wolff, PCWO, 36-7.)

The critical stage in the transformation is the realization of the "I" as zero. But, at once, that 'I' spreads out into an unlimited thickness. It is as if the 'I' became the whole of space. The Self is no longer a pole or focal point, but it sweeps outward, everywhere, in a sort of unpolarized consciousness, which is at once self-identity and the objective content of consciousness. It is an unequivocal transcendence of the subject-object relationship. (Franklin Merrell-Wolff, PCWO, 38-9.)

In your humanity, there's the natural expression of joy and love and compassion and caring and total unattachment. Those qualities instantly transmute into humanness when you touch into emptiness. Emptiness becomes love. That's the human experience of emptiness, that source, that ever-present awakeness. (Adyashanti, "The Only Price," 2004, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Nothing - The emptiness teaching is itself an intermediate teaching

The buddhas and bodhisattvas realize that for living beings emptiness exists because they are deluded about emptiness, and that the sense objects before them exist because they are deluded about body and mind. Sense objects are the things of the world; body and mind are what belong to sentient beings. Nevertheless, apart from emptiness, the world and sentient beings have no basis. Apart from the Mind of enlightenment, emptiness has no basis. Therefore the buddhas and bodhisattvas teach living beings to begin by understanding emptiness and end by awakening to Mind. When they awaken to Mind, emptiness, the world, and living beings are all unattainable. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 68.)

What is called the mind of great enlightenment is like this: when the floating clouds have completely dispersed, before you raise your eyes the bright moon is already in front of you. The 'floating clouds' represent emptiness and existence; the 'bright moon' represents the eternal light you inherently possess. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 68.)

Not only are living beings, lands, and emptiness all in your mind, but even the mind of great enlightenment is unattainable apart from your mind. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 69.)

Nothing - Do nothing: Still the mind

To see nothing is to find the Way. To understand nothing is to know the Dharma. Because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing. And because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding. Seeing without seeing is true vision. Understanding without understanding is true understanding. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 27.)

Followers of the Way, even if you can understand a hundred sutras and treatises, you're not as good as one plain monk who does nothing. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 76.)

The way I see it, there's no call for anything special. Just act ordinary, put on your clothes, eat your rice, pass the time doing nothing. You who come from here and there, you all have a mind to do something. You search for Buddha, search for the Dharma, search for emancipation, search for a way to get out of the threefold world. Idiots, trying to get out of the threefold world! Where will you go? (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 53-4.)

When you get hungry, eat your rice; When you get sleepy, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, But wise men will know what I mean. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 77.)

You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless. Undo the mind, slough off spirit, be blank and soulless, and the ten thousands things one by one will return to the root -- return to the root and not know why. Dark and undifferentiated chaos -- to the end of life none will depart from it. But if you try to know it, you have already departed from it. Do not ask what its name is, do not try to observe its form. Things will live naturally and of themselves. (Chuang Tzu in CWCT, 122.)

It would be a better world if each one of us were aware of true inaction, (1) which is not the opposite of action. But that is another matter. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 99.)

(1) The absence of mental motion.

Being as nothing is not negation. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 67.)

Without self-knowledge, action has very little significance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 24.)

The truth frees.... The highest state of inaction is the action of truth. (Krishanmurti, COL, 2, 37.)

You cannot deliberately progress towards an open state. You can only see clearly that you are in a blocked state. So, you let your body-mind slowly become more open to your conviction that you can attain nothing. That you are going to die in total stupidity. You may die in the very next moment, so there is no time to reach anything, to achieve anything. In sadhana you live with the feeling that you are going to die the very next minute; thus, you no longer make strategies and you just do things for the sake of doing them. If you think that you will die within two minutes, what do you do? Nothing. You don't call anybody, you don't think of anything, you just totally enjoy seeing, feeling, smelling, listening to the last seconds of your life, the beauty of life. (Excerpt from an interview between Adyashanti and Éric Baret, Montreal, September 20, 1999 downloaded from Nonduality Salon Highlights, http://nonduality.com/hl1854.htm, 11 March 2006.)

Nothing - Have no differentiating thought or knowledge

There are ways but the Way is uncharted. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 53.)

The darkness of unknowing [is] a darkness which is indeed hidden, one in which [the seeker] forgoes all knowledge capable of being known. Always he is made to feel and experience, in a way that is invisible and intangible, the presence of him who is above all things. He has no feeling or thought of anything else at all, not even of himself. But it is as he gets away from the knowing that is always unknown that he is united to him in the best way possible, and because he knows nothing he is made to know what is beyond thought. (Pseudo-Dionysius in MT, 212.)

To see nothing is to find the Way. To understand nothing is to know the Dharma. Because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing. And because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding. Seeing without seeing is true vision. Understanding without understanding is true understanding. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 27.)

While your mind moment by moment never differentiates, it may be called the living patriarch. If the mind differentiates, its nature and manifestations become separated from one another. As long as it does not differentiate, its nature and manifestations do not become separated. (Lin-Chi, ZTML, 45.)

The threefold world does not announce, 'I am the threefold world.' Rather it's you, followers of the Way, who do so, this person here in front of my eyes who in marvellous fashion shines his torch on the ten thousand things and sizes up the world - it's he who assigns names to the threefold world. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 54.)

While your mind moment by moment never differentiates, it may be called the living patriarch. If the mind differentiates, its nature and manifestations become separated from one another. As long as it does not differentiate, its nature and manifestations do not become separated. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 45.)

Whether you're facing inward or facing outward, whatever you meet up with, just kill it. If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha. If you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch. ... Then for the first time you will gain emancipation, will not be entangled with things, will pass freely anywhere you wish to go. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 52.)

Do not think that because I call it a 'darkness' or a 'cloud' it is the sort of cloud you see in the sky, or the kind of darkness you know at home when the light is out. That kind of darkness you can picture in your mind's eye.... I do not mean this at all. By 'darkness' I mean 'a lack of knowing' -- just as anything that you do not know or may have forgotten may be said to be 'dark' to you, for you cannot see it with your inward eye. For this reason it is called 'a cloud', not of the sky, of course, but 'of unknowing', a cloud of unknowing between you and your God. (Anon., CU, 58.)

The mind moves from the known to the known, and it cannot reach into the unknown. You cannot think of something you do not know; it is impossible. What you think about comes out of the known, the past, whether the past be remote, or the second that has just gone by. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 43.)

The state of unknowing is permanent; since the mind can hold on to no content, there is nothing more that can be learned. There will be no more journeys; this is the last, the end -- an end which is absolute nothingness. (Bernadette Roberts, ENS, 81.)

I saw that all kinds of seeking were founded in identification with a certain level of life, experience or motivation. The dilemma that was always involved was founded in a present act of differentiation, whereby what was constantly being realized was separated and threatened consciousness. Thus, I was not moved to pursue any goals, experiences or forms. All such things were merely matters of seeking. I did not even pursue my identity with Siva, Self or pure Consciousness. Such was also a form of seeking. I simply and radically founded myself in understanding, the enquiry of experience, the perception of truth and reality that had been communicated through all my experience. ... I had come to understand life as a proposition of radical consciousness. I saw that every deliberate path was a form of seeking that involved the moment to moment avoidance of relationship as primary activity in consciousness and in life. (Da Free John, KOL, 120-1.)

Our idea of how it is is the only barrier between us and how it is. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.thedailyinspiration.com/cgi/daily.php?id=565, 12 March 2006.)

Is it possible to cease functioning from the known? If one cannot cast off the known completely, then one's life will simply be a manifestation of what the mind thinks it knows. True freedom comes when every speck of the known collapses into the unknown, not just for a moment, but continually. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.members.shaw.ca/adyashanti/, 16 May 2004.)

The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.livereal.com/spiritual_arena/spiritual_giants_expanded_version.htm, 16 May 2004.)

[Not knowing who you are after liberation is] not the same not knowing of ignorance. It's the not knowing that comes from recognizing that the whole issue of a self, personal or absolute, is fantasy. Both the self and the Self are interpretations upon perception, and nothing more. And when the interpretation ends, thought ends. When all identity collapses, you abide in the unknown. There is no tendency left to fixate identity anywhere - even in a universal somewhere. So, you are left resting in the mystery as the mystery. It is only then that you can be truly and absolutely free of all concerns. There is nothing to say. What can you say? There is nothing to say. (Adyashanti, From Interview between Adyashanti, Robert O'Hearn and Mazie Lane. http://www.nonduality.com/hl1171.h tm, downloaded 10 March 2006.)

Nothing - Make no conditions, qualifications, or compromises

The power of reality, of unqualified relationship, non-separation, no suffering, and no-seeking in the heart ... is in fact the primary experience and knowledge that obviates all particular experiences and motivations. (Da Free John, KOL, 114.)

Nothing - Have no awareness of the world

There is a continuous consciousness of the unity of Atman and Brahman. There is no longer any identification of the Atman with its coverings. All sense of duality is obliterated. There is pure, unified consciousness. The man who is well established in this consciousness is said to be illumined. For him, the sorrows of this world are over. Though he possesses a finite body, he remains united with the Infinite. His heart knows no anxiety. (Shankara cited in HTKG, 64.)

"Nirvikalpa Samadhi" properly means a complete trance in which there is no thought or movement of consciousness or awareness of either inward or outward things -- all is drawn into a supracosmic Beyond. (Sri Aurobindo, LOY, 2, 741.)

It [is] an ineffable "That" of which nothing can be said; for the universe and all that is does not exist in That. (Sri Aurobindo, SOY, 350.)

Nothing - Use no words or labels

The Way eternal has no name. A block of wood untooled, though small, May still excel the world. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 85.)

At music and viands The wayfarer stops. But the Way, when declared, Seems thin and so flavorless!

It is nothing to look at And nothing to hear; But used it will prove Inexhaustible. (Lao Tzu, WOL, 88.)

The ultimate principles that make up the Way are not something to be thrashed out in contentious debate, clanging and banging to beat down the unbelievers. This thing handed down by the buddhas and the patriarchs has no special meaning. If it were put in the form of verbal teachings, it would sink to the level of the teaching categories.... But the teaching of the sudden and immediate enlightenment is not like that. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 78.)

Get a hold of this thing (1) and use it, but don't fix a label to it. This I call the Dark Meaning. When you can see it like this, you won't be averse to anything. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 55.)

(1) The Self.

Look at it and it has no flesh. Eat it and it has no flavor. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 7.)

Nothing - Do not seek

The fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage. ... They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha images, light, incense and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 37.)

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. That is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist is called the Middle Way. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 26.)

Seek the Buddha and you'll lose the Buddha. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 76.)

Right now, all this dashing and searching you're doing -- do you know what it is you're looking for? It is vibrantly alive, yet has no root or stem. You can't gather it up, you can't scatter it to the winds. The more you search for it the farther away it gets. But don't search for it and it's right before your eyes, its miraculous sound always in your ears. But if you don't have faith, you'll spend your hundred years in wasted labor. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 58.)

You can't seem to stop your mind from racing around everywhere seeking something. That's why the patriarch said, 'Hopeless fellows -- using their heads to look for their heads!' You must right now turn your light around and shine it on yourselves, not go seeking somewhere else. Then you will understand that in body and mind you are no different from the patriarchs and buddhas, and that there is nothing to do. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 68.)

When your mind has learned to cease its momentary seeking, this is dubbed the state of the bodhi tree. But while your mind is incapable of ceasing, this is dubbed the tree of ignorance. Ignorance has no fixed abode, ignorance has no beginning or end. As long as your mind is unable to cease its moment-by-moment activity, then you are up in the tree of ignorance. ... But if you can learn to cease, then you'll be in the world of the clean pure body. If not one thought arises, you'll be up in the bodhi tree, through your transcendental powers taking different forms in the threefold world, assuming any bodily shape you please, feasting on Dharma joy and meditation delight, illuminating things for yourself with the light of your own body. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 54-5.)

The more you search the farther away you get, the harder you hunt the wider astray you go. This is what I call the secret of the matter. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 36.)

Outside the mind there is no Dharma, and even inside the mind it can't be grasped. So what is there to seek for? (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 43.)

Followers of the Way, don't search for anything in written words. ... Better to realize that at every moment all is conditioned and without true birth. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 77.)

Seeking outside for some Buddha possessing form -- This hardly becomes you! If you wish to know your original mind, Don't try to join with it, don't try to depart from it. (Master Lin-Chi, ZTML, 62.)

Whereas before I pursued experience itself, and a certain objective truth, internal or external, now (1)... I sought the removal of internal contradictions or the mutual alternatives that enforce kinds of experience, the patterns of seeking and conflict. (Da Free John, KOL, 17.)

(1) After a clarifying spiritual experience.

I saw that all kinds of seeking were founded in identification with a certain level of life, experience or motivation. The dilemma that was always involved was founded in a present act of differentiation, whereby what was constantly being realized was separated and threatened consciousness. Thus, I was not moved to pursue any goals, experiences or forms. All such things were merely matters of seeking. I did not even pursue my identity with Siva, Self or pure Consciousness. Such was also a form of seeking. I simply and radically founded myself in understanding, the enquiry of experience, the perception of truth and reality that had been communicated through all my experience. ... I had come to understand life as a proposition of radical consciousness. I saw that every deliberate path was a form of seeking that involved the moment to moment avoidance of relationship as primary activity in consciousness and in life. (Da Free John, KOL, 120-1.)

Most people are in a constant state of struggle with themselves. Tremendously burdened by the past and in constant anticipation of the future, most human beings are rarely able to be fully present for more than very brief moments. The tremendous openness and intimacy that is required to be fully present is beyond most people's ability to sustain for more than a few moments before they habitually contract back into the familiar condition of separateness and struggle that so characterizes the human condition.

This constant state of struggle manifests as a compulsive and addictive relationship to the movement of thought, emotion, and time. There is great reluctance to stop struggling because in the absence of struggle you suddenly begin to lose your boundaries and definitions of who you are. For many people this causes fear to arise as they experience the loss of their familiar sense of self. Struggling is how the ego-personality maintains its existence. When you cease to struggle, identification with the personality begins to break down and you become aware of your emptiness and lack of boundaries.

The most difficult thing for spiritual seekers to do is to stop struggling, striving, seeking and searching. Why? Because in the absence of struggle you don't know who you are: you lose your boundaries; you lose your separateness; you lose your specialness; you lose the dream you have lived all your life.

Eventually you lose everything that your mind has created and awaken to who you truly are: the fullness of freedom, unbound by any identifications, identities, or boundaries. It is this locationless freedom of being that spiritual people are seeking, and at the same time are running away from because its faceless nature gives no fixed reference point for the personality to hold onto or to seek security in.

As long as you remain identified with the personality, you will always be seeking security to the exclusion of the Truth, and will remain in a constant state of struggle. It is only when your love and desire for Truth outweighs the personality's compulsive need for security, that you can begin to stop struggling and be swept up into the arms of an ever unfolding revelation of the Truth and Freedom of Being. (Adyashanti, "Call Off the Struggle," 1998, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

You cannot deliberately progress towards an open state. You can only see clearly that you are in a blocked state. So, you let your body-mind slowly become more open to your conviction that you can attain nothing. That you are going to die in total stupidity. You may die in the very next moment, so there is no time to reach anything, to achieve anything. In sadhana you live with the feeling that you are going to die the very next minute; thus, you no longer make strategies and you just do things for the sake of doing them. If you think that you will die within two minutes, what do you do? Nothing. You don't call anybody, you don't think of anything, you just totally enjoy seeing, feeling, smelling, listening to the last seconds of your life, the beauty of life. (Adyashanti in an interview with Éric Baret, Montreal, September 20, 1999 downloaded from Nonduality Salon Highlights, http://nonduality.com/hl1854.htm, 11 March 2006.)

Nothing - Have no ambition

The buddha is the person who's free, free of plans, free of cares. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 6-7.)

Things already underway, don't go with them. Things not yet under way, don't let them get under way. That's better for you than ten years traveling around on pilgrimages. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 53.)

To attain Buddhahood ... we must scatter this life's aims and objects to the wind. (Milarepa in ZTG, 98.)

How strong is our will to succeed, to become. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 20.)

The future is always more alluring than the present. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 85-6.)

The mind is not quiet when it is acquiring or becoming. All acquisition is conflict; all becoming is a process of isolation. ... Such a mind is a dead mind, it is isolating itself through various forms of resistance, and so it inevitably creates misery for itself and for others. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 32.)

Ambition in any form -- for the group, for individual salvation, or for spiritual achievement is action postponed. Desire is ever of the future; the desire to become is inaction in the present. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 11.)

Self-expansion in any form, whether through wealth or through virtue, is a process of conflict, causing antagonism and confusion. A mind burdened with becoming can never be tranquil, for tranquillity is not a result either of practice or of time. Tranquillity is a state of understanding, and becoming denies this understanding. Becoming creates the sense of time, which is really the postponement of understanding. The "I shall be" is an illusion born of self-importance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 22.)

The sacrificing of the present to the future is the insanity of those who are power-mad; and power is evil. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 75.)

The cause of ... inward emptiness is the desire to become; and, do what you will, this emptiness can never be filled. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 54.)

As long as you want to become something, at whatever level, there is bound to be misery and confusion. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 67.)

You must be completely denuded, without the weight of the past or the enticement of a hopeful future -- which does not mean despair. If you are in despair, there is no emptiness, no nakedness. You cannot 'do' anything. You can and must be still, without any hope, longing, or desire; but you cannot determine to be still, suppressing all noise, for in that very effort there is noise. Silence is not the opposite of noise. (Krishnamurti in COL, 2, 115.)

Virtue is the tranquillity of freedom from the craving to be. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1. 34.)

What is can be understood only with the fading of tomorrow. The understanding of what is brings about transformation in the immediate present. It is this transformation that is of supreme importance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 52.)

Nothing - Make no attempts to control

Spiritual people can be some of the most violent people you will ever meet. Mostly, they are violent to themselves. They violently try to control their minds, their emotions, and their bodies. They become upset with themselves and beat themselves up for not rising up to the conditioned mind's idea of what it believes enlightenment to be. No one ever became free through such violence. Why is it that so few people are truly free? Because they try to conform to ideas, concepts, and beliefs in their heads. They try to concentrate their way to heaven. But Freedom is about the natural state, the spontaneous and un-self-conscious expression of beingness. If you want to find it, see that the very idea of "a someone who is in control" is a concept created by the mind. Take one step backward into the unknown. (Adyashanti, "Selling Water by the River," Inner Directions Journal, Fall/Winter, 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Nothing - Let everything end

There is a great momentum of suffering and confusion that every spiritual seeker encounters. It is the momentum of ignorance which manifests as the experience of conflict and confusion and which causes suffering. In order to discover the perspective of Liberation, which alone transcends this entire movement of ignorance and suffering, one needs to let everything end.

"Letting everything end" means to stand in the moment completely naked of attachment to any and all ideas, concepts, hopes, preferences, and experiences. Simply put, it means to stop strategizing, controlling, manipulating, and running away from yourself -- and to simply be. Finally you must let everything end and be still. In letting everything end, all seeking and striving stops. All effort to be someone or to find some extraordinary state of being ceases. This ceasing is essential. It is true spiritual maturity. (Adyashanti, "Let Everything End," 1997, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

This is an invitation to let all seeking end, all striving end, all efforting end, all past identity end, all hopes end, and to discover That which has no beginning or end. This is an invitation to discover eternal, unborn, undying Truth of Being. The Truth of your Being, your own Self. Let the entire movement of becoming end, and discover That which has always been present at the core of your Being. (Adyashanti, "Let Everything End," 1997, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Nothing - Nothing can be said about it

They call it elusive, and say That one looks But it never appears. They say that indeed it is rare, Since one listens, But never a sound. Subtle, they call it, and say That one grasps it But never gets hold....

At rising, it does not illumine; At setting, no darkness ensues; It stretches far back To that nameless estate Which existed before creation. (Lao Tzu, WOL, 66.)

Always when the ascent is complete there will be nothing one can say of it, for it is wholly united to that which is beyond all speech. (Pseudo-Dionysius in MT, 215.)

The fact is that the more we take flight upward, the more our words are confined to the ideas we are capable of forming; so that now as we plunge into that darkness which is beyond intellect, we shall find ourselves not simply running short of words but actually speechless and unknowing. ... The more [the mind] climbs, the more language falters, and when it has passed up and beyond the ascent, it will turn silent completely, since it will finally be at one with him who is indescribable. (Pseudo-Dionysius, CWPD, 139.)

Look at it and it has no flesh. Eat it and it has no flavor. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 7.)

Nothing - Depend on it

Your real body has no sensation, no hunger or thirst, no love or attachment, no pleasure or pain, no good or bad, no shortness or length, no weakness or strength. Actually, there's nothing here. It's only because you cling to this material body that things like hunger and thirst, warmth and cold and sickness appear. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 19-20.)

You followers of the Way from here and there, try coming to me without depending on anything. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 53.)

The buddhas are born from the realm that leans on nothing. (1) If you can waken to this leaning on nothing, then there will be no Buddha to get hold of. (Master Lin-Chi , ZTML, 36.)

(1) Besides the obvious meaning of "independent," "leaning on nothing" also signifies leaning on God, Who is nothing, no-thing, the Void, emptiness.

The Now - Only the present exists - See also Awareness

There is no past and no future, because the past and the future become relevant only when something changes. When something is, then there is no past and future, but only the present. Of course, the meaning of "present" will be different, quite different.

For us, "present" means something that exists between the future. But if there is no past and no future, then the present will be something quite different. It is not something between the past and the future. The present is just a moment, a moment between two nonexistentials: the past that has gone and is no more, and the future that has not yet come. Between these two nonexistentials, one present moment exists. But that is impossible. Between two nonexistentials there can be no existence. It only appears to be so.

When I say consciousness exists, I do not mean something concerned with the past and future, but something eternal. Not everlasting, because this word "everlasting" carries a sense of time. When I say that consciousness always exists in the present, I mean it is nontemporal. It is beyond time and, simultaneously, beyond space, because all that is in space will become nonexistential and, similarly, all that is in time will become nonexistential. Time and space are not two things; that is why I relate them. They are one. Time is only a dimension of space. The "movement in space" is time and "nonmoving time" is space. Existence is nontemporal, nonspatial. (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, IATG, 4.)

Give yourself completely to the task of the present moment, which is to die now to the now for living is dying. Without death life cannot be. (Nisargadatta Maharaj, AE, n.p.)

The Now - Reality only exists in the present

The innermost, the ultimate core, ... is, and it is always, in the present. You can never say it was, you can never say it will be. Whenever it is, it is. Only the present is applicable to it. (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, IATG, 3.)

The ultimate state is ever present and always now. The only thing that makes it difficult to find that state and remain in that state is people wanting to retain their position in space and time. "I want to know where I'm going. I want to know if I've arrived. I want to know who to love and hate. I want to know. I don't really want to be; I want to know. Isn't enlightenment the ultimate state of knowing?" No. It's the ultimate state of being. The price is knowing. This is the beautiful thing about the truth, ever-present, always here, totally free, given freely: It's already there. That which is ever presently awake is free, free for the "being." (Adyashanti, "The Only Price," 2004, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

The Now - Don't wait; start now

How shall the wise man, who desires tranquillity, wait for old age, when he knows not when the time of death will be?

When death stands ready like a hunter, with old age as his weapon, and diseases scattered about as his arrows, smiting down living creatures who fly like deer to the forest of destiny, what desire can there be in any one for length of life?

It well befits the youthful son or the old man or the child so to act with all promptitude that they may choose the action of the religious man whose soul is all mercy -- nay, better still, his inactivity. (Buddha in BMT, 120.)

The Now - Live in the eternal present, the moment

Cut off the Past, and shut out the Future, and you lose the Life of the World of Men; yet when the Life of the World fades away, the Light of Eternity will dawn upon your eyes. Now is the Eternal, O my son! Fear and Suffering have no place there. (Anon., SAO, 34.)

Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the Eternal. This giant weed (1) cannot flower there; this blot upon existence is wiped out by the very atmosphere of eternal thought. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 8.)

(1) The mind or ego.

The now has greater significance than the tomorrow. In the now is all time, and to understand the now is to be free of time. Becoming is the continuance of time, or sorrow. Becoming does not contain being. Being is always in the present, and being is the highest form of transformation. Becoming is merely modified continuity, and there is radical transformation only in the present, in being. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 11.)

The mind moves from the known to the known, and it cannot reach into the unknown. You cannot think of something you do not know; it is impossible. What you think about comes out of the known, the past, whether the past be remote, or the second that has just gone by. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 43.)

The Now - Experience, rather than pursue sensation

The new comes into being only when there is experiencing; and experiencing is possible only when the urge and pursuit of sensation have ceased. (Krishnamurti, COL, I, 62.)

What is essential is experiencing, which is denied in the pursuit of sensation. ... Experiencing, which is wholly different from the repetition of an experience, is without continuity. Only in experiencing is there renewal, transformation. (Krishnamurti, COL, I, 65.)

The moment of experiencing is totally different from the pursuit of sensation. In experiencing there is no awareness of the experiencer and his sensations. When experiencing comes to an end, then begin the sensations of the experiencer; and it is these sensations that the experiencer demands and pursues. ... Sensations become all-dominant, and not experiencing. The longing to repeat an experience is the demand for sensation; and while sensations can be repeated, experiencing cannot. (Krishnamurti, COL, I, 64.)

Experiencing can only come with the absence of the desire for sensation. (Krishnamurti, COL, I, 63.)

The Now - Seek God and live without fear of the future

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ...

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Jesus in Matthew 6:26+31-3.)

First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of divine love and then set your hands to the duties of the world. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 128.)

First realize God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power, then you can do good to others; otherwise not. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 142.)