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Male/Female Principle

Be aware of your masculine nature; (1) But by keeping the feminine way, (2) You shall be to the world like a canyon, (3) Where the Virtue eternal abides, And go back to become a child. (4) (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 80.)

(1) Emptiness, inactivity.

(2) Perhaps interimly by yielding or remaining openly; perhaps ultimately, by keeping the natural law, which lies with the Mother.

(3) Empty and tranquil.

(4) You will recover your natural innocence and purity and attain God-Realization

On the day when you were one, You became two. (Jesus in STJ, 21.)

Brahman ... first manifested as a twin principle -- half man and half woman -- just to show that It was both Purusha (1) and Prakriti (2). Descending a step lower, It separated into Purusha and Prakriti as distinct entities. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in LSR, 382.)

(1) Here, the Cosmic Male.

(2) Here, the Cosmic Female.

That which is Syama (1) is also Brahman. That which has form, again, is without form. That which has attributes, again, has no attributes. Brahman is Sakti; (2) Sakti is Brahman. They are not two. These are only two aspects, male and female, of the same Reality, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute. Kali (3) stands on the bosom of Siva; (4) Siva lies under Her feet like a corpse; Kali looks at Siva. All this denotes the union of Purusha (5) and Prakriti. (6) Purusha is inactive; therefore Siva lies on the ground like a corpse. Prakriti performs all Her activities in conjunction with Purusha. Thus She creates, preserves, and destroys. That is also the meaning of the conjoined images of Radha (7) and Krishna. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 271.)

(1) The Divine Mother or Holy Spirit; the Cosmic Female.

(2) The same.

(3) The same.

(4) God the Father, Brahman, here portrayed as the Cosmic Male.

(5) The Supreme Person: Brahman.

(6) Prakriti = Procreatrix = the Mother.

(7) A gopi and paramour of Krishna.

In the universe, there exist two essential principles which are reflected in every manifestation of life and Nature. All creation is the result of these two principles which are called, for the sake of convenience, the masculine and feminine principles. These are reflections, repetitions of the two great divine principles which created everything, the Heavenly Father and the Divine Mother, who are the polarization of the unique principle, the Absolute, the Non-Manifest.... It is said that man was created in the image of God, that is, in the image of these two principles, the masculine and the feminine, one that is visible, and the other other that is hidden, it is there, but it cannot be seen. Each woman is feminine on the outside and has within her the masculine principle and each man is masculine on the outside and has the feminine principle within. If you know this law of polarity and how to use the two principles, masculine and feminine, emissive and receptive, positive and negative, how many of your problems will then be resolved! The two principles are in each one of us and can be seen everywhere, on the face, the body, the hands, in Nature, on flowers and fruit, mountains and rivers, in caves and among the stars. Wherever you look, on the earth, under or above it, from the bottom of the ocean to the highest sky, you will find one or the other principle, in one form or another. ... There is nothing higher than this principle. ... In the heart of each creature it is written that the first principle should seek the second, and the second should seek the first. Humans are not always conscious of this because the search takes different forms depending upon whether the field is science, philosophy, art, or religion. Mystics claim that they seek God. Actually, what they think of as God is the other part of themselves, with which they seek to unite, to become complete and perfect. Until then, they know themselves to be divided, mutilated beings. All beings seek their complementary principle which is called, in the science of the Initiates, the twin-soul, there to find plenitude, peace, omniscience, all-powerfulness, and become like the Lord. Only the form varies. (Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 15-6.)

The human being, such as he is understood by the Initiates, is a complete being. The two poles, positive and negative, are the two halves of one unity which has become divided in the course of evolution. Originally, the human being was androgynous, both man and woman. When there occurred a separation of the sexes, each went its way, but each principle carries within it the imprint, the image of the other deeply engraved on his or her soul. This is why, when a man sees a face among hundreds and thousands of women, one face that reminds him of the image he carries in him, he leaps for joy and does everything possible to seek and find this woman. Unfortunately, after a while, he sees that these two images do not correspond, and he abandons that one to go looking for another, always in the hope that this time he will have found his other half, his twin-soul. It is as true for men as it is for women, there are no exceptions. But one day this meeting between the two principles will have to take place, because the love between the two principles is more powerful than anything. (Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 21.)

In the Book of Genesis it says: "And Adam knew Eve" ... "Abraham knew Sarah" ... To know was a fusion of the two principles. "Know thyself" means: find the other pole in yourself and become a divinity. If you are man, the other pole is a woman, and you will know her as a lover knows his beloved... Not in exactly the same way of course, because this fusion, this knowing takes place in the more luminous spheres of light. It is when you have penetrated into this light that you will become one with yourself. (Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 22.)

Everyone has his complementary principle within him, and can only reach God through this other principle. Woman finds God through man, because man represents the other principle, and this other principle connects her with the Heavenly Father. And man finds God the feminine principle, whether through a woman, or through Nature which is a feminine principle, or through the Divine Mother. But without the feminine principle, there can be nothing, no forward impulse, no inspiration, no work done, nothing. And without the presence of the masculine principle, the feminine principle remains unformed and shapeless, inert, sterile. (Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 22.)

This is why I say that the woman should look for the Heavenly Father in her husband, who is God's representative on earth, and the husband should see in his beloved wife the Divine Mother, whom he should love, contemplate and serve. Whereupon, all the treasures of Heaven will be available to them and they will live night and day in beauty, ecstacy and rapture. (Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 28.)

Male/Female Principle - Union of the Two

As I meditated I felt myself take on the form of Siva, the Divine Being prior to all form. I took on the infinite form of the original Deity.... I sat in this blissful state of infinite Being for some time. Then I felt the Shakti appear against my own form. She embraced me, and we grasped one another in sexual union. We clasped one another in a fire of cosmic desire, as if to give birth to the universes. Then I felt the oneness of the Divine Energy and my own Being. There was no separation at all. The one Being that was my own nature included the reality that is consciousness, and the reality that is all manifestation as a single cosmic unity and eternal union. (Da Free John, KOL, 133-4.)

Materialism - Matter is illusion

He who knows and sees [that all created things perish] is at peace though in a world of pain; this is the way of purity. (The Buddha in TCB, 66.)

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. (Jesus in Matthew 6:20.)

The attributes of matter are superimposed on Spirit, and the attributes of Spirit are superimposed on matter. Therefore when the body is ill a man says, 'I am ill.' (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 969.)

Matter is dead and unconscious, therefore God must not be sought in matter. We must seek him in consciousness, that is, inside our own self. (Ramakrishnananda, GDI, 37.)

Materialism - What is matter composed of?

I felt my soul grow mighty ... And my mental eye grew large.... .....I saw The smallest grain that dappled the dark Earth, The indistinctest atom in deep air.... (Alfred Lord Tennyson, during his enlightenment experience, in ECS, 400.)

There are two schools of thought: the Vedanta and the Purana. According to the Vedantic this world is a 'framework of illusion', that is to say, it is all illusory, like a dream. But according to the Purana, the books of devotion, God Himself has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. Worship God both within and without. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 243.)

The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this -- the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 133.)

The lifetron (like electron) [is] the finest ultimate unit of intelligence and energy. It is finer than electrons, of which all matter and consciousness are composed. Each microcosmic lifetron contains in miniature the essence of all the macrocosmic creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 89.)

The Spirit ... could not create matter as anything different from Itself, for it had only Itself as the tissue or material with which to build the cosmos. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 26.)

The Cosmos is made of the transcendental God, the Father, the consciousness beyond all Creation; and God, the Son, (the consciousness of the Father reflected in the womb of Cosmic Energy as the Only Begotten, only reflected Christ Consciousness) and the Holy Ghost, or Cosmic Vibration. This Cosmic Vibration appears as the Cosmic Sound of all lifetrons and Cosmic Energy. Microcosmically each lifetron ... 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.)

The entire structure of the body, the Buddha explained, is composed of subatomic particles -- kalapa -- consisting of the four elements and their subsidiary characteristics, joined together. (S.N. Goenka, DS, 41.)

Materialism - The desire for material objects and pleasures blinds us to life's true rewards

The Infinite is the source of joy. There is no joy in the finite. Only in the Infinite is there joy. (UPAN, 73.)

[The] limitless appetite for the material [is] a thrust originating in that chronic urge to dwell with the ephemeral, that living, mastering longing to remain with whatever is applauded by the senses. (Pseudo-Dionysius, CWPD, 151.)

Kill this deadly attachment to body, wife, children and others. (Shankara in CJD, 45.)

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 Your wealth and children are but a temptation. (Koran, 88.)

All these are but the fleeting comforts of this life. It is the life to come that Allah reserves for those who fear Him. (Koran, 147.)

The life of this world, my people, is a fleeting comfort, but the life to come is an everlasting mansion. (Koran, 161.)

God teaches [the seeker] that if the mind can be detached from the outside world, then no evil will exist for him. Matter is the cause of all misery, of all misfortune. The less we have to do with matter, the better it is for us. (Ramakrishnananda, GDI, 36.)

Maya

Maya is that which makes us regard as non-existent the Self, the Reality, which is always and everywhere present, all-pervasive and self-luminous, and as existent the individual soul (jiva), the world (jagat), and God (para) which have been conclusively proved to be non-existent at all times and places. (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 5.)

D: What is Maya? Illusion? B: Seeing ice without seeing that it is water is illusion, Maya. Therefore saying things like killing the mind or anything like that also has no meaning, for after all mind also is part and parcel of the Self. Resting in the Self or inhering in the Self is mukti, getting rid of Maya. Maya is not a separate entity. Absence of light is called darkness, so also absence of Knowledge, Illumination etc., is called ignorance, illusion or Maya. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, CFHT, n.p.)

Maya ... actually means "that which is not," or which sets a limit to the limitless. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick] in SRRM, 38-9.)

Meditation - What is meditation?

Meditation is the breaking down of the experiencer, which cannot be done consciously. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 166.)

Meditation is the breaking of all bondage; it is a state of freedom, but not from anything. Freedom from something is only the cultivation of resistance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 166.)

A mind that is capable of concentration is not necessarily able to meditate. Self-interest does bring about concentration, like any other interest, but such concentration implies a motive, a cause, conscious or unconscious; there is always a thing to be gained or set aside, an effort to comprehend, to get to the other shore. Attention with an aim is concerned with accumulation. The attention that comes with movement towards or away from something is the attraction of pleasure or the repulsion of pain, but meditation is that extraordinary attention in which there is no maker of effort, no end or object to be gained. Effort is part of the acquisitive process, it is the gathering of experience by the experiencer. The experiencer may concentrate, pay attention, be aware; but the craving of the experiencer for experience must wholly cease, for the experiencer is merely an accumulation of the known. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 219.)

Concentration in meditation is a form of self-centred improvement, it emphasizes action within the boundaries of the self, the ego, the 'me." Concentration is a process of narrowing down thought. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 236.)

The mind is not quiet when it is disciplined, controlled and checked; such a mind is a dead mind, it is isolating itself through various forms of resistance, and it inevitably creates misery for itself and others. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 32.)

True meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited, impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial consciousness. True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when awareness is not fixated on objects of perception. When you first start to meditate you notice that awareness is always focused on some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets what it is aware of (Adyashanti, the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning. In true meditation all objects are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to manipulate or suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness (Adyashanti, consciousness) is the source in which all objects arise and subside. As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition. (Adyashanti, "True Meditation," 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

When you cease trying to control and manipulate your experience, meditation spontaneously happens. (Adyashanti, IA; downloaded from http://www.yogaforlife.ca/adya.htm, 12 March 2006.)

Meditation - What is its value?

The ancient, effulgent being, the indwelling Spirit, subtle, deep-hidden in the lotus of the heart, is hard to know. But the wise man, following the path of meditation, knows him, and is freed alike from pleasure and from pain. (UPAN, 17-8.)

Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness? (Sri Krishna in BG, 43.)

Certain knowledge of the Reality is gained only through meditation upon right teaching, and not by sacred ablutions, or almsgiving, or by the practice of hundreds of breathing exercises. (Shankara in CJD, 34.)

Logic cannot discover You, Lord, but the yogis Know you in meditation. (Shankara in CJD, i.)

There is great bliss in meditation. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 219.)

Meditation - Dissenting opinion - Da Free John

Real life, the way of understanding, is not another form of seeking. For the man of understanding, meditation is not adopted for the sake of something else. He does not pursue understanding or reality or any kind of experience through meditation. Real meditation is already a radical activity. It is understanding. In the logic of Narcissus, the separative mentality, all things are seeking. But the man of understanding perceives the logic of reality and lives as it. Therefore, he is not concerned about meditation. His business is understanding, not ascent, vision, transformation, liberation, or any other goal. The way of understanding belongs to those who recognize the fruitlessness of seeking. I do not recommend that you meditate. There is only understanding. Therefore, understand. And when understanding has become observation, reflection, insight and radical cognition, then the state of cognsciousness itself is meditation. When understanding has become a radical process, and the avoidance of relationship has become an inclusive and sufficient recognition, when you have understood that seeking is all a function of dilemma, and when you no longer are voluntarily motivated by the physical, mental or spiritual problem, then you are already meditating. ... Thus, when understanding has become founded in you by observation of your life, and you have truly realized the radical process of avoidance on every level of your being, then you have ceased to approach life without intelligence, simply reacting, becoming motivated, and seeking various ends. Instead, you have begun to approach all experience with a simplicity in consciousness, a presence you bring to all things, which is understanding. (Da Free John, KOL, 161-2.)

Meditation - Quieting the mind in meditation

D. Other thoughts arise more forcibly when one attempts meditation! M. Yes, all kinds of thoughts arise in meditation. That is only right; for what lies hidden in you is brought out. Unless it rises up, how can it be destroyed? Thoughts rise up spontaneously, as it were, but only to be extinguished in due course, thus strengthening the mind. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, MG, 20.)

D. How can the rebellious mind be made calm and tranquil? M. Either see its source so that it may disappear, or surrender yourself so that it may be struck down. Self-surrender is the same as Self-knowledge, and either of them necessarily implies self-control. The ego submits only when it recognizes the Higher Power. (Sri Ramana Maharshi, MG, 22.)

Meditation - Journey deeply into the self; do not remain on the surface

Be absorbed in me, Lodge your mind in me: Thus you shall dwell in me, Do not doubt it, Here and hereafter. (Sri Krishna in BG, 98.)

In meditation one must be absorbed in God. By merely floating on the surface of the water, can you reach the gems lying at the bottom of the sea? (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 124.)

Awareness must go into the deeper layers of consciousness and not be content with surface responses. (Krishnamurti in COL, 1, 31.)

Meditation on God

When you meditate, you should imagine that God is standing before you like the mythical wish-fulfilling tree. (Swami Brahamananda in GLWT, 115.)

At the time of meditation you should imagine that you are in mid-ocean; on all sides there are mountain-high wave, and God is standing before you ready to help you. (Swami Brahmananda in GLWT, 115.)

Meditation on the Third Eye

By concentrating on the point between the eyebrows and delving into the depths of quiet, one can find answers to all the religious queries of the heart. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 10.)

Through the divine eye in the forehead (east), the yogi sails his consciousness into omnipresence, hearing the Word or Aum, divine sound of "many waters": the vibrations of light that constitute the sole reality of creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 267-8.

Meditation on Breath

The people of perfection are they who, paying attention to their breathing, become like guardians to the Treasury of their hearts. (Ibn-Arabi, KK, 41.)

Meditation - On Om

Meditate on him as OM. Easily mayest thou cross the sea of darkness. (UPAN, 46.)

The Self ... is OM, the indivisible syllable. This syllable is unutterable and beyond mind. In it the manifold universe disappears. It is the supreme good -- One without a second. Whosoever knows OM, the Self, becomes the Self. (UPAN, 51.)

The syllable OM is verily thine image. Through this syllable thou mayest be attained. (UPAN, 53.)

OM is Brahman. OM is all. He who meditates on OM attains to Brahman. (UPAN, 54.)

It is not in heaven, neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word (1) is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. (Deuteronomy 30:13-4.)

(1) Aum, or, in Judaism and Christianity, Amen.

One day, in the course of his teaching, Sri Ramakrishna spoke about the manifestation of Brahman as sound -- the Logos. later, when I sat for meditation I took this as my subject, and it was not long before the sound Brahman was revealed to me. (Swami Brahmananda in EC, 189.)

Look for it and listen to it first in your own heart. At first you may say: "It is not there; when I search I find only discord." Look deeper. If again you are disappointed, pause and look deeper again. There is a natural melody, an obscure fount in every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly concealed and silenced -- but it is there. At the very base of your nature you will find faith, hope, and love. He that chooses evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his eyes to the melody of his heart, as he blinds his eyes to the light of his soul. He does this because he finds it easier to live in his desires. But underneath all life is the strong current that cannot be checked; the great waters are there in reality. Find them and you will perceive that none, not the most wretched of creatures, but is a part of it, however he blind himself to the fact and build up for himself a phantasmal outer form of horror. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 24-5.)

All those beings among whom you struggle are fragments of the Divine. And so deceptive is the illusion in which you live, that it is hard to guess where you will first detect the sweet voice in the hearts of others. But know that it is certainly within yourself. Look for it there and once having heard it, you will more readily recognize it around you. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 25.)

Only fragments of the great song [of life] come to your ears while yet you are but man. But if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is lost, and endeavour to learn from it the meaning of the mystery that surrounds you. In time you will need no teacher. For as the individual has voice, so has that in which the individual exists. Life itself has speech and is never silent. And its utterance is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry; it is a song. Learn from it that you are part of the harmony; learn from it to obey the laws of harmony. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 26.)

The potencies of sound and of vach, the human voice, have nowhere else been so profoundly investigated as in India. The Aum vibration that reverberates throughout the universe (the "Word" or "voice of many waters" of the Bible) has three manifestations or gunas, those of creation, preservation, and destruction. Each time a man utters a word, he puts into operation one of the three qualities of Aum. This is the lawful reason behind the injunction of all scriptures that man should speak the truth. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 17n.)

The human body is a collective vibration of grossly stirring atoms, and electrons and intelligence life force (finer than electrons). The soul, a reflection of spirit, while dwelling within it, cannot remember its omnipresent state. But by meditation one can hear the vibration of the body by closing the ears ... and then [tuning] in with the cosmic mind which emanates from the vibration of all atoms and life force. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 14-5.)

Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum that is heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word, the whir of the Vibratory Motor, the witness of Divine Presence. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 237.)

[One] hears the sound of Holy Ghost (1) when all bodily and astral sounds cease. Then, by deeper meditation on this sound, by higher processes learned from the Guru, he can be one with the sound and "touch" it. Then, after touching or feeling it, by still higher methods, the spiritual aspirant will find his consciousness vibrating simultaneously in his body and in several continents. As he progresses further by deeper and longer meditation, he will find his consciousness vibrating simultaneously in his body, in the earth, the planets, the universes, and in every particle of matter. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 17.)

(1) Aum.

When the Yogi ... listens to cosmic vibration, his mind is diverted from the physical sounds of matter outside his body to the circulatory sounds of the vibrating flesh. Then his consciousness is diverted from the vibrations of the body to the musical vibrations of the astral body. Then his consciousness wanders from the vibrations of the astral body to the vibrations of consciousness in all atoms. Then the consciousness of the Yogi listens to the Holy Ghost or Cosmic Sound emanating from all atoms. This is the way the ordinary consciousness should be baptized or expanded into Christ consciousness through the expanding power of the Holy Ghost, or the all-spreading "Aum-vibrating-sound" heard in meditation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 20-1.)

All human beings find their consciousness hidebound by the body, but by listening to and feeling the "Aum" vibration and intuitive Christ consciousness the Yogi realizes that God the Father's cosmic consciousness exists inactively in regions where there is no motion or presence of the Holy-Ghost vibration. (For the Holy Ghost vibration is limited only to a certain tract of space which is peopled by the cosmos and all island universes. Holy Vibration is condensed into planetary creation.) (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 29.)

After listening to and feeling the cosmic sound in all the Physical, Astral, and Ideational cosmos, or in the Physical, Astral, and Ideational Holy Ghost, his consciousness will vibrate in all creation. Then when his expanded consciousness becomes stable in all creation, it feels the presence of Christ consciousness in all vibration. Then the [Yogi] becomes Christ-like; his consciousness experiences the Second Coming of Christ; he feels in his vehicle the presence of Christ-consciousness as Jesus felt Christ expressed in His body. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 29.)

Meditation - In the Bible

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, (1) and saw, (2) and, behold, the camels were coming. (Genesis 24:63.)

(1) That is, meditated on the Third Eye between the hills of the eyebrows.

(2) Perhaps he saw the camels clairvoyantly from a distance.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; (1) in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and I will look up. (2) (Psalm 4:3.)

(1) In prayer.

(2) Perhaps to the Third Eye.

Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and on his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2.)

Commune with your heart upon your bed, and be still. (Psalm 3:4.)

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14.)

I waited patiently (1) for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1.)

(1) Probably meditating.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High (1) shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him will I trust. (Psalm 91:1-2.)

(1) Perhaps the Third Eye or the spiritual heart or hridayam.

Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, (1) O thou that dwellest in the heavens. (Psalm 123:1.)

(1) Gazing at the Third Eye.

Let thine eyes look right on, (1) and let thine eyelids look straight before you. (Proverbs 4:25.)

(1) Probably a variant meditation in which the meditator gazes at the tip of the nose.

Lift up your eyes on high, (1) and behold who hath created these things. (Isaiah 40:26.)

(1) Again, probably exhorting the meditator to fix the gaze on the Third Eye.

Look unto me, (1) and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22.)

(1) Aside from all the connotations of looking to God for the satisfaction of all earthly needs, the passage also probably refers to fixing the gaze on the Third Eye in meditation.

I will look unto the Lord; (1) I will wait (2) for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7.)

(1) Fix the gaze on the Third Eye. (2) Meditate.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, (1) and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man (2) be. (Jesus in Matthew 24:27.)

(1) The east is associated in the Bible with that which is seen in the Third Eye. (2) The "coming of the Son of man" refers to the arising of the Knowledge of Self, as the chosen ideal (here Jesus) comes to take the aspirant to the Father.

Jesus and his disciples were products of unceasing meditation and intuitive devotion, and not merely results of intellectual theological seminaries. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 9.)

Meditation - In other traditions

The yogi should retire into a solitary place, and live alone. He must exercise control over his mind and body. He must free himself from the hopes and possessions of this world. He should meditate on the Atman unceasingly. The place where he sits should be firm, neither too high nor too low, and situated in a clean spot. He should first cover it with sacred grass, then with a deer skin; then lay a cloth over these. As he sits there, he is to hold the senses and imagination in check, and keep the mind concentrated upon its object. If he practises meditation in this manner, his heart will become pure. His posture will be motionless, with the body, head and neck held erect, and the vision indrawn, as if gazing at the tip of the nose. He must not look about him. ... If a yogi has perfect control over his mind, and struggles continually in this way to unite himself with Brahman, he will come at last to the crowning peace of Nirvana, the peace that is in me. (Sri Krishna in BG, 65.)

Shutting off sense From what is outward, Fixing the gaze At the root of the eyebrows, Checking the breath-stream In and outgoing Within the nostrils, Holding the senses, Holding the intellect, Holding the mind fast, He who seeks freedom, Thrusts fear aside, Thrusts aside anger And puts off desire: Truly that man Is made free for ever. (Sri Krishna in BG, 61-2.)

O righteous Zarathustra, you shall call a Priest him who sits up during all the time of darkness (1) seeking for the holy wisdom which frees from anxiety and makes one joyful and easy of conscience ... and which brings him to that world, the holy world of the Best Life. (2) (The Lord Ahuramazda in GZ, 77.)

(1) Meditating.

(2) Heaven or Nirvana.

If a man's thoughts are not scattered, if his mind is not perplexed, if he has ceased to think of good and evil, then there is no fear for him while he is watchful. (The Buddha in TCB, 55.)

(1) Meditating.

(2) Heaven or Nirvana.

But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot: if it is too much disturbed, milk won't turn into curd. Next, you must put aside all other duties, sit in a quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do you get butter. Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world one thinks of [the objects of lust and greed]. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 128.)

There are three ways of meditating: think of God while doing your duties, or meditate on Him in a secluded corner of your house, or contemplate Him in a wood. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 127.)

[Swami Brahmananda] also pointed out that without the practice of meditation it is hard to do work as worship, and that it is utterly impossible to annihilate the ego simply by actions, however selfless they may be. We must act but we must also try by our meditation to merge the ego in God. (Swami Prabhavananda, EC, 56.)

The Middle Way

See Buddhism - The Middle Way, Moderation

The Mind - Its nature

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.)

The mind, together with the organs of perception, forms the "mental covering". It causes the sense of "I" and "mine". (Shankara in CJD, 59.)

The mind is like white linen fresh from the laundry; it takes the colour in which you dip it. If it is associated with falsehood for a long time, it will be stained with falsehood. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 195.)

Atman cannot be realized through this mind; Atman is realized through Atman alone. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 802.)

Possessed of consciousness, the power of feeling, ... [this Atom] is called Mahat, the Heart, Chitta.... Being ... magnetized, it has two poles, one of which attracts it toward the Real Substance, Sat, and the other repels it from the same. The former is called Sattwa or Buddhi, the Intelligence, which determines what is Truth; and the latter, being a particule of Repulsion, ... produces the ideal world for enjoyment (ananda) and is called Anandatwa or Manas, the Mind. (Sri Yukteswar Giri, HS, 27.)

It is the mind with its demands and fears, its attachments and denials, its determinations and urges, that destroys love. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 223.)

The mind is the product of environment, re-creating and sustaining itself on sensations and identifications; and that is why the mind clings to codes of conduct, patterns of thought, and so on. As long as the mind is the outcome of the past, it can never discover truth or allow truth to come into being. In holding to organizations it discards the search for truth. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 24.)

The Mind - The mind is synonymous with thinking

Man has built in himself images as a fence of security - religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So he is not an individual. (Krishnamurti, CHT.)

The mind is like a machine that is working night and day, chattering, everlastingly busy whether asleep or awake. Another part of this intricate and complex mechanism tries to control the whole movement, and so begins the conflict between opposing desires, urges. One may be called the higher self and the other the lower self, but both are within the area of the mind, The action and reaction of the mind, of thought, are almost simultaneous and almost automatic. This whole conscious and unconscious process of accepting and denying, conforming and striving to be free, is extremely rapid. So the question is not how to control this complex machine, for control only brings friction and only dissipates energy. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 231.)

You are this knowledge, you are the things that you have accumulated; you are the gramophone record that is ever repeating what is impressed on it. You are the song, the noise, the chatter of society, of your culture. Is there an uncorrupted 'you' apart from all this clatter? This self-centre is now anxious to free itself from the things it has gathered; but the effort it makes to free itself is part of the accumulative process. You have a new record to play, with new words, but your mind is still dull, insensitive. (Krishnamurti, COL, 3, 86.)

Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution. (Krishnamurti, CHT.)

The Mind - Mind is synonymous with motion

All motion (1) is the mind's motion. Motion is its function. Apart from motion, there's no mind. And apart from mind, there's no motion. But motion isn't the mind. And the mind isn't motion. is basically mindless. And the mind is basically motionless. But motion doesn't exist without the mind. And the mind doesn't exist without motion. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 21.)

(1) To understand this passage, remember that "motion" is the Mother, the holy Aum vibration. It creates the mind and exists for the individual as long as the mind exists. Once the mind is stilled, it falls silent and, for the aspirant, the Mother melts into the Father.

The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 27.)

Any movement of the mind is time-binding; it prevents creation. The timeless is not with the time-binding quality of memory. The limitless is not to be measured by memory, but experience. There is the unnameable only when experience, knowledge, has wholly ceased. Truth alone frees the mind from its own bondage. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 108.)

When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experience and the experiencer. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation in the mind. (Krishnamurti, CHT.)

Bhagavan once told me that thought comes in flashes, no thought was continuous. It was like the cycle of an alternating current, but was so rapid that it seemed continuous as does the light given off by an electric bulb. If one could only concentrate on the intervals between thoughts rather than on the thoughts themselves that would be Self-realization. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick] of Sri Ramana Maharshi in SRRM, 38.)

Life moves, undulates, breathes in and out, contracting and expanding. This is its nature, the nature of what is. Whatever is, is on the move. Nothing remains the same for very long. The mind wants everything to stop so that it can get its foothold, find its position, so it can figure out how to control life. Through the pursuit of material things, knowledge, ideas, beliefs, opinions, emotional states, spiritual states, and relationships, the mind seeks to find a secure position from which to operate. The mind seeks to nail life down and get it to stop moving and changing. When this doesn't work, the mind begins to seek the changeless, the eternal, something that doesn't move. But the mind of thought is itself an expression of life's movement and so must always be in movement itself. When there is thought, that thought is always moving and changing. There is really no such thing as thought. There is only thinking, so thought which is always moving (Adyashanti: as thinking) cannot apprehend the changeless. When thought enters into the changeless it goes silent. When thought goes silent, the thinker, the psychological "me," the image-produced self, disappears. Suddenly it is gone. You, as an idea, are gone. Awareness remains alone. (Adyashanti, "Only Awareness Remains," 2003, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

The Mind - The self is the mind

The mind in truth is only the thought 'I.' (Ramana Maharshi in SRRM, 38.)

The mind is nothing but a lot of thoughts. (Ramana Maharshi in SRRM, 38.)

The mind ... is the self. (1) (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 34.)

(1) The ego.

The self, at whatever level it is placed, is still of the mind. Whatever the mind can think about is the mind. The mind cannot think about something which is not of itself; it cannot think of the unknown. The self at any level is known; and though there may be layers of the self of which the superficial mind if not aware, they are still within the field of the known. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 68.)

Knowledge, belief, conviction, conclusion and experience are ... the very structures of the self. The self cannot be if there is no cumulative effect of experience; and the fear of death is the fear of not being, of not experiencing. If there were the assurance, the certainty of experiencing, there would be no fear. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 89.)

Truth or happiness cannot come without undertaking the journey into the ways of the self. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 13.)

What is essential is self-knowledge, (1) which brings about a still mind. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 239.)

(1) I.e., knowledge of the ways of the mind through passive awareness.

Self-knowledge comes into being through awareness of the moment-by-moment responses to the movement of life. (Krishnamurti in COL, 1, 79.)

The Mind - "Universal Mind" is the same as the Father

Pure in its own nature and free from the category of finite and infinite, Universal Mind (1) is the undefiled Buddha-womb, which is wrongly apprehended by sentient beings. (Lankavatara Sutra in PP, 8.)

(1) God the Father.

The buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It's like space. You can't hold it. It's not the mind of materialists or nihilists. Except for a tathagata, (1) no one else, no mortal, (2) no deluded being, can fathom it. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 21.)

(1) No fully-perfected being or Buddha. (2) No unenlightened being; hence one trapped in the cycle of birth and death.

That which is Pure Mind is also Pure Buddhi; that again is Pure Atman, because there is nothing pure but God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 178.)

The Mind - Example of the experience of this Universal Mind, Cosmic Consciousness or Primal Awareness

The description of the status of knowledge to which we aspire, determines the means of knowledge which we shall use. That status of knowledge may be summed up as a supramental realisation which is prepared by mental representations through various mental principles in us and once attained again reflects itself more perfectly in all the members of the being. It is a re-seeing and therefore a remoulding of our whole existence in the light of the Divine and One and Eternal free from subjection to the appearances of things and the externalities of our superficial being. Such a passage from the human to the divine, from the divided and discordant to the One, from the phenomenon to the eternal Truth, such an entire rebirth or the new birth of the soul must necessarily involve two stages, one of preparation in which the soul and its instruments must become fit and another of actual illumination and realisation in the prepared soul through its fit instruments. (Sri Aurobindo, SOY, 294.)

In the days that followed there was not a single modification in this awareness. Indeed, it cannot be modified or lost. I noticed that "experience" ceased to affect me. Whatever passed, be it a physical sensation, a vision, or a thought, ceased to involve me at all. I began to pay particular attention to what passed in order to test my state. But the primary awareness of reality, my own actual consciousness, could not be modified or lost. It is the only thing in our lives that is not an experience. It depends on nothing and nothing can destroy it. It is bliss, joy, freedom, consciousness and sublime knowledge! (Da Free John, KOL, 136.)

The Mind - The limited mind cannot understand what the Universal Mind knows

Intellectual thought is in itself inadequate and is not the highest thinking; the highest is that which comes through the intuitive mind and from the supramental faculty. So long as we are dominated by the intellctual habit and by the lower workings, the intuitive mind can only send its messages to us subconsciously and subject to a distortion more or less entire before it reaches the conscious mind; or if it works consciously, then only with an inadequate rarity and a great imperfection in its functioning. In order to strengthen the higher knowledge-faculty in us we have to effect the same separation between the intuitive and intellectual elements of our thought as we have already effected between the understanding and the sense-mind; and this is no easy task, for not only do our intuitions come to us incrusted in the intellectual action, but there are a great number of mental workings which masquerade and ape the appearances of the higher faculty. The rememdy is to train first the intellect to recognize the true intuition, to distinguish it from the false an d then to accustom it, when it arrives at an intellectual perception or conclusion, to attach no final value to it, but rather look upward, refer all to the divine principle and wait in as complete a silence as it can command for the light from above. (Sri Aurobindo, SOY, 301.)

We use the word ["understanding"] as the hearest equivalent we can get in the English tongue to the Sanskrit philosophical term buddhi; therefore we exclude from it the action of the sense mind which merely consists of the recording of perceptions of all kinds without distinction whether they be right or wrong, true or merely illusory phenomena, penetrating or superficial. We exclude that mass of confused conception which is merely a rendering of these perceptions and is equally void of the higher principle of judgment and discrimination. Nor can we include that constant leaping current of habitual thought which does duty for understanding in the mind of the average unthinking man, but is only a constant repetition of habitual associations, desires, prejudices, prejudgments, received or inherited preferences, even though it may constantly enrich itself by a fresh stock of concepts streaming in from the environment and admitted without the challenge of the sovereign discriminating reason. Undoubtedly this is a sort of understanding which has been very useful in the development of man from the animal; but it is only one remove above the animal mind; it is a half-animal reason subservient to habit, to desire and the senses and is of no avail in the search whether for scientific or philosophical or spiritual knowledge. We have to go beyond it; its purification can only be effected either by dismissing or silencing it altogether or by transmuting it into the true understanding. By the understanding we mean that which at once perceives, judges and discriminates, the true reason of the human being not subservient to the senses, to desire or to the blind force of habit, but working in its own right for mastery, for knowledge. Certainly, the reason of man as he is at present does not even at its best act entirely in this free and sovereign fashion; but ... fails because it is still mixed with the lower half-animal action, because it is impure and constantly hampered and pulled down from its characteristic action. In its purity it should not be involved in these lower movements, but stand back from the object, and observe disinterestedly, put it in its right place in the whole by force of comparison, contrast, analogy, reason from its rightly observed data by deduction, induction, inference and holding all its gains in memory and supplementing them by a chastened and rightly-guided imagination view all in the light of a trained and disciplined judgment. (Sri Aurobindo, SOY, 295-6.)

The Mind - Experience is of the mind

See Experience - Experience is of the mind

The Mind - The universe is a function of the mind

See The Universe - Function of the mind

The Mind - It is also the door to enlightenment

The mind is the door to every world. And the mind is the ford to the other shore. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 55.)

Once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. Its thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 15.)

Your mind is nirvana. You might think you can find a buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind, but such a place doesn't exist. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 4.)

Beyond this mind you'll never find another buddha. To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature, the absence of cause and effect, is what's meant by mind. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 4.)

Whoever talks about leaving the mind doesn't get very far. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 33.)

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.)

The Mind - To know the Self, empty the mind

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.)

When our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to 'come' or to 'go,' we attain ... liberation. Such a state is called the function of 'thoughtlessness.' But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed ... is an erroneous view. (Hui Neng in SHN, 32.)

Without emptying the mind there can be no renewal. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 67.)

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

The purgation of the mind is tranquillity of heart. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 23.)

Dependence on outward line and form only indicates the emptiness of our own being, which we fill with music, with art, with deliberate silence. It is because this unvarying emptiness is filled or covered over with sensations that there is the everlasting fear of what is, of what we are. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 64-5.)

"Sir, you are taking everything away from one, and nothing is left. But that may be the new thing." It is. (Krishnamurti, COL, 3, 88.)

The Mind - To know the Self, slow the mind down

Self-knowledge comes with the slowing down of the mind, but that doesn't mean forcing the mind to be slow. Compulsion only makes for resistance, and there must be no dissipation of energy in the slowing down of the mind. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 231.)

The Mind - To know the Self, still the mind

See also Jnana Yoga - Self-Enquiry - Be still; be silent

When all the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not -- then, say the wise, is reached the highest state. This calm of the senses and the mind has been defined as yoga. He who attains it is freed from delusion. (UPAN, 24.)

When, through the practise of yoga, the mind ceases its restless movements, and becomes still, he realizes the Atman. (Sri Krishna in BG, 66.)

'The light of a lamp does not flicker in a windless place': that is the simile which describes a yogi of one-pointed mind, who meditates upon the Atman. When, through the practice of yoga, the mind ceases its restless movements, and becomes still, he realizes the Atman. It satisfies him entirely. Then he knows that infinite happiness which can be realized by the purified heart but is beyond the grasp of the senses. (Sri Krishna in BG, 66.)

The uncontrolled mind Does not guess that the Atman is present: How can it meditate? Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness? (Sri Krishna in BG, 43.)

Great in soul are they who become what is godlike: They alone know me, the origin, the deathless: They offer me the homage Of an unwavering mind. (Sri Krishna in BG, 81.)

Utterly quiet, Made clean of passion, The mind of the yogi Knows that Brahman, His bliss is highest. (Sri Krishna in BG, 67.)

Indeed the Wise Man's office Is to work by being still. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 54.)

Be still while you work And keep full control Over all. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 55.)

Touch ultimate emptiness, Hold steady and still. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 68.)

When ... there are no more thought-waves at all in the mind, then one enters the samadhi which is called "seedless." (Patanjali, HTKG, 61.)

Commune with your own heart upon your bed, (1) and be still. (Psalm 3:4.)

(1) Meditate upon the Dweller in your heart.

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10.)

To reach the ultimate goal, thought itself must be left behind; for thought is a form of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the motionless rest which belongs to the One. (Plotinus in ESO, 16.)

Because both [the sage's] mind and reality are still, he's always in samadhi. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 28.)

The eternal bliss of nirvana comes from the mind at rest. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 55.)

The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 27.)

If you can just concentrate your mind and transcend its falsehood and evil, the suffering of the six realms and six states of existence will automatically disappear. And once free from suffering, you're truly free. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 42.)

All motion (1) is the mind's motion. Motion is its function. Apart from motion, there's no mind. And apart from mind, there's no motion. But motion isn't the mind. And the mind isn't motion. Motion is basically mindless. And the mind is basically motionless. But motion doesn't exist without the mind. And the mind doesn't exist without motion. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 21.)

(1) Without the mind, motion is unperceived. Motion is a function of Sakthi, the Mother, the universal creative vibration. As such it is beyond the mind. But, with the mind desireless, it becomes silent, motionless, still. When it is still, it ceases to function and is transcended. In the moment of the mind's transcendence, this world of motion disappears and we apprehend the still and silent Father.

When feelings arise, wisdom is blocked; when thoughts waver, reality departs. (Master Lin-Chi (Rinzai), ZTML, 25.)

Unless the mind becomes steady there cannot be yoga. It is the wind of worldliness that always disturbs the mind, which may be likened to a candle-flame. If that flame doesn't move at all, then one is said to have attained yoga. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 113.)

"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, II, 741.)

Stillness and peace are the real temples wherein God most often visits his devotees. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 10.)

In the castle of calmness, again and again cast off identification with earthly titles, and plunge into deep meditation to realize your divine kingship. (Parmahanasa Yogananda, MEQ, 10.)

To abide in this state requires a stillness of all vital being, and a stillness of all coarse thinking and values can be recorded only by the subtle use of the mind. (Franklin Merrell-Woolf, "The Wedge of Buddhahood," Unpublished Lecture, 17 June 1980.") A restless mind, however gifted, destroys understanding and happiness. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 15.)

Self-knowledge comes with the slowing down of the mind, but that doesn't mean forcing the mind to be slow. Compulsion only makes for resistance, and there must be no dissipation of energy in the slowing down of the mind. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 231.)

The fusion takes place only when the mind is utterly still without trying to be still. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 67.)

The mind is never quiet if it is always acquiring and calculating; and must not the mind be still for truth to be? (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 125.)

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, COL, 2, 115. Mind cannot understand; it may translate what is understood into action, but it is not capable of understanding. To understand, there must be the warmth of recognition and reception, which only the heart can give when the mind is silent. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 34.)

Any movement of the mind is time-binding; it prevents creation. The timeless is not with the time-binding quality of memory. The limitless is not to be measured by memory, but experience. There is the unnameable only when experience, knowledge, has wholly ceased. Truth alone frees the mind from its own bondage. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 108.)

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 in COL, 1, 43.)

There is this stillness, not when the thinker comes to an end, but only when thought itself has come to an end. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 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 not 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, COL, 2, 115. Now, if one may suggest, leave it alone; you have heard, and let that work as it will. To be still after tilling and sowing is to give birth to creation. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 10.)

The mind had no recollection of previous stillnesses, of those silences it had known; it did not say, "This is tranquillity." There was no verbalization, which is only the recognition and the affirmation of a somewhat similar experience. Because there was no verbalization, thought was absent. There was no recording, and therefore thought was not able to pick up the silence or to think about it; for the word "stillness" is not stillness. When the word is not, the mind cannot operate, and so the experiencer cannot store up as a means of further pleasure. There was no gathering process at work, nor was there approximation or assimilation. The movement of the mind was totally absent. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 57.)

You Are... Beyond the body-mind and personality, Beyond all experience and the experiencer thereof, Beyond the world and its perceiver, Beyond existence and its absence, Beyond all assertions and denials. Be still and awaken to the realization of who you Are. (Adyashanti, IA, xiii.)

By ceasing to follow the mind's tendency to always want 'more', 'different', or 'better', one encounters the opportunity to be still. In being still, a perspective is revealed which is free from all ignorance and bondage to suffering. From that perspective, eternal Self is realized. The eternal Self, the Seer, is recognized to be one's true nature, one's very own Self. (Adyashanti, "Let Everything End," 1997, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Stop all delays, all seeking and all striving. Put down your concepts, ideas and beliefs. For one instant be still and directly encounter the silent unknown core of your being. In that instant Freedom will embrace you and reveal the Awakening that you are. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.globalserve.net/~sarlo/RatingsA.htm, 16 May 2004.)

The Mind - To know the Self, quiet the mind

[The] quiet mind Is soon established in peace. (Sri Krishna in BG, 43.)

The Lord is in his holy temple: (1) Let all the earth keep silence before him. (2) (Habbakuk 2:20.)

(1) The body is the courtyard of this temple; the Hridayam or spiritual heart is the Holy of holies. (2) Contemplate him in the heart.

Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up (1) out of his holy habitation. (2) (Zechariah 2: 13.)

(1) Probably the kundalini energy.

(2) The body.

It was said of Abba Agathon that for three years he lived with a stone in his mouth, until he had learnt to keep silence. (SDF, 22.)

I have often regretted speaking, but never remaining silent. (Abba Arsenius in Blessed Henry SUSO, HSU, 139.)

Those who understand both speech (1) and silence (2) are in samadhi. (3) (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 32.)

(1) That is, right speaking in particular and sila or morality in general.

(2) The true silence of the mind in which God the Father is known.

(3) That is, are fully illumined.

Even the ever-existing, simple Godhead disappears through one's undisturbed quietude. (Blessed Henry SUSO, HSU, 177.)

The servant [HSU's name for himself] had an urge in his interior life to attain real peace of heart, and it seemed to him that silence might be useful to him. And so he kept such guard over his mouth that in thirty years he never broke silence at meals except once.... In order to master his tongue better in all situations and not talk carelessly or to excess, he introduced three spiritual masters into his contemplation without whose special permission he would not speak. They were three dear saints: our father St. Dominic, St. Arsenius and St. Bernard. Whenever he wished to speak, in his imagination he would go from one to the other and ask for their permission.... And if it was a proper time and place for talking, the first master would give permission. If the conversation involved no external attachments, the second master would allow it. And if speaking was not going to cause him to be disturbed inwardly, it seemed to him that he had the permission of all three. Then he would speak. If these conditions were not met, he thought he should remain silent. (Blessed Henry SUSO, HSU, 86-7.)

Give up worldly talk altogether. Don't talk about anything whatever but God. If you see a worldly person coming near you, leave the place before he arrives. You have spent your whole life in the world. You have seen that it is all hollow. Isn't that so? (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 911.)

The upshot of the whole thing is that, no matter what path you follow, yoga is impossible unless the mind becomes quiet. The mind of the yogi is under his control; he is not under the control of his mind. When the mind is quiet his prana stops functioning. Then one gets kumbhaka. (1) One may have the same kumbhaka through bhaktiyoga (2) as well: the prana stops functioning through love of God too. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 248.)

(1) Retention of the breath.

(2) The yoga of devotion.

Alone, and silent thought, and awe, and aspiration -- and then the interior consciousness, like a hitherto unseen inscription, in magic ink, beams out its wondrous lines to the sense. Bibles may convey and priests expound, but it is exclusively for the noiseless operation of one's isolated Self to enter the pure ether of veneration, reach the divine levels, and commune with the unutterable. (Whitman in CC, 229.)

Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm, not till then. ... Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the heavy rain, when nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And in the deep silence the mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak -- it is a messenger without form or substance or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the raging of the storm. The silence may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you may carry its strength with you. Again and again the battle must be fought and won. It is only for an interval that Nature can be still. ... The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment when perception awakes; with it comes confidence, knowledge, certainty. The pause of the soul is the moment of satisfaction -- that is the silence. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 16-8.)

Silence is the best Upadesa, (1) but it is suited only for advanced pupils; others are unable to draw full inspiration from it, therefore [teachers] used words to explain the Truth. But Truth itself is beyond words. It does not admit of explanation. Lectures may entertain individuals for a few hours without having an effect upon them where as the result of silence is permanent and benefits all. Even though it is not understood, that does not matter. It is unceasing eloquence. (Sri Ramana Maharshi in SRRM, 54.)

(1) Teaching or teacher.

To understand what is, the mind must be silent. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 41.)

The understanding of what is does not depend upon thought, for thought itself is an escape. To think about the problem is not to understand it. It is only when the mind is silent that the truth of what is unfolds. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 41.)

The actual, the what is, must be understood and not smothered by determinations, ideals and clever rationalizations. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 56.)

The deliberate cultivation of silence is as the enjoyment of some longed-for pleasure; the desire to silence the mind is but the pursuit of sensation. Such silence is only a form of resistance, an isolation which leads to decay. Silence that is bought is a thing of the market in which there is the noise of activity. Silence comes with the absence of desire. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 77.)

Thought or desire now seeks safety in silence, and so it asks for a method or a system which offers what it wants. In place of worldly things it now craves the pleasure of silence, so it breeds conflict between what is and what should be. There is no silence where there is conflict, repression, resistance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 197.)

Truth is not to be conquered; you cannot storm it; it will slip through your hands if you try to grasp it. Truth comes silently, without your knowing. What you know is not truth, it is only an idea, a symbol. That shadow is not the real. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 56.)

When the whole consciousness is silent and tranquil, free from all becoming, which is spontaneity, then only does the immeasurable come into being. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 44.)

For most people, a quiet mind is a rather fearsome thing; they are afraid to be quiet, for heaven knows what they may discover in themselves and worry is a preventative. A mind that is afraid to discover must ever be on the defensive, and restlessness is its defence. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 14.)

The car stopped at the house. The barking of the dog, the unpacking of the car and the general disturbance in no way affected this extraordinary silence. There was no disturbance. The wind was among the pines, the shadows were long, and a wildcat sneaked away among the bushes. In this silence there was movement, and the movement was not a distraction. There was no fixed attention from which to be distracted. There is distraction when the main interest shifts; but in this silence there was absence of interest, and so there was no wandering away. Movement was not far away from the silence but was of it. It was the stillness, not of death, of decay, but of life in which there was a total absence of confict. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 58.)

If this silence [that Krishnamurti was experiencing] were an illusion the mind would have had some relationship to it, it would either reject it or cling to it, reason it away or with subtle satisfaction identify itself with it; but since it has no relationship to this silence, the mind cannot accept or deny it. The mind can operate only with its own projections, with the things which are of itself; but it has no relationship with the things that are not of its own origin. The silence is not of the mind, and so the mind cannot cultivate or become identified with it. The content of this silence is not to be measured by words. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 58.)

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.)

Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be produced or created. Silence is the non-state in which all states arise and subside. Silence, stillness and awareness are not states and can never be perceived in their totality as objects. Silence is itself the eternal witness without form or attributes. As you rest more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's compulsive contractions and identifications, and returns to its natural non-state of Presence. The simple yet profound question, "Who Am I ?," can then reveal one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the ego-personality, but objectless Freedom of Being - "Primordial Consciousness in which all states and all objects come and go as manifestations of the Eternal Unborn Self that YOU ARE. (Adyashanti, "True Meditation," 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.)

Our deepest nature is silence: That space which is beyond the known, understanding, and imagination. True silence is not a dead or static state; it is a state of unity, creative response, and deep love. Salvation lies within the heart of silence and nowhere else. Be still and know. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://yogaforlife.ca/documents/adyaflyerfeb.pdf, 12 March 2006.)

The mind, in a deep sense of liberation, tends to get very quiet. It doesn't have its job anymore. It has its usefulness, but it doesn't have its full-time occupation of sustaining an intricately fabricated house of cards. (Adyashanti, Downloaded from http://www.members.shaw.ca/adyashanti/, 16 May 2004.)

The Mind - To know the Self, free the mind from desire

See Karma Yoga - When desire and attachment go, enlightenment comes

The Mind - To know the Self, eliminate the mind

Is it an easy thing to obtain the Knowledge of Brahman? It is not possible unless the mind is annihilated. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 776.)

A man attains Brahmajnana as soon as his mind is annihilated. With the annihilation of the mind dies the ego, which says 'I', 'I'. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 776.)

The mind is annihilated; man goes into samadhi. What he feels then cannot be described in words. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 170.)

Is it not the mind which has no peace? Eliminate the mind. ... Are not all paths that only? ... The mind has no existence bereft of the sense objects. (Mata Amritanandamayi, AC, 1, 25-6.)

The Mind - The discriminating mind ceases with enlightenment

Reasoning and discrimination vanish after the attainment of God and communion with Him in samadhi. How long does a man reason and discriminate? As long as he is conscious of the manifold, as long as he is aware of the universe, of embodied beings, of 'I' and 'you.' He becomes silent when he is truly aware of unity. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 177.)

The mind was not functioning; it was alert and passive, and though cognizant of the breeze playing among the leaves, there was no movement of any kind within itself. There was no observer who measured and observed. There was only THAT, and THAT was aware of itself without measure. It had no beginning and no word. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 242.)

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 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.)

The Mind - If you think you know God, you don't

The knowers are not learned men And learned men may never know. (Lao Tzu, TTC, 134.)

The further you go, The less you will know. (Lao Tzu, TTC, 100.)

Brahman is really understood or properly understood by one who has realized that it ought to remain ever the unknown and unknowable to him, but if one thinks, he has known it, then, in fact, he does not know it at all. (Narayananda, GG, 25.)

The Mind - Knowledge - Ultimately, the mind must be emptied of all knowledge to know God

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.)

Our minds are stuffed with so much knowledge that it is almost impossible to experience directly. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 61.)

Mere knowledge, however wide and cunningly put together, will not resolve our human problems; to assume that it will is to invite frustration and misery. Something much more profound is needed. One may know that hate is futile, but to be free of hate is quite another matter. Love is not a question of knowledge. (Krishnamurti, COL, 3, 3.)

The idea is more important than the fact; the concept of what one should be has more significance than what one is. The future is always more alluring than the present. The image, the symbol, is of greater worth than the actual; and on the actual we try to superimpose the idea, the pattern. So we create a contradiction between what is and what should be. ... In this conflict between the so-called real and the so-called false we are caught. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 85-6.)

There can be freedom from knowledge only when the process of gathering, the motive of accumulation, is understood. The desire to store up is the desire to be secure, to be certain. This desire for certainty through identification, through condemnation and justification, is the cause of fear, which destroys all communion. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 26-7.)

Knowledge is a flash of light between two darknesses; but knowledge cannot go above and beyond that darkness. Knowledge is essential to technique, as coal is to the engine; but it cannot reach out into the unknown. The unknown is not to be caught in the web of the known. Knowledge must be set aside for the unknown to be; but how difficult that is! (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 26.)

We are not attacking or defending knowledge, but trying to understand the whole problem. Knowledge is only a part of life, not the totality, and when that part assumes all-consuming importance, as it is threatening to do now, then life becomes superficial, a dull routine from which man seeks to escape through every form of diversion and superstition, with disastrous consequences. (Krishnamurti, COL, 3, 3.)

Reality cannot be experienced. It is. If the experiencer thinks he experiences reality, then he knows only illusion. All knowledge of reality is illusion. Knowledge or experience must cease for the being of reality. Experience cannot meet reality. Experience shapes knowledge, and knowledge bends experience; they must both cease for reality to be. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 74.)

Fear exists only in the relationship between the known and the unknown. The known is ever trying to capture the unknown; but it can capture only that which is already known. The unknown can never be experienced by the known; the known, the experienced must cease for the unknown to be. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 89.)

The Mind - We are what we think

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. 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 followes him, like a shadow that never leaves him. (Buddha in TCB, 52.)

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.)

And he called the multitude, and said unto them, hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. (Jesus in Matthew 15:10-11.)

The Mind - Thought is binding

Thought is binding; thought can only lead to the vast expanse of time, the field in which knowledge, action, virtue, have importance. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 167.)

There cannot be the experiencing of the unknown until the mind ceases to experience. Thought is the expression of experience; thought is a response of memory; and as long as thinking intervenes, there can be no experiencing. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 32.)

Thought cannot penetrate into the unknown, and so it can never discover or experience reality. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 44.)

Thought can only deny or assert, it cannot discover or search out the new. Thought cannot come upon the new; but when thought is silent, then there may be the new. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 44.)

Without thought there is no thinker. Thoughts create the thinker, who isolates himself to give himself permanency; for thoughts are always impermanent. (Krishnamurti, COL, 1, 69.)

The understanding of what is does not depend on thought, for thought is itself an escape. To think about the problem is not to understand it. It is only when the mind is silent that the truth of what is unfolds. (Krishnamurti, COL, 2, 41.)

The Mind - When thoughts go, awareness remains

See also Awareness

Life moves, undulates, breathes in and out, contracting and expanding. This is its nature, the nature of what is. Whatever is, is on the move. Nothing remains the same for very long. The mind wants everything to stop so that it can get its foothold, find its position, so it can figure out how to control life. Through the pursuit of material things, knowledge, ideas, beliefs, opinions, emotional states, spiritual states, and relationships, the mind seeks to find a secure position from which to operate. The mind seeks to nail life down and get it to stop moving and changing. When this doesn't work, the mind begins to seek the changeless, the eternal, something that doesn't move. But the mind of thought is itself an expression of life's movement and so must always be in movement itself. When there is thought, that thought is always moving and changing. There is really no such thing as thought. There is only thinking, so thought which is always moving (Adyashanti, as thinking) cannot apprehend the changeless. When thought enters into the changeless it goes silent. When thought goes silent, the thinker, the psychological "me," the image-produced self, disappears. Suddenly it is gone. You, as an idea, are gone. Awareness remains alone. (Adyashanti, "Only Awareness Remains," 2003, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004

The Mind - Thought - Thought is not necessary for intelligence or enlightenment

See Supramental Plane - Intuition

The Mind - Intuition

See Supramental Plane - Intuition

Moderation

Yoga is not for the man who overeats, or for him who fasts excessively. It is not for him who sleeps too much, or for the keeper of exaggerated vigils. Let a man be moderate in his eating and his recreation, moderately active, moderate in sleep and in wakefulness. He will find that yoga takes away all his unhappiness. (Sri Krishna in BG, 65.)

The truth ... is in the middle between the real and the unreal. (Sage Vasistha, CYV, 50.)

That which has form is equal to that which is without form, and that which is alive to that which rests. This is the subtle truth, not a religious invention, but only those who are already highly evolved will understand this. (Lao-Tzu in HHC, 18.)

The Wise Man discards Extreme inclinations To make sweeping judgments, Or to a life of excess. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 81) Dispense (1) with moderation Food to the body and to the mind repose. ... One must choose in all things a mean (2) just and good. (Pythagoras in GVP, 6.)

(1) Provide, give. (2) A median or middle way.

A hunter in the desert saw Abba Anthony enjoying himself with the brethren and he was shocked. Wanting to show him it was necessary sometimes to meet the needs of the brethren, the old man said to him, "Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it." So he did. The old man then said, "Shoot another," and he did so. Then the old man said, "Shoot yet again," and the hunter replied "If I bend my bow so much I will break it." Then the old man said to him, "It is the same with the work of God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break. Sometimes it is necessary tro come down to meet their needs." (Abba Anthony in SDF, 3.)

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.)

The greatest virtue is to know how to be moderate in all things. (Abba Anthony in Blessed Henry SUSO, HSU, 139.)

In general, austerity practiced in moderation is better than immoderate practices. But if one finds it difficult to find a middle road, it is still more sensible to remain a little on the easier side than to venture too far in the other direction. For it often happens, when a person deprives his nature of too much, that he also has to concede to his nature too much later on. Many great saints overlooked this because of their fervent zeal. Such a severe way of life and the examples that have been given can be useful for people who are too easy on themselves and arbitrarily give in to their insubordinate natures to their eternal ruin. But this does not apply to you or people like you. God has many kinds of crosses with which he chastens his friends. I expect that God will place a different kind of cross of your back that will cause you greater pain than all possible austerities. When this cross comes, accept it in patience. (Blessed Henry Suso to Dominican nun Elsbeth Stagel, HSU, 140-1.)

[Sri Ramana Maharshi taught that] we should practice moderation in all things, even in those that we consider good, and, strange though it may seem, a moderation in our Sadhana also is recommended. Overdoing of austerities and prolonged and unnaturally forced meditation may eventually lead to madness, unless we do so under proper guidance. (Sadhu Arunachala [A.W. Chadwick] in SRRM, 58.)

Moksha

See Enlightenment - (4) Stages beyond God Realization (Brahmajnana) - Liberation occurs at a higher stage of nirvikalpa samadhi, called sahaja, beyond Brahmajnana or kevalya nirvikalpa samadhi; see also - (4) Experiences beyond God-Realization (Brahmajnana) - What liberation is

Mortification

See Bodily Mortification

The Mother

Also known as the Holy Spirit, Comforter Spirit, Spirit of Truth, Wisdom, Amen, the Word of God, Logos, Sphota, Sound-Brahman, Shakti, Prana, Primordial Energy, and Creative Universal Vibration.

The Mother - Synoptic descriptions

All that was secret or manifest I learned,
For wisdom, (1) the fashioner of all things, (2) taught me.
For there is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy,
Unique, manifold, subtle,
Distinct, beyond harm, loving the good, keen,
Unhindered, beneficent, philanthropic,
Firm, sure, free from care,
All-powerful, all-seeing,
And interpenetrating all spirits
That are intelligent, pure, and most subtle.
For wisdom is more mobile than motion, (3)
And she penetrates and permeates everything,
Because she is so pure;
For she is the breath (4) of the power of God,
And a pure emanation of his almighty glory;
Therefore nothing defiled can enter into her.
For she is a reflection of the everlasting light,
And a spotless mirror of the activity of God,
And a likeness of his goodness.
("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 191.)

(1) The Divine Mother, Holy Spirit.

(2) The Creator of the material universe.

(3) She is the origin of motion.

(4) I.e., spirit = breath.

Mother worship is the worship of God as the Divine Mother, as the power of the Lord or the cosmic energy. Sakti, then, is energy. Just as one cannot separate heat from fire, so also one cannot separate Sakti from Sakta. (1) Sakti and Sakta are one. They are inseparable. Electricity, magnetism, force, heat, light, the five elements and their combinations are all external manifestations of Sakti. Intelligence, discrimination, psychic power and will are all Her manifestations. She keeps up the Lila (2) of the Lord through the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Even lust, anger, greed, egoism and pride are also Her manifestations. Her manifestations are countless. She lies dormant in the Muladhara Cakra (3) [sic] in the form of a serpentine power or coiled up energy known as the Kundalini Sakti. She lies at the centre of the life of the universe. She is the primal force of life that underlies all existence. She vitalises the body through Her energy. She is the energy in the sun, the fragrance in the flowers, the beauty in the landscape, the Gayatri (4) or the Blessed Mother in the Vedas, She is the colour in the rainbow, ... devotion in worship. ... [The Divine Mother] is pure blissful consciousness. She is the Mother of nature. It behooves ... the aspirant [to] approach the Mother first, so that She may introduce Her spiritual child to the Father for its illumination or Self-realization. That is the reason why the devotees have placed Radha, Sita, Laksmi, first in the jugal names, viz, Radha Krsna [sic], Sita Rama, Laksmi Narayana. Devi (5) is Sakti of Lord Siva. She is ... Maya-sakti. Sakti is Prakrti, [sic], Maya, Mahamaya, Sri Vidya, (6) Sakti is Brahman itself. ... ... The countless universes are only dust of Divine Mother's holy feet. Her glory is ineffable. Her splendour is indescribable. Her greatness is unfathomable. She showers Her grace on Her sincere devotees. She leads the individual from Cakra to Cakra, from plane to plane and unifies him with Lord Siva in the Sahasrara. The body is Sakti. The needs of the body are the needs of Sakti. When man enjoys it is Sakti who enjoys through him. His ears, eyes, hands and feet are Hers. She sees through his eyes, works through his hands, and hears through his ears. Body, mind, Prana, egoism, intellect, organs and all the other functions are Her manifestations. ... Saktism is not mere theory or philosophy. ... It helps the aspirant to arouse the Kundalini and unite Her with Lord Siva and to enjoy the Supreme Bliss of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. ... Worship of the Divine Mother with intense faith and perfect devotion and self-surrender will help you to attain Her grace. Through Her grace alone you can attain the knowledge of the Imperishable. Glory to ... the World-Mother.... May Her blessing be upon you all! (Swami Sivananda Sarasvati in KYW, 25-30.)

(1) The Father.

(2) Literally, the Lord's play, sport, or drama. In essence, the relative world or physical universe.

(3) At the base of the spine.

(4) A potent mantra glorifying the Mother.

(5) Devi = The Goddess.

(6) Swami Sivananda equates Maya, Sakti, Prakriti (the Creator), and Sri Vidya. The best equivalent of the last epithet might be "Holy Wisdom."

Embodying in Herself creation and destruction, love and terror, life and death, Kali is the symbol of the total universe. The eternal cycle of the manifestation and non-manifestation of the universe is the breathing-out and breathing-in of the Divine Mother. In one aspect, She is death, without which there cannot be life. One Her hands is smeared with blood, since without blood the picture of the phenomenal universe is not complete. To the wicked who have transgressed Her laws, She is the embodiment of terror, and to the virtuous, the benign Mother. Before creation She contains within Her womb the seed of the universe, which is left from the previous cycle. After the manifestation of the universe She becomes its preserver and nourisher, and at the end of the cycle She draws it back within Herself and remains as the undifferentiated Sakti, the creative power of Brahman. She is non-different from Brahman. When free from the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, the Spirit, in Its acosmic aspect, is called Brahman; otherwise It is known as the World Soul or the Divine Mother of the universe. She is therefore the doorway to the realization of the Absolute; She is the Absolute. To the daring devotee who wants to see the transencental Absolute, She reveals that form by withdrawing Her garment of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is Her transcendental aspect. She is the Great Fact of the universe, the totality of created beings. She is the Ruler and the Controller. (Nikhilananda, "Vivekananda" in VIV, 24.)

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." "In the beginning", the unmanifest cosmos, Shakti, floats like an egg in the silent motionless void. (Cf. Genesis I) A mass of latent undifferentiated energy, it contains the seed-power of all the universe. It rests in the Void (3) -- alternately flowering as the manifest, evolved cosmos, and then withdrawing itself in the dissolution.... Throughout eternity, like day and night, the universe alternately expands into matter and recedes into primal energy. During the period of dissolution, Shakti, the Divine Power or Cosmic Energy -- lies unfolded in Shakti. (4) Within its heart rest the three qualities: (5) sattva (purity), rajas (activity) and tamas (inertia), whose kaleidoscopic shifting permeates all aspects of the universe. The force is centrifugal for cosmic evolution -- which proceeds from the unconscious, unmoving, unknowable, unmanifest [macrocosm] to the conscious, moving, knowable, manifest microcosm. It is centripetal for human evolution, which is a return journey from the gross, physical plane of microcosm back to the Absolute. ... Thus, in the Tantric view, Sound, as a vibration of undifferentiated Intelligence is the catalyst that sets into motion the unfolding of the manifest cosmos. A primal shudder disturbs the slumbering equilibrium of Shakti and arouses rajas -- the active principle -- to carry out the creation of the manifold universes. The Causal Vibration -- Shabda-Brahman -- the soundless sound -- undifferentiated, is "the wavelength experienced as God." (Sister Vandana, NJ, 190-1.)

(1) The Sound-Brahman, Om, the Mother's primal creative vibration.

(2) Repetition of the names of God, including mantra.

(3) The Father.

(4) She may be making a distinction between the latent Shakti behind creation and the manifest Shakti within creation. Here is Paramahansa Ramakrishna's epitomization of it: "She brings forth the phenomenal plane and then pervades it." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 135.)

(5) The gunas.

The Mother - She is the mother of all things, forms, the phenomenal world

It began with a matrix: The world had a mother. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 105.)

Nameless indeed is the source of creation, But things have a mother and she has a name. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 53.)

The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother. (Kabir quoted by Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 150.)

The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kali temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness - all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room [of the Kali temple] soaked, as it were, in Bliss - the Bliss of God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 15.)

"It is the Spirit of God that actively sustains every form and force in the universe; yet he (1) is transcendental and aloof in the blissful uncreated void beyond the worlds of vibratory phenomena," Master explained. (Paramahansa Yogananda, quoting Sri Yukteswar Giri in AY, 143.)

(1) Still the Mother, though masculine. The Holy Spirit has no gender.

The countless universes are only dust of Divine Mother's holy feet. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

The Mother - See how vast She is

God has a great angel who has numberless hairs on his (1) head. According to this comparison all the angels and everything else talked about [are] just like one pearl on the hair of a person. Had God given this angel the order he would have swallowed up the whole of existence as one morsel and would not have even noticed that something had passed his throat. The name of this angel is Spirit. (Ibn Arabi, KK, 15-6.)

(1) The Divine Mother, or Holy Spirit, has no gender and is often referred to as male. Gender reference here is conventional rather than reality-based.

The macrocosm and the microcosm rest in the Mother's womb; Now do you see how vast it is? (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 106.)

The Mother - Sustains and enlightens the sage

Alone I am and different, Because I prize and seek My sustenance from the Mother. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 72.)

The Divine Mother ... is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 136.)

The Mother - Bestows the power to remit sins

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (Jesus in John 20:21-2.)

The Mother - Is known through Her effects

It is from the effects that she produces that [Maya's] existence is inferred by the wise. (Shankara in CJD, 49.)

The Mother - Is consciousness itself

[The Divine Mother] is pure blissful consciousness. (Swami Sivananda Saraswati in Swami Radha, KYFW, 26.)

Awake, Mother! ... O Essence of Consciousness! (A devotee sings in GSR, 182.)

The Mother - Is purity itself

Thou art purity itself. (UPAN, 37.)

For wisdom (1) ... penetrates and permeates everything, Because she is so pure; For she is the breath of the power of God, And a pure emenation of his almighty glory. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in Goodspeed, Aprocrypha, 191.)

(1) An epithet for the Divine Mother.

Nothing defiled can enter into her. For she is a reflection of the everlasting light, And a spotless mirror of the activity of God, And a likeness of his goodness. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 191.)

The Mother - Her world of form is described by avatars and masters

Upon me, (1) these worlds are held Like pearls strung on a thread. (Sri Krishna in BG, 71.)

(1) Krishna is a full incarnation (or purnavatar) of Brahman, the Father.

By brightness He (1) maintains that distant shining Heaven which surrounds the whole earth; it looks like a celestial palace stretching to farthest limits in the form of a glowing jewel that illumines the three regions. (Zarathustra, GSR, 8.)

(1) The Father, Brahman.

[In] the vibrationless region of God the Father, ... no solids, liquids, gaseous matter, nor time nor space exist. ... [The] vibratory region containing universes and our little solar system [is] the domain of Holy Spirit or Cosmic vibration, intelligently guided by latent Christ consciousness to create finite universes. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 56.)

God the Father's cosmic consciousness exists inactively in regions where there is no motion or presence of the Holy-Ghost vibration. (For the Holy Ghost vibration is limited only to a certain tract of space which is peopled by the cosmos and all island universes. Holy Vibration is condensed into planetary creation.)

(Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 29.)

The Mother - The Mother's vast domain is glimpsed in the midst of enlightenment experiences

When he nodded at me, (1) I beheld in my mind the Light..., (2) and the truly indefinite (3) ornament or world; (4) ... the Fire (5) is comprehended or contained in ... a great moist Power, (6) and constrained to keep its station. (7) (Hermes' experience of full enlightenment in DPH,9.)

(1) Hermes experiences enlightenment through the agency of Pymander, "the Lord of the Word." (Ibid., 17.)

(2) The Father.

(3) Illusory.

(4) The manifest Mother.

(5) The Soul.

(6)The latent Mother.

(7) By inference, constrained to remain in the world of matter.

... Then [Arjuna] the son of Pandu beheld the entire universe, in all its multitudinous diversity, lodged as one being within the body of the God of gods. (BG, 92.)

It is within you the cosmos rests in safety. (Arjuna, during his penultimate-enlightenment experience to Krishna, the embodied Father, in BG, 95.)

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.' (Yogeshananda, VSR, 41.)

An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His (1) body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The dazzling light beyond the sharply etched global outlines faded slightly at the farthest edges; there I saw a mellow radiance, ever undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light. The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous lustre, then fire became firmament. (Paramahansa Yogananda's experience of full enlightenment in AY, 142.)

(1) Paramahansa Yogananda conceives of the Holy Spirit as masculine.

The Mother - The Mother is identified as a primordial, pure, and holy vibration, symbolized by Aum

O Mother! O Embodiment of Om! (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 299.)

All this expressed, sensible universe is the form, and behind it stands the eternal, the inexpressible Sphota, (1) the manifester, as Logos or Word. This eternal Sphota, the essential and eternal material of all ideas or names, is the power through which the Lord creates the universe. Nay, the Lord first becomes conditioned as the Sphota and then evolves Himself as the yet more concrete sensible universe. This Sphota has one word as its only possible symbol, and this is Om. And as we can by no possible means of analysis separate the word from the idea, Om and the eternal Sphota are inseparable; and therefore it is out of this holiest of all holy words, the mother of all names and forms, the eternal Om, that the whole universe may be supposed to have been created. ... Therefore this Sphota is called the Nada-Brahman, the Sound-Brahman. (Vivekananda in Nikhilananda, VIV, 422.)

(1) Sphota: "Lit., 'idea [or] sound that makes the mind burst open like a blossom'; the logos, or sound-essence, whose symbol is OM." (Usha, RVW, 74.)

The Mother - The Holy Spirit is also identified as the holy vibration, Aum (Amen)

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the [Holy] Spirit saith unto the churches.... These things saith the Amen, (1) the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. (Revelation 2:7 and 3:14.)

(1) Aum.

The intelligent holy vibration, or the first manifestation of God the Father, ... manifests as the cosmic sound of Aum, or Amen, which can be heard in meditation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 17.)

The Cosmic Energy, or Vibration, ... has a voice of Cosmic Sound which is called Amen by Christians or Om by Hindus. This Amen is the faithful witness in the beginning of creation -- that is, all vibrating creation is accompanied by the Cosmic Sound of Amen or Om or the Word or Holy Ghost, which is the first vibrating manifestation of God. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 2, 22.)

Aun [sic] or the Holy Ghost, [is] the sole causative force that upholds the cosmos through vibration. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 487n.)

The Mother - Why the terms "Holy Ghost" and "Word of God" are used to refer to Mother Aum

Ghost signifies an intelligent, invisible, conscious force, or intelligent cosmic vibration. It is holy because the emanent (outflowing) consciousness of God the Father, or Christ intelligence, guides it to create all finite matter. The ancients, not versed in the polished language of modern times, used "Holy Ghost" and "Word" for Intelligent Cosmic Vibration, which is the first materialization of God the Father in matter. The Hindus speak of this "Holy Ghost" as the "Aum". "A" stands for "Akar" or creative vibration; "U" stands for "Ukar" or preservative vibration; and "M' for "Makar" or destructive vibration. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 15-16.)

Holy Ghost, Aum of the Hindus, the Mohammedan Amin, the Christian Amen, Voice of Many Waters, Word are the same thing. Aum is called the word because the word signifies cosmic intelligent vibratory sound which is the origin of all sounds and languages. This intelligent cosmic vibration or word is the first manifestation of God in creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 19.)

Aum of the Vedas became the sacred word Hum of the Tibetans, Amin of the Moslems, and Amen of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians. Its meaning in Hebrew is sure, faithful. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 237n.)

The Mother - Mother Aum is the Voice of God

The floods (1) have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; (2) the floods lift up their waves. (3) The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, (4) yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. (5) (Psalm 93:3-4.)

(1) The Heavenly Father.

(2) The Aum vibration, here described as the Mother's emanation.

(3) The Divine Mother.

(4) The Mother again.

(5) The Father.

Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: (1) And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel (2) came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:1-2.)

(1) Paramahansa Yogananda argues, below, that this gate is the Third Eye.

(2) That is to say, the Holy Spirit or Divine Mother.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, (1) Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3.)

(1) The voice is the sound of Aum; the wilderness is the Heavenly Father, barren of "things" and full of bliss. It has been argued that making straight the way of the Lord is creating a straightened spine along which the shakti or energy can travel from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine to the sahasrara at the top of the head. The knocking that Jesus refers to in Rev. 3:20 occurs in the medulla oblongata at the base of the neck. (See Da Free John's experience of Mother Aum's presence, below in this section.)

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters. (St. John in Revelation 14:2.)

Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak -- it is a messenger that comes, a messenger without form or substance. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 17.)

To hear the Voice of the Silence is to understand that from within comes the only true guidance. (Ascended Master, probably the Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, LOP, 22.)

Throughout the Bible wherever the word "VOICE" or "GOD SAID" is used, it signifies that God did not speak through a throat but that, whenever God wills to create something definite, His will stirs up and energizes the Cosmic Energy which produces various sounds. Hence, "God said" means God vibrating, and His Voice signifies His Intelligent Cosmic Vibration and Energy. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 2, 22.)

The Aum vibration that reverberates throughout the universe [is] the "Word" or "voice of many waters" of the Bible. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 17n.)

Through the divine eye in the forehead (east), the yogi sails his consciousness into omnipresence, hearing the Word or Aum, divine sound of "many waters": the vibrations of light that constitute the sole reality of creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 267-8.)

By deep meditation ... the student can hear the voice of cosmic sound, emanating from all atoms and sparks of cosmic energy. By listening to this omnipresent sound the consciousness of the body-caged soul begins gradually to spread itself from the limitations of the body into omnipresence. One listening to the cosmic sound will find his consciousness spreading with it to limitlessness. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 15.)

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock (1) (sound through Om vibration): If any man hear my voice (listen to Om), and open the door, I will come in to him." (Revelation 3:20). Patanjali (a great Hindu Raja Yogi) wrote: "Meditate on Om to actually contact [God]. Om is His symbol (manifestation of creation)." (Paramahansa Yogananda, Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, Number 29, 3.)

(1) See Da Free John, below, for an example of Aum knocking at the door.

I could feel and hear little clicking pulses in the base of my head and neck, indicating the characteristic Presence of the Mother Shakti. (Da Free John, KOL, 132.)

[The Sphota is literally the] "idea or sound that makes the mind burst open like a blossom"; the Logos, or sound-essence, whose symbol is OM. (Usha, RVW, 74.)

The Mother - Is equated with the Primal Energy or Power of the Lord, known as Kali, Shakti, Mother Kundalini, Prana

The Lord of beings ... meditated and produced Prana, the primal energy. (UPAN, 35.)

As fire, Prana burns; as the sun, he (1) shines; as cloud, he rains; as Indra, he rules the gods; as wind, he blows; as the moon, he nourishes all. He is that which is visible and also that which is invisible. He is immortal life. (UPAN, 37.)

(1) The Mother is here referred to as masculine. The Divine Mother or Holy Spirit has no gender.

Whatsoever exists in the universe is dependent on thee, O Prana. Protect us as a mother protects her children. (UPAN, 37.)

The Divine Mother [is] the Primal Energy. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 116.)

The Divine Mother [is] the Cosmic Power itself. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 116.)

That which is Brahman is also Kali, the Mother, the primal Energy. When inactive It is called Brahman. Again, when creating, preserving, and destroying, It is called Sakti. Still water is an illustration of Brahman. The same water, moving in waves, may be compared to Sakti, Kali. What is the meaning of Kali? She who communes with Maha-Kala, the Absolute, is Kali. She is formless and, again, She has forms. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 634.)

Awake, Mother! Awake! How long Thou hast been asleep In the lotus of the Muladhara! Fulfil Thy secret function, Mother: Rise to the thousand-petalled lotus within the head Where mighty Siva has His dwelling; Swiftly pierce the six lotuses And take away my grief, O Essence of Consciousness! (A devotee sings in GSR, 182.)

Devi (1) is Sakti of Lord Siva. (2) She is ... Maya-sakti. (3) Sakti is Prakrti, (4) [sic], Maya, (5) Mahamaya, (6) Sri Vidya, Sakti is Brahman (7) itself. (Swami Sivananda Sarasvati in KYW, 26.)

(1) The Goddess; i.e., the Divine Mother or Holy Spirit.

(2) The Divine Consort of God.

(3) Great Shakti, the Divine Mother.

(4) Nature, the Cosmos.

(5) The illusiuonary world of matter, mater, or Mother.

(6) The Divine Mother, creator of matter.

(7) God.

The Divine Mother [is] the power of the Lord or the cosmic energy. Sakti ... is energy. (Swami Sivananda Sarasvati in KYW, 25.)

Electricity, magnetism, force, heat, light, the five elements and their combinations are all external manifestations of Sakti. ... She lies dormant in the Muladhara Cakra (1) [sic] in the form of a serpentine power or coiled up energy known as the Kundalini Sakti. She lies at the centre of the life of the universe. She is the primal force of life that underlies all existence. (Swami Sivananda Sarasvati in KYW, 25.)

(1) The first or lowest of the seven spiritual energy centres in the body.

The Mother - The Holy Spirit is called "Wisdom"

I have filled [them] with the spirit of wisdom. (Exodus 28:3.)

And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom. (Exodus 35:31.)

And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him. (Deuteronomy 34:9.)

And who has learned your counsel Unless you gave him wisdom, And sent your holy spirit from on high. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 195.)

For there is in [Wisdom] a spirit That is intelligent, holy, Unique, manifold, subtle... All-powerful, all-seeing, And interpenetrating all spirits That are intelligent, pure, and most subtle. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 191.)

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, (1) the spirit of wisdom. (Isaiah 11:2.)

(1) Isaiah is prophesying of Jesus.

I ... cease not to [pray] ... That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. (St. Paul in Ephesians 1:15-7.)

The Spouse (1) ... is the Wisdom of God. (St. John of the Cross in CWSJC, 75.)

(1) The Beloved, the Holy Ghost, with whom the aspirant merges in worship or meditation.

This flame of love is the Spirit of the Bridegroom, which is the Holy Spirit. (St. John of the Cross in CWSJC, 580.)

The Mother - The Holy Spirit and Aum are called "the Comforter"

For it is the Holy Spirit, Comforter and Loyal Friend, who Himself (1) by Righteousness wards off destruction from all, O God. (Zarathustra, GZ, 217.)

(1) The Holy Spirit here being referred to as masculine.

I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he (1) may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; (2) whom the world cannot receive. (Jesus in John 14:16-7.)

(1) Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as masculine. The Holy Spirit has no gender.

(2) The experience of the Divine Mother, here termed "penultimate enlightenment," often also called "baptism of the Holy Ghost."

The Comforter ... is the Holy Ghost. (Jesus in John 14:26.)

When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. (John 15:26.)

Aun [sic] the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth, bringing "all things to remembrance." (John 14:26) (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 144n.)

This Holy Ghost is the Great Comforter. Being guided by the universal, reflected, God-consciousness, it contains the all-coveted bliss of God. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 19.)

The Mother - In the beginning was the Mother and the Mother was with God

I am that Light, the Mind, thy God, who am before that moist nature (1) that appeared out of darkness.... That which in thee seeth and heareth, the Word of the Lord, (2) and the Mind the Father, God, differ not one from the other; and the union of these is Life. (3) (Hermes, DPH, 8-9.)

(1) The Mother.

(2) The Mother.

(3) In Hermes' theosophy, the term "the Son of God" is reserved for the what we have called the Mother: "the shining word of God (Sound) is the Son of the Deity." (Ibid., "Notes to the Wizard Edition," n.p.)

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 of Aum.

(2) Zarathustrean name for the Soul, Atman, or Self.

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were not depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set up a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him .... Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. (Proverbs 8:22-32.)

When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, and when darkness was enveloped in darkness, then the Mother, the Formless One, Maha-Kali, the Great Power, was one with Maha-Kala, the Absolute. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 135.)

"In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) In the quotation, "Word" represents Sound and not the word of Grammar or meaning. "The Word was God" means the sound was God. This Sound is the Inner Sound OM, AUM, Amen. (Swami Satyeswarananda Giri, LM, 2.)

The Mother - The Mother and the Father are one - See also The Father - Stands behind the Mother

[In response to his disciples’ request for a password, Jesus said:] Tell them a movement and a rest. (1) (A. Guillaumont et al. The Gospel According to Thomas. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1959, 29.)

(1) The Mother is that movement; the Father is that rest.

He who is Brahman is addressed as the Mother. .. What is called Brahman in the Vedas is addressed by [Ramprasad in his devotional songs] as the Mother. He who is attributeless also has attributes. He who is Brahman is also Sakti. When thought of as inactive, He is called Brahman, and when thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, He is called the Primordial Energy, Kali. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 107.)

O Mother, ... Thou art Purusha (1) and Thou art Prakriti. (2) ... Thou art the Absolute, and Thou dost manifest Thyself as the Relative. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 123.)

(1) The Supreme Person; i.e., Brahman.

(2) Prakriti = Procreatrix = Creator, Nature.

When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive -- neither creating nor preserving nor destroying --, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, (1) the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active -- creating, preserving, and destroying --, I call him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 32.)

(1) Supreme Person.

The Source and center of all existence is pure spirit existing in all created things as Great Spirit. The absolute, unmanifested invisible spriit is Sky Father; the manifested, ever-changing spirit becomes visible as nature in Earth Mother. ... Earth Mother or Nature is the Creator's breath made visible. (John Redtail Freesoul, BI, 11-2.)

The Mother - The Holy Spirit and the Father are one

Now the Lord is that Spirit. (St. Paul in II Corinthians 3:17.)

The Spirit comes by the command of the Lord. ... It is an indivisible essence belonging to the world of decrees, and ... it is not from everlasting, but created. (1) (Al-Ghazzali, AH, 21-2.)

(1) The Mother is not beyond the Father and hence has a beginning. She too is a creation or creature, as we are.

The Mother - Wisdom and the Father are one

For wisdom (1) ... is the breath of the power of God, And a pure emenation of his almighty glory. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 191.)

(1) The Divine Mother.

Doth not wisdom cry? ... The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. (Proverbs, 8:1 and 8:22-4.)

The Mother - The Primal Energy and the Father are one

The Spirit, God the Father, or Iswara, manifests Himself as the cosmic vibration, or matter. (1) (Patanjali in Yogananda, SCC, 1, 15.)

(1) This is the same as saying that the Spirit is the first manifestation of God and they are not different. When God is still, He is the Father; when He moves, He is the Mother.

Brahman and the Primal Energy at first appear to be two. But after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman one does not see the two. Then there is no differentation; it is One, without a second -- Advaita -- non-duality. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 242.)

That which is Brahman is also the Primal Energy. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 242.)

It is like water, sometimes still and sometimes covered with waves. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 283.)

That which is unmoving also moves. Just now you are still, but a few moments later the same you will be engaged in action. (PR in GSR, 812.)

Brahman and Sakti are identical. If you accept the one, you must accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. If you see the fire, you must recognize its power to burn also. You cannot think of fire without its power to burn, nor can you think of its power to burn without fire. You cannot conceive of the sun’s rays without the sun, nor can you conceive of the sun without its rays. What is milk like? Oh, you say, it is something white. You cannot think of the milk without the whiteness, and again, you cannot think of the whiteness without the milk. Thus one cannot think of Brahman without Sakti, or of Sakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Realtive, or of the Relative without the Absolute.

The Primordial Power is ever at play. She is creating, preserving, and destroying in play, as it were. This Power is called Kali. Kali is verily Brahman, and Brahman is verily Kali. It is one and the same Reality. When we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not engaged in the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, then we call It Brahman. But when It engages in these activities, then we call it Kali or Sakti. The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form.

It is like water, called in different languages by different names, such as “jal,” “pani,” and so forth. There are three or four ghats on a lake. The Hindus, who drink water at one place, call it “jal.” The Mussulmans at another place call it “Pani.” And the English at a third place call it “water.” All three denote one and the same thing, the difference being in the name only. In the same way, some address the Reality as “Allah,” some as “God,” some as “Brahman,” some as “Kali,” and others by such names as “Rama,” “Durga,” “Hari.” (PR in GSR, 134-5.)

The intelligent, holy vibration [is] the first manifestation of God the Father. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 17.)

The Mother - Aum, the Word of God, and the Father are one

Om ... This syllable is Brahman. This syllable is indeed supreme. He who knows it obtains his desire. (UPAN, 18.)

OM is Brahman -- both the conditioned and the unconditioned, the personal and the impersonal. ... OM ... is one with God. (UPAN, 40.)

The syllable OM, which is the imperishable Brahman, is the universe. Whatsoever has existed, whatsoever exists, whatsoever shall exist hereafter, is OM. And whatsoever transcends past, present, and future, that is also OM. (UPAN, 50.)

Thou art Brahman, one with the syllable OM, which is in all scriptures -- the supreme syllable, the Mother of all sound. ... The syllable OM is verily thine image. Through this syllable thou mayest be attained. (UPAN, 53.)

I (1) am ... OM in all the Vedas, The word that is God. (Sri Krishna in BG, 71.)

(1) Sri Krishna speaks as an embodiment of the Father, Brahman.

The word which expresses [Iswara, the conditioned Brahman] is Om. (Patanjali in Prabhavananda and Isherwood, HTKG, 39.)

Oh, Lord, dweller within... Om is your very self, Om, holiest word. (Shankara in CJD, i.)

So the Word, Amen, Aum, being the manifestation of the Eternal Nature of the Almighty Father or His Own Self, is inseparable from and nothing but God Himself; as the burning power is inseparable from and nothing but the fire itself. (Sri Yukteswar Giri, HS, 24.)

God is the Word or Om or Holy Ghost or Cosmic Vibration or Cosmic Energy. God is Cosmic Sound resulting from the Cosmic Energy and Cosmic Vibration. God's first manifestation is the Word or Intelligent Cosmic Vibrating Sound. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 2, 22.)

Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum that is heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word, the whir of the Vibratory Motor, the witness of Divine Presence. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 237.)

The Mother - Maya, Shakti, Prakriti, Prana and the Father are one

The Lord of beings ... meditated and produced Prana, the primal energy. (UPAN, 35.)

Prana is born of the Self. (1) Like a man and his shadow, the Self and Prana are inseparable. (UPAN, 38.)

(1) The transcendental Self or the Father.

Prakriti, this vast womb, I (1) quicken into birth. (Sri Krishna in BG, 106.)

(1) Krishna is speaking as an incarnation of Brahman.

Know this my Prakriti United with me: The womb of all beings. (Sri Krishna in BG, 70.)

Maya, in her potential aspect, is the divine power of the Lord. (Shankara in CJD, 49.)

If you are aware of the Male Principle, you cannot ignore the Female Principle. He who is aware of the father must also think of the mother. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 321.)

When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive -- neither creating nor preserving nor destroying --, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, (1) the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active -- creating, preserving, and destroying --, I call him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 32.)

(1) Supreme Person.

Brahman and Sakti are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When we talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn. Again, the fire's power to burn implies the fire itself. If you accept the one you must accept the other. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 108.)

One cannot think of Brahman without Sakti, or of Sakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the Relative without the Absolute. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 134.)

That which is Syama (1) is also Brahman. That which has form, again, is without form. That which has attributes, again, has no attributes. Brahman is Sakti; Sakti is Brahman. They are not two. These are only two aspects, male and female, (2) of the same Reality, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 271.)

(1) Yet another name of the Mother. (2) But not male and female in any human or even anthropomorphic way. The mystical distinction is between the male as silence, stillness, and emptiness and the female as sound, activity, and manifestation.

O Mother, ... Thou art Purusha (1) and Thou art Prakriti. ... Thou art the Absolute, and Thou dost manifest Thyself as the Relative. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 123.)

(1) The Supreme Person or Brahman.

He who is Brahman is addressed as the Mother. .. What is called Brahman in the Vedas is addressed by [Ramprasad in his devotional songs] as the Mother. He who is attributeless also has attributes. He who is Brahman is also Sakti. When thought of as inactive, He is called Brahman, and when thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, He is called the Primordial Energy, Kali. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 107.)

Brahman and Sakti are, in fact, not different. That which is the Blissful Mother is, again, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. They are like the gem and its luster. When one speaks of the luster of the gem, one thinks of the gem; and again, when one speaks of the gem, one refers to its luster. Once cannot conceive of the luster of the gem without thinking of the gem, and one cannot conceive of the gem without thinking of its luster. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 277.)

Water is water whether it is calm or full of waves and bubbles. The Absolute alone is the Primordial Energy, which creates, preserves, and destroys. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 277-8.)

That which is unmoving also moves. Just now you are still, but a few moments later the same you will be engaged in action. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 812.)

Brahman and Sakti are identical. If you accept the one, you must accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. If you see the fire, you must recognize its power to burn also. You cannot think of fire without its power to burn, nor can you think of its power to burn without fire. You cannot conceive of the sun's rays without the sun, nor can you conceive of the sun without its rays. What is milk like? Oh, you say, it is something white. You cannot think of the milk without the whiteness, and again, you cannot think of the whiteness without the milk. Thus one cannot think of Brahman without Sakti, or of Sakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the Relative without the Absolute. The Primordial Power is ever at play. She is creating, preserving, and destroying in play, as it were. This Power is called Kali. Kali is verily Brahman, and Brahman is verily Kali. It is one and the same Reality. When we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not engaged in the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, then we call It Brahman. But when It engages in these activities, then we call it Kali or Sakti. The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form. It is like water, called in different languages by different names, such as "jal," "pani," and so forth. There are three or four ghats on a lake. The Hindus, who drink water at one place, call it "jal." The Mussulmans at another place call it "Pani." And the English at a third place call it "water." All three denote one and the same thing, the difference being in the name only. In the same way, some address the Reality as "Allah," some as "God," some as "Brahman," some as "Kali," and others by such names as "Rama," "Durga," "Hari." (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 134-5.)

Brahman and Sakti are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When a man thinks of fire, he must also think of its power to burn. Again, when he thinks of the power to burn, he must also think of fire. Further, Brahman and Sakti are like milk and its whiteness, water and its wetness. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 287.)

Brahman and Sakti are like the snake and its wriggling motion, and thinking of its wriggling motion, one must think of the snake. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 290.)

That which is Brahman is also Kali, the Adyashati, who creates, preserves, and destroys the universe. He who is Krishna is the same as Kali. The root is one - all these are His sport and play. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 1012.)

When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and destroying, It is known as the Personal God, Saguna Brahman, or the Primal Energy, Adyasakti. Again, when It is thought of as beyond the three gunas, then it is called the Attributeless Reality, Nirguna Brahman, beyond speech and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Paramatman. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 218.)

However] it will not do to simply express that idea in words. Only when you assimilate it will all be well with you. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 311.)

The absolute Brahman at the inner entrance [of the house of God] (1) is the bright triune (2) Parabrahman, (3) absolute ... but cognizable; at the threshold of the porch (4) He is Parabrahman envisaging Maya, (5) and the next step carries Him into Maya, where Duality begins, Purusha (6) differentiates from Prakriti, (7) Spirit from Matter, Force from Energy, Ego from Non-Ego; and as the descent into phenomena deepens, single Purusha differentiates itself into multitudinous receptacles, single Prakriti into innumerable forms. This is the law of Maya. (Sri Aurobindo, UP, 27.)

(1) Sri Aurobindo is describing reality from the standpoint of the Absolute, looking outward towards creation from the metaphorical porch of his house. (2) By triune, I believe he means Satchidananda, absolute existence, knowledge, and bliss. (3)The All-Brahman or All-Self. (4) Standing at the threshold of the porch. (5) The Mother. (6) The Supreme Person. (7) The Procreatrix.

Just as one cannot separate heat from fire, so also one cannot separate Sakti from Sakta. (1) Sakti and Sakta are one. They are inseparable. (Swami Sivananda Sarasvati in KYW, 25.)

(1) Brahman, the Father, or Mahasiva.

Prakriti ... is God Himself. .... That man who has not separated Her from God [as science separates Her], worships Her as Mother, knowing that She is God. (Ramakrishnananda, GDI, 8.)

The Mother - She arose from the Father

From What-is (1) all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not. (2) (Lao Tzu, WOL, 40.)

(1) The Mother.

(2) The Father.

Zibo traveled to Mount Wutai [a Buddhist sacred mountain in North China, legendary abode of Manjusri, the bodhisattva representing transcendent wisdom]. He came to a cave on a steep cliff where there was an old adept sitting in solitude. Zibo bowed in homage and asked: "How is it before a single thought is born?" The adept held up one finger. "How is it after it is born? The adept extended both hands. Zibo at once comprehended his message. (16th Century Ch'an master Zibo in ZIBO, 10.)

The Mother - She expresses the Father's Will

The Spirit is at my Lord's command. (Koran, 233.)

God has a great angel who has numberless hairs on his (1) head. According to this comparison all the angels and everything else talked about [are] just like one pearl on the hair of a person. Had God given this angel the order he would have swallowed up the whole of existence as one morsel and would not have even noticed that something had passed his throat. The name of this angel is Spirit. (Ibn Arabi, KK, 15-6.)

(1) The Divine Mother, or Holy Spirit here referred to as male.

The Spirit comes by the command of the Lord. ... It is an indivisible essence belonging to the world of decrees, and ... it is not from everlasting, but created. (1) (Al-Ghazzali, AH, 21-2.)

(1) The Mother is not beyond the Father and hence has a beginning. She too is a creation or creature, as we are.

When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, and when darkness was enveloped in dakrness, then the Mother, the Formless One, Maha-Kali, the Great Power, was one with Maha-Kala, the Absolute. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 135.)

Brahman ... first manifested as a twin principle -- half man and half woman -- just to show that It was both Purusha (1) and Prakriti (2). Descending a step lower, It separated into Purusha and Prakriti as distinct entities. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in LSR, 382.)

(1) Here, the Cosmic Male.(2) Here, the Cosmic Female.

The Mother - The Mother cannot be slandered with impunity

All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (Jesus in Matthew 12:31-2.)

The Mother - Together the Mother and Father created the material universe

Nameless indeed is the source of creation (1) But things (2) have a mother and she has a name. (Lao-Tzu, WOL, 53.)

(1) I.e., the nameless, formless Father. (2) That is, materiality, the physical universe, has a Mother and She has form and name.

One day [the Mother] showed me Siva and Sakti everywhere. Everywhere I saw the communion of Siva and Sakti. Siva and Sakti existing in all living things - men, animals, trees, plants. I saw Them in the communion of all male and female elements. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 376.)

Kala, Siva, is Brahman. That which sports with Kala is Kali, the Primal Energy. Kali moves even the Immutable. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 380.)

Kali stands on the bosom of Siva; Siva lies under Her feet like a corpse; Kali looks at Siva. All this denotes the union of Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is inactive; therefore Siva lies on the ground like a corpse. Prakriti performs all Her activities in conjunction with Purusha. Thus She creates, preserves, and destroys. That is also the meaning of the conjoined images of Radha and Krishna. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 271.)

Two great divine principles ... created everything, the Heavenly Father and the Divine Mother. (Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, LAS, 1, 15.)

Maya, which is not essentially different from Brahman, is the material cause, and Brahman, as pure intelligence, is the efficient cause of the universe. After projecting all material forms, Brahman enters into them as life and consciousness and animates them. Thus Brahman, which is transcendental, becomes immanent in the universe. (Nikhilananda, HIN, 45.)

The Mother - The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is named as creator of the physical universe

And the Earth and the Water ... were moved because of the Spiritual word that was carried upon them. (Hermes, DPH, 8.)

Thou art the Holy Father of this Spirit who created all this joy-giving earth. (Zarathustra, GZ, 240.)

The Lord God has produced ... creation ... through innate Wisdom, and the management of the bodily and spiritual worlds is also through Wisdom. (Zarathustra, GZ, 13.)

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2.)

Your imperishable spirit is in all things. ("The Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 199.)

O Holy Spirit, Fiery Comforter Spirit, [you are the] Life of the life of all creatures. (Hildegard of Bingen in IHB, 9.)

The Holy Ghost [is] ... Nature (Sanskrit Prakriti). (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 33.)

The Mother - Wisdom is named as creator

O Lord God, Most Holy Spirit [who made] ... the Spirit of Wisdom, out of what is His own Glory.... (Zarathustra, GZ, 13.)

Thine [is] the Spiritual Wisdom that created the world, O God. (Zarathushtra, GZ, 187.)

The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth. (Proverbs 3:19.)

[Wisdom] is thy life (1). (Proverbs 4:13.)

(1) Both temporal and eternal life.

For wisdom ... penetrates and permeates everything. ("Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 191.)

Wisdom ... operates everything. ("The Wisdom of Solomon" in APO, 192.)

The Mother - Aum (Amen, Ahunavairya), the Word of God, is named as creator

Holy art thou, (1) that by thy Word has established all things. (Hermes, DPH, 17.)

(1) The Father.

The syllable OM, which is the imperishable Brahman, is the universe. Whatsoever has existed, whatsoever exists, whatsoever shall exist hereafter, is OM. And whatsoever transcends past, present, and future, that is also OM. (UPAN 50.)

The Sacred Word of Ahunavairya, (1) ... the Word which was before the Earth, before living beings, before Fire the Son of the Lord God (2).... By speaking it the holier of my two Spirits has produced the whole righteous creation which was and is and will be, through the working of Life's actions Godward. (Zarathustra, GZ, 9.)

(1) Equivalent of Aum, the Word of God. (2) Before Brahman was folded into Maya as Atman, or the Father was embedded in the Holy Spirit as the Son.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... All things were made by him; (1) and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1 + 3.)

(1) The Mother.

The source from which a universe proceeds is a manifested Divine Being, to whom in the modern form of the Ancient Wisdom the name of Logos, or Word, has been given. The name is drawn from Greek philosophy, but perfectly expresses the ancient ideas, the Word which emerges from the Silence, the Voice, the Sound, by which the worlds come into being. (Annie Besant, AW, 44.)

The Word, Amen, (Aum), is the beginning of creation. The manifestation of Omnipotent Force ... is vibration, which appears as a peculiar sound: Amen, Aum. (Sri Yukteswar Giri, HS, 23.)

The manifestation of the Word (becoming flesh, the external material) created this visible world. (Sri Yukteswar Giri, HS, 24.)

Aun [sic] or the Holy Ghost [is] the sole causative force that upholds the cosmos through vibration. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 487n.)

"All things were made by him (1) (the Word or Aum); and without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 237n.)

(1) Though masculine, still the "Mother."

The outward manifestation of the omnipresent Christ Consciousness, its "witness" (Revelation 3:14), is AUN [sic], the Word or Holy Ghost: invisible divine power, the only doer, the sole causative and activating force that upholds all creation through vibration. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 143-4.)

This Amen is the faithful witness in the beginning of creation -- that is, all vibrating creation is accompanied by the Cosmic Sound of Amen or Om or the Word or Holy Ghost, which is the first vibrating manifestation of God. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 2, 22.)

The Mother - The Divine Mother Kali is named as creator

[At Lahore] I acquired a picture of the Divine Mother in the form of the Goddess Kali. ... Kali is a symbol of God in the aspect of eternal Mother Nature. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 10.)

Nature [is] symbolized by Kali. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 41.)

Kali represents the Eternal Principle (1) in Nature. She is traditionally pictured as a four-armed woman standing on the recumbent form of the God Shiva or the Infinite; because the activities of Nature or the phenomenal world spring from the [latent] Spirit. The four arms symbolize cardinal attributes: two beneficent, two destructive; the essential duality of matter or creation. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 40n.)

(1) The Father.

Kali ... is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature. ... She is the Universal Mother. (Nikhilananda in "Introduction" to GSR, 9-10.)

The Mother - Maya is named as creator

Maya makes all things: what moves, what is unmoving. O son of Kunti, that is why the world spins, Turning its wheel through birth And through destruction. (Sri Krishna in BG, 80.)

It is [Maya] who gives birth to the whole universe. (Shankara in CJD, 49.)

The Mother - Shakti is named as creator

The creative energy of Brahman (1) is that which causes all existences to come into being. (Sri Krishna in BG, 74.)

(1) Shakti, the Divine Mother.

Sakti alone is the root of the universe. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 116.)

[Shakti] is the Mother of nature. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

The world is a manifestation of Sakti. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

[Shakti] lies at the centre of the life of the universe. She is the primal force of life that underlies all existence. She vitalises the body through Her energy. She is the energy in the sun, the fragrance in the flowers, the beauty in the landscape, the Gayatri (1) or the Blessed Mother in the Vedas, She is the colour in the rainbow [and] devotion in worship. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 25.)

(1) A mantra dedicated to the Mother.

Electricity, magnetism, force, heat, light, the five elements and their combinations are all external manifestations of Sakti. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 25.)

The Mother - Prakriti is named as the creator

Sakti is Prakrti [sic]. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

Prakriti means creative force, Latin Procreatrix; and creative force means that power which brings something into existence, which makes something imperceptible, perceptible, sensible, conceivable. (Ramakrishnananda, GDI, 1.)

The Mother - Prana is named the creator

Prana is the soul of the universe, assuming all forms; he (1) is the light that animates all; even as it is written -- The wise know him who assumes all forms, who is radiant, who is all-knowing, who is the one light that gives light to all. He rises as the sun of a thousand rays, and abides in infinite places. (UPAN 35-6.)

(1) The Mother is cast here as masculine. The Mother is beyond gender.

Prana, thou ... movest in the sky as the sun, and the lord of lights art thou. (UPAN, 37.)

O Prana, lord of creation, thou movest in the womb, and art born again. To thee who, as breath, dwellest in the body, all creatures bring offerings. (UPAN, 37.)

Thou art the master of all that exists ... father of all. (UPAN, 37.)

O Prana, [thou art] lord of creation. (UPAN 37.)

Whatsoever exists in the universe is dependent on thee, O Prana. (UPAN 37.)

The Mother - She preserves and dissolves the universe as well

Prana, thou art the creator; thou art the destroyer...; and thou art the protector. (UPAN, 37.)

Do you know what I saw just now? A divine form -- a vision of the Divine Mother. She had a child in her Womb. She gave birth to it and the next instant began to swallow it; and as much of it as went into Her mouth became void. It was revealed to me that everything is void. The Divine Mother said to me, as it were, "Come confusion! Come delusion! Come!" (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 870.)

I give the illustration of the sound of a gong: 'tom', t-o-m. It is the merging of the Lila (1) in the Nitya: (2) the gross, the subtle, and the causal merge in the Great Cause; waking, dream, and deep sleep merge in Turiya. (3) The striking of the gong is like the falling of a heavy weight into a big ocean. Waves begin to rise: the Relative rises from the Absolute; the causal, subtle, and gross bodies appear out of the Great Cause; from Turiya emerge the states of deep sleep, dream, and waking. These waves arising from the Great Ocean merge again in the Great Ocean. From the Absolute to the Relative, and from the Relative to the Absolute. Therefore I give the illustration of the gong's sound, 'tom'. I have clearly perceived all these things. It has been revealed to me that there exists an ocean of Consciousness without limit. From It come all things of the relative plane, and in It they merge again. Millions of Brahmandas (4) rise in that Chidakasa (5) and merge in It again. All this has been revealed to me. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, GSR, 653.)

(1) Impermanent, temporal, or relative plane.

(2) Permanent, eternal, or absolute plane.

(3) The fourth state beyond waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep: Brahman.

(4) Worlds. Literally, "eggs of Brahma," the creator. Brahma is a personification of the Mother's power of creation.

(5) Absolute consciousness.

After the destruction of the universe, my Divine Mother, the Embodiment of Brahman, gathers together the seeds for the next creation. After the creation the Primal Power dwells in the universe itself. She brings forth this phenomenal world and then pervades it. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 135.)

When thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, [Brahman] is called the Primordial Energy, Kali. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 107.)

When I think of [God] as active -- creating, preserving, and destroying --, I call him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 32.)

(1) Supreme Person.

The storm-roar of the sea creates the waves -- preserves them for some time as larger or smaller waves -- and then dissolves them. So the cosmic sound of Aum or the Holy Ghost creates all things as Nebulae, preserves them in the forms of the present cosmos and worlds, and ultimately will dissolve all things in the bosom-sea of God. But this cosmic dissolution is sometimes only partial and temporary, and again sometimes it is complete and for a long time. In the partial temporary dissolution, portions only of matter and worlds are dissolved; but in complete dissolution the entire system of universes, all stars and planets, all things are dissolved. But the dissolving of all creation is impossible until all souls are cease to desire anything at all and thus become fully emancipated in God. Unredeemed souls desire life, and with it they desire the earth, the sky, and its starry beauties. So, in order to fulfill our desire for children, souls come on earth as fleshly human beings. Aum has to create the entire universe at the behest of God the Father. Because of the endless rise and dissolution of the desires of creatures, their universe is endlessly being dissolved and recreated again. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 16.)

The Mother - She is the source of the gunas, which are the active agents in creation

From Prakriti the gunas come forth, Sattwa, rajas, tamas. (Sri Krishna in BG, 106.)

This, my Maya, [is] Made of the gunas. (Sri Krishna in BG, 72.)

Every action is really performed by the gunas. Man, deluded by his egoism, thinks: 'I am the doer.' But he who has true insight into the operations of the gunas and their various functions, knows that when senses attach themselves to objects, gunas are merely attaching themselves to gunas. Knowing this, he does not become attached to his actions. (Sri Krishna in BG, 47-8.)

All evolution and all the gunas proceed from Prakriti. ... From Prakriti the evolution of body and senses is said to originate. (Sri Krishna in BG, 103.)

The Mother - She creates, preserves and destroys through the three gunas (or cosmic forces)

Some realize the Atman philosophically, by meditating upon its independence of Prakriti. (Sri Krishna in BG, 104.)

He who has experienced Brahman directly and known it to be other than Prakrikti and the gunas, will not be reborn, no matter how he has lived his life. (Sri Krishna in BG, 103.)

My Maya [is] Made of the gunas. (1) (Sri Krishna in BG, 72.)

(1) The three gunas, which constitute Prakriti, make up the universe if mind and matter. When the gunas are in perfect balance, there is no creation, expression, or manifestation. When the balance is disturbed, creation occurs. (Usha, RVW, 34.)

The three gunas are tamas, or inertia, rajas, or activity, and sattwa, or balance.

The Aum vibration that reverberates throughout the universe (the "Word" or "voice of many waters" of the Bible) has three manifestations or gunas, those of creation, preservation, and destruction. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 17.)

[The Mother] keeps up the Lila (1) of the Lord through the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 25.)

(1) The divine play, in which the same actor -- God -- enacts all the roles, so to speak. the whole universe is said to be created by him as sport, for his pleasure. (Usha, RVW, 44.)

Vedantist philosophers describe maya as the power of Brahman, dwelling in Brahman itself and non-different from it. Maya is regarded as beginningless, because no beginning in time can be postulated; but maya disappears when one obtains the direct knowledge of Brahman. Further, it is compounded of three gunas, which are its very stuff. ... Rajas and tamas have opposing characteristics, while sattva strikes a balance between the two. The principal trait of rajas is energy, whose visible effect is seen in ceaseless activity. Rajas creates attachment and suffering. Tamas manifests itself as inactivity, dullness, inadvertence, and stupidity. It is the mother of delusion and represents the veiling power of maya. Sattva manifests itself as the spiritual qualities, and is characterised by balance. Though these gunas are present in everything, sometimes one preponderates and sometimes another. Anyone attached to the gunas is not free. The conditioned Brahman, though associated with the gunas, keeps them under control; with the help of rajas, sattva, and tamas, respectively, He creates, preserves, and destroys the universe. Pure being alone is untouched by the gunas. (Nikhilananda, HIN, 42-3.)

The Mother - Created the body

Prana enters the body at birth, that the desires of the mind, continuing from past lives, may be fulfilled. (UPAN, 38.)

O Prana, ... thou movest in the womb, and art born again. To thee who, as breath, dwellest in the body, all creatures bring offerings. (UPAN 37.)

Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word (1) that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord (2) doth men live. (Deuteronomy 8:3.)

(1) Every vibration that emanates from the Cosmic Mother. It has also been used to mean "Son of God" in the West and avatar in the East. (2) The mouth of the Lord = the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom hath builded her house, (1) she hath hewn her seven pillars. (2) (Proverbs 9:1.)

(1) The body.

(2) The seven energy centers or the seven sheaths or koshas.

The Spirit (1) of God hath made me, and the breath (2) of the Almighty hath given me life. (3) (Job 33:4.)

(1) The Divine Mother.

(2) Since "breath" is a synonym for "spirit," therefore, the Divine Mother again.

(3) That is, material life or existence.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1) (I Corinthians 3:16.)

(1) As the kundalini. The body is also the artifact of the Holy Spirit, called in Proverbs "Wisdom" who "hath builded her house [the body], she hath hewn out her seven pillars [the chakras]." (Proverbs 9:1.)

Cf. UPAN, 74: "The city of Brahman ... is the body."

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (I Corinthians 6:19.)

Sage Patanjali, greatest of Hindu Yogis, says, "The Spirit, God the Father, or Iswara, manifests Himself as the cosmic vibration, or matter." "The Spirit was made flesh" -- for the intelligent spirit materializes itself into gross flesh by changing its rate of vibration. Cosmic intelligence becomes cosmic intelligent motion, or vibration, which changes into cosmic energy. This intelligent cosmic energy changes into electrons and atoms. Electrons and atoms change into gas, sometimes known as cosmic nebulae. Cosmic nebulae, or masses of diffused gaseous matter change into water. Water changes into solid matter. Man's body is part of this variously divided matter. In cosmic vibration (1) all things are one; but when cosmic vibration becomes frozen into matter, then it becomes many. So man's body, being separated from cosmic vibration, again must retrace (2) the various states of higher vibrations in order to lift his consciousness from the vibrations of breath, heart, and circulation to the vibrating sound from cosmic life force and all atoms. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 15.)

(1) The Mother.

(2) Because "man" retraces "his" steps, "he" is called the Prodigal Son.

The life currents, operating in the human body as the fivefold prana of subtle life energies, are an expression of the Aum vibration of the omnipresent soul. (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 484.)

The Bible refers to Aum as the Holy Ghost or invisible life force that divinely upholds all creation. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which we have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6:19. (Paramahansa Yogananda in AY, 363n.)

Man's body battery is not sustained by gross food alone, but by the vibratory cosmic energy (Word, or Aum). The invisible power flows into the human body through the gate of the medulla oblongata. This sixth bodily centre is located at the back of the neck at the top of the five spinal chakras (Sanskrit for "wheels" or centres of radiating life force). The medulla, principle entrance for the body's supply of universal life energy (Aum), is directly connected by polarity with the Christ Consciousness centre (kutashtha chaitanya) in the single eye between the eyebrows: the seat of man's power of will. Cosmic energy is then stored up in the seventh centre, in the brain, as a reservoir of infinite potentialities (mentioned in the Vedas as the "thousand-petalled lotus of light"). (Paramahansa Yogananda, AY, 363n.)

The body is Sakti. The needs of the body are the needs of Sakti. When man enjoys it is Sakti who enjoys through him. His ears, eyes, hands and feet are Hers. She sees through his eyes, works through his hands, and hears through his ears. Body, mind, Prana, egoism, intellect, organs and all the other functions are Her manifestations. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

She lies dormant in the Muladhara Cakra [sic] in the form of a serpentine power or coiled up energy known as the Kundalini Sakti. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 25.)

The Mother - Natural Law

See Natural Law

The Mother - Natural Law - The Law of Karma

See Natural Law - The Law of Karma

The Mother - Her nature is unfathomable; only the Father can know her

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. (Proverbs 5:6.)

[Maya] is neither being nor non-being, nor a mixture of both. She is neither divided nor undivided, nor a mixture of both. She is neither an indivisible whole, nor composed of parts, nor a mixture of both. She is most strange. Her nature is inexplicable. (Shankara in CJD, 49.)

It is from the effect that she produces that [Maya's] existence is inferred by the wise. (Shankara in CJD, 49.)

Who but Siva has beheld Her as She really is? (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 106.)

Her glory is ineffable. Her splendour is indescribable. Her greatness is unfathomable. (Swami Sivananda in KYW, 26.)

The Mysteries

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29.)

I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. (Psalm 49:4.)

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old. (Psalm 78:2.)

The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations ... now is made manifest to his saints ... which is Christ in you. (St. Paul in Colossians 1:26-7.)

[Pray] always ... for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel. (St. Paul in Ephesians 6:18-9.)

By revelation he made known unto me the mystery; ... Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. (St. Paul in Ephesians 3:3+5.)

[Pray] for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: (1) That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. (St. Paul in Colossians 4:3-4.)

(1) Sri Ramakrishna once attempted to describe the "mystery of Christ" -- the experience of the spiritual energy reaching the seventh plane or nirvana, but he too was "in bonds." His account, from the GSR, 107-8, appears below.

It is the secret of life which will make the soul free. (Hazrat Inayat Khan, WOI, 196.)

Mysteries - Describing the indescribable

We ... grasp these things in the best way we can, and as they come to us, wrapped in the sacred veils of that love toward humanity with which scripture and hierarchical traditions cover the truths of the mind with things derived from the realm of the senses. And so it is that the Transcendent is clothed in the terms of being, with shape and form on things which have neither, and numerous symbols are employed to convey the varied attributes of what is an imageless and supra-natural simplicity. (Pseudo-Dionysius, CWPD, 52.)

Mysteries - The existence of mysteries acknowledged

Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born (1) when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? ... Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? ... If I have told you of earthly things, (2) and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:4 and 10.)

(1) "Born again" in the Bible's code means "enlightened."

(2) For example, the law applied to social matters, like loving one's neighbor, forgiveness, etc.

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, (1) when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. (2) (John 16:25.)

(1) The time of enlightenment.

(2) Another many-levelled phrase: "Shew you plainly of the Father" -- show the Father to you in an experience of enlightenment; also show you hidden matters by means of the power given me by the Father.

Though I am bound (for Christ) (1) and am able to understand heavenly things, the angelic orders, and the different sorts of angels and hosts, the distinction between powers and dominions, and the diversities between thrones and authorities, the mightiness of the aeons, and the pre-eminence of the cherubim and seraphim, the sublimity of the Spirit, the kindgom of the Lord, and above all the incomparable majesty of Almighty God -- though I am acquainted with all these things, yet am I not therefore by any means perfect, nor am I such a disciple as Paul or Peter. (Bishop Ignatius of Antioch in Annie Besant, ESO, 49. Cf. Paul in Romans 8:38 and Colossians 1:16-7.)

(1) I.e., though upon my death I will join Christ and be united with God.

Mysteries - Revealed so that we may keep the law

You must understand Me fully, for everyone who understands Me follows Me and tries to satisfy Me. (The Father, Ahuramazda, in GZ, 96.)

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29.)

Mysteries - Their true understanding will lead to enlightenment

And [Jesus] said: Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death. (Jesus in Meyer, Secret Teachings of Jesus, 19.)

Whoever finds the explanation of these words will not taste death. (Jesus in GATT, 3.)

Know what is in thy sight, (1) and what is hidden from thee will be revealed. For there is nothing hidden which will not be manifest. (Jesus in GATT, 5.)

(1) That is, truly know Jesus Christ, which is in thy sight.

This is the kind of divine enlightenment into which we have been initiated by the hidden tradition of our inspired teachers, a tradition at one with scripture. (Pseudo-Dionysus, CWPD, 52.)

Mysteries - Hidden from the uninitiated

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. (Proverbs 1:5-6.)

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:6.)

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitudes in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 13:34-5.)

The disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. ... Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (1) (Matthew 13:10-11 and 13.)

(1) Much of what the supremely-wise Jesus says has many levels of interpretation. The level I'd like to point to here is: They, seeing and hearing only the external reality of the world, see and hear nothing of the internal reality of the kingdom of heaven; they understand nothing of the things of the Spirit.

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. (Jesus in John 16:25.)

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of the world knew. (St. Paul in I Corinthians 2:7-8.)

If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. (St. Paul in II Corinthians 4:3.)

The mystery ... hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is. (1) (St. Paul in Colossians 1:26-7.)

(1) Cf. the Koran: "Allah misleads whom He will and guides whom he pleases." (p. 56.)

The Lord ... allowed us to communicate of those divine Mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom he knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as in the case with God. And if one says that it is written, 'There is nothing secret which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,' let him also hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall be manifested. (Clement of Alexandria in ESO, 51.)

This is the kind of divine enlightenment into which we have been initiated by the hidden tradition of our inspired teachers, a tradition at one with scripture." (Pseudo-Dionysius, CWPD, 52.)

It is most fitting to the mysterious passages of scripture that the sacred and hidden truth ... be concealed ... and be inaccessible to the hoi polloi. Not everyone is sacred, and, as scripture says, knowledge is not for everyone. (Pseudo-Dionysius in CWPD, 149.)

So, my good Timothy, you must guard these things in accordance with divine command, and you must never speak nor divulge divine things to the uninitiated. (Pseudo-Dionysius, CWPD, 58.)

We (1) have cast veils over their hearts, lest they should understand Our words, and [have] made them hard of hearing. Call them as you may to the right path, they shall never be guided. (Koran, 94.)

(1) When Gabriel, author of the Koran, uses "We" as opposed to "I" he is most likely referring to the angels, of which he is one. When he uses "I," he is most likely speaking for God (Allah) as His messenger.

Allah leaves in error whom He will, and guides those who repent and have faith; whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah. (Koran, 142.)

I am telling this just to you. Ordinary people should not hear these things. (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 895.)

The deepest mystery of the end of knowledge ... is not to be declared to one who is not a son or a pupil, and who is not tranquil in mind. (Upanishads quoted in Annie Besant, ESO, 21.)

Mysteries - It is unlawful to speak of certain mysteries

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body ... or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) ... He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (St. Paul in II Corinthians 12:2+4.)

Mysteries - The masters may use language differently to convey the mysteries

The monks [of other ages] were perceptive. They understood the Buddha's meaning. They followed the teaching, perfected their virtue and tasted the fruit of buddhahood. But people nowadays can't fathom these things. They use ordinary water to wash a physical body [instead of bathing in the pure water of the precepts] and think they're following the sutras. But they're mistaken. ... Washing something external isn't what the Buddha meant. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 54.)

Transcending life and death is leaving home. Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way. Not creating delusions is enlightenment. Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom. No affliction is nirvana. And no appearance of the mind is the other shore. (Bodhidharma in ZTB, 24-5.)

All scriptures, such as the Bhagavad Gita, or the Hindu Bible, and the Christian Bible, have a three-fold meaning. In other words, the Scriptures deal with the three factors of human beings, namely, the material, the mental, and the spiritual. ... Although both the material and the psychological interpretations are necessary, it should be remembered that the scriptural authors undertook with great pains to point out to man that the spiritual interpretations are of supreme importance to him. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, x.)

It should be noted that all human similes are imperfect since by their material nature they are limited and cannot exemplify spiritual truths except in a limited way. (Paramahansa Yogananda, SCC, 1, 27.)

At times the yogi's language may appear to be unintelligible.... He uses words in a different manner [than the ordinary speaker]. ... Through the vibration of the letters [he] can easily bypass concepts, thought and meaning of words, which lead to the intellectual world and result in the negative path of building up ... a strong ego and the intellectual lifestyle of understanding truth. The yogi carefully selects words which have double, triple, or ... infinite meanings. ... Each letter of [a word may represent] certain rates of vibration of the atom of Inner Light and Inner Sound. [Moreover] the yogi uses a secret vocabulary. The words he uses may have ordinary common sense meaning and use in normal social life, but when he uses a word it has a secret meaning and a different rate of vibration. For example, the word 'Guru' ordinarily means a spiritual teacher, while for the yogi it means the 'Light of the Self, the Inner Light (Kutastha).' The word 'husband' means 'Inner Sound, the procreative aspect,' while the word 'wife' means 'Inner Light (Jyoti)' which manifests the creation; again, the word 'son' means 'Inner Illumination.' (Swami Satyeswarananda Giri, LM, 1-3.)

Mysteries - Biblical code - Examples of enlightenment motif in the Bible

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes. (1) And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. (2) And thou shalt set bounds upon the people (3) round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: (4) when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up the mount. (5) (Exodus 19:9-13.)

(1) Their clothes are the spiritual garments in which we are clothed: our thoughts, feelings, and desires.

(2) Mount Sinai is a metaphor for the energy circuit comprising the body, the sushumna (or nerve canal), and the chakra. The top of Mount Sinai corresponds to the sahasrar or crown chakra.

(3) The people represent the human part of the individual: the thoughts, feelings, and desires. The "beasts" referred to in verse 13 represents the animal part of the individual: the sensations, appetites, and habits. These must be renounced and left behind before journeying up the mount. The top of the mount is illustrated in St. John of the Cross' diagram of the summit of Mount Carmel, in the front of this book and in CWSJC67, where the summit is represented as the top of the human head. It was perhaps the crown chakra that King David was referring to when he said: "His foundation is in the holy mountain." (Psalm 87:1.)

(4) It cannot "live," or be a living concern, and the aspirant remain pure and able to reach the mountain's summit. (5) The trumpet is the sound of Aum or Amen, the noise of many waters, the voice in the silence, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: the sound of the Holy Spirit, heard just prior to enlightenment.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, (1) and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments (2) which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. (Exodus 24:12.)

(1) The metaphorical allusion is to the spiritual energy rising in the sushumna to the mount, or crown chakra.

(2) The Knowledge of Self; cosmic consciousness.

Seven days (1) thou shalt make an atonement for the altar; (2) and sanctify it; (3) and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy. (4) (Exodus 29:37.)

(1) Corresponding to the seven bodies or sheaths surrounding the Self or Atman.

(2) The spiritual heart or Hridayam.

(3) Purify it; cleanse it, through prayer, meditation, and other means.

(4) Nothing physical can touch the Child of God or Atman; moreover, the sight of the Child spiritualizes the individual.

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, (1) and dwell there: (2) and make thee an altar unto God.... (3) Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, (4) and be clean, (5) and change your garments; (6) And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in my day of distress, and was with me in the way which I went. (Genesis 35:1-3.)

(1) The body is Beth-el, the house of the Lord.

(2) Purify yourself by meditating. The particular style of meditating is lost to us, but indications in the Bible suggest that a form of kriya yoga was practiced, including "looking unto the mountains" -- that is, looking up to the Third eye, the eye sockets appearing as mountains to the closed and upturned eyes.

(3) Cleanse the heart, which is said to be the real altar of God.

(4) The strange wants.

(5) Purify yourselves.

(6) The thoughts, feelings, and desires in which one is clothed.

Fear not to lift the sacred board; the Tables of the Law are in the Ark concealed. Take them and read them well; for they contain all precepts and commands that men will ever need. And in the Ark, the magic wand of prophecy lies waiting for your hand; it is the key of all the hidden meanings of the present, future, past. And then, behold, the manna there, the hidden bread of life; and he who eats shall never die. The cherubim have guarded well for every soul this treasure box, and whosoever will may enter in and find his own. (Levi, AQU, 80.)

The kingdom of heaven (1) is like to a grain of mustard seed, (2) which a man took, (3) and stowed in his field: (4) Which indeed is the least of all seeds: (5) but when it is grown, (6) it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, (7) so that the birds of the air (8) come and lodge in the branches thereof. (Jesus in Matthew 13:31-2.)

(1) The Father.

(2) The Self, which is one with the Father.

(3) After having seen it in the experience of awakening or illumination.

(4) Contemplated, or kept, it in the aspirant's awareness constantly.

(5) The Self is said to be smaller than the smallest. (UPAN, 18.)

(6) When the aspirant has contemplated on it and entered into it.

(7) Greater than the greatest; namely, the Tree of Life, or the Father. (UPAN, 18.)

(8) Perhaps the angels.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, (1) which a woman took (2) and hid in three measures of meal, (3) till the whole was leavened. (4) (Jesus in Matthew 13:33.)

(1) The Self.

(2) Contemplated.

(3) Became absorbed in.

(4) Till she merged with It in the experience of the Father or liberation.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; (1) the which when a man hath found, (2) he hideth, (3) and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, (4) and buyeth that field. (5) (Jesus in Matthew 13:44.)

(1) The hidden treasure is the Self, hidden in the field of the boyd; specifically, the heart or hridayam (not to be confused with the heart chakra).

(2) In the experience of spiritual awakening.

(3) Is circumspect about discussing and meditates upon it in private.

(4) Renounces all worldly desires, appetites, and thoughts.

(5) Wins God-realization and with it liberation.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: (1) Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, (2) went and sold all that he had, (3) and bought it. (4) (Jesus in Matthew 13:45-6.)

(1) Practising spiritual discipline, seeking God.

(2) Saw the Christ or Self in spiritual awakening.

(3) Divested himself of all other desires except the desire to realize God.

(4) Single-mindedly meditated and contemplated that Pearl until it led him to the Father and liberation.