An Inner Revolution by Adyashanti

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 'You must want to know the truth more than you want to feel secure in order to fully awaken to the fact that you are nothing but Awakeness itself. ' 

 ~ Adyashanti

An Inner Revolution
  by Adyashanti 

The enlightenment I speak of is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery of one’s true nature. This discovery is just the beginning—the point of entry into an inner revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution; it simply makes it possible.

What is this inner revolution? To begin with, revolution is not static; it is alive, ongoing, and continuous. It cannot be grasped or made to fit into any conceptual model. Nor is there any path to this inner revolution, for it is neither predictable nor controllable and has a life all its own. This revolution is a breaking away from the old, repetitive, dead structures of thought and perception that humanity finds itself trapped in. 

Realization of the ultimate reality is a direct and sudden existential awakening to one’s true nature that opens the door to the possibility of an inner revolution. Such a revolution requires an ongoing emptying out of the old structures of consciousness and the birth of a living and fluid intelligence. This intelligence restructures your entire being—body, mind, and perception. This intelligence cuts the mind free of its old structures that are rooted within the totality of human consciousness. If one cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness, then one is still in a prison.

Having an awakening to one’s true nature does not necessarily mean that there will be an ongoing revolution in the way one perceives, acts, and responds to life. The moment of awakening shows us what is ultimately true and real as well as revealing a deeper possibility in the way that life can be lived from an undivided and unconditioned state of being. But the moment of awakening does not guarantee this deeper possibility, as many who have experienced spiritual awakening can attest to. 

Awakening opens a door inside to a deep inner revolution, but in no way guarantees that it will take place. Whether it takes place or not depends on many factors, but none more important and vital than an earnest and unambiguous intention for truth above and beyond all else. 

This earnest intention toward truth is what all spiritual growth ultimately depends upon, especially when it transcends all personal preferences, agendas, and goals.

This inner revolution is the awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind, which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s consciousness. 

Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will flower in the absence of this revolution. 

But our potential lies beyond the known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has established. Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self.

Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual.

So let us understand that reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual. We should come to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.

One must be willing to stand alone—in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility. One must stand in that dark light, in that groundless embrace, unwavering and true to the reality beyond all self—not just for a moment, but forever without end. For then that which is sacred, undivided, and whole is born within consciousness and begins to express itself.  

© Adyashanti 2008 

Read more Writings of Adyashanti  

Source: http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=writings_inner&writingid=41

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Siva-Jnanamrita Upanishad - Swami Sivananda

Siva-Jnanamrita Upanishad

By Sri Swami Sivananda

1. This world of names and forms is a mere appearance. It has no independent existence apart from Brahman. Just as a snake is superimposed on the rope, this world and body are superimposed on Brahman.
2. Just as knowledge of a rope removes the illusion of a snake in the rope and the consequent fear, so also the knowledge of the Self (Brahman) removes Avidya or ignorance and the fear of birth and death.
3. Brahman is Sat-Chit-Ananda Svarupa. It is self-luminous (Svayam-Jyoti). It is eternal (Nityam), beginningless (Anadi), endless (Ananta), changeless (Nirvikara), deathless (Amritam), fearless (Abhayam) and spotless (Niranjana).
4. Brahman is attributeless (Nirguna), formless, (Nirakara), without special characteristics (Nirvisesha), without parts (Akhanda), without any limiting adjunct (Nirupadhika), one without a second (Ekam eva Advitiyam), independent (Svatantra), ever free (Nitya-mukta) and all-full (Paripurna).
5. Brahman is distinct from the three bodies and five sheaths (Koshas). He is the silent witness of the three states. He transcends the three Gunas and the pairs of opposites. He is an embodiment of Sat-Chit-Ananda. He is the essence or Swarupa. He is the source or womb for the mind, Prana, Indriyas, body and this world.
6. Om or the Pranava is the symbol (Pratika) of Brahman. It is the word of power. From Om this world is projected; in Om it exists and in Om it is involved during cosmic Pralaya. Om is the essence of the four Vedas.
7. That aspirant who is endowed with the four means, who has removed impurities and tossing of the mind, who is equipped with Sattvic virtues is only fit for the path of Jnana Yoga.
8. By careful, diligent, protracted and unceasing practice of meditation gradually ascend the steps (Bhumikas). Do not relax the efforts till you attain the Bhuma (Highest). Do not stop the Sadhana when you get some false contentment from the Savikalpa Samadhi.
9. Repetition of Om with meaning and Bhava will remove all obstacles in the spiritual path. The Hrasva (short) Pranava destroys all sins. The Dirgha (long) Pranava gives Mukti, the Pluta gives all Siddhis.
10. Meditation on Lakshyartha (indicative meaning) of Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art) Mahavakya (great sentence) is the direct means for attaining Self-realisation.
11. That aspirant who is endowed with the four means, should hear the Srutis from a Brahma-srotri Brahmanishtha and enquire into the nature of Brahman through the help of Shad Lingas and then reflect and meditate.
12. The Brahmakara Vritti that arises from the Sattvic mind of the aspirant who is equipped with the four means destroys the veil of ignorance and dies by itself.
13. Mind also is Jada. It is an effect (Karya) of Sattva Guna. It borrows its light from its source, Brahman. It has a beginning and an end.
14. The three Bhavanas, sleep, tossing of mind, mind running towards objects, depression, building castles in the air, diseases, etc., are the chief obstacles in the attainment of Self-realisation.
15. The Jnani who has full Self-realisation sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings. There is nothing other than Brahman for him. He moves about fearlessly in the world.
16. A Jnani gets anything he likes through the power of his Sat-Sankalpa (perfect will). A Jnani wills and everything comes into being. A Jnani has tremendous powers.
17. When one gets Jnana, all Karmas are destroyed. There is no Prarabdha (fructifying) Karma for a Jnani.
18. Videha Mukti comes when a Jnani is living. A Jnani gets disembodied salvation (Videha Mukti) when he enters the state of Turiyatita, the Absolute.
19. The chief marks (Lingas) of a Jivanmukta are knowledge of the past, present and future, absolute fearlessness, absolute desireless, absolute painlessness, equal vision, balanced mind, freedom from exhilaration and depression, etc.
20. There is neither birth nor death, neither bondage nor freedom, neither Sadhana nor Samadhi, neither meditator nor meditated, neither seeker after liberation nor liberated - this is the ultimate truth
21. Om Shanti Om!

 
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World is an Illusion - Swami Sivananda

World is an Illusion

 By Sri Swami Sivananda

 

THIS world is a play of colours and sounds. This sense-universe is a play of nerves. It is a false show kept up by the jugglery of Maya, mind and nerves. You enjoy the sensual pleasures for a period of twenty years when the senses are strong. What is this short evanescent period of twenty years in eternity? What is this despicable, jarring, monotonous sensual life, compared with the eternal and peaceful life in the immortal Self within? If the nerve of taste, the glosso-pharyngeal gets paralysed, you cannot enjoy different kinds of palatable dishes. If your retina or optic nerve is paralysed, you cannot enjoy diverse beautiful forms. If the auditory nerve is paralysed, you cannot hear melodious music. If the olfactory nerve is paralysed, you cannot enjoy various kinds of sweet fragrance. If your sensory nerve of the hands is paralysed, you cannot enjoy soft things. If the nerve origin is paralysed, you cannot enjoy conjugal bliss. 

Do you not now clearly see that this world is a mere play of nerves? Do you not understand that this universe of opposites is illusory? 

You will have to depend upon these nerves and senses for your happiness. If these nerves go out of order, you become miserable, even though you possess enormous wealth. Can you call these little illusory sensual pleasures, which depend upon the play of nerves, as real lasting happiness? It is mere itching of nerves only, which tickles those deluded souls who have lost their power of discrimination and understanding.

You are deluded or deceived by the senses. That which is changing and perishable cannot be real. There is neither mind nor matter, neither world nor creation in reality. Brahman alone shines in His pristine glory. This is the absolute Truth.

The whole of experience consisting of perceiver and perceived is merely an imagination of the mind.That which exists only in imagination does not exist in absolute reality. Duality consisting of subject and object is a creation of the mind and the external senses.

As long as there is faith in causality, the world is eternally present. When this faith is destroyed the world is nowhere.

That which is nothing in the beginning and in the end does not necessarily exist in the present. Objects are all like ordinary illusions though regarded as real.

In deep sleep you have no experience of the world because there is no mind. This clearly shows that there will be world only if there is mind and that the mind alone creates this world. This is the reason why Srutis declare that this world is Manomatram-jagat and Manahkalpitam-jagat.

In Samadhi or super-conscious state, wherein there is annihilation of the mind, there is no world. Just as the snake in the rope vanishes when a lamp is brought, so also this world which is mere appearance or super-imposition disappear when one attains illumination, when the sun of knowledge dawns.

A liberated sage only has no world. This world is an illusion or unreal for a man of discrimination. For a passionate man who is ignorant this world is a solid reality. He is immersed in Samsara. This world is everything for him. There is nothing beyond this world. 

Because it is said that there is no world, young aspirants should not give up the practice of Karma Yoga. People in whom a little dispassion has dawned should not abandon the world. This world is the best teacher. You will have to learn many lessons from this world. 

Remain in the world but be not worldly-minded. View the world as Brahman only. Change your angle of vision. You will be happy and wise. If you constantly keep before the mind the idea that the world is unreal, you will develop dispassion and a burning desire for liberation.

Read also: The Illusion of physical world - by Sri Ramana Maharshi

 
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