Surrender is a beautiful quality. It is like the footprint of an elephant because it includes all other good qualities. In the process of surrender we must accept things as they are, even as we also accept we don't really understand them.
We can do nothing with them by ourselves. We must accept that we are powerless to deal effectively with this issue or that person and mostly our ideas about who and what these really are.
Part of surrender is submission. We are giving everything to the Lord, little by little, submission by submission, until we reach a point where there is nothing else to submit but ourselves, whatever that is, to a God we know we are incapable of understanding. As best we understand, we submit that, too. We submit to the mystery.
This Surrender requires no system of belief, no faith, no dogma. An Atheist can surrender to that reality which is no thing defined by human words or concepts, no defined notion, beyond constraint.
Surrender happens. And when it happens, when every dogma of religion, atheism, politics, opinion is understood as merely shells of places amidst infinite places, then we surrender that too. Such thinking falls away naturally, like the husk of a seed. Can that even be called surrender if our only participation is to watch it happen? Maybe it is just letting go. But we are letting go now because, mysteriously, it has become easy. And it has become easy because now we are aware we are being loved.
Letting go, which we had thought impossible, now we realize we are being held in the embrace of a higher love. Can it even be called choice, or faith, when we have nothing left to choose, to believe in, because the reality of Christ is all that exists and all that ever existed?
We are entirely capable of being loved. And being loved, we find we have the power to love. We can't honestly believe in nothing once we realize we are being loved. But any notion about that, limited to our human thinking, just gets in the way and we readily submit it. We have the power to submit, and in submission, surrender. We have the faith to surrender, in love.
When you enter your password you must then press the button labeled "submit" for anything at all to take place. We are submitting all the time. If we trust the world so completely, so casually, every moment of the day, as a child depends upon her mother without thought, submission has already happened, and what we call submission is just conscious acceptance. But for surrender, you need two things: utter defeat and infinite, boundless love. These are all that ever were.
If we were so bent on learning how to see beyond duality, to submit our limitations for an infinite understanding, an intimacy with Truth, through the surrender of our limitations, and this the result of submission of all we hold and know, then how can we be anything but ecstatic when all this is gifted to us through the single event of our complete defeat? Why fight that when it is the doorway to truth and true love?
When we actually submit ourselves, or what we thought was ourselves, that is a very high place. It is a practice. We get better at it in time.
We exchange our wants and disappointments for His love. It is the bargain of all time. We are handing over empty airless, spaceless void in exchange for all that is, His Love.
One cannot do that without being completely detached. But how can we become detached without acceptance and complete forgiveness? But even that is not always so. Sometimes the love makes it easy to let go. And sometimes being forced to let go we finally see the love.
In the effort to be with Him we then become detached. By comparison, nothing else matters, nothing else holds value. The imaginary life we call this physical reality evaporates as a carcass in a desert while our true soul bathes in the presence of the sea of His Love.
Because we are submitting in faith and adoration to a higher power, our true Master, Christ, He is now completely responsible for every breath we take, every thought. It happens in awe, in adoration, in worship. We learn through adoration and worship just what those really are. So that becomes our real and true attachment. It is only by attachment to Christ in us that we can become detached.
What we love washes us and creates us. Christ was loving us before we knew about love. We learned about it. We are still learning what love is, often in its apparent absence. But love is all around us. We become aware, the barrier melts away in surrender. Our territory has been conquered by His Love. Surrender was always our fate.
Adoration is the result of submission, or maybe the cause of it. Even time is no longer linear in that place.
So it doesn't always work in that order or any order. Sometimes Surrender happens out of love, and sometimes out of exhaustion. Perhaps more often the latter. But it is all love doing the work. Love, true love, is exhausting! And yet it gives us renewed spirit! And a new identity, our Beloved. How strange this all is. And all of it, surrender.
In the Christian Scriptures, Jesus Christ goes through one tortuous episode after another to help those He loves. His story mirrors the horrors of human history, but He saves the world.
The fact that one noble man of peace was the victim of prejudice and harassment; ridiculed, threatened, falsely accused and arrested, wrongly convicted, beaten, tortured and crucified, is credible: So many have been over so many centuries, in so many cultures, as a matter of historical record. We heal by hand but kill wholesale. We are kind in particular but cruel in general. He came to help us turn this around.
Were the tiny slice of creation occupied by humans but a week, yesterday late morning Romans crucified Christians and then became Christians. By mid-day the Christians were ransacked by Vandals from Germany. Dispatching these, they filled their afternoon crucifying "unbelievers" and Muslims. This morning one recent Christian, Adolph Hitler, and his colleagues crucified the Jews. They tried to flee to Israel with Churchill's help but, by late morning were stopped: The Muslim Mufti of Palestine, leader of the Palestinians, sided with Hitler to prevent the Jews from settling there. At noon today, having invaded and taken over Israel, having nowhere else to go, the Jews now crucify Palestinians. At the bottom of the hour Syrians have fired missiles into civilian areas of Israel in retribution.
This isn't an isolated problem. Today we also have Russians crucifying Ukrainians, just as Americans crucified their slaves and the indigenous people in the name of Manifest Destiny. Just as America invaded Mexico to grab and establish Texas as a slave state. Just as China torments Tibet and threatens Taiwan and Japan today. Just as North Korea taunts their southern neighbors with Nuclear missiles.
Is this just human nature?
If it is human nature to justify killing anyone, it makes sense someone might need to come to tell us not to. How odd that we must go back 2,000 years to find someone honored and respected with the wisdom, compassion and authority to say "please don't".
The world finds this message controversial even today, though every parent commands it to their children and every child gets it immediately, though they may not always obey.
Why do we need religion of any kind to tell us killing is wrong? The life that runs through you, runs through me.
But we aren't quite smart enough to figure out how to live this way.
Most of the justification for killing usually involves powerful bullies claiming they are defenseless victims. So the first victim is always the truth. But so often they don't know the truth.
Christ changed that. He said the things of this world weren't worth the trouble. That the divine Truth was vastly more important, and is within each of us as the audible Spirit, the Holy Word or Logos, the true Christ.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32
We have the most powerful ally of all in our Father and we are all children under the same Almighty Father in the same family.
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c] 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:8-12
We may need to go through what happened to Him, and more, but now we have an ally within, the audible light of Christ, always there.
He gave that gift when He made the world. Here from the beginning, even before, the architect of this creation, the Word of God that God uttered and made all things; the Holy Name, the Inner Cloud of Light, that walked with the cloud of God and Moses. That has always been Christ, as Paul teaches.
10 "For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Christ is in the heart of every human being on earth. Nothing can take He/She/They away. Nothing can lessen Them. No religion can contain Christ. He is found in all forms of spiritual belief and many religions. He is the destination of all religions. We can turn from it, we can ignore it. We can avoid spending proper time with it. But it is there, the priceless and unassailable treasure. The great audible Spirit, the piercing light that fills the body, the mighty wind of Pneuma within. The audible Word of God. The audible Name of God. Because the Lord IS His Name (EX 15:3, JE 33:2). And His Kingdom is WITHIN each of us.
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:20-21
Christ spoke to Hitler but Hitler didn't listen. Christ speaks to Putin but Putin isn't listening. The moment Putin does, in that very second, the killing ends, and he is just another ignorant, mistaken and foolish family member, another sinner like you and I, and can pick up in humility, obedience and silence whatever work God gives to him.
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Luke 17:3-4
Christ is speaking to each of us. And about each of us.
That is the power that enables each of us to follow what Christ taught us all to do:
Christ said
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Matthew 5:38-48
How to live like this? By faith. Faith, the very practice of continuous prayer within, worship of the Lord within, in the Spirit. That is the worship God loves, says Jesus:
23 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 4: 23-24
That is universal. Whatever God Created contains His Living Spirit. In whatever He touches is His hand.
That must be found, can only be found within. The Kingdom of God is within.
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21
No one sent from God came to start a new religion. They only came to remind us that we are all members of the same family, have one Father, Christ, who has come many times in many places. Not with a new theology, not to divide us, except to separate us, to clean us from our own pride, prejudice and addictions.
34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
Luke 17:34-35
He/She/They have come in every age with the news of what has been forgotten. They give us the same teachings that there is One God and God is within every one, within each of us, and this is where we must go to commune with Him and find salvation. The method is always the same. The power of Christ that connects all of us.
Jesus paid a heavy price, as have many Saints throughout time, for our sins, and to bring us this message.
Why must people crucify them over and over again?
Paul wrote:
"To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. "
Hebrews 6:6
Put aside hatred, and love one another as your own brother and sister, indeed, as your own self (and please learn to do that) in the name of Christ, the Holy Name of the Lord, the Spirit of God.
Align with that Spirit within and forget your own self. There is more to you within you. And that makes putting "you" aside much easier. Love, divine Love between you and your Father will raise you from the bound and chained you into freedom. You can experience it any time, with a little effort: Selflessness solves many, many issues. The power of Christ is the power to do this. Crucify your sins in Christ and ascend.
Jesus said:
34 "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? "
Mark 8: 34-37
Happy Easter 2023!
The Power of Peace. That phrase almost seems contradictory, an oxymoron. How can peace be powerful?
We see around us that outer action, aggressive action is chosen time and again as the answer to most problems, while the soul within is left sleeping, inactive, unaware.
But peace, real peace comes from inner action, inner awakening, inner struggle.
Within us is the place of our most dramatic battles, our bloodiest wounds, our most tumultuous triumph. It is the place of our mortal struggle, true victory, true freedom. But we don’t take the path to that world. Most don’t even know it exists.
There are no mortal struggles here in this world. Each battle is but one round in an endless fight, and we, the aging boxers never allowed to leave the ring. When we are bloodied, we are woven together again, and when the body is completely destroyed, from the earth a new body emerges, enveloping us like a giant serpent swallowing its prey. Then, it changes into our new body, and we are not even aware that we are not one, but two, that we live with this body as with another creature, a voracious killer that consumes us. We think we are body, one and the same, but in truth we are always two. However ill we understand body, we are its slave, its victim, its prey. In blindness, in amnesia of our greater heritage we take pride in that very machine which soon parts from us anyway, falling apart, like decayed flesh dropping of its own weight, our body soon enough looses its grip. It is eaten from within, by parasites, disease and disrepair carefully installed by design, and augmented by our own abuse. But all these decades living in a leaking, decaying house are only to become the food of yet another captor.
Jesus said that there were two women working one hand mill, two men in a field, two sleeping in one bed, and one would be taken, but the other left behind.
When his disciples asked when this separation takes place, Jesus said with wry humor, “Wherever the vultures gather.”
Luke 17: 34-37
We are patched up, and are but a patchwork. We are the immortal slave never allowed to leave the battle, an entertainment for others. So much has been worn and changed, in body and mind we don’t even remember what was ours in the beginning, and what has been rebuilt, replaced. Our memories have been purposefully erased. We have forgotten our true family. We have no access to the past.
The battle lords know well that a slave without a past is a much more engaged fighter, much less likely to doubt, to question, to wonder if there is even such a thing as freedom. We are a conglomerate of nature’s machinery made and remade, genes spliced and respliced, parts wearing out, removed, refitted to keep forever fighting, as deals are made, bets taken by an audience observing in the dark. We are so pleased when we aren’t being battered that we call such moments happiness. The crowd roars approval when we strike a good blow, but are equally enthusiastic when we are struck and suffer enormous pain.
My mind, abandon this abode of pleasure and pain,
Rise above it and attach yourself to Satnam, the true Lord.
Your stay in this body is short-lived,
It is a city you will have to abandon one day.
Neither your wealth, nor your spouse,
Nor your children and grandchildren
Will be of help to you then.
Your breath is like a two-edged sword
Constantly cutting away at your life.
The day is not far off
When you will be left an empty heap of flesh,
When your body will breathe itself out of life,
Like a punctured float, leaking day and night.
But you are too careless to think about that,
Too apathetic to attend to the primal Shabd.
Why don’t you give up your lust for Maya,
The seductress who is always chasing after you?
Practice the Name given by the Master
For without his grace
You can never release yourself from her grip.
Contemplate on the form of the Master within you
And keep your mind in check.
The gracious Master is full of compassion,
helping and protecting you at every moment.
Give up sensual pleasures –
Why invite disease and suffering?
No peace is to be found in them.
Only if you listen to the Master’s advice, dear soul,
Will you find any rest.
He will end all your miseries
And grant you the eternal home.
Take heed of what Radha Soami says
And seek the primal Name.
Swami Ji Bachan 15, Shabd 9
The gift of Nam, the gift of a living Teacher, the gift of God coming down into the flesh for us to see and hear, is not a gift given to everyone. The Lord, in His wisdom, has not chosen to bring all of us home. The evidence can be seen by looking around us. New generations of people born into this world who know only what their senses, imagination, others, books and media tell them. They have a future of innocence lost, of pain and pleasure, of learning and relearning lessons learned over and over for thousands of years, mistakes made by human beings multiplied by the hundreds of millions throughout human history. But, they are the same mistakes.
We can see it in the youth, marching in joyously, angrily, passionately discovering everything again as they duplicate with uncanny precision the very innermost lives of their predecessors. And the middle aged, struggling to make much of this fading life, reaching back for strength, standing proud on the eroding foundation of a constructed identity. And finally, slipping into old age, losing everything and everyone of this world and the self we came to love so.
To paraphrase Tennyson, the triumphant athlete, beautiful in youth, symbol of vitality, confidence, success and mastery, now stands with buckling knees, held up by the arms of their children; the brave statesman who saved millions of lives from war and certain disaster stumbles for the simplest words, barely able to speak a rational sentence, hardly able to hear but what their spouse or friends shout to them; the deep and thoughtful poet whose inspirations moved the hearts of readers to the plight of their less privileged brothers and sisters hardly recognizes their own name, which must be written for them by others; the visionary artist, who helped us to see the forgotten grace and beauty around us, now with trembling hands, sees a blur and paints little more.
Rows of soldiers marching millions abreast with each passing year in youth with the rising sun blindly obedient to a level of atomic precision, headlong into the sunset of old age and the abyss. Along the way every emotion washes through us, and we react to these as a symbol of our greatness and individuality, as our companion, as our faith, as a sign that we are new and living as no one ever lived before. We are making history. But every act of rebellion, courage and genius was pre-scripted. These emotions are false guides; they have little to do with where we came from, who we really are and where we are going.
We accept our fate or rail against providence, follow or lead, struggle to the top, find a niche somewhere below, or lay helpless at the bottom beneath the crushing weight of others’ selfishness and our own incapacity. Yet we march on. Our legs work even against our own will. We, being imprisoned within our own bodies, are powerless, regardless of how powerful we may feel, to stop our gradual and inevitable progress towards our own end. The world outside this physical shell is wonderful, awesome, and frightening. We have no idea, living on the inside, mostly in our own dream.
In each row stretching out beyond the horizon march heroes, the powerful and brave, the infamous and cruel, the stunningly beautiful, the undistinguished, the kind and compassionate, the lame and weak. He manufactures an extensive line. They have enjoyed lives of luxury and pleasure, or poverty and tragedy, some without any apparent balance or justice. They have learned different lessons, some of greed and hatred and others of compassion, forgiveness and mercy; of submission and grace, or power and subjugation. But, as Ecclesiastes wrote, nothing new is learned.
In God’s eyes we are as close to being clones of others we do not know who came before us as any definition of cloning. He not only shapes our genes but our environment, and despite all our efforts at progress, that environment repeats itself over and over again in the most fundamental ways. We are ignorant of the instructions we follow to the letter, and, as Goethe said, we think we think, decide, move and act, but we are moved to act.
We arrive, discover each other, enjoy a few moments together and like passengers on a strange train, are politely asked to leave at different, unknown stops, not generally by choice, parting into the mist we entered from. We have our hat handed to us and are gently but firmly escorted off just as we were beginning to enjoy the trip.
From our perspective we are free. From His perspective, we move exactly to the set pace through the course He created eons ago.
The body is like a passer-by,
Says Dadu.
No sooner do you look at him,
Than he goes out of sight.
Be dedicated to the Name of God
As long as there is breath in your body.
Dadu Dayal
You have made my days a mere
Handbreadth;
The span of my years is as nothing
Before you.
Each man’s life is but a breath.
Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro.
Psalm (39: 5-6)
If He is supreme, then there are no surprises for the Lord, nothing vague, no doubt. What appears to us as unfolding events is for Him, who created all, who knows all, who is all powerful, a completed whole. He metes time for our benefit, taking moments from our grasp into the untouchable past, leaving only the ashes of memory and keepsakes; the present, which is so immense we must filter and interpret, and so live only in a part of it; and the future, which has never and will never exist; a creation of imagination, emerging into reality only in the present with events, occurrences unsuspected and inevitable. For Him, they are all the same. Time is for us. This portioning out is a system He created so we can eat our piece of the cake of life one bite at a time. It is all adventure, mystery, surprise, comedy and tragedy for us. It is a battle between good and evil, a challenge, a call to action. But for Him, it was baked as one whole cake.
The question of evolution versus creation does not arise where every moment of time, every emerging outcome was generated in one single act.
If there is any drama, any great tragedy or inspiration, any story of triumph, it is the story of those who are given the chance for freedom, by His hand. If we have any sight at all we quickly scramble out the opening He created, thinking foolishly to ourselves it was our doing. Yet, that is not the story that enthralls humanity. It is rarely seen, and less understood.
Observe how the whole world is going adrift
In this ocean of existence.
Seeing the world in such a plight,
I have cautioned you time and again
That you have suffered the pain of birth and death,
Even the tortures of hell,
In all the four ages.
Life after life you have suffered this anguish
Without finding a moment of peace.
Through virtue and vice you have endured great adversities,
But you never sought refuge
At the feet of a true Guru.
Now that you have been blessed with a human form,
Devote yourself to bhakti and burn away your karmas.
Your negligence will not be forgiven this time,
But will make you liable for punishment of all kinds.
Give up apathy, detach yourself from the world,
Then prepare and drink the ambrosia of the Name.
Be on your guard against the mind
And serve your Master.
Radha Soami has revealed to you the sublime mystery.
Swami Ji Bachan 15, Shabd 10
In the vast expanse of water,
In the depth of the sea,
Toss the sun, the moon,
All men and deities;
In its vicious whirlpool
They revolve and revolve.
They crave happiness,
But fail to gain release
From the embrace of pain.
No one discerns
The real cause of sorrow;
Searching for its cause
They become lost
In endless forms of delusion.
In their search for the Lord
Some become frenzied,
In their search for Him
Some become clever and wise;
Yet they fail to know the true Lord
Who dwells within every heart:
He is the true Lord,
He is the true Deity,
And his devotees are his true slaves.
But deluded man
Neither conquers Yama
Nor finds the one
Who will stand ransom;
His soul, alas, has to depart
Frustrated and downcast,
Like a woman unloved.
Kabir, Bijak Ramaini 41
All this play is a dream, and I have now woken you up. False is the body, false is the world, and false the mind that allures.
Swami Ji (Sar Bachan, 14:4, p. 111)
What is the Power of Peace? Just us sitting in peace, and merging in the true power.
To sit, to see Him within, to feel His presence, to hear His Word is a blessing. More than peace, more than respite, it is merging with the Lord. While we are sitting in Peace, he runs the world. So we can give all our cares to Him, and let Him take care of them for us. That is the natural arrangement. Our sphere of activity is within, and simply to love.
We can submit to Him, unburden ourselves, and rest in the company of our true friend.
Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji once said, “When love is engendered, our purpose is accomplished.”
We have only to love Him, to sit in His presence. It is a worthy struggle.
To understand peace, to strive for peace we become mighty warriors within, for we struggle against the greatest enemy, the most alarming and powerful foe who resides within us, and that is our mind. Our mind is really our history, our karma, living ever with us. Our Lord, the living Christ, the True Master, the Satguru, gives us the way and the tools:
First, the vows, our foundation….
Then, the inner pathway….
Simran, the repetition of the five holy names;
Bhajan, hearing the divine Word within, the sound current, the Shabd, Nam;
Dyhan, seeing Him within, placing His image before us.
We occupy our ability to see and to hear, the Nirat and Surat, with our devotion to Him.
How do we fight a superior foe? How do we accept defeat yet fight again? Our friend, our support, is an even greater power. The Father, the Lord of all Lords. He is our coach, our trainer, our chess challenger, and our lover. If we choose to live and work with our enemy, we will be unhappy. But we can choose to live with our lover, and that will make working with our enemy that much easier. At some point our enemy is also transformed by the same Love that transforms us, His love. Then, our imprisonment ends.
As Baba Ji said in Fayetteville, when we battle alone, then we can be overwhelmed, we can be disturbed by life. But when we are part of a larger love, a greater consciousness, then these issues of time, circumstance, limitation, even defeat and harm cannot perturb us. We are on a larger mission, a greater intimacy.
When we arrange our lives around meditation we prepare for the unknown. We prepare for the ups and downs of life that will come to us, which today, we are unaware of. We stock our emergency room with supplies and staff, ready to handle what is about to walk in. That is also the strength of Peace, of building an atmosphere and a reservoir of peace in our lives. He is that atmosphere, He is that reservoir, infinite, personal, loving and compassionate. And He is but a thought away. “Dear Lord, Dear Master…” and there He is. Then we understand that He was always there attending to us. It is we who choose moment by moment to turn away. The moment we turn to the sun, we see the sun. The sun didn’t just rise for us, but we made a different choice, and now see it for what it is.
Whether we are walking, running, flying, crawling or falling, we can do so with our face to the sun, the true Son of God, our Master.
Jaimal Singh Ji writes eloquently about this intimacy with the Master within, by taking ourselves out of every situation, and placing Him in. He is writing to Sawan Singh Ji, the disciple who would become the Living Christ for millions.
March 22, 1900
….Please keep doing bhajan and simran every day for whatever time the mind remains attached to the Shabd-dhun and the soul hears and enjoys its bliss. Then even a minute or two, or five, are sufficient, and the task is done. Have firm faith; the worldly obligations you are fulfilling are all essentially spiritual. Do not allow the self to intrude; everything is the Satguru’s work…..
May 24, 1901
…. He is always by your side and will do what he considers to be good. With love and devotion, keep the inner faculties and the higher mind always attached to the Shabd-dhun, and remain content at whichsoever place he keeps you. All work is his work; remain happy wherever he keeps you, and take on whatever work you do as the Satguru’s work – do not keep your self in it. Instill it firmly in your mind – this idea should never leave the mind – that the body, mind, wealth, and the inner faculties, the eyes, mouth, nose ears, hands, feet, all, everything, each and every article that exists in the world, belongs to the Satguru: “I do not exist.” Look upon everything you do as the Satguru’s work; do only that which is appropriate.
This advice, the directive I have written above, should never leave your mind at any time. Keep these words firmly in the mind while doing your work, and also during simran while listening to the Shabd-dhun. You will then certainly receive the bliss of the Shabd-dhun. Always remember these three points: Do not feel elated even if you receive the kingship of fourteen realms, because it would be false and transitory – if you love false things, you will be deceived. If such a sovereignty is taken away, do not feel depressed, because he who gave it took it away. It belonged to him and it was unreal. However much respect or criticism someone may offer, neither be pleased with the respect and praise nor offended by the criticism. Always remain happy and content wherever the Lord is pleased to place you. When our attachments do not touch the mind, and the mind always remains in balance, then the boon of entering Sach Khand by way of the Shabd-dhun comes daily through the Satguru’s Word. Grace and mercy especially are upon you all the time. Keep listening to the Shabd-dhun every day….
Novermber 16, 1901
….Bhajan and simran is to be done every day, my son. Keep it in mind that all that exists is the Satguru’s. All occupations, material goods, every worldly thing, sons, daughters, relatives, the physical body, and the love and inner yearning of surat and nirat, and the higher mind, the Shabd-dhun, one’s intelligence and intellect, and the hands, feet, tongue, nose, mouth and eyes, everything is the Satguru’s: “I have handed over all to the Satguru and work only to serve him.” The sound of the Shabd-dhun that comes from our original home, from the wondrous Anami Radha Soami, is the true form of the Satguru. All that is happening in the world emanates from within his command. Always listen to the Shabd-dhun with love and devotion. While continuing with your worldly duties, listen to it devotedly with the mind and the surat and nirat. Never let the mind become detached from it. Do not yearn for any worldly work. Nothing in the world is greater than the wealth of Nam. Why hanker after anything when you have already found the greatest home of all? ….
February 26, 1902
….All of you should do your bhajan and simran every day. Always, with love and devotion keep the inner faculties of surat and nirat and the higher mind attached to the Shabd-dhun within, while doing your worldly work with the body. You are never to keep love for worldly work or material possessions in your mind. Instead, think like this: “It is not I in the body; the Satguru is all in all.” The attention is definitely to be kept in the sound of the Shabd-dhun every day…..
July 31, 1903
….Bhajan and simran is our real work, my son. This will always remain with us, as it is the Satguru’s gift. This gift will grow, and never diminish. Every other honour, right up to the god’s abode or paradise, is unreal. It is subject to destruction and also to creation again. So to gain or not to gain it is the same, because an honour which is first given and then snatched away means nothing. But this is how the affairs of the world go on. So what is there in high distinction? If received, it is good, and if not, still better…..
Jaimal Singh tells us that to submit all to Him is really to take ourselves out of it entirely, so that we cease to be altogether. That is really not a change in reality, but an awakening understanding of the truth. He is, and we experience that in every waking moment when we are not. So, in short, take yourself out of it.
The Story of King Mahmoud and his slave, Ayaz (adopted from stories by Rumi, and the poet, Sir Edward Arnold)
Once upon a time, long ago, in ancient and magical Persia, there lived a mighty ruler, named King Mahmoud. He was not only wealthy and powerful, but wise and loving.
From time to time he would arrange a glorious parade of camels laden with sparkling jewels, courtiers, jugglers, and acrobats. All dressed in colorful silks, celebrating the greatness of the Lord and the good fortune and dignity of human life. Happily he led them through the streets of the Kingdom and to the outskirts of the city. The crowds thronged the parade, cheered their King and followed out of the city walls. Here, the King raised his mighty scepter, and lowered it again, whence the courtiers and entertainers removed the jewels from their costumes, from the camels, from large satchels and scattered them upon the sands for all to partake.
King Mahmoud rode happily beyond and looked back to see that everyone, even his own wealthy princes and reagents had left their camels to partake of the treasure. Only one stood at King Mahmoud’s side, a lowly young slave name Ayaz.
King Mahmoud looked squarely at the young man and asked him “Why are you not partaking of my wealth?” to which young Ayaz, gazing into Mahmoud’s eyes, smiled and said quietly, “I am.”
From that day forth, King Mahmoud arranged to have this young slave serve at his court. In place of old, tattered and soiled rags, Ayaz now wore silk pants and a silk vest, and beautiful silken shoes. He happily did all that he was told. He ate little, but well. He had a pleasant and clean corner in which to sleep upon a large pillow.
The other members of the King’s court noticed that the King paid special attention to Ayaz. Since they worked so hard for the King’s attention, some began to grow a little envious. They wondered what this Ayaz was all about, and why the King would be so drawn to him. After some discussion among themselves, they elected one reagent to approach the King. He asked King Mahmoud, “Dear King, why do you keep this slave here? He is neither beautiful nor strong, nor articulate, nor intelligent. Surely, if you would allow, we could find a more suitable slave for our beloved King’s court?”
The King replied, “I am happy with him where he is. He has a beauty you cannot see, within his heart. Look for it, and you will understand why he is here.”
The regents’ and courtiers’ jelousy was inflamed by King Mahmoud’s words. They sought to find a way to remove Ayaz, for they thought he was a threat to the rest of them.
They spied on Ayaz and reported to the King. “Dear King, we know how deeply you feel for the young slave, Ayaz, but we are concerned for you, and we have noticed that Ayaz slips out of the walls of your castle every night, down dark alleys into a hidden and locked room. We have seen him do this night after night. We are concerned that he is not what he pretends to be. Perhaps he is a spy for your enemy. Perhaps he listens more closely than we realize to the goings on in your court, only to report your decisions and plans to those who would harm you.”
King Mahmoud gave them permission to unlock the hidden room by force, and bring whomever, or whatever was inside to the King’s court.
The next day, the courtiers returned with a trunk, and when they opened it all that was inside were Ayaz’s old tattered and filthy clothes.
Ayaz saw this and stood up, shocked and embarrassed.
King Mahmoud called out, “Ayaz, come here. These fine members of my court tell me that every night you slip out of the castle to go into a dark and locked room in a poor neighborhood of our kingdom. I have asked them to bring me whatever they found in that room. Can you explain this?”
Ayaz began quietly, and said, “My Lord, I apologize if I have offended you. Every night when I slipped out of the castle, I went into the old windowless room, dark and dirty, my old home, to put these old torn clothes on for a little while.”
“Dear Ayaz,” the King asked compassionately, “why would you do that?”
“So that, my beloved King, I would never forget that before you brought me here, I was nothing.”
…..
One day the King assembled his courtiers. He handed the minister a glowing pearl and asked “What would you say this is worth?”
“More gold than a hundred donkeys could carry,” replied the minister.
King Mahmoud commanded, “Break it!”
“Sir,” said the minister, “how could I waste your resources like that?” The King presented him with a robe of honor for his answer and took back the pearl. He talked awhile to the assembly on various topics. Then, he put the pearl in the chamberlain’s hand and asked, “What would it sell for?”
The chamberlain said “Half a kingdom, God preserve it.”
“Break it!” the King again commanded.
“My hand could not move to do such a thing,” said the Chamberlain. The King rewarded him with a robe of honor and an increase in his salary. So it went on with each of the fifty or sixty courtiers, each trying to outdo the other in their praise of the precious pearl. One by one they imitated the minister and the chamberlain and received new wealth.
Then the pearl was given to Ayaz.
“Can you say,” asked the King, “how splendid this is?” to which Ayaz replied, “It’s more than I can say.”
“Then break it, this second, into tiny pieces.”
And Ayaz picked up two stones and in one swift motion crushed the priceless pearl between them into dust.
The court assembly screamed at the recklessness of Ayaz, “See, Dear King, he is a fool!”
They asked “How could you do that!”
And Ayaz, without hesitation replied “What the King says is worth more than any pearl…. I honor the King, and not some colored stone.”
…..
Ayaz was a faithful servant for many years. One day, the aging King called all his court before him. They knew that he would not live much longer, and this was the day he would announce his successor.
Before the festivities began, the King turned to Ayaz,
“Dear Ayaz, you are always standing. Here, why don’t you sit down for a while.”
Ayaz replied, “But, my King, there is only one chair here.”
The King dismissed Ayaz’s comment with a wave of his hand and motioned him to sit on the Throne.
“I just wanted to know if that felt comfortable for you.”
As Ayaz sat, tears began to stream down his eyes. He could not speak. He nodded in resignation.
The King, with trembling hands, took from a velvet pillow, the crown, newly polished.
He said “I just wanted to see how this felt, does this fit your head?” He placed the crown upon Ayaz’s head.
Ayaz, obedient, sat tall and firm, tears streaming down his cheeks, and down his silken vest.
“Do you think this fits, my beloved Ayaz?”
And then it was that quietly, so quietly only the King could hear, Ayaz spoke through his tears and said “ To look into the eyes of my King is Kingdom enough for me.”
Paul spoke eloquently about this inner treasure, the Love of Christ, which he works hard to unveil and protect, by the very power of that inner treasure, which is also the Love of Christ. He tells us this is the same spirit of faith spoken of in the Psalms. Indeed it has been spoken of throughout recorded history. The love of Christ stands forever, unassailable, even as this body, this jar of clay must endure its fate. It is precisely the effect of this Love on us under the most difficult of circumstances that is the evidence of its eternal reality even amidst this transient one.
"7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4: 7-18
Happy Thanksgiving!
The argument that there is only one objective reality is spurious because we can only have an opinion on that. Our opinion is informed by many things, including our biochemistry, including what we don't know or understand, our emotions, our drives, fears, frustrations and joys, our unique past history remembered, and that past history that is now long forgotten. A lot of what isn't logical is part and parcel of our fluid train of thought.
The argument that we are only this body, or that we are only spirit is spurious because we can only have an opinion on that. What we concieve, that is certainly a part of us, taking up desktop space in our mind, or saved in a long forgotten file folder, opening and closing invisibly without our participation or permission, and affecting everything else.
Our opinions are informed by experience, education, conditioning. Between the two things, experience and opinion, let's return to experience, and use our opinions to refine how we learn to see and hear that experience better, how we build the environment to become more objective. That just might be through the singular worship of Christ, the highest ideal, in whatever form or religion we understand Christ to be.
Prayer is just a form of that. Moving from hurt and blindness into insight, understanding and peace, with the help of our best friend. Can we be more objective? Yes. Aligning ourselves to an ideal, to the notion of a creator, to the experience of the divine, and his/her compassionate love, can elevate our thinking, our perspective.
How can worship of Christ influence how we look at this world? Worship of the Father within, in our prayers, in our meditation puts everything into a larger framework. These daily things become a smaller part of a greater whole. It's easier to look at things dispassionately, to accept things, even to be thankful for painful things that are a natural and inevitable part of our experience, seen from a perspective that is entirely separate and above that experience. Let's zoom out, and then look again at the whole map, to understand where we are, where we came from and where we are going. Learning to take the helicopter up, up, means we see more and more of the whole landscape. The context changes the higher we go within.
Our objectivity changes throughout the day. We are not one thing. We are whatever we think in the moment, and that is not a static tangible, much as some wish to believe. The hard body problem doesn't exist because we only see through the soft body of our experience and thinking, and everything we think is a plastic variable construction changing all the time.
In order to believe we are only these bodies, we must leave out the fact that what we believe is a fluid construction changing throughout the day. Our level of consciousness already changes throughout the day. What we are thinking, what is presented to us alters our thinking. So the notion that we are just one thing is wrong. We are a range of things. Let's choose to be the better half of that range. Let's identify our own varying levels of consciousness and live above the waterline; and live so that we can be thinking of our own highest love and ideals as a natural part of living. That is a discipline. That is meditation. That is what prayer really is all about. Then we are connected to what we love. And we gain nourishment, peace and happiness from that higher love. We can become something more than the average of what we are, in terms of our mind and thinking, by raising the standard on our own selves. And this we do by being very good observers of all that is around us and within us. To do that we must stop and listen, stop and look, stop and be thankful, stop and ask Him of Him.
Zen is not an easy path. Facing one's self is more confronting than comforting.
Dealing with difficult people...
"Show respect to people who don't even deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours."
Dave Willis
"Don't become too preoccupied with what is happening around you. Pay more attention to what is going on within you."
Mary-Frances Winters
.............................
The Benefits Of Confrontation
I’ve met a lot of people who are deathly afraid of confrontation. I’m not going to try to pathologize this type of thing, since I’ve been guilty of it as well. But I do wonder where it comes from. What paralyzes us with fear when we think about confronting other people? More essentially, what is so mortifying about confronting ourselves?
I’ve started to realize that the relationship between confronting others and confronting oneself is deeply important. If we neglect confrontation, we are still in the realm of resistance and avoidance, and this rarely ever brings anyone any sort of lasting peace. Confrontation is important and beneficial.
You might be saying, “Well, Buddhism is about compassion and mindfulness and all of this.” Yeah, it is. But Zen is about recognizing the unspoken truths of the world. We probe nothingness for a while and we come out the other side with a better understanding of ourselves and others. Discovering an essence or a truth always creates some sort of friction between the world you thought existed and the world as it really is. Sometimes it takes us a lifetime to discover the world as it really is, but meditation expedites this process.
So, if you’re going to take the step of starting to meditate, of cultivating mindfulness, and being aware of both yourself and those around you, you’re going to reach a point where you want to confront someone, or yourself. This happens all the time. Confrontations vary from petty skirmishes to major fights. When we feel a dissonance between our thinking and our behavior, or between how we expect others to think and behave vs. how they actually think and behave, we need to make peace with that dissonance.
Sometimes, confrontation is the perfect way of making peace with some sort of issue. Meditation is, in a sense, a constant confrontation between yourself and yourself. If you spend enough time simply observing the mind in focused silence, you find a lot. You have to confront a lot of latent ideas and feelings that you don’t necessarily want to. Meditation is rarely all sunshine and puppies; it can be very painful. But this pain and fear is so important. It tells us that we’re taking a risk. We can either take the risk and transcend our pain and fear, or we can run away and let them control us. The right option is obvious.
In the same way that we learn to confront ourselves during meditation, we can find constructive ways to confront others. You can’t go through life like a doormat, no matter how pacifistic you are. Sometimes you need to approach someone and say, “Listen, what you’re doing is hurting me. I might have hurt you too but I hope we can communicate and come to a better understanding of one another.” This almost always benefits both parties.
The next time you find yourself fearful of a confrontation, try to swallow your fear and jump into it. Don’t punch someone in the face or use hateful language. Simply approach them and let them know what’s on your mind. Try to explain the dissonance in a way that they can relate to. Similarly, when you find yourself thinking difficult thoughts or residing in a place of emotional turbulence, learn to confront yourself. Try to get to know yourself better.
This requires effort, but with some mindfulness and some practice we can work collectively towards a better understanding of ourselves and one another. It’s work, sure, but it’s some of the most beneficial and peace-building work we can do.
Daily Zen: Charlie Ambler
The ad gives me hope.
The defensive comments on YouTube remind me how Adolph Hitler rose to power, and the necessity for good men to take the very simple and direct steps this ad depicts.
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
....
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
My dear brother in law died unexpectedly on Thanksgiving week. Today is his memorial.
His son, a musician, will be singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.
Some artists have added to, deleted and re-written Cohen's gritty, humble and mystic lyrics. There are several versus, different versions. It's rumored that Cohen wrote 18 verses in the complete song. So many different artists have picked and chosen their favorites.
This is the abbreviated version attributed to Cohen himself by Amazon Lyrics.
Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen
(Jen is an online pen pal I met at Brian Hine's fine site, Church of the Churchless.
https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/
Jen commented here a few days ago elegantly about Existentialism and Buddhism, and so I asked her if I could repost those citations and if she wouldn't mind adding some thoughts.
Jen's straightforward and sensible approach to her own mindfulness practice, and the philosophy behind it is very attractive. Anyone can adopt this personal philosophy, even if they choose to hold other religious or anti-religious views as well. I hope this is the first of many posts our local Zenmaster Jen will create for all of us here at Atheist and Believer.)
I often wonder if I am an atheist, or simply have existential views. I try to practice mindfulness, living with awareness and in the moment, the Zen buddhist way...
“The aim of mindfulness is to know suffering fully. It entails paying calm, unflinching attention to whatever impacts the organism, be it the song of a lark or the scream of a child, the bubbling of a playful idea or a twinge in the lower back. You attend not just to the outward stimuli themselves, but equally to%+20your inward reactions to them. You do not condemn what you see as your failings or applaud what you regard as success. You notice things come, you notice them go. Over time, the practice becomes less a self-conscious exercise in meditation done at fixed periods each day and more a sensibility that infuses one’s awareness at all times.”
― Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
“The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in our distorted conceptions of the world.”
― Stephen Batchelor, Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism
“Evasion of the unadorned immediacy of life is a+s deep-seated as it is relentless. Even with the ardent desire to be aware and alert in the present moment, the mind flings us into tawdry and tiresome elaborations of past and future. This craving to be otherwise, to be elsewhere, permeates the body, feeling, perceptions, will - consciousness itself. It is like the background radiation from the big bang of birth, the aftershock of having erupted into existence.”
― Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
“To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.”
― Stephen Batchelor,%+20Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Living in the moment is about letting go of the past and catching oneself and bringing back one's thoughts to peace and love and presence, a constant struggle with the mind but a very worthy practice imo.
As you've probably noticed I do like to look up quotes to find something that resonates with me, its like talking to myself, a little lesson which lifts my spirit for the day...
"When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves."
Dogen
I became interested in Existentialism when I came across this video about existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre - his book "Being and Nothingness"- a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.
Sartre in Ten Minutes (9:59)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Existentialism meets Buddhism
A good portion of my writing focuses on Eastern practices such as mindfulness, and how they can improve one’s life. Another topic I focus on is existential philosophy and how beliefs derived from that school can also make life more fulfilling. In this post, I’d like to discuss similarities between the two.
I was struck recently by how the two philosophies, born of different worlds, came to many of the same conclusions. Existential philosophy is a Western idea, originating in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Buddhism is much older, said to have originated in the fifth century B.C.E. Despite their disparate origins and development, there are several striking similarities.
Being in the moment: Heidegger, a famous existential writer, wrote a book translated as “mindfulness”. He talks about Being, living in the moment, throughout his writing. Buddhism, as well as other Eastern philosophies (Taoism, for instance) also focus on the importance of immersion in the moment. As I’ve written a dozen times, empirical studies indicate the benefits of mindfulness for everything from physical ailments to mental health disorders. Mindfulness is essential to both philosophies, as it leads to the power to change, which is discussed next.
Individuals can change: To put it existentially, existence precedes essence. Essence is the idea of a finished product, where existence suggests becoming, being, and the ability to take control over one’s life. In Buddhism and other Eastern thought, the idea is that nothing exists except in the moment. Though some sects of Buddhism believe one possess a “Buddha Nature”, it is almost impossible to realize it for extended periods. In both philosophies, the idea is to “become”.
The inevitability of death: Though this is a more integral part of existential thought, (the fear of death and the need to face it permeates existentialism), Buddhism also focuses on meditating on one’s death. Being aware of death is central to Tibetan Buddhism, which spurred the famous, “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, and the more recent, “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”. Yoga has a pose called, “Savasana”, which is translated as “corpse pose”. Though yoga is not Buddhist, it further demonstrates the fact that Eastern thought (in this case Hindu) has come to similar conclusions as western existentialism.
Suffering is part of life: What’s more, they both focus on how the view of suffering can be transformative. In Buddhism, suffering is addressed in the Four Noble Truths. Suffering is part of existence, and can be overcome by following the Eightfold Path. Some of this philosophy focuses on acceptance of what cannot be changed (see Acceptance: It Isn’t What You Think).
In existential thought, suffering can provide life meaning. Camus’ most famous essay focuses on “The Myth of Sysyphus”, and how even knowing his work is pointless and considered torture by the gods, he embraces his life. Camus ends his essay with the idea that, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart” (Camus, p.123).
Viktor Frankl, another existential writer, focuses on the meaning of suffering. When confronted with a patient who suffers because of the death of his wife, Frankl challenges the client’s meaning, pointing out that by bearing this suffering, he spares his wife the suffering of his death. In both of these existential writers’ views, the view of suffering alters its experience.
There are similarities between many philosophies and religions. Many focus on making your life happier and becoming a better person. The same is true for these two philosophies. In fact, I once read a book about how different philosophies can help one with mental health (Plato, Not Prozac). I am of the belief that for many mental health issues, a change of philosophy is the cure.
Copyright William Berry, 2017
"I think we have to trust ourselves in the darkness of not knowing. The God out of which we came and into which we go is an unknown God. It's the luminosity of that darkness and that unknowing that is, I think, the most human - and the most sacred - place of all."
Sam Keen
Jen
While you are doing this, consider visualizing world peace!
Or whirrled peas....
Today's a great day for resolutions...
Some tips for success...
Start small.
Journal your resolutions, goals and results a few times a week...
Put out small efforts every day....
Expect some setbacks....
Use those as learning / journaling opportunities...
Get up and try again....
And your resolutions?