JustME

i can never get tired of this thread, Heera Veer's story brings pani to eyes every single time!!! soo heres a much needed BUMP!!

-------------------------------------------------------------- You personify God's message. You reflect the King's face. There is nothing in the universe that you are not Everything you want, look for it within yourself-- you are that. Rumi -------------------------------------------------- "Is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?" "As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning." "Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?" "To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise." ~ Anthony deMello, from One Minute Wisdom

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the Silence of the monastery would be shattered. This would upset the disciples; not the Master, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the Silence. To his protesting disciples he said one day, "Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self." ~ Adyashanti -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the moment of Enlightenment everything falls away--everything. Suddenly the ground beneath you is gone, and you are alone. You are alone because you have realized that there is no other; there is only THAT, and YOU ARE THAT. --Adyashanti Those who don't feel this life pulling them like a river, those who don't drink dawn like a cup of springwater or take in the sunset like supper, those who don't want to change, let them sleep. --Rumi Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don't look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behavior. You need not aim at these--you will witness the change all the same. For what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention. --Nisargadatta Maharaj "The Center of my being is changeless, and where there is no change, there is not time. This, then, is forever my Reality, not something that comes and goes." --Douglas Harding What surfaces during meditation are residues of the past. These residues are energy localized through association of ideas--energy mobilized into fear and insecurity. Remain a witness to all this. In being the choiceless observer, attention is motiveless, and all conditioning subsides. --Jean Klein

Your own sense of existence-awareness is immediately known and available at all times. It is not an attainment. There is no technique or process involved. You cannot gain it or lose it. It is here now. *** Thoughts and experiences never obscure your true nature. It is always completely free and available. We just did not see it because we were looking in the wrong direction. Once it is clearly pointed out to us, we can see this directly and with no effort. *** Once you see that who you are is constantly with you, you do not have an experience of moving in and out of peace or clarity. It is only due to contrary concepts that we seem to lose it. In fact, the thoughts are mistaken. Once we see this, the thoughts lose their grip. *** The belief that you are a separate person is the cause of all ignorance, suffering, anxiety, doubt, fear and so on — that is to say, all self-centered thinking. Have a direct look and see if you can find the person you have imagined yourself to be. *** The seeming separate “I” that we took ourselves to be was never really present. When that is seen to be absent, except as an imagined concept, the rug is pulled out from under the whole production. With no “I,” who has a problem? Who needs to do anything? Who needs to attain anything? *** When you see how direct and simple it is, the doubts, questions and problems get undercut at the source. The recognition of clear, present awareness is utterly beyond doubt. Nothing necessarily changes in the appearance of living, but things are no longer being filtered through a screen of unexamined beliefs and reference points. *** When it is seen that the individual is absent, all the questions fall to pieces and life in clarity remains. It is utterly simple, utterly profound — and utterly normal. The natural state could also be called the normal state! *** No matter where the mind jumps to, it is all taking place right within empty awareness. That is all there is to it. And you are that. You have always been that. *** Awareness, or your true nature, is not a thing or an object to be grasped by the senses or the mind. For this reason, the mind is utterly unable to understand what is being pointed out. Yet if I ask you “Are you aware?” you immediately recognize the presence of awareness, or the fact of your own being. True insight does not rely on the mind at all.

theres always one who cant keep away from the bibiah only thread! :rolleyes:

http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0015.htm I AM REMINDED of the fateful day of twenty-first March, 1953. For many lives I had been working -- working upon myself, struggling, doing whatsoever can be done -- and nothing was happening. Now I understand why nothing was happening. The very effort was the barrier, the very ladder was preventing, the very urge to seek was the obstacle. Not that one can reach without seeking. Seeking is needed, but then comes a point when seeking has to be dropped. The boat is needed to cross the river but then comes a moment when you have to get out of the boat and forget all about it and leave it behind. Effort is needed, without effort nothing is possible. And also only with effort, nothing is possible. Just before twenty-first March, 1953, seven days before, I stopped working on myself. A moment comes when you see the whole futility of effort. You have done all that you can do and nothing is happening. You have done all that is humanly possible. Then what else can you do? In sheer helplessness one drops all search. And the day the search stopped, the day I was not seeking for something, the day I was not expecting something to happen, it started happening. A new energy arose -- out of nowhere. It was not coming from any source. It was coming from nowhere and everywhere. It was in the trees and in the rocks and the sky and the sun and the air -- it was everywhere. And I was seeking so hard, and I was thinking it is very far away. And it was so near and so close. Just because I was seeking I had become incapable of seeing the near. Seeking is always for the far, seeking is always for the distant -- and it was not distant. I had become far-sighted, I had lost the near-sightedness. The eyes had become focussed on the far away, the horizon, and they had lost the quality to see that which is just close, surrounding you. The day effort ceased, I also ceased. Because you cannot exist without effort, and you cannot exist without desire, and you cannot exist without striving. The phenomenon of the ego, of the self, is not a thing, it is a process. It is not a substance sitting there inside you; you have to create it each moment. It is like pedalling bicycle. If you pedal it goes on and on, if you don't pedal it stops. It may go a little because of the past momentum, but the moment you stop pedalling, in fact the bicycle starts stopping. It has no more energy, no more power to go anywhere. It is going to fall and collapse. The ego exists because we go on pedalling desire, because we go on striving to get something, because we go on jumping ahead of ourselves. That is the very phenomenon of the ego -- the jump ahead of yourself, the jump in the future, the jump in the tomorrow. The jump in the non-existential creates the ego. Because it comes out of the non-existential it is like a mirage. It consists only of desire and nothing else. It consists only of thirst and nothing else. The ego is not in the present, it is in the future. If you are in the future, then ego seems to be very substantial. If you are in the present the ego is a mirage, it starts disappearing. The day I stopped seeking... and it is not right to say that I stopped seeking, better will be to say the day seeking stopped. Let me repeat it: the better way to say it is the day the seeking stopped. Because if I stop it then I am there again. Now stopping becomes my effort, now stopping becomes my desire, and desire goes on existing in a very subtle way. You cannot stop desire; you can only understand it. In the very understanding is the stopping of it. Remember, nobody can stop desiring, and the reality happens only when desire stops. So this is the dilemma. What to do? Desire is there and Buddhas go on saying desire has to be stopped, and they go on saying in the next breath that you cannot stop desire. So what to do? You put people in a dilemma. They are in desire, certainly. You say it has to be stopped -- okay. And then you say it cannot be stopped. Then what is to be done? The desire has to be understood. You can understand it, you can just see the futility of it. A direct perception is needed, an immediate penetration is needed. Look into desire, just see what it is, and you will see the falsity of it, and you will see it is non-existential. And desire drops and something drops simultaneously within you. Desire and the ego exist in cooperation, they coordinate. The ego cannot exist without desire, the desire cannot exist without the ego. Desire is projected ego, ego is introjected desire. They are together, two aspects of one phenomenon. The day desiring stopped, I felt very hopeless and helpless. No hope because no future. Nothing to hope because all hoping has proved futile, it leads nowhere. You go in rounds. It goes on dangling in front of you, it goes on creating new mirages, it goes on calling you, 'Come on, run fast, you will reach.' But howsoever fast you run you never reach. That's why Buddha calls it a mirage. It is like the horizon that you see around the earth. It appears but it is not there. If you go it goes on running from you. The faster you run, the faster it moves away. The slower you go, the slower it moves away. But one thing is certain -- the distance between you and the horizon remains absolutely the same. Not even a single inch can you reduce the distance between you and the horizon. You cannot reduce the distance between you and your hope. Hope is horizon. You try to bridge yourself with the horizon, with the hope, with a projected desire. The desire is a bridge, a dream bridge -- because the horizon exists not, so you cannot make a bridge towards it, you can only dream about the bridge. You cannot be joined with the non-existential. The day the desire stopped, the day I looked and realized into it, it simply was futile. I was helpless and hopeless. But that very moment something started happening. The same started happening for which for many lives I was working and it was not happening. In your hopelessness is the only hope, and in your desirelessness is your only fulfillment, and in your tremendous helplessness suddenly the whole existence starts helping you. It is waiting. When it sees that you are working on your own, it does not interfere. It waits. It can wait infinitely because there is no hurry for it. It is eternity. The moment you are not on your own, the moment you drop, the moment you disappear, the whole existence rushes towards you, enters you. And for the first time things start happening. Seven days I lived in a very hopeless and helpless state, but at the same time something was arising. When I say hopeless I don't mean what you mean by the word hopeless. I simply mean there was no hope in me. Hope was absent. I am not saying that I was hopeless and sad. I was happy in fact, I was very tranquil, calm and collected and centered. Hopeless, but in a totally new meaning. There was no hope, so how could there be hopelessness. Both had disappeared. The hopelessness was absolute and total. Hope had disappeared and with it its counterpart, hopelessness, had also disappeared. It was a totally new experience -- of being without hope. It was not a negative state. I have to use words -- but it was not a negative state. It was absolutely positive. It was not just absence, a presence was felt. Something was overflowing in me, overflooding me. And when I say I was helpless, I don't mean the word in the dictionary-sense. I simply say I was selfless. That's what I mean when I say helpless. I have recognized the fact that I am not, so I cannot depend on myself, so I cannot stand on my own ground -- there was no ground underneath. I was in an abyss... bottomless abyss. But there was no fear because there was nothing to protect. There was no fear because there was nobody to be afraid. Those seven days were of tremendous transformation, total transformation. And the last day the presence of a totally new energy, a new light and new delight, became so intense that it was almost unbearable -- as if I was exploding, as if I was going mad with blissfulness. The new generation in the West has the right word for it -- I was blissed out, stoned. It was impossible to make any sense out of it, what was happening. It was a very non-sense world -- difficult to figure it out, difficult to manage in categories, difficult to use words, languages, explanations. All scriptures appeared dead and all the words that have been used for this experience looked very pale, anaemic. This was so alive. It was like a tidal wave of bliss. The whole day was strange, stunning, and it was a shattering experience. The past was disappearing, as if it had never belonged to me, as if I had read about it somewhere, as if I had dreamed about it, as if it was somebody else's story I have heard and somebody told it to me. I was becoming loose from my past, I was being uprooted from my history, I was losing my autobiography. I was becoming a non-being, what Buddha calls anatta. Boundaries were disappearing, distinctions were disappearing. Mind was disappearing; it was millions of miles away. It was difficult to catch hold of it, it was rushing farther and farther away, and there was no urge to keep it close. I was simply indifferent about it all. It was okay. There was no urge to remain continuous with the past. By the evening it became so difficult to bear it -- it was hurting, it was painful. It was like when a woman goes into labour when a child is to be born, and the woman suffers tremendous pain -- the birth pangs. I used to go to sleep in those days near about twelve or one in the night, but that day it was impossible to remain awake. My eyes were closing, it was difficult to keep them open. Something was very imminent, something was going to happen. It was difficult to say what it was -- maybe it is going to be my death -- but there was no fear. I was ready for it. Those seven days had been so beautiful that I was ready to die, nothing more was needed. They had been so tremendously blissful, I was so contented, that if death was coming, it was welcome. But something was going to happen -- something like death, something very drastic, something which will be either a death or a new birth, a crucifixion or a resurrection -- but something of tremendous import was around just by the corner. And it was impossible to keep my eyes open. I was drugged. I went to sleep near about eight. It was not like sleep. Now I can understand what Patanjali means when he says that sleep and samadhi are similar. Only with one difference -- that in samadhi you are fully awake and asleep also. Asleep and awake together, the whole body relaxed, every cell of the body totally relaxed, all functioning relaxed, and yet a light of awareness burns within you... clear, smokeless. You remain alert and yet relaxed, loose but fully awake. The body is in the deepest sleep possible and your consciousness is at its peak. The peak of consciousness and the valley of the body meet. I went to sleep. It was a very strange sleep. The body was asleep, I was awake. It was so strange -- as if one was torn apart into two directions, two dimensions; as if the polarity has become completely focused, as if I was both the polarities together... the positive and negative were meeting, sleep and awareness were meeting, death and life were meeting. That is the moment when you can say 'the creator and the creation meet.' It was weird. For the first time it shocks you to the very roots, it shakes your foundations. You can never be the same after that experience; it brings a new vision to your life, a new quality. Near about twelve my eyes suddenly opened -- I had not opened them. The sleep was broken by something else. I felt a great presence around me in the room. It was a very small room. I felt a throbbing life all around me, a great vibration -- almost like a hurricane, a great storm of light, joy, ecstasy. I was drowning in it. It was so tremendously real that everything became unreal. The walls of the room became unreal, the house became unreal, my own body became unreal. Everything was unreal because now there was for the first time reality. That's why when Buddha and Shankara say the world is maya, a mirage, it is difficult for us to understand. Because we know only this world, we don't have any comparison. This is the only reality we know. What are these people talking about -- this is maya, illusion? This is the only reality. Unless you come to know the really real, their words cannot be understood, their words remain theoretical. They look like hypotheses. Maybe this man is propounding a philosophy -- 'The world is unreal'. When Berkley in the West said that the world is unreal, he was walking with one of his friends, a very logical man; the friend was almost a skeptic. He took a stone from the road and hit Berkley's feet hard. Berkley screamed, blood rushed out, and the skeptic said, 'Now, the world is unreal? You say the world is unreal? -- then why did you scream? This stone is unreal? -- then why did you scream? Then why are you holding your leg and why are you showing so much pain and anguish on your face. Stop this? It is all unreal. Now this type of man cannot understand what Buddha means when he says the world is a mirage. He does not mean that you can pass through the wall. He is not saying this -- that you can eat stones and it will make no difference whether you eat bread or stones. He is not saying that. He is saying that there is a reality. Once you come to know it, this so-called reality simply pales out, simply becomes unreal. With a higher reality in vision the comparison arises, not otherwise. In the dream; the dream is real. You dream every night. Dream is one of the greatest activities that you go on doing. If you live sixty years, twenty years you will sleep and almost ten years you will dream. Ten years in a life -- nothing else do you do so much. Ten years of continuous dreaming -- just think about it. And every night.... And every morning you say it was unreal, and again in the night when you dream, dream becomes real. In a dream it is so difficult to remember that this is a dream. But in the morning it is so easy. What happens? You are the same person. In the dream there is only one reality. How to compare? How to say it is unreal? Compared to what? It is the only reality. Everything is as unreal as everything else so there is no comparison. In the morning when you open your eyes another reality is there. Now you can say it was all unreal. Compared to this reality, dream becomes unreal. There is an awakening -- compared to THAT reality of THAT awakening, this whole reality becomes unreal. That night for the first time I understood the meaning of the word maya. Not that I had not known the word before, not that I was not aware of the meaning of the word. As you are aware, I was also aware of the meaning -- but I had never understood it before. How can you understand without experience? That night another reality opened its door, another dimension became available. Suddenly it was there, the other reality, the separate reality, the really real, or whatsoever you want to call it -- call it god, call it truth, call it dhamma, call it tao, or whatsoever you will. It was nameless. But it was there -- so opaque, so transparent, and yet so solid one could have touched it. It was almost suffocating me in that room. It was too much and I was not yet capable of absorbing it. A deep urge arose in me to rush out of the room, to go under the sky -- it was suffocating me. It was too much! It will kill me! If I had remained a few moments more, it would have suffocated me -- it looked like that. I rushed out of the room, came out in the street. A great urge was there just to be under the sky with the stars, with the trees, with the earth... to be with nature. And immediately as I came out, the feeling of being suffocated disappeared. It was too small a place for such a big phenomenon. Even the sky is a small place for that big phenomenon. It is bigger than the sky. Even the sky is not the limit for it. But then I felt more at ease. I walked towards the nearest garden. It was a totally new walk, as if gravitation had disappeared. I was walking, or I was running, or I was simply flying; it was difficult to decide. There was no gravitation, I was feeling weightless -- as if some energy was taking me. I was in the hands of some other energy. For the first time I was not alone, for the first time I was no more an individual, for the first time the drop has come and fallen into the ocean. Now the whole ocean was mine, I was the ocean. There was no limitation. A tremendous power arose as if I could do anything whatsoever. I was not there, only the power was there. I reached to the garden where I used to go every day. The garden was closed, closed for the night. It was too late, it was almost one o'clock in the night. The gardeners were fast asleep. I had to enter the garden like a thief, I had to climb the gate. But something was pulling me towards the garden. It was not within my capacity to prevent myself. I was just floating. That's what I mean when I say again and again 'float with the river, don't push the river'. I was relaxed, I was in a let-go. I was not there. IT was there, call it god -- god was there. I would like to call it IT, because god is too human a word, and has become too dirty by too much use, has become too polluted by so many people. Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, priests and politicians -- they all have corrupted the beauty of the word. So let me call it IT. IT was there and I was just carried away... carried by a tidal wave. The moment I entered the garden everything became luminous, it was all over the place -- the benediction, the blessedness. I could see the trees for the first time -- their green, their life, their very sap running. The whole garden was asleep, the trees were asleep. But I could see the whole garden alive, even the small grass leaves were so beautiful. I looked around. One tree was tremendously luminous -- the maulshree tree. It attracted me, it pulled me towards itself. I had not chosen it, god himself has chosen it. I went to the tree, I sat under the tree. As I sat there things started settling. The whole universe became a benediction. It is difficult to say how long I was in that state. When I went back home it was four o'clock in the morning, so I must have been there by clock time at least three hours -- but it was infinity. It had nothing to do with clock time. It was timeless. Those three hours became the whole eternity, endless eternity. There was no time, there was no passage of time; it was the virgin reality -- uncorrupted, untouchable, unmeasurable. And that day something happened that has continued -- not as a continuity -- but it has still continued as an undercurrent. Not as a permanency -- each moment it has been happening again and again. It has been a miracle each moment. That night... and since that night I have never been in the body. I am hovering around it. I became tremendously powerful and at the same time very fragile. I became very strong, but that strength is not the strength of a Mohammed Ali. That strength is not the strength of a rock, that strength is the strength of a rose flower -- so fragile in his strength... so fragile, so sensitive, so delicate. The rock will be there, the flower can go any moment, but still the flower is stronger than the rock because it is more alive. Or, the strength of a dewdrop on a leaf of grass just shining; in the morning sun -- so beautiful, so precious, and yet can slip any moment. So incomparable in its grace, but a small breeze can come and the dewdrop can slip and be lost forever. Buddhas have a strength which is not of this world. Their strength is totally of love... Like a rose flower or a dewdrop. Their strength is very fragile, vulnerable. Their strength is the strength of life not of death. Their power is not of that which kills; their power is of that which creates. Their power is not of violence, aggression; their power is that of compassion. But I have never been in the body again, I am just hovering around the body. And that's why I say it has been a tremendous miracle. Each moment I am surprised I am still here, I should not be. I should have left any moment, still I am here. Every morning I open my eyes and I say, 'So, again I am still here?' Because it seems almost impossible. The miracle has been a continuity. Just the other day somebody asked a question -- 'Osho, you are getting so fragile and delicate and so sensitive to the smells of hair oils and shampoos that it seems we will not be able to see you unless we all go bald.' By the way, nothing is wrong with being bald -- bald is beautiful. Just as 'black is beautiful', so 'bald is beautiful'. But that is true and you have to be careful about it. I am fragile, delicate and sensitive. That is my strength. If you throw a rock at a flower nothing will happen to the rock, the flower will be gone. But still you cannot say that the rock is more powerful than the flower. The flower will be gone because the flower was alive. And the rock -- nothing will happen to it because it is dead. The flower will be gone because the flower has no strength to destroy. The flower will simply disappear and give way to the rock. The rock has a power to destroy because the rock is dead. Remember, since that day I have never been in the body really; just a delicate thread joins me with the body. And I am continuously surprised that somehow the whole must be willing me to be here, because I am no more here with my own strength, I am no more here on my own. It must be the will of the whole to keep me here, to allow me to linger a little more on this shore. Maybe the whole wants to share something with you through me. Since that day the world is unreal. Another world has been revealed. When I say the world is unreal I don't mean that these trees are unreal. These trees are absolutely real -- but the way you see these trees is unreal. These trees are not unreal in themselves -- they exist in god, they exist in absolute reality -- but the way you see them you never see them; you are seeing something else, a mirage. You create your own dream around you and unless you become awake you will continue to dream. The world is unreal because the world that you know is the world of your dreams. When dreams drop and you simply encounter the world that is there, then the real world. There are not two things, god and the world. God is the world if you have eyes, clear eyes, without any dreams, without any dust of the dreams, without any haze of sleep; if you have clear eyes, clarity, perceptiveness, there is only god. Then somewhere god is a green tree, and somewhere else god is a shining star, and somewhere else god is a cuckoo, and somewhere else god is a flower, and somewhere else a child and somewhere else a river -- then only god is. The moment you start seeing, only god is. But right now whatsoever you see is not the truth, it is a projected lie. That is the meaning of a mirage. And once you see, even for a single split moment, if you can see, if you can allow yourself to see, you will find immense benediction present all over, everywhere -- in the clouds, in the sun, on the earth. This is a beautiful world. But I am not talking about your world, I am talking about my world. Your world is very ugly, your world is your world created by a self, your world is a projected world. You are using the real world as a screen and projecting your own ideas on it. When I say the world is real, the world is tremendously beautiful, the world is luminous with infinity, the world is light and delight, it is a celebration, I mean my world -- or your world if you drop your dreams. When you drop your dreams you see the same world as any Buddha has ever seen. When you dream you dream privately. Have you watched it? -- that dreams are private. You cannot share them even with your beloved. You cannot invite your wife to your dream -- or your husband, or your friend. You cannot say, 'Now, please come tonight in my dream. I would like to see the dream together.' It is not possible. Dream is a private thing, hence it is illusory, it has no objective reality. God is a universal thing. Once you come out of your private dreams, it is there. It has been always there. Once your eyes are clear, a sudden illumination -- suddenly you are overflooded with beauty, grandeur and grace. That is the goal, that is the destiny. Let me repeat. Without effort you will never reach it, with effort nobody has ever reached it. You will need great effort, and only then there comes a moment.when effort becomes futile. But it becomes futile only when you have come to the very peak of it, never before it. When you have come to the very pinnacle of your effort -- all that you can do you have done -- then suddenly there is no need to do anything any more. You drop the effort. But nobody can drop it in the middle, it can be dropped only at the extreme end. So go to the extreme end if you want to drop it. Hence I go on insisting: make as much effort as you can, put your whole energy and total heart in it, so that one day you can see -- now effort is not going to lead me anywhere. And that day it will not be you who will drop the effort, it drops on its own accord. And when it drops on its own accord, meditation happens. Meditation is not a result of your efforts, meditation is a happening. When your efforts drop, suddenly meditation is there... the benediction of it, the blessedness of it, the glory of it. It is there like a presence... luminous, surrounding you and surrounding everything. It fills the whole earth and the whole sky. That meditation cannot be created by human effort. Human effort is too limited. That blessedness is so infinite. You cannot manipulate it. It can happen only when you are in a tremendous surrender. When you are not there only then it can happen. When you are a no-self -- no desire, not going anywhere -- when you are just herenow, not doing anything in particular, just being, it happens. And it comes in waves and the waves become tidal. It comes like a storm, and takes you away into a totally new reality. But first you have to do all that you can do, and then you have to learn non-doing. The doing of the non-doing is the greatest doing, and the effort of effortlessness is the greatest effort. Your meditation that you create by chanting a mantra or by sitting quiet and still and forcing yourself, is a very mediocre meditation. It is created by you, it cannot be bigger than you. It is homemade, and the maker is always bigger than the made. You have made it by sitting, forcing in a yoga posture, chanting 'rama, rama, rama' or anything -- 'blah, blah, blah' -- anything. You have forced the mind to become still. It is a forced stillness. It is not that quiet that comes when you are not there. It is not that silence which comes when you are almost non-existential. It is not that beautitude which descends on you like a dove. It is said when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, god descended in him, or the holy ghost descended in him like a dove. Yes, that is exactly so. When you are not there peace descends in you... fluttering like a dove... reaches in your heart and abides there and abides there forever. You are your undoing, you are the barrier. Meditation is when the meditator is not. When the mind ceases with all its activities -- seeing that they are futile -- then the unknown penetrates you, overwhelms you. The mind must cease for god to be. Knowledge must cease for knowing to be. You must disappear, you must give way. You must become empty, then only you can be full. That night I became empty and became full. I became non-existential and became existence. That night I died and was reborn. But the one that was reborn has nothing to do with that which died, it is a discontinuous thing. On the surface it looks continuous but it is discontinuous. The one who died, died totally; nothing of him has remained. Believe me, nothing of him has remained, not even a shadow. It died totally, utterly. It is not that I am just a modified RUP, transformed, modified form, transformed form of the old. No, there has been no continuity. That day of March twenty-first, the person who had lived for many many lives, for millennia, simply died. Another being, absolutely new, not connected at all with the old, started to exist. Religion just gives you a total death. Maybe that's why the whole day previous to that happening I was feeling some urgency like death, as if I am going to die -- and I really died. I have known many other deaths but they were nothing compared to it, they were partial deaths. Sometimes the body died, sometimes a part of the mind died, sometimes a part of the ego died, but as far as the person was concerned, it remained. Renovated many times, decorated many times, changed a little bit here and there, but it remained, the continuity remained. That night the death was total. It was a date with death and god simultaneously.

lol.............Singhniah, in some cases are just as bad...........hehehehehe...........those of u who know me know i bear hug everyone i meet..........i did it once to this Singhni and she looked at me like id slapped her.................hehehehehe.............CRINGE!! :BL: Im all for sharing the love man..................its what the panth needs................if singhs and singhiah were more approachable, we would find more non-amritdharis approaching us to ask questions and find out stuff........... open the your hearts people and share the love!! :happy:

nice! please keep sharing...........a sensible, love filled post about Maharaj makes a refreshing change

Aaaw congratulations pehnj that Maharaj is awakening your soul to a beautiful life as His soul bride..............well im going to answer on a practical level based on my personal experiences..........as Nehmat has answered so beautiful i would not like to repeat her wise words.....Keep ur attention on small things to begin with.........if you are going to stop cutting kesh...............do japji sahib..........or a few maleh of mool manter to give u strenght to keep as much rehit as possible..........it worked for me ...........the rest will slowly come with time........you see waheguru loves u and will never push you into anything ur soul isnt realy for...........His will guide you and all u have to do is sit back and let Him take over......... erm.............not too sure but AFTER i took amrit panj pyaareh told in the "one leg in one leg out method" with regards to your kashera.......lol............i completly forget after though and continued to shower without it.........luckly someone informed me.................for now.................dont worry about that too much...........it will come when the time is ready..........the the process id as follows...........i shower with kashera on...........but drop it to ankles to wash my body but kashera is still in contact with body hanna?.............then you get ur fresh one, dry ur leg, removed one leg out on wet one and put fresh one one the do the same with other leg.........(i fell out the bath when i did it the first time......... :lol: but you get used to it and now i dont even think about it....... ) that depends on what u decide to wear, Maharaj taught me how to tie a dastaar with keski.......ur keski is like a mini dastaar u wear under your main dastaar, so when i go to sleep or im just lazing around the house, i just wear a keski..........then for work, social etc i always tie a dastaar..........to be honest since ive been wearing one, it has never felt uncomfortable....except when u tie it too tight and give urself a headache and sore ears.........but the more u wear one, the you will be aware of how much pressue to apply..............but seriosly i love my keski.............my hair is always out the way and tuck away.........i always take it out and brush it and let it air for about an hour after ive washed it then finish off with a hair dryer before tieing dastaar. i think i kinda answered this in the underwear bit..... Never used mouthwash..........but as long as you aint using it to get high or drunk, i personally dont see there being an issue.............its all about ur intent............thats what Guru looks out for..... Makeup dont realy do much for me to be honest...........it used to bring me out in acne and rashes.........now i just drink lots of water and my skin is in good shape.............but before i took amrit i use to wear foundation.........after i took amrit i used tinted moisturiser cos on red blotches but.............well............i just stopped using it........and the blotches went away with wahegurus kirpa..............i dont use anil varnish and dont realy know any singhniah who do............ well.............i wear i good combination on both............but i always make sure im not pushing boundries with my dress...........remember as Khalsa u are always representing Maharaj...........inwardly and outwardly......if it helps a few examples of what i like to wear.........western wise.....i wear jeans.............baggy and skinny............prefer baggy cos of kashera..........i wear knee lengh/long skirts with thick tights underneath and flat long boots as workwear........indianwise i wear bana, suits/kurtis...............again..........wear anything with moderation.........and awareness..... well if you are doing nitnem every morning, then u mush shower each m,orning before sitting down to do path........trust me its nice.........realy freshens and awakens you................i had the same problem with kesh...............so what i do is shampoo wash it 1-2 times a week and just wash it with water alone the rest of the days.... i used the Aussie Brand shampoo and conditior.............its got lots of natural stuff in, and theres one make in it thats for everyday washing..............if my hair feels dry, i just put conditioner in it without shampoo and that does the trick! Hey no worries thats what sisters are for, if u need any advice or more personal info............jion the board and PM me and myslef along with other singhni here, i sure, will be more that will to help........... Good Luck with ur journey and remember Waheguru is always at hand.............. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!! xx

i woulnt dictate...............would do ardas to maharaj to choose 5 highly blessed souls to do sewa of panj pyaareh to manage gurdwara With Maharajs agea, the gurdwara would follow their hukam as for my part............i would try to spread love............treat everyone one who came with pyaar and respect...........and as always Waheguru will take care of the rest...

--------------------------------- Unify your attention. Do not listen with your ears but with your mind; do not listen with your mind but with your essence. The ears can't do more than to listen, the mind cannot do more than to recognize. As for the essence, it is a void completely unengaged. The Way gathers only in the void. ~ Confucius ---------------------------------------------- Sri Ramana Maharshi Excerpts from his Spiritual Teachings • Question. How can I control the mind? • M. There is no mind to control if the Self is realized. The Self shines forth when the mind vanishes. In the realized man the mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone exists. For, the mind, body and world are not separate from the Self; and they cannot remain apart from the Self. Can they be other than the Self? When aware of the Self why should one worry about these shadows? How do they affect the Self? --------- • Question. If the mind is merely a shadow how then is one to know the Self? • M. The Self is the Heart, self-luminous. Illumination arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind. The world is seen with the mind; so you see the world by the reflected light of the Self; The world is perceived by an act of the mind. When the mind is illumined it is aware of the world; when it is not so illumined, it is not aware of the world. If the mind is turned in, towards the Source of illumination, objective knowledge ceases, and the Self alone shines as the Heart. The moon shines by reflecting the light of the sun. When the sun has set, the moon is useful for displaying objects. When the sun has risen no one needs the moon, though its disc is visible in the sky. So it is with the mind and the Heart. The mind is made useful by its reflected light. It is used for seeing objects. When turned inwards, it merges into the Source of illumination which shines by Itself and the mind is then like the moon in the day-time. When it is dark, a lamp is necessary to give light. But when the sun has arisen, there is no need for the lamp; the objects are visible. And to see the sun no lamp is necessary, it is enough if you turn your eyes towards the -self-luminous sun. Similarly with the mind, to see the objects the light reflected from the mind is necessary. To see the Heart it is enough that the mind is turned towards it. Then the mind does not count and the Heart is self-effulgent. ------------- • Question. Is a set meditation necessary for strengthening the mind? • M. Not, if you keep the idea always before you, that it is not your work. At first, effort is needed to remind yourself of it, but later on it becomes natural and continuous. The work will go on of its own accord, and your peace will remain undisturbed. Meditation is your true nature. You call it meditation now, because there are other thoughts distracting you. When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain alone— that is, in the state of meditation free from thoughts; and that is your real nature, which you are now trying to gain by keeping away other thoughts. Such keeping away of other thoughts is now called meditation. But when the practice becomes firm, the real nature shows itself as true meditation.

forgive me but i dont think i understand the question or people are interpreting it wrong...................... Its not a question of how much to believe in something and i dont think the author of this thread means to question Guru Sahib..............hes asking quite a deep question.................. no this is just my thoughts but God will always send down an Avtar to fight the good side where evil is prevailing.......................the problem is we get caught up in the "oooooooooh its a HINDU avtar and WHY is it a HINDU avtar."..............dont get bogged down with the labels and divisions the worlds conforms to.............as moses sed in the Ten Commandments God created MAN.......................not God Created Sikhs and Hindus and Muslims and Chirstians..............simply..........................MAN..................... God dont belong to a religion.............Bharma Vishnu Shiv ultimatly serve waheguru and work at his command..................the the dodgy stuff about each of their avtars, i think, represents how they too, fall to power of maya and kaljug and if big Devi/devteh fall............so can we..........an Avtar will always come to restore Dharam...........the right for a man to follow the path to God without tyranny or oppression..............that goes beyond the labels of religion..... I like to think its wahegurus way of reminding us of who is realy in charge......................and that will ALWAYS BE WAHEGURU..............

"In order to return to a state of unlimitedness, to experience joy and the freedom of being, you must once again become that which holds you together. And the only way to become that, since you are encumbered with a body, is to fully activate your seventh seal pituitary so that your brain can receive the unlimited thoughts that lie just beyond social consciousness. That is how you expand your knowingness into the unlimited understanding of God: that which allows, and loves, and is the totality of itself, which is the totality of thought. So how do you get this wonderful little gland to awaken the dormant portions of your brain through its hormone flow? Simply through desire. To become a christ is to desire to know the Father and become the likeness of God. It is the deisre to allow all thought to become the reality of self. It is the deisre to LOVE in every moment all that you have become. It is the desire to BE the isness of all that you are. Why is it important to love the totality of what you are? When you do, you immediately transcend social consciousness. Then you rise above acceptance. You transcend judgment. Yu go beyond the illusion of time. Then you live only for the fulfillment of self. You listen only to the voice within. You follow only the path of joy; and on that path lies the knowingness of All That Is. Now, you say to me, 'But Ramtha, that is being wholly selfish'. Indeed it is! But selfish is Godish. Every moment you live for the love of this God within you, every illusion you embrace and give up, every thing you do to find your joy and light, emanates from your being into consciousness flow to feed the WHOLE of mankind. When you live wholly for the love of self- which IS the love of God - then yu exude God into the density of social consciousness. Then you light the way for your beloved brothers on their own paths back into self - the only path that will take them home to their beloved Father. When you love yourself enough to feel worthy to receive all that God is, and you desire to know that you are one with the Father, then your pituitary beings to open like wondrous flower. That is how you expand the capacity of your brain to receive all thought values in the Mind of God - by wanting to know, by desiring to feel all the emotion of that knowingness." Ramtha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is the dual nature of self: The incomplete self and the complete self... As humans, we are seeing from the perspective of the incomplete self. This incomplete self is undoubtedly very important. But if we attach to this incomplete self, although this incomplete self is important, then we'll never be able to experience the complete self. We Zen people say, if you believe in God, this complete self means the same thing as God. That is, it shares the same standpoint as God. ~ Joshu Sasaki Roshi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tell the impeccable truth about your feelings in every situation. When someone asks you which restaurant you would like to go to, be honest about the choice that would make you happiest. When someone asks you for a date and the thought of going doesn't feel attractive, say no. (If thinking about something doesn't feel good, doing it won't feel better!) When you feel drawn to a movie in the video store, take it home. If you're watching a video that feels emotionally debilitating, turn it off. Trust the messages your feelings are giving you as feedback on how well your current choice matches your well-being. Living from joy is like building a muscle; the more you trust and act on your intuition, the louder, stronger, and more real it becomes. If you don't live from your truth, your ability to access it will atrophy, and you will not know who you are, what you want, or what you are doing here. Live from the truth and you will be set free. ~ Alan Cohen ------------------------- Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness. ~Paramahansa Yogananda

Viewing religion externally creates more and more division. We need to see and understand the inside, the essence of religion from a spiritual perspective. Where there is true spiritual experience there will be no division -- only unity and love. ~ Amritanandanmayi Devi Parliament of World Religions, Barcelona 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- People are constantly crossing over The threshold of eternity. The door is open If you can stay awake. ~Rumi

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice. Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow. The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons. ~Aristotle~ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked. Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within. Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act. Patience is the companion of wisdom. Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences. Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty. ~Saint Augustine~

The Wise Ones do not depend on Philosophical Theories, The Wise Ones do not bind themselves, They only observe carefully and listen intentily The Wise ones have Personally Varified the Truth in life as well as means to balance the body and the mind. Thru personal observations and experiences, they treat their own body and mind as objects under observation. Therefore they learn to understand the rise and fall of feelings, such as pain and eventually acquire the methods of conquering the body and the mind. Everyone of us can also treat our emotions as objects of observation & thru the experiences personally verify effective means of unifying the body and the mind. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As fragrance abides in the flower, As the reflection is within the mirror, So doth thy Lord abide within thee, Why search Him without? - Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji The subject on which I meditate is truth. The practice to which I devote myself is the truth. The topic of my conversation is truth. My thoughts are always in truth. For lo! my self has become the truth - Lord Buddha Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is within you." - Jesus Christ There is one Supreme Ruler, the inmost Self of all beings, who makes His one form manifold. Eternal happiness belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves - not to others. - the Vedas He who knows his own self, knows God. - Prophet Mohammed The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. - Albert Einstein Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. - Lao Tzu

I agree on the "growing up" part, the key to giving advice is not to force your own opinion on other because we are all different..................the why waheguru made us all unique...........how great is He hey? Read to the question and try and give a balanced prespective..........not everything IS what YOU think it IS.....

reding my above respone im also hoping ur a girl!! :BL:

I found this on another forum ans was blown away by it....plz no off-topics and only add contribute words of wisdom "It is not your action that condemns you, but it is your judgement of what you think and what you do that condemns you." And there comes another quotation from Christianity, "Judge not that ye be not judged." Don't even judge yourself. Who are you to judge when somebody is there to judge? Why do you think you are a sinner or you are a saint? You are neither. Sometimes your actions are those of a sinner, which doesn't make you a sinner. Sometimes they are those which can be called saintly, which of course doesn't make you a saint either. We are what we are. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Grandfather from the Cherokee Nation was talking with his grandson. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves." "One wolf is evil and ugly: He is anger, envy, war, greed, self-pity, sorrow, regret, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, selfishness and arrogance." "The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, justice, fairness, empathy, generosity, true, compassion, gratitude, and deep VISION." "This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other human as well." The grandson paused in deep reflection because of what his grandfather had just said. Then he finally cried out; "Oyee! Grandfather, which wolf will win?" The elder Cherokee replied, "The wolf that you feed." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- God is not a concept, not a thought. He is not the settlement of an argument, not an outcome of the mind. God is truth. Thinking isn't relevant -- you have to see. By thinking you will only wander. You have to open your eyes, but if they are filled with thoughts and concepts, they will remain sightless. Only eyes without thoughts enable you to see. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suffering is the sandpaper of our life. It does its work of shaping us. Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise. ~ Ram Dass ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire. Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit. Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal. Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. ~Aristotle~ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice. When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections. ~Saint Francis de Sales ~

Waheguru with shaehneh and violins man! soooo much anand............... :vaheguru:

Aaaw i wish i could give you a hug! You have such a pretty soul............ :closedeyes:

<_< "goes and breaks the switch to the Tubelight, BEFORE he manages to get to Dharmraj" :vaheguru:

exactly, i get the lady at the shop to cut mine............. :BL: so technically "I" dont cut! :lol: When it is put into my hand i get two lowely dastaars ready to wash and wrap!! Seriously though ive seen one singh, who before, he cuts his dastaar does quite ardas to maharaj.............lets try not to get bogged down with it too much..............if its an issue for then not cut it hanna...............just do what feels right in your heart!!

waheguru i cut mine, i only tie half width so i technically get two dastaars for the price of 1! "waits for the ground to open and swallow her up" Nothing "waits to be struck down" Nothing okay i guess its all good then?