THE MASTERY
OF YOUR ATTENTION WILL COME
WHEN YOU WILL START SEEING the truth..
note* I'm reading these days the notebooks of Paul Brunton..from http://wisdomsgoldenrod.org/notebooks/ ..the truth is that I don't have much love for the guy..(maybe because his dry style of talking,or my personal issues)but I am very interested in his notebooks..quote from wikipedia "
Paul Brunton was born in London in 1898. He served in a tank division during the First World War, and later devoted himself to mysticism and came into contact with Theosophists. Being partner of a occult bookshop, The Atlantis Bookshop, in Bloomsbury, Brunton came into contact with both the literary and occult British intelligentsia of the 1920s. In the early 1930s, Brunton embarked on a voyage to India, which brought him into contact with such luminaries as Meher Baba, Sri Shankaracharya of Kancheepuram and Sri Ramana Maharshi. Brunton's first visit to Sri Ramana's asram took place in 1931. During this visit, Brunton was accompanied by a Buddhist Bhikshu, formerly a military officer but meanwhile known as Swami Prajnananda, the founder of the English Ashram in Rangoon. Brunton asked several questions, including "What is the way to God-realization?" and Maharshi said: "Vichara, asking yourself the 'Who am I?' enquiry into the nature of your Self."[1]Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" and "The Secret Path".[2]
One day—sitting with Ramana Maharshi—Brunton had an experience which Steve Taylor names "an experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever". Brunton describes it in the following way:
- I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness. The planet which has so far harboured me disappears. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel rather than think, is the primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the first state of matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space, incredibly alive.[3]
"it appears that he understood the fine RESONATOR issue between the spirit,soul,and body ...if he did,good for him,but I sense he didn't fully... even though he tried to explain it(whom can??...if one could there would be no mystery left,for kripto's wisdom muscle sake!!)..be careful of explanations from others(including me) because all they do is project their inner stuff...this is available to all those persons believing they are god-man or god -women..all YOU are is a resonator...the middle path of Buddha,or the middle wisdom muscle of Kripto..same...the true wisdom in applied..and only the individual can do it,not the crowds..and you wonder why I love you?..because there is some stage on realization when you become one with collective consciousness,and you feel their pains,then you become a prophet,or God trying to teach them..of course the history of human-kind shows that all of them failed miserably..no gods have managed to save the humanity,and never will,because it's a resonator INDIVIDUAL process...it's between you and the UNIVERSE..not between you and the world,as Jesus wisely said...be into the world,but not part of it...he also said something about the Lord's prayer.. like,,forgive others as you forgive yourself,,but of course,you must discover yourself to do that...but the peace within you is here,indeed..
Kisses from the mahayogi to all in the 10 realms..and let the 3 little birds be one.
-added by danny-
..http://wisdomsgoldenrod.org/notebooks/24/3#section7
Free activity
280
Whoever acts by becoming so pliable as to let the Overself hold his personal will, must necessarily become inwardly detached from the personal consequences of his deeds. This will be true whether those consequences be pleasant or unpleasant. Such detachment liberates him from the power of karma, which can no longer catch him in its web, for "he" is not there. His emotional consciousness preceding an action is always enlightened and characterized by sublime composure, whereas the unenlightened man's may be characterized by motivations of self-centered desire, ambition, fear, hope, greed, passion, dislike, or even hate--all of which are karma-making.
281
If he can act attentively and yet stand aside from the results of his actions; if he can discharge his responsibilities or carry out his duties without being swept into elation by success or into misery by failure; if he can move in the world, enjoy its pleasures and endure its pains, and yet hold unwaveringly to the quest of what transcends the world, then he has become what the Indians call a "karma yogi" and what the Greeks call a "man."
282
Life in the busy world should be a continuation of life in the meditation sanctum and not an interruption of it.
283
Even when the period itself has come to an end, even when he perforce returns to the world's turmoil, something of its precious joy still lingers on, inspiring him to greet others with goodwill and events with detachment.
284
"The fifth paramita `dhyana' [meditation] means retaining one's tranquil state of mind in any circumstance, even when adverse situations present themselves. This requires a great deal of training."--D.T. Suzuki
285
Go out into the world, act and do your duty. So long as you are the impersonal Witness of them, your actions will not add to your karma.
286
He has to learn to carry something of this consciousness from the world within to the world without. He left the stage to find the secret of meditation: now he must return and rejoin the ego's play.
287
He is not yet perfect in his development at this stage--"Application" is still being practised--but enlightenment is a very real thing to him. It results in this, that although his first reactive feelings toward a person, an event, or a situation may be negative or passionate, he is not carried away by them and they are swiftly checked.
288
Desires die of themselves without struggle, karma comes to an end, the stillness of the Overself settles in him.
289
When all action comes to an end, when the body is immobile and the consciousness stilled, there is achieved what the Chinese have called Wu Wei, meaning non-doing. This brings a wonderful peace, for tied up with it is non-desiring and non-aspiring. The quester has then come close to the end, but until this peace is thoroughly and permanently established in him, the quest must go on. Let go of all negative thoughts, especially those which concern others. Cease from condemnation and criticism except where it is a necessary part of one's obligation, duty, or position in the world, such as a magistrate's.
290
Do not strain yourself unduly; let the ego be passive to the intuitive influences so that actions are dictated by them without interference from it, rather than by aggressive desires, and hence become karma-free. This is the meaning of the Chinese expression Wu Wei, associated with the teaching of Taoism.
291
The man who is so detached from his own actions is detached also from the making of any karma that could darken his future.
292
Wu Wei, no-doing, is free activity, done for its own sake and not for that of a reward. This is possible to creative minds intent on bringing the needed new into existence, or to inspired artists working for pure love of beauty and not for glory, or to saints obeying a higher will.
293
The power to gain what we really need, subject to the operation of God's laws, is within us. Why run hither and thither for what we already embody? We have only to take our need into the Silence--and wait. We have nothing further to do unless the Inner Voice directs us to do it.
294
Just as a flat-surfaced mirror will correctly give back an image of whatever is presented before it, so a properly quieted mind will register objects, creatures, and persons such as they are and will not disturb them by distortions, prejudices, or expectations. One whose inner being is purified, controlled, and concentrated is able to live in the world and yet not be of the world, is able to go through worldly experiences and happenings and yet not be pulled out of his tranquil centre by them.
295
Somewhere within his interior self he must keep a circle fenced and reserved against the exterior world. No desire may cross it, no attachment may enter it. For it is his Holy of Holies, his surest guarantee of peace and happiness, his sole certitude in an uncertain life.
296
Chinese Poet, T'ao Yuan-Ming (365-427 a.d.):
I have built my cottage within men's borders,
But there is no noise of carriage or horses.
Do you know how this is possible?
When the heart is remote, the place becomes like it.
297
This is what he has to learn--and it can be learned only by personal practice, not from any book--how to keep in beautiful equipoise receptivity to his sacred Centre and efficiency in attending to the world's demands. This is answering Jesus' call to be in the world but not of it. This is the union of busy actuality with central tranquillity.(P)
298
In the foreground of his thought he deals with practical affairs in a practical way; in the background he remembers always that they are only transitory manifestations of an Element beyond all transitoriness, an Element to which he gives his deepest self. But only when his power of yogic concentration is complete and his knowledge of philosophic truth mature, does the possibility of achieving such harmony arrive--not before.(P)
299
If he is to keep his inner peace he must always keep the innermost part of himself aloof and deny the world any intimacy with it.(P)
300
To find the correct equilibrium, through knowledge and practice, which enables one to deal with the affairs at hand but never deviate from staying in the Presence--that is the art of life. That also is to become "natural" in the best sense, to possess an unself-conscious unadvertised spirituality.
301
Thus he builds a mental cloister out of which no work, however pressing it be, can drive him. It will be superior to and safer than any physical cloister or earthly ashram.
302
The ability to keep established in the Consciousness while engaged in the world's affairs is acquired by practice. It is a form of skilfulness acquired as bicycle-riding is acquired.
303
If the peace and enlightenment are to persist at all times so that they become a natural state, they must be philosophically induced.
304
The shrill voices of the vulgar break into the peace as if in opposition to one's spiritual well-being, but to the established philosopher the interruption passes away with the sound.
305
With mind absorbed inside itself, the noisy sounds of the world seem to come from a far distance.
306
Han Shan, Chinese Tang Period: ". . . My mind at peace, undusty and undeluded: It is pleasant to need no outer support. To be as quiet as the autumn waters of the river."
307
Though he may never put on the brown robe of the Yogi, he may consider himself every whit as real a Yogi in the thick of London's activity as that Indian prototype who sits in seclusion by the Ganges.
308
There is a fixed centre deep within every man. He may live in it, if he can find and keep to it, so tranquilly that all else in his thoughts and feelings and actions will be affected by its magic without being able to affect it.
309
The agitations of the emotional and passional nature prevent a man from attaining this mental quiet. If he has not built up its power by practice, or got it by grace, they cause him to lose it. These include both the pleasant and the unpleasant feelings, the desires and the cravings as well as the sorrows and anxieties and lusts, excessive pleasure and excessive pain. The art of mental quiet can be pushed to a deep inner stillness and by practice can be inwardly maintained in the midst of outward activity. This is why the value placed on keeping calm is very high in both yoga and philosophy.
310
The Real can't be merely static, actionless; this aspect is one of its faces, but there are two faces. The other is dynamic, ever-active. On the path, the discovery of its quiescent aspect is the first stage; this is mysticism. But the world is always confronting him and its activity has to be harmonized with inner peace. This harmonization can only be established by returning to the deserted world (while still retaining the peace) and making the second discovery--that it, too, is God active. Only then can he have unbroken peace, as before it will be intermittent. He then understands things in a different way.
311
If the One Reality alone is, if even the world-illusion vanishes in deepest contemplation, how is he to deal with the world, since it awaits his attention whatever its status be? The answer is that he is to act in the world AS IF it were real: this is to be his working rule to enable him to carry on with everyday existence and perform all duties. This same practical rule was stated by Jesus in his succinct sentence: Be in the world but not of it.
312
How to put his knowledge into practice, how to be able to cope with the world, its pressures, strains, trials, temptations, while inwardly centered upon the Overself is a feat for which man must train himself. This requires periods of withdrawal during which he works upon himself, his character and concentration, renews his aims and strengthens his will, and, especially, restores his balance. The periods may be brief or long, as his circumstances allow: a few hours or days or weeks.
313
When everything within, when thoughts, emotions, and desires are silenced, it is inevitable that the personal will shall also be silenced. What then has to be done will be done, but it will be done through him.
314
The student should always remember that just as the World-Mind does not lose or alter its own nature even in the midst of world-making, so he also should hold reverently and unalterably to the thought of his own true mystical identity even in the midst of worldly activity. What he does outwardly must not for a moment detract from what he has to do inwardly. It is a matter of self-training.
315
He has gone far when he can live in this remembrance and this presence without constraint even while occupied in the affairs of this world; when it all becomes a settled, easy, and especially natural attitude entirely free from superior airs, from a holier-than-thou or even a wiser-than-thou attitude. For humility grows side by side with his growth, of itself, unbidden. (How different from the arrogant egoistic pride of the self-conscious intellectual whose real worship is only himself!) By "natural" I mean not a self-conscious thing and certainly not a forced one. It is no supernatural experience either, but human consciousness put at a better level where it has harmony with World-Idea. It is easier to withdraw from the world, where people portray so widely and so often all their inadequacies, than to return to it and apply positively what is learned during withdrawal. It is more possible for the spectator to appraise the passing show and evaluate its offerings than to come back, walk with it, keep sagehood, remain human, yet find the point of sane equilibrium between both conditions.
316
He will maintain a proper equilibrium between being aware of what is happening in the world, remaining in touch with it, and being imperturbable towards it, inwardly unaffected and inwardly detached from it.
317
It is that perfect unconsciousness of self which confers complete naturalness, ease in relationships with others, and which radiates or, better, emanates peacefulness.
318
Sahaja is the final phase and, in striking contrast to the first phase, the Glimpse, lasts as long as corporeal life lasts. In this he brings the light into every day's thought, speech, and behaviour. It is the phase of Application. So, little by little, disjointedly and at intervals, he gets established in a calm awareness of his connection with, and relation to, the Overself.
319
In deepest contemplation, the Nirvikalpa Samadhi of the Indian yogis, both egolessness and blissful peace can be experienced. But it is a temporary state; return to the world must follow, so the quest is not finished. The next step or stage is application, putting into the active everyday life this egoless detachment and this satisfying calmness.(P)
320
When he lives in this godlike being with the background of his mind and in the world's activity with the foreground of it, he lives in the fullest sense.
321
You have to feel the rich peace of suddenly letting go of everything, of all your cares and tasks, all the knot of affairs which has tied itself around your ego, and then sinking back to where there is seemingly nothing.
322
It is not enough to become detached from the world, not even enough to meditate intermittently on the Overself. A man must remain every hour, every day, established in the fundamental attitude produced by the other two.
323
Mahadevan himself admitted to us that meditation is not essential if gnana is sought and properly followed. Therefore we are entitled to comment that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is not enough. The qualities needed for gnana practice, including detachment, must still be developed.
324
He has to work his way farther into Sahaja, and then settle down in it.
325
He who can stay in the world and keep his calmness in all conditions--whether they are attractive or repulsive--who can move in society without falling victim to the desires, attachments, or greeds which afflict it, who never lets go of the still divine centre within himself whether alone and quiet or with others and active, he is the real yogi and is experiencing the true samadhi.
326
He attends to his daily affairs with an awareness that the long-familiar ego is absent, that the divine Void is always present.
327
In sahaja we'll possess an imperturbable temperament; we'll possess human feeling but not be subject to the vicissitudes, excitements, and oscillations of human feeling. The mind will always be composed, because it will be held by the divine presence.
The Notebooks are copyright © 1984-1989, The Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation.
To nourish the vital energy, keep watch in silence;
In order to subdue the mind, act with non-action.
Of movement and stillness, be aware of their origin;
There is no work to do, much less someone to seek.
The true and constant must respond to phenomena;
Responding to phenomena, you must be unconfused.
When unconfused, the nature will stabilize by itself;
When the nature stabilizes, energy returns by itself.
When energy returns, the elixir crystallizes by itself;
Within the pot, the trigrams of heaven and earth are joined.
Yīn and yáng arise, alternating over and over again;
Every transformation comes like a clap of thunder.
White clouds form and come to assemble at the peak;
The sweet nectar sprinkles down Mount Sumeru.
Swallow for yourself this wine of immortality;
You wander so freely—who is able to know you?
Sit and listen to the tune played without strings;
Clearly understand the mechanism of creation.
It comes entirely from these twenty lines;
A true ladder going straight to Heaven.-Daoist text -To us all towns are one, all men our kin. Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill. Man's pains and pains' relief are from within. Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !." - Tamil Poem-
