A thoughtless mind is egoless. A thoughtless mind is boundless. A thoughtless mind is already the infinite. If even for a single moment there is no thought, you are the infinite — because without thought there can be no boundary. Without thought, you disappear and the divine descends.
-Osho
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Peace and Love
Seth Kelly Curtis
by Jayaram V
Summary: Free will is divine will only. The duality between them is an illusion. Free will becomes divine will to the extent we surrender to God or Isvara.
The Isa Upanishad declares that all this is for the habitation and enjoyment of Isvara (Isvara) only. All this is Isvara only. You cannot claim ownership or doership of anything. Consecrating everything in the service of Isvara, you must live; and remembering that on the death bed, you must die.
The Upanishadic ideal suggests that one shall cultivate the soul vision or the self-vision in which one sees all in oneself and oneself in all. That vision is the culmination of all knowledge and wisdom one acquires through study, practice and observation on the path of liberation. It is attained by stepping back from the ego-driven and desire-ridden actions and thinking.
The theistic schools and sects of Hinduism hold that Isvara (or Brahman) is the source of all. It means that all actions, movements, duties, causes and manifestations arise from Isvara only. The free will is just an illusion. This may confuse you if you perceive the world with duality as you and the world or as you and Isvara. When you think that way, you will start wondering, “What about me, my will and freedom? Am I a slave to Isvara? If everything is done by Isvara and exists for Isvara, what am I doing here? Don’t I exercise my free will. If it isn’t true, how am I even asking these questions?”
These are legitimate questions. The skepticism is justified, when you look at the world from a narrow perspective of “you and me” and perceive God as other than you. To the ordinary mind and senses which are accustomed to the duality of subject and object, the idea that the world around you is an extension of you or part of you does not make sense. It will make sense only when you perceive or regard the whole world, or all this, as Isvara only.
Isvara is all this, and so also all that which you cannot perceive, conceive or imagine. He is both gross and subtle. A part of him exists within our mental realm and a part, beyond our minds and imagination. He is the sum of all. All things arise in him, exist in him and subside him. From this perspective Isvara is all. There is nothing, which he is not.
Your will is but his will only. You are but him only. When you perceive the world from this perspective, you will realize that there is no individual will. What you consider your will is also a reflection of Isvara’s will only. It does not have the same manifesting power because it is separated from Isvara by your own beliefs and perception, and limited by impurities such as egoism, attachments and delusion. The being (pasu) is an ignorant lord (pati). It does not nessarily mean that beings remain bound forever to their animal nature.
The truth is that the same being appears as many. The same Will appears in many. It is his will which makes possible everything, appearing as individual will in each. All actions arise from that one Will. It is a part of the same consciousness which manifests in all. In each it becomes separate and different due to the presence of gunas and impurities in different permutations and combinations. It is that one universal power, which performs numerous duties in diverse forms, planes, worlds and even universes, some through his creations and some by himself as Isvara, the lord of the universe.
What does this mean? It means that you may think that you are different from Isvara and others, but in Isvara’s consciousness we all represent one reality. We all are part of one manifestation. We may not perceive it, but it is the hidden reality. Therefore, we have an onerous duty upon earth to represent Isvara or Brahman in every possible way. We have to live upon earth as Isvara himself would have lived.
The word Isvara may not settle your mind upon a particular form, because it is a too broad a concept, and in many ways an abstract idea. The word may conjure up in your mind numerous thoughts, forms and ideas according to your social and cultural beliefs and your religious practice. How can you envision a divine reality, which is the sum of all, which has forms and no forms, and which is gross and subtle, visible and invisible and known and unknown?
The best way to worship Isvara is to worship him within yourself. You carry within you the light and power of Isvara. He is the source of your consciousness, will and power. You embody the universal Self. He remains hidden until you let him be. When you yield, he appears. When you seek help, he helps. If you let him, he will take control and help you in your transformation. Shakti, the associate power of Isvara in its purest form, will descend into your mind and body and cleanse you and consecrate you
Through a gradual, transformative process, she will make you a pure and radiant vessel, so that Isvara’s pure will work through you as your own will, his voice as your voice, his vision as your vision, and his power as your power. When you yield your ego and give up your narrow-mindedness and selfishness, the deity will incarnate in your consciousness and become a living and breathing divinity. This is how one should consecrate Isvara in the temple of one’s own mind and body. It is how Prana Prathistha (installing an idol) should truly be done within oneself, installing and pouring life and breath into the envisioned image of Isvara in the temple of the inner sanctum.
You may worship stone images in the temples to fulfill your desires or achieve some aims. Without corresponding inner transformation, it will not take you far on the path of liberation. Spiritual practice can be integrated into your daily life without having to search for Isvara outside yourself. You can identify yourself with the highest deity you can envision and gradually merge your identity and individuality in him, so that eventually only the best of you remains as the reflective divinity of Isvara. This is what we mean by yoga (union), so that only one remains, or Kaivalya, the state of aloneness (oneness), which is free from duality.
Do not fall for the romantic idea of self-realization as somewhat magical or supernatural experience, which you do not deserve or which happens to some great gurus, or happened because they appear so. Enlightenment is the culmination of a gradual, transformative process, not an instantaneous, glorious event, accompanied by thunder and lightning and flashes of light, as if the sky has opened. It is a silent process, which happens quietly and gradually just as a tree blooms after it has been nourished for years by the earth, or just as the light from the sun spreads through the world and removes the darkness of the night. God awakens in the stoical silence of an aspiring heart, not in the din of a restless mind.
Let the Isvara in you emerge through the layers of darkness and become a living and breathing Isvara. Let his knowledge, radiance and power shine through you, and the fragrance of his divine qualities spread around you. Submit to the light of Isvara which reside in you in your heart. Let that radiance glow through your mind and body. Let its brilliance fuel your thoughts and intelligence. When you envision and install the light of Isvara in you and yield to him through unconditional surrender and total identification, he becomes firmly established in your consciousness as you. He manifests in you to the extent you disappear.
I am (aham) is the only reality. “I” is Brahman, the eternal Self. “Am” is the temporary projection of that Self in its dynamic state. “I” is the subject. “Am” is the predicate, the dynamic aspect of “I”. Now, one may be rich or poor, black or white, young or old, man or woman, good or bad, but no one can live without the self-concept or the feeling or awareness of “I am.” When you confine this notion of Self (I am) to your mind and body or to your name and form, you remain constricted and narrow minded. We recognize this narrow-mindedness as egoism (anavatvam). When you expand it to encompass all existence, you enter the realm of infinity and attain godliness (daivatvm or isvaratvam). The ego is an impurity over the soul. You remove it, and the soul shines like the sun in a cloudless sky.
Nondualism (Advaita) is not a mere speculative or intellectual philosophy. It is the ultimate reality and ideal goal (parandhama) to be attained. We resist it because of our own limited perspective and thinking about ourselves and the self-images we build in our own minds about us. We resist it because society puts every obstacle on our path to prevent us from knowing that we all represent one eternal reality. The institutions want you to worship Isvara as an entity because it keeps them in business and in control. If liberation is your true aim, know that you have to become liberated from your own limited self and from the authority of institutions and your own conditioned mind.
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May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
There is no need to transcend
what has no meaning
or interest for you.
*****
Peace and Love
Seth Kelly Curtis
From I, Lalla – Poems of Lal Ded translated from the Kashmiri by Ranjit Hoskote
I locked the doors of my body,
trapping the thief of life and held my breath.
Chaining him in my heart’s dark cave,
I stripped off his skin with the whip of Om.
A thousand times at least I asked my Guru
to give Nothingness a name.
Then I gave up. What name can you give
to the source from which all names have sprung?
Whoever chants Shiva’s name as he walks the Swan’s Way,
planting trees with no thought of the fruit,
he’s won the grace of the Teacher
who is first among the Gods.
I can’t believe this happened to me!
I made a mess of everything, no shore in sight.
A klutz of a mason plastered my ceiling to the floor.
Serves me right: it’s time I got to know myself.
*****
May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
“Born of neurons, soul is the very essence of being – soul is the very foundation of your existence – your psychological existence, from which all your physical prowess and progress manifest.”
― Abhijit Naskar
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Peace and Love
Seth Kelly Curtis
Contribution To Peace
I contribute to Peace when I strive to express the best of myself in my contacts with others.
I contribute to Peace when I use my intelligence and my abilities to serve the Good.
I contribute to Peace when I feel compassion toward all those who suffer.
I contribute to Peace when I rejoice over the happiness of others and pray for their well-being.
I contribute to Peace when I listen with tolerance to opinions that differ from mine or even oppose them.
I contribute to Peace when I resort to dialogue rather than to force to settle any conflict.
I contribute to Peace when I respect Nature and preserve it for generations to come.
I contribute to Peace when I do not seek to impose my conception of God upon others.
I contribute to Peace when I make Peace the foundation of my ideals and philosophy.
I contribute to Peace when I look upon all as my brothers and sisters, regardless of race, culture, or religion.
*****
May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
“The inner work that must be done will not always be easy and the road will not always be smooth, but it is vital to do the work of shedding the stories that are the true source of suffering.”
― Daniel Mangena
*****
Peace and Love
Seth Kelly Curtis
Meditation
Within the quiet of this morning
Stirs the constant movement
Of my breath.
The inbreath of my life-force
Draws the world to me.
And as the outbreath streams from me
I share my life with others.
So goes the process of my growth,
Inbreath, outbreath,
Giving, receiving,
And all is One.
The Blessing
Before you I stand,
Humble, yet assured,
A reflection of your own radiance and perfection.
As I grow,
I am my own gift to you, my spiritual Father.
I am the promise of the new,
And I am ever mindful
Of the reason for my life.
-Danaan Parry
*****
May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
*****
Peace and Love
Seth Kelly Curtis
Nothing Can Hinder
Nothing can hinder my word from working; it will work, and nothing can stop it. My word is the law to that which it is spoken, and will become fulfilled in the right way and at the right time. My word is complete and perfect, and is the presence and the power of the universal mind that is in and through all. I speak that word and know that it will accomplish. I wait in perfect confidence for the word to fulfill itself in my life. My word is law.
-Ernest Holmes
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May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
Kelly's Quest 