Hello and welcome…  

Thank you for visiting  ~ AT THE HUB ~

The material below is a series of chapters for study and development associated with Café-Satsang.  The content is in ongoing editorial development subject to continued research and updating.  It contains some 40+ chapters which are directly accessible from the chapter headings below and you are welcome to brows/review chapters that take your interest.  You may find the links above (or index/cell phones) of interest and the ‘Contemplations‘ short and to the point with some revealing YouTube links for some intriguing views to consider.

As a regular visitor, you may like to visit (Daily reflections) short, concise posts of the day.

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The aim of this work is to bring ageless, time tested teachings of Mindfulness, Destiny and the Art of Living in life, commerce, education and governance into the modern era, culture and language of today.

At the ‘Hub of Life’, our centre, our true heart and soul is our natural home… all that we are; without beginning or end… eternally Present.

“The purpose of all valid spiritual disciplines, whatever the teaching from which they spring, is to enable us to return to this native state of being – not after death but here now, in unbroken awareness of the purity within and throughout creation.  Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language, and the practices they follow lead to the same goal.”                 ~Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – Indian vedic text

Far from being lost in the clouds and feet off the ground, this work is eminently practical, to be here and present to all that is real!

Is there anywhere else really worth being?

Consider how much time you spend in the world you have created outside of reality; your dreams, desires, fears and expectations, of acquired and assumed knowledge and beliefs.  Are you really here?  All you need is to ‘Be Present… Here-Now’, to look, listen; pay attention, your mind selflessly clear – to reveal the answers to life’s most practical and fundamental questions… but you can’t wait to be somewhere else!  Desire, Fear – be damned! They are always trying to put you somewhere else!

<>  What/Who am I?  What is my calling/my craft and my destiny?

<>  On any endeavour I choose, by what measure can I know the true nature of success?

<> Can I be really happy, always, no matter what my circumstance?

<>  How can I make the best of life’s transitions with insight, understanding and peace of mind?

<>  What is the meaning of ‘Enlightenment’?

PLEASE NOTE: This work is, and remains under continual editorial development.  It is published here, on-line, as it is researched, tested and developed, openly presented for comment and suggestions.

It is my sincere hope that the chapters that follow will go some way towards helping you find your way to answer these and other fundamental life questions…  Questions that lead to a better understanding of yourself, of Nature, Life, Life’s purpose, Consciousness,  Leadership, Education, Governance and fair-play.

With warm and sincere wishes for the journey of your life as you grow and develop. It is your work of art, all and the best that you can be; all that nature asks of you.  ~  Roy A Maunder

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To get the most from these chapters, they are not to be read as a story or set of instructions with beginnings and ends.  They are to be read for continuous growth in understanding and spiritual development.

The first chapter simply being a continuation from the last, for you to test alongside other commentaries and your own life experience.  A true life-experience, we are told by the wise throughout the ages that depends on how ‘truly present’ we are.  Are you present – or are you, like most of us mostly somewhere else?

The only true source of knowledge is to be found within, as you bring genuine experience in to your life, which cannot be found on these pages, or any others.  Just try learning to ride a bike, a discovery that cannot be found from words spoken or read in a book.  Words written or spoken might bring you faith, but true knowledge it is not.  True knowledge is to know and be at one with nature, as it flows through every fibre of your being. Eternally joyful, exhilarating!

As with any externally acquired commentaries, scriptures  and observations this can only be to help you to face the right direction and interpret what you see for yourself… as you open your eyes, feet on the ground, connect inner and outer world, and take one step at a time.

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I have received so many helpful and challenging questions and suggestions that have helped to bring this together.  Thank you…

The points of view expressed here are just that, ‘points of view’, and it is invariably more helpful to disagree than to agree… The very act of disagreement, with intent to understand helps to challenge not only these views, but also your own.

“The difference between Man and God is that Man has many points of view, and God has many viewing points.  ~ Anna –  from Mr God, this is Anna

May we learn and grow together

Helping you find ‘your’ way…        Roy Maunder 2015

If you would like to know more, make comment or if you would like to be on the list for any future publications or workshops, please contact me < here >

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Note – Chapter Index headings are active for direct link to chapters, and active links in the chapters for further direct information supporting the chapter content. 

0   INTRODUCTION

1   WHAT IT IS TO BE FREE

2   PAST, FUTURE AND ETERNAL PRESENT

3   HAPPINESS

4   NATURE, ACCEPT IT AS IT IS

5   NATURE OF BEINGS

6   REALITY AND ILLUSION

7   FEAR, PAIN AND SUFFERING

8   MEMORY, KARMA & FREE-WILL

9   ILLNESS AND DISEASE

10  WE GET WHAT WE WILL

11  TRUE KNOWLEDGE, ITS POWER AND BLESSING

12  WHAT AM I

13  SIN

14 CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS

15  HOW I KNOW MYSELF

16  I AM THAT I AM

17  DESTINY AND LIFE’S PURPOSE

18  UNIVERSAL SOUL

19 Nature of the SOUL

20  MANIFESTATION OF THE BODY – CAUSE

21  LETTING GO

22  BANISHING DESIRE

23  RIGHT ACTION

24  THE JOURNEY

25  DUTY

26  REALISATION

27 Nature of the Sage

28  GRACE AND HELP

29  THE GURU

30  MEDITATION

31  MANTRA

32  IT JUST HAPPENS

33  ATTENTION IS ENOUGH

34  TRUST, SIMPLE AND INNOCENT

35  CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS

36  LOVE AND SERVICE

37  DOING GOOD FOR OTHERS

38  SCIENCE AND RELIGION

39  AS TEACHER, HOW CAN I BE SURE?

40 LEADERSHIP – WAY OF THE SAGE

41 EDUCATION – ART OF PLAY AND DISCOVERY NEW – In development

42 GOVERNANCE …………………………………NEW – In development

43 REFLECTIONS ………………………………….NEW – In development

44 REFERENCES …………………………………..NEW – In development

45

46

47 THE KEYS

Feb’ 2016

This work is drawn from common themes found in many mystical traditions; Vedic, Buddhist, Taoist and other inclusive teachings through the ages to modern times. Such teachings are often referred to as non-dualist, (Advaita), which literally means ‘not two’. Some intense experiences can lead to the thought ‘I feel completely at-one’

It holds the view that our total integration and oneness with the universe we share is the principal and foundation of all life and matter.  There is no other in time and space, but ‘here and now’… no other time but now, no other place but here, no other self but ‘I’.  A common message they all share, along with a path to true freedom and happiness.

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space.  We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest…. a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a prison for us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Albert Einstein 1879-1955. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

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Is this great path to freedom and happiness, shared by the wise, some kind of journey? Well, yes and no… It’s a bit like asking for the way home when all the time you’re standing in your own doorway. Or finding your way to the top of a mountain, a most difficult and challenging climb indeed, with slips, rock falls and great suffering; all the trials and tribulations it brings… only to find that the mountain was never really there! It was all in the mind. “The truth will set you free!”

You might well ask ‘is such a journey necessary, with all the challenges it brings?’  – Yes!   By nature we are born into darkness and ignorance, blessed with the great and noble task to find our way to the light. Is it a good thing or a bad thing..? That question just doesn’t arise, for that is just the way it is; not good or bad. You might just as well ask – ‘Is it necessary for a child to go through childhood, and all the learning, falls and tears that go with it to reach adulthood?’  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”  ~ Wm Shakespeare

We can only hope that we are granted good guidance and governance that our falls will not be too painful, and that the learning we gain will be true.  That we shall pass this on with wisdom and compassion for those that follow.

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I do hope you find this of interest, if not at least a little thought provoking. Much of this work, at first glance, will appear to be highly controversial, and deeply challenging to many of our fundamental beliefs.  The principle thinking of non-duality, ‘Advaita’, where no part, in time and space is separate from another, all flowing with the same inseparable will, like an immense river flowing to the sea it has vast implications for cause and effect, birth and death, Karma and free-will.

In writing this work I have found common perceptions shared across the many traditions, yet remaining free of dogma, fixed views and attitudes.  These notes are for guidance only, views to explore and ponder, and only when found to inspire deep reflection and insight.

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This work is in no way meant to present any kind of doctrine, but to be shared, tested and openly debated and reflected upon.  Many may well disagree; words at best are a guiding map only, not the territory.  As was once said to me, “there is your way, my way, and the right way; and working together we may just come a little closer to the truth”. True knowledge and understanding can only come from direct experience. That must be found by living action, deep mindful reflection and insight. At best, I hope this will help you find ‘your’ way.

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Apart from skilled use of enlightened, and paradoxical poetic license – Wm Shakespeare being a master of such – modern western language is not well adapted to convey some of the deeper spiritual truths.  Consequently I have developed the meaning applied to ‘awareness’ and ‘consciousness’. I draw your attention to, and recommend reading chapter 14, for clarification. This distinction will bring greater clarity throughout this work.

Each chapter brings greater light to the preceding and following chapters and, as suggested, should be read over in sequence and in conjunction with the others with mindful attention. This mindful attention, greater presence of mind and body to reading, thought, and application will bring deeper understanding, wisdom, calmness and contentment. Most of what we learn is held in memory which is on the surface only and temporary. Deep attention to reading, listening and application brings understanding which is deep and permanent.

Every good ball player knows the importance of paying attention, body and mind, to every stroke and catch for the lessons learned. All good teachers know the value of student attention. And every mountaineer depends for his life on being completely present to every foot’ and handhold.

To help you to develop and bring your skills of mindfulness, not just to these pages but throughout life, please find this simple, transferrable programme at www.keystoneway.com – Keystone Meditation. There you will find a full explanation and an on-line link to a Meditation timer and support group – ‘Keystone Group’. The on-line timer is an independent service that links many thousands of meditators around the world of all traditions.

Most of today’s house-holders, as opposed to monks and ascetics, find themselves in a busy and competitive world.  With this in mind this simple approach requires little more than 1 minute per day, done in the right way, followed by simple acts of attentiveness.  It may seem too simple, but a single seed planted and nurtured in the right way, at the right time and in the right soil, will grow into a mighty forest.

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I am not here to change the world

I am here to help it grow

As every good parent would know

For further guidance I have searched out teachings that would help us to absorb and share what has been learned and understood by enlightened beings through the ages. I have made constant, personal referral to the works of G.I.Gurdjieff, who, along which many of his pupils worked tirelessly with such teachings for the betterment and harmonious development of man.  I could well have chosen any of the other great teachings. However, with this I have felt best directed and most at ease.

I claim no originality for many of the views and comments expressed here as I believe them to be timeless truths presented in so many works that have gone before.  However, the way I have collected, assembled and presented them is uniquely constructed to bring new clarity to the work.

It is, as I am, a work in progress, and I hope it helps to open up some inspirational thinking, and can only hope that it adds something worthwhile to your own journey in life, and for others who come across this work.

Love not the world for your-self, but as your-self…        ~ Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad Bk IV

I welcome any views and comments that will help to bring more light of understanding to this amazing universe we all share.

For those who have followed a similar work you may recognize some references from Shankara, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, with references to the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Tao-Te-Ching, Buddhist and Sufi sages.

For further reflections and thoughts in progress… http://www.twitter.com/NaturesDestiny

 “Follow not the teacher, but the teachings truth’s your home – he knows his way is not your own but must be your’s alone”

 “Neither teacher I nor pupil be, just hold my hand, walk with me and together… we shall see”

ram <contact and further information>

“Take someone who doesn’t keep score, who’s not looking to be richer nor afraid of losing,
Who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality:   He is free.”   – Rumi

To be a person, identified by all you associate with your name and form – your ego – is to be constrained within the boundaries of your own imagination.  It is as if, like a film on a screen, you have projected on to yourself a world built from memories and expectations, of pleasures and pains.  It feeds the flames of desire, greed, acquisition and the fear of loss. Afflictions such as aversion, pride and jealously are built from momentary feelings of attraction and repulsion.  Suffering warns us that this identity, this world we have built out of our own imagination is threatened by loss or change.  The very notion of independent identity must, for its very survival, be relative, dependent and constricting.  Once this notion is removed there is no possibility of these afflictions arising, and you are free.  Argue for your limitations and sure enough… they are yours.

Happiness is found not in the limited world of form and quantity, but in the subtle world of qualities, of sharing, love and service.  What suffering you experience is all in the mind; this ‘seemingly’ unyielding world of boundaries, claims and expectations, your attachment and fear of loss.  In the light of truth, this structure you have imagined, with all its attractions will lose their meaning, and so will end your fears and suffering… it is the truth that sets you free.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” Wm. Shakespeare.

See the illusion for what it is, the part it plays in the story that you claim your own; the story of your dreams.  As the actor on a stage no matter what the act, rise, fall or outcome it is of no concern, for that you are beyond.  Play the part, play it well but remember ‘your-self’, live and learn, for it is the magic of the stage that shows you who and what you are.  But you are concerned!  And you’ll be concerned while the picture clashes with your own ideas of what and who you think you are, and the outcome you desire.

All at one with the part you play, you will see that life lives through you, not by you.  Accept what is and go with the flow.  As a river finds its way to the sea, so nature’s elements flow effortlessly towards peace and harmony, without any effort on your part.  Any effort you feel is just the pain of conflict between opposing desires.  There really is nothing to oppose.   As for your actions, they just happen, they cannot be avoided.  You will see that you do what you must, and will know your will to act only after you have acted.  To know that it’s all in the mind, is, in-itself, letting go. Boundless, you are free.

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To free the mind from its limiting beliefs is to embrace the world and yet be free of the world, or at least your ideas about it, about yourself.  It is to be at peace, free of dependent-concern for its past and future.  Otherwise you are caught between what has happened and what must happen, of regrets and expectations.  And the body, following the mind, it too finds peace.  You are what you are, not your memories, ideas and possessions.  Let go, set yourself free.

Even the idea of letting go, of giving up, is in the mind.  The real giving up is in realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is there to call your own.  You are that you are – nothing personal, no attachment. It’s like deep sleep – you hold to nothing of before, you just fall asleep; blissfully free, unconcerned you just let go.  Like water, flowing into water, merges into itself.

But People do not care to let go.  They do not know that to let go of the finite, the temporary, is to embrace the infinite, as to embrace death is to embrace life.  Letting go is not about being detached which only leads to a kind of indifference.  Free of condition and expectation, non-attached yet at-one with the eternal flow of life… it is life, and love in action.

To be free is to live life to the full, to move on free of limitation – life depends on it.  As a caterpillar lets go of one leaf when firmly held to the next, one form as it changes to the next, so you too move from room to room, place to place, childhood to adulthood.  The gift and legacy of the past is all in the present, nothing left behind, nothing to turn back for.

The water-mill would never turn if its buckets kept their fill.  The toys you held, the games you played, the scenes that you beheld were there for life’s fulfilment, whose legacy is found right here and only in the now. It’s the fuel that lights your path, the dawn of knowledge, the light of wisdom and the joy and bliss of happiness.  Let go, for the past is done and gone, like the scaffold on a temple, to be released when it is done.  Even the temple, the schools of learning are the scaffolding for you to grow, and all released when done.

Empires of the personal may be gained and lost, moment to moment.  But the ‘I’ that you are remains timelessly clear, untouched and free; as the Sun remains untouched by day or night, cloud or shine, neither wealth nor poverty can enhance or diminish it. As you learn to free the mind from its preoccupations it becomes clear and quiet, and blissfully at peace.

Placed in a world of wealth or not is not of your concern.  But ask yourself, ‘are you in charge or is it in charge of you?’  Not that you should own nothing which leads to a kind of arrogance in poverty, but that nothing should own you, however rich or poor.

“May I never lack clothes, cows, food and drink that I may share and serve you better.  May I become famous, may I become richer than the richest that I may share and serve you better” (Taittireeya-Upanishad)

To act and perform your duties in service from the heart of love, your true heart, is to know and live as one.  Any idea to hold on; to possess for oneself alone is to ‘bind and so be bound’.  Claim nothing but this moment, and the gift of life itself.  To embrace all, yet free of attachment and dependency is to be truly free and selfless; empty of self-defined name and form.

To Be-Here-Now, fully present, the unfettered mind is free, fresh and vibrantly alive.  Always now it grieves for nothing left behind – not concerned for birth, nor death but in eternal timeless flow.

“It was like I had been chasing after something and suddenly I just stopped and looked around me.  I stopped inside and my mind became peaceful and clear.  We don’t know what it means to let go… to discover that nothing is permanent and we invent numerous beliefs to protect us from the fear of letting go.  We are frightened of letting go because we have postponed it.  I believe that only through that act will my mind be free and able to experience what true freedom is.”  ~ Mark Forster – Screenwriter/Director

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By devotion to the self the highest is reached, not bound by birth or death – Bhagavad Gita: Ch 8

On the path to freedom, to claim, ‘I am not this, not that’, not this bundle of habits and beliefs it would be fair to ask, ‘So then, what am I?’  That raises and interesting question – ‘are there two selves for one to say, ‘I know myself’ as if it were a separate self to be known by ‘I’, that I am?’.  By reason, the observed cannot itself be the observer.  It may not be in your power to say what you are but can you say, ‘I am not?’  That you are is undeniably true. This self, this ‘I AM’, this simplicity of ‘being’ is without boundary, beyond anything you conceive yourself to be. It is pure, boundless awareness.  It is the immovable background of motion.  The screen onto which everything you conceive is projected. Once you are there, you are at home everywhere. Whatever you may hear see or think, of that, you can be sure, you are not.  To attend to my-self, to that which is beyond name and form is to reach for the highest.

To know that I AM is the first ‘knowing’, before knowing anything else. Free from being a percept or concept, it is your natural state before any conception of name, form and association arises. It is pure choiceless-awareness, aware of all without choice, good or bad, like or dislike.   It is just a state unaffected by acquisitions of the mind, free from past and future and all associations.  In most cases it is distorted by the pull of form, memories and hopes, desire and fear.  In choiceless awareness it is as it is – normal.

For the Enlightened mind, the person, the ‘I am this body, this mind, this chain of memories, this bundle of desires and fears disappears, but something you may call identity remains.  It enables a sense of being, of the here and now as you would understand it.  Seeing is not clouded by images clothed with judgements, description and evaluation, of opinion or attitude.  And when turned away, the mind does not allow memory to linger, but is free and fresh for the next impression.  Notice how a child, before the acquisition of ideas, opinions and possessions have invaded, the mind will so easily move on from one point of attention to another, leaving nothing to linger in the mind.

To grasp for a sense of identity, to be caught by the taste of pleasure casts a veil of ignorance, a sort of blindness to the truth.  And so, as a man born blind, we must rely on pointers to find our way back.   As the blind cannot visualize light and colors, so the ignorant mind is unable to give meaning to such descriptions of the natural spontaneous state, such as dispassionate happiness, affectionate detachment, timelessness, choiceless awareness, and the causelessness of things.  As even the most accurate map is not the territory, words are only indicators, they can only point but they will not come with us. Intuitively we feel they have deep meaning, and they even create in us a strange longing for the ineffable, the thrill of what may be, but that is all.  The truth can only be found with right action, words merely point the way.  Freedom is beyond mind consciousness and its dreams and acquisitions which come and go.

The state of freedom is beyond sensory consciousness and the world we identify with.  It is pure, boundless awareness, as the sky is beyond the cloud yet one with it, dependent on none but itself.  Sensory consciousness in ignorance of this binds itself to this world and form, whereas awareness, beyond mind and form has no attachment, it shines immutably.  When there is a ‘particular’ person there is also consciousness.  ‘I am’, mind, and consciousness denote the same state.  If you say ‘I am aware’, it only means: ‘I am conscious of thinking about being aware’.  There is no identity with form in awareness, it is beyond form.  Witnessing is of the world of mind and duality.  The witness goes with the witnessed.  In awareness, there is no duality of seer and that that is seen, there is only seeing.  In awareness, the seer and the seen are one; seeing contains both seer and seen.

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From the moment that we are born we make the painful transition from a world of oneness to a world of duality, a world where all form and its parts are seen as separate, and separate from us. It is a world populated by opposites; each being dependent on the space between, and each other for existent identity, as a cup is dependent on the space and the mind for its ‘cupness’.  The waves on the sea are dependent on the sea for existent identity and not the other way around. The sea itself enables the waves to appear and disappear and is not touched by their rise and fall. What is the relationship between the ocean and it waves?  As like the waves on the sea, the mind, consciousness and thoughts are dependent on universal awareness.  Awareness is dependent on none but itself.

From the point of non-duality, or ‘oneness’ (Advaita), all ideas of separation, name and form, have no meaning.  You might say it is empty of identity or ‘selfless’… it is free and fertile for absolute creativity. Questions of your formative relationship in time and space is only in the mind.  For example, a chair has no inherent ‘chairness’, it is empty of any label or meaning until the mind chooses it so.  While the mind is so occupied in a world of form, gain and loss, it is limited, not open to see beyond it.

The succession of transient moments, ideas, thoughts and forms are just ripples on the surface of the mind, they create the illusion of time.  All movement requires a motionless background to give it form. The timeless reality of pure being, pure awareness, is not in movement.  Just as the projection on a cinema screen is dependent on the still, formless background of the screen for the images to appear.  If you were not still, silently aware, the experience of the passage of time would not exist for you.  Once you have found the stillness within, you will know that it was never lost to you, that ‘being’ that you are, independent of time and space, independent of all divisions and separations.  But don’t look for it in consciousness, you will not find it there.  Don’t look for it anywhere, for nothing contains it, not in time or space.

On the path to enlightenment, the mind ultimately discovers that it is free from questions, that no answers are needed. Answers are just another form to distract our attention.

The silent state of universal awareness is not inactive.  ‘Not dead for it is aware; ‘not alive for it does not change.  The flower fills the space with perfume, the candle – with light.  They do nothing yet they change everything by their mere presence.  You can photograph the candle, but not the light.  You can know the man, his name and appearance, but not his influence.  His very presence contains the essence of life in action. – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

ram <contact and further information>

March 2016

Charity feeds the present from the food of past as nature consumes the past to feed the present. – B’Gita Ch: 8

Birth and death, only in the eyes of the ignorant; a continuous cycle with no space between. In reality birthless, deathless – B’Gita Ch: 9

Here and now is your home and where you live. But with dreams of past and future-yet a sleep-like veil is cast. Awake to here and now, and the difference between actual and dream comes clear; unmistakably so. By no effort of will or imagination can you interchange the two.

Now, what is it that gives this unique quality to the actual?   A moment back the remembered was actual, in a moment the actual will be the remembered. What makes the actual unique? Obviously, it is your sense of being present. In memory and anticipation the feeling is clear that it is a mental state being observed, whilst in the actual the feeling is primarily of being present, timelessly still and aware. Look closely and you will see there is no ‘moment’ in the present that can be captured; all is just flow. In stillness that you are, feel the flow.

We all depend on a perceived relative position in time and space for any sense of personal existence.   If ‘you’ were not still, relative to the passage of events in time, there would be no perception of the passing of time. Two trains side by side traveling at the same speed, to each other there would appear to be no motion. Without ‘apparent’ relative motion, the passage of time would not appear to exist.

Whenever existence and time appears, it is only because of your sense of being, here and now; free of form and motion that you carry with you timelessly. It means that you are independent of space and time. Space and time is in the mind, not in them. It is your self-identification with mind and body, which of course is limited, that gives you the feeling of relativity; finiteness. In reality you are not bound by measures of time and limits in space. There is no separation; you and the source of being are one.  “I and my father is one…”

‘The wise man does not cross the same river twice, for he can see that he is not the same man and it is not the same river. The enlightened man does not cross the river, for he is the river and the river is he; there is no separation’.

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The supreme spirit is without beginning, without qualities and imperishable – B’Gita Ch: 13

There can be no continuity in the objects of awareness. Continuity, permanency, these are illusions created from memory, mere mental projections of pattern where no pattern can be. Let go of all ideas created out of mind and memory, of temporary or permanent, body or mind, man or woman; what remains? What is the state of your mind when all separation is given up? It is not to say there are no distinctions, for without them there is no manifestation.

Your concern with future is due to fear of pain and desire of pleasure. A child just grows, s/he does not make plans for growth, a leg here, and hand there, s/he grows integrally, naturally and unconsciously; without lingering memories and fearful anticipation. Moments of sadness are quickly transformed into moments of joy. This is because s/he is free of expectation born of memory and anticipation. It is one of the peculiarities of the enlightened; that s/he is not concerned with past and future; all is bliss: all just happens by the flow of nature, by the needs of the moment, just as the swirl and motion of rivers to sea.

ram <contact and further information>

March 2016

There is no greater conscious happiness than alert, sustained self-dependent peace of mind. It lies at the pinnacle of life’s work; true success. After all, what is the state wished for along the path of action? Not the destination, a mere passing experience cursed with expectation rarely satisfied, whose proper value lies as a guiding star for direction and alignment. Attached to outcomes, everything in between is seen as an inconvenient necessity, including the people who help you get there, and the attributes of love and care along the way are lost.

The most productive thing you can ever do is to be consciously present, the natural flow in nature’s field will take care of the outcome. Your will to act will be knowingly at one with the eternal will of nature; the harmony, the joy of this moment. By learning to be here-now-present and attentive, your life purpose, at one, becomes clear. You rush ahead for objects of desire only to leave behind the ocean of peace and eternal joy.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 50 – Pleasure and Joy:

How heavy do I journey on the way, when what I seek my weary travels end, doth teach that ease and that repose to say, ‘Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!’

The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, as if by some instinct the wretch did know his rider loved not speed being made from thee.

The bloody spur cannot provoke him on that sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, which heavily he answers with a groan more sharp to me than spurring to his side;

For that same groan doth put this in my mind: My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

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Following the inner journey, you cannot help find happiness – even amongst what you perceive as so much suffering.  Inner happiness is overwhelmingly real.  Like the sun in the sky, its expressions may be clouded but it is never absent.  By discovering and cultivating your natural purpose, joy and fulfilment is inevitable.

Happy people cultivate the discipline to discover and follow their natural path.  They live in the present, get organised and act on the here-and-now – ‘first things first’.  Any Satnav user knows to faithfully follow immediate instruction once destination is set.  Trust the destination built in to your very nature, your True Heart, the Hub of life’s work.  Every moment so lived is a moment of joy.  The great universal ‘Satnav’ will be your guide.  How often do you hear ‘I just followed my intuition’?

Happy people feel as a valued contributor to something greater than themselves. Cultivate a passion for something permanent beyond people, things and events.  Transient, attachment can only lead to loss and sadness.  Great artists, poets and architects of every kind know this.  When the job is done, lessons learned are left to grow and live in the mind, and minds that follow.  Every child, who has had pleasure in building sand castles only to be washed away, knows this too.  Yet, how soon we forget and suffer the misery of attachment and loss.  The contented stone mason is not just cutting stone for a dollar a day, but helping to build a great cathedral.  A great cathedral that will live in the hearts and minds, beyond the stone from which it is build

Understand the difference between happiness and pleasure.  Pleasure depends on things; happiness does not.  Fear is the only trouble.  Know yourself as independent and you will be free, free from fear and its shadows.  As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable.

Happy people intuitively cultivate harmonious connection with their inner and outer world. By being at peace inwardly, free of contention, the outer world is naturally attracted with the will to be at one. See how we naturally soften and feel drawn to innocent calmness of youth.

‘All rivers flow to the sea, in deep calmness, the lowest point’ ~ Tao-Te-Ching.

With vigilance, courage and kindness, inner happiness is inevitable.  Anyone who has found their true craft in life knows this and can be said to be ‘In their Element’, performing a natural ‘Work of art’.  Letting life unfold as your work of art is intensely joyful even in the face of great difficulty.  Ask any great explorer.  All great people of achievement know this, whether in the arts, sport, home-making or industry.

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood” ~ Marie Curie

The innocent mind knows the joy of learning and discovery. Any parent knows the joy of children with the toys with which they play, and the lessons they learn. Big children too! The toy business thrives on it.

Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Hence the importance of convincing oneself that one need not be prodded into happiness. On the contrary pleasure, dependent on things, is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have things to be happy, when in reality it’s just the opposite. The natural world is nature’s playground for us to play, discover, build, learn and grow, and to pass on what we have learned.

Why think of happiness at all? You do not think of happiness except when you are unhappy. A man who says: ‘now I am happy’, is between two sorrows – past and future. This happiness is mere excitement caused by relief from pain. Tue happiness is beyond compare.

Real happiness is utterly unselfconscious. It is best expressed negatively as: ‘there is nothing wrong with me. I have nothing to worry about’. After all the ultimate purpose of meditation is to reach a point when the conviction, instead of being only verbal, is based on the actual and ever-present state of being free of clutter; of memories and expectations. It is like the joy of open spaces, of being young, of having all the time and energy for doing things, for discovery, for adventure.

The choice of oneness is blissful – B’Gita Ch: 9

What remains to discover is that the immensity of the universe is in reality in the boundless heart of the Universal, where lies the source and purpose of existence, the secret of suffering, and life’s redemption from ignorance.

Your true home; the true heart empty of all content; empty of all fears, desires, expectation, pain and suffering. You face emptiness cheerfully when you go to sleep. You can discover this for yourself when ‘fully awake’, a state of wakeful sleep, observing but not attached, and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature. A kind of joyful bliss. Words can only give you the idea and the idea is not the experience. True happiness has no cause; not dependent on anything or anyone but itself for happiness, and what has no cause is immovable, which does not mean it is perceivable as pleasure.

The state of freedom from sorrow can be described only negatively. What is perceivable is pain and pleasure. To know happiness directly you must go beyond the addiction to causality, to things, people and events, expectation, and the tyranny of time.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 123.  The Eternal Self, and the Tyranny of time:

 No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might to me are nothing novel, nothing strange; they are but dressings of a former sight.

Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire what thou dost foist upon us that is old; and rather make them born to our desire, than think that we before have heard them told.

Thy registers and thee I both defy, not wondering at the present nor the past, for thy records and what we see doth lie, made more or less by thy continual haste.

This I do vow and this shall ever be; I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.

.

ram <contact and further information>

March 2016

‘All things emerge and exist by nature’s qualities, and perish by themselves subject to no plan or purpose but for nature’s flow toward harmony and rest. All parts are one with all. To know the part is to know all as the chariot is one with all its parts’. All parts depend on the Central-Hub, the Golden-Mean, for its manifest existence. ~ Tao-Te-Ching

All is Nature’s great show. A universal field in action, the flow and maintenance of harmony and peace. It is ineradicable.  Once understood and fulfilled all concern ceases. Physical life becomes effortless, below the level of attention.

The world of form and substance, visible and invisible to the mind, consciousness and senses, and the laws and qualities of nature are rooted, formed and nourished in the field of the unmanifest. It is as if as a thought, a vision emerging in the mind as the need arises yet the mind is untouched; a cloud emerges in the sky, the sky untouched.

‘All action is driven by the laws of nature’ – B’Gita Ch: 13

We live according to nature’s bequest of qualities and instincts – B’Gita Ch: 4

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All action is the play of form by the will of nature in harmony with its qualities. The Eternal, from which all arises, free of duality takes no sides, and the balance is naturally sustained.

In keeping with eternal law all things are born, rise and flourish, share existence, decline and fade, always in relative steady balance and harmony. Divine, they return as they began as all rivers flow back to the sea. As the waves depend on the sea for existence and flow by nature’s course, yet the sea itself remains untouched; so all things depend on the One, the Universal, the source of all, for their being and non-being, their rise and decline.

No one can change the course of Nature, for it is bound by the very laws of universal governance, as it was is and always will be. Change of form, its substance and destiny may be, but the governing laws remain… mother, father, Yin and Yang – child yet to be born.

‘The universe depends on the Universal, Eternal Self for its existence. The Universal finds its enjoyment through the senses’   ~ B’Gita Ch: 15

Father, Son and Holy Ghost,  God just loves to see a show,

So much so he plays all parts.  We provide the form and make up,

and nature she conducts the show ~ ram

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Gaining existence means losing nonexistence, the formless, the unmanifest.  Existence gained brings form, visibility of beauty, fragility and decline.  As an image in nature’s field, in that field we are made, rise, flourish and fade not by will or accident, but universal law in action, and the magical path from the unmanifest to the manifest. All in accord with eternal, natural physics, natural law.

Everything conforms naturally as it should.  There are no Miracles… it is just Nature doing what it does with what is has, without deviation, and what you do every moment of your life.

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Thoughts and actions of man are dependent on the qualities of nature’s laws, and manifest as Purity, Passion and Ignorance.

• In purity, the goodness of wisdom brings happiness
• Passion in duality brings commotion, and
• In ignorance, obscuring wisdom, leads to a life of discontent.

By awaking to the light of purity, the divide between the wisdom of the true heart and the pleasures of the senses is revealed. The choiceless unconditional presence and acceptance of the ‘True Heart’ free of fear and desire, and the sensory world, the choice-full world of mind and body.

Every man faces both. ‘The mind of the wise man draws him to the good, the flesh of the ignorant draws him to the pleasant’ ~ (Katha-Upanishad). ‘Diverging roads; one called wisdom, the other called ignorance’.

‘One who is good, leaves no sign, fault or trace, yet all will follow, and none is cast away. This is named Essential Subtlety.’ Tao-Ta-Ching Ch:27

It is not hard to discern the difference when faced with difficult decisions of choice. Just ask ‘What would a wise man do?’ – By choosing an icon of wisdom outside and beyond yourself, the fears and pleasures of mind and body are, for the moment, forgotten, and the wisdom of right action is revealed. It may not be easy to follow, but you do know. It is the voice of your true heart, the wisdom of your soul. Happiness is on the other side of discipline, and skilful choice.

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‘Nature compels us to act. Worship the qualities of nature, let them be your guide, they will nourish you’ – B’Gita Ch: 3  

‘It is only the qualities that act. He who understands that, and shuns not the qualities with an attitude of indifference, attains divine nature and remains calm’. – B’Gita Ch: 14

All corporeal life and matter is so intimately linked and lives according to nature’s bequest of qualities and instincts. All is compelled to follow and act in accord with universal, natural will.

When the child in you is frustrated or denied, it kicks. Do not restrict or condemn, just look at the kicking to its cause. As painful as it may be there are no remedies but one, the search for remedies must cease. In anger or pain, just watch. Mindfulness, external but one with the event is the first step to understanding true knowledge and freedom. “The truth will set you free”. Physical events will go on but you will see that they have no more importance than dreams in sleep, or stories on a page.

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In the world you inhabit you must accept its ways, for its ways are your ways. Your needs and demands have created them. Your desires are so complex and contradictory it is no wonder that the world you create is also complex and contradictory. The good of the ‘True Heart’, your Soul, will set you free; simplicity itself. To live at-one with your True Heart is enlightened.

To know what is, you must accept what is, which can be frightening. But first you must accept yourself which is even more frightening. Your being ‘as a person’ depends on violence. Your very body is a battlefield, full of the dead and dying. Existence in separateness implies violence; manifest survival depends on it. Do you realise that as long as you choose to maintain a separate self to defend you must be violent? The first steps in self-acceptance are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is not a happy sight. One needs all the courage to go further. What helps is attentive, mindful understanding. When you see yourself as one, not separate, the will and need for violence will cease.

Look at yourself in mindfulness, do not describe yourself. This does not mean a silent mind. That may not, for you now, be possible. Words and ideas are like furniture in a room; the space around them is forever silent. You are that space, looking from within the eternal silence ~ your True Heart. Nature, form and substance will reveal itself for what it is, not what you think it to be.

‘Natural form contains complete and supreme knowledge in its leaves for those who can see. Understand one thing well, and you have arrived’ ~ (Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Look at the being you believe you are and remember – you are not what you see. High reason makes it clear ‘…that that sees cannot be that, that is seen’. ‘This I am not – what am I?’ is the movement of self-enquiry. There are no other means to liberation, all means delay. Resolutely reject what you are not, till all that is not falls away to reveal the ‘not-a-thing-ness’ of the self that you are, beyond mind, ideas and concepts.

Nature – Accept it as it is. To know what is, is to accept what is. Be still and see that all is as it should be. In this moment in time and space the entire universe is contained; holographic, every point contains the whole.  In your dream there are affections which seem real and everlasting – you love some and not others.  On waking up you find you are love itself, embracing all.  Personal love, however intense and genuine, invariably binds; the true heart of love is love of all; choiceless, unconditional, all embracing.

ram <contact and further information>

April ’16

Your true heart and Soul (re chapter 19), is at the center and at one with being; about which, as the hub on a carriage, all revolves and upon which all depends; itself silent, motionless. As the content of a wave is at one with the sea upon which it depends, and so the Soul is at one with Universal Spirit… nameless, boundless and conditionless. It shines with the light of true knowledge for those with the will and sight to see, here, now, everywhere.

All as seen is joint product of matter and spirit – B’Gita Ch. 13

The wise see me as all the postures that nature can portray, animate or inanimate – B’Gita Ch: 11

Just as the sea in motion gives rise to form, the true heart in motion reaches out from the here-and-now giving rise to form, body, mind, senses and the multitude.

Our true nature is that of the soul, and is the same for all that walk the earth – pure unconditional acceptance… pure love – and exists by universal law; perfect and eternal.

“Your soul and my soul are very old friends” ~ Rumi

As a wave contains the sea, which is the same everywhere, our soul contains universal spirit which is, for all, the same.  The sea acquires the nature of the wave it inhabits but the sea itself is not changed, just as gold is not changed by the form we give it.

And so, we have a true universal nature, and an acquired nature by birth and nurture which gives us our unique individuality.

All beings are of two classes, purity and ignorance: – B’Gita Ch. 15

• Beings of purity see all as one, free of attachment, judgement and ill will, and where doubt arises lets insight and scripture be their guide.

• The ignorant suffer pain of attachment and seek to destroy the source of pain and enhance gratification of desire. Events are seen as accident or force of personal will.

Corporeal heart and mind, reaching out through body and senses favors sensory attachments through sound, sight, taste, desire and the like for favored goods; acquiring ‘personalized ideas’ of benevolence, righteousness and principle; of high and low, good and bad.

Mind-consciousness in turning outwardly in favor of sensory images, the true heart is hidden behind a veil of ignorance.  Mind through sense organs traveling far from its roots deep in the heart of all, is lost in separation, attachment, fear, opinion and judgement.  Differentiated by personalization, divisiveness is inevitable… fear and conflict the outcome.

By meditation and reflection we can begin to see and reflect the purity our true nature.  Because this is the same for all creatures, large and small, they will instantly recognise the divinity within you as it is for themselves.  This is why, when people meet an enlightened person, they feel a Devine resonance within.  They often don’t at first recognise that it is their own Divinity they see.  Those who do can have an epiphany experience, and be changed for ever.

An enlightened person sees only the divinity within all, and does not, and sees no cause to bring suffering to another living being. They live by the laws of ‘ahimsa’ – cause not to suffer; the cardinal virtue of the enlightened.

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Man has inherent faith in one of three qualities: Purity, passion and ignorance, and is made by the faith he holds – B’Gita Ch. 17

• The pure, at one with the true heart and soul, worship the true spirit.

• The passionate, driven only by sensory pleasures, worship the powers of sense, wealth and magic; addicted to acquisition and possession.

• The ignorant, driven by imagination and illusion, worship the illusory world of spirits of the dead and lower orders of nature.

The undisciplined mind in its acquisitive nature, for matter and lower orders of learning, reaches out to acquire forever more. Excess, beyond the limits of need soon turns sour and generates the false belief that still more will bring peace and happiness.

‘All true goodness stems from true knowledge. All true evil stems from ignorance. ~ Socrates

Mindful insight at one with the true heart decreases attachment, uncovers the light of true knowledge, knows the limits of passion and desire; free of excess, at one in natural balance and harmony.  Only for those with the sense, the will and the mind to see can trace the journey back to its roots, and be born again… out of ignorance into the light of truth. We are compelled by our personalized nature to act according to the way we see and interpret the world. With the mind lit with the light of truth, impersonal true knowledge, all action is natural, good and in perfect harmony.

.                   Q – How do I find my way?

.                                               A – Go back the way you came.

~ Shri Ramana Maharshi

Words of true wisdom, unclouded by ignorance, are easy to understand and perform, yet few are able to know or practice them as they are blinded by the personal, the external world; by attraction to acquired ideas and practices. All outward acquisition of form, ideas and attitude is on the surface only, temporary and inconsistent; changeable with fashion, values and attitudes, creating division of opinion and attitude.  People of true heart, at one with true knowledge are ignored, or seen as ignorant as their being is seen as opposite, contradictory.

‘To know things of false heart is wise. To know the true heart is enlightened. To conquer others is mighty. To conquer oneself is enlightened’ ~ Tao-Te-Ching

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves” ~ Edmond Hillary

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When people do not fear the outcome from acts of the false heart; of ignorance, of excess – not knowing what is enough, calamities follow.

Artificial, indirectly acquired knowledge and action is full of dreadful things – fearful choices, temples built, fear and desire for things to protect at the expense and loss of the one true home. Excessive, disproportionate worldly gain is lost.  The best way to know this, and not let the false heart take hold is to meditate with choiceless, boundless attention and reflection.

With superior wisdom, reflected from the true heart, unbound, all comes naturally without personal administration – the path of intuition and discrimination. With insight, true knowledge is gained by mindful attention towards the heart and source of action. True knowledge is of that which does not change; timeless, universal. Man of spiritual and physical science know this well.

Relying on the false heart for action, though appearing brave, leads to conflict and suffering. Bravery in ‘daring not to take action inspired by acquisitive desire’, the skillful, difficult path, is the road to life and well-being. Life free of attachment and expectation is loose and free. Life bound by attachment and expectation is harsh and unforgiving.

People of passion for the acquired, of things, action and lower knowledge are constantly in motion beyond the limits of need, forever seeking to satisfy endless desires with unwelcome side effects.

When the natural will of the true heart is followed, peace and growth is seen to be the natural order.  However, the majority of mankind today think that the only object of this earth-life is for the purpose of acquisition and material gain.  Order is seen through the need for control and defence, and the ‘natural goodness’ (harmony and balance) is lost.  Undisciplined, the false heart driven by sensory pleasures and its excessive nature leads to attachment, fear, brittleness and failure.

The wise nurture non-attachment; all action being natural and self-regulated. Free of attachment yet embracing all… all becomes one. All things submit; desires and fears dissolve in the blissful light of truth. Free of acquired artificial values, desires and expectations; free of control and administration, all functions naturally.  Contentment; peace of mind inspired by natural harmony is the norm.

We all experience times when mindfully, at peace of mind ‘I just know what to do’…   “I just intuitively knew…” Your inner, true heart has spoken, and you were there to hear it!

ram <contact and further information>

April’ 16

So, you take the world you see, hear and read about as real? What you see is real enough… it is your ideas about it, your own or those of others that is the trouble. You see a coil of rope in dim light and believe it to be a snake! The great illusion is when you believe what you think you see, and believe that it is separate from you, that it has its own separate identity; its own past, present and future. Non-Duality (Advaita), ‘Not Two’, is literally what it says. Apparent separation in time and space is not as you perceive it to be. What you perceive is in the mind, and you and the mind are one.

Timelessly, you inhabit a world of infinite potentiality; at the same time everything and nothing. ‘No-thing am I’. Otherwise you are bound by fixed ideas and opinions – not true!

Is time linear in the way we believe it? Like a story on a page it only appears so when the mind casts it into yesterday, today, tomorrow, beginnings and ends. Leave the page and the story is still there, timelessly present from beginning to end, all in this moment, here and now. Observe a sleeping man as he dreams. Does the dream to the dreamer take the same time to unfold as does the reality, ‘your reality’, of the world about him?

Is space dimensional as we experience it? Like an image in the mind or captured on film… it only appears so when projected into up and down, there and here, left and right. Roll up the film, store it in memory, and it is all nowhere else but here and now.

Perceived content of space and time can be likened to a holographic image. Every part, however you observe it contains every other. Cut the image into tiny pieces, and each in itself contains and displays the whole.

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We live in the world of illusion populated by opposites – B’Gita Ch: 7

All acquired knowledge is a form of ignorance. The most accurate map is yet only paper. All such knowledge, in word and form is in memory, an image remembered. Reality is beyond the divide between knower and known. In reality there is only knowing. Beyond the divide between seer and the seen… in reality there is no separation, only seeing.

You appear as a separate identity only as long as you conceive yourself to be so. In reality are you ever anything in particular? Is any part apart and separate from any other? Full of ideas and opinions, they only separate you into a world of opposites; of conflicting views and attitudes. Accept them for what they are… no more than propositions to be explored in the laboratory of life.

The world of absolute reality, onto which your mind has projected a world of conceived reality appears as independent of yourself, yet by simple reason that it is your own conception, it is yourself. Apparent, relative independence proves identity. Examine the motion of relative change and you will see; one cannot be without the other. Let go of your fixation on the particular and the possibilities, your possibilities are infinite; not bound by ideas about it.

The main point here is that you have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, made in your image based on memories, desires and fears, and that you have bound yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.

What you perceive as knowing can only be in the mind and not in the real. Reality is not approachable as something to be known, it is already with you, and not something to reach for. The very reaching out makes you miss it. Give up the idea that you have not found it; focus all your attention to being in-the-now, and the truth will come into focus. When all that is in the mind is let go, what remains is pure awareness; pure being.

 “There is no such thing as good or bad, but thinking makes it so” ~ Wm Shakespeare

In truth, free of duality, of knower and known, seer and seen, there are no opposites. The opposite of Love is not hate for it is the heart and centre of all that is. All embracing, love has no opposite; it contains all that is and depends only on itself for existence. The opposite of Good is not bad, for in heart and mind it is itself love made visible.

Ultimately let go of all teachings, all books, anything put into words – ‘out of head into heart’, into the reality beyond words, only then can truth be revealed.

Dive deeply within yourself, your soul, your true heart, the essence of meditation, (refer Keystone Meditation) where no opinion is there to cloud your judgement… only reality. ‘Diving deeply’ is to bring all the powers of thought and mind into the present moment, away from what is not – not here… not now. Only then can you truly let-go of what is not, to reveal what is. This alone will solve all your problems, and you will find yourself in full mastery of every situation. You will not be held captive by conflicting ideas about the situation.  With all sense of boundaries and limitations gone in favour of ultimate freedom – fear, pain and the search for short lived pleasures all cease… only awareness remains.  Mind and body acts naturally, contentedly, without excess.

Do not be misled by manifestation – higher nature is above them all – B’Gita Ch: 7

Personal interest and personal concern for form and possession are the focal points of the mind in ignorance of the truth. Your daily life vibrates between desire and fear. Watch it intently and you will see how the mind conjures up innumerable names and shapes, fears and desires, like a cloud in a storm – a turbulent mind. Trace every action back to its personally centred motive, and look at the motive intently until it dissolves, bringing calm to troubled waters.

Whatever is conceived by the mind is bound to be relative and limited. The real is beyond conception and there for its own sake, and cannot be willed as something separate. What else but the inseparable-self is worth wanting? Undivided, it is where absolute peace and contentment is found. Granted, the real cannot be wanted as a thing is wanted. But by seeing the unreal as unreal, the letting go happens all by itself – no effort on your part. It is by the dissolution of what is not, the unreal, that the way is opened.

ram <contact and further information>

Apr’ 16

You fear the unknown, of imagined threats that you believe are outside of you, out of your control. Yet your own body, too, is full of mysteries and dangers… yet you are not afraid of it for you take it as a world of your own. But what you do not realise is that the entire world and the universe you perceive is a world of your own making; of what you make it to be. Let go of any idea of control – you were never in control – nature controls itself, quite perfectly, and in perfect harmony. You would only get in the way.

You may say you have two bodies; the personal of many parts, and the universal. The personal, born and dies every moment, comes and goes and bound to change. But the universal, behind, now and beyond is always with you… as you are; part and one with life’s great flow. You are so blinded by what is personal that you do not see beyond it; a blindness that will not end by itself – but by your hand, skilfully, deliberately. When the illusion of duality is understood and abandoned you know yourself, at-one, in free and perfect state. All ideas of separation, between the personal and universal are no more.

Pain is physical, suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no suffering. Pain is merely a signal that the body is in danger and requires attention. Similarly, suffering warns us that the structure of fixed ideas, memories and habits, which we call the person, is in threat of loss or change. Most, if not all suffering is in the desire and stress of wanting… to be somewhere else. Pain, the call for attention, is essential for the survival of the body; nothing compels you to suffer. Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a sign of your unwillingness to let go, to move on, to flow with life.

You may believe that you are mentally and physically at peace, but this may not be the ultimate state. To know yourself is to be at-one. You will recognize that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of desire and fear. After all, at the root of all desire and fear is the feeling you are incomplete, fear of loss, and far from home. In true love’s embrace, do you not feel at home, at one, and complete?  At-one with yourself and the eternal flow of life, you have no need beyond that which you are.

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All self-concern is a symptom of mental distortion which disappears as soon as you discover you never left home in the first place. You may find that the search for home and all the challenges that go with it is like climbing a mountain, only to find when you get there, the mountain is not, and never was.

You can learn to accept both pleasure and pain as they come, embracing both while they last, to let them go as they must. Physical pain calls for attention. The bliss is in the conscious acceptance and in awareness of it, in not shrinking or in any way turning away. All happiness is rooted in boundless awareness. The more we live in awareness, unbound, unattached, the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance – these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.

In our ignorance pleasure is readily accepted, while all the powers of mind and body reject pain. As the acceptance of pain is the denial of the illusory mind, and the mind stands in the way of true happiness, the wholehearted acceptance of pain releases the springs of happiness. The great joy of adventure and discovery depends on it.

In boundless awareness, unattached, observer only, you will not suffer. You will see the world as a show, a most entertaining show indeed. The cause of suffering is in the attachment of the perceiver with the perceived. Out of attachment desire is born, and with desire blind action – seeking to preserve and gain. Look around and you will see – suffering is a man-made thing. We look around and see the suffering of others. Descriptions are many and contradictory, but in reality all is one, complete.

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Reality is simple – all at one – harmony is the eternal law, nothing compels you to suffer. It is only when you try to describe and explain that you find that it is beyond separation, beyond words. There is only the source, the route of all being, dark in itself yet making everything shine. Unperceived it causes perception. Unfelt it causes feeling. Unthinkable it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being. Like a screen in a cinema, it is the immovable background of motion which are but fleeting images playing on the screen of the mind. Once you are there, and know yourself… you are at home everywhere. Reflect back on your life for a moment… while your body, mind and the world around you has gone through many changes, the you that you are is just the same as it ever was.

ram <contact and further information>

Revised July ’16

The whole universe is geared together like an infinitely complex, unfailing mechanism; all in perfect harmony.  Eternal, uniform laws govern the whole, and by the law of eternal Karma all affects all in constant action and reaction… at one with the boundless river of life, flowing inexorably through time and space.

‘All action is driven by the laws of nature’ – B’Gita Ch: 13

Nature’s laws are incontrovertible, unchangeable and eternal.  We depend on it for our learning, understanding and growth.  Causal relationship helps us to see structure rather than separate unrelated events.

As a finely balanced clock with its parts, this infinite universe with galaxies, stars and planets down to the most microscopic elements, we are interdependent and at-one with everything – all governed by natural law.

By the forces of natural will, fire gives out heat, rivers flow to the ocean; the pull of desire, and repulsion by fear of mind and body is directed energy… from highest to lowest.  We are compelled by the will and flow of nature, ‘Nature’s Destiny’ to find the shortest route… to fulfilment, balance and harmony, all in perfect union.

‘It is only nature’s qualities that act.  He who understands that, and does not shun the qualities with indifference, attains divine nature and remains calm’. – B’Gita Ch: 14

There are no miracles independent of the laws of nature.  What may appear so is just ignorance.  We can debate or deny God or Gods, ground Zero, the primordial source of creation and its manifestations, the children of the Gods.  But the laws by which this moment is governed, in space and time and all it contains, is undeniable… it is the ‘Holy Ghost’ of the physical universe.

Without universal constants – predictabilities found through experimentation and discovery – the products of science, engineering and architecture would not be possible.

As for our actions… we cannot help but act according to our beliefs, the way we see our world, and the will for survival, pleasure and happiness.  The criminal acts because that is the way he sees his world, and acts by his will, his desire for survival.  He may be bound (punished) by society as a consequence; lessons to learn for protection of himself and others – just as wild animals are separated for the good of all.  No one to condemn or forgive… just cause, action and consequence.

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We unwittingly believe ourselves to be separate and individual, at the root and cause of our own destiny.  Our ‘ego mind’ talks to us constantly – ‘I did this’, ‘I did that’… but we are far from independent of the universe of cause and effect that flows through, and with us, in orchestral harmony.  Nor are we independent in our actions or intent.  In reality we are as one, at one with all, acting in consequential cause and effect.

Matter, life and spirit are bound together as one, a vast river flowing through time and space, vibrant in its nature, consistent in action and enduring in its being… ignorance of this fact does not change it.  In our ignorance we are innocent; in our actions we are part and one with nature’s great flow – however we may perceive it – not good… not bad.

So, what of ‘free-will’? For independence of will, our so called ‘free-will’, would require independence of being, with independent power.  As a river takes the shortest route to the ocean, its power granted to it by gravity, lay of the land and the natural forces of nature… and so it is are we.  No one can see and act beyond options found, choices understood.  Nature compels us to see and take the choice we understand.  You could say ‘yes, but we are conscious, we are free to choose’, but are we really free to choose the choice we make?

You might say ‘Ah, but we have independent thought and will, which gives us choice of direction.’  Is it really independent of ideas and thoughts that led up to it?  Our thoughts are also integral, inseparable, with all there is.  And how about the will to know and grow, fear and the will to defend… the will to find a better way? That is just the product of nature in action.

Yes we have will, but it is in no way free from circumstance that compelled it.  It cannot choose beyond that granted by nature, any more than a river can choose direction of flow, compelled by nature’s gravity and the lay of the land.  Our choices and preceding actions are simply Karma in action.  Yes, we appear to choose, but are we really free to choose the choice we make?  The way of this moment exists only because of everything that is before, within and without, in complete union.

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So, why are we so compelled to believe in free-will? – Our ego, all that we associate with our name and form, ideas, beliefs and expectations, is built on sensory desires and a perception of independence in a world of duality.  It is in our nature to want to grow, possess, and preserve the form in which we find ourselves.  Ideas of independent freedom is driven by personal desire and fear, which, in turn, is driven by memory and expectation – rarely true, and rarely fulfilled.

Our desire to be in control of our life and all it contains is quite natural – without it our survival would not last. We naturally feel compelled to want control over adversity and change… the fight to be in charge of our own destiny – the beginning and end of all our troubles.

 ‘A BELIEF IN FREE WILL touches nearly everything that human beings value.  It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions’.                   ~ Sam Harris

Much of our life is spent trying to be somewhere else.  However, by consciously willing to be here, now, and go with the flow a great burden is lifted with a feeling of great freedom.

We could have been much happier people ourselves, but for our self-interest, leading to indifference to the sufferings of others; for we share their suffering – it is as much ours as it is theirs.  The belief that we are the primary cause of our actions makes things personal, self-centred, and burdens the actor, not the act, with the weight of pride or guilt.  ‘I did this’ or ‘I did that’ is one of the last bastions of ego to fall before enlightenment can dawn.

Only by freedom from ideas of personal ownership, attachment and expectation can we know true freedom – freedom from ourselves, and our notion of possession and attachment.  To willingly go with the flow, along with the forces within and without.  What flows along with us is there for as long as is needed.  Clouds in the sky, corn in the fields, fish in the sea, they do not fight the wind or the flow of water; they join the dance in free and graceful motion with it.

Free of any idea of independence does not mean we would not act.  The natural will of mind, body and community compel us to act – options found, choices made compelled by nature.   “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…”

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Giving up the notion of free-will, far from limiting us, leads to a life of freedom and adventure.  All expectation is replaced by curiosity, adventure, discovery and learning.  As a play on a stage, all great stories are full of surprise and discovery.  If you could choose and know the outcome, how much fun is that?  It is not to say we cannot change, it is precisely how we do change – by natural curiosity, observation, trial and learning.  New and enlightened understanding leads to a natural change of intent and action… it is nature’s way for us to find a better way to peace and harmony.

We err without knowing and suffer without understanding.  Our only hope: to stop, to look, to understand and to get out of the entrapment of memory, attachment and expectation.  Our fixations contaminate imagination like a virus, generating desire, expectation and fear.

Only by the light of truth and understanding do we change our ways.  Mindful action – reflection and insight – brings understanding and enlightened action.

Just watch, discover and learn, in mindful attention, the direction of your actions driven by the power of will, will naturally change – a better course towards our natural destiny.  In ignorance it is our lot that we continue to repeat the errors of our ways, until mindfulness in action finds a better way. This was well elaborated in the film – ‘Groundhog Day’.

Visions and goals cease to be expectations, but simply a guiding light for alignment, direction and discovery.  Until we accept nature’s laws, and trust its reliability, our journey is full of error.  However, trial, error and discovery is the foundation of our growth.  To our limited minds, natures laws appear so complex that at the very best, expectation can only ever be within tolerable limits, otherwise no building would stand, or planes fly.  Such constructions were naturally full of error until sufficient lessons learned.  The same is true as we break through new boundaries in our understanding.

Free from the idea that we have independent choice we expect nothing but what is; blame no one for the outcome and let consequence be our guide.  Forgiveness is not required, of oneself or others, as there is no blame assigned, only cause and consequence.  It may be painful, but the burden of self-guilt is instantly lifted… it has nothing to attach itself to. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”

The mother lays fault with the act and not the child and loves him/her no less.  No personal judgement, but the search for meaning and understanding.  Through lack of understanding, the child may err with painful consequence.  That does not say the child is to be judged bad.  Badness does not belong to the child, but to the cause, action and consequence.  Imagine if that was the social norm?  Error is simply a voice to be heard and lessons to be learned.  Crime is seen as misguidance of mind or illness to be resolved.  Punishment is seen as a natural consequence; lessons to learn, and not some kind of personal damnation.  Solutions are found in a world of education, understanding of consequence or the vagaries of mind.

Free of the personal and its attachment, judgement and condemnation is replaced by tolerance, understanding and kindness.  In developing relationships a great kindness is to give each other the space to ‘screw up’ and learn from the experience.  Fear of ‘screwing up’ binds one to a life of expectation and misery.  Tolerance brings us closer together.  If the tolerance required is found to be beyond our nature to cope, then it may be time to learn from the lesson and move on… with love and understanding.

To know this; to willingly, consciously, go with the flow is enlightened action; each spark of life, at one with, and playing its part, in this great universal orchestra.

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When we become more enlightened to options and consequences, good and bad, greater goodness in our actions naturally follow.  Self-judgement is replaced by self-discovery and enlightenment.  The burden of guilt falls away and we are free to love without condition, share without expectation.  That does not say that you stay with unhealthy circumstances – you still separate yourself from it as best you can, as is natures will – for you and universal nature are at-one.

To follow the good takes great courage, and know that it is good for all.  By the light of understanding the courage follows to do what is right.  And what of courage?  …it is simply ‘the power and direction of the will that follows understanding.  And understanding?  Well, just watch, listen, and pay attention, along with the presence of wise counsel in good company.

The message for the enlightened coach and counsellor is that we are all fundamentally looking for happiness and peace of mind. We all inwardly know the way. With love, care and patient understanding, natural-will guided by mindful-insight will find its way.

Pay attention, learn, understand, and ‘Go-with-the-flow’, and a great burden is lifted.

ram <contact and further information>

Revised  July 2015

Disease, for the most part, is simple, and the remedy equally simple.

It is your mind that makes you insecure, unhappy and unwell.

Expectation and anticipation makes you insecure, memories and toxic thoughts make you unhappy and unwell.

When misuse of your mind stops, all will be well with you.

ram <contact and further information>