The Torn Page

Student Question:  Can an egoless self survive the rat race?

Student Question:  I am curious to know how you would bridge hysteria with post-traumatic stress and could you explain how the two relate?

Student Question:  I have something I would like some clarity on.  Thursdays are difficult for me in the sense that I feel pulled in two opposite directions.  First we have a study group class that is very focused on theory and analysis and going into the ego and trying to understand our mind and then the meditation where we are told you are not the ego?

Student Question:  Lately in meditation and especially in group meditations I have been experiencing a lot of pressure in my head and especially in between my eyes.  I have heard that it may have a connection with the opening of the third eye?  I was wondering if you expand a little a bit upon that?

Student Question:  I wonder if spiritual teachings evolve with time or if they are just different translations of the same thing?

Excerpt:  "If we can radically let go of the need for the others approval or gaze or touch or their desire - If we can radically detach from our own self-image based on the body or based on the mind - Based on achievements and prestige or social status - If we can let go of all of that, then the real search can finally get under way…  Because those are the anchors that moor us in the physical plane where we cannot find the self…  They moor us in attachments to biological family and we cannot find the spiritual parents that live in the depth dimension…  But the light from that source - from the energy within - from the supreme self - Is always there guiding us and as we begin to disidentify from the physical form and the sensual realm and its pleasures and pains that follow quickly one upon the other…  To realize some, more enduring peace and joy…  And we recognize that the mind itself with all of it thoughts is another form of alienation from our being.  It’s an attempt to grasp the self, that can never be the self, that can only at best point to the self, and so then the process of self-inquiry enters the phase were it goes beyond the mind…  It enters the phase of being the silent witness of the mind…  And it begins to see the patterns of the mind and the traps that the mind plays and all of its illusions; images of a happiness that are a mirage…."  Recorded on the evening of Thursday, February 09, 2012.

Excerpt:  "The unsurpassed sage Sri Ramana Maharshi has revealed that self-realization is actually a myth…  Who is there to realize the self?  The self is all that is…  Has the self ever been unrealized?   So self-realization doesn’t actually happen….  Take for example that if you have mold on your walls in your home you would probably want to scrub it off… well the ego is kind of like a mold isn’t it?  Growing on the surface of the self…  And so people scrub it off and then what is left is pure awareness… But to that awareness is there ever a wall?  Was there ever a surface?  That’s an illusion only ever held by the illusory mold itself which was never real….  So there are no things; things are an illusion of a mind that objectifies with concepts… Take away the concepts.   No objects - no world - no self… but pure bliss - pure grace - pure awareness – pure supreme power and self-knowledge… but all experienced by the one without a second…"  Recorded on the evening of Thursday, February 02, 2012.

Student Question:  Can one be in peace without believing in God?

Excerpt:  "Within each of us is the deathless spirit.  The eternal self, that lies within and yet beyond, transcending the ego mind and this phenomenal world, and yet it is the very essence and core and center of our being.  The purpose of all spiritual practices is to attain the realization of the deathless spirit.  This alone confers eternal life, freedom from suffering, from illusion, from karma, and offers the direct union with the Supreme Being….  The most direct way to achieve the realization of the eternal Atman, which is the Holy Spirit, is simply to silence the chatter of the ego mind and hold your attention at the root of the ‘I’ thought.  Not the ‘I’ thought itself, but the root which you feel as the urge to think with the word ‘I’….  Once you fall into thought you have moved from the realm of being into the realm of representation and you become alienated from spirit.  First into soul and then into ego….  Remember that this world is only a dream in the mind of God.  What is real is the Supreme Being.  Don’t let yourself remain locked in lower states of false consciousness, but go directly to the source.  This can be achieved easily if you do not let yourself to be deceived by negative thoughts.  Hold to the silence and the higher you go the more the divine energy will pull you up and there will be no struggle at all.  It will happen automatically as if your mind has become an anti-gravity apparatus, which it is because the mind is light.  Let the light take you up into the highest bliss…."  Recorded on the evening of Thursday, January 26, 2012.

Excerpt: "What we learn from Yoga and the science of the extraction of the ultimate essence is that all growth is about the extraction of that which is pure and meaningful from that which is impure and to be rejected.… It is to be extracted from our own consciousness. That is the only way we will ever know God – by extracting out the pure God-presence out of our grosser, impure consciousness. This is what we do in meditation. It’s an extraction process….it is a skill and an art that must be taught, and has been taught, through every culture until our most recent one…. there are really five stages of this process of extraction…" Recorded on the evening of Thursday, January 19, 2012.