Meetings With Ramana Maharshi – Inspirational

 

 

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 “Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.”  ~Ramana Maharshi
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After spending about twelve years in personal attendance on Bhagavan, I began to feel an urge to devote myself entirely to sadhana . However, I could not easily reconcile myself to giving up my personal service to Bhagavan. I had been debating the matter for some days when the answer came in a strange way.

As I entered the hall one day I heard Bhagavan explaining to others who were there that real service to him did not mean attending to his physical needs but following the essence of his teaching: that is concentrating on realizing the Self. Needless to say, that automatically cleared my doubts.

I therefore gave up my Ashrama duties, but I then found it hard to decide how, in fact, I should spend the entire day in search of Realization. I referred the matter to Bhagavan and he advised me to make Self-enquiry my final aim but to practise Self-enquiry, meditation, japa and recitation of scripture turn by turn, changing over from one to another as and when I found the one I was doing irksome or difficult. In course of time, he said, the sadhana would become stabilized in Self-enquiry or pure Consciousness or Realization.

Before recommending any path to an aspirant Bhagavan would first find out from him what aspect or form or path he was naturally drawn to and then recommend the person to follow it. He would sometimes endorse the traditional stages of sadhana , advancing from worship ( puja ) to incantation ( japa), then to meditation
( dhyana ), and finally to Self-enquiry ( vichara ). However, he also use to say that continuous and rigorous practice of any one of these methods was adequate in itself to lead to Realization.

– Kunju Swami
“As I Saw Him”

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“I” Or “Me” Or “Mine” – Spirituality

Source Beauty Of the Arts

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The undisciplined mind is like an elephant so I  have suggested that, if we are to be genuinely happy, inner restraint is indispensable. We cannot stop at restraint, however. Though it may prevent us from performing any grossly negative misdeeds, mere restraint is insufficient if we are to attain that happiness which is characterized by inner peace.” ~ Dalai Lama quotation from Ancient Wisdom, Modern World

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I am not ashamed of my very human responses to the painful and difficult things of life. I get angry, hurt, and despondent just like anyone. I do things that greatly embarrass me at times. I have plenty of shadow stuff to work on, just like anyone. But I have learned that *whatever* arises in my thought, and heart, is something that needs my attention, something that I need to look into, with curiosity, compassion, and loving-kindness.

It doesn’t really help to think, “I shouldn’t be thinking such thoughts or having such feelings.” It’s too late. You already did! These feelings or thoughts, which arise due to causes and conditions, we identify as “I” or “me’ or “mine.” And it does not help to deny it or to suppress the arising. Yes, sure, it’s a red flag, maybe even a neon sign flashing for immediate attention! The arising thought or feeling may point to some serious stuff. Our moral sense of the wrongness of something is *essential* to a healthy being. Never try to suppress or ignore your moral nigglings and alarms! But the first step to freedom is being honest enough with ourselves to admit the “truth” of what has shown up for our attention. And the “truth,” in this sense, is simply *what is* — yes, I am feeling this, yes, I felt that, yes, I am thinking this, yes, I thought that, yes I am doing this, yes, I did that. Just the facts, ma’am!

I find that genuine regret and remorse only arise when I am unmindful of some painful arising of feeling as “I” or “me” or “mine” and don’t give it what Buddhism calls “appropriate attention.” Some thoughts and feelings can be looked into and quickly dismissed; others may require deep self-investigation and courageous path-finding. If you really listen to your heart, you will know what to do.

But don’t ever be ashamed of being human and for having your human feelings. You can’t control the thoughts and feeling that arise as “I” or “me” or mine.” They come unbidden, whether we want them or not. And they tell us all about ourselves, sometimes more than we want, or even sometimes can bear. That’s OK! The good news is that what we can always own, and should own, is our *response* to what arises as “I” or “me” or “mine.” Let that response be mindful, attentive, curious, wise, patient, and compassionate.

Sometimes, we may think we are our own worst enemy, and I suppose in a certain sense that’s true, in that we cannot escape the effects of our own unskillful, selfish, ignorant thoughts and actions. But we are also our own very best friend, for everything we think and do tells us something about us we need to understand and know. If we will only get to know ourselves and investigate ourselves, we will indeed find we are our own very best friend. As we learn this, we become, as the Buddha once said, lamps unto ourselves, and the light in our hearts will take us all the way home.

Eve in Collusion with Steven G.

Say I Am You – Inspirational Quotations and Poem

threading flowers for garlands, she is lost in contemplation

 

Here is the second in the photography series, Say I am you.  I don’t know how many of you read Rumi, I find his poems irresistible and this one in particular.   Rumi’s poems elegantly and consistently touch our inner being and inspire us to go beyond our limitations towards the Divine.  He is expressing once more in this  poem how he is in everything, and everything is in him. He ends with these few words,  “Jelaluddin, You the one in all, say who I am. Say I am You.”

 

The Hari Krishna ladies, Bangalore

 

 

the street vender – I wonder what she is thinking?

SAY I AM YOU

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

 

Getting Ready for xmas-Bangalore

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering

in metal. Both candle,
and the moth crazy around it.

Rose, and the nightingale
lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,

and the falling away. What is,
and what isn’t. You who know

 

little boy in Andra Pradesh village. He is stepping into his home, away from me and the camera –

Jelaluddin, You the one
in all, say who

I am. Say I
am You.

 

~rumi

 

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The poem “I am You” to soothing but apt music. Heavenly!

 

The photographs here are from my Indian Collection.  

Visits 2012 and 2013. thank you!

 

 

Who Says Who I Am? ~ I Am You! – Portraiture From Depy Spyratos

THE FACES I SO LOVE TO PHOTOGRAPH IN PUSHKAR – 2013

I look so much forward to this one week in Pushkar during the Camel Fair. Waking up early and leaving the hotel room before 7am so as to mingle with the colourful pilgrims arriving in town fills me with excitement and anticipation similar to the feelings when going out for an early morning safari drive in Africa. What will the photo session bring, what new, amazing images ? I think that being a woman photographer helps me a lot. The women open up to me and and, as I mingle with them, they, too, sense my excitement and give me their best smile and acceptance .. the men are happy to be photographed by a woman!! I NEVER give money for a photo as I believe that then the ‘natural’ look is gone and the money exchange destroys everything. Instead, I try to give out as many prints as I can…last time, I printed over 200 photos and distributed them to as many of my models as I could!!

Depy – Nov. 2013

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Depy has kindly allowed me to post a few of her wonderful portrait photos from this year’s collection.. I have known Depy for many years, we are old Sai devotees from long ago. We share a common interest in photography and spiritual pursuits.

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SAY I AM YOU

I am dust particles in sunlight.     
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering

in metal. Both candle,
and the moth crazy around it.

Rose, and the nightingale
lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,

and the falling away. What is,
and what isn’t. You who know

Jelaluddin, You the one
in all, say who

I am. Say I
am You.

~Rumi

Sole ownership of photos – Depy Spyratos.