Nothing written here is original. Often there’s a response
to words read. If it was possible to see the writing behind the wall, this is
what would be revealed:
Nisargadatta Maharaj:
These [qualifications and
opportunities] will come with earnestness. What is supremely important is to be
free from contradictions: the goal and the way must not be on different levels;
life and light must not quarrel; behavior must not betray belief. Call it
honesty, integrity, wholeness; you must not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the
conquered ground. Tenacity of purpose and honesty in pursuit will bring you to
your goal.
Stephen Levine on Miao Shan (Kuan Yin):
She found her heart in the first
breath upon waking...
And she found that noting the intentions
at the beginning and end of each breath kept her even more focused on her
purpose. And, most wonderfully, this recognition of intention, a choice, before
action purified her actions and seemed to clear much of what many refer to as
karma (which she defined as simply “momentum”).
Able to enter her original heart,
she was getting the teaching from every nook and cranny.
Bodhidharma (Tanlin) (tr- John McRae):
The entrance of principle is to
become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a
profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed of
all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature
is only covered up and made imperceptible by false sense impressions.
If one discards the false and takes
refuge in the True, one resides frozen in "wall contemplation", in
which self and other, ordinary person and sage, are one and the same; one
resides fixedly without wavering, never again to be swayed by written teachings.
To be thus mysteriously identified with the True Principle, to be without
discrimination, serene and inactive: This is called the entrance of principle.
P. D. Ouspensky:
I was once walking along the
Liteiny towards the Nevsky, and in spite of all my efforts I was unable to keep
my attention on self-remembering. The noise, movement, everything distracted
me. Every minute I lost the thread of attention, found it again, and then lost
it again. At last I felt a kind of ridiculous irritation with myself and I
turned into the street on the left having firmly decided to keep my attention
on the fact that I would remember myself at least for some time, at any rate
until I reached the following street. I reached the Nadejdinskaya without
losing the thread of attention except, perhaps, for short moments. Then I again
turned towards the Nevsky realizing that, in quiet streets, it was easier for
me not to lose the line of thought and wishing therefore to test myself in more
noisy streets. I reached the Nevsky still remembering myself, and was already
beginning to experience the strange emotional state of inner peace and
confidence which comes after great efforts of this kind. Just around the corner
on the Nevsky was a tobacconist’s shop where they made my cigarettes. Still
remembering myself I thought I would call there and order some cigarettes.
Two hours later I woke up in the
Tavricheskaya, that is, far away. I was going by ivostchik to the printers. The
sensation of awakening was extraordinarily vivid. I can almost say that I came
to. I remembered everything at once. How I had been walking along the
Nadejdinskaya, how I had been remembering myself, how I had thought about
cigarettes, and how at this thought I seemed to fall and disappear into a deep
sleep. At the same time, while immersed in this sleep, I had continued to
perform consistent and expedient actions. I left the tobacconist, called at my
flat in the Liteiny, telephoned to the printers. I wrote two letters. Then
again I went out of the house . . . And on the way while driving along the
Tavricheskaya I began to feel a strange uneasiness, as though I had forgotten
something. And I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to remember myself.
These would be endless, but I stop here, to begin at the
beginning again.
The concept of a spiritual warrior is a pervasive one in the
literature. It can be a dangerous one as well. One’s identification with thought
is divisional in essence. Thought in essence separates and categorizes. War is
its nature.
When closely investigated, its seen in everything people do,
although it’s covered up and hidden in daily self-deceptions. It’s a god eat
god world. It's every thought for themselves. If you don't look out for your
self, surely some concept will.
It’s important to see this is not a pointed attack on
warriors in the military; they are merely people made plainest. Every person is
a warrior, fighting for their security at work, at play, and even in
relationships. It’s such a part of the personal daily existence, it’s not even
recognized as anything untoward. Thoreau called this silent acceptance of the
world “quiet desperation.” What else can a person do but takes things
personally?
