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Happiness is our true nature.
Yet of all our experiences stored in our history, we remember the painful ones the most. This is because pain is unnatural to us. This memory is in the ego, the false sense of I that is created by the mind.
The Self that is within, is always free and content, and illuminates our pain and also the cause of pain.
The purpose of life is to understand the distinction between our true Self that is eternal and the not-Self, the ego, that changes.
Peace comes not from doing, but from undoing; not from getting, but from letting go.
Swami Satchidananda
"The Self that is within, is always free and content...'' How TRUE! Thanks, cb
As you pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not find fault with anyone." Ramakrishna
(the teacher if Vivekananda!)
I recently finished reading "Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master" authored by Swami Saradananda (a direct disciple of Ramakrishna and peer to Vivekananda). Interesting book. I might have to go back and reread "Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works". Knowing more about Ramakrishna might provide new insights during a reread.
“Who sows must reap,” they say, “and cause must bring
The sure effect; good, good; bad, bad; and none
Escape the law. But whoso wears a form
Must wear the chain.” Too true, but far beyond
Both name and form is Atman, ever free.
Know thou art That, Sannyasin bold! Say—
“Om tat sat, Om!”
“When the “I”ness of the Ego subsides, the Self that dwells within as Existence, Awareness, Wholeness springs forth spontaneously in its place.”
Ramana’s Upadesa, Verse 20
Remaining changeless and as pure awareness, devoid of attributes, separate from cause and effect but because of which cause and effect happens, the Self illuminates both the seer (Ego) and the seen (object) in all three states of existence, and asserts itself as the I.
“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal,
but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”
Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine.
Everything in the future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.
Sri Yukteswar Giri
With his chisel, saw, hammer etc, that are his tools, the carpenter with his body, limbs, and faculties becomes one single unit to create a chair out of wood. The tools are useless without him, he cannot create without them.
Similarly with the unseen but manifested illumination of the Self within, such as vision, speech, etc the jiva, the sentient being, acts with his mind-body-complex and thus the world comes to be.
The Atma/Self within is the only source that powers everything, is in everything, and yet it does not act. It is pure existence and knowledge. The actions always belong to the jiva.
Vivekchoodamani. Verse 102
—— Expounded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
PS: What immediately struck me as i was studying this text was Jesus as a carpenter.
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More please.