All tragedy of life, all misery and inharmony are caused by one thing and that is lack of understanding. Lack of understanding comes from lack of penetration. The one who does not see from the point of view from which he ought to see becomes disappointed because he cannot understand.
It is not for the outer world to help us to understand life better; it is we ourselves who should help ourselves to understand it better.
- from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIV/XIV_19.htm
The one Spirit of life is given different names, the sacred names. We more easily recognize the [Spirit of life] by the particular name to which we are accustomed. So far we are right, but the mistake we make, and it is to our loss, is to ignore or deny the same truth because it is given to us in another form and under another name. We limit it. We say the truth existed only in that period when certain teachers came to the world, and that after that it
stopped. But the spirit of illumination can never stop as long as life goes on. Illumination has continued from the beginning, and will always continue until the manifestation ends; so long will the spirit of illumination continue to spread out its rays.
We accept some forms and ignore others. It is the natural tendency of mankind. It is this that accounts for so many religions. Even if a person cannot see things in this light, he can at least be tolerant of other people’s religions. He can respect the religion because he sees others respect it, even if he himself has no respect for its teacher. After all, spirituality means respect, advancement. Man shows his evolution according to his respect, his consideration, his thoughtfulness. If we could only develop that faculty in our mind, it would not matter not believing or recognizing the Spirit of Guidance shown in different human forms. If we held our own teacher or master in the greatest esteem it would do a great deal of spiritual good. The disharmony of the world is usually caused by religious differences, as were the wars of ancient times. The differences are caused by men failing to understand that religion is one, truth is one, God is one. How can there be two religions?
from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_32.htm
So, your religion, your belief in God, is an escape from actuality, and therefore it is no religion at all. The rich man who accumulates money through cruelty, through dishonesty, through cunning exploitation believes in God; and you also believe in God, you also are cunning, cruel, suspicious, envious. Is God to be found through dishonesty, through deceit, through cunning tricks of the mind? Because you collect all the sacred books and the various symbols of God, does that indicate that you are a religious person? So, religion is not escape from the fact; religion is the understanding of the fact of what you are in your everyday relationships; religion is the manner of your speech, the way you talk, the way you address your servants, the way you treat your wife, your children, and neighbors. As long as you do not understand your relationship with your neighbor, with society, with your wife and children, there must be confusion; and whatever it does, the mind that is confused will only create more confusion, more problems and conflict. A mind that escapes from the actual, from the facts of relationship, shall never find God; a mind that is agitated by belief shall not know truth. But the mind that understands its relationship with property, with people, with ideas, the mind which no longer struggles with the problems which relationship creates, and for which the solution is not withdrawal but the understanding of love such a mind alone can understand reality. – J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
When one realizes the ultimate truth, one comes to understand that one single underlying current to which all the different
religions, philosophies and faiths are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same truth, and it is the absence of that knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many different sects and religions.
In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind men were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind man one day took them to see one. There, standing by its side, he said, “Now, here is the elephant, see what you can make of it.” Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its appearance. One said, “It looks like the big pillar of a palace,” another said, “It looks like a fan.” And so they differed and discussed amongst one another, then they quarreled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said, “I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it.” Then the man who took
them to the elephant came and said, “You are every one of you right, but you have each seen only a part of the elephant.”
So it is with the religions. A person says, “This religion is the one, this doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible.” That shows a lack of knowledge of the ultimate truth. As soon as one comes to the realization of the depth of truth, one begins to discern that it is the same truth which the great ones have tried to express in words.
They could not put it fully into words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.
- “Supplementary Papers, Philosophy V”, by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)
Meditate on the Lord, the inner ruler, the indweller of your heart. The lotus of your heart will blossom; the sun of wisdom will shine. The darkness of the heart will end. The five klesas (psychic sources of sorrow) will be annihilated. The three fires (internal, external and supernatural suffering) will be extinguished. Sins and samskaras (mental impressions) will be burnt. Vasanas (tendencies) and cravings will be fried.
Meditate on the eternal which is free from pain, from disease, from fear and delusion, which is all-filling, pure, far yet near, the birth place of the five elements, the final goal of yogins and sages, the source of mind, senses and vedas, the place where silence reigns supreme, where there is immortal bliss beyond thought, the supreme, glorious splendour where thought is dead, where there is neither noise nor fight.
Purity, humility and mercy are the rungs of the ladder to the supreme abode of my beloved. You may burn the ladder now – I will not come down any more. Rivers of honey run in this wonderful land and flowers do not fade at any time – I swim daily in the ocean of eternity. I drink the immortal nectar. Hunger and thirst torment me not. Exhaustion and fatigue trouble me not. There is no need of lamps and electric light – there is eternal sunshine. There is no fear of snakes and scorpions – this deathless realm makes everyone fearless.
When you have realised oneness, when you behold Brahman everywhere, can there be `here’ and `there’? Can there be `this’ and `that’? Can there be `I’ and `you’ and `he’? Can there be one, two or three? One homogeneous, blissful essence alone exists. There is only one Brahman – the infinite. All dualities, differences and distinctions melt away. The seer and the seen become one. The meditator and the meditated fuse. The thinker and the thought blend. The knower and the knowable merge. It is the transcendental experience of wholeness, perfection, fullness, freedom and perennial joy.
Meditate on courage, humility, love, compassion, peace, bliss, serenity. First practise concentration on an object. Then concentrate on the idea of the object. Finally concentrate on the existence behind the idea. Meditate on completeness and spiritual perfection. To meditate is to go into oneself and open the heart, in silence, to the divine spirit. Meditate on the Atman. You will see the light of truth, you will understand the oneness of all life.
- Swami Sivananda
All religious fanaticism and fights will vanish, as soon as you grasp the Reality. Faith in God is based on genuine experience. Once we accept this, introspection starts and one is able to measure how far one has journeyed towards the goal or away from it. One will then realize that one is groping in the dark and dragging others into darkness as well. Only then will men give up
factional hatred in the name of religious war on those professing different faiths. Those who revel in religious wars should be asked, “Have you seen God? Have you become aware of the Divine Atma? If not, what authority do you have to decry or deny this name of God? Are you, struggling in the darkness, attempting to draw me too into that darkness? Can a blind man lead another blind man along the road? That is an impossible task. Therefore, understand your Truth before you defame or deny mine.”
- Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Thought for the day as written at Prasanthi Nilayam : 4th March 2011
Sannyas to me is not a serious thing. In fact it is just the opposite: it is a jump into non-seriousness. Seriously you have lived for many lives. What you have gained? The whole world teaches you to be serious, to do your duty, to be moral, to be this and that. I teach you fun; I teach you being festive. I teach you nothing but celebration. Just remember only one thing: your celebration should not be harmful to anybody else, that’s all.
But the ego is the problem. If you take life as fun, and you celebrate it like a feast, then your ego will disappear. The ego can exist only when you are serious. childlike, then the ego disappears. So you have a haughty look, you walk uptight; you are doing something very serious nobody else is doing: you are trying to help the whole world and reform. You take on your shoulders the burden of the whole world. Everybody is immoral; only you are moral. And everybody is committing sin; only you are virtuous. Then the ego feels very good.
In a celebrating mood, ego cannot exist. If celebration becomes your very climate of being, ego will disappear. How can you maintain your ego laughing, dancing, enjoying? — it is difficult. You can maintain your ego when you are doing Sirasaasana, standing on your head, or doing difficult, foolish postures. Then you can maintain the ego: you are a great yogi! Or sitting in a temple or in the church with all other dead bodies around you, you can feel very, very big, great, super.
Remember, my sannyas is not for this type of people, but they come. Nothing is wrong in coming. Either they will change, or they will have to leave. You don’t be worried about them. I assure you that I am not serious.
I am sincere, but not serious, and sincerity is a totally different quality. Seriousness is the disease of the ego, and sincerity is a quality of the heart. To be sincere means to be true, not serious. To be sincere means to be authentic. Whatsoever you are doing, you are doing full of your heart. Whatsoever you are doing, you are doing it not as a duty but as your love. Sannyas is not a duty, it is your love. If you take the jump, you take out of your love, out of your authenticity. You will be sincere to it, but not serious. Seriousness is sad, sincerity is ok. A sincere person is always happy. Only a false person becomes sad, because he gets into a mess. If you are false, each falsehood will lead you into another falsehood. If you depend on lies, you will have to depend on more lies. By and by, a crowd of lies is around you. You are suffocated with your own false faces: then you become sad. Then life looks like a mess. Then you cannot enjoy it because you have destroyed the whole beauty of it. Except your false mind, nothing is ugly in the existence; everything is beautiful.
Be sincere, be authentic and true, and whatsoever you do, do it out of love. Otherwise, don’t do it. If you want to be a sannyasin, be out of love. Otherwise, don’t take the jump — wait, let the right moment come. But don’t get serious about it. It is nothing; it is nothing like seriousness. To me, seriousness is a disease, a disease of the mediocre mind who has failed in life. And he has failed because he is mediocre. Sannyas should be the culmination of your maturity: of failures, successes, everything that you have seen and lived and you have grown through it. Now you understand more, and when you understand more you can enjoy more.
Osho