It took me a while to finish reading this. The first chapter is very exciting, and the book slows down considerably after that. Still, i read it. E. T. straddles Christianity and Buddhism without really belonging in either, and this book will be interesting to Christians interested in delving a little into Buddhist thinking about pain, and attaining enlightenment by surrender.
Quotes:
“Mumbo jumbo” was all that Time magazine could see in a book that countless people around the globe found life-changing.
I have little use for the past and rarely think about it;
A time came when, for a while, I was left with nothing on the physical plane. I had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.
I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.
Let me ask you this: can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the “off” button?
This is the essence of meditation. In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally present.
When you do use your mind, and particularly when a creative solution is needed, you oscillate every few minutes or so between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought.
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.
So don’t seek to become free of desire or “achieve” enlightenment. Become present. Be there as the observer of the mind. Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be “the awakened one,” which is what the word buddha means.
Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation.
You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection — you cannot cope with the future.
Watch out for any kind of defensiveness within yourself. What are you defending? An illusory identity, an image in your mind, a fictitious entity.
Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.
The problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level of the mind.
Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion.
You haven’t yet grasped the essence of what I am saying because you are trying to understand it mentally. The mind cannot understand this. Only you can. Please just listen.
Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your doing just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures, such as sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining, or alternatively chasing some new thrill or pleasure? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled, good enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or woman to give meaning to your life?
I cannot believe that I could ever reach a point where I am completely free of my problems. You are right. You can never reach that point because you are at that point now.
When you are full of problems, there is no room for anything new to enter, no room for a solution. So whenever you can, make some room, create some space, so that you find the life underneath your life situation.
Wherever you are, be there totally.
Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.
If you take any action — leaving or changing your situation — drop the negativity first, if at all possible. Action arising out of insight into what is required is more effective than action arising out of negativity.
Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present.
If there is no joy, ease, or lightness in what you are doing, it does not necessarily mean that you need to change what you are doing. It may be sufficient to change the how. “How” is always more important than “what.”
Something could happen at any moment, and if you are not absolutely awake, absolutely still, you will miss it. This is the kind of waiting Jesus talks about.
Of course there is something wrong with you — and you are not being judged. I don’t mean to offend you personally, but do you not belong to the human race that killed over one hundred million members of its own species in the twentieth century alone?
But that is only the beginning of an inward journey that will take you ever more deeply into a realm of great stillness and peace, yet also of great power and vibrant life. At first, you may only get fleeting glimpses of it, but through them you will begin to realize that you are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between birth and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be conceived or spoken of
The fact is that no one has ever become enlightened through denying or fighting the body or through an out-of-body experience.
Chi is movement; the Unmanifested is stillness.
Now let your spiritual practice be this: As you go about your life, don’t give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your mind. Keep some within.
Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word.
it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence.
“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
Only when sound appears does silence come into being.
So whenever your relationship is not working, whenever it brings out the “madness” in you and in your partner, be glad. What was unconscious is being brought up to the light. It is an opportunity for salvation.
Every moment, hold the knowing of that moment, particularly of your inner state. If there is anger, know that there is anger. If there is jealousy, defensiveness, the urge to argue, the need to be right, an inner child demanding love and attention, or emotional pain of any kind — whatever it is, know the reality of that moment and hold the knowing. The relationship then becomes your sadhana, your spiritual practice.
It is not easy to live with an enlightened person, or rather it is so easy that the ego finds it extremely threatening.
This is not being negative. It is simply recognizing the nature of things, so that you don’t pursue an illusion for the rest of your life.
Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being.
Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of God.
Full attention is full acceptance, is surrender.
The acceptance of suffering is a journey into death. Facing deep pain, allowing it to be, taking your attention into it, is to enter death consciously. When you have died this death, you realize that there is no death — and there is nothing to fear. Only the ego dies.
How will I know when I have surrendered? When you no longer need to ask the question.
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