And how does Easter relate to Nonduality?
Listen to the words of one of Advaita Vedanta’s realized masters, Sri Ramana Maharshi. When asked what the significance of the Crucifixion is, he answered: “The body is the cross. Jesus, the son of man is the ego or I-am-the-body idea. When the son of man is crucified on the cross, the ego perishes, and what survives is the Absolute Being. It is the resurrection of the Glorious Self, of the Christ – the Son of God.”

Easter and Nonduality Both Can Seek Hope from the Cross!

From the Christian perspective, Jesus, through His death on the cross and coming back to life, has given us the hope, and indeed the proof of eternal life. He has conquered the mighty reigns that death holds over us.
No, you and I don’t have to suffer the tortures and crucifixion like Jesus did. It suffices to realize that our bodies, with their lifecycles of birth and death, are only a shadow of our true self. It is only in the light of the Absolute that you and I are conscious and able to navigate the vast ocean of consciousness. Apperceiving that there is a source that the light of awareness is coming from is the ultimate realization – Enlightenment or Liberation. What Christians would call salvation, students of Nonduality will call Enlightenment; a difference of concepts only.

God, consciousness, the Self, whatever name you prefer, is our only capital. Use it with an open heart and mind and you’ll free yourself from the debilitating body “entity-fication” with its sufferings and fears. For you to know that your body is only a shadow of the Self, your own “personal” resurrection is needed. You don’t need the cross to obliterate your ego.
All you need is earnestness and spiritual maturity… and God’s grace.
Then, no matter what your “way of the Cross” will be, you’ll end up where Jesus Christ did – in Oneness with God!

Why is it so difficult if not impossible? Oh, it really is obvious to those who are well past the point where you are now, dear questioner. Put simply, the ideas and motivations behind the family life are contradictory to the tenants of the non-duality that attempts to portray Truth.
For now, if for no other reason, but for the sake of “economizing” your spiritual work, the answer needs to be presented to you right here and now.
Then, you’ll “decide” where do you fit better; in a family life or as an earnest spiritual seeker, with a single “mind” serving a sole life purpose, and knowing only “I”.
For the true Sadhaka knows no others – unicity prevails always!

Approached from the non-dual perspective, the world we live in is nothing but a passing show. We – you and I and others are no more than “food bodies” each stamped with the sense of “I am”. Or, in more general terms, toys and props belonging to and made of the consciousness, Universal Consciousness. But, all the great majority of humans know is their purportedly unique share of the world (called in spirituality, the personal consciousness). The world they perceive and their role in it are both so “real” that they obscure the Unmanifested Reality, where our common seed of Beingness lies.

Such a false view of reality produces the whole spectacle of human existence, with its dramas, emotions, tribulations, etc. One of the most common feelings is that of love. And whilst for the advanced student of spirituality love is superseded by the sense of unity with God, for the rest love has many meanings. Even if we ignore the most trivial ones (such as those related to the carnal acts), there will be plenty left for love to remain the cornerstone of the family life… that most of humans desire to have, one day. However, a deeper insight into the real function and meaning of love will reveal how deluded are those who build their earthly reality on its foundations.

See for yourself:
1. Girl loves boy, and vice-versa: they merely like each other’s company; mainly, because they can “shine” and feel appreciated.
2. “Making love” is arguably one of the most common misnomers. Everybody knows that love is felt not made. Yet, the common perception is that somehow, by engaging in the series of squizzes, wriggling, pushing, thrusting, rubbings and a whole lot more of mainly friction-centered physical activities, an outflow of love will take place.
No, it won’t, unless you equate the orgasm and ejaculation with love; perhaps, in a liquid form…
3. When the boy meets the girl, they marry and a family is started. And why would they do that? Because they love each other? No, because they have joined forces in order to increase their individual securities. They know by then, that it is much easier to survive, let alone prosper in the world as a couple. And of course, having a common bed means being able to engage in those “friction producing” amorous activities at will, or so it then seems…
4. After staring a family, the next is to have children. Why? Because they will be the “visible fruit of our love”. Really? In the more prosperous families, children are often treated as nothing more than glorified pets, and equally neglected. Amongst the poor, children are either the unwanted result of “making love” or a source of cheap labor, and a support in the old age.

Isn’t it obvious by now that family, love and all those warm names and feelings are nothing more than a way to play out one’s role in the spectacle we call a life?
There’s nothing honorable and godly in starting a family and having children, despite of what your ego is telling you.
There’s nothing spiritual in feeling love toward others, if you don’t love yourself. For in loving the Self that you verily are, you love All, for It is indeed your Family. This is one and only love that true spirituality knows. The rest is illusion.

Known by various names: the self of all, one sole being, chit, sattva, the sense of “I Am” and finally God. Although the last synonym is only partially valid, and depends on one’s understanding of the term: God. For when seen as the ultimate power, the Supreme, and without all those anthropomorphic attributes given to Him by the so-called highly evolved civilisations, God is the Absolute – well outside and beyond consciousness.
Because we, human, cannot “see” the consciousness, it doesn’t mean that it is unreal. In fact, it is the material, the builder and the assembly technique of our world. Put simply: from the human perspective, consciousness is real; to itself, consciousness is real. In Reality, consciousness is nothing but illusion, and to realize this is the ultimate “achievement” for any human being.

When you know the consciousness, you will use it as a thorn, to remove a thorn… that of the consciousness.
There is no other way – all you have at your disposal as spiritual practitioner is the consciousness. In fact, your body and mind are nothing but the consciousness. The trouble starts with your sense of “I Am” developing, and embracing your body and mind as your true identity.
A person, an individual being, is created once the concepts of the society, beginning from your mother’s finger pointing to your body and saying your name, start to stain your pure consciousness.
From then on, step by step, year by year, you isolate yourself from the universal consciousness. More precisely, societal illusions result in the process of isolation of a part of the consciousness, and believing it is you.

And now, the real trouble begins – happiness interwoven with sadness, pleasure with pain. By isolating itself from the consciousness, and assuming the care of your body, you suddenly have to fight for its survival, against infinite numbers of “individual beings” be it humans, animals, etc.
You begin to see your living as a constant battle and death as the ultimate end. Said Nisargadatta Maharaj: “It is only when it is understood with the greatest conviction that there is no entity, and what is happening is merely the program of the functioning of consciousness – there is merely the functioning, there is no entity who is causing it and there is no entity who is suffering – only then can the disidentification take place.”
The reality is totally different. As long as you are alive, you are and will be an integral part of the universal consciousness. You are not living a life. It is the consciousness with its infinite movements and dynamics that defines your existence. You or more specifically, your awareness (a form of consciousness) needs to understand that and move from the position of a doer to the position of a witness.

Life goes on without you playing any part in it. And whilst the whole process of your upbringing was successful in convincing that infinitesimally small part of consciousness that now you call yourself, that it is you who acts and reacts, it is the consciousness that does it all.
The real “You” knows that, and see the false. This You, which is nothing else but the highest form of consciousness, just at the (imaginary) juncture with the Absolute, is pure awareness. This is what you were when you have appeared in the field of consciousness, and this is your ultimate goal – an entry point to the Absolute.
Once awakened, this awareness will not let you rest till you remove “a thorn with a thorn” – till you remove the last remnants of your individual consciousness with the help of consciousness/awareness.
This is the whole reason behind true spirituality!

Finally, when awareness is your consciousness, you will realize that even this is unreal. You will apperceive your stand as being beyond even the most pure form of consciousness. These Nisargadatta Maharaj’s words will sound true: “I have come to the conclusion that consciousness and whatever appears in consciousness is nothing but a gigantic fraud. There is no one who has committed this fraud – it is a spontaneous happening. There is no perpetrator of this fraud.”
Don’t despair, for the arduous path to the discovery of your true self is only as long as you make it. Start and end within yourself, now!
Helpful tip: Your understanding of the consciousness will be greatly assisted by listening to Stephen Wolinsky’s talks about consciousness.
Listen in particular to: 6. A Gita for Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Part 1) and 7. A Gita for Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Part 2).
Do not ignore consciousness! While you are conscious, it is the only hope you have…

Although the concepts of renouncement and relinquishment exist in many religions, it appears that Hinduism set out the best definitions and practice standards.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna describes Sannyasa (the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of asramas) as follows:
“The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great learned men call the renounced order of life [Sannyasa]. And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation [Tyaga].” (18.2)[3]
According to Sanskrit and Indic scholar Barbara Stoler Miller, chapter 18, verse 2 translates as follows:
“Giving up actions based on desire, the poets know as renunciation; relinquishing all fruit of action, learned men call relinquishment.”

Whilst no being in the flesh can give up all actions, their fruits can be relinquished.
In Hinduism, Sannyasa is to give up the actions which fulfil your desires; Tyaga is to give up the fruit of your action.
For example: purifying actions like yagnya, austerity and charity should not be given up; but attachment to them and to the fruit thereof should be given up.
Put simply, to renounce means to give up all desire-based action; to relinquish means having an action (without being attached to it) but giving away its fruits, juices, etc.
It becomes quite clear by now that relinquishment is more difficult to practice than renunciation.
Why? Because in the former the fruits of your labor are right in front of you, ready to be consumed, and you have to say No! no matter how tempting and deserved they are.
Not surprisingly Stoler Miller concluded: “Disciplined action and relinquishment are spiritually more effective than renunciation.”

How to practice relinquishment, when it appears to be such a challenging idea? Relax, when it comes into your field of spiritual vision, you will be ready to embrace it, rather than run away from it.
It will be at the stage when you want to live true spirituality, rather than learn it. Whilst every spiritual seeker has to face the choice of having it all or rejecting it all, the liberated one has it so much easier – he sees no choices, for he is choiceless.
All is as the perception has it, complete and perfect. In this world of illusion and ignorance, this is the “reward” awaiting a relinquisher… Yet true to his word, he will relinquish it.

Consciousness is known as the reflection of the Absolute; hence God is reflection of the Absolute. Can God be reflection of something or somebody, no matter how omnipotent?
When the highest attributes are given to God: the Almighty, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is there somebody – that we humans can imagine – who is higher?
Even agreeing with the proposition that the Absolute is beyond description (or, beyond our human and thus limited capacity to know) would it have the attributes higher than those above – highest in the humanly understandable terminology?
By saying yes, we are merely refusing to “go beyond” and only trying to comprehend. By saying no, we’re effectively acknowledging that there’s only one God, with its many aspects given to Him to facilitate our limited comprehension of the “identity” that is out of the reaches of our minds.

Whatever answer you’ve came up with, doesn’t really matter, as both would be clouded by the very attempt to express the inexpressible truth. Said Ramesh Balsekar: “Truth must be apperceived; it becomes a concept when given expression to.”
Finally, why do you think you’re different than God, and then begin to worship Him, trying to secure His favors? You and God are One!
It’s only after you’ve left this Oneness, and begun to believe that you’re a separate identity, that duality came into force. From then on, happiness and pain are inexorably woven into your life’s fabric. What was eternal becomes terminal, what was perfect becomes lacking… at least that’s what you believe in.

When all is God, why would you try to exclude yourself from belonging to “all”? Only to “prove” to yourself that God is a distant concept? God has the same reality as you – no, not you as the body and the mind – but you as the Self. And when you apperceive Meister Eckhart’s words: “Behold, I have become human. If you should not want to join me in becoming God, you would do me wrong.” you will be in a position to say: “I have accomplished my Earthly mission.” And while in your godly state, you will realize that the Absolute is the background on which God appears. Both in unity, both as One.

The answer is simple: your spiritual intelligence is lacking. No, no reference here to the numerous errors one makes; neither to following false gurus and teachings, or actively participating in one of the fashionable spiritual circuses. Your spiritual intelligence failed to recognize this formidable bastion of resistance created by your ego, called your existence.
You know that you are; you say “I am.” But, do you know that you and I are not, and our existences are nothing but a part of the illusion spun by the consciousness?

You, or rather your ego, are unwilling and unable to deny your existence. Why? Lack of spiritual intelligence. Haven’t you taken notice, or just cannot comprehend Jesus Christ’s words, as related by Mark 8:34-35 (NIV) “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.’”

Or, the Diamond Sutra: “No nose, no ears, no eyes, no self, no being, no life, no soul, no world. We refer to it as a being, but there is no being…”

What? You rather wouldn’t touch anything related to religions? Then listen to these:
Jacques Derrida: ‘The “I” -subject is a product of language discourse and exists in language only.’

Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘The ”I” is part of a language game.’

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Don’t feel that you are a personality and that you can do something for yourself. There is no person.”

Isn’t it remarkable, that sources so divers, all convey the same message?
Pure and simple, deny yourself, or to be exact, your self.
The only way to Reality is to loosen the grip that this illusory reality has on your consciousness. Right now, you are living in a (consciousness) bubble, while Reality lies beyond it!
What surrounds you is unreal, it merely is a play and you are watching it.
Don’t feel like an actor. Your home is not the screen. Your home is beyond the theatre.

You can walk away in this very moment. The play will go on; nobody will take any notice. This is Realization that you so badly desire. And you don’t have to follow the long and winding path of spiritual search that can take lifetimes.
Step out of the theatre; deny imagination the power it has over you!
Know yourself as a being “out of this world” and you’ll get all the Nirvana there is… if you still value a reward.
Said Nisargadatta Maharaj: “You must know your own being as indomitable, fearless, ever victorious.
Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas and live by truth alone.”
When somebody asks you: “Hey guest, what are you doing in my world?” answer: “Only visiting.”

These “Enlightenment tips” were written from the Nonduality perspective, as represented by the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Dr David R. Hawkins and the Zen Buddhism teachings of Huang Po. They are the enlightened sages that map my path… now. For you, it might be one or more of the glorious names regarded as the teachers of True Spirituality. In any event, finding a master or guru of integrity, with a substantial body of integrous teaching material (scripts, audios, books, etc.) is not easy.
Trust your inner guru on that, and stay away from those skilled in marketing, and you’ll do fine.
TIP: it is safer to follow the teachings of someone who is no longer alive. Yes, a dead guru, in most cases, presents a smaller risk of being false.
Although you most probably will “move” from one guru to another, do not see it as an advancement, but rather a natural adjustment – the guru and his style suits your intellectual make-up and hence, the absorption is at the maximum level.
Here are the tips, no in particular order, although the first two are of fundamental importance:

1. Pursuit of Enlightenment is the life’s highest purpose; never ever forget it! Feel blessed for coming across the word and its meaning.
2. There are many meanings given to Enlightenment. Here is one: to attain a deep conviction that you are neither the body nor the mind.
3. Spirituality that you see around is merely an entertainment. Keep away from Facebook, Twitter, occult and commercial spirituality sites.
4. Barring for the will of God, Enlightenment is achievable only for those who seek it “fulltime”. This is not a hobby; this is a way of life. Being honest with yourself (you must not switch your interest in Enlightenment ON and OFF) and acting with the greatest earnestness possible, will deliver it to you in no time. Lukewarm commitment and inner dishonesty are the greatest obstacles.
5. By their nature, spiritual paths fall into two categories: Devotional Path (Bhakti) and Self Enquiry (Atma Yoga). The former is centred on prayers, songs and rituals; the latter, on intellectual works – mainly meditation, aimed at gaining the understanding and a firm conviction that the whole domain of consciousness is unreal.
   

   Spiritual paths... Which one is yours?

   Of course, there are spiritual paths that take elements of both of the main ones, and use them to suit a particular individual. If you’re coming from a religion, count your blessings – you have some basic grounding in spirituality. However, religions are for the masses (not meant to be demeaning; in other words, for those who take the world as real and want to run their lives accordingly. They might be born and dead many times, before the Enlightenment comes into their reality. Those people are not less worthy than you are. Your spiritual maturity will help you find out why.

6. When reading, listening, watching spiritual teachings be prepared to find many apparent contradictions. The same guru will say that the consciousness is “…the substrate of all and everything” and then later, he will say that that “…consciousness and whatever appears in consciousness is nothing but a gigantic fraud.” As your level of spiritual comprehension grows, you’ll come to realize that we humans communicate in concepts only.
   With your progress, you’ll see that different (usually higher) concepts are used to explain the higher reality.
   That’s why it is paramount that you read and review your favorite spiritual teaching many times – come back to the same book after your comprehension advanced; you’ll notice the difference!
7. Want to know what a mark of spiritual progress is? Total absence of fear. In the world run by desires and fears, what a great prize it is!
8. Never be frustrated by the apparent lack of progress. Your ship is cast adrift, just before resuming its sailing to the promised land.
9. Do not seek understanding and recognition from your peers and family. You’re all living it different worlds; it will become more obvious as you progress.

Here you have it!
Your road to Enlightenment might be as short as a heart beat, or lasting many lifetimes. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Why? Because the “being” that you consider yourself to be can never enter Nirvana, which according to the common perception, comes with Enlightenment. Diamond Sutra said it this way: “No being has ever entered Nirvana.”
In the end, your pursuit of Enlightenment will end successfully when you gain an unfailing conviction in these words of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:  “There is no such thing as enlightenment, because there is no entity to be enlightened.”
Ultimately, his words are the Realization that you are seeking.

For some, it means the effort of a disciplined living, frequent meditation and unfaltering conviction that the entire domain of consciousness is unreal. It goes on and on, till the seeker realizes that the effort will not get him there. This very understanding becomes Realization, with the capital R.
For others, life tragedies, personal disasters, etc. produce shocks and upheavals of such magnitude, that the “Establishment of Consciousness” can no longer hold its spell over them. The mirror cracks and the reflection loses its glitter. Illusion vanishes, Reality shines forth.

The majority however, will follow their own individual paths; each being a unique mix of this and that: mediation, selfless service, pray, austerity, renunciation, falling to the bottom and coming to the top; seeing the evil in one moment and God in the next.
Indeed, in our lifetime God presents us with many opportunities to shake off the veils of illusion and discover Truth.
Said Avadhut Nityananda: “There are various tests to which a devotee is subjected: they could be of the mind, or the intellect, of the body, and so on. A number of such tests are there. In fact, God is conducting tests all the time; every occurrence in life is a test. Every thought that crops up in the mind is in itself a test to see what one’s reaction will be. Hence one must be always alert and aloof, conducting oneself with a spirit of detachment, viewing everything as an opportunity afforded to gain experience, to improve oneself and go on to a higher stage.”

No adversity is real under the rays of the Absolute!

Will you recognize the opportunity to grow spiritually, in the next adversity coming your way?
Or will you, as the majority of humans would, get angry/frustrated/disappointed with God, because He is less than appreciative of your spiritual efforts, and perhaps chooses to “penalize” you instead?
Till you gain the absolute conviction that there’s no “you” and “you” and God are one, thank Him for His attention, for His poking and prodding you to get real!

And when you finally arrive at the destination, call it Enlightenment, Liberation or Realization, you’ll find that there never was a person, sufferings and hardships.
Said Nisargadatta Maharaj: “It is only when it is understood with the greatest conviction that there is no entity, and what is happening is merely the program of the functioning of consciousness – there is merely the functioning, there is no entity who is causing it and there is no entity who is suffering – only then can the disidentification take place.”

When you stop identifying with the false image of yourself that consciousness wants you to believe is real, you’ll rise above the clouds of illusion and ignorance. There, the sun of the Absolute shines with its infinite rays illuminating Reality. This is where you are now. Just see it, that’s the whole secret!

Other times, it is nothing but a fashion statement – just look at those Hollywood identities embarking on the mission to save children, animals, or whatever else is worthy of the (media) attention. Why not instead, use the considerable authority that you as a celebrity have, to open the eyes of your admirers to the illusoriness of the reality based on the commercially utilized hype and idolization? Where are you hiding, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

Yet another, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet – likes will throw billions at their worthy causes. Having robbed many, they give a bit to the few… just to quieten the self-consciousness. And don’t argue with me about them “robbing” or not; profits, let alone extraordinary profits, don’t come from working for a man, no matter for how long, and no matter how diligently. Wealth comes always at somebody else’s cost; no excuse if you’re too naive to understand, or just plain dishonest to admit it.

One can only wonder what the world would be like if the names mentioned above, and many others like them, instead of fulfilling world’s desires and promising to ease the pains, just ignored them.
Yes, there’s another world; and a safe bet is, neither Angelina nor Bill and the rest live there. Their statuses and all their “achievements” amount to nothing there. The world where nothing changes; without pleasures and without fears. Peace and bliss are but an attempt to describe the reality known by so very few…

Instead for me trying to describe it, here it is in the form of a dialogue between the Enlightened Master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, one of the foremost teachers of non-duality, and one of his visitors.
If you’ve ever wanted to know what’s the other world is like, here is your chance. Don’t waste it; next one may come too late…

Maharaj: You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, no regrets. My mind is free of thoughts, for there are no desires to slave for.

Questioner: Are there two worlds?

M: Your world is transient, changeful. My world is perfect, changeless. You can tell me what you like about your world – I shall listen carefully, even with interest, yet not for a moment shall I forget that your world is not, that you are dreaming.

Q: What distinguishes your world from mine?

M: My world has no characteristics by which it can be identified. You can say nothing about it. I am my world. My world is myself. It is complete and perfect. Every impression is erased, every experience – rejected. I need nothing, not even myself, for myself I cannot lose.

Q: Not even God?

M: All these ideas and distinctions exist in your world; in mine there is nothing of the kind. My world is single and very simple.

Q: Nothing happens there?

M: Whatever happens in your world, only there it has validity and evokes response. In my world nothing happens.

Q: The very fact of your experiencing your own world implies duality inherent in all experiences.

M: Verbally – yes. But your words do not reach me. Mine is a non-verbal world. In your world the unspoken has no existence. In mine – the words and their contents have no being. In your world nothing stays, in mine – nothing changes. My world is real, while yours is made of dreams.

Q: Yet we are talking.

M: The talk is in your world. In mine – there is eternal silence. My silence sings, my emptiness is full. I lack nothing. You cannot know my world until you are there.

Q: It seems as if you alone are in your world.

M: How can you say alone or not alone, when words do not apply? Of course, I am alone for I am all.

Q: Are you ever coming into our world?

M: What is coming and going to me? These again are words. Whence am I to come from and where to go?

Q: Of what use is your world to me?

M: You should consider more closely your own world, examine it critically and, suddenly, one day you will find yourself in mine.

Q: What do we gain by it?

M: You gain nothing. You leave behind what is not your own and find what you have never lost – your own being.

Q: Who is the ruler of your world?

M: There are no ruler and ruled here. There is no duality whatsoever. You are merely projecting your own ideas. Your scriptures and your gods have no meaning here.

Q: Still you have a name and shape, display consciousness and activity.

M: In your world I appear so. In mine I have being only. Nothing else. You people are rich with your ideas of possession, of quantity and quality. I am complete without ideas.

Q: In my world there is disturbance, distress and despair. You seem to be living on some hidden income, while I must slave for a living.

M: Do as you please. You are free to leave your world for mine.

Q: How is the crossing done?

M: See your world as it is, not as you imagine it to be. Discrimination will lead to detachment, detachment will ensure right action; right action will built the inner bridge to your real being. Action is a proof of earnestness. Do what you are told diligently and faithfully and all obstacles will dissolve.

Q: Are you happy?

M: In your world I would be most miserable. To wake up, to eat, to talk, to sleep again – what a bother!

Q: So you do not want to live even?

M: To live, to die – what meaningless words are these! When you see me alive, I am dead. When you think me dead, I am alive. How muddled up you are!

Q: How indifferent you are? All the sorrows of our world are as nothing to you?

M: I am quite conscious of your troubles.

Q: Then what are you doing about them?

M: There is nothing I need doing. They come and go.

Q: Do they go by the very fact of your giving them attention?

M: Yes. The difficulty may be physical, emotional or mental; but it is always individual. Large scale calamities are the sum of numberless individual destinies and take time to settle. But death is never a calamity.

Q: Even when a man is killed?

M: The calamity is of the killer.

Q: Still, it seems there are two worlds, mine and yours.

M: Mine is real, yours is of the mind.
…………

Q: There must be some link between your world and mine.

M: There is no need of a link between a real world and an imaginary world, for there cannot be any.

Q: So what are we to do?

M: Investigate your world, apply your mind to it, examine it critically, scrutinize every idea about it; that will do.

Q: The world is too big for investigation. All I know is that I am, the world is, the world troubles me and I trouble the world.

M: My experience is that everything is bliss. But the desire for bliss creates pain. Thus bliss becomes the seed of pain. The entire universe of pain is born of desire. Give up the desire for pleasure and you will not even know what is pain.

Q: Why should pleasure be the seed of pain?

M: Because for the sake of pleasure you are committing many sins. And the fruits of sin are suffering and death.
You say the world is of no use to us – only a tribulation. I feel it cannot be so. God is not such a fool. The world seems to me a big enterprise for bringing the potential into actual, matter into life, the unconscious into full awareness. To realize the supreme we need the experience of the opposites. Just as for building a temple we need stone and mortar, wood and iron, glass and tiles, so for making a man into a divine sage, a master of life and death, one needs the material of every experience. As a woman goes to the market, buys provisions of every sort, comes home, cooks, bakes and feeds her lord, so we bake ourselves nicely in the fire of life and feed our God.

M: Well, if you think so, act on it. Feed your God, by all means

Q: A child goes to school and learns many things, which will be of no use to it later. But in the course of learning it grows. So do we pass through experiences without number and forget them all, but in the meantime we grow all the time. And what is a gnani but a man with a genius for reality!
This world of mine cannot be an accident. It makes sense. There must be a plan behind it. My God has a plan.

M: If the world is false, then the world and its creator are also false.

Q: Again, you deny the world. There is no bridge between us.

M: There is no need of a bridge. Your mistake lies in your belief that you are born. You were never born nor will you ever die, but you believe that you were born at a certain date and place and that a particular body is your own.

Q: The world is, I am. These are facts.

M: Why do you worry about the world before taking care of yourself? You want to save the world, don’t you? Can you save the world before saving yourself? And what means being saved? Saved from what? From illusion.
Salvation is to see things as they are. I really do not see myself related to anybody and anything. Not even to a self, whatever that self may be.
I remain forever – undefined. I am within and beyond – intimate and unapproachable.
……………

Q: All you say is clear to me. But when some physical or mental trouble comes, my mind goes dull and grey, or seeks frantically for relief.

M: What does it matter? It is the mind that is dull or restless, not you.

Look, all kinds of things happen in this room. Do I cause them to happen? They just happen. So it is with you – the roll of destiny unfolds itself and actualizes the inevitable. You cannot change the course of events, but you can change your attitude and what really matters is the attitude and not the bare event. The world is the abode of desires and fears.
You cannot find peace in it. For peace you must go beyond world.
The root-cause of the world is self-love. Because of it we seek pleasure and avoid pain. Replace self-love by love of the Self and the picture changes. Brahma the Creator is the sum total of all desires. The world is the instrument for their fulfilment.
Souls take whatever pleasure they desire and pay for them in tears.
Time squares all accounts.
The law of balance reigns supreme…

The above dialogue has bee quoted from “I Am That – Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” – a book that should be in your spiritual arsenal. Yes, it is so powerful it will eventually tear the veil of illusion covering you – the sceptic, the lazy, the ignorant, and the rest. For a few dollars you can buy the book from Neti Neti. This is your investment in saving yourself!

“Oh, yes, I believe in God’s unconditional love!” you proclaim. Do you? Why then do you doubt that your fate will be less than perfect?
Do you really think that you know better than God what’s good for you? Do you think that you know even a small fraction of the good that God do for you? If so, you’d remember that sad Monday when exactly at 9.50 AM five people died in the traffic accident on the cross-section near your home.
Were it not for that mysterious phone call, with the phone silent at the other end, just when you were leaving, you would be exactly there; your car a part of the mangled wrecks. Has it crossed your mind that perhaps, you should thank God for causing you being late for the accident?
How many more times the Supreme Power “intervenes” each moment of your life to make it possible for you to still be?

Even if you’re at the kindergarten level of spirituality, you should realize that God’s love is the guarantee of your perfect earthly passage. Yes, even those who run around shouting: “There’s no God!” do qualify!
Despite of all mistakes that you’ve made, and will continue to make; despite all the silliness that underwrites young years and the stubbornness that underlines your senior years, rest assured that only the best will happen to you. And as difficult as sometimes it will be to accept this, for your short-sightedness and egocentric tendencies, God loves you more than you love yourself.
The words: “All is God” are your guarantee of the perfection in every minute moment of your existence; for you belong to “All”.
Watch the video that follows, and listen to Dr David R Hawkins‘ easy to follow prescription to making you worry much less.

Those of you who regard themselves as advanced spiritual practitioners need to look at the worry phenomenon from a different perspective.
Firstly, knowing that anything in consciousness is only a concept and therefore it has to be wrong, removes any reality whatsoever from your small and big worries alike.
Secondly, as Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “There is no entity, and what is happening is merely the program of the functioning of consciousness – there is merely the functioning, there is no entity who is causing it and there is no entity who is suffering.”
Thirdly, everything that happens, happens in the consciousness. But, why should you be concerned?
Said Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Have you understood that you are the witness of the consciousness that appears on you? You are not the consciousness, you are not the knowledge, Sat-guru is your true nature.”
And finally: there’s no “I Am”.
The “I Am” which you consider yourself to be, disappears with the consciousness, and that’s why it is as unreal as the consciousness itself is!
Therefore, that is not the “I Am” that “I” am! Why worry about something that is not?

As the common wisdom has it, it is in human nature to worry. Or, is it?

If not for anything else but for some encouragement, you’d like to sense the final approach of your spiritual path, and feel the closeness of the finishing line, I can tell you: this won’t happen.
In your spiritual work aimed at realization, or enlightenment as some prefer to call it, there are hours of repetitive practices, dull moments when you feel as going back, rather than progressing. There are times when you question your sanity, as do people in your immediate vicinity.
No encouraging signs (coming from above), no praises, only a sense of feeling ineffective; for you know that you are that which you are seeking.

Some will lose their resolve, pause, and wait for more inspiration. Others will carry on as if they have no other option – having dedicated themselves totally to spiritually living each moment of their lives. The latter will get there anytime soon, if their resolve holds AND intensifies, regardless of the adverse feelings and signs that try to derail their progress.
You see, the “price” is high, for the “reward” is a “highest.”
Once you realize that that which you’re seeking is belittled by even you saying: this is my life mission, you will remove all obstacles from your path, and you will run over these that are still left.

With single pointedness of mind, every moment free of taking care of your (limited) earthly needs will be spent on singing AND living the mantra: “I am the Absolute, the Absolute I am. I am the Absolute, the Absolute I am. I am the Absolute, the Absolute I am. Prior to words, prior to consciousness, the Absolute.”
Unreservedly, without exception, you will use every fleeting moment to understand consciousness. In return, the same consciousness will help you find your true nature. Yes, the same non-duality state that sets down on you in your deep sleep, and which you’re unable consciously apprehend.

Don’t dismiss it as dull and unrewarding. Remember, you’re trying to appreciate it with the tools (your senses) given you by consciousness – in itself a temporary and illusory state. How can something that is prior and beyond be apprehended by a mere appearance?
Indeed, to know the Absolute is to be the Absolute. In practical terms, it means rejecting all obstacles from your spiritual path, until your firm conviction that there’s only the Absolute reveals its unmistakeable glory.
Watch the video below, where the enlightened teacher of the modern spirituality, Dr David R Hawkins, gives his advice on the final run. And remember, it is only your perception of yourself that makes the finishing line looking so distant…

How to remove that obstacle? Take Maharaj’s following words as your starting point: “You know that you are not the body, not the mind, and not the name given to you by someone else. You are consciousness and it has no form.”
Then, whatever happens happens through the play of consciousness. Firmly believing in this will remove from you the terror of feeling responsible for all good and bad that happens around you, in the so-called world. Moreover, nothing is there that you can an authorship of – you are not the doer, it’s all play of the consciousness. Don’t worry, the same consciousness will take care that your behavior is not foolhardy and that you live a “sane” life, whatever it means.

I believe that there’s no Stan; there’s no Stan’s will; my past is something that I can neither take credit nor be blamed for. I watch consciousness going through its motions, and filling my time with actions. None of them are initiated by me, none are of my doing. There’s no identity called Stan, although people still use this name to communicate with what they perceive as ‘I.’ For the time being, they consider themselves as being someone, a personality, of a lesser or greater importance. What is in fact happening is the all-pervading consciousness assuming innumerable forms, talking to itself. I know, I am not it (the consciousness) for I can observe it. My stand is beyond it, although I can identify ‘I’ standing there. There’s no definable identity, there’s no name, past, links, relations, dependencies. Time doesn’t reach there. My presence there doesn’t even give me a sense of belonging here, or being a part of something glorious, ideal, infinite, etc. In fact, whatever the feelings, there are not really mine – it is the consciousness experiencing itself.

There’s really nothing you can do, to remove yourself from the illusory veil thrown over you by the consciousness. But you can free yourself right now, by realizing that this consciousness is temporary, and you – the Absolute, only for a moment caught in the Maya, are of the Eternal and Immutable nature. Even these words are only concepts, and an attempt to describe the indescribable.
Use this consciousness as your only means to get beyond it. Yes, convince it of its unreality, and it will let go its shackles that bound you from the moment you accepted your beingness, your ‘I am.’

Having convinced the consciousness that it owns my body and mind only, and my I-I (to use Ramana Maharshi’s definition) lies outside of its sphere of influence, I feel free, relaxed and unfazed by what many perceive as threats, dangers, achievements, wins, good and bad news, etc. They are the feelings of someone who watches a show, a spectacle with actors playing on stage, their roles worse of better; where after the final curtain I will leave as if nothing has happened, and go home.
While you might think that the stage is your home here and now, and you dread the thought of ever leaving it, I know my home is beyond. There are my roots, my origin, my eternal standing. When the cloud of consciousness finally goes, I will not be talking to you. There will be no ‘You’ and no ‘Me,’ only the Absolute.