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Ron: Attention to Life > 05/07/2023
Posted by Holger:
Sunday, April 30, 2023 3:45 pm (California Time)
We are a small group of friends;
together we read some paragraphs in
Nisargadatta’s I AM THAT
and then talk about it;
feel warmly welcome.
Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link ❤️
Namaste to One and All!
Attention to Life…
let us reflect on the pointers of chapters 31-32.
See you Sunday evening.
Gita will be facilitating.
Peace Peace Peace
31 Do Not Undervalue Attention
Q: Shall I come to the true nature
of the self through mere attention?
NM: Do not undervalue attention.
It means interest and also love.
To know, to do, to discover,
or to create you must give your heart
to it – which means attention.
All blessings flow from it. 126
Q: You advise to concentrate on the ‘I am’.
Is this too a form of attention?
NM: What else?
…Of your personal universe you are the center –
without knowing the center what else can you know? 126
Q: But how can I know myself?
NM: As you cannot see your face,
but only its reflection in a mirror,
so you can know only your image reflected
in the stainless mirror of pure awareness. 126
Q: How am I to get such a stainless mirror?
NM: Obviously, by removing stains.
See the stains and remove them.
The ancient teaching is fully valid. 126
Q: The entire world is a stain?
NM: Yes, it is.
Q: How awful!
So, the world is of no value?
NM: It is of tremendous value.
By going beyond the world you realize yourself. 126
Q: I want to go beyond the world?
NM: You don’t. All your life is connected with it.
Your past and future, your desires and fears,
all have their roots in the world.
Without the world where are you?
…find a foothold beyond and
all will be clear and easy. 127
32 Life is the Supreme Guru
Q: What is the right use of the mind?
NM: Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind.
The right use of mind is in the service of love,
of life, of truth, of beauty. 126
Q: Who will provide?
NM: You can spend an eternity looking elsewhere for truth and love, intelligence and goodwill, imploring God and man – all in vain. You must begin in yourself, with yourself – this is the inexorable law… First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right – mentally and emotionally… What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless? 129
Q: When all are perfect, the world will be perfect.
What a useless truism?
NM: I did not say it. I only said: You cannot change the world before changing yourself. I did not say – before changing everybody. It is neither necessary, nor possible to change others. But if you can change yourself you will find that that no other change is needed. 129
Q: How can you be so sure of yourself?
NM: It is not of myself that I am sure. I am sure of you. All you need is to stop searching outside yourself for what can be found only within…You are suffering from acute misapprehension. Clarify your mind, purify your heart, sanctify your life – this is the quickest way to a change of your world. 129
So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world?
Ours is a world of feelings and ideas, of attractions and repulsions, of scales of values, of motives and incentives; a mental world altogether… Problems created by desires and fears and wrong ideas can be solved only on the level of the mind. You must conquer your own mind and for this you must go beyond it. 129
Q: What does it mean to go beyond the mind?
NM: We are, most of our time, mind and body-conscious, because they constantly call for help. Pain and suffering are only the body and the mind screaming for attention. To go beyond the body you must be healthy: to go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order. You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. The mess will bog you up. ‘Pick up your rubbish’ seems to be the universal law. And a just law too. 130
Q: How did you go beyond the mind?
NM: By the grace of my Guru… He told me I am the Supreme Reality… My advice to you is even less difficult than this – just remember yourself. ‘I am’, is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond…If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed. 130
Q: Why should Self-remembrance bring one to Self-realization?
NM: Because they are but two aspects of the same state. Self-remembrance is in the mind, Self-realization is beyond the mind. The image in the mirror is of the face beyond the mirror. 130
Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link for Sunday ❤️
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“File:’I Am That’ by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Book Cover.jpg”
by Vyacheslav Argenberg is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
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Created: May 6, 2023
Last modified: May 6, 2023
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