Clarity of Vision (June 2017 Newsletter)
Credit: Chewonki, CC BY-SA
Summer is almost here. It is time for fun and relaxation in the sun. It is also time to shed not only the winter blues, but the indeterminate life, moving from one recreation to another, one interest to another, one diet to another. It is almost as though we are constantly in search of something new and better than what we already know and have. It creates dissatisfaction with what is and a hankering for something else, but we don't know what and how. Life goes on, and joys and sorrows come and go and nothing remains stationary. We are somewhat like a tetherball - flying around and up and down, but never quite free.
The search for the ultimate is powerfully explained in the book, Merging with Śiva by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Read on for a sampling of his work.
The Self: you can't explain it. You can sense its existence through the refined state of your senses, but you can't explain it. To know it, you have to experience it. And the best you could say about it is that it is the depth of your Being, it's the very core of you. It is you. If you visualize above you nothing; below you nothing; to the right of you nothing; to the left of you nothing; in front of you nothing; in back of you nothing; and dissolve yourself into that nothingness, that would be the best way you could explain the realization of the Self. And yet that nothingness would not be the absence of something, like the nothingness inside an empty box, which would be like a void. That nothingness is the fullness of everything: the power, the sustaining power, of the existence of what appears to be everything.
But after you realize the Self, you see the mind for what it is - a self-created principle. That is the mind ever creating itself. The mind is form ever creating form, preserving form, creating new forms and destroying old forms. That's the mind, the illusion, the great unreality, the part of you that in your thinking mind you dare to think is real. What gives the mind that power? Does the mind have power if it is unreal? What difference whether it has power or hasn't power, or the very words that I am saying when the Self exists because of itself?
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They say you must step onto the spiritual path to realize the Self. You only step on the spiritual path when you and you alone are ready, when what appears real to you loses its appearance of reality. Then and only then are you able to detach yourself enough to seek to find a new and permanent reality.
Have you ever noticed that something you think is permanent, you and you alone give permanence to that thing through your protection of it?
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As the Self, your Effulgent Being, comes to life in you, joy and sorrow become a study to you. You do not have to think to tell yourself that each in its own place is unreal. You know from the inmost depth of your being that form itself is not real.
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You will first think that a light is shining within you. You will seek to find that light. You will seek to hold it, like you cherish and hold a beautiful gem...
How strong you must be to find this Truth. You must become very, very strong. How do you become strong? Exercise. You must exercise every muscle and sinew of your nature by obeying the dictates of the law, of the spiritual laws. It will be very difficult. A weak muscle is very difficult to make strong, but if you exercise over a period of time and do what you should do, it will respond. Your nature will respond, too. But you must work at it. You must try. You must try. You must try very, very hard, very diligently. How often? Ten minutes a day? No. Two hours a day? No. Twenty-four hours a day! Every day! You must try very, very hard ...
You may notice the similarities with our recent weekly explorations of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras on Facebook. You can explore more there each week.
Namaste,
sipra