Play vs. Purpose

What is wrong with play?

You have a purpose as long as you are not complete;

Till then, completeness, perfection, is the purpose.

But when you are complete in yourself,

Fully integrated within and without,

Then you enjoy the universe;

You do not labour at it.

Why do you introduce purpose?

Purpose implies movement, change,

A sense of imperfection.

What is your happiness worth

When you have to strive and labour for it?

True happiness is spontaneous and effortless.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Everything Known, Nothing Remembered

To know the world you forget the self -
To know the self you forget the world.
What is the world, after all?
A collection of memories.
Cling to one thing that matters,
Hold onto 'I am' and let go all else.
In realization, there is nothing
To hold on to and nothing to forget.
Everything is known,
Nothing is remembered.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Love is the Realization of Unity

To see myself in everybody

And everybody in myself

Most certainly is love.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Being All, What am I to Fear?

I have no shape, nor name.

It is attachment to a name and shape that breeds fear.

I am not attached.

I am Nothing,

And Nothing is afraid of no thing.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Pleasure and Pain

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 pain is.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Questioning

Give up all questions except one: 'Who am I'? After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is certain. The 'I am this' is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Freedom

Nothing can set you free,
Because you are free.
See yourself with desireless clarity,
That is all.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Simple Truth

Truth is simple and open to all. Why do you complicate it?

Truth is loving and lovable.

It includes all, accepts all, purifies all.

It is untruth that is difficult and a source of trouble.

It always wants, expects, demands.

Being false, it is empty,

Always in search of confirmation and reassurance.

It is afraid of and avoids enquiry.

It identifies itself with any support, however weak and momentary.

Whatever it gets, it loses and asks for more.

Therefore put no faith in the conscious.

Nothing you can see, feel or think is so.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Sin and Virtue

Discard all traditional standards. Leave them to the hypocrites. Only what liberates you from desire and fear and wrong ideas is good. As long as you worry about sin and virtue you will have no peace.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Causality

Seeking out causes is a pastime of the mind. There is no duality of cause and effect. Everything is it's own cause.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Spontaneity and the Eternal

To realize the Eternal is to become the Eternal, the whole, the universe, with all it contains. Every event is the effect and the expression of the whole and is in fundamental harmony with the whole. All response from the whole must be right, effortless and instantaneous. It cannot be otherwise, if it is right. Delayed response is wrong response. Thought, feeling and action must be one and simultaneous with the situation that calls for them.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Knowledge

To earn a livelihood some specialised knowledge is needed. General knowledge develops the mind, no doubt. But if you are going to spend your life in amassing knowledge, you build a wall round yourself. To go beyond the mind, a well-furnished mind is not needed.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Liberation

Liberation is of the self from it's false and self-imposed ideas; it is not contained in some particular experience, however glorious.

~~Nisagardatta~~

Incessant Mental Noise

Watch how you take your food. As long as it is in your mouth, you are conscious of it; once swallowed, it does not concern you any longer. It would be troublesome to have it constantly in mind until it is eliminated. The mind should be normally in abeyance - incessant activity is a morbid state.

~~Nisargadatta~~

Awareness and Consciousness

Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a refection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to it's content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.

~~Nisargadatta~~