The search for reality and truth through self inquiry

Posted in Jnana Yoga, Podcast, Vedanta, Words of Wisdomself-inquiry-search-vicharana - Ramana Maharishi

Don’t think too much about the answer, the answer is something which is dead. When you have the answer the quest is finished. The question is alive and the question would lead you, but not to an answer… An answer is only an escape from reality and truth; it’s not the direction to realize something. A spiritual question does not search for an answer but a presence. When you ask the Guru what is life and you don’t search for some words as an answer, but you’re sensitive enough to perceive the presence with your question then that presence is your real answer. The answer is you. Your presence now and here in this moment, the presence of your reality is the real answer…

What is a prayer?

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Prayer is not about words, it is not a communication and not a way to make contact. These are not prayer.
A prayer is a state of being. You can express it through words, you can say every morning that you thank God, but is this a prayer? If so, then every parrot can pray…
What kind of state of being is it? Christians thank God before they eat; Jews thank God for returning their soul after the night’s sleep, what do they do? They say thank you. This is the highest form of prayer. Why is it the highest level of prayer to say thank you and the lowest to ask for things?

Abandon Your World of Ideas and Enter Reality – Bhagavad-Gita 18:66

Posted in Bhagavad GitaAbandon Your World of Ideas and Enter Reality - Bhagavad-Gita 18:66 - Link to an article by Swami Ramakrishnananda

We are not operating with the real; we are functioning with a map we have fabricated about reality, a map that marks out a territory, but this territory is not the map. And—this map has been fabricated from ideas, from information, thoughts, conclusions, and all that we have acquired through our senses. We operate with the map to the extent that for each one of us, his own map and his own plan, is the territory itself. We confuse the map with reality.

Love and Attachment are similar, and yet very different…

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Love and Attachment are similar, yet very different. Most people completely confuse attachment with love and consider the two the same. Attachment makes us insensitive to others and…

Desire

Posted in Tantra YogaLalita Devi: Supreme Krishna Gopi

Desire controls and moves human beings as if they were puppets. Desire is the motivation that lies behind every action, the power and energy that causes all movement. Desire incites men to make the most incredible efforts. However, few stop to observe and analyze this force…

Raja Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation

Posted in Meditation, Raja YogaYoga Meditation - The Essence of Yoga

Generally speaking, raja-yoga is considered the yoga of meditation. However, dhyana is the essence of all types of yoga, as well as of religion, and not the exclusive property of just one of the many branches of Sanatana-dharma. Without meditation, true and authentic spirituality cannot exist.

About the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya”

Posted in Mantra YogaOm Namah Shivaya

A mantra is a door towards reality; it is a mystic phenomenon capable of unifying the consciousness and invoking that which the mantra refers to. It is an instrument that stimulates interiorization, a vibration capable of opening us to the Whole and a vehicle towards Totality.

Bhagavad-gita 2.58 – Pay Attention To The Observer

Posted in Bhagavad Gita, PodcastBhagavad-gita 2.58: Pratyahara - Introspection of the senses

The rays of our attention are searching like a bee. The senses are nothing more than an extension of our mind…The eyes see through the mind…and the mind is searching for happiness while it is moving as a bee from one flower to the other, from one object to the other…

Yoga is communion with existence

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more than assembling disconnected fragments or reuniting separated pieces, yoga is to open our eyes and pay attention, so as to see that we are, always have been, and always will be, an integral part of the Whole…Yoga is to unite the inseparable, to reconnect that which was never disconnected. Yoga is the reencounter of what we believe ourselves to be, with what we really are…

Isavasya Upanishad: Verse 5

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Movement is produced only in the shell, in the exterior. Consciousness or the Self does not undergo changes or movements. The dhiras, or the sensible being who has realized the above mentioned is not disturbed, the changes do not confuse him… Life is a turning wheel, the superficial moves, changes, but its eternal axis remains quiet and immobile…