hermit's chronicles

"I meditate 18 hours a day. What about you?" "I can fast an entire week. You would droop after just one day." "Every single day I meditate in the lotus position for three hours." "I have done four spiritual workshops of seven days each." "I chant my japa 1008 times every single day, at 4.30 every morning." "I have moved to Level 2 of the meditation group. He is still struggling with the first one." "Not everybody can sit with a straight back in padmaasan for two hours every day." "I gave up eating non-veg...like this (snap of a finger)!" "I have read every single book ever written on the Upanishads." "My problem is I don't know what to do with all the love pouring out of me." "I took him to my Guru...but if he wants to live in darkness, too bad!"

It is God who desires in you And it is God who becomes Desireless in you. This is total acceptance. It is God who is a passion in you And it is God who becomes Enlightenment in you. It is God who is anger in you And it is God who becomes Compassion in you. There is nothing to choose at all. - Osho

Three Seekers One Truth Their steadfast resolve Aided by A steady guiding star And then finally After a long, weary journey Stumbling upon The light of His presence. Sheer Grace!

The Sanskrit word for Ego is Ahamkar. In Sanskrit, each word reveals its soul when you break it into its syllables. In this case, Aham (I am) Kar (the Doer). Once you truly and irrevocably realise you are NOT the doer, where is the ego?

You want to be The centre Of the Universe All the time. Forgetting… When Existence plays darts It hits bull’s eye All the time. And you… You have chosen To be there All the time.

Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining towards the sky. Its leaves harvest sunlight to photosynthesize, so trees compete by shadowing their neighbors. If you look closely you can often see two trees pushing and shoving with languid grace. Trees are great and beautiful machines, powered by sunlight, taking in water from the ground and carbon dioxide from the air, converting these into food for their use and ours. The plant uses the carbohydrates it makes as an energy source to go about its planty business. And we animals, who are ultimately parasites on the plants, steal the carbohydrates so we can go about our business. In eating the plants we combine the carbohydrates with oxygen dissolved in our blood because of our penchant for breathing air, and so extract the energy that makes us go. In the process we exhale carbon dioxide, which the plants then recycle to make more carbohydrates. What a marvellous cooperative arrange...

While reading the Sunday newspaper, your eyes fall upon a vivid advertisement for a fabulous ice cream. Your mouth starts salivating. Are you drooling at the printed image? Most certainly not. You are drooling at the prospect of the real thing. Much in the same way, no one bows to the stone idol. One bows to the Lord.

The problem with being clever all the time is you have no time left for anything else.

When the wind blows through the scattered bamboos, they do not hold its sound after it has gone. When the wild geese fly over a cold lake, it does not retain their shadows after they have passed. So the mind of the superior man begins to work only when an event occurs; and it becomes void again when the matter ends. - Hung Tzu-ch'eng in Discourses on Vegetable Roots

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? - Lao-Tzu in the Tao-te-Ching

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you are alive, it isn’t. - Richard Bach

The closest definition of Meditation I have come to is, Meditation is open-ended concentration. Remember, “open-ended”. Meditation is not an exercise in concentration, or of rigid straight backs for that matter. The mind has this habit of either dwelling on the past or jumping to the future. It hates staying in the present moment. It normally revels in the gamut of “could”, “would” and “should”. It hates being in the What Is. Simply put, Meditation is what gets the mind to stay in the What Is. In the beginning there is a meditator who is doing the meditation to achieve an objective . As the meditation progresses, there is no meditator, no objective…just the meditating. Two things more to contemplate upon. First, do you remember the geometry theorem we all learnt in school? “The smallest arc of a circle is a straight line.” The present moment is the smallest arc of this circle of life. If this present moment can be perfect, and the next moment, then the moment after that…life becomes ...

Believe in miracles but don’t rely on them. - sign outside church at Amboli, Mumbai

This is where the mind wandered whilst I was busy chanting this morning in the autorickshaw to work: … [ seen: flooded road ] God, when will the waters clear?! Wonder how they get into the shops by the road? … … [ seen: drug store sign ] I need to buy some Laviest. All those antibiotics have screwed up my system … … [ bending to bow as the Krishna Temple is seen approaching ] I really like this, the way they light up the deity with diyas instead of those ghastly light bulbs … … [ heard: a sharp horn and a shriek of brakes ] F***k! That was close! He was just inches away. Ass****! … [ seen: a roadside cart with pineapples ] They look so fresh. But look at that filthy plastic on the cut slices. So many flies! Eat this and you’ll shit to death! … … [ leaning forward to check out the ATM ] Thank God, it’s working again after the floods. I don’t have to go to the one three blocks away … … [ seen: a cropped view through the auto’s hood of a tight rainbow-coloured tanktop on a very slim girl...

As Mumbai recovers from the deluge, one is reminded of this delightful story: The flood waters were rising fast and the villagers were evacuating and they told the rabbi, “Rabbi, let’s go. We have organized a bus for all of us. The water’s already up to the knees and rising really fast.” The wise old rabbi shook his head and smiled benignly: “The good Lord shall take care of me.” A while later the flood waters reached the waist. The remaining villagers came in a boat to pick up the rabbi. The rabbi’s faith was strong and he refused to leave, saying: “The good Lord shall take care of me.” Two hours later the water was touching the chin and a helicopter droned in above the rabbi’s head. The last of the villagers dropped down a ladder: “Rabbi, climb on. You are the only one left. The waters will be above your head in no time.” The rabbi waved them off. “The good Lord shall take care of me.” The rabbi drowned and when he faced the good Lord, he grumbled bitterly: “You let me down! I truste...

There is only one reason why you do not find any posting here from June 16. The writing did not happen.

All there is, is Consciousness No me, no you Nor this, nor that Nor good, nor bad. No path, no goal No seeker, nothing sought. No doer, nothing ‘done’ No plan made, which wasn’t made for us. No choice, no volition All there is, is Consciousness. All that is seen, heard and tasted Smelt, felt and thought All of it, yes, all of it Is mere stirred up Consciousness. Five elements, three attributes Chosen parents, specific conditioning A catalyst thought Instant vocalization Inevitable action Consciousness ‘gets’ its way. No volition, yet no non-action An amazing play! All there is, is Consciousness. - shunyayogi (at the feet of my Master)

You are watching a bee repeatedly bang its head against the half-closed glass window, wanting to get out. You can see the open window is just inches away. You wish you could tell the persevering bee, "You are so close. You're just inches away from freedom." This advice isn't about ego. It's compassion.

According to what deeds are done Do their resulting consequences come to be Yet the doer has no existence: This is the Buddha's teaching. – Garland Sutra : 10

Buddha was asked: Are you God? Are you angel? Are you saint? Buddha replied: I am awake.

You are holding a book edgeways. You see an ant begin to walk towards the centre. Then you see another ant walking towards the centre from the opposite end. When the ants meet, they exclaim, "Oh, what a coincidence!"

There are two things in our experience that are the epitome of restlessness. The first is the monkey. Have you ever seen a monkey that isn’t restless? If a monkey is happily perched on a branch, will it sit still? No way. It will scratch furiously, or jump from branch to branch or prance around wondering what to do next. Now take the mind. Here this moment, there the next. Restless, working itself into a frenzy with What Was or What Could Be. Dipping into the past, projecting into the future. Both, the monkey and the mind, share one problem: they cannot remain in the What Is. There is one more aspect in existence that is by nature as restless. The Wind. Here this moment, there the next. In Hindu mythology, the monkey is the symbol of the thinking mind. Now do you understand why the “Monkey God” Hanuman is significantly the son of the Wind God? His very name reveals it all. Hanu (subtle)- Man (mind) is that unique "monkey" (mind) that has become calm, non-restless, ever sett...

To thee, what is yours They said Bhakti is surrender Advaita is acceptance. They said ‘Insha’Allah’ and ‘Thy Will Be Done.’ They read out the Commandments They held out the threats Of the after-life. They talked of karmic bank balance And the rebirth penalty of overdraft. They debated Atma, Paramatma Awareness, Consciousness Noumenon, Phenomenon Choice, Volition Free Will, Responsibility. They raised their voices They chased their tails They defended forts They themselves had claimed a while ago To be Maya. Meanwhile Amidst all the churning The Heart stood still Anchored in peace And the song it hummed was serene: Hoyee hai woh jo Ram rachi raakha Ko kar tark bhadawey shaakha?! * - shunyayogi * A postscript on the concluding verse: This is a couplet from the Hindu epic Ramayana by the sage Tulsidas. The first line is direct, to the point, having the unambiguous authority of an axiom: All that happens is already written. The second line is a compassionate adjunct. The thinking mind i...

The deer is trapped by the sound of music and bells and the male elephant by the proximity of the female. The fish gets caught by the sense of taste. The moth destroys itself by being attracted by the sight of the flame. The bee, attracted by the perfume of the flower, gets trapped in it and dies. Each of them perish because of only one craving, but you have subjected yourself to all of the five temptations. How can you possibly find true happiness? — Ramesh S. Balsekar in The Final Truth

They said: Worship The stone, the tree The cow, the monkey The river, the sea The living, the dead The sun, the moon, the planets They hoped May be, just may be One day At some point By some grace You’ll begin to sense Divinity In every single thing.

This is what happens when Neo meets the Oracle in The Matrix: ORACLE I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase. NEO What vase? He turns to look around and his elbow knocks a VASE from the table. It BREAKS against the linoleum floor. ORACLE That vase. NEO Shit, I'm sorry. She pulls out a tray of chocolate chip cookies and turns. She is an older woman, wearing big oven mitts, comfortable slacks and a print blouse. She looks like someone's grandma. ORACLE I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it. NEO How did you know...? She sets the cookie tray on a wooden hot pad. ORACLE What's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything. - From the film The Matrix

Ivan Pavlov is best known for his work on “conditioned reflex”, typified by what is called the Pavlov’s Dog experiment. What Pavlov did was very simple. He put a dog alone in a room and, whenever it was meal time, he would first ring a bell and then give the dog his food. The procedure was repeated day after day. Finally a point came when the dog would start drooling at the mere sound of the bell. Now see how the wise men, of every hue, deployed this as a device. The moment you light a candle or a lamp, the moment the aroma of incense sticks impacts your nose, the moment you lay down your meditation mat, the moment the sound of church and temple bells strikes your ears… some minds become ready for prayer.

Answer these seven questions calmly and honestly: 1. Did you decide when you will be born? 2. Did you decide to whom you will be born? 3. Did you decide your hardware? [Did you decide what your DNA will be? What your body type will be? Scientists concur the DNA decides 85% of your life - even things like, will you be gay, a pscychopath, obese ... ] 4. Did you decide your software? [Did you decide the ‘programming’ you would get? Your mom told you taking someone’s pencil was stealing, your dad taught you killing for sport was sin, your teacher told you the finest way to judge right and wrong was to step into the other person’s shoes…] 5. Can you decide the precise moment of your death? [You may decide to take a cyanide pill at 11:05 hours but there may be an earthquake, a sneeze, a doorbell; you may decide to jump off the roof but you may break a leg and survive…] 6. Do you have any control over what may impact which of your senses at any given time? [The sound of car brakes, a wh...

When what-you-desire coincides with what-Existence-desires, you call it Happiness. When the two are at variance you call it Unhappiness.

James Hadley Chase books had some of the cheekiest titles. One of them was also philosophically profound: There’s Always A Price Tag . Nature ensures that every desire carries within itself its own poison sting. Greater the desire, deadlier the sting. The desire for Enlightenment is also a desire. But just look at the magnitude, the sheer audacity, of this particular desire: notionally, nothing less than eternal bliss will do. No wonder these fellows are referred to as “miserable” seekers.

I have lived on the lip Of insanity, wanting to know reasons, Knocking on a door. It opens, I’ve been knocking from the inside! -- Rumi Do you think I know what I’m doing? That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it’s writing, Or the ball can guess where it’s going next. --Rumi Beyond our ideas of Wrongdoing and rightdoing There lies a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other' doesn’t make any sense. --Rumi Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: This place made from our love for that emptiness! Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes. Praise to that happening, over and over! For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness. Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, that work is over. Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting. The here-and-now moun...

Come to think of it, what’s a flute? No fancy mechanics, merely a hollow reed. You can see right through it. When sublime music flows out from it, the Flute says: I created the music. And you shake your head and explain compassionately: No flautist, no music. The breath of consciousness, the reed of body. Sublime potential.

MORPHEUS: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain. - from the film The Matrix

An eight year old child was sitting on the grass lawns of the Indian Gymkhana in King's Circle, Mumbai. He had accompanied his father to a discourse by Advaita teacher Swami Chinmayananda. And in the cool winter night scented with the heady fragrance of green grass, this is what he heard Swamiji say: Unhappiness is Desires divided by Desires Fulfilled.

If you think about it, there are just four possible states for you and me to be in. There is the waking state. That’s you awake during the day. Working, loving, hating, happy, sad. And there is the dream state. Mountains and springs and forests arising instantaneously. Old men and infants, births and deaths. Everything and everyone seeming so real in time and space that if I were to enter your dream and say, hey, wake up, this is unreal, you would fight me - in the dream - saying, “No, dammit, this is real!” And then, of course, there is deep sleep. Sleep so deep that you - as a name and form, as John, Mary, Ramesh or whatever - don’t exist. In fact, the entire manifestation doesn’t exist. The fourth state is what the Indian sages call turiya - the awakened state when you see the living dream for what it is. You know what they say: you wake up from the personal dream into this living dream; and it is only when you wake up from the living dream that finally Reality is witnessed…in the ...

My name is Mr. Anderson. I'm just some computer code in the computer left over from the movie called The Matrix. And when the computer is turned off I am the Reality of dreamless-sleep called Samadhi until the computer is turned on again. And then I wake up to be Mr. Anderson, again. - posted by Gene Polotas at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rameshbalsekar

Picture this: it’s a cool morning and I am traveling to work in an auto-rickshaw. I have my rucksack next to me and I am blissfully chanting, with my eyes shut. In the midst of the chanting, a thought suddenly pops up: what if somebody was to walk away with my rucksack at a traffic signal? Now this isn’t as simple as it sounds. You know what they say: Trust in God but tie your camel. So does that mean I must thread my arm round the strap, even as I chant, to prevent the rucksack from being stolen? What about my trust in Existence? This leads to the thought that I can only go with one of two possibilities: If my trust in Existence or God is complete it really won’t matter if the rucksack is stolen or not; both will be accepted as the What Is at the moment. However, if my trust is semi-baked, I had better cling tight to my belonging. Wisdom dictates that if you are shaky on trust, shore up on pragmatism. Psst: What do you think I did?

It is a beautiful day and you are standing by the shore watching the ocean. You see a wave arise, arise, arise and then…it dissolves back into ocean. As it arises, the Wave says, “I Am, I Am, I AM”. Then the Wave melts back into the ocean, its identity merged back into the ocean where it came from in the first place. Then, once again, the wind of Cause affects the ocean, making another wave to arise. And the nascent Wave says, “I Am, I Am, I Am”. There goes the whole game all over again. Existence has ordained this: The ‘Me’ of the Wave shall always return to the ‘I’ of the Ocean.

… the Buddha had no background to seeking, no guiding hand, no Guru, no one at all to tell him what to do, where to go to seek the answers he sought. So he wandered like a mendicant, making his own path. The prevailing trend among fellow seekers laid great store by denial, on austerities. On denying comforts and courting pain. Hardening the soul as it were. So the Buddha put himself through the greatest austerities, courted extreme pain. Then, one day something happened that changed his entire life. He was in a forest, exhausted by his austerities. Broken in his body, weary in his spirit. He had done everything he had been told to do but he was nowhere near his goal. Then, a couple of musicians walked into that part of the forest. They settled down a distance away, unaware of the Buddha’s presence. The older musician said to his younger companion, "If you haven’t understood one thing, you will get nowhere. Leave the strings loose and there’s no music. Tighten them too much and the...

They said: Stand up, take a stand Sign up, join now Coin a slogan, wave a flag Fight, set right all wrongs Oh the world’s doing so horribly And, you… You’re too easy Speak your mind, make a choice This isn’t okay, that is fine Pink and blue aren’t the same Take your pick, leave a print On the sands of time Oh God… You’re too easy Stand out, leave a mark Make a name, blaze a trail Stir up, work up froth Don’t you want to bequeath A legacy? How will you get anywhere If you’re too easy He sighed and said: I concede, I accept I am bother-less, I am choiceless I have been terribly spoilt By the ease of being easy What do I tell you How do I begin to explain Life’s been teaching me A whole new game The middle path is wisdom, not compromise Flexibility is strength, not frailty Acceptance takes more grit than kneejerk action And, believe it or not Resilience comes naturally To those who truly understand So I let life live me And as I weather those storms I never let myself forget The bamboo t...

Man is a programmed instrument. An intrinsic part of his programming creates the delusion that he is an individual entity and the doer of his actions. It so happens that some of the programmed instruments are programmed to seek power, some others to seek glory and yet others to seek pleasure. Some of the programmed instruments are programmed to seek their source code.