hermit's chronicles

Remain in wonder if you want the mysteries to open up for you. Mysteries never open up for those who go on questioning. Questioners sooner or later end up in libraries. Questioners sooner or later end up with scriptures, because scriptures are full of answers. And answers are dangerous, they kill your wonder. All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be ; don't try to become . Within these two words be and becoming , your whole life is contained. Being is Enlightenment, becoming is ignorance. - Osho

"It's the people who don't know the answers who are going to heaven, I tell you." - Character Mac McClintock in Anne Tyler's book Saint Maybe

Parvati and Shiv were sitting atop Mount Kailash. Parvati was nagging Shiv. “It’s so gross. How can you sit here immersed in bliss when there is so much misery in the samsara you have created? Why can’t you help relieve the misery of mortals?” “But Devi,” protested Shiv. “I have nothing to do with individual misery. I merely created the samsara and hardwired it with a set of natural laws. All else is merely the result of an auto-generated process… whether it be pleasure or pain; happiness or misery.” “Oh puhleaze!” sneered Parvati petulantly. “Spare me the gyaan. What kind of God would shirk responsibility this way? What kind of God wouldn’t be moved by the misery of the beings created by him? Huh. So much for your professed love… you can’t even do this much for me!” Shiv knew if he didn’t do something soon Devi would go into a deep sulk and there would be bliss to pay. So he sighed and pulled Devi into his arms for a warm embrace. “Devi, how do I explain to you? Even I cannot ...

If a law-suit has to be filed, one approaches a lawyer. To get rid of a disease, one has to call upon a doctor. In the same way, if God is wanted, the company of Sadhus must be sought. - Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

When you have a question, don't think about the answer. First think deeply about the question. A well formed question is half the answer.

When you're asking for apples and life hands you lemons, make lemonade. If you're on your way out and it starts to rain, at least you won't have to water the plants anymore. It is a matter of seeing things in perspective. The benefits may not be immediate nor obvious, but you have to know this for sure: Allah will never give you anything you can't handle. Nothing you can't triumph over. There will be problems. There will be struggles. But if they're not there, how would you know how strong you are? - Khwaja Gharib Nawaz

‘The breeze of Divine Grace is always blowing; unfurl your sail.’ - Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Imagine. No harm in imagining You do it anyway All the time. Imagine you are a hollow reed. Say, a flute. And your seven chakras are the seven nodes for Existence to play its music. Through you. And... Sooner or later you needn't imagine. You will know. The hollow reed has nil say In the music that is played.

In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says: When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other. After contemplation, shunyayogi says: Wherever there is knowledge, already there is ignorance. When people think they know, they have given birth to what they do not. When people take possession of knowledge they have caused the great chasm between the Knower and the Known. Misery.

When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go. She has but doesn’t possess, acts but doesn’t expect. When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever ~ Tao Te Ching

Some gems from Lal Ded, the 14th century Kashmiri mystic: I saw a sage starving to death A leaf floating to earth on a winter breeze I saw a fool beating his cook And now I am waiting for someone to cut The love-chord that keeps me tied To this crazy world. >> Love-mad, I, Lalla, started out, spent days and nights on the trail. Circling back, I found the teacher in my own house. What brilliant luck, I said, and hugged him. >> You won't find the Truth by crossing your legs and holding your breath. Daydreams won't take you through the gateway of release. You can stir as much salt as you like in water It won't become the sea.

Excerpt from Redemption Stories: Unwasted Pain by Mary Ciofalo: The movie Gandhi inspired me - particularly one scene. In it Gandhi is fasting again to try and end the horrific riots between the Hindus and Moslems. A trio of Hindu men comes to tell Gandhi that they have stopped inciting their people, and that he must now end his fast. One of them flings a piece of bread onto Gandhi's cot and tells him, "I am going to Hell, but you must eat and live." Gandhi says, "Only God determines who goes to Hell. Why do you think you are?" The man replies, "I killed a Moslem child." Gandhi winces, then says quietly,"Why?" The man replies, "They killed my wife and my son." After a moment of silence, Gandhi says quietly, "I know a way out of Hell." The Hindu man looks shocked. It is clear that he never considered redemption for himself. Gandhi says, "Go find a child without parents and raise him as your own. Bu...

Knowledge implies ignorance of what lies beyond what is known. Knowledge is always limited. - Ramana Maharshi

* Nature produces enough to support our needs, but not more. If we take more than we need we may be borrowing from future generations or hurting nature. * People have a right to an honourable livelihood and to have their basic needs met. Basic needs include a balanced diet, decent housing and healthcare, the education of children, and the search for spiritual self-realization. * All other wealth beyond that belongs to the community. The community may grant more to individuals if it believes doing so benefits the general welfare, but such wealth is a privilege, not a right, and may not be allowed to injure the community. - from the book Trusteeship by Mahatma Gandhi published by Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, India

May be we have got the Hare and Tortoise fable all wrong. May be the tortoise won because he wasn't at all thinking of winning or losing!

...On the riverbank, sitting cross-legged, Shyamsunder rocked slowly back and forth."It was in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, January 1967. My friends and I had put together this big rock and roll dance at the Avalon Ballroom. We called it Mantra Rock Dance. Everyone was there to welcome 'The Swami' to the West Coast - the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Quicksilver and Moby Grape, they all played. Even Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey were there. All the hippie heroes came." Shyamsunder became excited and his body rocked faster. "Picture this scene. The whole place is pulsating with strobe lights and rock and roll, packed with wild, long-haired kids, most of them on acid. Then, about midnight, Srila Prabhupada walks quietly onto the dark stage and sits down cross-legged on an elevated seat. The place falls silent. Srila Prabhupada begins humbly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. A spotlight finally locates him, and gradu...

From the Prasnopanishad of the Atharva Veda The setting: A group of six earnest seekers after truth, all of them earnest students of philosophy, gathered together, only to find that each one of them had a special problem to solve, and that none of the others could solve it for them. They decided by common consent to approach the sage Pippalada and have their problems solved. After a year of living with the sage at his ashram, meditating and practicing brahmacharya, it was finally time to for them pose their unresolved question to the learned sage. …It was now the turn of Gargi Souryayani to avail himself of the opportunity to have his problems solved, and to proceed in a spiritual sense from darkness to light. He raised a metaphysical problem, which is peculiar to Indian philosophy. Ordinarily speaking we see the various levels of consciousness. He wished to know who it is that experiences these levels of consciousness. This is a problem that every seeker after truth encount...

Who is Rama? He is the one who plays in everyone. And when Rama enters in the ten senses, he becomes Ravana. When you enter the ten senses, then your peace, Sita is lost. Sita means peace. - Ranjit Maharaj (from Understanding Is Realizing )

The moon shines by the reflected light of the sun. When the sun has set, the moon is useful for revealing objects. When the sun has risen, no one needs the moon, though the pale disc of the moon is visible in the sky. So is it with the mind and the Heart. The mind is useful because of its reflected light. It is used for seeing objects. When it is turned inwards, The source of illumination shines forth by itself, and the mind remains dim and useless like the moon in day-time. - Ramana Maharshi (from Heart Is Thy Name, O Lord )

Arunachala Shiva, Arunachala Shiva, Arunachala Shiva, Arunchala!

"It is related (and the story is no less significant whether historically true or not) that after attaining Enlightenment the Buddha's first impulse was to abide in the effulgence of Bliss without turning back to convey the incommunicable to mankind. Then he reflected, 'Some there are who are clear sighted and do not need my teaching, and some whose eyes are clouded with dust who will not heed it though given, but between these two there are also some with but little dust in their eyes, who can be helped to see; and for the sake of these I will go back among mankind and teach.'" - Arthur Osborne