Paul Brunton Daily Note
The final grade of inner experience, the deepest phase of contemplation, is one where the experiencer himself disappears, the meditator vanishes, the knower no longer has an object — not even the Overself — to know for duality collapses. Because this grade is beyond the supreme ”Light” experience where the Overself reveals its presence visually as a dazzling mass, shaft, ball or ray of unearthly radiance which is seen whether the bodily eyes are open or closed, it has been called the divine darkness.
| Compassion is the highest moral value, the noblest human feeling, the purest creature-love…
| Two things are required of a man before Grace will manifest itself in him. One is the capacity to receive it. The other is the co-operation with it. For the first, he must humble the ego; for the second, he must purify it.
| If he accepts this tenet of karma coupled with rebirth, then his awakening to a sense of responsibility for his life and the course it takes should lead in turn to a feeling of the need for self-discipline.
| When these two--the positive and negative currents--come together, the electric lamp lights up of its own accord. When these two--intellect and feeling--are properly coordinated, and the character is both properly developed and purified, the Overself in a person begins to shine of its own accord.
| If the ego would be willing to abdicate its rule for a short period, the way to a glimpse would be opened.
| Egoism, the limiting of consciousness to individual life as separate from the one infinite life, is the last barrier to the attainment of unity with the infinite life.
| He should not be discouraged because others have gone ahead on the path more quickly … The fact is that the goal he seeks is already within his grasp. He is the Overself that he seeks to unite with…
| Man’s main business is to become aware of his true purpose in life; all other business is secondary to this concern.
| If after you reach the deepest contemplation, you then direct attention towards a particular problem on which you are seeking knowledge, knowledge which neither the senses nor the intellect has so far been able to supply, you may be able to perceive as in a flash what is the proper solution of this problem.
| To those who want to travel to India or elsewhere in search of salvation, or of a master who shall lead them to it, the question must be asked, Can you not see that if you take yourself there you will still have to cope with your ego there as here? Look deeper into your own heart, for that is where what you seek really is.”
| What happens to a man is important, but not quite so important as what he makes of it.
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| The technique of art is important, but the mission of art--to communicate and awaken the intuitive feeling of Beauty--is still more important.
| The holy joy may visit you but cannot stay in you if both the animal and the ego are staying in you. Purify yourself of the one and empty yourself of the other, if you would convert a passing glimpse into the permanent union.
| In the ordinary waking state, men are well aware that they are not sleeping; but in the dreaming state they mistakenly believe that they are in the other one. A few, however, have come to a degree of development where they know that they are dreaming, and fewer still know that they are in deep thought-free sleep. They are the sages.
| If weeping comes, be it in sound or in silence, it will not be to express unhappiness nor to express joy. For it is very important, and on a deeper, more mysterious, level. So let it continue if it chooses.
| He is a messenger come from a far place to tell people that there is a reality, and that truth awaits them; he points out the direction where they are to be found, and how.
| Powerful forces in the heaven worlds are gathering for a transmission and will enter our world at an appropriate time, which is fixed and measurable within this century. These forces will stimulate new thoughts and new feelings, new intuitions and new ideals of a religious, mystical, and philosophic kind in humanity. It will verily be the opening of a new epoch on earth…
| The cure for loneliness is company; but if there is no affinity in the company, then it is only a quack cure. This prescription is true for everyone, even for the sage, for he finds his company in the Overself's self-presence.
| The aim is to work, little by little, toward slowing down the action of thinking first and stilling it altogether later.
| If he is sufficiently advanced he need make no verbal formulation or pictured image to prepare a point of concentration, but can begin straightaway in an abstract wordless pressure towards the heart.
| It is not only the unnecessary killing of tamed animals for food that shows man's thoughtless lack of mercy, but also the unnecessary hunting and killing of wild animals. They are entitled to their mountain or forest home.
| He is not asked to abandon his social aspirations, for instance, in favour of his spiritual aspirations, but to balance them sanely…
| We are not left to find out for ourselves what the truth is. Now and then messengers appear among us, each bearing his own personal communication about the existence of a higher power and the need of a higher life.
| Chemical changes in every cell of his body are the outer physical result of this inner second birth.
| The Goal towards which man is slowly travelling by successive steps is a threefold one: the fully developed environment, the fully developed intelligence, and the realized soul. The last is the best and the other two are but servants of it, for here he comes first to a comprehension and then to a realization of himself. Yes, he is on his way to the grand awakening into full self-consciousness.
| Long Path--here is working through the ego. The student thinks he is the ego and develops concentration, aspiring to improve himself, getting more and more pure. He says: I am doing this work…”
| … Short Path — it is different because the idea ”ego” does not come in, only the Overself, not the longing (which belongs to the Long Path), but the identification…
| The divine power to help, heal, guide, or instruct others begins to show itself when we begin to turn our face towards it humbly, prayerfully, and thus make the necessary connection through meditation and study, through altruistic action and religious veneration.
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