The Library
Even while you share in the life, the work, and the pleasures of this world, learn also to stand aside as a witness of them all. Learn how to be a spectator as well as a participator; in short, let detachment accompany your involvement, or rather let it hide secretly behind the other…
15.24.3.1,Listen What has been called ”purgation of the intellect, memory, and will” actually happens in the deep contemplative state. The faculty of thinking temporarily ceases to function, the awareness of personal identity vanishes for a time, and the ability to direct the muscular movements of the body stops as in a paralysed man. These changes last only for the hour of his meditation practice and are responsible for much interior growth in the shifting of consciousness from the lower nature to the higher self…
15.24.3.2,Listen There are two different ways of being detached: the ascetic's, which dissociates itself from the world and tries to live outside the world's activities; and the philosopher's, which accepts those activities but not the dependence which usually comes with them.
15.24.3.3Listen How trifling all his earthly successes must seem to a dying man! Such is the state of mind which may be called inner detachment and which the aspirant needs to cultivate.
15.24.3.5Listen Only he is able to think his own thought, uninfluenced by others, who has trained himself to enter the Stillness, where alone he is able to transcend all thought.
15.24.3.6Listen Loneliness vanishes completely in the Stillness. He is then with the power behind the entire universe, with the Mind behind all human consciousness…
15.24.3.14,Listen … Some part of the philosopher remains an untouched, independent, and impartial observer. It notes the nature of things but does not allow itself to be swept away by the repulsiveness of unpleasant things or lost in the attractiveness of pleasant ones… It is the same with his experience of persons. He is well aware of their characteristics; but however undesirable, faulty, or evil they may be, he makes no attempt to judge them. Indeed, he accepts them just as they are. This is inevitable since, being aware of his and their common origin in God, he practises goodwill towards everyone unremittingly.
15.24.3.22,Listen The notion that the fortunes and misfortunes of life should be of little importance to a philosopher is not a correct one. To practise a calm detachment is not to ignore worldly values.
15.24.3.29Listen He will find, with time, that this increasing detachment from his own person will reflect itself back in an increasing detachment from other persons. Consequently, irritation with their faults, quarrels with their views, and interference with their lives will show themselves less and less …
15.24.3.30,Listen Whoever comes close to this uncovered goodness within his heart--can he have any other feeling towards others than that of goodwill?
15.24.3.41Listen To turn one's mind instantly towards the divinity within, when in the presence of discordant people, is to silence harsh thoughts and to banish hurtful feelings. This frequent turning inward is necessary not only for spiritual growth, but for self-protection. Everything and everyone around us plays a potent influence upon our minds, and this is the best means of detaching oneself from this ceaseless flow of suggestions.
15.24.3.53Listen If he is to keep this wonderful inner calm, he must be vigilant that he does not accept from others the pressures they would put upon him. That is, he must be true to himself, his higher self.
15.24.3.55Listen One form of self-training to help acquire this inner detachment is to practise seeing and hearing no more of what is happening around one than is absolutely necessary for one's immediate purpose, duty, or activity.
15.24.3.56Listen The itch of curiosity which wants to know other people's private lives, the urge to meddle in their affairs or tamper with their lives, must be suppressed if one's own peace is ever to be found.
15.24.3.65Listen Human frailty being what it is, human conduct should never surprise us and never amaze us. By not expecting too much from it, we save ourselves unnecessary bitterness or disappointment.
15.24.3.73Listen Jesus did not answer when malignment and malediction were hurled upon him. Buddha kept silence when vilification and abuse were uttered against him. These great souls did not live in the ego and therefore did not care to defend it.
15.24.3.79Listen He who has attuned himself to the egoless life and pledged himself to the altruistic life will find that in abandoning the selfish motives which prompt men he has lost nothing after all. For whatever he really needs and whenever he really needs it, it will come to his hands. And this will be equally true whether it be something for himself or for fulfilment of that service to which he is dedicated. Hence a Persian scripture says: “When thou reachest this station [the abandonment of all mortal attachments], all that is thy highest wish shall be realized.”
15.24.3.85Listen Out of the continued practice of this inward detachment from his own actions and their results, there develops within him a sense of strength and mastery, a feeling of happy peace and being at ease.
15.24.3.86Listen The Gita enjoins unconcern about the results of activity not only because this leads to calm detached feelings as the large general result, but also because it leads to better ability to keep meditation continuously going on in the background of attention as the special result.
15.24.3.90Listen Those who can bring themselves to give up all, will receive all. Those who can dare to lift themselves out of emotional oscillation will find ”the peace which passeth understanding.” Those who can perceive that they are their own obstacles in the way will in no long time perceive the truth.
15.24.3.92Listen If a man understands that life is like a dream and is mental at bottom, and if as a result he practises a certain kind of detachment, there will descend upon his character a calmness and a serenity for which he will not even have to work, given sufficient time.
15.24.3.103Listen If he can transcend himself, can rise to independence from the ego's attachments and desires and emotions, utter peace awaits him.
15.24.3.104Listen There is a materialistic serenity and a spiritual serenity. The first comes from the possession of money, property, position, or affection. The other comes from no outward possessions but from inward ones. The first can be shattered at a single blow; the other soon recovers.
15.24.3.106Listen Can he detach himself from the personal aspects of the situation? Can he refuse to be guided by them or influenced by the feelings of the moment? This is his test.
15.24.3.113Listen It is not only that he must remove the impurities, the faults and the weaknesses, which obstruct the divine entry or prevent the divine settlement, but also that he must, by continually training himself to remain undisturbed by troubles and unexcited by good fortune, keep mind and heart always calm so that the divine guest may be able to remain permanently.
15.24.3.135If you will take care not to become too depressed when things go wrong, nor too elated when they go right, you will gradually achieve an equilibrium which later will assist you to remain always in touch with Reality.
15.24.3.138Listen There are disagreeable elements in our experience of life as well as pleasurable ones; but if we are ever to find peace of mind we must learn to put a reserve behind these feelings, to stand aside and scrutinize them, even in the midst of the events which produce them.
15.24.3.146Listen A man is not necessarily unspiritual if he lives fully in the world, engaging in its activities and appreciating its satisfactions. Only, he must remember constantly who and what he really is and never forget his ultimate purpose.
15.24.3.148Listen Although he should give his best to external life, he should not give the whole of himself to it. Somewhere within his heart he must keep a certain reserve, a spiritual independence. It is here, in this secret place, that the supreme value of the Overself is to be cherished, loved, and surrendered to.
15.24.3.149Listen Those activities which belong to a human existence in the world may still go on, and need not be renounced, although they may be modified or altered in certain ways as intuition directs. His business, professional, family, and social interests need not be given up. His appreciations or creations of art need not be abandoned. His intellectual and cultural life can remain. It is only demanded of him that none of these should be a self-sufficient thing, existing in total disregard of the Whole, of the ultimate and higher purpose which is behind reincarnation.
15.24.3.150Listen However busily active he may have to be to fulfil his worldly duties, inwardly his mind will repose in perfect placidity. It is this ideal state that enables him to remain secretly detached from and emotionally uninvolved with the world. Without it, he would be caught up by temptations and tribulations, and affected by them as most men are affected.
15.24.3.151Listen He is not asked to abandon his social aspirations, for instance, in favour of his spiritual aspirations, but to balance them sanely…
15.24.3.159,Listen There is nothing wrong in the daily contact with the world, attending to duties, being practical, effective, even successful in profession, business, or other work, and rearing a family, provided all this is done within the remembrance of the higher power.
15.24.3.163We must use the material things, yes, and not abandon them; but we must do so without attachment. We may love the good things of life like other men, but we ought not to be in bondage to this love. We should be ready to abandon them at a moment's notice, if need be. It is not things that bind us, not marriage, wealth, or home, but our craving for marriage, wealth, or home. And what is such craving in the end but a line of thinking, a series of mental images?
15.24.3.164Listen Where others get caught in this whirlpool and spend themselves, their energies, and their years in the piling-up of earthly possessions or the exhausting of earthly pleasures, he says to his instincts: Thus far, and no farther. For him there is satisfaction in a restrained enjoyment of this world, with enough time and thought and strength for study of the great gospels and the practice of going into the Silence.
15.24.3.165Listen When Christ taught that he who would find his life must first lose it, he meant simply that one must first lose his attachments.
15.24.3.183Listen Jesus’ saying “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” means: “Cast aside your burden of attachments, desires, thoughts; then the real I-nature will alone be left, and you will have true peace, rest from the ego’s heaviness.”
15.24.3.185Listen He becomes detached when he frees himself from the universally prevalent tendency to connect every experience with the personal ego. Detachment takes him out of himself and saves him from getting emotionally involved in his environment.
15.24.3.189Listen Those who try to grasp Tao, lose it, declared Lao Tzu. Why? Because they are using willpower, personal willpower, instead of becoming passive and letting the Tao use them, their minds and bodies, as if they were its instruments. This elimination of the self-will is what Jesus meant when he counselled his followers to lose their life in order to find life.
15.24.3.199Listen To witness what is happening around him without being influenced by it, or what is happening to him without being concerned about it--this is part of the practice of inward detachment.
15.24.3.205Listen He becomes not only a spectator of others, but also of himself. If such detachment is seldom seen, it may be because it is seldom sought.
15.24.3.206Listen To practise living in the world and yet not being of it involves becoming a spectator not only of the world but also of oneself. To the extent that he gets lost in the world-experience, to that extent he loses this deeper self-awareness.
15.24.3.207Listen When he can mentally withdraw at will from a situation where he is involved with others, so as to regard all the parties, including himself, with calm impartiality, he will have travelled far.
15.24.3.212Dissociate yourself from the person who has to go through with the dream-drama of life. He is forced to act, but you can inwardly practise this dissociation.
15.24.3.213Listen He may come in time to feel a certain amusement at watching his own performance on the stage of life.
15.24.3.215He sees his personality playing its role on the world stage and, although he recognizes its connection with him, it is felt as an object, as an ”other.”
15.24.3.216Listen Again and again he will have the extraordinary sensation of looking down at the game of human life as from a peak-like mental elevation. He will see the players--millions of them--vehemently struggling for trivial aims and painfully striving for futile ones. He sees how paltry is the sum-total of each individual life-activity, how bereft of mental greatness and moral grandeur it is. And, seeing, aspiration will re-dedicate itself to unfaltering devotion to the Quest within his own mind.
15.24.3.217Listen By adopting a witness attitude he puts a distance between the day's activities and himself. This helps him bring them under control, prevents them from submerging his quest altogether, and preserves whatever inner peace he attains.
15.24.3.222So far as past errors are concerned, forget them and start afresh, as if it were your first day in this body; but so far as your present contacts are concerned, be kind to them, as if it were your last day in this body.
15.24.3.226Listen The personal history which has gone before--let it really go and be free of the past, which can become a mental prison for unwary persons; learn to abide in the timeless, coming out of it as duties call but holding on to it as the background.
15.24.3.227Listen Do not give a single glance backward to the error-filled past, for the education given by it and the suffering from its consequences have led to the strength and wisdom of the Present.
15.24.3.228Listen The past has furnished its lessons, so why need there be regrets? Drink, sex, ambition, money, travel—they were all stations on the way to understanding. If they robbed, they also gave. If they disappointed, they also trained you. If the past showed weaknesses, it also showed you could tear them out.
15.24.3.229Listen How can he have fears for his future who knows that he is related to God, and that God is the same yesterday, and today, and forever?
15.24.3.232Listen Both anxiety about the future and regret about the past are inconsistent with the state of serene detachment. It is uplifted beyond them, and free even from being affected by the day's changes and pressures.
15.24.3.233Listen Past, present, future become mere dreams when considered against the background of THAT. If man could switch his thought of self over to the Source, and keep on identifying it with that, his consciousness would be transformed.
15.24.3.240Listen He feels that time has utterly ceased, that the whole world and its movement has become the mere shadow of a thought, that he has entered an untellable and unstrained silence.
15.24.3.248Listen Living in measured time as he does is the consequence of living in the movement of thought. But when this vanishes into the still centre of his being, he finds timelessness as its attribute. If there is any surprise, it is a flash only, for in the new consciousness he feels at home.
15.24.3.252Listen When this turning inwards completes itself in the final state of contemplation so that thought is stilled and breath is quiet, the sense of succession is dispelled, a kind of continuous now takes its place, and a stillness of the body corresponds with a stillness of the mind.
15.24.3.255Listen In this moment here and now, letting go of past and future, seeking the pure consciousness in itself, and not the identifications it gets mixed up with and eventually has to free itself from--in this moment he may affirm his true being and ascertain his true enlightenment without referring it to some future date.
15.24.3.256Listen If he can penetrate deep enough into the stillness he reaches a state of consciousness that is actually timeless. That must be the reference in the New Testament declaration that there shall be no more time.
15.24.3.257Listen … if you will trust the Overself today, it will provide for you tomorrow. If you repose trust in the Overself, it will never let you down and you may go forward in surety. It is indeed the ”Father who gives us each day our daily bread.”
15.24.3.261,Listen He can find the Overself even if he is caught up in the work of earning a livelihood. But his participation in the world's activity and pleasure will have to be a limited one. Not other men's voices but his own inner voice should say how far he should go along with the world.
15.24.3.263Listen ... Fate provides him with difficulties from which it is often not possible to escape. But what must be borne may be borne in either of two ways. He may adjust his thinking so that the lessons of the experience are well learnt. Or he may drop it, for he need not carry the burden of anxiety, and remember the story of the man in the railway carriage who kept his trunk on his shoulders instead of putting it down and letting the train carry it. So let him put his trunk of trouble down and let the Overself carry it.
15.24.3.264,Listen He should dismiss fears and anxieties concerning the present state or future destiny of anyone he loves. Let him do what he reasonably can to protect the other, then place him or her trustingly in the care and keeping of the higher power.
15.24.3.270Listen He cannot depend upon outward circumstances alone for his security, though he will not fail to give them their proper value and place. He knows that for total security he must also have, or at the very least have, the certitude of the Overself's protective presence.
15.24.3.273Listen As his interest in the Overself increases in depth, so his attachment to the things of this world decreases in passion and his interest in them becomes more serene.
15.24.3.274Listen The belief that perfect security exists is certainly a vain one so far as worldly life is concerned. But so far as the inner life is concerned, there is a full basis for it.
15.24.3.276Listen ... He who depends on externals plays dice with his happiness. He who depends on his own Overself attains unfailing serenity.
15.24.3.279,Listen From the moment that a man begins to look less to his changeful outer possessions and more to his controllable internal ones, he begins to gain the chance for real happiness.…
15.24.3.279,Listen Desires die of themselves without struggle, karma comes to an end, the stillness of the Overself settles in him.
15.24.3.288Listen When all action comes to an end, when the body is immobile and the consciousness stilled, there is achieved what the Chinese have called Wu Wei, meaning non-doing. This brings a wonderful peace, for tied up with it is non-desiring and non-aspiring. The quester has then come close to the end, but until this peace is thoroughly and permanently established in him, the quest must go on…
15.24.3.289,Listen ... Let go of all negative thoughts, especially those which concern others. Cease from condemnation and criticism…
15.24.3.289,Listen ... Let the ego be passive to the intuitive influences so that actions are dictated by them without interference from it, rather than by aggressive desires, and hence become karma-free…
15.24.3.290,Listen … The art of mental quiet can be pushed to a deep inner stillness and by practice can be inwardly maintained in the midst of outward activity. This is why the value placed on keeping calm is very high in both yoga and philosophy.
15.24.3.309,Listen When everything within, when thoughts, emotions, and desires are silenced, it is inevitable that the personal will shall also be silenced. What then has to be done will be done, but it will be done through him.
15.24.3.313Listen The student should always remember that just as the World-Mind does not lose or alter its own nature even in the midst of world-making, so he also should hold reverently and unalterably to the thought of his own true mystical identity even in the midst of worldly activity …
15.24.3.314,Listen It is not enough to become detached from the world, not even enough to meditate intermittently on the Overself. A man must remain every hour, every day, established in the fundamental attitude produced by the other two.
15.24.3.322Listen
5 Jan 2012
8 Jan 2017
10 Aug 2016
3 Feb 2014
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22 Jan 2014
3 Oct 2019
26 Jun 2018
17 Aug 2022
15 Feb 2020
5 Apr 2012
24 Jun 2016
11 May 2018
13 Mar 2020
9 Feb 2020
6 Apr 2012
14 Aug 2011
19 Jun 2015
16 Nov 2023
1 Nov 2019
14 Aug 2013
17 Aug 2019
22 Oct 2014
15 Sep 2019
15 Dec 2010
26 Mar 2013
28 Mar 2019
15 Oct 2015
25 Mar 2020
17 Dec 2016
3 Jun 2022
16 Sep 2018
10 Apr 2011
15 Dec 2015
15 Oct 2018
14 Mar 2015
5 Apr 2023
3 Mar 2017
10 Apr 2018
11 Aug 2016
18 Jul 2019
12 Oct 2011
4 Jan 2011
11 Apr 2019
6 Jan 2011
3 Aug 2016
24 Apr 2015
5 Jan 2011
31 May 2012
5 Mar 2019
24 Mar 2017
1 Oct 2011
22 Jan 2023
19 Jul 2018
21 May 2012
9 Nov 2017
12 Oct 2018
5 Oct 2011
18 Jul 2013
9 Dec 2012
1 Nov 2020
18 Feb 2018
7 Apr 2015
14 Dec 2012
8 Jan 2022
7 Nov 2015
26 Nov 2023
4 Apr 2015
1 Feb 2021
24 Feb 2013
12 Apr 2014
18 Apr 2014
2 Apr 2015
6 Dec 2023
14 May 2022
28 Jan 2022
18 Dec 2023
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