The Library
Hitherto we have been considering the state of the man who is seeking enlightenment. But what is the state of the man who has attained it? This is also worthwhile for our closest study. For after all, he is the type we are one day destined to become, the type we are being shaped into by life itself.
16.25.2.1Listen All problems vanish from his mind as though they had never been. He is under no necessity to concern himself about anything or anyone. “God’s in his heaven and all’s well with the world.” There is no tormenting situation to be cleared up, no difficult decision to be made, no quest to be followed through drawn-out struggles and personal self-disciplines, and inevitable disappointments. He now has the secret of it all, the blissful state of enlightenment.
16.25.2.13Listen Hitherto he has been only partially himself. Now, with this radiant entry into the eternal, he is completely himself. Now, he can speak to others, move in the world, and work out relationships, solely from his center, straight from his core: no distortions, no hypocrisies, no insincerities.
16.25.2.14Listen When the knowledge of the soul is not merely intellectual, however convincing, not only a matter of belief, however firm, but an unchangeable awareness of its ever-present existence, it is true knowledge, authentic revelation, and blissful salvation.
16.25.2.17Listen Glimpses have been had more often than most people believe but enlightenment that is continuous and always present is rare.
16.25.2.20Listen As the human mind develops, it forms higher and higher conceptions of the deity until, finally, it is lifted above itself into a tremendous experience. It loses itself in the deity itself, and when it returns to normal living, it does not need to seek further. I do not refer here to the experience which several mystics have had called “the glimpse,” but something which is of a once-and-for-all nature and which does not, in its essence, ever leave him.
16.25.2.26Listen The difference between the intermediate and the final state is the difference between feeling the Overself to be a distinct and separate entity and feeling it to be the very essence of oneself, between temporary experience of it and enduring union with it.
16.25.2.42Listen … the full and permanent attainment cannot emerge out of meditation alone … the path to this exalted result must traverse all three fields of yoga, metaphysics, and self-abnegating activity.
16.25.2.49,Listen ...There will come suddenly unexpectedly and in the dead of night, as it were, a tremendous Realization of the egoless state, a tremendous feeling of liberation from itself as it has known itself, a tremendous awareness of the infinitude, universality, and intelligence of life…
16.25.2.55,Listen It is the making the man ready, the preparation of his mind and heart which take so much time, so many years even in many cases; but the enlightenment itself is a single short happening: the effect remains permanently.
16.25.2.56Listen When enlightenment comes through philosophic preparation for it, the experience is sudden, direct, unexpected, and spontaneous.
16.25.2.64Listen Enlightenment may come slowly or suddenly but in the second case it has the effect of sunlight bursting through the sky.
16.25.2.66Listen The calmness which he carries inside himself, and which is apparent in all his bearing, has not arisen out of nothing. It has come to him out of long struggle and after varied suffering.
16.25.2.69Listen Not all persons come into this desirable state through formal methods of meditation and regular practice of them. Some attain it through adopting a higher attitude to the happenings, situations, impressions, and emotions which each day’s course presents to them.
16.25.2.70Listen Lao Tzu was a librarian by profession, Janaka a king, and Brother Lawrence a kitchen menial. Yet all had this same wonderful experience of peaceful communion with Overself, proving that one's antecedents, or work, or position are neither helps nor handicaps.
16.25.2.71Listen 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.
16.25.2.75Listen When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, you will have no ”astral” experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which has been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not something which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your mental eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again.
16.25.2.77The discovery of his true being is not outwardly dramatic, and for a long time no one may know of it, except himself. The world may not honour him for it: he may die as obscure as he lived. But the purpose of his life has been fulfilled; and God's will has been done.
16.25.2.78Listen No one really knows how this enlightenment first dawns on him. One moment it was not there, the next moment he was somehow in it.
16.25.2.82Listen No announcements tell the world that he has come into enlightenment. No heralds blow the trumpets proclaiming man's greatest victory--over himself. This is in fact the quietest moment of his whole life.
16.25.2.83Listen At this stage there is no struggle for further growth; it comes as softly and as naturally as a flower’s. There is no sacrifice of things the ego desires or clutches to itself, for there is such insight as to their worth or worthlessness that they stay or fall away of themselves.
16.25.2.86Listen The actions of a man who has attained this degree are inspired directly by his Overself, and consequently are not dictated by personal wishes, purposes, passions, or desires. They are not initiated by his ego's will but by a will higher than his own…
16.25.2.88,Listen Plotinus even made the point that it is better for a man not to be aware that he is acting virtuously, courageously, wisely, or practising contemplation beautifully, free from interfering mental images or thoughts. For then, if he does not know that he—the person—is doing so, no egoism will taint his consciousness …
16.25.2.89,Listen It is not only true that there is variety in the types of illumination but also true that there is a scale of degrees in the illumination itself.
16.25.2.95Listen ... Mental peace is a fruit of the first and lowest degree of illumination, although thoughts will continue to arise although gently, and thinking in the discursive manner will continue to be active although slowly. But concentration will be sufficiently strong to detach him from the world and, as a consequence, to yield the happiness which accompanies such detachment…
16.25.2.97,All human beings on this planet are imperfect. Perfection is not fully attainable here. But when a man has striven for it and advanced near to it, he will attain it automatically as soon as he is freed from the body.
16.25.2.110Listen The liberation from further reincarnations can be attained while still here in the flesh, but the full completion of its consequent inner peace can come only after final exit from the body.
16.25.2.112Listen The illuminate is conscious of both the ultimate unity and immediate multiplicity of the world. This is a paradox. But his permanent resting place while he is dealing with others is at the junction-point of duality and unity so that he is ready at any moment to absorb his attention in either phase.
16.25.2.115Listen In this high state his own mind is consciously connected with the divine Mind…
16.25.2.119,Listen When the masculine and feminine temperaments within us are united, completed, and balanced, when masculine power and feminine passivity are brought together inside the person and knowledge and reverence encircle them both, then wisdom begins to dawn in the soul…
16.25.2.120,Listen When his mind moves entirely and wholly into the One Infinite Presence, and when it settles permanently there, the divided existence of glimpse and darkness, of Spirit and matter, of Overself and ego, of heaven and earth, will vanish. The crossing over to a unified existence will happen.
16.25.2.122Listen … It is a single awakening that enlightens the man so that he never returns to ignorance again. He has awakened to his divine essence, his source in Mind, as an all day and every day self-identification. It has come by itself, effortlessly.
16.25.2.141,Listen When the sense of this presence is a continuous one, when the knowledge of the mentalness of this world-experience is an abiding one, and when the calm which comes as a result is an unshakeable one, it may be said that he is established in the Truth and in the Real.
16.25.2.149Listen He does not have to enter into formal meditation to find his soul. It is an ever-present reality for him, not merely an intellectual conception or emotional belief.
16.25.2.150Listen In the world you will find only two kinds of people--the unconscious and the conscious. The first kind know only their own little egos and their own large desires. The second kind know continually that they are in the presence of the Overself, and enjoy its great peace.
16.25.2.152Listen The Buddhists call lasting enlightenment by the name of Nirvana.
16.25.2.162Listen To attain this advanced stage is to attain the capacity to enter directly and immediately into meditation, not merely at a special time or in a particular place, but always and everywhere.
16.25.2.164Listen Once this stage is attained, neither the knowledge of reality nor the feeling of serenity will ever leave him again. He has found them not for a few hours but forever.
16.25.2.165Listen Inner strength, divine joy, deep understanding, and unspeakable tranquillity will pervade him always and not be limited to the hours of solitary meditation. This is so because the Overself whence these things come is always with all men. Only, they know it not, whereas he has awakened to its abiding presence.
16.25.2.169Listen When this awareness is so stabilized that it maintains itself at all times awake or asleep, he is at the end of the quest.
16.25.2.174Listen The divine presence does not leave the enlightened man when he goes to sleep and return to him when he awakes, nor does it leave him when he enters the state of dream and return to him when he leaves it; it is in truth something which is ever present…
16.25.2.175,Listen That alone is the final attainment which can remain with him through all the three states—waking, dream and deep sleep—and through all the day’s activities.
16.25.2.179Listen What is ordinarily known during deep sleep is the veil of ignorance which covers the Real … The sage, however, carries into sleep the awareness he had in wakefulness. He may let it dim down to a glimmer, but it is always there.
16.25.2.180,Listen After this passing-over into the Overself’s rule, does he carry a loss of identity? Is he no more aware that he is the named person of the past? Were this so he could not exist in human society or attend to his duties. No!—outwardly he is more or less the same, although his pattern of behaviour betrays recognizable signs of superiority over the past man which he was. Inwardly, there is total revolution.
16.25.2.186Listen The differences between human beings still remain after illumination. The variations which make each one a unique specimen and the individual that he is, still continue to exist. But the Oneness behind human beings powerfully counterbalances.
16.25.2.189Listen When it is said that we lose our individuality on entering Nirvana, words are being used loosely and faultily. So long as a man, whether he be Buddha or Hitler, has to walk, eat, and work, he must use his individuality. What is lost by the sage is his attachment to individuality with its desires, hates, angers, and passions.
16.25.2.190Listen Freed at last from this ever-whirling wheel of birth and death to which he was tied by his own desire-nature, what happens to him can only be an opening up to a new better and indescribable state, and it is so. He, as he was, vanishes, not into complete annihilation and certainly not into the heaven of a perpetuated ego, but into a higher kind of life shrouded in mystery.
16.25.2.194Listen ... If the lower self is displaced, it is not destroyed. It lives on but in strict subordination to the higher one, the Overself, the divine soul of man…
16.25.2.198,Listen The unit of mind is differentiated out and undergoes its long evolution through numerous changes of state, not to merge so utterly in its source again as to be virtually annihilated, but to be consciously harmonized with that source whilst yet retaining its individuality.
16.25.2.204Listen He lives every moment in the awareness of his higher self. Yet this does not oppose nor interfere with, the awareness of his lower one.
16.25.2.208Listen There is no reason why he should not preserve his individuality even if he should surrender it to God.
16.25.2.217Listen The goal is achieved when the higher self encloses and absorbs the ego.
16.25.2.218Listen Though he has been caught up into something immensely greater than himself, he still remains an individual …
16.25.2.219,Listen The enlightened man has the same kind of body and the same five senses as unenlightened men have. His experience of the world must be the same, too. But — and this is a vast difference — he experiences it along with the Overself.
16.25.2.234Listen The man who has this higher consciousness permanently will see and experience the outer world like other men, but he will understand the relation between what he sees and the Real world which is behind it…
16.25.2.242,Listen This is the spiritual climax of one's life, this dramatic moment when consciousness comes to recognize and understand itself.
16.25.2.247Listen If he has become enlightened, a discerning eye may note the fact by his body and his actions, by his silences and his utterances. But an ignorant eye may note nothing at all.
16.25.2.254Listen The effects of enlightenment include: an imperturbable detachment from outer possessions, rank, honours, and persons; an overwhelming certainty about truth; a carefree, heavenly peace above all disturbances and vicissitudes; an acceptance of the general rightness of the universal situation, with each entity and each event playing its role; and impeccable sincerity which says what it means, means what it says.
16.25.2.255Listen He understands then what it means to do nothing of himself, for he feels clearly that the higher power is doing through him whatever has to be done, is doing it rightly, while he himself is merely watching what is happening.
16.25.2.257Listen Just as the Illumined State does not prevent him from receiving physical impressions from the world around him, so it does not prevent him from receiving psychic impressions from the people around him. But he does not cling to any of these impressions, nor does he let his emotions get entwined with them.
16.25.2.260Listen In that universal Mind wherein he now dwells, he can find no man to be called his enemy, no man to be hated or despised. He is friendly to all men, not as a deliberately cultivated attitude but as a natural compulsion he may not resist.
16.25.2.266Listen He is no longer able to will for himself for the simple reason that some other entity has begun to will for him. Egoism in the human sense, sensualism in the animal sense, have both been eliminated from his heart.
16.25.2.270Listen The realized man does not look back constantly for memories of the past and does not consider them worth recapitulating, for they belong to the ego … The only exception would be where he has to draw upon them to instruct others to help them profit by his experiences.
16.25.2.285,Listen What happened in all those earlier years is now veiled history to the enlightened man; what happens now, in the Eternal Now, is the important significant matter. Thus his mind is free from old burdens and errors. Yet, if needed, dead events can be resuscitated by intense concentration.
16.25.2.289Listen One day the mysterious event called by Jesus being ”born again” will occur. There will be a serene displacement of the lower self by the higher one. It will come in the secrecy of the disciple's heart and it will come with an overwhelming power which the intellect, the ego, and the animal in him may resist, but resist in vain...
16.25.2.296,… it is natural as well as inevitable that one who has entered into the larger life of the Overself should show forth some of its higher powers …
16.25.2.296,Listen … what was formerly an occasional glimpse will now become a permanent sight. The intermittent intuition of a guardian presence will now become the constantly established experience of it. The divine presence has now become to him an immediate and intimate one. Its reality and vitality are no longer matters for argument or dispute, but matters of settled experience …
16.25.2.296,Listen Outwardly he appears to act as intensely or as vigorously as other men. But inwardly he will really be at rest in the Overself, which will lead him like a child into performing necessary actions. His mind is still, even though his body is busy. And because of this leading, his actions will be right and even inspired ones, his personal will will be expressive of a higher one.
16.25.2.297Listen At long last, when the union of self with Overself is total and complete, some part of his consciousness will remain unmoving in infinity, unending in eternity. There, in that sacred glory, he will be preoccupied with his divine identity, held to it by irresistible magnetism, gladly, lovingly.
16.25.2.299Listen The sage is a man who lives in constant truth-remembrance. He has realized the existence of the Overself, he knows that he partakes of Its life, immortal and infinite. He has made the pilgrimage to essential being and returned again to walk amongst men, to speak their language, and to bear witness, by his life amongst them, to Truth.
16.25.2.300Listen His relationship to the Overself is one of direct awareness of its presence--not as a separate being but as his own essence.
16.25.2.301Listen The owl, which sees clearly at midnight, is an old and good symbol of the sage whose mind is ever at rest in, and lighted by, the Infinite Mind.
16.25.2.307Listen At this level, he is beyond bothering to listen to the discordant sounds of competing sects and cults: he is uninterested in the claims made for different teachings. He has only one concern: direct communion with the God within him as a felt, grace-giving Presence.
16.25.2.309Listen His life silently becomes a witness to the fact of the Overself’s continuous presence.
16.25.2.328Listen
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20 Jul 2018
13 Mar 2011
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16 Sep 2014
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