Bhagavan Sri Ramana Marharshi

[Miss Hepburn]

Still Waters ...and iamthat would prob agree...sit in perfect stillness...
place earplugs in your ears...(The best are the 'gummy', play-doe kind...not the sponge kind)
You'll hear Celestial Music or Harmony or Sound alright.

Buy the book 'Naam or Word', Kirpal Singh...it will be of great benefit to someone like you...I think
the quotes above may have come from that book.
Now, we better get back to Ramana!!

[Chanine]

Power implies movement. Though God moves by his own power, which is movement, he transcends the movement. He is motionless, transcendent

Bhagavans reply to a question about movement

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Great story....oh my! Reminds me of Mary Baker's, if alive still, prob 90.
At 15 with a friend in a field going off to get in 'trouble' (Arkansas?)...a man appeared to both...changing their lives
forever...later she realized it was Jesus.

Comment: I am sorry the word bliss means little to you...I ignore how others use it flippantly...
would Spiritual-ecstasy-entwined-with-profound-knowledge work better? Ha!

You kinda ans'd your own question to me! Ha!
I deliberately 'shift my attention'...I stop, breathe, get centered and expand my awareness is all....to what?
To what 'Is'....to Reality! Ha!

What that means for my mind to lock onto with pleasure is the Truth of the situation....
the 'situation' being: here I am looking out of these eyes at things that are simply not real...
I am looking at things, people, pets that are not people, things or pets AT ALL!

God is the Cosmic-Shape Shifter....He makes things look like a wall....you think the wall there is a wall?
Oh my God, no...it's love...it is atoms vibrating at a certain speed and distance apart with a certain
amt of electrons to appear as a wall....being held together consciously to maintain that appearance...by a superior power, the Divine Mind...
Whose Presence is palpable.

All around you at this second you are being bombarded by thousands of waves...radio waves, UHF waves,
cosmic rays from outer space...they are going thru your roof and right thru your body passing into the ground.
Example: Get a receptor to pick up these 1000s of waves...a shortwave radio, an AM-FM radio, a TV....and turn the dials.

WE are the receptors for God's Divine Cosmic Infinite Frequency within everything.
So tune to It...To His Divine Presence daily.

It will become so easy like practicing looking at a 3D picture and suddenly
your vision
changes and you see the elephant that was 'always' right there.


Does that help? :) Such a pleasure to have a kindred spirit to chat with!

Excellent response ! Somehow, I thought that you would say something like that, "kindred spirit". Our techniques may vary slightly, but I understand what you are doing. It is indeed difficult to put such things in words, isn't it?

On another note, I do prefer "Spiritual-ecstasy-entwined-with-profound-knowledge work better" to the overused word "bliss" but it's obviously a bit awkward to say all that so, in the future, "Bliss" in your case is perfectly all right since I know how you are using the word. (Many people associate "bliss" with the stoned out hippies of the 60s.)

As for the Mary Baker story, such appearances are not as uncommon as people think. Thanks for sharing.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Still Waters ...and iamthat would prob agree...sit in perfect stillness...
place earplugs in your ears...(The best are the 'gummy', play-doe kind...not the sponge kind)
You'll hear Celestial Music or Harmony or Sound alright.

Buy the book 'Naam or Word', Kirpal Singh...it will be of great benefit to someone like you...I think
the quotes above may have come from that book.
Now, we better get back to Ramana!!

I have read some of Kirpal Singh's works but not that particular one. In addition, I sometimes go to the Sikh Temple in Queens (NYC). Not only are the atmosphere and people uplifting, but there is indeed a "free lunch" (langar) there ..... though I do make a voluntary appropriate donation to support that function.

I sometimes play the Sikh chant, "Sat Naam", but it is not my primary mantra/chant. Nonetheless, it is quite appealing.

Now .... back to Ramana.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Many spiritual writings emphasise repeating the Name of God through japa, so people repeat Ram or OM or whatever their preference is. I would suggest that the true repetition of the Name of God is meditation on Divine Sound. Some people talk about Shabd Yoga and give a mantra, saying that if you repeat the mantra then eventually you might hear the Sound. My own experience was that I was initiated into Light and Sound through shaktipat.

Guru Nanak was one teacher who taught the importance of the Name of God. One website gives the following:

Naam, Shabad, or Word, is the quintessence of Sikh spirituality and is mentioned 2546 times in the Sikh Holy Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, literally meaning the Name of Gods or God. But what exactly is Naam and why is it so important?

Naam is the great creative and controlling power of God. Naam has no beginning and no end. It is unchanging, ancient and eternal and it is the life current which pervades the entire creation.

Naam is characterised by sweet strains and melodious tunes and powerful light which can be seen and witnessed. This sound current is active in the whole of creation. This is one of the ways humans experience this phenomenon within themselves.

Our mind is always in a state of oscillation and all the time our mental faculties are always flowing outward into the world. Never for a moment have they known any rest. Until we internalise our focus and allow the mind to become purified and stilled, one cannot listen to the reverberations of the sound current.

Naam, the primal sound current is in fact only one continuous vibration. However as it steps down through 5 different planes of existence, with their varying degrees of density, the frequency of Naam changes and this creates the ‘Panj Shabad’, the five distinct melodies, which are contained within the mantra Sat Naam.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Master, enumerates the many advantages that accrue from the hearing and acceptance of Naam by saying:

“By communion with Naam, one can attain the status of a super human being with spiritual powers, a god and a yoga master. By communion with Naam, the earthly regions, the heavens and the nether regions stand revealed. By communion with Naam one becomes immortal. Says Nanak, God’s devotees live in perpetual ecstasy for the Naam washes away all sin and sorrow.”



As I said, I was initiated into Light and Sound through shaktipat nearly 40 years ago. I was also taught the meditation techniques. This has been my main practice ever since.

My direct experience was that I heard Sound and saw Light. At my initiation it was very strong. Doing it on my own afterwards it was much fainter. I struggled with meditation throughout the first year, but I persisted. Then it became much stronger, and the Sound would fill my head and sometimes descend into the body. The Light would become brilliant and the dark centre you mentioned earlier would become very clearly defined. In longer meditates it becomes very powerful.

Obviously this is a practice which suits me - perhaps it may not resonate with others.

Peace.

Thank you very much for your very informative post. As I mentioned to Miss Hepburn in another post, I do frequent the Sikh Temple in Queens (NYC) and often sit in the main hall where they are chanting "Sat Naam" or "Waheguru .." as well as other chants. I play some of those chants at home as well though they are not my primary chants. Nonetheless, I find them uplifting and I enjoy the time spent at the Sikh Temple. (I also enjoy the free meals --- langars --- at the Sikh Temple though I do make an appropriate voluntary donation.)

When I was in Hounslow, England (just outside of London) at our ashram there, I used to go with my teacher to the nearby Sikh Temple to just hang out and/or dine with the devotees there. We used to go there every day while I was at the ashram in England.

Thanks again for the very informative post. It's very clear.

[Miss Hepburn]

“By communion with Naam, one can attain the status of a super human being with spiritual powers,
a god and a yoga master. By communion with Naam, the earthly regions, the heavens and the
nether regions stand revealed. By communion with Naam one becomes immortal. Says Nanak,
God’s devotees live in perpetual ecstasy for the Naam washes away all sin and sorrow.”

[Miss Hepburn]

Q: Difficulties are encountered. How is one to get the necessary strength to
overcome the obstacles that beset one's path?

RM: By means of devotion and the company of sages.

[Chanine]

It is to know the truth that the "I" is not different from the lord and to be free from the feeling of being the doer

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Chanine

It is to know the truth that the "I" is not different from the lord and to be free from the feeling of being the doer

Yes! Be free!!!
"Be what you are.
That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It,
and not apart from It."
-RM
Thank you, RM.

[Miss Hepburn]

...the ego nor the mind really exists...