FALLING SILENT: A SHORT STORY

When he began his blog in 2009 he said that he would write it until he no longer wrote it.  Two days ago it came to a screeching halt, not because of something he decided but because of something it decided. 

"It may just be hibernating in its cave, in which case it will be back," he said.  "Then again it may be metamorphosing in its cocoon, in which case it will also be back only as what I don't know," he also said, in conclusion.

KABIR

Kabir was an Indian mystic of the weaver caste, known for his hymns, sayings, and poems which influenced both Hindus and Muslims alike.  He lived in the latter part of the 15th and early part of the 16th centuries.

Kabir drew upon the Vaisnavite form of Hinduism, rejecting its polytheistic doctrines and simplifying its teachings.  He also drew upon Sufism.  He spoke of God indwelling in the heart of man and attempted to show a middle way between the excesses of Hinduism and the fierce dogmatism of Islam.

His central teaching may be expressed in a passage from one of his works:

"The difference among faiths is due only to the difference in names.  Everywhere there is yearning for the same God.  Why do the Hindus and Muslims quarrel for naught?  Keep at a distance all pride and vanity, insincerity and falsehood; consider others the same as yourself; let your heart be filled with love and devotion.  Then alone will your struggle be fruitful.  Life is but transitory, waste not your time, but take refuge in God.  He is within your own heart, so why do you fruitlessly search for him out in holy places, in scriptures, in rites and ceremonies."

He did not follow the path of austerity and celibacy, for he was twice married, had children, and worked at a common trade.  During his lifetime he founded an order of monks and nuns, who propagated his bhakti doctrines.  His teachings are known as Kabirpanth, and his followers as panthis.

Collected in a compilation entitled Bijak, his writings have been translated into English by the 19th century Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

KABIR POEM

A famous poem by the Hindu saint Kabir:

You wander restlessly from forest to forest
while the Reality is within your own dwelling.
The truth is here!  Go where you will.
Until you have found God in your own
soul, the whole world will seem
meaningless to you.

VAIRAGYA

In Vedanta, the term vairagya refers to freedom from desire, dispassion, and detachment from the world. 

Two forms of vairagya are found:  apara, or lower vairagya, denotes detachment from the objects of pleasure, while para, or higher vairagya, denotes detachment from nature as such, in its primordial condition.

Vairagya is conceived as a fire, for the individual in such a state experiences a burning agony in the least contact with sense objects and worldly things.

SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS

Swami Saradananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrisna, noted that after a person awakens spiritually, the world seems to him a mere appearance, like a mirage.

The person sees that even though there apparently is this world with its names and forms, it is, finally, but an illusion, is maya, is nothing. 

When he goes about his business in this world, he finds everything as before, surely, only he is no longer attracted to or attached to anything in it.

MEDITATING ON THE LOTUS OF THE HEART

Meditating on the lotus of the heart is helpful because it localizes our image of that spiritual consciousness we all seek.  If we conceive of the body as a busy, noisy city, then we can imagine that in the middle of this city there is a little shrine.  Within this shrine resides Brahman as Atman, our true nature.  No matter what is happening in the streets outside, we can always find refuge in that shrine.  It is always open.

LOTUS OF THE HEART

From the Chandogya Upanishad:

Within the city of Brahman, which is the body, there is the heart, and within the heart there is a little house.  This house has the shape of a lotus, and within it dwells that which is to be sought after, inquired about, and realized.

What, then, is that which dwells within this little house, this lotus of the heart?  What is it that must be sought after, inquired about, and realized?

Even so large as the universe outside is the universe within the lotus of the heart.  Within it are heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the lightning, and all the stars.  Whatever is in the macrocosm is in the microcosm also.

All things that exist, all beings and all desires, are in the city of Brahman; what, then, becomes of them when old age approaches and the body dissolves in death?

Though old age comes to the body, the lotus of the heart does not grow old.  It does not die with the death of the body.  The lotus of the heart, where Brahman resides in all his glory--that, and not the body, is the true city of Brahman.

QUIET MIND

Meister Eckhart said, "To the quiet mind all things are possible.  What is a quiet mind?  A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own."

The trouble is, our minds are never quiet.  We are forever stuffing them with stuff, while the environment stuffs them some more.  All our waking hours are devoted to this, which leaves our sleeping hours for what little unstuffing our minds can manage, in the form of dreams.

The casualty in all this is God.  We have, on purpose apparently, no room left for Him.  It takes effort to be with God, and we'd much rather put our energy into things more tangible and predictable.  God is not tangible and predictable.  Which is to say, with God there are no guarantees, leaving the outside world our better bet.

The question is, how can we know the benefits of a quiet mind if we don't even attempt it?  How can we know the advantages of God if we don't even try?

Again, Meister Eckhart, "To be full of things is to be empty of God; to be empty of things is to be full of God."

It's worth the effort.

BHAKTI YOGA

Bhakti yoga, or the way of devotion, is the most natural path to God-realization.  The devotee, called a Bhakta, need not suppress his emotions.  Indeed, he intensifies them and directs them to God.  The majority of believers in all religions of the world are fundamentally followers of this way.

There are four stages in Bhakti yoga, the first being bhakti, or the devotion itself.  Next is bhava, a state of intense ecstasy.  Only avatars and ishvarakotis can transcend this stage. 

Avatars are divine incarnations of God, while isharakotis are eternally free and perfect souls born in the world for the good of humankind.  An ishvarakoti, according to Sri Ramakrishna, has at least some of the characteristics of an avatar.

The third stage in Bhakti yoga is called prema.  This is a state in which the devotee forgets the world, including his own body.  Fourth is mahabhava, which is the highest manifestation of divine love.

Bhakti, however, conflicts with basic Hindu beliefs regarding karma.  Karma is the working out of one's destiny in light of past deeds.  According to karma, one is fated to undergo the consequences of his past lives, for whatever good or ill he may have done.  But in Bhakti, karma is set aside.  The devotee expects that God will reward his devotion by altering or ignoring the predestined course of his karma.   

MEISTER ECKHART AND VEDANTA

Meister Eckhart was a 13th century German mystic whose Christian teachings sound at times like Vedanta teachings.  Among his quotes that may be seen this way:

"We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born."  The Brahman forever creates itself through us, his creation, i.e. we create Brahman as he creates us.

"Only those who have dared to let go can dare to reenter."  Letting go of the egoic self is a prerequisite to spiritual awakening.  Individuality is something to be laid aside; it is nothing, Eckhart taught.

"He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere."  This is the pantheism of Advaita Vedanta.  God is everything.  Brahman is the universal and eternal Unity transcending all diversity.

"My eye and God's eye are one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love."  The eye of the Atman and the eye of the Brahman are the same eye.

"The soul first trains itself by systematic unknowing until at last it confronts the only reality, the only knowledge, God manifest in itself."  This is the Atman purging itself of all that it has come to know here, so to reach the Brahman in itself, the Brahman that is itself.

GOD

A window beyond which is another window, beyond which is another window, and then another window beyond that one, and another window, and then another one, and another, and yet another, with still more windows beyond and beyond.

BORN TO DO

We say, "I was born to paint pictures," or "I was born to heal the sick," or "I was born to run the fifty-yard dash," but in fact we were born to do only one thing, to awaken spiritually.  Everything else is irrelevant.

But then is this fair?  Of course, we are born with natural abilities and interests, which we go on to have nurtured and developed over the years, to where what we do in life feels like what our lives have truly been for, what feels like our destiny. 

Yet, this is our destiny only partially.  There is more to us than the fifty-yard dash.  It is perhaps best to see what we do in life as what it ultimately may prove to be, a means to the larger end of spiritual liberation. 

This is to say, we may well not have been able to realize awakening had we not painted all those pictures, healed all those people, and dashed all those times around the track.

FOREST FOR THE TREES

We cannot see the forest for the trees.   Brahman is the forest.  We are the trees.

MANTRAM AND JAPAM

"In the beginning was the Word," according to the Gospel of St. John, and "the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  This is not unlike the verse in the Rig-Veda, "In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was the Word, and the Word was truly the supreme Brahman."

In its various forms and modifications, the Word, philosophically, may be traced down from the ancient Hindu scriptures, to the teachings of Plato and the Stoics, to Philo of Alexandria, and again to John, the author of the Fourth Gospel.

In Hinduism, the Word takes the form of a mantram or mantra, which is given to a disciple by his teacher at initiation.  This consists of one or more holy names which the disciple is to repeat and meditate upon throughout the rest of his life.

The mantram is considered private and sacred, for it is the essence of the teacher's instructions to that particular disciple.  At the same time, it is the seed within which spiritual wisdom passes from one generation to another.  The disciple must never tell his mantram to any other person.

The act of repeating the mantram is called japam or japa.  The disciple can make japam aloud if he is alone, or silently if he is among other people.  Most spiritual aspirants make a certain fixed amount of japam every day.  Many use a rosary, moving one bead with each repetition of the mantram, thus eliminating the distraction of having to count.

The making of japam is not confined to Hinduism.  Catholicism teaches it, as does the Greek Orthodox Church, among others.