Food is Sacred

May all beings be healthy and happy and enjoy fullness without being too full.

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Vegan Salad with Mango pieces

Sri Ramana spent many years cooking for others at the Ashram and even gave precise instructions to those in the kitchen on cooking! He was a taskmaster and did not allow any food to be wasted.

The Upanishads remind us that food is sacred. “Food (anna) itself is Brahma” ~  Taittiriya Upanishad.

Bhagavan Ramana taught the devotees that food influences our body and mind, and should be selected with care, prepared well, and eaten in moderation.

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Kundalini Yoga Practice: By Pieter Schoonheim Samara

It is often said that Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, comprises all systems of yoga. This is meant more in the sense that the result and benefits of other systems of yoga gradually and suddenly emerge into the experience of the Kundalini Yoga practitioner, such that one will notice the emergence of a deep intuition of posture and prana, and awaken to the experiences of shakti, laya, bhakti, and gyan (jnana), which emerge spontaneously into consciousness. While providing all the benefits of physical and mental health, fitness and fortitude, Kundalini Yoga is entirely different in approach, practice, technique, benefit and result than any other system of yoga. Kundalini Yoga is a Path towards direct experience of the non-dual all-pervasive and single Self.

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Song of Mahamudra:Tilopa

Cut the root of a tree
And the leaves will wither;
Cut the root of your mind
And Samsara falls.

The light of any lamp
Dispels in a moment
The darkness of long kalpas;
The strong light of the mind
In but a flash will burn
The veil of ignorance.

Whoever clings to mind sees not
The truth of what’s
Beyond the mind.
Whoever strives to practice Dharma
Finds not the truth of
Beyond-practice.
To know what is Beyond both mind and practice,
One should cut cleanly through the root of mind
And stare naked.
One should thus break away
From all distinctions and remain at ease.

-From Tilopa’s ‘The Song of Mahamudra’ (translated by Garma C.C. Chang).

The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you: Rumi

Rumi’s poetry often centers on the search for the Beloved and the union with the Beloved.

It echoes the poetry of Bhagavan Ramana and the verses Bhagavan wrote to Arunachala.

Rumi says, “The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you”.

It was the same with Bhagavan Ramana. The minute he heard the name Arunachala, he associated it with something majestic, God Himself and started looking for it.

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The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.

From Open Secret: Versions of Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks / Translated by John Moyne

 

 

The Nature of Enlightenment in Advaita

Dear Harsha: In many Eastern traditions it is believed that once a person is fully Self-Realized or Enlightened, he or she attains complete perfection and becomes omniscient and all knowing about three periods of time (past, present, and the future) anywhere in the entire universe. What would be Sri Ramana Maharshi’s view on this? Was Sri Ramana really all knowing and perfect in every way?

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Dear Harsha:

In many Eastern traditions it is believed that once a person is fully Self-Realized or Enlightened, he or she attains complete perfection and becomes omniscient and all knowing about three periods of time (past, present, and the future) anywhere in the entire universe. What would be Sri Ramana Maharshi’s view on this? Was Sri Ramana really all knowing and perfect in every way?
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The Nature of Now

Our very nature is that of presence. We are not in the present. We are the present.

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Without a calm mind, one cannot experience the ultimate reality, the underlying oneness, as one’s own Self.

Spiritual practices (prayer, meditation, deep breathing, yoga) have value because they remove the agitation of the mind.

A peaceful mind, steady in awareness, can understand the purest teaching at the most subtle level.

Therefore the practical advice of the sages is to not bother anyone and not be bothered by others.

To reach the highest state and to know one’s own Heart as the Self, one has to become absolutely indifferent to both external and internal perceptions.

i-am-the-now

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Awareness Aware Of ItSelf

Sri Ramana used to say that what we give to others, we give to our self. That is the basic truth of the spiritual path.

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Awareness quietly aware of itself is the subtlest spiritual practice.

Its power can be understood fully when the mind is free from agitation.

The ancient sages knew that to make the mind calm and peaceful we must reflect on the interconnectedness of life and treat all life as precious and sacred.

Sri Ramana used to say that what we give to others, we give to our self.

That is the basic truth of the spiritual path.

May all beings be free from sorrow.

awareness-luthar

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Self, Shakti, Heart, and Enlightenment in Advaita: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

As Sri Ramana has said, — that which is real is ever present—. We have to see what is present right now in this very moment. If we become quiet, we are able to feel our ordinary awareness, the sense of “I Am” as being present in this moment. That is the seed. If we water it and give it food, it grows and the Reality reveals it Self from within.

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Often on the spiritual path, the topics of best postures, best techniques of meditation, best behaviors conducive to spiritual growth, best gurus, etc., come up. All of these questions are appropriate to their time and circumstances.  Such questions were frequently put to Bhagavan Ramana.

Underlying all such questions is the fundamental theme or inquiry as to what constitutes superior spiritual practice that will lead to improvement in one’s mental and physical conditions and finally to Self-Realization or Enlightenment. From this perspective, Self-Realization is viewed as an attainment. It is something that is achieved by an individual by making the right effort. This approach in its methodology is not too different than that of a talented world class athlete, who after having trained rigorously, wins a gold medal at the Olympics.

This point of view emphasizes the need to focus the mind in order for it to expand and evolve to…

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Shiva and Shakti-Jnaneshwar

I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,
The limitless primal parents of the universe.

They are not entirely the same,
Nor are they not the same.
We cannot say exactly what they are.

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Here are some selected verses from Jnaneshwar, a 13th century Indian mystic.

Amritanubhav (The Nectar of Mystical Experience)

Siva Shakti

Chapter One: The Union of Shiva and Shakti

I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,
The limitless primal parents of the universe.

They are not entirely the same,
Nor are they not the same.
We cannot say exactly what they are.

How sweet is their union!
The whole world is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the smallest particle.

When He awakes, the whole house disappears,
And nothing at all is left.

Two lutes: one note.
Two flowers: one fragrance.
Two lamps: one light.

Two lips: one word.
Two eyes: one sight.
These two: one universe.

In unity there is little to behold;
So She, the mother of abundance,
Brought forth the world as play.

He takes the role of Witness
Out of love of watching Her.

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