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Thinking of posting my favourite pieces from #TheUpanishads as I read it. This could be a long thread.
You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
1/n
You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
1/n
“There is no joy in the finite; there is joy only in the infinite.”
The infinite - free, unbounded, full of joy is our native state. Finite things can never appease an infinite hunger. Nothing can satisfy us but reunion with our real ‘Self’ — sat-chit-ananda.
2/n
The infinite - free, unbounded, full of joy is our native state. Finite things can never appease an infinite hunger. Nothing can satisfy us but reunion with our real ‘Self’ — sat-chit-ananda.
2/n
In dreaming, we leave one world and enter another. When we wake up from a dream, then, we do not pass from unreality to reality; we pass from a lower level of reality to a higher one.
3/n
3/n
Self/ Atman: As pure water poured into pure water becomes the very same, so does Self of the illumined person verily become one with the supreme.
Those who know they are neither body or mind but the immemorial Self, find the source of all joy.
4/n
Those who know they are neither body or mind but the immemorial Self, find the source of all joy.
4/n
Death: It occurs only to that part of us which was born and launched into separate existence.
Who sees multiplicity but not the one, indivisible Self must wander on and on from death to death, he must again put on a body in the world of embodied creatures.
5/n
Who sees multiplicity but not the one, indivisible Self must wander on and on from death to death, he must again put on a body in the world of embodied creatures.
5/n
Above the Senses is the Mind
Above the Mind is the Intellect
Above that is the Ego and
Above the Ego is the unmanifested Cause and
Beyond Cause is the Self —omnipresent, attributeless.
Realising Self, one is released from the cycle of birth and death.
6/n
Above the Mind is the Intellect
Above that is the Ego and
Above the Ego is the unmanifested Cause and
Beyond Cause is the Self —omnipresent, attributeless.
Realising Self, one is released from the cycle of birth and death.
6/n
Nididhyasana/ Meditation: It is not to be confused with discursive thinking. Mind is both — object & laboratory. It is trained inward, to dwell on an interior focus without wandering, consciously absorbed into a state of inner wakefulness in which all senses close down.
7/n
7/n
Love: Creatures are loved not for their own sake, but because the Self lives in them. Everything is loved not for its own sake, but because the Self lives in it.
As a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is w/o and what is within, so a person in union with..
8/n
As a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is w/o and what is within, so a person in union with..
8/n
...the Self is not aware of what is w/o and what is within, for in that unitive state, nothing is separate from him, all desires find their perfect fulfilment and one goes beyond sorrow.
9/n
9/n
Freedom: Those who depart from this world without knowing who they are or what they truly desire have no freedom here or hereafter.
But those who leave here knowing who they are and what they truly desire have freedom everywhere; both in this world and in the next.
10/n
But those who leave here knowing who they are and what they truly desire have freedom everywhere; both in this world and in the next.
10/n
Acting w/o attachment means the victory of good over evil is guaranteed but not by the doer. We cannot win that victory, but we can make ourselves the instruments of it.
Accent: An influence is seen in Gandhiji’s philosophy as he quotes “I must reduce myself to zero”.
11/n
Accent: An influence is seen in Gandhiji’s philosophy as he quotes “I must reduce myself to zero”.
11/n
By whose mere presence does that desire arise which moves the universe?
That which makes the mind think but cannot be thought by the mind, that which makes the eye see but cannot be seen by the eye — that is the Self indeed. That Self is not separate from you.
12/n
That which makes the mind think but cannot be thought by the mind, that which makes the eye see but cannot be seen by the eye — that is the Self indeed. That Self is not separate from you.
12/n
A Dreamless Sleep: The central point of The Upanishads
13/n
13/n
Pleasure & Joy:
Pleasure mainly comes from sense experience, is transitory & limited.
Joy comes from being in harmony w the creative forces of the universe, with ones own destiny, & is permanent; it has no limits at all — one of the main reasons we can tell them apart.
14/n
Pleasure mainly comes from sense experience, is transitory & limited.
Joy comes from being in harmony w the creative forces of the universe, with ones own destiny, & is permanent; it has no limits at all — one of the main reasons we can tell them apart.
14/n
‘The universe, splendid in the firmament still cannot be compared to your exalted dignity as a human; there is nothing above you in nature except God himself.’
How can a minuscule, fragile body whose size in the universe is beyond ludicrous, be or contain such importance?
15/n
How can a minuscule, fragile body whose size in the universe is beyond ludicrous, be or contain such importance?
15/n
The Upanishads and all the world’s great Mystics insist — we are not that fragile body but that which causes it to move, breathe, and be alive: consciousness.
And all reality is consciousness.
16/n
And all reality is consciousness.
16/n
The supreme Self is neither born nor dies. He cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried. Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self is the eternal witness, ever pure, indivisible and uncompounded. Far beyond the sense and the ego. In him conflicts & expectations cease.
17/n
17/n
There is only one Self in all creatures. The One appears many, just as the moon appears many, reflected in water.
As butter lies hidden within milk, the Self is hidden in the hearts of all. Churn the mind through meditation on it. Light your fire through meditation on it.
18/n
As butter lies hidden within milk, the Self is hidden in the hearts of all. Churn the mind through meditation on it. Light your fire through meditation on it.
18/n
The Upanishads offer— a noble, exalted version of human nature, a beckoning goal & a way to reach it. They’re— scientific & experiential; rigorously unforgiving in that ignorance is its own punishment & rigorously redemptive in that wisdom is its own reward.
Thread Ends. 19/19
Thread Ends. 19/19
