Basic Spiritual Principles, Boiled Down

 Basic Spiritual Principles, Boiled Down

1. BE

2. Be Aware

3. Be Aware of Awareness

4. Be Aware of your Origin

5. Be Kind

6. If you find yourself incapable of, or incomplete in Being any of the above, work at Becoming it.

7. In the spirit of the great spiritual masters of all times and places, everything else is commentary and guidance. Study. Especially study yourself to locate, become and BE the Self you already are, but may not be aware of in all of its paradoxical Fullness and Emptiness.

This will result in increasingly inspired and meaningful living.

And now for the elaborations:

1. BE. We all Are, so this is a gimme.

2. Be Aware. The Bill Clinton strategists had the political slogan, "It's the economy, stupid". Well, in the dimension of spiritual growth, paraphrasing Forest Gump's mama, "Awareness is as Awareness does." I is all about Awareness and expanding it, becoming fully aware. We all are partly aware - it comes with Being. It is not, or should not, be complicated, but we make it so, individually and collectively, as attested to by psychotherapists, philosophers, theologians, and others.

3. Be Aware of Awareness. Ditto.

4. Be Aware of your Origin. This is just anothother way of stating what the likes of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj advocate: enquire with great determination and persistence into the source and substance of "I". This also relates to the first fundamental prong upon which most religions are based: What is Divinity and one's relationship with the Divine, one's place in the Cosmic Scheme.

5. Be Kind. This relates fundamental prong upon which most religions are based: How one should relate with everything and all beings that appear to exist separate from oneself. Kindness is a simple, yet comprehensive guiding principle. It encompasses all positive values and virtues, including the Golden Rule, mindfulness, compassion, non-violence, etc.

6. If you find yourself incapable of, or incomplete in Being any of the above, work at Becoming it. This is the nature and essence of spiritual work and practice.

7. In the spirit of the great spiritual masters of all times and places, everything else is commentary and guidance. Study. Especially study yourself to locate, become and BE the Self you already are, but may not be aware of in all of its paradoxical Fullness and Emptiness. Discover/develp/expand a capacity of being able to embrace Paradox and Mystery, and reognize/get comfortable with the reality that you are not really in control.

Conclusion: "Find your inspiration and follow it" is another pet phrase to sum it up.

Quote of the Week #156 - Litening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

 Quote of the Week #156 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Every one who is thirsty, come and drink. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy. Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is goo. Let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, that your soul will live...

--Isaiah 55:1-3, The Living Torah, translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

Quote of the Week #155 - A Walk Through a Garden in Late Autumn

 Quote of the Week #155  - A Walk Through a Garden in Late Autumn

I am walking through a garden. The time is late autumn. The hour is twilight. How colorful everything is. It is so beautiful my eyes are moist. Oh, this wonderful twilight hour, these precious moments of eternity…silently, I stand and listen…listen…it speaks to me:

 

            “Welcome home, my son! Let me embrace you. Your hair is gray, your eyes are clear and bright. It is well now, you are back in the heart of your family. Sit down, have some fruit. The others will be here soon to press your hands and to kiss your lean cheeks. We all missed you so. You strayed here and there, but we never lost track of you and we hoped that you would find the road. Always, we longed for you, and you are here with us, and you smile. ‘Twasn’t so bad, was it? The road was long, the trails were steep and a bit lonely. But, that is all past now…you are home. Let me take a good look at you.”

 

--Mory Berman, Autumn Leaves; A Collection of Essays

Quote of the Week #154 - The Answer

 Quote of the Week #154 - The Answer

 The answer to the Mysteries:

 

Doo dum dum dum

 

Da doo dum dum

 

--Leonard Cohen,  “Tower of Song”, Live in London

Quote of the Week 153 - Coping with the void

 Quote of the Week #153 - Coping with the void

            Everyone in our nation has a terrifying void inside that we attempt to fill with work, smartphones, and every other addiction. Some of us enter 12-step programs, where we become addicted to meetings, but the void persists.

We each keep our emptiness a shameful secret. It never occurs to us that everyone around us shares the exact same interior void.

 

--Sparrow, The Sun magazine, August 2020 issue

 

My comments:

 

Existentialism teaches to accept the void and deal with it.

 

Zen teaches to embrace, even celebrate the void, not try to fill it.

Quote of the Week #152 - The Most Brilliant Light

Quote of the Week #152 - The Most Brilliant Light

 

There is no light as brilliant as that which emerges out of the Dark.

 

--Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

Quote of the Week$151 - The Point to Life

Quote of the Week #151 - The Point to Life

There is no point to life; life itself is the point.

--Rabbi Rami Shapiro, from Raodside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler, Spirituality & Health Magazine, July/August 2020 issue

Quote of the Week #150 - Saints and Sinners

Quote of the Week #150 - Saints and Sinners

There is no saint without a past

and no sinner without a future.

--Shri Babaji Haidakhan

Quote of the Week #149 - Here, There and Everywhere

Quote of the Week 412 - Here, There and Everywhere

My three children, the only European children at Tiruvannamalai, were conspicuous among the devotees. One evening, in December 1946 Sri Bhagavan initiated the two elder of them into meditation, and if their efforts to describe it fail, so do those of older people. Kitty, who was ten, wrote: “When I was sitting in the hall this evening Bhagavan smiled at me and I shut my eyes and began to meditate. As soon as I shut my eyes I felt very happy and felt that Bhagavan was very, very near to me and very real and that he was in me. It wasn’t like being happy and excited about anything. I don’t know what to say, simply very happy and that Bhagavan is so lovely.”    

And Adam, who was seven, wrote: “When I was sitting in the hall I didn’t feel happy so I began to pray and I felt very happy, but not like having a new toy, just loving Bhagavan and everyone.”

…

When Frania, the youngest child, was seven the other two were talking about their friends and she, having no real friends yet but not wanting to be left out, said that Dr. Syed was the best friend she had in the world.

…

And her mother said, “What about Bhagavan?”

Frania said, “Bhagavan is not in the world.”

…

            Later, Dr. Syed asked the child where Bhagavan was if not in the world, and she replied, “He is everywhere.”

            Still he continued, “How can we say that he is not a man in the world like us when we see him sitting on the couch and eating and drinking and walking about?”

            And the child replied, “Let’s talk about something else.”

--from Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, by Arthur Osborne

Quote of the Week #148- Surf's Up

Quote of the Week #148 - Surf’s Up

With the world changing so rapidly, there’s no point in being optimistic or pessimistic about anything. You’ve just got to surf uncertainty, because it’s all we get.

--Alan Alda, June/July 2020 AARP Magazine

Quote of the Week #147 - Silver Threads

Quote of the Week #147 - Silver Threads

They say silver threads emerge   

From unknown to known,

Traversing all dimensions,

Conveyors of life-light.

And every morning

During my daily shower

A few of those threads

Go down the drain.

--Steven J. Gold