Every day is a Blessed New Day! If there is a recycling of birth and death... I don't know the past me...I don't know the future me...All I know is that...I AM ME NOW

Delusion and Enlightenment.

April 21 2017

Delusion and Enlightenment.

Delusions as well as Enlightenment, both are the products of the MIND. It is the mind that creates its surroundings; hence it is never free from its memories, fears and laments, not only from the ‘past’ but in the ‘present’ and the ‘future’ as well. All delusions rise from ignorance and greed and all the vast complexities of coordinating causes and conditions exist within the mind itself.  All misery and unhappiness arise from the desire to be happy, we look for happiness outside when it is purely a state of ones own mind. Life and death too arise from the mind;

When the mind transcends the concerns of life and death, the fears of life and death pass with it.

Buddha had said that all people are deluded by two fundamental concepts, conditioned by their Karmas:

1. They believe that the discriminating mind, which is the root of this life of birth and death, is their ‘True Nature.’
2. They do not know that it is behind the veil of the discriminating mind that the pure mind of enlightenment lies which is in reality their ‘True Nature.’

The Deer; intoxicated and maddened by the fragrance of the musk that lies within, spends its entire life trying to find its source outside, in vain. Little does he know that which he relentlessly seeks outside, lies inside of him. Likewise, men seek fulfilment and enlightenment from Scriptures and Master’s, befooling themselves that they are awakened and enlightened through their association with the Enlightened Ones. They gain knowledge and pride themselves as being superior to other ignorant beings, but, knowledge is not enlightenment, it can only be the channel to enlightenment.  Just as a horse can be led to the water but he must drink it himself, it is the Buddha within that must be awakened to get enlightenment for each man is a potential Buddha and when awakened inside, becomes enlightened. This enlightenment comes from the removal of the debris collected and coated over the subjective mind from past and present manifestations of Desire, Delusion, Loss of Discrimination and Greed.

Enlightenment is abstract, it has neither form nor nature through which it can manifest itself and therefore in enlightenment itself there is nothing to be enlightened. Delusion and ignorance are the cause of enlightenment, for they are the eternal pair of opposites, one cannot exist without the other. They are opposite but not opposed for the death of one gives birth to the other and one cannot exist without the other. When anyone peruses enlightenment as an object in life, it becomes obstructive. As long as one seeks enlightenment it means that delusion and ignorance are rampant in the darkened and veiled mind. When darkness becomes enlightened, it passes away and in its passing so does enlightenment pass.  All dualities between the two end at that moment and there being no separation then, they merge into one. Hence enlightenment cannot be taught for it cannot be learnt; it has to be experienced by the mind. It already exists inside each and every human being, but is like a mirror whose reflective surface is veiled from vision by the collection of dust over years of neglect, disuse and/or misuse and abuse. The mind, which has collected innumerable impressions from past and present life manifestations, though veiled by delusions and desire, can never loose its original potentialities.

Just as pure gold is procured by melting ore and filtering all impurities, if man would melt the core of his mind and remove all impurities of worldly passions and egoism, greed and avarice, hatred and jealousy, illusion and delusion, pride and prejudice and anger and vengefulness, he would recover the Buddha Nature that is always in a state of enlightenment at the core of his True Self. We are all enlightened; we only have to find within ourselves that which we have lost!

                                                                    

The true seeker will not merely accept anyone else’s experience and be satisfied, for unless he has not experienced it himself, he has not known the truth and the truth is to be known undoubtedly and firmly, not believed in. What one believes in, may be, and may not be true. When one simply knows it, IT IS.

In the words of LOU TZU, “You will start climbing only when you reach the mountain top.”

Gittanjali Elizabeth Mordecai

(Gittanjali Singh)

INSIDE

April 19 2017

INSIDE 

Book knowledge is a burdensome knowledge where the reader, who, having absorbed the teachings, philosophies, doctrines and techniques of others goes into a dilemma many a times. The burden of accepting or rejecting the texts becomes paramount for the thinker; yet, he is only at the text level. A deep analysis would have to be the basis of ones acceptance or rejection in the belief of the teaching, philosophy, doctrine or technique of the Teacher, Philosopher, Sage or Seer. A Belief is so called because it makes you accept what someone else is telling you to be true. It’s like a birth-blind being told of the wonders and beauty of this world, he has no choice but to believe what is told to him, for he has not seen it himself. A blind man will have to believe if you tell him that it’s light when the night falls or that flowers are ugly things and that the sky is green and the grass is blue. A sighted man will nevertheless use his own vision to discern the true from the untrue. Ironically, most people are blind. The learned and highly intellectual man, more often than not becomes conceited and vain that he knows it all. He is very learned and intellectual; does it mean that he is intelligent too? An intellectual man believes that he is knowledge itself whereas an intelligent man believes only that which he experiences. It is the knowing and not the believing that makes all the difference. One believes something that one does not know but when one knows, there is no question of believing. One doesn’t have to believe what one knows, one simply knows it to be true and that’s enough.

There is a very famous quote:

“A man who knows not and knows not that he knows not, is a fool, ignore him.

A man who knows not and knows that he knows not, is a student, teach him.

A man who knows but knows not that he knows, is asleep, awaken him.

A man who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man, follow him!”

The Buddha is said to be the ultimate manifestation of enlightenment; is it possible to read about the enlightenment of the Buddha and become enlightened? One can become a Buddhist by faith and believe in the teachings, the doctrines and the techniques taught by the Buddha, but one cannot become enlightened. The Buddha is any enlightened soul who has experienced the truth on and, via the journey’ Within’. Buddha is the equivalent word for ‘Enlightenment’. Buddha was enlightened, we believe that but can only know enlightenment by the practice of his technique, the same technique he discovered and practiced to attain enlightenment. If one were to practice what Buddha has preached over two thousand and five hundred years ago, one would experience at the deepest and innermost levels what the Buddha experienced and so got enlightened. Anyone can be a Buddha, for Buddha means ‘The Enlightened One’

Gittanjali Elizabeth Mordecai

(Gittanjali Singh)

18 April 2017

INSIDE

THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH!

I dug for long deep INSIDE

And levelled myself to build a HOME

For FOUNDATION I then laid my SOUL

I CEILED it with my VALUES

And CHAMBERED it with VIRTUES

My PRINCIPLES…the OAKEN DOORS

With HONESTY…I then marbled the FLOORS.

My CONSCIENCE in place of BRICKS stood erect

The WALLS were now in place correct.

Each PILLAR I then carved with TRUTH…

To building my HOME…I gave my YOUTH.

With every corner now well made,

To rest awhile, down I laid…

IN MY TEMPLE OF TRUTH!

How long I stayed therein, I knew naught

The outside world was well forgot

Until the night the hawk came by

And Vultures screeching filled the night sky

Wailing that the Werewolf was nigh!

I heard a gush…waters rush…

With moans of million wanton beings

Washed away by desire into hell’s burning fire…

And then the earth began to crack…

As tremors rocked its whole…

And mighty structures crashed to earth…

With debris engulfing life and mirth

Mud to mud and dirt to dirt!

Yet nothing shook my fortitude

I felt no fear INSIDE.

Amidst the gory sea of death

My fortress weathered the ruinous storm.

It shook me not the Harbinger’s horn…

As nature took its toll

Not setting aside one from all.

I was free from shame…I was free from pride…

With Faith for Torch and the Lord for Guide

I was free from sin…Safe within…

MY TEMPLE OF TRUTH!

Gittanjali Elizabeth Mordecai

All knowledge and enlightenment comes from three sources; through that which is taught to the Student by his Guru, self learnt by the seeker through the innumerable teachings of the sages and Masters, or, through that which is realized and known at ones own experiential levels. That which comes through learning and teachings of others remains at the intellectual levels only and rarely can it enhance ones spiritual growth and ones onwards journey in the quest of self-realization and God.