The great way isn't difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences. Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear. When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart. If you want to realize the truth, don't be for or against. The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind. Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your mind's serenity. As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing. But because you select and reject, you can't perceive its true nature. Don't get entangled in the world; don't lose yourself in emptiness. Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves. If you don't live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial. Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality; denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things. The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth. Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go. Returning to the root, you find the meaning; chasing appearances, you lose their source. At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness. Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions. For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears. With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely. All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to. All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being. In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self. If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two." In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded. The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth. In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years. There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes. The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished; the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits. Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being. Until you understand this truth, you won't see anything clearly. One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom? The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving, is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow. ~ Seng-Ts'an, included in The Enlightened Heart

THE LITTLE 'I' FUSED

I sat alone on a block of stone
On the banks of the Ganges or Bhagirathi.
Mother Ganges blessed me.
I meditated on OM and its meaning -
The Word that is the symbol of Brahman.
The little personality was lost.
The mortal limit of the Self was loosened;
But there was infinite extension.
I entered into the Nameless Beyond;
I realised the quintessential unity of Bliss.
No words can describe the thrill of joy,
The mananinous mystic experiences,
The supremest and divinest height of felicity!!
The little 'I' fused into the incandescent brillance.
Two became one now.
It was all Tejomaya Ananda -
One mass of transcendental Light Bliss.



-- Sri Swami Sivananda

[Laila is "Divine Reality" in some of the Sufi traditions]

There is no sleeping when you see the face of Laila.
She fills the world,
And yet all the world is but a scent from Her fragrance.
She says...
"I live in everything,
But I return to be one.
I want you to be like me,
To be one, to be Laila,
In everything, in every moment, in every face.

~Sidi Shaykh Muhammad, Music of the Soul (Sufi Teachings)

The Singing

The Singing
By Misha Feigin

When I become this rain
and these dark still trees
touching the restless air
with their swollen buds,
I will be this soft humid night,
and this golden shining lamp
by the window in a quiet room.
When I become a reflection
of the lamp in your eyes,
I will become you, and you
will be a bird, perched
on a naked tree branch,
a ruffled sparrow crazy with
spring, full of longing, delight,
and pain that will become
this song, but
who will be the singer?

"See how trees are completely themselves. Unlike humans, they have not split themselves in two. They do not live through mental images of themselves, so they do not need to be concerned with trying to protect and enhance those images. All things in nature are not only one with themselves but also one with the totality. They haven't removed themselves from the fabric of the whole by claiming a separate existence: 'me' and the rest of the universe. The contemplation of nature can fee you of that 'me,' the great troublemaker."
~Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

the entire universe is one whole

The entire universe is one whole; and, when someone drops their holding onto limited boundaries, then what they gain is the entire universe.

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,

Celebrating Silence: Excerpts from Five Years of Weekly Knowledge 1995-2000

‘Isn’t it a fact that the accursed Pharaoh threatened punishment on the earth,
Saying, “I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides
and hang you upside down.
You will not be spared punishment.”
He thought that they were in the same state of imagination, terror, distraction, and doubt,
Trembling in fear at these threats of the worldly ego.
He didn’t know that they were emancipated,
sitting at the window of the heart,
That they could tell the difference
between the shadow and their real selves,
That they were quick and alert, happy and alive.
Even if the mortar of Fortune should pound them into pieces in this material world,
Since they had seen the ever-present Origin,
They did not fear the Derivatives of Imagination. . .
The Prophet said that this apparently substantial world
Is but a sleeper’s dream. Some merely believe in these words,
But the mystic travelers have perceived it themselves,
Even without the Prophet’s words
Many are asleep in the daytime. Don’t think otherwise.
Your life may be as insubstantial
as a shadow cast by moonlight.
What you think is sleep and what you think is waking
Are both happening in your sleep.
What does it matter if a potter breaks a pot? He’ll make another one.
A blind man walking a road has a thousand fears,
But someone who can see knows the dangers and obstacles
Bring it on, Pharaoh!
We won’t be scared by the cries of ghouls!
Rend the fabric. We know who will re-sew it,
Or, if not, it’s better to be naked to embrace the Beloved,
Nothing is sweeter than to be stripped of physicality and personality’
(Mathnawi, III, 1721)

~ Rumi, Tales from Rumi: Essential Selections from the Mathnawi (Sacred Wisdom)

Quotes of Oneness

“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“We want to lead mankind in the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this is to be done by harmonizing the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of The Religion, which is Oneness, so that each may choose that path that suits him best.” ~ Swami Vivekananda

“The candles are many, but the light is one.” ~ Rumi

“Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A lake has many ghats. From one ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it ‘jal’. From another ghat the Mussalmāns take water in leather bags and call it ‘pāni’. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it ‘water’. Suppose someone says that the thing is not ‘jal’ but ‘pāni’, or that it is not ‘pāni’ but ‘water’, or that it is not ‘water’ but ‘jal’, It would indeed be ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.” ~ Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

“I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.” ~ M. K. Gandhi

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” ~ Albert Einstein

“The candles are many, but the light is one.”

~ Rumi, Mirror of the Unseen: The Complete Discourses of Jalal Al-Din Rumi

Deepavali, or Diwali, (Markiscarali) is a major Indian festival, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. Many legends are associated with Diwali.

Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Light," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being .

Diwali Quote 1
The sun does not shine there, nor do the moon and the stars, nor do lightning shine? All the lights of the world cannot be compared even to a ray of the inner light of the Self. Merge yourself in this light of lights and enjoy the supreme Deepavali.

Diwali Quote 2
May you all attain full inner illumination! May the supreme light of lights enlighten your understanding! May you all attain the inexhaustible spiritual wealth of the Self! May you all prosper gloriously on the material as well as spiritual planes!

More free diwali quotes online at http://www.hindilyrix.com/quotes/diwali-quotes/.

“There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”

~George Burton Adams (1851-1925), educator, historian

'Lift the stone and you shall find Me;
cleave the wood and I am there.'
~Jesus

'The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that
I am here and you are out there.'

~Yasutani Roshi

The Ground of God and the Ground of the soul are one and the same. — Meister Eckhart

buy this book: The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart