Conversation Board - working with Upanishad writings

blink

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working with Upanishad writings
Sep 18^th, 2006 at 3:01pm

I was working with a quotation from the Upanishads on a previous thread. I am still looking for a version of the original which I am sure is accurate, which I will add to this thread later. This is my latest interpretation of the words, filtered through my own experience. A friend of mine has also written an interesting version, which I will add to this thread later. Apologies to anyone who might be offended by my taking liberties with "great literature," but anyone is free to do this with any written material that they would like to explore for meaning. It is really kind of fun to do. love, blink
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I share this tree of life with you and I am your friend. We are like winged birds, you and I, so I watch nearby amid the the fruit of the tree as you enjoy life's pleasures and suffer life's pains.

I am the one who stands by you all your life, and when you die I will be the one who is there. You cannot see me with your eyes and I cannot completely describe myself to you in words. You cannot understand me with verbal arguments and I am not known through words of praise.

I am a Gift freely given. You do not receive my Gift through religious observance, ritual behaviors, or by being known as great in any part of your life.

I am the purest Light. I bring you Peace when you open your heart and let go of what your body and mind tells you is real and important.

Meditation will bring us together in a higher place. In meditation, like an archer with a bow, you will let go of your own thoughts while your sharpened consciousness, like an arrow, finds the place that you belong.

Quiet yourself. Earthly desire restrains you by insisting that you must satisfy it by doing something. Find happiness in me, not by doing, but by being.

Everything is in me, and it exists forever. All life is a part of me.

I live in your heart, and I am sometimes called Love. Your heart is my home and my refuge. But I am also everywhere.

All that is holy passes through me, and is from me. I am unchanging and eternal bliss without end. I am infinite potentiality.

I am greater than you can comprehend. I am like a river that enters the sea and loses its individuality. Those who know me are part of me, with no attachments to their personalities or their lives. In freedom, they are a part of All that Is.

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dave_a_mbs

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Re: working with Upanishad writings
Reply #1 - Sep 18^th, 2006 at 4:50pm

In the same sense, a quote fom one of my favorites that reflects my experiences here as I discuss issues with so many wise minds. Slokas 11 through 24 from "Aparokshanubhuti" of Swami Vimuktananda. It's a rather liberal translation, but it responds to the two birds.

Without inquiry into Truth, knowledge is not produced, just as objects are not seen without light.
Who am I? How was this world created, and whom the Creator? Inquiry of Truth is thus.
I am neither body, nor combination of elements, nor aggregate of senses. I differ from these. This is the way of inquiry of Truth.
All comes from Ignorance and dissolves into Understanding. Our thoughts are our Creator. Such is inquiry of Truth.
The root cause of Ignorance and Understanding is One, subtle, unchanging existence, just as the earth is the root cause of pottery. Such is inquiry of Truth.
I too am One, the Knower, the Subtle, the Witness, the Eternal, the Unchanging, without a doubt I am That. Such in inquiry after Truth.
The Universal Soul (sic. Atman) is truly one, and without parts, while bodies have many parts, and yet people see and confound these two as if one.
The Universal Soul rules the body and is internal, while the body is the ruled, and is external.
The Universal Soul is all consciousness and holy, the body is flesh and impure.
The Universal Soul is the pure illuminator anfd purity itself, while the body is of darkness.
Being Existence itself, the Universal Soul is eternal. Of non-existent essence, the body is transient.
Luminosity of the Universal Soul manifests all objects. This is not merely like firelight after which there is darkness.
Alas, the ignorant seeing a pot knows it differs from themselves, yet feel as one with the body.
I am not the body, which is non-existence itself. I am verily the Creator, equanimous, quiescent, absolute Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. This is called True Knowledge by the wise.

To put that back into context, it is just this transiency of the embodiment and permanence of the innermost personal self, which is a part of the Universal Self, through which it is possible to reach our individual awareness into the spiritual experiences of others and thus to restore them to the Light, even when they have become stuck. This is hardly the approach that Bruce put into his books, and yet it is identical in essence.

Or, as Vimuktanandaswami puts it, (sloka 98) "...All the actions of a man vanish when he realizes that the Universal Soul is both, the higher and the lower. ..."

Reminds me of Ecclesistes, "Vanity, vanity, vanity of vanities. All is vanity, saith the Prophet." Thus we lose the vanity of the earth and become "meek" in that sense, through which everything false is taken away, and everything real is given, as in Jesus' remark, "Who would seek to save his life shall lose it. And he who loses his life shall save it." I forget who else said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and then all else will be added unto you."

Heady stuff. Great for meditation.

dave

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life is too short to drink sour wine

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juditha Ex Member	Re: working with Upanishad writings Reply #2 - Sep 18^th, 2006 at 5:20pm Hi Blink and Dave They are such beautiful words and as i read both of your writings,i was seeing God,feeling Gods love,those words to me were,what God is all about. Love and God bless you both Juditha
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augoeideian Super Member Offline Afterlife Knowledge Member Posts: 958 South Africa Gender:	Re: working with Upanishad writings Reply #3 - Sep 19^th, 2006 at 4:13am Thank you Blink, and Dave .. these words make me float on a cloud of calm and stillness.
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blink

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Re: working with Upanishad writings
Reply #4 - Sep 20^th, 2006 at 9:24am

Thank you, Dave, for your contribution here. I am spending some time studying it, and appreciate it very much. I am happy that some others are finding some benefit from this thread. Below I have posted my friend's version of the same Upanishad passage which I interpreted above. He has also taken some liberties in translation of meaning. I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I have; there are some differences here but I do love his version more than my own:

The Spirit of Life
( -- rewritten from a passage in
the UPANISHADS, Hindu Wisdom ca. 900 BC)
interpretation by S. H.

On the branches of this tree of life
we pass our time together side by side,
like sparrows resting from flight.
I watch as you hungrily devour the berries of this world there,
both the sweetest and the most bitter,
those of joy and those of sorrow.

I'll accompany you throughout your stay,
here with you until your last breath,
and forever after.

Ah, but I am invisible, my friend --
not only that -- I am also beyond
any attempt at description in words or pictures.

Neither the logic of the mind
nor the endless tributes of men
can reveal me in complete truthfulness.

No ceremony summoning knowledge,
no contest won will define the soul of life to you,
but only the sweet generosity of the spirit of life itself.

I quietly radiate the deep serenity of untarnished perfection.

If the tangles of your emotions can only be untied,
you won't have to depend upon your eyes and ears,
upon taste or smell or touch, to find the truth.

Let your attention seek my peace
through calm contemplation,
as a dart is carefully thrown
towards the center of a circle.

All your distracting sensations
have made a prison out of life --
break free --
and they will no longer hide me from your thoughts!

It is that hunger of yours --
your wishes themselves -- that chain you so thoroughly,
and you cannot be released from them
by force of effort, acting, or striving, as you may believe.

Find the satisfaction sufficient for every desire in me,
and you will never die again,
nor be born once more into your struggles.

I am the essence of life itself, behind every word,
rooted at the center of consciousness,
and I grant life to all, forever.

No being that stirs, takes breath, or opens its eyes
has come without my consent.

I live in your heart of hearts --
there I find my home and sanctuary.

I am everywhere, completely occupying the whole of creation.

Any light that may shine there
has its source in my own benevolent radiance.

I am the completion of the promise of life,
everlasting, and beyond the tyranny of change.

I have no beginning, and no end --
I am inside all things, and outside them all just the same.

No shape defines me at all,
since I am the home of every form that can be.

Streams of water flowing into the ocean
relinquish their separate identities and forms,
to merge with all the other waters.

That is how beings of the highest understanding
all flow into me,
escaping the confinement of individuality,
to find themselves together, as one,
in the living sea of all I have created.

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dave_a_mbs Super Member Offline Afterlife Knowledge Member Posts: 1655 central california Gender:	Re: working with Upanishad writings Reply #5 - Sep 20^th, 2006 at 1:54pm My personal favorite (which I placed on the wall in my clinic) is from Tibet - a brief summary of all of the above in capsule form for us guys with short memories - All sounds are mantra All persons are Buddha All existence is Nirvana dave
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blink Ex Member	Re: working with Upanishad writings Reply #6 - Sep 20^th, 2006 at 2:30pm That is lovely, Dave. Very simple, and one to remember! To be realized at each moment that our hearts are open. love, blink
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spooky2

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Re: working with Upanishad writings
Reply #7 - Sep 20^th, 2006 at 8:15pm

Blink, thanks for posting this beautiful writing (and thanks Dave too)! The feeling I got from it reminds me of the Emerald Tablet, which I remember you know too.

You like guided meditation, relaxing while listening to music and/or words, have you ever tried it with those classic lectures? Maybe self-recorded, underlayed with sounds or music? I'm thinking about to make such a recording.

Spooky

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"I'm going where the pavement turns to sand"&&Neil Young, "Thrasher"

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dave_a_mbs

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Re: working with Upanishad writings
Reply #8 - Sep 21^st, 2006 at 4:06pm

To be honest, I personally go down to the shooting range and blast away at a sheet of pasteboard with any of various noisy implements. Like golf, archery, and numerous similar "walking meditations", it seems to work. I'm getting better at it too - it used to be that the safest place to stand would have been behind the target. Wink

d

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life is too short to drink sour wine

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blink

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Re: working with Upanishad writings
Reply #9 - Sep 21^st, 2006 at 9:12pm

Spooky, I think that sounds like a great idea...no, I've never tried it. I'd love to hear what you come up with, though, if you decide to do it. My friend plays guitar, so it's a distinct possibility that something interesting could result...

Dave, hitting the center of a target must be very satisfying...have never tried that either...not that particular way...

love, blink

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DocM Super Member Offline Afterlife Knowledge Member Posts: 2168	Re: working with Upanishad writings Reply #10 - Sep 21^st, 2006 at 10:39pm Martial arts, including aikido are a "walking meditation" for me. Music, playing guitar does it too. Blink, I like both passages. Thank you. Matthew
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