Re-Discovery - Merton & Easwaran

At the deepest level communication
is not communication but communion.
It is wordless, it is beyond words, and
it is beyond concept.

What we have to recover [re-discover] is
our original unity [within].

What we have to be is what we are...

Thomas Merton
from a speech he gave just before he died.

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Everything we have ever achieved we owe to the inexplicable
urge to reach beyond our grasp, [and] know the Unknown.
This urge is part of our evolutionary heritage, given to us for
the ultimate adventure: to discover who we are, what the
universe is, and what is the significance of the brief drama
of life and death we play out against the backdrop of
eternity.

Nothing can satisfy us but reunion with our real Self...

Eknath Easwaran

From the Introduction to The Unpanishads

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

"Cosmic Blanket" :)

 

Go Beyond - The Upanishads

We spend our days in the familiar world of our five senses,
but what lies beyond that, if anything - a vast world, perhaps,
waiting to be explored.  Most of us are happy to stay where we
are.  We may even be afraid to venture into the unknown.

Yet there are always a few who are not content...

Simply knowing there is something unknown beyond their
reach makes them acutely restless.  This is true of adventurers -
especially those who seek to explore Consciousness [Ultimate
Reality] itself.  They quietly slip out to see what lies beyond
 the topography of Consciousness itself [that] has an
illumination of its own...

We are meant to explore, to seek, to push the limits of our
potential as human beings.  The world of the senses is just the
base camp: we are meant to be as much at home in
[transcendent Reality] as in the world of physical reality.

It is our destiny as human beings to make this journey
ourselves.  Everything else is secondary...

Follow the path of the illumined ones...

...a familiar voice tugs at the edge of awareness...

~

The Upanishads are the recorded stories from Hindu sages
for whom the transcendent Reality called "God" was more
real than the world reported to them by their senses.  Their
purpose is not so much instruction, but inspiration -
an ecstatic snapshot of transcendent Reality.

The Upanishads tell us that there is a Reality underlying 
life which rituals cannot teach, next to which the things we
see and touch in everyday life are shadows (of the Real).

This Reality is the Essence of every created thing, and
the same Reality is our real self.  Each one of us is one
with the power that created and sustains the universe.  And
this oneness can be realized directly...  a Reality beyond
ordinary knowing...
It is the purpose for which each of us has been born...

From the Upanishads
Eknath Easwaran

excerpt from the Introduction

~

I had forgotten that I had already started this deeper
"exploration" :) back in 2019.  But there have been
so many distraction since then, that I feel called to
explore the depths of Reality again, although the
distractions weigh heavy.  Something deeper than
what I am living now calls to me - from the "edge of
awareness"...
There is always a "call" to deepen.

I want to live the true Essence of Life...

~

Photo - The Flammarion Engraving
from the internet

 

Pilgrimage - The Upanishads

Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely
adrift and alone.  From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman,
[the spiritual life principle of the universe, or Soul. or Essence

inherent in the real self of the individual]...  The self-luminous.
abiding point - underlying the whirlpool of transient feelings,
emotions, and delusions...

As the sun lights the world even when clouded over, "the
Immutable" is never seen but is the Seer; it is never heard
but is the Hearer; it is never thought but is the Thinker; it is
never known but is the Knower.

The Unpanishads

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Forest Wisdom - The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

One of the great discoveries of the Upanishads is The Self,
which is identical in all of us, the Life of all that lives.
Whenever we love we are really responding to The Self
within that person.  If we discover The Self in our own
consciousness, there will be no more [separateness].
This is the underlying theme of all mysticism.
Therefore, meditate on The Self - realize this
underlying Reality.

All existence - everything in the phenomenal world -
is "woven" in the Imperishable [The Self]...

From the introduction to The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
by Michael N. Nagler

~

The Self indeed is the light of man...

The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart,
surrounded by the senses...

When The Self takes on the body, [it] seems to assume
the body's frailties and limitations; but when it sheds
the body at the time of death, The Self leaves all these
behind.

...in sleep, the shining Self keeps the body alive
with the vital force of prana...

The Self is indeed Brahman [God],
but through ignorance people identify it
with the intellect, mind, senses, passions,
and the elements of earth.

...The Self freed from the body, merges in Brahman,
infinite life, eternal light.

Those who realize The Self enter into Peace...

Excerpts from The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
From - The Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran

The Upanishads - Eknath Easwaran

We spend our days in the familiar world of our five senses,
but what lies beyond that, if anything - a vast world, perhaps,
waiting to be explored.  Most of us are happy to stay where
we are.  We may even be afraid to venture into the unknown.

Yet there are always a few who are not content...
Simply knowing there is something unknown beyond their
reach makes them acutely restless.  This is true of adventurers -
especially those who seek to explore Consciousness itself.
They quietly slip out to see what lies beyond - the
topography of Consciousness itself [that] has an
illumination of its own...

We are meant to explore, to seek, to push the limits of
our potential as human beings.  The world of the senses
is just the base camp: we are meant to be as much at home
in Consciousness as in the world of physical reality.

It is our destiny as human beings to make this journey
ourselves.  Everything else is secondary...

Follow the path of the illumined ones...

...a familiar voice tugs at the edge of awareness...

~

The Upanishads are the recorded stories from Hindu sages
for whom the transcendent  Reality called "God" was
more real than the world reported to them by their senses.
Their purpose is not so much instruction, but inspiration -
an ecstatic snapshot of transcendent Reality.

The Upanishads tell us that there is a Reality underlying
life which rituals cannot teach, next to which the things we
see and touch in everyday life are shadows (of the Real).
This Reality is the essence of every created thing, and
the same Reality is our real Self.  Each of us is one with
the power that created and sustains the universe.  And
this oneness can be realized directly...  a Reality beyond
ordinary knowing...
It is the purpose for which each of us has been born...

From - The Upanishads
Eknath Easwaran
excerpt from the Introduction

~

This is my new "exploration" :) -
although I have no desire to become a Hindu,
and may not agree or resonate with all aspects of the
belief system.  And indeed I don't want a "belief system"
to live by. I want to live the true Essence of Life.  But, I
am still curious to know how others define and experience
that Reality, and glean gems from their wisdom writings.
Am always looking for new sources of inspiration :)

~

Photo - The Flammarion Engraving
from the internet