For those who might have missed them, here’s a round-up of the Substack Notes I posted this last week.
-Martyn
Settle into the moment, take it easy, let it flow. There's nowhere to get to, you're already home.
One can have all the intention in the world, but if Life doesn't want something to happen it won't. Ramana Maharshi wrote as much (to his own mother, no less):
"The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their past deeds – their prarabdha karma. Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try hard how you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to stop it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is for one to be silent."
The truth is that the spontaneous, uncaused nature of all 'happenings' is clear to see for those who inquire closely enough.
Meditation is about developing a relationship to stillness.
You can’t muscle your way into stillness, you have to meet it on its own terms.
Gently tune in to the quality of stillness and rest there.
We are not the body, we are not the mind. These things come and go. We are that which Knows them, the Eternal Witness.
Every word a prayer, every silence a meditation.
Let those with ears, hear. Let those with eyes, see. Let the knower, know.
All is one, all is done.
Yes, the world is an illusion, a dream. But what happens here matters at the deepest level. What we choose to do, how we behave, and what we learn all count.
Once a soul comes into being, it must evolve, develop, and purify until it is liberated, reunited with its source, and restored to the fullness of the knowledge of its true nature.
Then jiva is found to be atma, and atma is found to be Brahman.
Of course, we are never not That. But, as Blake said (more or less): the doors of perception must be cleansed for us to know our infinite nature.
Seek God, find the Self; seek the Self, find God.
"The ground of God and the ground of the soul are one and the same."
Meister Eckhart
Truth is simple, people are complex.
This phrase is coming up for me a lot: liberating truth or liberating insight. This is what's important.
Interesting is fun, informative is nice. But what good is any of it if we're still bound in delusion and suffering?
The Upanishads ask: "What is that by knowing which everything else is known?"
Seek That.
Self-Realization isn't a personal accomplishment.
I'm all about the harmony of the now, seeking only the truth and the peace (and the bliss ideally) of the What Is. Because the alpha and the omega of all is in the here and now.
You want freedom? Find it now. You want peace? Discover it here. You want bliss and love? Notice its fragrance in this moment.
Where else could you find what you seek but now? The past is a memory appearing to your mind right now. The future is imagined in the same way.
But what and who are you that knows this nowness?
Egos don't want freedom. They want control. They want to have and to accrue, whether qualities or objects or other people. Or just the raw, naked sense of control.
Haha. Good luck with that. Enjoy the illusion while they can.
Jordan Peterson makes the case that sacrifice is the central orienting principle of existence. I can see how that might be a valid understanding.
Kenosis, self-emptying, is indeed the ultimate sacrifice of all you are, were, could be, in order that the Divine itself will fill the void left by the sacrifice of your egoic self.
This kenosis is a moment-to-moment sacrifice. It's not a one-shot deal. It's an ongoing process of complete non-grasping and surrender. It's a radical non-personal 'commitment', a vigilance to an utterly non-resistant way of being. And in participating in it, the person itself is consumed.
Put in Christian mythic terms, one could say it's the perpetual crucifixion of the (egoic) self that allows for the resurrection of the glorified being, united in will and being with 'the Father'. But both death and resurrection are simultaneous, co-occurring.
It’s a blessing that the moment you drop your will, the will of God is there to fill you up and carry you along.
Devotion is a way to Oneness. As long as you let yourself be swallowed whole by the object of your love. Mystic union for the win. 🙌
Love this, thank you 🙏😊🕯