Meditation as an Art of Life is not a momentary process but a continual living, a continual sharpening of the mind.

 

Pages from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden (1871-1920)

Meditation as an Art of Life is not a momentary process but a continual living, a continual sharpening of the mind.

On the Problem of Belief

Why do you believe anything that you read? It does not matter whether it is in the Bible or in the Gita or in the sacred books of other religions. 

On Spiritual Anarchism

I have told about thought distortions, and how important it is that, seeing how inevitably corrupt the various types of religious, secular, and social organizations are, to belong to any of them not only prevents the unburdening of one’s conditioning but also prevents one from seeing things clearly. 

All thought-activity is the historical limitation´s action and reaction

Man – the body, the nerves, the mind – is limited by the climate he lives in, by the whole of his social, religious and economical environment, by his experiences, the education he has got, by family influences and the demands, which have been given to him.

All these are factors, which limit Man historical. Our conscious and subconscious reactions to all the influences of the environment – intellectual, emotional, outside and inner – these reactions are, each and every one, actions, which emanate from our historical limitation.

Language is historical limitation; all thought-activity is the historical limitation´s action and reaction.

What happens if the thought is quiet?

What is important is not what should be, or what could be

What is important for the life artist is not that which should be, or that which could be, nor what principle you ought to follow, what kinds of ideals you ought to have, or to what religion, or what political party you ought to belong to.

It is clear, that all such reactions altogether are meaningless when you are facing the confusion, the need, misery and continous conflict, in which we live.

When you are the situations present it is possible to reach beyond them

In order to be able to discover something, you must observe yourself, but not on the bases of a certain image of life, or a certain thought-system, nor from some certain political or religious viewpoint.

You must completely reject all this, so that the mind is free and is able to be aware of itself in relation with the society, in relation with ourselves, with our families, with our neighbour.

When you are the situations present it is possible to reach beyond them.

In order to understand yourself you must understand that Man is an inviolable whole

In order to understand yourself you must understand that Man is an inviolable whole, not only a determined being, as for instance a society being with his particular assigned job: a worker, a citizen, a consumer, or a political being, right wing or leftist, or a religious being, Christian, Moslem, Jew, - but a complete whole in which an interaction and a reciprocity takes place.

You can´t find truth through any organization, priest, clairvoyant, philosophical knowledge or psychological method

Realization can, with help from the Source, only come from within, never from outside.

You therefore can´t find truth through any organization, any faith, any doctrine, any priest, clairvoyant, medium, or any ritual, nor through philosophical knowledge or psychological methods.

You can only find it through the philosophical questions´ self-inquiring practice, through the realization of the nature of the Ego, and therefore of the nature of thinking and time.

This understanding gives on the other hand a gradually growing feeling of, that you are spiritual safe on your journey towards this source.

Habits are the most stagnating factor, because they hinder us in thinking in a creative way.

We hold the symbol in honour and attribute the word the greatest importance, and to do this is highly distorting. There namely happens that, that the word, the symbol, the image, becomes the most important. 

It is in this way, that temples, churches and the many different organized religions and ideologies, with their symbols, doctrines and dogmas, become factors, which hinder the mind in reaching forth, and discover truth.

The philosophical counselor must therefore all the time remind the guest about not letting him be catched by words, by symbols, which automatically create habits.

Habits are the most stagnating factor, because they hinder us in thinking in a creative way.

You can´t be afraid of death, the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is

Death is the unknown, which always threatens the known, the patterns you have created.

The paradox is, that you can´t be afraid of the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is, and therefore there is nothing to be afraid of.

Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, which creates anxiety. The word is a manifestation of your self-image and world-image.

For as long as the image exists -  the image from where the thought origins - the thought must constantly create anxiety.

Then you rationalize your mortal dread and build a defence against the inevitable, or you invent countless faith-conceptions, which can protect you against the anxiety of death.

If the thinker is the thought present in passive listening, then this will be a presence of clarity

Far most people think that the thinker is separate from the thought – and it is precisely this, that all the images in time, all the theories, ideas, religious persuasions, political ideologies, etc., are based on.

But when the thinker places himself outside the thought, the problem will continue.

However if the thinker is the thought present in passive listening, then this will be a presence of something, which not is hidden.

It is a presence of something obviously, something you have a clear understanding of. 

It is a presence of something straightforward, a presence in naturalness.

And herein you will become released from the source of all problems.

Can the mind of Man - which in high degree is limited by its personal or collective images – change?

When all this is seen – the wars, the unreasonable dividings, which the religions have created, the division which exists between the individual person and the society, the family, which is opposed to the rest of the world, each individual person, who clings to some personal or collective images, and divide himself in ”me” and ”you”, ”us” and ”them” – when all this is seen, both in objectively and in philosophical sense, then only one question is remaining, one essential problem, and that is whether the mind of Man, which in high degree is limited by its historical background, its personal or collective images, can change.

Not in a future incarnation, not through political development, not when life ends, but radically change now, so that Man enters into a creative emptiness, where the mind become new, fresh, young, innocent, released from its images, so that it knows what love is, and what it is to live in peace.

It requires a philosophical revolution.