Letter 17:
Aphorisms
10/07/07
Everyone,
The extraction of revelations
Hello. How are you? A few days ago, the first of the following aphorisms appeared in my head. I switched on the computer to note it down, and after a short time, the others had followed. Do you know how to do this? You choose a word or subject about which you want an aphorism and collapse the mind into its root, the heart. The knowledge will rise up as an inspiration from there. If it is a true revelation, it comes from inspiration, not from the intellect. The more realisation you have, the more easily flows the knowledge, so if you have a deeper realisation, it is more probable that the knowledge will come more quickly and from a deeper level, and you will moreover see deeper meanings in the aphorisms of others. One day you will notice that if you put yourself into a certain mental state, you notice very deep meanings in everything that you hear, even if the person speaking did not have the intention to say anything deep. In the same way, you may see beauty in everything around you, or people as entities of pure love floating about. Drawing revelations up from the heart can be an interesting way of seeing how much you have realised.
Aphorisms
Love is the attitude in which a selfless soul views other souls, whose manifestation is selfless work, and which is both the path and the goal of the lives of the bhaktas (those that incline towards the yoga of love).
Veda is uncorrupted intuitive knowledge that comes from a heart.
Wisdom is Veda put in practice.
Beauty is the suggestion of the Infinite in the finite.
Philosophy is a practical discipline.
Art is man's struggle to express the deep in the gross.
Those who are not seers have seen. Those who are seers have been.
Silence is not quiet but resounding.
God is the reflection of the Self.
Your highest ideal is the reflection of yourself.
We are not selfless, because we lack something.
If you do not have Self-Knowledge, you lack something.
Language is not grammar but speech. Wisdom is not knowledge but the application of it.
The wisdom of the rishis was not thought up, but brought up. It was in their hearts all the time. They reached into them, and brought it up. It is in our and all hearts also. Why then have we not brought it up?
Devotion is not singing, dancing and chanting the names of God, but an inner attitude.
Pleasures are far-away, hard to get, and their effects are transient. The wish-fulfilling jewel, however, is in the palm of our hand. Why, then, do we not grasp it?
Living life is actively searching for its mystery, not merely hoping to stumble across it during our daily routine.
Puranas (spiritual mythologies) are the expression of a people's yearning for the ishta (spiritual ideal).
Society is a platform from which to make the leap of Self-discovery.
The defining points of a person's life take up the same amount of time as a few snaps of the fingers.
Until the day you can stop thinking at will, you are a slave.
Yoke the mind to its root, not to its attachments.
The bin sack is not to be filled with an infinite amount of rubbish, but thrown away before it overflows. Likewise, the mind is not to be filled with an infinite amount of knowledge, but dissolved before it overflows.
The best education is not training to doubt, but training to have faith in your Self.
Peace is not the result of political treaties, but the condition of people's hearts.
The greatest voyages are not those without, but those within. Let us then sit for meditation.
Why seek the Self?
- Because it's there.
What else is there?
- Nothing else.
Hare Krishna,
Koji