The main goal and end of all religious and spiritual paths is..... THE CESSATION OF DUALISTIC CONCEPTUAL THINKING because....

MIND IS THE OBSTACLE - CEASING THOUGHTS REVEALS THE SUPREME REALITY according to (the scriptures and the testimony of the mystical saints of) Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Islam-Sufism).

Ceasing thoughts is the only means by which one's real nature and the true nature of all existence is ultimately recognized and experienced. The ceasing of dualistic conceptual thoughts (seeing things as separate and distinct instead of the unity within all) is the end of all religious/spiritual paths. All other disciplines, doctrines, scriptures, etc, exist merely to keep one occupied and ultimately make one ripe and mature enough to eventually tackle the main task of renouncing and ceasing all conceptual dualistic thoughts.

The following are excerpts from all major paths - from Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Islam-Sufism stating EXACTLY THE SAME truth about the necessity of ceasing thoughts in order to recognize and experience the supreme reality:



JUDAISM:

THE ESSENTIAL KABBALAH: THE HEART OF JEWISH MYSTICISM

Thought rises to contemplate it own innerness until its power of comprehension is annihilated. (p. 113)

Arouse yourself to contemplate, to focus thought, for God is the annihilation of all thoughts, uncontainable by any concept. (p. 69)

Paraphrased: That which abides in thought yet cannot be grasped is called wisdom: Hokhmah. What is the meaning of Hokhmah? Hakkeh mah. Since you can never graps it, hakkeh (i.e. wait) for mah (i.e. what), what will come and what will be. (p. 70)

As it says in Sefer Yetsirah, "If your mind races, return to the place," return to where you were before thought. Return to the site of oneness. (p. 108)

THE ESSENTIAL KABBALAH: THE HEART OF JEWISH MYSTICISM. Author: Daniel Matt. ISBN # 0-06-251164-5


KABBALAH

Azriel of Gerona:
... he who meditates mystically in his prayer "drives away all obstacles and impediments and reduces every word to its nothingness." (p. 178)

KABBALAH: Author: Gershom Scholem. ISBN # 0-452-01007-1





HINDUISM:

THE CONCISE YOGA VASISTHA

Paraphrased: Even though the moon is one, when shining on agitated water it produces a multitude of reflections. Similarly ultimate reality is one, yet it appears to be many on account of the agitation caused by the thoughts.
(p. 329)

Consciousness minus conceptualization is the eternal Brahman the absolute; consciousness plus conceptualization is thought. (p. 213)

Paraphrased: When consciousness allows itself to play with countless thoughts coming and going, it is known as individualized consciousness... (p. 117-118)

Just as the silkworm spins its cocoon and gets caught in it, you have woven the web of your own concepts and are caught in it. If you can get rid of all that, attain purity, overcome even the fear of life and death and thus attain to total equanimity, you have achieved the greatest victory. (p. 270)

O mind, you are the support of all our hopes and desires; when you cease to be, all these hopes and desires cease. (p. 307)

Thought, imagination or belief gives rise to sorrow; to abandon such thinking is not painful! It is feeding these thoughts and beliefs that has brought about this sorrow; and this comes to an end by not entertaining those thoughts and beliefs: where is the difficulty in this? All thoughts and beliefs lead to sorrow, whereas no-thought and no-belief are pure bliss. (pp. 374-375)

If you give up all thoughts you will here and now attain to the realization of oneness with all. (p. 57)

... by self-effort and self-knowledge make the mind no-mind. Let the infinite consciousness swallow, as it were, the finite mind and then go beyond everything... (p. 130)

Even if one engages oneself in every other sort of spiritual endeavor, and even if one has the gods themselves as one's teachers, and even if one were in heaven or any other region, liberation is not had except through the cessation of all notions... Hence, my son, give up these notions, thoughts and intentions. When they cease, the mind naturally turns to what is truly beyond the mind -- the infinite consciousness. (p. 190)

Bondage is bondage to these thoughts and notions: freedom is freedom from them. Give up all notions, even those of liberation... Give up all desires and contemplate the nature (or notion) of cosmic consciousness. Even this is within the realm of ideation or thought. Hence, give this up in due course. Rest in what remains after all these have been given up. And, renounce the renouncer of these notions. When even the notion of the ego-sense has ceased, you will be like the infinite space... O Rama, I have examined all the scriptures and investigated the truth; there is no salvation without the total renunciation of all notions or ideas or mental conditioning. (p. 192)

When all mental activity ceases, you are that which is. (p. 633)

THE CONCISE YOGA VASISTHA: Translator: Swami Venkatesananda. ISBN # 0-87395-955-8 (hard cover) or 0-7914-1364-0 (soft cover).


HOW TO KNOW GOD: THE YOGA APHORISMS OF PATANJALI

Many people believe that the practice of yoga is concerned with "making your mind a blank"--a condition which could, if it were really desirable, be much more easily achieved by asking a friend to hit you over the head with a hammer... (However, what we are really trying to do is) to unlearn the false identification of the thought-waves with the ego-sense. (p. 14)

Our thoughts have been scattered, as it were, all over the mental field. Now we begin to collect them again and to direct them toward a single goal--knowledge of the Atman. As we do this we find ourselves becoming increasingly absorbed in the thought of what we are seeking. And so, at length, absorption merges into illumination, and the knowledge is ours. (p. 36)

We have to start by training the mind to concentrate, but Patanjali has warned us that this practice of concentration must be accompanied by non-attachment; otherwise we shall find ourselves in trouble. If we try to concentrate while remaining attached to the things of this world, we shall either fail altogether or our newly acquired powers of concentration will bring us into great danger, because we shall inevitably use them for selfish, unspiritual ends. (p. 62)

HOW TO KNOW GOD: THE YOGA APHORISMS OF PANTANJALI. This is a translation of a Hindu work known as the Yoga Sutras; the translators also provide extensive commentary. The Yoga Sutras were supposed to have been written somewhere between the fourth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. Translators/Commentators: Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. ISBN 0-451-62759-8


THE UPANISHADS

Realizing that from which all words turn back and thoughts can never reach, one knows the bliss of Brahman and fears no more. (Taittiriya Upanishad. 2:4:1, p. 143)

Brahman is beyond all duality, beyond the reach of thinker and thought. (Tejabindu Upanishad. 6, p. 240)

THE UPANISHADS: The Upanishads are among a number of sacred works cherished by Hindus. According to Juan Mascaró in his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, those Upanishads that were written in pose may date from about 700 B.C., while those written in verse were probably composed much later. Nothing at all is known about the authors. Translator: Eknath Easwaran. ISBN # 0-915132-39-7






BUDDHISM:

THE ZEN TEACHING OF BODHIDHARMA

Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha... Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation. (p. 49)

If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both...

The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding. (p. 55)

When delusions are absent, the mind is the land of buddhas. When delusions are present, the mind is hell. Mortals create delusions. And by using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in hell. Bodhisattvas see through delusions. And by not using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in the land of buddhas. If you don't use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is empty and every thought is still. You go from one buddha-land to another. If you use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is disturbed and every thought is in motion. You go from one hell to the next. (p. 61)

THE ZEN TEACHING OF BODHIDHARMA: Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Zen Buddhism to China. Although some scholars doubt that there really was such a historical individual, here is what is generally believed about his life. He was born in Southern India around the year 440 CE. His spiritual instructor, Prajnatara, told him to go to China. He traveled there by ship, arriving in Southern China around 475. Legend has it that he spent nine years in meditation, facing the rock wall of a cave that's about a mile from the Shaolin Temple (of kung fu fame).

During his life he had very few disciples, only three of which have made it into the history books. Bodhidharma transmitted the patriarchship of his lineage to Hui-k'o, and soon afterwards, Bodhidharma died in 528. A few years after his death, a Chinese official reported encountering Bodhidharma in the mountains of Central Asia. Bodhidharma was reportedly carrying a staff from which hung a single sandal, and he told the official that he was returning to India. When word got back to his home, his fellow monks decided to open Bodhidharma's tomb. Inside all they found was a single sandal.

According to Tao-husan's Futher Lives of Exemplary Monks (the first draft of which was written in 645), the sermons in the book quoted here were delivered by Bodhidharma himself (although not everyone believes this). Until recently the earliest known copies of these sermons were fourteenth century copies. However with the discovery of thousands of T'and dynasty Buddhist manuscripts in China's Tunhuand Caves, seventh- and eighth-century copies have been identified.

Interestingly enough legend has it that Bodhidharma cut off his eyelids to prevent himself from falling asleep while meditating; tea-plants are said to have sprung up where his eyelids fell to the earth. However in his book the author says:

"... The only reason I've come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana: This mind is the buddha. I don't talk about precepts, devotions or ascetic practices such as immersing yourself in water and fire, treading a wheel of knives, eating one meal a day, or never lying down. These are fanatical, provisional teachings. Once you recognize your moving, miraculously aware nature, yours is the mind of all buddhas."

Would a man who's hacked off his eyelids accuse another man of being a fanatic because he only eats one meal a day? I guess we'll never know. At any rate in keeping with the legend, Bodhidharma is usually pictured as a harry gent, with round, bulging eyes. Author: Bodhidharma. Translator: Red Pine. ISBN # 0-86547-399-4


THE EYE NEVER SLEEPS: STRIKING TO THE HEART OF ZEN

The mind does not have a shape, it does not have a form, it is not a thing, it is a no-thing. It is vast and wide, boundelss and limitless. (p. 7)

Trying to grasp it by thinking is like trying to contain the whole ocean in a single cup. Thinking is so limited, while the One Mind is vast and wide like infinite space. There is no way that thoughts or words can touch it. (p. 40)

It is natural to have thoughts, but thinking requires effort. In the most natural state, there is nonthinking. What do we mean by nonthinking? Simply allowing thoughts to bubble up into the mind and pass away is nonthinking. Nonthinking is that which goes beyond either thoughts or no thoughts: it is neither blank mind nor busy mind. When the mind is allowed to rest naturally, there is no problem. We create a problem only if we don't like the thoughts that arise spontaneously and want to get rid of them. Then our thougths persist all the more. (pp. 61-62)

THE EYE NEVER SLEEPS: STRIKING TO THE HEART OF ZEN: This is a contemporary commentary and translation of a poem supposedly written by the Third Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Chien-chih Seng-ts'an (in Japanese, Kanchi Sosan) who lived in the late 500's AD. The Poem is called Verses on the Faith Mind (in Chinese Hsin hsin ming and in Japanese Shin jin mei). Translator and commentator: Dennis Genpo Merzel. ISBN # 0-87773-569-7


THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING

More and more, I have come to realize how thoughts and concepts are all that block us from always being...in the absolute... When the view is there, thoughts are seen for what they truly are: fleeting and transparent, and only relative... You do not cling to thoughts and emotions or reject them, but welcome them all within the vast embrace of Rigpa.
(p. 164)

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING: This is a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist work. Author: Sogyal Rinpoche. ISBN # 0-06-250834


THE UNFETTERED MIND

When this No-Mind has been well developed, the mind does not stop with one thing nor does it lack any one thing. It appears appopriately when facing a time of need. (p. 33)

The Unfettered Mind: This is a Zen Buddhist work written by a Japanese monk around 1600 AD. Author: Takuan Soho. Translator: William Scott Wilson. ISBN # 0-87011-851-X


THE DHAMMAPADA

Let go the past, let go the future, and let go what is in between, transcending the things of time. With your mind free in every direction, you will not return to birth and aging. (348)

I have passed in ignorance through a cycle of many rebirths, seeking the builder of the house. Continuous rebirth is a painful thing. But now, housebuilder, I have found you out. You will not build me a house again. All your rafters are broken, your ridge-pole shattered. My mind is free from active thought, and has made an end of craving. (153, 154)

Inflowing thoughts come to an end in those who are ever alert of mind, training themselves night and day, and ever intent on nirvana. (226)

THE DHAMMAPADA: The following passage was taken from the translator's introduction (19.Oct.1993):

The Dhammapada is an anthology of verses, belonging to the part of the Theravada Pali Canon of scriptures known as the Khuddaka Nikaya... There are a number of Mahayana works to which it appears to be closely related. There are in the Chinese scriptures 4 works resembling the Dhammapada. The nearest is the Fa Chu Ching, which was translated in AD 223. (translated by Beal), the first part of which seems to be a direct translation of the Pali Dhammapada. Translator: John Richards. Internet - jhr@elidor.demon.co.uk (CompuServe ID - 100113,1250)






CHRISTIANITY:

THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE

Paraphrased: In silence the world which our words have attempted to classify, to control and even to despise (because they could not contain it) comes close to us, for silence teaches us to know reality by respecting it where words have defiled it. (pp. 92-93)

Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor form other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality. (pp. 93)

God rises up out of the sea like a treasure in the waves, and when language recedes His brightness remains on the shores of our own being. (pp. 94)

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of man. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them... (p. 91)

The above excerpt is from: THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE by Thomas Merton. This was written by an American Catholic monk. Within his trappist order, he was known as Father Louis, but he's better known today as Thomas Merton. He lived from 1915 to 1968. Firewatch, a group dedicated to religious contemplation in general and to the works of Thomas Merton in particular, maintains a very nice bibliography of Merton's writings and other people's writing about him. ISBN 0-87773-920-X).


INTERIOR CASTLE

... in such spiritual activity as this, the person who does most is he who thinks least and desires to do least: what we have to do is to beg like poor and needy persons coming before a great and rich Emperor and then cast down our eyes in humble expectation. When from the secret signs He gives us we seem to realize that He is hearing us, it is well for us to keep silence, since He has permitted us to be near Him and there will be no harm in our striving not to labour with the understanding... But if we are not quite sure that the King has heard us, or sees us, we must not stay where we are like ninnies, for there still remains a great deal for the soul to do when it has stilled the understanding; if it did nothing more it would experience much greater aridity and the imagination would grow more restless because of the effort caused it by cessation from thought. The Lord wishes us rather to make requests of Him and to remember that we are in His presence, for He knows what is fitting for us. (p. 88, Fourth Mansions, Chapter 3, Paragraph 5)

Let {the soul} try, without forcing itself or causing any turmoil, to put a stop to all discursive reasoning, yet not to suspend the understanding, nor to cease from all thought, though it is well for it to remember that is is in God's presence and Who this God is. If feeling this should lead it into a state of absorption, well and good; but it should not try to understand what this state is, because that is a gift bestowed upon the will. The will, then, should be left to enjoy it, and should not labour except for uttering a few loving words, for although in such a case one may not be striving to cease from thought, such cessation often comes, though for a very short time. (pp. 89-90, Fourth Mansions, Chapter 3, Paragraph 7)

The above excerpt is from: INTERIOR CASTLE by St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila lived in Spain from 1515 to 1582. She is the only woman other than Saint Catherine of Siena to be granted the title of Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library has published a brief biographical sketch of St. Teresa at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/t/teresa/teresa.html. This sketch also includes links to sites which provide more detailed biographical information.

In Interior Castle, St. Teresa likens the soul to an interior castle with many rooms. Through prayer the soul enters into itself, gradually penetrating the more inward reaches of this castle. The inner most room of the castle is where God dwells within the soul. The soul cannot enter this sanctuary of its own accord, but when God invites the soul to enter His dwelling place, the soul is said to join with God in spiritual marriage.

Author: St. Teresa of Ávila. Translator/Editor: E. Allison Peers. ISBN: 0-385-03643-4. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library has also published the E. Allison Peers' translation of Interior Castle on-line. It is available in HTML or RTF formats at http://ccel.wheaton.edu - All of St. Teresa's book may be found on-line in her original Spanish at http://www.compostela.com/carmel/steresa/index.htm.


THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS

Such an Annihilated Soul possesses so great understanding within her by the virtue of faith ... that a created thing, which passes briefly, cannot dwell in her memory ... (p. 89)

... No one can see the divine things as long as he mixes himself or mingles with temporal things, that is anything less than God. (p. 150)

From: THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS by Marguerite Porete
This is a Christian mystical work condemned by the French Inquisition as being heretical. The author of the book, Marguerite Porete, was asked to recant. When she refused to respond to her inquisitors, she was condemned to death. On 1 June 1310 she was burned at the stake in Paris. The full title of her book was The mirror of simple annihilated souls and those who only remain in will and desire of love.

THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS by Marguerite Porete. Translator and commentator: Ellen L. Babinsky. ISBN 0-8091-3427-6



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MADAME GUYON

Through this whole retreat my inclination, which I discerned only by my resistance to it, was to rest in silence and nakedness of thought. In the settling of my mind therein I feared I was disobeying the orders of my director. This made me think that I had fallen from grace. I kept myself in a state of nothingness, content with my poor low degree of prayer, without envying the higher degree of others, of which I judged myself unworthy. (Part 1, Chapter 23, page 63)

The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. (Part 1, Chapter 5, page 16)

The above excerpt is from: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MADAME GUYON
Madame Guyon was a French, Catholic mystic who lived from 1648 to 1717. Her devout parents arranged her marriage while she was fifteen. She was deeply religious, and practiced a wordless form of prayer that she sometimes refers to as "mental prayer" or "prayer of the heart." Her husband and mother-in-law despised her prayer life, and did everything they could to prevent her from praying. They denied her solitude and even encouraged her eldest son to spy on her in case she should have recourse to prayer while they were not in the house to personally stop her. Nonetheless she continued her prayer life, often waking in the middle of the night to pray when no one else was awake.

She had a number of children, some of whom she lost to smallpox. Her husband died when she was twenty-eight, and she could easily have remarried. Instead she decided to devote the rest of her life to God. At the height of her popularity, people would line up to see her from dawn to dusk for spiritual guidance. She published several books on prayer and other topics. However even at the zenith of her popularity, she was simultaneously despised by many people.

According to an online biography published at http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/07092b.htm by the New Advent Catholic Supersite, her doctrine was repudiated by the pope and the bishops of France, and the Catholic church imprisoned her for a number of years. However posthumously her teachings have been embraced by Protestants in Germany, Switzerland, England, and among Methodists in America.

Author: Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon
This book was found online in RTF format at The Christian Classic Ethereal Library at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/ (other formats are also available).


THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE

Disciple: Sir, how may I come to the Supersensual Life, so that I may see God, and hear God speak?

Master: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into That, where no Creature dwelleth, though it be but for a Moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh.

Disciple: Is that where no Creature dwelleth near at hand; or is it afar off?

Master: It is in thee. And if thou canst, my Son, for a while but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou shalt hear the unspeakable Words of God.

Disciple How can I hear Him speak, when I stand still from thinking and willing?

Master: When thou standest still from the thinking of self, and the willing of self; "When both thy intellect and will are quiet, and passive to the Impressions of the Eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy Soul is winged up, and above that which is temporal, the outward Senses, and the Imagination being locked up by holy Abstraction," then the Eternal Hearing, Seeing, and Speaking will be revealed in thee; and so God heareth "and seeth through thee," being now the Organ of His Spirit; and so God speaketh in thee, and whispereth to thy Spirit, and thy Spirit heareth His Voice. Blessed art thou therefore if that thou canst stand still from Self-thinking and Self-willing, and canst stop the Wheel of thy Imagination and Senses forasmuch as hereby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great Salvation of God being made capable of all Manner of Divine Sensations and Heavenly Communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own Hearing and Willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God.

Disciple: But wherewith shall I hear and see God, forasmuch as He is above Nature and Creature?

Master: Son, when thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before Nature and Creature; thou art that which God then was; thou art that whereof He made thy Nature and Creature: then thou hearest and seest even with that wherewith God Himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine own Willing or thine own Seeing began.

The above excerpt is from: THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE

The following information about Jacob Boehme has been drawn from a wonderful essay by Edward A. Beach. You can find it off-site at http://www.evansville.edu/~nb6/boehme.html.

Boehme was a German, Protestant mystic who lived from 1575 to 1624. A cobbler by trade, he experienced a spiritual awakening at age 25 when he saw sunlight reflecting off the water in a pewter dish. This produced an ecstatic vision by which Boehme perceived God as the unmanifest unity which reflects Itself in Its creation.

According to Boehme, prior to creation God was without knowledge of Himself for He had no beginning and knew nothing like Himself. Because He desired to experience self-consciousness and self-knowledge, He brought forth the universe from Himself. Thus Boehme viewed the act of creation as an act of self-revelation, and the universe of multiplicity as the mirror of God.

He further goes on to state that the suffering experienced by sentient beings is a necessary component of self-revelation. It is through suffering and opposition that created beings evolve to consciousness and eventually to full spiritual realization. When God's consciousness is reflected in one of His creature's fully awakened consciousness, there is an experience of unspeakable, ecstatic love.

Lutheran church authorities did not take kindly to Boehme's writings, and he was persecuted and threatened with imprisonment.

The Supersensual Life isn't so much a book as a lengthy essay. Since it was obtained online and was not divided into chapters or such, I was unable to include information which indicates exactly where each quotation was found within the work. I normally use the page citation to separate one quotation from another, but in this case that wasn't possible. So I've been forced to use horizontal rules.

The Supersensual Life by Jacob Boehm. Translator: William Law. Located online at: http://ccel.wheaton.edu/boehme/supersensual_life/supersensual_life.txt


THE SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS

Abba Cronius:
If the soul is vigilant and withdraws from all distraction and abandons its own will, then the spirit of God invades it and it can conceive because it is free to do so (cf. Jn. 3:3-8).
(p. 115, Cronius 1)

Amma Syncletica:
It is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.
(p. 234, Syncletica 19)

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers is a selection of quotations taken from the Apophthegmata Patrum (which means Sayings of the Fathers). The Sayings of the Desert Fathers recounts isolated encounters with holy men and women who lived in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia during the fourth and fifth century. These individuals forged Christian monasticism.

The book very seldom says much about the interior experiences of these men and women; however we are often allowed to listen in as one of them gives spiritual direction to someone who has come seeking guidance. We learn of their ascetic struggles, and occassionally we witness miracles and wonders.

Benedicta Ward says:
The essence of the spirituality of the desert is that it was not taught but caught; it was a whole way of life... there was no way of talking about the way of prayer, or the spiritual teaching of the Desert Fathers. They did not have a systematic way; they had the hard work and experience of a lifetime of striving to re-direct every aspect of body, mind, and soul to God, and that is what they talked about. That, also, is what they mean by prayer: prayer was not an activity undertaken for a few hours each day, it was a life continually turned towards God.

... the aim was hesychia, quiet, the calm through the whole man that is like a still pool of water, capable of reflecting the sun. To be in true relationship with God, standing before him in every situation -- that was the angelic life, the spiritual life, the monastic life, and the aim and the way of the monk. It was life orientated towards God.
(pp. xxi, xxvi)

The Sayings Of The Desert Fathers - Translator/Editor: Benedicta Ward, SLG Cistercian Publications Inc, WMU Station, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008 ISBN: 0 87907 959 2


THE PHILOKALIA, VOLUME ONE

St. John of Karpathos, in Texts for the Monks in India:
If we truly wish to please God and to enjoy the grace of His friendship, we should present to Him an intellect that is stripped bare -- not weighed down with anything that belongs to this present life...
(text 49, pp. 309-310)

St. Hesychios the Priest, in On Watchfulness and Holiness:
... When there are no fantasies or mental images in the heart, the intellect is established in its true nature, ready to contemplate whatever is full of delight, spiritual and close to God. (text 93, p. 178)

We should strive to preserve the precious gifts which preserve us from all evil... These gifts are the guarding of the intellect with the invocation of Jesus Christ, continuous insight into the heart's depths, stillness of mind unbroken even by thoughts which appear to be good, and the capacity to be empty of all thought. (text 103, p. 180)

Because every thought enters the heart in the form of a mental image of some sensible object, the blessed light of the Divinity will illumine the heart only when the heart is completely empty of everything and so free from all form. Indeed, this light reveals itself to the pure intellect in the measure to which the intellect is purged of all concepts. (text 89, p. 177)

To human beings it seems hard and difficult to still the mind so that it rests from all thoughts. Indeed, to enclose what is bodiless within the limits of the body does demand toil and struggle, not only from the uninitiated but also from those experienced in inner immaterial warfare. But he who through unceasing prayer holds the Lord Jesus within his breast will not tire in following Him, as the Prophet says (cf. Jer. 17:16.LXX). Because of Jesus' beauty and sweetness he will not desire what is merely mortal... (text 148, p. 188)

... the delighted intellect delights in the light of the Lord when, free from concepts, it enters into the dawn of spiritual knowledge. By continually denying itself, it advances from the wisdom necessary for the practice of the virtues to an ineffable vision in which it contemplates holy and ineffable things. Then the heart is filled with perceptions of infinite and divine realities and sees the God of gods in its own depths, so far as this is possible. Astounded, the intellect lovingly glorifies God, the Seer and the Seen, and the Saviour of those who contemplate Him in this way. (text 131, p. 185)

Evagrios the Solitary, in On Prayer:
When your intellect in its great longing for God gradually withdraws from the flesh and turns away from all thoughts that have their source in your sense-perception, memory or soul-body temperament, and when it becomes full of reverence and joy, then you may conclude that you are close to the frontiers of prayer. (text 62, pp. 62-63)

Stand on guard and protect your intellect from thoughts while you pray. Then your intellect will complete its prayer and continue in the tranquility that is natural to it. In this way He who has compassion on the ignorant will come to you, and you will receive the blessed gift of prayer. (text 70, p. 63)

You cannot attain pure prayer while entangled in material things and agitated by constant cares. For prayer means the shedding of thoughts.
(text 71, pp. 62-63)

St. Mark the Ascetic, in Letter to Nicolas the Solitary:
... for the soul is carried away captive through its inward assent to the thoughts with which it is constantly and sinfully occupied. (p. 147)

The Philokalia, The Complete Text, Vol. 1 - According to the book's jacket:

The Philokalia is a collection of text written between the fourth and fifteenth centruies by spiritual masters of the Orhodox Christian tradition. First pulbished in Greek in 1782, translated into Slavonic and later into Russina, The Philokalia has exercised an influence far greater than that of any book other than the Bible in the recent history of the Orthodox Church.

Volume one covers the period from the fourth to the eighth century and is thus the common heritage of Orthodox and Catholics.
Anthologists: St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Translators/Editors: G.E.H. Palmer; Philip Sherrard; and Kallistos Ware



THE PHILOKALIA, VOL. 2

St. Thalassios, in On Love, Self-control and Life in accordance with the Intellect:
The intellect cannot dally with any sensible object unless it entertains at least some kind of passionate feeling for it. (p. 316)

St. Maximos the Confessor, in Four Hundred Texts on Love:
It is said that the highest state of prayer is reached when the intellect goes beyond the flesh and the world, and while praying is utterly free from matter and form. He who maintains this state has truly attained unceasing prayer. (p. 76)

When you find your intellect occupied pleasurably with material things and becoming fondly attached to its conceptual images of them, you may be sure that you love these things more than God. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). (p. 74)

St. Maximos the Confessor, in Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice:
... the human intellect, purified of all material images and occupied or, rather, adorned with the divine principles of the noetic world, is a heaven itself. (p. 210)

For the perfect have already been initiated mystically into contemplative theology: having purified their intellects of every material fantasy and bearing always the stamp of the image of divine beauty in all its fullness, they manifest the divine love present in their hearts. (p. 179)

The Philokalia, The Complete Text, Vol. 2 - According to the book's jacket:
The Philokalia is a collection of text written between the fourth and fifteenth centruies by spiritual masters of the Orhodox Christian tradition. First pulbished in Greek in 1782, translated into Slavonic and later into Russina, The Philokalia has exercised an influence far greater than that of any book other than the Bible in the recent history of the Orthodox Church.

Volume two concentrates on the writings of St. Maximos the Confessor (580-662); in fact the anthologists who created the Philokalia include more of St. Maximos' work than any other author. St. Maximos is most widely known for his opposition to a number of heresies that were being propagated regarding the nature of Christ. As a result of his opposition, he was tried, condemned, flogged, his tongue was cut out, his hand was cut off, and he was exiled. The church was responsible for his persecution, but later reversed itself.

The Philokalia, The Complete Text, Vol 2. Anthologists: St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Translators/Editors: G.E.H. Palmer; Philip Sherrard; and Kallistos Ware



SELECTED READINGS FROM ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY

Evagrios Ponticus, "On Prayer 61," in the Philokalia
Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts.

St. Isaac the Syrian in the Sebastian Brock translation of Homily 64
True wisdom is gazing at God. Gazing at God is silence of the thoughts. Stillness of mind is tranquillity which comes from discernment.

John the Solitary in On Prayer:
For God is silence, and in silence is he sung by means of that psalmody which is worthy of Him. I am not speaking of the silence of the tongue, for if someone merely keeps his tongue silent, without knowing how to sing in mind and spirit, then he is simply unoccupied and becomes filled with evil thoughts: ... There is a silence of the tongue, there is a silence of the whole body, there is a silence of the soul, there is the silence of the mind, and there is the silence of the spirit.

St. Isaac the Syrian:
St. Isaac the Syrian writes that we pray with words until the words are cut off and we are left is a state of wonder.

Evagrios the Solitary, "On Prayer," in the Philokalia
If, then, you wish to behold and commune with Him who is beyond sense-perception and beyond concept, you must free yourself from every impassioned thought.

9) Persevere with patience in your prayer, and repulse the cares and doubts that arise within you.
11) Try to make your intellect deaf and dumb during prayer, you will then be able to pray.

Dionysius the Areopagite in Mystical Theology, Chapter 1:
In diligent exercise of mystical contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intellectual, and all things in the world of being and non-being, that you may arise by unknowing towards the union, as far as is attainable, with Him who transcends all being and all knowledge. For by the unceasing and absolute renunciation of yourself and of all things you may be borne on high, through pure and entire self-abnegation, into the superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.

Abbot Vasilios of Iveron Monastery in Hymn of Entry, p. 92:
...by receiving a new sense of taste and a new form of knowledge in "stillness" and in giving himself over to God totally. Be still and know. Be still: remain in a state of spiritual wakefulness, with your prospects and your senses open, to hear what God's will is at each moment.
Abbot Vasilios of Iveron Monastery in Hymn of Entry, p. 103
Those who have been cleansed through following the path of stillness (hesychis) are counted worthy to see things invisible..., undergoing, as it were, the way of negation and not forming ideas about it. (citing St Gregory Palamas)



ON THE MYSTICAL LIFE (VOL. 2)

... let us flee the mind of the flesh, which cannot please God, nor indeed can snatch us from the enjoyment of what is temporary and guide our thought toward what abides and is eternal, which does not allow the one so ruled by it to seek the things of God, but drags the soul down instead toward the bestial impulsions of the flesh and makes man bestial altogether.
(p. 160)

Therefore if, as we said, you honor and accept Him, and give Him a place and provide Him with silence, know well that you will hear ineffable things from the treasuries of the Spirit. You will not be falling on the Master's breast, as did John the beloved of Christ before time, but you will carry the Word of God entire within your breast. You will declare theologies both old and new, and will know well all the theologies which have been written or spoken already; and you will become an instrument the Artist plays to make sounds pleasing beyond all music.
(pp. 137-138)

On the Mystical Life: The Ethical Discourses, Vol. 2 - St. Symeon the New Theologian is an Eastern Orthodox saint. He lived from 949 to 1022. He was unusual among theologians of the Eastern Church in that he often spoke of his personal, spiritual experiences.
Author: St. Symeon the New Theologian. Translator and commentator: Alexander Golitzin. ISBN 0-88141-143-4



THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

... receive this grace from your Lord, and listen to him when he says, "Whoever will come after me let him forsake himself." I ask you, how can a man better forsake himself and the world, and better despise them, than by refusing to think of any aspect of their being? (pp 182-183)

Hate to think of anything but God himself, so that nothing occupies our mind or will but only God. Try to forget all created things that he ever made, and the purpose behind them, so that your thought and longing do not turn or reach out to them either in general or in particular. Let them go, and pay no attention to them. It is the work of the soul that pleases God most. (p. 61)

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING AND OTHER WORKS - This is a Christian work written by an unknown English monk around 1370 AD. ISBN 0-14-044385-1



ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL

When thy mind dwells upon anything, thou art ceasing to cast thyself upon the All.
(Book 1, Chapter 13, Paragraph 12)

ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL: The quotations utilized in this site were obtained from an electronic version of the Ascent of Mount Carmel (http://ccel.wheaton.edu/john_of_the_cross/ascent/ascent.html). It was written by St. John of the Cross and translated by E. Allison Peers. St. John of the cross was a Spanish Mystic, who lived from 1542 to 1591. The Catholic Church beatified him in 1675, and he was canonized in 1726. He belonged to the religious order known as the Discalced (or reformed) Carmelites, a group that broke away form the main branch of the order known as the Calced Carmelites. The main branch of the order kidnapped and jailed him twice. Much of his writing was done while in prison.

As a Discalced Carmelite, he seved as Rector of two colleges, Prior, Definator, and Vicar-Provincial. He also served as a confessor to the Carmelite nuns at Ávila, where St. Teresa was Superior. On several occassions his writings were brought before the Spanish Inquisition, but they were not condemned.

The following are quotations taken from the introductory material to the electronic version:
The treatise presents a remarkable outline of Christian perfection from the point at which the soul first seeks to rise from the earth and soar upward towards union with God. It is a work which shows every sign of careful planning and great attention to detail, as an ascetic treatise it is noteworthy for its detailed psychological analysis; as a contribution to mystical theology, for the skill with which it treats the most complicated and delicate questions concerning the Mystic Way.
This translation by E. Allison Peers was hailed by the London Times as "the most faithful that has appeared in any European language."


THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

... what peace and inward quiet should he have who would cut away from himself all busyness of mind, and think only on heavenly things. (p. 56)

Shut fast the door of your soul -- that is to say your imagination -- and keep it cautiously, as much as you can, form beholding any earthly thing, and then lift up your mind to your Lord, Jesus; open your heart faithfully to Him... (p. 58)

The Imitation of Christ - It is believed that this book was written in 1427. Since the most ancient manuscripts of this work do not contain any reference to its author, there has been some controversy over this point. However the general consensus is that the author was Thomas ŕ Kempis. Thomas ŕ Kempis was a German Catholic priest who later joined the monastic order known as "The Brothers of the Common Life."
Author: Thomas ŕ Kempis. Translator: Harold C. Gardiner has made this modern version of an English translation done by Richard Whitford in 1530. ISBN 0-385-02861-X. This book can also be found online at: http://ccel.wheaton.edu/kempis/imitation/imitation.html.



PARAPHRASED FROM THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD

My faith consisted of a high notion and esteem of God, and I had no other care at first but to faithfully reject every other thought. (p. 15)

At the beginning, I often passed my appointed time for prayer in rejecting wandering thoughts and falling back into them. (pp. 13 - 14)
Useless thoughts spoil all ... we ought to reject them as soon as we perceive their irrelevance to the matter at hand, or to our salvation, and return to our communion with God. (p. 12)

I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer, many words and long discourses being often the occasions of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man's gate. (p. 49)
It is a shameful thing to quit our conversation with God to think of trifles and fooleries. (p. 6)

The Practice of the Presence of God - This is a Christian work compiled in the late 1600's. Author: Brother Lawrence. This book is available online at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/bro_lawrence/practice/practice.html ISBN 0-880888-051-1






SIKHISM: From the Sri Guru Granth Sahib (the supreme Guru within Sikhism) -

See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world. Pg 6

If the mind becomes balanced and detached, and comes to dwell in its own true home, imbued with the Fear of God, then it enjoys the essence of supreme spiritual wisdom; it shall never feel hunger again. O Nanak, conquer and subdue this mind; meet with the Lord, and you shall never again suffer in pain. Pg 21

The eight miraculous powers come when one subdues his own mind, and contemplates the True Lord through pure actions. Pg 884

Through the mind itself, the mind is subdued. Deep within my being, and outside as well, I know only the One Lord. O Nanak, there is no other at all. Pg 1193

He alone is a silent sage, who subdues his mind's duality. Subduing his duality, he contemplates God. || 1 || Let each person examine his own mind, O Siblings of Destiny. Examine your mind, and you shall obtain the nine treasures of the Naam. || 1 || Pause || The Creator created the world, upon the foundation of worldly love and attachment. Attaching it to possessiveness, He has led it into confusion with doubt. || 2 || From this Mind come all bodies, and the breath of life. By mental contemplation, the mortal realizes the Hukam of the Lord's Command, and merges in Him. || 3 || Pg 1194

When the mortal has good karma, the Guru grants His Grace. Then this mind is awakened, and the duality of this mind is subdued. Pg 1195

O mind, walk on the Path of the Guru's Teachings. Just as the wild elephant is subdued by the prod, the mind is disciplined by the Word of the Guru's Shabad (unceasing prayer/mantra). Pg 1407

Without subduing the mind, Maya cannot be subdued. The One who created this, He alone understands. Pg 1443

Whoever subdues his mind, knows the state of being dead while yet alive. O Nanak, by His Grace, the Gracious Lord is realized. Pg 1444

O Nanak, conquer and subdue this mind; meet with the Lord, and you shall never again suffer in pain. Pg 21

Those who die in the Shabad and subdue their own minds, obtain the door of liberation. Pg 117

When someone kills and subdues his own mind, his wandering nature is also subdued. Without such a death, how can one find the Lord? Only a few know the medicine to kill the mind. One whose mind dies in the Word of the Shabad, understands Him. Pg 161

God is unattainable without destruction or annihilation of the mind (SGGS 665, ln 9).

The Lord's devotional service is not possible without annihilation of the mind (SGGS 1277, ln 17).

Maya (the world illusion) can not be conquered without annihilation of the mind (SGGS 1342, ln 4).

If the mind does not die, the work (i.e., union with God) can not be accomplished (SGGS 222, ln 2).

The mind's true nature is ever to remain detached (SGGS 1128, ln5).

When someone kills and subdues his own mind, his wandering nature is also subdued. Without such a death, how can one find the Lord? Only a rare one knows the medicine to kill the mind. Only that man knows that the mind is killed through the Shabad (SGGS 159, ln 3).

The mind turns inward, and merges with mind, when it is with virtue (SGGS 935, ln 19).

This mind is not conquered by conquering it, even though everyone longs to do so. O Nanak, the mind itself conquers the mind, if one meets with the True Guru (SGGS 1089, ln 19).

The jewel (the Self, infinite consciousness) within the mind subdues the mind; attached to the Truth, it is not broken (SGGS 992, ln 4).

One who conquers his mind, he meets the Lord; he is dressed in robes of honor (SGGS 256, ln 15).






TAOISM:

HUA HU CHING

Those who are highly evolved maintain an undiscriminating perception. Seeing everything, labeling nothing, they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness. Thus they are supported by it. (19)

To manage your mind, know that there is nothing, and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness. (72)

The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet... (21)

Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations?
If so, then the Tao will loom into view. (31)

HUA HU CHING: THE UNKNOWN TEACHINGS OF LAO TZU. This book is also believed to have been written by Lao Tzu at some point in time after the Tao Te Ching. The title is pronounced "wha hoo jing." Author: Lao Tsu. Translator: Brian Walker. ISBN # 0-06-069245-6



THE WAY OF CHUANG TZU

To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao.
To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao. (22:1, p. 176)

The mind remains undetermined in the great Void.
Here the highest knowledge is unbounded.
That which gives things their thusness cannot be delimited by things.
So when we speak of 'limits', we remain confined to limited things.
The limit of the unlimited is called 'fullness.'
The limitlessness of the limited is called 'emptiness.'
Tao is the source of both.
But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness. (22:6, pp. 182-183)

THE WAY OF CHUANG TZU: Chuang Tzu was a Taoist sage, living sometime before 250 B.C. The book Chuang Tzu is believed to contain both his own writings and writings by others about him and his teachings. The quotations at this site were taken from The Way of Chuang Tzu, which was compiled by Thomas Merton after reading four different translations of Chuang Tzu. It is an abbridged version of Chuang Tzu. As Thomas Merton says in his introductory note, you enter upon the way of Chuang Tzu when you leave all ways and get lost. Author: Thomas Merton. ISBN # 0-87773-676-6


CULTIVATING STILLNESS: A TAOIST MANUAL FOR TRANFORMING BODY AND MIND

True emptiness exists when the mind is clear and all forms have disappeared. Externally, there are no objects. Internally, there is no mind. There is only emptiness. In this state even emptiness does not exist. In true emptiness there is no space, no desire, no will; there are no appearances, no thoughts. All realms of existence are dissolved. In absolute stillness there is no self and no other. There is only Earlier Heaven in its undifferentiated whole. (p. 69)

When the mortal mind is dead, the mind of Tao can live... When the mind of Tao lives, no thoughts can arise. When no thoughts arise, one returns to Earlier Heaven. (p. 76)

CULTIVATING STILLNESS: A TAOIST MANUAL FOR TRANSFORMING BODY AND MIND: The following information was found on pages x and xi of the book:

Cultivating Stillness is a text from the Taoist canon. It's Chinese name is the T'ai Shang Ch'ing-ching Ching. It is believed to have been written in the Six Dynasties Era (220-589 C.E.). Authorship was attributed to Shang Lao-chun, a title given to Lao-tzu within the Taoist religion. However this work is not believed to have been written by Lao-tzu. Authors of Taoist works frequently ascribed authorship to Lao-tzu to show that the essence of a particular book was based in the philosophy of Lao-tzu.
The majority of Cultivating Stillness is a commentary written on the T'ai Shang Ch'ing-ching Ching at a much later time. Many different commentaries were written, but the author of this particular commentary was Shui-ch'ing Tzu (a pseudonym). The date of authorship can't be ascertained with any certainty, and possible dates range from 1628 to 1911 C.E.

The commentator frequently compares different aspects of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, and concludes that although the vocabulary is different, all three religions describe the same fundamental reality. Author: Lao-tzu. Commentator: Shui-ch'ing Tzu. Illustrator: Hun-yen Tzu. Translator: Eva Wong. ISBN # 0-87773-687-1






ISLAM:

INTRODUCTION TO SUFISM

We must not seek to conceive God by bringing Him down to the level of things; on the contrary, things are reabsorbed into God so soon as one recongizes the essential qualities of which they are constituted.
(p. 54)

INTRODUCTION TO SUFISM: This is a scholarly work on Sufism, which introduces basic principles, doctrinal foundations, and concepts pertaining to spiritual realization. The author frequently cites the works of Muhyi-d-Din ibn 'Arabi, and a number of other individuals as well. It also compares a number of Sufi concepts with analagous Hindu and Christian mystical concepts. Author: Titus Burckhardt. Translator: D.M. Matheson.
ISBN # 1 85538 458 2


THE SPIRITUAL WRITINGS OF AMIR 'ABD AL-KADER

"Each time that something comes to your mind regarding Allah -- know that He is different from that!"
Commentary: This saying is rich in meaning... The theologians who affirm the absolute transcendence of God through the speculative way -- and not through conformity with the sacred Law -- discuss this saying among themselves thinking that it is a proof in favor of their notion of the absolute transcendence of God. However it does not mean at all what they imagine. Its true meaning is that God is not contained in any one particular belief or doctrine but that He is, in a certain respect, whatever someone say who speaks of Him or whatever each believer believes. Whatever comes to your mind regarding Allah, His essence and His attributes, know that He is that and that He is other than that! He who maintained the saying that we have reported did not wish to say that Allah is not that which comes to your mind, but that He is that and at the same time He is other than that for someone whose opinion differs form yours. Allah is not limited by what comes to your mind -- that is to say, your creed -- or enclosed in the doctrine you profess. For the author of this saying, Allah is other than which comes to your mind 'not for you, but' for him who professes a belief different form yours: both are in fact equally valid...
If you think and believe that He is what all the schools of Islam profess and believe -- He is that, and He is other than that! If you think that He is what diverse communities believe -- Muslims, Christians, Jews, Mazdeans, polytheists and others -- He is that and He is other than that! And if you think and believe what is professed by the Knowers par excellence -- prophets, saints and angels -- He is that! He is other than that! None of His creatures worships Him in all His aspects; none is unfaithful to Him in all His aspects. No one knows Him in all His aspects; no one is ignorant of Him in all His aspects.
Those who are among the most knowing regarding Him have said: "Glory to Thee. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us." (Qur'an 2:32)
(Mawqif 254, pp. 127-128)

THE SPIRITUAL WRITINGS OF 'ABD AL-KADER: 'Abd al-Kader lived from 1807 to 1883. He served as a soldier from 1832 until 1847, when he as imprisoned by the French. In 1853 he was freed by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1856 he took up permanent residence in Damascus. During the Durze's revolt in the 1860's, al-Kader offered the endangered Christians in his community his personal protection. He was deeply respected by the Muslim community for his devotion and spiritual insight. He had many, many visions which revealed the esoteric meanings of different passages of the Qur'an. He shared the insights he gained from these visions with a number of men in his community. Author: 'Abd al-Kader. Editor/Commentator: Michel Chodkiewicz. ISBN # 0-7914-2446-4

THE ESSENTIAL RUMI

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.
(p. 3)

THE ESSENTIAL RUMI: This is a collection of Rumi's mystical poetry. He lived from 1207 to 1273. He was the sheikh of a dervish community in Konya, Turkey. He lived the life of a religious scholor until one day in 1244 when he met a stranger, a wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz, who put a question to him. The stranger's question caused Rumi to faint. When he came to, his spiritual life was transformed. He became a mystical artist and poet. Author: Rumi, also known as Jelaluddin Balkhi. Translator/Commentator: Coleman Barks with John Moyne. Published by: HarperCollins Publishers

THE SUFI PATH OF LOVE: THE SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF RUMI

All day long the kicks of imagination, worry over profit and loss, and fear of extinction leave the spirit no purity or gentleness or splendor, nor any way to travel to heaven. He is truly asleep who has hope in every image {which passes through his mind} and converses with it. (p. 255)

Oh heart, sleep from thought, for thought is the heart's snare. Go not to God except disengaged from all things...
(p. 261)

...I sit in the road waylaying the caravan of imagination for the sake of His encounter. Other than the servants of His heartache and the messengers of His salve, I strike the head and feet of anyone who shows his face. (p. 258)

Let go of thought and bring it not into your heart, for you are naked and thought is an icy wind.
You think in order to escape from torment and suffering, but your thinking is torment's fountainhead.
Know that the bazaar of God's Making is outside of thought... (p. 256)

First give that cup to the talkative ego so that its rational faculty will tell no more tales. Once rationality is blocked, a torrent will come and erase all signs of this world and place. (p. 321)

Thinking is for the sake of acquisition -- but you have become bestowal from head to foot! (p. 230)

THE SUFI PATH OF LOVE: THE SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF RUMI
Shams al-Din of Tabriz came to Konya in 1244 A.D. Under Shams-i Tabrizi's influence, Rumi was outwardly transformed from a sober jurisprudent to an intoxicated celebrant of the mysteries of Divine Love. For a year or two, they were constant companions. Within three years of meeting Shams-i Tabrizi, Shams vanishes forever from Rumi's exterior world. At this point, Rumi leaves off preaching to the general public, and devotes the remaining twenty six years of his life to training his Sufi initiates and writing divinely inspired poetry. In the passage below, Rumi speaks of his transformation:

Passion for that Beloved took me away from erudition and reciting the Koran until I became as insane and obsessed as I am.
I had followed the way of the prayer carpet and the mosque with all sincerity and effort. I wore the marks of asceticism to increase my good works.

Love came into the mosque and said, "Oh great teacher! Rend the shackles of existence! Why are you tied to prayer carpets?
Let not your heart tremble before the blows of My sword! Do you want to travel from knowledge to vision? Then lay down your head!
If you are a profligate and a scoundrel, do justice to troublemaking! If you are beautiful and fair, why do you remain behind the veil? (p. 3)

About this book: William C. Chittick's commentary is first-rate. He provides enough background information to allow those individuals not familiar with Sufism or Islam to understand Rumi's metaphors and allusions. Author: Jalaluddin Rumi. Translator, commentator: William C. Chittick ISBN # 0-87395-724-5

TRAVELLING THE PATH OF LOVE

Traditional:
Silence for the ordinary people is with their tongues, silence for the mystics is with their hearts, and silence for lovers is with restraining the stray thoughts that come to their innermost beings.
(p. 82)
Al-Junayd:
God speaks out of the innermost being of the mystic while he is silent.
(p. 12)

Travelling the Path of Love: This contemporary work is a collection of quotations from numerous Sufi masters. It's wonderfully well-done. Editor: Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee . ISBN 0-9634574-2-X


THE KEY TO SALVATION: A SUFI MANUAL OF INVOCATION

The realization of La ilaha illa'llah... is one of the states of the heart that can be neither expressed by the tongue nor thought out by the mind. (p. 71)

(La ilaha ill'llah means:
There is no divinity, but The Divinity, or
There is no god but God, or
There is no god but Allah)

THE KEY TO SALVATION: A SUFI MANUAL OF INVOCATION: This book devotes itself to the Sufi practice of dhikr, in which the devotee centers his or her mind on God through repeatedly invoking one of God's names. The book is a contemporary translation of an Arabic work by a 13th century Sufi Master, Ibn `Ata'Allah. It's Arabic title is Miftah al-Falah wa Misbah al-Arwah, which means The Key to Salvation & the Lamp of Souls. Author: Ahmad Ibn `Ata'Allah. Translator: Mary Ann Koury Danner. Published by The Islamic Texts Society at - http://www.cityscape.co.uk/users/ep77/ - a Muslim charitable organization. ISBN # 0 946621 27 6



The real aim of all spiritual paths to truth is ultimately nothing other than the dissolving of the mind back into it's life source which is the heart. Dissolving the mind by ceasing all conceptual thoughts also kills the ego since ego like the mind is nothing but the creation of thoughts, with the ego killed and the mind resting in it's life source - the heart - the one Infinite described with many labels is directly realized and experienced as the sole reality within ALL existence. In reality mind and ego exist only due to a collection of dualistic thoughts, when such thoughts come to an end, so does the false world illusion and one awakens to the underlying eternal reality, the substratum of the whole show. The mind in the highest reality is illumined only by the light of the heart, the heart is the sun and the mind is the moon. When the mind is subdued and dissolved in it's source, the heart becomes the master and the mind the servant, instead of the other way around.

From the absolute viewpoint then....

SO LONG AS YOU HAVE A MIND THAT HAS DUALISTIC THOUGHTS, YOU ARE FALSELY PERCEIVING THE UNREAL (THE IMPERMANENT WORLD APPEARANCE) AS REAL

ONLY WHEN THE DUALISTIC THOUGHTS OF YOUR MIND ARE BROUGHT TO AN END IS YOUR TRUE SELF AS INFINITE CONSCIOUSNESS REALIZED AND DIRECTLY EXPERIENCED AS THE SUPREME ETERNAL REALITY BEHIND ALL EXISTENCE

The above material kindly provided by: http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/ (this site has extensive information on mysticism within the major world religions).