What's your story?Plus response to Elizabeth

[Guest guest]

Then I got married, got a job, had a child, and found it difficult to chant all

the time, so I looked for another way to get in touch with the source. I read

the Yoga sutras of Patanjali and Narada's Bhakti sutras and then I found a copy

of I am That on my bookshelf (someone had given it to me some months before) I

read it and I'm still reading it and it's the best book I have ever read.

 

To Elizabeth

What has chanting to do with Self Inquiry?

First I thought I could tell my story as it was.

 

Chanting bypasses the mind and goes straight to the source of all Self inquiry.

You don't even need to question anything, just chant with all your heart. The

goal of Self inquiry is to realize the Self, which is free from mental activity.

Chanting takes you straight there.

 

One of the sages(I forget which one) said in some scripture that chanting is the

best way to access the Self in the age of Kali Yuga (our present age). I'm sure

one of the scriptural buffs out there can corroborate this for me.

 

Best if you try it out and see for yourself

---

Mario Laing

[Guest guest]

Thanks for answering my question, Mariol.

 

El

 

 

 

Nisargadatta, mariol@s... wrote:

> Then I got married, got a job, had a child, and found it difficult to

chant all the time, so I looked for another way to get in touch with

the source. I read the Yoga sutras of Patanjali and Narada's

Bhakti sutras and then I found a copy of I am That on my

bookshelf (someone had given it to me some months before) I

read it and I'm still reading it and it's the best book I have ever

read.

>

> To Elizabeth

> What has chanting to do with Self Inquiry?

> First I thought I could tell my story as it was.

>

> Chanting bypasses the mind and goes straight to the source

of all Self inquiry. You don't even need to question anything, just

chant with all your heart. The goal of Self inquiry is to realize the

Self, which is free from mental activity. Chanting takes you

straight there.

>

> One of the sages(I forget which one) said in some scripture

that chanting is the best way to access the Self in the age of Kali

Yuga (our present age). I'm sure one of the scriptural buffs out

there can corroborate this for me.

>

> Best if you try it out and see for yourself

> ---

> Mario Laing

[Guest guest]

Mario,

 

You write :

> Chanting bypasses the mind and goes straight to the source of all

Self inquiry. You don't even need to question anything, just chant

with all your heart.

 

If I am not mistaken, you're speaking of a devotional path.

In it is implied, foccusing your attention on One single Image, word

(mantra), feeling, symbol.. all of which are a form of thought..

thereby looking away from the rest of mind activity. The Hare Krishna

disciples do that.

 

WHO is chanting/repeating a mantra with " all one's heart ? " .

I understand you are not interested in questioning anything, but I

propose that it could be valuable.. it might prevent self-deceit.

So WHO is Doing that.. the Self or your mind ?

If it is the mind,.. Can the mind bypass the mind ?

After all, you do this, because you believe what is written in a

Book.. and so the mind has a vested interest in this activity, and

therefore a goal.. otherwise you/the mind would not bother to do it,

would you ?

 

 

>The goal of Self inquiry is to realize the Self, which is free from

mental activity. Chanting takes you straight there.

 

So can a busy mind (replacing some of its activity with a mantra-

chanting) come to freedom from its activity, WHILE it keeps on being

busy, to achieve a goal .. while is caught in motive and time ?

I have done years of mantra meditation (not any longer).. whithout

melody.

Could get a peaceful mind,.. its activity reduced greatly, but

actually a dull mind..(while thought/feeling was Boiling under the

cover of the mantra, even louder).. and that stupefied mind, was

supposed to be a sign of the Self and peace...

With melody (chanting), no doubt one can go into highs and ecstasies

(look at Christian spirituals-singing and others..they are falling

all over the place while shaken by the grace) just as dancing can.

To me, that is not the 'Self'.. it is a manipulation of energies and

states .. and because it feels good, one is tempted to conclude : 'I

am certainly on the way to the goal'.. in the meantime, you have to

repeat the chanting, to bring back the experience, which in its very

nature is ephemeral.. comes and goes.

And if one is a strong believer in the written word, one will keep on

trucking devotedly, for the rest of one's life.

 

>

> One of the sages(I forget which one) said in some scripture that

chanting is the best way to access the Self in the age of Kali Yuga

(our present age).

 

One of the sages, suggested : experiment with this. Place a wooden

stick on your mantle piece, and give it a flower, every day. After

not so long, you will come to regard it as the holiest thing around

and get quite high and worship it more and more.

Belief, and keeping it alive thru repetition, is an age old mind

process of cause and effect.. freezing the energy into a form in

order to prevent it from being used by the mind's problems, .. a very

effective psychosomatic technique, dressed in the garb of an

apparently Self/God-Beyond.. or at least an entrance to it.

One would have to question, to discover the self-deceit in this.

But will the believer bother ? Why should he ?

He feels great, and very hopefull indeed.

 

The sage who said that about Kali Yuga, was Ramakrishna.

He was a devoted Hindu. That was HIS culture and conditioning.

He never touched a woman, but if by accident a woman would touch him

or try to shake his hand, he would faint.

 

As for Kali Yuga,.. you sure there is one ?

WHY do you choose to believe in all these cosmological models and

paradigms ?

Is it a convenient crutch ?

 

And even if true .. the 4 yugas etc. .. so what ? You Actually know

Nothing about them, do you ?.. you just THINK you know.

 

But what you Can know, is here and is mantra-free :

You know/feel very well, what nameless 'yuga' you are in, at his very

moment, don't you ?

But for that you have to look/enquire .. which you apparently are not

interested in.

Following a promissed short cut, is much more fun, is'nt it ..

 

>I'm sure one of the scriptural buffs out there can corroborate this

for me.

 

WHO has written the scriptures.. those words on paper, for which

humans are ready to kill and be killed for ?..

God/the Self ?!

Have you ever thought that they(the

authoritarian 'experts'/commentators) Might just be wrong ?

Of course not.. because then, -Where- can your mind Anchor itsself ?..

What a horor of insecurity and meaninglessness, That would be for

the 'holy' mind .. !

Not so ?

 

You have probably seen that poster, where some flies hover around and

delight in a pile of dog-shit.

And the 'wise' text was saying:

" 100 billion flies, _canNot_ be wrong ! "

 

 

>

> Best if you try it out and see for yourself

 

 

Why should I ?

Does one have to get drunk, to know what sobriety is ?

 

Regards,

Jb

PS. Concerning chanting mantras... I would suggest that you have

Always been doing that .. 24 hours a day .. everybody does it

already.. it is a Universal mantra .. it is .. :

I-I-I-I-I &

me-me-me-me

 

Can you feel it ? ..

 

And now you might tell me, : yes but, that's the ego and my mantra is

holy given by my Master.

Which means, that the I-me mantra, is replaced by a Sanskrit one

(great exotic language, sanskrit)..

but, to me, the holy one, still sounds

like I-I-I-me-me-meeeeeeeeeeeeee !

Listen carefully ..

Not so ?

 

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[Guest guest]

The way to chant is to identify the chant, the Self (God) and the

Chanter as one...