MEDITATION TIMES DECEMBER 2010

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In This Issue  Resurrection In Greek Religion  Resurrection and Islam  Resurrection and Sufism  Resurrection and Zen Buddhism  Jesus Allahe Salam – The Sufi Sheikh  Nirvana  Nirvana – the Last Nightmare  Parables of Jesus  The Books I Loved – Osho  Taoshobuddha’s Books  Meditation Times 2010 in Retrospect

MEDITATION TIMES Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations Trinidad, West indies

EDITORIAL Swami Anand Neelambar

Death is the ultimate orgasm. The crescendo of life. The summum bonum.

Resurrection is an eternal process. We are continuously dying to each moment and being reborn to each moment. To be aware of this is to be enlightened.

The period between birth and death is called life. But the soul or atma existed before birth and exists after the dissolution of the body. The period of life is but a dream of the atma; at most it is a holiday of some sorts.

The atma is not bound by birth and death. The atma is eternal and beyond birth and death. The term resurrection refers to a return to the primordial state of being when the disembodied soul is recast into a new form to continue its sojourn to self-realization.

All of the unfulfilled desires remain with the soul and seeks manifestation.

These seeds sprout when an appropriate environment is created for them. Yet these seeds need not sprout if the soul has attained understanding of the wheel of birth and death.

Meditation is the way to attain insights into the nature of the atma. Once the atma is understood; the wheel of birth and death ceases. The phenomenon of resurrection is no more. The sojourn has come to nirvana – the last nightmare before the candle is blown out.

All that can be perceived is within the realm of death. Only that which cannot be seen is beyond death. The flame that is blown out cannot be seen and thus is beyond death. There is no resurrection.

This issue of Meditation Times is in our new format that will close this year 2010 and launch the New Year and new decade – the second decade of the new millennium. We take this opportunity to extend to all our readers and friends of Meditation Times a wonder filled Christmas and may the impetus for life eternal continue in the new decade.

Resurrection is confirmation of Soul’s Immortality!

The Resurrection of departed humans features as central doctrine of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

It indeed refers literally coming back to life of biologically dead corpses by divine power.

Spiritual Resurrection is used as a devise by the Sufi Sheikhs where the human beings who are blind to their Spiritual Nature and the possibility of salvation come to Life. Such coming to life is called Eternal Life in Christianity and refers to two stages of Fana and Baka in Sufism.

By means of spiritual awakening and subsequent transformation to a life of holiness Resurrection is used as a Tariqat by Sufis. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a general resurrection of humanity.

The idea of resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures. There are some passages in the Tanakh which at least later have been considered as referring to the resurrection, though more so in the Deuterocanonical books ( relating or belonging to a secondary, less well-regarded, or disputed collection of religious scripture, especially the Apocrypha.)

However, ‗The concept of Resurrection‘ is often associated with the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is elaborated upon throughout the books of the New Testament.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus!

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n ancient Greek religion a number of dead mortal men and women were made physically immortal as they were resurrected from the dead.

Asclepius, was killed by Zeus only to be resurrected and transformed into a major deity.

Achilles after being killed was snatched from his funeral pyre by his divine mother Thetis and resurrected brought to an immortal existence in either Leuce, Elysian plains or the Islands of the Blessed.

Memnon, who was killed by Achlles, seems to have a received a similar fate.

Alcmene, Castor, Heracles, and Melicertes, were also among the figures sometimes considered to have been resurrected to physical immortality. According to Herodotus' Histories, the seventh century B.C. sage Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead, after which his body disappeared from a locked room. Later he found not only to have been resurrected but to have gained immortality.

Many other figures, like a great part of those who fought in the Trojan and Theban wars, Menelaus, and the historical pugilist Cleomedes of Astupalaea, were also believed to have been made physically immortal, but without having died in the first place.

Indeed, in Greek religion, immortality originally always included an eternal union of body and soul.

The philosophical idea of an immortal soul was a later invention, which, although influential, never had a breakthrough in the Greek world. As may be witnessed even into the Christian era, not least by the complaints of various philosophers over popular beliefs, traditional Greek believers maintained the conviction that certain individuals were resurrected from the dead and made physically immortal and that for the rest of us, we could only look forward to an existence as disembodied and dead souls.

This traditional religious belief in physical immortality was generally denied by the Greek philosophers. The first century CE middle platonic philosopher Plutarch while writing his Lives of Illustrious Men, in the chapter on Romulus gave an account of this man‘s mysterious disappearance and subsequent deification. He compared it to traditional Greek beliefs of resurrection and physical immortalization of Alcmene and Aristeas, ―for they say Aristeas died in a fuller‘s work-shop, and his friends coming to look for him, found his body vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said they met him traveling towards Croton.‖ The Platonic Plutarch openly scorned such beliefs held in traditional ancient Greek religion, through his writings, ‗many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying creatures naturally mortal.‘ The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of Jesus was not totally lost on the early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued: ―When we say … Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing different from what you

believe regarding those whom you consider sons of Zeus.‖ (Apol.21) There is, however, no belief in a general resurrection in ancient Greek religion, as the Greeks held that not even the gods were able to recreate flesh that had been lost to decay, fire or consumption. The notion of a general resurrection of the dead was therefore apparently quite preposterous to the Greeks. This is made clear in Paul‘s Areopagus discourse. After having first told about the resurrection of Jesus, which makes the Athenians only interested to hear more, Paul goes on relating how this event relates to a general resurrection of the dead.

Resurrection is wrongly considered as embodying of the body of the dead again into flesh. Indeed it is not so. Resurrection is of Spiritual Dimension that cannot be understood at physical or mental plane.

Resurrection refers to transcendence of the soul or rooh at will and superimpose on another living being.

Resurrection is used as a devise by the Sufi Sheikhs and Masters of other paths as an important devise for Transformation of Human Consciousness. It is therefore of Spiritual Dimension and cannot be understood in its dictionary meaning.

Sheikh Taoshobuddha

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ccording to Islam, the Day of Resurrection is the Day of Judgment. This is the Day that no friend helps his friend nor are they helped. This is the day when only Aamaal or deeds that will come to the rescue. The day when the sky brings visible smoke and the Earth turns to unearth; the Moon and the Sun will be gathered the same way.

The trumpet will be blown, and all who are living will die. Then all creatures will be brought to life; all the people of the past and present. On that day they will be judged by Allah Sunhan wa Taala.

According to Islam, all mankind will be judged by what they did ‘deeds’ or ‘Aamaal’. Even a tiny portion of good and a tiny portion of bad will be counted and surely no one will be oppressed. On that day those who blasphemed to their Lord and those who were polytheist will be cast down to hellfire, and those who willfully denied the revelations and prophets of God will receive their due recompense.

That day will be the day of separation. Indeed separation between true believers and hypocrites!

Between them there will be a wall placed—inside, mercy and outside, torment. Paradise is the place of the righteous and hell is the place of the sinner.

Qur’anic References ‗Some faces on that day will be shining, looking towards their Lord, but other faces will be dark

realizing that something terrible is about to happen to them‘ (Qur’an: Resurrection:22-25) ‗The day that men will be as moths scattered and the mountains will be as carded wool. So for one whose scales are heavy, he is therefore in the desired bliss, and for one whose scales prove light, for him is the abyss, and what can make you understand how that (abyss) is; fire is its abutment‘ (Qur’an:Calamity:4-11)

When disembodied soul manifests itself as embodied one, know this as Resurrection – a devise for transformation by masters. How does this happen – I cannot explain more than this for now. …Sheikh Taoshobuddha

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ufism is connected with the rooh of Allah Subah wa Taala via the Rasool – the Holy Prophet. This is known as esoteric dimension.

It exists in all religions, and in Islam it originated with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad. Mysticism in Islam is termed as Sufism. The mystic is a Sufi.

One of the first women Sufis we can trace in Islamic mysticism is Fatima Bint Radhi Allah Taala Unho (608–633 A.H.). There is an interesting transition that you notice in her personality. While mourning the death of Prophet Muhammad she said, ―It is not surprising that whoever catches the fragrance of Muhammad‘s tomb will never know another perfume.

Destiny injured me with bereavement so sorrowful and so dark that if it had fallen on the days they would have been turned into eternal nights.‖

Her expression of this utterance is Tasawwuf – Essence of Sufism. Poetry and love (Ishq-iHaqiqi) are the important languages of expression in Tasawwuf.

While traversing on the path for attaining the status of Sufi when the self undergoes certain transitions, it acquires an ecstasy and the expression of that ecstasy is Tasawwuf.

Sufi Sheikhs have used resurrection in its spiritual sense as the technique to transform and instruct the murids along the path. It involves kashf or intuition and or astral travel or superimposing his rooh sheath on another body using it as the vehicle. There have been numerous examples to this effect.

Uwaid Ullah Ahrar Uwaid Ullah Ahrar is Naqshbandi Sheikh. His father was king of a particular estate. However Uwaid had no interest in the worldly affairs or the affairs of the kingdom. He was the only son. He expressed desire to leave the palatial splendor to life of a mendicant in the company of Sheikh Yakub Charkhi – the qutub of the time. Yakub Charkhi lived in Charakh in Bokhara.

Seeing the interest of Uwaid his father allowed him to go spiritual mission only one condition. He imposed a condition that you are my only sun therefore whenever I need you for the Kingdom you will have to return.

Riding the camel elated Uwaid set on the journey from Samarqand for Bokhara. He was wandering how to reach the sheik. And he reached the place

where another camel was resting who in turn at the arrival of the male counterpart created a sound. At this Yakub Charkhi told his disciple that Uwaiullah has arrived.

Thus the training of Uwaid began by Yakub Charkhi.

One day it happened that Uwaid got the message that his mother (walida mohtaram) passed away.

Uwaid was filled with remorse that he is so far that he cannot even attend the funeral (Zanaza). Uwaid mentioned of his remorse to his Sheikh. Yakub dispelled the remorse saying that you have the capability to attaend the funeral of your mother.

Thus Uwaid sat in maraqba along with Yakub and he attended the funeral service. Thus he envisioned the entire proceedings.

This is the technique of resurrection when the soul leaves the physical body to enter another for the purpose and then returns back. This is free movement from one body to another.

Kabir Kabir was a unique master who lived beyond narrowness of caste creed, and religious dogmas. He had disciples from both major sect of Hinduism as well as Islam.

When Kabir passed away there was conflict that turned out to be a fight among the disciples of the two major sects. In the process each claimed right over the body and thus decision of the funeral serve.

All the while the feud continued the body remained covered with a white cloth.

To the surprise of all those present witnessed something unique. When the white sheet was removed there was no body. Instead in place there were the remains of the body after cremation. These were equally divided among his Hindu and Muslim followers to uses their own way.

Sheikh Mohammad al Baqi Billah Mohammad al Baqui Billah is the first Naqshbandi Sheikh who came to India in preparation for the next millennium. He was sent by his murshad Hazrath Amakan Ki. First Baqui Billah came to India on a business trip. And when he arrived second time he settled in old Delhi. His shrine is in the muslim public cemetery near Pahar Ganj Railway Station in New Delhi.

One day it so happened that one of the murid asked the sheikh the meaning of Fana and Baka the two terms that are very often used in Sufi terminology.

At this the sheikh replied, ‗You will have to ask the answer to this question from the person who is to offer the namaze-zanaza for my funeral.‘ The sheikh further asserted that only that person will be able to offer namaze- zanaza who is established in Tahajud Prayer.This is indeed an early morning prayer and very important one for the seekers from Islamic faith.

The time for praying Salatul-Layl or Tahajud prayer or Namaz-e-Shab is from midnight, because midnight is reckoned as exactly half the time between sunset and the actual dawn, to the

time of Adhan for Fajr prayers. However, it can be prayed at any time after Isha prayers but it is better to pray during the last quarter of the night near to the time of Fajr prayers. If it is not possible to pray after midnight or before Fajr, then it can be prayed in the morning or any part of the day with the niyyat (intention) of Qadha. It is better to pray with the niyyat of Qadha during the day than to pray in the early part of the night.

The Tahajjud Prayer ranks first and foremost in importance among all other optional (Sunnat) prayers. Tahajjud means to abandon sleep so as to pray Salat. The Qur‘an refers to it in Surah 17:79 and says, ―And (during part) of the night, abandon sleep and keep vigil to pray Salat, in addition to the regular obligatory prayer. Your Rabb (the Sustainer) may (as a reward) elevate you to the position of High Distinction, Glory and Praise.‖ The Prophet (saww) said, ―I will be at ―Maqam-e-Mahmuda‖ on the Day of Resurrection when I will seek forgiveness for the sinners from the Rabb (the Sustainer) who does what He wills.‖ We, as sinners, would also wish to receive intercession and are forgiven so as to be in the company of the Prophet (saww) on that Fearful Day. But, we need by working hard to attain the required spiritual level to qualify, while we are still living.

The verse quoted above which prescribes SalatulLayl has been placed immediately next to the verse (17:78) which prescribes the regular daily obligatory Salat. Therefore, it underscores the great importance of Salatul-Layl. Although optional, Tahajjud is considered ―nearest to obligatory (Wajib) prayer.‖

While advising Hazrat ‗Ali (a.s.), the Prophet repeated three times, ―‘Alayka Bis-Salatul-Layl‖ which means, ―incumbent upon you (O! Ali) is Salatul Layl.‖ This Hadith underscores further the importance of Salatul-Layl. Therefore, one should never miss it.

Hearing this condition the anxiety of the murid increased. Baqui Billah passed away. It was time for the namaze-zanaza. And when the condition of the sheikh was put forward no one present there could raise head to offer the prayer for the completion of zanaza. The same time a man came forward with his face covered and offered namaze-zanaza and thus the service completed. This murid remembered the words of the murshad. As the man started to walk away the murid stopped him holding the arm. He told what Baqui Billah told him regarding the meaning of the words fana and baka. The man removed the veil from the face and it was the sheikh baqui Billah himself. He replied the man whose namaze-zanaza I just offered is fana. And all that is in front of you is baka.

This is an example of resurrection in sufi path when the murshad comes to help the murids even when he is no more embodied. Whenever any sheikh attains to the state of fana-fe-ul-Allah through death attains to baka or subsistence in Allah Subhan wa Taala or attains to cosmic nature. In that state even in disembodied form he can appear as embodied one.

Only those who are pure in heart and has attained to the state of hubbe-haquiqui (absolute love) can envision this.

This is why after resurrection Jesus was visible only to Mary Madeline purest of all the disciples of Jesus.

Sufi Naqshbandi Brij Mohan Lal Sufi Brij Mohan Lal is such a sheikh who has attained the state of fana-fe-ul-allah through his Samadhi.

This is the state when one enters Eternity or Allah Subhan wa Taala or Totality, or Death knowingly, willingly, joyfully with total awareness. This state is called that this sheikh has attained shahadat in the name of Allah. For this Naqshbandi Sheikh Maulvi Fazal Ahmad Khan and Sheikh Maulvi Abdool Ghani Khan have said when at the time of cremation if fresh bood comes out of nose or ears the sheikh has attained the state of shahadat in the name of Allah Subhan wa Taala.

Whenever sheikh Brij Mohan Lal will go on his spiritual trips the program will publish in the monthly magazine ‗SANT‘. However for this final trip from Lucknow (place of residence) to Bombay (Now Mumbai). The consciousness of every seeker was veiled then and no one noticed this. It was only after Samadhi it was noticed that the program form return journey was missing. Of this his consort Sufi Shakuntala Devi was aware.

Along the way he visited many places where murids flocked in number to receive the barakat of the murshid. When the daughter of the sheikh made a plea to accompany the sheikh to Mumbai the Sheikh in a unique gesture rejected the plea with a question ‗Who will you come back with?‘ She did not understand this then.

By nature man is not ready for death the ultimate happening. In that case the masters keep these secrets from the general humanity. Very rarely a

human being enters death full of awareness. During a congregation in Mumbai speaking on the message of forgiveness Sheikh entered Samadhi and attained shahadat. It was decided that Onkar Nath ( Son of the sheikh and one who came to be known as Sufi Onkar Nath), daughter Gyatri, son in-law Lakshmi Sahai( Father of Sheikh Taoshobuddha) will go to receive the body at another station midway along the journey.

Along the way it was suggested that Sufi Onkar Nath should take some rest. Next to him an elderly person sat and continued to speak words of wisdom and consolation saying that such roohs are kamil as they attain fan-fe-ul- Allah in their death. Thereafter Onkar nath took rest and was suddenly awakened with the words of the Sheikh that I was just sitting next to you. A thorough search was made for that person in the train compartment. The person was seen nowhere and train did not stop.

This is the incident as it happened.

Now the explanation continues. This is the state of resurrection used as a technique by the departing sufi. When disembodied soul manifests itself as embodied soul know this as Resurrection – a devise for transformation. How does this happen – I cannot explain more than this for now.

Sai Baba of Shirdi Shirdi Sai used to live in a mosque where everyday seekers would flock around. Sai Baba had a disciple who would bring food to feed the master every day.

He used to live at a distance from the mosque. After the master has taken the meals the man would run back home. Only then the man would eat and that he never took meals after sunset. Thus many times it used to happen that he had to sleep without food as he would return after sunset from the mosque.

One day the master expressed compassion for the seeker. He told the seeker not to worry to come tomorrow as he would visit his place instead. This made the seeker really happy.

So the next day the man cleaned the place, cooked the best food and waited for the Shirdi Sai. Time flowed on. It was past noon time but the master did not show up. In place a dog came that insisted on sitting in front of the door for food. But the man dd not give food to the dog as he was waiting for the master. The man rushed with the food for the master. On reaching he complained to the master that all along he waited for him and he did not see the master coing he had to come with the food. At this the master said, ‗I came indeed but you did not recognize.‘ The surprised man recollected that Shirdi Sai did not come instead a dog insisted on sitting in front of the door. At this the master responded, ‗In the hot summer day dog was the only vehicle available. And you could not recognize beyond name and form. You missed.‘ The seeker requested for another chance and promised that this time he will not miss. Once again the elated man prepared best of the food as the master was visiting. He now waited for the master or the dog. This day neither the master nor the dog came instead a leper came and his wounds were oozing causing flies. Somehow the seeker chased the man without giving food to the leper. He continued to wait for the master. When until late, neither the

master came nor the dog the man rushed with food for the master. On reaching the mosque he again complained at the not showing by the master. At this the master responded, ‗As long as you have the outer vision of the superfluous or the non-essential you will go on missing.‘ Truth lies beyond human cognition. With the superfluous vision truth cannot be envisioned. You need the vision that can penetrate beyond mortal frame.

It is only with such vision that has evolved out of inner oneness that you can envision that which is beyond time and space in the realm of truth.

This is when the technique of resurrection is used by the master to create embodied form out of disembodied form for the transformation.

This is the Tariqat of the masters.

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here are stories in Buddhism where the power of resurrection was demonstrated on at least two famous occasions in Chan or Zen Buddhist tradition. One is the famous resurrection story of Bodhidharma, the Indian master who brought the Ekayana school of India to China that subsequently became Chan Buddhism.

The other is the passing of Chinese Chan master Puhua (J., Fuke) and is recounted in the Record of Linji (J., Rinzai). Puhua was known for his unusual or crazy-like behavior and teaching style so it is no wonder that he is associated with an event that breaks the usual prohibition on displaying such powers. Here is the account from Irmgard Schloegl‘s ‗The Zen Teaching of Rinzai‘.

Fuke Zen is a branch of Zen Buddhism which existed in Japan from the 13th century until the late 19th century. Fuke monks were noted for playing the Shakuhachi flute as a form of meditation. It was characterized in the public imagination of Japan by its monks,‘ who played the shakuhachi flute while wearing a large woven basket hat that covered their entire head as they went on pilgrimage.

The Founder Puhua The word Fuke Zen, is derived from the teachings of the Chinese Zen teacher Linji Yixuan (c. 800–866), who is known in Japan as Rinzai Gigen. However, the Fuke School counted as its founder one of Linji's contemporaries Pǔhuà who is also known as Fuke in Japanese. Puhua was reputedly a multi-talented monk, known for being inventive and at the same time quite strict.

One story of Puhua particularly demonstrates his unique style of nonverbal Chan: When Panshan Baoji was near death, he said to the monks, ‗Is there anyone among you who can draw my likeness?‘ Many of the monks made drawings for Panshan, but none were to his liking.

The monk Puhua stepped forward and said, ‗I can draw it.‘ Panshan said, ‗Why don‘t you show it to me?‘ Puhua then turned a somersault and went out.

Panshan said, ‗Someday, that fellow will teach others in a crazy manner!‘ Having said these words, Panshan passed away.

Many stories about Puhua that appear in the Record of Linji add to his reputation of having a rough and uncompromising manner of expressing the dharma.

One day the master Linji and Fuke went to a vegetarian banquet given them by a believer. During it, the master asked Fuke: ‗A hair swallows the vast ocean, a mustard seed contains Mt. Sumeru‘ – does this happen by means of supernatural powers, or is the whole body (substance, essence) like this?‘ Fuke kicked over the table. The master said: ‗Rough fellow.‘ Fuke retorted: ‗What place is this here to speak of rough and refined?‘ The next day, they went again to a vegetarian banquet. During it, the master asked: ‗Today‘s fare, how does it compare with yesterday‘s?‘ Fuke (as before) kicked over the table. The master said: ‗Understand it you do – but still, you are a rough fellow.‘ Fuke replied: ‗Blind fellow, does one preach of any roughness or finesse in the Buddha-Dharma?‘ The master stuck out his tongue.

There is some controversy as to the degree and nature of his musical talents, but his followers would often reflect on a certain story for inspiration: the story describes Puhua going through his hometown, ringing a bell to summon others to enlightenment.

The same, for many Fuke practitioners, applied to the shakuhachi, and its mastery was seen as a path to enlightenment.

Death of Puhua The passing of Puhua is recounted in the Record of Linji. In addition to giving a special importance to Puhua‘s ringing bell, it is particularly striking as a story of Buddhist resurrection that equals the famous resurrection story of Bodhidharma, the Indian

master who brought the Ekayana School from India to China, which became the Chan sect of Buddhism.

One day at the street market Fuke was begging all and sundry to give him a robe. Everybody offered him one, but he did not want any of them. The master Linji made the superior buy a coffin, and when Fuke returned, said to him: ‗There, I had this robe made for you.‘ Fuke shouldered the coffin, and went back to the street market, calling loudly: ‗Rinzai had this robe made for me! I am off to the East Gate to enter transformation‘ (to die). The people of the market crowded after him, eager to look. Fuke said: ‗No, not today. Tomorrow, I shall go to the South Gate to enter transformation.‘ And so for three days. Nobody believed it any longer. On the fourth day, and now without any spectators, Fuke went alone outside the city walls, and laid himself into the coffin. He asked a traveler who chanced by to nail down the lid.

The news spread at once, and the people of the market rushed there. On opening the coffin, they found that the body had vanished, but from high up in the sky they heard the ring of his hand bell.

Fuke Lineage in Japan Fuke Zen was brought to Japan by Shinchi Kakushin (1207–1298), also known as Muhon Kakushin and posthumously as Hotto Kokushi. Kakushin had travelled to China for six years and studied with the famous Chinese Chan master Wumen of the Linji lineage. Kakushin became a disciple of Chôsan, a 17th generation teacher of the Fuke sect of China.

Although it no longer exists as a religious organization, during the feudal period, Fuke Zen‘s following was quite extensive. Its members could be easily recognized by their practice of playing the shakuhachi flute, which was considered a form of meditation, termed suizen. These musician-monks were known at first as komosō literally ‗straw-mat monks‘ and, by the mid -17th century, as komusō literally ‗emptiness monk‘.

God is everywhere working a massive resurrection and it is the destiny of our time to be the birthing ground of this ‘resurrection’.

~~ Andrew Harvey ~~

I called through your door, ‗The mystics are gathering in the street. Come out!‘ you say: ‗Leave me alone.

I'm sick.‘ ‗I don‘t care if you‘re dead!‘ Jesus is here, and he wants to resurrect somebody!‘ - Jalaluddin Rumi

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n Islamic tradition Jesus is known as Isa a Sufi Sheikh. Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary), peace be upon his blessed soul. He is a Divine Messenger (Rasul) to the Islamic community. Before the earthly revelation of the Quran, in the previous

cycle of messenger ship, Jesus himself was ‗a Sign‘ embodied. For the Sufis, the Mystics of Islam - the station of Jesus is adorned as the Seal of Saintly Station, the Great Guide of Hearts (Murshid al-Akbar fil Qulub) and Teacher of the Sacred (Mu‘allim alMuqaddas).

The Seal of Saintly Station (Khatam al-Maqam alQuddusin) refers that none among the Sons of Man will ever again surpass the holiness of Jesus, his God consciousness and his saintly attributes. The divine pattern of transmission of sacred knowledge (almarifat) is such that it is transmitted unbrokenly from one heart to another heart. Thus the role of the Murshid is so sincerely preserved in Sufi Path and the Sufi Mystics who receive that unbroken barakat from God sent messengers and their disciples, companions and successors, consider Jesus as a great Murshid whose pattern (sunnah) reached kamaliyat, holy perfection.

Regarding INITIATION Jesus said, 'as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.'

- John 13.34.

This is the transmission of love which not all can achieve and those rare beings who achieve become the successor of the master in loving other as the master embodied and taught. Such is the transmission from one heart to another. Sufis called this baraka a continuation of love from, and for the fully Awakened Human Beings.

And Jesus, in the eye of the Sufis is one such fully Awakened Human Being, one who, by the grace of Allah, has become an Eternal Blossom of Love.

May Allah perfect our love for him and for our own spiritual guides?

Some Sufis directly inherited the station from Jesus

by God‘s will and perfumed themselves in the color of Christ. Ahmad al-Alawi was one of such well documented Sufi Saint in not-so-distant-past who even physically resembled Jesus.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi is the founder Sheikh of Shadhiliya Sufi Order. The British Muslim convert Martin Lings wrote an extensive biography of the founding Sheikh of this branch, Sheikh Ahmad alAlawi, entitled ‘A Sufi Saint of the 20th century’ (ISBN 0946621500) The Shadhiliya Order, was named after Abu alHasan al-Shadhili (d. 656 AH/1258 CE). His tomb is at Humaythra on Egypt‘s Red Sea coast. The Tariqat has branches throughout North Africa and the Arab world. It has also become established in Europe and the United States. Followers, or murids of the Shadhiliya, are often known as Shadhilis.

It is the most popular Sufi order in North Africa and many of its followers have made great contributions to Arab and Islamic literature. Sheikh Ibn ‗Ata Allah is the notable one. He is the author of the ‗Hikam‘ amongst other works.

Also Sheikh Ahmed Zarruq, who died in Libya, wrote a commentary on the Risala of al-Qayrawani. This is a standard work in Maliki Islamic jurisprudence and a commentary upon the Hikam. Furthermore he wrote extensively on religion (Sufism) and law.

Sheikh ibn Ajibah wrote a commentary on the Holy Qur‘an. Many of the Sheikhs of al-Azhar University in Egypt have also been followers of the Shadhili tariqa.

The Swedish impressionist painter and Sufi scholar Sheikh Abd Al-Hadi Aqhili (1869-1917) was the first official Moqaddam (representative) of the Shadhili Order in Western Europe.

Of many branches The Hamadiyya Shadhili branch is most popular. The Darqawi Shadhili branch is found mostly in Morocco and the Alawiyya is found mostly in Algeria but now also in Syria, Jordan, and France amongst French NorthAfricans. However it has no connection with the Turkish or Syrian Alawi or Alevi groups.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i asShadhili brought the Shadhiliya to the U.S.A. The Shadhiliya derives from the tariqat of Abu Madyan Shu‘ayb (d. 594 AH/1198 CE), whose tomb is in Tlemcen, Algeria.

A recent book, The Way of Abu Madyan, by the scholar Vincent Cornell, provides his biography, a discussion of his teachings, and a number of texts written by Abu Madyan and translated into English along with the original Arabic.‘ Sheikh Ibn Arabi, one of the greatest Gnostic, received initiation from Jesus Allahe Salam. Ibn Arabi later mentioned how his conversion or transformation (tawba) took place between the hand of Jesus. And Jesus is his Sheikh of inner plane. He said about Jesus: ‗He has prayed for me in order that I might persist in the religion... and has called me his beloved. He ordered me to practice zuhd

(renunciation) and tajrid (the stripping away of all that is unnecessary)‘.

Ibn Arabi and Ahmad al-Alawi, may Allah be pleased with them, are two prominent ones among many known and unknown examples that the Sufis continue to carry the nisbat of love with Christ.

Presently if one wish to discover Christ-like human beings, one will be extremely disappointed if one venture to seek such ones among the Christian pastors, priests , bishops or even among the Popes (past or present) - even though they are suppose to be the vanguard of Christ‘s teaching and hence supposedly be embodying Christ like characters.

This does not mean there are none, but you would think and naturally expect that from the Great Tree, the fruits would bear attributes resembling the original. However it seems the fruits have been cut off their nourishment long back.

What an irony you may say! Yet, God be our witness, those who manifest Christ-like consciousness and understanding live in holy poverty and simplicity that is the hallmark of Christ‘s asceticism. Also they live in spotless purity when it comes to morality and honoring God‘s limits and are imbued in the love of God. Like Christ they often practice itikaaf (retreat) in solitude to be alone with the Alone, like Christ who often prostrate with their face on the ground, who are humble and yet shine with wisdom of kingdom of heaven and who perform healing like Christ - such personalities can even be found among Sufi Masters, even in this age, if you only knew how to seek them.

There are even Sufi branches called Isawyi.

Naqshbandi Lalaji raji Allah Taala Unho was such Isawyi Sufi Sheikh and the temperament, energy, and the combination of peaceful innocence and fierce wisdom reminded none but our noble master, Isa Masih (Messiah Jesus).

Sufis have discovered the quintessential quality of a Murshid or a Sheikh, or a Guide of the Soul in Jesus.

As a master Jesus is unique who spoke in simple parables.

While describing how a true Spiritual Guide be recognized, Sufi Abul Khayr has at least enumerated ten characteristics. And if found in a guide, is proof of his authenticity. These are: 1. He must have become a Goal, to be able to have a disciple.

2. He must have traveled the mystic path himself, to be able to show the way.

3. He must have become refined and educated, to be able to be an educator (murabbi).

4. He must be generous and devoid of selfimportance, so that he can sacrifice wealth on behalf of the disciple.

5. He must have no hand in the disciple‘s wealth, so that he is not tempted to use it for himself.

6. Whenever he can give advice through a sign, parables, or metaphors, he will not use direct expression.

7. Whenever he can educate through kindness, he will not use violence and harshness.

8. Whatever he orders, he has first accomplished himself.

9. Whatever he forbids the disciple, he has abstained for himself.

10. He will not abandon for the world‘s sake the disciple whom he accepts for God‘s sake.

Abul Khayr continues to say that, ‗If the spiritual guide is like this and is adorned with these qualities, the disciple is bound to be sincere and a good traveler, for what appears in the disciple is the quality of the spiritual guide made manifest in the disciple.‘ If one truly tries to understand the perfumed qualities of Jesus, one will know that these ten characteristics truly manifest in him and certainly Allah blessed him with more than what we can enumerate.

What in Hinduism refers to as Samadhi is called Nirvana in Buddhism. Samadhi or Nirvana is like twilight hour.

Just as twilight hour neither belongs to day nor night although it happens between the two – day and night; so too Samadhi or Nirvana happens between two planes.

Actually there are many types of samadhi. One samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body.

Remember, samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight period. One may just as well ask whether twilight belongs to the day or the night. Twilight belongs neither to the day nor the night; it is a happening between day and night. So is samadhi.

The first samadhi occurs between the fourth and the fifth planes. This samadhi leads to self realization, atma gyan.

One samadhi occurs between the fifth and the sixth planes; this in turn leads to brahma gyan – cosmic knowing.

The samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the seventh planes is the samadhi that leads to nirvana.

So generally speaking there are these three samadhis that occur between the last three shariras, the last three bodies.

Nirvāna (Sanskrit:

; Pali:

(Nibbāna);

Prakrit: ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic or Buddhist thought, it is the state of being free from suffering (or dukkha). In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through Moksha. The word literally means "blowing out". In the Buddhist context it refers to the blowing out of the inherent qualities or personality traits of greed, hatred, and delusion.

The word Nirvāna is made of the prefix ni[r]- (ni, nis, nih) which means ‗out, or away from, or without‘, and the root vâ[na] (Pali. vâti) which can be translated as ‗blowing‘ as in ‗blowing of the wind‘, and also as ‗smelling‘, etc. Thus the word exists and is used to imply the state of desirelessness, no mind, or a state beyond duality of body mind and intellect.

The Abhidharma-mahāvibhāsa-sāstra, which is a sarvastivādin commentary, gives the complete context of various meanings that are derived from theSanskrit roots: 1. Vāna, implies the path of rebirth, + nir, meaning leaving off' and together the word means ‗being away from the path of rebirth.‘ – freedom from rebirth.

2. Vāna, meaning ‗stench‘, + nir, meaning ‗without‘: ‗without the stench of distressing karma‘ – beyond the influence of karmas. In that case actions do not bind.

3. Vāna, meaning ‗dense forests‘, + nir, meaning ‗without‘. Put together the word means ‗to be without the dense forest of the five

aggregates.‘ These aggregates are enumerated as under: a. (panca skandha), or the three roots of greed, hate and delusion b. (raga, dvesa, avidya) or emotions, duality and ignorance or negation of truth. These are ‗three characteristics of existence‘ c. (impermanence, anitya; unsatisfactoriness, dukkha, soullessness, anàtman) or ephemeral, transcient, unsatisfactoriness, suffering, soullessness, and non steady.

4. Vāna, meaning ‗weaving‘, + nir, meaning ‗knot‘ = ‗freedom from the knot of the distressful thread of karma.‘

Nirvana in Buddhism The Buddha described Nirvāna as the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflicting states (kilesas). It is also the ‗end of the world of conflicts and duality. There is no identity left, and no boundaries for the mind. The mind attains to a state of beyondness. The seeker is at peace with the world. He has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified, and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In Nirvāṇa the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished, so that one is

no longer subject to human suffering (Pali: dukkha) or further rebirth in Samsāra.

The Pāli Canon also contains other perspectives on Nirvāna. Firstly it refers to the empty nature of all phenomena. It is also presented as a radical reordering of consciousness and unleashing of awareness.

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha calls Nirvāna ‗the highest happiness‘. This happiness is an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through enlightenment or bodhi, rather than the happiness derived from impermanent things. The knowledge accompanying Nirvāṇa is expressed through the word bodhi.

The Buddha explains Nirvāna as ‗the unconditioned‘ (asankhata) mind, a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations. This is described by the Buddha as ‗deathlessness‘ (Pali: amata or amāravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path. Such a life engenders increasing control over the generation of karma (Sanskrit; Pali, kamma).

It produces wholesome karma with positive results and finally allows the cessation of the origination of karma altogether with the attainment of Nibbāna.

Otherwise, beings forever wander through the impermanent and suffering-generating realms of desire, form, and formlessness, collectively termed Samsāra.

Each liberated individual produces no new karma, but preserves a particular individual personality which is the result of the traces of his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that there is a psycho-physical substrate during the remainder of an arahant's lifetime shows the continuing effect of karma.

The stance of the early scriptures is that attaining Nibbāna in either the current or some future birth depends on effort, and is not pre-determined.

Nirvāṇa in the sutras is never conceived of as a place (such as one might conceive heaven), but rather the antinomy of samsāra which itself is synonymous with ignorance (avidyā, Pāli avijjā). This said: ‗the liberated mind (citta) that no longer clings' means Nibbāna‘ (Majjhima Nikaya 2-Att. 4.68).

Nirvāna is meant specifically gnosis - that which ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical phenomena. Doctrinally, Nibbāna is said of the mind which ‗no longer is coming (bhava) and going (vibhava)‘, but which has attained a status in perpetuity, whereby ‗liberation (vimutta) can be said‘.

It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. The realizing of Nirvāṇa is compared to the ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the will (cetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind into biological or other form passing on forever through life after life (Samsāra). Samsāra comes into existence principally because of craving and ignorance. A person can attain Nirvāna even when he is alive.

When a person who has realized Nirvāṇa dies, his death is referred as parinirvāṇa (Pali: parinibbana), his fully passing away, as his life was his last link to the cycle of death and rebirth (Samsāra), and he will not be reborn again. Buddhism says that the ultimate goal and end of samsāric existence is realization of Nirvāna. What happens to a person after his parinirvāṇa cannot be explained, as it is outside of all conceivable experience. Through a series of questions, Sariputta brings a monk to admit that he cannot pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life, so to speculate regarding the ontological status of an arahant after death is improper.

Individuals up to the level of non-returning may experience Nirvāna as an object of mental consciousness. Certain meditations while Nibbana is an object of samādhi can be used to the level of nonreturning or the gnosis of the arahant. This is attained through a progression of insight, if the meditator realizes that even that state is constructed and therefore impermanent, the fetters are destroyed, arahantship is attained, and Nibbāna is realized.

Transcendent knowing The mind is aware; it is conscious. In many places the Buddha describes his enlightenment in terms of ‗knowing‘: such as in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, ‗Knowing arose‘ (ñāṇa udapādi). With nirvāṇa the consciousness is released, and the mind becomes aware in a way that is totally unconstrained by anything in the conditioned world. The Buddha

describes this in a variety of passages. One way is as follows: Consciousness without feature, without end, luminous all around The Buddha avoided the use of Sanskrit because of many philosophers contemporary with him and priests. He opted for a more broad-brush, colloquial style, geared to particular listeners in a language which they could understand. As a result he used Pali a language that was born and grew in the plains at the foot of mountains in Nepal. Thus ‗viññana‘ here can be assumed to mean ‗knowing‘ but not the partial, fragmented, and discriminative (vi-) knowing (-ñana) which the word usually implies. Instead it must mean a knowing of a primordial, transcendent nature, otherwise the passage which contains it would be self-contradictory.‘ The choice of words may have been made; the passages may represent an example of the Buddha using his ‗skill in means‘ to teach Brahmins in terms they were familiar with.

This ‗unmanifest consciousness‘ differs from the kinds of consciousness associated to the six senses, which have a "surface" that they fall upon and arise in response to.

According to Peter Harvey, the early texts are ambivalent as to whether or not the term ‗consciousness‘ is accurate. In a liberated individual, consciousness is directly experienced, in a way that is free from any dependence on conditions at all.

This ‗luminous consciousness‘ is identical with Nirvāṇa. Others disagree, finding it to be not Nirvāṇa

itself, but instead to be a kind of consciousness accessible only to arahants. A passage in the Majjhima Nikaya refers it to empty space. For liberated ones the luminous, unsupported consciousness associated with nibbana is directly known without mediation of the mental consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, and is the transcending of all objects of mental consciousness.

Therefore it differs radically from the concept in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It is described as accessing the individual‘s inmost consciousness, in that it is not considered an aspect, even the deepest aspect, of the individual‘s personality, and is not to be confused in any way with a ‗Self‘. Furthermore, it transcends the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sixth of the Buddhist jhanas, which is in itself not the ending of the concept of ‗I‘.

Nagarjuna alluded to a passage regarding this level of consciousness in the Dighanikaya in two different works. He wrote: The Sage has declared that earth, water, fire, and wind, long, short, fine and coarse, good, and so on are extinguished in consciousness ... Here long and short, fine and coarse, good and bad, here name and form all stop.

A related idea, which finds support in the Pali Canon and the contemporary Theravada practice tradition despite its absence in the Theravada commentaries and Abhidhamma, is that the mind of the arahant is itself nibbana.

Nirvana and Samsara In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Nirvana and Samsara are said to be not-different when viewed from the ultimate nature of the Dharmakaya. An individual can attain Nirvana by following the Buddhist path. If they were ultimately different this would be impossible. Thus, the duality between Nirvana and Samsara is only accurate on the conventional level.

Another way to arrive at this conclusion is through the analysis that all phenomena are empty of an essential identity, and therefore suffering is never inherent in any situation. Thus liberation from suffering and its causes is not a metaphysical shift of any kind.

The Theravāda school makes the antithesis of Samsara and Nibbāna the starting point of the entire quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this antithesis as determinative of the final goal, which is precisely the transcendence of Samsara and the attainment of liberation in Nibbāna. Where Theravada differs significantly from the Mahāyāna schools, which also start with the duality of Samsara and Nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt faculties, to be eventually superseded by some higher realization of non-duality. From the standpoint of the Pāli Suttas, even for the Buddha and the Arahants suffering and its cessation, Samsara and Nibbāna, remain distinct.

Both schools agree that Shakyamuni Buddha was in saṃsāra while having attained Nirvāṇa, in so far as he was seen by all while simultaneously free from Samsara.

Paths to Nirvana in the Pali canon In Visuddhimagga Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to Nirvana, including: 1. By insight (vipashyana) alone 2. By jhana and understanding 3. By deeds, vision and righteousness 4. By virtue, consciousness and understanding 5. By virtue, understanding, concentration and effort 6. By the four foundations of mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta,) Depending on one‘s analysis, each of these options could be seen as a reframing of the Buddha‘s Threefold Training of virtue, mental development and wisdom.

The idea of Nirvana as purified, non-dualistic ‗superior mind‘ can be found in some Mahayana texts. The Samputa, for instance, states: ‗Undefiled by lust and emotional impurities, unclouded by any dualistic perceptions, this superior mind is indeed the supreme Nirvana.‘ Some Mahayana traditions see the Buddha in almost domestic terms, viewing his visible manifestations as projections from within the state of Nirvana.

According to Professor Etienne Lamotte, Buddhas are always and at all times in Nirvana, and their corporeal displays of themselves and their Buddhic careers are ultimately illusory. Lamotte writes of the Buddhas: ‗they are born, reach enlightenment, set turning the Wheel of Dharma, and enter Nirvana.

However, all this is only illusion: the appearance of a Buddha is the absence of arising, duration and destruction; their Nirvana is the fact that they are always and at all times in Nirvana.‘ Some Mahayana sutras go even further and attempt to characterize the nature of Nirvana itself. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which has as one of its main topics precisely the realm or dhatu of Nirvana, has the Buddha speak of four essential elements which make up Nirvana. One of these is ‗Self‘ (atman), which is construed as the enduring Self of the Buddha.

Writing on this Mahayana understanding of Nirvana, William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous state: ‗The Nirvana Sutra claims for Nirvana the ancient ideas of permanence, bliss, personality, purity in the transcendental realm. Mahayana declares that Hinayana, by denying personality in the transcendental realm, denies the existence of the Buddha.

In Mahayana, final Nirvana is transcendental, and is also used as a term for the Absolute.‘ At the time this scripture was written, there was already a long tradition of positive language about Nirvana and the Buddha. While in early Buddhist thought Nirvana is characterized by permanence, bliss, and purity, it is viewed as being the stopping of the breeding-ground for the ‗I am‘ attitude, and is beyond all possibility of the Self delusion. The Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a long and highly composite Mahayana scripture, refers to the Buddha‘s using the term ‗Self‘ in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics. From this, it continues: ‗The Buddha-nature

is in fact not the self. For the sake of [guiding] sentient beings, I describe it as the self.‘ The Ratnagotravibhaga, a related text, points out that the teaching of the tathagatagarbha is intended to win sentient beings over to abandoning ‗affection for one‘s self‘ - one of the five defects caused by non-Buddhist teaching.

Youru Wang notes similar language in the Lankavatara Sutra, and then writes: ‗Noticing this context is important. It will help us to avoid jumping to the conclusion that tathagatagarbha thought is simply another case of metaphysical imagination.‘ However, some have objected to this reading regarding the Mahāparinirvāna Sutra in particular, and claim that the Buddha then caps his comments in this passage with an affirmation of the reality of the Self, declaring that he is in fact that Self: ‗Due to various causes and conditions, I have also taught that that which is the self is devoid of self, for though there is truly the self, I have taught that there is no-self or annatta, and yet there is no falsehood in that. The Buddha-dhātu is devoid of self. When the Tathagata teaches that there is no self, it is because of the Eternal. The Tathāgata is the Self, and his teaching that there is no self is because he has attained mastery or sovereignty [aisvarya].‘ In the Nirvāna Sutra, the Buddha states that he will now teach previously undisclosed doctrines (including on Nirvana) and that his earlier teaching on non-Self was one of expediency only. Dr. Kosho Yamamoto writes:

‗He says that the non-Self which he once taught is none but of expediency … He says that he is now ready to speak about the undisclosed teachings. Men abide in upside-down thoughts. So he will now speak of the affirmative attributes of Nirvana, which are none other than the Eternal, Bliss, the Self and the Pure.‘ According to some scholars, the language used in the Tathāgatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language instead, to prevent people from being turned away from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism. For example, in some of these sutras the perfection of the wisdom of not-self is stated to be the true self; the ultimate goal of the path is then characterized using a range of positive language that had been used in Indian philosophy previously by essentialist philosophers, but which was now transmuted into a new Buddhist vocabulary to describe a being who has successfully completed the Buddhist path.

Dr. Yamamoto points out that this ‗affirmative‘ characterization of Nirvana pertains to a supposedly higher form of Nirvana – that of ‗Great Nirvana‘.

Speaking of the ‗Bodhisattva Highly Virtuous King‘ chapter of the Nirvana Sutra, Yamamoto quotes the scripture itself: ‗What is nirvana? ...this is as in the case in which one who has hunger has peace and bliss as he has taken a little food.‘ Yamamoto continues with the quotation, adding his own comment: ‗But such a Nirvāna cannot be called ―Great Nirvāna‖‘. And it ( the Buddha‘s new revelation regarding Nirvana) goes on to dwell on the ―Great

Self‖, ―Great Bliss‖, and ―Great Purity‖, all of which, along with the Eternal, constitute the four attributes of Great Nirvana.‘ According to some scholars, the ‗Self‘ discussed in the related sutras does not represent a substantial Self. Rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness and represents the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. In this view, the intention of the teaching of 'tathāgatagarbha' or Buddha nature is stereological rather than theoretical.

However, this interpretation is contentious. Not all scholars share it. Writing on the diverse understandings of tathagatagarbha doctrine as found in the Nirvana Sutra and similar scriptures, Dr. Jamie Hubbard comments on how some scholars see a tendency towards absolutism and monism in this Tathagatagarbha [a tendency which Japanese scholar Matsumoto castigates as non-Buddhist]. Dr. Hubbard comments: ‗Matsumoto [calls] attention to the similarity between the extremely positive language and causal structure of enlightenment found in the tathagatagarbha literature and that of the substantial monism found in the atman/Brahman tradition.

Matsumoto, of course, is not the only one to have noted this resemblance. Takasaki Jikido, for example, the preeminent scholar of the tathagatagarbha tradition, sees monism in the doctrine of the tathagatagarbha and the Mahayana in general … Obermiller wedded this notion of a monistic Absolute to the tathagatagarbha literature in his translation and comments to the Ratnagotra, which he aptly subtitled ―A Manual of Buddhist

Monism‖ … Lamotte and Frauwallner have seen the tathagatagarbha doctrine as diametrically opposed to the Madhyamika and representing something akin to the monism of the atman/Brahman strain, while yet others such as Nagao, Seyfort Ruegg, and Johnston (the editor of the Ratnagotra) simply voice their doubts and state that it seems similar to post-Vedic forms of monism. Yet another camp, represented by Yamaguchi Susumu and his student Ogawa Ichijo, is able to understand tathagatagarbha thought without recourse to Vedic notions by putting it squarely within the Buddhist tradition of conditioned causality and emptiness, which, of course, explicitly rejects monism of any sort. Obviously, the question of the monist or absolutist nature of the tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature traditions is complex.

Dr. Hubbard summarises his research tathagatagarbha doctrines with the words:

on

‗the teaching of the tathagatagarbha has always been debatable, for it is fundamentally an affirmative approach to truth and wisdom, offering descriptions of reality not in negative terms of what it is lacking or empty of (apophatic description, typical of the Pefection of Wisdom corpus and the Madhyhamika school) but rather in positive terms of what it is (cataphatic description, more typical of the devotional, tantric, Mahaparinirvana and Lotus Sutra traditions, and, it should be noted, the monistic terms of the orthodox Brahmanic systems)‘ According to Paul Williams, the similarity to the monism of atman/Brahman thought is explained when the Nirvana sutra presents its Self teachings as an attempt to win over non-Buddhist ascetics:

It is tempting to speak of Hindu influence on Buddhism at this point, but simply to talk of influences is almost always too easy ... Having said that, of course the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra itself admits Hindu influence in a sense when it refers to the Buddha using the term ‗Self‘ in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to think in particular of the transcendental Self-Brahman of Advaita Vedanta as necessarily influencing Buddhism at this point. It is by no means clear that the Self which is really no-Self of the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra is at all comparably to the Advaita Brahman, and anyway these Tathagatagarbha sutras are earlier than Gaudapada (seventh century), the founder of the Hindu Advaita school ...

The sutra also states that the Buddha-nature is really no-Self, but is said to be a Self in a manner of speaking.

In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, it is stated that there are three ways for a person to ‗have‘ something; to have it in the past, to have it in the present, and to have it in the future. It states that what it means by ‗all beings have Buddha-nature‘ is that all beings will in the future become Buddhas.

Dogen, a Zen master however explicitly says that the Buddha-Nature is had in some sense in the present even by non Buddhas: actually equating the reality of the present moment (or ‗That without constancy‘) with the Buddha-Nature, including that of grass and trees as well as mind and body. For Dogen, to look at anything is to see the Buddha-Nature, whereas Chinul argues that it is in the body right now as smelling and vision and so on. The important

Lankavatara Sutra states that all actions are actions of the Buddha-Nature, that it is their cause and the root of all karmic destiny, As indicated above, the Japanese Zen master, Dogen, has a distinctive interpretation of the Buddha-nature, in which ‗whole-being‘ is viewed as Buddha-nature, and nothing (even inanimate objects) is separate or distinct from it. Buddhanature is not a ‗potential‘ for Buddhahood, instead it is the very nature of all things. All things in their impermanence are seen as Buddha-nature, and do not constitute a seed of ‗potential‘ for Buddhanature. Dr. Masao Abe writes on this understanding: ‗... in Dogen‘s understanding, the Buddha-nature is not a potentiality, like a seed, that exists within all sentient beings. Instead, all sentient beings, or more exactly, all beings, living and nonliving, are originally Buddha-nature. It is not a potentiality to be actualized sometime in the future, but the original, fundamental nature of all beings.‘ Dogen thus expands the notion of Buddha-nature and that of ‗sentient beings‘ to embrace absolutely all things, which are seen to be alive, possessed of mind and to be the Buddha-nature itself. Dr. Masao Abe elucidates: ―... Dogen broadens not only the meaning of the term Buddha-nature, but also that of the term, sentient beings (shujo). In the ‗Bussho‘ fascicle, immediately after saying ‗Whole-being is the Buddha-nature‘, he continues, ‗I call one integral entity of whole-being ‗sentient beings‘‖ ... This means that Dogen broadens the meaning of shujo [sentient being], which traditionally referred to living

or sentient beings, to include nonliving or nonsentient beings. In other words, he ascribes life to nonliving beings, sentiments to non-sentient beings, and ultimately mind and the Buddha-nature to all of them.‘

Quotations Gautama Buddha: ‗Nirvāna is the highest happiness.‘ ‗Where there is nothing; where naught is grasped, there is the Isle of No-Beyond. Nirvāṇa do I call it — the utter extinction of aging and dying.‘ ‗There is, monks, an unborn — un-become — unmade — un-fabricated. If there were not that unborn — un-become — un-made — un-fabricated, there would not be the case that emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn — un-become — un-made — un-fabricated, emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated is discerned.‘ Thus ‗the liberated mind/will (citta) which does not cling‘ means Nibbāna‘ In Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta the Buddha refers nibbana to the cessation and extinguishing of a fire where the materials for sustenance has been removed: ‗Profound, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.‘

‗There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress.‘ Said immediately after the physical Gautama Buddha wherein his mind =parinirvāṇa=the essence of liberation:

death of (citta) is

―No longer with (subsists by) in-breath nor outbreath, so is him (Gautama) who is steadfast in mind (citta), inherently quelled from all desires the mighty sage has passed beyond. With mind (citta) limitless he no longer bears sensations; illumined and unbound (nibbana), his mind (citta) is definitely (ahu) liberated.‖ ‗And what is the Nibbana property with no fuel remaining? There is the case where a monk is an arahant whose fermentations have ended, who has reached fulfillment, finished the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, ended the fetter of becoming, and is released through right gnosis. For him, all that is sensed, being unrealized, will grow cold right here. This is termed the Nibbana property with no fuel remaining." [Itivuttaka 2.17]

Parinibbana description: ‗The body disintegrated, perception ceased, pain and rapture were entirely consumed, fabrications were stilled: consciousness has come to its end‘. [Udana 8.9] Sutta Nipāta, tr. Rune Johansson: accī yathā vātavegena khitto atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ evaṁ muni nāmakāyā kimutto atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ atthan gatassa na pamāṇam atthi ynea naṁ vajju taṁ tassan atthi sabbesu dhammesu samūhatesu samūhatā vādapathāpi sabbe Like a flame that has been blown out by a strong wind goes to rest and cannot be defined, just so the sage who is freed from name and body goes to rest and cannot be defined.

For him who has gone to rest there is no measure by means of which one could describe him; that is not for him. When all (dharmas) have gone, all signs of recognition have also gone. Venerable Sariputta: The destruction of greed, hatred and delusion is Nirvāṇa.

Nirvana and Hinduism In Hinduism, Moksha is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death and one‘s worldly conception of self. A person reaches the state of Nirvana only when Moksha is attained. The Union with the

supreme being Brahman and this experience of blissful ego-lessness is termed Nirvana. In Advaita Vedanta philosophy, however the concepts of Moksha and Nirvana are nearly analogous with certain views overlapping.

The word Nirvana was first used in its technical sense in Buddhism, and cannot be found in any of the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. K. N. Upadhaya in his work ‘The Impact of Early Buddhism on Hindu Thought’ says he believes the use of the term in the Bhagavad Gita to be a sign of early Buddhist influence upon Hindu thought.

Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana.

Osho

Osho not only calls Nirvana or enlightenment a nightmare instead the last nightmare.

Why does Osho say that nirvana, enlightenment, is a nightmare - and not only a nightmare but the last nightmare? Because as long as we keep hoping for some future paradise, we are sacrificing the present for a moment that will never come. Our desire to achieve nirvana becomes the very obstacle to its happening.

Osho challenges us to wake up and stop dreaming.

He exposes the tricks and habits of our minds that keep us from being in the here and now, living this moment totally. As he relates them to our lives today, we begin to discover the art of being present and joyful in the simple ordinariness of life.

Muso, the national teacher, And one of the most illustrious masters of his day, Left the capital in the company of a disciple For a distant province.

On reaching the tenryu river They had to wait for an hour Before they could board the ferry.

Just as the ferry was about to leave the shore A drunken samurai ran up And jumped into the packed boat, Nearly swamping it.

He tottered wildly as the small craft Made its way across the river.

The ferryman, Fearing for the safety of his passengers, Begged him to stand quietly. ‗We‘re like sardines in here,‘ Said the samurai gruffly.

Then, pointing to Muso, ‗Why not toss out the bonzae?‘ ‗Please be patient,' Muso said, ‗We‘ll reach the other side soon.‘ ‗What!‘ bawled the samurai, me be patient?

Listen here, if you don't jump off this thing` I swear I‘ll drown you.'

The master‘s calm so infuriated the samurai That he struck muso‘s head with his iron fan, Drawing blood.

Muso‘s disciple had had enough by this time, And as he was a powerful man, Wanted to challenge the samurai. ‗I can‘t permit him to go on living after this,‘ he said. ‗Why get so worked up over a trifle?‘ Muso said with a smile. ‗It‘s exactly in matters of this kind That the bonzae‘s training proves itself.

Patience, you must remember, Is more than just a word.‘

Then he recited an extempore waka: ‗The beater and the beaten: Mere players of a game Ephemeral as a dream.‘ When the boat reached shore, And Muso and his disciple alighted, The samurai ran up And prostrated himself at the master's feet.

Then and there he became a disciple.

SEEKING for something, desiring for something, is the basic disease of the mind. Not seeking, not desiring, is the basic health of your being.

It is very easy to go on changing the objects of desire, but that is not the way of transformation. You can desire money, you can desire power... you can change the objects of desire - you can start desiring god - but you remain the same because you go on desiring.

The basic change is to be brought not in the objects of desire, but in your subjectivity.

If desiring stops - and remember, I am not saying that it has to be stopped - if desiring stops, then you are for the first time at home, peaceful, patient, blissful, and for the first time life is available to you and you are available to life. In fact, the very division between you and life disappears, and this state of non division is the state of god.

People come to me from all over the world; they travel thousands of miles. When they come to me and I ask, ‗Why have you come?‘ somebody says, ‗I

am a seeker of god.‘ Somebody says, ‗I am a seeker of truth.‘ They are not aware what they are asking. They are asking the impossible. God is not a thing. God is not an object. You cannot seek him. God is this whole.

How can you seek the whole? You can dissolve in it, you can merge in it, but you cannot seek it. The seeking simply shows that you go on believing yourself separate from the whole - you the seeker and the whole -the sought.

Sometimes you seek a woman, sometimes you seek a man. Sometimes, frustrated from the world, you start seeking the other world - but you are not yet frustrated with seeking itself.

A seeker is in trouble. A seeker is confused. He has not understood the basic problem itself. It is not that you have to seek god, then everything will be solved.

Just the opposite - if everything is solved, suddenly there is god.

And if you stop seeking nirvana, you will find nirvana hidden in life itself. If you stop seeking god, you will find god everywhere... in each particle, in each moment of life. God is another name of life. Nirvana is another name of life lived. You have just heard the word ‗life‘; it is not a lived experience.

Drop all beliefs, they are hindrances. Don‘t be a Christian, don‘t be a Hindu, don‘t be a Mohammedan. Just be alive. Let that be your only religion.

Life - the only religion. Life - the only temple. Life the only prayer.

I have heard, a disciple came to a Zen master, bowed down, touched his feet and said, ‗How long do I have to wait for my enlightenment?‘ The master looked at him long, long enough. The disciple started getting restless. He repeated his question and he said, ‗Why are you looking at me so long? Why don't you answer me?‘ And the master answered a really Zen answer. He said, ‗Kill me.‘ The disciple could not believe that this is the answer for his enlightenment. He went to ask the chief disciple. The chief disciple laughed and he said, ‗The same he did to me also.‘ And he is right. He is saying, ‗Why do you go on asking me? Drop this master. Drop this asking. Kill me. Drop all ideology.

Who am l? I am not preventing you. Life is available.

Why don‘t you start living? Why do you go on preparing, when and how?

This seems to be the most difficult thing for the human mind - just to live, naked; just to live without any arrangements; just to live the raw and the wild life; just to live the moment.

And this is the whole teaching of all the great teachers, but you go on making philosophies out of them. Then you create a doctrine, and then you start believing in the doctrine.

There are many Zen people who believe in Zen - and Zen teaches trust, not belief. There are many people around me who believe in me - and I teach you trust, not belief. If you trust your life, you have trusted me. No intellectual belief is needed.

Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don't ask about the path.

Osho – Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana.

The literal meaning of the word is beautiful, one of the most beautiful words. Literally it means blowing out a candle. When you blow out a candle, the light disappears and you cannot say where it has gone.

You cannot show any direction – to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south; it has simply disappeared. It has not gone anywhere, it has not moved into some other place. It has gone out of existence. It has moved into nothingness. It is no more.

Exactly like that flame of the candle, the ego disappears. You cannot say where it has gone – it has not gone anywhere; it is no more. When the ego disappears, all is silence, because all turmoil, all noise, is of the ego. And when the ego disappears there is no longer any possibility of any anguish, anxiety. There is nobody to be anxious in the first place. One feels oneself as pure emptiness, and that pure emptiness has a fragrance to it.

Ref: Nirvana the Last Nightmare

Written by admin on 09 November 2008

Question: In which body is that obtained which you refer to as Samadhi?

Osho: Actually there are many types of samadhi.

One samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body. Remember, samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight period. One may just as well ask whether twilight belongs to the day or the night. Twilight belongs neither to the day nor the night; it is a happening between day and night. So is samadhi.

The first samadhi occurs between the fourth and the fifth planes. This samadhi leads to self realization, atma gyan.

One samadhi occurs between the fifth and the sixth planes; this in turn leads to brahma gyan – cosmic knowing.

The samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the seventh planes is the samadhi that leads to nirvana. So generally speaking there are these three samadhis that occur between the last three shariras, the last three bodies.

There is one false samadhi that has to be recognized also. It occurs in the fourth body, but is not samadhi though it seems like it. In Japan the Zen Buddhist term for it is satori. It is false samadhi. It is that state which a painter or a sculptor or a musician reaches when he is completely immersed in his art; he experiences a great bliss.

This is a happening on the fourth – the psychic plane. If when looking at the morning sun or listening to a melody or looking at a dance or looking at the opening of a flower the mind is completely drowned in the happening, a false samadhi takes place. Such a false samadhi can be brought about by hypnosis or false shaktipat. Such a false samadhi can be brought about by alcohol and drugs like marijuana, lsd, mescaline, hashish.

So there are four types of samadhi. Actually there are three authentic samadhis and they happen in a sequence. The fourth is an absolutely false experience that appears like samadhi. In this there is no actual experience – only a feeling of samadhi that is misleading. Many people are misled by satori.

This false samadhi occurs in the fourth – the psychic plane. It is not the transitional process between the

fourth and the fifth plane; it happens well within the fourth body. The three authentic samadhis occur outside the bodies in a transitional period when we pass on from one plane to another. One samadhi is a door, a passage.

Between the fourth and the fifth bodies happens the first authentic samadhi. One attains self relaxation.

We can get stuck here. Usually people stop at the false samadhi in the fourth body because it is so easy. We have to spend very little energy, making no effort at all, and it is obtained just like that. The majority of meditators, therefore, stagnate here.

The first real samadhi, which takes place on the journey from the fourth to the fifth body, is very difficult; and the third, from the sixth to the seventh, is the most difficult of all. The name chosen for the third samadhi is vajrabhed – piercing of the thunderbolt. It is the most difficult one because it is a transition from being into nonbeing; it is a jump from life into death; it is a plunge from existence into nonexistence.

So there are actually three samadhis. The first you may call atma samadhi, the second brahma samadhi, and the last nirvana samadhi. The very first and false samadhi you may call satori. This is the one you should guard against, because it is very easily attainable.

Another method to test the validity of the samadhi is that if it takes place within the plane it is false; it must take place between the planes. It is the door; it has no business to be inside the room. It must be outside the room, adjoining the next room.

Jesus used the Parables as his teaching devise.

Parable is one of the hallmarks of Masters that when they speak about higher reality, the unseen, they avoid speaking it directly. The direct speaking is violent. There are many reasons behind this. The reasons are worth explaining using a parable as well: „Looking at the sun directly and with naked eye is not profitable, either this temporarily blinds the onlooker, or if done severely, this causes permanent blindness.‟ Masters emphasized that direct looking at the reality or truth or haquiqat is harmful. Therefore the masters use the parables to give a glimpse into reality.

Parables perform multiple functions: 1. Parables allows the seeker ‗to drink gradually‘, opening like many petaled flower ‗layer by layer‘ 2. Parables continue to unveil its meaning transcending limitation of age or time and open its meaning according to the ‗readiness‘ of seeker.

3. Furthermore, subject matter of the unseen, as the name suggest are often unknown, and hence mind has nothing to compare or contrast against, there are no likeness of, for example the terms

such as the kingdom of heaven, the garden beneath which rivers flow, which are of reality of the afterworld and unseen for those who are earth bound.

The parables played an important part in the teachings of Jesus. He was fond of parables in conveying his message so much so that in the canonical gospels, the parables forms approximately one third of his available teachings. And we of course have lost, many of the private conversations of the Teacher with his disciples.

It happened once the sahabis (intimate companions) came to him and asked, ‗Master why do you speak to the people in parables?‘ Jesus responded: ‗The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

Whoever has (such sacred knowledge) will be given more, and he will have abundance (kausar).

Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.‘ - Matthew: 13:10-13

Someone said...

The Hidden Parables is a complete retranslation of the parables used by Jesus to illustrate critical lessons about the nature of reality. There are thirytwo enigmatic parables spoken by Christ that reveal

a hidden meaning which shows that the parables are NOT a random collection of stories, but present a unified system of knowledge.

The integrated system of understanding delineates the laws of thought forms of controlled intentions in creating more beneficial, and miraculous circumstances in our personal lives. The information presented is clear and very practical and bears an uncanny resemblance to cutting-edge self-help and metaphysical thought.

‘Parable of Mustard Seed’ This is an important Parable of Jesus. ‗What happens when a seed becomes a tree?‘ The seed has to die, only then does it become a tree. ... Don‘t cling to the seed, because the seed is a bridge.

Help it to die, dissolve, so that the inner life and the seed becomes a great tree.

I don't want you to become Christians - that is useless, that's a lie.

I would like you to become Christs.

And you can become, because you have the same seed.

- Osho, from his book, ‗The Mustard Seed‘

Osho loved reading from the early days. Whatever money he used to have was being spend on buying books. He did not buy books alone instead read each book that he bought. Each book has his notes. The library of Osho contains more than 150,000 books by far an incredible number by any individual library.

In his usual unique manner Osho spoke on the books that he loved to a select group of seekers and thus revealed to the mystical world those authors and writers who have been buried in their graves unknown. Through this book Osho has immortalized these writers.

The FRAGMENTS of Heraclitus I love this man. Let me mention it, just by the way, as a note in the margin, that I love all, but I don‘t like all. I like a few and I don‘t like a few, but I love all. About that there is no question. I love Jaydeva as much as I love Heraclitus, but Heraclitus I like too.

There are very few whom I can put in the same category as Heraclitus. In fact, even to say that is not true; there is no one. Now I am saying what I really wanted to say always. There is no one, I repeat, who can be put in the same category as Heraclitus. He is just far out – dangerously awakened, unafraid of the consequences of what he was saying.

He says in these FRAGMENTS – again the notes of a Devageet, a disciple. Heraclitus did not write. There must be something, some reason why these people do not write, but of that a little later. Heraclitus says in the FRAGMENTS: “You cannot step in the same river twice.” And then he says: ―No, you cannot step in the same river even once....‖ This is tremendously beautiful, and true too.

Everything is changing, and changing so fast that there is no way to step in the same river twice; you can‘t even step in the same river once. The river is constantly flowing; going, going, going to the ocean, to the infinite, going to disappear into the unknown.

This is the first on my list this evening: Heraclitus.

The GOLDEN VERSES of Pythagoras He was one of the most misunderstood men, obviously. If you know you are bound to be misunderstood, that is certain. To understand is so dangerous, because then you will be misunderstood.

Pythagoras was not understood even by his own disciples, not even by those who wrote down the GOLDEN VERSES. They wrote it mechanically... because not a single disciple of Pythagoras rose to his heights, not a single one became enlightened.

And the Greeks have completely ignored him. They have ignored their best: Heraclitus, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plotinus. They had wanted to ignore Socrates too, but he was too much. So they had to poison him, they could not just ignore him.

But Pythagoras is completely ignored, and he has the same key as Gautam Buddha, Jesus, or any other enlightened one. One thing more: neither Jesus nor Buddha nor Lao Tzu made so much effort to find the key as Pythagoras. He worked the most. Pythagoras was the most authentic seeker. He risked all and everything. He traveled all around the world that was known in those days; studied under all kinds of masters; entered into all kinds of mystery schools and fulfilled their conditions. He is a category in himself.

THE SONG OF SARAHA A man who is not known much, not even by his own countrymen. His name is Saraha, and the book is called THE SONG OF SARAHA; that is its Tibetan title. Nobody knows who wrote it down. One thing is

certain, Saraha never did, and he just sang it. But it has the fragrance that the man knew, that he had attained. The song is not the composition of a poet but a realization of a mystic. It is just a few lines, but of such grandeur and beauty that the stars can feel ashamed.

THE SONG OF SARAHA is untranslated. I heard it from a Tibetan lama. I would have liked to have heard it again and again but the lama stank so much that I had to say ‖Thank you....‖ Lamas stink because they never take a bath. The lama‘s stink – and I am allergic to smells – was even too much for me to hear the whole song! I was worried that I was going to have an asthma attack.

I have spoken much about Saraha; he is the original source of the school of Tantra.

Tilopa Tilopa, and the few notes from his song left behind by his disciples. I wonder, without these disciples, how much we would have missed. These people who were just writing down whatsoever was said by the master, not thinking whether it was right or wrong, just trying to put it into words as correctly as possible. And it is a difficult task. A master is a madman, he can say anything, he can sing anything, or he may remain silent. He may just make a few gestures with his hand, and those gestures have to be understood. That was what Meher Baba did continuously for thirty years. He remained silent, only making gestures with his hands.

Is my numbering incorrect, Devageet?

‖No, Osho.‖ So good... it feels so good to be correct sometimes.

With numbers I am really good. It is a strange coincidence that I asked at the right moment. I always get mixed up with numbers. I cannot count, for the simple reason that I am facing the immeasurable, the unaccountable. The truth that I am facing is neither in words, nor in numbers. The truth transcends all, and it is so wondrous that one gets mixed up. Everything goes upside down, bizarre. So this is a great compliment that you said I was right. But now please tell me, what was the number? ‖Number five, Osho.‖ Thank you.

LET GO of Hubert Benoit I am going to introduce a Frenchman to you. You will be surprised. Inside you are asking yourself, ―A Frenchman? And being listed by Osho along with Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Suzuki? Has he really gone mad?‖ Yes, I have never been sane, not for these last twenty-five years, or a little more. Before that I too was sane, but thank God – again remember it is just an expression, because there is no God, only godliness. I don‘t forget to mention it because there is every possibility that even my followers, my disciples, will start worshipping God – or me as a God. There is no God, there never was.

Nietzsche is wrong when he says, ―God is dead!‖ – not because God is not dead, but because he was never alive so how can he be dead? To be dead one has to first fulfill the condition of being alive. That is where Sartre is wrong: he agrees with Nietzsche. I say ―Thank God!‖ – I used the word because there is no other word to use in its place. But it is only a word, contentless. ―Thank God‖ simply means it is good, that it is beautiful.

I am feeling so tremendously joyous that, Devageet, you will have to remind me again what was the sixth book I was talking about. ―A Frenchman, Osho.‖ Right. I have not mentioned the name yet. The book is Hubert Benoit‘s LET GO. It should be on the bookshelf of every meditator. Nobody has written so scientifically and yet so poetically. It is a contradiction, but he has managed it. Hubert Benoit‘s LET GO is the best that has come out of the modern Western world. It is the best book of the century as far as the West is concerned. I am not counting the East.

Ramakrishna’s PARABLES Ramakrishna, his PARABLES. You know I don‘t like saints very much. That does not mean that I like them a little bit – I don‘t like them at all. In fact, to be true I hate them. Saints are phony, hocus-pocus, the stuff bullshit is made of. But Ramakrishna does not belong to them – again, thank God! At least there are a few people who are saintly and yet are not saints.

Ramakrishna‘s PARABLES are very simple. Parables are bound to be simple. Remember the parables of Jesus? – just like that. If a parable is difficult then it is no longer useful. A parable is only needed so that it can be understood by all ages of children. Yes, I mean all ages of children. There are children who are ten years of age, and there are children of eighty years of age, and so on... but they are all children playing on the seashore, collecting seashells.

Ramakrishna‘s PARABLES is my seventh book.

THE FABLES OF AESOP Now Aesop is not really a historical person; he never existed. Buddha has used all those parables in his sermons. With Alexander coming to India, those parables were brought to the West. Of course many things changed, even the name of Buddha. Buddha was called The Bodhisattva.

Buddha has said there are two kinds of buddhas: one is the arhat, one who attains his buddhahood and then does not care about anybody else; and the bodhisattva, who attains buddhahood and then tries his hardest to help others on the path. ‘Bodhisattva‘ was the word carried by Alexander as bodhisat, which then became Josephus; then from Josephus it became Aesop. Aesop is not a historical person, but the parables are tremendously significant. That‘s my eighth book today.

Nagarjuna’s: MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA I don‘t like Nagarjuna very much; he is too much of a philosopher, and I am anti-philosophic. But his MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA, his KARIKAS for short.... MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA means the essence of the path of the middle – the essential middle path. In his KARIKAS he has reached the profoundest depths of which words are capable. I have never spoken on it. If you want to speak on the essential, the best way is not to speak at all, just to be silent. But the book is tremendously beautiful.

Works of Marpa Tenth: my last for this evening is a strange book; ordinarily nobody would think I would include it at all. It is the great work of Marpa, the Tibetan mystic.

Even his followers don‘t read it; it is not meant to be read, it is a puzzle. You have to meditate over it. You have just to look at it and then suddenly the book disappears – its contents disappear, and only the consciousness remains. Marpa was a very strange man. His master Milarepa used to say, ―Even I bow down to Marpa.‖ No master has ever said that, but Marpa was such....

Somebody once said to Marpa, ―Do you believe in Milarepa? If so then jump into this fire!‖ Immediately he jumped! People ran from all sides to extinguish the fire knowing that Marpa had jumped into it.

When the fire was put out they found him sitting there in a buddha posture laughing hilariously!

They asked Marpa, ―Why are you laughing?‖ He said, ―I am laughing because trust is the only thing that fire cannot destroy.‖ This is the man whose simple songs I count as the tenth – THE BOOK OF MARPA. Is my hour over? I can hear you saying yes, though I know my hour has not even come yet. How can it be over? I have come before my time, that‘s why I am misunderstood.

But as far as you are concerned, you are right; my hour is over. And this is really beautiful. There is no expression for it. It is so beautiful, it is better to end it now.

Books of Taoshobuddha on Amazom.com and Create space e store Books will teach you something of the outward aspects of the inward, and so will Meditation Talks. Without them you will make really no progress in inward journey. Remember the outward is the conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without books? For the same reason, remember you cannot think without words. I have to give you words so that your thinking pattern can change. Once your thinking pattern is changed then one day I will take away the word from you and then I will connect you to your inner silence.

This is journey from WORD to WORDLESS. This is the work of a MASTER. Whenever the darkness of ignorance, despair, and disappointment stare in your face, a passage from here and there will certainly revive the inner cords of your being and thus will continue the inward journey. This is my certitude.

S

omeone asked why do I go on writing so many books, almost an inconceivable number and go on giving talks not only on Sufi Path instead on all conceivable Paths of Spiritual Attainment?

Books will teach you something of the outward aspects of the inward, and so will meditation talks.

Without them you will make really no progress in inward journey. Remember the outward is the conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without books? For the same reason, remember you cannot think without words. I have to give you words so that your thinking pattern can change. Once your thinking pattern is changed then one day I will connect you to your inner silence.

You have been reared on books. Your mind is so altered by books and talks, by hearing and speaking, that the inward can only speak to you through the outward. Whatever you pretend you can perceive!

Man ultimately becomes what one pretends to be. However the tragedy is that you are not interested in books. I have to create designs for interest in books again.

This is Naqshbandi Design. Books are the Tawwazjoh or the energy field that the master creates as Designs for Transformation.

1. Meditation the Ultimate in Healing: Meditation and Healing Series Authored by Taoshobuddha,

List Price: $10.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 156 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456344788 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456344781 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality This is an investigation how healing can happen. It begins with a passage from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri‚ The fathomless zero occupied the cosmos and your

world of finiteness. Your physical body is mere showcase of all that happens at other planes or bodies.

Then the question comes, from where can healing really happen. Since physical body is mere showcase definitely it cannot be the beginning. Regular medicine begins here but not meditation. Can you start at bio-plasmic level? Or you still have to go a step beyond. There are so many unresolved issues in each one of you that need to be addressed before the healing can really begin. All these issues are stored in the fathomless zero that occupied the world. The journey of healing has to begin from this point.

Through these meditations I am creating inner balance between body and the mind. Only then you can attain to meditativeness. This process will continue until new man, one who is beyond body, mind, and intellect, is born out of you.

2. Shah Bahauddin Naqshband - Life and Works: Naqshbandi Tariqat Authored by Sheikh TaoshoBuddha List Price: $65.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Full Color on Color paper 304 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456346799 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456346792 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

SHAH BAHAUDDIN NAQSHBAND – LIFE AND WORKS I am ecstatic that once again I have the occasion to speak to you. However this time the overflow is of Hazrat Shah Bahauddin Naqshband, one whose very essence pulsates through the entire Sufi path.

Spiritual awareness is like water, it takes the color and shape of the cup. Allah's Knowledge is so great, that however much we take; it is like a drop of a huge ocean. It like a vast garden, however much we

have cut it is as if we had cut but one flower says an ecstatic Bahauddin. Yet still the fundamentalists try to cage this sublime awareness of eternal oneness within narrow boundaries of religion and beliefs.

Spirituality begins when you cross the narrow boundaries of religion and religious beliefs. The entire ummat or creation is the responsibility of the one who has attained spiritual awareness. But very rarely you find someone who is versatile to speak of various paths and masters with authenticity and thus brings out truth in its sublimity.

Sufism is such overflow of love a great experiment in human consciousness: how to transform human consciousness into ishq. It is alchemy. And through this work and others my effort to bring about the alchemical change in consciousness that be possible!

This is what I am doing here with you. You may be aware, you may not be aware of it, but this whole experiment is to create in you as much love energy as possible. Man can be transformed into pure love energy. Just as there is atomic energy discovered by physics, and a small atom can explode into tremendous energy, so too each cell of your heart can explode into tremendous love. That love is called ishq. It is atomic in nature. No one can destroy this.

You may call this Love or Awareness, or Consciousness or God matters not. What really matters it to be with this energy. Even more significant is to imbibe it into your being. And then let it overflow your being. Also let it surround your life, your living. Sufism is the path of the overflow of energy. This is Naqshbandiyah Nisbet – the Tariqat.

3. Leaves from a Sufi Heart Vol 1: Naqshbandi Tariqat Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

List Price: $30.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 608 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1456343620 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456343629 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality AN INSIGHT INTO NAQSHBANDI TARIQAT When truth manifests itself there can be no better song or melody than this. Truth is an experience.

And Sheikh or a master is the embodiment of truth on the earth. This is why when a Sheikh looks into a Tariqat it is Truth or Haqiqat itself. Naqshbandi tariqat underwent through various periods of growth and development. Taoshobuddha takes you through this journey. In the present classic Taoshobuddha looks into Naqshbandi tariqat. With a crystal clarity and understanding he presents various masters along the path and the tariqat. The present classic pauses before the beginning of the second millennium with Sheikh Ahmad Al Farookhi Mujadadi, Sirhindi in the Leaves from a Sufi Heart Volume 2.

And the Third volume will begin with Hazrat Mazhar Mir Jane Jana.

4. Jap Ji Sahib - Songs of Nanak: Songs of Nanak Authored by Taosho Buddha

List Price: $30.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 628 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456345969 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456345966 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality No bird goes to learn. No water fall learns singing.

Song is the spontaneous river of life. This is the message of Nanak as JAPJI SAHIB – EK OMKAR SATNAM. Nanak did no tap or jap. He simply sang with so much totality that alone became his path.

Nanak’s path is full of songs. Sing and dance your way to God. Japji Sahib is song of one who is intoxicated with pristine elixir of oneness with one for whom all his songs were meant. One who was in Nanak’s very breath! And the cause of his existence!

Remember this is love. Love cares. Love wants the life of the beloved be beautiful, auspicious, true, and full of inner glory. Love transforms. Love creates.

Love can even transform destruction in creation. For love creation is the goal, and destruction is the way to attain this.When you are enchanted with love!

Love has evolved within! And when you are innovative and creative in life’s relations then sin can be no more. When you love then sin becomes impossible. Like a vast canopy love will go on spreading and then you will envision hidden deep within the entire creation. Then you will hesitate to cheat, and steal.

Nanak says love is the secret. Let love enchant you.

Your inner being will sanctify. This is ritualistic bath.

Only such a bath can wash the dross from your mind and your being. This is real holy bath. By saying or claiming one does not become holy or unholy. All your thinking and aspiration of being holy cannot help. Moving finger writes and having writ moves on.

And then everything moves accordingly.

The real key means this entire existence is my beloved. Each particle, and each eyes now reflects the glory of love. Allow a few drops of this nectar flow into your being as Taoshobuddha takes you through Japji Sahib. It is indeed a benediction

Taoshobuddha taking you through various Pauris of Nanak.

5. Haripath the Hidden Splendor: Haripath Authored by Taosho Buddha, Authored by Hemant P Moghe

List Price: $30.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 434 pages ISBN-13: 978-1453608708 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1453608702 BISAC: Religion / Meditations HARIPATH THE HIDDEN SPLENDOR HARI PATH OF SANT DNYANESHWAR Haripath the Gita of working Man! Haripath is such a mile stone that you stumble upon one day traversing along life's roads. Now that you have stumbled upon it make it you way. Chant it repeatedly until you reach the core of your being. Continue until its echo begins to linger in your being.

Go over this scripture savoring in unhurriedly reading and re - reading. Who knows how many times, but knowingly or unknowingly, you will have to repeat it in your different moods, in different states of mind. Sometimes, when the sun is on the horizon, or when night covers everything under its darkness, when the mind is cheerful, or sometimes when the mind is sad. You will have to enter this scripture in different moments in different conditions, only then by and by will its facets become apparent to you. You will enter a new domain of your being.

And yet it will remain inexhaustible.

Chant God! Seek God ever! Each moment chant the name!

This is the way to inward journey!

Seek within therefore this enchanting 'Melody of

Path' to Divinity! And this is the reason that even after 734 years of the birth of Dnyandev these Abhangas continue to linger in the minds and beings of NOT ONLY Maharashtrians instead any aspirant beyond religion; and time and space.

6. Secrets of Spiritual Life - Talks of Taoshobuddha: Talks of Taoshobuddha Authored by Lars Jensen List Price: $25.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 238 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456348168 (CreateSpace-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456348167 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

The Secrets of Spiritual Life (Talks of Taoshobuddha) So I say: My beloved ones, I love you. And I would like you to fill the whole world with love. Let that be our religion. Love is simply love. In love you can be a Christ. In love you can be a Buddha. But there is no Buddhist love or Christian love and there is no Hindu or Muslim Love. In love you disappear, your mind disappears. In love you come to an utter relaxation.

I call you a Buddha. Yes indeed you are that. And I speak to you of Buddhas. Because they have come

to know a different space within themselves! A space which cannot be confined by the mind and which cannot be defined as part of the functioning of the mind!

That silent space when thoughts are no more! No ripples arise! This is the beginning of the psychology of the Buddhas. This is the realm to which master belong. To this realm I want to take you to. This is just the beginning. Know this as ‘The Secrets of Spiritual Life’.

This is my message as my gift to you. The celebration of ‘Enlightenment’ as the ‘Ultimate Flowering of Your Being’ NOW AND EVER AND ANON! As ‘The Secrets of Spiritual Life’ Do not think of Enlightenment just as an inner experience alone. In the beginning it is an inner experience. Then slowly bring it into your outer life.

This is what I have been telling you every day.

Remember whatever you experience in meditation sessions never think the work is over. The experience that happens in meditation has to be relived and present in your day – to – day affairs and life. Know this as ‘The Secrets of Spiritual Life.’ …

TAOSHOBUDDHA

7. Tasuwware Sheikh: Insight into Sheikh Brij Mohan Lal (q) Authored by Sheikh TaoshoBuddha, Authored with Sufi Lakshmi Sahai

List Price: $68.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Full Color on Color paper 322 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456348304 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456348302 BISAC: Religion / General TASUWWAR-E-SHEIKH – SHIEKH BRIJ MOHAN LAL

INSIGHT

INTO

This work is NAQSHBANDI CLASSIC BY SHEIKH TAOSHOBUDDHA DIFFICULT TO PUT DOWN ONCE STARTED. In this work Taoshobuddha explains the methodology that a master uses to bring about transformation in the disciple. His way and means are unique, beyond human comprehension, he says.

When truth manifests itself there can be no better song or melody. Tasuwware Sheikh is such a moment to moment journey through the remembrance of the sheikh in the process of inward journey. Tasuwware Sheikh has been coined by Shah Bahauddin Naqshband in 13th century. And since then it has been recommended by the sheikhs as an essential dhikr for the murids.

This present classic on Tasuwware Sheikh is the journey of a Fana-fe-ul-Murid of Naqshbandi Sheikh Sufi Brij Mohan Lal. Riding the wings of the reminiscence of Naqshbandi Lakshmi Sahai Sheikh Taoshobuddha has woven a classic presentation through his command on language, understanding of the tariqat, and Nisbet-E-Illahi.

Whatever be your faith and whoever be your sheikh one thing is certain this classic will certainly connect you to your sheikh, tariqat and in the process will become a dhikr-e-qulb in the process of transformation. Various chapters Like ‘What is a Sheikh ’ and ‘Master appear w hen Disciple is ready’, explains the inner state of a sheikh and inner preparation on part of the murid is essential. The moment disciple is ready Master appears. Various other chapters have been designed to bring an insight into life and works of Sheikh Brij Mohan Lal and Naqshbndiyah tariqat and its advent in Indian

sub-continent, As you move through the pages feel Nisbet-e-Illahi deep within. Subhan Allah!!!

8. Maraqba-I-Naqshbandi: Insights into Naqshbandi Tariqat Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

List Price: $15.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 172 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1456348502 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456348507 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality INSIGHTS INTO NAQSHBANDI MARAQBAS Though maraqba begins in the mind, it is not real maraqba. Begin with the mind. One day you will attain maraqba. When the mind ceases, you are beyond it; only then real maraqba begins. Even to go beyond the mind you have to use the mind itself.

However, use the mind negatively. You will certainly attain maraqba.

To me the most distinguished Naqshbandi Order is the way of the Companions of the Prophet, the sheikh and those who follow them and thus the tariqat. Sheikhs follow the path laid by the sheikhs.

This is tariqat.

The designation of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain has changed over the period of time. Only outer apparel changed not the outer. Many new tributaries and sub-streams developed. As a result the way of teaching saw changes in the techniques of maraqba. The is change was to suit the murid however there was no change in tariqat and its inner understandings.

With changing mind patterns and social and cultural values that have bearing on mental capabilities of the murids each sheikh has made certain changes.

This current classic looks into these aspects. Sheikh Taoshobuddha has created certain techniques of maraqba for Nafs and the modern man.

This will remain a classic for all those who seek Naqshbndiyah Nisbet and also seek inner transformation.

May this work of Sheikh Taoshobuddha be accepted to the Sheikhs and Allah Subhan wa Taala.

9. Leaves from a Sufi Heart Vol 2: Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqat Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha List Price: $68.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Full Color on Color paper 436 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456345853 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456345850 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality Sufism is great celebration. I invite you to celebrate it with TAOSHOBUDDHA.

List Price: $68.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Full Color on Color paper 436 pages PRODUCT ID 3500978 ISBN-13: 978-1456345853 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456345850 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

Sufism is great celebration. I invite you to celebrate it with TAOSHOBUDDHA. The Volume 1 of Leaves from a Sufi Heart paused at Bahauddin Naqshband. I thought enough has been spoken. No, yet still much has been left unspoken of his methodology. So when I began the Volume 2 of Leaves from the Sufi Heart I had to begin with Bahauddin Naqshband. After Bahauddin the path developed many off shoots. From Rasulallah Salallah Allahe Wassalam to Bahauddin the path was single tracked. From him the main stream had developed many tributaries. Therefore it was essential to begin with Post Bahauddin Era. However before I could do this his methodology the unique way through parables needs to be explained. This has not yet begun something else was knocking the consciousness. When I looked deep within it was the entire Sufi Doctrine - the explanation of various terms.

Thus the journey of the Volume 2 of Leaves From a Sufi Heart began. This work is the outcome of the grace, the nisbat, the faiz, or the inayat of Allah S u bh an wa Taa’la and the Khawajans that this volume is now in your hands as the Makhtoobats of the masters.

Without the faiz or the nisbat it could not be possible and the effects that it is creating within the readers.

May Allah shine His Noor along the path of every aspirant whom I have met and also those whom I have not yet met? Maybe I may not meet physically, kindle their path through the Gaibana Tawajjoh each finite moment. Kudrat-E-Illahi is beyond human

comprehension. ALHAM DIL ALLAH, SUBHAN ALLAH, ALLAH HO AKBAR. ‘I think your books are highly recommended for the true seekers , especially for the seekers of the highest spiritual order Naqshbandiyah Mujaddidiyah in English language. ‘I pray to Allah Ta'ala may your book ‘THE LEAVES FROM A SUFI HEART’ is acceptable to Allah Ta'ala, His Prophet and the whole Ummah’.

Maulawi Jalalludin Ahmad Ar-Rowi, Naqshbandi, Malaysia.

10. Sri Rama Gita: Epitome of Enlightenment Authored by Taosho Buddha , Authored by Taosho Buddha

List Price: $12.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 162 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456350628 (Create Space-Assigned) ISBN-10: 1456350625 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality The Epitome of Enlightenment Sri Rama Gita is the epitome of enlightenment. In equivocal terms it explains the inner state of the

enlightened one and also explains how one can attain to this state.

No conditioning, situation, or being can entrap the enlightened one again. He has awakened to the state of the Self. He lives in a realm beyond the sense perception of body; emotions of the mind; and the thinking of the intellect. Thus he lives blessing the world with his pure holiness, even if he is not ‘doing’ anything. His mere presence is an inspiration to the rest of humanity.

If he is thus liberated from all equipment, why are the equipment not falling away dead, when their owner, the ego, has been liberated? The answer is that the force of its prarabdha karma keeps the body alive.

The body is the product of our own karma or vasanas, and it is also a product of the karmas of others. One can redeem oneself of all one’s own karmas, but the body still lives and functions, because of samasti karma or the karmas of others.

This macrocosmic vasana or tendencies is the equipment of the Lord or Isvara.

Thus, the Enlightened One functions under the Lord’s will only. Without any sense of ‘I-do’ ahankara and any attachment asakti, he appears to be functioning in the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite Self, Sri Rama.

Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges into Brahman. This state is called videha-mukti. Even earlier, when others were considering him as a

member of the community, he was already a liberated person jivan-mukti.

11. Parables - Naqshbandi Designs for Transformation: Naqshbandi Tariqat Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha List Price: $25.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 372 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456354671 (CreateSpaceAssigned) ISBN-10: 1456354671 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality PRODUCT ID 3502897 PARABLES - NAQSHBANDI Designs for Transformation

A parable is neither a lie, nor a truth. It is a design, a NAQSHBANDI. Maps have been invented to help you. They are arbitrary. Never become too obsessed with a map. Use it if you can; if you cannot, forget all about it. It has nothing valuable in it beyond its use.

Why parables? Just as a Ladder is a design or a devise to reach to the top and once you reach to the top the use of ladder is finished. So too a parable is a design for transformation.

Parables have been designed by Naqshbandi Masters as devise based on the teachings or the sayings of the past masters as a unique way to Tariqat.

Someone asked why do I go on writing so many books, almost an inconceivable number and go on giving talks not only on Sufi Path instead on all conceivable Paths of Spiritual Attainment?

Books will teach you something of the outward aspects of the inward, and so will meditation talks.

Without them you will make really no progress in inward journey. Remember the outward is the conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without books? For the same reason, remember you cannot think without words. I have to give you words so that your thinking pattern can change. Once your thinking pattern is changed then one day I will connect you to your inner silence.

You have been reared on books. Your mind is so altered by books and talks, by hearing and speaking, that the inward can only speak to you through the outward. Whatever you pretend you can perceive!

Man ultimately becomes what one pretends to be.

This is Naqshbandi Design. Parables are the sayings of the past Sheikhs that are used by current Sheikhs as Designs for Transformation.

12. Maraqba-I-Rumi: Sufi Maraqba Series Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

List Price: $20.00 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on White paper 280 pages ISBN-13: 978-1456338565 (Create SpaceAssigned) ISBN-10: 1456338560 BISAC: Religion / Spirituality MARAQBA-I-RUMI BY SHEIKH TAOSHOBUDDHA There is something mystical in these compositions of

Jalaluddin Rumi for which I have no words to explain. However certainly there is something.

Through these compositions and meditations Taoshobuddha has created such level of beauty through the use and mastery of musical rhythm and rhyme with the play of words, that the reader and listener not only can appreciate the wisdom contained in these compositions, but also reach levels of ecstasy and mystical energy that is seldom found in other such compositions.

Certainly these connect to your being. Taoshobuddha calls these as Maraqbas. The mastery of rhyme and rhythm is such that very often he creates a new vocabulary, using the same old words, yet creating new feelings that are associated with the insights of Rumi. Furthermore, often he has such mastery of play on words or at other times he uses the same word with a different accent or vowel twice or even thrice in the same composition, with a different meaning each time.

One cannot help but marvel at the linguistic mastery that Taoshobuddha displays through various compositions and meditations that he has created.

One can simply drown in the essence of it and thus get connected to your being. In any case, the end result is the same. The experience of artistic beauty of these compositions, voice modulations, rhythm and ecstatic energy, and alpha brain wave patterns all combined together with the mental understanding of the wisdom conveyed take the listener to the state of meditation. This is as close as one can get to the mystical experience itself, without actually being present with Taoshobuddha.

Year 2010 in Retrospect By

Swami Anand Neelambar Chief Editor

is a monthly production of TAOSHOBUDDHA MEDITATIONS. We have explored various paths of inward journey through the issues of Meditation Times on a monthly basis.

Naqshbandi Sheikh Ramchandra Lalaji said

betaSsubI sdakt kI jan hE. To rise beyond narrowness is the only way for spirituality!

Therefore we have explored, and spoken on almost all paths and various masters beyond narrowness. As the year 2010 enters into the womb of eternity for ever we take you through the review of each issue of Meditation Times.

Meditation Times January 2010 A new dawn ushers the hope of transformation and enlightenment. The spring brings many wonderful manifestations.

The flowers of hope may seem to fade but they neâ€&#x;er vanish.

Masters are like flowers they come waft their fragrance to the winds and then wilt to form manure so that the disciples can grow with this divine fertilizer.

Death for a master is but a celebration and mere transition to another realm. It is a portal to a world divine and sublime. A world beyond the cognition of our frail senses!

Masters always see from a transcendental perspective and that is why we cannot understand their implicit utterances. And yet a child can see exactly what the masters say. To understand a master simple innocence is needed.

If your mind is cunning and calculating you will miss a master even if he lives in your house. To smell a flower all that is required is your presence. To recognize a master all that is needed on your part is your availability. You must be open and vulnerable.

This January issue celebrates Death. Our last yearâ€&#x;s January issue also was a celebration of death. It seems ironic that for a New Year we start by celebrating Death. But Death is really a rebirth. A discontinuity with a past and plunge into the unknown and unknowable.

Unknown and unknowable because you cannot know it with your mind and for mind it will always remain unknowable.

And a heart need not know it cause a heart lives is in it, a heart is it.

Masters are like flowers that blossom with the light of spring and whiter with the darkness of winter. Few masters appear in winter. Not the physical winter but the winter of the soul. Rare indeed does a master appear in the winter of the soulsâ€&#x; sojourn.

Meditation Times Feb 2010 The mystery and magic of love cannot be known by science and mind. Only a heart that is capable of total madness can glimpse the wondrous majesty of love. Love is not within the domain of reason or intellectual discussions. Love defies definition and yet there are more definitions on love than on any other subject.

The enigma of love has enraptured the soul of man ever since he first peered into the vast limitless beyond. Love is love and cannot be stated by any other way. Nothing can define love. Love defines everything.

It is because of love the stars whirl in their cosmic dance of creation. It is because of love the tiny ants carry food to their nest. The entire cosmos exists in love and for love. It is the expressions of love that manifest as the Creation.

becomes love gymnastics.

Mystics and poets have sought to give expressions of their insights of love only to become vehicles of love themselves. Love transforms and transmutes whoever seeks its shadows into love itself. To know love is to become love. Yet love can only be known by being love. Thus love is its own knowledge and knowledge is only knowledge when is otherwise it is mere intellectual

This issue of Meditation Times highlights some of the many expressions of love by various mystics and poets.

In this editorial I wish to quote verbatim from an extract by the chief editor from his upcoming book “LOTUS from the MOON� .

Love is an energy that makes our hearts, yet our hearts cannot make that power. Love descends upon our souls by the will of God and not by the demand or plea of the individual. Love opens the dimensions beyond the realm of intellect and offers no reason for its appearance and departure. One can either live in the misery of its submission and pine for its return, or celebrate the bitter sweet memories. Love is not within the domain of your control. In fact you cannot love. It is love that possesses you and carries you in its wild dance through the portal of beauty, truth and bliss. Only one of infinite trust can fathom the depths of this mystery of two souls pulsating as one orgasmic being. Love is oneness. Duality is the illusion of the mind that seeks to protect its ego by creating a separation, and then wandering aimlessly hither and thither; roaming for many lives to seek the lost beloved; all the time with the kohinoor (treasure of love) in the undiscovered sanctum of your heart. Once you realize that love is not a search but a happening. Then the miracle is that you were all the time in love but the screen of fear prevented you from feeling its presence. My work is to help remove this fear and love will reveal itself.

MEDITATION TIMES MARCH 2010 This March issue highlights the concept of enlightenment. Enlightenment, though it is Sanskrit in origin, it is essentially Buddhist and specifically Zen in its flavor. Hindus have not been known to seek enlightenment as is the case with the Chinese and Japanese masters. Hindus have stopped at the

mere attainment of samdhi – the trans-conscious state of turiya as it is aptly called.

Enlightenment is viewed as something mysterious and magical. Yet it is the most simple of phenomenon. It is our very natural selves and not some other worldly experience. In fact we are already enlightened; it is just that we are too afraid to be aware of it.

Masters are really mirrors to reflect our original face.

It is this face that we are too scared to see so we put on many masks to hide our true reality. The deception has even befooled us. We think we are this deception now and forget that we are Buddhas in mortal garb. So much so that when the masters say you are Buddhas we rebel and crucify him.

We make enlightenment a super human and super divine attainment.

Enlightenment is not even a simple attainment.

Enlightenment is not an attainment at all.

Enlightenment is dropping all desire for attainment.

Be still and know. Not that being still you will then know. The very stillness is knowing. It is one and the

same. Just being enlightenment.

still

is

knowing.

This

is

When you come in contact with that dimension which is the very source of your creation, you can melt and merge with it, you can become one with it, or you can sit and watch like a spectator. The choice is yours.

MEDITATION TIMES APRIL 2010 We continue the enlightenment saga. Life is an experience and an opportunity. Enlightenment is when we understand what to do with the opportunity that is given to us. Each of us has a unique song to sing and make the universe a harmony of musical melodies. The orchestra will be left unfulfilled were we not to find our song and sing it.

The techniques to recover these ancient echoes are varied and multifarious. The sad reality is that we have forgotten the natural rhythms and now dance to robotic beats with mechanical precision. Mind is now master. The heart waits in silence...ever

resounding the mystical vibrations that continue to fall on deaf ears.

An inner tuning is needed to hear this silent melody – a still mind. The small voice of the existence is mute when the mind is engaged in the maddening rush to nowhere. The noise and clamour of material pursuits is deaf and immune to the realms of inner calling. The cries from the yonder hills are lost in the busy streets of the market place. Now and again a thunderous lionâ€&#x; s roar awakens one lonely seeker...and he is quickly silence by the crowd that is slumbering for eons.

His message of life eternal is heard as gibberish and he is scoffed and told to go back to sleep. The slumber pains his soul and he moves to solitude to embrace his beloved. His constant companion is the echoes in the pines that carry the eternal songs. The birds sing the praises and the brooks murmur the enchanting rhapsodies.

The flowers display his canvas of beauty while the star studded skies reveal his fathomless secrets in a matrix of intricate tapestry.

MEDITATION TIMES MAY 2010 In this out third anniversary issue we focus on Jiddu Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti is one on the Buddhas of this century, and like all Buddhas he is most misunderstood. And especially by his critics who are not enlightened. Only an enlightened can see into

another enlightened master and say from what plane he is operating at.

Krishnamurti was too advances for his disciples.

Those who gathered around him could not fathom his depth and profound teachings. It takes great preparation to reach the dimension of Krishnamurti.

Those of a future time will be able to grasp the precocious insights of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

It was no accident that Krishnamurti was a contemporary of Osho. Both master were from another realm and could not be understood by the disciples around them. However in the case with Osh he sought to make every effort to make his vision available to the disciples. Osho came down to the level of the disciples. Jiddu tried in vain to elevate his disciples. The realm he came from was just too infinite to be brought down to normal consciousness. It was the tragedy that Jiddu could not reach his disciples. But he did prepare them to see beyond this realm and to seek the vistas into a new dimension of consciousness.

Such a dimension was envisioned by Osho and Osho made every vista into the herenow available. And this could not have been possible were it not for the preparation by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Ramakrishna was also very insignificant as a precursor to Osho. It was Ramakrishna who first sought to seek God in all available paths at the time.

The paths are many but the goal is one.

Jiddu insisted that there is no path. And he is right at the ultimate level. At some point all paths must be dropped to go beyond. But one cannot just begin at no path. It is difficult and man cannot go into the dark night with no staff to help him grope. The master is the staff. The master has been through the dark night and he can guide the disciple up the point where the disciples has to muster all his courage to take the plunge into the dimension beyond the known.

It is from this dimension where Jiddu speaks. And Jiddu was one of the rare and few masters who spoke of the herenow as the ultimate state of being.

When one is in the herenow one is in the totality of existence. One is interconnected to all and one is all.

One becomes all and all becomes one.

In our third anniversary issue we choose to highlight in much detail Jiddu Krishnamurti as he stands apart from all other masters. And as I mentioned earlier Jiddu shall only be understood in a future time when mankind has evolved to a level beyond knowledge.

MEDITATION TIMES JUNE 2010 Fear is the enemy of truth. To uncover truth or to even begin the sojourn, one must be fearless. Man fears that which he does not know. And the quest in the unknown grips man with a paralyzing fear. Man

fears to sit in meditation and access the inner recess of his own mind.

And yet that which is the cause of fear does not really exist – the ego. It is the ego that is the source of all man‟ s fears. And this ego is non-existential.

Man fears love as well. In love ego tends to dissolve and so man shirks love. He cowers in the face of love. His immaculate and lofty portrayals of love are filed with the under pinning of fear.

The quest into the unknown requires a fearless desire for truth. Hence I say fear is the enemy of truth.

In the opening pauri of Nanak‟ s Japiji he says Omkar is nirbhay – without fear. Fear arises out of duality. When there is only One, there is no fear. Ego is an illusion of separation and hence fear is screen that inhibits the seeing of herenow.

Fear creates longing for the past – because it is known.

And fear wants to project the known into the future.

With fear we remain stuck in the rut of samsara – the cycle to continuous births and death. To break this cycle the heart must be fearless.

To exist in the present moment is to be fearless. It is a discontinuity with the past. When we are present in

the present we are fearless. Mind is full of fear. Mind is fear.

After his treatise on the eighteen types of Yoga and spiritual disciples, Krishna goads Arjuna to be fearless in the battle. His last words were “ma sucha” – do not fear.

To undertake the journey of spiritual life all fear has to be overcome. The encouragement of one who has crossed further shore is needed. Trust in the guidance of the Guru will dispel fear. The guru has seen the mystical realm. His hands outstretch to welcome you into the dimension of herenow.

Guru removes fear and the truth is seen crystal clear. It is fear that is the screen.

Tagore in his immortal Gitanjali says in one of his poems, “ Where the mind is without fear...”

This issue is a focus on overcoming fear. Once fear is removed, the path to truth becomes easy to traverse.

It is no wonder that drunkards have no fear. And those who are drunk with the wine of the mystic very easily reach truth. In fact truth finds them a worthy receptacle and descends into their hearts.

Mind is full of fear. Empty the mind of its fear and truth shall dawn like the rising sun. “ So whenever you feel fear, it is a tremendous opportunity to understand that life is momentary, it is ephemeral, it is made of the same stuff as dreams are made of...” OSHO

MEDITATION TIMES JULY 2010 Guru is one who removes darkness of ignorance and the darkness of knowledge. Both are veils that prevent the atman from full realization. Guru need not be a person. Any situation where one can rise out of ignorance and knowledge can be considered a guru.

Sufis say when the disciple is ready the Master appears. I differ in this view. I say when the Master is ready the disciple appears. Masters are not so important. It is the receptivity of the disciple that transforms him. Hence any situation can be a Master or Guru.

It is the disciple that makes the quantum leap due to his insights.

Guru is really a mirror. The disciple sees his original face. The Guru is the future of the disciple.

Even false gurus are masters in their own right.

Cause it is really the receptivity of the disciple that is most important. And by false I mean in terms of established traditions. But any guru who is a conformist is not a guru for me. Gurus bring new insights and hence cannot be conformist. Yet there are many gurus who are conformist.

The search to find a true guru is baseless and wrong in the first place. The disciple has to search the burning desire in his heart first. This burning desire is the desire to know the truth. When this reaches 100 degrees then the real quest begins.

This issue is in commemoration of Guru. And we introduce a new format for Meditation Times. We shall be giving excerpts from our upcoming publications and continuing excerpts from them each month.

One of the great Masters is Gurdjieff. He is our main feature this issue.

MEDITATION TIMES AUGUST 2010 This issue has been dedicated to Sri Ram – an avatar, a God of Hindu origins but universal application.

Sri Ram, the very name is saturated with divinity.

Ram is not just an ideal but he is a being who played the role of a human and played it so totally that he transformed his humanity into divinity.

Swami Vivekananda says “to be truly human is to be divine”.

The story of this magnanimous character Ram was first recorded in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki. Valmiki went through a radical revolution in consciousness and that made him the worthy bard of the epic Ramayana.

Many other versions and editions of the story have come into existence since then. Swami Vivekananda says that as long as mankind exists the story of Ram and Sita will continue to inspire humanity. Sri Aurobindo says the Ramayana “has been an agent of almost incalculable power in the moulding of the cultural mind of India: it has presented to it to be loved and imitated in figures like Rama and Sita, made so divinely and with such a revelation of reality as to become objects of enduring cult and worship, or like Hanuman, Lakshmana, Bharata, the living human image of its ethical ideals.”

Our attempt in this issue of Meditation Times is to present a spiritual and mystical dimension to the story and to unravel the deeper inner imports of the text – Ramayana. We are especially intrigued by the Ram- Kaikeyi Samvad. In this discussion Ram calls Kaikeyi as his „ janani‟ . Janani is one who gives you birth. His actual mother is Kausilya but why does he call Kaikeyi as his mother and not just mother as the title can be used for various persons of that disposition, but he says janani – one who gives me birth. Kaikeyi actually was the one because of who Ram could have executed the reason for his mission. The real spiritual works of Ram started with

his journey to the forest – that was initiated by Kaikeyi.

One of the more popular editions of the Ramayana is

by Goswami Tulsidasa.

Tulsidas‟ Ramcharitmanas is “a long chant of religious devotion.” Tulsidas‟ famed Hindi Ramayana “combines with a singular mastery lyric intensity, romantic richness and the sublimity of the epic imagination.” – Sri Aurobindo.

Tulsidasa made the story of Ram available to “common people”. We at Meditation Times are trying to make every possible dimension of spirituality available to all who would come from the various disciplines and schools to thought. In all of these editorials we over highlight this point.

MEDITATION TIMES SEPTEMBER 2010 The response to our August 2010 issue was overwhelming and we have decided to continue in our present September issue to highlight aspects of the Hindu Epic Ramayana. It seems that the readers have found an undiscovered analysis of the text. Our way is both unique and universal. We present old wine in new bottles because the mystic wine is the same and causes the same effect when drunk. We are merely preparing a menu that suits the appetite of the seeker.

We intend to do a trilogy on Ramayana and a third issue would be forthcoming. This issue will focus on women in the Ramayana a will be our Deepavali issue. The October issue will focus on Sufism as a tribute to the Islamic month of Ramadan. This issue on Sufism will relate to the growth of Naqshbandi Path in India and another issue the Hindu Influence in Naqshbandi path.

In our present issue that deals with the Ramayana, we highlight some of the main characters of the Epic. And give special emphasis on the Gayatri Mantra. In a subsequent issue we will deal exclusively with this most potent Mantra.

The relation of Gayatri to Rama is that Rama is a descendent of the Sun Dynasty, and Gayatri (Savitri) is the daughter of the Sun God. Hence a direct bond is established. Also the guru of Rama is Vishvamitra who got his siddhis from the Sun God through recitation of the Gayatri Mantra.

The demon king Ravana is a much misunderstand and misrepresented character of the Ramayana. His role cannot easily be unraveled without the „intuitive eyes of knowledge‟ – chakshyumati vidya.

“If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana, for he is the dark side of Vishnu.” – Sri Aurobindo.

The text lends itself to allegory but the allegory is not of personal whim or fancy. It has a mystical synergy. With our mental caprice we can concoct a meaning and interpretation. This fabrication would be a travesty of truth. The truth is hidden from the unscrupulous and revealed only to the sincere seekers who have risen above the moral dualities and who have adopted the path of the sannyasin – divine outlaw, one who has gone beyond the laws of mortal men.

Our singular approach is to give hints of the mystical and point towards the moon (in this case the Sun).

Truth is such that is cannot be said directly, that is the very nature of truth. We can only give hints and indicate towards some dimension beyond the known.

One encounters truth along the sojourn to life eternal. Then one comes to understand why the truth cannot be said. A truth that can be said is not truth. Truth is silence. When all the noise and chatter of the mind, when the waves of thought have receded into the vast eternity of love‟s mute gestures, truth shines like a thousand sun – Gayatri illumines the intellect and the eyes of knowledge open to see the Reality as it with no mind, no thought , no feeling – this is the truth . Ramayana is the path to truth. Rama is the incarnate truth. Aham Rama Asmi – I am Rama.

MEDITATION TIMES OCTOBER 2010 The world of the Sufi is magical, mysterious, melodious, marvellous, methodological and most of all mystical. A Sufi cannot be found unless he reveals himself.

Religion has three phases – the first is Shariat – the outer core of ritual and rules; the second is Haqiquat – the inner core of truth and realization; and third is Tariquat – the methods, disciplines and techniques to attain realization.

Sufism is the inner core of the spiritual quest.

The dregs and dross are removed and pure love remains.

The Sufi approach is one of awe and wonder at the marvels of the Creator Who is dissolved in His Creation. One cannot come to appreciate Sufism without being transformed by the very desire to know what Sufism is. To know the Sufi way is to become a Sufi by the very process of knowing. But Sufi is about love – not knowing, at least not intellectual knowing.

The Sufi path is riddled with mysterious parables and mystical insights into very ordinary things. When one begins to inquire who is a Sufi then the lamp of knowing is lit. When this flame becomes a burning passion that cannot be quelled until the heart dances with ecstasy at the mere thought of the Beloved, only then the search is over.

A Sufi is mad. Mad for the Beloved. Mad because he has left the arms of world to embrace the open sky without a thought for tomorrow.

A Sufi is a moth that dies in the enamoring flames of dissolution. He must not only see the Beloved, he must die in the presence. Only such a death reveals what is truly worth living.

A Sufi is one who has died for the world and is reborn into the paradise of heaven on earth.

Where a Sufi lives that place is the mythical firdous.

Only now is it not a myth. It is a living reality. To even meet a Sufi by passing chance is a gift from Allah. Only he who has reached the last stages of spiritual evolution will get such a grace. This issue of Meditation Times is about the Sufi Way, the Sufi Path.

Sufis are interested in the transformation of consciousness. Their main focus is how to get the sincere aspirant to renounce his old ways and embrace a method that will draw his awareness to an inner calling. This is done very mysteriously and mystically, in such a way that the aspirant does not

know when the old way has dropped and the new way is adopted. He feels a pull from within and an irresistible urge to follow this Sufi Master. He has fallen in love with the Sufi. This love is what will carry him to the firdous of his inner being.

Such is the mysterious Sufi Path. A path of pure love, a way of transformation from lead to gold!

MEDITATION TIMES NOVEMBER 2010 The world of the Sikhs is ordinary and simple. It is not based on any miracles. This is one for the very few paths founded by a Master that is does not rely of any miraculous phenomenon for its origins and existence.

Guru Nanak is one of the four persons that I have identified as changing the direction of the new world. It was no wonder that Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent and called it the New World. This new world was outer.

But Guru Nanak discovered a new inner world. This is the

world of the Sikhs. The both discoveries were made around the same time in opposite parts of the world – East and West.

We have delved into the world of the Sikhs in previous issues of Meditation Times. We again take a plunge into this world and explore the many wonders it has to offer. Nanak is very dear to us. He called his place of worship as Gurudwara, which literally means the door to the beyond. It can be considered a „stargate‟ a portal that transports the meditator to realm beyond the dimensions of the mind.

It should be noted that what Nanak discovered was not new; just like what Columbus discovered was not new. It always existed. They just made it known to the world that had forgotten about it.

Japuji is the fragrance of the ultimate flowering of Gurudev Nanak. After Nanak attained the dissolution of his being and transcendental merger into the cosmos, the first words he uttered was “ek omkar satnam”. In this simple yet profound declaration is the foundation for the entire edifice of the Sikh religion.

The words seem simple enough but the words are not the message. One needs to delve deeper to extract the hidden mysteries within the words.

Krishna says in Gita that there is only one mantra.

This mantra is Om Tat Sat. This Om Tat Sat was interpreted by Nanak as Ek Omkar Satnam. They mean the same thing.

Ek – means one. Not one as opposed to two or many but simply one because there is only one. He alone exists. Nothing else exists.

Omkar – means the resounding existential sound. All creation emanates from sound vibration. This sound vibration is OM. Through the utterance of Om He becomes the creation and is involved in the cosmic Lila.

Sat – means that which exists eternally. It is the sacchidananda of Vedanta; the rit of Veda; the dhamma of Buddha; the dharma of Puranas.

Nam – means the world of infinite plurality; the world of names and forms; the entire creation.

Ek omkar satnam means there is only one existential sound resounding through all creation.

All the verses of Nanak were sung. His way was through singing. This is Bhagavad Gita – the celestial song. Singing was the invisible silk thread that Nanak used to ultimately link with the invisible cosmic umbilical cord that emanates from Him.