Living Unbound

Tag: living unbound

  • Living Unbound AYP Retreat Sept. 27-29 2013 @ Kripalu

    Kripalu
    Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health‎

    Please join Mahasweta Mitra (Shanti, at the AYP Forums) and Doug Sandlin (Kirtanman. at the AYP Forums), co-founders of Living Unbound, and AYP asana instructor Rohini Nellore (Rohini, at the AYP Forums), Sept. 27-29, for a weekend retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the beautiful Berkshires region of western Massachusetts.

    s7
    Mahasweta Mitra

    We will be offering a weekend introduction to Advanced Yoga Practices (the practices are advanced; you don’t have to be — no previous experience with yoga or meditation is required), and kirtan (yogic chanting / singing). For more information and/or to register.

    doug-author
    Doug Sandlin

    AYP Deep Meditation and Spinal Breathing are the foundations of the daily practices that we recommend via Living Unbound, and kirtan is an additional and highly-enjoyable activity and practice that is popular with attendees at our retreats. The asanas (body postures) will be led by Rohini Nellore, a certified yoga instructor who runs regular private and group yoga classes, and who has led our asana sessions at other AYP retreats — which always receive enthusiastic reviews.

    ro
    Rohini Nellore

    While this is an Advanced Yoga Practices retreat, the principles of Living Unbound are inherently part of our retreats — we always spend time both inside and outside of the retreat sessions discussing the teachings, techniques and resources that each of us can make use of in our daily lives outside of sitting practices, in order to enjoy peace, freedom and fulfillment — living unbound — ever more completely.

    Participants at our other retreats have found them to be enjoyable, inspiring, fun, and in some cases, life-changing.

    One of the main reasons for so many people finding benefit in our retreats is that we address the reality of the benefits of practices and perspective that some call spiritual in ways that are truly independent of any traditions. AYP and Living Unbound work equally well for people of all religion, and of no religion; for people with years of spiritual practice, and with none at all.

    See what others have said about our AYP retreats.

    Pennsylvania, 2010

    Pennsylvania, 2011

    Michigan, 2012

    Michigan, 2013

    As always, this weekend retreat will be both fun and profound — and will provide you with tools you can use beneficially, every day, for the rest of your life. Hope to see you there! If you know anyone else who might be interested, please feel free to forward this info — all are welcome.

    If you have any additional questions, please use our contact form, or email info@livingunbound.net 

  • Tripping Through Time (New Song)

     

    Lyrics

    Tripping through time like some kind of archetype
    Lost in the layers of the lies of mind
    Holding out hope for heavenly happiness
    Drowning in the drama by dreams defined
    Feeding the fears that are fueling the fantasies
    Building the barriers to block the real
    Wanting to wake up from worry and wanting
    Hiding from wholeness with what we feel

    Step out of the circle of Time
    Into the circle of Love
    Letting go is living the truth that it’s forgiving
    That frees us from the fears we dreamed up

    Step out of the circle of Death
    Into the circle of Life
    Letting go is living the truth that it’s by living
    The love we are that makes us alive

    Transcending time as artists and architects
    Living and loving with lives of light
    Holding out healing wholeness and happiness
    Dissolving all the dramas by dreams defined
    Fueling the freedom of fun and fulfillment
    Being the beacons of all that’s real
    Willing to wake up the worrying and wanting
    Creating wholeness with love we heal

    Step out of the circle of Time
    Into the circle of Love
    Letting go is living the truth that it’s forgiving
    That frees us from the fears we dreamed up

    Step out of the circle of Death
    Into the circle of Life
    Letting go is living the truth that it’s by giving
    The love we are that makes us alive

    **

     

    The chorus was inspired by a quote from Rumi:

    “Step out of the circle of Time, step into the circle of Love.”

  • Living Unbound Resource: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

    A new guide to rational living [Book]A key part of the Living Unbound mission is to help us establish and enjoy harmony in day to day living.  Our conditioned tendencies of mind, the unique ways in which we each react to a given situation based on our lifetime conditioning, are the primary factor preventing this harmony. And so, we are always on the lookout for additional teachings, techniques and resources which can be helpful to all of us, in terms of enjoying the inherent harmony that is our natural state.

    One powerful resource-sets that we have found is known as REBT, or Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.

    For exact details on the REBT technique, please see Living Unbound Lesson Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy .

    The purpose of this resource article is to provide additional resources and information regarding REBT for those of us who may wish to pursue it further.

    REBT Institute

    REBT Interactive Worskheet

    This is an interactive worksheet; you answer questions in the boxes and the program reorganizes the data to generate a sheet with irrational beliefs, related disputes and rational alternatives.

    REBT Worksheet (PDF; to print and complete)

    REBT Network Site

    REBT-related YouTube Videos

    Albert Ellis describing the REBT Model

    REBT Founder Albert Ellis Describing REBT Principles :

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyRE-78g_z0[/youtube]

    Two  prominent proponents of REBT discussing anger (Audio Only):

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy3gmmlGcKs&feature=related[/youtube]

    Albert Ellis Quotes

    Quotes From Albert Ellis 1

    Quotes from Albert Ellis 2

    Recommended REBT Books – Click Image To Purchase

  • Adyashanti on Freedom From Separation

    Some powerful yet down-to-Earth pointers from Adyashanti on Freedom from Separation.

    The dream of separation is unenlightenment, is bondage, is error; wholeness is reality, now.

  • Truth Hath No Confines – New Living Unbound Video (Captain Ahab, Moby Dick & Living Unbound)

     

     

    “Truth Hath No Confines“

    ~Captain Ahab, in Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby-Dick.

    Many of us may recall Moby-Dick as required reading in high school, and/or at least know the outline of the story:

    A Nantucket whaling-ship captain named Ahab seeks revenge for getting his leg chomped off by a White Whale named Moby. Drowning ensues. Moby gets away. The End.

    Many people have wondered why Herman Melville ended his somewhat strange tale of Ahab vs. the White Whale on such a tragic note.

    What’s the message?

    To paraphrase Jed McKenna: What could be the message?

    And, by the way, very special thanks to Jed McKenna for pointing out the facets of Moby-Dick which resulted in the video below.

    What facets?

    Those are best described in the video.

    Please take a few minutes to watch — and please let us know what you think.

    Suffice it to say that if you haven’t read Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment by Jed McKenna, your views about Moby-Dick may just be changing rather radically in the next few minutes (if you watch the video, that is).

    Jed McKenna posits some rather staggering and radical ideas about Moby-Dick, which are highlighted in our newest video.

    The most staggering and radical aspect of all, though, it that having just re-read Moby-Dick, and viewing it afresh, per Jed McKenna’s amazing insights — it appears he’s either largely, or completely, correct, with respect to his amazing, Living Unbound-related insights, not only about the story of Moby-Dick, but about the book’s author, Herman Melville.

    And even “partially” (correct) would make Moby-Dick an infinitely more interesting and important story than most of us could ever have imagined.

    Being a bit about spiritual symbolism ourselves, as well any and all resources that can help us all with Living Unbound, we’re now going to be studying Moby-Dick in greater detail as well, with the intention being to expand upon Jed McKenna’s initial insights.

    We’ll keep you posted.

    Resources:

  • Jed McKenna Quotes

    Jed McKenna is one of the most straightforward and authentic spiritual teachers, ever. Jed tells it like it is: the reality of Living Unbound, and the way to Living Unbound. Jed McKenna is a pen-name, but whoever writes as Jed McKenna articulates Living Unbound in reality with an authenticity and a clarity rarely found anywhere.

    Here is some of the very direct and very real wisdom of Jed McKenna:

    Suffering just means you’re having a bad dream. Happiness means you’re having a good dream. Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether.

    **

    Enlightenment isn’t when you go there; it’s when there comes here.

    **

    It’s ego – the false self – that exalts the guru and declares the teaching sacred, but nothing is exalted or sacred, only true or not true.

    **

    Enlightenment is the unprogrammed state.


    **

    I don’t have something you don’t; you believe something I don’t.

    **

    The point is to wake up, not to earn a Ph.D. In waking up.


    **

    The bottom line remains the same: you’re either awake or you’re not.One day, there it is. Nothing. No more enemies, no more battles.


    **

    There’s nothing left to contend against and nothing left that must be done, and there will never be anything that must be done ever again.


    **

    The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into existence.  Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth.

    **

    Wake up first. Wake up, and then you can double back and perhaps be of some use to others if you still have the urge. Wake up first, with pure and unapologetic selfishness, or you’re just another shipwreck victim floundering in the ocean and all the compassion in the world is of absolutely no use to the other victims floundering around you.

    **

    The universe isn’t vague and ignorant. I am vague and ignorant. Something is true, and it doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not going to be false any more. I have not even the slightest trace of the slightest reservation that I would rather suffer and die figuring out what is true than continue this life as a slave to lies and ignorance.

    -On the attitude needed for enlightenment

    **

    I don’t see it as my role to save or rescue anybody any more than regular people feel the need to rescue each other from sleeping and dreaming.

    **

    That’s how it is in dreams: thoughts become things practically before they’re thought.

    **

    You can’t manage to avoid your own true nature forever. It’s a wonder anybody manages it at all.

    **

    Who you are has little or nothing to do with you.
    **

    There is no true self. Truth and self are mutually exclusive.

    **

    This is about unknowing. All this so-called knowledge is exactly what stands between seeker and sought.

    **

    The teachers we need will always be there when we need them; no reason to track down somebody else’s.

    **

    The ‘I” casts off the illusion of ‘I’ and yet remains as ‘I’. Such is the paradox of self-realization. The realized do not see any contradiction in it.

    **

    Before enlightenment, I believed my ego was me. Then enlightenment comes along and no more ego, only the underlying reality. Now it’s after enlightenment, and this ego might be slightly uncomfortable or ill-fitting at times, but it’s all I’ve got.

    **

    The idea that your ego is destroyed in the process of enlightenment is roughly correct, but it’s not complete. Before enlightenment, you’re a human being in the world, just like everyone you see. During enlightenment, you realize that the human being that you thought you were is just a character in a play, and that the world you thought you were in is just a stage, so you go through a process of radical deconstruction of your character to see what’s left when it’s gone. The result isn’t enlightened-self or true-self, it’s no-self. When it’s all over it’s time to be a human being in the world again, and that means slipping back into costume and getting back onstage.

    **

    Miracles are nature unimpeded, which is a good way of saying that if you take your hand off the tiller, the boat will steer itself and do a vastly better job of it than you ever could.

    **

    Relax into the moment and let the universe do the driving. If there was a secret to happiness in life, I’d say that was it.

    **

    Trust you develop a little at a time as you learn to relinquish the illusion of control.

    **

    They have abandoned the illusion of control. It doesn’t matter why you do it, just that you do. This is the point of distinction and the root teaching of all major religions.

    ~On the power of spiritual devotion

    **

    Fear and ego – in other words, ignorance – are keeping your hand on the tiller. Release the tiller for whatever reason, and the steering takes care of itself.

    **

    Everyone’s grooving on the gurus, and everyone’s getting more and more spiritual, but nobody’s waking up.


    **

    Go jump off a cliff. Don’t go near the cliff and contemplate jumping off. Don’t read a book about jumping off. Don’t study the art and science of jumping off. Don’t join a support group for jumping off. Don’t write poems about jumping off. Don’t kiss the ass of someone else who jumped off. Just jump.

    **

    The difference between us isn’t that I’m enlightened and you’re not. The difference between us is that I know it, and you don’t.

    **

    The truth is identical for both of us. I haven’t achieved a better status than you.

    **

    There’s no such thing as instant enlightenment any more than there’s such a thing as an instant baby.

    **

    Simply put, I don’t think. I don’t make choices or decisions.  I don’t weigh possibilities and select one over others. Instead, I observe patterns and move with them.


    **

    I used to try to be smart and now I don’t and everything works a whole lot better. Stopping being smart was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done.


    **

    This is it. Not some other time, not some other place. Right here. Right now. I am standing at the exact center of infinity and I see beauty and perfection and absolute delight everywhere and in every thing. The touch of the slightest breeze, the sight of a single star through cloud-swept skies, the howls of coyote pups in the distance and the sheer glory and beauty of it all is enough to tear me to shreds and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you

    **

    Truth isn’t an idea or a concept. It’s not in libraries or the words of sages. It doesn’t come in a flash of insight or a peak experience. It’s not a feeling of bliss or ecstasy. It’s not a concept to be understood or a feeling to be experienced. It’s not in your heart or your mind. It’s further.

    **

    Spiritual awakening is about discovering what’s true. Anything that’s not about getting to the truth must be discarded. Truth isn’t about knowing things; you already know too much. It’s about unknowing. It’s not about becoming true; it’s about unbecoming false so that all that’s left is truth.

    **

    No belief is true. No. Belief. Is. True.

    **

    One millionth of one percent false is completely false. Everything in duality is false. False as in not true. Not true as in bullshit.

    **

    This isn’t a song we’re singing or a mountain we’re climbing; it’s a dream we’re unweaving.

    **


    Living Unbound Jed McKenna Videos Playlist – 11 Videos, Total


    **


    **




  • Abhinavagupta Quotes

    Abhinavagupta (950-1020, Kashmir, India) was one of the most powerfully insightful, deeply profound and logically-clear philosophers of the reality of Living Unbound that the world has ever known. However, he is not at all widely known outside of the circles that his work has touched directly, namely the non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir and certain Indian disciplines of poetics and aesthetics.

    Here are some quotes from Abhinavagupta on the simple reality of Living Unbound that is the true nature of everyone, the ground of being of pure, liberated awareness underlying “accumulated multiplicity” as Abhinavagupta terms it.

    This bliss is not like the intoxication of wine or that of riches, nor similar to union with the beloved. The manifestation of the light of consciousness is not like the ray of light from a lamp, sun or moon. When one frees oneself from accumulated multiplicity, the state of bliss is like that of putting down a burden; the manifestation of the Light is like the acquiring of a lost treasure, the domain of universal non-duality.

    Nothing perceived is independent of perception and perception differs not from the perceiver, therefore the universe is nothing but the perceiver.

    **

    Philosophy is an elaboration of different kinds of experiences. The abstractions of high-grade metaphysics are based on spiritual experience and derive their whole value from the experiences they symbolize.

    **

    Relative distinction between two realities is not impossible. This is the doctrine of Supreme Unity in which in which relative distinction is neither shunned nor accepted. While there is an external difference between phenomena, there is none inwardly.

    **

    The existence or non-existence of phenomena within the domain of the empirical cannot be established unless they rest within consciousness. In fact, phenomena which rest within consciousness are apparent. And the fact of their appearing is itself their oneness with consciousness because consciousness is nothing but the fact of appearing.

    **

    The group of subjects, the various means of knowledge, the multiple kinds of knowledge and the objects of knowledge – all this is consciousness alone. The Supreme Goddess is the absolute freedom of consciousness which assumes all these forms.

    **

    Both characteristics, unity and diversity, are found in that which does not fall to the level of an object but which, because it is consciousness, is the supremely real Light. It has only one characteristic, namely, consciousness which is the perfect medium of reflection. This is what experience tells us.

    **

    The truth is therefore this: the Supreme Lord manifests freely all the varied play of emissions and absorptions in the sky of his own nature.

    **

    The Light is the supreme reality that encompasses all the categories from Earth to Paramasiva, while the unfolding of the reflective awareness of the Heart of I consciousness within it, distinguishes between them.


    **

    Absolute consciousness is manifest here in every circumstance of daily life because it is everywhere full and perfect. Consciousness is said to be the cause of all things because it is everywhere emergent as each manifest entity.

    **

    The extremely pure conscious reality transcends all talk of succession and its absence.

    **

    Immersing himself in the supreme reality, clearly aware that consciousness is all things, the yogi’s consciousness vibrates. This vibration is the Great Pervasion.

    **

    The yogi should abide firmly fixed in his own nature by the power of the exertion of his expanding consciousness. Thus he is established on the plane of Bliss relishing the objects of sense that spontaneously appear before him. Perfected yogis (siddha) , are ever steadfast in this, the Supreme Gesture (mudra), the perfect and unobstructed expansion of the awakened.

    **

    The couple (yamala) is consciousness itself; the unifying emission and the stable abode. It is the absolute, the noble cosmic bliss consisting of both (Siva and Sakti). It is the supreme secret of Kula (the ultimate reality); neither quiescent or emergent, it is the flowing fount of both quiescence and emergence.

    **

    The variety of this world can only be manifested if the Highest Lord, Who is essentially the pure light of consciousness, exists; just as a surface is necessary for a picture.

    **

    Other achievements are in vain if one has missed the supreme reality, the Self. But once one has attained this reality there is nothing left that one could desire.

    **

    Source: by The Doctrine Of Vibration By Mark S. G. Dyczkowski

    For more on Kashmir Shaivism, please see the Living Unbound Kashmir Shaivism Resource Page.

  • Living Unbound: No Arms, No Legs, No Worries

    “It’s a lie to think that you’re not good enough! It’s a lie to to think that you’re not worth anything!”

    ~Nick Vucijic

    How can a guy like Nick enjoy happily Living Unbound?

    Because Living Unbound is the natural state of all life, including the liberated awareness that we each and all every actually are, now.

    Anything else is literally a bad dream.

    Living Unbound is Freedom Beyond Imagination in Reality.

  • The Integral Wholeness Of Awareness

    The Awareness level is where we experience all as oneness, and the oneness as our self. This becomes somewhat easier to comprehend, when we recall that all the conceptual division with which we used to experience life was utterly artificial. In the absence of this conceptual division, reality is one; self is one; self is Living Unbound.

    “Caitanyamatma” – “Living Unbound Awareness is Self”, as the Shiva Sutras (1.1) begin.

    This cannot be understood with mind, even the infinitely expanded mind experienced at the upper range of the Knowing level; it can only be experienced – in, with and as original, unbound awareness; our self. Why is this so? Because understanding is usually understood and experienced by limited-mind as an object in awareness, an object that is the knowledge of the subject who holds it.

    However, “Knowledge is Bondage” (Jnanam Bandhah) as the Shiva Sutras (1.2) succinctly remind us. Knowledge is bondage, because knowledge is an object; objects create subjects, subjects create objects. At the Awareness level, we are experiencing the single field of awareness prior to all division.
    Knowledge is bondage — Knowing is not; knowing is liberation. Knowing is experiencing. Knowing is experiencing in actuality. In actuality, all is one; Knowing is Unity.

    As Yogani says in Advanced Yoga Practices (AYP) Main Lesson 399:

    “From the perspective of the individual, thoughts are only omnipresent when consciously released in omnipresent abiding inner silence, which is cultivated through deep meditation. Before that, thoughts are only objects of perception with which we are identified locally. It is the samyama effect (release in stillness) that enables thought to become omnipresent, and therefore infinite in speed.”

    Again, this cannot be understood with mind, because mind is inherently constrained in some manner; even the formless aspects of it contain consciousness and action, even if effectively infinite in scope. Only when our original Awareness preceding mind is  experienced as our self, with mind as its emanation, does the power of knowing, the knowing of power, begin to flourish creatively, to flow out and return as Living, Unbound.

    Yogani continues:
     

    “Before the samyama effect, a thought is like a picture. After the samyama effect, a thought is the thing itself, and far more influential via the infinite creative energy of divine outpouring that occurs when the mind is surrendered in stillness.”

    When the mind is surrendered in stillness, there is no barrier to the universal open shining of our original awareness, our infinite self. Infinite? Infinite: all distinctions, definitions, borders and limits are artificial. Original awareness is inherently ever unbound.

    “A thought is a thing in itself.”

    When we contemplate this, our mind cannot even begin to understand, because limited mind is a cutting instrument; it divides, decides, discriminates. A thought is a thing in itself, because there is no natural division in awareness; awareness is wholeness. Whether awareness is experiencing the inner silence of the experiencing subject-self that is original awareness, or experiencing its movement as knowing and acting oscillations of awareness, or experiencing the perfect balance of the two as a human, being: there is only awareness here.

    And so, a thought is not only a thing in itself, a thought is our very self; awareness in form, arising from formless self-awareness. Experiencing this in actuality does not allow us to understand, for we are now beyond the range of understanding, but to be knowing, that creating the samyama effect is creating a ripple in the infinite lake of our self. Utterly simple. Infinitely powerful. Solely loving. Is this teaching (“A thought is a thing in itself”) unique to Yogani? Not exactly; it has been around for thousands of years, and is considered so profound an aspect of reality that it is deeply embedded in some of the oldest languages and spiritual traditions in the world. For instance, In Hebrew, the word davar means both word and thing:

    “Though davar means both thing and word in Hebrew, it is crucial to point out that thing did not have the Greek connotations of substance. As I. Rabinowitz puts it: ‘the word is the reality in its most concentrated, compacted, essential form.’ …. Names are not conventional, but are intrinsically connected to their referents; the name, indeed, is the real referent of the thing, its essential character – not the reverse, as in Greek thought. One does not pass beyond the names as an arbitrary sign towards a non-verbal vision of the thing, but rather from the thing to the word, which creates, characterizes, and sustains it. Hence davar is not simply thing, but also action, efficacious fact, event, matter, process.”
    ~Leonora Leet, Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah, p. 103, quoting Susan R. Handelman

    There is a teaching which is essentially identical (to the teaching described above, via the Hebrew word davar) in Kashmir Shaivism, the non-dual, practices-centric tradition of Kashmir (as Kabbalah is the non-dual, practices-centric tradition within the framework of Judaic spirituality).

    In The Secret Supreme, the Kashmir Shaiva master Swami Lakshmanjoo describes Sadadhvan, the Sanskrit term for the six-fold path of creation in the Universe, consisting of three subjective paths of increasing subtlety, and three objective paths of increasing subtlety. In explaining an example relating to the middle (subtle) level, Swami Lakshmanjoo states:

    “The word pot is the vacakadhva (creator) for this object (pot). So this object (pot) is vacya (created) and its vacaka (creator) is the word pot.”

    ~Swami Lakshmanjoo, The Secret Supreme, p. 13

    The one field of awareness from one angle, is everything: all-that-is, from another angle; two sides of the same coin. Oneness and multiplicity are the inverse of one another. Mind cannot understand this; it is not designed to do so: mind is a sense, not a self.

    The wholeness of awareness is infinite; the distinctions of form are finite; the perfect balance of the two is to be a whole, liberated human, being; to be Living Unbound. A paradox? From the standpoint of the distinctions of limited mind, yes; from the wholeness of awareness, no. Experiencing the actuality of the wholeness of awareness (aka the awareness of wholeness), the unity of knowing (the knowing of unity), and the harmony of living (the living of harmony) is to resolve all paradoxes, and to enjoy Living Unbound; the ever-present freedom we each and all ever are now, right here, beyond and before imagination.

    No less an authority than esteemed mathematician (and co-author of the Penrose-Hameroff Theory of Quantum Consciousness), Sir Roger Penrose states:

    “Calculus– or, according to its more sophisticated name, Mathematical Analysis– is built from two basic ingredients: differentiation and integration. The remarkable fact, referred to as the fundamental theorem of calculus, is that each one of these ingredients is essentially just the inverse of the other. It is largely this fact that enables these two important domains of mathematical study to combine together and to provide a powerful body of understanding and calculational technique.”
    ~Sir Roger Penrose, The Road To Reality — A Complete Guide To The Laws Of The Universe, p. 103

    And likewise, it is the fact that the wholeness of awareness and the harmony of living are bridged by the unity of knowing, which allows for the ongoing celebration in experience known as Living Unbound. The Wholeness of Awareness and the Harmony of Living are the inverse of one another — exactly as the integral and differential described above in Penrose’s quote are the inverse of one another. The Unity of Knowing bridges the infinite division between the Wholeness of Awareness and the Harmony of Living, exactly as the fact and understanding of inverse relationship (between integral and differential, in Calculus) bridges the apparent differences between the two, which are also actually just the inverse of one another; the same reality experienced from different angles, with different degrees of focus. Most of us feel bound and limited because most of us only experience and know the differential, the finite, the limited, the local. Most of us are missing the knowing-experiencing of our true self, the integral: the whole, the infinite, the limitless.

    Self is Unbound, Self is Living; Self is Living Unbound.

    What is the result of experiencing our self as the wholeness of awareness, Living Unbound?

    “The universe is our playground when we are reborn in the divine flow resulting from the marriage of abiding inner silence and our ecstatic awakening. We are here, everywhere, and nowhere. Free!”
    ~Yogani


    Related Lessons:

    Level 3 Teachings

    Level 3 Techniques

    Living Unbound Resource

    Related Resources:

    Source of the above pictures : http://www.irishviews.com/purple-sky-backgrounds.html

  • Quotes on Living Unbound from Contemplative Christianity, Philosophy & Science

    Seeing through exterior things, and seeing God in them

    Thomas Merton

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A blind feeling of one’s own being, stretching unto God

    The Cloud of Unknowing

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The pure, loving gaze that finds God everywhere

    Brother Lawrence

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The mind’s loving, unmixed, permanent attention to the things of God

    Francis de Sales

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Finding God in all things

    Ignatius of Loyola

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The window of the soul cleansed perfectly
    and made completely transparent by the divine light

    John of the Cross

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A continual condition of prayerful sensitivity to what is really going on

    Douglas Steere

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Seeing God in everything and everything in God
    with completely extraordin    ary clearness and delicacy

    Marie of the Incarnation

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The enlightening of the understanding, joined to the joys of God’s love

    Walter Hilton

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Continual communion through all things

    by quite simply doing everything in the presence of the Holy Trinity

    Elizabeth of the Trinity

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Awareness, absorbed and amazed

    Teresa of Avila

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The mind, gazing upon the universe of God’s handiwork, rapt by the divine and infinite light

    Maximus the Confessor

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The mind stolen from itself by the ineffable sweetness of the Word

    Bernard of Clairvaux

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Divine wakefulness with pure and naked intuition

    Gregory of Nyssa

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    With the flash of one trembling glance, my mind arrived at THAT WHICH IS, but I could not fix my gaze thereon.

    Augustine

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The alertness which finds everything plain and grasps it clearly with entire comprehension

    Hugh of St.Victor

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Receiving the clarity of God without any means; a single nakedness that embraces all things

    Jan Van Ruysbroek

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Right understanding, with true longing, absolute trust, and sweet grace-giving mindfulness

    Julian of Norwich

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Awakening to the presence of God in the human heart and in the universe which is around us… knowledge by love

    Dom Bede Griffiths

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The world becoming luminous from within
    as one plunges breathlessly into human activity

    Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.

    Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55), Danish philosopher. Either/Or, vol. 2, “Balance between Esthetic and Ethical” (1843; tr. 1987).

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Mysticism has been in the past & probably ever will be one of the great powers of the world & it is bad scholarship to pretend the contrary. You may argue against it but you should no more treat it with disrespect than a perfectly cultivated writer would treat (say) the Catholic Church or the Church of Luther no matter how much he disliked them.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. Letter, 10 Oct. 1893, to author Laurence Housman (published in Collected Letters, vol. 1, ed. by John Kelly, 1986). In an earlier letter (23 July 1892), Yeats had written: “The mystical life is the centre of all that I do & all that I think & all that I write. . . . I have always considered myself a voice of what I

    believe to be a greater renaissance- the revolt of the soul against the intellect.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Hanging by God’s thread of pure Love

    ~Catherine of Genoa

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.

    Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), British author. Grey Eminence, ch. 9 (1941).

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.

    Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born U.S. theoretical physicist. Quoted in: Philipp Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, ch. 12, sct. 5 (1947).

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Source :

    For more on contemplative Christianity, please read this article.
    And please visit this site.