- How to live without fear and worry, K. Sri Dhammananda

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Our world is only a tiny speck in the universe. What if we were to disappear from the world, would it be of any universal significance? Our loved ones and friends of course will miss us for a time, but besides them, maybe no one else would. But compared to ourselves, how much smaller are our troubles? When we consider the vastness of the universe with the tiny speck which the Sun is and the tinier speck which we call the world, and our troubles will appear very minute indeed in comparison.

If we can see our problems in this perspective, we would understand the first step of the Noble Eight-fold Path, that is, Right Viewpoint. This can also mean a right sense of values, that is, by not thinking that we are more important than we really are. And if we can develop this viewpoint, we will know what things in life matter and what don not, and that our troubles which come and go are of no real significance. Ponder for a moment the significance of the under mentioned valuable saying in Islam.

‘Faith is the source of my power.
Sorrow is my friend.
Knowledge is my weapon.
Patience is my Grab and Virtue’
~ Prophet Mohammad ~

Troubles will soon pass. What had caused you to burst into tears today will soon be forgotten tomorrow. You may perhaps remember that you cried, but maybe not the exact circumstances which caused the tears. As we go through life, we waste so much mental energy when we lie awake at night, brooding over something that had upset us during the day. We nurse resentment against someone and keep running the same thoughts over and over again through our mind. But is it not so that while we may fall into a rage about something now, that after some time has elapsed and other problems arise which would seem to be more pressing, we may begin to wonder what it was that in the first place we were so angry about? If we reflect on past resentments, we will be surprised to find how we have deliberately continued to be unhappy when we could have in fact put that unhappiness to a stop by doing or thinking about something else.

Whatever our troubles, however pressing they may appear, time will heal our wounds. But besides leaving things to time, surely there must be something we can do to prevent ourselves from being hurt in the first place, We could maintain our peace of mind by not allowing people or troubles to drain our energies away since it is ourselves and not others who create our unhappiness.

We gain academic knowledge without personal experience. Armed with academic knowledge some young people think they can solve all the world’s problems. Science can provide the material things to solve our problems, but it cannot help us to solve our spiritual problems. There is no substitute for wise people who have experienced the world. Think about this saying, “When I was 18, I thought what a fool my father was. Now that I am 28, I am surprised how much the old man has learned in 10 years!” It is not the father that has learned, rather it is you who have learned to see things in a mature way.

- How to live without fear and worry, Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda

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I looked at my brother with the microscope of criticism,
And I said, ‘How coarse my brother is!’
I looked at him through the telescope of scorn,
And I said, ‘How small my brother is!’
Then I looked in the mirror of truth,
And I said, ‘How like me my brother is!’

~ o0o ~

The next time before we start finding faults with others, remember these lines by Robert Louis Stevenson:

‘There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it will not behoove any one of us,
To find any fault with the rest of us.’

- How to live without fear & worry, K. Sri Dhammananda

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‘They sorrow not for what is past,
They yearn not after that which is not come,
The present is sufficient for them:
Hence it is they appear so radiant.
By having longing for the future,
By sorrowing over what is past,
By this fools are withered up
As a cut-down tender reed.’

Look to this day. In its brief course lie all the verities of existence – Action, love, transience. Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow veiled. Live Now!

- How to live without fear and worry, K. Sri Dhammaananda

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The second is backbiting. When a person wanders here or there, he spreads falsehood around to cause disruption. He breaks up fellowship, does not reconcile those at strife, finds pleasure and delight in quarrels, and utters words to incite others to quarrel.

The third is harsh speech. The words spoken are insolent and rude, bitter for others to hear. People always accuse others, even for minor mistakes yet keep quiet when the latter do some good deeds. One writer says: ‘When I am good everybody forgets, but when I am bad everybody remembers.’

The fourth is idle babbling. This speech is made by a person speaking out of turn on things non-existent or irrelevant. His speech is unrestrained, out of place, thoughtless and does not bring any benefit whatsoever.

The next time before we speak, we must think before opening our mouths. The injunction ‘Think before you speak’ can help us avoid getting into disputes or arguments and avoid hurting others unnecessarily. We must analyze our thoughts and intentions before expressing them. We must not only know what to say, but also why, when, where and how to say it.

A wise man knows how to avoid problems by being careful about what he says. There is a saying that even a fish will not get caught on a hook if he knows how to keep his big mouth shut at the right time.

~ How to live without fear and worry, K. Sri Dhammananda

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The second friend was horrified to hear the first one speaking. ‘Hush,’ he said, ‘We are not supposed to say a word, remember?’

‘Both of you are stupid. Why did you talk?’ said the third. Very softly, the fourth muttered, ‘I was the only one who didn’t say anything.’

‘Much talking is a source of danger,
Through silence misfortune is avoided,
The talkative parrot in a cage is shut,
While birds that cannot talk fly freely.’

~ Tibetan Yogi ~

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He called his assistant, a fox, and said to him, ‘You know, I really don’t understand why we live in fear of each other. Please go and tell the buffalo that from now on I have decided to become a vegetarian and invite him to share my den with him.’ The fox went to the buffalo and conveyed the message. The buffalo was suspicious as first, but the fox argued that the lion was really harmless. After all had he himself not lived with this lion for a long time? Finally the buffalo was convinced.

He came into the cave, was courteously treated and thus assured, he lay down to sleep. The lion wasted no more time. Upon a flash he pounced on the poor buffalo and killed him with one stroke. Now the lion’s favorite was buffalo brain and though he was very hungry, all the waiting had tired him. So he decided to take a rest and instructed the fox to guard the carcass buffalo brain, and so while his master slept, he opened up the skull, and ate the delicious brain. Thus satisfied he cleverly replaced the skull and, with an innocent look on his face waited for his master to awake.

The lion woke up and eagerly went to enjoy his delicacy but great was his surprise and anger when he opened the head and found it empty. Furiously he demanded an explanation from the fox who replied: ‘Master, the reason the skull is empty is that this buffalo had no brain. Do you think if it had any brain it could have fallen for your trick?’

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Mm? just visualise it for one minute with closed eyes — golden mist falling. And within a few days you will be able to see the whole room becoming luminous in your vision. Then inhale and feel that that golden mist is being inhaled deep in your heart. Your heart is just void, empty, and that golden mist goes into it, fills the heart.

Then exhale: again feel that that golden mist is going out and that your heart is again becoming empty, void, nothing inside. This gold mist filling the heart, your inner being, and then emptying it — just like exhalation, inhalation. With inhalation you fill it; with exhalation you empty it.

This you do for five, seven minutes, and then simply go to sleep. But when you go to sleep, always go to sleep when you are empty, not when you are full of the gold mist. Empty yourself and go to
sleep. And you will have a very different quality of sleep — more of the void, more of nothingness, more of non-being. In the morning you will open your eyes feeling as if you have been in a totally different land… as if you have disappeared.

In the morning before you get out of bed, sit again: for five minutes repeat the same process. But when you get out of the bed, get out full of gold mist. Going to sleep, go when you are empty; getting out of the bed, be full of the mist.

Hold the gold mist inside and get out, and the whole day you will feel a subtle energy flowing in you, a very golden energy. In the night become empty, in the day become full: let the day be a day of fullness and the night a night of emptiness.

This is for now, and when you come next time, remind me — then the next step. I will tell you the next step so you can remember, but don’t try it now….

The next step will be that you simply remain a watcher. The gold mist comes in; you are a watcher. Fill your heart — you are a watcher; emptying out of your heart — you are a watcher. You are neither: neither day nor night, neither emptiness nor fullness, just a witness. But that is a second step.

- OSHO, The Zero Experience – Darshan Diary

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In the beginning it feels very weird. When for the first time you can fill your room with love energy, your own energy, which goes on falling and rebouncing on you and makes you so happy, one starts feeling, ‘Am I hypnotising myself? Am I deluded? What is happening?’ Because you have always thought that love comes from somebody else. A mother is needed to love you, a father, a brother, a husband, a wife, a child — but somebody.

Love that depends on somebody is a poor love. Love that is created within you, love that you create out of your own being, is real energy. Then move anywhere with that ocean surrounding you and you will feel that everybody who comes close to you is suddenly under a different kind of energy.

People will look at you with more open eyes. You will be passing them and they will feel that a breeze of some unknown energy has passed them; they will feel fresher. Hold somebody’s hand and his whole body will start throbbing. Just be close to somebody and that man will start feeling very happy for no reason at all. You can watch it. Then you are becoming ready to share. Then find a lover, then find a right receptivity for you.

- OSHO, The Orange book

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This is one of Tilopa’s special methods. Every Master has his own special method through which he has attained, and through which he would like to help others. This is Tilopa’s specialty:

A bamboo: inside completely hollow. When you rest, you just feel that you are like a bamboo: inside completely hollow and empty. And in fact this is the case: your body is just like a bamboo, and inside it is hollow. Your skin, your bones, your blood, all are part of the bamboo, and inside there is space, hollowness.

When you are sitting with a completely silent mouth, inactive, tongue touching the roof and silent, not quivering with thoughts, mind watching passively, not waiting for anything in particular, feel like a hollow bamboo — and suddenly infinite energy starts pouring within you, you are filled with the unknown, with the mysterious, with the divine. A hollow bamboo becomes a flute and the divine starts playing it. Once you are empty then there is no barrier for the divine to enter in you.

Try this; this is one of the most beautiful meditations, the meditation of becoming a hollow bamboo. You need not do anything else. You simply become this — and all else happens. Suddenly you feel something is descending in your hollowness. You are like a womb and a new life is entering in you, a seed is falling. And a moment comes when the bamboo completely disappears.

Rest at ease — don’t desire spiritual things, don’t desire heaven, don’t desire even God. God cannot be desired — when you are desireless, he comes to you. Liberation cannot be desired because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless, you are liberated. Buddhahood cannot be desired, because desiring is the hindrance. When the barrier is not, suddenly Buddha explodes in you. You have the seed already. When you are empty, space is there — the seed explodes.

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY. GIVING NOT NOR TAKING, PUT YOUR MIND AT REST.

There is nothing to give, there is nothing to get. Everything is absolutely okay — as it is. There is no need for any give and take. You are absolutely perfect as you are.

- OSHO, Tantra the Supreme Understanding Ch 6

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