Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 11:00am
Achariya Ajay Jeffrey Bauer
Speaks on "Infinite Calmness"
“O thou infinite Calmness, thou art calm;
Teach me to be calm as thou art.”
Such is Swami Premananda’s supplication to God in his "Prayers of Self-Realization." All phenomena would lose power and vibrancy and dissipate into nothingness without a calm center, even as the hurricane would become impotent without its calm eye. The absolute calmness of God is the “eye” of the manifested universe. In order to realize our oneness with God let us become calm as God is.
—Acharya Ajay
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
The nature of the consciousness of creation is motion, change, duality, opposites, multiplicity and desire. The Soul is divinely serene, changeless. Do you want to find the state of pure consciousness of samadhi? Learn, as the Psalmist stated, to "be still and know that I am God."
—Swami Kamalananda, “The Mystic Cross”
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Jnana Yoga begins when one transcends all objectified consciousness. In it we begin with pure consciousness, pure existence, and pure bliss. Jnana yoga has nothing to do with the phenomenal world. It is purely subjective, dealing with consciousness without modulation or objectification. Only one who has been able to completely calm his mind is fitted to follow the path of Jnana.
—Swami Premananda, “The Path of Pure Consciousness”
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Within the serene mind is reflected the reality and glory of God. The highest ideal of meditation is the complete realization of soul's undifferentiated oneness with God within one's own pure and effulgent consciousness, free from all relative and finite concepts.
—Shyamacharan Lahiri, “Sayings of Shyamacharan Lahiri”
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Noble Thoughts: ("Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all sides." —Rigveda)
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At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards.
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
—T.S. Eliot, "Four Quartets"
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All that matters is to be at one with the living God
to be a creature in the house of the God of Life.
Sleeping on the hearth of the living world
yawning at home before the fire of life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart
a presence
as of a master sitting at the board
in his own and greater being,
in the house of life.
—D.H. Lawrence, "The English Spirit"
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Neither giving nor taking
Neither for nor against
Leave your mind at rest
With perceptions remain unconcerned
The great Way is a mind open to everything
which clings to nothing
which fixates nowhere
Radiant and stainless
Rest in the unmoved, uncreated, and spontaneous
and you will soon reach Buddhahood.
—Tilopa in "Awakening the Buddha Within" by Lama Surya Das