 | |||
 4  5  2  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sages and Animals Alike
 |
| Welcome to hilarious teachings. |
"Sages and animals do not stick around for no good reason, hence they are alike.
The sounds of animals are terse; the words or dictums of wise men come near it; and this thought-evoking work is much terser than it appears to be."
"How is that?" asked the sparrow flying by.
"It contains many thousand highly significant data that can and perhaps should be brought into the open through such as cross-breeding and other acrostic-attuned finesses. Try if you like."
"Gulp. Severe teachings?" stammered the sparrow.
"Yes, but also know that lots of rules of that game are withheld for now at least. You can drop by later and check."
Contents
| Supporting reservations are presupposed throughout: |
The Phrygian Stables
Teachings of the Great House
Sincere and technically OK
suits the House
Everybody's body is different, and everything around you is part of your own potential, also
called the expanded awareness. Take on all, says Dogen.If we would live wholly in the here and now with legs crossed and preferably in one of the good yoga positions, it could be very easy to take on all, as Dogen says. Then let your silence continue to expand until it embraces the personal too. In that way you will be able to afford the Golden Routes too. Still it can be very difficult to reach the Great House. If even a woodpecker and a quite parroting concert pianist must work hard to become successful, how much more earnestly must the sitter sit and perfect his mental diving in order to grasp that everyone who makes a sincere and - more importantly - technically OK effort on the giant path will at least move nearer to the House.
There are practical methods for controlling body and mind to this great end. By watching and intoning sounds along with the breath, in turn and by turns we influence the mind to go deep, and hence become calmer and even very calm. Hence, try to deepen your diving until you find yourself focused and relaxed.
Set aside a room, or a part of a room, just for perfecting your mental diving. Your posture during diving is important. To cushion a hard surface so that you in the end can sit comfortable, erect and well relaxed would be fine. Options for sitting are in a chair, or on a diving bench, or on a pillow on the floor. When one position becomes tiresome, calmly switch to another - and remember to call to the Great House with a laughing heart. Turn inside and relax mildly, ask for guidance from that high Self. Do not be backward, do not prance. Great procrastinators will turn the House.
The great majority, if they start out on the path with enthusiasm, gradually become discouraged. You can expect that.
 |
| "Be very centred - sit erect - Hold the beak parallell to the ground - Do not lean against the back of the chair, etc." |
Be very silent and relaxed. When your mind withdraws deeply, into Deep Mind, then you are centred in bliss. In that state you are aware in the Atman (soul, spirit).
Some are afraid to go breathless in diving inside themselves. So what?
Do not fill all your diving time with techniques. If you have never tried a bench, please be sure to experiment with one and sit erect to hold the body still. Also, it is good to simply sit and enjoy the stillness.
Hold the chin parallel to the ground. That freedom is a birthright.
Everyone in Texas has a giant eye. The more deeply you concentrate at that subtle point, the more your breathing becomes calm.
To dive a short time with depth is better than to dive for long hours without it. Your
spine is to be erect somehow, and be able to relax well. You are trying too hard when you
are expending too much will power and in consequence becomes nervous. Just try to be
relaxed. When you get calm inside, your breathing becomes calm too. Then listen for the
House's quite silent responses.
Positive practices enter stillness,
also called Divine Calm
Allow for the fact that it takes time to go from motion to stillness. Many yogis
recommend sitting on a wool rug, blanket, or piece of silk in order to contemplate better;
they say it has to do with management of certain subtle currents.Do not set unrealistic goals. It is better to dive 5-15 minutes with focus (concentration), and then increase your time as you can.
You can spend the last few minutes of your diving trying to feel Deep Mind Itself. Yes, dwell on positive practices.
Get a firm pillow to sit on or lean your back against. Do not be very impatient; there is no reason for it in the Eternal Now.
Direct inner perception should result when your heart is pure, and from this all-round approach: You repeat a suitable medley sound (mantra) to reap that mantra. By and by the methodology may exclude thoughts from occupying the mind and next it carries you (or some) into inner stillness.
Practice a good diving method for at least a quarter, and in time it becomes quite easy. ¤
He who sits in the House can dive even in a train station or in the market place - Methodical diving three to six times daily could help rid the body of many subtle tensions if not all of them. cellpadding on the seat often helps too. it is easier to dive 2-3 hours after meals. Try to round off the busy day by a good evening dive or dip, just before bedtime.
Very great contemplators with many years experience use a chair or stool. Yoga stretches and other such exercises likewise strengthen your back muscles with time and regular practice. Also, in listenening attentively lies excellent training. A method exists.
You should still the House through mind diving. You can be wholehearted, but not anxious with tranquillity. Seek to set aside the same time or times each day for your mind diving.
The perfected contemplator is wise enough to go for nothing in particular from diving - no particular results. And then Divine Calm can come, also if you practice regularly.
How can professional intuition be developed? The best way is, every time you dive, to sit
calmly for a long time after doing the techniques. The more deeply you enjoy the heart thus,
the more intuition can develop in time.
Try to see what the aim is: waking to
meadows and singing birds
TO BE ecstatic is not difficult. The hindering cross-current: thinking that it is
difficult - is not difficult either. Mind-diving techniques like Hong Saw have been practiced by students of yoga for millennia. Yoga is at least thousands of years old.
Close your eyes and try to see - and train yourself to visualize more and more clearly.
The silent laughter in the House is very important, the sincerity or wholeheartedness of the person too.
If possible, set aside an area that is used only to dive. All you really need in the area is a chair or cushion to sit on, and good ventilation in the room.
Hoary yoga contains many good and quite all right exercises. Prayers and affirmations are most effective when it is offered after going into the House by skilled mind diving, and occasionally by fervour. Generally, however, stilling one's thoughts and emotions is the good help, and quite aligned to the goal, which is to harbour no goal in particular.
When you contemplate, your eyes should be closed and held steady, and looking slightly upwards, as if looking at a point about an arm's length away and 10-20 cm higher than the top of your head if you are not wearing a hat at the time. Turning the eyes like that and keeping them steady at it, is known as focusing the mind on the "point between the eyebrows", as a certain heat may generate there with training. In some forms of Zen it is called the "doubt-sensation" also. The little point between the eyebrows may be called the inner moon in man, the third eye, Buddha's Eye and so on. It is at times seen on the glide inside toward superconsciousness, toward bliss.
Watch the meadow grasses as they wave in the wind. Listen to the birds singing and
consider what parts of Hatha Yoga are good for yourself. There are many sides of it, and
quite simple and individual programs might be had. Otherwise, as always, keep your back
straight, chest raised, head erect. And speak well.¤
Protect yourself from the downward pull of earth currents by sitting on a wool or silk blanket or both. You can sit either in a straight-backed chair or on the floor in any of several poses. Yes, it can be quite all right to sit on a straight-backed chair.
Perhaps you will also find that group divings tend to endanger your efforts to go beyond thinking and interest in others: Too bad. At any rate, the place you dive could be a little on the cool side with a source of fresh air if possible.
Aim well: try to go beyond thinking and learn to dive inside without attachment to the fruits of diving, not unlike how fit athletes do regular training sessions.
Well -
Much wisdom is had from studying nature. We live and work inside nature ourselves. Our id system is nature inside us, more or less. And to arrange conditions and personal liberty fit for it, is no small help either.One trouble is that conform men and women appear to become puppies on a string inside, and camouflage that by vain and indiscreet parades and much boasting and bragging.
Some start to project the wish to brag on behalf of themselves, on to topdogs - the bigwigs of men and women - they even admire the clergy. There is no reason for that, as Jesus said in the gospel of Mark that he came just for sick individuals, not sound ones - they did not need him. You may bet that a clergyman is in some deep need. Grace may cover that - just accept Jesus said it: It should make a difference to know it.
Jesus wasn't much for hailing bigwigs - in the end they crucified him too. Conform men and women may turn neurotic and religious-looking. They may conspire for no good reasons at all. What those segments of "the world" call holy, may be merely half-holy - we have to suspect that to stay firm.
And there is the danger that much is ruined from admiring bigwigs too long, too much and too hard from the start - in some cases it paves the way for great glides downhill.
To stay conform is hardly the best there is, but most alternatives seldom get better, and many get worse as time goes by. Go for sound, good and decent conformity, then. There is often nothing better to go for. If parents are jolly and considerate, that is a boon that may lessen the inside need to read one's way through life.
If reading is a help, read good literature and self-help manuals if you can. And try to get an education from it. It may be done. We think the lesson is: Stay with the original design you are put inside, if that may be made serviceable for a family or clan somehow. There is more than one way to Rome, and do not try to help everybody. Not even Jesus has accomplished that. There are tribes around that haven't even heard of him yet.
What is even better, if you mean to use men like cattle on a farm, is that they get stuck in vicarious aggrandizements of their plotting owners - maybe like obedient, devoted farm dogs. So let us beware. Maybe one serious lesson is: We should study domesticated and placated animals so as not to behave like all of them ourselves. What about that?
The value of the fox and badger
The living know a way
YOU WHO thought you knew it all: "The esteemed and ritually great or holy ones and
the harlot skunk - which can be greatest in God's sight?" You may find gospel suggestions
fit for the answer. Or read on.
We have no lease to worship idols. Grand totemism versus animals is not mature enough.
Still, the demagogy-honoured animal has a good chance to survive yet. The same could apply
to humans. In certain parts of the East and in the United States, they hail
avatars.
To be honoured and not demasked is a lot. Many costly stories that are handed over,
help that.
Inside the scientific community, on the other hand, to scrutinise the validity or
potentiality of wise sayings, practices and sources, is held in high esteem. Sure faith "up
in the air" is not thought highly of. Babaji sent his messenger to the West to have rapport
with them. [Pa].
Costly stories are handed over,
and not only about battered pets
We are not always at liberty to let the cat out of the bag without careful skills. A
cat that is let out of the bag, may not thank you for a while. Knowers of cats do not make
much of that initial ado - it's in the art of living. That seems so sure.For reasons unknown to a lot guys as yet, it may help to scrutinise: "What about our brothers donkey, fox or badger, how can these animals appear more divine to look at than ourselves?"
Stupidity can be one reason, but right now, let us go into careful, polite enough distance-making and see if its strong points make a difference. We think it does. Warm humour is the end result of that process, or glide, away from tough settings, or up from them somehow.
Meeting a squid or wild skunk all of sudden makes them send out black fog and stinking odour that is designed to keep intruders away, to say the least. If you can make the offender gasp, or intimidate him or her much, he may not see well either. It has transfer value into very many non-civic encounters. Victims of overly authoritarian traditions can become mentally blind or hoodwinked. It may be counted on one way or other. Therefore, for the lack of sound politeness, humour may set in to lessen the damage - very many fables of Aesop is in fact for that.
Native Americans have costly stories where animals portray typified human encounters as well. There can be many endearing lessons to learn in addition, on top of the other matter. What animals that can go along with others, how and where - such things may be suggested and give food for thinking in newcomers. Things happen to work that way. There are many lessons in the arenas (biotopes). One should not be so friendly that one flounders for it - are we mistaken? We can see it in part from this: If Jesus had not been able to resurrect himself, his death could have been a major blunder. And this also could also be noted: Native Americans seldom tell how to domesticate animals, but more on how to deal with them - or rather, how they deal with each other as lessons to us. Aside from that, maybe they are better from being left well alone. Indians had a brother-attitude that may be called pantheistic-logical.
Contrary to this environmentalist-looking program, and hardly because of phrases that highlight the placid Lahiri sayings "You belong to no one. None belongs to you" [Cf. Pa: "Lahiri Mahasaya" in index], some US citizens today seek to domesticate former wild animals and keep them as household pets. They castrate some, remove claws from others, and so on. Gland secretions give troubles, they remove the glands.
Stunting for luxury - is that it?
What is further removed, is the natural identifications, animal privacy against intruders that boss, and maybe the skills needed for making it on one's own in "the big wide open".
Many humans get stunted into graveness. Maybe and maybe not companionship with animals that have been castrated or stunted or alienated gives much comfort.
Shy and secretive animals may become offensive if endangered. Or they attack. To highlight it: an untamed or unhinged skunk takes to making others gasp if he is in a pucker. Is not that fair to say? ¤
The halfway comic avatar (meaning "divine descent found inside comic fiction), expressing the better sides of a dwarf, a half-lion, or a gander, as the case may be, is perhaps instructiong in handling stuff and things outside our knowing.
One good thing about animals that live like humans, is that they may help children combat awe that leads to idolatry or rude boss-submission later, but you never know. "There is a right way of doing it, a wrong way and the way they do it in the Army" (A saying). We should not get scared into worship. There is too much wrong with it. Much irregular wilfulness is not much better.
The soap opera world-helper guru Yogananda behind Bramble Garden, hinted at something much less through one of his mouths. In a story the lesson is "Worship the strongest animal god" on the way up to worshipping oneself as God -
The overlooked point is: You have to be sick if your dire need is to creep in front of animals and lessen yourself in so doing. The brother-attitude is better. Native Americans killed if necessary, for food and shelter. Brothers are for that -?
Well, after all, man as a collective group can beat all others inhabitants on the planets. it is going on. It is generally taken to mean that mankind is great, at lest to humans.
If animals are called god-descensions - which guru Yogananda grants they may be, some of them - then it is a matter of humanoid projection that is going on - fear that. Unawakened man halfway admires himself in the tiger's claws - eh, in the lion's strength, and calls his God "The Tiger of Bengal" or "Lion of Judith" - or what?
If there are human skunks around, do they get admired so much that even God is invited to take part of the cake? "God is the Skunk of Gotham and the Beaver of Sahara" - this is not yet seen as admirable among humans, so we let it rest at that.
Beware of projections. What is called great and holy among men in th world, is often contrary to heaven, says Jesus more than once. And Laotse makes much interesting, similar instructions in the ancient classic Dao De Jing here and there.
So maybe it is time for God the Klutz and God the Skunk if it serves global survival, a handy, jolly fare fit for men - is not that a big part of what many Indian avatar stories are about? After all, to whom were the avatar stories imparted, on whose terms, accommodated to what minds and perceptions? Those of man. Hails depend on that, and Jesus found himself crucified one day. He came from above, from heaven, he insisted.
He was treated as a skunk in his community. Neighbours and family appeared serious about throwing him out of a cliff nearby. The offended "skunk" was not interested in meeting his mom after that.
It may pay to think twice in matters that others look very much up to for ungodly reasons. After all, the gift of making strong comparisons is there. it is possible to get adept at it. Humour evolves from it. There are many means to make use of. Contrast is a favoured on, and there is room for much subtlety as well. At times it is hard to tell what is jolly humour, serious or irony. Dubious passages have to be tackled. That's why we have an aligned battery of additions in our tick tack toe design. They complement each other like a conductor's upstrokes and downstroke somehow. Seeing is believing. Dwarfing is not helping to see.
We have to be much more guarded when we talk than on this page. For very much is presupposed here - call it the tick tack toe system's adjacent "upstrokes". Intrestingly, skills allow us to speak our minds either figuratively, blunderbuss-looking or like poets.
The Bible's message is that man is made in God's image, and another word for God is "I am" or "I will be what I will be" - something like that. Jesus to offending Jews: "Do not you know you are gods?" Those gods on two legs here on the planet should be bland and not dangerous to yourself, those you cherish or other valuable persons to work for good, and the same holds good for figurative standards and their outcomes, we dare say.
The honoured animal has a good
chance to survive - to be honoured as holy is a lot of that, traditionally
Now, if the boar can be called an avatar, and even a squirrel, as guru Yogananda
(q.v.) has found out in his canon, why cannot an artist? Jesus was an artist when it came to
parables for teaching. He also invites all his followers to do better. There are many sides
to that. [John 14:12].Many avatars you read about, may be the product of art, and behind art is some artist. To worship art is to overlook the parts of artists, and to worship animals means lessening oneself and God inside oneself too well. And that lesson is from the good old Bible. This mentioned, much depends on what we mean by "avatar". It can be defined in many ways, and one of them could seem destined to get honourable for pets, even.
But if that honoured animal - a pet or other animal - attacks and hurts you or warm-hearted children, it should be terminated, as there are sensible or well-founded laws for that. The same holds true for many a rabies-infected animal.
There is no law against pucker-gasping as yet. Bear that in mind. Pucker-gasping could be the overlooked lesson - Yet, for all it is worth, figurative speech halts, because it rests more or less on comparisons - unless titbits from observations are carefully arrayed, as in our novel methodology. Then they may be limping but little or next to nothing, surprisingly enough.
There are fit lessons in appropriately selected and nicely tailored comparisons and metaphors - allegories. Life or lessons tend to get barren for the lack of them. The value of endearing and artful stories depends much on how close they get to good schooling, not only on how technically polished or polite they may appear. We have been into lots of cryptic stories that have come down to us through Native American lore, and they should not go out of fashion - nor should the survivor faith of the racoon, for that matter.
Now, we had better defend ourselves from the attack or poison effects - whatever. ¤
Very independent thinking and
skilled eclectic activity is not much favoured inside sects and by insects
Outside cleverness-helping schooling of man and perhaps joly helpful entertainment,
a poet-invented idol is not good enough. Hindu avatars like Rama, Hare Krishna, the man-lion
avatar, or an animal avatar. hardly help us too much. One reason is the bragging. Old
bragging shaped into freakingly bad religion suggests "dwarfed inside. - handle carefully if
you can".Things often come down to that, in our experience. It hardly matters if a hailed figure or animal is called divine and divine incarnation in a cult or sect in those circumstances.
The tallest expressions that link humans, Hindu myth and that "brother being" should
be poignant to flourish well. Link.
¤Thanks to Lahiri Baba (1828 and 1895), advanced kriya methods and their subtle effects are spread. He is described as a divine incarnation that was not at all in favour of authoritarian customs - in the book Autobiography of a Yogi [Pa]. There he is also presented as one surrounded by worshipping angels, not jackals saying, "Not holy, but divine -?"
At this stage we are confronted with many problems that eclecticism has to offer. One help is to inspect the sources, and that may take the guts you have. It may not pay - it can take too much time and effort away. And the search may be all wrong if you overlook "To know the whereabouts of cosmic beings, first become one yourself." There is that risk involved.
On the way to a good grasp of terribly or nauseating demagogue sayings, we could do nothing better than looking up in the Bible - as the gospel's authority is not formally dispensed with at the Guru Farm itself [Cf. Pa 499]. Jesus insists to a Samaritan woman that one cannot be holy without truth and righteousness, and that worship is not sound and as it should be without these hallmarks. Further, good holiness is presupposed to be valid among common Christians. In the third article of faith among Protestants it is clearly shown.
How or why do the good old Bible's attributed value of the holiness of good men get ignored here?" ¤¤
Here is the step-by-step way to consider if you need to train yourself on and up expertly and depends on reputation - go for it regularly to get honour and fame to live better, if not survive
- To be honoured is a lot, but be not sickly honoured. Many costly stories that are handed over, help that.
- The demagogy-honoured animal has a good chance to survive - to be honoured as great, useful and holy is great help in new keys - rabies-infected animals debarred.
- Very independent thinking and skilled eclectic activity is not much favoured inside sects. However, the best of scientists (that Nagaraj Babaji sent the guru Yogananda to aid through kriya) want to inspect with skill and smartness the validity or potentiality of sayings, practices and sources, and that may take the guts they have. After that, they may more easily be overlooked or outdated as the scientific enterprise rolls on. It often happens. Good slogans for the scientific quest are "Seeing is believing." A more lax motto is "Believe but make sure". The latter may fit initial, beginning stuff to tackle.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Adjoined
Ak: Yogananda, Pa.: Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1975.Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main editor), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Pa: Yogananda, Pa.: Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971. – ONLINE 1st edition
Say: Yogananda, Pa.: Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
| Literature | Layout | SITE MAP | First Page |
CLICK on 'Literature' for the references of about 2000 works.
ANNOTATIONS: Acronym letters in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on 'Literature' above for examples. Page references are put right after reference letters. The abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
SEARCH THE SITE: Click on the rose in the upper left column for site searches, access to dictionaries, and further.
REFER to the page by its 'location' address (above).
PILOTING: Some pictures and texts on top of the pages are clickable, to ease navigation. [MORE]
| Model | Well's | Disclaimer | |
| © 1997-2004, T. Kinnes — Updated in Summer 2004 | |||