Profound Writings, East and West
Hardback, 242 pages, ISBN: 1878683055
An inspiring collection, selected by Richard Rose, of hard-to-find
writings from spiritual traditions around the world.
Ramana Maharshi Excerpts
Disciple: What is the highest goal of spiritual experience for man?
Maharshi: Self-Realization.
Disciple: How can I control the mind?
Maharshi: There is no mind if the Self is realized. The Self shines forth when the mind vanishes.
In the realized man the mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone exists. For, the mind, body, and world are not
separate from the Self; and they cannot remain apart from the Self. Can they be other than the Self? When aware
of the Self why should one worry about these shadows? How do they affect the Self?
Maharshi: The ego in its purity is experienced in the intervals between two states or between two thoughts. The ego is like the worm which leaves hold only after it catches another. Its true nature is known when it is out of contact with objects or thoughts. You should realize this interval as the abiding, unchangeable Reality, your true Being...
Maharshi: The Self is God. "I AM" is God. If God be apart from the Self, He must be selfless God, which is absurd. All that is required to realize the Self is to BE STILL. What can be easier than that?....
Excerpts from Francis Thompson's "The Hound of Heaven"
I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the reaches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes, I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed
after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat--and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet--
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.""
Excerpt from The Wisdom of Franz Hartmann's
Magic, White & Black
"But where can man find the truth? If he seeks deep enough in himself he will find it revealed, each man may know his own heart. He may let a ray of the light of intelligence into the depths of his soul and search its bottom, he will find it to be as infinitely deep as the sky above his head."
Excerpts from Richard Rose's "Lecture of Questions"
KOAN SECTION
What do you know for sure???
Does man own a house or does the house own him?
Does man have power or is he overpowered? A predator or a victim? Or both?
Does a man enjoy or is he consumed?
Does a man really reason ... or is he programmed?
Can a man learn ... that which he really wishes to ... by himself alone?
Can a man become?
How shall he know what he should become?
Excerpt from The Book of the Golden Precepts
"For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects."
"Before thou canst approach the foremost gate thou hast to learn to part thy body from thy mind, to dissipate the shadow, and to live in the eternal, to feel thyself abiding in all things, all things in SELF."
Excerpt from the Platform Sutra
"The mind has nothing to do with thinking , because its fundamental source is empty. To discard false views, this is the one great
causal event. If within and without you are not deluded then you are apart from duality. If on the outside you are deluded you cling
to form; if on the inside you are deluded you cling to emptiness. If within form you are apart from form and within emptiness you are
separated from emptiness, then within and without your are not deluded."
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