Over cyber-based satsanghs, i.e. Yahoo Groups, Face Book...
. ...as well as ..... by many “teachers” in the spiritual circuit, today....
...there appears to be much about the Heart, Love, Simplicity…
..et al.......as the path to God, Bliss, Ananda.
And how to develop such a Heart, such an "unconditional Love", how to inculcate simplicity etc.
Simplicity of the heart is usually equated to simplicity of possessions, whether mental or physical.
To be content with few things is comparatively easy matter.
To renounce comfort or to give up some habits does not indicate simplicity of heart.
To put on a loin cloth(figuratively and literally) in a world that is taken up with clothes and comforts and distractions, so such acts indicate a freeness of simplicity?
Outwardly believing to be on the path of the heart, there is a sense of discipline, of renouncing, of charting a step by step course, to reach the end.
There is a sense of measuring the progress of achievement according to some believed standards of virtue.
Has this or that, been give up?
How controlled is one's behaviour?
How tolerant? How kind? How compassionate? How generous?
A sense of having learnt the technique and now the spending the days, watching from the corner of the eye, whether the self created and invested in criteria……. is being consistently met.
Outwardly it appears that life has been made simple, and through this thoughtful and calculated arrangement the hope to reach the bliss that is believed to be not of this world.
In the process, what is not noticed that these are the very ingredients making up the sense of the mind/ego/entity/self……and which is further reinforced by the belief of the surrounding halo of Love and of the Heart.
Can That-Which- Is( to use a term)….. be reached through external control and sanctions?
Will the gesture of simplicity, whether inwardly or outwardly …open the door to That-What-Is?
The striving for simplicity in order to gain something else, something bigger, something vastly bigger…….is the very duplicity.
The very sense of an intention (about what is of little import)…is the absence of simplicity…..is the lack of receptivity.
Intention can only be born out of the known, thus is only a mere modification of the known.
What is really happening in the gesture of simplicity….. in whatever form and whether outwardly or inwardly?
Is it to be convinced about one's own simplicity, one's integrity, however such simplicity, such integrity is defined and held?
In this drive to be sure, to be certain…… whether one accumulates or renounces, cultivates or deny……what is the difference?
Seeing that time steals all things, there is the conceptualization of the “timeless” which is then sought…… either through what is assumed to be the Path of the Heart or the Part of Jnana.(Self-Knowledge)
Modification of the known amounting only to a cul-de-sac.
And certainty continues to remain….. the ever receding horizon.
For one who appears to be truly on the path of the heart….. there is no desire ……..neither to be, or to become…….anything.
There is no striving for certainty……. as uncertainty is unknown.
Wherever one is……. in whatever form……in whatever state…
…. whatever is getting done through oneself
….. whatever be the consequences of that doing……… to oneself and to any other… …is seen to be exactly how that moment was to be…. moment to moment to moment.
Such a one is in reception……not knowing who or what will be received.
Or whether at all anything will be received and the awaiting ends.
Such a one is never duplicitous and thus is simply unaware of even one's simpleness.
Which is why such a one may get cheated, deceived… …..having been “cheated”, “deceived” which maybe so clearly visible to a bystander or an audience…
.. but such “cheating”, “deceiving” events, situation, behavior…..never births the feeling in the one….of being cheated, of being deceived.
Asked the seeker to a Master “ How do I recognize a true teacher?”
Replied the Master “if you are not deceitful, you will not be deceived.”
It was one in reception in the form of Mansoor…..who, while his limbs were hacked one by one, eyes gouged one by one, by the crowd……. having been charged for blasphemy for uttering Anal L' Haq ( I am God)…
.......kept on laughing and said “Thou cannot fool me. It is only Thee whose work is getting done, right now.”
It was one in reception in the form of Meera, who readily drank from the bowl of milk, knowing fully well it was poisoned…… because for her….what is it in this world…..which is not a gift from her Girdhar Gopal.
It was one in reception in the form of Abraham, who was completely ready for his beloved son to be sacrificed.
It was one in reception in the form of Rabia.....through whom arose the utterance...
If I adore Thee out of fear of Hell, burn me in Hell!
If I adore Thee out of desire for Paradise,
Lock me out of Paradise.
But if I adore Thee for Thyself alone,
Do not deny to me Thine eternal beauty.
It was one in reception through whom the song arose…..
High above what the wind sang, the cedars echoed,
what shone on the snow peaks,….what spilled over the evening sky,
Who received this?
The one who extended his hands in prayer?
No.
It just descended into my offered heart,
It poured into my welcome tears.
It came unknown, unrecognised.
It brought itself to itself,
It entered itself.
Alone where it is resplendent, eyes are helplessly lowered,
Not only voice,
Even the resonance of silence .....ceases.
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