Effortless

'It is truth that frees, not your effort to be free.'

J Krishnamurti

Rudra knows nothing

Rudra knows nothing of liberation or enlightenment. If anything he stands in their light.
He never did or ever can 'achieve' such a so-called state. The best he can do , as long as there is no purpose to it, is to pack his bags.

Look no hands!

There is no comfort to be found for the individual, as the individual gets in the light of expansiveness. There is nothing you can ever get about liberation because it entails the death of you. It is subtraction rather than addition.

There are no degress of emptiness.

The nature of mind is to acquire, to have and to hold. How dear it is to us to accumulate or 'own' understanding. The egocentric nature finds identity in its armory of knowledge.

No one can do it for you.

The last words of Gautama Buddha, as fresh now as when they were uttered 2,555 years ago:

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

Trading Places

Would I trade my adherence to my story, the story of my life so far with its preferences, opinions and experiences, for Serenity (for want of a better word)? That seems to Rudra to be the burning question. Equally, can I drop my belief in other's stories too. By adherence and belief I mean the deadly serious identification we have with our histories. In extremes we actually kill each other over these identifications.

You might say 'what is left?' There is no answer to that question as it cannot be answered on the level of thought. Scrabbling for words one can come up with transparency, hollowness and the attendant freedom these bring but words stop there.

All is not lost, surprisingly, because the stories remain. My history is as it was; my preferences and tendencies remain too, not mention the emotions.

A subtle shift away from the seriousness of 'me' leads to clarity and immense compassion. To see this in action is a wonder indeed.

Feather the nest?

"....to be secure is to be insensitive. The desire to be secure creates fear.." Jiddhu Krishnamurti

The oasis within has no colour shape or fixture , it is so small that it fits into all space, includes all scenarios. Transparent and hollow it is very wonderful. Like quicksilver it cannot be grasped

The poor concocted self

That familiar creature, ever wriggling, wastes(?) so much time looking for strategies to achieve the 'shining peace' that lies beneath its nose. It fights and blames itself (and herein lies the mistaken identity), ever convinced that the next moment will bring something this one lacks. In fact dis-ease so well defines the state. Those old rascals (Ramana Maharshi and Zen master Bankei) undermine this turbulence well in a few well-aimed words:

"Be as you are".
"Abide in the Unborn".

If elephants could fly

It struck Rudra from an early age that if Buddha, Jesus and the myriad of 'enlightened beings' were able to achieve that understanding why not him and all his friends down the gym. The extraordinary notion that there are these exceptional beings , who forever live on pedestals*, is a powerful barrier to ever 'finding ' Liberation. In fact it becomes an excuse. On this subject one need only refer to Farid Ud-Din Attar's 12th century classic book of excuses 'The Conference of the Birds'.

You; right here right now.

Of course, to be more accurate, 'not you'.

* We call them the Pedestal Boys

King for a day

Self improvement; what a notion. The Self needs no improvement.

Self discovery; what a notion. It was never lost.