Friday, August 18, 2017

Key teaching of Ashtavakra

1.3
You are not earth, water, fire or air.
Nor are you empty space.
Liberation is to know yourself
as Awareness alone—
the Witness of these.

1.4
Abide in Awareness
with no illusion of person.
You will be instantly free and at peace.

Thirst for life and sorrow

The thirst for life is the cause of sorrow. The only reason we suffer is that we are attracted to the unreal and the illusory. We are attracted to illusory pleasures and being bound by desire for these illusory pleasures keep returning life after life and suffering the wheel of samsaric existence. By regarding the unreal as the real, we are bound to the unreal. And since the unreal cannot last, our bondage to the unreal can result in nothing but sorrow and suffering. The only way out is to give up our bondage to the unreal. And take refuge only in that which is real and eternal. That which is free from illusions and unchanging.

This alone can end sorrow. Nothing else.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

On fear

The defining characteristic of my personality is a fear of the future. This personality is terrified of what will happen in the future. It does not allow him to be in the present. Terrified by imagination. The only cure is to take root in the present moment. Indulging in imagination only leads to increase in fear. The mere possibility of some calamity is enough to engender fear.