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OTHER REFLECTIONS OF RAMKRISHNA:
Maya is due to bondage; only by spiritual discipline is the rediscovery of one's true identity with the Divine Reality realized. (p.32)
OVERCOME CARNALITY: See each 'woman' as a manifestation of the Divine Mother. (Sri Ramakrishna had a very profound relationship with his mother (Kali)and tried to see not only women but all men as her children.) (p.36)
YOU WILL ACHIEVE NOTHING unless you have "BHAKTI" ~ an intense love of God. (p.36)
PARA-BHAKTI: Once one has learned & understood the lower bhakti (scripture-worship-hymns-chanting, et al) then one can shed them and devote himself (herself) to supreme devotion = PREMA (p.38)
SEEING THROUGH THE VEIL: Vidyamaya, a ridding oneself of Avidyamaya (free of maya, or delusion,) where one can now fill oneself with Kindness-Purity-Love- & Devotion: This leads to ENLIGHTENMENT. (P.52)[[As Jesus would say, becoming one with the Father]]
WORDS OF RAMAKRISHNA: "Let me be condemned to be born over and over again, even in the form of a dog, if I can be of help to a single soul." [[Emily Dickinson once echoed a similar concept: If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain...If I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin into its next again, I shall not live in vain.]]
CHTRISTIANS HAVE A TENDENCY to dwell on sin, as if to say: 'I am bound, I am bound' and they will remain bound; RAMAKRISHNA says: "One must have such burning faith in God that one can say: 'What? I have repeated God's name and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be in bondage anymore?" (P.197)
THE CAMEL SIMILE: Carnal man is like a camel: camels love to eat thorny bushes; the more it eats, the more blood gushes from its mouth~~Still, it will eat and not give them up! (p.221)
ONE SEES GOD WITH PURITY OF HEART: Through attaachment of 'women' & 'gold' one muddies the needle so that it can no longer be attracted to the MAGNET (GOD) but - if we sincerely shed tears over the muddy needle with sincerity, the mud is washed away by our very tears, and the MAGNET draws itself to our mind. (p.223)
RAMAKRISHNA says to his Divine Mother: "I am the machine and Thou art its Operator." (p.282)
[[This put me in mind of a poem I once wrote about this very concept: "THE PERFECT CONDUIT"
The soul sings its way through life
From God ~ the melody its spice
Humming through in vibarnt tune
Sings from night to noon....
The soul bleeds in swelling pores
Reaching out to its and yours
Soothing words in action speak
'Till others also seek....
Then ~ the soul sings from noon 'till dark
Embracing all around its bark
But FEW do "see" the soul's sweet sound
Because they feel their God ~ they've found!
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All this is accomplished devoid of dogma~just love, echoing the Divine Love of the Father-God.]]
THE RICH MAN: "Many are the people who come to the rich man with various desires. But if someone comes to him simply out of love, not wanting any favors, then the rich man feels attracted to him." (p.284) [[And so should be OUR relationship with OUR Father-God.]]
SAMESIGHTEDNESS: Yogis who have attained "samesightedness" behold God everywhere. (p.285)
"Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart." (p.300) [[I once used the metaphor of the two ladders, where we are either on a rung ascending,or a rung descending; as we sincerely long for love & truth, our rung will ascend until we see THE ALL & BECOME ABSORBED IN IT.]]
THE BREAKING OF THE STONE: Ramakrishna often used the metaphor of a 'STONE' as something that only with great difficulty can you drive a nail through~~similar to driving a sword through the tough skin of an allegator. WHY BOTHER? This is the mindset of carnel man (to be like stone.) [[To me, to be the PERFECT CONDUIT, we must be like the 'pressure' of loving healing water cascading on our'victims' until the stone is melted down; if we relent in our pressure, why should the stone be worn down? Why should the stone see which it as yet cannot see? This seems like the task of the spiritual brother, if sincerely commissioned by his God. This is what this gospel of Ramakrishna seems to be all about.]]
RAMAKRISHNA SAYS: "Does the magnet say to the iron, 'Come near me'? That is not necessary. Because of the attraction of the magnet, the iron rushes to it." (p.306) [[Of course, in keeping with the other metaphor above, it assumes the tears of sincerity that washes away the mud of blindness, which is not attractive to our Fatehr-God.]]
"He who has a commission from God never runs short of wisdom. That wisdom comes from God; it is inexhaustible." (p.306)
"As long as a man argues about God, he has not realized Him." (p.378)
[[My understanding of this is that when one comes to really know God~as in gnosis, then one need not be perswaded, nor is it any longer necessary...Argument becomes an exercize in futility, since those who argue are taking words from scripture which, in effect, are, AT BEST, second-hand; the true saint has already gone into ecstasy because he or she has allowed for that ecstasy to take place,(via the truly pure heart) CREATING THE KNOWING TO TAKE PLACE. The end result is a blissful peace ~~ a silence which one sees in saints, so it is the experince that becomes the reality and not the reading of any books. This has been seen in St. John of the Cross & Paramahansa Yogananda, for example]]
"The nearer you approach God, the less you reason & argue...AT THIS POINT "...you go into samadhi, into communion with God in silence." (p.378)
"After performing many good deeds in his previous lives, when a man is born for the last time, he becomes guileless; he acts somewhat like a madcap." (p.387) [[A madcap means one who may be impulsive or reckless; NOTE: In the New Testamnet, it is interesting that one of the twelve chosen by Jesus ~ Nathaniel, was described by Jesus thusly in the second chapter of the Gospel of John: "Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile."]]
THE PURE ATMAN: The Supreme Soul who now is one with the individual soul, unaffected by the qualities or gunas of balance (sittva)~~restlessness (rajas)~~or inertia (tamas). )p.479)
[[I am not a Hindu. I honor divine expressions in ANY form, especially those that reflect in some way - UNIVERSAL TRUTHS, regardless of religion. Whether Ramakrishna is an incarnation of God, I know not, and make no judgment. I did not know him. What I do know is that God can do ANYTHING He chooses & pleases to do ~ to awaken His children to His unconditional love.
Just like dogma should be de-emphasized if one wishes to get to the root of truth,(as Ramakrishna emphasized in his gospel,) it should matter not what form the divne hierarchy takes: YOU WILL KNOW HIM WHEN AND IF YOU are privileged to EXPERIENCE IT BECAUSE the FRUIT WILL REFLECT THE GOOD TREE!!! Jesus was living proof that someone "from above" came to those "who are below"....
If it can happen ONCE, it can happen again.]]
byron lebeau reporting
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