revelation

 

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Hidden in the heart of every creature
Exists the One Self, subtler than the subtlest,
Greater than the greatest. They go beyond
All sorrow who extinguish their self-will
And behold the glory of the Self
Through the grace of the One Heart.

Though one sits in meditation in a 
Particular place, the Self within
Can exercise its influence far away.
Though still, it moves everything everywhere.

When the wise realize the Self,
Formless in the midst of forms, changeless
In the midst of change, omnipresent
And supreme, they go beyond sorrow.

The Self cannot be known through study
Of the scriptures, nor through the intellect,
Nor through hearing discourses about it.
The Self can be attained only by those
Whom the Self chooses. Verily unto them
Does the Self reveal itself.


—The Katha Upanishad
from the Eknath Easwaran version

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No striving, no grasping at this or that, no entertaining any self-involved stories whatsoever. 

Instead, attention pivots toward a light in the heart in which the ‘field of boundless emptiness’ is revealed. All questions and doubts are put to rest.  


—Hongzhi

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we answer each other’s prayers

  

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That which is awake even in our sleep,
Giving form in dreams to the objects of 
Sense craving, that indeed is pure light,
The one Self, containing all the cosmos.

As the same fire assumes different shapes
When it consumes objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self take the shape of every being. 

As the same air assumes different shapes
When entering objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self fill the shape of all beings.

The one Self multiplies into the heart of all beings,
Changeless amidst the transformations,
Conscious in all beings.
We answer each other’s prayers.

The Self is the light reflected by all.
We shine for each other.

Knowing the senses to be separate
from the Self, and the sense experience
To be fleeting, we grieve no more.

When the five senses are stilled, when the mind
Is stilled, when the intellect is stilled,
There is Yoga, the stillness of unity.

From the heart there radiates a hundred
and one vital tracks. One of them rises 
To the top of the head. This way leads to the truth.

The one love, not larger than the thumb,
Is ever enshrined in the heart. 

Know thyself to be the one Self.
Know thyself to be the one Self.


—The Katha Upanishad
from the Eknath Easwaren version



 

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there are no spaces

  

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The world is the wheel of God, turning round

And round with all living creatures upon its rim.

The world is the river of consciousness,

Flowing in the one self.

On this ever-revolving wheel of being

The individual self goes round and round

Through life after life, believing itself

To be a separate creature, until

It sees its identity with the Lord of Love

Immortal in the indivisible whole.


—Svetashvatara Upanishad [4-6] 
version

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The self is the sun shining in the sky,

The wind blowing in space; we are the fire 

At the altar and in the home the guest;

We dwell as human beings, in gods, in truth,

And in the vast firmament; we are the fish

Born in water, the plant growing in the earth, 

The river flowing down from the mountain, 

We are incomparable.


—Katha Upanishad 11.2.2
version

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so we have heard

   

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We are enshrined in each other.
We are the supreme reality.
Rejoice in that.
We are what we have coveted.

Thus working we may live a hundred years.
Thus we may work in real freedom.
When the Self in denied, the dream continues
and the true love is hidden.

Ever still, the Self is one.
Swifter than thought, swifter than the senses.
Though motionless, the Self outruns pursuit.
There is only the Self.

Seeming to move, we are ever still.
Seeming far away, we are always here,
We are within, transcending all.

When we see all creatures as the Self
And the Self as all creatures
We know no fear.
We know no grief.
How can the multiplicity of the Self be hidden from its Self?

We are everywhere. Bright is the Self,
Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,
Immanent and transcendent,
The self holds the cosmos together.

Dreaming in the dark night, the world without alone is real;
In night darker still, the world within
Alone is real. The first leads to a life 
Of action, the second to a life of meditation.
But those who combine action with meditation
Cross the sea of death through action
And enter into the timeless Self
Through the practice of meditation.

So have we heard.

In dark night the Self is perceived as other,
Darker still when the Self is perceived as immanent only.
The Self is both immanent and transcendent,
Crossing the sea of death
With the immanent and entering into
The light with the transcendent.

So we have heard.

The face of truth is hidden. O sun, 
I, who adore the truth, see
The glory of truth. O nourishing sun,
Solitary traveller, creator,
Blessed Self of all that is created, 
I am that.

OM shanti shanti shanti


The Katha Upanishad 
lessons from Eknath Easwaren version

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All this is full. All that is full.

From fullness, fullness comes.

When fullness is taken from fullness,

Fullness remains.

OM shanti shanti shanti

 

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What is called the world is only thought. —Ramana Maharshi

 

[I]

THE STUDENT

1. Who makes my mind think?

Who fills my body with vitality?

Who causes my tongue to speak? Who is that

Invisible one who sees through my eyes

And hears through my ears?

THE TEACHER

2. The Self is the ear of the ear,

The eye of the eye, the mind of the mind,

The word of words, the life of life.

Rising above the senses and the mind

And renouncing separate existence,

The wise realize the deathless Self.

3. Him our eyes cannot see, nor words express;

He cannot be grasped even by the mind. 

We do not know, we cannot understand. 

 

4. Because he is different from the known

And he is different from the unknown.

Thus we have heard from the illumined ones.

5. That which makes the tongue speak but cannot be

Spoken by the tongue, know that as the Self.

This Self is not someone other than you.

 

6. That which makes the mind think, but cannot be 

Thought by the mind, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

7. That which makes the eye see but cannot be

Seen by the eye, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

8. That which makes the ear hear but cannot be

Heard by the ear, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

9. That which makes you draw breath but cannot be

Drawn by your breath, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

The Katha Upanishad
Eknath Easwaran version, excerpts

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