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 In This Issue

 Resurrection In Greek Religion

 Resurrection and Islam

 Resurrection and Sufism

 Resurrection and Zen Buddhism

 Jesus Allahe Salam – The Sufi Sheikh

 Nirvana

 Nirvana – the Last Nightmare

 Parables of Jesus

 The Books I Loved – Osho

 Taoshobuddha’s Books

 Meditation Times 2010 in Retrospect

 MEDITATION TIMES
Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations
Trinidad, West indies

EDITORIAL
Swami Anand Neelambar

Death is the ultimate orgasm. The crescendo of life. The summum bonum.
Resurrection is an eternal process. We are continuously dying to each moment
and being reborn to each moment. To be aware of this is to be enlightened.
The period between birth and death is called life. But the soul or atma existed
before birth and exists after the dissolution of the body. The period of life is but
a dream of the atma; at most it is a holiday of some sorts.

The atma is not bound by birth and death. The atma is eternal and beyond birth
and death. The term resurrection refers to a return to the primordial state of
being when the disembodied soul is recast into a new form to continue its
sojourn to self-realization.

All of the unfulfilled desires remain with the soul and seeks manifestation.
These seeds sprout when an appropriate environment is created for them. Yet
these seeds need not sprout if the soul has attained understanding of the
wheel of birth and death.

Meditation is the way to attain insights into the nature of the atma. Once the
atma is understood; the wheel of birth and death ceases. The phenomenon of
resurrection is no more. The sojourn has come to nirvana – the last nightmare
before the candle is blown out.

All that can be perceived is within the realm of death. Only that which cannot
be seen is beyond death. The flame that is blown out cannot be seen and thus
is beyond death. There is no resurrection.

This issue of Meditation Times is in our new format that will close this year
2010 and launch the New Year and new decade – the second decade of the
new millennium. We take this opportunity to extend to all our readers and
friends of Meditation Times a wonder filled Christmas and may the impetus for
life eternal continue in the new decade.
Resurrection is confirmation
of Soul’s Immortality!
 The Resurrection of departed humans features as
central doctrine of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

It indeed refers literally coming back to life of

biologically dead corpses by divine power.

Spiritual Resurrection is used as a devise by the Sufi

Sheikhs where the human beings who are blind to
their Spiritual Nature and the possibility of salvation
come to Life. Such coming to life is called Eternal Life
in Christianity and refers to two stages of Fana and
Baka in Sufism.

By means of spiritual awakening and subsequent

transformation to a life of holiness Resurrection is
used as a Tariqat by Sufis. It is used both with
respect to particular individuals or the belief in a
general resurrection of humanity.

The idea of resurrection is featured prominently in

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures. There are
some passages in the Tanakh which at least later
have been considered as referring to the
resurrection, though more so in the Deuterocanonical
books ( relating or belonging to a secondary, less
well-regarded, or disputed collection of religious
scripture, especially the Apocrypha.)

However, ‗The concept of Resurrection‘ is often

associated with the resurrection of Jesus. The
resurrection of Jesus is elaborated upon throughout
the books of the New Testament.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus!

I
n ancient Greek religion a number of dead mortal
men and women were made physically immortal
as they were resurrected from the dead.
Asclepius, was killed by Zeus only to be resurrected
and transformed into a major deity.

Achilles after being killed was snatched from his

funeral pyre by his divine mother Thetis and
resurrected brought to an immortal existence in
either Leuce, Elysian plains or the Islands of the
Blessed.

Memnon, who was killed by Achlles, seems to have a

received a similar fate.

Alcmene, Castor, Heracles, and Melicertes, were also

among the figures sometimes considered to have
been resurrected to physical immortality. According
to Herodotus' Histories, the seventh century B.C.
sage Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead,
after which his body disappeared from a locked
room. Later he found not only to have been
resurrected but to have gained immortality.

Many other figures, like a great part of those who

fought in the Trojan and Theban wars, Menelaus,
and the historical pugilist Cleomedes of Astupalaea,
were also believed to have been made physically
immortal, but without having died in the first place.

Indeed, in Greek religion, immortality originally

always included an eternal union of body and soul.
The philosophical idea of an immortal soul was a
later invention, which, although influential, never
had a breakthrough in the Greek world. As may be
witnessed even into the Christian era, not least by
the complaints of various philosophers over popular
beliefs, traditional Greek believers maintained the
conviction that certain individuals were resurrected
from the dead and made physically immortal and
that for the rest of us, we could only look forward to
an existence as disembodied and dead souls.

This traditional religious belief in physical immortality

was generally denied by the Greek philosophers. The
first century CE middle platonic philosopher Plutarch
while writing his Lives of Illustrious Men, in the
chapter on Romulus gave an account of this man‘s
mysterious disappearance and subsequent
deification. He compared it to traditional Greek
beliefs of resurrection and physical immortalization
of Alcmene and Aristeas, ―for they say Aristeas died
in a fuller‘s work-shop, and his friends coming to
look for him, found his body vanished; and that
some presently after, coming from abroad, said they
met him traveling towards Croton.‖ The Platonic
Plutarch openly scorned such beliefs held in
traditional ancient Greek religion, through his
writings, ‗many such improbabilities do your fabulous
writers relate, deifying creatures naturally mortal.‘

The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the

later resurrection of Jesus was not totally lost on the
early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued:

―When we say … Jesus Christ, our teacher, was

crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into
heaven, we propose nothing different from what you
believe regarding those whom you consider sons of
Zeus.‖ (Apol.21)

There is, however, no belief in a general resurrection

in ancient Greek religion, as the Greeks held that not
even the gods were able to recreate flesh that had
been lost to decay, fire or consumption. The notion
of a general resurrection of the dead was therefore
apparently quite preposterous to the Greeks. This is
made clear in Paul‘s Areopagus discourse. After
having first told about the resurrection of Jesus,
which makes the Athenians only interested to hear
more, Paul goes on relating how this event relates to
a general resurrection of the dead.

Resurrection is wrongly considered as embodying of

the body of the dead again into flesh. Indeed it is not
so. Resurrection is of Spiritual Dimension that cannot
be understood at physical or mental plane.

Resurrection refers to transcendence of the soul or

rooh at will and superimpose on another living being.
Resurrection is used as a devise by the Sufi Sheikhs
and Masters of other paths as an important devise
for Transformation of Human Consciousness. It is
therefore of Spiritual Dimension and cannot be
understood in its dictionary meaning.

Sheikh Taoshobuddha
A
ccording to Islam, the Day of Resurrection is
the Day of Judgment. This is the Day that no
friend helps his friend nor are they helped. This
is the day when only Aamaal or deeds that will
come to the rescue. The day when the sky brings
visible smoke and the Earth turns to unearth; the
Moon and the Sun will be gathered the same way.
The trumpet will be blown, and all who are living will
die. Then all creatures will be brought to life; all the
people of the past and present. On that day they will
be judged by Allah Sunhan wa Taala.

According to Islam, all mankind will be judged by

what they did ‘deeds’ or ‘Aamaal’. Even a tiny
portion of good and a tiny portion of bad will be
counted and surely no one will be oppressed. On that
day those who blasphemed to their Lord and those
who were polytheist will be cast down to hellfire, and
those who willfully denied the revelations and
prophets of God will receive their due recompense.
That day will be the day of separation. Indeed
separation between true believers and hypocrites!
Between them there will be a wall placed—inside,
mercy and outside, torment. Paradise is the place of
the righteous and hell is the place of the sinner.

Qur’anic References
‗Some faces on that day will be shining, looking
towards their Lord, but other faces will be dark
realizing that something terrible is about to happen
to them‘ (Qur’an: Resurrection:22-25)

‗The day that men will be as moths scattered and the

mountains will be as carded wool. So for one whose
scales are heavy, he is therefore in the desired bliss,
and for one whose scales prove light, for him is the
abyss, and what can make you understand how that
(abyss) is; fire is its abutment‘ (Qur’an:Calamity:4-11)
 When disembodied soul manifests itself as
embodied one, know this as Resurrection – a
devise for transformation by masters. How
does this happen – I cannot explain more than
this for now.

…Sheikh Taoshobuddha

S
ufism is connected with the rooh of Allah
Subah wa Taala via the Rasool – the Holy
Prophet. This is known as esoteric dimension.
It exists in all religions, and in Islam it originated
with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad. Mysticism
in Islam is termed as Sufism. The mystic is a Sufi.

One of the first women Sufis we can trace in Islamic

mysticism is Fatima Bint Radhi Allah Taala Unho
(608–633 A.H.). There is an interesting transition
that you notice in her personality. While mourning
the death of Prophet Muhammad she said,

―It is not surprising that whoever catches the

fragrance of Muhammad‘s tomb will never know
another perfume. Destiny injured me with
bereavement so sorrowful and so dark that if it had
fallen on the days they would have been turned into
eternal nights.‖
Her expression of this utterance is Tasawwuf –
Essence of Sufism. Poetry and love (Ishq-iHaqiqi)
are the important languages of expression in
Tasawwuf.

While traversing on the path for attaining the status

of Sufi when the self undergoes certain transitions, it
acquires an ecstasy and the expression of that
ecstasy is Tasawwuf.

Sufi Sheikhs have used resurrection in its spiritual

sense as the technique to transform and instruct the
murids along the path. It involves kashf or intuition
and or astral travel or superimposing his rooh sheath
on another body using it as the vehicle. There have
been numerous examples to this effect.

Uwaid Ullah Ahrar

Uwaid Ullah Ahrar is Naqshbandi Sheikh. His father
was king of a particular estate. However Uwaid had
no interest in the worldly affairs or the affairs of the
kingdom. He was the only son. He expressed desire
to leave the palatial splendor to life of a mendicant in
the company of Sheikh Yakub Charkhi – the qutub of
the time. Yakub Charkhi lived in Charakh in Bokhara.
Seeing the interest of Uwaid his father allowed him
to go spiritual mission only one condition. He
imposed a condition that you are my only sun
therefore whenever I need you for the Kingdom you
will have to return.

Riding the camel elated Uwaid set on the journey

from Samarqand for Bokhara. He was wandering
how to reach the sheik. And he reached the place
where another camel was resting who in turn at the
arrival of the male counterpart created a sound. At
this Yakub Charkhi told his disciple that Uwaiullah
has arrived.

Thus the training of Uwaid began by Yakub Charkhi.

One day it happened that Uwaid got the message
that his mother (walida mohtaram) passed away.
Uwaid was filled with remorse that he is so far that
he cannot even attend the funeral (Zanaza). Uwaid
mentioned of his remorse to his Sheikh. Yakub
dispelled the remorse saying that you have the
capability to attaend the funeral of your mother.
Thus Uwaid sat in maraqba along with Yakub and he
attended the funeral service. Thus he envisioned the
entire proceedings.

This is the technique of resurrection when the soul

leaves the physical body to enter another for the
purpose and then returns back. This is free
movement from one body to another.

Kabir
Kabir was a unique master who lived beyond
narrowness of caste creed, and religious dogmas. He
had disciples from both major sect of Hinduism as
well as Islam.

When Kabir passed away there was conflict that

turned out to be a fight among the disciples of the
two major sects. In the process each claimed right
over the body and thus decision of the funeral serve.
All the while the feud continued the body remained
covered with a white cloth.
To the surprise of all those present witnessed
something unique. When the white sheet was
removed there was no body. Instead in place there
were the remains of the body after cremation. These
were equally divided among his Hindu and Muslim
followers to uses their own way.

Sheikh Mohammad al Baqi Billah

Mohammad al Baqui Billah is the first Naqshbandi
Sheikh who came to India in preparation for the next
millennium. He was sent by his murshad Hazrath
Amakan Ki. First Baqui Billah came to India on a
business trip. And when he arrived second time he
settled in old Delhi. His shrine is in the muslim public
cemetery near Pahar Ganj Railway Station in New
Delhi.

One day it so happened that one of the murid asked

the sheikh the meaning of Fana and Baka the two
terms that are very often used in Sufi terminology.
At this the sheikh replied, ‗You will have to ask the
answer to this question from the person who is to
offer the namaze-zanaza for my funeral.‘

The sheikh further asserted that only that person will

be able to offer namaze- zanaza who is established
in Tahajud Prayer.This is indeed an early morning
prayer and very important one for the seekers from
Islamic faith.

The time for praying Salatul-Layl or Tahajud

prayer or Namaz-e-Shab is from midnight,
because midnight is reckoned as exactly half the
time between sunset and the actual dawn, to the
time of Adhan for Fajr prayers. However, it can be
prayed at any time after Isha prayers but it is better
to pray during the last quarter of the night near to
the time of Fajr prayers. If it is not possible to pray
after midnight or before Fajr, then it can be prayed
in the morning or any part of the day with the niyyat
(intention) of Qadha. It is better to pray with the
niyyat of Qadha during the day than to pray in the
early part of the night.

The Tahajjud Prayer ranks first and foremost in

importance among all other optional (Sunnat)
prayers. Tahajjud means to abandon sleep so as to
pray Salat. The Qur‘an refers to it in Surah 17:79 and
says, ―And (during part) of the night, abandon sleep
and keep vigil to pray Salat, in addition to the
regular obligatory prayer. Your Rabb (the Sustainer)
may (as a reward) elevate you to the position of
High Distinction, Glory and Praise.‖ The Prophet
(saww) said, ―I will be at ―Maqam-e-Mahmuda‖ on
the Day of Resurrection when I will seek forgiveness
for the sinners from the Rabb (the Sustainer) who
does what He wills.‖ We, as sinners, would also wish
to receive intercession and are forgiven so as to be
in the company of the Prophet (saww) on that
Fearful Day. But, we need by working hard to attain
the required spiritual level to qualify, while we are
still living.

The verse quoted above which prescribes Salatul-

Layl has been placed immediately next to the verse
(17:78) which prescribes the regular daily obligatory
Salat. Therefore, it underscores the great importance
of Salatul-Layl. Although optional, Tahajjud is
considered ―nearest to obligatory (Wajib) prayer.‖
While advising Hazrat ‗Ali (a.s.), the Prophet
repeated three times, ―‘Alayka Bis-Salatul-Layl‖
which means, ―incumbent upon you (O! Ali) is
Salatul Layl.‖ This Hadith underscores further the
importance of Salatul-Layl. Therefore, one should
never miss it.

Hearing this condition the anxiety of the murid

increased. Baqui Billah passed away. It was time for
the namaze-zanaza. And when the condition of the
sheikh was put forward no one present there could
raise head to offer the prayer for the completion of
zanaza. The same time a man came forward with his
face covered and offered namaze-zanaza and thus
the service completed. This murid remembered the
words of the murshad. As the man started to walk
away the murid stopped him holding the arm. He
told what Baqui Billah told him regarding the
meaning of the words fana and baka. The man
removed the veil from the face and it was the sheikh
baqui Billah himself. He replied the man whose
namaze-zanaza I just offered is fana. And all that is
in front of you is baka.

This is an example of resurrection in sufi path when

the murshad comes to help the murids even when he
is no more embodied. Whenever any sheikh attains
to the state of fana-fe-ul-Allah through death attains
to baka or subsistence in Allah Subhan wa Taala or
attains to cosmic nature. In that state even in
disembodied form he can appear as embodied one.
Only those who are pure in heart and has attained to
the state of hubbe-haquiqui (absolute love) can
envision this.

This is why after resurrection Jesus was visible only

to Mary Madeline purest of all the disciples of Jesus.
Sufi Naqshbandi Brij Mohan Lal
Sufi Brij Mohan Lal is such a sheikh who has attained
the state of fana-fe-ul-allah through his Samadhi.
This is the state when one enters Eternity or Allah
Subhan wa Taala or Totality, or Death knowingly,
willingly, joyfully with total awareness. This state is
called that this sheikh has attained shahadat in the
name of Allah. For this Naqshbandi Sheikh Maulvi
Fazal Ahmad Khan and Sheikh Maulvi Abdool Ghani
Khan have said when at the time of cremation if
fresh bood comes out of nose or ears the sheikh has
attained the state of shahadat in the name of Allah
Subhan wa Taala.

Whenever sheikh Brij Mohan Lal will go on his

spiritual trips the program will publish in the monthly
magazine ‗SANT‘. However for this final trip from
Lucknow (place of residence) to Bombay (Now
Mumbai). The consciousness of every seeker was
veiled then and no one noticed this. It was only after
Samadhi it was noticed that the program form return
journey was missing. Of this his consort Sufi
Shakuntala Devi was aware.

Along the way he visited many places where murids

flocked in number to receive the barakat of the
murshid. When the daughter of the sheikh made a
plea to accompany the sheikh to Mumbai the Sheikh
in a unique gesture rejected the plea with a question
‗Who will you come back with?‘ She did not
understand this then.

By nature man is not ready for death the ultimate

happening. In that case the masters keep these
secrets from the general humanity. Very rarely a
human being enters death full of awareness. During
a congregation in Mumbai speaking on the message
of forgiveness Sheikh entered Samadhi and attained
shahadat. It was decided that Onkar Nath ( Son of
the sheikh and one who came to be known as Sufi
Onkar Nath), daughter Gyatri, son in-law Lakshmi
Sahai( Father of Sheikh Taoshobuddha) will go to
receive the body at another station midway along
the journey.

Along the way it was suggested that Sufi Onkar Nath

should take some rest. Next to him an elderly person
sat and continued to speak words of wisdom and
consolation saying that such roohs are kamil as they
attain fan-fe-ul- Allah in their death. Thereafter
Onkar nath took rest and was suddenly awakened
with the words of the Sheikh that I was just sitting
next to you. A thorough search was made for that
person in the train compartment. The person was
seen nowhere and train did not stop.

This is the incident as it happened.

Now the explanation continues. This is the state of

resurrection used as a technique by the departing
sufi. When disembodied soul manifests itself as
embodied soul know this as Resurrection – a devise
for transformation. How does this happen – I cannot
explain more than this for now.

Sai Baba of Shirdi

Shirdi Sai used to live in a mosque where everyday
seekers would flock around. Sai Baba had a disciple
who would bring food to feed the master every day.
He used to live at a distance from the mosque. After
the master has taken the meals the man would run
back home. Only then the man would eat and that
he never took meals after sunset. Thus many times
it used to happen that he had to sleep without food
as he would return after sunset from the mosque.

One day the master expressed compassion for the

seeker. He told the seeker not to worry to come
tomorrow as he would visit his place instead. This
made the seeker really happy. So the next day
the man cleaned the place, cooked the best food and
waited for the Shirdi Sai. Time flowed on. It was past
noon time but the master did not show up. In place a
dog came that insisted on sitting in front of the door
for food. But the man dd not give food to the dog as
he was waiting for the master. The man rushed with
the food for the master. On reaching he complained
to the master that all along he waited for him and he
did not see the master coing he had to come with
the food. At this the master said, ‗I came indeed but
you did not recognize.‘ The surprised man
recollected that Shirdi Sai did not come instead a
dog insisted on sitting in front of the door. At this the
master responded, ‗In the hot summer day dog was
the only vehicle available. And you could not
recognize beyond name and form. You missed.‘

The seeker requested for another chance and

promised that this time he will not miss. Once again
the elated man prepared best of the food as the
master was visiting. He now waited for the master or
the dog. This day neither the master nor the dog
came instead a leper came and his wounds were
oozing causing flies. Somehow the seeker chased the
man without giving food to the leper. He continued
to wait for the master. When until late, neither the
master came nor the dog the man rushed with food
for the master. On reaching the mosque he again
complained at the not showing by the master. At this
the master responded, ‗As long as you have the
outer vision of the superfluous or the non-essential
you will go on missing.‘

Truth lies beyond human cognition. With the super-

fluous vision truth cannot be envisioned. You need
the vision that can penetrate beyond mortal frame.
It is only with such vision that has evolved out of
inner oneness that you can envision that which is
beyond time and space in the realm of truth.

This is when the technique of resurrection is used by

the master to create embodied form out of
disembodied form for the transformation.

This is the Tariqat of the masters.

T
here are stories in Buddhism where the power
of resurrection was demonstrated on at least
two famous occasions in Chan or Zen Buddhist
tradition. One is the famous resurrection story of
Bodhidharma, the Indian master who brought the
Ekayana school of India to China that subsequently
became Chan Buddhism.

The other is the passing of Chinese Chan master

Puhua (J., Fuke) and is recounted in the Record of
Linji (J., Rinzai). Puhua was known for his unusual or
crazy-like behavior and teaching style so it is no
wonder that he is associated with an event that
breaks the usual prohibition on displaying such
powers. Here is the account from Irmgard Schloegl‘s
‗The Zen Teaching of Rinzai‘.

Fuke Zen is a branch of Zen Buddhism which existed

in Japan from the 13th century until the late 19th
century. Fuke monks were noted for playing the
Shakuhachi flute as a form of meditation. It was
characterized in the public imagination of Japan by
its monks,‘ who played the shakuhachi flute while
wearing a large woven basket hat that covered their
entire head as they went on pilgrimage.
The Founder Puhua

The word Fuke Zen, is derived from the teachings of

the Chinese Zen teacher Linji Yixuan (c. 800–866),
who is known in Japan as Rinzai Gigen. However, the
Fuke School counted as its founder one of Linji's
contemporaries Pǔhuà who is also known as Fuke in
Japanese. Puhua was reputedly a multi-talented
monk, known for being inventive and at the same
time quite strict.

One story of Puhua particularly demonstrates his

unique style of nonverbal Chan:

When Panshan Baoji was near death, he said to the

monks, ‗Is there anyone among you who can draw
my likeness?‘

Many of the monks made drawings for Panshan, but

none were to his liking.

The monk Puhua stepped forward and said, ‗I can

draw it.‘

Panshan said, ‗Why don‘t you show it to me?‘

Puhua then turned a somersault and went out.

Panshan said, ‗Someday, that fellow will teach others

in a crazy manner!‘

Having said these words, Panshan passed away.

Many stories about Puhua that appear in the Record

of Linji add to his reputation of having a rough and
uncompromising manner of expressing the dharma.
One day the master Linji and Fuke went to a
vegetarian banquet given them by a believer. During
it, the master asked Fuke: ‗A hair swallows the vast
ocean, a mustard seed contains Mt. Sumeru‘ – does
this happen by means of supernatural powers, or is
the whole body (substance, essence) like this?‘ Fuke
kicked over the table. The master said: ‗Rough
fellow.‘ Fuke retorted: ‗What place is this here to
speak of rough and refined?‘

The next day, they went again to a vegetarian

banquet. During it, the master asked: ‗Today‘s fare,
how does it compare with yesterday‘s?‘ Fuke (as
before) kicked over the table. The master said:
‗Understand it you do – but still, you are a rough
fellow.‘ Fuke replied: ‗Blind fellow, does one preach
of any roughness or finesse in the Buddha-Dharma?‘
The master stuck out his tongue.

There is some controversy as to the degree and

nature of his musical talents, but his followers would
often reflect on a certain story for inspiration: the
story describes Puhua going through his hometown,
ringing a bell to summon others to enlightenment.
The same, for many Fuke practitioners, applied to
the shakuhachi, and its mastery was seen as a path
to enlightenment.

Death of Puhua

The passing of Puhua is recounted in the Record of

Linji. In addition to giving a special importance to
Puhua‘s ringing bell, it is particularly striking as a
story of Buddhist resurrection that equals the famous
resurrection story of Bodhidharma, the Indian
master who brought the Ekayana School from India
to China, which became the Chan sect of Buddhism.

One day at the street market Fuke was begging all

and sundry to give him a robe. Everybody offered
him one, but he did not want any of them. The
master Linji made the superior buy a coffin, and
when Fuke returned, said to him: ‗There, I had this
robe made for you.‘

Fuke shouldered the coffin, and went back to the

street market, calling loudly: ‗Rinzai had this robe
made for me! I am off to the East Gate to enter
transformation‘ (to die). The people of the market
crowded after him, eager to look. Fuke said: ‗No, not
today. Tomorrow, I shall go to the South Gate to
enter transformation.‘ And so for three days. Nobody
believed it any longer. On the fourth day, and now
without any spectators, Fuke went alone outside the
city walls, and laid himself into the coffin. He asked a
traveler who chanced by to nail down the lid.

The news spread at once, and the people of the

market rushed there. On opening the coffin, they
found that the body had vanished, but from high up
in the sky they heard the ring of his hand bell.

Fuke Lineage in Japan

Fuke Zen was brought to Japan by Shinchi Kakushin

(1207–1298), also known as Muhon Kakushin and
posthumously as Hotto Kokushi. Kakushin had
travelled to China for six years and studied with the
famous Chinese Chan master Wumen of the Linji
lineage. Kakushin became a disciple of Chôsan, a
17th generation teacher of the Fuke sect of China.
Although it no longer exists as a religious
organization, during the feudal period, Fuke Zen‘s
following was quite extensive. Its members could be
easily recognized by their practice of playing the
shakuhachi flute, which was considered a form of
meditation, termed suizen. These musician-monks
were known at first as komosō literally ‗straw-mat
monks‘ and, by the mid -17th century, as komusō
literally ‗emptiness monk‘.
 God is everywhere working a massive
resurrection and it is the destiny of our time
to be the birthing ground of this ‘resurrection’.

~~ Andrew Harvey ~~
 I called through your door,
‗The mystics are gathering
in the street. Come out!‘

you say: ‗Leave me alone.

I'm sick.‘

‗I don‘t care if you‘re dead!‘

Jesus is here, and he wants
to resurrect somebody!‘

- Jalaluddin Rumi

I
n Islamic tradition Jesus is known as Isa a Sufi
Sheikh. Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary),
peace be upon his blessed soul. He is a Divine
Messenger (Rasul) to the Islamic community. Before
the earthly revelation of the Quran, in the previous
cycle of messenger ship, Jesus himself was ‗a Sign‘
embodied. For the Sufis, the Mystics of Islam - the
station of Jesus is adorned as the Seal of Saintly
Station, the Great Guide of Hearts (Murshid al-Akbar
fil Qulub) and Teacher of the Sacred (Mu‘allim al-
Muqaddas).

The Seal of Saintly Station (Khatam al-Maqam al-

Quddusin) refers that none among the Sons of Man
will ever again surpass the holiness of Jesus, his God
consciousness and his saintly attributes. The divine
pattern of transmission of sacred knowledge (al-
marifat) is such that it is transmitted unbrokenly
from one heart to another heart. Thus the role of the
Murshid is so sincerely preserved in Sufi Path and
the Sufi Mystics who receive that unbroken barakat
from God sent messengers and their disciples,
companions and successors, consider Jesus as a
great Murshid whose pattern (sunnah) reached
kamaliyat, holy perfection.

Regarding INITIATION Jesus said,

'as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.'

- John 13.34.

This is the transmission of love which not all can

achieve and those rare beings who achieve become
the successor of the master in loving other as the
master embodied and taught. Such is the
transmission from one heart to another. Sufis called
this baraka a continuation of love from, and for the
fully Awakened Human Beings.

And Jesus, in the eye of the Sufis is one such fully

Awakened Human Being, one who, by the grace of
Allah, has become an Eternal Blossom of Love.
May Allah perfect our love for him and for our own
spiritual guides?

Some Sufis directly inherited the station from Jesus

by God‘s will and perfumed themselves in the color
of Christ. Ahmad al-Alawi was one of such well
documented Sufi Saint in not-so-distant-past who
even physically resembled Jesus.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi is the founder Sheikh of

Shadhiliya Sufi Order. The British Muslim convert
Martin Lings wrote an extensive biography of the
founding Sheikh of this branch, Sheikh Ahmad al-
Alawi, entitled ‘A Sufi Saint of the 20th century’
(ISBN 0946621500)

The Shadhiliya Order, was named after Abu al-

Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 656 AH/1258 CE). His tomb
is at Humaythra on Egypt‘s Red Sea coast. The
Tariqat has branches throughout North Africa and
the Arab world. It has also become established in
Europe and the United States. Followers, or murids
of the Shadhiliya, are often known as Shadhilis.

It is the most popular Sufi order in North Africa and

many of its followers have made great contributions
to Arab and Islamic literature. Sheikh Ibn ‗Ata Allah
is the notable one. He is the author of the ‗Hikam‘
amongst other works.

Also Sheikh Ahmed Zarruq, who died in Libya, wrote

a commentary on the Risala of al-Qayrawani. This
is a standard work in Maliki Islamic jurisprudence
and a commentary upon the Hikam. Furthermore he
wrote extensively on religion (Sufism) and law.
Sheikh ibn Ajibah wrote a commentary on the Holy
Qur‘an. Many of the Sheikhs of al-Azhar University in
Egypt have also been followers of the Shadhili tariqa.

The Swedish impressionist painter and Sufi scholar

Sheikh Abd Al-Hadi Aqhili (1869-1917) was the first
official Moqaddam (representative) of the Shadhili
Order in Western Europe.

Of many branches The Hamadiyya Shadhili

branch is most popular. The Darqawi Shadhili
branch is found mostly in Morocco and the
Alawiyya is found mostly in Algeria but now also in
Syria, Jordan, and France amongst French North-
Africans. However it has no connection with the
Turkish or Syrian Alawi or Alevi groups.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i as-

Shadhili brought the Shadhiliya to the U.S.A. The
Shadhiliya derives from the tariqat of Abu Madyan
Shu‘ayb (d. 594 AH/1198 CE), whose tomb is in
Tlemcen, Algeria.

A recent book, The Way of Abu Madyan, by the

scholar Vincent Cornell, provides his biography, a
discussion of his teachings, and a number of texts
written by Abu Madyan and translated into English
along with the original Arabic.‘

Sheikh Ibn Arabi, one of the greatest Gnostic,

received initiation from Jesus Allahe Salam. Ibn Arabi
later mentioned how his conversion or
transformation (tawba) took place between the hand
of Jesus. And Jesus is his Sheikh of inner plane. He
said about Jesus: ‗He has prayed for me in order that
I might persist in the religion... and has called me
his beloved. He ordered me to practice zuhd
(renunciation) and tajrid (the stripping away of all
that is unnecessary)‘.

Ibn Arabi and Ahmad al-Alawi, may Allah be

pleased with them, are two prominent ones among
many known and unknown examples that the Sufis
continue to carry the nisbat of love with Christ.

Presently if one wish to discover Christ-like human

beings, one will be extremely disappointed if one
venture to seek such ones among the Christian
pastors, priests , bishops or even among the Popes
(past or present) - even though they are suppose to
be the vanguard of Christ‘s teaching and hence
supposedly be embodying Christ like characters.

This does not mean there are none, but you would
think and naturally expect that from the Great Tree,
the fruits would bear attributes resembling the
original. However it seems the fruits have been cut
off their nourishment long back.

What an irony you may say! Yet, God be our witness,

those who manifest Christ-like consciousness and
understanding live in holy poverty and simplicity that
is the hallmark of Christ‘s asceticism. Also they live
in spotless purity when it comes to morality and
honoring God‘s limits and are imbued in the love of
God. Like Christ they often practice itikaaf (retreat)
in solitude to be alone with the Alone, like Christ who
often prostrate with their face on the ground, who
are humble and yet shine with wisdom of kingdom of
heaven and who perform healing like Christ - such
personalities can even be found among Sufi Masters,
even in this age, if you only knew how to seek them.
There are even Sufi branches called Isawyi.
Naqshbandi Lalaji raji Allah Taala Unho was such
Isawyi Sufi Sheikh and the temperament, energy,
and the combination of peaceful innocence and fierce
wisdom reminded none but our noble master, Isa
Masih (Messiah Jesus).

Sufis have discovered the quintessential quality of a

Murshid or a Sheikh, or a Guide of the Soul in Jesus.
As a master Jesus is unique who spoke in simple
parables.

While describing how a true Spiritual Guide be

recognized, Sufi Abul Khayr has at least enumerated
ten characteristics. And if found in a guide, is proof
of his authenticity. These are:

1. He must have become a Goal, to be able to

have a disciple.

2. He must have traveled the mystic path himself,

to be able to show the way.

3. He must have become refined and educated, to

be able to be an educator (murabbi).

4. He must be generous and devoid of self-

importance, so that he can sacrifice wealth on
behalf of the disciple.

5. He must have no hand in the disciple‘s wealth,

so that he is not tempted to use it for himself.

6. Whenever he can give advice through a sign,

parables, or metaphors, he will not use direct
expression.
 7. Whenever he can educate through kindness,
he will not use violence and harshness.

8. Whatever he orders, he has first accomplished

himself.

9. Whatever he forbids the disciple, he has

abstained for himself.

10. He will not abandon for the world‘s sake the

disciple whom he accepts for God‘s sake.

Abul Khayr continues to say that, ‗If the spiritual

guide is like this and is adorned with these qualities,
the disciple is bound to be sincere and a good
traveler, for what appears in the disciple is the
quality of the spiritual guide made manifest in the
disciple.‘

If one truly tries to understand the perfumed

qualities of Jesus, one will know that these ten
characteristics truly manifest in him and certainly
Allah blessed him with more than what we can
enumerate.
What in Hinduism refers to as Samadhi is called Nirvana
in Buddhism. Samadhi or Nirvana is like twilight hour.
Just as twilight hour neither belongs to day nor night
although it happens between the two – day and night; so
too Samadhi or Nirvana happens between two planes.

Actually there are many types of samadhi. One samadhi

will take place between the fourth and the fifth body.
Remember, samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it
always happens between two planes, it is the twilight
period. One may just as well ask whether twilight belongs
to the day or the night. Twilight belongs neither to the
day nor the night; it is a happening between day and
night. So is samadhi.

The first samadhi occurs between the fourth and the

fifth planes. This samadhi leads to self realization,
atma gyan.

One samadhi occurs between the fifth and the sixth

planes; this in turn leads to brahma gyan –
cosmic knowing.

The samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the

seventh planes is the samadhi that leads to nirvana.

So generally speaking there are these three samadhis

that occur between the last three shariras,
the last three bodies.
Nirvāna (Sanskrit: ; Pali: (Nibbāna);
Prakrit: ) is a central concept in Indian
religions. In sramanic or Buddhist thought, it is the
state of being free from suffering (or dukkha). In
Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme
being through Moksha. The word literally means
"blowing out". In the Buddhist context it refers to the
blowing out of the inherent qualities or personality
traits of greed, hatred, and delusion.

The word Nirvāna is made of the prefix ni[r]- (ni, nis,

nih) which means ‗out, or away from, or without‘,
and the root vâ[na] (Pali. vâti) which can be
translated as ‗blowing‘ as in ‗blowing of the wind‘,
and also as ‗smelling‘, etc. Thus the word exists and
is used to imply the state of desirelessness, no mind,
or a state beyond duality of body mind and intellect.

The Abhidharma-mahāvibhāsa-sāstra, which is a

sarvastivādin commentary, gives the complete
context of various meanings that are derived from
theSanskrit roots:

1. Vāna, implies the path of rebirth, + nir,

meaning leaving off' and together the word
means ‗being away from the path of rebirth.‘ –
freedom from rebirth.

2. Vāna, meaning ‗stench‘, + nir, meaning

‗without‘: ‗without the stench of distressing
karma‘ – beyond the influence of karmas. In
that case actions do not bind.

3. Vāna, meaning ‗dense forests‘, + nir, meaning

‗without‘. Put together the word means ‗to be
without the dense forest of the five
 aggregates.‘ These aggregates are enumerated
as under:

a. (panca skandha), or the three roots of

greed, hate and delusion
b. (raga, dvesa, avidya) or emotions, duality
and ignorance or negation of truth. These
are ‗three characteristics of existence‘
c. (impermanence, anitya; unsatisfactoriness,
dukkha, soullessness, anàtman) or
ephemeral, transcient, unsatisfactoriness,
suffering, soullessness, and non steady.

4. Vāna, meaning ‗weaving‘, + nir, meaning ‗knot‘

= ‗freedom from the knot of the distressful
thread of karma.‘

Nirvana in Buddhism

The Buddha described Nirvāna as the state of mind

that is free from craving, anger and other afflicting
states (kilesas). It is also the ‗end of the world of
conflicts and duality. There is no identity left, and no
boundaries for the mind. The mind attains to a state
of beyondness. The seeker is at peace with the
world. He has compassion for all and gives up
obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved
when the existing volitional formations are pacified,
and the conditions for the production of new ones
are eradicated. In Nirvāṇa the root causes of craving
and aversion have been extinguished, so that one is
no longer subject to human suffering (Pali: dukkha)
or further rebirth in Samsāra.

The Pāli Canon also contains other perspectives on

Nirvāna. Firstly it refers to the empty nature of all
phenomena. It is also presented as a radical
reordering of consciousness and unleashing of
awareness.

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha calls Nirvāna ‗the

highest happiness‘. This happiness is an enduring,
transcendental happiness integral to the calmness
attained through enlightenment or bodhi, rather than
the happiness derived from impermanent things. The
knowledge accompanying Nirvāṇa is expressed
through the word bodhi.

The Buddha explains Nirvāna as ‗the unconditioned‘

(asankhata) mind, a mind that has come to a point
of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of
the production of volitional formations. This is
described by the Buddha as ‗deathlessness‘ (Pali:
amata or amāravati) and as the highest spiritual
attainment, the natural result that accrues to one
who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practice in
accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path. Such a life
engenders increasing control over the generation of
karma (Sanskrit; Pali, kamma).

It produces wholesome karma with positive results

and finally allows the cessation of the origination of
karma altogether with the attainment of Nibbāna.
Otherwise, beings forever wander through the
impermanent and suffering-generating realms of
desire, form, and formlessness, collectively termed
Samsāra.
 Each liberated individual produces no new
karma, but preserves a particular individual
personality which is the result of the traces of
his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that
there is a psycho-physical substrate during the
remainder of an arahant's lifetime shows the
continuing effect of karma.

The stance of the early scriptures is that attaining

Nibbāna in either the current or some future birth
depends on effort, and is not pre-determined.

Nirvāṇa in the sutras is never conceived of as a place

(such as one might conceive heaven), but rather the
antinomy of samsāra which itself is synonymous with
ignorance (avidyā, Pāli avijjā). This said:

‗the liberated mind (citta) that no longer clings'

means Nibbāna‘ (Majjhima Nikaya 2-Att. 4.68).

Nirvāna is meant specifically gnosis - that which

ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical
phenomena. Doctrinally, Nibbāna is said of the mind
which ‗no longer is coming (bhava) and going
(vibhava)‘, but which has attained a status in
perpetuity, whereby ‗liberation (vimutta) can be
said‘.

It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and

peace. The realizing of Nirvāṇa is compared to the
ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the
will (cetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind
into biological or other form passing on forever
through life after life (Samsāra). Samsāra comes into
existence principally because of craving and
ignorance. A person can attain Nirvāna even when
he is alive.
When a person who has realized Nirvāṇa dies, his
death is referred as parinirvāṇa (Pali: parinibbana),
his fully passing away, as his life was his last link to
the cycle of death and rebirth (Samsāra), and he will
not be reborn again. Buddhism says that the
ultimate goal and end of samsāric existence is
realization of Nirvāna. What happens to a person
after his parinirvāṇa cannot be explained, as it is
outside of all conceivable experience. Through a
series of questions, Sariputta brings a monk to admit
that he cannot pin down the Tathagata as a truth or
reality even in the present life, so to speculate
regarding the ontological status of an arahant after
death is improper.

Individuals up to the level of non-returning may

experience Nirvāna as an object of mental
consciousness. Certain meditations while Nibbana is
an object of samādhi can be used to the level of non-
returning or the gnosis of the arahant. This is
attained through a progression of insight, if the
meditator realizes that even that state is constructed
and therefore impermanent, the fetters are
destroyed, arahantship is attained, and Nibbāna is
realized.

Transcendent knowing
The mind is aware; it is conscious. In many places
the Buddha describes his enlightenment in terms of
‗knowing‘: such as in the Dhammacakkapavattana
Sutta, ‗Knowing arose‘ (ñāṇa udapādi). With nirvāṇa
the consciousness is released, and the mind
becomes aware in a way that is totally unconstrained
by anything in the conditioned world. The Buddha
describes this in a variety of passages. One way is as
follows:

Consciousness without feature, without end,

luminous all around

The Buddha avoided the use of Sanskrit because of

many philosophers contemporary with him and
priests. He opted for a more broad-brush, colloquial
style, geared to particular listeners in a language
which they could understand. As a result he used Pali
a language that was born and grew in the plains at
the foot of mountains in Nepal. Thus ‗viññana‘ here
can be assumed to mean ‗knowing‘ but not the
partial, fragmented, and discriminative (vi-) knowing
(-ñana) which the word usually implies. Instead it
must mean a knowing of a primordial, transcendent
nature, otherwise the passage which contains it
would be self-contradictory.‘

The choice of words may have been made; the

passages may represent an example of the Buddha
using his ‗skill in means‘ to teach Brahmins in terms
they were familiar with. This ‗unmanifest
consciousness‘ differs from the kinds of
consciousness associated to the six senses, which
have a "surface" that they fall upon and arise in
response to.

According to Peter Harvey, the early texts are

ambivalent as to whether or not the term
‗consciousness‘ is accurate. In a liberated individual,
consciousness is directly experienced, in a way that
is free from any dependence on conditions at all.

This ‗luminous consciousness‘ is identical with

Nirvāṇa. Others disagree, finding it to be not Nirvāṇa
itself, but instead to be a kind of consciousness
accessible only to arahants. A passage in the
Majjhima Nikaya refers it to empty space. For
liberated ones the luminous, unsupported
consciousness associated with nibbana is directly
known without mediation of the mental
consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, and is
the transcending of all objects of mental
consciousness.

Therefore it differs radically from the concept in the

pre-Buddhist Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It
is described as accessing the individual‘s inmost
consciousness, in that it is not considered an aspect,
even the deepest aspect, of the individual‘s
personality, and is not to be confused in any way
with a ‗Self‘. Furthermore, it transcends the sphere
of infinite consciousness, the sixth of the Buddhist
jhanas, which is in itself not the ending of the
concept of ‗I‘.

Nagarjuna alluded to a passage regarding this level

of consciousness in the Dighanikaya in two different
works. He wrote:

The Sage has declared that earth, water, fire, and

wind, long, short, fine and coarse, good, and so on
are extinguished in consciousness ... Here long and
short, fine and coarse, good and bad, here name and
form all stop.

A related idea, which finds support in the Pali Canon

and the contemporary Theravada practice tradition
despite its absence in the Theravada commentaries
and Abhidhamma, is that the mind of the arahant is
itself nibbana.
Nirvana and Samsara
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Nirvana and Samsara are
said to be not-different when viewed from the
ultimate nature of the Dharmakaya. An individual
can attain Nirvana by following the Buddhist path. If
they were ultimately different this would be
impossible. Thus, the duality between Nirvana and
Samsara is only accurate on the conventional level.
Another way to arrive at this conclusion is through
the analysis that all phenomena are empty of an
essential identity, and therefore suffering is never
inherent in any situation. Thus liberation from
suffering and its causes is not a metaphysical shift of
any kind.

The Theravāda school makes the antithesis of

Samsara and Nibbāna the starting point of the entire
quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this
antithesis as determinative of the final goal, which is
precisely the transcendence of Samsara and the
attainment of liberation in Nibbāna. Where
Theravada differs significantly from the Mahāyāna
schools, which also start with the duality of Samsara
and Nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a
mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt
faculties, to be eventually superseded by some
higher realization of non-duality. From the
standpoint of the Pāli Suttas, even for the Buddha
and the Arahants suffering and its cessation,
Samsara and Nibbāna, remain distinct.

Both schools agree that Shakyamuni Buddha was in

saṃsāra while having attained Nirvāṇa, in so far as
he was seen by all while simultaneously free from
Samsara.
Paths to Nirvana in the Pali canon

In Visuddhimagga Buddhaghosa identifies various

options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to
Nirvana, including:

1. By insight (vipashyana) alone

2. By jhana and understanding
3. By deeds, vision and righteousness
4. By virtue, consciousness and understanding
5. By virtue, understanding, concentration and effort
6. By the four foundations of mindfulness
(Satipatthana Sutta,)

Depending on one‘s analysis, each of these options

could be seen as a reframing of the Buddha‘s
Threefold Training of virtue, mental development and
wisdom.

The idea of Nirvana as purified, non-dualistic

‗superior mind‘ can be found in some Mahayana
texts. The Samputa, for instance, states:

‗Undefiled by lust and emotional impurities,

unclouded by any dualistic perceptions, this superior
mind is indeed the supreme Nirvana.‘

Some Mahayana traditions see the Buddha in almost

domestic terms, viewing his visible manifestations as
projections from within the state of Nirvana.

According to Professor Etienne Lamotte, Buddhas are

always and at all times in Nirvana, and their
corporeal displays of themselves and their Buddhic
careers are ultimately illusory. Lamotte writes of the
Buddhas: ‗they are born, reach enlightenment, set
turning the Wheel of Dharma, and enter Nirvana.
However, all this is only illusion: the appearance of a
Buddha is the absence of arising, duration and
destruction; their Nirvana is the fact that they are
always and at all times in Nirvana.‘

Some Mahayana sutras go even further and attempt

to characterize the nature of Nirvana itself. The
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which has as
one of its main topics precisely the realm or dhatu
of Nirvana, has the Buddha speak of four essential
elements which make up Nirvana. One of these is
‗Self‘ (atman), which is construed as the enduring
Self of the Buddha.

Writing on this Mahayana understanding of Nirvana,

William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous state:

‗The Nirvana Sutra claims for Nirvana the ancient

ideas of permanence, bliss, personality, purity in the
transcendental realm. Mahayana declares that
Hinayana, by denying personality in the
transcendental realm, denies the existence of the
Buddha. In Mahayana, final Nirvana is
transcendental, and is also used as a term for the
Absolute.‘

At the time this scripture was written, there was

already a long tradition of positive language about
Nirvana and the Buddha. While in early Buddhist
thought Nirvana is characterized by permanence,
bliss, and purity, it is viewed as being the stopping of
the breeding-ground for the ‗I am‘ attitude, and is
beyond all possibility of the Self delusion. The
Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a long and highly composite
Mahayana scripture, refers to the Buddha‘s using the
term ‗Self‘ in order to win over non-Buddhist
ascetics. From this, it continues: ‗The Buddha-nature
is in fact not the self. For the sake of [guiding]
sentient beings, I describe it as the self.‘

The Ratnagotravibhaga, a related text, points out

that the teaching of the tathagatagarbha is
intended to win sentient beings over to abandoning
‗affection for one‘s self‘ - one of the five defects
caused by non-Buddhist teaching.

Youru Wang notes similar language in the

Lankavatara Sutra, and then writes: ‗Noticing this
context is important. It will help us to avoid jumping
to the conclusion that tathagatagarbha thought is
simply another case of metaphysical imagination.‘
However, some have objected to this reading
regarding the Mahāparinirvāna Sutra in particular,
and claim that the Buddha then caps his comments
in this passage with an affirmation of the reality of
the Self, declaring that he is in fact that Self:

‗Due to various causes and conditions, I have also

taught that that which is the self is devoid of self, for
though there is truly the self, I have taught that
there is no-self or annatta, and yet there is no
falsehood in that. The Buddha-dhātu is devoid of
self. When the Tathagata teaches that there is no
self, it is because of the Eternal. The Tathāgata is
the Self, and his teaching that there is no self is
because he has attained mastery or sovereignty
[aisvarya].‘

In the Nirvāna Sutra, the Buddha states that he will

now teach previously undisclosed doctrines
(including on Nirvana) and that his earlier teaching
on non-Self was one of expediency only. Dr. Kosho
Yamamoto writes:
‗He says that the non-Self which he once taught is
none but of expediency … He says that he is now
ready to speak about the undisclosed teachings. Men
abide in upside-down thoughts. So he will now speak
of the affirmative attributes of Nirvana, which are
none other than the Eternal, Bliss, the Self and the
Pure.‘

According to some scholars, the language used in the

Tathāgatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an
attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of
dependent origination using positive language
instead, to prevent people from being turned away
from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism. For
example, in some of these sutras the perfection of
the wisdom of not-self is stated to be the true self;
the ultimate goal of the path is then characterized
using a range of positive language that had been
used in Indian philosophy previously by essentialist
philosophers, but which was now transmuted into a
new Buddhist vocabulary to describe a being who
has successfully completed the Buddhist path.

Dr. Yamamoto points out that this ‗affirmative‘

characterization of Nirvana pertains to a supposedly
higher form of Nirvana – that of ‗Great Nirvana‘.
Speaking of the ‗Bodhisattva Highly Virtuous King‘
chapter of the Nirvana Sutra, Yamamoto quotes the
scripture itself: ‗What is nirvana? ...this is as in the
case in which one who has hunger has peace and
bliss as he has taken a little food.‘ Yamamoto
continues with the quotation, adding his own
comment:

‗But such a Nirvāna cannot be called ―Great

Nirvāna‖‘. And it ( the Buddha‘s new revelation
regarding Nirvana) goes on to dwell on the ―Great
Self‖, ―Great Bliss‖, and ―Great Purity‖, all of which,
along with the Eternal, constitute the four attributes
of Great Nirvana.‘

According to some scholars, the ‗Self‘ discussed in

the related sutras does not represent a substantial
Self. Rather, it is a positive language expression of
emptiness and represents the potentiality to realize
Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. In this
view, the intention of the teaching of
'tathāgatagarbha' or Buddha nature is stereological
rather than theoretical.

However, this interpretation is contentious. Not all

scholars share it. Writing on the diverse
understandings of tathagatagarbha doctrine as found
in the Nirvana Sutra and similar scriptures, Dr. Jamie
Hubbard comments on how some scholars see a
tendency towards absolutism and monism in this
Tathagatagarbha [a tendency which Japanese
scholar Matsumoto castigates as non-Buddhist]. Dr.
Hubbard comments:

‗Matsumoto [calls] attention to the similarity

between the extremely positive language and causal
structure of enlightenment found in the
tathagatagarbha literature and that of the substantial
monism found in the atman/Brahman tradition.
Matsumoto, of course, is not the only one to have
noted this resemblance. Takasaki Jikido, for
example, the preeminent scholar of the
tathagatagarbha tradition, sees monism in the
doctrine of the tathagatagarbha and the Mahayana in
general … Obermiller wedded this notion of a
monistic Absolute to the tathagatagarbha literature
in his translation and comments to the Ratnagotra,
which he aptly subtitled ―A Manual of Buddhist
Monism‖ … Lamotte and Frauwallner have seen the
tathagatagarbha doctrine as diametrically opposed to
the Madhyamika and representing something akin to
the monism of the atman/Brahman strain, while yet
others such as Nagao, Seyfort Ruegg, and Johnston
(the editor of the Ratnagotra) simply voice their
doubts and state that it seems similar to post-Vedic
forms of monism. Yet another camp, represented by
Yamaguchi Susumu and his student Ogawa Ichijo, is
able to understand tathagatagarbha thought without
recourse to Vedic notions by putting it squarely
within the Buddhist tradition of conditioned causality
and emptiness, which, of course, explicitly rejects
monism of any sort. Obviously, the question of the
monist or absolutist nature of the tathagatagarbha
and Buddha-nature traditions is complex.

Dr. Hubbard summarises his research on

tathagatagarbha doctrines with the words:

‗the teaching of the tathagatagarbha has always

been debatable, for it is fundamentally an affirmative
approach to truth and wisdom, offering descriptions
of reality not in negative terms of what it is lacking
or empty of (apophatic description, typical of the
Pefection of Wisdom corpus and the Madhyhamika
school) but rather in positive terms of what it is
(cataphatic description, more typical of the
devotional, tantric, Mahaparinirvana and Lotus Sutra
traditions, and, it should be noted, the monistic
terms of the orthodox Brahmanic systems)‘

According to Paul Williams, the similarity to the

monism of atman/Brahman thought is explained
when the Nirvana sutra presents its Self teachings as
an attempt to win over non-Buddhist ascetics:
It is tempting to speak of Hindu influence on
Buddhism at this point, but simply to talk of
influences is almost always too easy ... Having said
that, of course the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra itself
admits Hindu influence in a sense when it refers to
the Buddha using the term ‗Self‘ in order to win over
non-Buddhist ascetics. Nevertheless, it would be
wrong to think in particular of the transcendental
Self-Brahman of Advaita Vedanta as necessarily
influencing Buddhism at this point. It is by no means
clear that the Self which is really no-Self of the
Mahaparinirvana-Sutra is at all comparably to the
Advaita Brahman, and anyway these
Tathagatagarbha sutras are earlier than Gaudapada
(seventh century), the founder of the Hindu Advaita
school ...

The sutra also states that the Buddha-nature is really

no-Self, but is said to be a Self in a manner of
speaking.

In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, it is stated that there

are three ways for a person to ‗have‘ something; to
have it in the past, to have it in the present, and to
have it in the future. It states that what it means by
‗all beings have Buddha-nature‘ is that all beings will
in the future become Buddhas.

Dogen, a Zen master however explicitly says that the

Buddha-Nature is had in some sense in the present
even by non Buddhas: actually equating the reality
of the present moment (or ‗That without constancy‘)
with the Buddha-Nature, including that of grass and
trees as well as mind and body. For Dogen, to look
at anything is to see the Buddha-Nature, whereas
Chinul argues that it is in the body right now as
smelling and vision and so on. The important
Lankavatara Sutra states that all actions are actions
of the Buddha-Nature, that it is their cause and the
root of all karmic destiny,

As indicated above, the Japanese Zen master,

Dogen, has a distinctive interpretation of the
Buddha-nature, in which ‗whole-being‘ is viewed as
Buddha-nature, and nothing (even inanimate
objects) is separate or distinct from it. Buddha-
nature is not a ‗potential‘ for Buddhahood, instead it
is the very nature of all things. All things in their
impermanence are seen as Buddha-nature, and do
not constitute a seed of ‗potential‘ for Buddha-
nature. Dr. Masao Abe writes on this understanding:

‗... in Dogen‘s understanding, the Buddha-nature is

not a potentiality, like a seed, that exists within all
sentient beings. Instead, all sentient beings, or more
exactly, all beings, living and nonliving, are originally
Buddha-nature. It is not a potentiality to be
actualized sometime in the future, but the original,
fundamental nature of all beings.‘

Dogen thus expands the notion of Buddha-nature

and that of ‗sentient beings‘ to embrace absolutely
all things, which are seen to be alive, possessed of
mind and to be the Buddha-nature itself. Dr. Masao
Abe elucidates:

―... Dogen broadens not only the meaning of the

term Buddha-nature, but also that of the term,
sentient beings (shujo). In the ‗Bussho‘ fascicle,
immediately after saying ‗Whole-being is the
Buddha-nature‘, he continues, ‗I call one integral
entity of whole-being ‗sentient beings‘‖ ... This
means that Dogen broadens the meaning of shujo
[sentient being], which traditionally referred to living
or sentient beings, to include nonliving or non-
sentient beings. In other words, he ascribes life to
nonliving beings, sentiments to non-sentient beings,
and ultimately mind and the Buddha-nature to all of
them.‘

Quotations
Gautama Buddha:

‗Nirvāna is the highest happiness.‘

‗Where there is nothing; where naught is grasped,

there is the Isle of No-Beyond. Nirvāṇa do I call it —
the utter extinction of aging and dying.‘

‗There is, monks, an unborn — un-become — un-

made — un-fabricated. If there were not that unborn
— un-become — un-made — un-fabricated, there
would not be the case that emancipation from the
born — become — made — fabricated would be
discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn
— un-become — un-made — un-fabricated,
emancipation from the born — become — made —
fabricated is discerned.‘

Thus ‗the liberated mind/will (citta) which does not

cling‘ means Nibbāna‘

In Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta the Buddha refers

nibbana to the cessation and extinguishing of a fire
where the materials for sustenance has been
removed: ‗Profound, Vaccha, is this phenomenon,
hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond
the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced
by the wise.‘
‗There is that dimension where there is neither earth,
nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of
the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the
infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of
nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor
non-perception; neither this world, nor the next
world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is
neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither
passing away nor arising: without stance, without
foundation, without support [mental object]. This,
just this, is the end of stress.‘

Said immediately after the physical death of

Gautama Buddha wherein his mind (citta) is
=parinirvāṇa=the essence of liberation:

―No longer with (subsists by) in-breath nor out-

breath, so is him (Gautama) who is steadfast in mind
(citta), inherently quelled from all desires the mighty
sage has passed beyond. With mind (citta) limitless
he no longer bears sensations; illumined and
unbound (nibbana), his mind (citta) is definitely
(ahu) liberated.‖

‗And what is the Nibbana property with no fuel

remaining? There is the case where a monk is an
arahant whose fermentations have ended, who has
reached fulfillment, finished the task, laid down the
burden, attained the true goal, ended the fetter of
becoming, and is released through right gnosis. For
him, all that is sensed, being unrealized, will grow
cold right here. This is termed the Nibbana property
with no fuel remaining." [Itivuttaka 2.17]
Parinibbana description:
‗The body disintegrated, perception ceased, pain and
rapture were entirely consumed, fabrications were
stilled: consciousness has come to its end‘. [Udana
8.9]

Sutta Nipāta, tr. Rune Johansson:

accī yathā vātavegena khitto
atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ
evaṁ muni nāmakāyā kimutto
atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ
atthan gatassa na pamāṇam atthi
ynea naṁ vajju taṁ tassan atthi
sabbesu dhammesu samūhatesu
samūhatā vādapathāpi sabbe

Like a flame that has been blown out by a strong

wind goes to rest and cannot be defined, just so the
sage who is freed from name and body goes to rest
and cannot be defined.

For him who has gone to rest there is no measure by

means of which one could describe him; that is not
for him. When all (dharmas) have gone, all signs of
recognition have also gone. Venerable Sariputta: The
destruction of greed, hatred and delusion is Nirvāṇa.

Nirvana and Hinduism

In Hinduism, Moksha is the liberation from the cycle
of birth and death and one‘s worldly conception of
self. A person reaches the state of Nirvana only
when Moksha is attained. The Union with the
supreme being Brahman and this experience of
blissful ego-lessness is termed Nirvana. In Advaita
Vedanta philosophy, however the concepts of
Moksha and Nirvana are nearly analogous with
certain views overlapping.

The word Nirvana was first used in its technical

sense in Buddhism, and cannot be found in any of
the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. K. N. Upadhaya in his
work ‘The Impact of Early Buddhism on Hindu
Thought’ says he believes the use of the term in the
Bhagavad Gita to be a sign of early Buddhist
influence upon Hindu thought.
 Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state
when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate
from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him,
not even a transparent glass separates him – when all
separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that
merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is
called nirvana.
Osho

Osho not only calls Nirvana or enlightenment a

nightmare instead the last nightmare.

Why does Osho say that nirvana, enlightenment, is a

nightmare - and not only a nightmare but the last
nightmare? Because as long as we keep hoping for
some future paradise, we are sacrificing the present
for a moment that will never come. Our desire to
achieve nirvana becomes the very obstacle to its
happening.

Osho challenges us to wake up and stop dreaming.

He exposes the tricks and habits of our minds that
keep us from being in the here and now, living this
moment totally. As he relates them to our lives
today, we begin to discover the art of being present
and joyful in the simple ordinariness of life.

Muso, the national teacher,

And one of the most illustrious masters of his day,
Left the capital in the company of a disciple
For a distant province.
On reaching the tenryu river
They had to wait for an hour
Before they could board the ferry.
Just as the ferry was about to leave the shore
A drunken samurai ran up
And jumped into the packed boat,
Nearly swamping it.
He tottered wildly as the small craft
Made its way across the river.

The ferryman,
Fearing for the safety of his passengers,
Begged him to stand quietly.
‗We‘re like sardines in here,‘
Said the samurai gruffly.
Then, pointing to Muso,
‗Why not toss out the bonzae?‘
‗Please be patient,' Muso said,
‗We‘ll reach the other side soon.‘
‗What!‘ bawled the samurai, me be patient?
Listen here, if you don't jump off this thing`
I swear I‘ll drown you.'

The master‘s calm so infuriated the samurai

That he struck muso‘s head with his iron fan,
Drawing blood.

Muso‘s disciple had had enough by this time,

And as he was a powerful man,
Wanted to challenge the samurai.
‗I can‘t permit him to go on living after this,‘ he said.
‗Why get so worked up over a trifle?‘
Muso said with a smile.
‗It‘s exactly in matters of this kind
That the bonzae‘s training proves itself.
Patience, you must remember,
Is more than just a word.‘
Then he recited an extempore waka:
‗The beater and the beaten:
Mere players of a game
Ephemeral as a dream.‘

When the boat reached shore,

And Muso and his disciple alighted,
The samurai ran up
And prostrated himself at the master's feet.
Then and there he became a disciple.

SEEKING for something, desiring for something, is

the basic disease of the mind. Not seeking, not
desiring, is the basic health of your being.

It is very easy to go on changing the objects of

desire, but that is not the way of transformation. You
can desire money, you can desire power... you can
change the objects of desire - you can start desiring
god - but you remain the same because you go on
desiring.

The basic change is to be brought not in the objects

of desire, but in your subjectivity.

If desiring stops - and remember, I am not saying

that it has to be stopped - if desiring stops, then you
are for the first time at home, peaceful, patient,
blissful, and for the first time life is available to you
and you are available to life. In fact, the very
division between you and life disappears, and this
state of non division is the state of god.

People come to me from all over the world; they

travel thousands of miles. When they come to me
and I ask, ‗Why have you come?‘ somebody says, ‗I
am a seeker of god.‘ Somebody says, ‗I am a seeker
of truth.‘

They are not aware what they are asking. They are
asking the impossible. God is not a thing. God is not
an object. You cannot seek him. God is this whole.
How can you seek the whole? You can dissolve in it,
you can merge in it, but you cannot seek it. The
seeking simply shows that you go on believing
yourself separate from the whole - you the seeker
and the whole -the sought.

Sometimes you seek a woman, sometimes you seek

a man. Sometimes, frustrated from the world, you
start seeking the other world - but you are not yet
frustrated with seeking itself.

A seeker is in trouble. A seeker is confused. He has

not understood the basic problem itself. It is not that
you have to seek god, then everything will be solved.
Just the opposite - if everything is solved, suddenly
there is god.

And if you stop seeking nirvana, you will find nirvana

hidden in life itself. If you stop seeking god, you will
find god everywhere... in each particle, in each
moment of life. God is another name of life. Nirvana
is another name of life lived. You have just heard the
word ‗life‘; it is not a lived experience.

Drop all beliefs, they are hindrances. Don‘t be a

Christian, don‘t be a Hindu, don‘t be a
Mohammedan. Just be alive. Let that be your only
religion.
Life - the only religion. Life - the only temple. Life -
the only prayer.
I have heard, a disciple came to a Zen master,
bowed down, touched his feet and said, ‗How long do
I have to wait for my enlightenment?‘

The master looked at him long, long enough. The

disciple started getting restless. He repeated his
question and he said, ‗Why are you looking at me so
long? Why don't you answer me?‘

And the master answered a really Zen answer. He

said, ‗Kill me.‘

The disciple could not believe that this is the answer

for his enlightenment. He went to ask the chief
disciple. The chief disciple laughed and he said, ‗The
same he did to me also.‘ And he is right. He is
saying, ‗Why do you go on asking me? Drop this
master. Drop this asking. Kill me. Drop all ideology.
Who am l? I am not preventing you. Life is available.
Why don‘t you start living? Why do you go on
preparing, when and how?

This seems to be the most difficult thing for the

human mind - just to live, naked; just to live without
any arrangements; just to live the raw and the wild
life; just to live the moment.

And this is the whole teaching of all the great

teachers, but you go on making philosophies out of
them. Then you create a doctrine, and then you start
believing in the doctrine.

There are many Zen people who believe in Zen - and

Zen teaches trust, not belief. There are many people
around me who believe in me - and I teach you
trust, not belief. If you trust your life, you have
trusted me. No intellectual belief is needed.
Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life
is already here, arrived. You are standing on the
goal. Don't ask about the path.

Osho – Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment,

the state when the ego disappears, when man is no
more separate from existence – not even a thin
curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass
separates him – when all separation disappears. That
meeting with the total, that merger with the whole,
that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana.

The literal meaning of the word is beautiful, one of

the most beautiful words. Literally it means blowing
out a candle. When you blow out a candle, the light
disappears and you cannot say where it has gone.
You cannot show any direction – to the east, to the
west, to the north, to the south; it has simply
disappeared. It has not gone anywhere, it has not
moved into some other place. It has gone out of
existence. It has moved into nothingness. It is no
more.

Exactly like that flame of the candle, the ego

disappears. You cannot say where it has gone – it
has not gone anywhere; it is no more. When the ego
disappears, all is silence, because all turmoil, all
noise, is of the ego. And when the ego disappears
there is no longer any possibility of any anguish,
anxiety. There is nobody to be anxious in the first
place. One feels oneself as pure emptiness, and that
pure emptiness has a fragrance to it.

Ref: Nirvana the Last Nightmare

 Written by admin on 09 November 2008

Question: In which body is that obtained which

you refer to as Samadhi?

Osho: Actually there are many types of samadhi.

One samadhi will take place between the fourth and
the fifth body. Remember, samadhi is not a
happening of one plane; it always happens between
two planes, it is the twilight period. One may just as
well ask whether twilight belongs to the day or the
night. Twilight belongs neither to the day nor the
night; it is a happening between day and night. So is
samadhi.

The first samadhi occurs between the fourth and

the fifth planes. This samadhi leads to self
realization, atma gyan.
One samadhi occurs between the fifth and the
sixth planes; this in turn leads to brahma gyan –
cosmic knowing.

The samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the

seventh planes is the samadhi that leads to
nirvana. So generally speaking there are these three
samadhis that occur between the last three
shariras, the last three bodies.

There is one false samadhi that has to be recognized

also. It occurs in the fourth body, but is not samadhi
though it seems like it. In Japan the Zen Buddhist
term for it is satori. It is false samadhi. It is that
state which a painter or a sculptor or a musician
reaches when he is completely immersed in his art;
he experiences a great bliss.

This is a happening on the fourth – the psychic

plane. If when looking at the morning sun or
listening to a melody or looking at a dance or looking
at the opening of a flower the mind is completely
drowned in the happening, a false samadhi takes
place. Such a false samadhi can be brought about by
hypnosis or false shaktipat. Such a false samadhi can
be brought about by alcohol and drugs like
marijuana, lsd, mescaline, hashish.

So there are four types of samadhi. Actually there

are three authentic samadhis and they happen in a
sequence. The fourth is an absolutely false
experience that appears like samadhi. In this there is
no actual experience – only a feeling of samadhi that
is misleading. Many people are misled by satori.

This false samadhi occurs in the fourth – the psychic

plane. It is not the transitional process between the
fourth and the fifth plane; it happens well within the
fourth body. The three authentic samadhis occur
outside the bodies in a transitional period when we
pass on from one plane to another. One samadhi is a
door, a passage.

Between the fourth and the fifth bodies happens the

first authentic samadhi. One attains self relaxation.
We can get stuck here. Usually people stop at the
false samadhi in the fourth body because it is so
easy. We have to spend very little energy, making
no effort at all, and it is obtained just like that. The
majority of meditators, therefore, stagnate here.

The first real samadhi, which takes place on the

journey from the fourth to the fifth body, is very
difficult; and the third, from the sixth to the seventh,
is the most difficult of all. The name chosen for the
third samadhi is vajrabhed – piercing of the
thunderbolt. It is the most difficult one because it is
a transition from being into nonbeing; it is a jump
from life into death; it is a plunge from existence
into nonexistence.

So there are actually three samadhis. The first you

may call atma samadhi, the second brahma
samadhi, and the last nirvana samadhi. The very
first and false samadhi you may call satori. This is
the one you should guard against, because it is very
easily attainable.

Another method to test the validity of the samadhi is

that if it takes place within the plane it is false; it
must take place between the planes. It is the door; it
has no business to be inside the room. It must be
outside the room, adjoining the next room.
Jesus used the Parables as his teaching devise.
Parable is one of the hallmarks of Masters that when
they speak about higher reality, the unseen, they
avoid speaking it directly. The direct speaking is
violent. There are many reasons behind this. The
reasons are worth explaining using a parable as well:

„Looking at the sun directly and with naked eye

is not profitable, either this temporarily blinds
the onlooker, or if done severely, this causes
permanent blindness.‟

Masters emphasized that direct looking at the reality

or truth or haquiqat is harmful. Therefore the
masters use the parables to give a glimpse into
reality.

Parables perform multiple functions:

1. Parables allows the seeker ‗to drink gradually‘,

opening like many petaled flower ‗layer by layer‘

2. Parables continue to unveil its meaning

transcending limitation of age or time and open
its meaning according to the ‗readiness‘ of
seeker.

3. Furthermore, subject matter of the unseen, as

the name suggest are often unknown, and hence
mind has nothing to compare or contrast against,
there are no likeness of, for example the terms
 such as the kingdom of heaven, the garden
beneath which rivers flow, which are of reality of
the afterworld and unseen for those who are
earth bound.

The parables played an important part in the

teachings of Jesus. He was fond of parables in
conveying his message so much so that in the
canonical gospels, the parables forms approximately
one third of his available teachings. And we of course
have lost, many of the private conversations of the
Teacher with his disciples.

It happened once the sahabis (intimate companions)

came to him and asked,

‗Master why do you speak to the people in parables?‘

Jesus responded:

‗The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of

heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
Whoever has (such sacred knowledge) will be given
more, and he will have abundance (kausar).
Whoever does not have, even what he has will be
taken from him. This is why I speak to them in
parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though
hearing, they do not hear or understand.‘

- Matthew: 13:10-13

Someone said...

The Hidden Parables is a complete retranslation of

the parables used by Jesus to illustrate critical
lessons about the nature of reality. There are thiry-
two enigmatic parables spoken by Christ that reveal
a hidden meaning which shows that the parables are
NOT a random collection of stories, but present a
unified system of knowledge.

The integrated system of understanding delineates

the laws of thought forms of controlled intentions in
creating more beneficial, and miraculous
circumstances in our personal lives. The information
presented is clear and very practical and bears an
uncanny resemblance to cutting-edge self-help and
metaphysical thought.

‘Parable of Mustard Seed’

This is an important Parable of Jesus.

‗What happens when a seed becomes a tree?‘

The seed has to die, only then does it become a tree.

... Don‘t cling to the seed, because the seed is a

bridge.

Help it to die, dissolve, so that the inner life and the

seed becomes a great tree.

I don't want you to become Christians

- that is useless, that's a lie.

I would like you to become Christs.

And you can become, because you have the same

seed.

- Osho, from his book, ‗The Mustard Seed‘

Osho loved reading from the early days. Whatever
money he used to have was being spend on buying
books. He did not buy books alone instead read each
book that he bought. Each book has his notes. The
library of Osho contains more than 150,000 books by
far an incredible number by any individual library.

In his usual unique manner Osho spoke on the books

that he loved to a select group of seekers and thus
revealed to the mystical world those authors and
writers who have been buried in their graves
unknown. Through this book Osho has immortalized
these writers.
The FRAGMENTS of Heraclitus
I love this man. Let me mention it, just by the way,
as a note in the margin, that I love all, but I don‘t
like all. I like a few and I don‘t like a few, but I love
all. About that there is no question. I love Jaydeva as
much as I love Heraclitus, but Heraclitus I like too.

There are very few whom I can put in the same

category as Heraclitus. In fact, even to say that is
not true; there is no one. Now I am saying what I
really wanted to say always. There is no one, I
repeat, who can be put in the same category as
Heraclitus. He is just far out – dangerously
awakened, unafraid of the consequences of what he
was saying.

He says in these FRAGMENTS – again the notes of a

Devageet, a disciple. Heraclitus did not write. There
must be something, some reason why these people
do not write, but of that a little later. Heraclitus says
in the FRAGMENTS: “You cannot step in the same
river twice.” And then he says: ―No, you cannot
step in the same river even once....‖ This is
tremendously beautiful, and true too.

Everything is changing, and changing so fast that

there is no way to step in the same river twice; you
can‘t even step in the same river once. The river is
constantly flowing; going, going, going to the ocean,
to the infinite, going to disappear into the unknown.

This is the first on my list this evening: Heraclitus.

The GOLDEN VERSES of Pythagoras
He was one of the most misunderstood men,
obviously. If you know you are bound to be
misunderstood, that is certain. To understand is so
dangerous, because then you will be misunderstood.
Pythagoras was not understood even by his own
disciples, not even by those who wrote down the
GOLDEN VERSES. They wrote it mechanically...
because not a single disciple of Pythagoras rose to
his heights, not a single one became enlightened.
And the Greeks have completely ignored him. They
have ignored their best: Heraclitus, Socrates,
Pythagoras, Plotinus. They had wanted to ignore
Socrates too, but he was too much. So they had to
poison him, they could not just ignore him.

But Pythagoras is completely ignored, and he has the

same key as Gautam Buddha, Jesus, or any other
enlightened one. One thing more: neither Jesus nor
Buddha nor Lao Tzu made so much effort to find the
key as Pythagoras. He worked the most. Pythagoras
was the most authentic seeker. He risked all and
everything. He traveled all around the world that was
known in those days; studied under all kinds of
masters; entered into all kinds of mystery schools
and fulfilled their conditions. He is a category in
himself.

THE SONG OF SARAHA

A man who is not known much, not even by his own

countrymen. His name is Saraha, and the book is
called THE SONG OF SARAHA; that is its Tibetan
title. Nobody knows who wrote it down. One thing is
certain, Saraha never did, and he just sang it. But it
has the fragrance that the man knew, that he had
attained. The song is not the composition of a poet
but a realization of a mystic. It is just a few lines,
but of such grandeur and beauty that the stars can
feel ashamed.

THE SONG OF SARAHA is untranslated. I heard it

from a Tibetan lama. I would have liked to have
heard it again and again but the lama stank so much
that I had to say ‖Thank you....‖ Lamas stink
because they never take a bath. The lama‘s stink –
and I am allergic to smells – was even too much for
me to hear the whole song! I was worried that I was
going to have an asthma attack.

I have spoken much about Saraha; he is the original

source of the school of Tantra.

Tilopa

Tilopa, and the few notes from his song left behind
by his disciples. I wonder, without these disciples,
how much we would have missed. These people who
were just writing down whatsoever was said by the
master, not thinking whether it was right or wrong,
just trying to put it into words as correctly as
possible. And it is a difficult task. A master is a
madman, he can say anything, he can sing anything,
or he may remain silent. He may just make a few
gestures with his hand, and those gestures have to
be understood. That was what Meher Baba did
continuously for thirty years. He remained silent,
only making gestures with his hands.

Is my numbering incorrect, Devageet?

‖No, Osho.‖

So good... it feels so good to be correct sometimes.

With numbers I am really good. It is a strange
coincidence that I asked at the right moment. I
always get mixed up with numbers. I cannot count,
for the simple reason that I am facing the
immeasurable, the unaccountable. The truth that I
am facing is neither in words, nor in numbers. The
truth transcends all, and it is so wondrous that one
gets mixed up. Everything goes upside down,
bizarre. So this is a great compliment that you said I
was right. But now please tell me, what was the
number?

‖Number five, Osho.‖

Thank you.

LET GO of Hubert Benoit

I am going to introduce a Frenchman to you. You will
be surprised. Inside you are asking yourself, ―A
Frenchman? And being listed by Osho along with
Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Suzuki? Has he really
gone mad?‖

Yes, I have never been sane, not for these last

twenty-five years, or a little more. Before that I too
was sane, but thank God – again remember it is just
an expression, because there is no God, only
godliness. I don‘t forget to mention it because there
is every possibility that even my followers, my
disciples, will start worshipping God – or me as a
God. There is no God, there never was.
Nietzsche is wrong when he says, ―God is dead!‖ –
not because God is not dead, but because he was
never alive so how can he be dead? To be dead one
has to first fulfill the condition of being alive. That is
where Sartre is wrong: he agrees with Nietzsche. I
say ―Thank God!‖ – I used the word because there is
no other word to use in its place. But it is only a
word, contentless. ―Thank God‖ simply means it is
good, that it is beautiful.

I am feeling so tremendously joyous that, Devageet,

you will have to remind me again what was the sixth
book I was talking about.

―A Frenchman, Osho.‖

Right. I have not mentioned the name yet. The book

is Hubert Benoit‘s LET GO. It should be on the
bookshelf of every meditator. Nobody has written so
scientifically and yet so poetically. It is a
contradiction, but he has managed it. Hubert
Benoit‘s LET GO is the best that has come out of the
modern Western world. It is the best book of the
century as far as the West is concerned. I am not
counting the East.

Ramakrishna’s PARABLES
Ramakrishna, his PARABLES. You know I don‘t like
saints very much. That does not mean that I like
them a little bit – I don‘t like them at all. In fact, to
be true I hate them. Saints are phony, hocus-pocus,
the stuff bullshit is made of. But Ramakrishna does
not belong to them – again, thank God! At least
there are a few people who are saintly and yet are
not saints.
Ramakrishna‘s PARABLES are very simple. Parables
are bound to be simple. Remember the parables of
Jesus? – just like that. If a parable is difficult then it
is no longer useful. A parable is only needed so that
it can be understood by all ages of children. Yes, I
mean all ages of children. There are children who are
ten years of age, and there are children of eighty
years of age, and so on... but they are all children
playing on the seashore, collecting seashells.
Ramakrishna‘s PARABLES is my seventh book.

THE FABLES OF AESOP

Now Aesop is not really a historical person; he never
existed. Buddha has used all those parables in his
sermons. With Alexander coming to India, those
parables were brought to the West. Of course many
things changed, even the name of Buddha. Buddha
was called The Bodhisattva.

Buddha has said there are two kinds of buddhas: one

is the arhat, one who attains his buddhahood and
then does not care about anybody else; and the
bodhisattva, who attains buddhahood and then tries
his hardest to help others on the path. ‘Bodhisattva‘
was the word carried by Alexander as bodhisat,
which then became Josephus; then from Josephus it
became Aesop. Aesop is not a historical person, but
the parables are tremendously significant. That‘s my
eighth book today.
Nagarjuna’s:
MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA
I don‘t like Nagarjuna very much; he is too much of
a philosopher, and I am anti-philosophic. But his
MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA, his KARIKAS for
short.... MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA means the
essence of the path of the middle – the essential
middle path. In his KARIKAS he has reached the
profoundest depths of which words are capable. I
have never spoken on it. If you want to speak on the
essential, the best way is not to speak at all, just to
be silent. But the book is tremendously beautiful.

Works of Marpa
Tenth: my last for this evening is a strange book;
ordinarily nobody would think I would include it at
all. It is the great work of Marpa, the Tibetan mystic.
Even his followers don‘t read it; it is not meant to be
read, it is a puzzle. You have to meditate over it. You
have just to look at it and then suddenly the book
disappears – its contents disappear, and only the
consciousness remains. Marpa was a very strange
man. His master Milarepa used to say, ―Even I bow
down to Marpa.‖ No master has ever said that, but
Marpa was such....

Somebody once said to Marpa, ―Do you believe in

Milarepa? If so then jump into this fire!‖ Immediately
he jumped! People ran from all sides to extinguish
the fire knowing that Marpa had jumped into it.
When the fire was put out they found him sitting
there in a buddha posture laughing hilariously!
They asked Marpa, ―Why are you laughing?‖

He said, ―I am laughing because trust is the only

thing that fire cannot destroy.‖

This is the man whose simple songs I count as the

tenth – THE BOOK OF MARPA.

Is my hour over? I can hear you saying yes, though I

know my hour has not even come yet. How can it be
over? I have come before my time, that‘s why I am
misunderstood.

But as far as you are concerned, you are right; my

hour is over. And this is really beautiful. There is no
expression for it. It is so beautiful, it is better to end
it now.
Books of Taoshobuddha
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Books will teach you something of the outward

aspects of the inward, and so will Meditation
Talks. Without them you will make really no
progress in inward journey. Remember the
outward is the conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without

books? For the same reason, remember you
cannot think without words. I have to give you
words so that your thinking pattern can
change. Once your thinking pattern is changed
then one day I will take away the word from
you and then I will connect you to your inner
silence.
This is journey from WORD to WORDLESS.
This is the work of a MASTER.

Whenever the darkness of ignorance, despair,

and disappointment stare in your face, a
passage from here and there will certainly
revive the inner cords of your being and thus
will continue the inward journey. This is my
certitude.
S
omeone asked why do I go on writing so many
books, almost an inconceivable number and go
on giving talks not only on Sufi Path instead on
all conceivable Paths of Spiritual Attainment?

Books will teach you something of the outward

aspects of the inward, and so will meditation talks.
Without them you will make really no progress in
inward journey. Remember the outward is the
conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without

books? For the same reason, remember you cannot
think without words. I have to give you words so
that your thinking pattern can change. Once your
thinking pattern is changed then one day I will
connect you to your inner silence.

You have been reared on books. Your mind is so

altered by books and talks, by hearing and speaking,
that the inward can only speak to you through the
outward. Whatever you pretend you can perceive!
Man ultimately becomes what one pretends to
be. However the tragedy is that you are not
interested in books. I have to create designs for
interest in books again.

This is Naqshbandi Design. Books are the Tawwazjoh

or the energy field that the master creates as
Designs for Transformation.
 1. Meditation the Ultimate in Healing:
Meditation and Healing Series

Authored by Taoshobuddha,

List Price: $10.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
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156 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456344788 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456344781
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
This is an investigation how healing can happen. It
begins with a passage from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri‚
The fathomless zero occupied the cosmos and your
world of finiteness. Your physical body is mere
showcase of all that happens at other planes or
bodies.
Then the question comes, from where can healing
really happen. Since physical body is mere showcase
definitely it cannot be the beginning. Regular
medicine begins here but not meditation. Can you
start at bio-plasmic level? Or you still have to go a
step beyond. There are so many unresolved issues in
each one of you that need to be addressed before
the healing can really begin. All these issues are
stored in the fathomless zero that occupied the
world. The journey of healing has to begin from this
point.
Through these meditations I am creating inner
balance between body and the mind. Only then you
can attain to meditativeness. This process will
continue until new man, one who is beyond body,
mind, and intellect, is born out of you.

2. Shah Bahauddin Naqshband - Life and

Works: Naqshbandi Tariqat

Authored by Sheikh TaoshoBuddha

List Price: $65.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
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ISBN-13: 978-1456346799 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456346792
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
SHAH BAHAUDDIN NAQSHBAND – LIFE AND
WORKS

I am ecstatic that once again I have the occasion to

speak to you. However this time the overflow is of
Hazrat Shah Bahauddin Naqshband, one whose very
essence pulsates through the entire Sufi path.

Spiritual awareness is like water, it takes the color

and shape of the cup. Allah's Knowledge is so great,
that however much we take; it is like a drop of a
huge ocean. It like a vast garden, however much we
have cut it is as if we had cut but one flower says an
ecstatic Bahauddin. Yet still the fundamentalists try
to cage this sublime awareness of eternal oneness
within narrow boundaries of religion and beliefs.
Spirituality begins when you cross the narrow
boundaries of religion and religious beliefs. The
entire ummat or creation is the responsibility of the
one who has attained spiritual awareness. But very
rarely you find someone who is versatile to speak of
various paths and masters with authenticity and thus
brings out truth in its sublimity.

Sufism is such overflow of love a great experiment in

human consciousness: how to transform human
consciousness into ishq. It is alchemy. And through
this work and others my effort to bring about the
alchemical change in consciousness that be
possible!

This is what I am doing here with you. You may be

aware, you may not be aware of it, but this whole
experiment is to create in you as much love energy
as possible. Man can be transformed into pure love
energy. Just as there is atomic energy discovered by
physics, and a small atom can explode into
tremendous energy, so too each cell of your heart
can explode into tremendous love. That love is called
ishq. It is atomic in nature. No one can destroy this.
You may call this Love or Awareness, or
Consciousness or God matters not. What really
matters it to be with this energy. Even more
significant is to imbibe it into your being. And then
let it overflow your being. Also let it surround your
life, your living. Sufism is the path of the overflow of
energy. This is Naqshbandiyah Nisbet – the Tariqat.
 3. Leaves from a Sufi Heart Vol 1:
Naqshbandi Tariqat

Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

List Price: $30.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on White paper
608 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456343620 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456343629
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
AN INSIGHT INTO NAQSHBANDI TARIQAT
When truth manifests itself there can be no better
song or melody than this. Truth is an experience.
And Sheikh or a master is the embodiment of truth
on the earth. This is why when a Sheikh looks into a
Tariqat it is Truth or Haqiqat itself. Naqshbandi
tariqat underwent through various periods of growth
and development. Taoshobuddha takes you through
this journey. In the present classic Taoshobuddha
looks into Naqshbandi tariqat. With a crystal clarity
and understanding he presents various masters
along the path and the tariqat. The present classic
pauses before the beginning of the second
millennium with Sheikh Ahmad Al Farookhi Mujadadi,
Sirhindi in the Leaves from a Sufi Heart Volume 2.
And the Third volume will begin with Hazrat Mazhar
Mir Jane Jana.

4. Jap Ji Sahib - Songs of Nanak: Songs of

Nanak

Authored by Taosho Buddha

List Price: $30.00
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
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628 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456345969 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456345966
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
No bird goes to learn. No water fall learns singing.
Song is the spontaneous river of life. This is the
message of Nanak as JAPJI SAHIB – EK OMKAR
SATNAM. Nanak did no tap or jap. He simply sang
with so much totality that alone became his path.
Nanak’s path is full of songs. Sing and dance your
way to God. Japji Sahib is song of one who is
intoxicated with pristine elixir of oneness with one
for whom all his songs were meant. One who was in
Nanak’s very breath! And the cause of his existence!

Remember this is love. Love cares. Love wants the

life of the beloved be beautiful, auspicious, true, and
full of inner glory. Love transforms. Love creates.
Love can even transform destruction in creation. For
love creation is the goal, and destruction is the way
to attain this.When you are enchanted with love!
Love has evolved within! And when you are
innovative and creative in life’s relations then sin can
be no more. When you love then sin becomes
impossible. Like a vast canopy love will go on
spreading and then you will envision hidden deep
within the entire creation. Then you will hesitate to
cheat, and steal.

Nanak says love is the secret. Let love enchant you.

Your inner being will sanctify. This is ritualistic bath.
Only such a bath can wash the dross from your mind
and your being. This is real holy bath. By saying or
claiming one does not become holy or unholy. All
your thinking and aspiration of being holy cannot
help. Moving finger writes and having writ moves on.
And then everything moves accordingly.

The real key means this entire existence is my

beloved. Each particle, and each eyes now reflects
the glory of love. Allow a few drops of this nectar
flow into your being as Taoshobuddha takes you
through Japji Sahib. It is indeed a benediction
Taoshobuddha taking you through various Pauris of
Nanak.

5. Haripath the Hidden Splendor: Haripath

Authored by Taosho Buddha, Authored by

Hemant P Moghe

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BISAC: Religion / Meditations
HARIPATH THE HIDDEN SPLENDOR
HARI PATH OF SANT DNYANESHWAR

Haripath the Gita of working Man! Haripath is such a

mile stone that you stumble upon one day traversing
along life's roads. Now that you have stumbled upon
it make it you way. Chant it repeatedly until you
reach the core of your being. Continue until its echo
begins to linger in your being.

Go over this scripture savoring in unhurriedly -

reading and re - reading. Who knows how many
times, but knowingly or unknowingly, you will have
to repeat it in your different moods, in different
states of mind. Sometimes, when the sun is on the
horizon, or when night covers everything under its
darkness, when the mind is cheerful, or sometimes
when the mind is sad. You will have to enter this
scripture in different moments in different conditions,
only then by and by will its facets become apparent
to you. You will enter a new domain of your being.
And yet it will remain inexhaustible.

Chant God! Seek God ever! Each moment chant the

name!
This is the way to inward journey!

Seek within therefore this enchanting 'Melody of

Path' to Divinity! And this is the reason that even
after 734 years of the birth of Dnyandev these
Abhangas continue to linger in the minds and beings
of NOT ONLY Maharashtrians instead any aspirant
beyond religion; and time and space.

6. Secrets of Spiritual Life - Talks of

Taoshobuddha: Talks of Taoshobuddha

Authored by Lars Jensen

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ISBN-10: 1456348167

BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

The Secrets of Spiritual Life
(Talks of Taoshobuddha)

So I say: My beloved ones, I love you. And I would

like you to fill the whole world with love. Let that be
our religion. Love is simply love. In love you can be a
Christ. In love you can be a Buddha. But there is no
Buddhist love or Christian love and there is no Hindu
or Muslim Love. In love you disappear, your mind
disappears. In love you come to an utter relaxation.

I call you a Buddha. Yes indeed you are that. And I

speak to you of Buddhas. Because they have come
to know a different space within themselves! A space
which cannot be confined by the mind and which
cannot be defined as part of the functioning of the
mind!

That silent space when thoughts are no more! No

ripples arise! This is the beginning of the psychology
of the Buddhas. This is the realm to which master
belong. To this realm I want to take you to. This is
just the beginning. Know this as ‘The Secrets of
Spiritual Life’.

This is my message as my gift to you. The

celebration of ‘Enlightenment’ as the ‘Ultimate
Flowering of Your Being’ NOW AND EVER AND ANON!
As ‘The Secrets of Spiritual Life’

Do not think of Enlightenment just as an inner

experience alone. In the beginning it is an inner
experience. Then slowly bring it into your outer life.
This is what I have been telling you every day.
Remember whatever you experience in meditation
sessions never think the work is over. The
experience that happens in meditation has to be
relived and present in your day – to – day affairs and
life. Know this as ‘The Secrets of Spiritual Life.’ …
TAOSHOBUDDHA

7. Tasuwware Sheikh: Insight into Sheikh Brij

Mohan Lal (q)

Authored by Sheikh TaoshoBuddha, Authored with

Sufi Lakshmi Sahai
List Price: $68.00
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ISBN-13: 978-1456348304 (Create Space-Assigned)
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BISAC: Religion / General
TASUWWAR-E-SHEIKH – INSIGHT INTO
SHIEKH BRIJ MOHAN LAL
This work is NAQSHBANDI CLASSIC BY SHEIKH
TAOSHOBUDDHA DIFFICULT TO PUT DOWN ONCE
STARTED.

In this work Taoshobuddha explains the

methodology that a master uses to bring about
transformation in the disciple. His way and means
are unique, beyond human comprehension, he says.
When truth manifests itself there can be no better
song or melody. Tasuwware Sheikh is such a
moment to moment journey through the
remembrance of the sheikh in the process of inward
journey. Tasuwware Sheikh has been coined by Shah
Bahauddin Naqshband in 13th century. And since
then it has been recommended by the sheikhs as an
essential dhikr for the murids.

This present classic on Tasuwware Sheikh is the

journey of a Fana-fe-ul-Murid of Naqshbandi Sheikh
Sufi Brij Mohan Lal. Riding the wings of the
reminiscence of Naqshbandi Lakshmi Sahai Sheikh
Taoshobuddha has woven a classic presentation
through his command on language, understanding of
the tariqat, and Nisbet-E-Illahi.

Whatever be your faith and whoever be your sheikh

one thing is certain this classic will certainly connect
you to your sheikh, tariqat and in the process will
become a dhikr-e-qulb in the process of
transformation. Various chapters Like ‘What is a
Sheikh ’ and ‘Master appear w hen Disciple is ready’,
explains the inner state of a sheikh and inner
preparation on part of the murid is essential. The
moment disciple is ready Master appears. Various
other chapters have been designed to bring an
insight into life and works of Sheikh Brij Mohan Lal
and Naqshbndiyah tariqat and its advent in Indian
sub-continent, As you move through the pages feel
Nisbet-e-Illahi deep within. Subhan Allah!!!

8. Maraqba-I-Naqshbandi: Insights into

Naqshbandi Tariqat

Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

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6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
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172 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456348502 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456348507
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
INSIGHTS INTO NAQSHBANDI MARAQBAS

Though maraqba begins in the mind, it is not real

maraqba. Begin with the mind. One day you will
attain maraqba. When the mind ceases, you are
beyond it; only then real maraqba begins. Even to go
beyond the mind you have to use the mind itself.
However, use the mind negatively. You will certainly
attain maraqba.

To me the most distinguished Naqshbandi Order is

the way of the Companions of the Prophet, the
sheikh and those who follow them and thus the
tariqat. Sheikhs follow the path laid by the sheikhs.
This is tariqat.

The designation of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain has

changed over the period of time. Only outer apparel
changed not the outer. Many new tributaries and
sub-streams developed. As a result the way of
teaching
saw changes in the techniques of maraqba. The is
change was to suit the murid however there was no
change in tariqat and its inner understandings.
With changing mind patterns and social and cultural
values that have bearing on mental capabilities of
the murids each sheikh has made certain changes.
This current classic looks into these aspects. Sheikh
Taoshobuddha has created certain techniques of
maraqba for Nafs and the modern man.
This will remain a classic for all those who seek
Naqshbndiyah Nisbet and also seek inner
transformation.
May this work of Sheikh Taoshobuddha be accepted
to the Sheikhs and Allah Subhan wa Taala.

9. Leaves from a Sufi Heart Vol 2:

Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqat

Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

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6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
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ISBN-13: 978-1456345853 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456345850
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
Sufism is great celebration. I invite you to celebrate
it with TAOSHOBUDDHA.
List Price: $68.00
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PRODUCT ID 3500978

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ISBN-10: 1456345850
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
Sufism is great celebration. I invite you to celebrate
it with TAOSHOBUDDHA.

The Volume 1 of Leaves from a Sufi Heart paused at

Bahauddin Naqshband. I thought enough has been
spoken. No, yet still much has been left unspoken of
his methodology. So when I began the Volume 2 of
Leaves from the Sufi Heart I had to begin with
Bahauddin Naqshband. After Bahauddin the path
developed many off shoots. From Rasulallah Salallah
Allahe Wassalam to Bahauddin the path was single
tracked. From him the main stream had developed
many tributaries. Therefore it was essential to begin
with Post Bahauddin Era. However before I could do
this his methodology the unique way through
parables needs to be explained. This has not yet
begun something else was knocking the
consciousness. When I looked deep within it was the
entire Sufi Doctrine - the explanation of various
terms.

Thus the journey of the Volume 2 of Leaves From a

Sufi Heart began. This work is the outcome of the
grace, the nisbat, the faiz, or the inayat of Allah S u
bh an wa Taa’la and the Khawajans that this volume
is now in your hands as the Makhtoobats of the
masters.

Without the faiz or the nisbat it could not be possible

and the effects that it is creating within the readers.
May Allah shine His Noor along the path of every
aspirant whom I have met and also those whom I
have not yet met? Maybe I may not meet physically,
kindle their path through the Gaibana Tawajjoh each
finite moment. Kudrat-E-Illahi is beyond human
comprehension. ALHAM DIL ALLAH, SUBHAN ALLAH,
ALLAH HO AKBAR.

‘I think your books are highly recommended for the

true seekers , especially for the seekers of the
highest spiritual order Naqshbandiyah Mujaddidiyah
in English language. ‘I pray to Allah Ta'ala may your
book ‘THE LEAVES FROM A SUFI HEART’ is
acceptable to Allah Ta'ala, His Prophet and the whole
Ummah’.

Maulawi Jalalludin Ahmad Ar-Rowi,

Naqshbandi, Malaysia.

10. Sri Rama Gita: Epitome of

Enlightenment

Authored by Taosho Buddha , Authored by

Taosho Buddha
List Price: $12.00
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on White paper
162 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456350628 (Create Space-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456350625
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality
The Epitome of Enlightenment

Sri Rama Gita is the epitome of enlightenment. In

equivocal terms it explains the inner state of the
enlightened one and also explains how one can
attain to this state.

No conditioning, situation, or being can entrap the

enlightened one again. He has awakened to the state
of the Self. He lives in a realm beyond the sense
perception of body; emotions of the mind; and the
thinking of the intellect. Thus he lives blessing the
world with his pure holiness, even if he is not ‘doing’
anything. His mere presence is an inspiration to the
rest of humanity.
If he is thus liberated from all equipment, why are
the equipment not falling away dead, when their
owner, the ego, has been liberated? The answer is
that the force of its prarabdha karma keeps the body
alive.

The body is the product of our own karma or

vasanas, and it is also a product of the karmas of
others. One can redeem oneself of all one’s own
karmas, but the body still lives and functions,
because of samasti karma or the karmas of others.
This macrocosmic vasana or tendencies is the
equipment of the Lord or Isvara.

Thus, the Enlightened One functions under the Lord’s

will only. Without any sense of ‘I-do’ ahankara and
any attachment asakti, he appears to be functioning
in the world, himself ever living the experience of the
infinite Self, Sri Rama.

Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges

into Brahman. This state is called videha-mukti. Even
earlier, when others were considering him as a
member of the community, he was already a
liberated person jivan-mukti.

11. Parables - Naqshbandi Designs for

Transformation: Naqshbandi Tariqat

Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha

List Price: $25.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on White paper
372 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456354671 (CreateSpace-
Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456354671
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

PRODUCT ID 3502897

PARABLES - NAQSHBANDI Designs for

Transformation
A parable is neither a lie, nor a truth. It is a design,
a NAQSHBANDI. Maps have been invented to help
you. They are arbitrary. Never become too obsessed
with a map. Use it if you can; if you cannot, forget
all about it. It has nothing valuable in it beyond its
use.

Why parables? Just as a Ladder is a design or a

devise to reach to the top and once you reach to the
top the use of ladder is finished. So too a parable is
a design for transformation.
Parables have been designed by Naqshbandi Masters
as devise based on the teachings or the sayings of
the past masters as a unique way to Tariqat.

Someone asked why do I go on writing so many

books, almost an inconceivable number and go on
giving talks not only on Sufi Path instead on all
conceivable Paths of Spiritual Attainment?

Books will teach you something of the outward

aspects of the inward, and so will meditation talks.
Without them you will make really no progress in
inward journey. Remember the outward is the
conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without

books? For the same reason, remember you cannot
think without words. I have to give you words so
that your thinking pattern can change. Once your
thinking pattern is changed then one day I will
connect you to your inner silence.

You have been reared on books. Your mind is so

altered by books and talks, by hearing and speaking,
that the inward can only speak to you through the
outward. Whatever you pretend you can perceive!
Man ultimately becomes what one pretends to be.

This is Naqshbandi Design. Parables are the sayings

of the past Sheikhs that are used by current Sheikhs
as Designs for Transformation.

12. Maraqba-I-Rumi: Sufi Maraqba Series

Authored by Sheikh Taosho Buddha
List Price: $20.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

Black & White on White paper
280 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1456338565 (Create Space-

Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456338560
BISAC: Religion / Spirituality

MARAQBA-I-RUMI BY SHEIKH TAOSHOBUDDHA

There is something mystical in these compositions of

Jalaluddin Rumi for which I have no words to
explain. However certainly there is something.
Through these compositions and meditations
Taoshobuddha has created such level of beauty
through the use and mastery of musical rhythm and
rhyme with the play of words, that the reader and
listener not only can appreciate the wisdom
contained in these compositions, but also reach
levels of ecstasy and mystical energy that is seldom
found in other such compositions.

Certainly these connect to your being. Taoshobuddha

calls these as Maraqbas. The mastery of rhyme and
rhythm is such that very often he creates a new
vocabulary, using the same old words, yet creating
new feelings that are associated with the insights of
Rumi. Furthermore, often he has such mastery of
play on words or at other times he uses the same
word with a different accent or vowel twice or even
thrice in the same composition, with a different
meaning each time.

One cannot help but marvel at the linguistic mastery

that Taoshobuddha displays through various
compositions and meditations that he has created.
One can simply drown in the essence of it and thus
get connected to your being. In any case, the end
result is the same. The experience of artistic beauty
of these compositions, voice modulations, rhythm
and ecstatic energy, and alpha brain wave patterns
all combined together with the mental understanding
of the wisdom conveyed take the listener to the state
of meditation. This is as close as one can get to the
mystical experience itself, without actually being
present with Taoshobuddha.
 Year 2010 in Retrospect
By
Swami Anand Neelambar
Chief Editor

is a monthly production of
TAOSHOBUDDHA MEDITATIONS. We have
explored various paths of inward journey through the
issues of Meditation Times on a monthly basis.

Naqshbandi Sheikh Ramchandra Lalaji said

betaSsubI sdakt kI jan hE.
To rise beyond narrowness
is the only way for spirituality!
Therefore we have explored, and spoken on almost
all paths and various masters beyond narrowness. As
the year 2010 enters into the womb of eternity for
ever we take you through the review of each issue of
Meditation Times.

Meditation Times January 2010

A new dawn ushers the

hope of transformation
and enlightenment. The
spring brings many
wonderful manifestations.
The flowers of hope may
seem to fade but they
ne‟er vanish.

Masters are like flowers

they come waft their
fragrance to the winds
and then wilt to form
manure so that the
disciples can grow with this divine fertilizer.

Death for a master is but a celebration and mere

transition to another realm. It is a portal to a world
divine and sublime. A world beyond the cognition of
our frail senses!

Masters always see from a transcendental

perspective and that is why we cannot understand
their implicit utterances. And yet a child can see
exactly what the masters say. To understand a
master simple innocence is needed.
If your mind is cunning and calculating you will miss
a master even if he lives in your house. To smell a
flower all that is required is your presence. To
recognize a master all that is needed on your part is
your availability. You must be open and vulnerable.

This January issue celebrates Death. Our last year‟s

January issue also was a celebration of death. It
seems ironic that for a New Year we start by
celebrating Death. But Death is really a rebirth. A
discontinuity with a past and plunge into the
unknown and unknowable. Unknown and
unknowable because you cannot know it with your
mind and for mind it will always remain unknowable.
And a heart need not know it cause a heart lives is in
it, a heart is it.

Masters are like flowers that blossom with the light

of spring and whiter with the darkness of winter. Few
masters appear in winter. Not the physical winter but
the winter of the soul. Rare indeed does a master
appear in the winter of the souls‟ sojourn.

Meditation Times Feb 2010

The mystery and magic of love cannot be known by

science and mind. Only a heart that is capable of
total madness can glimpse the wondrous majesty of
love. Love is not within the domain of reason or
intellectual discussions. Love defies definition and yet
there are more definitions on love than on any other
subject.
The enigma of love has enraptured the soul of man
ever since he first peered into the vast limitless
beyond. Love is love and cannot be stated by any
other way. Nothing can define love. Love defines
everything.

It is because of love the stars whirl in their cosmic

dance of creation. It is because of love the tiny ants
carry food to their nest. The entire cosmos exists in
love and for love. It is the expressions of love that
manifest as the Creation.

Mystics and poets have

sought to give expressions
of their insights of love only
to become vehicles of love
themselves. Love transforms
and transmutes whoever
seeks its shadows into love
itself. To know love is to
become love. Yet love can
only be known by being
love. Thus love is its own
knowledge and knowledge is
only knowledge when is
becomes love otherwise it is mere intellectual
gymnastics.

This issue of Meditation Times highlights some of the

many expressions of love by various mystics and
poets.

In this editorial I wish to quote verbatim from an

extract by the chief editor from his upcoming book
“LOTUS from the MOON” .
Love is an energy that makes our hearts, yet our
hearts cannot make that power. Love descends upon
our souls by the will of God and not by the demand
or plea of the individual. Love opens the dimensions
beyond the realm of intellect and offers no reason for
its appearance and departure. One can either live in
the misery of its submission and pine for its return,
or celebrate the bitter sweet memories. Love is not
within the domain of your control. In fact you cannot
love. It is love that possesses you and carries you in
its wild dance through the portal of beauty, truth and
bliss. Only one of infinite trust can fathom the
depths of this mystery of two souls pulsating as one
orgasmic being. Love is oneness. Duality is the
illusion of the mind that seeks to protect its ego by
creating a separation, and then wandering aimlessly
hither and thither; roaming for many lives to seek
the lost beloved; all the time with the kohinoor
(treasure of love) in the undiscovered sanctum of
your heart. Once you realize that love is not a
search but a happening. Then the miracle is that you
were all the time in love but the screen of fear
prevented you from feeling its presence. My work is
to help remove this fear and love will reveal itself.

MEDITATION TIMES MARCH 2010

This March issue highlights the concept of

enlightenment. Enlightenment, though it is Sanskrit
in origin, it is essentially Buddhist and specifically
Zen in its flavor. Hindus have not been known to
seek enlightenment as is the case with the Chinese
and Japanese masters. Hindus have stopped at the
mere attainment of samdhi – the trans-conscious
state of turiya as it is aptly called.

Enlightenment is viewed as
something mysterious and
magical. Yet it is the most
simple of phenomenon. It is
our very natural selves and
not some other worldly
experience. In fact we are
already enlightened; it is
just that we are too afraid
to be aware of it.

Masters are really mirrors

to reflect our original face.
It is this face that we are
too scared to see so we put
on many masks to hide our
true reality. The deception
has even befooled us. We
think we are this deception
now and forget that we are
Buddhas in mortal garb. So
much so that when the
masters say you are
Buddhas we rebel and
crucify him.

We make enlightenment a
super human and super divine attainment.
Enlightenment is not even a simple attainment.
Enlightenment is not an attainment at all.
Enlightenment is dropping all desire for attainment.
Be still and know. Not that being still you will then
know. The very stillness is knowing. It is one and the
same. Just being still is knowing. This is
enlightenment.

When you come in contact with that dimension which

is the very source of your creation, you can melt and
merge with it, you can become one with it, or you
can sit and watch like a spectator. The choice is
yours.

MEDITATION TIMES APRIL 2010

We continue the enlightenment saga. Life is an

experience and an opportunity. Enlightenment is
when we understand what to do with the opportunity
that is given to us. Each of us has a unique song to
sing and make the
universe a harmony of
musical melodies. The
orchestra will be left
unfulfilled were we not to
find our song and sing it.
The techniques to re-
cover these ancient
echoes are varied and
multifarious. The sad
reality is that we have
forgotten the natural
rhythms and now dance
to robotic beats with mechanical precision. Mind is
now master. The heart waits in silence...ever
resounding the mystical vibrations that continue to
fall on deaf ears.

An inner tuning is needed to hear this silent melody

– a still mind. The small voice of the existence is
mute when the mind is engaged in the maddening
rush to nowhere. The noise and clamour of material
pursuits is deaf and immune to the realms of inner
calling. The cries from the yonder hills are lost in the
busy streets of the market place. Now and again a
thunderous lion‟ s roar awakens one lonely
seeker...and he is quickly silence by the crowd that
is slumbering for eons.

His message of life eternal is heard as gibberish and

he is scoffed and told to go back to sleep. The
slumber pains his soul and he moves to solitude to
embrace his beloved. His constant companion is the
echoes in the pines that carry the eternal songs. The
birds sing the praises and the brooks murmur the
enchanting rhapsodies.

The flowers display his canvas of beauty while the

star studded skies reveal his fathomless secrets in a
matrix of intricate tapestry.

MEDITATION TIMES MAY 2010

In this out third anniversary issue we focus on Jiddu

Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti is one on the Buddhas of
this century, and like all Buddhas he is most
misunderstood. And especially by his critics who are
not enlightened. Only an enlightened can see into
another enlightened master and say from what plane
he is operating at.

Krishnamurti was too advances for his disciples.

Those who gathered around him could not fathom
his depth and profound teachings. It takes great
preparation to reach the dimension of Krishnamurti.
Those of a future time will be able to grasp the
precocious insights of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

It was no accident that

Krishnamurti was a
contemporary of Osho. Both
master were from another
realm and could not be
understood by the disciples
around them. However in
the case with Osh he sought
to make every effort to
make his vision available to
the disciples. Osho came
down to the level of the
disciples. Jiddu tried in vain
to elevate his disciples. The realm he came from was
just too infinite to be brought down to normal
consciousness. It was the tragedy that Jiddu could
not reach his disciples. But he did prepare them to
see beyond this realm and to seek the vistas into a
new dimension of consciousness.

Such a dimension was envisioned by Osho and Osho

made every vista into the herenow available. And
this could not have been possible were it not for the
preparation by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Ramakrishna was also very insignificant as a
precursor to Osho. It was Ramakrishna who first
sought to seek God in all available paths at the time.
The paths are many but the goal is one.

Jiddu insisted that there is no path. And he is right at

the ultimate level. At some point all paths must be
dropped to go beyond. But one cannot just begin at
no path. It is difficult and man cannot go into the
dark night with no staff to help him grope. The
master is the staff. The master has been through the
dark night and he can guide the disciple up the point
where the disciples has to muster all his courage to
take the plunge into the dimension beyond the
known.

It is from this dimension where Jiddu speaks. And

Jiddu was one of the rare and few masters who
spoke of the herenow as the ultimate state of being.
When one is in the herenow one is in the totality of
existence. One is interconnected to all and one is all.

One becomes all and all becomes one.

In our third anniversary issue we choose to highlight
in much detail Jiddu Krishnamurti as he stands apart
from all other masters. And as I mentioned earlier
Jiddu shall only be understood in a future time when
mankind has evolved to a level beyond knowledge.

MEDITATION TIMES JUNE 2010

Fear is the enemy of truth. To uncover truth or to

even begin the sojourn, one must be fearless. Man
fears that which he does not know. And the quest in
the unknown grips man with a paralyzing fear. Man
fears to sit in meditation and access the inner recess
of his own mind.

And yet that which is the cause of fear does not

really exist – the ego. It is the ego that is the source
of all man‟ s fears. And this ego is non-existential.
Man fears love as well. In love ego tends to dissolve
and so man shirks love. He cowers in the face of
love. His immaculate and lofty portrayals of love are
filed with the under pinning of fear.

The quest into the unknown requires a fearless

desire for truth. Hence I say fear is the enemy of
truth.

In the opening pauri of

Nanak‟ s Japiji he says
Omkar is nirbhay – without
fear. Fear arises out of
duality. When there is only
One, there is no fear. Ego is
an illusion of separation and
hence fear is screen that
inhibits the seeing of
herenow.

Fear creates longing for the

past – because it is known.
And fear wants to project the known into the future.
With fear we remain stuck in the rut of samsara –
the cycle to continuous births and death. To break
this cycle the heart must be fearless.

To exist in the present moment is to be fearless. It is

a discontinuity with the past. When we are present in
the present we are fearless. Mind is full of fear. Mind
is fear.

After his treatise on the eighteen types of Yoga and

spiritual disciples, Krishna goads Arjuna to be
fearless in the battle. His last words were “ma sucha”
– do not fear.

To undertake the journey of spiritual life all fear has

to be overcome. The encouragement of one who has
crossed further shore is needed. Trust in the
guidance of the Guru will dispel fear. The guru has
seen the mystical realm. His hands outstretch to
welcome you into the dimension of herenow.

Guru removes fear and the truth is seen crystal

clear. It is fear that is the screen.

Tagore in his immortal Gitanjali says in one of his

poems, “ Where the mind is without fear...”

This issue is a focus on overcoming fear. Once fear is

removed, the path to truth becomes easy to
traverse.

It is no wonder that drunkards have no fear. And

those who are drunk with the wine of the mystic very
easily reach truth. In fact truth finds them a worthy
receptacle and descends into their hearts.

Mind is full of fear. Empty the mind of its fear and

truth shall dawn like the rising sun.

“ So whenever you feel fear, it is a tremendous

opportunity to understand that life is momentary, it
is ephemeral, it is made of the same stuff as dreams
are made of...” OSHO
MEDITATION TIMES JULY 2010

Guru is one who removes darkness of ignorance and

the darkness of knowledge. Both are veils that
prevent the atman from full realization. Guru need
not be a person. Any situation where one can rise
out of ignorance and knowledge can be considered a
guru.

Sufis say when the

disciple is ready the
Master appears. I differ in
this view. I say when the
Master is ready the
disciple appears. Masters
are not so important. It is
the receptivity of the
disciple that transforms
him. Hence any situation
can be a Master or Guru.
It is the disciple that
makes the quantum leap
due to his insights.

Guru is really a mirror. The disciple sees his original

face. The Guru is the future of the disciple.

Even false gurus are masters in their own right.

Cause it is really the receptivity of the disciple that is
most important. And by false I mean in terms of
established traditions. But any guru who is a
conformist is not a guru for me. Gurus bring new
insights and hence cannot be conformist. Yet there
are many gurus who are conformist.
The search to find a true guru is baseless and wrong
in the first place. The disciple has to search the
burning desire in his heart first. This burning desire
is the desire to know the truth. When this reaches
100 degrees then the real quest begins.

This issue is in commemoration of Guru. And we

introduce a new format for Meditation Times. We
shall be giving excerpts from our upcoming
publications and continuing excerpts from them each
month.

One of the great Masters is Gurdjieff. He is our main

feature this issue.

MEDITATION TIMES AUGUST 2010

This issue has been dedicated to Sri Ram – an

avatar, a God of Hindu origins but universal
application.

Sri Ram, the very name is

saturated with divinity.
Ram is not just an ideal
but he is a being who
played the role of a human
and played it so totally
that he transformed his
humanity into divinity.
Swami Vivekananda says
“to be truly human is to be
divine”.
The story of this magnanimous character Ram was
first recorded in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki. Valmiki
went through a radical revolution in consciousness
and that made him the worthy bard of the epic
Ramayana.

Many other versions and editions of the story have

come into existence since then. Swami Vivekananda
says that as long as mankind exists the story of Ram
and Sita will continue to inspire humanity. Sri
Aurobindo says the Ramayana “has been an agent of
almost incalculable power in the moulding of the
cultural mind of India: it has presented to it to be
loved and imitated in figures like Rama and Sita,
made so divinely and with such a revelation of reality
as to become objects of enduring cult and worship,
or like Hanuman, Lakshmana, Bharata, the living
human image of its ethical ideals.”

Our attempt in this issue of Meditation Times is to

present a spiritual and mystical dimension to the
story and to unravel the deeper inner imports of the
text – Ramayana. We are especially intrigued by the
Ram- Kaikeyi Samvad. In this discussion Ram calls
Kaikeyi as his „ janani‟ . Janani is one who gives you
birth. His actual mother is Kausilya but why does he
call Kaikeyi as his mother and not just

mother as the title can be used for various persons

of that disposition, but he says janani – one who
gives me birth. Kaikeyi actually was the one because
of who Ram could have executed the reason for his
mission. The real spiritual works of Ram started with
his journey to the forest – that was initiated by
Kaikeyi.

One of the more popular editions of the Ramayana is

by Goswami Tulsidasa.

Tulsidas‟ Ramcharitmanas is “a long chant of

religious devotion.” Tulsidas‟ famed Hindi Ramayana
“combines with a singular mastery lyric intensity,
romantic richness and the sublimity of the epic
imagination.” – Sri Aurobindo.

Tulsidasa made the story of Ram available to

“common people”. We at Meditation Times are
trying to make every possible dimension of
spirituality available to all who would come from the
various disciplines and schools to thought. In all of
these editorials we over highlight this point.

MEDITATION TIMES SEPTEMBER 2010

The response to our August 2010 issue was

overwhelming and we have decided to continue in
our present September issue to highlight aspects of
the Hindu Epic Ramayana. It seems that the readers
have found an undiscovered analysis of the text. Our
way is both unique and universal. We present old
wine in new bottles because the mystic wine is the
same and causes the same effect when drunk. We
are merely preparing a menu that suits the appetite
of the seeker.
We intend to do a trilogy on Ramayana and a third
issue would be forthcoming. This issue will focus on
women in the Ramayana a will be our Deepavali
issue. The October issue will focus on Sufism as a
tribute to the Islamic month of Ramadan. This issue
on Sufism will relate to the growth of Naqshbandi
Path in India and another issue the Hindu Influence
in Naqshbandi path.

In our present issue that

deals with the Ramayana,
we highlight some of the
main characters of the
Epic. And give special
emphasis on the Gayatri
Mantra. In a subsequent
issue we will deal
exclusively with this most
potent Mantra.

The relation of Gayatri to

Rama is that Rama is a descendent of the Sun
Dynasty, and Gayatri (Savitri) is the daughter of the
Sun God. Hence a direct bond is established. Also
the guru of Rama is Vishvamitra who got his siddhis
from the Sun God through recitation of the Gayatri
Mantra.

The demon king Ravana is a much misunderstand

and misrepresented character of the Ramayana. His
role cannot easily be unraveled without the „intuitive
eyes of knowledge‟ – chakshyumati vidya.
“If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana, for
he is the dark side of Vishnu.” – Sri Aurobindo.

The text lends itself to allegory but the allegory is

not of personal whim or fancy. It has a mystical
synergy. With our mental caprice we can concoct a
meaning and interpretation. This fabrication would
be a travesty of truth. The truth is hidden from the
unscrupulous and revealed only to the sincere
seekers who have risen above the moral dualities
and who have adopted the path of the sannyasin –
divine outlaw, one who has gone beyond the laws of
mortal men.

Our singular approach is to give hints of the mystical

and point towards the moon (in this case the Sun).
Truth is such that is cannot be said directly, that is
the very nature of truth. We can only give hints and
indicate towards some dimension beyond the known.

One encounters truth along the sojourn to life

eternal. Then one comes to understand why the
truth cannot be said. A truth that can be said is not
truth. Truth is silence. When all the noise and chatter
of the mind, when the waves of thought have
receded into the vast eternity of love‟s mute
gestures, truth shines like a thousand sun – Gayatri
illumines the intellect and the eyes of knowledge
open to see the Reality as it with no mind, no
thought , no feeling – this is the truth . Ramayana is
the path to truth. Rama is the incarnate truth. Aham
Rama Asmi – I am Rama.
MEDITATION TIMES OCTOBER 2010

The world of the Sufi is magical, mysterious,

melodious, marvellous, methodological and most of
all mystical. A Sufi cannot be found unless he reveals
himself.

Religion has three phases – the first is Shariat – the

outer core of ritual and rules; the second is Haqiquat
– the inner core of truth and realization; and third is
Tariquat – the methods, disciplines and techniques
to attain realization.

Sufism is the inner core

of the spiritual quest.
The dregs and dross are
removed and pure love
remains. The Sufi
approach is one of awe
and wonder at the
marvels of the Creator
Who is dissolved in His
Creation. One cannot
come to appreciate
Sufism without being
transformed by the
very desire to know
what Sufism is. To know the Sufi way is to become a
Sufi by the very process of knowing. But Sufi is
about love – not knowing, at least not intellectual
knowing.
The Sufi path is riddled with mysterious parables and
mystical insights into very ordinary things. When one
begins to inquire who is a Sufi then the lamp of
knowing is lit. When this flame becomes a burning
passion that cannot be quelled until the heart dances
with ecstasy at the mere thought of the Beloved,
only then the search is over.

A Sufi is mad. Mad for the Beloved. Mad because he

has left the arms of world to embrace the open sky
without a thought for tomorrow.

A Sufi is a moth that dies in the enamoring flames

of dissolution. He must not only see the Beloved, he
must die in the presence. Only such a death reveals
what is truly worth living. A Sufi is one who has
died for the world and

is reborn into the paradise of heaven on earth.

Where a Sufi lives that place is the mythical firdous.
Only now is it not a myth. It is a living reality. To
even meet a Sufi by passing chance is a gift from
Allah. Only he who has reached the last stages of
spiritual evolution will get such a grace. This issue
of Meditation Times is about the Sufi Way, the Sufi
Path.

Sufis are interested in the transformation of

consciousness. Their main focus is how to get the
sincere aspirant to renounce his old ways and
embrace a method that will draw his awareness to
an inner calling. This is done very mysteriously and
mystically, in such a way that the aspirant does not
know when the old way has dropped and the new
way is adopted. He feels a pull from within and an
irresistible urge to follow this Sufi Master. He has
fallen in love with the Sufi. This love is what will
carry him to the firdous of his inner being.

Such is the mysterious Sufi Path. A path of pure

love, a way of transformation from lead to gold!

MEDITATION TIMES NOVEMBER 2010

The world of the Sikhs is ordinary and simple. It is

not based on any miracles. This is one for the very
few paths founded by a Master that is does not rely
of any miraculous phenomenon for its origins and
existence.

Guru Nanak is one of

the four persons that I
have identified as
changing the direction
of the new world. It
was no wonder that
Christopher Columbus
discovered a new
continent and called it
the New World. This
new world was outer.
But Guru Nanak
discovered a new
inner world. This is the
world of the Sikhs. The both discoveries were made
around the same time in opposite parts of the world
– East and West.

We have delved into the world of the Sikhs in

previous issues of Meditation Times. We again take a
plunge into this world and explore the many wonders
it has to offer. Nanak is very dear to us. He called his
place of worship as Gurudwara, which literally means
the door to the beyond. It can be considered a
„stargate‟ a portal that transports the meditator to
realm beyond the dimensions of the mind.

It should be noted that what Nanak discovered was

not new; just like what Columbus discovered was not
new. It always existed. They just made it known to
the world that had forgotten about it.

Japuji is the fragrance of the ultimate flowering of

Gurudev Nanak. After Nanak attained the dissolution
of his being and transcendental merger into the
cosmos, the first words he uttered was “ek omkar
satnam”. In this simple yet profound declaration is
the foundation for the entire edifice of the Sikh
religion.

The words seem simple enough but the words are

not the message. One needs to delve deeper to
extract the hidden mysteries within the words.

Krishna says in Gita that there is only one mantra.

This mantra is Om Tat Sat. This Om Tat Sat was
interpreted by Nanak as Ek Omkar Satnam. They
mean the same thing.
Ek – means one. Not one as opposed to two or many
but simply one because there is only one. He alone
exists. Nothing else exists.

Omkar – means the resounding existential sound. All

creation emanates from sound vibration. This sound
vibration is OM. Through the utterance of Om He
becomes the creation and is involved in the cosmic
Lila.

Sat – means that which exists eternally. It is the

sacchidananda of Vedanta; the rit of Veda; the
dhamma of Buddha; the dharma of Puranas.

Nam – means the world of infinite plurality; the

world of names and forms; the entire creation.

Ek omkar satnam means there is only one existential

sound resounding through all creation.

All the verses of Nanak were sung. His way was

through singing. This is Bhagavad Gita – the celestial
song. Singing was the invisible silk thread that
Nanak used to ultimately link with the invisible
cosmic umbilical cord that emanates from Him.