Ramana Maharshi - His Life
This is a biography of the life of Sri Ramana Maharshi, by Gabriele Ebert. Download
This is the mere text version of LuLu-title 208022 (www.lulu.com/content/208022) without any pictures and photos for free download. Enjoy!
Ramana Maharshi is universally considered as the Greatest Sage that has been born, as an act of Divine grace, on this planet for a millennium. Not since Adi Shankara has any Enlightened Being made such an impact on the spiritual development of our world both in the East and in the West. This beautifully written and most expertly translated major biography of the Great Master fully illustrates this claim, most convincingly and in no uncertain manner. It is full of anecdotal history which brings to vivid life, the teachings and example of this supreme Spiritual Master. (from the foreword by Alan Adams-Jacobs).
An excerpt of the book sent to me by the author is presented below:
Humor
Do you believe that laughter is good for you - for your chakras - for your health ??? If you are under this misconception, then go ahead and read the following. Sending you bill shortly ...
A policeman stops by a man in a park and asks him what he is doing?
The man, sitting cross-legged, opens his eyes and answers:
"I have the right to remain silent."
Zazen instructor to student:
"Don't just do something, sit there."
One Pranayama student to another:
"Life is hard. It's breathe, breathe, breathe, all the time."
What did the Yogi say when he walked into the Zen Pizza Parlor?
"Make me one with everything."
When the Yogi got the pizza, he gave the proprietor a $20 bill. The proprietor pocketed the bill. The Yogi said "Don't I get change?" The proprietor said, "Change must come from within."
Three monks were meditating in a monastery. All of a sudden the prayer flag on the roof started flapping. The younger monk came out of his meditation and said: "The flag is flapping"
A more experienced monk corrected him: "Actually, The wind is flapping"
The enlightened master, Jo Shu said: "Fools, it is the mind that is flapping."
A passerby, just having attended the Nithyanandam and visibly annoyed said: "Dumb Idiots, it is your mouths that are flapping!"
Try this also:
http://www.experiencefestival
Please keep coming back to this page for more ...
Ananda Alone
All the directions are obscure,
The teachings are not clear to me;
With our benevolent friend gone,
It seems as if all is darkness.
For one whose friend has passed away,
One whose teacher is gone for good,
There is no friend that can compare
With mindfulness of the body.
The old ones have all passed away;
I do not fit in with the new.
And so today I muse alone
Like a bird who has gone to roost.
These mournful words were uttered by Ananda in the Theragatha, the Poems of the Elders, and reveal a very human side of one of the canon's most sensitive characters.
First Bodhisattva Vow
All living creatures of whatever class, born from eggs, from wombs, from moisture, or by transformation, whether with form or without form, whether in a state of thinking or exempt from thought-neccessity, or wholly beyond all thought realms--all these are caused by Me to attain Unbounded Liberation Nirvana. Yet when vast, uncountable, immeasurable numbers of beings have thus been liberated, verily no being has been liberated. Why is this, Subhuti? It is because no Bodhisattva who is a real Bodhisattva cherishes the idea of an ego-entity, a personality, a being, or a separated individuality.
— Buddha to Subhuti in Diamond Cutter Sutra
The Guru is above all
The Guru is greater than Mother and Father and lover,
The Guru is God i, Creation, Truth and greater,
The Guru is greater than Enlightenmenti, Liberation and anything else that may be attained,
The Guru is greater than Life itself.
-- written in loving memory of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, while on train from Bangalore to Ujjain on January 4th, 2006. Inspired by something said by Sri Nithyananda in Dec 2005.
The highest gift
'One can give food, clothes, shelter, knowledge, affection, but the highest gift is the gospel of enlightenment', my Guru used to say. You are right, enlightenment is the highest good. Once you have it, nobody can take it away from you.
Buddha said that the idea of enlightenment is extremely important. Most people go through their lives not even knowing that there is such a thing as enlightenment, leave alone the striving for it. Once they have heard of it, a seed was sown which cannot die. Therefore, he would send his bhikhus to preach ceaselessly for eight months every year.
— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Reality - here and now
Q: I am tired of promises. I am tired of sadhanas, which take all my time and energy and bring nothing. I want reality here and now. Can I have it?
M: Of course you can, provided you are really fed up with everything, including your sadhanas. When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God i, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected!
— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Loving Devotion
Once Krishna feigned a headache for which the only cure, He said, was the application of dust from a devoteei 's feet. Sage Narada sought out many devotees but they all declined. They felt that to apply the dust of their feet on the Lord's head would be sacrilege. Ultimately Narada went to the gopis of Brindavan.
On hearing of the plight of their beloved Krishna, the gopis immediately bent down and feverishly started collecting the dust from their feet. In their god-intoxicated state, there was no distinction for them between feet, head or hand. Everything was Krishna's. So where was the question of sacrilege?
Advaita Dialogue
I found this very interesting dialogue by Prof V Krishnamurthy, between a fictitious student and Guru. It attempts to explain Advaita concepts without getting too deep.
Link: http://www.geocities.com
Some unconnected excerpts...
If you don't identify yourself with your BMI (body-mind-intellect), you are not the experiencer.
So You, when you are not identified with the BMI, are no more the experiencer.
If there is no such identification, there is no experience of happiness or suffering. You are what you are.
Buddha on Vegetarianism
I hope this puts to rest some of the crap i have to put up with about the Buddha eating meat.
Buddha established the principle of "ahimsa", non-violence, and vegetarianism as fundamental steps on the path of self-awareness. In the "Lankavatara-sutra" he states thus:
"To avoid terror to living beings, let the disciple refrain from eating meat ... the food of the wise is that which is consumed by the "sadhus" holy men; it does not consist of meat. ... There may be some foolish people in the future who will say that I permitted meat-eating and that I partook of meat myself, but ... meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit meat-eating in any form, in any manner and in any place; it is unconditionally prohibited for all."
Claim that Buddha would have died from eating rancid meat should therefore be considered a great misunderstanding. The original Pali word, which is often mistranslated as "pig's flesh" is "sukara-madava". However, the Pali word for "pig's flesh" would be "sukara-mamsa". "Sukara-madava", which means "a pig's delight", refers to a pignut, or truffle. Most Buddhist scholars today tend to admit that the theory of Buddha's eating pig's flesh as his last food was a careless assumption, with absolutely no scholarly substantiation.
Let all creatures, let all things that live, all beings of whatever kind, see nothing that will bode them ill! May naught of evil come to them!
- The Buddha (culla-vagga)
Other links:
http://www.compassionatespirit
http://www.kurma.net/faq/ask58
"All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill."
- Lord Buddha, Dhammapada, 129
"One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter.
- Lord Buddha, Dhammapada, 131
"Anyone familiar with the numerous accounts of the Buddha's extraordinary compassion and reverence for living beings - for example his insistence that his monks strain the water they drink lest they inadvertently cause the death of any micro-organisms could never believe that he would be indifferent to the sufferings of domestic animals caused by their slaughter of food"
"The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion"
- Mahaparinirvana (Mahayana Version)
"There is just no reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. Man can live without meat."
- The Dalai Lama
Editor: Now please repeat after me:
The Buddha did not eat meat
The Buddha did not permit meat-eating
Thanks :-)
