The way of the bird

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There is no "you" and no "doer." To think that you exist as the doer is ego. That is one definition of the ego. The actual nature of the ignorance is very hard to define. It is a state of "not-knowing" that persists throughout the life, appearing the same way every morning with the waking state. You cannot really see or understand this state of ignorance from within it. To think about the Self or God in ignorance is like having a thought about waking up in the middle of a dream. It remains only a thought and does not have any effect. You may think that you should do this or that in order to awaken, but you are only murmuring in your sleep. On the other hand, to think about waking up in the dream does happen and is right and appropriate. Awakening follows at the proper time. 4.29 "The power, which is so subtle, which makes everything work, can you feel it? Why? Because it is nothing." The divine power that creates the world and makes everything happen is the power of Maya, illusion. Maya is the power of Brahman. To experience His power, Brahman has manifested himself as the world. If you are the sun, do you feel your own heat and see your own light? They are the effects of your existence, not your existence itself. The light of the sun is visible to the one who looks at it, not to the sun. The tremendous power of a flowing river is reduced to nothing at its source. A shadow is nothing to the one who casts it. 4.30 "Knowledge is the greatest ignorance." Out of ignorance, knowledge has emerged. The thought comes "I am a person." The Self has identified Itself with the form and the name. The game goes on in this way, life after life, as long as ignorance remains. Happiness remains elusive, appearing tantalizingly for a short while, then receding again, leaving only a nagging desire for more. Desires are pursued, ends gained, something is won and something is lost. Death silences the person, which disappears as mysteriously as it appeared. Another person appears, lives a little time, and then also vanishes. This is the nature of knowledge. To take it to be true is the greatest ignorance.
5 May: The "Problem" of the Ego 5.1 "I was never born." If you have a problem, you need to find a solution. If you don't have a problem, then there is no need to find a solution. So Maharaj taught that you should first of all find out if there is really a problem. There may be a feeling of dissatisfaction and you can say that that is the problem, but the question is whether that dissatisfaction is there because of something fundamentally lacking in you. It may be that there is nothing fundamentally wrong and that the dissatisfaction is caused by some wrong concept that you have about yourself. If that is the case, then the problem is not real, it is only an apparent problem that will go away as soon as you let go of the false concept. We do have a false concept of ourselves. That false concept consists in the belief that we were born as individual entities and must therefore die. The one who was born is the one who has the problem of death. But where is the evidence that what you actually are was ever born? How can you know for sure as long as you don't know who or what you really are? To be free of the fear of death, you must know beyond any doubt that you were never born. 5.2 "Don't think `I am doing these things to acquire reality.' You are He." You can create a problem for yourself if you try too hard, or if you try in the wrong way. There is actually nothing to acquire because you are already the Self. My own experience was that at a certain point in my search, it occurred to me that all the efforts I was making to "remember myself, "be here now," and to be detached from life's circumstances were all being done because I felt that "I" had something to gain. There was a rather sudden understanding that it was in fact the ego that was trying to acquire reality and also trying to eliminate itself! When this happened, I entered a phase in which I felt that I couldn't do anything. I abandoned my ego-centric efforts but I felt helpless. I drifted along like this for several years. Then I met Maharaj and he told me that I am already the reality, but I had not yet been able to accept it. That was the turning point for me, because, deep down, I already knew and felt that there is nothing to be gained. It was only a question of recognition of what was already the case. After that, understanding came very quickly. 5.3 "Examine the mind. `Why you doubt?'"
Page 1 and 2: The Way Of The Bird Quotations of R
Page 3 and 4: a collection of separate objects an
Page 5 and 6: objects. All of it taken together i
Page 7 and 8: yourself as the ego is to forget th
Page 9 and 10: false concept of a "doer." Life wit
Page 11 and 12: decay that plays itself out much sl
Page 13 and 14: thing that was real. In the same wa
Page 15 and 16: "I am Brahman" is a phrase that is
Page 17 and 18: Maharaj would often use the phrase
Page 19 and 20: continue to play a part but you wil
Page 21 and 22: Understanding the nature of reality
Page 23 and 24: development through accumulation an
Page 25 and 26: tiny spring, is water when it passe
Page 27 and 28: It is always now, whether you are r
Page 29 and 30: "knowledge" in Self-knowledge is re
Page 31 and 32: The world is not a place in which l
Page 33 and 34: 4.4 "I am an ignorant person. I kno
Page 35 and 36: 4.10 "The power is also not true."
Page 37 and 38: more subtle than objects because it
Page 39: 4.25 "In Oneness, there is neither
Page 43 and 44: The whole of human interaction and
Page 45 and 46: 5.14 "I take bondage on myself." Yo
Page 47 and 48: Fools, dwelling in darkness but wis
Page 49 and 50: Maharaj equates mind with ego, and
Page 51 and 52: 6 June: Being an Aspirant 6.1 "You
Page 53 and 54: elimination. This is why Maharaj sa
Page 55 and 56: disciples to become what he was. He
Page 57 and 58: 6.19 "If doubts come in the mind, a
Page 59 and 60: describe your symptoms, and then re
Page 61 and 62: 7 July: The Work of the Master 7.1
Page 63 and 64: There is no "you" in reality, but t
Page 65 and 66: fullness (sat-chit-ananda) is your
Page 67 and 68: and that you are That, just as he i
Page 69 and 70: The ability to accept what the Mast
Page 71 and 72: 8 August: Grace and Understanding 8
Page 73 and 74: true nature is pure consciousness.
Page 75 and 76: Grace is there in the beginning, in
Page 77 and 78: for its own sake, but for the sake
Page 79 and 80: yourself everywhere. When you see "
Page 81 and 82: everywhere and so it is yourself th
Page 83 and 84: Kabir has washed off the dirt of ig
Page 85 and 86: 9.15 "When his body goes away, the
Page 87 and 88: 9.21 "Only the realized person can
Page 89 and 90: By his mere glance, Bondage becomes
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10 October: Thinking and the Mind 1
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want something," and all the variat
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It can hardly be emphasized often e
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10.23 "Guests come and go. They nev
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10.30 "It is not easy to cross the
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"You" have disappeared, in that the
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This went on for some time and the
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When you get knowledge of the Self,
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can experience the deep sleep of th
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11.26 "The state of forgetfulness i
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12 December: The Realized Person 12
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again. Because you always know your
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When the eye is single, the whole b
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artificial limitation created by th
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12.24 "Doership rests in Maya and n
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The individual consciousness that e
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The way of the bird

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