PERFECTION THROUGH REST

Rest should be the criterion of power. A man of power is absolutely at rest, he has no restlessness in him. Because restlessness is nothing but dissipation of energy. When you are feeling restless, you are dissipating energy.
You create energy everyday, a tremendous amount of it, but you waste- sometimes in anger, sometimes in sexuality, sometimes in greed, sometimes in competition, sometimes for no reason at all…. just because you have it, what to do with it? When you do not put your energy to any purpose whatsoever, then energy itself starts moving upwards. If you put it in work, some action, it moves in a horizontal line. So, when you simply take delight in the presence of the energy in you, you do not put it to any work, you are happy that it is there, it moves vertically upwards. Do work, but let for some periods your energy move vertically too. It is necessary for life- you cannot live by bread alone. So, sometimes just sit, do nothing. And something grows within you. You become a reservoir, you start throbbing with an unknown delight. When you are full of energy, then you are in contact with the whole.

From Yoga Vasistha

A Child superimposes a real elephant on a clay elephant and plays with it; similarly an ignorant man superimposes the body, mind and intellect conglomerate on the self and carries on his activities. Like the organs of the body or vessels of clay, non-duality appears as duality/ multiplicity in the form of moving and unmoving objects. Just as a single face is reflected as many in the mirror, crystal, and water simultaneously; so also the one self is reflected in the many intellects or minds. When water and fire come together they acquire the qualities of each other. Similarly when the self and the inert body come together, the self looks like the non-self and the non-self looks like the self. The self, is realized in the body only with effort like sugar from sugarcane, fire from wood and iron from ore. It can only be experienced, not known. There is neither bondage nor liberation, neither duality nor non-duality. There is only God always shining as consciousness. Awareness is God. The “idea” of a consciousness is bondage, freedom from it is liberation. Consciousness is the self. There is only consciousness here; this universe is nothing but consciousness; you are consciousness; I am consciousness; the worlds are consciousness- that is the conclusion.

Discipling Oneself in perseverance

WHENEVER YOU ARE TIRED, FRUSTRATED, FINISHED WITH SOMETHING, REMAIN ALERT – THE MIND WILL TEND TO GO TO THE OPPOSITE.
If you are tired of your efforts, it simply means that you are pushing yourself too hard. You are bound to get tired. You are in lots of haste. STOP THIS. Calm down. Slow down. Balance yourself. Do one thing at a time. Gauge your energies. Conserve more energy. Move again. Very slowly and cautiously. Try to find the middle path. Remember the middle, and you will always be right. Don’t be result-oriented. Don’t shift to the other extreme. Don’t stop your efforts – be firm in your endeavors. Do it joyously and willfully.