The great Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows.” “I am nothing” does not mean that there is a bleak wasteland within. It does mean that with awareness we open to a clear, unimpeded space, without center or periphery–nothing separate. If we are nothing, there is nothing at all to serve as a barrier to our boundless expression of love. Being nothing in this way, we are also, inevitably, everything. “Everything” does not mean self-aggrandizement, but a decisive recognition of interconnection; we are not separate. Both the clear, open space of “nothing” and the interconnectedness of “everything” awaken us to our true nature. This is the truth we contact when we meditate, a sense of unity beyond suffering. It is always present; we merely need to be able to access it.
Thank you, Himanshu for this extract in your post. I took the liberty of blogging it. It was exactly what I was leading to in my previous blog on ‘Love is”, shekhar
hi shekhar,
this passage is so profound…….
to me ” nothing ” represents our consciousness which is eternal….not based on action-inaction,
karma, dharma……..NOTHING. ( represents the peace you find in solitude……in the midst of nature……in the mountains……very grounding )
whereas ” everything ” is connected with our human avataar…….action-reaction, passion, compassion, love…….
( if this was not our karma……we would not have been born ! )
i guess the fine balance between the 2 is the test of our existence.
Dear Shekhar,
Hope you are doing well and you are more than welcome to blog anything we post here. Ever since I read the above quote I have been trying to understand the deep meaning inside it, especially in the last line, “This is the truth we contact when we meditate, a sense of unity beyond suffering. It is always present; we merely need to be able to access it.” It is something we really need to work on, and understand that we are part of the whole. Each of us has a unique purpose here, yet we are all part of the combined cosmic destiny.
Two quotes on understanding that I really like:
All finite things have their roots in the infinite, and if you wish to understand life at all, you cannot tear out its context. And that context, astounding even to bodily eyes, is the heaven of stars and the incredible procession of the great galaxies.
W. MacNeile Dixon
The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things. . . . The complete whole is the complete whole. So also is any part the complete whole. . . . But forget about understanding and harmonizing and making all things one. The universe is already a harmonious oneness; just realize it.
Lao Tzu (c.604 – 531 B.C.)
Source: The Hua Hu Ching, (46)
Best Regards,
Himanshu
Last night I settled down to a film called Home of the brave… I was expecting an entertainment release from the stresses of daily life..fair enough maybe I should of read more into what it was about but Jessica Biel and Samual L Jackson in it sounded like it would be OK….
Whilst watching it I got extremely irritated by the feeling of having a view pushed on me of pro- war in Iraq/remembering the US troops etc.. It felt like the whole idea of the film was to encourage people to feel sorry for the troops fighting for the US…..
A film like this is just propaganda…I want to be encouraged to think and have my own opinions on recent events and issues not just the opinion that US wants their people to have…
As you can tell I came away feeling really irritated…But yet it did influence me to write this post thus promoting the film ….??!!
It was very nice to come upon this recent conversation on nothing and everything.
Regarding meditation- I meditate rarely, but when I do I come to a profound connection with two things; first, the numerous other people who are meditating in the same moment and second… everyone and everything else! So if meditation is such a connective experience why am I not compelled to do it more often? Am I lazy, am I busy, do I like feeling separated from people? I think a little of all three. The last reason is particularly interesting and perhaps I need to explore it more.
I live in a very large city and I see the cruelty of people, the anger and hatred… so, why would I want to feel connected with the frustrations of the world, but what you are saying in the passage is that through meditation we move past the suffering… maybe, or maybe we just clarify this existence for what it is, transitory. An individual is only here for a moment and then vanishes, rather than seeing the world through the eyes of “cosmic destiny” or even of having a unique purpose, we are animals who have found a unique way of relating with each other and living with very large unknowns. The largest of the unknown might be time. Time is the thing that keeps us questioning futures and death.
All over the world throughout time cultures have found ways to deal with the unknown, through deities and doctrines and leaders. Where is that group of people who acknowledges that we are just here and we are just animals? Simple creatures who create our own existence. Once we empower ourselves and start working with the knowledge of our mortality… we will definitely see that we are all one, we are all in this together, we do not know, and that it’s okay to not know… to just… be.
Just thinking,
A. Friend
hi shekhar !
it feels good to be back in YOUR energy field ! funny how sometimes i feel fate plays tricks with me when i try to connect with you…………..?
i wanted to greet you and wish you a lovely day ahead…so…..was unable to write on your latest …..about child prostitution……it is SO CRUEL…….and such an ugly fact of life !