Inter- Faiths Dialogue

The Absolute > The Self

48 quote(s) | Page 2 / 2

T he entire universe is truly the Self. There exists nothing at all other than the Self. The enlightened person sees everything in the world as his own Self, just as one views earthenware jars and pots as nothing but clay.

quote 3696 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Atma Bodha: 48

T he soul acts, to be sure, but the activity of the soul is not independent. It acts itself, but the Lord causes it to act.
Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and He also caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence.

quote 3694 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Commentaries on The Vedanta Sutras; Vol. II, 2:3:42; Thibaut, 1962, p. 61

B ecause all selves are essentially non-different, and their apparent difference is due to nescience only, the individual soul, after having dispelled nescience by true knowledge, passes into unity with the supreme Self.

quote 3693 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Commentaries on The Vedanta Sutras; Thibaut, 1962, Vol. 11, p. 173

T he Self is the witness, beyond all attributes, beyond action. It can be directly realized as pure Consciousness and infinite bliss. Its appearance as an individual soul is caused by the delusion of our understanding, and has no reality. By -its very nature, this appearance is unreal. When our delusion has been removed, it ceases to exist.

quote 3692 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Vivekachudamani; Prahhavananda, 1947; p. 76

T he Self never undergoes change; the intellect never possesses consciousness. But when one sees all this world, he is deluded into thinking, "I am the seer, I am the knower." Mistaking one's Self for the individual entity, one is overcome with fear. If one knows oneself not as the individual but as the supreme Self, one becomes free from fear.

quote 3691 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Atma Bodha: 26-27

I n this world there are two orders of being: the perishable, separate creature and the changeless spirit. But beyond these there is another, the supreme Self, the eternal Lord, who enters into the entire cosmos and supports it from within.

I am that supreme Self, praised by the scriptures as beyond the changing and the changeless. Those who see in me that supreme Self see truly. They have found the source of all wisdom, … and they worship me with all their heart.

quote 3230 | The Bhagavat Gita
BG 15:16-19, p. 186, The Bhagavad Gita. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1985.

I n the secret cave of the heart, two are seated by life's fountain.
The separate ego drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff,
Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter,
While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter
Neither liking this nor disliking that.
The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self lives in light.

quote 3217 | The Upanishads
Katha Up. Part 1, 3:1, p. 88 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

L ike two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life while the latter looks on in detachment. As long as we think we are the ego, we feel attached and fall into sorrow. But realize that you are the Self, the Lord of life, and you will be freed from sorrow. When you realize that you are the Self, supreme source of light, supreme source of love, you transcend the duality of life and enter into the unitive state.

quote 3213 | The Upanishads
Mundada Up. 3:1-3, p. 115; also compare Shvetashvatara Up. 4:6, p. 225 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

T here are two selves, the separate ego and the indivisible Atman. When one rises above I and me and mine, the Atman is revealed as one's real Self.

quote 3212 | The Upanishads
Katha Up. Part 2, 3:13, p. 97 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

B right but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes lives in the Self. He is the source of love and may be known through love but not through thought. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!

quote 3211 | The Upanishads
Mundaka Up. Part 2, 2:1, p. 113 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

D welling in every heart,
the Self is the Lord of all,
the seer of all,
the source and goal of all.
The Self is not outer awareness,
It is not inner awareness,
Nor is it the suspension of awareness.
It is not knowing,
It is not unknowing,
Nor is it knowingness itself
It cannot be seen nor grasped,
It cannot be contained.
It is beyond all expression and beyond
all thought.
It is indefinable.

The only way to know it is to become it.

It is the final resting place of all activity,
silent and unchanging,
the Supreme Good,
One without a second.
It is the Supreme Self
It, above all else, should be known.

quote 3009 | The Upanishads
Mandukya Upanishad

T he self is not bad in itself. Never blame your self. Part of the work of Sufism is to change the state of your self. The lowest state is that of being completely dominated by your wants and desires. The next state is to struggle with yourself, to seek to act according to reason and higher ideals and to criticize yourself when you fail. A much higher state is to be satisfied with whatever God provides for you, whether it means comfort or discomfort, fulfillment of physical needs or not.

quote 2858 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.20

T he Self, in the very depths of consciousness.
Realize him through truth and meditation.
The Self is hidden in the hearts of all,
As butter lies hidden in cream. Realize
The Self in the depths of meditation -
The Lord of Love, supreme Reality,
Who is the goal of all knowledge.

quote 2640 | The Upanishads
Shvetashvatara Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987; Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

P lease, Father, tell me more about this Self."

"Yes, dear one, I will," Uddalaka said.
"Place this salt in water and bring it here Tomorrow morning."
The boy did. "Where is that salt?" his father asked.

“I do not see it."

"Sip here. How does it taste”

"Salty, Father."

"And here? And there?"

“I taste salt everywhere."

“It is everywhere, though we sec it not.
Just sol dear one, the Self is everywhere,
Within all things, although we see him not.
There is nothing that does not come from him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that."

quote 2636 | The Upanishads
Chandogya Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987; Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

T he Self is everywhere. Bright is the Self,
Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,
Immanent and transcendent.
He it is Who holds the cosmos together.

quote 2634 | The Upanishads
Isha Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987; Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

T hose who deny the Self are born again
Blind to the Self, enveloped in darkness,
Utterly devoid of love for the Lord.

The Self is one. Ever still, the Self is
Swifter than thought, swifter than the senses.
Though motionless, he outruns all pursuit.
Without the Self, never could life exist.

The Self seems to move, but is ever still.
He seems far away, but is ever near.
He is within all, and he transcends all.

quote 2632 | The Upanishads
Isha Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987; Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

T he doctrine of the Tathagata-womb is disclosed in order to awaken philosophers from their clinging to the notion of a Divine Atman as transcendental personality, so that their minds that have become attached to the imaginary notion of "soul" as being something self-existent, may be quickly awakened to a state of perfect enlightenment. All such notions as causation, succession, atoms, primary elements, that make up personality, personal soul, Supreme Spirit, Sovereign God, Creator, are all figments of the imagination and manifestations of mind. No, Mahamati, the Tathagata's doctrine of the Womb of Tathagatahood is not the same as the philosopher's Atman.

quote 2584 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.314, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B esides, Subhuti, I recall that during my five hundred previous lives, I had used life after life to practice patience and to look upon my life humbly as though it was some saintly being called upon to suffer humility. Even then my mind was free from any such arbitrary conceptions of phenomena as my own self, other selves, living beings, and a universal self.

quote 2522 | The Maha Prajna Paramita
Diamond Sutra, 14B, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ecause should there exist in the minds of Bodhisatva-Mahasattvas such arbitrary conceptions of phenomena as the existence of one's own ego-selfness, the ego-selfness of all other, self-ness as divided into an infinite number of living and dying beings, or selfness as unified into one Universal Self existing eternally, they would be unworthy to be called Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas.

quote 2515 | The Maha Prajna Paramita
Diamond Sutra, 3, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

I f there really existed the Ego, there would be also something which belonged to the Ego. As, however, in truth and reality, neither an Ego nor anything belonging to an Ego can be found, is it therefore not really an utter fool's doctrine to say: This is the world, this am I; after death I shall be permanent, persisting and eternal?

quote 2476 | Buddha Sakyamuni
Majjhima Nikaya, 22

A nd that which is transient, is subject to suffering; and of that which is transient and subject to suffering and change, one cannot rightly say: `This belongs to me; this am I; this is my Self'.
Therefore, whatever there be of corporeality, of feeling, perception, mental formations, or consciousness, whether past, present or future, one's own or external, gross or subtle, lofty or low, far or near, one should understand according to reality and true wisdom: `This does not belong to me; this am I not; this is not my Self'.

quote 2367 | Buddha Sakyamuni
Samyutta Nikaya, XXII, 59

N ow, if someone should say that feeling is his Self, he should be answered thus: `There are three kinds of feeling: pleasurable, painful, and indifferent feeling. Which of these three feelings do you consider as your Self?' Because, at the moment of experiencing one of these feelings, one does not experience the other two. These three kinds of feeling are impermanent, of dependent origin, are subject to decay and dissolution, to fading-away and extinction. Whosoever, in experiencing one of these feelings, thinks that this is his Self, must after the extinction of that feeling, admit that his Self has become dissolved. And thus he will consider his Self already in this present life as impermanent, mixed up with pleasure and pain, subject to arising and passing away.

If any one should say that feeling is not his Ego, and that his Self is inaccessible to feeling, he should be asked thus: `Now, where there is no feeling, is it then possible to say: "This am I?"

Or, another might say: `Feeling, indeed, is not my Self, but it also is untrue that my Self is inaccessible to feeling, for it is my Self that feels, my Self that has the faculty of feeling'. Such a one should be answered thus: `Suppose that feeling should become altogether totally extinguished; now, if after the extinction of feeling, no feeling whatever exists there, is it then possible to say: "This am I'?"

quote 2130 | Buddha Sakyamuni
Digha Nikaya, 15

I f there really existed the Self, there would also exist something which belonged to the Self. As, however, in truth and reality neither the Self, nor anything belonging to the Self, can be found, is it not therefore really an utter fools' doctrine to say: `This is the world, this am I; after death I shall be permanent, persisting, and eternal'?

quote 2127 | Buddha Sakyamuni
Majjhima Nikaya, 22

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