| Messages/Living Gems |
| December 2007
MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, For those of us who remain so spiritually backward that time and space still exist for us, another year is drawing to a close. It is an opportunity to stop for a moment and reflect on the miracle that is this Livingness. Within the Livingness are the polaric opposites... birth and death, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, inhalation and exhalation... and it is the continuous movement between the polarities that is the EXPERIENCE of being alive. Some people believe that death is the end of the Living, when in fact death is simply the end of a particular experience within the Livingness. The Livingness continues even after a particular point of experience is extinguished. When birth and death are known for what they are -- linked opposites within the Livingness -- much of the fear and drama drain out of the process. Sometimes this Living Teaching facilitates an extraordinary insight: What you TRULY are is not limited to a particular point of experience. What you TRULY are is the Livingness itself. Happy New Year to ALL! With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) To suppose that realization can be attained by accepting and repeating formulas is like expecting to climb the Hamalyan peaks by repeatedly studying the relevant maps. While a map is indispensable as indicating the direction which the traveller must set out, one can never forget that maps are essentially symbols, and not the most accurate or adequate ones at that. September 12, 1989
November 2007 Message from Wayne Hello my loves, The only requirement for participation in the Living Teaching is that you be Living. If you are convinced you don't exist and therefore are not alive, please feel free to come back later when that wears off. For all the rest of you, welcome! This aliveness we are talking about is worth investigating. It is here, in this moment. It is as close to you as your breath. In fact, your breath IS this Livingness. You do not have to remember to breathe; your breath is literally breathing you. Stop reading the words on this page for a moment and investigate this phenomenon of breathing.... (If you did not stop, but simply read on to this sentence, I fully understand - you are a lot like me - however, there REALLY is something to be seen in the stopping for a moment, even if you are an "advanced" student and have examined your breath many times previously) Perhaps you were able to see the way in which your breath "just happens." You breathe even when you forget to breathe. There is a force here that operates independently of your decisions and intentions. It is this force that the Living Teaching is concerned with. It is this Life that is living you - even to the extent that you falsely believe yourself to be living IT. I am continuously amazed and delighted at the way in which this livingness happens. It is the fuel of miracles, not the least of which is our sharing this thought together! I write: you read. Through an infinitely complex net of relationships there is a kind of recognition, a touching, in which time dissolves and the Unity is revealed. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) Perhaps the most impressive and instructive example of the humble Guru is to be found in the parable of the venerable Dattatreya, who impressed all with his most unusual equanimity and self-possession, declared that he had as many as twenty-four gurus, from whom he learnt some aspect of Truth. They included the elements of nature, the river, certain animals, even an insect. His last Guru he said was a prostitute named Pingola. The parable ends with the exclamation: Learn above all from the the rhythms of your own body. Indeed be your own Guru. December 1990
September 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, I am periodically taken to task for not having a teaching style more like some of my preceptors - most notably, Nisargadatta Maharaj. Maharaj was famous for speaking from the standpoint of the Absolute. He would say things such as, "I was never born and I will never die" and "I am awake even when I am asleep." Such assertively non-dual statements sometimes had the effect of shocking his listeners into a profound, transcendent Seeing. I am sympathetic to this approach, but I have rarely been comfortable using it. I feel much more at home when I am meeting my listeners where THEY are... most of them believing that they were born and will die and that they are asleep while asleep. From this point of "obvious" truth we can then proceed to examine the more profound, underlying nature of this "one" who lives and dies and sleeps. No one can deny that there is EXISTENCE here. The nature of that EXISTENCE can (and has been) debated endlessly. But this EXISTENCE is self-proving. It is not a philosophical debating point but a self-affirming Truth. It is here at the center when you pull off the onion-like layers of your apparent self - the self that lives and dies and sleeps and wakes. We are the victims of our beliefs. When you "believe" the pointers of a teacher such as Maharaj, the inevitable result is a kind of nihilism in which all that is apparent (including yourself) is denied as meaningless and illusory. When you believe the pointers of a teacher such as myself, the inevitable result is the sense of having a progressively deeper and truer knowledge about the nature of Existence. So pick your poison. With a little luck...either one will kill "you." With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) Liberation is really only liberation from the concept of bondage. Only objects can be born and die, only objects can be conceived or perceived. And all that seems to exist is appearance only, phenomena. And the "spirit" or "self" or "subjectivity" cannot be anything that is cognizable. In fact IT or THAT can never be any thing. It can only be ALL that is, and ALL that we are, not what we think we are. It is phenomenal absence/absolute PRESENCE without the consciousness of it presence. January 1, 1990
August 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves,
This should not come as news to those drawn to Advaita. You have discovered an entirely new way of looking at things. Insights have come and you can never go back to the old way of seeing. Your head is in the tigers mouth! You may have also discovered that talking about these insights puts you at odds with those around you. To even remotely suggest that the individual is not the ultimate source of his actions (and is thus not responsible for creating them) is to invite powerful, sometimes violent opposition. It is as if the world has an unwritten agreement to not look at its most basic assumptions and if you violate that agreement you are in for a rough time. Nisargadatta Maharaj (my guru's guru) had a strict policy that his disciples were not to discuss the Teaching outside of the Satsang room. Not only did this have the effect of keeping the blind from leading the blind but it helped protect the fragile seedling of the new insight from being trampled by an ego-centric society. While it is not my nature to create policy, I am sympathetic to the spirit of Maharaj's injunction. The deepening of understanding and the relief from suffering that comes with a weakening of egoic involvement are usually part of a process. In the early stages particularly, it is best to let the Teaching grow strong inside you before taking it out and parading it on the street. You may even find that as the understanding deepens there is an ever lessening impulse to talk about the Teaching at all. With Grace, everything is possible. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) Perhaps it may be because so much hypocrisy prevails among the supposed religious people and because organized religion has turned it into a rigid frame of ritualistic do's and don'ts -- whatever may be the reason -- it is a matter of fact that when the word "God" is mentioned a certain uneasiness arises among the company present, even among people who really have no reason to think disparagingly of themselves. And the beauty of the matter is that the truly religious people are aware that there is no need to refer to "God" -- it is enough to be aware of Him. July 1, 1990
July 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, There is so much fear in the world...and no wonder. Every day we are bombarded with reports of wars, murders, thefts, rapes, environmental destructions and misconduct at every level of society. Certain "fears" are warranted and healthy...if nothing is done to reverse the course, our children or our children's children will likely be extinguished by the pollutants in our environment. If we put our hand through the fence against which the pit bull is hurling himself to get at us we will likely be mauled. These are practical or functional fears. But there is a whole other level of fear and this has very little to do with the practical or the functional. This is the fear that is the product of involvement by the ego. This is the fear of what will become of "ME." This is the fear that is experienced as suffering. The human organism is ultimately quite fragile and the number of tragedies that could potentially befall it is limitless. The ego that falsely claims to be in control of things is revealed as powerless in the face of this list of possible ills. The product of this interface between the ego's claim of power and the evidence of actual powerlessness (as seen and read daily in the news) is fear. The response to this that we see most often is to try to get MORE control. The latest incarnation of this attempt is the hugely popular program called The Secret. Such schemes feed the egos insatiable need for the thing it most sorely lacks...power. The Living Teaching takes an entirely different approach to this phenomenon of egoic fear. It points to the root cause of the fear itself. It helps expose the fundamental falseness of the egoic claim. Thus, it is not likely to be popular nor mainstream. However, it CAN BE incredibly effective in helping to reduce the strength of the false claim and thus effective in reducing the resultant fear. As the fear is reduced, the need to hold-on and to control the uncontrollable is reduced and there is peace. With Grace, anything is possible. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) The real secret of life is to understand that the past must be abandoned, that the unknown cannot be avoided, and that nothing can be ultimately fixed. When a man knows this, he really lives for the first time in his life. By holding his breath, he loses it, by letting it go he finds it. As Goethe has put it, "As long as you do not know how to die and come to life again, you are but a sorry traveler on this dark earth." June 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, I was recently asked, "What is your philosophy of life?" My immediate response was - "Breathe" The questioner assumed from this response that I had misunderstood her question so she repeated it a little differently - "What do you think is the best way to live?" she asked. "BREATHE!" I repeated. Everyone laughed but I was not making a joke. I have no interest in philosophy or spirituality as an intellectual chess game. To my mind, a philosophy of life must be completely practical - it must have meaning in the office and the bedroom, the church and the night club. Thus, the Living Teacing is pointing to this most basic of human functions - to live is to breathe. But everyone knows they are not the creators or even the masters of their breath, it literally has a life of its own. And since the breath is (except for certain yogic practices) immune from the claims of the ego, it is generally of little interest. It is JUST there. The Living Teaching proposes a look with fresh eyes at this breath that is living us, animating us, giving us the power of choice, thought, feeling and action. This breath is an open invitation to the reality of What IS...perhaps you will find that this is the moment you walk through. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) After the end of one of the talks in California, one of the visitors said to me, "This is my last day, at least in this session. I am leaving this afternoon. When I go home, I shall be asked about you and what you talked about. They will think I am crazy if I tell them that you do not put on any robes, that you speak perfect English, that you were a bank president before you retired, and that your entire teaching is based on one truth -- that the entire manifestation and its functioning is an entirely impersonal and self-generated process, and that the sentient beings are merely the instrument (without any volition) through which this process takes place." I laughed and told him that what he said reminded me of a story I had come across some time ago: As a patient was about to leave a doctor's consultation room, the new patient spun around and shot the doctor a quizzical glance. The doctor asked her what was the matter, and she replied, "I don't know. I arrived five minutes early for my appointment. You took me right away. You spent a lot of time with me. I understood every word of your instructions, and, what is more, I can even read this prescription you wrote. Are you a real doctor?"
May 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, My beloved Ramesh, will celebrate his 90th birthday in a few days and if the gods cooperate I will be there in Mumbai to help honor the day. Nothing could give me greater pleasure. I consider myself to be infinitely blessed to have been give this connection with the man I call my guru. When I first met Ramesh I was not looking for a guru. In fact, I didn't consider myself to be the sort of person to 'subjugate' myself to someone else. I subscribed to the notion that we are all equal and thus relationships such as guru and disciple struck me as antiquated and if truth be told, a bit cultish. But I was to learn that the guru/disciple relationship is about love and devotion....not subjugation. The guru asks for nothing and gives everything in return. The disciple gives what he can and with grace, as time goes on, asks for less and less. In the twenty years I have been privelaged to be connected to Ramesh
he has given me more than I could ever hope to repay. I consider it a
blessing to have been able to help support him financially and to have
in some small way contributed to facilitating his Teaching. Whatever I
have done has been done without obligation or demand either by Ramesh
or by me. I suppose you could Some of you reading this already know the unmitigated joy of having found your guru. For those of you who have not yet had this pleasure...know that life is full of surprises...anything can happen! With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) It may be observed that the guru is variable in his attitude towards his disciples. He is not concerned with the equality of his behavior towards the individual disciples. His attitude towards each disciple will be precisely what is necessary for the disciple, and will be naturally so, rarely ever planned. If the disciple compares the guru's attitude towards himself with that towards another and judges it --- he does so at his own peril. It is not that the guru actively responds to the individual devotion of the disciple, whether in the form of service, or gift, or sincerity. The reaction of the guru to an act of devotion by a disciple happens as a natural response dictated by the need and maturity of the disciple himself. The guru, like a mirror, reflects whatever aspect of the relationship, whatever emotion, is displayed by the disciple. January 15, 1990
April 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, If you are reading this you are part of the world of spiritual inquiry. You may consider yourself a seeker or you may consider yourself as having already found or you may consider yourself no one at all. The fact is...you are reading this! (or if you consider yourself no one, then let it be said....there is reading happening!) The importance of this is that it points to the fact that there is SOMETHING. That SOMETHING exists regardless of your opinion about it. It exists regardless of your beliefs or your philosophy. That SOMETHING is the one, indisputable Truth. It is the start point and the end point of all spiritual knowledge. This Living Teaching points you to this moment in life....here....now.... to the essential and indisputable. In the total recognition of this, there is no where to go and nothing to get...in the absence of this recognition the Living Teaching may be of interest. Interest for whom? Interest to what end? Welcome to the Living Teaching. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (from his new book The Only Way To Live) Whatever I decide and do in any situation, depends on two factors: my genes and conditioning, which God has made. Whatever action I do will, of course, have its consequences -- good, bad or indifferent -- as judged by society, which I have to accept. The fact remains, however, that I cannot make a mistake. I cannot commit a sin. Therefore I live like God, not afraid of living and not afraid of dying.
March 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see this Teaching find a home in someone. It is like watching a flower bloom in the spring. To see the furrows relax between someone's eyebrows, to watch their shoulders drop as their tension fades, to see a smile creep onto their lips and the light begin to radiate from their eyes is for me, a thing of surpassing beauty. I notice it happening in nearly every gathering and I am awed by the incredible power of the Teaching. Several years ago, Ramesh began to emphasize the impact of the realization of the Teaching in daily life rather than talking about the esoteric and the philosophical. It upset a lot of his devotees who had grown comfortable and complacent in the belief that they KNEW Ramesh's Teaching. But I thought it was great fun! A true Master shakes things up. He keeps the Teaching vibrant and alive by changing the presentation...because after all, life IS change. This is a Living Teaching! It connects to who you are and what you are RIGHT NOW...in THIS moment. It challenges you and nurtures you. It is at once impossibly difficult and supremely easy. It forces you to work very, very hard but it does all the work itself. We are truly blessed to have such a Teaching! With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) One of the immediate results of th Guru-disciple relation, when it begins to fructify, is that there is a sudden change in the viewpoint of the disciple. The disciple was, until then, in the habit of wanting something and expecting something from others. Now, when he sees the effects of the Teaching of the Guru in his own daily living, when he finds life becoming less stressful because of his being more open to, more vulnerable to, less suspicious towards others, he suddenly appreciates what the Guru has done for him and in turn wants to do something big for the Guru. In other words, there is a great change: instead of wanting something for himself, the disciple finds himself in the position of wanting something for someone else. February 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, You have every right to be suspicious of what I teach… after all there is much bullshit about, most of it innocuous enough but some quite insidious. However, it is not enough to merely be suspicious of me. That is too easy. You must have the courage to be suspicious of yourself… of those things you hold to be True. Could it not be be possible that you are mistaken in your most fundamental assumptions? Is it not possible that you could be wrong? The mere acknowledgement of this is the seed of genuine humility. I hope you will be thorough in investigating whatever is said here and fearless in looking at what you assume to be true. Such considerations may well lead you to the door of your True Self. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (from his new book A Buddha's Babble) In ignorance we are vulnerable and we resist; in love we are defenseless and we surrender. January 2007 MESSAGE FROM WAYNE Hello my loves, Spiritual pride takes many forms. Some are gross and obvious, others are more subtle and hidden. Regardless of the form, spiritual pride has its roots in the belief that "I" know the Truth. Our Teaching does not advise you to rid yourself of spiritual pride, rather it directs you to look at the belief that fuels the pride. Is Truth (in the Absolute sense) knowable? As transcendent Understanding deepens, belief in the certainty of knowable truth lessens and a simple humility prevails. You find yourself less critical of the convictions and practices of others. You become content to know what you know and believe what you believe without being burdened by the crushing weight of relative knowledge masquerading as Absolute Truth. As this new year dawns before us, perhaps you will take a moment to reflect on what is True? Insight may await you. With much love, Wayne
A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH (previously unpublished) The Jnani is a Mirror The behavior of a jnani has always attracted the curiosity of the average individual. The jnani is seen enjoying a joke, enjoying a meal in the company of friends with as much zest as anyone else -- and people wonder whether the supposed jnani is really a Self-Realized individual. This is because they do not realize that they are comparing the attitudes and behavior of the jnani with an imaginary concept they have themselves created. Actually, an ordinary individual anxious to be known as a jnani will indeed make every effort to conform to the image which the average man has created. The real jnani does not care if he disappoints the others.
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