Poetry

De-condition the Mind

“Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique.
He has to find it through the mirror of relationship,
through the understanding of the contents of his own mind,
through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.”

“Our problem is how to be free from all conditioning. – – – –
When the mind is completely unconditioned then only can you experience or discover if there is something real or not. A cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas with assertions, with quotations is really an uncreative mind; it is merely a repetitive mind.”

“When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience.
He will discover that this division is an illusion.
Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time.
This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation in the mind.”

“When the mind is completely empty – only then is it capable of receiving the unknown.” …… “Only when the mind is wholly silent, completely inactive, not projecting, when it is not seeking and is utterly still – only then that which is eternal and timeless comes into being.”

~ J. Krishnamurti

“Our conditioning determines our condition.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings



J. Krishnamurti ~ May 11, 1895 – February 17, 1986



De-condition the Mind

Our search for remission

From ills of the human condition

Will find its fruition

As we de-condition –

The mind.



Ron’s audio recitation of “De-condition the Mind”

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Ron’s explanation of “De-condition the Mind”

Dear Friends,

The foregoing “De-condition the Mind” pithy poem was long ago inspired by renowned twentieth century philosopher J. Krishnamurti, whose independent spiritual philosophy helped me begin understanding what was happening to me soon after my spiritual awakening.  To help you understand the poem, I have culled and posted the foregoing quotations, which include some of Krishnamurti’s core teachings.

Though born in India, Krishnamurti disclaimed allegiance to any nationality, caste, religion, guru or philosophy. He spent most of his life traveling and teaching worldwide.

Soon after a midlife spiritual awakening that I was pure awareness and not just my physical body and its story, I was given numerous glimpses of previously unknown clairvoyant and psychic phenomena which also persuaded me that the universe didn’t work the way I’d been taught or thought. 
 
So I wondered about the true nature of this supposedly “real” world and the universe which we seem to inhabit. Krishnamurti had then become known to me as a contemporary sage. And to satisfy my newly aroused cosmic curiosities, I began reading Krishnamurti’s teachings.

Though initially I was puzzled by many of his enigmatic assertions about the human mind, I was determined to understand them.  And gradually that seemed to happen.

In addition to Krishnamurti’s independent philosophic teachings, I began discovering similar wisdom teachings concerning Advaita Vedanta, the oldest extant school of Indian Philosophy.  Advaita means non-dualism, and its teachings are about experiencing non-dual Self Realization via focused self-inquiry.

Ultimately I inferred from these philosophic teachings and from my spiritual awakening as Awareness, that everyone and everything else in space/time was like me the same pure Awareness mentally experiencing space/time through an impermanent energy form.

But, I also realized that our misperceptions and mental misconceptions of separateness have created an illusory world of suffering – an illusory mental mirage – with which we self-identify and reify. And that as long as we mistakenly perceive and believe ourselves to be separate from each other and nature, we suffer individually and societally from the universal law of cause and effect – karma.

From long lifetime experience, I have learned that as gradually we unselfishly open our hearts with compassion beyond personal desires and affections, our karmic sufferings diminish, and we reap increasing happiness. 

Most postings on the SillySutras website, including “De-condition the Mind” are sincerely dedicated to helping all of us lead ever happier lives through increasing awareness of perennial spiritual wisdom.


Mystics say that ultimately, upon Self Realization of our true divine identity, our earthly sufferings end.

Today’s profound Krishnamurti quotations and De-condition the Mind poem can help remind us that since all our space/time “reality” arises from thought – that our mentality is our “reality” – we can vastly change our lives by observing and changing our thoughts, and by stilling and emptying our minds.

May these writings thereby help us live ever happier and soul fulfilling lives, as gradually we still our minds and open our hearts to remember that we are the unseen Source of the world we see.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner




Transmutation Beyond Computation

“What really counts in life can’t be counted.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“When one loves, one does not calculate.”
~ St. Therese of Lisieux






Transmutation Beyond Computation

Computers are great
and demonstrate
technology that’s fine.

But we can’t compute
the Absolute —
The Mystery Divine.

We’ll never measure
our greatest  treasure –
The gift of Life sublime.

But without computation —
in meditation —
To Heaven we may climb,

And find elation
beyond calculation –
Transcending space and time.



Ron’s spoken explanation and recitation of “Transmutation Beyond Calculation”

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Ron’s written explanation of “Transmutation Beyond Calculation”

Dear Friends,

After retiring from legal practice in 1992, I immensely enjoyed many years of introspective semi-seclusion in my San Francisco high-rise hermitage, without a computer, TV, or daily newspaper. Rather than following worldly “news”, I preferred to pray, meditate and reflect about perennial spiritual wisdom.

Until then, my public behavior mostly continued to appear “normal” by worldly standards, though inwardly I was processing a radically zen-like change of life.

So many friends and relatives believing that Ron was still a “normal” worldly person, kept urging me to get a computer and go online. Especially because my beloved Guruji had encouraged my intention to “think about God” after retirement, I adamantly refused to go online with the rest of the world.

And privately I wrote these lines”, which I shared with few others:

Inner Net, Not Internet

Ron’s going off-line,
out-of-line, out of linearity.
While the world wants ever more information,
Ron seeks infinite inspiration:
In the Unknown, in the Mystery –
The Mystery of Divinity.


Ultimately, in 2004 I bought a computer to help my son Josh resolve legal problems with his corporate landlord. Soon afterwards I wrote and shared online the foregoing whimsical poem, “Transmutation Beyond Computation”, which I’ve posted above with spoken explanation and recitation, for your enjoyment and possible edification.

Fourteen years after reluctantly going online, I now greatly appreciate miraculous computer technology which has become an essential tool in my life. But still I adamantly endorse prioritizing mindfulness and introspection over following fake “news” or gossip or online worldly trivial pursuits like twittering, tweeting, messaging etc..

So the essential message of “Transmutation Beyond Computation” remains valid, and I hope you’ll consider it.

As George Orwell accurately observed in his prescient classic “1984”,


“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”



So especially in these dystopian times it is crucial that our mental programming come from the Sacred Heart of Humanity, and not from monopolistic corporate media.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

I Have Learned So Much ~ by Hafiz

“I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist and Confucian.”
~ Gandhi
“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.

Not any religion
My place is the placeless, a trace of the traceless.

Neither body or soul.”
~ Rumi
“There is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illumined nothing,”
~ Rabia of Basra
“I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew”
~ Hafiz
“The great religions are the ships,
Poets the life boats. 
Every sane person I know has jumped overboard.”
~ Hafiz


I Have Learned So Much ~ by Hafiz

I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of itself with me
that I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel
or even pure soul.

Love has befriended me so completely
It has turned to ash and freed me
of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.



-Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky in
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master


Ron’s Reflections on “I Have Learned So Much” ~ by Hafiz

Dear Friends,

“I Have Learned So Much” by Sufi Poet-Saint Hafiz, is one of the most inspiring writings on this website.

Though composed seven centuries ago, Hafiz’s enlightened verses continue to bless the world as LOVE.

And they deeply inspire our soul’s remembrance that – beyond any words or concepts or religious rules – Eternal LOVE is the only Reality.

As we read these illumined verses may we – like Hafiz – be freed as LOVE “of every concept and image (that) mind has ever known.”


And so may it be!

A Golden Compass ~ by Hafiz

“It is written on the gate of heaven:
Nothing in existence is more powerful than destiny.
And destiny brought you here, to this page,
which is part of your ticket – as all things are –
to return to God.”
~ Hafiz




A Golden Compass
~ by Hafiz

Forget every idea of right and wrong any classroom ever taught you

Because an empty heart, a tormented mind, unkindness, jealousy and fear
Are always the testimony you have been completely fooled!

Turn your back on those who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.

Come, join the honest company of the King’s beggars –

Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns and those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.

Come, join the courageous who have no choice but to bet their entire world
That indeed, indeed, God is real.

I will lead you into the circle of the Beloved’s cunning thieves,

Those playful royal rogues, the ones you can trust for true guidance –
Who can aid you in this blessed calamity of life.

Hafiz, look at the Perfect One at the circle’s center:

He spins and whirls like a Golden Compass, beyond all that is rational,

To show this dear world that everything, everything in existence
Does point to God.

~ Hafiz

Translation from: I Heard God Laughing ~ by Daniel James Ladinsky



Video of “A Golden Compass”
Audio: La Illaha Illa Allah – Manish Vyas with voice of Ma Prem Sarasa


A Golden Compass ~ by Hafiz



Ron’s Comment on Poetry of Hafiz (1320-1389)

Though Hafiz lived 700 years ago, he remains the most beloved poet of Persia (Iran). Just as many Western people keep copies of the bible in their homes, many Persian and Iranian ancestry people keep copies of Hafiz’ writings which they consider the pinnacle of Persian wisdom. 

To Persians, the poems of Hafiz are not “classical literature” from a remote past, but cherished perennial wisdom from a dear friend. Some consider Hafiz’ writings unique in world literature, with poetry that celebrates every expression of divine love.

Thus, Poet Jason Espada, says:

“The lyrics of Hafiz overflow with a profound appreciation of the beauty and richness of life when seen through the eyes of love. With unerring insight, he explores the feelings and motives associated with every level of love, tracing each nuance of emotion in depth and detail. His poetry outlines the
stages of the mystic’s “path of love” that journey of inner unfolding in which love dissolves personal boundaries and limitations to join larger processes of growth and transformation. Through these processes, human love becomes divine love and the lover merges ultimately with the source and goal of all love, which Hafiz calls the Divine Beloved.

Because of the nuanced subtlety of Hafiz’ original sublime language, his words can be difficult to translate. But in this English translation, by mystically sensitive interpreter Daniel Ladinsky, Hafiz’ message of Divine Love is powerfully communicated.


Thus, I feel that “A Golden Compass” and the other Hafiz poems and sayings quoted on SillySutras.com are the amongst the most beautiful and deeply insightful postings on the entire website.


So enjoy “A Golden Compass” which communicates how everything in and beyond the perceptible Universe leads to and is God –as LOVE. And while reading the Hafiz verses I recommend that you listen to the above embedded audio of the powerfully sung Sufi remembrance of God prayer: La Illaha Illa Allah.

Thus may we remember that “beyond all that is rational”,

Everything is holy.
All is God,
And only God is “real”.


And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Who’s a Who, and Who are You?

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
~ Dr. Seuss


Horton Hears a Who


“[Self] Realization is of the fact that you are not a person.”
“You are THAT!”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj


Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj



Who’s a Who, and Who are You?

Q. If “A person’s a person, no matter how small”,
and a person’s a person, though tiny or tall,

When is a person no person at all?

A. A person’s no person, whether tiny or tall,
when s(he) doesn’t think s(he)’s a “person” –
any person at all.

Q. Doesn’t everyone think they’re a “person” –
whether tiny or tall;

Does anyone think they’re no person at all?

A. Nobody thinks that they’re anyone – tiny or tall,
when they don’t think anything – anything at all.

Q. But when they’re not thinking,
who are they?

And who am I? And who are you?

A. To realize that we must stop thinking,too!



Ron’s comments and recitation of “Who’s a Who, and Who are You?”

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Ron’s explanation of “Who’s a Who, and Who are You?”

Dear Friends,

Since launching the Silly Sutras website I have posted many writings – aphorisms, quotations, poems and essays – about Eastern non-dualism philosophy, which I accept as highest spiritual teachings. Paradoxically these writings point to an ultimate Truth which cannot be expressed in words, but only suggested silently – like the Buddha pointing to the moon.


Thus, sometimes we may best communicate wordlessly with silent gestures, pantomime, looks or tears; or auditorily with laughter, tunes, or music.

With words, Truth is sometimes best expressed with jest – whimsically, humorously or paradoxically.

The foregoing poem “Who’s a Who, and Who are You?” was composed to both whimsically and paradoxically point to ineffable Absolute non-duality Reality.

Einstein told us that our space/time duality reality is a persistent mental illusion – a way of thinking. Similarly, for millennia mystical inner explorers have revealed the ever illusionary nature of our impermanent relative ‘reality’ – calling it (in Sanskrit) “maya” or “samsara” – which the Buddha likened to a mental mirage.

In sutra sayings I have paradoxically proclaimed that:


“Reality isn’t REAL!”


that it is just a mental movie – a holographically, fractally, and kaleidoscopically projected ‘theater of the mind’.

In composing “Who’s a Who, and Who are You?” I have attempted to express paradoxically and whimsically how Dr. Seuss might point from space/time to Ultimate non-duality Reality.

I hope we can get the ‘point’; or at least begin to wonder what it means.

And so may it be!

Life is For Giving


“For it is in giving that we receive.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi, peace prayer

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” …

“For in truth it is life that gives unto life –
while you, who deem yourself a giver,
is but a witness.”
~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
“You can give without loving,
but you can never love without giving.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson and/or
~ Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
The value of a man resides in what he gives
and not in what he is capable of receiving.

~ Albert Einstein
The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.
The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.

~ Lao Tzu
It’s not how much we give
but how much love we put into giving.
~ Mother Teresa
“If you wish to experience peace,
provide peace for another.”
~ Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama


St. Francis of Assisi



Life is For Giving

Life is for giving, not getting;

For Being, not having.

Love gives and forgives.

Ego gets and forgets.

It is in giving that we receive.

So, let us end our obsession with possession,

And live to give, and to be –

LOVE.



Ron’s audio comments and recitation of “Life is For Giving”

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Ron’s Commentary on Giving Not Getting:

Dear Friends,

For many years I have regularly recited [with amendments] the peace prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, declaring in conclusion that:

“it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and, . . it is in dying – to ego life – that we are reborn to Eternal Life”.


Those oft-repeated lines have inspired many of my writings, including the above “Life is For Giving” poem. In the above posted quotes about giving, I have excerpted these lines from Kahlil Gibran’s perennial wisdom in “The Prophet”:

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
“For in truth it is life that gives unto life –
while you, who deem yourself a giver, is but a witness.”

~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Giving”

As we consider and reconsider those wisdom quotes and prayer lines, more and more it seems that each human lifetime is part of a cosmic process of transcending ego’s optical illusion of our imagined separation from each other, and from our true spiritual nature; a mysterious process of our returning psychologically to a state of “At-one-ment” and self-identity with Universal Intelligence or Awareness, as our ultimate Essence and our ultimate destiny.

In that evolutionary process, as we transcend mistaken ideas of who we think we are, we gradually realize what we truly are. We learn that apparent separation of ‘giver’ and ‘receiver’, or ‘pardoner’ and ‘pardoned’, or ‘I’ and ‘others’, is a persistent perceptual delusion – like a mirage.

And we find that by spontaneously giving of ourselves and forgiving others with LOVE our spiritual Self-awareness process is furthered, bestowing ever-more fulfilling life experience.

Today’s writings about giving and forgiving are offered with the aspiration they will help us realize – like Kahlil Gibran – that “it is life that gives unto life”, not “I” or “me” giving to others. And that we may so live ever happier lives.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

From Role Life To Whole Life

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:”
~ William Shakespeare – As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
“You are awareness, disguised as a person.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
In the theater of life, personality is not reality.
Reality is the whole, while personality is a role.
So, play your role passionately,
but don’t take it personally.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
~ Albert Einstein


William Shakespeare

 
From Role Life To Whole Life

In the theater of life we each play a role
with which most people identify themselves.

Each role is a mere bundle of thought forms:
Self identification ideas conceived in and from the past,
which we call our personality or life story.

So if we identify with a role,
we identify with and live in the past.

But life can never be lived in the past,
only in the present – the NOW.

And we can never be NOW
while thinking we are then.

So to live as the NOW
we must identify as the NOW –

As Eternal Awareness – Presence –

And not as our past personality role.

Identifying as Awareness,
we live authentically –

A Whole life,
not a role life.


Ron’s audio recitation of “From Role Life To Whole Life”

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Ron’s explanation of “From Role Life To Whole Life”

Dear Friends,

The foregoing poem – From Role Life To Whole Life – was inspired by Shakespeare’s lines:

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:”
~ William Shakespeare – As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII

Consistent with Shakespeare’s simile that the world is like a stage on which all humans are players, “From Role Life To Whole Life” suggests how this space/time world is just an illusory play of consciousness, in which we can transcend our ephemeral personality roles to authentically be here NOW. 

Not until a midlife epiphany that I was pure consciousness, rather than just my physical body, its thoughts or story, did I begin awakening to the eternal mysteries of of what we call “reality” and “Life”.  Only then did I gradually begin seeing Earth life as an ever impermanent play of consciousness.  

And only since then, have I more and more begun to appreciate and decipher spiritually esoteric passages in enduring classic writings – like Shakespeare verses, which portray Truth through theatrical comedy, mystery, tragedy or drama.  

Now, as an octogenarian happier than ever before, my life mostly appears like a synchronistically pre-programmed movie, consistent with Shakespeare’s esoteric insights.  Such experience has led to many speculations about how to describe our unique ‘soap operas’.  (See e,g. https://sillysutras.com/what-is-life/)

For example I’ve wondered whether:

Perhaps  – knowingly or unknowingly – we are all participating in a cosmic game of “hide and seek”, in which we all seek the same Self; that we play countless personality roles in innumerable lifetimes until ultimately we find, beyond the mind, that we are what we seek – that what we seek is the seeker. 

Or perhaps, humans are like disguised players in an endless cosmic masquerade which continues through numerous lifetimes, with different roles, until each player is ultimately unmasked and true identity revealed as Cosmic Consciousness – Common “I-ness”.

In all events I encourage our deep reflection upon “From Role Life To Whole Life”.

May it inspire our experiential discovery that we are not mere role players, but Eternal “ awareness, disguised as a person.”

And so may it be!
Ron Rattner

Power Source

“If you put your soul against this oar with me,

the power that made the universe will enter your sinew

from a source not outside your limbs,
but from a holy realm
 that lives in us.”
~ Rumi – “That Lives in Us”
“You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours.
It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“The power to think is a great gift;

but the power to not think is a greater gift.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Knowing you don’t know is wholeness.
Thinking you know is a disease.
Only by recognizing that you have an illness
can you move to seek a cure.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window one can see the way of heaven.
The further one goes the less one knows.”
~ Lao Tzu
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”
and it will move.”
~ Matthew 17:20




Power Source

It is said that “knowledge is power”.

However, transcendent power comes
not from mental knowledge, but from thoughtless Knowing;

And, until we really Know,
it is approached from unknowing –

What we think we know, but don’t.

We become ever more powerful as we
forsake our false beliefs,

And ever open to the vast Unknown –

To the Eternal Mystery –

To the Tao –

To the Universal Source of all Power.


Ron’s audio recitation of “Power Source”

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Ron’s Comments on “Power Source”

Dear Friends,

This is an especially appropriate time for us to consider the foregoing timeless quotations and online essay about Power Source.

As above so below.

Did you know that on Earth there already exists potentially unlimited ‘free energy’ yet to be revealed and used for everyone everywhere?

Or, similarly, that beyond our perceived space/time “reality”, there exists within everyone everywhere a timeless and infinitely potential divine Power Source, awaiting our discovery?

Nonetheless, because of ignorantly insane Human ‘power seeking’ activities, we face possibly imminent ecological or nuclear disaster which could end Earth life as we have known it.

So this is an extremely appropriate age for all of us who cherish our precious planet to awaken from our “deep state sleep state”, and to fearlessly and mindfully access for everyone everywhere our divinely bequeathed limitless free energy “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Children Of The Divine

“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
“We are born and reborn countless number of times,
and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”

~ H. H. Dalai Lama, from ‘The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“In this wonderful world of relativity,
we are all relatives.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven

is my brother and sister and mother.”

~ Matthew 12:50




Children Of The Divine

We are spiritual siblings,
born of Eternal Life, Light and Love.

We are children of the Divine,
experiencing Itself through infinite outlooks.

We are “sons and daughters of Life’s
longing for itself”
*,

Each a glowing vital facet of an
infinitely faceted eternally luminescent jewel.

We are THAT!
We are THAT!
We are THAT!

 

*Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet



Ron’s audio recitation of “Children Of The Divine”

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Ron’s Commentary on “Children of the Divine”

Long ago I was inspired by Khalil Gibran’s eloquent words from his timeless masterpiece “The Prophet” that

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”


to compose the foregoing “Children of the Divine” verses, posted with apt quotations.

May these writings help inspire us to remember that we are ALL children of the Divine experiencing Itself through infinite outlooks; that with differing ‘roles’ we appear and reappear on the world’s stage in an endless Divine play of consciousness to learn and express Eternal LOVE.

May they

“Infuse us, enthuse us, and use us
to bless all Life as LOVE!”


And so shall it be!

Ron Rattner

Can We Be Born-Again?
~ Ron’s Memoirs and Quotations

“As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is 
our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other more real life and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real the life of God.”
~ 

Leo Tolstoy

“God generates beings, and sends them back over and over again,
till they return to Him.”
~ Koran

“I tell you the truth,
no one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again.”
~ John – 3:3

“Lord Krishna said: …. The learned neither laments for the dead or the living. Certainly never at any time did I not exist, nor you, nor all these kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future. Just as in the physical body of the embodied being is the process of childhood, youth and old age; similarly by the transmigration from one body to another the wise are never deluded.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna

“But know that by whom this entire body is pervaded, is indestructible. No one is able to cause the destruction of the imperishable soul. The embodied soul is eternal in existence, indestructible and infinite, only the material body is factually perishable….”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna

“The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time, nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed. Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.” “The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna



© Elizabeth Lyle, www.dreamingheart.com



CAN WE BE BORN-AGAIN?

We’re born –
and born-again,

And born-again,
and born-again,

Until when –

We realize
we were never ever born.

And then –
we’re never born again.



Ron’s comments and recitation of “Can We Be Born-Again?”

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Ron’s explanation of “Can We Be Born-Again?”

Dear Friends,

The foregoing “Born-Again” poetic essay explores the perennial mystery of inevitable bodily death by whimsically addressing possible afterlife, rebirth or reincarnation. The poem was written only after an extended reflective process, hereafter described.

In online spiritual memoirs – tentatively titled: “From Litigation to Meditation – and Beyond”: An ex-lawyer’s spiritual metamorphosis from Secular Hebrew; to Born-again Hindu; to Uncertain Undo – I have told how after a midlife spiritual awakening I began experiencing gradual inner transformation.

After meeting my Guruji from India, I was soon calling myself a “Born-again Hindu”, with extreme enthusiasm about encountering such a great yogi.   (See The Luckiest Day of My Life ~ Meeting My Spiritual Master )  Initially I only considered myself to be “Born-Again” psychologically – but not physically. 

Later, after much reflection, I accepted Hindu and Buddhist theories of physical rebirth or reincarnation – that all humans are repeatedly ‘born again’ in supposedly separate bodies with separate karmic destinies, until achieving the spiritual ‘goal’ of Self-realization or merger with ONE mysterious Divine Source and matrix.

Ultimately, after many amazing mystical experiences, I further accepted ancient Eastern non-duality teachings questioning the reality of any rebirth because this ever impermanent space/time duality reality is an illusory and unreal play of Cosmic consciousness – maya or samsara. Such non-dualist teachings like Advaita-Vedanta say that humans egoically and mistakenly mentally self-identify with their optical illusions of apparent separation from each other and Nature until “enlightenment” or Self-realization. Whereupon the illusion of separation and duality ends forever.

My recognition and acceptance as true Reality of spiritual non-duality was validated and corroborated when I learned of Einstein’s revolutionary discoveries about space/time that:

“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”


“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think.”


“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”


“There is no place in this new kind of physics for the [quantum] field and matter, for the field is the only [manifest] reality.”


So I began believing that we were never truly born or reborn in space/time, which is merely “an optical illusion of consciousness.” But I realized that only very rare Buddha-like beings who non-dually merge with Cosmic consciousness need never be “Born-Again”.

However it seems apparent that the vast majority of humans remain karmically compelled to continue existing as space/time entities until overcoming all vestiges of our hallucination of separation from each other, from Nature, and from our sole Source and spirit.

Though still evolving, I have been experiencing ever growing happiness and ever less fear of death by self identifying as Eternal spirit rather than as a merely mortal physical body – more and more as Ram and less and less as Ron. So I consider Ron as a gradually disappearing ‘fundamentalist non-dualist’.

Because fear of inevitable physical death remains a major societal issue, impeding our spiritual evolution, I hope that my “rebirth” writings and story will help all of us transcend such fear, and thereby lead ever happier lives.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner