Ego
Learning From Life ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Dear Friends of Ron Rattner and Silly Sutras,
We are writing to let you know that our father, Ron, died unexpectedly on May 13th. He was at home in his beloved “High Rise Hermitage,” in the living room overlooking the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge.
Ron was 91 years old and, as he loved to say these past few years, “good to go but glad to stay.” Even more so since he was nearly killed a decade ago, when he was hit by a taxicab, Ron considered every day to be a blessing.
Until the end, Ron was passionately and energetically devoted to working on his Silly Sutra postings and spiritual memoirs. This work — his art, and life’s purpose — gave him great joy. He was happier at 91 than ever before. “In this precious human lifetime,” he wrote, “I’ve been blessed with an exceptionally long incarnation, permitting over nine decades of ‘continuing education’ about that ‘Life School – Experience.’ ”
We are deeply saddened by the loss of our father, and sad for him that his earthly work was interrupted so suddenly. But we’re quite certain that our dad would not have had it any other way. There were no hospitalizations, not even a visit to a doctor.
Ron was happy and engaged with life until he took his last breaths. He had drafted a Silly Sutra posting that he did not have the opportunity to complete. We’re sure he would want us to share it with all of you.
And so may it be!
With love,
Jessica & Josh Rattner
Jessica: [email protected]
Josh: [email protected]
Jessica Eve Rattner
www.lifelikethisphotography.
510.520.9870
“Shri Ramakrishna use to say,
“As Long as I Live, so long do I learn”.
That man or that society which has nothing to learn
is already in the jaws of death.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“Love Is The Law Of Life:
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life.
He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.
Therefore, love for love’s sake,
because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“This separation between man and man, between nation and nation,
between earth and moon, between moon and sun.
Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
‘Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen…In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation.’
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise
of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“In order to know through experience what happens beyond death,
you must go deep within yourself.
In meditation, the truth will come to you.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“Intuition is the whisper of the soul.”
~ J Krishnamurti
“So you have to be your own teacher and your own disciple,
and there is no teacher outside, no saviour, no master;
you yourself have to change, and therefore you have to learn to observe, to know yourself.
This learning about yourself is a fascinating and joyous business.”
~ J Krishnamurti
“What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will.”
~ J Krishnamurti
“Freedom and love go together. . . . To love is not to ask anything in return,
not even to feel that you are giving something-
and it is only such love that can know freedom.”
~ J Krishnamurti
“Face death to live life.”
“As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Death is a vacation –
Eternal Life-force vacating a transient vehicle –
“a space-time soul suit”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“It is in dying to ego life,
that we are reborn to Eternal Life.”
~ Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (edited by Ron Rattner)“A life filled with wonder is a wonderful life.
With wonder, faith and praise,
we glorify our days.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Ron’s Introduction to Learning From Life
Dear Friends,
For millennia my beloved Guruji and other advanced spiritual teachers have observed that thought is the genesis of all our phenomenal earth-life reality; that incarnation is limitation; and that inevitably we learn as long as we exist as seemingly separate beings.
Beginning thirty years ago, during many years of solitude, prayer, and reflection after retirement from legal practice, I intuitively received and wrote down numerous spiritual aphorisms, essays and poems, some which I’ve called “sutra sayings”.
Thereafter as requested by my Guruji these writings have been published online to inspire our reflections about who and what we are and our incarnate life’s purpose and plan, if any.
In composing certain aphorisms called “sutra sayings” I realized that
“Life is a perpetual continuing education course from which we never graduate.”
And as hints for happiness, I wrote a list of “sutra sayings” which are republished today as “Life School – Experience” together with apt quotations and explanatory comments.
In this precious human lifetime, I’ve been blessed with an exceptionally long incarnation, permitting over nine decades of “continuing education” about that “Life School – Experience”.
So now, at age ninety one, I’m gratefully privileged to share with you my present perspectives, from inner and outer spiritual experiences, of how the universal spiritual path is an ever impermanent process of seemingly separate sentient entities becoming conscious of Cosmic Consciousness; and how
“Life is a perpetual continuing education course from which we never graduate.”
Please consider that conclusion as you read the following hints for happiness:
Life School – Experience
The Universe is our university;
Life is our teacher.
Life is for learning.
When you stop learning, you’re dead.
Earth life is a learning laboratory
for discovering immortality –
experimentally and experientially.
Life is a perpetual continuing education course
from which we never graduate.
All studies are consciousness studies –
consciousness studying its phenomenal self.
There’s just one subject – the Self.
So, there’s just this to know – Thy SELF!
That’s ALL!
On the Earth branch
Of the great Cosmic University,
We are all students,
And we are all teachers.
We are all learning love.
Gleaning meaning in matter,
We learn all that matters-
We learn all that matters is LOVE!
Look out for Noumenon Uno.
In the school of life we suffer
to learn compassion for those who suffer.
Suffering spurs seeking.
Misery and mortality are monumental motivators.
No pain, no gain.
“Finding Spiritual Freedom”:
The Passover Story’s Message
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“Be empty of worrying,
Think of Who Created Thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi
“You will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32
“Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.”
~ Afro-American Spiritual Song
“Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“There is only one central issue, crisis, or challenge for man,
which is, that he must be completely free.
As long as the mind is holding on to a structure, a method, a system, there is no freedom.”
~ J. Krishnamurti
“Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice.
Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness
of our daily existence and activity.”
~ J. Krishnamurti
“Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind.
If you say ‘I am a free soul.
I am a son of God who can bind me’
free you shall be.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him–
that moment I am free from bondage,
everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
All life is an effort to attain freedom from self-created entanglement;
it is a desperate struggle to undo what has been done under ignorance,
to throw away the accumulated burden of the past,
to find rescue from the debris left by a series of temporary achievements and failures.”
~ Meher Baba
“Freedom is of the nature of the soul, it is its birthright:
.. real freedom of the soul shines through veils of matter
in the form of the apparent freedom of man.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe;
it cannot be found here. ….
The only way to come out of bondage
is to go beyond the limitations of [karmic] law,
to go beyond causation.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“Liberation is our very nature. We are that.
The very fact that we wish for liberation
shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“Spiritual freedom is freedom from all wanting. . .
When the soul breaks asunder the shackles of wanting,
it is emancipated from bondage to body, mind, and ego.
This freedom brings realization of the unity of all life
and puts an end to all doubts and worries.”
~ Meher Baba
“True freedom and the end of suffering
is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen
whatever you feel or experience at this moment.
This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul… it is freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional. He does not want to give you an ideology, because every ideology creates its own slavery. He does not want to give you a religion, because religion binds you.”
~ Osho
“We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.
Freedom is beyond belief.”
~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Sayings
“You are truly free when you are not a person.”
~ Deepak Chopra – The Book of Secrets
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual,
“Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. — “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963
“Finding Freedom”
Ron’s Introduction To “Finding Spiritual Freedom”:
The Passover Story’s Message
Dear Friends,
Happy Passover season!
As Passover begins today, this posting explains how I found spiritual freedom as Eternal LOVE as the metaphoric message of the biblical Passover story, and the transcendental inner goal of all non-dual religious, ethical and perennial wisdom paths.
Most people associate “freedom” with personal, political, and economic liberty. But spiritual freedom is an extraordinarily rare transcendental state which can be inwardly attained even by those who do not enjoy external freedoms, like slaves or prison inmates.
Only after my 1976 spiritual awakening, did I begin reflecting upon and realizing inner spiritual freedom.
My Background in “Finding Spiritual Freedom”
I first deeply reflected on transcendental concepts of “freedom” during the 1950’s on learning of Abraham Maslow’s humanistic psychology theories concerning self-actuated people, and when I read “Escape From Freedom” by German-born psychotherapist Erich Fromm, who endorsed the fundamental importance of not submitting to outer-dictates from an authoritarian societal system that prescribes inauthentic beliefs and behaviors.
Though I’ve always been instinctively inner-directed, after becoming a lawyer I rarely reflected about inner “spiritual freedom” until I had a memorable face-to-face exchange with my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, just prior to his 1980 return to India.
While then residing in my apartment, Guruji told me: “Rasik, a yogi’s body is like a baby’s body. Your body is like a prison. I am like a jailer with the prison key. I come and go as I please.”
Thereupon, I became intensely curious about Guruji’s surprising revelation that my body was “like a prison”. And I wondered how and why ‘I’ was ‘imprisoned’, and how ‘I’ could get out of ‘jail’ – free like Guruji. So I began deeply exploring inner spiritual freedom, as distinguished from personal, political, and economic freedoms.
Soon, I was reminded of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, and wondered why his words “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last” were so deeply powerful.
Ultimately, I realized that those words were rooted in the biblical Exodus Passover story; and I intuited that spiritual “freedom” is the essential mythical message of that story. I concluded that the Passover story symbolically emphasizes escape from outer bondage to a Divinely ‘promised land’ within – viz. escape from enslavement by mistaken beliefs in false external idols, Gods or goals to an inner ‘promised land’ of ONE eternal Divinity imminent in each of us.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE!”
~ Deuteronomy 6:4
Later, I noted that Jesus powerfully alluded to spiritual freedom by prophesying:
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32
So Jesus was teaching that we will find freedom (from psychologically self-imposed worldly slavery) only when we transcend entity identity, and commonly self-identify as ONE Divine spirit – the kingdom of heaven within – rather than as embodied personalities,
supposedly separate from each other and Nature.
Ultimately, I concluded that our limited and limiting ego ideas about separate self-identity and reality confine each of us within a kind of psychological prison in which suffering is inevitable, and which restricts realization of our infinite potentialities.
However, the masters teach and demonstrate that we can each mentally transcend that “prison” and emerge “free at last” from our self-woven karmic cocoons, no matter what our outer circumstances.
Thus, Rumi reminded us:
“Be empty of worrying,
Think of Who Created Thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi
The ultimate possibility of getting out of thought-jail FREE is explained in the foregoing quotations and following sutra-essay. May these writings encourage our evolution to precious inner freedom, our divine birthright.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Sutra-essay:
How we can find “Spiritual Freedom”
Q. What is “spiritual freedom”, and how can we experience it?
A. “Freedom” is a word with different meanings.
Here we define “spiritual freedom” as ultimate infinitely potential Divine Reality beyond thought or ego – beyond human comprehension, imagination, description or belief – which can only be known experientially, not rationally or mentally, as LOVE.
Ultimate “Freedom” is our divine birthright, our nature and our destiny. Divine Freedom is ever NOW, never then. Knowingly or unknowingly, all incarnate people – including atheists, non-theists, and agnostics – long for “freedom”.
After mystically experiencing “freedom”, great beings like Jesus, the Buddha and Krishna have encouraged us to aspire to this ultimate transcendent experience. Mystics say that as long we self-identify only with our thoughts in low energy ever changing 3D space/time/causality/duality “reality” we are inescapably ‘imprisoned’ in a state of psychological bondage, with inevitable suffering; that we experience ultimate “freedom” only in the present moment – the NOW – as we choicelessly self-identify with timeless universal awareness or Divine spirit immanent in and as each of us. And essential non-dualistic wisdom teachings of all enduring spiritual, mystical and mythic paths allude to infinitely potential spiritual “freedom”.
Thus, the most important Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is a teaching by Divine Avatar Krishna about the ultimate spiritual goal (“moksha”) of liberation or “freedom” from the cycle of death and rebirth (“samsara”).
Similarly, all of Gautama Buddha’s teachings were aimed at ending human suffering through attainment of “freedom” from mental fetters or chains (samyojana) of mistaken self-identification with samsara.
When Jesus said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) he meant that we will experience “freedom” on realizing our true self-identity as eternal soul or spirit. And in declaring: “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30), Jesus showed that we can only find such freedom when we self-identify with ONE Divine spirit – the kingdom of heaven within – rather than as supposedly separate embodied personalities.
“Finding Spiritual Freedom” is the metaphoric message of the biblical Passover story.
Many Jews and Christians annually remember and ritually observe the biblical Exodus story about God miraculously rescuing Jews from bondage as slaves in Egypt, with Christians recalling that a Passover Seder dinner was Jesus’ last supper. Some Afro-American Christians celebrate by singing the popular spiritual song “Go Down Moses”
.
The Exodus story symbolizes humanity’s eternal quest for spiritual freedom – for societal escape from enslavement by mistaken beliefs in false external Gods or goals to an inner ‘promised land’ of ONE eternal Divinity universally imminent as LOVE within each of us, regardless of religious or spiritual beliefs. So Passover rituals of lighting outer candles, can symbolically remind us of humanity’s perpetual quest for the eternal inner light of universal freedom.
Conclusions
1) We find and experience ultimate freedom only in choiceless awareness that we are ONE Universal LOVE, beyond our apparent subject/object separateness; and beyond our beliefs, religions, ideologies or philosophies.
2) By recognizing and transcending illusory belief barriers which seem to imprison us, we are –
“Free at last, free at last!”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
3) The current era of worldwide turmoil and war, with global fear and suffering is paradoxically a time of both our species’ apparent catastrophic threat to all Earth-life, and an unprecedented opportunity for a wonderful new era of peace and prosperity.
4) This is impelling a “critical mass” of humankind to deeply reconsider our life purposes and priorities as sentient Earth beings instinctively seeking “freedom” as our Divine birthright.
5) Whatever our outer life circumstances, there always exists within us a God-given egoless state of “freedom” as LOVE, attainable by all humans.
Dedication
This “Finding Spiritual Freedom” posting is deeply dedicated to inspiring our destined realization of that wonderful world, beyond fear and suffering, where we shall be “Free at last, free at last!”
Please enjoy and consider it’s key quotations, sutra-essay and comments, and embedded spiritual music explaining that ultimate “Spiritual Freedom”, is infinitely potential Divine freedom as Eternal LOVE – the transcendental goal of all perennial wisdom paths.
Invocation
May today’s writings and music
inspire our instinctive and destined realization
of a wonderful world of LOVE
where we are “Free at last, free at last.”
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
“Go Down Moses”
Afro-American spiritual about exodus story, sung by Louis Armstrong and chorus.
2024 Earth Day Message:
Cherish or Perish
“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.
In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.
“Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs”. . .
“This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”
~ Pope Francis – Climate encyclical message
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.”
“Ultimately, the decision to save the environment must come from the human heart. . [from] a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”
“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root,
can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces
all living creatures, and does not limit itself to mankind.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume
that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”
~ Dalai Lama, “The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence
but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Cherish or Perish.
Co-exist cooperatively, or
Co-expire catastrophically.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Introduction to 2024 Earth Day Message.
Dear Friends,
Greetings as on April 22nd we are about to commemorate Earth Day 2024!
On this Earth Day and every day may we honor all life on our precious planet.
At an apparently pivotal time for Earth life, we are now paradoxically confronted with Humanity’s self-inflicted threats to all life as we’ve known it, while concurrently (but unknowingly) we can compassionately co-create previously unimagined evolutionary advancements to peaceful and cooperative global societies existing beyond all current wars, fears, afflictions and sufferings.
To avert unprecedented earthly calamity, we must NOW actively realize that any more world war (using advanced weapons technologies) will end earth-life as we’ve known it. Yet paradoxically, Humankind can sustainably and peacefully survive and thrive, using advanced technologies to end all sentient beings’ sufferings with reciprocal respect and empathy.
Above all we must no longer abet or allow harm to others, or continue to unsustainably despoil life on our precious planet; but we must treat all sentient beings with the same dignity we wish for ourselves, and that they wish for themselves. (See https://sillysutras.com/go-for-the-gold-the-golden-rule-for-a-golden-age/ )
We must live lovingly and harmlessly as a compassionate global family, in harmony and synchrony with Nature and with all life on our precious planet.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Factual Background
When a reporter once asked Mahatma Gandhi, “What do you think of Western civilization?” Gandhi reportedly replied, “I think it would be a good idea”.
That story raises key insights into our allegedly ‘advanced’ societies.
We have degenerated into an Orwellian world dominated by purported “leaders” and trans-national organizations that are insanely committing mass suicide by ecocide and threatening global climate collapse and potential World War III holocaust which would end Earth life as we’ve known it.
Though there have been prior isolated instances of self-inflicted human societal collapses – like that at Easter Island – never before have we caused an imminent global climate collapse. Yet without planet Earth’s favorable ecology, humanity can not survive.
So we must seriously consider whether our species is ignorantly and unsustainably inflicting upon “Turtle Island” or “Earth Island” what we did to Easter Island. And how we can avert such a catastrophe.
Our present ecological insanity is purportedly justified by an illusionary and long disproved reductionist and materialistic worldview belief system which sees everything and everyone as physically separate and mortal, while forgetting our immortal and Eternal common Cosmic consciousness as Divine LOVE.
We have forgotten what indigenous peoples have always known and remembered – our inextricably interrelated spiritual connectedness to Mother Earth and to everything/everyone/everywhere; that what we think we do to apparent ‘others’ we do to ourselves.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect.”
~ Chief Seattle
Hence to avert apparently calamitous ecological breakdown we must NOW breakthrough to a compassionate higher heart-centered worldview; from where we can solve and resolve our problems, with awareness beyond that which created them.
Ron’s 2024 Earth Day comments.
Dear Friends,
We live in an age of extreme mental malaise; the Hindus call it Kali-Yuga.
Many humans have egotistically forgotten their true Divine Self-identity, and thereby have failed to follw the perennial wisdom Golden Rule of ethics shared by all enduring religious, spiritual, indigenous, and ethical traditions that we do no harm; but that with reciprocal empathy we treat all beings with the same dignity we wish for ourselves, and that they wish for themselves.
Accordingly, our precious planet has become polluted by human fear, ignorance and greed, which imminently threatens all Earth life with global war or climate catastrophe.
Yet paradoxically because of elevated cosmic energies, and advanced Earth technologies, these are also times of unprecedented opportunity for human advancement to peaceful and cooperative societies beyond present afflictions and sufferings.
Optimistic observations.
I optimistically foresee our transcendence of current catastrophic threats.
Throughout human history, life’s most painful and difficult experiences have often proved the greatest evolutionary opportunities and blessings, because they’ve most motivated surrender and transcendence of our illusionary ego-mind separation from Nature and each other, which is the root cause of ignorantly insane beliefs and behaviors which threaten Earth-life.
Moreover, in the darkest and most threatening eras of rampant world materialism and decadence, there invariably have appeared synchronistic circumstances to guide Human societies to, “a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
Furthermore, I agree with many mystics who suggest that everything that happens to us, societally or individually – until we transcend ego’s “optical illusion” of separateness – is in our best interest, because it affords opportunity and incentive to evolve.
Thus, current turbulence and political polarization (beyond evoking anger, fear or despondency) is causing great collective awakening opportunities, and motivating humanity to at long-last recognize and resolve its current critical problems from elevated intuitive Heart levels of consciousness, beyond those fearful lower psychological states which created and perpetuated them.
Such an awakened “critical mass” collective perspective will enable us to transcend current survival insanity. And to spiritually evolve, until ultimately we realize that – beyond our illusory separation from all that we perceive – we are ONE Universal spirit eternally encompassing all life, and everything everywhere as infinite LOVE.
This 2024 Earth Day message is deeply dedicated to inspiring such a collective awakening.
Concluding Invocation.
Thus, as a united global family, may we lovingly restore, preserve and protect our “pale blue dot planet”, “the only home we’ve ever known”.
Ever mindful of our Oneness with all Life on and beyond our precious planet, may we behave and believe with loving-kindness and compassion to always embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty.
Rather than worry or be afraid, may we ever remember that
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address
“For God sends hope in the darkest moments.
The heaviest rain comes from the darkest clouds.”
~ Rumi
“When I despair, I remember that all through history
the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
The Truth That Sets Us Free
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“You will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32
“Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last”
~ Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.”
~ Albert Einstein ( N. Y. Times , March 29, 1972)
Ron’s Introduction to “The Truth That Sets Us Free”
Dear Friends,
The following Sutra poem (composed thirty year’s ago during an extended post-retirement period of solitude and inner reflection) reveals that Spiritual freedom is Humanity’s fundamental evolutionary goal and inevitable destiny.
The poem’s title and subject were inspired by Jesus’ teaching
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
Comments and quotations explaining the poem, include an esoteric interpretation of the biblical Exodus Passover story, that was inspired by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech conclusion: “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
Please deeply reflect upon and enjoy these writings.
May they hasten our realization of “The Truth That Sets Us Free”.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
The Truth That Sets Us Free
Trapped in earthly domain
of fear, death and pain,
we long for liberty.
Jailed in cages we’ve wrought,
with hoary thought
that mere body/minds are we,
We’re deceived by perceptions,
and caught by conceptions,
of supposed mortality.
But prison’s illusion,
and we suffer confusion
of our true identity.
For we’re beings of Light,
Eternal and bright,
and so shall ever be.
We shall know this Truth,
and it shall forsooth,
release and set us Free.
Ron’s audio recitation of “The Truth That Sets Us Free”
Ron’s explanation of “Truth That Set’s Us Free”
Dear Friends,
Today’s “The Truth That Sets Us Free” sutra poem posting (with voice recitation and apt quotations) reveals that Spiritual freedom is our fundamental evolutionary goal. The poem’s title and subject were inspired by Jesus’ teaching “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
For millennia mystical teachings of all perennial wisdom paths have identified spiritual Freedom or Self realization as our ultimately destined evolutionary objective.
Most people associate “freedom” with personal, political, and economic liberty. But spiritual freedom is an extraordinarily rare state of (freedom from) mind which only can be attained inwardly, even by those who do not enjoy external freedoms, like felons imprisoned for life. Knowingly or unknowingly everyone/everywhere longs for Freedom as our divine birthright and ultimate destiny.
I first deeply reflected on philosophical concepts of “freedom” during the 1950’s when I read “Escape From Freedom” by then prominent author-psychotherapist Erich Fromm. But after becoming a San Francisco civil litigation lawyer I rarely thought about about inner freedom, until after a memorable exchange with my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas.
While residing in my apartment (just prior to his 1980 return to India), Guruji told me:
“Rasik, a yogi’s body is like a baby’s body.
Your body is like a prison.
I am like a jailer with the prison key.
I come and go as I please.”
Thereupon, I became extremely curious about Guruji’s revelation that my body was like a prison. And I wondered how and why ‘I’ was ‘imprisoned’, and how ‘I’ could get out of ‘jail’ – free like Guruji. (See https://sillysutras.com/human-body-a-precious-prison-rons-memoirs/)
So I began exploration of “spiritual freedom”, as distinguished from personal, political, and economic freedoms.
Whereupon, I was reminded of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech’s concluding words “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last”, and wondered why they were so deeply powerful.
I realized that those words were rooted in the biblical Exodus Passover story; and intuited that spiritual “freedom” is the esoteric essence and mythical message of that story. And I concluded that the Passover story symbolizes escape from outer bondage to a Divinely ‘promised land’ within – viz. escape from enslavement by mistaken beliefs in false external Gods or goals to an inner ‘promised land’ of ONE indescribable eternal Divinity immanent in each of us as LOVE. viz.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE!”
~ Deuteronomy 6:4
Also I felt that Jesus prophetically alluded to such spiritual freedom by teaching:
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32
Thus, Jesus was teaching that we find freedom (from mentally self-imposed imprisonment) only when we transcend entity-identity, and self-identify as ONE Divine spirit – the kingdom of heaven within – rather than as supposedly separate embodied personalities.
Ultimately, I concluded that our limited and limiting ego-mind ideas about self-identity and reality confine each of us within a sort of psychological prison in which suffering is inevitable, and which restricts realization of our infinite potentialities.
However, the mystic masters teach and demonstrate that we can psychologically transcend that mental “prison” and emerge “free at last” from our self-woven karmic cocoons, no matter our outer circumstances.
Hence, Rumi reminded us:
“Be empty of worrying,
Think of Who Created Thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi
Invocation
May the above verses and writings
encourage and advance our spiritual evolution
to realization of inner Freedom –
Our precious Divine destiny as Eternal LOVE.
And so may we gratefully and joyously BE –
FREE at last, FREE at last!
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Dealing With Death and Dying
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“In order to know through experience what happens beyond death,
you must go deep within yourself.
In meditation, the truth will come to you.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Face death to live life.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Death is a vacation –
Eternal Life-force vacating a transient vehicle –
“a space-time soul suit”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“It is in dying to ego life,
that we are reborn to Eternal Life.”
~ Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (edited by Ron Rattner)
Ron’s Introduction to Dealing With Death and Dying
Physical death is inevitable and natural. But when I grew up it was largely a taboo subject in American society. Most Americans feared death, believing it ended life. They usually died in hospitals or other institutions, and not at home surrounded by family. And mostly they used euphemistic language to describe death.
Though the mystery of inevitable bodily death has long been a central religious and philosophical issue, my Chicago public school and Madison Wisconsin college courses, did not encompass that mystery – nor did my Jewish education.
Both my grandmothers had died before I was born. My paternal grandfather who I hardly knew died while I was quite young and I was not brought to his funeral. Not until later adulthood did I suffer loss of any other dear person or pet, or think much about death.
Until my mid-life spiritual awakening, I self-identified only with my mortal body, its thoughts and its story, and I assumed that death of the physical body ended life. So I had no knowledge, opinion or belief concerning reincarnation or afterlife in ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’, or of an immortal “soul”.
During college days in Madison, Wisconsin, while imprudently and unskillfully swimming too far from shore in Lake Mendota, I nearly drowned and unforgettably experienced a mostly subconscious fear of death. Fortuitously, in the nick of time, I was sighted and rescued by boaters.
For many years thereafter, as a (non-swimming) relatively young and healthy person, I neither consciously confronted nor philosophically considered that innate fear of death.
Then in my early forties, I had transformative experiences of spiritual self-identity and afterlife: I realized that I was not merely my body, its thoughts and story, but eternal and universal awareness. And I began seeing visions of apparent past lives, and inner and outer appearances of deceased people, including my maternal grandfather and Mahatma Gandhi, my first perceived inner spiritual guide.
So, I began accepting perennial Eastern ideas of reincarnation and transmigration of an eternal soul, while gradually losing fear of inevitable physical death. Then, on meeting my beloved Guru, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas (on the luckiest day of my life), I learned that from childhood he had been preoccupied with two perennial puzzles: “Who am I?” and “What is death?”; that at age thirteen, inspired by irresistible inner longing, Guruji had run away from home in search of experiential answers to those eternal questions.
Inspired by Guruji, I became religiously transformed from
“Secular Hebrew” to “Born-again Hindu” to “Uncertain Undo” and “Beyond”.
And I developed a deep curiosity and philosophical interest in the spiritual significance of death and dying, reincarnation, and karma.
Elsewhere, on SillySutras.com I have shared many experiences, essays and poems on these subjects. (See, for example, https://sillysutras.com/category/afterlife/; also https://sillysutras.com/death-afterlife-rebirth-easter-reflections-on-resurrections/)
Ultimately I concluded that cosmically there is no death; that
“Birth and death are virtual, while Divine Life as LOVE is perpetual”.
(See e.g. https://sillysutras.com/know-death-to-know-life-know-death-to-know-that-there-is-no-death/ )
Consequently, I became ever more detached and less fearful about my own inevitable (and perhaps imminent) bodily death. But, my detachment about my own demise did not negate my compassionate concern for loss of others – especially dear ones – and my wish for their auspicious transitions. This became evident when at age sixty-one I was, at long last, confronted with my dear father’s last illness and passing.
Here is what happened.
Dealing with my dear father’s last illness and death
My dear father, Harry, came into this world on December 14, 1904, with a very strong body which served him well and without serious disease or disability until age 88. Then beginning in 1993 he had a series of ailments which proved terminal.
First he suffered an extremely painful and protracted case of herpes shingles for which he was treated with Prednisone, a powerful immune system depressant, which weakened him. Soon after recovering from that affliction, while already debilitated he had an intestinal hernia injury, so painful that he was hospitalized and suffered greatly before and after emergency abdominal surgery. Then he soon developed congestive heart disease with lungs filling with liquid and mucus. And finally he was diagnosed with lung cancer – a terminal disease which he had averted despite being a three pack a day cigarette chain smoker from teen age until age sixty. Amazingly, he had will power to immediately quit smoking cigarettes on publication of the 1964 US Surgeon General’s report confirming cigarette carcinogenicity and toxicity.
My Dad had enthusiastically enjoyed his long life, especially after his retirement and move from Chicago to the California Bay Area, near his children. But he was not anxious to prolong that life while he suffered painful terminal disease. Once, when I visited him in the John Muir Hospital, sadly he confided in me: “Ron, they put dogs and cats out of misery, but make people suffer. If Doctor Kevorkian was in this area and not Michigan, he’d be my doctor.”
Though, as a law-abiding “born-again Hindu” I had mixed emotions about euthanasia, I felt great compassion for my father and wanted to do whatever would be spiritually appropriate to mitigate his suffering and assure his most auspicious possible transition. So, I consulted my Brahmin Vedic pundit-astrologer friend Pravin Jani, father of Guruji’s successor, Shri Anandi Ma.
Pravinji recommended that I recite certain Sanskrit mantras and that I make two extraordinary charitable donations dedicated to my father: first, that I give to a chosen charity a gift of actual gold – not money; and second, that I purchase and give a holy cow to an Indian ashram. So, with heartfelt compassion for my father, I began reciting the mantras and arranged the unusual donations in his honor.
First, I donated rare American eagle gold coins to New Dimensions Foundation, where I was a Board member. Then, through arrangements by my daughter Jessica who was then living on Ammachi’s Kerala ashram, I acquired and donated to the ashram a holy cow, where it was gratefully received.
“Why” you may ask “was it considered propitious to donate a cow to an Indian ashram?” Because in India cows were revered as sacred animals by millions of Hindus. Hindus believed that their Divine Avatar Krishna incarnated 5,000 years ago as an enchanting cowherd. He is often described as Bala-Gopala, “the child who protects the cows.” and as Govinda, “one who brings satisfaction to the cows.”
I learned about holy cows during my 1982 sacred pilgrimage to India. One of my most memorable images of that trip, was of stray cows roaming free and obstructing traffic on busy Calcutta streets as our tour bus approached the downtown hotel where we were staying. Later, in the holy city of Rishikesh, I communed with and kissed one of the sacred small cows on the Sivananda, Divine Life Ashram.
Ron Kissing Holy Cow at Rishikesh, 1982
Many Indian ashrams and rural Indian families have at least one dairy cow, using it for milk, curds, butter, ghee and dung as fuel for pujas (ritual ceremonies). Thus, the cow remains a protected animal in Hinduism today, revered by most Hindus, who do not eat beef.
When I stayed at Ammachi’s ashram in 1992, the ashram had one cow. It’s limited dairy products were used mostly for feeding Ammachi and some swamis, but were insufficient to supply other ashram residents. However, with special dispensation, for a few days Jessica obtained for me one morning cup of curd (yoghurt) which helped heal the severe intestinal upset with which had I arrived at the ashram, suffering food poisoning from a Brahmin wedding feast in Ahmedabad. So the following year I was especially happy to repay that ashram cow’s blessing by donating another sacred cow to be its companion.
Apparently my bovine and gold donations and prayers did not prolong my father’s life. But I have faith that they helped his transition to a heavenly afterlife. When it became evident that Dad’s days here were numbered, at his request he was released from hospital to hospice care at home in March 1994.
To help, I started sleeping at my parents’ Walnut Creek apartment. On the night of March 10, 1994, sensing that Dad’s death was imminent, I stayed awake reciting Sanskrit mantras, especially a mantra recommended by Guruji for auspicious transitions of those destined to die. As I fervently recited mantras, I felt enhanced subtle energies and entered a clairsentient state. Then, though Dad was sleeping in another room, I felt the departure of his spirit. The next morning he was gone, and I helped my mother with required post-death arrangements.
My experiences after my dear father’s transition, and concluding comments about Death and Dying
That night, exhausted by the stress of prior days, I returned to San Francisco where I slept soundly in my ‘high-rise hermitage’. Just before awakening, and while I was in a semi-sleep state, my dear father fleetingly appeared in a vivid inner vision. He looked as he did during the prime of his life, rather than as a debilitated old man. Telepathically he assured me he was fine and then disappeared.
Later, when I told Indian friends what happened, they informed me that Dad had died on Maha Shivaratri (the ‘Great Night of Shiva’) considered the most auspicious holy night of the year by millions of Hindus.
Soon afterwards I received another extraordinary assurance of Dad’s favorable transition as I was driving to Shri Anandi Ma’s home in Antioch for a weekend meditation program. En route, I had picked up as passengers Anandi Ma’s parents and brother Umesh at their Berkeley apartment. Like his revered sister, Umesh then spent many hours daily in deep meditation often communing with Guruji’s ishta devata, Hindu monkey-God Lord Hanuman, considered an incarnation of Shiva.
As we traveled to Antioch, Umesh said to me: “Ron, I have a message for you from Hanumanji.” With extreme curiosity, I asked about that message. Whereupon, Umesh replied: “Hanumanji says, don’t worry about your father, we’re taking care of him.”
Six months later, on August 29, 1994, Guruji took mahasamadhi at age one hundred sixteen, and joined the heavenly host caring for my father and countless others. So, heeding Hanumanji’s assurance, I’m not concerned about my father. Instead, as I too approach the end of this precious lifetime, it is my heartfelt aspiration to help through self-purification and compassion not only family dear ones but all other suffering sentient beings with whom we energetically remain inseparably connected.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
‘Spiritual’ People In A Perfectly Crazy World
‘Spiritual’ People In A Perfectly Crazy World
“Look how the caravan of civilization has been ambushed.
Fools are everywhere in charge.
Do not practice solitude like Jesus.
Be in the assembly, and take charge of it.”
~ Rumi
“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume
that someone else will solve their problems.
Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction.
Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from “The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’,
a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.”
~ Albert Einstein ( N. Y. Times , March 29, 1972)
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Love is the highest, the grandest, the most inspiring,
the most sublime principle in creation.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“Love Is The Law Of Life:
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake,
because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
Ron’s Introduction to ‘Spiritual’ People In A Perfectly Crazy World
Dear Friends,
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day, 2024!
We are immensely privileged to have incarnated on Earth at a rare time in modern human history, as a “critical mass” of Humankind pass from violent, fearful and dark times to an age of lasting peace, light, and Love – not just annually, but every day.
During ages of ignorance and darkness we’ve unknowingly and unwittingly been imprisoned and exploited by ego-bonds of belief in a mental matrix from which we are at long last escaping and ascending incorruptible and awakened to the Divine eternal light of LOVE.
We are about to emerge from eons of outer darkness to a new age of awakened inner eternal Light; from an era of collective fearful psychoses threatening God given human rights and freedoms, to an evolutionarily “enlightened” age free from suffering and deprivation.
On our precious blue planet Earth, time is inescapable. We cannot live ego free timeless lives, in dense 3D relative “reality”. So until we transcend illusory ego mind beliefs of being separated from Divine Source, every Earthly ending is a new beginning. And the ending of eons of human bondage is an extraordinarily historic turning point, with infinite opportunities for our transcendent Self realization as Divine LOVE.
Thus, in this new Earth age many souls will be blessed to ascend to infinitely awakened levels of awareness, by choosing to be actively engaged in emanating and radiating harmonious heart levels of love and compassion.
Here are observations by the Dalai Lama from which we may draw inspiration and motivation, counseling that we must act to solve ecological crises and restore peace “before it is too late”:
“Peace and the survival of life on earth as we know it are threatened by human activities that lack a commitment to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and natural resources results from ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the earth’s living things.”“This lack of respect extends even to the earth’s human descendants, the future generations who will inherit a vastly degraded planet if world peace does not become a reality, and if destruction of the natural environment continues at the present rate.”
“Our ancestors viewed the earth as rich and bountiful, which it is. Many people in the past also saw nature as inexhaustibly sustainable, which we know is the case only if we care for it.”
“It is not difficult to forgive destruction in the past which resulted from ignorance. Today, however, we have access to more information; it is essential that we re-examine ethically what we have inherited, what we are responsible for, and what we will pass on to coming generations.”
“Many of the earth’s habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late.”
“Just as we should cultivate gentle and peaceful relations with our fellow human beings, we should also extend that same kind of attitude towards the natural environment. Morally speaking, we should be concerned for our whole environment.”
“This, however, is not just a question of morality or ethics, but a question of our own survival. For this generation and for future generations, the environment is very important. If we exploit the environment in extreme ways, we will suffer, as will our future generations. When the environment changes, the climatic condition also changes. When the climate changes dramatically, the economy and many other things change. Our physical health will be greatly affected. Again, conservation is not merely a question of morality, but a question of our own survival.”
“Therefore, in order to achieve more effective environmental protection and conservation, internal balance within the human being himself or herself is essential. The negligence of the environment, which has resulted in great harm to the human community, resulted from our ignorance of the very special importance of the environment. We must now help people to understand the need for environmental protection. We must teach people to understand the need for environmental protection. We must teach people that conservation directly aids our survival.”
“If you must be selfish, then be wise and not narrow-minded in your selfishness. The key point lies in the sense of universal responsibility. That is the real source of strength, the real source of happiness. If we exploit everything available, such as trees, water and minerals, and if we don’t plan for our next generation, for the future, then we’re at fault, aren’t we? However, if we have a genuine sense of universal responsibility as our central motivation, then our relations with the environment, and with all our neighbours, will be well balanced.”
“Ultimately, the decision to save the environment must come from the human heart. The key point is a call for a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
(From “Humanity and Ecology”, © 1988, The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
Ron’s Comments on ‘Spiritual’ People In A Perfectly Crazy World
Thus this an exceptional era for people who intuitively experience our spiritual common essence and nature to become engaged.
We live in an age of mental malaise; the Hindus call it Kaliyuga. Our precious planet is polluted by human ignorance and greed.
“The more that money rules the World,
the more that money ruins the World.”
We have degenerated into an insane society, unconsciously committing mass suicide by ecocide.
Unrestrained human consumption exploits vulnerable people and depletes finite planetary resources which sustain life. Billions of people suffer needless poverty, starvation and avoidable disease, while obscenely privileged oligarchs greedily acquire power and excessive material wealth far beyond their conceivable needs.
Earth-life as we known it is threatened by environmental catastrophe or nuclear annihilation, precipitated by corrupt world “leaders” who are
destroying the life support systems which sustain us.
Even in “advanced” countries, it is virtually impossible now to breath air or drink water which is not in some way polluted by our species. Agricultural soils have been depleted and corrupted. Global weather patterns and hydrologic systems have been materially disrupted by human activities; protective atmospheric ozone is being depleted. Glaciers are melting; long frozen Arctic tundra is thawing. Though non-polluting alternative technologies are available and feasible they are considered “economically” impractical.
By “bio-engineering” living organisms we are even tampering and blindly experimenting with our genetic origins. From birth (and even prenatally) every person’s body/mind is polluted by numerous and ubiquitous manmade chemical and radioactive materials, many of which are carcinogenic.
Many species are rapidly becoming extinct. Around the world, thousands of birds are suddenly falling dead out of the sky, and countless dead fish are appearing on shores of rivers, lakes and oceans. The oceans are polluted with our detritus, and much marine life is threatened. Even remote Arctic polar bears are becoming hermaphroditic because of phthalates and other chemicals dispersed by humankind, and they are threatened with destruction of the ecosystem on which they depend for survival. [See http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/toxic-waste-creates-hermaphrodite-arctic-polar-bears-5336813.html]
So, as we widen our circle of compassion to embrace the whole of Nature and all living creatures, it becomes apparent that as the Dalai Lama observes we must “become actively engaged” to avert imminent ecological catastrophe.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Swami Vivekananda: 15 Laws of Life
“Love Is The Law Of Life:
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life.
He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.
Therefore, love for love’s sake,
because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“…this separation between man and man, between nation and nation,
between earth and moon, between moon and sun.
Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
‘Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen…In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation.’
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise
of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“But if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will hold no location in place or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach; whose Sun shines upon the followers of Krishna or Christ, saints or sinners, alike; which will not be the Brahman or Buddhist, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development; which in its Catholicity will embrace in its infinite arms and find a place for every human being … It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize a divinity in every man or woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its divine nature.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda, January 12, 1863 – July 4, 1902 *
Photo Inscription. *In September 1893 in Chicago, USA, Swami Vivekananda reverently autographed this photo with the handwritten inscription:
“One infinite pure and holy –
beyond thought beyond qualities
I bow down to thee”.
“One infinite pure and holy –
beyond thought beyond qualities
I bow down to thee”.
Introduction.
Dear Friends,
This posting honors Swami Vivekananda, the great 19th century Indian sage and orator, and founder of Western Vedanta Societies, on his 161st birthday anniversary.
As principle disciple of Holy Man Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda first brought universal Indian wisdom to large Western audiences beginning as Indian delegate to the historic 1893 Chicago Parliament of World Religions, where his opening remarks famously addressed his “Sisters and Brothers of America”, and concluded with this prayerful invocation:
“I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.”
[Reenacted excerpts from his Parliament speeches are linked only online.]
Thereupon and thereafter Swami Vivekananda eloquently explained to Westerners ancient perennial principles of Hinduism, and why according to Advaita Vedanta nondualist philosophy this impermanent and ever changing world of space, time and causality is illusory; that “In the Absolute there is neither time, space nor causation”; that “Love Is The Law Of Life .. just as you breathe to live; that the goal of mankind is the knowledge [that]…oneness is the secret of everything.”
Though Vedic rishis or seers had anticipated Einstein’s 1905 theory of relativity by millennia, their teachings were largely unknown in the West until first explained by Vivekananda soon before Einstein revolutionized Western science.
Swami Vivekananda experientially had realized as impermanent and illusory the appearance of our space, time, causality, and duality reality. From his rare level of nondualist consciousness beyond ego-mind he shared many wise perennial teachings to guide our lives on Earth, including the “Fifteen Laws of Life”, which follow, with my explanatory comments.
Written over a hundred years ago, these fundamental wisdom teachings remain exceptionally important for our worldwide transcendent awakening opportunities in current times.
May they deeply inspire and guide us to help heal the World by realizing and experiencing their fundamental truths.
Swami Vivekananda: 15 Laws of Life.
1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.
2. It’s Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful; our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.
3. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world – that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!
4. It’s The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.
5. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
6. Don’t Play The Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
7. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
8. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
9. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
10. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!
11. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin – to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
12. 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.
13. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge… now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
14. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
15. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
Ron’s Explanation.
Swami Vivekananda had realized and revealed to us that this ego-mind illusory 3D “reality” of supposed space, time, and causality-duality, is an unavoidable mere mental mirage beyond human thought comprehension, imagination, or expression.
Like Jesus Christ and countless other prior and subsequent spiritual avatars and seers, Vivekananda proclaimed (in 20th century vernacular) the pre-primordial non-dualist truth that “Love Is The Law of Life”, that the infinitely powerful and potential Human Heart and the Cosmos are not separated, but One Eternal LOVE.
For example, two thousand years ago Jesus Christ incarnated in a mortal human body to reveal that: “I and the Father are ONE”, and that “God is Love” saying:
“Let us love one another: for love is of God;
and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.
He that loves not, knows not God; for God is love.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His
love is perfected in us.” [1 John 4:7-8; 12 ]”
Jesus taught us to not only love each other, but to love and forgive even our enemies, importuning God while suffering excruciating pain as He was being crucified by Roman soldiers,
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
~ Luke 23:34
Jesus so demonstrated that because we not separated but exist as One Eternal LOVE when we love each other we love our Eternal SELF – our Divine Mother/Father Creator and Sole Source.
Thus, Swami Vivekananda revealed over a hundred years ago, that these same fundamental wisdom teachings of Jesus, remain exceptionally important for our worldwide transcendent awakenings in current times.
And such revelations can inspire and awaken a pivotal “critical mass” turning point in human history, when much of humankind will energetically awaken to loving levels of consciousness and spiritual freedom.
We are thereby immensely blessed to participate in thus raising humanity’s collective consciousness, as we gratefully awaken from inside out as ONE INFINITELY POTENTIAL Divine LOVE .
Ron’s Dedication.
This posting honors both Swami Vivekananda and his renowned Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, whose lives and teachings have been extraordinarily inspirational for countess beings, including me. Additionally it honors my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, who was also inspired by Vivekananda.
Vivekananda considered Shri Ramakrishna as “higher and nobler than all ordinary” teachers, and attributed all his powers to Ramakrishna, saying:
“All that I am . . is owing to my Master, Shri Ramakrishna, who incarnated and experienced and taught this wonderful unity which underlies everything, having discovered it alike in Hinduism, in Islam, and in Christianity.” [His] “One touch, one glance, can change a whole life.”
Synchronistically, my Guruji Shri Dhyanyogi – who was another one of those rare great beings whose “One touch, one glance, can change a whole life.” – was crucially inspired and helped by Vivekananda.
The fascinating story of how this happened is told in “This House is on Fire, The Life of Shri Dyanyogi”, pp 61-64, by Shri Anandi Ma.
After fifteen years of solitary wandering in rural India Guruji had a dramatically transformative vision of Vivekanda, who assured Guruji that he would reach his spiritual goal.
Soon thereafter Guruji discovered and was enthralled by Vivekananda’s teachings published in the book Raja Yoga, which included his apt lectures in the West, and commentaries explaining Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, widely accepted as a foundational Sanskrit text of Raja Yoga philosophy.
Guruji continuously read and re-read Vivekandanda’s Raja Yoga book, like a scripture, and ultimately he repeatedly recommended it to his disciples, including me.
Invocation.
May these precious wisdom teachings continue to inspire and guide countless people worldwide in current critical times.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Reenacted audio excerpts from Vivekananda talks at 1893 Chicago Parliament of World Religions.
From Darkness To Light
“And God said,
“Let there be light,”
“And God divided the light from the darkness.”
~ Genesis 1:3-4
“I wish I could show you
when you are lonely or in the darkness,
the astonishing light of your own being.”
~ Hafiz
Into my heart’s night
Along a narrow way I groped;
and lo! the light,
An infinite land of day.
~ Rumi
“The night is as bright as the day.”
“Darkness and light are both alike.”
~ Psalms 139:10-11
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Do not be sad.
For God sends hope in the darkest moments.
The heaviest rain comes from the darkest clouds.”
~ Rumi
“See, I will create new heavens
and a new earth.”
~ Isaiah 65:17
The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
~ Isaiah 9:2
For nothing is hidden,
except to be revealed;
nor has anything been secret,
but that it would come to light.
~ Mark 4:22
The trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
~ 1 Corinthians 15:52
“Light is the real essence of everything.
This earth is not “earth” as you see it;
it is light.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
From Darkness To Light
Dear Friends,
We are immensely privileged to have incarnated on Earth at a rare time in modern human history, as a “critical mass” of Humankind pass from violent, fearful and dark times to an age of lasting peace, light, and Love.
During ages of ignorance and darkness we’ve unknowingly and unwittingly been imprisoned and exploited by ego-bonds of belief in a simulated mental matrix from which we are at long last escaping and ascending incorruptible and awakened to the Divine eternal light of Universal Awareness.
Following the December 21, 2023 Winter Solstice, we are about to emerge from eons of outer darkness to a new age of awakened inner eternal Light; from an era of collective fearful psychoses threatening God given human rights and freedoms, to an evolutionarily “enlightened” age free from suffering and deprivation.
On our precious planet Earth, time is inescapable. We cannot live timeless lives, in dense 3D relative “reality”. So until we transcend illusory ego mind beliefs of separation from Divine Source, every Earthly ending is a new beginning. And the ending of eons of human bondage is an extraordinarily historic turning point, with infinite opportunities for our transcendent Self realization as Divine LOVE.
Thus, in this new Earth age many souls will be blessed to ascend to previously unknown awakened levels of awareness, by fearlessly emanating and radiating harmonious heart levels of loving serenity and calmness. However such ascension will require Humankind to consciously receive Divine Grace.
“Love cannot be learned or taught.
Love comes as Grace.”
~ Rumi
“The winds of grace are always blowing,
but you have to raise the sail.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna
For humanity’s “critical mass” ascension to elevated states of awareness, we must individually and collectively radiate heartfelt loving energies, without ego-mind thoughts and emotions of fear, anxiety, aggression or hatred, that invariably perpetuate our perceived illusory separation from each other and Nature.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
So let us experience current insane space/time events like a projected movie or “Light Show”. And may we thus elevate our energetic emanations by realizing that these dreamlike dark and dystopian times cannot threaten or harm our true immortal SELF identity and Reality as Eternal LIGHT, LIFE and LOVE.
Conclusion
This is a pivotal turning point in human history, when much of humankind will energetically ascend from darkness to light and loving levels of consciousness and spiritual freedom.
We are immensely blessed to participate in thus raising humanity’s collective consciousness, as we awaken to BE inner Source ultimate Reality.
Invocation
Whatever happens in this ever impermanent illusory world of inevitable karmic suffering,
May we never forget our eternal immortality and spiritual Oneness with Nature and all Earth-life.
And may we ever emanate and widely radiate universal peace and happiness,
While realizing that this world is like a projected movie or “light show” –
Just a dreamlike ever changing illusory play of Universal Awareness.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Uniquely The Same
“You are the light of the world.”
~ Matthew 5:14
Into my heart’s night
Along a narrow way I groped;
and lo! the light,
An infinite land of day.
~ Rumi
“There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, …
beyond the highest, the very highest heavens.
This is the light that shines in your Heart.”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 3.13.7
“If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty One –.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, Verse 12
Every particle of the world is a mirror.
In each atom lies the blazing light of a thousand suns.
~ Mahmud Shabestari, Sufi Mystic, 15th century.
And this is the reason the cosmos first
needs to be divided into the tiniest parts,
and enormous shatterings must take place
in order to separate the smallest particles.
And after they are polished up and clarified, behold:
each speck will contain the whole of all existence,
and it all is filled with God’s light and his glory.
~ Rabbi Avraham Kook
“There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe.
The horizontal threads are in space. The vertical threads are in time.
At every crossing of the threads, there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
And every crystal bead reflects not only the light from every other crystal in the net,
but also every other reflection throughout the entire universe.”
~ Indra’s Net – from the Vedas of ancient India, 7000 years old
“Light is the real essence of everything.
This earth is not “earth” as you see it;
it is light.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“Reality’s essence is Divine luminescence.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Ron’s Introduction to “Uniquely The Same”
Dear Friends,
The following “Uniquely The Same” sutra poem tells us that we are unique in form, but that in Essence we are eternally identical Divine Spirit, Light, Life, and LOVE.
Together with the above quotations and following recitation and explanation, this posting is dedicated to reminding us that as common Cosmic Consciousness, we are “the light of the world”.
Also, that we shall experience ever increasing happiness as we evolve toward destined Self-realization,
by using our mind as our best friend, rather than worst ego enemy.
Please enjoy and consider this posting accordingly.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Uniquely The Same
We are all
uniquely the same.
In form we’re unique,
but in Essence identical:
Spirit, Light, Life, LOVE.
Deeply, but subconsciously,
we share common Cosmic Consciousness –
Common “I”ness.
Common “I am” ness.
As ever more we experience our Universality,
We shall ever more transform our “reality”.
Ron’s audio recitation of Uniquely The Same.
Ron’s Comments on “Uniquely The Same”
Dear Friends,
Today’s posting is dedicated to our remembering and realizing that our true Self-identity is as “the light of the world”; that although we appear separated, in Essence we are ONE eternally identical Divine Spirit, Light, Life, and LOVE.
As Jesus’ Christ’s Sermon on the Mount reminds us, we “are the light of the world” – a world in which the law of the Prophets must persist “until heaven and earth disappear” [Matthew 5:14-18].
Except for rare Avatars and Bodhisattvas virtually all incarnate human beings are remembering and awakening as “the light of the world” to our Eternal Divine identity as ONE LOVE.
However, while we mentally experience ourselves as seemingly separated from Nature and everyone and everything else, we are subject to karmic cause and effect. But we enjoy ever increasing happiness as we evolve toward destined Self-realization, by mindfully remembering our true Self identity, and by using our mind as our best friend, rather than worst ego enemy.
Thus Hinduism’s best known scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, reveals this core teaching about achieving spiritual liberation or Moksha.
One must elevate – and not degrade – oneself with one’s own mind,
as the mind is both a friend and an enemy.
For those who have subdued and conquered the mind,
it is the best of friends.
But for those who fail to do so,
the mind remains the greatest of enemies.
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter Six, Lord Krishna to Arjuna
Dedication
This “Uniquely The Same” posting is deeply dedicated to
reminding us that we are “the light of the world”.
May it awaken and inspire our ever increasing happiness,
as we advance toward our destined Self-realization as
Divine Spirit, Light, Life, and LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Forgiving the Past
To BE LOVE Now
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“To understand everything is to forgive everything”
~ Buddha
“It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned.”
~ Saint Francis of Assisi, peace prayer
“To err is human; to forgive, Divine.”
~ Alexander Pope
“Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about your Self return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation.”
~ A Course in Miracles
“If you are harboring the slightest bitterness toward anyone, or any unkind thoughts of any sort whatever, you must get rid of them quickly. They are not hurting anyone but you. It isn’t enough just to do right things and say right things – you must also think right things before your life can come into harmony.”
~ “Peace Pilgrim
“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins,”
~ Ecclesiastes 7:20
“Life can be found only in the present moment.
The past is gone, the future is not yet here,
and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment,
we cannot be in touch with life.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“There is only one time when it is essential to awaken.
That time is now.”
“That which is timeless is found now.”
~ Buddha
“Always say “yes” to the present moment.
What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is?
What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now?
Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you, rather than against you.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Life is NOW
Ever NOW
Never then.
Life is NOW
Ever NOW
Never then.
Life is NOW or never,
Life is NOW forever,
Life is NOW
Ever NOW
Never then.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things,
man will not himself find peace.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are.
Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the universe
who is ever victorious and accomplishes everything.
Remain all the time steadfast in the heart,
in the Transcendental Absolute.
God knows the past, present and future.
He will determine the future for you and accomplish the work.
What is to be done will be done at the proper time.
Don’t worry. Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“The more you struggle to live, the less you live.
Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing.
Instead, surrender to what is real within you,
for that alone is sure….you are above everything distressing.”
~ Baruch Spinoza
“May you find grace as you surrender to life.
May you find happiness, as you stop seeking it.
May you come to trust these laws and inherit the wisdom of the Earth.
May you reconnect with the heart of nature and feel the blessings of Spirit.”
~ Dan Millman
Marc Chagall – The Praying Jew
Ron’s Introduction to Forgiving the Past
To BE LOVE Now
Dear Friends,
As a ninety year old faith-based optimist, I have explained in recent postings that we are experiencing an illusory low energy Earthly ‘reality’ of third dimension [3D] ego-mind space/time/and duality separation from each other and Nature, but that I now optimistically foresee our imminent quantum-leap ascension to a New Reality beyond unavoidable Earthly ego-mind illusions of seeming separation from Source.
Thus, as a global family of empathetic humans we are about to achieve a “critical mass” transformation enabling us to resolve our apparent Earth-life ‘critical mess’, by following our Sacred Heart’s innate empathy, compassion and LOVE for all people and all Life everywhere.
So today’s posting is dedicated to inspiring our newly elevated view of Forgiving the Past To BE LOVE Now – to inspiring our heartfelt surrender of illusions about space/time/and duality Earthly ego-mind ‘reality’ with ever-abiding Faith in our Eternal existence as ONE Divine LOVE.
Returning to “Godliness”
In lunar/solar new moon and equinox seasons of major religious ‘holy days’ we are often reminded that our spiritual goal is returning to “godliness” – to Ultimate Reality. This memoirs posting explains how we can advance our evolution toward attainment of that goal, by clearing past mental conditioning to increasingly be here NOW in the precious present.
Because this posting coincides with the Jewish High Holy Days, it emphasizes Yom Kippur communal practices of:
(1) non-judgmental forgiveness or atonement of supposed transgressions or ‘sins’ by or against us; and of
(2) annulment or rescission of obsolete and unhelpful private intentions, resolutions, or vows to ourselves or God.
Thus it explains that such practices, which are premised on societal awareness of inevitable limitation and fallibility of all incarnate humans, can be universally beneficial in advancing everyone’s spiritual evolution.
Also it explains why our spiritual evolution can be furthered by other practices or activities which help us quiet the mind and clear mental pre-conditioning to increasingly live moment by moment in the precious present, with Love as the supreme unifying principle of Life.
Religious Teachings of Forgiveness
Most major religions teach the importance of forgiving or atoning for transgressions committed by or against us – our “sins”. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism teach forgiveness.
“Sins” are often considered acts or omissions violating moral or ethical codes, with emphasis on what is wrong. But the original meaning of “sin” in Greek is to miss the mark – like an archer missing the target.
“According to Christian teachings, the normal collective state of humanity is one of “original sin.” Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering. Again, the term, stripped of its cultural baggage and misinterpretations, points to the dysfunction inherent in the human condition.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
When sins are considered ‘missing the mark’ from ignorance rather than malevolence, expiation requires that we focus on what is right, and on how to get back ‘on target’, rather than on what was wrong with mistaken acts or omissions.
Recognition and transcendence of “sins”
Thus to transcend the negative, we realize the positive.
“There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges – the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
Yom Kippur: Jewish Day of Atonement for “Sins”
In the Jewish tradition, the highest of High Holy Days is Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement and forgiveness. While fasting on that day, observant Jews communally confess their wrongs and ask Divine forgiveness, humbly acknowledging that there are none amongst them so righteous that they have not sinned.
“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins,”
~ Ecclesiastes 7:20
Recognizing the inevitability of ‘sin”, the Torah enjoins Jews to return to a righteous path with a process of societal repentance and reparation called teshuvah. “Teshuvah means returning to God and godliness.”; and returning to God is the essence of Judaism. ~ Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro,“Open Secrets”, pp.12-13
Forgiveness as returning to At-one-ment with “Godliness”
The process of returning to “godliness” which is the essence of Judaism is also central to all other major theistic religions.
Eastern religions emphasize “freedom” as an ultimate spiritual Reality and goal beyond thought or ego – beyond human comprehension, imagination, description or belief – which can only be known experientially, not rationally or mentally. (See https://sillysutras.com/what-is-freedom-question-and-quotes/)
All enduring religious and spiritual wisdom traditions recognize need for human transcendence of ego’s optical illusion of our imagined separation from each other and Nature; of our returning psychologically to a state of “At-one-ment” and self-identity with Universal Awareness – which is our ultimate Essence, and our ultimate destiny.
Ron’s Concluding Comments
We are here to learn and to demonstrate divine LOVE. But if we behave fearfully or selfishly, instead of lovingly and compassionately, we inevitably ‘miss the divine target mark’, and thereby we ‘sin’. And if we miss our mark and ‘sin’, we’ll inevitably suffer karmically from the law of causality. So how do we avoid ‘sinning’, and atone for past ‘sins’?
First, we must become aware of how ‘sins’ happen.
On investigating, we learn that human “sins” and sufferings are karmically inevitable and unavoidable while we unknowingly perceive “through a glass darkly” with conditioned ego(i)-minds. Thereby we realize that all our perceptions are illusory projections of past conceptions, which obscure our experience of the timeless NOW.
Thus, we learn that our space/time causality reality is like a persistent illusion – a mental mirage; and we discover that
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, [but] modes in which we think.”, that “the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”, and that “our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
Such new-found awareness can reveal simple solutions to previously persistent behavioral problems, from levels of consciousness beyond those which unknowingly caused our mistaken ‘sins’. For example, the Buddha taught that: “to understand everything is to forgive everything”.
So we may insightfully discover that a fundamental solution to our ‘sinning’ problems is to forgive NOW (in the precious present), all mental mistakes which we and others have unknowing made.
That “to err is human; to forgive is Divine.”
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
