Posts Tagged ‘Dr. Seuss’

Spiritual Paths

Q. “What is the path?”
A. “Everyday life is the path.”
~ Zen Master Nansen

Q. “Sir, shall I ever leave the spiritual path?”
A. “How could you?
Everyone in the world is on the spiritual path.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire,
men cannot live without a spiritual life.”
~ Gautama Buddha

“The spiritual path –
is simply the journey of living our lives.
Everyone is on a spiritual path;
most people just don’t know it.”
~ Marianne Williamson

“The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear
and the acceptance of love.”
~ Marianne Williamson

“Truth is a pathless land,
and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever,
by any religion, by any sect.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“In a conflict between the heart and the brain,
follow your heart.”
“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.”
~ Swami Vivekananda





Spiritual Paths

Introduction to “Spiritual Paths”

Dear Friends,

The above perennial wisdom quotations, and the following Spiritual Paths sutra-essay, suggest a simple and universal way for us to resolve current complex worldly problems and dire threats.

They remind us to faithfully follow the inner wisdom of our Heart, by always living with love.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Spiritual Paths

There are as many spiritual paths as people.

Each person is unique,
with unique evolutionary challenges
arising from unique karmic causes.

To find and follow your spiritual path –

Look within.

And find and follow your Heart.



Ron’s audio recitation of “Spiritual Paths”

Listen to



Ron’s Comments on “Spiritual Paths”

We are living in exceptionally unhappy times. Most humans worldwide are troubled and polarized, and sometimes violent. They are accepting top-down domination benefiting only a few obscenely rich people and transnational corporations, rather than over 99% of Humankind.

Humans are thereby authorizing or allowing their leaders to psychopathically end life on Earth as we’ve known it by omnicidal nuclear, radiological or biological warfare, or by deliberate climate collapse. Alternatively, we can each avert any such catastrophe and enjoy happy lives without fear or suffering.

So, what can we do to accomplish this?

Dr. Seuss reminds us that


“Sometimes the questions are complicated
and the answers are simple.”


And Albert Einstein advises:

“Out of complexity, find simplicity!”
“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
~ Albert Einstein


Also Einstein observes that we cannot solve our problems from the same level of consciousness which created them; that

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
We will not solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
~ Albert Einstein


Similarly, renowned sage Swami Vivekananda wisely advises that:

“In a conflict between the heart and the brain,
follow your heart.” “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.”
~ Swami Vivekananda


Discussion

Each human is unique, with a unique perspective and unique karmic history. And each of us creates our own reality with our personal thoughts.

But though our mental perspectives are unique, we always share deep common consciousness. And when we access our common consciousness we can resolve seemingly insoluble individual and societal problems from intuitive levels of awareness above and beyond the mental levels which created them.

Thus this Spiritual Paths posting offers us a universal, but simple, spiritual method for resolving our seemingly complex problems: The method of living and growing from inside-out, by always following the wisdom of our heart, and living our every-day lives mindfully guided by our inner intuitions.

Invocation

With abiding faith in Self, Nature, and Divinity,
may we always follow the heartfelt wisdom of our inner intuitions –
with LOVE.

May we thereby resolve seemingly insoluble problems,
and bless the world – as LOVE.


And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Go For The “God” Spot

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
~ Dr. Seuss
“The greatest discovery of any generation
is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering the attitudes of their minds.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.”

“So an attitude of gratitude
Brings beatitude.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:

the last of the human freedoms –
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”

~ Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
“The mind is like an elastic band. 
The more you pull, the more it stretches. 
Every time you feel limitations,
close your eyes and say to yourself,
“I am the Infinite,”
and you will see what power you have.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda





Go For The “God” Spot

Introduction

Dear Friends,

Today – as a Halloween “trick or treat” – I’ve posted below Go For The “God” Spot, a whimsical sutra-poem with mp3 recitation, and the above quotations about discovering and choosing happiness within.
 
They are explained in my comments below about choosing happiness.

Like most SillySutras postings Go For The “God” Spot, is dedicated to helping us find ever greater inner happiness no matter what our outer circumstances may be.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Go For The “God” Spot

Don’t complain
about your pain,

Or of what you have,
or have not.

Just get into your brain,
and find the spot

Where all you want –
you’ve got.




Ron’s audio recitation of Go For The “God” Spot

Listen to



Ron’s Reflections on Choosing Happiness

Dear Friends,

Today – as a Halloween “trick or treat” – I’ve posted for your enjoyment and edification the above “Go For The “God” Spot” whimsical poem, and quotations about discovering and choosing happiness within.

At almost age ninety, I’ve found ever increasing happiness by more and more accepting each moment with the attitude that it could not be otherwise.  As explained by Eckhart Tolle: 

 
“The Now is as it is because it cannot be otherwise.
What Buddhists have always known, physicists now confirm:
there are no isolated things or events.
Underneath the surface appearance, all things are interconnected,
are part of the totality of the cosmos
that has brought about the form that this moment takes.”

Albert Schweitzer once proclaimed  that 

“The greatest discovery of any generation
is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering the attitudes of their minds.”

We may not be free to choose our outer circumstances in life. But, while self identifying as separate entities, we can choose our attitudes and thoughts about those circumstances.
So happiness is a choice!

Because choosing happiness has greatly helped me, I’ve often tried to share this insight on SillySutras.com, with apt aphorisms, essays, quotations, and stories that might help everyone. 

So today’s whimsical Go For The “God” Spot poem is intended to humorously help us find and choose inner happiness.  

May we see it as truth said in jest; not as a Halloween trick, but as a timeless treat.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Different Person, Different Path

Q. “Sir, shall I ever leave the spiritual path?”
A. “How could you?
Everyone in the world is on the spiritual path.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Q. “What is the path?”
A. “Everyday life is the path.”
~ Zen Master Nansen
“The spiritual path –

is simply the journey of living our lives.

Everyone is on a spiritual path;

most people just don’t know it.”

~ Marianne Williamson
“Overcoming negative tendencies
and enhancing positive potential
are the very essence of the spiritual path.”
~ Dalai Lama
“When I let go of what [I believe] I am,
I become what I might be.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.”
~ Shirdi Sai Baba
“Each person’s life – each lifeform,
in fact – represents a world,
a unique way in which the universe experiences itself.
And when your form dissolves,
a world comes to an end –
one of countless worlds.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
At bottom every man knows well enough
that he is a unique being,
only once on this earth;
and by no extraordinary chance
will such a marvelously picturesque
piece of diversity in unity as he is,
ever be put together a second time.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“Today you are You,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.”
~ Dr. Seuss




Introduction to “Different Person, Different Path”

Dear Friends,

“Different Person, Different Path” is an essay-poem (with oral recitation) about perennial principles intended to help us respect and accept all other humans as Divine spiritual siblings, each following a unique ‘spiritual path’ to ultimate Self Realization of our common inner Divinity.

Also to realize that (through mistaken illusory perception-projection) we continuously appear and reappear as supposedly separate ‘players’ in differing ‘roles’ on the world’s ‘stage’, in an endless Divine process and play in and of Cosmic consciousness, until we realize our true Universal non-duality Self-identity as Eternal LOVE.

The essay’s principles (with above quotations and explanatory comments below) are especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, when a majority of humans are fearful and polarized by earthly illusions, which they can transcend spiritually.

To help each other and the world, please enjoy and intuitively reflect upon these writings.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Different Person, Different Path

No two people experience identical perceptions
or states of consciousness;

Each one’s awareness
is mediated and limited by a unique body/mind;

And each person’s consciousness state
is ever changing and unique.

Beyond each individuated body/mind, is
Unlimited Awareness – Cosmic Consciousness – Infinite Potentiality.

But, body/mind consciousness is
localized and limited, and uniquely experienced.

Purpose of body/mind
is transformation of human consciousness,
which is collectively and individually
created by our thoughts.

Since each body/mind is unique,
each person’s transformational path is also unique.

Different person, different path.



Ron’s audio recitation of “Different Person, Different Path”

Listen to



Ron’s Comments on “Different Person, Different Path”

Dear Friends,

The foregoing essay-poem and quotations concern perennial wisdom principles about spiritual paths. Unlike earthly paths, spiritual paths do not lead to space/time destinations, but to experiencing and ultimately transcending karmic limitations which are unique to each person.

As each human soul evolves, it repeatedly incarnates into distinct body/minds, to experience and to learn from the effects of its unique karmic causal history. (Like snowflake crystals, not even identical twins are exactly the same.)

Upon incarnation as human body/mind lifeforms we experience ‘amnesia’ about our true spiritual Self-identity. Then, perceiving and believing ourselves to be separate from each other and Nature, we mistakenly identify, think and behave as separate entities, and thereby become subject to the universal law of cause and effect – karma.

Whereupon each soul becomes ‘encapsulated’ and ‘entangled’ in a self-woven “karmic cocoon” attributable to its unique behaviors – through which we inevitably experience personal and world sufferings.

Spiritual transcendence of our mistaken earthly illusions of being separate from each other and Nature is especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, because a majority of humans worldwide are polarized and fearful of death, disease and/or deprivation of necessities and God-given rights.

Thus, this posting is dedicated to our helping each other and the world advance toward achievement of such transcendence with our loving emotions and behaviors.

Invocation.

May we transcend such sufferings,
as we learn to forgive and accept ourselves
and all other humans
as Divine but fallible spiritual siblings;
as children of Eternal LOVE.


And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

“Creation”/ “Evolution”/ Rumination

“We never cease to stand like curious children
before the great Mystery into which we were born.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Whence come I and whither go I?
That is the great unfathomable question,
the same for every one of us.
Science has no answer to it.”

~ Max Planck
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Sometimes the questions are complicated
and the answers are simple.”

~ Dr. Seuss
The quest is in the question.
The question is the answer.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
When questioning begins, certainty ends.
When certainty ends, wisdom begins.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings




“Creation”/ “Evolution”/ Rumination

Was space/time causality “reality” ‘created’ 5000 years ago
– or previously?

Or is “reality” ever ‘created’ instant by instant
– ever NOW?

If so, how?

Is there a Divine ‘design plan’?

If so, who is the Divine ‘designer’?  Is S/HE friendly?

And if so, why and how did S/HE ‘design’ “reality”?

Is evolution ever implicit in “creation”?

As evolution happens, who/what evolves:
‘Human consciousness’? Living organisms? Beings? “Life”? “Reality”?

Is evolution inevitable, or just optional;
is it imperative, or just elective?

Do we always evolve, or sometimes devolve?

What is our Source? 
Do we emerge from Divinity?

After ‘creation’, do we seek our Source,
as a matter of course?

Do we ultimately dissolve in Divinity
– and merge with Mystery?

Does Spirit mind, 
and does mind matter?

What really matters?

It’s all MYSTERY!



Ron’s comments on “Creation”/ “Evolution”/ Rumination, and
about finding ever increasing happiness with continuing curiosity


Dear Friends,

The foregoing whimsical “Creation”/ “Evolution”/ Rumination poetic inquiry/essay was composed with great curiosity after my mid-life change of life, which began an immeasurably helpful and still continuing spiritual questioning process.

Thanks to continuing curiosity with open-minded uncertainty, I’ve sometimes been blessed with seemingly simple spiritual answers to complicated questions about “reality”, “self-identity”, and societal insanity – insightful answers which have brought ever-increasing happiness to my life, from intuitive levels of awareness beyond prior conceptual consciousness.

For example, inspired by curiosity I’ve occasionally received and shared ‘simple’ sutras, like these about “reality”, “death” and “silence”:

“Reality isn’t Real”;

Theory of Everything: e = mc2 = consciousness = Self”;


“Remember God, forget the rest”;

“Birth and Death are virtual,
but Life is perpetual”; 


“In the beginning was the Word,
but in the end Silence says all.”


As these sutras suggest, thanks to continuing curiosity with open-minded uncertainty I have discovered and adopted helpful new life paradigms, which were unimagined before my spiritual awakening. And ultimately I’ve concluded that beyond all intellectual inquiry – beyond thought – there is only Mystery.

I’ve shared my curiosity questioning process, and the preceding poetic inquiry/essay, sincerely aspiring to encourage all of us to seek and discover within ever increasing spiritual happiness, by following Albert Einstein’s wise advice: 


“Never lose a holy curiosity” . . . . 

“The important thing is not to stop questioning”.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Reflections on Religious Beliefs

“Today, … any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal,
and so will be inadequate.” . . .
“[T]he time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics that is beyond religion.”

~ Dalai Lama
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.

Without them humanity cannot survive.”

~ Dalai Lama
“I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi
“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
“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion, or cultural system.
 I am not from the East or the West,
 nor out of the ocean or up 
from the ground, not natural or ethereal,
 not composed of elements at all.

I do not exist, am not an entity in this world
 or the next, 
did not descend from Adam and Eve 
or any origin story.

My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.
 Neither body nor soul. 
I belong to the Beloved
 have seen the two worlds as one 
and that one call to and know,

First, last, outer, inner, only that 
breath breathing human.” 


~ Rumi, ‘Only Breath’
“Irrevocable commitment to any one religion is not only intellectual suicide;
 it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world.”

~ Alan Watts
“The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.”

~ J. Krishnamurti
“We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.
Freedom is beyond belief.
So, we seek relief from belief.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Follow dharma, not dogma.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings






Reflections on Religious Beliefs

Q. What is religion?

A. “Religion” is a word with many meanings.
Here we define it as “any belief system about Divinity or immortality often including rules, rituals, codes of ethics, and philosophies of life.”

Q. Why do we have religions?

A. There is a subtle Cosmic law of ‘supply and demand.’ Religions have arisen in response to our perennial quest for lasting peace and happiness, and our desire to transcend inevitable earthly psychological sufferings.

Knowingly or unknowingly, everyone seeks Happiness, Wholeness, and Love. Consciously or subliminally, we intuit and long for a state of Being which transcends inevitable Earthly cares and suffering. Knowingly or unknowingly we seek timeless Truth.

Religious belief is a form of attempted life guidance, and psychological self-protection from fear of inevitable physical death and uncertain life experience before death. Though many find transient consolation in accepting religious beliefs about divinity and immortality, such beliefs can’t permanently provide such protection. We can’t find freedom from fear of death and from life’s uncertainties through theories, thoughts or beliefs, but only through direct experiential Knowledge.

Thus the Buddha, who legendarily realized such freedom while meditating beneath a Banyan tree, counseled:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
~ Buddha

When twentieth century Indian sage, J. Krishnamurti, was asked
“Is belief in God necessary or helpful?”   he said:

“[B]elief in any form is a hindrance. A man who believes in God can never find God. If you are open to reality, there can be no belief in reality. If you are open to the unknown, there can be no belief in it. … belief is a form of self-protection…” …

“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.”

Similarly the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a sacred Hindu text, state:

“Yoga is the cessation of mind.”

“The witness is Self, pure awareness, which,
though boundless and unchanging,
appears to perceive creation through the construct of mind.”

“The [mistaken] identification of pure awareness with the mind and its creations
causes the apprehension of both an objective world and a perceiver of it.”

“When the mind withdraws attention from sense experience,
the senses receive no impressions from sense objects,
and awareness rests in its essential nature.”

“When he is not in the state of yoga, man remains [mistakenly] identified with the thought-waves in the mind.”
~ Patanjali – Yoga Sutras

Q. Why is a silent mind important?

A. Through thought we self identify as entities separate from the Whole – as separate perceivers of a supposedly objective world. But this is an ego illusion. So, attempted psychological self-preservation through perpetuation of an illusionary self-image is futile. What never was can never be preserved. Thus, religious beliefs that seek psychological self protection from identification with an illusion of separateness from Self are ultimately futile.

The object of all spiritual practice is to transcend such illusionary ego identity. Such transcendence happens only when thought ceases and the universal intelligence which has been mistakenly regarded as a separate experiencer of sensations and emotions, and a separate performer of actions, exists by itself and as itself, and is not mentally divided.

Q. What about instinctive physical acts of self-protection, as distinguished from religious beliefs aimed at psychological self-preservation?

A. According to J.Krishnamurti:

“Physical self-protection is sane, normal and healthy but every other form of self-protection, inwardly, is resistance and it always gathers, builds up strength which is fear.”

Q. Are religious beliefs important?

A. Our ethical behaviors – not our religious beliefs – are most important.

As the Dalai Lama reportedly has said:

“There is no religion higher than the Truth. … What really is important is our behavior with peers, family, work, community, and in the world. …. Whether or not we follow a religion, what is important is that we become more compassionate, more sensible, more detached, more loving, more humanitarian, more responsible, more ethical.” https://sillysutras.com/your-religion-is-not-important/

So grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate:

“[T]he reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate.

This is why I believe the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics that is beyond religion.”

~ H.H. the Dalai Lama – Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World

Ron’s Comments on Urgently Needed Ethical Behaviors
Beyond Religious Beliefs

Dear Friends,

Without universal ethical behavior beyond conflicting religious beliefs, humanity cannot survive.

As explained in the foregoing essay, throughout human history, people have adopted or accepted “religious” beliefs, practices and institutions, in exploring the mystery and meaning of life and existence. About 84% of the world’s population is affiliated with Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or with some form of folk religion. Also there are now an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide.

Paradoxically, some leaders and devotees of religions organized to teach universal “Truth” realized by Great Beings have perpetuated and acted on mistaken egoic ideas of separateness, which the sages transcended. Thus, throughout human history countless people and other precious life forms – all manifestations of that same Universal “Truth” – have been victims of demonic wars, crusades, inquisitions, persecutions, and ‘terrorism’ initiated and perpetrated in the name of “true” religion or God.

Although religious beliefs and practices have also inspired immeasurable good, advances in technological and scientific knowledge now reveal that Humankind urgently need to transcend such behaviors which have spawned immense misery and even threaten all Earth life as we have known it.

But how can this happen?

Inspired by the wisdom of Dr. Seuss that “sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple,” I have long reflected on on this question, seeking simple answers to the immensely complicated crises confronting us.

Perhaps one of the simplest but most powerful answers I’ve found is:

“There is only one God,

the same God regardless of the labels applied by religion. …

There is only one religion, the religion of Love;

There is only one language, the language of the Heart;

There is only one caste, the caste of Humanity”

~ Sathya Sai Baba

But most people are not yet sufficiently evolved to understand and act in accordance with that profound observation.

So I was delighted when His Holiness the Dalai Lama published an important self-help book – “Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World” – which H.H. introduced with this important insight:

“[T]he reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate.

This is why I believe the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics that is beyond religion.”

~ H.H. the Dalai Lama – Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World (2011)

And I have been deeply inspired and encouraged by similar sentiments addressed to all Humankind by Pope Francis, e.g.:

“When one realizes that life, even in the middle of so many contradictions, is a gift, that love is the source and the meaning of life, how can they withhold their urge to do good to another fellow being?”

“[W]e all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent “I,” separated from the other . . . .we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone”. . . .
“[E]verything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state.”

“We have so much to do, and we must do it together.”

~ Pope Francis – 2017 TED Talk

And so we must realize that

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.

Without them humanity cannot survive.”

~ Dalai Lama

Invocation

With silenced minds and ever opened hearts
may we practice the “golden rule” of reciprocal empathy;
do no harm, and compassionately see and treat all sentient beings
as spiritual siblings.  

May everyone everywhere treat all beings and all Life
with the same dignity that they wish for themselves. 

And so shall it be.

Ron Rattner

Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional

”Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”
“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.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2




Ron’s Introduction to Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional

Dear Friends,

Have you ever wondered why the world seems so insane?  Why billions of people worldwide suffer unnecessarily from wars, poverty, illness, lack of basic life-sustaining necessities?  Why even in the richest nation on Earth, suffering is ubiquitous?  Why even materially rich people are often depressed, addicted or mentally ill?  

To help us answer those questions, I’ve posted below “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional”  a pithy whimsical poem which emphasizes the crucial spiritual truth that Life is eternal, though suffering is optional. In comments following the poem I’ll explain it’s origination and dedication.

Ron Rattner
 
Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional

Life is perpetual;
Happiness is optional.

God gives Life eternal.
Humankind makes it sublime or infernal.

Timeless delight,
or endless night:

However we choose it,
we never can lose it.



Ron’s audio recitation of “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional”

Listen to



Ron’s commentary on “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional”

Dear Friends,

Long before my mid-life spiritual awakening, I often wondered about seeming needless injustice and suffering in our supposedly ‘advanced’ societies.

And I attributed societal suffering to societal insanity. But only after spiritual awakening, did I begin deeply reflecting on root causes of such societal insanity and unhappiness. With continuing curiosity, I began asking many new questions about our true identity and reality. That process of constant questioning has proved immeasurably helpful.

Thereby, I’ve often been blessed with simple spiritual answers to seemingly complicated questions about insane human behaviors which cause needless suffering in our beautiful world; answers which have brought me ever-increasing happiness.   Like Dr. Seuss, I’ve discovered that: “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple”; that seemingly complicated questions about living a happy life often can be resolved with simple answers from elevated levels of inner awareness.  

I have found that human suffering arises from ignorance of our true nature and spiritual Self-identity; that we inevitably suffer karmically while seeking happiness through satisfaction of ephemeral worldly desires, because lasting happiness can only be found within; and, that our experience of happiness depends upon our self-identification as eternal spirit rather than as only impermanent mortal bodies and their stories.

So inspired by my beloved Guruji, I’ve shared many SillyStutras writings about happiness, to help us discover within that eternal happiness is our true nature.

Recent realization and dedication

The foregoing pithy poem was composed many years ago. But only recently have I discovered an ancient phenomenon which significantly impedes and complicates humanity’s quest for happiness. While vehemently rejecting current governmental pandemic edicts denying billions of people their core freedoms and human rights, I began relentlessly researching the source of this extraordinary phenomenon.

Thereby, I found persuasive evidence that our societies, enterprises and “leaders” are afflicted and dominated by ancient subhuman malignantly evil energies or entities which parasitically polarize, divide and exploit humankind, by provoking anger, anxiety, and fear. [See Discovering and Escaping an Illusory Matrix “Reality”; and “Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths?”]

And I’ve realized that countless beings who are now dependent or dominated, or are hungry, sick, impoverished, or enslaved, are being forced or instinctively intimidated to prioritize physical survival over seeking happiness within to discover that life is Eternal.

But as we begin a rare Aquarian Age of peace, justice and goodwill, I’m confident that Humanity is about to recognize, reject, and replace current exploitive autocratic leaders and systems with loving societies serving people and planet over profits.

And this posting is deeply dedicated to contributing to that transcendent new Age.

Invocation

May today’s writings help us recognize
current extraordinary difficulties
as rare evolutionary opportunities,
and encourage us to nonviolently and non-judgmentally
resist and transcend them
with innate love, forgiveness, righteousness and justice.

May we thereby live ever happier, peaceful and harmonious lives.

 
And so shall it be!

Ron Rattner


Why Do We Rhyme?

“Tell the truth and make it rhyme.”
~ John Lennon
“Today you are you! That is truer than true!
There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”
~ Dr. Seuss
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own, and you know what you know.
And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
~ Dr. Seuss
“Today was good. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.”
~ Dr. Seuss
“No sooner had I stepp’d into these pleasures
Than I began to think of rhymes and measures:
The air that floated by me seem’d to say
‘Write! thou wilt never have a better day.”
~ John Keats
“Rhyme, that enslaved queen,
that supreme charm of our poetry,
that creator of our meter.”
~ Victor Hugo
“Constantly risking absurdity and death
whenever he performs above the heads of his audience,
the poet, like an acrobat, climbs on rhyme
to a high wire of his own making.”
~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“For poetry, he’s past his prime,
He takes an hour to find a rhyme;
His fire is out, his wit decayed,
His fancy sunk, his muse a jade.
I’d have him throw away his pen,
But there’s no talking to some men.”
~ Jonathan Swift


Dr.Seuss



Why Do We Rhyme?

Why do we rhyme?
Is there a reason?

A time for rhyme –
a rhyming season?

Or, do we just rhyme
without rhyme or reason?



Ron’s audio recitation of “Why Do We Rhyme?”

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Ron’s explanation of “Why Do We Rhyme?”

Dear Friends,

On first living alone after my midlife change of life, I experienced many noteworthy life-style and behavioral changes, which I attributed to samskaras from other less worldly lifetimes.

As a lawyer I had always preferred succinct legal writings, unlike other attorneys’ paradoxically prolix legal briefs, which suggested to me that they might be charging for their words, not just for their professional expertise.

So, after I began reading and writing about spiritual subjects, I continued to prefer succinct and sometimes epigrammatic communications. Thus my favorite SillySutras.com writings are mostly concise and pithy.

Before a midlife spiritual awakening I didn’t compose and rarely read  poetry.  But, thereafter, I spontaneously began writing spiritual songs and poetry. And instinctively I was drawn to whimsical rhyming, repeating, and alliterating – like Dr. Seuss. So I wondered about possible significance of my midlife poetic tendencies, and whether they had reemerged from other lifetimes.

The foregoing poem, “Why Do We Rhyme?”, was composed while I was whimsically wondering about my new rhyming tendencies. Perhaps the rhyming lines from famous poets which precede the poem can help us answer the poem’s rhetorical questions.

And maybe Jonathan Swift’s poem quoted above can help us explain why,


After years of living ascetically
and ‘waxing’ poetically,
Ron’s still rhyming alive,
though ‘waning’ at age eighty five.


In all events, I hope you’ll enjoy this posting. May it help inspire ever more happiness in our lives.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Brains

“The brain does not create consciousness,
but consciousness created the brain,
the most complex physical form on earth, for its expression.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
~  Dr. Seuss
“Looking for consciousness in the brain,
is like looking inside a radio for the announcer…”
~ Nassim Haramein





Brains

Brains do not create consciousness;
consciousness creates brains.

With brains we’re ‘tuned’
to transmute Infinite Potentiality
to terrestrial “normality”.

Brains transduce and decode
‘chaotic cosmic totality’ to
ordered earth–life “reality”.



Ron’s Audio Recitation of “Brains”

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Ron’s Comments about “Brains” and Human Consciousness

Dear Friends,

The foregoing poem and quotations consider a crucially important spiritual question – whether human consciousness remains beyond death of human brains. 

Upon advent of Newtonian physics in the 18th century, Western science adopted a materialistic paradigm with theories of ‘reality’ based only on measurable “objective” observations.  But because consciousness is purely subjective and immeasurable, materialist scientists have failed to include awareness in their theories explaining space/time “reality”.   Even though quantum physicists have for over a century shown that materialist paradigms are inadequate to describe or explain our “reality”, mainstream scientists have adamantly adhered to their inflexible insistence on using only measurable allegedly “objective” data to explain important phenomena.  

Unable to explain immeasurable human consciousness, which is the matrix of all experience, most mainstream scientists unscientifically assert – without any valid corroborating proof whatsoever – that human brains create human consciousness.  

Gradually, this unsupported and insupportable pseudo-scientific assertion has been rejected by non-materialist scientists based on ever accumulating empirical evidence of subtle reality beyond space/time and causality; evidence that non-locality is Reality; that everything/everyone’s is connected everywhere – NOW.

There now exists overwhelming scientific evidence that human consciousness and mind can exist independent of physical bodies.  For example observations of children world-wide with detailed memories of other lifetimes have indicated that reincarnation or rebirth can happen after death of the brain and physical body.  And especially since development of technologies which enable resuscitation of heart attack victims,  millions of people have credibly reported amazingly transformative near death experiences (NDE’s) with continuing consciousness, when according to accurate scientific instrumentation they were “brain-dead”. (See video embedded below.) 

After my unforgettable OOB experience of seeing my body from a ceiling, and seeing my thoughts manifest as separate kaleidoscopic thought-forms outside my body or brain, [See Beginning a New Year and a New Life With a New Mystery]  I began to realize that consciousness and mind are independent of physical bodies; that our physical bodies and brains are not originators of consciousness and mind, but their receptors, tuners and transducers.  Also, my visions of apparent other lifetimes and of deceased beings, like Gandhi, my father and maternal grandfather, further supported that realization, and began to convince me of eternal life after physical death, and that reincarnation or rebirth can happen after death of the brain and physical body.

These realizations have led to an increasingly happy life with diminishing fear of death and ever increasing self-identification with eternal spirit, rather than with my mortal physical form, its thoughts and its story.  Moreover, realization that we share a common consciousness with all life-forms and with our precious planet has been irreversibly transformative, and key to living an increasingly empathetic compassionate and loving lifetime. 

May the foregoing poem and quotes encourage our deep reflection and transformative realization that eternal Life remains beyond our brains; that brains do not create consciousness; but that consciousness creates brains – and all other forms and phenomena. 

And may such reflection and realization help us to live ever happier lives.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Video interview of Dutch cardiologist and author Pim Van Lommel about ‘Consciousness and The Near Death. Experience’  



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?”

Listen to


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!