Posts Tagged ‘Happiness’
Choosing to Live in Hard Times
as The Best of Times
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
. . . . and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
~ 1 John 4:18
“Deep down, at our cores, there are only two emotions:
love and fear.
All positive emotions come from love,
all negative emotions from fear.
From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy.
From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler – When You Don’t Choose Love You Choose Fear
“The choice that frees or imprisons us
is the choice of love or fear.
Love liberates. Fear imprisons.”
~ Gary Zukav
“Fear and Love cannot coexist.”
“So choose Love
And ever BE
Fearlessly FREE!”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“The way is not in the sky.
The way is in the heart.”
~ Buddha
“As far, verily, as this world-space extends,
so far extends the space within the heart…”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 8.1.3
“If there is love in your heart,
you don’t have to worry about rules.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“Forces beyond our control can take away
our freedom to choose how we will respond to an outer situation.”
“When we are no longer able to change that situation –
we are challenged to change ourselves.”
~ Viktor E. Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning [edited by Ron Rattner]
“When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing — nothing.”
“We should seek not so much to pray, but to become prayer.”
~ Saint Francis of Assisi
“Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.”
~ Socrates
“Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”
~ Matthew 21:22
Remember with gratitude,
Life is beatitude –
Even its sorrows and pain;
For we’re all in God’s Grace,
Every time, every place, and
Forever (S)HE will reign!
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Ron’s Introduction to Choosing to Live in Hard Times as The Best of Times
Dear Friends,
At age ninety, my mortal physical body has been considerably weakened by age, symptoms from near death taxicab rundown injuries nine years ago, and post-pandemic lock-down restrictions closing public toilets and preventing my daily walks by SF Bay, and other usual activities.
However, though so weakened by body age, edicts and injury symptoms, I’m gratefully happier than ever before in this long precious human lifetime, with every day a bonus, and every breath a blessing.
Therefore, this memoirs posting explains with the above sutras and quotations, and the following comments how I’m able to psychologically and behaviorally live happily in current post-pandemic hard times.
Regardless of illusory but unavoidable Earthly ego-mind fears, I’ve remembered my eternal identity as infinitely powerful Divine LOVE. And that such ego fears and Love cannot coexist here.
So I’ve gratefully chosen to awaken each day by remembering and BEING Fearlessly FREE as Divine LOVE, in the following new ways:
1) All my daily procedures and practices prioritize spiritual over material activities, with nonjudgmental intention to help all other sentient Earth-beings.
2) They include simplification of usual routines, and undoing unneeded ideas and behaviors.
3) Daily practices include meditations, prayers, and mantras, blessing all sentient beings, and bestowing increased happiness for all people with whom I have face to face, telephone or internet customer service contacts.
Therefore, the above sutras and quotations and the following explanatory comments are posted to encourage and help us live happily in hard times.
Ron’s unusual ancestral and birthday background
Over a century ago both my maternal and paternal ancestors fled Ukraine to escape from Tsarist persecutions for their Jewish religious practices. Each of my parents were Rattner surname first cousins, whose families all lived near Kiev. And my father and his extended family fled for their lives from a Ukrainian village similar to the fictional village portrayed in Fiddler on the Roof, the popular Broadway play and film.
Into that unusual Rattner surname Ukrainian lineage, I was born on election day November 8th, 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected 32nd President of the USA, during “hard times” of the 1930’s and a great global depression, when many were unemployed hungry and suffering from intense fear and exploitation.
In his first inaugural address FDR wisely observed that
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Roosevelt’s New Deal programs
The “hard times” of the 1930’s led to Roosevelt’s pioneering New Deal programs (like Social Security) benefiting most Americans, public works projects, financial reforms and beneficial regulations.
For example, the WPA (Works Project Administration) was established and federally funded to employ most unemployed people not only on crucial public works projects, but also to further the arts. Hence there were projects employing artists, musicians, actors, and writers.
In prior postings, I’ve shown that the most spiritually advanced societies have honored all their art and artists, who communicate deep feelings of instinctive spiritual wisdom beyond words.
And Roosevelt’s New Deal era programs wisely began by honoring Nature, art and artists in those hard times. As 20th century precedents they can inspire our chosen behaviors in current 21st century hard times.
Instead of following our “leaders”, we can each claim our unlimited power as ONE Eternal LOVE to fearlessly and lovingly follow our Sacred Heart until each unique sacred soul is dharmically dissolved in timeless Eternal ONENESS as Divine LOVE.
Our “leaders”
For eons, masses of Earthly humans (experimentally forgetting their common Divine birthright as Eternal beings of love and light, and thus fearfully believing themselves separate in space and time from each other and Nature), have been hierarchically exploited and ruled through religious, military, or political dogma by very few self-proclaimed leaders who’ve been obscenely rich, or allegedly infallible royal beings.
As psychopaths without morality, they’ve become dominant in most major human governments and empires. And most people have accepted and followed these leaders without questioning their psychopathically selfish motives even though they constitute less than 1% of Earthly humanoids.
But gradually an increasing number of people have morally refused to follow these rulers, unless apathetic, indoctrinated, or intimidated.
And such refusals are becoming crucial since these autocrats can exist only in low energy matrix biospheres, like Earth’s third density illusory world of space/time and duality. They cannot exist in elevated biosphere energies of infinitely potential fifth dimensions and above. So these evil rulers keep frightening and intimidating people to prevent their energetic ascensions to higher dimensions.
Reasons for choosing to live lovingly in current hard times
Even in this ominous era, I’m spiritually optimistic about survival of Human Earth-life, despite unprecedented global warfare, suffering and turmoil, dire “end times” predictions of cataclysmic climate collapse, and Earth’s domination by evil autocrats, because:
1) I’ve realized that “Our destiny is Divinity” since we’re not what we think we are, but Infinite Eternal Awareness!
2) As unique immortal souls we are each dharmically destined to be dissolved in timeless Eternal ONENESS as Divine LOVE beyond unavoidable third dimension space/time duality[3D] Earthly ego-mind fears and illusions. We each transcend inescapable ego-mind fears and illusions at rates dependent upon whether our unique thoughts and behaviors are loving or selfish – helpful or harmful.
3) Moreover, there is no death. Death is just an energy transition, until we’re formlessly dissolved as ONE LOVE. It’s an illusory belief that our lives end when our mortal bodies no longer function.
4) Karmically, as each unique soul evolves to ever ascending energy planes, it transcends all ego-mind fears to exist lovingly and dharmically, forever free of unhappiness and disharmony until dissolved in timeless Eternal ONENESS as Divine LOVE beyond unavoidably fearful Earthly third dimension space/time duality[3D] “realty”.
5) While subjected to ever fearful ego-mind, we inevitably exist with karmic cause and effect sufferings from the earthly illusion of space/time/duality “realty”. But the more we intentionally lovingly follow our Sacred Heart the more we enjoy happy lives, and the less we suffer from perpetually unknown karmic causes and conditions.
6} Ultimately, we’ve never been separated from our Eternal Source Mother/Father/God. So we have nothing to fear – EVER
Conclusion, Dedication, and Invocation
We now live in an inevitably illusory and fear-pervaded low energy earthly biosphere of third dimension [3D] space/time and duality, where love and fear cannot co-exist.
As each unique soul inevitably evolves from the illusory space/time duality third dimension [3D] to ever ascending energy planes, it transcends all ego-mind fears to exist lovingly and dharmically, forever free of unhappiness and disharmony until it is dissolved as destined into Mother/Father/God,
as ONE LOVE.
The spiritual insights about Love and Fear, expressed in the above key quotations, sutras and explanatory comments, are deeply dedicated to advancing and elevating our dharmically destined transcendence of all infinitely potential ego/mind biospheres to our Eternal existence as ONE Divine LOVE.
Invocation
May these writings about choosing to live lovingly and fearlessly in current hard times inspire and advance our dharmically destined Eternal Self-identification as ONE Divine LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Remember!
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“Remember God, forget the rest.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Forget who you think you are,
to know what you really are.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Just BE Divinity –
Ego-Free LOVE!.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Remember! ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Ron’s Introduction to “Remember!”
Dear Friends,
Thirty years ago, during a long post-retirement period of meditation, prayer, and introspection after my spiritual awakening, I remembered that as egos we continually exist as different illusionary separate space/time energy forms, until we’re dissolved as ONE LOVE within Mother/Father/God – our Eternal Source.
Whereupon I “channelled” (and later recorded and posted) the following sutra-poem, “Remember!”, which at age ninety I’ve re-recorded and republished today with updated sutra-sayings, quotations, and invocation.
This sutra-poem is dedicated to inspiring our heart-felt remembrance that as ego-embodied Human Souls we continuously appear and re-appear as space/time energy forms, until we’re formlessly dissolved as ONE LOVE within Mother/Father/God – our Eternal Source from which we’ve never separated.
As we deeply consider “Remember!”, may we gratefully and faithfully recall that being alive is being Love; that beyond the ego’s illusion of separation from Mother/Father/God, we eternally exist as ONE ‘dazzling Divinity’.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Remember!
Don’t forget what you knew
before you withdrew,
from dwelling in Heaven’s domain.
Recall your affinity,
with dazzling Divinity,
and in that Presence remain.
Remember with gratitude,
life is beatitude,
even its sorrows and pain;
For we’re all in God’s Grace,
every time, every place,
and
FOREVER (S)HE will reign!
Ron’s audio singing of “Remember!”
Invocation
May we ever remember and never forget
That our true identity is Divine LOVE;
That as ego-embodied Human Souls
we’ve appeared as illusionary space/time energy forms,
to faithfully follow our Heart
Until we’re formlessly dissolved as ONE LOVE
within Mother/Father/God –
our Eternal Source.
May we ever remember and never forget
That our separation from Mother/Father/God never happened.
So we’ve nothing to fear – EVER.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Finding Lasting Happiness
~ Ron’s Memoirs
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and end of human existence”
~ Aristotle
“From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
“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
“True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away. Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably. Happiness comes from the Self and can be found in the Self only. Find your real Self and all else will come with it.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to . . problems of human existence.”
~ Erich Fromm
“We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.”
~ Rumi
“There is nothing outside of yourself, look within.
Everything you want is there.
You are That.”
~ Rumi
“You are not just the drop in the ocean.
You are the mighty ocean in the drop.”
~ Rumi
“Our destiny is Divinity.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Earth-life is a round trip metaphoric journey,
on which we are destined to return to where we began.
On return, we learn – we never left.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Introduction to “How can we find lasting happiness?”
Dear Friends,
We’re all matriculating as supposed mortal persons on the Earth branch of the Great Cosmic University. We are here to learn lasting happiness from our life experiences, especially from our karmic successes and failures.
We don’t ‘graduate’ until we’ve learned to non-judgmentally accept everyone and everything everywhere in the Universe, (including ourselves and our enemies) with loving, compassion, and forgiveness.
Upon ‘graduation’ we find timeless happiness as LOVE, beyond all fears, pain and suffering.
And as we begin the ’second 2023 biannual Earth-school semester’, I greet you with wonderful news!
Because current global sufferings and interruptions of normal lives are awakening billions of human souls to our God-given blessings, we have unprecedented opportunities as Earth students and citizens to co-create a new and wonderful world of lasting happiness, harmony and health, with freedom, peace, and justice for all.
To explain this optimistic observation, I’ve posted the above quotations and sutra sayings, and the following Q & A essay about finding lasting happiness.
These writings follow recent SillySutras postings which revealed for us that chronological time is being quickened by unique cosmic energies, and auspicious cyclical and astrological planetary alignments, to awaken a “critical mass” of Humanity worldwide to our instinctive caring for one-another, which will bless Earth-life with an unprecedented era of Universal LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Q&A Sutra Essay: “How can we find lasting happiness?”
Q. How can we find lasting happiness?
A. We can find lasting happiness upon transcending our illusionary ego-self, and Being our true SELF.
Knowingly or unknowingly, everyone wants lasting happiness.
However, most seek it futilely in worldly pleasures which are always impermanent.
But, ever abiding Happiness is our true inner nature – our eternal SELF – and our ultimate destiny.
So to find lasting happiness we must look within.
There mindfully we can uncover and eliminate all illusory ego-mind ideas which obscure awareness of our true SELF.
And upon so transcending our ego-self we can BE our true SELF,
which is the lasting happiness of Divine LOVE.
Ron’s Explanation and Dedication of “How can we find lasting happiness?”
I’ve shared the foregoing quotations, sutras and Q & A essay/poem, to help remind us of profoundly simple answers to seemingly complicated questions about happiness and suffering, and to help us discover that lasting happiness as Love is our true nature, and ultimate destiny.
These writings are dedicated to inspiring us to help heal this beautiful world with heartfelt Love, as we remember that ‘everything we think, do or say, changes this world in some way’, and realize that “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to problems of human existence.”
Accordingly, I wholeheartedly encourage us to join billions of others worldwide as an awakened “critical mass” of humanity which will peacefully end insane and unsustainable desecration of our precious planet, and immoral exploitation of all other life forms thereon.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Invocation
May our current unusual fears and sufferings
prove immense disguised blessings.
May they deeply awaken our instinctive caring for one-another,
and inspire an Earth-life era of wholehearted Universal LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Interdependence Way,
On Independence Day
~ A Revolution of Consciousness
“At the center of the Universe dwells the Great Spirit and —
this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
~ Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
“We did not weave the web of life.
We are merely strands in it.
All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~ Chief Seattle
“All things are our relatives;
what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.
All is really One.”
~ Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
“Independence is impossible!”
“Whatever we think, do, or say,
changes this world in some way.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Remember God, forget the rest.
Forget who you think you are,
to know what you really are.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“We are not merely mortal drops
in an ocean of ephemeral forms,
but the eternally Infinite Ocean of Universal Awareness,
appearing as drops!”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Nothing Real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
~ A Course In Miracles (ACIM)
“You are “gods”;
you are all children of the Most High.”
~ Psalm 82:6
“You are the light of the world.”
~ Matthew 5:14
“Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE”
~ Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29
“Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many…
The One manifests as the many,
the formless putting on forms.”
~ Rig Veda, 1500–1200 BCE
“All things come out of the One and the One out of all things.”
~ Heraclitus, 500BC
“Reality cannot be found except in One single source,
because of the interconnection of all things with one another.”
~ Leibniz, 1670
“That which permeates all,
which nothing transcends and which,
like the universal space around us,
fills everything completely from within and without,
that Supreme non-dual Brahman— that thou art.”
~ Shankaracharya
Interdependence Way, On Independence Day
~ A Revolution of Consciousness
Dear Friends,
Happy July 4th, 2023, US Independence Day holiday!
Almost 250 years ago on July 4th, 1776, our founding fathers declared their independence from British royal rule. Their declaration later led to the founding of the United States of America, which has become the richest and most powerful empire in the history of our precious planet Earth.
July 4th has become a popular American national holiday now celebrated by many US citizens without their mindful contemplation of its deeper meaning.
But today’s July 4th, 2023 SillySutras posting – like thousands of other prior SS postings – is dedicated to our mindful contemplation of how these Independence events can help us lead ever happier and more fulfilling lives while our eternal souls are incarnate on planet Earth in mortal physical bodies, which inevitably deteriorate and die.
As explained in the the recent “Egocide” posting, it is impossible to avoid some ego identification with consequent karmic suffering when existing incarnate on Earth, as supposedly separate from each other and all other life-forms. Only when we end our beliefs and behaviors as supposedly separate “I”-Egos, do all our sufferings end. That happens when we are ONE as an infinite Ocean of Divine LOVE, rather existing as mere separate “I”-drops in that Infinite Ocean.
As revealed by Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, although ego is unavoidable on Earthly incarnations, we quicken our transcendence thereof by choosing beliefs and behaviors which are loving and helpful, rather than selfish.
This posting is dedicated to inspiring our realization that until we so transcend Ego, worldly independence is impossible.
Ancient Vedic and Buddhist non-dualist scriptures have revealed that this Earth world arose from, and is interdependently part of, only ONE Eternal spiritual Source or GOD.
Therefore, until they disappear forever, all life-forms in this world always exist interdependently, not independently.
Long prior to Mid-East monotheism, the ancient Rig Veda revealed that
“Though One, Brahman [God] is the cause of the many…
The One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms.”
And the Buddhist Heart Sutra said that everything originates only “interdependently” from emptiness [“anatta”].
July 4th, 1776, Background
On July 4, 1776, thirteen American colonies declared their independence from British royal rule, in an historic document inspired by Thomas Paine’s Deist philosophy and written by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that under “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” government is established by people to secure their life, liberty, and happiness, and is to be overthrown as illegitimate if it no longer does that.
The US founding fathers recognized, that governments and their chartered transnational organizations do not exist by Divine right; that they are established by people to serve people – not to exploit or oppress them – and that they are illegitimate unless they serve human rights and happiness.
Since July 4, 1776, “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” have prevailed, but the world has changed immensely: The thirteen North American colonies have become the richest most powerful empire in world history, much vaster than the British empire which it succeeded. Human population has grown meteorically, from approximately 800 million (with 2.5 million people inhabiting American colonies) to over 7.9 billion and growing rapidly.
Through amazing technological and scientific advances the world has become much smaller and most humans have become part of an instantly interconnected and largely interdependent global community, sharing critical information in an unprecedented new age of world-wide ecologic, economic, political and social crises and opportunities. Yet despite this amazing technological advancement much of humanity continues to suffer illusionary psychological separation from each other and Nature, fostering insanely unsustainable ecological desecration of our precious planet, and barbaric exploitation of vulnerable beings and other life-forms, which threaten extinction of all Earth life as we’ve known it.
Yet as in 1776 such psychopathic insanity is still initiated and perpetrated by a few “rulers” or “leaders”, and by greedy transnational institutions evading equitable taxation and distribution of wealth who all self-destructively thrive on always increasing their power and control over others.
Nonetheless they are still allowed by most of humankind to insanely exploit and desecrate our world.
However, in the almost 250 years since 1776, there has been an unprecedented awakening of humanity, and we are now experiencing a revolution of human consciousness with unprecedented worldwide social and cultural unrest.
Deeply disturbed by irrational and immoral interruptions of their normal lives more and more people are psychologically awakening to our sacred connection with, and deep moral responsibility to cherish and preserve, all life on our precious planet Earth.
Moreover today’s July 4, 2023, Independence Day holiday coincides with the the first of four consecutive full super-moons after the 2023 summer solstice, which spiritually and energetically is extremely sacred for both Hindus and Buddhists, as Guru Purnima (the first Guru’s birthday) and as the day when the Buddha gave his first sermon.
Beyond today’s day of spiritual sanctity, we are also experiencing exceptionally advantageous cosmic energies, and rare cyclical and astrological planetary alignments, which are energetically elevating a “critical mass” of humankind to ascend beyond illusionary Third Dimension ego consciousness toward previously unimagined Fifth Dimension heart/mind telepathic awareness.
And currently confronted with apparently imminent global catastrophe, humankind are realizing on July 4, 2023, (as did visionary English-born Deist philosopher Thomas Pain) that under “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” independence is impossible; that everything and everyone is interdependent, not independent.
So faced with possible catastrophe ending Earth-life as we’ve known it, our global human family can awaken to avert extinction by transcending critically mistaken and illusory Ego-mind beliefs in separate independence, with realization that independence is impossible; that everyone/everything is interconnected and interdependent, with no-one/nothing existing independently, except Nature’s God.
Therefore, let us use this rare opportunity to revolutionarily and compassionately transform the world, so that all life forms everywhere consciously exist cooperatively and interdependently, not selfishly and exploitively.
Closing Invocations
May we revolutionarily and compassionately transform the world!
May all life forms everywhere exist interdependently,
As uniquely conscious and cooperative instruments of Light and Love,
May we so interdependently co-create an ever better world as ONE Eternal LOVE
– Happy, Harmonious and Peaceful –
As Nature’s God ever intended it to BE!
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Crossroads: Labor Pains of a New Worldview:
Our urgent need for a new interdependent worldview – how we need to collectively change our beliefs to change our world – is expertly explained and portrayed in this excellent one hour documentary movie, already viewed online by over one million concerned people.
Egocide
“Ego is the biggest enemy of humans. ”
~ Rig Veda
“All troubles come to an end when the ego dies”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“The mind is a bundle of thoughts.
The thoughts arise because there is the thinker.
The thinker is the ego.
The ego, if sought, will automatically vanish.
The ego and the mind are the same.
The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Free of ego, living naturally, working virtuously, you become filled with inexhaustible vitality and are liberated forever from the cycle of death and rebirth.”
~ Lao Tzu
“The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion,
and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
“The entire Buddhist path is based on the discovery of egolessness and the maturing of insight or knowledge that comes from egolessness.”
~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
“In essence there is and always has been
only one spiritual teaching,
although it comes in many forms.”
~ Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
“As ego goes,
consciousness grows,
until it Knows
– Its-SELF.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“The choice that [mentally] frees or imprisons us
is the choice of love or fear.
Love liberates. Fear imprisons.”
~ Gary Zukav
“Bondage and Liberation are of the mind alone.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“The supreme purpose and goal for human life… is to cultivate love.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“Have love for everyone, no one is other than you.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
Introduction to “Egocide”
Dear Friends,
We are now experiencing exceptionally advantageous Age of Aquarius cosmic energies, and auspicious astrological planetary alignments, favorable to spiritual evolution. I optimistically foresee that these unprecedented energies and rare alignments are elevating a ‘critical mass’ of Humankind to ascend from low illusory Third Dimension Ego-mind consciousness to previously unimagined Fifth Dimension (5D) heart/mind telepathic awareness.
Therefore I’m updating and republishing postings like “Egocide” which can best benefit us from these unprecedented evolutionary opportunities.
Transcending ego is the fundamental message of all spiritual teachings, because Ego-mind is the greatest obstacle to human spiritual evolution.
According to Sri Ramana Maharshi
“The ego and the mind are the same”.
“The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.”
So, if recognized, the ego “will automatically vanish”.
Thus today’s “Egocide” posting includes above key quotations, and the following sutra-poem (with mp3 recitation), which was composed after I’d realized the crucial importance of undoing ego to transcend inevitable karmic suffering in this illusory low energy Third Dimension (3D) space/time causality duality ‘reality’.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Ron’s explanation of “Egocide”
Dear Friends,
The following whimsical “Egocide” poem was composed after I’d realized the crucial importance of undoing ego to transcend inevitable karmic suffering in this space/time causality ‘reality’.
For millennia spiritual teachings have identified “ego” as the fundamental impediment to spiritual evolution and realization; as “the biggest enemy of humans.” (Rig Veda ); and the “number-one enemy of compassion.” (Dalai Lama). The Dalai Lama has said that all Buddhist teachings aim “to wipe out the persistence of ego.” And Eckhart Tolle believes that transcending ego “is and always has been [the] only one spiritual teaching.”
Every incarnate Human (except for extraordinary and incorruptible Buddha-like, Krishna-like, or Christ-like beings) is in some evolutionary stage of transcending mistaken ego identity.
When required to preserve life on our precious planet, such beings rarely appear in mortal human bodies as exemplars or avatars to teach with their words and deeds.
For example as a rare exemplar of Divine LOVE, Jesus Christ inspired millions with his words and deeds of non-judgmental and merciful forgiveness, of even enemies and persecutors. So even while suffering excruciating pain on a crucifixion cross He beseeched:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Upon Earthly incarnation, Human ego-identity is unavoidable
In the 19th Century, Hindu Holy Man and Avatar Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa appeared to demonstrate and teach how “all troubles .. end when the ego dies” , during an extraordinary fifty year lifetime in what is now West Bengal, India. By following traditional devotional practices Ramakrishna’s Eternal soul attained Hinduism’s highest God realization spiritual goal to BE dissolved and liberated into the unity of everything.
But rather than exist as Eternal bliss, Sri Ramakrishna chose to return to his mortal human body to help inspire and teach others.
Whereupon he revealed that ego-identity as a supposedly separate life-form in our low energy third dimension reality is unavoidable. But that we can choose lives and behaviors which are either loving and helpful, or selfish and harmful to others.
So, the following “Egocide” sutra-verses and above quotations are shared to inspire and encourage us to live loving and helpful lives, so we can realize and BE what we truly are – immortally ONE with Divine SELF as LOVE..
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
“Egocide”
Ego’s attrition
is our mission;
Egocide’s our goal.
When ego’s dead
we’ll lose all dread,
Knowing we are Soul.
Then we’ll say
that life’s a play,
Each body/mind a role;
That we’re the Glory
and not the story,
Not just parts –
but WHOLE.
Ron’s recitation of “Egocide”
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Solstice Salutations and Quotations
~ For a Happy World
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and end of human existence”
~ Aristotle
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
~ Dalai Lama
“A disciplined mind leads to happiness,
and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”
~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
~ Buddha
“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self.
Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
Solstice Salutations and Quotations For a Happy World
Dear Friends,
Happy Summer Solstice!
With a new summer solstice sunlight zenith, let us envision the dawning of an Aquarian age of divine light, peace, compassion, and joy everywhere on our precious planet and beyond.
May we thereby rededicate ourselves to the Eternal Light of LOVE within and beyond everyone and everything on Earth; to THAT universal spirit of eternal light, love, harmony and happiness, which is the unseen Source of the worlds we see.
And as we optimistically envision a new season of previously unimagined planetary peace and joy, may we be infused with unprecedented illumination and inspiration for harmoniously healing our beautiful blue planet and all its life-forms.
To help inspire us, hereafter posted is a collection of wisdom words about finding timeless happiness. Please enjoy and accordingly consider these inspiring quotations.
Perennial Wisdom Words About Finding Happiness:
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“Happiness comes when your work and words
are of benefit to yourself and others.”
~ Buddha
“The happiness of one’s own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul;
one must try to include, as necessary to one’s own happiness,
the happiness of others.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“One great question underlies our experience, whether we think about it or not: what is the purpose of life? From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.
That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not,
whether one believes in this religion or that religion,
we all are seeking something better in life.
So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”
~ Dalai Lama
“True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away.
Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably.
Happiness comes from the Self and can be found in the Self only.
Find your real Self and all else will come with it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“There is only one life and one world, and this one life and one world is appearing to us . . . . like a dream. . .You do not live in your dreams. The dreams come one after another; scene after scene unfolds before you.
So it is in this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent happiness. Perhaps after a while it will appear as ninety per cent happiness, and we shall call it heaven. But a time comes to the sage when the whole thing vanishes, and this world appears as God Himself, and his own soul as God. It is not therefore that there are many worlds; it is not that there are many lives. All . . is the manifestation of that ONE.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy.”
“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
“Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living is joy enough.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains.
Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun,
go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God.
Think of the beauty that again and again
discharges itself within and without you and be happy.”
~ Anne Frank
“The root of joy is gratefulness…
We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands.
For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
“We are formed and molded by our thoughts.
Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts
give joy when they speak or act.
Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.”
~ Buddha
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
“When you are suffering, when you are unhappy, stay totally with what is now.
Unhappiness or problems cannot survive in the Now.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Happiness does not depend on how the furniture is arranged –
it depends on how I arrange my mind.”
“When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change.”
“Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy,
but this is not accurate.
You make yourself unhappy.”
~ Wayne Dyer
“The surest way to be happy
is to seek happiness for others.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Joy comes not through possession or ownership
but through a wise and loving heart.”
“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,
happiness follows like a shadow.”
~ Buddha
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold,
happiness dwells in the soul.”
~ Democritus
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more,
but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
~ Socrates
“Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.”
~ Aristotle
“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live
that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”
~ Epictetus
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
~ Epicurus
“Cultivate compassion; harvest happiness.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”
~ Richard Wagner
“I am happy even before I have a reason.”
~ Hafiz
“The superior man is always happy.”
~ Confucius
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.”
~ Lao Tzu
“What is the worth of a happiness for which you must strive and work?
Real happiness is spontaneous and effortless.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.”
~ William Blake
“Always be joyful. That is the only truly saintly state.”
~ Teresa of Avila
“Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service,
and have a definite object in life
outside themselves and their personal happiness”
~ Leo Tolstoy
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore
“Somehow not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing
Returns to make you glad.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier
“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination”
~ Mark Twain
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.”
~ Leo Buscaglia
“Some cause happiness wherever they go;
others whenever they go.”
~ Oscar Wild
Closing Invocations:
May we consciously and cooperatively participate together in co-creating an ever better world – Happy, Harmonious and Peaceful – as we intend and envision it to be.
May we so become infused and used as instruments of Light and Love for everyone and everything everywhere – on Solstice Holidays and Always!
May everyone everywhere be happy!
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Fear
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
. . . . and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
~ 1 John 4:18
“Deep down, at our cores, there are only two emotions:
love and fear.
All positive emotions come from love,
all negative emotions from fear.
From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy.
From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler – When You Don’t Choose Love You Choose Fear
“The choice that frees or imprisons us
is the choice of love or fear.
Love liberates. Fear imprisons.”
~ Gary Zukav
“Love is what we were born with.
Fear is what we learned here.
The spiritual journey is the relinquishment
– or unlearning – of fear
and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“Fear arises through identification with form, whether it be a material possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or an emotion. It arises through unawareness of the formless inner dimension of consciousness or spirit, which is the essence of who you are. You are trapped in object consciousness, unaware of the dimension of inner space which alone is true freedom.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Those who fear suffering, suffer from fear.”
~ French Proverb
“To be afraid of dying
is like being afraid of discarding an old worn-out garment.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Love blesses the world; fear afflicts it. ”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Fear of death is fear of life;
so face death to live life.”
***
“You are not a mortal; you are immortal.
So never fear being a non-being.”
***
“Our deepest fears
hide our highest potentials.”
***
“As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“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
“Love is the only freedom in the world
because it so elevates the spirit
that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature
do not alter its course.”
~ Khalil Gibran, Broken Wings
Ron’s Introduction and Explanation of “Fear”
Dear Friends,
Beginning thirty years ago, during an extended post-retirement secluded period of meditation, introspection, and prayer, I “channeled” and wrote many spiritual aphorisms, essays, and sutra-poem verses. Later, some of these spiritual insights were digitized, recorded on computers, and published on the SillySutras website after it was launched thirteen years ago.
Today’s posting about “Fear” augments, explains and republishes some of those writings. Because of unprecedented worldwide post-pandemic deaths, warfare, anxiety and fear of global catastrophe, these insights now seem particularly important.
Background
For eons, masses of Earthly humans (experimentally forgetting their common Divine birthright as Eternal beings of love and light, and thus believing themselves separate in space and time from each other and Nature), have been hierarchically ruled through religious, military, or political dogma by a few self-proclaimed rulers who’ve been extremely rich, royal, or purportedly enlightened, omniscient, or infallible beings.
As explained in previous memoirs I’ve found persuasive evidence that some of these rulers have been very intelligent but evil and demonic Luciferian beings with undemocratic and tyrannic intentions, who are afflicted and dominated by subhuman malignant energies which psychotically and parasitically polarize, divide and exploit humankind, by provoking anger, anxiety, and fear. I’ve also referred to these mental parasites or energy vampires as “archons”, a term used in the Gnostic traditions.
As psychopaths without morality, they’ve become rulers of most major human governments and empires. And most people have accepted and followed these leaders without questioning their motives.
But gradually a growing number of people have morally refused to follow these evil rulers, unless intimidated.
And such refusals are becoming crucial because these Luciferians or Archons can exist only in low energy biospheres, like Earth’s third density illusory world of space, time, and duality. They cannot exist in elevated biosphere energies of infinitely potential fifth dimensions and above. So these evil rulers keep frightening and intimidating people to prevent their energetic ascensions to higher dimensions.
Coordinated False Declarations of a (non-existent) Deadly Coronavirus Pandemic.
Starting in 2019/20, these tyrannic rulers decided to falsely frighten their societies with coordinated declarations by individual and institutional world leaders of a (non-existent) deadly coronavirus pandemic requiring worldwide social and business lock-downs and alleged urgent need for repeated life-saving anti-viral vaccinations.
For example, Henry Kissinger (former secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations) declared in a pre-vaccine Wall Street Journal Op Ed that “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order”. and that
“The [alleged] coronavirus has struck with unprecedented scale and ferocity. Its spread is exponential: U.S. cases are doubling every fifth day. At this writing, there is no cure. Medical supplies are insufficient to cope with the widening waves of cases. Intensive-care units are on the verge, and beyond, of being overwhelmed. Testing is inadequate to the task of identifying the extent of infection, much less reversing its spread. A successful vaccine could be 12 to 18 months away.”
Thereafter, several (Bill Gates Foundation financed) anti-coronavirus experimental mRNA vaccines were “miraculously” developed (without long-term safety testing), patented, and sold to Archon dominated governments, which mandated them for their citizens’ purported protection.
But despite urgently coordinated and repeated global administration of these (alleged) life-saving anti-viral vaccinations, and worldwide enactments of unconstitutional, immoral and irrational laws and edicts preventing normal travel, business activities, and religious and social life, there is little believable evidence supporting these purported anti-pandemic procedures.
Instead, as of June 2023, there exists MUCH credible – but main media censored – official, actuarial, and medical expert evidence that already over 600 million human beings have been unnecessarily killed or injured by alleged anti-coronavirus vaccines, and that such deaths and injuries are continuing.
THE UNVACCINATED | “Nobody is Safe!”
Embedded below is a recent 11 minute video from Matt Orfalea’s YouTube channel which humorously documents the entire coordinated vaccination intimidation campaign with many audio/video clips from major media monopolies controlled by Luciferian Archons.
Because pervasive fear precludes humans from energetically ascending to higher dimensions where Archon Luciferians can’t exist, this is an important video.
Please enjoy and reflect on it, and thereafter read (and listen) to my original sutra-verses about “Fear” (republished below) and deeply consider the profound Love versus Fear quotations and sutras posted above.
Fear
We’ve nothing to fear but fright;
fright which hides our light.
For just beyond our darkest fright
shines our brightest light –
The Eternal light of LOVE.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Fear”
Conclusion, Dedication, and Invocation
We now live in a fear-pervaded low energy biosphere
of third dimension time, space, and duality,
where love and fear cannot co-exist.
The spiritual insights about Fear, expressed in the foregoing key quotations, sutras and brief poem, are deeply dedicated to furthering our destined transcendence of all infinitely potential biospheres
mentally separate from our Eternal existence as ONE Divine LOVE.
Invocation
May these writings about Fear
Inspire our Self-identification as spirit,
While ending our worldly anxieties
Of bodily death or disease,
Thereby inspiring us to fearlessly BE
– Karma FREE – Eternally
As ONE Divine LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Follow Your Heart ~
Treasure Hunt Instructions
“The way is not in the sky.
The way is in the heart.”
~ Buddha
“As far, verily, as this world-space extends,
so far extends the space within the heart…”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 8.1.3
“Follow your heart – even if it contradicts my words”
“If there is love in your heart,
you don’t have to worry about rules.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.”
“These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.”
“Beautiful people do not just happen.”
~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, (Death: The Final Stage of Growth, 1975)
“It is in the darkness that one finds the light.”
~ Meister Eckhart
“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow,
but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”
~ Leo Tolstoy
“Suffering is the way for Realization of God.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;
the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
~ Khalil Gibran
“None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.“
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri Book Two
Ron’s Introduction to “Follow Your Heart ~ Treasure Hunt Instructions”
Dear Friends,
The following brief but profound “Follow Your Heart” sutra-poem was first composed and mailed to my daughter Jessica for her twenty ninth birthday anniversary, on May 27, 1995. Soon after launching the SillySutras website, it was published online.
As fatherly advice, I had previously counseled both Jessica and her brother Joshua to:
‘Follow your heart;
don’t harm other beings;
and if possible try to help them.’
And Jessica already had courageously followed her heart in dropping out of Amherst to seek wisdom of the East, even after her distinguished Professor of Buddhist studies, Dr. Robert Thurman, had recommended that she stay and graduate before going to India.
But in 1995 I wanted to assuage Jessica’s concerns, cheer her up, and encourage her to keep following her inner guidance. So I intuitively composed and sent her this ‘follow your heart’ sutra-poem which I first titled: “Birthday Treasure Hunt Instructions” (Later, in publishing the poem’s timeless advice, I excised the word “birthday”)
I don’t remember my thoughts about the poem when I intuitively composed and sent it to Jessica. Maybe my fatherly advice was supposed to summarize one of my favorite Shakespeare passages, in which Polonius emphasizes to his embarking son Laertes:
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any [person].”
~ William Shakespeare ~ Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
And maybe my poetic advice to Jessica, was mindfully intended to encompass the essence of the Golden Rule of reciprocal empathy that:
We do no harm and treat all beings
with the same dignity we wish for ourselves,
and that they wish for themselves.
Nor do I recall whether in 1995 I was already aware of the profound scriptural passages which I have cited above. But these sutra-poem verses can be understood as consistent with them.
Only much later did I discover Mark Twain’s humorously memorable observation that
“The two most important days in your life
are the day you are born
and the day you find out why.”
~ Mark Twain
Perhaps I was unknowingly sending Jessica a message on the anniversary of the ‘first most important day of her life’ about how to discover and celebrate the ‘second most important day of her life’.
In all events, I was convinced that by following our Sacred Heart we will be in harmony with all life everywhere.
So that as my beloved Guruji revealed:
“If there is love in your heart,
you don’t have to worry about rules.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
Initial Dedication of “Follow Your Heart”
Thus, this sutra-poem was first deeply dedicated to inspiring us
– no matter what we experience in our worldly lives –
to always heed and follow (for us and for all others)
the Eternal inner wisdom of our shared Sacred Heart:
Follow Your Heart ~ Treasure Hunt Instructions
Follow your heart
to find what you wish.Follow your heart
to seek what you miss.Follow your heart
and you shall know this:You are your heart,
you are your bliss,You are what you seek,
you are what you miss.So follow –
and find –Your HEART.
Ron’s audio explanation and recitation of “Follow Your Heart ~ Treasure Hunt Instructions”
2023 Epilogue to “Follow Your Heart ~ Treasure Hunt Instructions”
“Follow Your Heart” was initially inspired and composed when my daughter Jessica had recently returned from seven years in India and re-enrolled at Amherst College to complete the curriculum from which she had dropped out one semester short of graduation. Since she was much older than other undergraduates she was feeling out of place, uncertain and somewhat depressed.
Thereafter Jessica graduated Amherst; attained a Smith College masters degree; met and married a ‘best friend’ husband of 23 years, and birthed two beautiful daughters one of whom is a “special needs” child who has required Jessica’s continuing personal attention.
Today, May 27, 2023, 29 years after composing the foregoing “Follow Your Heart” sutra verses I am republishing them with added above key quotations from Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, world renowned scientist, teacher, author and pioneering authority on death and dying, and others, to encourage and inspire our realization that our relative reality “inner” and “outer” space/time duality experiences are obverse perspectives of the same Absolute non-duality REALITY.
That thereby we can fearlessly endure, inwardly evolve from, and ultimately transcend previously unforeseen intense sufferings, by always remembering that
“Beautiful people do not just happen.”
~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
“It is in the darkness that one finds the light.”
~ Meister Eckhart
“Suffering is the way for Realization of God.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;
the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
~ Khalil Gibran
“None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.“
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri Book Two
.
Rededication and Invocation of “Follow Your Heart”
Thus, “Follow Your Heart” is deeply rededicated
to inspiring our fearless endurance of previously
unknown and unforeseen intense sufferings
with the intention of helping us and all others
to follow the Eternal Wisdom of our shared Sacred HEART
– no matter what happens in our worldly lives.
Invocation
May we always fearlessly follow
Our shared Sacred HEART –
As Eternal Peace, Life, Light, and LOVE,
No matter what happens in our worldly lives.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Who or What Are We?
“[Self] Realization is of the fact that you are not a person.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Just as it is known
That an image of one’s face is seen
Depending on a mirror
But does not really exist as a face,
So the conception of “I” exists
Dependent on mind and body,
But like the image of a face
The “I” does not at all exist as its own reality.”
~ Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland of Advice
“The Witness and the witnessed are ONE.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Ron’s Introduction to Who or What Are We?
Dear Friends,
Over forty years ago, I was blessed with the immensely transformative insight that I was not merely my physical body, its thoughts or its story – with which until then I’d always self-identified – but the ONE consciousness from which they arose.
In 1975, during a traumatic divorce and mid-life crisis, I experienced what some Hindus call a spontaneous awakening of the Kundalini energy, with sudden realization that I was much more than my mortal physical body, its story and thoughts.
That realization triggered my unforgettable born-again “rebirth” with many amazing mystical experiences which forever changed the remainder of my life, impelling me to soulfully reconsider whether the universe was what from childhood I’d been taught, thought and believed.
Accordingly, I began studying, and have embraced as ultimate Truth, Eastern non-duality philosophy – especially that of Advaita Hinduism and Buddhism. That philosophical truth is the essence of Vedanta and the Advaita wisdom path of Self-inquiry.
It is succinctly summarized in these sutra verses, composed long ago:
Who or What Are We?
We are the screen,
not the movie.
We are the Glory,
not the story.
We are Rama,
not the drama.
We are the Whole,
not our role.
Aum Ram Sovayam,
Aum Ram Sovayam,
Aum Ram Sovayam!
We are THAT,
We are THAT,
We are THAT!
Ron’s audio explanation and recitation of Who or What Are We?
Ron’s dedication and invocation for Who or What Are We?
Since embracing Advaita Vedanta non-dualism philosophy, I’ve enjoyed ever growing happiness, and ever less fear of death by increasingly Self-identifying and BEING ONE as Eternal spirit, rather than a separate mortal physical body.
Therefore, this posting is deeply dedicated to helping us and countless others to so enjoy happy lives.
Invocation
May we bless the Whole
By BEING ONE – as
Eternal Spirit,
Life, Light, LOVE
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
The Unanswered Question”
~ Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
“Music is the language of God.”
“Music can change the world.”
~ Ludwig van Beethoven
“Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you, my dust, after a brief rest!
Immortal life! Immortal life
Will he who called you, give you.“You are sown to bloom again!
The lord of the harvest goes
And gathers sheaves,
Us, who have died.“O believe, my heart, O believe:
Nothing is lost to you!
Yours, yes yours, is what you desired
Yours, what you have loved
What you have fought for!“O believe,
You were not born for nothing!
Have not lived for nothing,
Nor suffered!“What was created
Must perish;
What perished, rise again!
Cease from trembling!
Prepare yourself to live!“O Pain, you piercer of all things,
From you, I have been wrested!
O Death, you conqueror of all things,
Now, are you conquered!“With wings which I have won for myself,
In love’s fierce striving,
I shall soar upwards
To the light which no eye has penetrated!“I shall die in order to live.
“Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you, my heart, in an instant!
That for which you suffered,
To God shall it carry you!”
~ Gustav Mahler – “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2
Gustav-Mahler- ~ July 7, 1860 – May 18, 1911
Ron’s Introduction to “The Unanswered Question”
~ Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
Dear Friends,
Last month – to demonstrate how passionate mystical music elevates us beyond earthly cares and fears, and to so experience the eternal Light of timeless LOVE – I posted three YouTube video performances of one of the greatest symphonies of all time, Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2 (composed between 1888-1894) including a performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein, a long-time Mahler enthusiast and interpreter.
The concluding choral fifth movement of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony ends with the above-quoted words written by Mahler characterizing inevitable physical death, as a rebirth to the eternal Divine Light of God.
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (composed in 1909), was his last completed symphony. Like his “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2, it can be conducted and interpreted, as an ode to spiritual rebirth, but also as prophetic of inevitable and unavoidable physical death.
Today, to augment the Mahler “Resurrection” Symphony posting, I’ve posted below as “The Unanswered Question”, Leonard Bernstein’s interpretation of Mahler’s music given in a 1973 Harvard University public lecture titled: “The Twentieth Century Crisis”.
In that lecture, Bernstein interprets Mahler’s music as a reflection of Mahler’s fifty year life and times (from 1860 to 1911), as well as prophetic of current times. Bernstein has even further believed that this Mahler Ninth symphony was a foreboding of the end of musical tonality, and end of honoring artists as European cultural heroes of Mahler’s era, and even of fascist world wars.
In 1973 Bernstein had become the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard. This prestigious position had previously been awarded to such notable musical figures as Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland, and to poets such as e.e. cummings and W.H. Auden. The professorship required Bernstein to deliver a series of six public lectures. Bernstein, a “Harvard man”, was honored to become a part of this distinguished tradition.
Bernstein’s “Twentieth Century Crisis” lecture began with his explanation of how during the twentieth century there had been gradually increasing and ultimately excessive musical ambiguity, that had destroyed the essential balance between clarity and ambiguity.
This “The Unanswered Question” lecture concluded with Bernstein’s deep discussion of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.
Bernstein described the Ninth symphony as Mahler’s prediction of his imminent physical death at age 50. It was Mahler’s last full symphony, completed soon after the death of his young daughter Maria, and when he’d been diagnosed with a very serious heart condition. After talking, Bernstein showed a video with him conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the concluding Adagio from this Mahler masterpiece.
One of those attending “The Twentieth Century Crisis” lecture was Zen Master Hyon Gak Sunim, whose Zen center organization extracted Bernstein’s discussion of Mahler and posted it on their cagin YouTube channel as “The Unanswered Question”.
In cooperation with that Zen center organization, I have copied and reposted below “The Unanswered Question”.
May we view and deeply enjoy this video. May Gustav Mahler’s passionate 9th Symphony spiritually elevate us beyond earthly cares and fears, to experience the eternal Light of timeless LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
“The Twentieth Century Crisis” and Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
