Goldthwait Purifying The Heart Practise Layout
Goldthwait Purifying The Heart Practise Layout
INTRODUCTION
Under Swamis guidance, I have composed the statements below. Each one reflects the spiritual principles that Sai Baba elucidates in the quotes that follow them. They will deepen your understanding of Swamis teachings and assist you in shifting from identifying with your false self to realising your True Self that is Love. Begin by reading through all the statements and Sai Babas divine words to gain an understanding of what they contain. Then there are several ways that these statements and quotes can be used as a spiritual practise. One way is to make a commitment to repeat the first statement silently or out loud many times on the first day of practise and then the second one on the second day and so on until you have completed all one hundred. Another way to use these statements is to ask for Sai Babas guidance and open the booklet at random and use the first statement you see for your practise that day. Then select another statement in the same way for each succeeding day. As you repeat a statement, contemplate the meaning of the statement and Sai Babas divine words and how they might be applied to the present moment. 1The statements and Sai Babas teachings can also be used when you want to free yourself from a particular attachment, such as to a heart-closing thought. In this case, read through the statements until you find one that speaks to your concern and then focus on it and Sai Babas teaching until you can release the attachment. In addition, reading the quotes can be used as a reminder of Swamis teachings.
All these things you see around you are your own reflections, as if in a mirror. (Sai Baba, Summer Showers 1990, p. 118) 2. My senses tell me that there is a world outside myself but this is not so. There are many things that we see hear and experience. We think that it is the eyes that see, the ears that hear and the mind that experiences. In fact, it is not so. Everything is reaction, reflection and resound. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, April 2003, p.118) 3. Good and evil are present in my mind, not in the world. In this world, we see and hear about the dualities of good and evil, merit and sin. What is the origin of all these? They originate from mans Sankalpas and Vikalpas (good and bad thoughts). Good and evil are present in the mind of man, not in the world. When man cultivates sacred thoughts, he will find sacredness all around. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, April 2003, p.119)
has been polluted by all these impurities. As a result man is unable to recognise his true nature. (Sai Baba, Summer Showers 1990, p.99)
12. I welcome all obstacles and troubles because they teach me equanimity.
March resolutely forward in love, no matter what the obstacles. Welcome troubles; welcome, welcome, welcome! If sorrow comes, welcome it; if pleasure comes, welcome that also. Sukhadukhe Samekruthwa Labhalabhau Jayajayau (one should remain equal-minded in happiness and sorrow, gain and loss, victory and defeat). (Sanathana Sarathi, April 2002, p.116)
13. The good and bad I see in the world I are just my own reflections.
All the good and bad that you come across in the external world are just your own reflections. So, do not point an accusing finger at others. The whole world depends on your own conduct. If you are good, so too will the world be. It is a mistake to think that there is evil all around you in the world. In fact, it is your own evil which is reflected outside. If your feelings are demonic, the world all around you will look demonic to you. If your feelings are divine, you will find divinity everywhere. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, August 2002, p.244-45)
15. There is only one real choice: Do I choose Love or close my heart.
Nothing exists other than love in this world. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, January 2001, p.7)
The entire world is the projection of the mind. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXI, p.190) All the forms are creations of the mind. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXVII, p.114)
19. When I see something bad in a person, it means my feelings toward that person are bad.
Whatever you see in others is only a reflection of your own self. When you see something bad in a person, it just indicates that your own feelings towards that person are bad....Good and bad are all within you. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, March 2002, p.66-67)
silence. That is why it is said, silence is golden. Once words become less, the activities and vagaries of the mind also become less. As words increase, the vagaries of the mind also increase. Annihilate the mind by quietude. However, it is more easily said than done. Man may die but the mind will not die. The mind vanishes when words vanish from it. Observing Mounam (silence) is one of the ways of silencing the mind. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, July 2002, p.198) 1Manonashanam (annihilation of the mind) is what you should strive for. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, March 2004, p.72)
31. For my mind to become silent, I must not follow it or grasp it.
Let the mind run wherever it likes; only be careful you do not follow it, seeking to discover where it is going. (Sai Baba, Dhyana Vahini, p.42)
Divinity is present within you. Unable to realise your innate divinity, you waste time searching for God outside. Whatever you see and experience in the world is only the reaction, reflection and resound of your feelings. Do not get deluded by the reaction, reflection and resound. Turn your mind inward and contemplate on the reality within you. You will certainly be able to experience divinity. You should have divinity as your goal and nothing else. Divinity is one without a second, and is allpervasive. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, January 2005, p.10-11)
36. To know Truth, I must turn away from desires and sensory attachment.
Be ever and always immersed in the search for Truth; do not waste time in the multiplication and satisfaction of wants and desires. One source of pleasure craves as a corollary to another source. Thus the mind seeks again and gain to acquire objects it has given up; so, do not yield to the vagaries of the mind. Turn back, even forcibly, from sensory attachment. (Sai Baba, Jnana Vahini, p.10)
37. The world reflects my thoughts so it will change when they change.
The external world will reflect your thoughts. If you view the world with love, it will appear as filled with love. If you view it with hatred, everything will appear antagonistic to you. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XVI, p.84)
45. To know my True Self, I must cease my attachment to the sensory world.
For experiencing the Atma as your Reality, control of the senses, removal of physical attachment, and truth are essential. (Sai Baba, Upanishadvahini, p.76)
defects of all that has thus originated! He says He has no relationship with them that the He is above and beyond that for which He is the Cause. You might infer that man too is not in the least responsible for the good and evil that is done through him by the Divine, that his real nature is beyond both good and evil, that his acts however evil were basically prompted by the Lord Himself, for man has nothing he can claim as his act. True; but faith in this attitude that nothing is done by you that it is all the Lords will that is being worked through you, must be steady, sincere, deep and unshaken. There should be no trace of ego. If that is so, then certainly such a one has attained the highest goal of life. He is blessed to the uttermost. That reality has to be known; that knowledge has to be stabilised. Indeed he who has the conviction that all this is God, that he has no sort of relationship or kinship with the objective world, that he is above and beyond it, is the Sathya-jivi, the individual whose sojourn here has been worthwhile. Words, however, are futile; you may repeat like a parrot that has been taught for long, certain set phrases, like Everything is the Lords, I am but a puppet; He pulls the strings and I dance as He wills, Nothing is mine; I am just carrying out His Will. But what do you usually do? When a praiseworthy act is done, you claim it to be your own; when a blameworthy act is done, you ascribe to the prompting of the Lord! You shout from the platforms till your throats get dry that you won by your own effort honour, fame, status and standards, authority and position, property and possessions, attainments ands achievements; but, when it comes to confessing your share in earning ill fame and defeat, evil and wrong, you conveniently transfer the responsibility to the Lord saying, I am but an instrument in His Hands; His is the Master, I am but a Tool! This has become the habit of man today. Nay, it has developed into a fashion. People swing from I to He like the pendulum of the clock. This is sheer deceit, hollow spiritual sham. Mind, word, and act all three must be filled with the belief that all is His Play; that is the genuine path. It is a human frailty to separate things as good and as evil; to impute this to God is sacrilege. (Sai Baba, Gita Vahini, p. 101-2)
47. My ego and attachment prevent purifying my heart and realising God.
Let us investigate what comes in the way of experiencing the Atmic Principle. Ego and attachment stand as obstacles in our path. Only when you give up ego and attachment will you have purity of heart, which in turn will lead you to the experience of Supreme Wisdom. The more you develop attachment, the more restless you become. Ego is much more dangerous. It has become an incurable disease in human beings. So, you have to keep ego and attachment under control and engage yourself in the quest of Atmic bliss. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, November 1998, p.283-4)
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50. My mind will be controlled when I treat all sensory experiences as unreal.
When the conviction that all sensory experiences are unreal is well and truly stabilised, the mind will no longer function as a distracting agency; it will lie powerless as a defunct limb. (Sai Baba, Upanishad Vahini, p.29)
51. True Love is selfless, free from desire, and equally loves friend and foe.
Today man is totally unaware of what is meant by Love. Man equates desire with Love. He imagines that whatever he yearns for is prompted by Love. This is not true Prema (love). Prema is totally free from desire. It is utterly selfless. It seeks no return. It is all-encompassing. It makes no distinctions between friend and foe. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXX, p.279-80)
54. What I consider real is unreal. God alone is the one eternal Reality.
What you consider as real is unreal. What you think is unreal is the only Reality. God alone is the one eternal Reality. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXII, p.233)
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56. By developing Love, I can annihilate my mind and get cured of any disease.
This is Swamis message for you today. Develop love. Through love alone can you annihilate the mind and through love alone can you get cured of any disease. Only love can eradicate the evil qualities in you. So, love all. Love the Hridaya, not the physical body. Love the Divinity that is installed in your heart. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, August 2000, p.233)
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under My control. It will turn in a trice, even the mightiest among men, head over heels! You might wonder why it is so difficult to overcome. Of course, it is by no means easy. Only those who are wholeheartedly attached to Me can conquer this, My maya. Arjuna, do not take Maya to mean some ugly thing that has descended from somewhere else; it is an attribute of the mind; it makes you ignore the True and Eternal Paramatma, and value instead the attribute-ful created manifold multiplicity of Name and Form. It causes the error of believing the Body as the Self, instead of the Embodied (the Deha instead of the Dehi). Maya is not something that was and will disappear; nor is it something that was not, but later came in and is. It never was or is or will be. (Sai Baba, Gita Vahnini, p. 104-5)
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65. Demons do not exist. They are only a creation of my fearful thoughts.
Man is under the mistaken notion that demons exist and that they are responsible for his suffering. These are all nothing but the creation of his imagination and psychological fears. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, March 1999, p.58)
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72. To experience my innate divinity, I must turn my vision inward and silence my mind.
When God is all-pervasive, where is the need to go in search of Him? You should make efforts to experience your innate divinity by observing total silence and turning your vision inward. You can experience divine bliss only in absolute silence. That is why it is said that Silence is golden. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, January 2005, p.9-10)
Enquire, why has God given you this body. What are you supposed to achieve with this? What is the purpose of human birth? Is it given to you to study or to play or to gossip or to amass riches? No. You are born to know your Self. Hence, question yourself, Who am I? Once you know who you really are, you would have known everything. (Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi, February 2003, p.58)
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85. I can attain God if I become free of all desires, passion, and attachment.
One can attain the Lord without doubt if one becomes devoid of all Raga or Passion or Attachment. . . (Sai Baba, Prasanthi Vahini, p.36)
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hardships, losses, worries and sorrow are real only as long as your mind is under delusion. Once the delusion leaves you, they will all be unreal. They will turn out to be castles of myths created by your mind. Relying on the false I, you are rejecting the real I. (Sai Baba. Summer Showers 1990, p.120) "When he perceives the whole variety of beings as resting in the One and having spread out from the One alone, he then becomes Brahman." (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XIII, verse 30)
96. Let me develop oneness so that the joy and grief of others will be equally mine and I will love all as God.
Develop the consciousness that you are in all and the feeling of oneness that all is in you. Then, you can take up and succeed in all the Yogas. Then you are free from all distinctions like I and others, or as Atma and Paramatma. The joy and grief of others will become equally yours. You can then never harm others; then all can be loved and adored in the awareness that they are Sarveswara. (Sai Baba, Gita Vahini, p.90)
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99. To know the One, I must realise the oneness of all beings.
Spirituality means seeking to realise the oneness of all beings. There is only One. All came out of this One only. The entire creation itself came from the One. (Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks Volume XXVII, p.93-4)
Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to my wife, Barbara, my son, David, Renate Del Nero, Branislava Lagumdija, and Victoria Garagliano for examining the manuscript and offering valuable comments and suggestions for its improvement.
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