Thank you Yahoo for ranking our web site,
Meditation Station
http://www.meditationsociety.com
as the #1 site in the world for Meditation Techniques.

__._,_._

Amen to that -- mazel tov!

sandeep chatterjee wrote:
> Wonderful Bob.
>
> Congratulations.
>
>
>
> */medit8ionsociety <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>/* wrote:
>
>     Thank you Yahoo for ranking our web site,
>     Meditation Station
>     http://www.meditationsociety.com <http://www.meditationsociety.com>
>     as the #1 site in the world for Meditation Techniques.
>

Thank you my sister and my brothers.
I think what has helped us to share a good
quantity of meditation techniques in
a "how-to" way that is fairly easy to
understand is due to the several thousand
students who attended our classes. Having
the ability to interact directly with
meditators as they tried various methods
made it much easier to differentiate which
could be explained with just words on a
computer screen. So the real people behind
the quality of our offering are those
students, the many experienced members
of the Meditation Society of America, and
the many supporters and contributers, like
yourselves, who have (en)lightened the way
to communicate this valuable Knowledge.
Thanks again!
Peace and blessings,
Bob

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, medit8ionsociety
<no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Thank you Yahoo for ranking our web site,
> Meditation Station
> http://www.meditationsociety.com
> as the #1 site in the world for Meditation Techniques.
>

OMMMMM My! Congratulations.

Jeff

A man is driving down the road and his car
breaks down near a monastery.

He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door,
and says, "My car broke down.
Do you think I could stay the night?"

The Monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner,
even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep,
he hears a strange sound. A sound not like anything
he's ever heard before.

The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing
his ship comes to his mind.

He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses and turns
trying to figure out what could possibly be making
such a seductive sound.

The next morning, he asks the Monks what the sound
was, but they say,
"We can't tell you. You're not a Monk."

Distraught, the man is forced to leave.

Years later, after never being able to forget
that sound, the man goes back to the monastery
and pleads for the answer again.

The Monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a Monk."

The man says, "If the only way I can find out
what is making that beautiful sound is to become
a Monk, then please, make me a Monk."

The Monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell
us how many blades of grass there are and the exact
number of grains of sand. When you find these answers,
you will have become a Monk."
The man sets about his task.

After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired
old man and knocks on the door of the monastery.
A Monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of
all the Monks.

"In my quest to find what makes that beautiful
sound, I travelled the earth and have found what
you asked for:

By design, the world is in a state of perpetual
change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man
can know is himself, and only then if he is honest
and reflective and ! willing to strip away self deception."

The Monks reply, "Congratulations. You have become
a Monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery
of the sacred sound."

The Monks lead the man to a wooden door, where
the head monk says, "The sound is beyond that door."

The Monks give him! the key, and he opens the door.

Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone.

The man is given the key to the stone door and he
opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so
it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald,
pearl and diamond.

Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold.
The sound has become very clear and definite.
The Monks say, "This is the last key to the last door."

The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish
is behind that door!

With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns
the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Falling
to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the
source of that haunting and seductive sound......

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But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a Monk.

Two monks were looking at a flag. One said,
"The flag is moving."
The other said,
"No the wind is moving."
Along came a Zen master who, when questioned, answered,
"Neither the flag nor the wind is
moving... the mind is moving!"
Along came Mullah Nasrudin who
laughed at the 3 of them and said
"Tongues are moving".

Hi everyone! I'm currently writing a research paper on meditation,
it's past, present and benefits. I thought it would be fun to ask
about everyone's favorite research, facts or aspect of meditation.
I've been reading article after article and browsing some books, but
just recently stumbled upon meditation myself so I thought I'd ask the
experts! :)

"thom_guen" <thomas.guenther@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone! I'm currently writing a research paper on meditation,
> it's past, present and benefits. I thought it would be fun to ask
> about everyone's favorite research, facts or aspect of meditation.
> I've been reading article after article and browsing some books, but
> just recently stumbled upon meditation myself so I thought I'd ask the
> experts! :)
>
Yo Thom,
To me a very interesting aspect of meditation
is that so many people think of it as unnatural or
somewhat wacky, kooky, or some similar adjective
or cliche. And to me it's amazing that people can
lead their lives without any meditative practice.
There are hundreds of studies that "prove" that people
who meditate experience better cardiac, mental, emotional,
respiratory, injury healing, coping with stress or pain,
and dozens of other improved health conditions than is
found in populations that don't meditate. Just Google
"meditation health studies" and there you'll see
a staggering amount of medical and scientific data
supporting meditation's benefits. But...
however your research paper goes, I hope you will
emphasize that just as you can not know what an
orange tastes like until you actually take a bite
of one, you must not just read reports about it.
You must meditate to know the reality
of its benefits. It's a very natural and wise
thing to be doing, and living life without meditation
is actually the wacky approach to living.
Peace and blessings,
Bob

"thom_guen" <thomas.guenther@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone! I'm currently writing a research paper on meditation,
> it's past, present and benefits. I thought it would be fun to ask
> about everyone's favorite research, facts or aspect of meditation.
> I've been reading article after article and browsing some books, but
> just recently stumbled upon meditation myself so I thought I'd ask the
> experts! :)
>
More thoughts relative to my "favorite research" :
Many of the research papers you will
find were funded by TM and the results indicate that
TM "works". But they neglect to say that it is not
necessary to pay TM $3000 or however much for a Mantra
to say. Any word will work. This has been well
documented by Dr Herbert Benson in his "Relaxation
Response" studies by the Harvard Medical School. To
put it simply, every meditation technique will
work if it has certain components. More about Dr Benson
and his work can be found here:
http://www.relaxationresponse.org/
The specific Relaxation Response is copied below
(and it costs $3000 less than TM!!! :)
Enjoy!

The Relaxation Response
1.
Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
2.
Close your eyes.
3.
Deeply relax all your muscles,
beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face.
Keep them relaxed.
4.
Breathe through your nose.
Become aware of your breathing.
As you breathe out, say the word, "one"*,
silently to yourself. For example,
breathe in ... out, "one",- in .. out, "one", etc.
Breathe easily and naturally.
5.
Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.
You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm.
When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes,
at first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened.
Do not stand up for a few minutes.
6.
Do not worry about whether you are successful
in achieving a deep level of relaxation.
Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own
pace.
When distracting thoughts occur,
try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them
and return to repeating "one."
With practice, the response should come with little effort.
Practice the technique once or twice daily,
but not within two hours after any meal,
since the digestive processes seem to interfere with
the elicitation of the Relaxation Response.



* or any soothing, mellifluous sound, preferably with no meaning.
or association, to avoid stimulation of unnecessary thoughts.

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are
making such material available in our efforts
to advance understanding of environmental,
political, human rights, economic, democracy,
scientific, spiritual, and social justice issues,
etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use'
of any such copyrighted material as provided
for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
the material on this site is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information
for research and educational purposes. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use',
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner

THANK YOU! I have just recently begun meditating and have been
interested in trying out different techniques. A large portion of my
paper will be on the different practices and teqniques, but I've only
learned a few so far. I did some research on TM meditation and talked
to some close friends of mine who have been meditating for years. The
over all impression on TM meditation was that it was a money scam. I'm
defiantly bringing this up in my paper! thank you SO SO much for your
response!


--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, medit8ionsociety
<no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> "thom_guen" <thomas.guenther@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone! I'm currently writing a research paper on meditation,
> > it's past, present and benefits. I thought it would be fun to ask
> > about everyone's favorite research, facts or aspect of meditation.
> > I've been reading article after article and browsing some books, but
> > just recently stumbled upon meditation myself so I thought I'd ask the
> > experts! :)
> >
> More thoughts relative to my "favorite research" :
> Many of the research papers you will
> find were funded by TM and the results indicate that
> TM "works". But they neglect to say that it is not
> necessary to pay TM $3000 or however much for a Mantra
> to say. Any word will work. This has been well
> documented by Dr Herbert Benson in his "Relaxation
> Response" studies by the Harvard Medical School. To
> put it simply, every meditation technique will
> work if it has certain components. More about Dr Benson
> and his work can be found here:
> http://www.relaxationresponse.org/
> The specific Relaxation Response is copied below
> (and it costs $3000 less than TM!!! :)
> Enjoy!
>
> The Relaxation Response
> 1.
> Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
> 2.
> Close your eyes.
> 3.
> Deeply relax all your muscles,
> beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face.
> Keep them relaxed.
> 4.
> Breathe through your nose.
> Become aware of your breathing.
> As you breathe out, say the word, "one"*,
> silently to yourself. For example,
> breathe in ... out, "one",- in .. out, "one", etc.
> Breathe easily and naturally.
> 5.
> Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.
> You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm.
> When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes,
> at first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened.
> Do not stand up for a few minutes.
> 6.
> Do not worry about whether you are successful
> in achieving a deep level of relaxation.
> Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own
> pace.
> When distracting thoughts occur,
> try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them
> and return to repeating "one."
> With practice, the response should come with little effort.
> Practice the technique once or twice daily,
> but not within two hours after any meal,
> since the digestive processes seem to interfere with
> the elicitation of the Relaxation Response.
>
>
>
> * or any soothing, mellifluous sound, preferably with no meaning.
> or association, to avoid stimulation of unnecessary thoughts.
>
> FAIR USE NOTICE
> This site contains copyrighted material the
> use of which has not always been specifically
> authorized by the copyright owner. We are
> making such material available in our efforts
> to advance understanding of environmental,
> political, human rights, economic, democracy,
> scientific, spiritual, and social justice issues,
> etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use'
> of any such copyrighted material as provided
> for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
> the material on this site is distributed
> without profit to those who have expressed a
> prior interest in receiving the included information
> for research and educational purposes. For more
> information go to:
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
> If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
> site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use',
> you must obtain permission from the copyright owner
>

Control Your Tongue

"If you really want to achieve something great
in this world—not only spirituality, even in
your material life—control your tongue. Talk
limitedly, decently, measure your words twice
before you talk, because a word is a bird. Yes,
once let out, you can't whistle it back. It goes
out of your cage, the teeth, from the mouth.
Think twice, think thrice: Can I use this word?
Can I send it out? We don`t think. We just say
something and then, after, we say, `Oh, I'm sorry.'
Well you can't just by saying `sorry' take it back.
It has damaged your relationship, your reputation.
It is not only money we must spend in a thrifty way,
even our words must be spent in the proper way.

"God bless you. Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi."

For more about and by Swami Satchidananda:
http://www.yogaville.org/

From an email we received yesterday:

*Dear Bob,*

We would like to introduce you to our
Chicago area TV show based on discussions
with awakening teachers.
Currently we have posted on-line, about 40
hours of free video interviews with 16 teachers,
many of whom you may know and already have
an interest in.  We are growing very fast,
and are adding videos monthly.

*New Web Site*
Never Not Her Image
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001yUoNQ5Ox5pIhiIhTrONvWLTE3PbBzk4pT_R7l3m10KSoD4OZbXn0\
ufS5xx01h5i6RdjVWjzHllpwQqq_fAEwKTCTDb4rUG2kwYrS_XSprjgZQbIcoXqQIQ==>Every
video we have is on our site, (which is only a
week old), but we have been working with the TV
show for about 18 months.

The show is called "Never Not Here" and this is
where you can find it:

http://www.nevernothere.com
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001yUoNQ5Ox5pIhiIhTrONvWLTE3PbBzk4pT_R7l3m10KSoD4OZbXn0\
ufS5xx01h5i6RdjVWjzHllpwQqq_fAEwKTCTDb4rUG2kwYrS_XSprjgZQbIcoXqQIQ==>

We are totally open to any teacher who wants
to appear on the show, although it has been
clear that those very established teachers
(those with their own video crew and many DVD's)
will have less interest than emerging teachers
who have very few or no video tools.  Certainly
some emerging teachers will become the established
teachers of tomorrow.

All these videos are on Google and Viddler, and
can be freely embedded in any other website, such
as your own.  This will be especially advantageous
if one of these teachers is coming to your area
and you wish to promote their meetings by showing
what they are like.

Also please feel free to let others in your
circle of friends know about what we are doing.
Sincerely,


Richard Miller
Never Not Here

Yo Sean,
Thanks for the laugh! Tummala is outta here!
Peace and blessings,
Bob
--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, sean tremblay
<bethjams9@...> wrote:
>
> Sorry
> I only join marketing scemes that have cultish qualities
>
> --- On Thu, 8/7/08, TUMMALA VENKATESWARLU <venkytummala@...> wrote:
>
> From: TUMMALA VENKATESWARLU <venkytummala@...>
> Subject: [Meditation Society of America] Scour.com invite from
TUMMALA VENKATESWARLU
> To: meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 9:34 AM
>
>
>

CHAP. VIII. 1. The Master said,
'Yu, have you heard the
six words to which are attached six
becloudings?' Yu replied, 'I have not.'
2. 'Sit down, and I will tell them to you.
3. 'There is the love of being benevolent
without the love of learning;--
the beclouding here leads to a foolish simplicity.
There is the love of knowing without
the love of learning;-- the beclouding here
leads to dissipation of mind.
There is the love of being sincere without
the love of learning;-- the beclouding
here leads to an injurious disregard of consequences.
There is the love of straightforwardness
without the love of learning;-- the beclouding here
leads to rudeness.
There is the love of boldness without the love
of learning;-- the beclouding here leads to
insubordination.
There is the love of firmness without
the love of learning;-- the beclouding here
leads to extravagant conduct.'

From "The Confucian Canon in Chinese and English
Confucius" by James Legge [1893]

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are
making such material available in our efforts
to advance understanding of environmental,
political, human rights, economic, democracy,
scientific, spiritual, and social justice issues,
etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use'
of any such copyrighted material as provided
for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
the material on this site is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information
for research and educational purposes. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use',
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner

In the photo section, in the folder "Zen
and the Art of Knifemaking", you will
find a new knife that features Mammoth
tooth handles. As I was witnessing the
assembly of this knife taking place,
there was a unique feeling of an ancient
connection present. The obviousness of
handling a 30,000 year old object and
being extra careful to not mess it up
also brought about a special awareness
that is hard to label, but can perhaps be
represented by saying that the usual "just
witnessing and letting flow whatever may flow"
attitude had an extra effortless effort
energy added to it. I just saw an episode
of "American Dad" last night where the Dad
had souped up his car so he could drag
race with it (to impress his wife), and at one
point he hit a switch that ignited a nitro burst
that made the car blast off extra quickly.
And that's sort of how I felt during this
particular knife making session. It really
seemed to touch the semi-eternal nature of
Mother Earth. I can't wait to see what using
meteorite will feel like!
The pics are # 45 and 46. And to see many
more Zen and the Art of Knifemaking blades:
http://www.bobroseknives.com

THE LATEST VOLUME OF THE SPIRITUAL WEB SITE www.ahwan.org (or
www.ahwan.com) : VOLUME 90, August 2008 ISSUE,  has been published
and uplinked with the article "RECONCILING OPPOSITES OR
VIRUDDHABHAVASHRAYA"- If you visit the site, and have any
observations to make, I shall be grateful. There are also
interesting questions from readers dealing with "Right attitude
towards God", "Destroying objects of faith" "Fear of death", "Can
Karma be shared", " Understanding God's protection" etc. You can
also browse the previous articles by clicking on the
ikon `articles'. Please share it with your friends and dear ones.
God bless you-  Sri Bimal Mohanty. (bimal_mohanty@...)
PS – To continue spreading the benefit of AHWAN to all, we need your
assistance if you please. Click on `special information' on the
homepage of www.ahwan.org.

If you do not wish to receive this information about future issues,
please e-mail accordingly - Thank you.
If you wish someone to receive this information as compliments from
you please indicate his/her e-mail address.
____________________

You can usher a qualitative change in your life, the spiritual way-
the effective way. Visit the website www.ahwan.org. or www.ahwan.com.
regularly. Share it with your friends and dear ones.

"Do not deceive, do not despise
each other, anywhere.
Do not be angry, and do not
secret resentment bear;
For as a mother risks her life
and watches over her child,
so boundless be your love to all,
so tender, kind and mild.
Yea cherish good-will right and left,
for all, both soon and late,
and with no hindrance, with no stint,
from envy free and hate;
While standing, walking, sitting down,
forever keep in mind:
The rule of life that's always best
is to be loving-kind."

From : Buddha, The Gospel
by Paul Carus, 1894
The Sermon at Rajagaha

--- In meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com, karthik p
<karthik1eee@...> wrote:
>
>  iam karthik. i want to know about how to know about our past life
or lives through meditation. i don't know the process. so tell me the
process. and recently i heard that using meditation it is possible to
know nearly 23 or 32 i don't know the exact number. so tell me the
process of meditation which is used to know the past life.
> i am waiting for your reply. buy buy...
>
Yo Karthik,
There is a process by which you keep trying to remember
back as far as you can and then ask for your memories
from prior to this birth to present themselves. But,
I think it would be infinitly more useful to try to
experience this lifetime as it takes place. And this
can only be done with an awareness of the present
moment - moment to moment. This ongoing being in
your life as it occurs is what many meditative
practices (like Mindfulness) are all about. By trying to
rehash the past (of this or any other life), we are
missing the availability of knowing Reality as it is,
as Reality takes place only in the present. There
is not much difference between hallucinating and
just letting your mind wander here and there. Neither
rarely is beneficial and usually distracts you from
the things you really should be aware of. Focus
your attention in the moment and what you really need
to deal with and know, and what will be beneficial for you
will become present. And that is the valuable present that
meditation brings gift wrapped for you.
Peace and blessings,
Bob

Dear Members,

I am a 45 yr yogatherapist from India presently in Australia ,
Adelaide till 15 of September. I teach a special technique of
meditation called MANOYOGA which is scientific and helps one to heal
themselves of many kinds of health problems apart from helping one to
reach higher stages of consciousness. If anyone from Australia is
interested to learn this please email me. And to know more about me
please visit my website.

http://www.subbuji.com

Namaste

Subbuji

Donovan McNabb's comments in Sunday's
Philadelphia Inquirer were perfectly
in line with the Raja (Meditation) Yoga
teachings about Dispassion and with
the basic concept in Taoism of remaining
in the Tao --- neither being too Yang or
too Yin. Enjoy!

"You have to understand that you're going
to have highs and lows," McNabb said.
"When you have highs, you don't want to
get overly excited. And when you have lows,
you don't want to pull yourself down in
the dumps. You always have to have confidence
that one play can get you back in your
rhythm again."

GO EAGLES!!!

Positive Thinking May Protect Against Breast Cancer
Feelings of happiness and optimism play
a positive role against breast cancer. Research
published in the open access journal BMC Cancer
suggests that while staying positive has a protective
role, adverse life events such as the loss of a
parent or close relative, divorce or the loss of
a spouse can increase a woman's risk of developing
the disease.

Ronit Peled from the Faculty of Health Sciences at
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, led a
team of researchers who questioned 255 women with
breast cancer and 367 healthy controls about their
life experiences and evaluated their levels of happiness,
optimism, anxiety and depression prior to diagnosis.
Peled said, "Young women who have been exposed to a
number of negative life events should be considered an
'at-risk' group for breast cancer and should be treated
accordingly".

The researchers do point out that women were interviewed
after their diagnosis, which may colour their recall
of their past emotional state somewhat negatively. However,
according to Peled, "We can carefully say that experiencing
more than one severe and/or mild to moderate life event
is a risk factor for breast cancer among young women. On
the other hand, a general feeling of happiness and optimism
can play a protective role".

The authors point out that, "The mechanism in which the
central nervous, hormonal and immune systems interact and
how behaviour and external events modulate these three
systems is not fully understood". As such, they suggest
that "The relationship between happiness and health should be
examined in future studies and relevant preventative
initiatives should be developed".

----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------

1. Breast cancer , psychological distress and life events among young
women.
Ronit Peled, Devora Carmil, Orly Siboni-Samocha and Ilana Shoham-Vardi
BMC Cancer (in press)
Article available at the journal
website:http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmccancer/
All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed
Central's open access policy.

2. BMC Cancer is an open access journal publishing original peer-
reviewed research articles in all aspects of research relating to
cancer, including molecular biology, genetics, pathophysiology,
epidemiology, clinical reports, and controlled trials. BMC Cancer
(ISSN 1471-2407) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS,
Scopus, EMBASE, Thomson Reuters (ISI) and Google Scholar.

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an independent
online publishing house committed to providing immediate access
without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research
it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that open access
to research is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of
science.

Source: Graeme Baldwin
BioMed Central

Perhaps the "Highest" person on earth,
Swami Chidananda died on Thursday 8/28/08.
He was Swami Sivananda's successor and had
guided the Divine Life Society for the past
four decades. This humble monk is someone who
Mother Teresa and many others considered a living Saint.
Below you will find a small sample of
his wisdom. If you would like to swim further
into the ocean of his love, compassion, wit and
knowledge, much more can be found here:
http://www.dlshq.org

This Atman-business!
by Swami Chidananda

A seeker I know once said to me, "The world
would be a much better place and people here
would be much happier if everybody would do
one simple thing." "What is that?" I asked.
She said, "Let everybody write in the air in
huge letters, "MYOB," for "Mind Your Own Business!"
If everybody would mind his own business, the
world would be quite all right." I found another
meaning in her little homily. Do you know what
"your own" is in Sanskrit? The word in Sanskrit
is Atman, and Atman is your own Self, so "mind
your own business" really means, "mind your own
Self!" Unfortunately, this Atman-business is the
one thing we don't want to do, because we like to
mind other people's business instead! This is why
we do not realise our true Self. We should be
filling our lives with a great concern for this
Atman, reflecting over it, meditating upon it,
living to attain the fullest experience of it,
because this Atman is our very own Self.

Lord Buddha put much the same thing in a different
way. In his parting message to his disciples he
said, "Listen to me. Do not neglect your higher
Self. Always be diligent in your own welfare.
This is not selfishness but annihilation of the
little self. When the petty self perishes, what
remains? That which remains cannot be described
in a way that is understandable to the petty self,
for it has ceased to be."

Do you know the story of Sinbad the Sailor? Sinbad
was shipwrecked on an island, and one day he found
an old man lying on the beach whose legs were
useless. The old man begged Sinbad to lift him up,
so out of compassion Sinbad raised him onto his
shoulders. But as he did so, the old man coiled
both his legs around Sinbad's neck and locked them.
From then on Sinbad was ruled over by this old man.
"Take me here, take me there! Let me have this,
let me have that!" Sinbad almost fell into despair,
but then an idea came to him. One day he took the
old man to some grape vines, and the old man gorged
himself on fermented grapes and got intoxicated.
In a swoon he loosened his grip on Sinbad's neck,
and then with one great shove Sinbad was able to
throw him off. Just as this old man ruled Sinbad,
so are we also ruled by something. The old man
riding us is the ego, and this diehard ego has been
holding us in a tight grip for ages. Our bondage is
due to this ego, and we must shake it off to be
free—that is the only way.