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Παρατήρηση: το "κλειδί" της ελευθερίας : Η αρχαία φιλοσοφία του Ashtavakra
Η Ασταβάκρα Γκίτα είναι ένα πανάρχαιο ινδικό κείμενο της κλασικής περιόδου Βεδάντα. Έχει σχολιαστεί και εκτιμηθεί από πολλούς σημανιικούς πνευματικούς δασκάλους όπως οι Ραμακρίσνα, Βιβεκανάντα, Ραμάνα Μαχαρσί, Ραντχακρίσναν και Όσσο, καθώς παρουσιάζει με σπάνια καθαρότητα και δύναμη τις παραδοσιακές διδασκαλίες του μη δυϊσμού (Ανταβαϊτά). Οι διδασκαλίες της Ασταβάκρα Γκίτα έχουν πολύ εύστοχα χαρακτηρισθεί ως ένα "κβαντικό άλμα στο απόλυτο". Ο Μάνουελ Σοχ, ερμηνεύοντας τη διαχρονική σοφία του αρχαίου κειμένου μέσα από την οπτική και τις ποιότητες του σύγχρονου ανθρώπου, μας δείχνει στην πράξη, βήμα βήμα, πώς μπορούμε, αντί να αναλωνόμαστε στη διαρκή αντίδραση και προσπάθεια ν' αλλάξουμε τα πράγματα γύρω μας, απλώς να τα παρατηρούμε. Πώς, αντί να ταυτιζόμαστε με το σώμα, τις σκέψεις, τα συναισθήματα, τις συνήθειες και τις εμπειρίες του, μπορούμε να συνδεθούμε με την αιώνια συνειδητότητα απ' όπου πηγάζουν όλα αυτά. Ο Μάνουελ με ξεχωριστή καθαρότητα και απλότητα περιγράφει πώς μπορεί κανείς να παραμείνει μέσα στην κατάσταση της εσωτερικής γαλήνης, απ' όπου αναδύονται όλες οι ποιότητες της ζωής και η αγάπη, η ειρήνη και η συμπόνια, έκσταση και η φώτιση.
- GenresSpirituality
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
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May 22, 2020
Ashtavakra was a great sage around 4th or 5th century BC. The unborn child had already mastered the Vedas kept turning and twisting within the womb and hence was born with eight deformations or Eight bends (Ashtavakra).
Ashtavakra's observation was that being at peace with everything is key to attaining enlightenment and this doesn't involve changing a single thing about oneself.
The first Sutra
You are neither Earth nor Air nor Water nor Fire nor Ether. To attain liberation know yourself as the witnessing consciousness of all these. Unattached and without form, you are the witness of the whole universe. Know this and be happy. You are neither the doer nor the enjoyer. You have always been liberated.
The second Sutra
He who considers himself Free is free and he who considers himself bound is bound because in this world the proverb is true "As you think, so you are".
The third Sutra
You are permeating this universe. You are pure consciousness by nature. Do not become small-minded. You are without expectations, unchanging, self-sufficient, the abode of serenity, of boundless intelligence and unperturbed. Hence have faith only in consciousness. Know that which has form is false and the formless as unchanging and everlasting.
The Fourth Sutra
Stillness.
All things arise, suffer, change and pass away. This is their nature. When you know this, nothing perturbed you, nothing hurts you, you become still. It is easy.
All sorrow comes from fear, from nothing else. When you know this, you become free of it and desires melt away. You become happy and still. When you know in your heart that there is nothing, you are still.
Any spiritual development coming out of the mind is based on Ego and is considered Spiritual Ego. The mind that needs confirmation that it is getting better. It needs to compare. The ego is structured out of comparison. Children develop an ego at about two or three years of age because then they are able to compare themselves to others. Enlightenment is the absence of the Ego. You cannot fight the Ego but learn to bypass it.
Feelings trigger thoughts. Notice how the ego, which is structured in the past, is projected into the future. Thinking is the constant movement of the past projected into the future.
Happiness coming from the Heart is Stillness not happiness coming from the mind. Stillness is an energy process and can be described as the ending of description, explanations, and justifications. The ego derives energy through comparison. Comparison is the thought process of describing, explaining and justifying.
There are two feeling states: fast feelings and slow feelings. Fast feelings stem from aggression and fear. Aggression is the foundation to a host of other feelings like greed and jealousy. Aggression is a symptom of fear. Fast feelings are called as such because they trigger body responses that last for no more than three minutes. Then the fast feelings are maintained by thought alone. The idea of the feeing takes over, although the feeling per se has ended.
Negative thoughts will poison your own system. Feelings translated into thought poison the system.
Slow feelings include sadness, love, compassion and bliss. Slow feelings are less body-oriented and are not so structured in a cause and effect relationship. They can be present for a period of time, but they are not sustained by thought. That are either there or they are not.
In Time Therapy we say that fast and slow feelings are born out of what we call the climate or atmosphere. Each one of us has a specific feeing climate. This climate is a result of your Karma. People go into depression and schizophrenia and other mental disorders if they lose the connection to their source, their climate. The climate is your ocean, the waves are your fast and slow feelings.
Whenever you attach to thoughts, which are created by feelings, you lose the connection to the climate. You pollute the climate.
A holy person is not someone who is rid of feelings but his feelings are based on the third force of feeling which is the climate.
Stillness is the way to stop polluting your climate with thoughts, fast and slow feelings.
The Fifth Sutra
Forget everything.
You can read or discuss scriptures as much as you like, but until you forget everything, you will never live in your heart.
Where all desires vanish, who is lazier than the master? He has trouble even blinking, but only he is happy, no one else.
All experiences belong to the past. forget about the past. The heart closes down once you begin to cling to an experience.
Spirituality is about having the courage to die after every experience, and at the same time training the capacity for memory in daily life.
Stillness is the ending of experience and in that stillness the heart blossoms. Ashtavakra claims that you cannot be in the climate, or the zero factor, or commune with God through doing.
Compassion is pure motivation directed towards others.
Discipline is nothing more than hard work. Motivation does not require the slightest effort. When you are motivated to do something, have you ever felt the burden of effort? Motivation brings you right to Joy.
Good parenting is to be always receptive, without manipulating the child, and u are always ready to take over when it is necessary.
Ashtavakra insists that a master is someone who is even too lazy to blink an eyelid, or care about religion, duties, or salvation. Is it not simply enough to have effortless awareness in the motivation to be there for the world, to just be the nature of observation.
Observe carefully that when a feeing is present there is also a description of the feeling arising out of thought. The absence of thoughts and feelings is enlightenment.
The Sufi master Rumi says that once the wave realizes that it is the wave of the ocean, it becomes the ocean.
The only way to tell if you are really in the climate is to check and see if you have a lot of thoughts. If there is no no feeling, but thought is present, then thought has blocked the energy of feelings. Initially your experience of the climate is like a pulsation. It will come and go because the mind is not used to this state. This happens till you are able to remain calm in doing nothing.
80% of our thoughts and feelings are not created by our own free will. They are reactions to what we see on the outside. What is the point of giving so much importance to our reactions to the outside?
Even if the outside triggers all the reactions of thoughts and feelings within us, there is still a central part - our climate - that is constantly independent of them. And resting here is what Ashtavakra refers to as working with the heart.
The Sixth Sutra
The clear space of awareness.
In you the worlds arise like waves in the sea.
You are pure awareness, you are the endless Sea in whom all the worlds, like waves, naturally rise and fall.
We have to learn to surf, to fly between these two worlds of the material and the spiritual. We have to learn to use the intelligence of our beautiful minds, our egos, and the memory of the Buddha nature, flying and surfing between these two states without any fight or effort or struggle to become something other than who we are. There is nowhere to go. There is no need to become different, no need to change.
Imagine a beautiful blu sky. The color represents the climate; the space represents the atmosphere, the potential, the quality. The clouds flying by represent the mind. Why fight them?
The sky is not going away because of the clouds. The color won't fade because of the clouds. All that happens is that sometimes you just see less of them, and at other times more. That's all.
See it this way and be free!
Manual Schoch is a Swiss mystic and therapist. He developed Time Therapy and gives international talks, workshops and training programs. He started the Tune-In Centre for Time Therapy based in Zurich, London, and Athens which he founded in 1984.
Ashtavakra's observation was that being at peace with everything is key to attaining enlightenment and this doesn't involve changing a single thing about oneself.
The first Sutra
You are neither Earth nor Air nor Water nor Fire nor Ether. To attain liberation know yourself as the witnessing consciousness of all these. Unattached and without form, you are the witness of the whole universe. Know this and be happy. You are neither the doer nor the enjoyer. You have always been liberated.
The second Sutra
He who considers himself Free is free and he who considers himself bound is bound because in this world the proverb is true "As you think, so you are".
The third Sutra
You are permeating this universe. You are pure consciousness by nature. Do not become small-minded. You are without expectations, unchanging, self-sufficient, the abode of serenity, of boundless intelligence and unperturbed. Hence have faith only in consciousness. Know that which has form is false and the formless as unchanging and everlasting.
The Fourth Sutra
Stillness.
All things arise, suffer, change and pass away. This is their nature. When you know this, nothing perturbed you, nothing hurts you, you become still. It is easy.
All sorrow comes from fear, from nothing else. When you know this, you become free of it and desires melt away. You become happy and still. When you know in your heart that there is nothing, you are still.
Any spiritual development coming out of the mind is based on Ego and is considered Spiritual Ego. The mind that needs confirmation that it is getting better. It needs to compare. The ego is structured out of comparison. Children develop an ego at about two or three years of age because then they are able to compare themselves to others. Enlightenment is the absence of the Ego. You cannot fight the Ego but learn to bypass it.
Feelings trigger thoughts. Notice how the ego, which is structured in the past, is projected into the future. Thinking is the constant movement of the past projected into the future.
Happiness coming from the Heart is Stillness not happiness coming from the mind. Stillness is an energy process and can be described as the ending of description, explanations, and justifications. The ego derives energy through comparison. Comparison is the thought process of describing, explaining and justifying.
There are two feeling states: fast feelings and slow feelings. Fast feelings stem from aggression and fear. Aggression is the foundation to a host of other feelings like greed and jealousy. Aggression is a symptom of fear. Fast feelings are called as such because they trigger body responses that last for no more than three minutes. Then the fast feelings are maintained by thought alone. The idea of the feeing takes over, although the feeling per se has ended.
Negative thoughts will poison your own system. Feelings translated into thought poison the system.
Slow feelings include sadness, love, compassion and bliss. Slow feelings are less body-oriented and are not so structured in a cause and effect relationship. They can be present for a period of time, but they are not sustained by thought. That are either there or they are not.
In Time Therapy we say that fast and slow feelings are born out of what we call the climate or atmosphere. Each one of us has a specific feeing climate. This climate is a result of your Karma. People go into depression and schizophrenia and other mental disorders if they lose the connection to their source, their climate. The climate is your ocean, the waves are your fast and slow feelings.
Whenever you attach to thoughts, which are created by feelings, you lose the connection to the climate. You pollute the climate.
A holy person is not someone who is rid of feelings but his feelings are based on the third force of feeling which is the climate.
Stillness is the way to stop polluting your climate with thoughts, fast and slow feelings.
The Fifth Sutra
Forget everything.
You can read or discuss scriptures as much as you like, but until you forget everything, you will never live in your heart.
Where all desires vanish, who is lazier than the master? He has trouble even blinking, but only he is happy, no one else.
All experiences belong to the past. forget about the past. The heart closes down once you begin to cling to an experience.
Spirituality is about having the courage to die after every experience, and at the same time training the capacity for memory in daily life.
Stillness is the ending of experience and in that stillness the heart blossoms. Ashtavakra claims that you cannot be in the climate, or the zero factor, or commune with God through doing.
Compassion is pure motivation directed towards others.
Discipline is nothing more than hard work. Motivation does not require the slightest effort. When you are motivated to do something, have you ever felt the burden of effort? Motivation brings you right to Joy.
Good parenting is to be always receptive, without manipulating the child, and u are always ready to take over when it is necessary.
Ashtavakra insists that a master is someone who is even too lazy to blink an eyelid, or care about religion, duties, or salvation. Is it not simply enough to have effortless awareness in the motivation to be there for the world, to just be the nature of observation.
Observe carefully that when a feeing is present there is also a description of the feeling arising out of thought. The absence of thoughts and feelings is enlightenment.
The Sufi master Rumi says that once the wave realizes that it is the wave of the ocean, it becomes the ocean.
The only way to tell if you are really in the climate is to check and see if you have a lot of thoughts. If there is no no feeling, but thought is present, then thought has blocked the energy of feelings. Initially your experience of the climate is like a pulsation. It will come and go because the mind is not used to this state. This happens till you are able to remain calm in doing nothing.
80% of our thoughts and feelings are not created by our own free will. They are reactions to what we see on the outside. What is the point of giving so much importance to our reactions to the outside?
Even if the outside triggers all the reactions of thoughts and feelings within us, there is still a central part - our climate - that is constantly independent of them. And resting here is what Ashtavakra refers to as working with the heart.
The Sixth Sutra
The clear space of awareness.
In you the worlds arise like waves in the sea.
You are pure awareness, you are the endless Sea in whom all the worlds, like waves, naturally rise and fall.
We have to learn to surf, to fly between these two worlds of the material and the spiritual. We have to learn to use the intelligence of our beautiful minds, our egos, and the memory of the Buddha nature, flying and surfing between these two states without any fight or effort or struggle to become something other than who we are. There is nowhere to go. There is no need to become different, no need to change.
Imagine a beautiful blu sky. The color represents the climate; the space represents the atmosphere, the potential, the quality. The clouds flying by represent the mind. Why fight them?
The sky is not going away because of the clouds. The color won't fade because of the clouds. All that happens is that sometimes you just see less of them, and at other times more. That's all.
See it this way and be free!
Manual Schoch is a Swiss mystic and therapist. He developed Time Therapy and gives international talks, workshops and training programs. He started the Tune-In Centre for Time Therapy based in Zurich, London, and Athens which he founded in 1984.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2017
I come in the spell of complete bliss .,while i read this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2015
Ένα μετρίως καλό βιβλίο. Από τα αρνητικά του ο συγγραφέας συγκρίνει θρησκείες και ιδεολογίες, ψυχολογία σαν να είναι για όλα ειδικός. Επαναλαμβανόμενη κουραστική λέξη συνειδητότητα. Στην αρχή φαινόταν πολύ κουραστικό βιβλίο κάπου στα μέσα έγινε πιο ενδιαφέρον. Ας δούμε μερικά ωραία μηνύματα:
Η ρίζα της ανθρώπινης δυστυχίας είναι η επιθυμία. Αναφέρεται σε αυτά που πάντα θες να αποκτήσεις … και δεν αρκείσαι ποτέ σε όσα έχεις.
Η ελευθερία δεν δημιουργεί επιθυμία.
Αργά συναισθήματα: αγάπη, θλίψη, συμπόνια, ευδαιμονία στηρίζονται στην σχέση αιτίας και αποτελέσματος.(δηλαδή και εδώ στατιστική).
Γρήγορα συναισθήματα απορρέουν από τον φόβο και την επιθετικότητα. Η επιθετικότητα έχει εκατοντάδες διαφορετικές εκφράσεις όπως για παράδειγμα απληστία ή ζήλια.
Αυτά όλα ωραία για να δούμε όμως ένα λάθος παράδειγμα που αναφέρει, λέει: σύμφωνα με την χριστιανική παράδοση, έχουμε γεννηθεί αμαρτωλοί, που σημαίνει ότι από την αρχή της ζωής μας δεν είμαστε όπως τελικά θα έπρεπε. Και εδώ απαντάμε, είμαστε κατά εικόνα και ομοίωση του θεού, αρά τι ποιο τέλειο, και τι σημαίνει θεός??. Θεός αγάπη εστί….. είμαστε όμως και ελεύθεροι να σκεφτόμαστε, να μιλάμε να πράττουμε.. εδώ διαφοροποιούμαστε….δπ
Η ρίζα της ανθρώπινης δυστυχίας είναι η επιθυμία. Αναφέρεται σε αυτά που πάντα θες να αποκτήσεις … και δεν αρκείσαι ποτέ σε όσα έχεις.
Η ελευθερία δεν δημιουργεί επιθυμία.
Αργά συναισθήματα: αγάπη, θλίψη, συμπόνια, ευδαιμονία στηρίζονται στην σχέση αιτίας και αποτελέσματος.(δηλαδή και εδώ στατιστική).
Γρήγορα συναισθήματα απορρέουν από τον φόβο και την επιθετικότητα. Η επιθετικότητα έχει εκατοντάδες διαφορετικές εκφράσεις όπως για παράδειγμα απληστία ή ζήλια.
Αυτά όλα ωραία για να δούμε όμως ένα λάθος παράδειγμα που αναφέρει, λέει: σύμφωνα με την χριστιανική παράδοση, έχουμε γεννηθεί αμαρτωλοί, που σημαίνει ότι από την αρχή της ζωής μας δεν είμαστε όπως τελικά θα έπρεπε. Και εδώ απαντάμε, είμαστε κατά εικόνα και ομοίωση του θεού, αρά τι ποιο τέλειο, και τι σημαίνει θεός??. Θεός αγάπη εστί….. είμαστε όμως και ελεύθεροι να σκεφτόμαστε, να μιλάμε να πράττουμε.. εδώ διαφοροποιούμαστε….δπ
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