Story by Gurdjieff retold by OSHO (from "Beyond psychology")

George Gurdjieff used to tell a story... there was a magician who had many sheep. And it was a trouble to get them home from the forest every night -- wild animals were there, and he was losing many of his sheep. Finally the idea came to him, "Why do I not use my expertise, my magic?"

He hypnotized all his sheep and told them different things. To one sheep he said, "You are a lion. You need not be afraid; you are the king amongst the animals." To another he said, "You are a tiger," to another, "You are a man." And he told to everybody, to all the sheep: "You are not going to be butchered because you are not sheep, so you need not be afraid to come back home. You should come early, before nightfall."

And from that day no sheep went missing. In fact, from that day no sheep was behaving like a sheep: somebody was roaring like a lion, somebody was behaving like a man, and nobody was afraid of being butchered, killed -- the very question was irrelevant. And the magician was butchering them every day for his food. They may have been roaring like lions -- that did not matter; they were sheep after all.

But he managed very beautifully. Giving one sheep the notion of being a lion, there was no need now to be bothered that he would try to escape, seeing that other sheep are being killed. Still sheep were being killed, but this sheep will know, "I am a lion, I am not a sheep. Sheep are bound to be killed!" When he is killed, others will be thinking, "He was just a sheep, we are men. And he was not only a sheep, but a foolish sheep who used to think that he is a lion, and never listened to us. We argued many times, `You are a sheep. We are men, we know better. You stop roaring, that is not going to help.'" But the magician was in absolute control.

The story Gurdjieff was telling was about your religious leaders. They have managed to tell you things which you are not. They have managed to convince you that you know things which you know not. And this is the greatest crime that can be committed. But you cannot call them criminals, because they are not doing it to harm you. They are trying to serve you, they are trying to help you.

Just because all the religions have been doing the same thing, the whole world is under a certain hypnosis. And why have I created so many enemies? -- for the simple reason that I am telling you that your knowledge is not knowledge, that it is a cover-up. You are utterly ignorant. You know nothing, and you believe that you know. It hurts!

I am taking away your knowledge, I am taking away your virtue, I am taking away your morality. I am taking away everything that you used to think is a great treasure, everything that was cherished by you, nourished by you, protected by you, because you thought that you have got the real secrets of life, that you know the real mysteries of life. And to take away these things from people is naturally going to create enemies.

It is a strange world. The enemies are popes, are archbishops, are shankaracharyas, are ayatollahs -- they are the respected people of the world, and the friend looks like the greatest enemy. The enemies appear to be friends, and the friends appear to be enemies. Humanity has misbehaved with its friends and given all its respect to its enemies. And that is the reason why the whole world is in misery: you have listened to the enemies and you have destroyed your friends.

And the same story continues.

I have talked to so many wise people, and found that all their wisdom is just memory. Not even a small bit is their own; all has come from others. And this is something fundamental to realize, that truth can only be your own experience. There is no other way to get it. Lies you can get in abundance. There are supermarkets all over the world, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Mohammedan, Buddhist -- all kinds of lies, all colors, all shapes and sizes, whichever you prefer. They are available and suitable to you. You are not to fit with them, they fit with you. It is very easy. They are made for you, they are tailored for you.

Truth is a totally different matter.

You will have to fit with it.

Truth knows no compromise.

You will have to change according to it.

You will have to go through a transformation.

Clairvoyance mantra - liberation by seeing

 

From a jpg from a picture of a painting of Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the sylables: 

A AH SHA SA MA HA

A AH ŚA SA MA HA

in Tibetan script:

Prayer book with prayers from Hazrat Inayat Khan

"It is according to the extent of our consciousness of prayer that our prayer reaches God." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

https://www.petama.ch/Ebooks/Ebook-Prayers/Ebook-Prayers.html

1001 nights. The value of a night of prayer

 

The sufi say there is great Adab for praying at night, more so than praying during the day, that is to pray before sunrise at the specific hour designated for prayer.

However there are three nights that muslims keep as sacred: 

Laylatul Isra'wa-l-Mi'raj 27th night of the month of Rajab - the night journey of Prophet Muhammad from Makka to Jerusalem on donkey Buraq where Allah ascended Prophet Muhammad to heavens (Mi'raj) 

Laylatul Bara'ah 15th night of the month of Sha'ban - The night of destiny when what happens for the next year is written including who is destined to die in the next year.  

Laylatul l-Qadr - The night of power which is in one of the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, some say odd nights and the 7th night of the last 10 nights is also mentioned as the night when The Quran, as a perpetual revelation, is sent down from the heavens.

It is said that Laylatul l-Qadr has the Adab of 1000 months. 1000 months is the equivalent of about 84 years or the duration in which the karmic imprint of a person who reaches that age exhausts. The thing is that the Adab of a prayer is said to be roughly 80 years. So basically being prayerful on Laylatul l-Qadr is to make up for a life of prayer. But in order to do so one needs to be prayerful each and every night. It might not look like it but if one looks from a non-transactional mind, being prayerful here and now makes one prayerful to receive revelation on Laylatul l-Qadr with each occurrence.

Teachings of the Buddha, Other Indian Masters, Gyalsay Thogmey Sangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas and Three Principles of the path by Lama Tsongkhapa (prayer book from Tibet House)

 https://drive.proton.me/urls/PX3V3XBV3C#5Px-eXJsvG2R

Flow

Naturally human-beings learn through opposites. One needs to experience the opposites in order to see what one really wants and decide accordingly. That’s our innate freedom that we receive as a gift. A gift implies freedom and with freedom comes responsability. As at the end of our lives there is no finger pointing …

For some this decision comes in an instant of spontaneous rememberance which reorganizes all one’s life energies toward health and wholeness. This is how it happened to Jesus when he was a boy in Jerusalem when he went in one of the three prescribed pilgrimages for the jews during Pascha. When he saw the blood of lambs on the slats of the porches he realized in an instant that that’s not what God wants from the jews, to slain lambs and he understood his destiny which was actualized as the Tamid the perpetual offering of two lambs at the Temple in Jerusalem which happened at the exact hours (halachic hours, which is the time of the day divided into 12 equal parts, 9 and 3) with the crucifixion and transition of Jesus (OSHO says he didn’t died on the cross but that he was taken and then went to the jews in Kashmir where he lived in Pahalgam to old age). It is recorded in the Gospels that he uttered the first line of Psalm 22 (the numbering after Masoretic text) Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabachthani and people nearby who were speaking the southern dialect of Aramaic thought he was calling Prophet Elijah when in fact Jesus was speaking the northern dialect of Aramaic which was spoken in Galilea and which would have translated into Listen, listen to my heart, this is my destiny!

The orthodox jews do not go to Jerusalem on the Pesach and Pesach Scheni because they can’t bring the Tamid offerings due to the fact that the Temple is no more.

What happened with Jesus that day in Jerusalem is explained in a book called the Homiliary from Prislop by Saint Father Arsenie Boca. Jesus after he understood his purpose he went into the Temple and stood near the Masorets where the kids were and begun asking the Rabbis from Isaiah’s prophecies about his coming. The Rabbis were amazed by his wisdom but they didn’t realized that they were talking with a human-being who understood his destiny. God knewing that the rabbis wouldn’t accept anyone to teach them made it so a kid would enligthen them. But they didn’t understood even to this day, I’ve talked with a Hassid Rabbi and finally he accepted Jesus as a jew.

Destiny as Saint Father Arsenie writes is “God’s intention which becomes Creation through the work of the human-being.”

Intention in Sanskrit in called Saṅkalpa. There is a saying in the Upanishads: “As is your desire so is your will, as is your will so is your deed, as is your deed so is your destiny and You are what your deep driving desire is.”

In the west where consumerism of goods and content took over the desires of many, people are less familiar with Saṅkalpa and the freedom and power to create their own destiny. Once such a human-being is met which is unflinching a decision is prompted that many cannot bear. When the ex-Pope Razinger met with Mawlana Sheikh Nazim, said Mawlana Sheik Mehmed Adil, he saw the Living Truth and he realized he was living a lie and he resigned.

Our consciousness according to an answer that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Shneour Zalman of Liadl gave to a high ranking russian official while he was emprisoned is asking us (Adam) “Where are you ?” that is what have you done with the gift of life ?

Saṅkalpa has not to come from belief which is imposed from outside and it supresses doubt which can resurface any moment but by a deep reflection which can come from practices such as Ngondro (preliminary practices) which invites one to contemplate on the four thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma. Atiśa’s 1st Lojong slogan is the preliminary practice.

Once Saṅkalpa than one’s life’s energies align with your life purpose, that’s the first limb of Yoga: Yama or Sīla

Then one needs to bring regularity to the practice, discipline, that’s the second limb of Yoga: Niyama.

Then the body can sit in the posture that is required to meditating for 48 minutes (or two Ghaṭikas which is the time prana circulates the body one complete time) which is what is needed for Nirvāṇa or Mokṣa or Mukti or Kaivalya. For many consumerism have spoiled the desires, have turned them into passions and cravings that are controling one’s life. This is the third limb of Yoga: Asana

Then there comes rhythm what is called Ṛtam. That’s the rhythm of breath. What Eckhart says take one conscious breath, he is referring to align your Prana, your life force with the rhytm of the Universe, with Dharma, the cosmic order Ṛtam. Phùng Xuân (Thich Nhat Hanh) clicked with Anapanasati (https://plumvillage.org/library/sutras/discourse-on-the-full-awareness-of-breathing) but it may be also to align with a lunar or solar calendar, meditate within the Sandhya Kalas or Abhijit Muhurta or Amṛt Kala. That’s the fourth limb of Yoga: Pranayama. (OSHO says that it cannot be taught, one has to discover it).

Than coming back home, what christians call repentance and jews call Teshuva. That’s the fifth limb of Yoga: Pratyahara (interoception).

Than concentration, Śamatha. Here japa can help, meditating with a mantra. If one looks for an oral transmission of a mantra, one needs to prepare and contemplate the practice before hand, to be prepared when the transmission comes. Nowadays many transmissions are online but there are masters who do initiations only in person. Once one has received the initiation that is one is able to respond to the call of the master during transmission and repeat the mantra (with the exact Sanskrit pronuniciation) one need to water the seed. Keeping the practice without skeeping a day. Some mantra transmissions such as White Tara require one to be vegetarian which is more conducive to meditation. Some mantras like Green Tara and Avalokiteśvara I have heard it to be said that they don’t require a transmission as such. Completion of a mantra is repeating the mantra until a day comes and the mantra drops by itself that is subject and object merge in pure awareness. The mantras need to be counted and for that is helpful to have a Rudrakṣa mala. Rudra is one of the names for Śiva and if one takes one from seeds of Rudrakṣa that is usually blessed. Sadhguru says that taking a Rudrakṣa mala moves ones toward Mukti. That is a Saṅkalpa. That would be the 6th limb of Yoga: Dharana.

Then there is meditation. What is called Dhyan or Chan or Zen. What Buddha teaches. That is the 7th limb of Yoga: Dhyan. One needs to be aware not to fall from Dhyan, that’s why the previous limbs are necessary.

For Sahasrar one can meditate with the mantra I know from Deepak which is

Sahasrara Īṁ

while holding the Maṇḍala offering mudra.

How I brewed Russian Caravan tea ?

Today I brewed my own version of Russian Caravan (for those who don't know Russian Caravan is a smokey black tea known as such it seems because at some point a caravan that was carrying black tea from China to Russia got the tea smoked without them intending that and they saw it was good).

The mixture I used is based on three varieties of Chinese tea:

Pu Erh (fermented black tea)

Keemun Congou (has a slightly plumy taste)

and

Lapsang Souchong (that's a taiwanese smokey black tea, it's smoked because it's made of the bigger leafs (the smaller leafs are said to be better quality)).

I started with mixing around half Pu Erh with Keemun and Lapsang Souchong in roughly equal proportions.