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Rajini Menon is a modern enlightened sage who attained Self-realization by adherence to virtuous conduct and following the inner voice of conscience. I had created a thread on her a few years back. Here is an Insightful article by Rajini Menon in distinguishing between the inner voice and mind noise. https://rajiniji.com/whatislife/

The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space. ~ Eckhart Tolle With the changing of seasons and the integrity of matter, the external form of the earth changes over time. The driving force behind this devolution is the human mind. The higher, pure consciousness manifests in a robust, verdant planet, while the lowest, impure consciousness produces a polluted, corroded state of existence. ~ Prajapita Brahmakumaris The damage we cause to the environment is a consequence of how we are within ourselves. If we realize that maintaining our inner climate is in our hands, we will understand that taking action for the environment is also in our hands. ~ Sadhguru

The Indian Catholic bishops’ media institute in New Delhi, India, has celebrated “Rakshabandhan” (bond of protection), the festival of siblings with a group of Brahma Kumaris. https://mattersindia.com/2023/08/church-media-institute-celebrates-festival-of-siblings-with-brahma-kumaris/ Rakshabandhan is a popular Hindu rite or ceremony where sisters of all ages tie a talisman or amulet called the rakhi around the wrists of their brothers. The rakhi is also tied by women and girls to boys and men who are not blood relatives, cutting across lines of class and religion, accepting them as brothers and to foster social harmony and cohesion. The above event is an example wherein the ceremonies and festivals in a religion can be used to initiate inter-faith harmony and brotherhood, mutual understanding and social well-being.

These three qualities or elements are sattva, rajas and tamas, which is referred to in Sankhya philosophy. Sankhya means number in sanskrit, and Sankhya provided the philosophical conception for the numeral system used by the Indians, and later on by the Arabs and Europeans to the present day. It is surprising hence for me that Sankhya philosophy is not studied by the world philosophers, as it would reap a lot of dividend and insight into Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and religions and world-view, as these elements are used extensively in their religious literature. It is also an integral element of eastern medical systems. It has helped me a lot in creating a coherent understanding of nature and existence . https://www.garthhewittyoga.com/blog/2020/5/21/samkhya-philosophy-tamas-rajas-amp-sattva#:~:text=The first principle%2C tamas%2C means,or mountain is very tamasic. https://www.hinduwebsite.com/gunas.asp

Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster realm of consciousness, quickly becomes barren, insane, destructive. ~ Eckhart Tolle When scientific or rational thinking is grounded in presence it has a completely different outcome. It can never be monstrous. ~ Dr. Jean Klein Once you are corrupted by thought you have no sense of life, simply your own psychological process is more important than the whole cosmic dimension of the existence. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Thought is creating divisions out of itself and then saying that they are there naturally. ~ David Bohm The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately... you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. ~ Eckhart Tolle

An insightful article by Sadhguru on the subject ... https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/wisdom/article/plant-based-diet-benefits

'You don’t ‘have’ thoughts. You are not the ‘thinker’ of thoughts. That is not your true identity. You are the vast, clear, peaceful sky of awareness in which all thought-clouds are continually allowed to appear and disappear.Thought-clouds float by, feelings emerge and dissolve, and the vastness of what you are remains, always.' ~ Jeff Foster 'Awareness is the backdrop against which all individual consciousness and experience arises. As such, it is the unmoved, ever present Essence of All That Is. We may become actively involved with, or even distracted by, that which appears within the field of individualized consciousness or human experience, but even in the midst of all this mental and physical activity, our inherent, Natural Awareness remains the undisturbed constant.' ~ Metta Zetty

I only put my personal facts over here. What people eat is their individual choice, and I only provided data for informed decision-making. If it comes to starvation and eating non-vegetarian food for a person, I would whole-heartedly go with the latter. Reverence and gratitude to nature or the Divine would reduce any karmic impurities of the act. The Hindu/Sikh practice of Jhatka, killing the animal or bird in a single stroke so as to minimize physical pain or suffering is also a good practice in this regard. Meat-based dishes are more delicious than vegetarian food, imho. The tendency for most people is to keep eating even beyond their needs and hunger. Hence there is austerity and discipline involved in control of the palate and taste buds. The discipline of the tongue is also correlated to the discipline of the sex organs, and thus those focussed on celibacy would thereby try to discipline their palate as well. My perception is that eating fresh vegetarian food on a constant basis improves the quality of meditation. I have noticed that fasting or eating fruits alone as a meal brings about a tangible leap in the quality of meditation during the day for the better. I have also met advanced meditators who were totally vegetarian or ate non-vegetarian food sparsely. And this has increased my conviction in this regard. But I have also met an enlightened sage who ate meat as well and enjoyed such dishes, and drank beer and alcohol too (prior to his enlightenment). However he was someone who was able to discipline himself to live constantly in a state of total awareness or mindfulness in the midst of his wordly duties. And this is not an easy task. His mind was very strong and focused in this regard, and this resulted in his eventual enlightenment. He was also in his twenties, and blessed with good physical and mental fitness and vitality at that time. If you have cultivated such a heroic mind, I don't think meat or beer would be a problem for spiritual advancement.

Life is rooted in reality, not in your thoughts and emotions. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts.~ Eckhart Tolle The stream of thinking has enormous momentum that can easily drag you along with it. Every thought pretends that it matters so much. ~ Eckhart Tolle When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with the voice in your head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self. This is the ego, a mind-made "me." That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That's why fearing and wanting are its predominant emotions and motivating forces. ~ Eckhart Tolle "You may see that every single thought you can entertain only serves to perpetuate the personal 'I" . ~ Jac O'Keeffe Following a thought is what maintains it. If you remain present without becoming an accomplice, agitation slows down through lack of fuel. In the absence of agitation you are taken by the resonance of stillness. ~ Jean Klein The thought 'I am meditating’ is an ego thought. If real meditation is taking place, this thought cannot arise. ~ Annamalai Swami

A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine. ~ Meher Baba All spiritual disciplines are done with a view to still the mind. The perfectly still mind is universal spirit. ~ Swami Ramdas Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating gyroscope. ~ Ramana Maharshi When the mind is still, it gets the power to fulfill any thought. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Consumption of meat has been correlated to higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, alzheimers and dementia, as per scientific research. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/255644#1 https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/vegetarian-diet-and-cancer-risk.h31Z1591413.html#:~:text=Eating too much meat - especially,can increase your cancer risk. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Alzheimers-and-Veganism.aspx#:~:text=It has been found that,of AD in these populations. In my family of non-vegetarians, I am the only one who is vegetarian. I noticed that my brothers and father suffered from painful kidney stones and had operations in this regard, which I never had.Kidney stones emerge from excess protein consumption. I became vegetarian due to religious and ethical reasons. Vegetarianism helped me to get rid of my comical pot belly and excess fat and become lean and trim. I have similarly seen other vegetarians who look a decade or two younger than their actual age.

Thinking is good, but excessive thinking is not. Between thoughts if there is a period of thoughtlessness, thoughts will be fresh and pathbreaking. A thinker will be able to cultivate a strain of healthy thoughts only when he pays attention to thoughtlessness also. ~ Acharya Mahapragya While doing work if the mind continues to be active let it be so, but there must be at the same time a capacity for silence. ~ Sri Aurobindo Reason does not need thinking. If you observe yourself making a plan you will notice that having fixed the object, the facts just keep coming, linking up into a chain of proposed action. Awareness is experiencing from moment to moment. Reason acts quickly in awareness, a thousand times faster than thought, and you do not even notice it is operating. ~ Barry Long When the robot mind is mastered, undisciplined thinking ceases and is replaced by awareness. Awareness can know love. You can only experience the new when you are aware, when you are without thought. ~ Barry Long I do not know if you have noticed that there is understanding when the mind is very quiet, even for a second; there is the flash of understanding when the verbalization of thought is not. Just experiment with it and you will see for yourself that you have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise. So, the understanding of anything—of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things—can only come when the mind is very still. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Life is available only in the present moment.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh “No one has ever lived in the past or the future, only the now.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh “While you are walking, smile and be in the here and now, and you will transform that place into paradise.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

A hungry lion is not unconscious or egoic, it just wants to satisfy its hunger following its natural instincts. If you meet a hungry lion obviously your duty is to evade it successfully, and if there is no option available, to kill it in self-defense. Krishna tells Arjuna to do his duty as a soldier and does not exhort him to meditate on the field in the lotus position. A mind that is filled with strong desires in the form of cravings and aversions is bound to be in psychological time, either in the past through memory or future through imagination. Such a mind is unnatural, and consequently in a state of misery. It is bound to be inauspicious and self-destructive in the long run unless it realizes its natural state.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without. ~ Eckhart Tolle Stop being tense about the external situations. Once the inside of a person is clean, then the outside automatically becomes all right. - Mata Amritanandamayi In the realm of mind, like attracts like. If the soul is peaceful, then it attracts peaceful environment and people around it. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Set your mind right and all will be right. - Nisargadatta Maharaj

The 9 day Navratri festival is being celebrated by Hindus around the world from last week onwards, and is from 15-10-23 (Sunday) to 24-10-23 (Tuesday). The Navratri festival is conducted in reverence of the Mother Goddess Durga. As per Shakta philosophy of Hinduism, all women are manifestations of the Divine Mother and reverence towards them results in auspiciousness and strength. https://www.brahmakumaris.com/navratri/

That which is unconscious and egoic is self-destructive in the long run.

The state of consciousness that a great majority of humanity is in isn't natural. It's altered. We do not need to go looking for altered states of consciousness; humanity is already in an altered state of consciousness called separation. Separation is the ultimate altered state of consciousness.' - Adyashanti 'If as a culture, as a species, we continue to dwell in a divided state of consciousness, no matter what we change on the outside, we will continue to manifest division. But each of us who comes into the natural, simple, undivided state is making a contribution to all beings - without trying, without taking any credit, without even knowing it. When you become undivided in your own consciousness, you become part of the manifestation of unity.' - Adyashanti 'Without a shift of attention from concept to immediate experience and perception, spirituality tends to degrade into magical thinking, fantasy, and/or fanaticism. It is only by redirecting attention away from the surface level of the mind’s narrative, and towards the pure immediacy of the present, that we can break the trance of ego-identification and fall into conscious connection with our true nature.' - Adyashanti

Here we see that comprehension of the genuine view or right view, leads to natural abandonment of a variety of negative actions without even having to develop their corresponding virtues to nullify these vices. Thus right view or right understanding itself is potent enough to nullify negativity and vices or preempt such behavioral traits. https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Ten_unwholesome_actions

Going through a buddhist theravada website, I found the following explanation of the eight fold path, which I found useful and insightful... https://www.sangha.ee/buddha-s-teaching/noble-eightfold-path Would this prioritize right view and right resolve over the others as the rest such as right action, speech and livelihood would follow in their wake !

Vedanta contains eternal truths that are meant for the entire humanity. Their knowledge is neither emotional nor intellectual, but represents the actual reality that is. It teaches us that preoccupation with the past and the future makes for an agitated present. And as our actions are the greatest expression of our thoughts, it is not surprising that the world we live in is as turbulent as it is. -- Swami Purushottamananda Emotions and even thoughts become depersonalized through awareness. Their impersonal nature is recognized. There is no longer a self in them. They are just human emotions, human thoughts. Your entire personal history, which is ultimately no more than a story, a bundle of thoughts and emotions, becomes of secondary importance and no longer occupies the forefront of your consciousness. It no longer forms the basis for your sense of identity. You are the light of Presence, the awareness that is prior to and deeper than any thoughts and emotions. -- Eckhart Tolle Walk into a situation consciously and you will be able to walk out of it harmlessly. - Vernon Howard Everything will turn out successfully when the mind is not agitated. - Yogar Swamigal If I am agitated, I am wrong. - Vernon Howard

Absolute Reality is always present, and when the personal is active (through identification with thought) only a relative reality can be experienced. Thought takes over and perceiving becomes subjective and illusory. This relative reality creates all the unrest that exists. All global and local disturbance stems from the thoughts of "I” and "me.” The common phrase living in the real world” is in fact referring to the unreal world, the world of thoughts that know no rest. ~ Jac O'Keeffe It is only when without ego, and there is no individual, that the act of absolute compassion takes place through your form. From emptiness, selfless giving takes place. It is then that there is nothing personal in such actions and it is impossible not to act without love. ~ Jac O'Keeffe If there is attachment to your personality, or to any story within what your personality believes to be true, then there will be desire and suffering. You are Pure Awareness shaped into a human being. You are not a separate human being playing with levels of awareness. ~ Jac O'Keeffe

The incompleteness disappears in perception of the true Self in samadhi or unitary perception. You will recognize it easily and clearly due to the lack of mental agitation and tension associated with egoic thinking and emoting. Identities such as nationality or gender or sexual orientation have functional utility in case of pass-ports or washrooms or dating purposes. However if they are used as a source of innate identity due to lack of Self-knowledge, they will be invested with corresponding emotion. If you don't know who you are, you will desperately cling to all known external labels you have for yourself for a sense of identity and would be willing to fight and even die for them. Any perceived assault on the adopted identity would not be tolerated, because of emotional and egoic identification with it. This is the reason why racial, religious, nationalistic, ideological and linguistic identities have a history of violence and cruelty associated with them which continues in the present day due to lack of Self-knowledge.

Clear thinking results in correct action. ~ Nataraja Guru The average man is ruled by the explosions of his emotions, and cannot think clearly. ~ Yogananda Conflict is always emotional. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Emotions arise from thoughts which arise, in turn, from foundational belief structures about the nature of Reality and your own innate identity. ~ Metta Zetty The conflict in the world is not between good and evil, as is so often projected. The conflict is always between one man’s belief and another man’s belief, whether it is within the family or between nations. The moment you believe something, you are in conflict with the opposing belief. You can postpone it with moderate talk. But conflict is inevitable. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Ego is complete identification with thought and emotion. ~ Eckhart Tolle Be aware that what you think, to a large extent, creates the emotions that you feel. See the link between your thinking and your emotions. Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them. ~ Eckhart Tolle

The 'individual's true self' is often referred to as Self in Advaita and Hinduism and nondual philosophy, with the 's' being in capital case letter. The higher or true 'Self' is contrasted with the false or lower self or ego. The Self is pure consciousness or awareness, and distinct from the lower self which is essentially an artificial or fictitious identity brought about by identification with the mind-body complex and its social conditioning. Because of the inherent falsehood in the lower self, this state is associated with psychological suffering due to its unnaturalness, and the spiritual quest lies in gaining self-knowledge or the knowledge of the Self. Sat-Chit-Ananda ( Truth-Being-Bliss) are the qualities asssociated with the Self.