New Nisargadatta Maharaj Website Recommendation by Katie Davis

Manu Namasivayam recently introduced us to a new Nisargadatta Maharaj Website that I would like to share with you. The website exclusively offers articles related to Nisargadatta and includes hundreds of photos, books, free downloads when permitted, videos and much more.

www.Nisaradatta.org Website includes:

About Nisargadatta Maharaj - Pronunciation and Meaning, Biography - Meet the Sage - Navnath Sampradaya - Nisarga Yoga - I Am That - Lasts Days: Last Teachings - Mahasamadhi - Maharaj's residence - Monuments of Maharaj - The Style of Teaching - Consciousness - My True State - Memories of Maharaj - Narrations by various devotees - The Famous books of Nisargaddat Maharaj - Various other books about Nisargadatta Maharaj - Traditional scriptures often referred by Maharaj - Where to buy books - A Large collection of photos of Nisargadatta - Download print size portraits - Nisargadatta Quotes from famous books - Other Related Websites - Videos of Nisargadatta Maharaj - Original DVDs - Translations of I AM THAT into various languages.

Quoted from www.Nisargadatta.org:

"Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was an Indian spiritual teacher and philospher of Advaita (Nondualism), and a Guru, belonging to the Navnath Sampradaya. Sri Nisargadatta, with his direct and minimalistic explanation of non-dualism, is considered the most famous teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharshi. In 1973, the publication of his most famous and widely-translated book, "I AM THAT," an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers."

The new Nisargadatta Website is truly a dedicated and devotional service to one of the most revered sages of India and the world and I would like to recommend it as an excellent resource.

To enjoy, please click www.Nisargadatta.org

Nisargadatta on Ambition - AwakebyKatie Blog by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

Causes and results are infinite in number and variety. Everything affects everything. In this universe, when one thing changes, everything changes. Hence the great power of man in changing the world by changing himself.

For this [seeking Reality], you need a well-ordered and quiet life, peace of mind and immense earnestness. At every moment whatever comes to you unasked, comes from God and will surely help you, if you make the fullest use of it. It is only what you strive for, out of your own imagination and desire, that gives you trouble.

Accept life as it comes and you will find it a blessing.

You are convinced of the reality of your circumstances, of the world in which you live. Trace the world to its source and you will find that before the world was, you were and when the world is no longer, you remain. Find your timeless being and your action will bear it testimony.

This is the most urgent task. You cannot see yourself as independent of everything unless you drop everything and remain unsupported and undefined. Once you know yourself, it is immaterial what you do, but to realize your independence, you must test it by letting go all you were dependent on. 

The realized man lives on the level of the absolutes; his wisdom, love and courage are complete, there is nothing relative about him. 

Keep quiet, undisturbed, and the wisdom and power will come on their own. You need not hanker. Wait in silence of heart and mind. It is very easy to be quiet, but willingness is rare.

You people want to become supermen overnight. Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual.

Abandon every attempt, just be; don't strive, don't struggle, let go every support, hold on to the blind sense of being, brushing off all else. This is enough.

Refuse attention [to what comes to the surface], let things come and go. Desires and thoughts are also things. Disregard them. Since time immemorial the dust of events was covering the clear mirror of your mind, so you could see only memories. Brush off the dust before it has time to settle; this will lay bare the old layers until the true nature of your mind is discovered. It is all very simple and comparatively easy; be earnest and patient, that is all.

Dispassion, detachment, awareness - free from memory and expectation - this is the state of mind to which discovery can happen. After all, liberation is but the freedom to discover.

Excerpted from Chapter 95 "Accept Life as it Comes," I Am That, Nisargadatta

Photo Credit: Timothy Conway, www.enlightened-spirituality.org

Katie Davis Website www.katiedavis.org

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - Awaken to the Eternal - Free Advaita Videos - Katie Davis Blog: AwakebyKatie

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is a brilliant sage and one of the most revered spiritual teachers of modern day India. Nisargadatta passed form in 1981 at the age of 84. His primary talks are compiled in the book I Am That.

A simple man, Nisargadatta Maharaj, was a householder and shopkeeper in Bombay where he lived with his family and four children. He had not been educated formally, but came to be respected and loved for his insights into the crux of human pain and the extraordinary clarity and power of his direct discourse. Hundreds of diverse seekers traveled the globe and sought him out in his unpretentious home to hear him. To all of them he gave hope that "beyond experience is not the mind, but the self, the light in which everything appears...the awareness in which everything happens.

This is one of six parts available on YouTube.

Katie Davis Website www.katiedavis.org

Katie Davis Blog: AwakebyKatie www.awakebykatie.blogspot.com

The Self-observer and the Universal Witness by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

In these teachings, I differentiate between the person (body), the self-observer (eyewitness) and the true witnessing consciousness that is the reference point "I am the witness only."

The self-observer is still identified with the body. Attention has shifted from projecting outward toward the world and has turned inward. The study is one of watching thoughts, emotions, body, physical energies and mental images. While it may seem that one is "inside," being inside the body is not yet inside. I guess we could say there is an inside to the inside! :-)

You see, the appearance of the body is also another worldly object. It is still a part of the dream of form. Self-observation is essential to the awakening process, yet this watching is not the witness.

At some point, a profound and radical detachment from both body and world will occur and this opens to the true witnessing consciousness. Some mistaken this with enlightenment since pure being-consciousness-bliss is so dynamically at the forefront.

The subject witness ... the true witness ... is totally free of the person. It is formless and has no identification with person and form. Its study is formlessness. It still has its object, but the object is the "dimension" of the Heart. While it is perfect for crossing over from the world of form into formlessness, it prevents Self-realization.

Once again, the profound surrender will happen by itself when the persistent duality is noticed. In the disappearance of the subject-witness, we have Self-realization.

Continued Self-inquiry will assist ... even when one is totally free of the ego and the body.

While the universal subject-witness is free of form, it is not yet free of the universal mind. In fact, it IS the universal mind. Nisargadatta calls the universal witness "God." In these teachings, I save that label for only the Supreme Absolute.

Since this is a "seasoned" group, I must quickly add of course that the Absolute (Self) is all there is ... everything "else" is only Self ... appearing as.

So why differentiate? Advaita is more than a philosophy, it is in fact a perfect road map. If there is not clarity at point A, point B will remain a mystery, etc. The outer layer of the onion is peeled to reveal the next layer. There cannot be clarity of what an onion truly is ... other than conceptually with mind ... unless each layer is realized.

Likewise, we shift from reference point to reference point until none remain.

Katie Davis Website:

www.KatieDavis.org

For Katie's book, "Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment," click:

AMAZON

At Katie Davis Website at Awake Books

MEDITERRANEAN RETREAT ~ Five Day Residential Retreat in September 2009 with Katie Davis and Sundance Burke

"As a long time student of Papaji and Gangaji and the many teachers that have come to Boulder, please accept my deepest pranams for one of the most memorable teachings I have personally received in the last 18 years. You and Sundance make a great team. Your humor, love and deep caring were expressed so easily. The meditation was amazing. Your quiet and gentle approach awakened in a simple way the wonder of the non-dual presence. I look forward to be invited into this timeless embrace with you again." ~ Chandra, Boulder, Colorado, USA


SILENT NON-DUALITY RETREAT with Sundance Burke and Katie Davis is an opportunity to surrender the ego, dissolve the pain body and realize the Heart that you genuinely are at the core of being through being present, deep resting and the Self-inquiry teachings of Ramana Maharshi, and then to fully embody this essential Truth.

Gathering together for an extended period in the frequency of true satsang, you may realize the conscious freedom and causeless joy that is endlessly available through spiritual awakening, enlightenment and Self-realization.

After arrival at the retreat center on Wednesday afternoon, we will begin observing silence after dinner at the first satsang. During our delicious vegetarian meals together, we will also observe conversational silence. On Sunday morning after our last satsang, we will break the silence and socially enjoy our last lunch before departure Sunday afternoon.

We will gather for two 2 hour satsang sessions most days with talks, deep resting, music and you will have an opportunity to ask questions, share and be spiritual friends.

The entire retreat center is reserved for only our retreat and is located in a beautiful, tranquil and natural setting on the Mediterranean Sea.

SPACE IS LIMITED TO 40 PEOPLE. Registration opens soon.

Registration, location, more information and retreat center photos will be available soon at:

Katie Davis Satsang Schedule www.KatieDavis.org/Schedule.html

KATIE DAVIS is author of "Awake Joy" and awakened spontaneously and radically in 1986.

Katie Davis Website www.KatieDavis.org

SUNDANCE BURKE is author of "Free Spirit" and awakened in 1982 with his teachers Satoshi (Osho/Nisdargadatta influence) and Shunyata, named the Rare Born Mystic by his friend Ramana Maharshi, one of the most cherished sages of modern day India.

Sundance Burke Website www.SundanceBurke.org

SUNDANCE AND KATIE are married and met in 1988. They have been traveling to share Truth since 1999. Their friend, Eckhart Tolle, encouraged them to teach and in 2000, encouraged them to write their new books that published in 2004. While pragmatic and western world, Sundance and Katie's teachings are consistent with the Heart of Advaita.

Nisargadatta Maharaj: On Time, Space, Happiness ~ Katie Davis Blog

Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Once you accept time and space as real, you consider yourself minute and short-lived. But are they real? Do they depend on you, or you on them? As body, you are in space. As mind, you are in time. But are you mere body with a mind in it? Have you ever investigated?

Question:

I had neither the motive nor the method.

Nisargadatta Maharaj:

I am suggesting both. But the actual work of insight and detachment (viveka - vairagya) is yours.

Question:

The only motive I can perceive is my own causeless and timeless happiness. And what is the method?

Nisargadatta Maharahj:

Happiness is incidental. The true and effective motive is love. You see people suffer and you seek the best way of helping them. The answer is obvious - first put yourself beyond the need of help. Be sure your attitude is of pure goodwill, free of expectation of any kind. Those who seek mere happiness may end up in sublime indifference, while love will never rest.

As to method, there is only one - you must come to know yourself - both what you appear to be and what you are. Clarity and charity go together - each needs and strengthens the other.


Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org

"I Am That" by Nisargadatta - Awake by Katie Davis Blog

"I Am That" by Nisargadatta Book Review by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

Essential Wisdom, Must Read, Extraordinary Sage

Nisargadatta informs the ego and the intellect of all that it is not and he couples this path of knowledge with a profound devotion that will stop your search for enlightenment to realize who you are here and now. You are what you are seeking and in seeking, you cannot be found. We rest in the joy of being, simply "I am." This instruction was offered to Nisargadatta by his teacher and with great love and respect for him, he followed his instruction and stopped all effort. In three years, he Self-realized.

"I am That" is divided into 101 chapters and is a compilation of direct dialogues that Nisargadatta had with his students. The translation of the book is natural and flows very nicely. It includes an occasional photograph of Nisargadatta that emulates the devotion that he was sensing at the moment.

"I am That" begins with an Introduction by Douwe Tiermersma on the Philosophical Faculty of Erasmus University in Holland. It is followed by a short Biography of Nisargadatta and a note from the translator about how the book was created as well as a short note from the editor.

The first appendix is Nisarga Yoga and shares the simple abode and life of Nisargadatta.

The second appendix is Navanath Sampradaya and offers a history and structure of sects in India.

The final appendix is a complete and quite helpful glossary of terms found in the book.

The dialogues begin with the sense of "I am" and brings attention to the here and now to live in the present moment. He masterfully moves us beyond the ego and its thinking to stand free of thought, so that we may witness them without identification. He immediately then points to the Awareness and Consciousness that is the perceiving.

Nisargadatta also frees us from identification with the body; we are not the person, but rather the Reality that is beyond. We see that the highest bliss is desirelessness and the answer is to turn our mind's attention inward by asking the question, "Who am I?"

He dynamically leads us to a profound detachment from form and to continue resting solely in "I am." The only time to realize freedom is Now and that Life can be the teacher, when we allow it to be as it is and notice that life is happening by itself.

He shifts us beyond the duality of a pleasure that cycles to pain to realize the Bliss of True Self. When we begin observing, we recognize all that we are not. We brush off the dust of the mind, its time and all of its false concepts and what remains is who we really are.

He points that insecurity is not in the life situation and that it is sourced within the dual mind. When we break free of thought and ever more subtle layers of the intellect, we discover the absolute security of the changeless.

Nisargadatta warns that when we follow the desires of the mind, they may be fulfilled, but discontentment will surely once again resurface and that by following desire, we are breeding more desire and that quest will prove to be endless. Beyond the mind, we are free of both fear and desire and therefore free of all suffering.

He consistently reminds his students that bondage is a delusion and the freedom of True Self already is within them. He urges to seek the very source of consciousness itself, the deepest root of collective suffering. If it is not eradicated, even after awakening, it will surface to be freed.

"I am" is the foundation of all experience and the doorway to discover ever present peace. Here, we shift beyond all space and time.

Sooner or later, you will be led to this spiritual classic in the maturity of your search for enlightenment. "I am That" will at last stop the search. I find this book an essential teaching, a must read, from an extraordinary sage.

I also recommend the other final teaching in the book and spiritual classic "Be as You Are" by Sri Ramana Maharshi that is edited by David Godman.

Free Spirit is a new book written by my husband and teaching partner, Sundance Burke, who awakened twenty-five years ago. ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org

Katie Davis Blog - Awake by Katie Davis: www.awakebykatie.blogspot.com

Sundance Burke Website: www.sundanceburke.org

Be As You Are, Ramana Maharshi, Edited by David Godman - Katie Davis Blog

Katie Davis book review: Be As You Are, Ramana Maharshi

Essential Wisdom, Must Read, Extraordinary Sage

Be As You Are is a spiritual classic from one of the most revered sages of modern day India. First and foremost, the book carries the frequency of presence and will have its effect without even reading a single word.

As far as structure, David Godman has compiled Ramana's dialogues with his students with skill and clarity. I have the paperback edition which is 251 pages as well as an aged, original hardbound copy edition entitled "Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi" that was published by Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai in South India.

As far as structure, "Be as You Are" begins with Acknowledgments followed by an Introduction that introduces Ramana, his life, awakening and Self-realization.

The book is divided into six parts followed by a quite helpful Glossary, Notes and References, a Bibliography and an excellent Index.

Ramana is pointing to a single, indivisible Supreme Reality that lies deep within every human being. In fact, we are experiencing this Reality right now, we just may not be consciously aware of it.

Ramana, with the help of David Godman, begins in Part One by presenting the nature of True Self and who the "teacher" really is.

Part Two leads to Self-inquiry as a means to discover our true identity. It clearly presents the theory, practice and any misconceptions that we might have.

In Part Three, we focus on the guru and what the 'teacher' is actually representing and point to the stillness and silence of sat-sanga; being in the presence of someone who has realized the Self.

Part Four is an instruction on meditation and yoga (scriptures), the use of mantras (sacred words) and japa (repetition of the name of God) as well as life in the world.

Part Five is an important chapter for those awakening, since it is so easy to be trapped by spiritual experience, such as visions and psychic powers.

Finally in Part Six, creation theories are discussed and the reality of the world is revealed. He touches on the subject of reincarnation, the nature of God, suffering and morality, and ends with a discussion on karma, destiny and free will.

Sooner or later, you will be led to this profound spiritual classic, the extraordinary wisdom of Ramana Maharshi and realize the deepest peace.

I strongly recommend this book as well as the other spiritual classic, "I am That" by Nisargadatta.

~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org