Words of Old Tcheng

The Words of Old Tcheng first appeared in the French journal, Etre, in 1974. 

Where this text first originated and at what time are unknown. It was given by a Buddhist monk in the form of a written document to a Frenchman who was visiting Indochina.

Indications of style suggest that it may belong to the school of Zen founded by Hui Neng, the 6th Zen patriarch.

The Text contains very direct teachings on 'Non Duality,' and because they are eternally relevant, whether they appeared several centuries ago or just yesterday, they are imbued with that special timeless power that propels 'truth' towards opening the minds and hearts of sincere seekers, whoever they may be, where ever they may live, whatever they may do.

For this reason, I decided to include a selection of passages from this text in a post that would be easily available to all who are sincerely interested. The passages below contain points that encompass pith instructions and which, if taken into the heart and meditated upon without thought or contrivance, can lead directly to the recognition of one's own true nature.

*****

Old Tcheng said:

"To see the primordial spirit is to see it whether there are thoughts or not, 
whether one is immobile or active, 
whether one is speaking like I am before you, 
or whether one is silent, 
whether one is an emperor, a monk, 
or someone with neither hearth nor home. 
What does it really matter?

Continue reading in Return to Forever

A Remarkable Man, Maurice Frydman

According to Nisargadatta Maharaj, Maurice Frydman was a 'jnani', (a liberated being).

It takes one to know one. This unpretentious Pole, who was born in 1894 in a Jewish ghetto in Krakow, had an uncanny knack fir himself discovering 'jnanis' and in the most unlikely places. But quite aside from this, Frydman's activities helped, enriched and changed forever, the lives of an amazing number of people and yet, to this day, he is so little known and he wanted it that way.

He stumbled across Nisargadatta Maharaj discoursing outside his biddi shop in the streets of Bombay and in due course, translated transcripts of his discussions and teachings into a book that has become a spiritual classic. I Am That, drew and continues to draw, many western seekers to India.

If anyone was 'anonymous' in the truest sense of the word, it was Maurice Frydman. Five foot nothing, Maurice moved with some of the great Indian figures of his time including Gandhi, Nehru, and Jai Krishnamurti. Sometimes, truly great people, who have shaped and helped to transform the lives of countless beings, remain unknown and unheralded until long after their passing.

Nisargadatta Maharaj and Maurice Frydman (far right)

Kindly donated by an anonymous friend.

Maurice Frydman was a modest and humble human being and yet his is not a life to be taken 'lightly.' This diminutive man was a giant in his own right and his 'story' should be told, not for the sake of the 'story,' but because it so aptly portrays how pervasive and powerful compassionate and ego-less goodwill is able to have a profound effect which continues to influence lives for decades and beyond.

Very often these days, when we hear about the philanthropic activities of various wealthy or influential people, there is a strong colouring of 'egoism' and 'doer-ship' involved. As helpful and wonderful as many of these activities often are, they are almost always bound to a 'doer', a 'somebody,' who in some subtle way or other is gratified, satisfied, pleased, feels important, feels worthwhile, etc. This is all well and good and infinitely better than the self-centered, narrow lives that most of us lead. However, much of the philanthropic activity that we see today is but the ‘child,’ or the ‘seed cause’ of future great and selfless compassion. Rare indeed, is it, to stumble upon unconditional compassion in full flower.

Maurice Frydman was a devoted disciple of the peerless sage of Arunachala, 

Sri Ramana Maharshi. Soon after their meeting, the Maharshi gave him a book on Milarepa's life story and asked him to study it carefully. We must assume that this tome left a profound and indelible impression on Frydman and which was to to give rise to many significant and insightful deeds of compassion on behalf of the refugees.

Maurice Frydman was one of those rare beings in whom the spirit of compassion flowed spontaneously without any attachment to 'doer-ship' or ‘outcome.’ Although he was a philanthropist in every sense of the word, it was of a very different kind from what we usually see. Yet it is because he was so unassuming and genuinely 'ego-less' that his activities were and continue to be so powerful in their effects. Great compassion flows spontaneously and reaches far, wide and deep. It has no boundaries and is by nature non-sectarian.

This man accomplished many, many things in his life but here we will focus upon just one as it is little known even to those who have most benefited by it. This pertains to the tireless and extraordinarily compassionate work that Frydman did on behalf of Tibetans fleeing their homeland during the later part of the 1950,s and early 1960,s when the Chinese invaded Tibet.

Although it is not well known, it was Maurice Frydman, who set up and executed a plan that was put in place in order to secure the escape of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. It was also due to Frydman that a vast library of written works were able to be successfully smuggled out of Tibet. These precious writing would have been lost to future generations had it not been for his foresight and careful planning. Most of these texts are now stored for posterity in a modern and well-appointed library in Sarnath, India.

Frydman organised for the Dalai Lama to be secretly carried on a private train to Delhi where he was able to meet with Jarwhal Nehru shortly after his escape from Tibet. If it were not for this carefully thought out plan, it is very likely the Dalai Lama would not be alive and well today.

Understanding the problems faced by these displaced people, who had suffered so cruelly, not only in the manner in which many of them were forced to leave their homeland but then in having to adjust to the climate of India with its heat and rigours for which the Tibetan constitution is so poorly adapted. Here also, it was Frydman, who at his own expense and after much negotiation with Nehru, travelled the length and breadth of India looking for suitable, higher altitude locations where the refugees could safely and with dignity, be relocated. Despite this, many perished during those first years but many also survived and thrived.

All the settlements where Tibetans are now living in India; namely Dharamsala, Bir, Beylacoupe and Tashi Jong to name a few, were discovered, negotiated and established through the skilful efforts of Maurice Frydman.

He was a remarkable man, humble, devout, compassionate to the core of his being and generous to a fault.

You may like to know where I got my information? Sri Ganesan, the great-grandnephew of Sri Ramana Maharshi knew Maurice Frydman well. They were close friends for many years as Maurice often came to visit Ramana Ashram at Tiruvannamalai, even after the Maharshi passed away.

However, Ganesan ji, did not hear the above story from Maurice himself, despite having moved closely with him for many years. He came to hear of it only after Frydman had passed away. Yet another testament to the humility of this man. The story came out via an impeccable person who was working in close unison, at one time, with Mahatma Gandhi and Jarwal Nehru, his name was Apa Pant.

Before concluding this article I would like to include a passage by one of Maurice's most staunch devotees, the man called Apa Pant, who at one time, held an important official post in the tiny Buddhist state of Sikkim. It recounts very poignantly, the final days of Frydman’s life and leaves us with an indelible impression.

In the words of Apa Pant himself;

Maurice Frydman died in Bombay on March 9th of 1976 with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj by his side. A beautiful event ended this incredible life. During his last days, Frydman got a visit by a professional nurse he did not know. The nurse had been visited in a dream by an old man in a loin cloth who told her to go and take care of Frydman. Frydman refused to accept the nurse’s offer. But, as she was leaving the house she walked past a picture in the hallway and recognised the old man whom she had seen in her dream. Upon telling Frydman this, he accepted her offer and allowed her to take care of him.

The picture: was Sri Ramana Maharshi who had left his body over three decades prior.

(This story and many others can be found in; Masters, Mice and Men

The 3rd book of the four-part series; Shades of Awareness

Modern Day Psychosis?

Spiral Credit, Twisting Spirals
Gianne Sarcone Digital

We live in times that seem geared to confuse and even overwhelm the mind. With so much information darting around in cyberspace, there are many choices to make, many interests and distractions all competing for our attention...

If we walk into a supermarket to buy a toothbrush we have to choose between some fifty competing brands. Even something simple like buying a toothbrush has now become potentially problematic.

Continue reading in Return to Forever

No Rocky Mountain Way

Many people are familiar with the truism which states that it is the obstacles and difficulties which we encounter in everyday life that enable us to tread the path successfully. Dealing with all kinds of different problems and challenges provides us with the 'traction' that enables us to move forward.

If we want to build our muscles we must put in the work of muscle building, only then will strength come. But in the realm of 'profound truth,' our mind is continually challenged by seeming contradiction.

On the one hand it can be said that we must 'tread the path' to truth, but on the other hand, there is no path and 'truth' is always with us, inextricably so. 
So where is the need for effort?

If one tries to unravel this mystery of seemingly diametrically opposing views, using only the mind, we will never succeed. We cannot reconcile the irreconcilable and if we try to do so, while also clinging to rigid concepts of what is and what is not, we end up confused and disillusioned.

Yet, despite the existence of seeming contradictions, when it comes to relative and absolute truths, we can find a way to live harmoniously even while recognising the truth of both these views. Moreover, this can happen simultaneously.  A certain way of understanding can dissolve much that may, in an ordinary sense, appear to be quite confusing.

In our relative world of doings and happenings in which mind is king, things appear to be real and so we need 'real' analogies, or at least analogies that bring clarity. In our relative world, there is a 'path' and it is to be 'trodden' by facing and overcoming numerous obstacles and challenges.

The optimist would call these unwanted happenings, challenges while the pessimist would refer to them as obstacles. Whatever the case may be they appear to be holding us back from 'realisation.' From the point of view of absolute reality, these obstacles or challenges simply do not exist in and of themselves.

All realised Masters had to learn how to live in this world while also remaining free from its entanglements and little by little we must do the same. The trick is to not give everything that arises in our mind, total validity.

Learning to see through our thoughts is a process that we can come to understand very effectively by developing an awareness of how the mind functions. If we become familiar with the way in which thoughts arise we can soon begin to see quite clearly how the whole mechanism of mind plays itself out in all that we do, think and say.

This is the first level of regaining control, as opposed to being the plaything of the mind and its unceasing stream of thoughts. As we learn to understand 'ourselves' in due course we may stumble upon the realisation of who and what we really are.

The rocky mountain way is never anything but a mind made creation and sooner or later each us must find this out through our own direct experience. When we learn to reclaim our awareness through becoming aware of awareness, seeming obstacles and just plain 'life' itself, become the fuel that propels us towards seeing and knowing what is always present yet unnoticed.

The greatest mystery of life and of 'being' itself is always right there in the palm of our hands, yet we go on from day to day like the 'beggar with a golden begging bowl.'

One version of the story runs like this...

Once upon a time, there was a beggar who used to sit on the side of the road near the old gate that was the entrance to the town that he had been born in. One day the King of the province came along and noticed the fellow sitting there and a sudden pang of remorse and pity came over him.

Had he not ever known only ease and wealth in his life and yet he had never done much to relieve the burdens of simple folk like these? He reached into his pockets and took out a large lump of gold and handed it over to the fellow.


Read on in Pieces of a Dream

Seeing Through the One Who Sees

I would like to share an article written by the sister of a friend of mine, Sharon Rockey. She sent this to me a few weeks ago after she read an account of a similar 'happening' that i wrote about in my book Pieces of a Dream. I found her description evocative and wondered if any of you, 'out there,' may also have stories to share?

If you do, i would love to hear them and i am sure others would too...

Seeing Through the One Who Sees

Even for a New Age publication, it seemed like a silly request—"Send us a description of your earliest childhood concepts of God."
I could already picture the scene in the editor's office, the countless letters all describing the same mythic image—the Great White-Bearded Patriarchal Scorekeeper watching everything from somewhere in the sky. As I was pondering the dubious value of such an exercise, my mind flashed on a vivid childhood experience—one that transcended all my own concepts.
It was during one of our cold clear Midwestern winter nights. The backyard was heaped with snow drifts glistening in the light of a full moon. I rubbed my hands together to stay warm and watched as my father removed his binoculars from the case, adjusting them for the narrow face of a seven year-old.
He helped me focus the eyepiece on the round cratered surface rising above us. All my childish searching for the face on the moon hadn't prepared me for the shock of this brilliant white image that came blazing through the lenses.
There for the very first time, was something which had been there all along—an enormous and wondrous sight with dimension, shadows and light, and details of unbelievable beauty. A flood of thoughts and feelings swept through me too quickly to identify. I felt as if I had just been initiated into an inner circle whose secrets could never be revealed in second grade science books. At the same time, there was a fleeting uneasy stirring like some vague connection to dark and ancient occult mysteries. The sensations swirling around me were almost too much to bear.
My father was taking great pleasure in having led me to this discovery and for a few moments he quietly withdrew to another corner of the yard leaving me all alone with the moon. I stood there in helpless silence until my awe and wonder could no longer be contained. It was then that something unexplainable broke through.
First, a rush of warmth and stillness, then as if being lovingly plunged into liquid space while some vast unseen lens was brought into focus, all sense of separation between the moon and me dissolved. No more "a moon and a me," but rather a timeless witnessing in which all my thoughts effortlessly ceased to exist.
After what must have been only a moment or two, I became aware of a longing for more and instantly I was back, binoculars in hand, a child looking at the moon. I didn't understand what had just happened or why it had seemed so organic and intimately familiar. I only knew that it had somehow left me feeling naked. Maybe that's why I never mentioned to my father or to anyone else what had really happened that night. What exactly does one say about an experience for which there are no words?
It would be many years before the mystery would gradually begin to unravel. The answer was waiting in the writings and teachings of poets and masters like Sri Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Goldsmith, Hafiz, Rumi, and others. Each imparts the message in their own way, but all have realized that there is no observer, that there is nothing to observe, that there is only Observing.
Or, in the words of the poet Wu-Men, "One instant is Eternity. Eternity is the Now. When you see through this Instant you see through the One Who Sees."

---

Sharon Rockey is a freelance writer who writes for the financial and business community. Occasionally she veers off course and pulls up something from her past -- something downright sentimental, syrupy, juicy, bizarre, or twisted -- whatever bubbles to the surface. These are tucked safely into the private reserve files so as to not scare off paying clients who would otherwise take her seriously.
Web spin Studios

Happiness is an Inside Job

 If we finally come to realize that our happiness is not dependent upon other people; not dependent upon what they say or do or think, this is a very liberating moment.

Normally we move through our lives caught up somewhere between the hope of being liked and accepted or the fear of being disliked or rejected.

The grey scale of our moods and reactions between these two emotions is as vast as an ocean and we could easily spend our entire lives swimming around in this cauldron of uncertainty, swinging precariously from one mood to another, measuring our 'self-worth' by the ever shifting gauge of fleeting emotions, thoughts and expectations. Those of our own and those of 'others.'

Tapping into our inner resources, which are vast and unchanging, is the only way we can ever become free.

On the most fundamental level, we can say that 'we are one another,' just as we are also essentially part and parcel of everything, but these are just words until we 'empower' them with our inner experience and understanding.

It is one thing to know a truth and quite another to own it.

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now

Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness

What do you Really Want?

If you knew that you had seven more days to live, what would you do? How would you spend those precious seven days?

There is an urgency to change our perspectives on life now!

Why put off until tomorrow what can be done today?

None of us know how long we are for this world.

None of us can be certain that we have the luxury to put things off till a later time and deep down we know very well what is really important to us.

Yet we bump along from day to day, month to month and year to year doing things that we don't really want to do and that we don't really care about!

We push aside our deep inner longings with the thought that we should build a career, make money, have a family, build a home and so on and so forth. In most cases we follow this course simply because this is what everybody else is doing in some form or other.

The way that we are educated ensures that we conform to norms and most people accept these norms and stumble blindly along like lambs to the slaughter...

If we don't take the time to look around us, if we don't question, if we don't stop long enough to know what it actually is that we really care about, then it is almost a ‘given’ that our lives will pass in the fulfillment of tasks that have nothing to do with 'who and what we really are.'

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now

Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness

Not Who You Think You Are

I can never forget the first time I read a short sentence, in a book of transcriptions, from the talks of Nisargadatta Maharaj.

The sentence in question read;

"Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person."

At the time when I first stumbled across this, it just knocked all the wind out of my sails.

At one moment I had been riding the high seas, all sails aloft and bloated, full of the winds of living and full of 'myself,' doing the living. The next moment 'I' was adrift on a sea of glass, no wind, and no sails, no 'I'...

"Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person."

This is not a new idea by any means, I had already delved quite deeply, or so I thought, into the writings of Zen, Dzogchen and Advaita Masters and in such writings, one often comes across this teaching. But for me, this was one of those; 'when the penny drops' moments.

When I read this passage I was in the loft of my little 'tin palace;' a retreat house in a patch of forest about an hour from the hill station of Darjeeling in the north-east of India.

I have no idea how long I sat gazing out into space. It was not that the words began a whole stream of thoughts that lead to a moment of 'reckoning.' It was rather that those few words cut the mind off completely at the root; at least for a while. They hold that kind of potential, they have that kind of power.

In truth, these are words of power. They were uttered by a Master who had gone completely beyond the 'little self' and was unshakably immersed in the 'absolute self,' despite living in the midst of a huge city.

These kinds of utterances are in fact, windows into the 'self.' They are not intended for consideration so much as for freeing us from all our usual preoccupations and distractions.

Yes, we all know that we exist, it is the one and the only thing that we can ever really be sure of, even if we never realized this before.

This is something that each of us should take the time to verify for ourselves.
But can we venture into what it is that knows, loaded with all our usual preconceptions?

No Way!

In order to do this, we must unburden our selves, free ourselves, forget ourselves completely. Even if it is only for a few brief moments...

Venture into the realm of who it is that knows...weighty words.

This is the power, the beauty and the value of such writings. They are not meant to provide sustenance to our minds, they are intended to dissolve them and in so doing, open doors into the simplicity of what we always are.

It is so utterly within the reach of each and every one of us to know that we are not the 'person' that we think we are, but in fact, every person and everything and so very much more besides...

"Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person."

*****

Unwelcome Reminders of Impermanence

• 

  The Unblinking Gaze

I suppose we always need reminders of the impermanence of everything.

But whether we think we need them or not, such reminders tend to visit us uninvited rather more frequently than we may care for.

After surviving two monkey invasions into my small forest dwelling in the past, I would not have felt a third visit to be necessary. They had certainly left their mark in my life and a point had been made.

However, recently a friend came to visit me at my little tin palace at a retreat center not far from Darjeeling. We had not seen each other for a long while so there was much to catch up on and share. Prior to my friend's departure the next day we decided to take a walk through the forest to a flat and open area near some tea gardens. From this place there was a lovely view of the surrounding valleys and mountains. From habit I advised my friend to check her hut and be sure that all the windows were shut and I made a thorough check of my own. I even double checked that everything was secure, closed the door, locked it and off we went.

It was a delightfully warm and sunny morning, the sort of morning that brings a good deal of optimism and spontaneous joy to the heart. The air was slightly hazy but even so, the majestic, white forms of the eastern Himalayan giants rose up before our view, breathtakingly beautiful.

A couple of hours slipped by but we hardly noticed until the familiar rumble of empty stomachs warned us that it was nearing the lunch hour.

Making our way back through the forest we could only marvel at the natural beauty of the area as we picked our way over the cobbled road canopied by old walnut, pine and Utish trees.

However, after crossing a small bubbling stream, just before the gentle rise to the monastery staircase, we noticed a young man on the road looking up very intently at my little cottage nestled among the trees and bamboo groves on the ridge.

I saw him but did not immediately understand why he was standing there and gazing up with such rapt attention. Just then a monkey, struggling to run with a jar of something tucked under its arm, suddenly shot out from behind a bush and darted across the road just in front of us. It looked very comical but then the implications of this little display suddenly ignited the light bulbs in my mind!

Holy sh......! It all became clear, horrifyingly clear. I started to run. Poor Katya who was not far behind had no idea of what we were in for, but I knew only too well.

Read more in Masters, Mice and Men
Volume Three in the series Shades of Awareness

An Open Secret

If you think that you need to turn yourself inside out and upside down in order to be able to understand ‘truth,’ you are definitely on the wrong tack.

Who and what we really are is nearer to us even than our own eyelashes..!

But how many of us notice our eyelashes?

The truth of our Being is not something that even requires understanding.

How could it be, when we actually are the understanding.

A truly spiritual path is not about 'freedom for the ego,' it is about 'freedom from the ego.'

It is not about 'fulfilling expectations,' but about freeing ourselves from them.

Yes, truth is an 'open secret,' it is always available to everyone and absolutely all of the time.

This is the reality behind the great 'cosmic joke' of our non-recognition.

We are so much more than we can ever imagine, why wait for another life time, another day or even another moment to realize what we already are...

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now
Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness

Keeping Things Real

If there is one thing that we can all be absolutely sure about it would have to be the fact of our 'existence'.

Don't we wake up each morning and know that we are alive? Whether that feels good or not is another matter but we all know that we 'are'.

This is something we are so familiar with that we simply take it as a given.

We seldom if ever give the fact of our existence a second thought.

But stop right here!

There is a wonder and a mystery in this overlooked and all too evident fact.

Are we not always Ever Here Now?

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now
Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness

Fearless

I am afraid of heights. I have been this way since I can remember. It’s a visceral thing; if I come near the edge of something which is very elevated, every cell in my body begins to scream and the familiar sensations of numbness and horror quickly flood every part of my mind and body and overwhelm me with a profound and irrational feeling of un-ease.

I suppose this affliction, if one can call it that, has accompanied me like a silent shadow since my earliest memories and yet that shadow has been more noticeable at certain times and almost unnoticed at others.

Fears are like this; they are the silent companions that walk with us through our lives. If we were to put all our fears together we would find we are not alone! We are not accompanied merely by one or two nameless fears, but by a host, a whole tribe of silent, unyielding, determined 'adherents'.

I have never overcome my fear of heights, it remains with me till this day, but I have learned how to cope with it and on a number of occasions, when it was necessary, I found one could look directly into the face of a fear and then continue on one's way.

We all feel fear at some time or other; we all know the taste of it. There are many, many different kinds. Fear of the unknown is such an integral part of our day to day lives that many of us don't even notice it consciously and yet its effects upon the way we live and the choices that we make are far reaching and pervasive.

We live with fear to some degree or other. It may be subliminal and unnoticed for most part and yet it is there. We could not survive without the instinctive emotion of fear being an integral part of our body, mind complex. Fear is natural and it is a necessary component of our ability to survive.

Read More in Masters, Mice and Men

Volume Three from the series Shades of Awareness

Never Not Ever Here Now

If there is one thing that we can all be absolutely sure about it would have to be the fact of our 'existence'.

Don't we wake up each morning and know that we are alive? Whether that feels good or not is another matter but we all know that we 'are'.

This is something we are so familiar with that we simply take it as a given.

We seldom if ever give the fact of our existence a second thought.

But stop right here!

There is a wonder and a mystery in this overlooked and all too evident fact.

Are we not always Ever Here Now?

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now
Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness

Finding Our Inner Freedom

My teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche said that if death should happen to strike us down today, now, right at this moment we should be ready to leave, and furthermore, leave without any sadness or regrets or clinging to what we have or have had or expect to have...

Can any of us say that we are ready? Can we say that we have this kind of inner alertness which is always present and always free? Can we live in this moment looking outwardly but remaining ever focussed and unattached inwardly?

There is such freedom in being able to live this moment without hope or fear, without expectation or desire.

Continue reading in Return to Forever

The Way The Moments Pass

If we think of the way that we spend our days.

If we think of the way in which those days are made up of moments, so many moments...

Of the way in which those many moments turn into weeks, months and years. If we look back on our lives and all the things that we have ever thought of or done, what does all of that really add up to?

Some of us might feel fulfilled and satisfied, but many might question the whole purpose of their lives.

In looking back they might wonder, 'what was that all about'?

They would be right to do so, especially while still in the very midst of life.

Life offers us with such a unique opportunity to find out 'who and what we really are'.

Often it may take a crisis or some event which has involved us in a painful personal loss to shake us from our distractions, our routines and our fascination with the distractions of day to day living.

Read on in Never Not Ever Here Now
Volume Four in the series; Shades of Awareness