Grace is of two kinds. The ordinary, better known, and inferior kind is that which is found on the Long Path. It flows from the Overself in automatic response to intense faith or devotion, expressed during a time of need. It is a reaction to seeking for help. The rarer and superior kind is found on the Short Path. It arises from self-identification with the Overself or constant recollection of it. There is no ego here to seek help or to call for a Grace which is necessarily ever present in the Overself.
15.23.6.7 | 14 Dec 2010 |
Books and discussions can, at best, serve only as guides for the individual inward search. This search for the True Self should be accompanied by efforts to impartially observe, improve, and develop that personal self which is ordinarily accepted as the be-all and end-all of existence. Constant attempts to cultivate and maintain awareness of the True Self - the Overself - together with making it the object of his deepest love and humble worship, are among the qualifications essential to progress.
15.23.6.18 | 22 Feb 2011 |
A valuable practice of the Short Path is to see himself already enjoying the realization of its goal, already partaking of its glorious rewards. This is a visualizing exercise in which his own face confronts him, a smiling triumphant face, a calm peaceful face. It is to be done as many times every day as he can remember to do it.
15.23.6.50 | • Listen | 4 Jan 2012 |
His role is to play witness of what he is, how he behaves, the thoughts he admits, just as if he were witnessing someone else....
15.23.6.97, Excerpt | 11 Mar 2011 |
What is the practical use of enquiring, ”To whom is this experience happening? To whom this pain, this joy, this distress, or this good fortune?” First, it makes him remember the quest upon which he is embarked by reminding him that it is the ego which is feeling these changes and that he is not to identify himself with it and thus limit his possibilities if he really seeks the higher self behind it. Second, it suggests that he look for the root of his ego and with it his hidden ”I” instead of merely being swept away by what is happening within the ego itself.
15.23.6.108 | • Listen | 24 Sep 2011 |
... He pretends to be what he aims to become: thinks, speaks, acts, behaves as a master of emotion, desire, ego because he would be one. But he should play this game for, and to, himself alone, not to enlarge himself in others' eyes, lest he sow the seed of a great vanity.
15.23.6.109, Excerpt | • Listen | 20 Sep 2011 |
... He accepts the truth, passed down to him by the Enlightened Ones, that in his inmost essence he is Reality. This leads to the logical consequence that he should disregard personal feelings which continue from past tendencies, habits, attitudes, and think and act as if he were himself an enlightened one…
15.23.6.109, Excerpt | • Listen | 8 Mar 2012 |
This practice in the Short Path of self-identification with the Overself is to be done both casually at odd moments and deliberately at daily contacts in meditation. It is through them--whenever the identification is effectual--that Grace gets some of its chance to work its transformation upon him.
15.23.6.118 | • Listen | 22 Mar 2012 |
He will not have to struggle as on the Long Path. There will no more be irksome effort. The mind will be glad to rest in this positive state, if he holds from the very beginning the faith that it already is accomplished, that the aspiration toward it is being fulfilled now, not at some unknown distant time. Such an attitude engenders something more than pleasant feelings of hope and optimism: it engenders subconscious power.
15.23.6.131 | 3 Feb 2011 |
To keep the Overself constantly in our thoughts is one of the easiest ways to become worthy of its grace.
15.23.6.153 | 6 Mar 2011 |
Fix the attention undividedly upon the Overself which is anchored in your heart-centre. Then everything you do during the day will naturally be divinely inspired action and true service. The Overself is your true source of power: turn towards it and receive its constructive guidance for your task of daily living.
15.23.6.165 | • Listen | 4 Feb 2012 |
The best way to honour this immense truth of the ever-present reality of the Overself is to remember it--as often, as continuously, and as determinedly as possible. It is not only the best way but also the most rewarding one. For then its saving grace may bestow great blessing.
15.23.6.172 | 13 Nov 2010 |
... The Overself Remembrance Exercise is to be practised at all times, in all places and under all bodily conditions. It consists of the constant loving recall to mind of the existence of, and his inner identity with, the Overself. It involves the repeated and devoted recollection that there is this other and greater self, a warm, felt, living thing, overshadowing and watching over him. It should be continued until he is able to keep the thought of the Overself as a kind of setting for all his other thoughts...
15.23.6.176, Excerpt | • Listen | 15 Jul 2011 |
... If he has ever had a glimpse of a supersensuous higher existence which profoundly impressed him and perhaps led him to take to the quest, it is most important that he should also insert the remembrance of this experience into his exercise. He should try to bring as vividly as possible to his mind the sense of peace and exaltation which he then felt.
15.23.6.176, Excerpt | • Listen | 3 Jan 2012 |
... When the remembrance becomes ceaseless flow, the Overself will bring him a remarkable fruitage of grace. When he turns habitually inwards toward the Overself, grace can operate more readily in all matters.When the grace starts working, this is likely to remove a number of internal and external obstacles in his path--sometimes in a seemingly miraculous manner--and eventually bring him to a truer self-awareness.
15.23.6.176, Excerpt | • Listen | 13 Oct 2012 |
The Overself is a term of which past experience may furnish no meaning. But perhaps you have had strangely beautiful moments when everything seemed to be still, when an ethereal world of being seemed very near to you. Well, in those moments you were lifted up to the Overself…
15.23.6.177, Excerpt | • Listen | 28 May 2012 |
A useful method is to stop whatever he is doing, remain still, and let his mind fly back to the thought of the Overself. He is to make this break several times a day, the more often the better, but he may find it easier to begin with only two or three times a day and gradually to extend the number over a few months.
15.23.6.187 | 18 Jan 2011 |
Continuous remembrance of the Stillness, accompanied by automatic entry into it, is the sum and substance of the Short Path, the key practice to success. At all times, under all circumstances, this is to be done. That is to say, it really belongs to and is part of the daily and ordinary routine existence. Consequently, whenever it is forgotten, the practitioner must note his failure and make instant correction. The inner work is kept up until it goes on by itself.
15.23.6.210 | 10 May 2011 |
He must think as often and as intently of the Overself as an infatuated girl thinks of the next appointed meeting with her lover. His whole heart must be held captive, as it were, by this aspiration. This is to be practised not only at set formal times but also constantly throughout the day as an exercise in recollection. This yoga, done at all times and in all places, becomes a permanent life and not merely a transient exercise. This practice of constant remembrance of the Overself purifies the mind and gradually renders it naturally introverted, concentrates and eventually illumines it.
15.23.6.217 | 1 May 2011 |
Be present at your thinking and breathing and feeling and doing. This is what the Buddha called ”mindfulness.” But the highest possible form of mindfulness is to be present with the Overself for, after all, the other four are concerned with the ego, even though they are attempts to free yourself from it; but here it concerns that which completely transcends the ego.
15.23.6.236 | • Listen | 23 Jan 2012 |
The goal is to remember the Overself without interruption and at all times.
15.23.6.251 | 25 Mar 2011 |
He learns to look away from the ego and turn to the Overself. He keeps his thoughts as often as possible on the remembrance of the latter's infinite ever-presence. He keeps his heart occupied with the feelings of peace, faith, harmony, and freedom that this remembrance generates.
15.23.6.254 | 24 Jan 2011 |
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