reiki
Self-Realization, Its Meaning and Method by Swami Krishnananda This book starts off from the author saying; "Know thyself and be free", this perennial wisdom-teaching rings the eternal message of the ageless quest of all creation-bound fields of self-awareness, whether these be people, things or whatever evolving species. The character of 'self' is set in everywhere and in everything. But for the declaration of an mysterious and non-objective consciousness playing hide and seek and masquerading through all forms of existence, perpetually the drama of the universe would not have remained that eluding mystery which it claims to be and has been forever and ever. To me, reading this book was like an attempt to think about most essential of all needs, this pressing call from within and without and from all sides in the life of everyone. Our way of thinking, has certain specific characteristics. Firstly it is involved in the idea of extension and distance, the idea of temporal succession, process and movement, activity and effort, work and achievement of the result or fruit of work. There is no other way in which the human mind can normally think. Thinking in terms of temporal process or a terminus calculated by the movement of time, much worse, to think always in terms of human needs only, (which is the way majority of us think, unfortunately) and not to pay any attention to the possibility of there being things in the world other than human, may be more important than human, should be a matter of concern for everyone. As far as I understand, self-realization is not an easy thing to achieve. Swami (author) says; it’s because the notion of the Self is a barrier and a handicap. One of the first questions I thought about when I have just starting reading this book was, what does he mean by Self-Realization? Where is this Self situated? He writes "It is within the individual." This is a usual glib answer available for any person. "I seek to know my own Self." And why do I seek to know my own Self? Because I want to live in peace. What do you mean by peace? No answer can be given. Here, again, we are in a state of confusion. Why do you want Self-Realization? To know my own Self. To be peaceful. What is peace? That cannot be answered. We do not know what this peace means, about which people talk so much and which is the theme of the various rostrums in the parliaments of cultural discussion the world over, which are taking place from Peru to China! There is no use merely saying ‘the Self is within me and that is my God.’ We have a curious notion of self and God. We are men and women, we are human, and we cannot be anything else. So this ‘within’ in which the Self seems to be situated is the ‘within’ ‘this body’.