Mooji

"Namaste. Good day to you. Today, this morning, I would like to introduce you to a very simple guided meditation which can be for everyone, or anyone. Wherever you are, it is a good time now, because many, many people around the world, most people around the world, are compelled to be at home for some time. We are calling it a ‘global quarantine’, but I would like to introduce another word, which is a ‘retreat’. A retreat, for me, means to be with yourself."

"Amongst all the activities that we do, we rarely give enough time to sit quietly by ourselves. I would like to introduce to you not just to sit alone, but to guide you into your inner Being. What you truly are is not merely what we think we are, not merely what we have been brought up to believe we are. Actually, surprisingly, beautifully, we discover a level of peace and natural well-being-ness, joy, and silence. And right here, in the depth of our Self, you will discover a great calmness. And I want you to know that, this, that we are going to find today, you will see that it is always here. And the most wonderful thing about this is that you are about to discover that which has always been here. It has never left you!"

"I often say to my students, when they first come and they begin to feel the infiniteness, the joy and the deep peace, and they feel very happy, I say to them, Don’t just joy ride. Be quiet. Be one with this. Know that this is beyond belief. This is direct experience. But because this is taking place in you, a storm is coming. And this storm is the storm of ego! The storm of ego is going to come to crush what you have discovered, to bring fear in you, to make you feel that you are making a mistake, to bring in states of confusion. And some of you may give in to that and run away, and feel, ‘No, I must not do this anymore!’ But I want to encourage you. This exercise, this ‘meditation’, you may call it, comes from the very core of your Self. It comes from the God-place in you. And this tendency to run comes from the negativity, the toxicity that we have picked up in life. That is going to come up as though it wants to ruin your Garden of Eden inside your heart. I am telling you ahead of time that all beings who awakened to their true nature experienced these types of resistance, this type of aggression from the mind."

"After a powerful experience with a Christian mystic in 1987, my life underwent many changes, inwardly and outwardly, which culminated with my giving up teaching art at the local college. One day I was drawn to enter a spiritual bookshop in central London. I was not accustomed to reading books, but I was instantly attracted to a picture of Sri Ramana Maharshi on the cover of one book. His face radiated a warmth and light that immediately touched my heart. However, when I opened the book, my reaction was, Whoa! What is this?! His words felt very intellectual and noisy to me – so much so that I actually thought the printer must have made a mistake and put the wrong cover on the book. The picture emanated such profound serenity, silence, and peace, but the concise instructions of self-inquiry within couldn’t enter my being back then. So I closed Sri Ramana’s book and put it aside. Instead, I found another book in the same shop entitled The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, which spoke to me immediately."

"Although I grew up in a Christian tradition, the wisdom of the Hindu saint Sri Ramakrishna was so universal that it touched and conquered my heart. His every word resonated deeply inside my being and was perfectly timed, as I had been waiting to find a voice that would confirm the profound experiences I had been having at the time. What I learned later was that Sri Ramakrishna was not only a great devotee – a bhakti saint – but also a completely liberated sage from the perspective and experience of the non-dual jnana path – the path of pure self-knowledge."

"In 1993... I was quite spiritually naive back then – I knew nothing of gurus, spiritual paths, or meditation, and certainly nothing of Advaita. I only knew the divine love of Christ and Sri Ramakrishna."

"Destiny’s path brought me to meet my master, Sri H. W. L. Poonja, lovingly known as Papaji. And only through the grace and presence of Papaji, who is a direct disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi, was I somehow able to read and to understand Sri Ramana’s teachings inside my heart. What I came quickly to see and understand was that self-inquiry is the most direct approach to Truth. And it had to be direct, because I have a very short attention span and am only attracted to what is straightforward, immediate, and simple."

"All we ever need is to be found in the Self. All that we seek in this world that is truly lasting – true happiness, joy, peace, light, space – are inside of us. They are ever present, but for a while we don’t see them because we search for fulfilment in the field of the ephemeral, the changeful. Only at the eleventh hour do we turn to the Self. Such procrastination is not wise, though it is common."

"For thousands of years, human beings have been exploring the nature of who we are and the purpose of our being here on this planet. Many found what they were searching for, but billions of forms who were once called “people” are no longer here. They are gone. And now it is our turn – we are the living wave. We entered into manifestation to walk on this planet as contemporaries and to take our chance at finding that which is imperishable in us. All of us have this opportunity to find true freedom, and no one is exempt, no one is disqualified, because the light of consciousness burns in everyone."

"The world encourages us to look from the limited sense of personhood – a very unstable standpoint from which we are always trying to find balance on very shaky ground. But you must learn to look from your source Being. Your Being is vaster than sky, greater than space – and it is already here. Look from your stillness, not from your agitation."

"You don’t have to go even a fraction of an inch away from where you are right now to find the silence and stillness of your Being. And from here you can observe the energetic streams that are pulling your attention to go out into the field of noise and personhood, where beings are suffering from person-poison, from the toxicity of ego."

"It is time to leave behind childish attitudes and begin to pay a little more attention to what is really here. This is a time-body, a mortal body, but an immortal presence is moving in it. While the body is still warm, use this bodily life to rediscover your timeless Being."

"We all start out looking at life from the particular perspective of our upbringing, which provides us with assumptions about who we are. For most of us, this culturally imparted point of view simply remains our perspective as we move through life."

"Spirituality is the search for perfect understanding, for Self-discovery, for Truth, and it must take place right where you are. The Truth that you are searching for must already be right here, for it is timelessly present."

"Truth can never be merely a holy cluster of concepts, conditioning, or beliefs. It is not an event, nor is it an object apart from you in some sacred vault. For Truth to be Truth, it must be unchanging, immutable, ever present – yet it is beyond characteristics and conditions. It cannot be anything that comes and goes, for everything changeful arises from it and comes and goes in it."

"Truth is what we are. It is our essential nature and Being. It is the pure Self, the limitless one, the ultimate reality – it is awareness itself."

"We have become unaware of the magnificence of our true nature on account of our upbringing, conditioning, and education, all of which paint a very different picture of who we are – and all of which we believe."

"The search for Truth is not about running away from the things of this world but about understanding their ephemeral nature. And more than that, it is about discovering our true nature as an inherent stillness from where even the subtlest movements of phenomena are being perceived."

"Those who discover that reality of their inmost Being enjoy a sense of peace, love, and wisdom as its natural perfume. They experience their essential nature as true freedom."

"Here you are invited into the direct experience of that timeless reality through the method of self-inquiry, which forms the essence of this book."

"Satsang comes in innumerable forms – sitting in the physical presence of a master, following the guidance offered in a book such as this, working in the garden, playing with your children. Once you have the eyes to see it, every movement of life itself is satsang, calling you home to your limitless Being.Welcome to satsang."

"There is something profound about being in satsang in the heart. It is not merely something mental, not just a pile of information. Somehow your heart comes and takes over your mind. It is almost as if you live life with a tongue-less spirituality that speaks for you even if you don’t speak about it. Something shines from that inner core. That’s why they called the Buddha “The Radiant One.” It shines when you are free of your mind, free of past, free of intention, free of desire, free of identity."

"From a young age, we pick up many false assumptions about the world, about life, and about exactly who we are living life."

"The concept I am the body is the core belief we adopt very early on... We take ourselves to be a particular body with a unique personality, and this perspective remains with us as we live our lives."

"All that we refer to as being ours – our body, our mind, our emotions – is not what we are, essentially."

"Everything you can perceive comes and goes, including your own body. You are the one looking at time, objects, and even thoughts and emotions."

"Regardless of whether the object of perception is physical and can thus be measured for colour, shape, and size, or whether what is being perceived is something more subtle like thought, feeling, and sensation, all are phenomena."

"The greater Truth is that you are the awareness within which the idea of yourself living a life and having awareness is appearing. In other words, the ‘person’ we take ourselves to be is an idea emerging in consciousness as an expression of consciousness."

"Mind in its natural, intuitive function is a higher power than the personal mind mode. The natural mind operates in a much broader way. It is not obsessed with activity or identity. It is clean and clear, empty and fresh, so life simply unfolds. One stays in complete harmony without strain or effort. The natural mind is in a state of grace."

"We are all living in time-bodies. From the birth of this body, each of us is like a candle that has been lit and is burning down throughout the course of our lives. And at some point, the flame of the body will go out. But you are not essentially the body, the senses, or the mind, because they all report to something that observes them."

"What we are is consciousness. The body is the vehicle through which consciousness can taste experiencing. And in the human form, consciousness has the capacity and opportunity to realise its own source and thus come into a direct experience of this."

"Identification with the body is a state that consciousness needs to experience for a while. But eventually, grace will compel consciousness to transcend this severe limitation and guide it home to its original nature."

"Self-inquiry begins by looking to discover whether the personal identity, with all its conditioning and idiosyncrasies, is who we truly are. And it ends as a mirror in which the timeless is reflected."

"Remember, the presence ‘I am’ is the Godly principle. ‘I am’ is the Christ light, the Shiva being, the Krishna consciousness. It cannot be dispelled as mere illusion. It is the active God-Self, the dynamic expression of absolute awareness. Without it, there can be no experiencing, nor can there be the realisation of the Self."

"The Absolute is not revealed through human effort. At the appointed time, presence simply begins merging in it. If you try to force this, you will bring the mind and person in again. It will seem as though the mind has accomplished something tremendous, but it will be a fake realisation, a mere mental state."

"Apply yourself fully to the introspection offered here. It is good for all seekers... This self-inquiry is your internal work. Internal work – eternal satisfaction. Internal work revealing timeless Self."

"Today he’s no longer Tony Moo-Young – he’s Mooji, a spiritual teacher and guru with hundreds of thousands of followers across the world, people drawn to his quest to discover secrets to a more meaningful, less troubled life. A disciple of an Indian teacher called Sri Harilal Poonja, Mooji holds retreats, gives talks and runs an ashram. His philosophy is simple: if we connect to our true nature or self, we can live a true and meaningful life. His events pack in the crowds, and he performs what looks a lot like a public therapy session, homing in on individual issues and giving feedback. Meeting him, you can see his appeal: he’s one of those people who focuses in on you, making you feel like you really matter. To sit with him, they say, is to be at peace.... he’s based in Portugal where he set up his ashram in the southern hills, and welcomes followers from around the world."