A common space for harmonic peacemakers

II: 17

Chapter 2, Verse 17

“Interwoven in creation,

The Self is beyond destruction.

No one can bring an end to the Self

Which is everlasting.”

Swami Satchidananda:

“The permanent and the impermanent are not completely different. When we say that something changes constantly, there must be something to change. Without that something, there can be no changes. Then what changes? The names and forms of the primordial essence, which is always there. The one is always there, but it appears to be many. This basic oneness is what is permanently real. Even though we see the changes all around us and work with them continually, we can always remember that there’s something permanent behind them all.”

Eckhart Tolle:

“Just as water can be solid, liquid, or gaseous, consciousness can be seen to be ‘frozen’ [ice] as physical matter, ‘liquid’ [water] as mind and thought, or formless [vapor] as pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is life before it comes into manifestation, and that life looks at the world of form through ‘your’ eyes because consciousness is who you are. When you know yourself as That, then you recognize yourself in everything. It is a state of complete clarity of perception. You are no longer an entity with a heavy past that becomes a screen of concepts through which every experience is interpreted. When you perceive without interpretation, you can then sense what it is that is perceiving. The most we can say in language is that there is a field of alert stillness in which the perception happens. Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Being still activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”

Swami Shivananda:

“The Self has no parts. There cannot be either increase or diminution in the Self. People are ruined by loss of wealth. The Self does not suffer any loss in that way. It always exists. It is always all-full. It is existence absolute. It is immutable.”