Awakening Quote by Paul Brunton
““Everything is taken away from him; he is nothing and has nothing; yet he still feels one thing which utterly compensates for this loss. He feels the presence of the Overself [...] In the practice of Indian Yoga, Nirvikalpa Samadhi is considered to be the farthest point to which the practitioner can travel. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the condition of the emptied mind, without any trace of thought, whether of the world or of the person himself; yet fully aware [...] So many conversations on the words of Jesus have taken his sentence "I and my Father are one" to mean a kind of union like marriage. But they overlook the fact that married couples still remain couples, still express the number two. Jesus did not say, "I and my father are two." The number one is definitely not two. For Jesus found, as every other man who attains that stage of consciousness finds, that when contemplating the Infinite Life-Power (which he named the Father) he himself vanished. There was then no other consciousness except that of the Infinite itself. For That was the substratum of his own "I." But what happened in his contemplation two thousand years ago still happens today; the same discovery is made when the illusion of egoity vanishes.””
About This Quote
Source Book: A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton, 1934
The quote describes the ultimate spiritual state where personal ego dissolves, leaving only awareness of the Infinite, akin to Nirvikalpa Samadhi and the unity expressed by Jesus.
In simple terms: Ego disappears, only the Divine remains.
Seek to quiet the mind and realize on with the Infinite.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- meditation
- deep contemplation
- prayer
- spiritual retreat
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can one begin to experience ego dissolution?
- What practices support sustained awareness of the Infinite?
The experience may be inaccessible without disciplined practice and guidance.