The Game of Chess

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

In the waking state, the husband, the wife, the king, and queen, are all as false as in a dream. The one who understands this well, is the Incarnation of the Incarnation. He himself is God. The Scriptures, the Vedas, you, I, all are only a myth. This world is a dream. One who awakens from this dream, is truly awakened. In this world appearance, we really own nothing. We say that we should not die and we have to be careful accordingly. That is not how it is in the game of chess. In chess, the man who is defeated is not hanged, nor does the one who wins gets any kingdom. This Illusion is like a game of chess. When a game of chess is over, the players go away with only what they brought with them to the game. What kingdom or spoils can they take away? In short, this world is a game of chess. What is visible is Brahman, but I ask you, what is beyond this appearance? It is Parabrahman. I ask you, “What and how is it?” “That” is Shiva. “That” is Brahman, which is the Truth. There is no horse, house, or man. There is only One, nothing else. However, “That” has no name, no shape. It “is,” that’s all. There is no asking what “It” is, or how “It” is. The dictates of the Vedas are all like a dream. Bondage and freedom are false. One who understands this and lives a natural life has no insistence that some thing should be done, or should not be done. To do, or not to do, is the thought belonging to the “body-consciousness.” Many were able to be completely and perpetually free by withdrawing from the worldly life, but they also kept the sense that they were “somebody.” Even when they attained victory, to be immovable or movable, are factors belonging to the body. Such a one valued himself, or conceived of himself, in relation to the body only. Such conceptual delusion should not be there. Really we are nothing and at the same time, we are all things. Not one, not two, not even zero. Elephant, dog, horse, we are all these, we are everything.

— Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj – Master of Selfrealization – Talk 04/11/1935

Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you

Outward beauty, loveliness of form, charm of personality, whether it is yours or possessed by another, is of no lasting worth. Be not allured by this false show. Be not deluded by these transitory qualities. Handsome or ugly, fair or dark, delicate or coarse, exquisite or plain in appearance, all the forms that you behold are born of dust. They are dolls of clay. They are fleeting forms that will soon vanish and be no more. They are exactly like garments that we have purchased at the vanity-fair of this world, but which have to be discarded before we depart. Your aim in life should be to transcend them.

— Baba Sawan Singh

Though everything is a mess, all is well!?

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know — all mystics — Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion — are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

— Anthony de Mello – Approaching God – How to Pray

How do you know that you do not know your self?

Your direct insight tells you that yourself you know first, for nothing exists without your being there to experience its existence. You imagine you do not know your self, because you cannot describe your self. You can only say: “I know that I am” and you will refuse as untrue the statement “I am not”. But whatever can be described cannot be your self, and what you are cannot be described. You can only know your being by being yourself without any attempt at self-definition and self-description. Once you have understood that you are nothing perceivable or conceivable, that whatever appears in the field of consciousness cannot be your self, you will apply yourself to the eradication of all self-identification, as the only way that can take you to a deeper realization of your self.

— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj – I Am That – p. 517-8

The View

“Once you have the View, although the delusory perceptions of samsara may arise in your mind, you will be like the sky; when a rainbow appears in front of it, it’s not particularly flattered, and when the clouds appear, it’s not particularly disappointed either. There is a deep sense of contentment. You chuckle from inside as you see the facade of samsara and nirvana; the View will keep you constantly amused, with a little inner smile bubbling away all the time.”

— Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – Sogyal Rinpoche – p. 170)

To be like the sky

Once you have the View, although the delusory perceptions of samsara may arise in your mind, you will be like the sky; when a rainbow appears in front of it, it’s not particularly flattered, and when the clouds appear it’s not particularly disappointed either. There is a deep sense of contentment. You chuckle from inside as you see the facade of samsara and nirvana; the View will keep you constantly amused, with a little inner smile bubbling away all the time.

— Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

You can fly, but that cocoon has to go

Viewing our experience in this world as a dream, Siddhartha found that our habit of fixating on the mere appearance of our dreamlike relative world, thinking that it is truly existing, throws us into an endless cycle of pain and anxiety. We are in a deep sleep, hibernating like a silkworm in a cocoon. We have woven a reality based on our projections, imagination, hopes, fears, and delusions. Our cocoons have become very solid and sophisticated. Our imaginings are so real to us that we are trapped in the cocoon. But we can free ourselves simply by realizing that this is all our imagination.

— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche – What makes you not a Buddhist – P 63

What is it?

What is it that we hope to achieve through all this incessant accumulation? Why are we compulsively motivated to have things? In the first place we instinctively sense that a certain element is lacking in our lives. A vague hunger echoes from deep within us. Perhaps through acquiring material objects, friends, and knowledge this void could be filled. So we set out into the world and start to consume whatever commodities it has to offer. We eat and for a while feel satisfied, but the pangs of hunger always return. Ironically, the more we crave to possess and dominate the world and others, the deeper and more unbearable becomes the chasm of our own emptiness. In order to conceal this rapidly widening gulf our compulsion develops into a frenzy. But, however hard we try, we will never succeed in filling an inner emptiness from the outside; it can only be filled from within. A lack of being remains unaffected by a plenitude of having.

— Stephen Batchelor – Alone With Others – Chapter 1: Having and Being

Image found here (In A Future Age)…