III. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: The Forest Wisdom
This Upanishad involves again a dialogue and discussion between two people. This time Yajnavalkya (sage and husband) talks with Maitreyi (student and wife).
“A wife loves her husband not for his own sake, but because the Self lives in him.
A husband loves his wife not for her own sake, but because the Self lives in her.
Wealth is loved not for its own sake, but because the Self lives in them.”
“The Self has to be realized. The universe confuses those who regard it as separate from the Self. Everything confuses those who regard things as separate from the Self.”
“As a lump of salt thrown in the water dissolves and cannot be taken out again, though wherever we taste the water it is salty, even so beloved, the separate self dissolves in the sea of pure consciousness, infinite and immortal. Separateness arises from identifying the Self with the body…” [Matthew 5:13 says “You are the salt of the earth” Perhaps when the salt loses it’s taste, this is when self-realization is unknown among the people.]
“As long as there is separateness, one sees another as separate from oneself…[also known as “The Buddha’s Doctrine of Emptiness”]
But when the Self is realized as the indivisible unity of life…who can be known by whom? Maitreyi, my beloved, how can the knower ever be known?”
“That which is above heaven and earth, which is also between heaven and earth, which is the same through the past, present, and future–that is woven warp and woof in space.” “In what is space itself woven, warp and woof?”
“The sages call it Akshara, the Imperishable. It is neither big nor small, neither long or short… It is without attachment…The Imperishable is the seer, though unseen.”
“The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses…When the Self takes on a body, he seems to assume the body’s frailties and limitations; but when he sheds the body at the time of death, the Self leaves all these behind…When a person dies, it is only the physical body that dies; that person lives on in a nonphysical body, which carries the impressions of his past life [aka the “Buddha Body”]. It is these impressions that determine his next life…these impressions dissolve by the light of the Self.”
“As a great fish swims the banks of a river as it likes, so does the shining Self move between the states of dreaming and waking. As an eagle, weary after soaring in the sky, folds its wings and flies down to rest in its nest, so does the shining Self enter the state of dreamless sleep, where one is freed from all desires. The Self is free from desire, free from evil, free from fear.”
“In that unitive state one sees without seeing, for there is nothing separate from him…Where there is separateness, one sees another, smells, tastes, hears, speaks to, and thinks of another. But where there is unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahmin. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure [hidden in a field…Matthew 13:44], the supreme joy.”
“…all creation awaits the person who sheds his body having realized Brahmin.”
“As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad…You are what your deep, driving desire is. As you desire is, so is your will. As you will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”