Gentle Hammer, Friendly Sword, Silent Arrow (An Introduction to the Teachings of Ramesh S. Balsekar): Enlightenment Series, #4

Gentle Hammer

Friendly Sword

Silent Arrow

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Other Books by Madhukar Thompson:

Books

• Enlightenment: An Outbreak

• Enlightenment May Or May Not Happen

• Enlightenment? Who Cares!

• Teachings en Route to Freedom

• Odyssey of Enlightenment

Postcard Books

(Sets of cards taking a light-hearted look at different aspects of spirituality and the search for Truth)

• Enlightenment by Airmail

• Enlightenment à la Carte

• Satsang

• The Path of Celebration

• The Seeker and His Search

• Meditation

• Enlightenment

• Master!

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Gentle Hammer

Friendly Sword

Silent Arrow

An Introduction to the

Teachings of Ramesh S. Balsekar

Edited by

Madhukar Thompson

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the publisher or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Copyright © 1999 by

(Madhukar Thompson) 2014 Dr. Joji Valli

Published by

CreatiVentures

C-22, Karan Gharonda

Sainikwadi, Pune – 411014,

Maharashtra, India

Mb. 9689257575 | 9881843756

E-mail: [email protected]

www.creativentures.in

Printed by:

SANGAM PRESS

ISBN-10: 8188360392

ISBN-13: 9788188360390

(NetiNeti ISBN 0-9665245-3-5)

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Dedicated to Ramesh S. Balsekar

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Enlightenment is an impersonal event. Because it is

destined, no power on earth can hinder or enhance

its occurrence.

—Ramesh S. Balsekar

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Contents

Biographical Notes on Ramesh S. Balsekar and

Madhukar Thompson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Part 1

Gentle Hammer

A Collection of Aphorisms Drawn from the Teachings

of Ramesh S. Balsekar

Introductory Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

1. Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2. Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3. Advaita Vedanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4. All there is, is Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5. Animal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

6. Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7. Body-Mind Organism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

8. Bondage and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

9. Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

10. Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

11. Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

12. Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

13. Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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14. Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

15. Deep Sleep State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

16. Desire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

17. Destiny and Predestination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

18. Detachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

19. Dharma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

20. Dream State (Personal Dream). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

21. Ego and Doership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

22. Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

23. Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

24. Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

25. Faith and Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

26. Free Will vs God’s Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

27. God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

28. Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

29. Guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

30. Guru/Fake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

31. Guru-Disciple Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

32. Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

33. Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

34. I-I—I-Am—I am Andy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

35. Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

36. Judgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

37. Karma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

38. Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

39. Manifestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

40. Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

41. Me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

42. Meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

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43. Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

44. Murder, Murderer, Murdered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

45. Past Life, Reincarnation and Rebirth . . . . . . . . 80

46. Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

47. Phenomenality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

48. Practice, Sadhana and Effort . . . . . . . . . . .