Listening: The Art of Self-Inquiry

By Christian Karl

The main spiritual question that needs answering is: "Who am I?" That is actually the only question that counts in life. Nothing else truly matters. Once this question is answered, we truly understand the purpose of life and the purpose of our existence. My writings, this book included, point towards the answer. Only you can find the answer yourself. No one can answer the question for yourself. You must walk the spiritual path alone. However, there are guides along the way that keep pointing in the direction of the end of the path. I had the fortune to have such a guide. What I have learned from him, that is what I am sharing with you in my writings.
You must try to find an answer to the question of "Who am I?" in this lifetime. What other lifetimes are there? There is only this lifetime. Therefore dig deep inside your mind and find the secret that has been hidden there for all those years. Be sincere in your intentions. Be pure in your motives and you will find the answer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Karl
• Release date: Sep 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301934645

Christian Karl

I was born in Tegernsee, in the southern part of Germany. I started experimenting with my personal form of meditation/concentration when I was about 12 or 13 years old. This led me to more formalized forms of meditation in Yoga and various spiritual traditions. Ultimately, I found my guru in Bhagavan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. Through him and his influence I attained the blissful state of spiritual liberation in the Self after many years on the spiritual path with many experiences. I gained insights into spiritual matters through my own personal experiences. In my writings I discuss spiritual subjects and attempt to clarify the underlying principles of spirituality.

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What others are saying about LISTENING – The Art of Self-Inquiry

"I read LISTENING –The Art of Self-Inquiry this past weekend. A terrific book. You distilled volumes of Eastern thought and made it simple, real and very readable. Beautifully done."

Benjamin Shield, co-editor of: For the Love of God: Handbook for the Spirit

"Thank you for letting me read LISTENING – The Art of Self Inquiry! All right on stuff….just one bull’s eye after another, one crucial insight after another, one ahhh, haaa after another….and all told in such an organized, thoughtful, direct way ---- I congratulate you – a job well done.

David Garcia, Musician

"Listening-the Art of Self-Inquiry is a user friendly guide to Eastern thought and wisdom. Highly recommended."

Larry Payne, Ph.D. Co-author, Yoga for Dummies and Yoga Rx

LISTENING The Art of Self-Inquiry

By Christian Karl

Copyright 2013 Christian Karl

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-soldor given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and didnot purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof this author.

This book is dedicated to my parents who gave me the gift of life.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The Conscious Self

Toward the Conscious Self

Obstacles on the Way to the Conscious Self

Body and Mind

Relationships and Love

On Love

The Benefits of a Spiritual Life

Looking for Meditation?

About the Body

About Consciousness

About Friendships

About God(s)

About Health

About Living

About Love

About Meditation

The Jnani’s Understanding

About Self-Inquiry

About Spirituality

About the Teacher

About Actions

Some Remarks

Bibliography

About the Author

List of Current Books

Contact Information

Foreword

The Origin is Awareness

Everything occurs in awareness. Looking at the world through the senses, we humans have developed the notion of objects that exist outside of us. That notion is erroneous. Nothing can exist that is outside of your awareness. As soon as something triggers your attention, it becomes alive in your awareness.

Awareness can be thought of like a movie screen where the impressions of life appear. What are some of these impressions? They are sounds, images, smells, tastes, tactile sensations. The movie screen itself is the silent witness of all. It is completely neutral and without any coloring attributes. Whatever you see is the same as what is projected onto it. In awareness only reality appears. Awareness is not an active participant, although it is involved in all activities and is therefore a necessary ingredient in any action. It does not reach out to sense objects and it doesn’t withdraw from them. Awareness feels neither pleasure nor pain, it is not happy or sad, it does not come or go. Awareness is your innermost BEING.

The same awareness that is in you is also in me. I am aware of my mind’s thoughts, and you are aware of yours. Our lives may be completely different, but we both have this quality of awareness. Whether someone lives the life of a queen or a beggar, on the level of pure being - the level of awareness - there is no difference between them.

The substance that underlies all of creation carries awareness. This is a rudimentary awareness that seeks to find clarity about its existence. This may sound really strange, but there can be no other explanation to the existence of awareness itself. Professor Einstein’s awareness was the same as the awareness of every common ant. Because of a highly developed body/mind machine Einstein was able to develop his Theory of Relativity while an ant could never do that. But, an ant is aware of its surroundings and its needs. We cannot say that we humans are more important then ants or any one of those other life forms that do not have our abilities. It simply means that we are what we are and that they are what they are. Just because a tree cannot pull up its roots and run the hundred meter dash in under ten seconds does not make it inferior to people.

Humans have incredible brain power that allows them to be much more creative in their thinking than any other living organism on earth. This ability allows us to quickly alter the circumstances of our lives, but it also may bring us into conflict with the rest of nature where change occurs much slower when we act in selfish and shortsighted ways.

Within all the different vessels, the experience of awareness is the same. Awareness means to receive inputs from sense organs - however primitive - and to recognize them as stimulations. These stimulations are the cause for further actions. Natural intelligence directs and supervises these actions. Through this cycle of, action - awareness - intelligence - action, life goes on its merry way.

I said earlier that awareness is the silent witness of your life. That is true insofar as awareness is not an active participant in your body/mind organism. However, awareness is the cause that brings intelligence into your life. Without intelligence life would come to a very abrupt halt.

My definition of intelligence is this: Whatever works well in harmony with its surroundings will be supported by life. What does not work well will not be supported, and in fact will be eliminated by life. Intelligence supports what works while eliminating what does not. Intelligence is entirely dependent on awareness, and that is because awareness makes you aware of the results of your actions.

I am giving you an example from our daily lives. We rarely continue with activities that yield no results for us, while we love to engage in work when it gives us positive results and personal gratification. Awareness of the difference between these activities is the key ingredient to making lasting changes in our behaviors.

The way for awareness to receive inputs is through our senses. When we perceive something, at first we really don’t know what that something is, but we have learned to give it names such as tree, house, car, blue, heavy, and so on. Whether you perceive a thing for the first time or for the one-hundredth time, the effect on your awareness is the same.

What is this effect? It is first of all pleasing to awareness. It is pleasing because it stimulates awareness. This stimulation of awareness causes a subtle vibration that makes itself known throughout the quiet body/mind system and has been named: bliss.

Whenever anything touches awareness, this bliss is released and is felt in your body/mind. The more you are conscious of this and the clearer your body/mind system is, the stronger this feeling of bliss will become.

Higher life forms such as humans have developed a strong sense of identity when coming into contact with certain aspects of existence. Your personal name is an example of this. Every time someone uses it, you are jolted into the conscious experience of, This is me. The things in life that you value most and/or are familiar with are other impressions that can evoke this sense of identity, which brings about the experience of the conscious Self. This experience of the conscious Self is at the core of your knowing that you exist. When the sense of identification arises, then you are in the conscious experience of the Self.

But, the most fundamental level of your being is not consciousness; it is awareness, a vague sense of being without the spark of the conscious Self. This spark gets ignited only through the input of the sense organs. The resulting bliss is experienced/reflected then in body and mind.

In this vague sense of being, in awareness, there is a subtle desire to know and a subtle search for an identity. This search will lead to the conscious experience of the Self. This experience is known as Self-realization.

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