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

By Madhukar Thompson

This book encapsulates the Advaita Vedanta teachings of Ramesh S. Balsekar. The first part - Gentle Hammer - features a series of aphorisms, each of which sums up one element of his teaching.
Once the seeker's ego has been weakened by this gentle but persistent hammering, the Friendly Sword is ready to finish the job.
This second part consists of Ramesh's answers to 24 key questions about the spiritual search. The third part- Silent Arrow- is a reprint of an article that Ramesh contributed to The Mountain Path, a biannual magazine published by the Sri Ramanashram.
In this article, Ramesh manages to condense his entire teaching into a few pages. It is written with such precision and profound insight that, while reading it, the reader is led to experience silence - the highest form of teaching.
The pithy aphorisms, the brevity of the question-and-answer extracts and the zen-like clarity of the article make this book an ideal introduction to Ramesh's teaching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CreatiVentures Publishing
• Release date: Sep 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502217127

Book preview

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: [e-mail]

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 . . . . . . . . . . .