Meditation and living in the moment, by the enlightened mystic Ilie Cioara

See also The Flame of Total Attention

Can thinking be silent, such as a flower, completely open, letting the beneficial rays of the Sun envelop her and still, when some form of communication is needed, to respond in a natural way with a wholeness of being?

In fact, this is what life asks of us ceaselessly – to respond only when such a response is needed. The rest of the time, the being should be silent and watch in all serenity.

How can we free ourselves from the past and the future?

It is all very simple! With a lucid, all-encompassing Attention, we will watch every reaction of the mind, without pursuing any purpose or goal. Everything we encounter in such a manner disappears; in the void which appears spontaneously, an unlimited energy becomes available to us, and we are able to understand the absolute Reality through a direct experience.

In this state, we acquire a great sensitivity and everything that life brings forth in its natural flow is being regarded and appreciated with love and kindness.

Man is truly wise only when, detached from his selfish “self”, is united with Infinity through non-action and an aware passiveness of the mind.

This mysterious encounter takes place in a state of simplicity. Once the past has disappeared, we are integrated in the now and, with a clear and lucid mind, we watch everything that comes as constant freshness from one moment to the other.”


Ilie Cioara’s description of his enlightenment.

I was 55 years old. One morning, waking up from my sleep, I noticed that, psychologically, I was functioning differently from the night before. The mind had lost its usual turmoil. In a state of serenity I had never felt before, I was functioning in perfect communion with my whole somatic structure.

My surprise was so great that it prevented me from understanding the mysterious phenomenon as I didn’t manage to put it into words. I had read, of course, lots of descriptions of Enlightenment, Liberation, but there is a great difference between mere intellectual knowledge and directly experiencing the phenomenon.

Only after a couple of hours I realized what had happened to me, without pursuing this “something” as an ideal to accomplish. I was, to use a simile, in the situation of a man blind from birth, who had just gained his sight after undergoing surgery. Everything around me was as new. I had an overall perspective on things. A silent mind allows the senses to perceive things as they are.

The mind in its totality had become, through silence, an immense mirror in which the outside world was reflected. And the world I was perceiving directly through my senses revealed its own reality to me. My fellow beings, close friends or complete strangers, were being regarded indiscriminately, with a feeling of love I had never felt before.

If any reaction of the mind surfaced, it disappeared immediately in contact with the sparkle of impersonal Attention. A state of quiet and all-encompassing joy characterized me in all circumstances, whether pleasant or painful. My behavior was that of a simple witness, perfectly aware of what was happening around me, without affecting my all-encompassing state of peace.

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Ilie Cioara was an enlightened mystic who did not belong to any lineage. He is unique in a way, in the sense that he lived in almost complete isolation, in Eastern Europe in a communist country, completely oblivious of nonduality, zen etc. Originally a Christian mystic, he practiced a mantra for over 20 years. One day, he felt an intuitive impulse to drop the mantra, and just practice the silence of the mind, by listening to the noises on the street, in the now. After following this practice for a few years, one morning, as he was waking up from his sleep, he suddenly experienced Enlightenment. His description of meditation is fresh and devoid of any tradition and jargon.

His writings in 16 books describe the experience of meditation and enlightenment, as well as the practice of “Self-knowing” using all-encompassing Attention. Like Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Ekhart Tolle, his is a simple message of discovering our inner divine nature through the silence of the mind.

The Silence of the MindThe Silence of the Mind is the first in a tetralogy by Ilie Cioara

A practical book on meditation and enlightenment, a must read for any spiritual seeker. A more poetic Eckhart Tolle; Kahlil Gibran meets Krishnamurti.

Ilie Cioara’s message is original and unique, as he never travelled to India and never belonged to any traditional school.

By practicing the silence of the mind, through an all-encompassing attention, we discover and fulfill our innermost potential of becoming one with the divine spark that lies dormant within us.

For more info www.thesilencebook.blogspot.com and Nonduality_Magazine

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