Pointers to themes on the Overself and the Short Path in The Notebooks of Paul Brunton
Following are paras and meditations are selected from themes in The Notebooks of Paul Brunton related to the Overself's presence and the “short path.”
The features of this “way” are to recognize and remember—and ultimately realize what is already present as our true nature. Why remembering? Because we are dis-membered. We have ignored our true nature. Or lost ourselves. Remembering is akin to the ancient Platonic path of reminiscence, or Wordsworth “intimations of immortality.” Why recognition? Because the main point is to become aware of our true being, to recognize what is already and always here, and realize that we are that. To know that the real is present every moment is the basis of the short path: and the guarantee that the goal is possible. As PB points out “no effort” is needed to realize what is already present, but “every effort may be needed to remove the obstacles” to such recognition.
PB’s word for reality as present is Overself. It is “that fragment of the Divine which is in each one of us and which makes us a portion of the universal World-Mind.” And “the Overself is not a goal to be attained, but a realization of what already is.” We invite you to substitute your favorite word for Overself: stillness, joy, awareness, Brahman, Sunya, “primordial awareness.” From studying the paras included here you will get your own meaning.
Each para is an invitation to a meditation. Contemplating inspired words helps to clear the mind of its old beliefs, helps to evoke remembrance and can lead to recognition. Read until you find one that resonates, or pick one at random, and use it for a while. Noticing when there is a response to the quote is itself a part of the path; developing our listening and intuition. Put one on a page. Allow the inspired words guide you and transform you: keep them in mind and take them to heart. Meet once in a while with your friends to read and discuss them.
PB provides so many different dimensions of the path for different people and phases of our journey: some require effort, some require the letting go of all effort: doing nothing. For some it is beauty and nature, poetry and music that inspires us and takes ego out for a moment. For others it is a few sessions of sitting still, or breathing yes thank-you. For others, the inquiry into the nature of I and world is helpful, as are studying metaphysics and mentalism. Any of the ordinary human faculties can become vehicles for the extraordinary. All of these techniques will themselves dissolve when the life presence is strong enough: you “let yourself be moved by the Overself’s flow.”
Some think: if it isn’t hard it can’t be the right way. I have to do something to earn enlightenment, I have to suffer more. But as the song goes, “It ain’t necessarily so.” Each of us has our own trajectory. Go wholeheartedly in a “long path” practice than half heartedly in a short path one. Most important is the intuitively felt response in your heart.
Sometimes you may feel the intuitive response, but old voices may say “but,” or a doubt comes along: the ego wants to chip away at our confidence that it is so. This is where the great value of the sage can be seen: telling us yes it is really so, it is there. Think about a jar of honey that you can’t find a crowded closet-- and you give up looking. Then your trusted friend says: “I saw it there it is there.” And now, with this assurance, you search in earnest. Yes. It is there. This is the best thing the spiritual friend can remind you of: yes, it is there. It is here. It is. Further: it is you. The first theme on “Overself Presence” assures us of reality’s ever presence. "All we need is awareness of it." But awareness is the Overself. And you are that.
Recognize yourself.
When a person comes to his real senses, he will recognize that he has only one problem: "How can I come into awareness of, and oneness with, my true being?" 1:1.130 The Notebooks of Paul Brunton
The soul is most certainly there but if people do not turn inwards, and attend to it, then for them it is not there. But really it is always there and the failure to recognize its existence is really the failure to turn attention away from the endless multitude of things which continuously extrovert it. PB “Adventure of Meditation” WP 43/15
The Overself is always present but our attention seldom is. (22:3.16)
The absence of the ego is the presence of the Overself. But this is only a surface impression in the person's thought, for the Overself is always present. (22:3.58)
It is the unique contribution of the Short Path that it takes advantage of the Overself's ever-present offer of Grace. 23.1.134
…The very fact you have consciously begun the quest is itself a manifestation of Grace, for you have begun to seek the Overself only because the Overself's own working has begun to make it plain to you, through the sense of unbearable separation from it, that the right moment for this has arrived. …You are not really walking alone. The very love which has awakened within you for the Overself is a reflection of the love which is being shown towards you.
…Thus the very search upon which you have embarked, the studies you are making, and the meditations you are practicing are all inspired by the Overself from the beginning and sustained by it to the end. The Overself is already at work even before you begins to seek it. Indeed you have taken to the quest in unconscious obedience to the divine prompting. And that prompting is the first movement of Grace. [“The Workings Of Grace” ]
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