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#1718 From: Know Mystery <know_mystery@...>
Date: Wed Mar 3, 2004 1:10 am
Subject: #1718 - Friday/Saturday, February 27-28, 2004
know_mystery
Send Email Send Email
 

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online:   http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm  

 

If the graphics do not display in your email copy of this issue, read it online at the NDHighlights yahoogroups web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/message/1718

ThereIsNo

 

"There Is No Vessel Like Peace That Contains All Blessings" ~ Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

Aurora Braun is a native of Peru and comes from a family of
artists.  Aurora writes "I create mandalas out of love for the
Mother.  When I painted my first mandala, I realized that
I had hit on a boundless source of inspiration and creativity."
She now lives in Santa Monica, California, and makes her living
as a translator and interpreter while pursuing her interests in
art, healing and the exploration of consciousness.

She may be contacted at http://mandalasbyaurora.com/html/home.html

music: Central.mid from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panhala/ 

 


We should learn to see everyday life as mandala -
the luminous fringes of experience which radiate
spontaneously from the empty nature of our being.
The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience
moving in the dance or play of the universe.
By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound
and ultimate
significance of being.


~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche ~


#1718 - Friday/Saturday, February 27-28, 2004 - Editor: joyce (know_mystery) 


In working out a mandala for yourself, you draw a circle and then
think of the different impulse systems and value systems in your life. 
Then you compose them and try to find out where your center is.  Making
a mandala is a discipline for pulling all those scattered aspects of
of your life together, for finding a center and ordering yourself to
it.  You try to coordinate your circle with the universal circle.

~ Joseph Campbell ~

"The Power of Myth", with Bill Moyers


Helga ~ OmniConscious

 

Practice in Everyday Life

by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

 

WhileStill

 

"While Still in Your Body, Rest in Peace"  

Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

 


The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an
openness to all situations without limit.

We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to
people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.

We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a
marmot hides in its hole.

This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the
process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.

Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the
sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by
habitual emotional patterns.

When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the
feeling of opening ourselves completely to the entire universe. We should open
ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind.

This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of
self-protection.

We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and field of
perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a mouse. We should realize
that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw
from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by
introspection and concentration.

Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the
beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordeal
state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment.

This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from
which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of
potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural
self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.

All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is
open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.

Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing
to attain or realize. The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is
naturally present in time-transcending awareness.

Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their
uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are
vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no
significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present
themselves.

This is the dance of the five elememts in which matter is a symbol of energy and
energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment. With
no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.

The everyday practice is just everyday life itself.

Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any
special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually
are.

There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced
state."

To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves to
obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as
worthless persons - we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are
intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.

When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as
eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal
event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that
meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of
liberation and non-liberation.

Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since
everything that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no
unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.

Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own
condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to
think "I am meditating." Our practice should be without effort, without strain,
without attempts to control or force and without trying to become "peaceful."

If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop
meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our meditation.
If we have "interesting experiences" either during or after meditation, we
should avoid making anything special of them.

To spend time thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt
to become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should
be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to reexperience them
because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.

All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free
from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.

The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which arises
at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn to see
everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of experience which radiate
spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala
are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being.

Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from
everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that
usually irritate us.

In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future - our
experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past is only an unreliable
memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of our present
conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why
bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?

We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions of
meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of
potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our meditation
in terms of past experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.

Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole
being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, -is- enlightenment.

~  Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche  ~

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OmniConscious/


Sacred Geometry Mandala Art: Interdimensional Gateways to the Infinite

(following Jonathan Quintin)

Pythagoras described geometry as visual music. Music is created by applying laws of frequency and sound in certain ways. States of harmonic resonance are produced when frequencies are combined in ways that are in unison with universal law.

These same laws can be applied to produce visual harmony. Instead of frequency and sound it is angle and shape that are combined in ways that are in unison with universal law. Geometric shapes can be orchestrated in ways to produce visual symphonies that show the harmonic unification of diversity.

Mandalas translate complex mathematical expressions into simple shapes and forms. They show how the basic patterns governing the evolution of life workout the most beautiful results.

The word mandala arises from the Sanskrit and means sacred circle. The circle symbolizes the womb of creation; and mandalas are geometric designs that are made through uniform divisions of the circle. The shapes that are formed from these divisions are symbols that embody the mathematical principles found throughout creation. They reveal the inner workings of nature and the inherent order of the universe.

Mandalas act as a bridge between the higher and lower realms. They are interdimensional gateways linking human consciousness to the realms of archetypes and the infinite. The relationship of form, movement, space and time is evoked by the mandala.

Mandalas offer a way to engage with the inherent harmony and balance of nature. They bring the principles of nature into our field of awareness. For thousands of years, mandala imagery has served as a means to an expanded way of thinking. The images transcend language and the rational mind. They bring about a certain wisdom of universal knowledge and a deeper understanding of human consciousness.

http://www.isibrno.cz/~gott/mandalas.htm


 
 

When I began drawing the mandalas... I saw that everything, all the paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point - namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation... I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self... I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.


~  Carl Jung  ~

"Memories, Dreams, Reflections"


 

Invincible

 

"Peace is Invincible for It Contends with Nothing" 

 Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

  
 

 
Wilderness As Temple
 
By Gary Snyder
 
The wilderness pilgrim's step-by-step breath-by-breath walk up a trail, into those snowfields, carrying all on back, is so ancient a set of gestures as to bring a profound sense of body-mind joy. The same happens to those who sail in the ocean, kayak fiords or rivers, tend a garden, peel garlic, even sit on a meditation cushion. The point is to make contact with the real world, real self. Sacred refers to that which helps us (not only human beings) out of our little selves into the whole mountains-and-rivers mandala universe. Inspiration, exaltation, and insight do not end when one steps outside the doors of a church. The wilderness as temple is only a beginning.
 
One should not dwell in the specialness of the extraordinary experience nor hope to leave the political quag behind to enter a perpetual state of heightened insight. The best purpose of such studies and hikes is to be able to come back to the lowlands and see all the land about us, agricultural, suburban, urban, as part of the same territory -never totally ruined, never completely unnatural. It can be restored, and humans could live in considerable numbers on much of it. Great Brown Bear is walking with us, Salmon swimming upstream with us, as we stroll a city street.
 
~  Gary Snyder  ~
 
From Practice of the Wild, by Gary Snyder, North Point Press, 1990.

Jerry Katz ~ http://www.nonduality.com

 

BeABuddha

 

"Be a Buddha Not a Buddhist,

Be Peace Not a Pacifist"

Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

A sense of the nondual perspective may be gleaned through a kaleidoscopic view of selected esoteric doctrines and practices. Since doctrines and practices are necessarily the dry shells of Spiritual Matter, one must place oneself in the center of a mandala of lifeless words and set the self and the words in motion, until the bits and pieces whirl and spin into transient patterns of unlimited beauty, their intricacies as inwardly boundless as their unfolding is ever new, yet always perfect.

~ Becky Fitzsimmons~

as quoted by Jerry Katz http://www.nonduality.com/faq.htm

 

 

Mandala: Buddhist Tantric Diagrams

Introduction

In the Tibetan tradition, all religious works of art are collectively referred to as sku gsun thugs rten. rTen literally means "support," and in religious terminology it signifies a support for one of the three "bodies" of enlightenment. sKu rten are "body supports," or images of the Buddha, deities, or saints in the Buddhist pantheon, such as the images painted in thangkas [see Jackson, Tibetan Thangka Painting, 1984]. gSun rten are "speech supports," or scriptures such as sutras and tantras, or commentaries on these. Thugs rten are "mind supports," of which mchod rten, or "stupas," are examples. Another object in this category of "mind supports", or representations of the spiritual embodiment of the Buddha, are dkyil khor, or mandalas. The word dkyil khor means "center-circumference," and describes both the essential geometric structure and ritual significance of mandalas. As one commentary clarifies [Wayman, Introduction to the Buddhist Tantric Systems, p. 270, n. 1]:

As for the center, that is the essence.
As for the circumference, that is grasping, thus grasping the essence.

This essence is the "heart" of the Buddha. In his enlightened form, the Buddha is no longer in this world. As one of his epithets indicates, the Buddha is tathagata, or "thus-gone," and in the absence of his physical body, the mandala represents his "body of enlightenment."

Read the rest: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/george/mandala.html


A PRAYER TO THE DIVINE MOTHER
 
O Divine Mother,
In this extreme danger,
when we and all sentient beings
and nature,
herself,
Your glorious body,
face unprecedented misery and destruction,
inaugurate in fierceness and tenderness
the splendor of
Your Age of Passionate Enlightenment.
Bring us into the fire of Your sacred passion for reality,
rejoin the severed mandala of our being,
infuse our bodies, our hearts, our souls, our minds,
with the calm and focused truth of Your highest illumination
that brings each of those things into mutual harmony.
Engender in the ground of all of our beings
the sacred marriage,
that union between masculine and feminine
from which in each of us the Divine Child is born,
that Child that is flesh of Your flesh,
heart of Your heart,
light of Your light,
That Child that is free from all dogma,
free from all shame,
free from all false divisions
between holy and unholy,
sacred and profane,
free to burn out in love,
free to play in love free to serve in love,
as love
for love
In the heart of Your burning ground of life,
Teach us, O Divine Mother, directly
at every moment in this hour of apocalypse
the appropriate action that heals
and preserves
and redeems
and transforms.
 
~  Andrew Harvey  ~
 

 
Mandalas are the pictorial representation of the Rectification (right ordering) of the contents of consciousness as accomplished by the Seer. Not only the Buddhists and Hindus possess such designs, but the Western seers, too, like Boehme and Blake and -- in literary form but still "visual" -- Swedenborg. Mandalas are not the highest manifestation of the Real, because there is still a Seer and a thing Seen, obviously. Only when the mandala itself is surpassed is the Real perfectly reached. Take this symbol as your mandala for unity in awakening: imagine an Eye in the center of a heart, representative of perfected vision and perfected vitality or emotion. It is the Witness, the observer, in the very Heart of What Is Observed. It is subject and object wed, the union of the ajna (third eye, in the center of the forehead) and anahatta (heart) chakras.
 
from Keys to the Gate of Divine Truth by Petros (1997)
 

Aurora Braun ~ http://mandalasbyaurora.com/html/cards.html

 

 

Mandalas are Self-portraits, fingerprints of God. Mandalas are gateways into the finite infinity that we are. They radiate peace and joy. They help reconnect to the heart.

They are self-borne, they grow like a living organism and reflect the manifold expressions and flavors of ancient cultures all around the globe.

~  Aurora Braun-Hassett  ~

http://mandalasbyaurora.com/html/home.html

Clarity

 

"In Simplicity Clarity Arises"

Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett


Mandala links:
 
 


JOANNA MACY'S TRUTH MANDALA

 

 

Calm

 

"All is Calm in the Eye of the Hurricane"  

Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

 


Purpose & Background

This ritual exercise provides a simple, respectful, whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world, and for recognizing its authority and the solidarity it can bring. The practice emerged in 1992 amidst a large, tension-filled workshop in Frankfurt, on the day of reunification between East and West Germany; since then it has spread to many lands. To many participants it has been the most significant experience in a workshop, if not in their lives.

Description

People sit in a circle. They sit as closely-packed as possible for they are, as we often put it, creating a containment vessel - or an alchemical vessel for holding and cooking the truth. The circle they enclose is divided into four quadrants (visible demarcations are not needed), and in each quadrant is placed a symbolic object: a stone, dead leaves, a thick stick, and an empty bowl. Entering each quadrant, the guide holds the object it contains and explains its meaning. Here are some words we use.

"This stone is for fear. It's how our heart feels when we're afraid: tight, contracted, hard. In this quadrant we can speak our fear."

"These dry leaves represent our sorrow, our grief. There is  great sadness within us for what we see happening to our world, our lives, and for what is passing from us, day to day."

"This stick is for our anger. For there is anger and outrage in us that needs to be spoken for clarity of mind and purpose. This stick is not for hitting with or waving around, but for grasping hard with both hands - it's strong enough tor that."

"And in this fourth quadrant, this empty bowl stands for our sense of deprivation and need, our hunger for what's missing.--our emptiness."

You may wonder where is hope? The very ground of this mandala is hope. If we didn't have hope, we wouldn't be here. And we will see as we proceed, how hope underlies what is expressed in each quadrant..

"We will begin with a dedication and a chant. because this is  holy ground . Nothing makes a place more holy than truth-telling. Then we will step in one at a time, spontaneously.  We will take a symbol in our hands and speak, or move from one to another. We may come in more than once or not at all; there is no pressure on us to enter. Even if you stay on the periphery, you will find that, as each person enters the mandala, you are in there with them. We will speak briefly. In brevity, words are powerful."

Now the guide, entering each quadrant, demonstrates  how its symbol can be used for speaking the knowings and feelings we carry. For example, holding the stone of   fear:

"I'm scared by the spread of cancer and AIDS. Will my lover be next? Will I? Where can I go from the poisons? They are everywhere, in our air, our water, our food.

"I feel sorrow for the people of Tibet - and for the loss of all the old indigenous cultures. Now when we most need the wisdom of their ancient traditions, we wipe them out. So I weep for us, too.

"Oh, the fury I feel for our war on the poor! I can't believe that welfare bill! What will happen to the women, the children? What kind of jobs can they get?"

"I don't know what to do. I recycle, I take the bus, I change my diet, but in truth I don't know what can save us. I am empty of ideas, strategies, confidence"

Since we are not used to talking like this in public, we need the support of the whole group. After each person has spoken, let us all say, "We hear you." That's enough. Your agreement or approval is not needed - just your hearing and respect. And let us pause for three breaths in silence between speakings.  Maybe there's something you'll want to say that doesn't fit one of these quadrants, so this cushion in the center of the mandala is a place you can stand or sit to give voice to it - be it a song or prayer or story. In the Truth Mandala we speak not only for ourselves, but for others, too. It is the nature of all ritual. that it allows us to speak archetypally - not just as separate individual selves, but on behalf of our people, our Earth. Let the ritual object. - stone or leaves or bowl - focus our mind. We don't enter the mandala to perform or explain or report to the rest of us, but to let that object help us voice the truth of our own experience.

Before the ritual's formal start, ask for the group's commitment to confidentiality: "what is said here stays here." Indicate also the duration of time you are giving to the ritual; this helps  people be comfortable with the silences that arise. The ritual time begins with your formal dedication of the Truth Mandala to the welfare of all beings and the healing of our world.

And its proceedings are initiated with a simple chant or sounding. The syllable "ah" stand in Sanskrit for all that has been unsaid - and all whose voices have been taken from them, or not yet heard. 

Trust yourself to sense the moment to draw the ritual to a close. You will read clues in people's body language and the energy of the group, or from utterances that seem to provide an appropriate note to end on. As you prepare to close, tell people, so that those who have been holding back and waiting to speak can seize the chance to do so. We often say: "The Truth Mandala will continue in our lives, but this chapter of it wil draw soon to a close. Let who wish to, enter it now and speak."

The formal closing of the Truth Mandala is a key moment,  in which to enlarge the group's understanding of what has transpired. First the guide, speaking generally and on behalf  of all, honors the truth that each has spoken and the respectful support that each has given. Truth-telling, as Joanna says, is like oxygen: it enlivens us. Without it we grow confused and numb.  It is also a homecoming, bringing us back to powerful connection and basic authority.

Then the guide points out the deeper import of each quadrant in the mandala. Each symbolic object is like a coin with two sides; the courage to speak our fear, for example, is evidence of trust. Indicating one object after another, we say in effect: Please notice what you have been expressing and hearing. In hearing fear, you also heard the trust it takes to speak it. The sorrow spoken over the dead leaves was in equal measure love. We only mourn what we deeply care for. "Blessed are they that mourn." Blessed are those who weep for the desecration of life, because in them life still burns clear. And the anger we heard, what does it spring from but passion for justice? The empty bowl is to be honored, too. To be empty means there is space to be filled.

Timing & Group Size

We have never conducted the Truth Mandala with less than twelve people or more than a hundred. Even with large numbers we draw it to a close after an hour and a half, because the process is intense, and though people are riveted, they grow more tired than they are aware. Place the ritual near the middle of the day, with a break following it. Be sure participants have already had an opportunity to talked with each other in some depth (Open Sentences or Small Group Sharing) before doing the Truth Mandala, so these strong distilled utterances come out of some reflection. Afterwards, some time for rest or journaling helps people absorb the experience, and they should honor that need rather than taking off for home right away. Suggestions

1. Participate. Don't hold aloof, but enter the ritual as honestly and openly as you can, while fulfilling your responsibilities as a guide. This is not hard to do.

2. Review the section in Chapter 5 on dealing with strong emotions.

3. Feel free to adapt the arrangements to people's needs. In workshops with the elderly, the mandala is set up on a table rather than the floor; to speak each person rises from their chair and stands by a quadrant, sometimes using a can as a talking stick. In a psychiatric ward, the stone and stick are replaced with other objects, like a vine and a picture.

from "Coming Back To Life"
by Joanna Macy, Molly Brown 1998

http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/truthm.htm


Panhala ~ Joe Riley

 

SOME FILL WITH EACH GOOD RAIN
 

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.
 
In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
 
That "love" is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.
 
Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
 
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
 
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.
 
There are different wells within us.
Some fill with each good rain,
 
Others are far, far too deep
For that.
 
 
 
("The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
 
 
  
 
Web version at www.Panhala.net/Archive/Some_Fill.html

Web archive of Panhala postings at www.Panhala.net/Archive/Index.html

To subscribe to Panhala, send a blank email to

Panhala-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
music link
(left button to play, right button to save)


 

 

 

Meditation on mandalas opens the eyes of the heart.


If done correctly, the wheel of time will begin to spin.

~ Olga Kharitidi ~.

 

Sun

 

"Sun at Midnight"

Mandala by Aurora Braun-Hassett

 

 Living truth is what counts. Embodying it. And this is a way of life. It is not just something that we do one hour on Sundays or on Monday nights. Sabbath must come every day, for each day is the main event.  We cultivate awareness in every moment throughout each day, as much as we can, and slowly the realization dawns that this is it, right now, this very moment -- nowhere else! What it comes down to is a way of life that is sane and wholesome and loving, intuitively honoring the connectedness of us all; and not just as we humans, but all creatures everywhere. For everything is sacred, everything is equally part of the mandala of such-ness, of is-ness.


~  Lama Surya Das  ~

http://www.buddhistinformation.com/joy_of_meditation.htm

 

 { Editor's Note: All of the mandalas displayed in this issue of the NDHighlights have been presented with the gracious permission of the artist Aurora Braun-Hassett and are individually copyright 2004. She may be contacted on the web at http://mandalasbyaurora.com/html/home.html or by email c/o aurorabh@...  }
 

 
If the graphics do not display in your email copy of this issue, read it online at the NDHighlights yahoogroups web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/message/1718
 

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#1719 From: "Gloria Lee" <glee@...>
Date: Thu Mar 4, 2004 1:05 am
Subject: #1719 - Monday/Tuesday, March1-2, 2004
glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 
 
 
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____________________________________________
 
 
#1719 - Monday/Tuesday, March 1-2, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee
 

Before the beginningless beginning, prior to the appearance of the first Buddha, already its bright and radiant light shone forth. It illuminates heaven and stands as a perfect mirror on earth, embracing and manifesting all things. The sun, moon, stars, and planets, lightning flashes, thunderclaps; everything without exception receives its benevolent influence.

- Daito (1282-1334)

 

If there was something in the air
If there was something in the wind
If there was something in the trees or bushes
That could be pronounced and once was overheard by animals,
Let this Sacred Knowledge be returned to us again.
~ Atharva Veda

 
 

 

Pursue not the outer entanglements,
Dwell not in the inner void;
Be serene in the oneness of things,
And dualism vanishes by itself.

From: Manual of Zen Buddhism....by: D.T. Suzuki...page...77

D. T. Suzuki, c. 1960.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of
our being, and to do so in the most direct way possible, without
resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything
that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by
Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man's own inner being. For
whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within. This
is true in the strictest sense of the word. Even the reasoning
faculty is not considered final or absolute. On the contrary, it
hinders the mind from coming into the directest communication
with itself. The intellect accomplishes its mission when it works
as an intermediary, and Zen has nothing to do with the
intermediary except when it desires to communicate itself to
others. For this reason all the scriptures are merely tentative
and provisory; there is in them no finality. The central fact of
life as it is lived is what Zen aims to grasp, and this in the
most direct and most vital manner. Zen professes itself to be the
spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions
and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute
peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he ought to live.
What more may we hope?

Some say that as Zen is admittedly a form of mysticism it
cannot claim to be unique in the history of religion. Perhaps so;
but Zen is a mysticism of its own order. It is mystical in the
sense that the sun shines, that the flower blooms, that I hear at
this moment somebody beating the drum in the street. If these are
mystical facts, Zen is brim-full of them. When a Zen master was
once asked what Zen was, he replied, "Your everyday thought". Is
this not plain and straightforward? It has nothing to do with any
sectarian spirit. Christians as well as Buddhists can practise
Zen just as big fish and small fish are both contentedly living
in the same ocean. Zen is the ocean, Zen is the air, Zen is the
mountain, Zen is thunder and lightning, the spring flower, summer
heat, and winter snow; nay, more than that, Zen is the man. With
all the formalities, conventionalisms, and superadditions that
Zen has accumulated in its long history, its central fact is very
much alive. The special merit of Zen lies in this: that we are
still able to see into this ultimate fact without being biased by
anything.

http://www.geocities.com/upakaascetic/zen_intro.html


 
 
Waking

Get up from your bed,
go out from your house,
follow the path you know so well,
so well that you now see nothing
and hear nothing
unless something can cry loudly to you,
and for you it seems
even then
no cry is louder than yours
and in your own darkness
cries have gone unheard
as long as you can remember.

These are hard paths we tread
but they are green
and lined with leaf mould
and we must love their contours
as we love the body branching
with its veins and tunnels of dark earth.

I know that sometimes
your body is hard like a stone
on a path that storms break over,
embedded deeply
into that something that you think is you,
and you will not move
while the voice all around
tears the air
and fills the sky with jagged light.

But sometimes unawares
those sounds seem to descend
as if kneeling down into you
and you listen strangely caught
as the terrible voice moving closer
halts,
and in the silence
now arriving
whispers

Get up, I depend
on you utterly.
everything you need
you had
the moment before
you were born.
 
~ David Whyte ~

 
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Medieval Mystics

Meister Eckhart:

God loves all creatures equally and fills them with His being, and we should lovingly meet all creatures the same way....

Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God.  Every creature is a word of God.

If I spent enough time with the tiniest of creatures, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon, so full of God is every creature....

If every medium were removed between myself and a wall, then I would be at the wall but not in it. But this is not the case with spiritual things, for with them one thing is always in another. That which receives is the same as that which is received, for it receives nothing other than itself. This is difficult. Whoever understands it has been preached to enough.

Hildegard of Bingen:

There is no creature that does not have a radiance.

Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly....

I welcome every creature of the world with grace....

Julian of Norwich:

God's goodness fills all his creatures....

All creatures of God's creation that can suffer pain suffered with him. The sky and the earth failed at the time of Christ's dying because he, too, was a part of nature....

Those who have universal love for all their fellow Christians in God have love towards everything that exists....

Mechtild of Magdelburg

The truly wise person kneels at the feet of creatures, And is not afraid to endure the mockery of others....

 

 
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org


Understanding Nature is not an intellectual exercise but a direct
experience in mental silence.  Mental silence does not mean keeping
the mind dull or empty.  Indeed, wordless contemplation can exist
coincidentally with thinking when such thinking is witnessed without
judgment and therefore without involvement.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Thought is absent in seeing things intuitively.  When you perceive
directly, there is no thinking.  When you think you understand, you
don't.  You do not think that you are alive, you know that you are
alive.



 

Q:You Buddhists are too concerned about ants and bugs.
 
A:Buddhists strive to develop a compassion that is undiscriminating and all-embracing. They see the world as a unified whole where each thing and creature has its place and function. They believe that before we destroy or upset nature's delicate balance, we should be very careful. Just look at those cultures where emphasis is on exploiting nature to the full, squeezing every last drop out of it without putting anything back, conquering and subduing it. Nature has revolted. The very air is becoming poisoned, the rivers are polluted and dead, so many beautiful animal species are extinct, the slopes of the mountains are barren and eroded. Even the climate is changing. If people were a little less anxious to crush, destroy and kill, this terrible situation may have not arisen. We should all strive to develop a little more respect for life. And this is what the first precept is saying.
 
 

Thich Nhat Hanh

I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect

the lives of people, animals, plants, minerals ...

-from The Five Wonderful Precepts


Joan Halifax

from The Fruitful Darkness

In zen meditation practice, you face the wall and hope that in this process of yielding you face yourself and realize who and what you really are. The basic impulse in Mahayana Buddhism is proclaimed in the vow to save all beings.  The translation of the vow of the bodhisattva that I first heard  years ago referred to all "sentient" beings: people and perhaps animals. But lately I have chosen to drop the word sentient from the vow when I share it with others.   I no longer think it is relevant....

I have looked out the eyes of rocks and mountains, and although I know the psyche yearns to give the world a soul, I am not totally convinced that there is not a kind of awareness in the mineral and plant world. In any case, I don't forget the advice of Nan Yan Huichung when he said that we should  not hinder any being who hears deeply. When I drop into the stream of existence in a finely tuned way in the course of practice or ritual process, I discover how excluding is the worldview of the West, and I do not want to hinder that which hears the subtler voices of the Earth.


I am the dust in the sunlight, I am the ball of the sun . . .  

I am the mist of morning,  the breath of evening . . . .
I am the spark in the stone, the gleam of gold in the
metal . . . .
The rose and the nightingale drunk with its fragrance.

I am the chain of being, the circle of the spheres,
The scale of creation, the rise and the fall.
I am what is and is not . . .

I am the soul in all.

~Rumi


Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi

There's a strange frenzy in my head, of birds flying, each particle circulating on its own. Is the one I love everywhere?
(The Essential Rumi, p. 4)

Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes, in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self, or things that have happened to you. There's no need to go outside. Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 13)

What do we mean by saying that God is not in heaven? We do not mean that He is not in heaven, but that heaven cannot encompass Him. He encompasses heaven. He has an ineffable connection with heaven just as He has an ineffable connection with you. Everything is in His omnipotent hands; everything is a manifestation of Him and subject to His control. So, He is not outside the heavens and the universe but is not totally inside them either, that is, they do not encompass Him but He encompasses them totally.

Someone asked where God was before the earth, skies, and Divine Throne existed. We said that the question was invalid from the outset because God is by definition that which has no place.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 221)

All creatures, day and night, make manifestation of God. Some of them know what they are doing and are aware of their manifesting, while others are unaware. However it may be, God's manifestation is confirmed.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 184)

Moses said, "O Lord, are you close enough for me to whisper in your ear or so distant that I should shout?" And God said, "I am behind you, before you, at your right and your left. O Moses, I am sitting next to my servant whenever he remembers me, and I am with him when he calls me."
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, Footnote 209, p. 193)

All pictured forms are reflections in the water of the stream; when you rub your eyes, indeed, all are He.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 43)

The unique God has manifested His sign in the six directions to those with illuminated eyes. Whatever animal or plant they behold, they contemplate the gardens of divine Beauty. That is why He said to them, Wheresoever you turn, there is His Face (Koran 2:115).
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 306)

All of these are symbols -- I mean that the other world keeps coming into this world. Like cream hidden in the soul of milk, No-place keeps coming into place. Like intellect concealed in blood and skin, the Traceless keeps entering into traces. And from beyond the intellect, beautiful Love comes dragging its skirts, a cup of wine in its hand. And from beyond Love, that indescribable One who can only be called That keeps coming.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 197)

The earth has the external shape of dust, but inside are the luminous Attributes of God. It's outward has fallen into war with its inward; its inward is like a pearl and its outward a stone. Its outward says, "I am this and no more." Its inward says, "Look well, before and behind!" Its outward denies, saying, "The inward is nothing." The inward says, "We will show you. Wait!"
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 21)

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: this place made from our love for that emptiness! Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes. Praise to that happening, over and over! (The Essential Rumi, p. 21)


When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, "This is certainly not like we thought it was!"
(The Essential Rumi, p. 168)

http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Muslim/index.html


The Tao of Heaven operates mysteriously and secretly ; it has no fixed shape; it follows no definite rules; it is so great that you can never come to the end of it, it is so deep that you can never fathom it.

~The Huai Nau Tzu

In Taoism the central idea is relationship. We cannot approach nature as a thing to be mastered but as a partner in a relationship. The goal is to become a natural part of the original order. The way to discover that original order is to turn to nature.

Early Taoist philosophers left the cities to learn from nature and primitive people living in remote mountain villages. They hoped to eventually bring human civilization into the natural order.

In Taoism Nature is taken to be infinitely wise, infinitely complex, and infinitely irrational. One must take a yielding stance and abandon all intellectual preconceptions. The goal is wu wei, doing nothing contrary to nature. Nature does not need to be perfected or improved. It is we who need to change; we need to come into accord.

Taoists rejected all dichotomies, even the most fundamental one of being versus non-being, for both come from the same source, the deep and the profound. The goal of Taoism is to attain that which precedes duality. The only way to discover this original source is to observe nature. During peak experiences in nature, the deep meets the deep.

The Tao is a divine chaos, not a random accident. It is fertile, undifferentiated, and teeming with unrealized creation. It is the mother of everything in nature; it is a great darkness that operates spontaneously to give birth and life to all things.

Taoists seek not to be saved or to win, but rather to return to the original source of the Ten Thousand Things. They see creation not as a single event, but an ongoing process that has no beginning and no end. Its divine play is taking place right here and right now. The wise person becomes like an animal or a child, participating joyfully in the profoundly irrational order. He or she learns to trust the chaos.


 

"The Sower" by Vincent Van Gogh (image at www.seismographpoetry.com/ poetrymain.html)

The Wish to Be Generous

All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man's evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

~Wendell Berry



#1720 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Fri Mar 5, 2004 2:13 am
Subject: #1720 - Wednesday, March 3, 2004
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#1720 - Wednesday, March 3, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
 
I wish to thank Gloria, Joyce, Michael and Mark for covering for me while I was on vacation for three weeks. --Jerry
 

 
s.v.c.s
 
Questioner: Sri Aurobindo and others refer to you as having had no Guru.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: It all depends on what you call a Guru. He need not be in a human form. Dattatreya had twenty-four Gurus including the five elements- earth, water, etc. Every object in this world was his Guru.

The Guru is absolutely necessary. The Upanishads say that none but a Guru can take a man out of the jungle of intellect and sense perceptions. So there must be a Guru.

Questioner: I mean a human Guru- Maharshi did not have one.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: I might have had one at one time or other. But did I
not sing hymns to Arunachala? What is a Guru? Guru is God or the Self.
First a man prays to God to fulfil his desires. A time comes when he will
no more pray for the fulfilment of material desires but for God Himself.
God then appears to him in some form or other, human or non-human, to guide
him to Himself in answer to his prayer and according to his needs.

Question: When loyal to one master can you respect others?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Guru is only one. He is not physical. So long as there
is weakness the support of strength is needed.

Hari Aum !!!
 

 
danananda2004
 
CONSCIOUSNESS

Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus
waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep.
Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen
on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the
pictures are mere shadows on it.

(ramana maharshi)
SELF-REALIZATION

The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing
anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, he is that which
alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that
state. He can only be That. Of course we loosely talk of self-
realization for want of a better term.

That which 'Is' is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet. Peace
is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to
spoil it.

(ramana maharshi)
 

 
s.v.c.s
 
Having sincere devotion is far greater than being a great scholar
 
ONCE during a visit to the Ashram in the 1940s I was sitting outside
the Old Hall with many devotees, facing Sri Bhagavan who was reclining
on a couch. A group of learned pundits were discussing certain passages
from the Upanishads with great enthu-siasm and profundity. All,
including Bhagavan, appeared to be attentively listening to this
interesting discussion when, all of a sudden, Bhagavan rose from his
couch, walked thirty metres to the north, and stood before a villager
who was standing there looking lowly with palms joined.
 
Immediately the discussion stopped and all eyes were turned to Bhagavan
and the villager standing at a distance. They appeared to be
conversing, but at such a distance no one could tell about what. Soon
Bhagavan returned to his couch and the discussion resumed.
 
I was curious about this villager and why Bhagavan had gone out of his
way to meet him. So, while the discussion continued I slipped away and
caught up with him before he left the Ashram. I asked the villager what
he and Bhagavan had talked about. He said that Bhagavan had asked him
why he was standing there so far away. "I told Bhagavan, 'I am only an
ignorant, poor villager. How am I to approach you who are God
incarnate?'"
 
" What did the Maharshi say then?" I asked.
 
" He asked me my name, what village I was from, what work I did and how
many children I had, etc."
 
" Did you ask Him anything?"
 
" I asked Him how I could be saved and how I could earn His blessings."
 
" What did He tell you?"
 
" He asked me if there was a temple in my village. I told him there
was. He wanted to know the name of the deity of that temple. I told Him
the name. He then said that I should go on repeating the name of that
deity and I would receive all the blessings needed."
 
I came back to Bhagavan's presence and sat among the devotees listening
to the learned discussion, in which I had now lost all interest,
realizing that the simple humility and devotion of this peasant had
evoked a far greater response from our Master than any amount of
learning. I then decided that, though a scholar by profession, I should
always remain a humble, ignorant peasant at heart, and pray, like that
villager, for Bhagavan's grace and blessings.
 
- Prof. K. Swaminathan
 
Hari Aum !!!

 
Vicki Woodyard
NDS
 
Ruin
 
I would like to have a spirit guide with a little more class but I got
Larry. He favors loud colors and cliches. Having heard of vision
quests, I set out on mine when I was in a low point in my inner life. I
drove out to a piece of clear-cut land right before they built the
subdivision. The sun was just going down, illuminating the signs
saying, "Virgin Estates, tract housing at affordable prices." It made
me squint and then want to throw up. But I stayed with my intention of
finding a spirit guide.
 
I sat for at least fifteen minutes before seeing a cloud of red dirt
begin whirling in front of me. I grew excited. Was this my answer to
prayer? Then I looked up and saw Larry...and his stick pony.
 
His mullet shone in the orange glow of the acid rain sunset and I knew
that he was my spirit guide. His cowboy boots were obviously in need of
new soles and he was bowlegged and runty. It was not without
apprehension that I said, "Are you my spirit guide?"
 
"Yup," he said before spitting out a wad of gum. "I have been sent by
the Big Boss to guide you to enlightenment and other parts unknown. My
pony here is called Ruin. I looked at Ruin and was pleased to note that
his little brown face was honest and friendly. I couldn't say that much
for Larry. Where had he been all of my life if not at a Rehab for
Problem Spirits. I was in deep trouble. But hey, I have an optimistic
streak. At least the Great Spirit had given me....someone.
 
Larry has been my spirit guide for all of half an hour. I have high
hopes for this relationship. I need someone to give me moxie and lots
of self-approbation. Larry looks like a loser, but what do I know?
Maybe Ruin is the real guru and Larry is just his apprentice. I like a
little mystery.
 
 
Flat Broke
 
"You have to be flat-broke." Michael Bindel
 
I was thirsty and wanted something to drink. I looked around and saw a
Coke machine and got all excited. I reached into my pockets and found
that I was flat-broke. Zip. Nada. Unquenchable thirst.
 
I walked around the building looking for a drinking fountain and the
only one I saw said, "out of order." I was becoming more and more
parched. Damn.
 
I wandered outside and felt the sun's heat parching me even further. I
heard the sound of water, though. The sprinkler system had turned on
and was watering the lawn in front of the building. I lay down and got
watered, opening my mouth to the delicious spray.
 
You might say I was flat broke and all wet. Not a bad place to be.
 
Happy Birthday to Joyce
 
Joyce, It's Know Mystery why I'm writing this. You're having a birthday
today. All of us who post here wish you well. You might have invited us
over for cake, though. Eric would have written you a poem and Sam would
have taken your picture. Some of us who post here just hang around nds
like it's a general store. Today we will sing Happy Birthday when you
come in.
 
Swami Z baked cookies when I told him. He made them look likes stars
and planets and sprinkled them with silver thingies. (Don't eat them;
they taste bad). I had hoped he would make a cake, but he's into the
cookie thing. Pass them around when you have eaten a few.
 
Okay, Eric, and whoever is sitting around the stove. Put down yer
whittlin' and sing.
 
"Happy Birthday, dear Joyce, Happy Birthday to you."
 
Love, Vicki et al
 

 
Shawn Hair
NDS
 
cee: the pure consciousness, the self, the guru, is all there is. i was
thinking that it stopped creating. (what i meant by this is that i
thought by practice the self would come to know itself and stop making
illusion) but nothing ever did come out of it, and nothing ever has
been created.
 
nome: if we dream of something "other," there must be some explanation
for it. so the explanation usually given, including in all the old
texts and scriptures, is that god, or the supreme self, has created it
or dreamed it up. the purpose of such explanations, originally, were to
guide the seeker's mind to the self, to the source, and were not
intended to give further credence to the thing created. thus,
instructions to the seeker were, "if there has been creation, if you
think that is the case, if you think here is where creation has
started, go to that source." so there are all these explanations.
usually, the consciousness is thought to be either a lord of all,
creating, sustaining, and destroying everything, or in some versions,
being a creator. then, after being a creator, god steps aside and lets
everybody else take care of it, something like that. or, consciousness
has created so much within it, and then this play goes on by some
residual energy of the consciousness, something along these lines.
 
all the explanations are originally intended to point one to pure
consciousness, and not make us think in terms of, "this has actually
happened." however, as is often the case, people do think in terms of,
"it is really going on." when we make the inquiry to know who we are,
we set about looking for a consciousness that is invariable. If it is
variable, it is only thought modifications. it is not consciousness, itself.
consciousness is aware of all change, yet
is unchanging. the characteristic sign of reality, real being, is that
always is just as it is, without beginning, middle, or end,without
change. so we make that inquiry experientially, and we come to find our
iidentity is just the consciousness. we find that the reality is,
indeed, the consciousness. then the question arises, "if the
consciousness is ever the same, if the real self is ever the same, how
has any of this ever come to be?" the question resolves itself further
into, "has it come to be? " we need a "how" if it is really there. we
do not require a reason why or an explanation of how the snake came to
be in a rope, or how the water came to be in the mirage. the whole
point is that there is no water. there is no snake.
 
likewise is it with the whole creation. how it comes to be experienced
is based upon the idea that it is experienced. when we inquire and come
to know the reality, we find that it did not arise, and it will not
arise in the future. it did not happen. it is not going to happen. so
much so is this the case, that while in deep meditation, all
objectified experience may cease even at its own level. should it not
cease, it is still not created. it does not have to go away because it
is not there to begin with. do you see what I mean?
 
cee: yes. it's really great because it's not like there is an ego to
kill, there's not something to get rid of, it was never really there.
 
nome: if there is an ego, one should kill it!
 
cee: yes! (laughter)
 
nome: however, the best way to kill it is to find it. o.k? Before you
first decide to cook it, you first have to catch it. you have to find
it. when we make that inquiry to find it, the more we inquire, the less
we see of it. first we eliminate the tracks it leaves behind, the
actions, the "i am the body," ideas, and so forth and so on. then we
eliminate its thoughts. We want to get right down to what the ego,
itself, is. if we hold on to the ego-i, its i-ness disappears and only
an "I-less-I" remains. Maharshi has said, "if we penetrate into the
heart of the ego, only the self is there. "there being only one "i"
--that is why he said so. so, if there is an ego, hunt it down, and
slay it. of course, in the process of hunting it down, your aim is to
destroy it, but when you hunt it down you will find that there is
nothing there to be destroyed. again, that is why it is called maya. in
all the old scriptures, it is said, "it is impossible to explain, maya.
it is without beginning." most people think that means that it has been
around for a long time! --but t means that it is without beginning. It
did not start! (Laughter) that is why it is maya. it did not start.
however, if you think it is there, then it seems to have been going on
for a long time, much like when you start to dream, you feel that the
dream world has been going on for a long time, even though it is all in
your mind. it is like that with the present illusion. it seems like it
has been there, but really it has never been there. we decide to
inquire to know the truth, and when we finally get a good grasp of what
this illusion is,--there is no illusion there.there is nothing to it.
it is like reaching out and grabbing that snake and finding it is just
the rope. nevertheless, you had to bring the light in to make the
motion to see it for yourself.
 

 
JP
NDS
 
Having a sangha is like having a family.
 
You have an uncle Albert who is cranky.
You have your brother and your sister,
and they are a little unpredictable
in terms of their emotional stability
under stress. Your father sometimes
drinks a little too much, and says things
he regrets. Your mother gets upset about
your father.
 
All this notwithstanding, you do not
complicate yourself by attempting to
trade them in for a better less
dysfunctional family. You are simply
stuck with them because they are your family.
 
You have to deal with them as they are. If they
really are your family —if you really are
related —then you simply deal with whatever arises.
You simply have no other choice. You know you are
never going to get another family,
this is your family – and that is simple.
 
(Khandro Dechen)

 
 


#1721 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat Mar 6, 2004 11:11 pm
Subject: #1721 - Thursday, March 4, 2004
nondualguy
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#1721 - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Nondual Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
 

 
Saturday, 03/06/04
Spirituality in rap music

With help from The Tennessean's A. Tacuma Roeback, we looked for hip-hop lyrics on values and spirituality. Here are some excerpts:

Tupac Shakur on relationships

Keep Ya Head Up, 1993

I know they like to beat ya down a lot

When you come around the block brothas clown a lot

But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up

Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up

And when he tells you, 'You ain't nuttin' don't believe him

And if he can't learn to love you, you should leave him…

So will the real men get up?

I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

Lauryn Hill on aspirations

Every Ghetto, Every City, 1998

I was just a little girl

Skinny legs, a press and curl

My mother always thought I'd be a star

But way before my record deal,

The streets that nurtured Lauryn Hill

Made sure that I'd never go too far

Every ghetto, every city and suburban place I've been

Make me recall my days in the New Jerusalem

Slick Rick on parents

Hey Young World, 1988

This rap here, it may cause concern

It's broad and deep, why don't you listen and learn?

Love mean happiness that once was strong

But due to society ... even that's turned wrong

Times have changed ... and it's cool to look bummy

and be a dumb dummy and disrespect your mummy

Have you forgotten ... who put you on this Earth?

Who brought you up right ... and who loved you since your birth?

…Don't admire thieves, hey they don't admire you

Their time's limited, hard rocks too

So listen, be strong, scream whoopee-doo

Go for yours, cause dreams come true

And you'll make your mommy proud, so proud of you too

Ice Cube on life and death

Dead Homiez, 1990

Another homie got murdered… on a shakedown

And his mother is at the funeral, havin' a nervous breakdown

Two shots hit him in the face when they blasted

A framed picture and a closed casket

A single file line about 50 cars long

All drivin' slow with they lights on

He got a lot of flowers and a big wreath

What good is that when you're six feet deep?

I look at that (expletive) and gotta think to myself

And thank God for my health

'Cause nobody really ever know

When it's gonna be they family on the front row

So I take everything slow, go with the flow

And shut my (expletive) mouth if I don't know (Word!)

'Cause that's what Pops told me

But I wish he could have said it...to my dead homiez

Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs on parenting

Be a Father To Your Child (1991)

You see, I hate when a brother makes a child and then denies it

Thinking that money is the answer so he buys it

A whole bunch of gifts and a lot of presents

It's not the presents, it's your presence and essence

Of being there and showing the baby that you care

Stop sittin' like a chair and having your baby wonder where you are

Or who you are - fool, you are his daddy

Don't act like you ain't cause that really makes me mad, G.

To see a mother and a baby suffer

I've had enough of brothers who don't love the

Fact that a baby brings joy into your life

You could still be called daddy if the mother's not your wife

Don't be scared, be prepared 'cause love is gonna getcha

It will always be your child even if she ain't witcha

So don't front on your child when it's your own

'Cause if you front now, then you'll regret it when it's grown

Be a father to your child

Kanye West on Jesus

Jesus Walks (2004)

We rappers are role models

We rap, we don't think

I ain't here to argue about his facial features

Or here to convert atheists into believers

I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers

The way Kathie Lee needed Regis

That's the way we all need Jesus

So here go my single, dog, radio needs this

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus

That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes

But if I talk about God my record won't get played/Huh?

Common, featuring Cee-Lo

Gaining One's Definition (G.O.D.) (1997)

I fight, with myself in the ring of doubt and fear

The rain ain't gone, but I can still see clear

As a child, given religion with no answer to why

Just told to believe in Jesus cuz for me he did die

Curiosity killed the catechism

Understanding and wisdom became the rhythm that I played to

And became a slave to master self

A rich man is one with knowledge, happiness and his health

My mind had dealt with the books of Zen, Tao

The lessons

Koran and the Bible, to me they all vital

And got truth within 'em

gotta read them boys

You just can't skim 'em

Scarface on prayer and heaven

Heaven (2002)

Listen to different scriptures, they teach on God

And if you ain't never met him, don't speak on God

I'm serious about religion, just this ain't no song…

I pray for everybody, hopin' that they hear that voice

The one that paralyzes you from head down, boy

When you're aware of your surroundings, yet you still can't move

Water shootin' outta your eyes when you hear this dude

And the voice is much louder, than the voice that you thought was the voice of the Holy Spirit

Who changed your life, when you hear it?

And the next morn', you wake up and the world look lighter

The grass greener, and the sun brighter

I know the feelin' first hand, I witnessed the sights/When I allowed the Lord to come in my life...''

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five on poverty, hopelessness

The Message (1982)

Broken glass everywhere

People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care

I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise

Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice

Rats in the front room, roaches in the back

Junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat

I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far

Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car

Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder

How I keep from going under








Posted on Sat, Mar. 06, 2004


The epiphanies of Pi
Yann Martel's novel of a boy and a tiger is really a story of faith over belief

The Kansas City Star
Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi. Photo by Danielle Schaub

You're stranded in a lifeboat in the Pacific with a 450-pound Bengal tiger, and the only thing that stands between you and this ravenous beast is …faith.

So how long would you last?

That's the foundation, basically, of Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi. Except that a word such as “basically” really has no place in a discussion of this book. Yes, Martel's hero, a 16-year-old boy from India whose full name is Piscine Molitor Patel, must try to survive the tiger long enough to make landfall.

Yes, there is some plot buildup: The boy ends up in this predicament because his family has decided to move from India to Canada. Their ship sinks, killing his parents, brother, all the crew, and most of the animals his father has kept in the zoo the family owned in India.

But in addition to its tense premise, Life of Pi is a deeply mapped search for meaning, for religion that does more than force conformity, for true “faith” as opposed to mere “belief.”

What's the difference between those two words? That question is one of several Yann Martel considered in a phone interview with The Star. The author, who usually makes his home in Montreal, is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as writer in residence at the public library. Taking a break from his labors over some short stories, he discussed Life of Pi, the current selection of the FYI Book Club.

Q. Your main character is nicknamed Pi, which is also a numeral that can be expressed finitely as 3.14. In truth, though, pi is infinite; not even computers can calculate it to the final digit. Did you choose this as a name to designate tension between Pi's mortal life and spirituality?

A. Yeah. More specifically, pi in mathematics is an irrational number, meaning…(that) it goes on forever – 3.1415927 etc. with no discernable pattern. I thought it was interesting how an irrational number is used all the time in mathematics to make sense of things.…religion is also like that. It's something vaguely non-rational, but it helps make sense of our universe, of who we are and where we are going.

In your academic training, you studied philosophy, not religion.

Everyone should study philosophy; it would make everyone a more critical citizen. I liked the critical method…but at one point academia tired me. I didn't find the academic approach that congenial; I thought it was too cerebral at one point. I started to hunger for different experiences.

The author's note that begins the book mentions such hunger. Were you hungry for things that philosophy could not contain?

Yes. Philosophy is rooted in, perhaps, emotional experience, like if you study ethics, you'll study ethical dilemmas – nonetheless, the mechanism you deal with is by and large an intellectual mechanism. What I like about religion is that it's a holistic experience; it addresses your intellect, your emotions, your identity. That is thrilling and very satisfying, to have something that addresses you as a whole human being rather than one part of you. And by the way, when I speak of religion, I mean in the broadest sense of the word; I don't necessarily mean Christianity or Islam or Buddhism or Judaism. I mean them all.

There seems to be a great deal of religious interest in the States right now. Is this cyclical?

I don't know if it's cyclical. The United States has always been a very religious country – “in God we trust.” I think what's becoming more apparent in recent years is a more vocal fundamentalism …which is a pity, because that is a problem for everyone – people who are nonreligious and people who are religious. Fundamentalism, I think, has relatively little to do with religion.

There is an idea that infused me in writing this book, and that is the difference between faith and belief. When you have a belief, you cling, you hold onto something. American fundamentalists cling to certain notions as to what it means to be Christian – that you cannot be gay, that you must be pro laissez faire capitalism. They exclude groups. But someone who has faith lets go. And when you let go, you don't judge as much. You trust that somehow things will make sense. You must make as much effort as you can to understand, but ultimately, it's not for you to decide. Fundamentalists (are) the ones who just recently are behind the opposition to gay marriage. (It is) sanctified bigotry.

What is so nourishing to the soul about letting go?

Life is a process of letting go: Letting go of your youth, letting go of your ambitions, eventually letting go of your life. And when you let go, you acknowledge there are things greater to you. Reason wants to understand why, why, why; the incomprehensible is deeply unsatisfying to science and reason and materialism. With letting go, you realize you cannot understand everything. For example, acts of injustice: A 14-year-old-girl gets kidnapped, raped and buried alive. It's an appalling story. Someone whose modus operandi is strictly based in materialism and reason will be completely defeated by a tragedy like that. Someone who has a greater capacity to let go can put that into greater context and say, “Well, I don't understand why this has to happen, but perhaps in a way I don't understand, it is part of a greater plan.” To be able to let go gives you many things: It gives you peace, and …more empathy.

But it isn't easy.

It's very hard to let go. My background is completely nonreligious. My parents never went to church …but when I was in India the second time, I saw religion in a new way. Rather than just seeing the negative stuff…I saw the positive side: The great perspective it gives you, the fact that your whole being is addressed, the fact that your imagination is stimulated.

You've said you saw suffering in India, but also joy.

It's a place where many people live with great material misery. Yet you never feel that alienation that everyone is familiar with in the West. In the West, materially poor people sometimes have nothing because they're poor not only in matter but also in spirit. In India, even when people are poor in matter, they seem to have some sort of spiritual equipment to deal with that. So in India…(I started to) look at religion.

Initially, with Life of Pi, I thought I'd have a character who was religious, just to see what it would be like to have faith.…I had to study it, to read about it, but you can't just read about something; you have to open your heart to it. Bit by bit, I started taking it seriously – not only intellectually but in a deeper way. Now I've switched 180 degrees from thinking religion was absolutely stupid, for people who are ill-educated or bigoted, to thinking that it's the most beautiful, subtle thing that the human mind can wrap itself around, or try to.

Pi practices, simultaneously, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Would you consider yourself, at this point, pan-religious?

No, not really. I didn't want Pi to practice only one religion because I was afraid that whoever didn't belong to that religion would dismiss him. (But) I think every religion can make you understand ultimate reality, just like every language can express what needs to be expressed.…In every serious religion – every one that has the critical mass of text and experience and history through the centuries – there is a sense of Presence, and I mean Presence with a capital P. If you read the Qur'an, if you rub shoulders with Muslims, if you go to Hindu temples and see Hindu pilgrimages and Hindu practices, there is that same feeling of plumbing the depths that Christianity plumbs.

Pluralism is the only way I can react to the fact that there are so many different religions, each of which claims to have a map for the universe and an understanding of how the universe operates. It just doesn't seem in the spirit of Christ, for example, to turn to 1 billion Hindus and say, “You're all wrong, and you will rot in hell.” In fact, Christ met “the other,” whether it was the Samaritan other, the sexual other – he met women a lot, Roman centurions, tax collectors. He always met the other that others would not want to meet – and he was condemned for that.

How we work all that out theologically…I don't know. But that's how this idea of letting go (comes in). So, getting back to whether I am pan-religious, not really…Normally I go to Catholic Mass. Now why Catholic? In Quebec, where normally I live, there's a Catholic church on every street corner. But when I am in India, I love going to temples, and I love going to mosques. Each has an appeal to me. In each one I feel a sense of Presence.

To reach John Mark Eberhart, books editor, call (816) 234-4772 or send e-mail to: jeberhart@....


The Yann Martel file

Born: June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain, to Canadian parents

Permanent residence: Montreal, but at this time he is writer in residence at the public library in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Education: Bachelor's degree in philosophy, University of Trent, Peterborough, Ontario, 1986

Family: “I have a brother, and I have a girlfriend – a partner; I guess that's the common parlance now.”

Next book: A revision or “tidying up” of the pieces in The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, his first book from 1993. He also has ideas for a new novel, as yet not begun.

– John Mark Eberhart/The Star



 

Seraphim Joseph Sigrist
Live Journal:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/seraphimsigrist/

Rumpsringa For The Amish, But What For Us?

Friends,

This time a little thought to share beginning from an interesting post
by canticle about the Amish and how they allow their young people a
period of absolute freedom, which they call rumpsringa, in which they
can drink and smoke and party and finally 85% of them choose to settle
back down for good within the Amish spiritual world. My first thought
was the analogy of the periods of freedom which Japanese society
grants, in early childhood and university years and in productive
adulthood when drinking and therefore socially allowed to say almost
anything, within the context of a very rigid social and cultural
system. Or I think of V.S.Naipaul's Among the Believers in which he
shows how Islamic society depends on an outside non Islamic world to
relieve its pressures...for booze, for modern medical service etc. But
then I considered our society ,the general American society and it
seems to me that many American never have a period of freedom, a
rumpsringa , from the culture which produces our television programing
and considering that, is obviously not very rich or free in any sense
of broadness of possiblity.

This leads me to think about something Alex Bodrov wrote about Russian
spiritual culture today and which applies to us also I
think...

Alexei Bodrov is rector of an Institute of advanced spiritual and
cultural studies in Moscow called St Andrews, it goes back to the "Open
University" founded by Fr Alexander Men and I am remembering inexactly
an old brochure...however the simple point he made was that the Russian
Orthodox spiritual world today is diverse and one reason is that among
the many returning to faith are those who come to the Orthodox Church
looking for a principle of "Order" in a world which their personal
experience perhaps of broken families and so on, and societal
experience in our time in Russia, a world which seems chaotic. Perhaps
for some in Russia and here too the very word "Orthodox" seems to
promise a world of Order. This has problems because the Church is not
made up of only one kind of person, not just for the one who is looking
for order, but at the same time we must accept these brothers and
sisters as having equal place and having a part to play also. I am
paraphrasing from memory, but the same of course has been said by many
people and is true it seems to me. So in America too, and not only in
Christianity but in Judaism or Sufism or Buddhism etc we find people
looking for forms to order the life which seems out of control and for
an outside, a rumpsringa really, to the culture they find insufficient.

Certainly a look at our television shows this insufficiency, or
listening to the talk of people around us which shows really a culture
in some ways narrower and more impovrished, although apparantly
universal and all embracing and socially full of enlightenment, than
the Amish, can lead us to wish to get outside of this all...

We need also to consider however that in the end all human structure
and sets of thought are limited and taken in themselves as a reliance
or a complete world are unsatisfying. Reactionary acceptance of a
spiritual form will give one a different life style from the others but
will leave one risking to be in mauvais fois(using the French to take
Sartre's use of the terms) bad faith in relation to God whose
continually new creation of things, whose breaking of forms with his
wind and through the winds of time, we must then fear... and we risk
then to hide from God like Adam and Eve in the garden , hide in
observance, just as another hides in libertineism adopted for the same
intent of getting outside of the culture which has not been enough...

St Paul discusses in Galatians this problem of the moving away from
freedom to the necessities of order or the equally barren necessity of
continual revolution...

These thoughts have gone far enough, but perhaps we touch together here
places which we can identify...

We hear the voice Adam heard, and I hear again thinking about the Amish
and on from there, asking "Where are you?" The voice is gentle as a
rustle in the reeds but reverberates like rolling thunder when we do
not quench it by turning our attention...

we realize that the Amish having gone past the pizza parlor and the
nail salon and the home theatre store (as I did this morning just next
to my dentist), are maybe not so quaint to go back for the most part to
the farm... and that many Americans have never been outside our poor
culture... poor while imagining itself rich and open and boundlessly
free but in fact so very poor and narrow ... but yet...

and yet also maybe when one is free it is not so poor , it is like a
few pieces of bread and fish on a plate , enough if taken under the
open sky...and surely this is enough from me, but these things
determine a great deal around and in our lives dont they? welcoming as
always all your thought,


yours
+Seraphim Joseph Sigrist.


#1722 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2004 12:20 am
Subject: #1722 - Friday, March 5, 2004 -
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#1722 - Friday, March 5, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
 

 
Here is an excerpt from Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, by Jed McKenna. Visit the following link for more information: http://wisefoolpress.com/
 
There is a controversy about whether or not Jed McKenna, as depicted in his books, exists. The author of the books exists. Whether events told are completely true or not, I don't know for sure. Nothing I've read is so unusual that it is unbelievable. If these books were pure fiction I would expect something a hell of a lot more off-the-wall and poorly written (because pure fiction is very hard to write) than what is delivered. These writings, in my opinion, come from plain and simple experience. But like I say, I haven't read all of Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, so maybe someone levitates and spits out all four guilty charges against Martha Stewart. I don't know.
 
Enchoy!
 
--Jerry
 

 
Excerpt from Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, by Jed McKenna
 
Since one of the things I'm trying to do with these books is hold the awakened state up for display, I should mention one of the more peculiar things about it, which is that I have nothing to do. I don't have any challenges left, and I can't just make one up. I can write this book and maybe stay involved with communicating on this subject in some minor way, but the fact remains; I have nothing to do. I like being alive, but I don't really have anything to do while alive. I like to sit and be, I like to appreciate the creative accomplishments of man, especially as they involve his attempts to get his situation figured out, but appreciation is a pretty flat pastime. I'm not complaining, just expressing something about this state that most probably aren't aware of. I am content, and contentment is overrated. I have no framework within which anything is better than anything else, so what I do doesn't particularly matter. I have no ambition, nowhere to go, no one to be or become. I don't need to distract myself from anything or convince myself of anything. There's nothing that I think isn't as it should be, and I have no interest in how others see me. I have nothing to guide me except my own comfort and discomfort. I don't seem to be too bored or unhappy about it, so I guess it sounds weirder than it is.
 
*
 
Stinkpig bastard Henry has sandbagged me by dragging us to a friend's house for a dinner party. There are five or six couples as well as Christine and me, who are not a couple. It's a spacious Spanish-style house surrounded by others like it, overloking a valley of dirt and scrub and, if you turn the telescope on the balcony far enough to the left, I'm told, a glimmer of the ocean.
 
The East Coast dinner parties of my youth were pretty formal affairs. Everyone arrives sevenish, drinks for an hourish, seated eightish, finished nine-ish, more drinks until two-ish. This doesn't look like that. Less formal, less uptight; this is more like an indoor picnic. Everyone comes and goes. Children with sitters or nannies stop in and leave, the occasional teenager zips in, consults with a parent about car keys or cash, and zips out. A neighbor pops in to discus on-street parking and pops out. People are chatting in four or five different areas including the driveway, the balcony and the kitchen. There's no one making introductions, no proper young gents taking coats and drink orders, no enchanting hostess gliding through the scene, no one smoking, no dresses or ties, no cocktails -- mostly wine and some beer -- no soft chamber music, no candles because the house is flooded with sunlight.
 
Henry has pulled me aside and is continuing to batter me with details of Operation Fizzle. These people we're dining with are all a part of it, he tells me. It's something they're creating and discovering together. The dinner party is an example of it.
 
"Sometimes we get together just to discuss a single topic," he informs me. "Have you ever done that? It usually has to do with social responsibility. Sometimes we discuss a book. There are a lot of us, not just what you see here. It's really gaining momentum. We're creating a whole new paradigm."
 
Okay, too much.
 
"I have no idea what you're talking about with this new paradigm stuff, Henry," I tell him. "The paradigm I see here is denial and petty self-interest, just like anywhere else. You might spin it differently, but it's the same life-structure that practically everyone is living in. Is there something I'm not seeing? It looks like you're all half a block off Main Street living perfectly ordinary, self-gratifying lives and going to a lot of trouble to pretend you're not. How is this different from what anyone else is doing?"
 
Henry is unflappable. "Do you think we should consider a less self-centered approach?" he asks, rubbing his chin with a judicious air. "That's something I've been wondering about. We participate in quite a few charitable projects. I think we're all volunteers in various organizations. We all recycle, of coruse, and we're very conscientious about the environment. I guess we could be more giving, if you think..."
 
"I don't think anything, Henry," I interrupt. "You're the one talking about a new paradigm. I'm just saying I don't see it."
 
*
 
On the one hand, these people, Henry and his friends, are clearly very pleasant, very successful Americans living the American dream of freedom and abundance. On the other hand, I can't help but see them all as self-centered, self-important, self-righteous assholes; in other words, youngsters. But they're not, not really, or, at least, not particularly. No more or less than anyone else at any other dinner party, certainly not those of my early years. It's just another sign taht my good humor is wearing thin. How do mature, intelligent people manage to go through their lives in a state of such diminished capacity? And what do I care if they do?
 
In reality, there's only one thing going on. There's only one game being played in life, and these people have arrayed their mental and emotional forces expertly so as to convince themselves that they're on the field in the thick of it while actually standing in line at the snackbar. The American dream of freedom and abundance is just a child's rendering of true freedom and abundance, and serves only to convince people who haven't gone anywhere that they've already arrived.
 
To the awakened mind, the unawakened can be a source of frequent dismay. The distance between awake and asleep is so infinitesimal that it'shard to remember they're a universe apart. Zen parables about instant enlightenment seem suddenly probable, as if just the right event -- the whack of a stick, a poignant non sequitur, an overturned bowl -- could suddenly snap someone into full awareness. The unawakened mind sees an enourmous barrier -- the proverbial gate -- between itself and the awakened mind.
 
 

 

#1723 From: "Michael A. Read" <maread@...>
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2004 8:08 pm
Subject: #1723 - Saturday, March 6, 2004
mareadba
Send Email Send Email
 
Brain Squirts by Frank Cummings
 

 

#1723 - Saturday, March 6, 2004 - Editor: michael
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

 
Holding Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand
 
 

 
 

The Moebius Strip

A moebius strip is a loop of paper with a half twist in it.

How to make a moebius strip.

1. Take a strip of paper.

2. Give it a half twist (turn one end over).

3. Tape the ends together.

What to do with a moebius strip.

After you make your moebius strip, take a pencil and draw a line along the length. How many sides does the moebius strip have?

Take a pair of scissors and cut the moebius strip along the line you have drawn. What happened?

What do you think will happen if you cut it down the middle again? Try it.

Find it on the Web...

Moebius was a mathematician and astronomer in the 1800s.


http://awakening.net/WNothing.html

Timeless Wisdom


Nothing to Achieve, Nowhere to Go
When I attained Absolute Perfect Enlightenment,
I attained absolutely nothing. That is why it is
called 'Absolute Perfect Enlightenment.'
I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled,
complete awakening, and for this very reason it
is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.'
Siddhartha Gautama,
Two translations of text
from the Vajracchedika
You are all Buddhas.
There is nothing that you need to achieve.
Just open your eyes.
Siddhartha Gautama
When you speak of a path, where are you now? And where
do you want to go? If these are known, then we can talk
of a path. Know first where you are and what you are.
There is nothing to be reached. There is no goal to be
reached. There is nothing to be attained. The conception
that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the
goal or peace always. You are the Self. You exist always.
Sri Ramana Maharshi To reach truth is not to accumulate knowledge, but
to awaken to the heart of reality. Reality reveals itself
complete and whole at the moment of awakening. In the
light of awakening, nothing is added and nothing is lost.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Zen Keys, p. 44
This is what enlightenment is all about: a deep
understanding that there is no problem. Then, with no
problem to solve, what will you do? Immediately you
start living. You will eat, you will sleep, you will
love, you will work, you will have a chit-chat, you
will sing, you will dance. What else is there to do? Osho
To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search.
If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao.
Confucious
Truth is a country without road.
J. Krishnamurti
Wanderer, there is no path. You lay a path in walking.
A Spanish poet
There is really nothing you must be.
And there is nothing you must do.
There is really nothing you must have.
And there is nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.
However, it helps to understand that fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet.
Japanese Zen scroll


http://www.issc-taste.org/index.shtml


http://www.godpart.com/

Pictire of book

 

Ed.note: an interview with the author can be found here -

http://www.objectivethought.com/atheism/module.html

 


 

 
 
5/14/03

The Spiritual ChicksSM Speak Out!
Where do we come from?

 

"He who knows himself, will also know from whence he was derived."

--Plotinus, vi, 9, 8

The other day during a radio interview, we were asked the question, "Where do we come from?" To be honest, we were a bit taken aback because we weren't expecting to engage in a deep philosophical discussion during the last few seconds of our short segment on drive time radio. But after the shock wore off, we replied that we come from God. It's no mystery how we came up with this pithy answer. The underlying idea behind most religions is that God is everywhere, filling all conceivable space, seen and unseen. We come from God because there is nothing but God. Great, but then who are we? Well, when we accept the omnipresence of God, it's a snap to answer this question too. If there is nothing but God, then we are all manifestations of God. Great, we're done, right? Not quite. Before we put our philosophy books away and turn the television back on, we need to ask ourselves, what exactly is "God"?

The word "God" is thrown around by every Tom, Dick and Harriet to describe the indescribable but everyone seems to mean a different thing. According to Merriam Webster, God is defined as "the supreme or ultimate reality; the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe." And while most of us are familiar with the second definition-the idea of God as a perfect Being whom we worship, like an exalted Big Daddy or Mama who rewards those who follow orders and punishes those who don't-many of us have no clue as to what is meant by "the supreme or ultimate reality." And it is just this idea that is the key to understanding where we come from and who we really are.

While it is admittedly hard to believe while watching the evening news, the big three Western religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, all agree that there is but one God, one Creator, one ultimate reality of which we are all a part. In the East, there is an entire pantheon of Hindu gods, but Brahman is recognized as the source of all. In Buddhism, the idea of the "absolute" replaces the idea of "God" and the goal of Buddhists is to attain nirvana or union with this supreme essence. At their core, all religions accept the idea that "all is one" or what we Spiritual Chicks like to call The One Life Principle, which says that there is a single underlying power in the universe, but the expression of this power takes many forms-baseball players, puppies, exotic dancers, Supreme Court Justices, rocks, trees, even criminals. This "God" then is Life itself, a sort of spiritual electricity that runs everything and everyone.

If we accept this definition of God, then God cannot be a personal divinity. Rather, it is the job of each and every one of us as manifestations of the One Life to express the personal aspects of the divine. Interestingly enough, the words person and personal come from the Latin word persona, which means an actor's mask or a character in a play. It seems Shakespeare was right when in As you Like It he said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Something cannot come from nothing. Life can only come from life. At the end of our personal performance, when we take off our masks, we need not be surprised to find the face of God.


Tony Parsons

http://www.theopensecret.com/extracts.htm

There is only Source appearing. All that manifests is always and only the appearance of Source ... the apparent universe, the world, the life story, the body mind, feelings, the sense of separation, the search for enlightenment, is all the one appearing as two, the no thing appearing as everything. The drama of the search is totally without meaning or purpose. It is a dream awakening. There is no deeper intelligence weaving a destiny and no choice functioning at any level.

Nothing is born and nothing dies. Nothing is happening. But this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover its origin. When the invitation is accepted by no-one, then it is seen that there is only Source ... the uncaused, unchanging, impersonal stillness from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates.

It is the wonderful mystery.

The Open Secret

I am the divine expression exactly as I am, right here, right now. You are the divine expression exactly as you are, right here, right now. It is the divine expression exactly as it is, right here, right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing, needs to be added or taken away. Nothing is more valid or sacred than anything else. No conditions need to be fulfilled. The infinite is not somewhere else waiting for us to become worthy.


http://www.coolgrove.com/oldchang.htm

THE SAYINGS OF OLD CH'ENG
on the nature of original mind
translated by Mike Dickman

This is an English translation by Mike Dickman of a text of unknown provenance, given to a Frenchman by a Buddhist monk in old colonial Indochina. In this text, Old Ch'eng points to the self existing reality that is free from mental fabrications - a state free from religious dogma.

"The original mind has always been right before your eyes. There is nothing for you to discover or achieve. Nor have you ever lacked that which would enable you to see it."
- from The Sayings of Old Ch'eng

Finally, the book for spiritual seekers who are tired of seeking -the book for spiritual followers who are tired of following.


 
New from Ulysses Press:
A collection of parallel quotations from the scientific and spiritual traditions. . .
Edited by
Thomas J. McFarlane
 

 
 

Einstein A N D   Buddha
 

T H E     P A R A L L E L     S A Y I N G S

This remarkable book contains over 120 sayings from the founders of modern physics paired with parallel sayings from the seminal works of Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist contemplatives.  Einstein and Buddha is a fascinating collection of quotes that challenges us to think deeper about the relationship between modern physics and mystical insight. Although these two ways of understanding and investigating reality have significant differences, the parallels suggest that they share a mysterious and profound connection.

The parallel sayings are organized by theme and touch upon the nature of matter and energy, the relationship between subject and object, the understanding of time and space, the importance of direct experience, the role of paradox and contradiction in our understanding, the limits of language in describing reality, and the interdependence of all created things. Each section is accompanied by a brief introduction to how these concepts relate to the scientific and spiritual ways of knowing. On each page is an insightful quote from an eminent physicist such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, or David Bohm, together with a surprisingly similar statement from a renown authority of Eastern religion such as the Buddha, Chaung Tzu, the Upanishads, D. T. Suzuki, or the Dalai Lama.

Sample parallels from the book
EINSTEIN BUDDHA
According to general relativity, the concept of space detached from any physical content does not exist. 
-Einstein
If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality. 
-Buddha
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. 
-Einstein
All such notions as causation, succession, atoms, primary elements...are all figments of the imagination and manifestations of the mind. 
-Buddha
Time and again the passion for understanding has led to the illusion that man is able to comprehend the objective world rationally by pure thought without any empirical foundationsóin short, by metaphysics. 
-Einstein
By becoming attached to names and forms, not realising that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error risesÖand the way to emancipation is blocked. 
-Buddha


more from Tony Parsons

http://www.ods.nl/am1gos/am1gos5/index.html?tp_leraarzijn_us.html~mainFrame

Life is the only teacher

Excerpts from the book ‘As It Is’ by Tony Parsons.

Question: There have been enlightened masters who have had great charisma and who've also been capable of magic, manifestation and so on. People have reported very powerful physical, emotional and mental experiences not only in the master’s presence, but even thousands of miles away. What’s that all about?

Tony Parsons: [...] It’s about someone who has a lot of charisma and the gift of manifestation or magic. It’s about nothing more than anything else of any relevance inside the wheel of life. Someone recently told me that she looked into the eyes of a so-called master and vanished for a moment. But if it meant anything, why was she still asking questions? Nothing of any relevance is happening here with these phenomena that is any different or more liberating than selling hamburgers in the market place. The difficulty arises when people believe that these kind of events somehow vindicate some sort of personal enlightenment... they then also come to revere these people, and this creates a schism. They see these apparently magnificent beings and immediately come to believe that they can never attain such a level of importance. This is another way in which awakening is avoided. It is of course the infinite expression again wishing to have this experience, but so is my response to this question, and so is your sitting there and hearing it. [...]

[...] What we are talking about here today is the ordinary and the incredibly breathtaking magnificence of the ordinary. It is only ever and always simple, seemingly unremarkable and yet we pass it by and look for magic. Immediately, here, is the seeing of what we are. If there is a need in people to see magic there will always be magicians to fulfill that need, but none of this is relevant to awakening. [...]

[...] So what do we look for in a teacher?

Someone who gives you absolutely nothing and leaves you feeling helpless. Then it is possible that you are left only with what is. If someone tells you that there’s something that you can do or there is a certain way that you can be in order for awakening to happen, they are simply feeding your own avoidance.

What do you mean by that?

We all have a deep longing and a deep fear of the discovery of what we are, and the mind devises any way it can to avoid this discovery. The most effective way it avoids awakening is to seek it. When there begins to be an opening up to the revolutionary possibility that is being communicated here, then the mind sees this as a threat. I am finding with some people that for a time their strongest fears arise and they feel they want to run away or try to do something about being overwhelmed by those fears. This can be a pivotal period, and often escape routes are sought.
Some who hear this message will move away at some point to find a teacher who seems to be giving them something... a process or way of being such as transcending thought, vanquishing the ego, being honest, being moral, and so on. Others will also be very attracted to those who will offer to help them attain something they call enlightenment. Usually these teachers imply that in some way or other they are especially unique, and they will often act in such a way as to create a dependency in the follower. All of this personalized teaching is irrelevant to awakening, but it intrigues and satisfied the mind enormously, for a while. [...]

[...] Is a guru needed at all?

Life is the only guru. Everything that has so far happened for you is your teaching and is absolutely appropriate for your awakening. At this moment it is sitting in this room and hearing these words and possibly allowing them to go deeply inside. It is the seed that is scattered and drops onto fertile or infertile ground. You are ready to hear when you are ready to hear. You don’t need anything except that which you have. isn't that wonderful? So don’t get worried about what you need or don’t need. All is provided. Let go and rest in that which is and you will surely meet the beloved and rediscover your original nature. [...]


cartoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.goma.demon.co.uk/meaning/wiseman2.html


and now, just for something a bit scary!

The Death Clock!

http://www.deathclock.com/


http://www.johnlennon.it/imagine.htm

IMAGINE

 by John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... 

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... 

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one 

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

 You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one


IMAGINE - JOHN LENNON
(c) 1971 Lenono Music


http://www.sector9studios.com/releases.htm

  Order Now!
   

god module
empath

release date :may 2003


Religion and Morality:

A Triptych

by William Edelen


God Talking To You

"Now hear this. Now hear this. This is your Captain speaking."

Every Navy and Marine person has heard that blare out over the loudspeakers of a ship or station.

Now, we are in real trouble when the men wackos (I emphasize men), crazies and loonies start thinking they hear that call from "God."

I knew a guy in seminary who always said "God" was telling him what to do. He was a guy who didn't have both oars in the water; he was a half bubble off plumb; his elevator didn't go to the top floor; he was two tacos short of a combination plate. You get the picture? He told his wife God told him to go to Africa as a missionary. His wife said, "Fine . . . GO," but that God had not told her to go with him so she was getting a divorce and staying in the good ole United States.

Unfortunately, theological seminaries attract too many of those flaky types, as recent studies from both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have well documented. If God is unknown and beyond human comprehension, then "theology" is a pseudo-science without a subject matter, and the "theologian" is simply a person who has no idea what he is talking about.

How much of the horror and brutality of history has come from men who used God as an excuse for every kind of obscenity and psychotic behavior.

ed. note: the res of it at:

 http://www.truthseeker.com/truth-seeker/1993archive/120_3/ts203k.html


"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly
submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

-Albert Einstein-

 

http://home.pcisys.net/~brew777/index.html

 


#1724 From: Know Mystery <know_mystery@...>
Date: Tue Mar 9, 2004 11:00 am
Subject: #1724 - Sunday, March 7, 2004
know_mystery
Send Email Send Email
 

 

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online:   http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm  

 

If the graphics do not display in your email copy of this issue, read it online at the NDHighlights yahoogroups web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/message/1724

 

 

Heron

 

Photo by Alan Larus ~ TrueVision

music: Yosemite.mid from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panhala/ 

 


looking together
across the frozen lake
the heron and I

~  Jan van den Pol  ~


#1724 - Sunday, March 7, 2004 - Editor: joyce (know_mystery) 


Just let things be in their own way and
there will be neither coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things (your own nature),
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

~  Sosan  ~


 
 
 

 

 

Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy ~ Evolutionary-Psychology

 

Is There an Observing Self?

By Thomas W. Clark


Response to Baars et al., “Brain, conscious experience, and the observing self,” Trends in Neurosciences, 26 (12), December, 2003.

In response to the question of whether  “normal conscious experience involve[s] an observing self,” Baars et al. answer in the affirmative (Baars et al. 2003). The question I wish to raise here is whether the notion of an observing self, in the sense described in their paper, is conceptually warranted or useful in explaining consciousness. I suggest that it is not: the concept of observing – a person-level capacity – is misapplied to sub-personal processes of representation and information processing. The authors mischaracterize hierarchies of neural processing, in which information is fed from one level to another, as literal episodes of observation by a neurally instantiated self.

The main distinction the authors make is between processes that are responsible for features of consciousness that constitute objects, e.g., “light, color, contrast, motion, retinal size, location, and object identity” and processes that provide higher-level contextual components of consciousness, e.g., functions that integrate objects into a coherent perceptual gestalt, that create the phenomenal sense of one’s body, and that underlie ascriptions of intentions and actions as one’s own, as opposed to someone else’s.

The authors state that “…conscious experience in general can be viewed as information presented to prefrontal executive regions for interpretation, decision-making, and voluntary control.” This suggests that experience is somehow generated by or consists in the internal observation of information by prefrontal regions, but this is to ascribe a person-level ability to the sub-personal level. When Crick and Koch (2003) (quoted in the paper, p. 673) said that “it is useful to think of the front or higher/executive part of the cortex as looking at and interacting with the back or sensory part” they should have put “looking at” in scare quotes to emphasize that they were speaking metaphorically. What literally observes or experiences the world is the person as a whole conscious system, a system that incorporates sensory information into a constantly updated overarching self-world representation (Metzinger, 2003). What makes this a phenomenal, conscious representation, as proposed by Metzinger, is that it possesses a certain minimum set of representational, informational, and functional properties, e.g., global availability of information for action control and the integration of representations into a coherent, untranscendable reality model (Metzinger, pp. 107-211).

What the authors call the “common intuition of an observing self that has access to conscious sensations, inner speech, images and thoughts” (p. 671) is the modeling of the self within experience, that is, within the larger phenomenal self-world model. The higher level frontoparietal systems that are described in their paper, along with lower level homeostatic systems described by Antonio Damasio (1999), supply subjectivity – the phenomenal self-model – to the larger phenomenal self-world model. So the observing self isn’t needed to “sustain the conscious waking state” (p. 673), rather the waking state normally includes the experience of subjectivity. It’s important to note that in certain types of mystical experiences and pathological conditions the feeling of being a subject is absent (Metzinger, p. 459). This shows that there may be no essential connection between waking consciousness per se and the sense of self, much less an observing self.

Although Baars has elsewhere defended the observing self (Baars, 1996), I think he mistakes the experience of subjectivity for the literal existence of a separate, delimited witnessing subject. Baars et al. take this witnessing subject to be neurally instantiated by a subset of integrative processes, while many people folk-theoretically suppose this witness-self to be some sort of non-physical mental agent or soul. But there is no observing self of either type to whom information is presented or that has access to consciousness; nor is it likely that any sub-personal components of the processes that constitute consciousness observe other components in any sense that merits the term. Experience, like the brain (under normal conditions), is unwitnessed and unobserved, even though it may include the experience and intuition of observerhood, an intuition that veridically models the relationship between the observing person and the world.

Copyright © 2004 TW Clark

Thomas W. Clark, Center for Naturalism

http://www.sci-con.org/editorials/20040201.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionary-psychology/


 
 

 

 

 

dangerous pavements,
but I face the ice this year
with my father's stick

~  Seamus Heaney  ~          

 


 

Icescape

 

 

 Photo by Alan Larus

  
 

 
Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy ~ Evolutionary-Psychology

The evidence is overwhelming for an observing self in the brain.
 
By Bernard J. Baars

Response to Thomas Clark, "Is there an observing Self?" SCR, 2004

Dr. Clark tells us there is no observing self, but he offers no evidence. Like consciousness, the observing self is an empirical question. Clark's denial of a self goes back to Gilbert Ryle, who argued that there could be no observing "homunculus" in the brain, because that would lead to an infinite regress. But even Ryle's famous student Daniel Dennett has given up that argument, and now maintains there is no philosophical objection to an observing self if it can be decomposed into subsystems that are not just other homunculi.

In science, no serious proposal for an observing self has been vulnerable to Ryle's infinite regress argument. Self was always viewed as an executive system related to goals, and in ego psychology, it was specifically a system that balanced competing goals. Forty years of excellent research on split brain patients shows that the Left Hemisphere contains a language-based narrative self system (which you, the reader, are probably hearing right now in inner speech). But very likely the Right Hemisphere has a non-linguistic executive system that has at least receptive language, and which has long been known to accept verbal requests, carry out voluntary control over skeletal muscles (especially the most distal limbs like the hands and feet), and can do intelligent tasks like selecting matching pictures upon instruction.

These are executive systems in a very straightforward sense. They are involved in decision-making over the voluntarily-controlled elements of the nervous system. That implies they can control the voluntary muscles (but not the smooth muscles of the digestive tract), as well as inner speech (just try saying your own name to yourself right now!) The ego psychology claim that the self is involved in reconciling competing goal systems is also plausible; we even know where those goal systems are located. They involve subcortical appetitive and emotional systems, like the hypothalamus, PAG, amygdala, and other limbic regions. It is well established that the prefrontal cortex exercises inhibitory control over these "impulsive" mammalian motivational systems. Overall executive control surely involves regions of the prefrontal cortex, but there are times when subcortical systems take over, as when we are tempted to take one more bite of that delicious chocolate cake, even while warning ourselves (in our Left Hemisphere, which tends to control speech production) not to do so.

In what sense are these executive regions "observing" things? Gazzaniga's "Left Hemisphere interpreter" (his phrase) can observe conscious input from the right side of the visual field. It does not observe the left side (except via eye movements), but it does control the contralateral hand and foot in a voluntary fashion. Since it takes in conscious perceptual information, and interprets it to make voluntary decisions, it seems perfectly accurate to call it an "observing" self.

A great deal of reliable evidence falls into place with this viewpoint. For example, there is a vast literature in psychiatry on "self-alien syndromes." What makes anxiety disorders pathological is the loss of control by executive functions over normal anxiety. What makes obsessive-compulsive disorders so disturbing is the loss of executive control over ordinary actions like checking a door lock. All the Axis I disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) involve self-alien disorders. That classification could not work if we lacked a conception of an observing executive.

Neglect patients may suffer from "alien limb" syndrome, in which they literally feel that their own left arms and legs are not their own, and may try to throw them out of bed. Even physical trauma, like breaking a leg, may leads to a sense of alienation from self, as Oliver Sacks has pointed out in "A Leg to Stand On."

There is much more to be said for an observing self, but this gives a sense of the evidence. (See Baars, 1997, 1988 for further information; www.nsi.edu/users/baars). It is noteworthy that common sense psychology never dropped the idea of a self, even through a century of philosophical and psychological attacks on the idea. That is because it is so useful and explanatory. And after a century of denial, all the rejected terms are back. Psychologists were told by John B. Watson that consciousness was just "another word for the soul of religion." Today, we see more than 5000 citations in the biomedical literature each year to the term consciousness. For fifty years we were told that mental imagery was a myth. Today there is a flourishing scientific literature on imagery. The same goes for all the taboo terms of behaviorism --- memory, goals, inner speech, emotional feelings --- about two-thirds of the entire vocabulary of English and related languages.

Today we still hear about two taboos, against "volition" and "self." But the evidence for those taboos is no better than it was in the case of consciousness. A search in PubMed online on "voluntary control" and "executive functions" reveals hundreds of recent references, especially based on brain imaging studies. We know where to find these functions in the brain, and we are learning more and more about their details.

Baars et al (2003) suggest that unconscious states may involve not just a loss of conscious contents, but also a loss of functioning of the observing self. The evidence for that comes from brain imaging studies of four deeply unconscious states: deep sleep, comatose states, epileptic loss of consciousness, and general anesthesia. All these states show a steep drop in metabolic activity in cortical regions involved with observing self functions, particularly parietal and prefrontal areas. This cannot be explained by a local loss of conscious sensory functions, because sensory cortex is not involved. This suggests that "self-functions" may be interrupted during these states. That is an empirical hypothesis and prediction. It may be true or false. But it is testable. Whether it is right or not we may find out, as brain imaging gives us better and better understanding over the coming years.

Copyright © 2004 BJ Baars

Bernard J. Baars
Affiliate Research Fellow
The Neurosciences Institute
San Diego

http://www.sci-con.org/editorials/20040202.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionary-psychology/


 

 

RainyDay

 

 

Photo by Alan Larus

 

 

 

warming even
an empty room, a
beam of morning sun    
~  Robert Bebek  ~

 

 

 

David Edwards ~ http://www.medialens.org

MEDIA LENS COGITATIONS: BREAKING THE CHAINS OF ILLUSION

By: David Edwards

March 4, 2004

 

Personal - Political

Many of the dissident philosophers and rebels of the past like
Rousseau, Rocker, Tolstoy, Thoreau, Emerson and Fromm wrote often about the
personal experiences, motivations and concerns that informed their
political dissent. Tolstoy, for example, eventually came spectacularly clean
about his life as a writer:

“Horribly strange, but I now understand it all. Our genuine, sincere
concern was how to gain as much money and fame as possible. And the only
thing we knew how to do in order to achieve this was to write books and
journals.” (Tolstoy, A Confession, Penguin, 1987, p.24)

This was a deeply personal comment, but it shone a brilliant light on
the intellectual culture of Tolstoy’s time, and ours.

But today, personal, psychological, philosophical and spiritual issues
are hardly mentioned at all, with dissidents insisting that their own
experiences are surely of little interest to the public. The operative
theory seems to be that the world is in the mess it’s in because people
do not have access to the facts revealing the criminality and
irrationality of power.

My own view is that the world is also in the mess it’s in because
people often aren’t interested in, and even actively avoid, these facts. The
point being that the indifference of so many people is often deeply
rooted in personal and philosophical issues.

In reality, for example, few issues are more important than
understanding just how and why some people come to feel motivated to work for
progressive change. Perhaps I am uniquely flawed, but a question that has
always loomed large in my mind is: ‘Why should we care about other
people in the first place? What actually is wrong with being selfish?‘

From the perspective of everyday life these questions may seem
monstrous, but from the perspective of our predicament in the human condition
they are surely not. We are fragile, short-lived beings destined to lose
every last thing and person we love – we are born into an extremely
fraught and demanding situation. Given that this is the case, why should
anyone consider devoting their already inadequate time, energy and
resources to helping others? And yet the 11th century poet Ksemendra wrote:

“Disturbed times produce some who, though buffeted by wild waves, move
through the deep waters to embrace all who suffer. Even when undergoing
fierce suffering themselves, they still extend kindness to others.”
(Leaves of the Heaven Tree, Dharma, 1997, p.421)

[Read the rest: http://www.medialens.org ]

To receive further Cogitations please click here and subscribe as
described.

http://www.medialens.org/subscribe_cogitations.html

Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org


Listen...

I do not know if you have even examined how you listen,
it doesn't matter to what,
whether to a bird, to the wind in the leaves, to the rushing waters,
or to how you listen to dialogue with yourself,
to conversation in various relationships and with intimate friends,
your wife or husband...

If we try to listen we find it extraordinarily difficult,
because we are always projecting our opinions and ideas,
our prejudices, our background, our inclinations, our impulses;
when they dominate we hardly listen it all to what is being said...

In that state there's no value it all.
One listens and therefore learns,
only in the state of attention, a state of silence,
in which the whole background is in obeyance, is quiet;
then, it seems to me, it is possible to communicate.
Real communication can only take place when there is silence.

~  Krishnamurti  ~


Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy ~ Evolutionary-Psychology

 

 
I FEEL YOUR PAIN

Empathy lights up the same parts of the brain as personal injury

By Laura Nelson

 

Peek

 

"A Peek of Radiance"  

Mandala by Aurora Braun

http://www.mandalasbyaurora.com

 


The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same
parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves.

When we encounter a painful stimulus, such as an electric shock, signals
travel from the site of the stimulus up to the brain. This is then
translated into both a physical and an emotional response.

Tania Singer, an imaging neuroscientist at University College London, and
her colleagues performed an experiment to see whether any parts of this
process happens in the brains of people who aren't experiencing the pain
themselves, but are simply empathizing with someone who is.

The team first delivered an electric shock to the hands of 16 women, and
observed their brain activity using a functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) scan. The team found that their brains were activated in several
areas, including both sensory and emotional regions.

They then delivered an electric shock to the hand of each woman's partner
instead. The women were allowed to see the shock being administered, but
were prevented from watching their partner's face during the
treatment. This eliminated a large part of the emotional response one might expect from
watching a friend in pain.

Even so, the researchers found that the womens' brains still lit up in the
same emotional areas as when their own hand was being shocked.

The study shows that empathy works by tapping into a brain mechanism that
already exists for our own pain, says Singer. This makes us believe we are
feeling pain emotionally even when we are not feeling it physically.

Strong bonds

The emotional activity was stronger in some people than in others. The
response seemed to be greater in those with a stronger emotional bond,
says Singer. "It is very heavy for people who care," says Singer.

The researchers have yet to try the experiment on men, or on people
who are not couples. But Uta Frith, a cognitive biologist also at University
College London, thinks the experiment would show the same result with any two
normal people.

But psychopaths would probably show no emotional response at all, she
adds. Psychopaths don't experience empathy, she says, so they have no
understanding of how much pain they are inflicting on other people.

Singer thinks the empathic response probably enables us to forge loving
bonds, such as between a mother and child. "It has an evolutionary
function," she says. In a broader sense, empathy can help us
understand what someone else is feeling , be it pain, joy or anger. Such an ability may
serve to help ward off danger. "We can ask questions such as: 'Will this
person kill me?'," says Singer.

Researchers think it may be possible to suppress the same part of the
brain through hypnosis. When hypnotised, people can be made apparently
insensitive to pain, stopping them from being conscious of or reacting to painful
stimuli, although no one knows exactly how this works. "Pain is subjective
perception," says Singer.


Read More: Singer, T. et al. Empathy for pain involves the affective
but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303, 1157 - 1162, (2004).

http://www.sci-con.org/more_news.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionary-psychology/


 
Learning is the very essence of humility,
learning from everything and everybody.
There is no hierarchy in learning.
Authority denies learning and a follower will never learn.
 
~  Krishnamurti  ~
 

Panhala ~ Joe Riley


Now is the Time
 
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
 
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
 
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
 
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
 
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
 
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
 
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
 
This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
 
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
 

("The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
 

 

Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Now_is_the_Time.html

Web archive of Panhala postings: www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html

To subscribe to Panhala, send a blank email to
Panhala-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
music link
(left button to play, right button to save)



Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inner centre in us all
Where truth abides in fullness; and around
Wall upon wall the gross flesh hems it in
That perfect, clear perception which is Truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds all and makes all error, but to know
Rather consists in finding out a way
For the imprisoned splendour to escape
Than in achieving entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
 
 
~  Robert Browning  ~

 

 
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#1725 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Wed Mar 10, 2004 2:21 pm
Subject: #1725 - Monday, March 8, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#1725 - Monday, March 8, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 

 
Call me George.
 
George Carlin has been cited as the author of the Paradox of Time, which you have probably read elsewhere. Carlin didn't write it. He calls it "a sappy load of shit." This issue of the Highlights features the Paradox of Time and draws from an Urban Legends web page -- http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paradox.asp -- which explains who the author is and his backround. 
 
The real author of The Paradox of Time is Bob Moorehead. "(During Moorehead's) tenure as pastor of Overlake Christian Church, seventeen members of his congregation reported that he had sexually assaulted them. These allegations, which surfaced in 1997, prompted his resignation in 1998. After a year of publicly supporting Moorehead the church elders withdrew their support, their own investigation into the charges having led them to conclude their pastor had indeed been guilty of molesting a number of male churchgoers." 
 
As George Carlin says, "We're all fucked. It helps to remember that."
 
Following The Paradox of Time, I've included several more quotes directly from the website of George Carlin: http://www.georgecarlin.com/georgecarlin/home/home.html, some of which seem crude but amazingly true and sane. These quotes are not likely to be sent to everyone in your address book.
 
The Paradox of Time, by Bob Moorehead
 
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend
more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.
 
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less
time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less
judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less
wellness.
 
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too
little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too
tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have
multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
 
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned
how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not
life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have
trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour.
 
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things,
but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
 
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've
learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more
information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less
and less.
 
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small
character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days
of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
 
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality,
one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from
cheer, to quiet, to kill.
 
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in
the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and
a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit
delete.
 
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not
going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who
looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up
and leave your side.
 
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is
the only pleasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a
cent.
 
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but
most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes
from deep inside of you.
 
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person
will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and
give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
 
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away.
 
Okay, now that you feel all good and superior, here are the grounded observations of George Carlin, not the airy fairy stuff of someone who had 17 men accuse him of abusing them.
 
There ought to be at least one round state.
 
In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first.
 
Why can't there be more suffering?
 
Where does the Dentist go when he leaves the room?
 
I almost don't feel the way I do.
 
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
 
Fuck soccer moms.
 
Human beings are kind of interesting from birth until they reach the age of a year and a half. Then they are boring until they reach fifty. By that time they're either completely defeated and fucked up, which makes them interesting again, or they've learned how to beat the game, and that makes them interesting too.
 
Ross perot. Just what a nation of idiots needs; a short, loud idiot.
 
The bigger they are, the worse they smell.
 
No one can ever know for sure what a deserted area looks like.
 
Baseball is the only major sport that appears backwards in a mirror.
 
I like sports because I enjoy knowing that many of these macho athletes have to vomit before a big game. Any guy who takes a job where you gotta puke first is my kind of guy.
 
Sties are caused by watching your dog shit.
 
We're all fucked. It helps to remember that.
 
If you love someone, set them free; if they come home, set them on fire.
 
Most people are not particularly good at anything.
 
Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
 
I never eat sushi. I have trouble eating things that are merely unconscious.
 
The only good thing to come out of religion was the music.
 
Now you know why George Carlin doesn't want to be identified as the author of The Paradox of Time.
 

 
 
Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, by Jed McKenna
 
Quotes within the following excerpt are from Moby-Dick:
 
Moby-Dick, viewed aright, is a very simple story: Man, Ocean and Whale are Ego, Universe and Delusion. Fire is negation. Everything else is everything else. Ahab is in sole command of his ship on the sea of the infinite, launched on a kill-or-die quest to win his freedom. Armed with pure intent and a weapon "tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning," Ahab brings his entire being to bear on this one single purpose. The white whale is Ahab's dragon; his current layer of ignorance. It doesn't matter what the dragon represents, only that it exists. As long as there is a dragon, there's an Ahab, and as long as there's an Ahab, the hunt goes on.
 
The following items are true of both Ahab and the individual who has taken the First Step and is in the process of awakening; the Break-Out Archetype:
 
-- Ahab possesses purity of intent: Monomania.
 
-- Ahab acts, but does not reflect on the fruit of the act.
 
-- Ahab is imperious; sovereign and self-sovereign.
 
-- Ahab is amoral.
 
-- Ahab has lost a significant, irreplaceable part of himself.
 
-- Ahab knows he is alone. He says: "Ahab stands alone amid the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors!"
 
-- Ahab has undergone a radical transformation: "Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock, rounding in mid winter that dreary, howling Patagonian Cape; then it was, that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad."
 
-- Ahab's objective is not, as it appears, the whale. The whale is just in the way: "If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough."
 
Further, come what may. That's what Ahab is saying. Those are the orders he sails under. It really has nothing to do with the whale. That's why no consensus has ever been arrived at as to what the whale, and the whiteness of the whale, represent. Beyond our furthest charted regions, where it is written, "Here be dragons!" is where this hunt takes us. Each person's white whale is whatever keeps them from advancing in that direction.
 
Ahab is hyper-Promethean in his defiance. Stealing fire from the gods is petty larceny compared to stealing illusion from Maya: "Thou canst blind; but I can then grope. Thou canst consume; but I can then be ashes. Take the homage of these poor eyes, and shutter-hands. I would not take it. The lightning flashes through my skull; mine eye-balls ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground... There is some unsuffusing thing beyond thee, thou clear spirit to whom all thy eternity is but time, all thy creativeness mechanical. Through thee, they flaming self, my scorched eyes do dimly see it."
 
-- Ahab is driven, not drawn. He does not act from desire. He is not pulled by the lure of some imagined betterment of self or world. He is not motivated by altruism or self-interest.
 
-- Ahab cannot be swerved from his purpose: "Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountain, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"
 
-- Nor can he swerve himself: "This whole act's immutable decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenenant; I act under orders."
 
-- Ahab is lashed to the front of a speeding locomotive hurtling toward imminent collision. He is a force of nature, a tidal wave that started as a minor oceanic event and which has swelled to a magnitude that can erase cities from the earth. "Nothing personal," says the wave, "it's immutable decreed." And so it is.
 
"All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound."
 
Here, five important expressions of the Break-Out Archetype are voiced by Ahab in the space of five sentences:
 
"I'd stike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play therein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines."
 
That first sentence deserves a chapter of its own.
 
"I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."
 
"I will fight whatever enemy is before me," Ahab is effectively saying. "I am moving forward and whatever stands in my way is therefore my enemy and I will throw myself unreservedly against it." The battle is absolute, and because the goal is always forward progress, whatever is in the way is always what the battle is against. The goal is not survival or happiness or continued well-being. There is only one goal and it is always the same: Further.
 
The second idea conveyed, that there is ever a sort of fair play herein, is a critical observation that is at the very heart of one's ability to stand up and fight the fight. The jealousy presiding over all creations can be understood as the balance of opposites as in the yin-yang symbol, but the fact that Ahab understands that no task before us can be beyond us demonstrates a profound grasp of a rule that applies to all but is known by few: The universe always plays fair. If we must, we can.
 
Third:
 
"But not my master, man, is even that fair play."
 
That fair play is the balance of opposites; causality, action and reaction, the dualistic universe. Ahab is, in effect, declaring that he grasps non-dualism.
 
The fourth important point to be drawn from this excerpt comes from these words:
 
"Who's over me?"
 
Those may sound like the words of a megalomaniac, but in Ahab it's not ego talking. It's a man declaring his self-sovereignty, which is well-established in the heart and mind of the Break-Out Archetype. Anyone found over us would merely represent another obstacle to our progress.
 
The fifth insight worth noting in this passage is this:
 
"Truth hath no confines."
 
This perfect statement is the diamond heart of both Captain Ahab and Moby-Dick. It's one of those Golden Keys, like not-two or tat tvam asi, that unlocks the entire mystery. If truth hath no confines, then all confines are false. One who dedicates himself to striking through all confines must eventually arrive at truth. Hence, further.
 
-----------------------------
 
This is the end of the excerpt. There is much more analysis in the book Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, by Jed McKenna. The analysis is intertwined with Jed's encounters in the world and the teachings that arise from them, and with the spiritual growth of a student named Julie as evidenced through her journal. You can order the book at http://www.wisefoolpress.com
 
And if you don't like Jed, Ahab, or George Carlin, there's always The Paradox of Time. On the other hand, upon re-reading you may end up agreeing with George Carlin about it being "a sappy load of shit."
 
However you penetrate the white whale, whether through apparent action of harpooning, or the apparent inaction of seeing its suchness, you have to know and meet it, whether you say it draws you or you are driven to it. We better know it as I AM, the light at the end of the tunnel, qualified nonduality.

"My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound." --Nisargadatta

--Jerry Katz
 

#1726 From: Michael Blik <maread@...>
Date: Thu Mar 11, 2004 4:59 am
Subject: #1726 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004
mareadba
Send Email Send Email
 
Love and The Brain


#1726 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - Editor: michael

Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

two poems from:
http://www.geocities.com/th4w/poems.html

We Celebrate the Web of Life by Alicia S. Carpenter (1930 - 1990)


We celebrate the web of life,
It's magnitude we sing;
For we can see divinity
In every living thing.


A fragment of the perfect whole
In cactus and in quail,
As much in tiny barnacle
As in the great blue whale.


Of ancient dreams we are the sum;
Our bones link stone to star,
And bind our future worlds to come
With worlds that were and are.


Respect the water, land, and air
Which gave al creatures birth;
Protect the lives of all that share
In glory of the earth.

-------------------------------------------------------------


I Am Only One by Edward Everett Hale


I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

-----------------------------------------------------

http://wonderofitall.com/words.html

NOTE: The poem used in this presentation is from Ralph Marston's latest
book, "Living the Wonder of It All." For more information on the book,
and to download a free sample, go to www.greatday.com/wonder

The Wonder of It All
by Ralph Marston
Do you ever wonder
At the wonder of it all?

Do you ever stand in awe
of the tiniest things
and how perfectly they work together?

Do you ever stop to think
about all the possibilities
and how even though they have no limit
they grow in number with every minute?

Do you ever wonder
when the leaves flutter down in autumn
at the incomprehensible power of life
that brings them back in spring?

Do you watch the waves roll in
and then look out far beyond them
where the water seems to touch the sky
and realize
that the vast expanse before your eyes
is only a small little corner
of all there really is?

And do you comprehend that all there really is,
as unimaginably grand as it may seem,
is only a smaller corner still
of all that there can be?

Do you ever wonder
how love can stay alive
past every pleasure and every pain
and even when there can be no hope
there is more than ever?

Do you ever struggle to lift a heavy rock and wonder
how a massive mountain can rise
thousands of feet above the plain
without even trying?

Do you ever realize that
no matter how much you may know,
no matter how many wonders you may have experienced,
there will always, always be more?

Do you ever wonder
why it is you wonder
and why you know what beauty is
even though you can't define it?

Do you ever wonder
who is doing the wondering,
who is looking out through your eyes
and feeling completely at home
with the wonder of it all?

Whatever you believe,
whatever you profess,
whatever you doubt or fear or hope for,
there are some things
your heart cannot deny
when you let go
and let yourself know
the wonder of it all.

Copyright © 2003 Ralph S. Marston, Jr.

--------------------------------------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GuruRatings/message/25244

Two Twits in Paradise

or devianandi and michael do the polka while sarlo practices his
ventriloquism

(we pick up the thread here as devianandi responds to michael's critque
of devianandi's portrayal of the big being)

michael: not too bad as channeling acts go.

god: devis a little rusty in that department, blame her, but thats for
the not too bad compliment

michael: a little hokey, a trifle grandiose and condescending but, still
not too bad.

god: yep, i come in all shapes and forms, and i speak to people in ways
that they understand me

michael: polish it up a bit and the suckers (er, seekers) will surely
eat it up.

god: ur calling my seekers suckers? thats terrible!
maybe next time i'll ask you to edit devi

michael: then you can get that oh so desired rating and really make a
holy name in the biz.

god: haha, some morons are calling me a *This* now..haha

michael: until then

God: i will

god: nature has its way of keeping a balance in the universe. that
includes the number of beings that wake up.....i don't beleive at
this time everyone is supposed to wake up, my guru says and so does
meher baba, if all the sentient and nonsentient consciunsess were
to awake...creation would stop....is that what your wanting...God
doesn't

michael: god doesn't?

god: thats right michael, i don't want creation to end right now, if i
did, it would be ended right now, in the blink of your eye

michael: guess i better not blink then :-)are you sure about that?

god; yes i am michael

michael: well, sure i know you're michael. what's your point?

god: a regular wise guy, are ya?

michael: or are you just taking your guru's word for it?

God: my guru gets his ideas from me michael

michael: so you don't want to fill him in, ah yes, that might spoil your
fun, eh?

god: my gurus are already completely full michael

michael: and why oh why should creation stop just because a few of its
creations awake to joy and peace and bliss?

god: i thought we were talking about more then just a few michael

michael: well, the way sentient beings have of multiplying... :-)

god: do you think its time for another major disastor? weren't you one
of my angels at one time?

sarlo: Evidently God doesn't want us to awaken to joy and peace and
bliss.

God: no no no, i do want you to awaken to joy and peace and bliss, but
only after you finish the required pre-requisits

michael: well, we'll just suffer along until you get the SAT scores in.

god: i'm looking back through my akashic records and see that in one of
your incarnations you pulled a 1500..thats very high...you know 1600 is
perfect...your getting closer

sarlo: No fun for Him if we jump out of our misery.

god: oh but your wrong sarlo my beloved. look, i can't have
everyone getting enlightened at the same time, i wouldn't be able
to give my fullest attention and congradulations to each and
everyone if everyone all got it the same time..did you know that
when one of you comes home to me there is a great celebration in
heaven..?

god: can't spell and can't handle all the love either? hmmmm, where's
all that omnipotence when you need it? :-)

god: remember its devi thats doing the chanelling, i'm just dictating
and she's a bit sloppy (someone out there thinks that Gods a slob on a
bus, remember)

sarlo: A few are allowed to jump out but their jumping out is the
carrot that God dangles in front of the rest to keep the misery
cycle going.

god; no no no, some souls who become me still experience
misery,,there there, does that make you feel better....your time is
coming soon sarlo my beloved...just be nice to devi and you'll see..

michael: oooh, all bow down to devi. she's so shiny and bright when
she's channeling the Big Being!

god: devi, are you getting all grandiouse on me? watch it sweetie or
i'll take your toys away

michael: chuckles and joy,

god: for girl and boy

michael: you know who!

god: i know who too!

===================
>
> michael: you know who!
> god: i know who too!

LOL! lots of laughter and lots of love

thanks devi. you know we could re-name this piece
Two Twits in Paradise

with a little more polish we could have a hit on the comedy circuit.

grins for god,

michael

===================

devi: i'm glad i can have a little fun with someone around here!
honestly, life can be very brutal, so why make it more difficult for
anyone....

thanks for the kudos

========================

you are most welcome

=========================

and Sarlo finishes it off with:

Maybe a ventriloquist act.

And a book and movie deal . . . Conversations Among God, whatever, get
an agent!

-----------------------------------------------------

sorry folk, no cartoons in this edition. but, if you want
a grin or two take a look at the 'maturity level' of those
of us who like to argue about matters transcendent!

http://www.omshaantih.com/Humor/I%20am%20realized,%20so%20there.htm



-----------------------------------------------------

[ed. note: a bit more on the physical aspect of religion and
spirituality and, yup, more about the brain! - a really long post, with
outside links to things to grin about ]

From:  medit8ionsociety
Date:  Mon Mar 8, 2004  9:28 pm
Subject:  Spiritual neurology - A mystical union


>From Economist.com
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2478148

A small band of pioneers is exploring the neurology of religious
experience

The renowned French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot once scribbled some
notes while under the influence of the psychedelic drug
mescaline. Colleagues were puzzled because among the scribbles was the
incongruous statement, written in English, "I love you Jennifer".
Still more puzzling was the question: who was Jennifer? That was not the
name of his wife nor of anyone else they thought he knew. Despite the
mystery, Dr Charcot's colleagues never thought to question the
scientific value of the experiment.
The same cannot be said of Mario Beauregard, a brain-imager from the
University of Montreal, who has also experimented with mescaline. But
that is because Dr Beauregard is interested in one particular, and far
more contentious, aspect of the mescaline experience—the capacity of the
drug to inspire feelings of spirituality or closeness to God. It was
experiments of the type carried out by Charcot that opened up the
possibility of investigating spirituality in a scientific manner, by
showing that it could be manipulated. Dr Beauregard is following up on
these by trying to discover where in the brain religious experience is
actually experienced.

[ed. note - god's brain
http://www.gottes-gehirn.de/en/indexright.htm ]

In the first of what he hopes will be a series of experiments, Dr
Beauregard and his doctoral student Vincent Paquette are recording
electrical activity in the brains of seven Carmelite nuns through
electrodes attached to their scalps. Their aim is to identify the
brain processes underlying the Unio Mystica—the Christian notion of
mystical union with God. The nuns (the researchers hope to recruit 15 in
all) will also have their brains scanned using positron-emission
tomography and functional magnetic-resonance imaging, the most
powerful brain-imaging tools available.

[ed. note - a site for those who Have Theology and Will Argue
http://pub18.ezboard.com/bhavetheologywillargue ]

The study has met with scepticism from both subjects and scientists. Dr
Beauregard had first to convince the nuns that he was not trying to
prove or disprove the existence of God. Scientific critics, meanwhile,
have accused him of being too reductionist—of pretending to pinpoint the
soul in the brain in the same way that the Victorians played
phrenology as a parlour game by feeling the contours of each others'
skulls to find a bulge of secretiveness or a missing patch of
generosity. Dr Beauregard does not, in fact, believe there is a
neurological "God centre". Rather, his preliminary data implicate a
network of brain regions in the Unio Mystica, including those associated
with emotion processing and the spatial representation of self. But that
leads to another criticism, which he may find harder to rebut. This is
that he is not really measuring a mystical experience at all—merely an
intense emotional one.

[ed. note: why is it that scientists haven't done any brain scans when
people are thinking about
http://www.globalpsychics.com/lp/Superstition/menu.htm ]

This is because the nuns are, so to speak, faking it. They believe that
the Unio Mystica is a gift of God and cannot be summoned at will. Most
of them have only experienced it once or twice, typically in
their 20s. To get around this, Dr Beauregard has drawn on previous
experiments he carried out with actors, which showed that remembering an
intense emotional experience activates the same brain networks as
actually having that experience. In effect, he has asked the nuns to
method act, and they are happy to comply.

[ed. note - Happy creatures do better no matter what. Happy mice and
happy nuns live longer. Of all human activities in all circumstances
spirituality can be the most engaging. Each of us can seek a path and a
reward. How wonderful if we can find joyful simplicity.....--Jerry
15-May-2001

found at http://hdlighthouse.org/see/diet/triad/spirit/happynuns.htm ]

God and the gaps
Andrew Newberg, a radiologist at the Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who has scanned the brains of Buddhists
and Franciscan nuns in meditation or at prayer, is familiar with such
criticism. He says that, because religious experience is not readily
accessible, unusually high standards of experimental rigour are
demanded of this kind of research. "We have frequently argued that many
aspects of spiritual experiences are built upon the brain
machinery that is used for other purposes such as emotions," he says.
"Very careful research will need to be done to delineate these issues."
But that is not a reason for shying away from them, says Olaf Blanke of
the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, whose paper in the
February edition of Brain describes how the brain generates
out-of-body experiences. He points out that plenty of research has been
done into another kind of bodily illusion, phantom limbs. This has
identified the brain mechanisms responsible, and even suggested
treatments for these disabling "appendages". The same cannot be said of
out-of-body experiences, which can also be disturbing, but occupy a
neglected position between neurobiology and mysticism.
Having subjected six brain-damaged patients to a battery of
neuro-imaging techniques, Dr Blanke's group concludes that damage at the
junction of two lobes of the brain—the temporal and
parietal—causes a breakdown of a person's perception of his own body.
The boundary between personal and extrapersonal space becomes blurred,
and he sees his body occupying positions that do not coincide with the
position he feels it to be in.


[ed. note - cartoon break with thanks to swami sarlo
http://www.globalserve.net/~sarlo/Oxcart.htm ]


Some patients give this a mystical interpretation, some do not. What is
interesting is that several of the patients suffered from
temporal-lobe epilepsy. An association between this kind of epilepsy and
religiosity is well-documented, notably in a classic series of
neurological papers written by Norman Geschwind in the 1960s and
1970s. Dr Blanke argues that all the lobes of the brain play a part in
something as complex as religious experience, but that the
temporo-parietal junction is a prime node of that network.
The parietal lobe is thought to be responsible for orienting a person in
time and space, and Dr Newberg also found a change in parietal
activation at the height of the meditative experience, when his
volunteers reported sensing a greater interconnectedness of things. At
the end of each recording session, Dr Beauregard asks the nuns to
complete a questionnaire which gauges not only feelings of love and
closeness to God, but also distortions of time and space. "The more
intense the experience, the more intense the disorganisation from a
spatio-temporal point of view," he says. Typically, time slows down, and
the self appears to dissolve into some larger entity that the nuns
describe as God.

[ed. note a few tips from the love issue of Amigo

http://www.ods.nl/am1gos/am1gos3/index.html

Love is so vast within itself. It’s where you die. You don’t die into
fear; you die into love. It’s so vast that it will burn you up. It’s so
jealous and greedy for itself to be mirrored back that it will leave you
nothing. And when you’re feeling that if you don’t give it away you’ll
die in it, it’s so vast that there’s nothing you can do with it. All you
can do is be it. Byron Katie

You have to hear the story of love from love itself.
Because she's like a mirror, both dumb and saying much.
Mevlana Jelalu’ddin Rumi

See Love. Hear Love. Reach out and touch Love. Eat Love, sweet Love, and
smell Love. For Love is but the Self’s Awareness of Itself. Ramana
Maharshi ]

[ed. note and it finally ends with]

Whether the Unio Mystica has anything in common with out-of-body
experiences, or even phantom limbs, remains to be seen—though all are
certainly mediated by the brain. According to Dr Blanke, this is only
just starting to become an accepted topic of research in neuroscience.
Perhaps its acceptance will depend ultimately on how the knowledge is
used. Dr Beauregard may have done himself a disservice by arguing that
mystical union should not be reserved for the spiritual few, but
should be made available to everyone, for the benefit of society.
Perhaps, like Charcot, he should stick to describing it, however
incongruous the result may be.


--------------------------------------------
http://www.ods.nl/am1gos/am1gos3/index.html

Speaking of Love…
[Johan van der Kooij]

'Yesterday I met a very charming woman,
I was totally gone about her…'
How many times have I heard that said already?
Unknowingly we use Vedanta in our speech:
'I was totally carried away...': by the woman, the man, the painting, or
some other object I as a person was gone, but why?

Wouldn't it be much nicer to remain present as a person, to enjoy her or
the object? Apparently something so radical happened that it would be
superfluous for me to remain as a person. I dissolved temporarily in
love itself.

Musing over love and her many forms of expression I heard in my heart
and mind a song from my teens: Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. As if by magic
I became aware of the deeper meaning of the words:

(text:) Suzanne takes me down to a place by the river
(commentary:) Love, unconditional love takes me to 'shamata', stop, and
invites me to look at my feelings

(text:) You can watch the boats go by, you can spend the night forever
(commentary:) Time and the timeless exist together, I live both in the
relative and the absolute

(text:) and I know that she's half crazy and that's why I want to be
there (commentary:) A deep recognition passes through me when I am with
her

(text:) and she gives me tea and oranges that come all the way from
China (commentary:) Love, or unconditional love expresses itself in many
forms, even the palpable

(text:) and just when I want to tell her that I have no love to give her
(commentary:) At the moment that I think that it is impossible for me to
surrender to the absolute

(text:) she gets me on her wavelength and she let's the river answer
(commentary:) Everything comes to life, and the insight arises that I
have never been separate from what I actually am, Love

(text:) and I want to travel with her, and I want to travel blind cause
she's touched my perfect body with her mind (commentary:) I say yes
unconditionally because she is the source of everything, even my
thoughts.

--------------------------------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GuruRatings/message/25395

[ed. note - this is the 'other' lady joyce]

From:  "Lady Joyce"
Date:  Wed Mar 10, 2004  7:57 pm
Subject:  Better Than Yours



My guru's better than your guru
My guru's better than yours
My guru's enlightened
and he knows "this" so
My guru's better than yours

My guru's better than yours is
My guru's better than yours
She's better than Buddha
with more devotees
My guru's better than yours

My guru's smarter than yours is
My guru's smarter than yours
My guru's smarter
Cause he wears pullups
My guru's smarter than yours

I'm more irreverent than you are
Nope, I'm more irreverent than you
I'm such a boldie
"JUST LEAVE!!!" they told me
I'm more irreverent than you

I got booted from this list
So?...I got booted from that
We got booted
But we can't prove it
Now what do you think of that?

My gossip's better than yours is
My gossip's better than yours
Why, this one drinks
And that one stinks
Who cares...they're not the doers

My theory's better than yours is
My theory's better than yours
"All is nothing :-)"
Boy, am I something
funny, how truth always endures

I am older that you are
I am younger than you
Well, you're old hat
And you're just a brat
But we both agree one is not two

I whine better than you do
NO! I whine better than you
Why, I'm more crass
than JDA *
And that's not easy to do.

This list is better than that list
That list has too many rules
"Please be polite
Please do not fight"
There's room for all of the schools

Now what is so bad about That?
OM tat sat :-)
Bow wow!!!

Joyce

* Jody's Dog's Ass

===============================================
Inspired by...

My dog's bigger than your dog,
My dog's bigger than yours,
My dog's bigger
And he chases mailmen,
My dog's bigger than yours,

My dog's better than your dog,
My dog's better than yours,
His name is King,
And he had puppies,
My dog's better than yours.

My dad's tougher than your dad,
My dad's tougher than yours,
My dad's tougher
And he yells louder and
My dad's tougher than yours.

My dad's louder than your dad,
My dad's louder than yours,
Momma buys a new dress,
Daddy makes noises,
My dad's louder than yours.

Our car's faster than your car,
Our car's faster than yours,
It has a louder horn,
It bumps other cars,
Our car's faster than yours.

Our car's older than your car,
Our car's older than yours,
It stops running and Daddy kicks the fenders,
Our car's older than yours.

My Mom's older than your Mom,
My Mom's older than yours,
She takes smelly baths
She hides the gray hairs
My Mom's older than yours.

My Mom's funnier than your Mom,
My Mom's funnier than yours,
Her hair is pretty and
It changes colors,
My Mom's funnier than yours.


Copyright Tom Paxton
Written, recorded, and Printed by Tom Paxton

------------------------------------


see you around - michael

#1727 From: Know Mystery <know_mystery@...>
Date: Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:19 am
Subject: #1726 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004
know_mystery
Send Email Send Email
 

 

 

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online:   http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm  

 

If the graphics do not display in your email copy of this issue, read it online at the NDHighlights yahoogroups web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/message/1726

 

 

Trop_White_Butterflies

Tropical White Butterflies ~ http://insects.org/index.html

music: Lullaby2.mid from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panhala/ 

 


white butterfly
darting among pinks -
whose spirit?

~  shiki ~


#1726 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - Editor: joyce (know_mystery) 



the butterfly too
on the scales of karma
is weighed

~  issa ~


flitting butterfly--
thus is Buddhism
in this world

~  issa  ~

 

pausing for a nap
on the temple bell
the butterfly

~  buson  ~


        on the offering shelf
        does the butterfly also hear
        Buddha's promise?

        ~  issa  ~ 


a butterfly falls
and all of a sudden puddles
freeze over.

~  onishi  ~


a previous life's bond?
little butterfly
on my sleeve, asleep

~  issa  ~

 

for a companion
on my walking trip... perhaps
a little butterfly  

~  shiki  ~


        in tree shade
        dwelling with a butterfly...
        friends in a previous life

        ~  issa  ~


a fallen blossom
returning to the bough, I thought --
but no, a butterfly.

~  moritake  ~


     butterfly -
     wings curve into
     white poppy.

    ~  basho  ~

 

window open--                              flower under harvest
a butterfly pulls my eyes               sun - stranger
across the field                             to bird, butterfly.

~  issa  ~                                        ~  basho  ~

 

flecked with sand                           yellow butterfly...
from the whirlwind...                      fluttering, fluttering on
little butterfly                                  over the ocean

~  issa  ~                                         ~  shiki  ~


hot tub steam
wafts softly, softly...
as does a butterfly

~  issa  ~


it's all yours
butterfly, take a rest
on the mushroom

~  issa  ~


snail--
the butterfly in a mad
hurry

~  issa  ~

 

stuck to the dog
curled asleep...
butterfly

~   issa  ~


        softly folded fawn
        shivers, shaking off the butterfly...
        and sleeps again

        ~   issa  ~


among the dewdrops
the butterfly's mood
improves

~   issa  ~


butterfly in my hand --
as if it were a spirit
unearthly, insubstantial.
 
~  buson  ~


 Panhala ~ Joe Riley

Tilokal Lake
(the Frozen Lake)


In this high place
It is as simple as this
Leave everything you know behind

Step toward the cold surface
Say the old prayer of rough love
And open Both arms

Those who come with empty hands
Will stare into the lake astonished
There in the cold light reflecting cold snow
The true shape of your own face
 
~ David Whyte ~
 
 


Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Tilokal_Lake.html

Web archive of Panhala postings: www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html

To subscribe to Panhala, send a blank email to
Panhala-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
music link
(left button to play, right button to save)


wake, butterfly -
it's late, we've miles
to go together.

~  basho  ~


If the graphics do not display in your email copy of this issue, read it online at the NDHighlights yahoogroups web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/message/1726


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Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster.

#1728 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:46 am
Subject: #1728 - Thursday, March 11, 2004
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 

#1728 - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - Editor: Jerry

Nondual Highlights Home: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

 

 
 
Vicki Woodyard  -  NDS
http://www.bobwoodyard.coom
 
Until You Have Chosen

Lizelle Reymond wrote a book called To Live Within.  It is a difficult book to understand; I have read through it several times.  It is dry and foreign to the ego.  Her guru's name was Sri Anirvan.  He told her that when she knew her place in the universe, she would leave him.  He was a Baul, one destined for freedom.

Dancing with life can only happen truly when you know your place in the universe.  Your dance will only have beauty and meaning when you have chosen truth.  Until then, you will partner division and ignorance. 

Dancing with life will only have depth when we choose.  Choose to own our beauty, strength and eternal nature.  Others will fear it, hate it and argue against it.  So will we.  Something in us knows.  Will we recognize it for what it is?

Spirit demands choice--inner choice which the world does not require.  We must find our ballast, heft and conscience before we can dance with beauty and meaning. Take it quickly, put on your shoes and begin. 

And the Bauls came
they danced
they sang

And they disappeared
in the mist...
and the house was left empty...the house...
in the mist...

Song murmured by Ramakrishna shortly before he died
 
Mary Bianco - NDS
 
Hi Vicki,
 
I like to read your posts because you write from a kind heart
that expresses honesty, vulnerability, humor and deep insights.
Meant to send this to you a while ago when you wrote of
Kwan Yin on a motorcycle. Your images inspire me.
How's Larry?
 
gotta zoom off to work...love mary
 



 
 
Daily Dharma
 
"Say for instance, that you're meditating, and a feeling of anger toward
your mother appears. Immediately, the mind's reaction is to identify the
anger as 'my' anger, or to say that 'I'm' angry. It then elaborates on
the feeling, either working it into the story of your relationship to
your mother, or to your general views about when and where anger toward
one's mother can be justified. The problem with all this, from the
Buddha's perspective, is that these stories and views entail a lot of
suffering. The more you get involved in them, the more you get
distracted from seeing the actual cause of the suffering: the labels of
'I' and 'mine' that set the whole process in motion. As a result, you
can't find the way to unravel that cause and bring the suffering to an
end.

"If, however, you can adopt the emptiness mode -- by not acting on or
reacting to the anger, but simply watching it as a series of events, in
and of themselves -- you can see that the anger is empty of anything
worth identifying with or possessing. As you master the emptiness mode
more consistently, you see that this truth holds not only for such gross
emotions as anger, but also for even the most subtle events in the realm
of experience. This is the sense in which all things are empty. When you
see this, you realize that labels of 'I' and 'mine' are inappropriate,
unnecessary, and cause nothing but stress and pain. You can then drop
them. When you drop them totally, you discover a mode of experience that
lies deeper still, one that's totally free."


~Thanissaro Bhikkhu

From the article, "Emptiness," from the web site, "Access To Insight,"
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thanissaro/emptiness.html

 

 
 
Harsha
NDS
 
If we understand Sri Ramana's teaching, we see that
anything other than what is already here, no matter
how beautiful and captivating, will always turn out to
be a mirage.

A mirage can never satisfy our thirst. Therefore, we
have to understand what is already here. What is
always here?

People speak of being in the present moment. It is
just a way of speaking. How can we be separate from
the moment. We are never in the present moment. We Are
Always The Present Moment.

See that this presence, this ordinary presence, is the
True Presence. This mind, this ordinary mind, is the
Buddha Mind.

Is it possible to truly understand anyone's suffering
other than by reference to one's own? It always comes
back to that.

Is it possible to know anyone else's self without
reference to one's own self?

This is why the ancient sages beautifully declare,
"Know That by which all else is known."

Know That by which all else is known.

Love to all
Harsha
 
 

 
 
RK Shankar
 
Self-Knowing
4th 5-line verse translated

With the loosening, of the one primal bondage of 'work',
With the springing (into existence), of the one primal loss of (the) 'birth'
(of the ego),
more than whichever 'that' (non-native) other path (in vogue),
'this' path (of Self-Knowing through Self-Enquiry is) very easy.

'Abiding still seated (in the Self)',
without a little of the 'cause' of the work of body, mind and speech,
Listen! (there will be) the Light of the Self within, the Eternal
Experience-Knowledge!
(the) Fear (of the ego) will not be, (but, only) the Ocean of Bliss (of the
Self, will be)!

Yours in Sri Bhagawan
RK Shankar

 

 
 
Ben Hassine
Awakened Awareness
 
Ribhu Gita - Chapter 26 (cont-d)

UNDIFFERENTIATED ABIDANCE IN THE NONDUAL NATURE


35
That which is verily of the nature of the Supreme Brahman,
Which verily is of the nature of the Supreme Siva,
What verily is of the nature of the immaculate,
What verily is of the nature of the Supreme State,
Which verily is of the nature of the Knowledge of Reality,
And which verily is of the nature of the Supreme Truth --
That, indeed, am I.
By such conviction, be in the Bliss of ever being That itself.

36
That which is verily of the nature of the pure Absolute,
Which verily is of the nature of a mass of Bliss,
Which verily is of the nature of the subtle Supreme,
Which verily is of the nature of the self-luminous,
Which verily is of the nature of the nondual,
And which verily is of the nature of the meaning of the undifferentiated --
That, indeed, am I.
By such conviction, be in the Bliss of ever being That itself.

37
That which is verily of the nature of Truth,
Which is verily of the nature of the peaceful Absolute,
Which verily is of the nature of the eternal,
Which verily is of the nature of the attributeless,
Which verily is of the nature of the Self,
Which verily is of the nature of the undivided Absolute --
That, indeed, am I.
By such conviction, be in the Bliss of ever being That itself.

 
Alessandro
NDS
 
A dialogue from Arjuna, the Anime.
 


Juna:
Do you know when the food I eat turns into me?

Tokyo:
Of course it happens the moment you eat it.

Juna:
 Like when it goes into my mouth?
Or when it goes into my stomach?

Tokiyo:
Well, when it's in your mouth, it's pretty much still just food.
So, maybe when it goes into your stomach?

Juna:
There're foods that come out undigested,
after they go through your stomach.

Tokiyo:
Well, maybe it's when the food gets digested,
and absorbed into your body.

Juna:
When it gets absorbed and becomes blood?

Tokiyo:
Yeah, that's it. Eventually food becomes blood and then flesh.

Juna:
Then, would you say that my blood is me?
If my blood was actually me
and then my blood were to be transfused into you
does that mean I become you?

Tokiyo:
What? Let's see...

Juna:
And what about breath?
When I breathe in and inhale the air around me
the oxygen gets absorbed into my blood
and that becomes a part of me, right?
Then, if I were to exhale and you were to breathe that in
does that mean I become you as well?

Tokiyo:
How could there be something so ridiculous?
I mean, think about it.
Whether it's blood or breath
there's no emotion, no soul or spirit.

Juna:
Soul? If that's the case,where is the soul?

Tokiyo:
Well, that's in the brain or something.

Juna:
Then, any part of me other than my brain is not me?
My arms, legs, stomach and heart are not part of me?

Tokiyo:
Well...

Ciao,
Alessandro
Synopsis of Arjuna:
 
Now, a miracle is about to be created upon this planet.
 
Teenage girl Juna Ariyoshi struggles to find her place in the world,
just as everyone does. But destiny has a special fate in store for
Juna. After a motorcycle accident leaves her fatally wounded, a strange
form appears before her and offers to save her life, if she will take
up his cause and fight against the creatures known only as the Raaja.
Confused but desperately wanting to live, Juna reluctantly accepts the
mysterious offer. Now she is reborn as The Avatar of Time; her mission
is to protect the planet Earth, which is slowly dying. To the people
around her, including her friend Tokio, Juna doesn't look any different
-- but she certainly is acting stange.
 
These mysterious creatures prowl the world... strange incarnates called
Raaja, that take the form of the various contaminates that plague the
earth. To kill them would be to fall victim to the behavior that drives
the Raaja. The only way to truly conquer them is by purifying them, but
how do you purify a faceless, angry beast? With the help of her friend,
Tokio, will Juna be able to master her new-found powers as the avatar
of time, and restore a sense of balance between man and nature before
its too late?
http://shop.hkdvdstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=1092
 
 

 
 
Sugar Gandolf
NDS
 
Just an FYI, there has been a single meeting of this group (see
below) in person so far in NYC (about 15 people showed up to a
Starbucks, I had intended to go but was unable), it got
good "reviews" from some who went. There is a plan for monthly
meetings, as well as the possibility of attending other events w/
group members, if desired. I'm not interested in it as an email
list, but the social aspect seems unusually promising in a city
where this kind of informal, open meeting of the "like-minded" (?)
seldom seems to cohere. Take care, su

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycaware/

text from home page:

Welcome to NYC Aware!

We are a group created for those whom personal growth/spiritual
development is one of the most important aspects of life. What these
concepts share is the importance of developing and deepening one's
awareness. NYC Aware was formed as the East Coast counterpart to the
group SFBay-Aware. Please read this description carefully before
deciding to join.

Has your life been guided, consciously or unconsciously, by these
questions: What do I really want? Am I as happy and emotionally
healthy as I could be? Who am I, really?

Have you embraced psychological and/or spiritual practices such as
counseling, yoga, spiritual healing, mindfulness meditation, art
therapy, journaling or self-inquiry along your life's journey?

Also:

1. You have probably come to the point where you have recognized
that material or other types of "success" are unlikely to bring you
the happiness that you are seeking. And you're probably concerned as
well with what this lifestyle is doing to the planet and your fellow
humans.

2. You are not all that interested in much of what popular culture
considers "fun," particularly when it comes to drinking, smoking,
partying and drugs. You may have tried these but you've realized
that they are not only NOT the answer, but actually an obstacle to
your deepest desires. And so you have faced any addictive tendencies
(or are currently doing so), whatever they may be.

3. Kindness, compassion, freedom, peace and simply "being real" are
words that ring true to your heart, overused as they may be. You are
constantly seeking to manifest in your life the true meaning behind
these words.

Finally - you are in search of supportive friends and community on a
similar path and will give you encouragement and companionship
through it all.

So if you feel that ALL of the above fits you well, then please join
us! There is no "in crowd" in this group...you are an
equal...welcome!

Note: This is not a "singles group," just a social group.

We must find our ballast, heft and conscience before we can dance
with beauty and meaning. --
Vicki Woodyard.
Graphic contributed by Su Gandolf
 
 

 
 
Bob Rose
Meditation Society of America
 
My name is H-- and I live in the UK (someone has to!) I've often
thought about meditation but never bothered learn nore. Now I'm sorry
to say I have an ulteia motive for being here.
 
My wife has a condition known as CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome),
its been likened to putting your hand in boiling water and never being
able to take it out, in her case it is in her leg. Drugs dont help
much, she is on the strongest possible and she says it only takes the
edge off.
 
We asked at the pain clinic about meditation and he said 'it cant hurt'
smilling, but he did not say where or how to learn.
 
Well thats us and why we are here.
 
Thanks for letting us join.
 
Harry
 
Dear Harry,
 
I am confident that you and your wife can benefit greatly
from meditation. As an RN, I've had the experience of seeing a patients
pain go away just by distracting them by talking about something they
are interested in. I particularly remember watching as a nurse chatted
with the patient whose pain was the hardest for us to control
chemically, about the local baseball team, and the patient comnpletely
forgetting the pain. This connects with Sandeep's correct observation
that pain can be very associated and primed by the mind, as well as
physically.
 
On our web site, Meditation Station, we have a good healing technique
that has been used successfully by many, and can be found on many other
sites as well (like the physicians againstpain site), that has a pain
relief component in it. Here's the URL:
http://www.meditationsociety.com/week29.html
 
We also have a Guided Meditation CD that I will be glad to mail you
that has 7 different guided techniques which will be able to teach your
wife how to meditate as well as let her guide and control her attention
towards the objects of her meditation and away from her pain. Just
email me with a mailing address, and I'll send it right out. The Email
# is: medit8@...
 
In any event, I feel you both will be pleased by the results you get
from meditation in dealing with pain. It also has the potential to let
you find the root causes of stressors that affect one daily and prevent
the calm that allows our mind and emotions, as well as our body, to
flow functionally with maximum wellness. And, as you were told, it
can't hurt :-) I wish you both all good.
 
Peace and blessings,
Bob

 

 
 
Harsha
 
 
A True Guru is like a bridge. One end of the bridge invites one to use one's energy and start walking (that is the method). The other end of the bridge invites one to rest (that is the goal). The last step is not easy and so there is the Guru existing as the bridge inviting us to take it, to take the last step and to see with our own eyes, our own true nature. Faith and trust are helpful at some stage. To allow for that faith to flower is Grace. Guru is Grace.
 
 

 
 
Announcing
Anqa Publishing
 
 
Anqa Publishing is dedicated to bringing out the works of the great Andalusian mystic, Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165–1240), and his line. These writings contain some of the most beautiful and comprehensive depictions of the vision of One Reality in all its facets.
 
Our aim is to produce:

• High-quality translations of these classic texts, most of which have never appeared before in Western languages.
• New and authoritative editions of the Arabic texts, using the best manuscripts available.
• Contemporary writings and studies of Ibn 'Arabi's teaching


 
 
'Celtic Visions' celebrates culture and helps children. (Artist Gayle Clark Fedigan) fell in love ... with the landscapes of Ireland, which she painted from a cottage she rented in Fanore during the second week of her stay.

''It's like mystically beautiful,'' said Fedigan, who was enamored with Ireland's sunsets. ''There's myths and it's on the gulf stream. It's warm and welcoming, very mystical and it's a very spiritual place to be.'' -more-

#1729 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sun Mar 14, 2004 1:50 pm
Subject: #1729 - Friday, March 12, 2004
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 

#1729 - Friday, March 12, 2004 - Editor: Jerry

Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
 

 
Petros
Petros-Truth
 
In my pilgrimage and explorations through India this month one thing that has stood out in my mind as worthy of note is the all too obvious gap between what passes for religion among ordinary people and what constitutes true spirituality, or recognition of the Truth of Reality, among those who dedicate themselves to spiritual awakening. Religion is the generally mechanical repetition of rites and structures that is infrequently analyzed or considered profoundly. It arises after a real outbreak of "spirit," not before -- that is, spirituality is prior to religion when looked at in this light. The process is astonishingly fast; it doesn't take centuries for a spiritual movement to devolve into mechanical religiosity, but can happen in a matter of moments, in the period between an inner awakening and the time it takes the personal ego to solidify the vision and make it into a "structure" to be exploited for some other end.

Petros (currently in Vrindavan, India.)
 
 

 
 
 
Mark Otter
NDS
 
All I've ever needed to know,
I learned by watching logs burn in my fireplace.

 
 

 
 
Gill Eardley
Allspirit Inspiration
 
Temper

Another zen story from paul reps:

Temper

A zen student came to Bankei and complained: Master, I
have an ungovernable temper. How can I cure it?
'You have something very strange,' replied Bankei.
'Let me see what you have.'

'Just now I cannot show it to you' replied the other.
'When can you show it to me?' asked Bankei.
'It arises unexpectedly ,' replied the student.

'Then,' concluded Bankei, 'it must not be your own
true nature. If it were, you could show it to me at
any time. When you were born you did not have it,
and your parents did not give it to you. Think that
over.'

 
 

 

Joyce Know-Mystery
Listcology

"Groupthink" on the Internet

by Jeremy Stangroom

"Regular readers of this column will have noticed that I make frequent reference to Gordon Graham's book, The Internet: a philosophical inquiry. I originally reviewed this book in the Winter 2000 issue of TPM. I liked it, but thought that he didn't know quite enough about his subject matter for it to be a really good book. I stand by that judgement, but in retrospect think that I underestimated the significance of at least one of his arguments, namely, his analysis of "pure confluences of interest".

Graham's argument is that the internet is a medium which enables people to seek out exclusively kindred spirits and to avoid ever being exposed to views which are contrary to their own. He claims, for example, that:

"the self-made philosopher with a grand but completely vacuous 'theory of everything' will sooner or later find a coterie of people whose knowledge and critical acumen is even less, but who are willing to be impressed." (p. 99)

He thinks that this is a bad thing, because it encourages moral fragmentation, a descent into a kind of moral anarchy.

My objection to this argument was that it rested on a misunderstanding of the internet. The internet, I claimed, is a critical and self-reflexive community, and I noted that whilst it is possible to find self-proclaimed philosophers on the net, it is also the case that when they venture onto public forums they tend to be chased away mercilessly. I now think that this objection is mostly wrong.

At first thought, it seems obvious that the internet is an aggressively argumentative place. If you have a look at the various newsgroups, for example, you'll find that peace only rarely breaks out. And even the myriad special interest discussion forums which have sprung up in the last few years are characterised as much by dissent as by agreement. However, what I failed to recognise when I originally reviewed Graham's book is that the simple fact of dissent is not enough to guarantee that people's preconceptions and prejudices are properly challenged. The reason why has to do with the nature of group dynamics, and particularly with a kind of virtual world "groupthink".

The term "groupthink" was coined by psychologist Irving Janis to describe how decision-making in groups can be distorted by various pressures to conform. He argued that groupthink is characterised by a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment. Specifically, groupthink can result in: shared stereotyping; a denigration of non-members of the group; intolerance of dissent; moral certitude; a reluctance to examine preconceptions; and a resistance to new and countervailing ideas..

Janis was interested in the specific question of how groupthink can result in bad policy decisions, as in the case, for example, of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. However, it is quite possible to see a kind of groupthink at work in internet communities. For obvious reasons, this is most evident in those communities dominated by people who share pre-existing religious, moral or political beliefs. In such communities, one does find dissent and argument, but it tends to be circumscribed in two important ways.

First, amongst the most active members of the group, whilst there might be disagreements over matters of detail, there is normally very little disagreement about fundamental beliefs. For example, if you visit the discussion board of the extreme right-wing UK political party, the National Front, you'll find that whilst there are arguments about how the repatriation of non-white people should be achieved, there is no disagreement that repatriation is a good thing.

Second, on those comparatively rare occasions that somebody does question the more fundamental beliefs of the community, it provides an opportunity for its core members to reaffirm their commitment to the group by means of their condemnation of the interloper. Moreover, it is in their responses to this kind of challenge that group members will most often manifest the characteristic signs of groupthink.

It is primarily for these two reasons that the ubiquity of argument on the internet is no guarantee that people's preconceptions and prejudices will be properly challenged. Does this matter? On occasions it probably will. For example, consider the case of the "Heaven's Gate" cult. Thirty-nine of its members committed suicide seemingly because they believed that the Hale-Bopp comet was a sign that it was time for them to "leave" the Earth to be transported by means of a spacecraft to another world. The interesting point about this cult was that its isolation was facilitated by the internet. It was financed by a web design business, which meant that members had no need of contact with anyone but other members. Indeed, as Martin Rees points out in Our Final Century, the core beliefs of the cult were continually reinforced by selective transcontinental electronic contact with other adherents of the cult.

Of course, this is an extreme case, one that might not ever be repeated. Nevertheless, there is something slightly disturbing about the idea that the internet allows people to filter the kinds of inputs which they receive so that they largely avoid material which challenges their worldview. Although the internet is trumpeted as a great force for bringing people closer together, it might yet turn out that in many aspects it tends to encourage moral fragmentation and group polarisation."

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
silence on the rocks
in protective coloring
seventeen turnstones
showing when the food is good
small friends can be great

 
--Jan Barendrecht NDS
 

 
 
Kriben Pillay
 
Review of Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, by Jed McKenna
 
 
Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment is a compelling, punchy
continuation of Jed McKenna’s first book. But it leaves me conflicted;
to write a review that unpacks its many penetrating facets would be a
book in itself, so I have to be content with the alternative of
creating thumbnail images of its magnificence, which in itself would be
flawed because there would be too many for the length of this brief
review.
 
So let me concentrate on one of the book’s main threads; its central
narrative device – that of re-examining Moby-Dick. McKenna does this
not as some intellectual exercise in literary criticism, but as an
investigation of what was most likely a process of spiritual awakening
for Melville. And while doing this, McKenna deftly interprets
Moby-Dick’s symbols within the paradigm of awakening, where this
unfolding happens within the context of slaying the false, of “the
pursuit of truth; truth at any price.” But is this all? I am happy to
say no.
 
Why? Because the Moby-Dick thread intertwines with the story of a woman
deeply involved in undoing herself through the writing process that
McKenna calls Spiritual Autolysis (the journalist Julie whom we met in
the first book). And all of this is situated within the story of Jed
himself; the story of an awakened author unmasking a literary
masterpiece, which is about a character, Ahab, unmasking himself, which
is really about its creator, Herman Melville, unmasking himself. And in
the process, inevitably, it is about Jed McKenna unmasking himself. For
me, this is the true intent of the book. Is it about awakening? Yes. Is
it about what others show the awakened condition to be? Yes. But it is
more. And if you can pierce this “more”, you the reader will begin to
awaken, by unmasking the layers of fictions we are caught in. McKenna
points out that Melville plays fair with his readers and shows us in
the very first line of Moby-Dick who Ishmael really is. McKenna also
plays fair by showing us who he really is. This is also revealed in the
opening lines of this book:
 
"Call me Ahab.
 
Though, in truth, I am more Ahab than Ahab. I am the underlying reality
of Ahab; the fact upon which the fiction is based. Captain Ahab is a
rendering; the literary likeness of a true thing. I am that true thing..."
 
It is my sense that Jed McKenna is saying to the reader – indeed
pulling her by the collar and forcing her to look – that if you can
unmask the fictions of this work then you, the reader, will be
unmasked. And in that unmasking you might discover that there is no Jed
McKenna, as indeed there is no you.
 
And, there’s more… McKenna tells us what we can and cannot do in terms
of awakening. We cannot choose to awaken out of the dream, but we can
choose to awaken within it. The latter is about becoming a Human Adult.
Not something that is characteristic of most of humanity. And let’s not
forget the piercing voice of U.G. Krishnamurti, which places in relief
the story that McKenna so skilfully weaves.
 
It might be that some may see Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment as
better than its predecessor. McKenna has made it awfully difficult for
me to decide. And why should I? They’re not two.
 
Kriben Pillay, D.Phil.
 
Editor of The Noumenon Journal
 
Author of The Story of the Forgetful Ice Lollies
 
 
 

 
 
Harsha and Eric P.
NDS
 
 
Harsha wrote:

This morning I mentioned to someone what I thought was
a classic funny quote, "Life is tough and then you get
old and die."

I was told that the actual quote is, "Life sucks and
then you die."

I like my version a lot better. The term "suck" seems
a little negative.

One of Buddha's four noble truths was that, "There is
suffering," which is a way of saying the same thing,
so these things do go way back.

Love to all
Harsha
Eric P. wrote:

ANNIE HALL

written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

(Sound and Woody Allen monologue begin)

FADE IN:

White credits dissolve in and out on black screen.  No sound.

FADE OUT: credits

FADE IN:

Abrupt medium close-up of Alvy Singer doing a comedy monologue.  He
wearing a crumbled sports jacket and tieless shirt; the background is
stark.
 


ALVY        
There's an old joke.  Uh, two elderly
women are at a Catskills mountain
resort, and one of 'em says: "Boy, the
food at this place is really terrible."
The other one says, "Yeah, I know, and
such ... small portions." Well, that's
essentially how I feel about life.  Full
of loneliness and misery and suffering
and unhappiness, and it's all over much
too quickly.  The-the other important
joke for me is one that's, uh, usually
attributed to Groucho Marx, but I think
it appears originally in Freud's wit and
its relation to the unconscious.  And it
goes like this-I'm paraphrasing: Uh ...
"I would never wanna belong to any club
that would have someone like me for a
member." That's the key joke of my adult
life in terms of my relationships with
women.  Tsch, you know, lately the
strangest things have been going
through my mind, 'cause I turned forty,
tsch, and I guess I'm going through a
life crisis or something, I don't know.
I, uh ... and I'm not worried about aging. 
I'm not one o' those characters, you know.
Although I'm balding slightly on top, that's
about the worst you can say about me.  I,
uh, I think I'm gonna get better as I get
older, you know?  I think I'm gonna be the-
the balding virile type, you know, as
opposed to say the, uh, distinguished
gray, for instance, you know?  'Less I'm
neither o' those two. Unless I'm one o'
those guys with saliva dribbling out of
his mouth who wanders into a cafeteria
with a shopping bag screaming about
socialism.
(Sighing)

#1730 From: "Michael A. Read" <maread@...>
Date: Sun Mar 14, 2004 9:26 pm
Subject: #1730 - Saturday, March 13, 2004
mareadba
Send Email Send Email
 

#1730 - Saturday, March 13, 2004 - Editor: michael
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 

 
HEAD SPACE
 
 

 
 
Your Head In The Tiger’s Mouth
Consciousness is all there is. So "who" is to know or seek "what"? All there is, is the impersonal functioning of Consciousness, or God, reflecting within itself the totality of manifestation. Live life making decisions and accepting the consequences as if you have free will - knowing it is Consciousness seeking, doing, living, deciding...
 
Ramesh S. Balsekar
 

Head space. We live in our heads. Our sense of identifty is wrapped up in our thoughts, our beliefs, our hopes, our fears, and our expectations. Our minds seem an endless source of thoughts. Our thoughts effect our emotions, our feelings. Our sense of well being or not being so well is often founded on whatever thought(s) we are giving attention to in the moment. Happy thoughts seem to lift us up in spirit and sad thoughts seem to weigh us down.
 
Sages such as Ramesh S. Balsekar tell us that Conciousness is doing it all; in a rather impersonal way. Thus, one might tend to think that there is no joy or bliss to be found by anybody. Why? Well, Conciousness (God) is doing it all. In other words we are suffering under the delusion that we are somebody. Impersonal functioning of Conciousness doesn't leave much room for you and I. Or does it? Implied within the above quote is the message that we are not the "who" or "what" no, we are the Conciousness that is doing it all.
 
The seeker after enlightenment or awakening or realization (or whatever term one prefers) is perpetualy caught on the horns of a dilema. On the one horn are the sages who say that the seeker is already what is sought. The other horn informs the seeker that he or she is a separate being; somehow apart and individual from Conciousness. What happens then, when the bull tosses its head? Ah, the Tiger's Mouth awaits!
 
In this edition I've included the headless stories of D. E. Harding, Greg Goode, and Vicki Woodyard. There is also some food for thought and something to warm the heart.
 
as ever - be well,
 
michael
 
 

 

D. E. Harding (1961) On Having No Head- Zen and the rediscovery of the obvious. London, Arkana.

The best day of my life- my rebirthday, so to speak- was when I found I had no head. ...

It was when I was thirty-three that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent inquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: WHAT AM I? The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. ...

What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: just for the moment I stopped thinking. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. I forgot my name, my humanness, my thingness, all that could be called me or mine. Past and future dropped away. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouserlegs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in - absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.

It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been, was no ordinary vacency, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything - room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snow-peaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.

---------------------------------

Discussion proved almost invariably quite fruitless. "Naturally I can't see my head," my friends would say. "So what?" And foolishly I would begin to reply: "So everything! So you and the whole world are turned upside down and inside out..." It was no good. I was unable to describe my experience in a way that interested the hearers, or conveyed to them anything of its quality or significance. ... Here was something perfectly obvious, immensely significant, a revelation of pure and astonished delight - to me and nobody else! When people start seeing things others can't see, eyebrows are raised, doctors sent for. And here was I in much the same condition, except that mine was a case of NOT seeing things. Some loneliness and frustration were inevitable. This is how a real madman must feel (I thought) - cut off, unable to communicate.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualitySalon/message/83633

From:  "skiplaurel"
Date:  Sat Mar 13, 2004  8:11 am
Subject:  On Having No Head

(ed. note: "Larry" is Vickie's irreverent spirit guide and "Ruin" is the stck pony that Larry rides)
 
On Having No Head

There has been a terrible accident. Larry and Ruin were heading home after
satsang. From what the police can tell us, a blue Ford Mustang rear-ended
Larry. No one was hurt, but Ruin's head came off, leaving Larry only a stick to
ride. Those of us who love Ruin were devastated. We were not sure what to do.
We couldn't send him get well cards because he couldn't read. We couldn't send
casseroles because his digestive system had been disconnected from his mouth.
How do you let a stick know that you love it? I thought about Douglas Harding's
briliant book "On Having No Head." I could visit Ruin and Larry and read aloud
from it. I lost no time in finding the book and hightailing it over to Larry's.

Larry lived, where else, in a trailer park. It was a lovely one with little
Toto-like dogs waiting to be blown away. Red geraniums spilled from goose
planters and wagon wheels were growing out of the dirt like fine landscaping
materials.

Larry's trailer was an old Airstream. I knocked at the door and Larry let me
in. He had obviously been crying. The accident had shaken him up, but more than
that, his best friend lay in two parts on the sagging corduroy couch.

Silently I approached the motionless horse. Tears were welling up in Larry's
eyes as he said, "He's not long for this world." I thought to myself that he
wasn't long, period. He had never been more than two hands high and without his
head, he was definitely a minature pony. His head lay on one cushion and his
body further on down the couch. I sat between the two Ruins and wished I had
gone to veterinary school, or at the very least--to a doll hospital.

Larry said, "Guess he's not good for anything but the glue factory."

That was it! I asked Larry if he had some wood glue and he did. We operated on
Ruin right away. Without rubber gloves or sterilization, we put Ruin's head and
his body on the kitchen table and performed crude surgery. Re-attaching the
head to the body was a risky procedure, we knew that. However dangerous it was,
it had to be done. Otherwise, Ruin would have no quality of life at all--not to
mention Larry.

Hours later, Larry and I came to. (We had fallen asleep after the re-attachment
was complete.) We raced into the kitchen, where Ruin still lay on the kitchen
table. Would he be able to ride again? I put my hand on his neck and the glue
had held. I turned to Larry and said with emotion, "Would you like to ride him
around the room...but carefully?"

Larry lifted Ruin off the table and took the reins in his hand. I, overcome with
emotion, could only watch as they galloped around the green ottoman. It had all
been worth it. I guess I wouldn't be reading from Douglas Harding after all.

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com

 
 
       Wisdom is ever
       the gentle province
       of compassion.
       For there is no wisdom
       outside the heart
       or learning more profound
       than love.
       An aspiration to knowledge
       apart from compassion
       is without peace.
       Just as an aspiration
       to peace,
       without compassion,
       is unknown.


http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2020845808.cms

Love Thyself
Swami Chaitanya Keerti, Osho Rajyoga Meditation Centre, New Delhi

 

''Relate with others, but relate with yourself also. Love others, but love yourself also. Go out! - the world is beautiful, adventurous; it is a challenge, it enriches. Don't lose that opportunity! Whenever the world knocks at your door and calls you, go out! Go out fearlessly - there is nothing to lose; there is everything to gain. But don't get lost. Don't go on and on and get lost. Sometimes, come back home. Sometimes, forget the world - those are the moments for meditation. Each day, if you want to become balanced, you should balance the outer and the inner. They should carry the same weight so that inside, you never become lopsided."

From Osho: A Sudden Clash Of Thunder

Know, understand, and accept yourself if you have to understand others better, advises the author as he unravels the mysteries of the human soul.

 Have you ever wondered why do you exist? How did you come about? Was there any need for you to exist? You are such a miracle! These are quirky questions that have no real answers. But the fact is that you exist - whether anybody wants it or not, whether you can fulfill certain roles or not.

 You are a mystery for existence. You have been given this life to live, to create, to celebrate - to do everything that is possible. Don't you value this significant opportunity? Or are you not bothered at all?

 Most people live their lives as if they are not bothered at all. Life is there, it is taken for granted, and it is wasted in routine, in unawareness. Such a valuable treasure, and it is not valued at all.

So, when you wake up in the morning, pause for a while, and meditate before you are caught up in the whirlpool of activity. Feel grateful that life has given you one more opportunity to live it differently. Feel grateful that in spite of everything you have been doing, existence is still interested in you and wants you to continue.

 Have reverence for existence and love for yourself. Existence loves you and needs you. Let your love reach every cell of your being and energise it. 

Before you start showering your love on others, begin with yourself. It is always easier to love others than oneself, because one keeps finding faults with oneself and always feels inadequate. But do you understand that you are present in existence because existence wants you to be there - the way you are.

 Existence imposes no conditions on you. It loves you unconditionally - whether you are a sinner or a saint. It accepts as you are - in your totality. The sun, the moon, the stars, and everything in nature accept you. Learn from nature and accept yourself.

 When you wake up, just wash your face and look into the mirror. Look at yourself as if you are looking at your beloved, or at a child. Let your heart speak from your eyes and look with wondrous joy at who you are. For some moments, forget everything and be with yourself. These are the rare moments when you can pour all your love at yourself and feel blessed.

 This is a meditation to create a new rhythm in your life. Remember: such a lovely beginning will certainly make you love everybody. You will breathe love. Your very vibe would be that of love. The magnet of love will work wonders - you will get back love a thousand folds. There can be no other more powerful meditation than love. Love Is God.


 
 
The Antikythera Mechanism

A True Mystery of the Ancient World

Nonsense and pseudo science run rampant in our world. Claims of conspiracy and extra natural phenomenology replace the proper use of rational inquiry to examine the unknown. Often, the creation of a pseudo science mythology is easier and more profitable than performing the needed research to discover a historical or physical fact.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/electric.html

 

What is the nature of consciousness? Is it limited to humans? Does free will exist? Read on for one scientist's view.

The Electric Brain

How does a three-pound mass of wet gray tissue (the brain) succeed in representing the external world so beautifully? In this interview with noted neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás of the New York University School of Medicine, find out how the rhythm of electrical oscillations in the brain gives rise to consciousness, and how failures in this rhythm can lead to a variety of brain disorders.


http://www.zoofence.com/theohome.html   with thanks to Sarlo for pointing to this page

Brother Theophyle walks the path

Theophyle at The Zoo Fence

 


http://www.beliefnet.com/story/141/story_14141_1.html

How to Live Forever Right Now
Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman invites everyone -- no matter what your religion -- to awaken to 'infinite life.'
Interview by Lisa Schneider
Robert Thurman was personally ordained by the Dalai Lama in 1965, making him the first Westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert ThurmanHe still holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, at Columbia University. Author of the international bestseller "Inner Revolution," he is co-founder and president of Tibet House U.S., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture. Thurman's latest book is "Infinite Life."

You've been called the "Buddhist Billy Graham" and a "Dharma-thumping evangelist." What do you think the people who refer to you this way are getting at?

I am not an evangelist in the sense that I'm trying to get people to be Buddhist. But I believe every liberal academic -- not liberal in the sense of liberal vs. conservative, but in the sense of liberal arts -- is an evangelist for wisdom. Is an evangelist for decency and compassion and ethics. Wants to educate people to live a better life and to be better persons, to be more kind, more wise, more intelligent, and to understand the world better. .

Buddhism means awakening, so I am an evangelist for awakening. I agree with the Dalai Lama that it doesn't mean becoming a Buddhist; it means becoming an awakened Christian, an awakened Jew, an awakened Muslim, an awakened Secularist Humanist. But awakened meaning understanding what's going on, being kind to others, which is a source of your own happiness after all. I don't mind being accused of being an evangelist for wanting to help people awaken to that.

The Buddha's first noble truth is "life is suffering." How do we overcome suffering?

The Buddha was referring to the suffering of unenlightened living, which means the suffering of self-centeredness and disconnection from others, shutting yourself off in a world of narcissistic self involvement.

The minute you awaken to the cause of suffering, which is your self-preoccupation and your self-misperception, your ignorance, then you'll begin to have a happy time. And the more you awaken to your interconnection with others, the more free of suffering you'll become.

The whole Buddhist path has to do with altruism and loving your neighbor, just as Christianity does. Christianity doesn't mean I love Jesus and he will save me and Jesus will love my neighbor. Christ says, You love your neighbor.


http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/atom_348

In God We Trust
United States | 16:35 | Jason Reitman


avg user rating

As Robert reads the words "In God We Trust" on a quarter, he is pulverized by a speeding truck. Upon his arrival in purgatory, Robert learns he is going to hell because he mowed the word asshole into his neighbor's lawn, shipped a box of vomit to his ex-girlfriend, and didn't get enough points in general. However, fate gives Robert a second chance and he escapes back to Earth. Now, he must score the points necessary to gain entry into heaven or die trying as the minions of purgatory use everything they've got to to stop him.


http://atman.net/nondualogicality/2003_01_20_nondualogicality_archive.html  with thanks to Jody

Monday, January 20, 2003

Identity, The Self, and the Snare of Significance

Why don't we know who we really are? Why are so many of us limited to the idea of being a person instead of understanding ourselves as limitlessness itself? Such questions are especially perplexing given the fact that we've never been anything else! What exactly is
Maya's veil, this trickery that has us seeing snakes instead of ropes?

The process of identity forms the crux of the problem. We identify as the individual person we know ourselves to be. We have always known ourselves as this individual, and as much as we've changed over the course of our lives, we've always been just us. It's all we've ever known, and that's a clue to who we really are.

However, the
sages tell us that we are not individuals at all, that we're never born and that we won't die either. A sensible person might not make much sense of this, but the sages insist it is so. Somehow, something that is not born and never dies gets born into a life that ends in certain death. It's as if the unborn gets stuck in being the born, like a child getting stuck playing with gooey bubble gum.

What we call "the mind" has evolved to do many things. It could be argued that one of its most important functions is to rank, to prioritize and label experiences and memories. We learned very early in our evolutionary history that some of our neighbors were stronger, and some were downright dangerous. If we wanted to survive we had to remember who to look out for and who to ignore. In essence, we learned what was significant. So the mind came up with a way to mark memories with varying levels of significance, and thus identity was born.

Significance, the mind's function of ranking memories with attached emotion, is the cause of identity. We (as individuals) are what we find significant, with the idea of being an individual person at the very top of the heap. This "idea of me," as
Ramakrishna called it, is actually just a thought, but because it is the most significant thought in our heads, it clouds our perceptual capacity and we miss the truth that's as plain as the nose on our faces.

The reason it's missed is this: who we really are is perfectly insignificant. We rest in ourselves in every moment, whether we are awake or asleep, shining deep within our hearts. The mind has evolved to see the significant (that which brings comfort or hardship) and ignore everything else, so how can we expect it to see the constant yet unmoving, silent presence of what is often called "The Self?"

We can't.

This tragedy is further compounded by that fact that almost all of so-called "spiritual" culture makes who we really are to be the most significant thing in the universe. We are led to believe that there's nothing greater than "The Self," that all the worlds arose because of it and that the entire universe rests on its being. That may well be true, but when the mind factors in and marks the inferred significance of this, it effectively eclipses the truth. We may as well have just blown off our foot with a shotgun!

What can be done about this? Perhaps not a whole lot, but if we endeavor to realize that what we are looking for is who we are right now, we might not waste so much time seeking something big and mighty and glorious -- that is, significant. We might do a bit better to seek out the small and quiet and quite unglorious, for that's much more akin to the wholly insignificant yet constant presence of this most significant of truths: we are all the One, The Self, right now.


Brother Theophyle at The Zoo FenceBrother Theophyle at The Zoo Fence

 
More Theo at The Zoo Fence     Theo's friend Rabbit



http://www.nonduality.com/goode.htm with thanks to Greg

No Separation

Years ago, there was lots and lots of vigilance in my life. Before and during spiritual seeking, I wasn't badly suffering or in pain or unhappy with circumstances in life or stuck in dysfunctional patterns. Instead, I felt a deep sense of loneliness, alienation, lack of fulfillment, and a strong yearning from the heart and mind to know "What is it all about? What is the purpose of life? What happens after? What are all these mystical truths that are spoken of? Where is fulfillment to be found?" I was very vigilant about it.

Going back 30+ years, I tried many, many different paths, from Ayn Rand's icy "Rational Selfishness" to the strictness and ecstasy of Born-Again Pentacostal Christianity. Years later, this all settled down to an intense inquiry.

For about 5 years, one question kept itself rooted in front of me. "What is the core of me?" I couldn't help it - I'd ponder this in every spare moment the mind wasn't engaged in something else. It was a sweet and relentless yearning. I really wanted to burrow into the deepest secrets of this. After a few years, the question refined itself. "What or where is this choosing, willing entity that seems to be in evidence?" "Is that the me?" "But where is it?"

The answer came one day while I was reading a book about consciousness. I was standing on the Grand Central subway platform during the evening rush hour, and the answer came. It didn't come as a conceptual statement like "It is ABC." Rather, it came by way of the world and the body imploding into a brilliant light, and the willing, phenomenal self thinning out, disappearing in a blaze of the same light. No separation was experienced; no time or space was experienced, yet I knew myself as the seeing itself. All "willings," "desirings," "thoughts" and other mentations were deeply experienced as spontaneous arisings in awareness, happening around no fixed point or location. And it wasn't personal. Not only the entity "Greg," but all apparent personal entities dissolved.

Out of nowhere, lightness, sweetness, brightness, and a fluidity of the world became qualities of everything, and became one with all experiences. My long-standing question had vanished along with what I had believed was "me." There arose resiliency, joy, and an untouchable happiness.

This experience uncovered the realization that without the conceptual structures that make things seem real, there is no presumption of a separate center. There is no suffering and no basis for suffering. There is no feeling that things should be different than they are. This is a sense of peace far beyond what happens when we get what we dream about.


http://www.zoofence.com/theohome.html  

Brother Theophyle walks the pathTheo working on spiritual issues

Brother Theophyle at The Zoo Fence


"The Divine Beloved is always with you, in you, and around you.  Know that you are not separate from Him." 

Meher Baba


http://www.bobwoodyard.com/satsang.htm with thanks to Vicki and her iMaculate Swami

 

“Swami Z makes a shambles where shambala used to be.”

Satsang With Swami Z

The doorbell rang before I had opened both eyes.  It was the Home Depot man.  I let him in and we sat down at the kitchen table.  “I want to build an addition on the back of the house,” I said.  “Big enough to have drop-in satsang.”  He looked at me like I had just spilled some brains out of my head and he was going to have to pick them up.

“You know--drop-in satsang.  Kick off your shoes and stay awhile satsang.”

He decided to let that comment go...to let it fly over his head.  “How big do you want it to be?”

“Big enough for  the universe and small enough so it won’t be overwhelming.  Swami usually manages to pull this off.  Surely you can do the same.”

Unfortunately Swami wandered in at that point, pulling his ratty red cardigan closed.  He had a notebook in his hand.  “Look what I found, Vicki,” he said, “my satsang notes from the seventies.”

I considered changing my mind about the whole deal.  I groaned, grimaced and got the picture.  Swami would be doing his reverse-Swami thing on a regular basis.  Let’s listen in...

“I’m not a spiritual teacher,” intoned Swami in a mock-serious way.  "I’m no one in particular.  I just happen to (and here his voice grew very conspiratorial).... know.”  He assumed a mock importance and offered his hand to me as he said, “This is one of my star students.”

What could I do but keep the charade going.  “Yes, dear Swami, I reverence your wisdom and your ability to keep your schtick in place no matter what.”  The Home Depot man couldn’t have cared less. He obviously knew loonies when he saw them.  “Okay, I’ll draw up a plan and get back to you.”

“Good, good,” I said, ushering him to the door.  When it closed behind him, I began to cry.  “Swami, I can’t do it.  I’ve aleady changed my mind.  I’m writing us back the way we used to be.”

He looked almost real as he said softly, “Would that were possible.  Would that were possible.”  But he didn’t say that.  I deleted that sentence and chose to have him say this, “Cheer up, kiddo, I’m about to make some cookies.”


 

emptied of thought

filled with being

space



#1733 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:36 pm
Subject: Re: [NDS] Virus through ND Highlights?
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
Dear NDS and Highlights Members,

Please read the following. In brief, Do not open any attachments from Jerry
or Gloria. Please read on. Thank you.

Jerry

-------------------------------------------------


----- Original Message -----
From: "durgaji108" <durgaji108@...>
To: <NondualitySalon@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 5:27 PM
Subject: [NDS] Virus through ND Highlights?


> Sorry to interrupt here.  But today I received two e-mails that
> appeared to be from ND Highlights which I usually receive via e-
> mail.  When I attempted to open the attachment on one.  I received a
> pop-up saying I had viruses.  When I did a scan, over 400 files were
> infected, and they can't be cleaned, and it said to delete them.  But
> they are important files, and I have been advised not to do that.
>
> Anyway, I'm trying to figure this out with a friend who is a
> programmer.  I wondered if this had occurred to anyone else, and also
> to warn people.  The e-mails came today.  One said it was from Jerry
> and the other from Gloria.  They both had attachments.
>
> Durga

Durga,

I'm sorry about this problem. It is the Beagle virus which has grabbed our
addresses.

Coincidentally, there are some emails going back and forth right now
privately about this and we were about to send a letter to the Highlights.

Neither Gloria or I are infected, according to updated scans.

Please do not open any attachments from anyone unless you've written them to
confirm they've sent one.

#1734 From: Jerry Katz <jerrykatz_halifax@...>
Date: Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:43 am
Subject: Highlights test
jerrykatz_ha...
Send Email Send Email
 
Pardon these tests while we assess the damage from the
virus to our email accounts.

Jerry

______________________________________________________________________
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#1735 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Tue Mar 16, 2004 3:03 am
Subject: Highlights test 2
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
This is in plain text. Yahoo is telling Gloria and me we can only post in
plain text. This test is to confirm that. Test emails sent in rich text were
bounced.

Thanks for your patience.

Jerry

#1736 From: "Gloria Lee" <glee@...>
Date: Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:07 am
Subject: #1736 Sunday, March 14, 2004
glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 


#1736 Sunday, March 14, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee

Please note new safety measures. We are now moderating our own messages to be sure no further bogus emails get through. Outside links are given to view images, if you prefer not to open any attachments, even a jpg.

If you are concerned that you may have the Beagle virus, please look at this information provided by McAfee. Anyone may download for free their Stinger program to scan and repair your files.

 

 
"If we study Japanese Art, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent, who spends his time doing what? In studying the distance between the earth and moon? No. In studying Bismark's policy? No. He studies a single blade of grass."    -- Vincent Van Gogh

 

From the writings of D.T. Suzuki

The answers given by Zen masters to the question "Who or what is
the Buddhas?" are full of varieties; and why so? One reason at
least is that they thus desire to free our minds from all
possible entanglements and attachment such as words, ideas,
desires, etc., which are put up against us from the outside. Some
of the answers are, then, as follows:

    "One made of clay and decorated with gold".
    "Even the finest artist cannot paint him".
    "The one enshrined in the Buddha Hall".
    "He is no Buddha".
    "Your name is Yecho".
    "The dirt-scraper all dried up".

    "See the eastern mountains moving over the waves".
    "No nonsense here".
    "Surrounded by the mountains are we here".
    "The bamboo grove at the foot of Chiang-lin hill".
    "Three pounds of flax".
    "The mouth is the gate of woe".
    "Lo, the waves are rolling over the plateau".
    "See the three-legged donkey go trotting along".
    "A reed has grown piercing through the leg".
    "Here goes a man with the chest exposed
        and the legs all naked".

These are culled at random from a few books I am using for the
purpose. When a thorough systematic search is made in the entire
body of Zen literature we get quite a collection of strange
statements ever made concerning such a simple question as, "Who
is the Buddha?" Some of the answers given above are altogether
irrelevant; they are, indeed, far from being appropriate so far
as we judge them from our ordinary standard of reasoning. The
other seem to be making sport of the question or of the
questioner himself. Can the Zen masters who make such remarks be
considered to be in earnest and really desiring the Enlightenment
of their followers? But the point is to have our minds work in
complete union with the state of mind in which the masters
uttered these strange words. When this is done, every one of
these answers appears in an altogether new light and becomes
wonderfully transparent.

Being practical and directly to the point, Zen never wastes time
or words in explanation. Its answers are always curt and pithy;
there is nothing circumlocutory in Zen; the master's words come
out spontaneously and without a moment's delay. A gong is struck
and its vibrations instantly follow. If we are not on the alert
we fail to catch them; a mere winking and we miss the mark
forever. They justly compare Zen to lightning. The rapidity,
however, does not constitute Zen; its naturalness, its freedom
from artificialities, its being expressive of life itself, its
originality -- these are the essential characteristics of Zen.
Therefore, we have always to be on guard not to be carried away
by outward signs when we really desire to get into the core of
Zen. How difficult and misleading it would be to try and
understand Zen literally and logically, depending on those
statements which have been given above as answers to the question
"What is Buddha?"

.......

A monk asked Daiju:

Q. Are words the Mind?

A. No, words are external conditions; they are not the Mind.

Q. Apart from external conditions, where is the Mind to be
sought?

A. There is no Mind independent of words. [That is to say, the
Mind is in the words, but is not to be identified with them.]

Q. If there is no Mind independent of words, what is the Mind?

A. The Mind is formless and imageless. The truth is, it is
neither independent of nor dependent upon words. It is eternally
serene and free in its activity. Says the Patriarch, 'When you
realize that the Mind is no Mind, you understand the Mind amid its
workings.'"

Daiju further writes: "That which produces all things is called
Dharma-nature, or Dharmakaya. By the so-called Dharma in meant
the Mind of all beings. When the Mind is stirred up, all things
are stirred up. When the Mind is not stirred up, there is no
stirring and there is no name. The confused do not understand
that the Dharmakaya, in itself formless, assumes individual forms
according to conditions. The confused take the green bamboo for
Dharmakaya itself, the yellow blooming tree for Prajna itself.
But if the tree were Prajna, Prajna would be identical with
non-sentient. If the bamboo were Dharmakaya, Dharmakaya would be
identical with a plant. But Dharmakaya exists, Prajna exists,
even when there is no blooming tree, no green bamboo. Otherwise,
when one eats a bamboo-shoot, this would be eating up Dharmakaya
itself. Such views as this are really not worth talking about".

http://www.geocities.com/upakaascetic/zen_intro.html


If Zen is to be called a form of mysticism, then it is so with a
rigorous discipline at the back of it. It is in that sense, and
not as it is understood by libertines, that Zen may be designated
naturalism. The libertines have no freedom of will, they are
bound hands and feet by external agencies before which they are
utterly helpless. Zen, on the contrary, enjoys perfect freedom;
that is, it is master of itself. Zen has no "abiding place", to
use a favourite expression in the "Prajnaparamita Sutra". When a
thing has its fixed abode, it is fettered, it is no more
absolute. The following dialogue will very clearly explain this
point.

A monk asked, "Where is the abiding place for the mind?"

"The mind", answered the master, "abides where there is no
abiding".

"What is meant by 'there is no abiding'?"

"When the mind is not abiding in any particular object, we say
that it abides where there is no abiding".

"What is meant by not abiding in any particular object?"

"It means not to be abiding in the dualism of good and evil,
being and non-being, thought and matter; it means not to be
abiding in emptiness or in non-emptiness, neither in tranquillity
nor in non-tranquillity. Where there is no abiding place, there
is truly the abiding place for the mind".


 
In Zen Buddhism D.T. Suzuki describes the relationship between the brush and the act of painting as follows: "Sumi-e artists chose these materials so as to transfer the line onto the paper as rapidly as the brush allowed with no deliberation, no erasing, no repetition, no 'doctoring', no building up. The artist must follow his inspiration as spontaneously and absolutely and instantly as it moves he just lets his arm, his fingers, his brush be guided by it as if they were all mere instruments, together with his whole being, in the hands of somebody else who has temporarily taken possession of him. - We may say that the brush itself executes the work quite outside the artist; who just lets it move on without his conscious efforts. If any logic or reflection comes between brush and paper, the whole effect is spoiled. In the way sumi-e is produced."(5)
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Ying Yu-chien’s
“A Mountain Village in Clearing Mist”

 

 

detail

 

This "spilled-ink" painting (1), is done in the free-spontaneous style of the Ch'an (2) monks of the 11th-century China (southern Sung), which later developed into the Sumiye painting of Japan.

Here the philosophy of sudden enlightenment is pictorialized. Just as the sage might see the truth in a flash, so the artist, seized by inspiration, could paint his picture in a matter of minutes. What counted was not hours of laboriously worked-out detail but brief moments of highly concentrated activity. Nothing could be changed once the brush strokes had been put down. The empty spaces were considered as significant as the painted areas — what was left out was as important as what was left in, leaving the viewer to supply the missing detail. The essence of Zen is shown in the swift abstract brush strokes, almost like calligraphy.

The poem, an integral part of the painting, translates:

"Rain clings like a robe to the foot of the clouds, hiding Ch'ang-sha

A rainbow arches over the evening mist.

How beautiful are the meadows lying between the hamlet and the bridge.

The flag on the inn hangs slackly down and the traveler thinks of home." (3)

~ ~ ~
 

But how can such things be made in words or visual shapes? In poetry, perhaps, when it is no longer descriptive but retains an echo of the thing behind the words; in painting which is not imitative but a spontaneous expression for the creative vision. In order to be true and alive these things must be done on the spur of the moment, before the light has faded or the 'spirit-resonance' has died away. It is evident that no kind of painting could be better fitted for such expressions that the Indian inkwork which by its very nature requires the greatest spontaneity in the handling of the means of expression. It must be done quickly and irretrievably, as the paper soaks up the ink; every stroke of the brush must be definite, no subsequent corrections or alterations are possible. As is well-known, this required the most careful and assiduous training, psychological as well as technical, because the brush-strokes became reflections from the mind transmitted by the skill of the hand. Indian ink-painting in its purest form became thus a kind of Ch'an practice, an example of what the 'direct method' of Ch'an meant when applied to art.

 

Excerpt from Suzuki's biography

After his retirement from Columbia in June 1957 and the subsequent summer in Cuernavaca, Suzuki traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lectured and helped found the Cambridge Buddhist Society. Until his death in Tokyo at age ninety-five, Suzuki continued to travel widely, lecturing, attending conferences, and receiving a variety of honors.

In addition to playing a key role in the popularization of Buddhism in the Western world, Suzuki, who never formally graduated from any of the schools he attended, also made significant contributions to Buddhist scholarship, particularly to modern understanding of the Gandavyha and Lankvatra sutras. In addition, his work resulted in a reawakening of interest in Buddhism in Japan after a period during which the study of Shinto had dominated Japanese religious scholarship.

Suzuki's collected complete works in Japanese occupy thirty-two volumes. The more than thirty titles he published in English include An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (first published in 1934) and Zen and Japanese Culture (1959).

Suzuki's last words were "Don't worry. Thank you! Thank you!"

 
 

#1737 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:42 am
Subject: #1737 - Monday, March 15, 2004
nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#1737 - Monday, March 15, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Just click the 'Reply' button, compose your message and send.
 
 

 
 
Daily Dharma
 
"As a bee--without harming
the blossom,
its color
its fragrance--
takes its nectar & flies away:
so should the sage
go through a village."

~Buddha

From the Book, "The Dhammapada," translated by Thomas Byrom,
published by Shambhala.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0877739668/Angelinc
 
 

 
 
Mary Bianco
NDS News
 

Former nun traces pluralistic journey

Karen Armstrong, author of bestsellers such as "The Battle for God," has found herself in demand as a speaker since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for her expertise on religious fundamentalism.

The British writer's new memoir, "The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness" (Alfred A. Knopf), chronicles her journey from 1960s Catholic convent dropout to a new spirituality in which compassionate behavior, not belief, is key.

"At this dark time in human history, [we must] redeem religion, take it from the hands of the extremists," Armstrong said in a recent interview."I don't know that we've got time to worry about an afterlife."

She spoke this week at Harvard's Memorial Church.

Why was the religious experience of your convent days hurtful?

I think there are very few people who can live that type of life -- living without possessions, doing the will of another, living without sexual intimacy. There was a stress on [accepting] the decisions of your superior as the will of God. It can make you cease to have any confidence in yourself, and that's what happened to me. After I left, it was years before I could have any independent thoughts whatsoever. There was an emotional frigidity about the religious life. Friendship was not encouraged. We were supposed to give all our love for God.With all the great [religious] traditions, there's an emphasis on not taking other people's word for it. Jesus himself was hardly an obedient soul. He is depicted in the Gospels as a kind of rebel.

You're suggesting Jesus would be discomforted by the fundamentalist mindset.

I think he would. Often because militant piety is based on fear, fundamentalists tend to overlook the more compassionate teachings in their tradition and stress those that are more intolerant. Christian fundamentalists in the United States often quote the Book of Revelation, with its battles and the enemies of God destroyed, and don't stress the Sermon on the Mount so much, where Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies, forgive. Often, fundamentalism distorts the tradition it's trying to defend.

How well have America and the West responded to Islamic fundamentalism?

It's important to know who your enemies are; equally important to know who your enemies are not, and not to alienate people who could be your allies. I'm not sure, for example, that the war against Iraq has advanced the cause against extremism. We now have a religious Al Qaeda front in Iraq where there wasn't one before. When you see these many wounded Iraqi civilians, soldiers going into homes -- this is an image of occupation rather than liberation. It convinces some Muslims that the West is taking a war against Islam.

What is your new spirituality?

A major ingredient was the study of other faiths. Islam was thrilling to me because of its pluralism. Judaism was thrilling to me because questions could always be opened and discussed. Rabbis would argue fiercely over the centuries. Greek and Russian Orthodox spirituality was wonderful in its mystical approach, its refusal to define God in any legalistic or doctrinal system. The insights enabled me to see what was good in my own tradition, from which I had become alienated.The second element is compassion. For me, a key religious text is the Golden Rule of Rabbi Hillel -- do not do unto others as you would not have done unto you. Jesus preached a version of Hillel's Golden Rule; Confucius and Buddha had made the same point. My spirituality is based on empathy, trying to dethrone myself from the center of my universe and put others there.

Do you believe in God?

I am unwilling to define the nature of ultimate reality. What we mean by "God" goes beyond our words and concepts. Do I believe in holiness, the sacred, the transcendent? Yes. Though one can't define it, in my study -- which is my new form of prayer -- I have glimmers of awe and wonder and transcendence. I regard the afterlife as a red herring. We can't know. Paul said eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the mind of man what things God has prepared for those who love Him. Belief in the afterlife can be a distraction, based on getting into heaven, piling up good deeds, rather as you put money into your retirement annuity. I don't see anything very religious in that.

Was it hard turning the spotlight on yourself and writing a memoir?

I was initially very reluctant. As I went on, it became like an examination of conscience, taking stock. It turned out to be something I enjoyed, much to my surprise. You lay aside old ghosts, and that's helpful for the future, because I'm not dead yet.

Rich Barlow can be reached at rbarlow.81@....

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Bob Rose
Meditation Society of America
 
Gurdjieff Teaching

Having personally enjoyed the company of followers of G's Work who I
think have attained the highest levels of consciousness evolution, and
having felt that I have received some benefit in my own understanding
from  the 4th way concepts and methods, I intend to share some of
these ideas from time to time. I also invite any who have knowledge of
this source of wisdom to do so as well.
Enjoy!
Peace and blessings,
Bob

From the StillPoint group:

Two Ways of Meeting Events

This Work teaches that if we do not identify, we save energy.

It also teaches that all mankind - i.e. the sleeping world of
humanity - identifies with every event and loses energy to that
event.

So we lose energy by identifying with each event.

The point of this Work is to save energy and not to be eaten
by identifying. Unless we save energy we cannot awaken,
because life and its turning events take our energy at every
moment.

As you have heard many times, some of you, this means that
you are a machine driven by life and its external events. You
identify with this, you identify with that, you identify with
everything said to you, you identify with the weather, you
identify with the newspapers.

As long as you are like this you are not doing anything,
but everything is being done to you and you are simply
being used by life.

None of the things that happen on the Earth, due to tyrants,
etc., is comparable with the way in which we are used by
life whose object is to keep us fast asleep.

So it is said we are all in prison. But we do not see this.

We feel it is someone's fault. Here we err deeply.

You remember the parable which compares us with sheep
used by farmers?

All they want is our wool and meat. In order to get this
result they teach us hymns and warn us not to stray away
because dreadful wolves will eat us. And this is quite true,
because unless we have reached the level of Good Householder
and, still further, unless we have Magnetic Centre, if we try
to rebel against life we shall suffer more than before. We
become martyrs suffering from martyrdom.

That is why the Work starts with people who are at the level
of Good Householder to begin with.

We have to rebel against ourselves, not life.

Of course, lots of people who come into this Work imagine
that they will be transformed into new beings in a few weeks
time.

They are taught not to identify but of course they do not
understand what it means, because they continue to take
every event of life as a fact, as something very serious,
and not as an event.

And certainly it takes a very long time before a man or a
woman begins to see what this Work is about.

You may be told many times that you are under 48 orders
of laws. But you do not see what it means.

Now there is one thing that I want to talk about to-night,
in connection with the power of events over you at every
moment.

There are two ways of dealing with events, once you become
conscious of their mechanical action on you.

One is to try to separate from their power by not identifying -
for you are under the power of what you identify with.

The other way is to will them.

In the early days when I was in this Work one of my tasks
was to overcome fear. I was told to observe fear in myself -
and fear is a very good thing to observe in yourself.

I noticed that I was afraid of the new double-decked buses
which used to swing round corners at full speed. I had driven
cars for a long time and so probably was more sensitive for
that reason.

On one wet day I got on to the top of one of these early
buses and as it swung round a corner at full speed I willed
it to fall over and the extraordinary thing was that my fear
left me. It had vanished.

From that I learnt that a great amount of fear comes from
hoping something won't happen.

Now try to will what you have to do.

Often Mr. O. gave examples of this kind which some of you
have heard. The general idea was that if some event is
inevitable you can do two things, either try to separate
by non-identifying, or will it, and go with it.

When I was at the Institute in France I used to be told at
about six o'clock in the morning when I was on a certain job
that I had to go to a different job.

I used to think how unfair this was. I did not understand
that the concentrated work on being that the Institute was
carrying out was pardy about this becoming negative when
you cannot do what you wish to do.

Of course, this is very difficult work on oneself because
it seems unreasonable, as in the case of the novice who was
told to plant cabbages and tended them with the greatest
care and went out one morning and found that they had all
been ploughed up on purpose because he was so identified.

Apart from this it is a good thing to will what you find
yourself having to do because it frees you inside.

"Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"
(Ecclesiastes ix. 10).

I would add a commentary on this and would say:

"Whatsoever you find you have to do, do it with all your might."

And that means will it, as far as we have will.

Once I said there was a good way to observe yourself from
another angle - i.e. observe what you object to during the day
and try to will what you are objecting to and not merely
accept it.

One has to say to oneself something like this: "Come, let's go
to it." And I assure you it is a very good way of getting through
quite a lot of things that you have to do during the daytime.

Why?

One reason is that you get negative so easily when you want to
do something else or you do not see why you should have to do
this other thing. You say to yourself: "This is unfair."

But everything in life is unfair.

Nothing is fair or just on this Earth, and you should read
Ouspensky's wonderful chapter on Experimental Mysticism
to realize that what he saw through inner perception from a
higher plane of understanding was that our idea of justice
on this Earth is illusion.

On this level, all sleeping humanity belongs to a tiny planet
which is a kind of lunatic asylum.

There is no justice, no fairness.

Only if everyone on this Earth became conscious, then the
whole story would become quite different.

Just notice what is happening here in the world to-day.

So instead of referring everything to the idea of fairness
and justice it is far better to will what you have to do in
everything and try to awaken from your negative emotions.

That will give you freedom and inner peace.

Kicking against the pricks will make you more negative and
therefore less and less free.

This paper is about two ways of taking the events of life.

One is that you do not identify with them; the other is to
will them.

Sometimes we have to use one method, but sometimes to
use the other, or both.

I will also tell you a secret.

We have to will one another: this is the beginning of
conscious love.


Maurice Nicoll
Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
Pages 1314 - 1316

 
 

 
 
Gonzobeats
 
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

#1738 From: "Michael A. Read" <maread@...>
Date: Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:24 pm
Subject: #1738 - Tuesday, March 16, 2004
mareadba
Send Email Send Email
 
#1738 - Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - Editor: michael
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Just click the 'Reply' button, compose your message and send.

 
Bashing The Guru
 
The theme for this issue is guru. In the West (US of A in particular) we know about preachers, priests, ministers, tv evangelists. We know what they are about. We have some idea who has feet of clay and who is sincere. When the gurus of India began arriving in the West a lot of us threw everything aside and gave our lives over to these self proclaimed holy people. And we did it without having the cultural understanding of the average Indian citizen.
 
As you peruse this edition you might form the opinion that I'm against gurus and the whole guru paradigm. I'm not. But I do think that consumer awareness is a good thing.
 
In this issue we offer some links to pages on gurus as seen from the Indian perspective. In India a guru must pass a test or tests. In India you can find gurus, swamis, and other holy folk on every street corner. Because the Indian folk know that some of these gurus are false and are really lonly ooking for a meal ticket, the Indian villagers and city dwellers don't simply accept a guru's word that the guru is a guru.
 
The tests can include everything from insults and mocking to starvation and burning! Yikes!
 
On that happy note - let's take a look.
 
as ever - be well,
 
michael
 

 
This edition is dedicated to Sarlo and his guru rating service.
Hey man, we sure could have used this back in the 1970's!
 
Sarlotude.jpg 
shri sarloji himself
 

 

Gurus, Saints, and Seekers:
Holy Men and Women in the Indian Tradition



This page is devoted to introducing westerners to teachers from different Indian religious traditions. It consists of pictures and short life-stories of charismatic seekers, saints, teachers, and gurus from the 19th and 20th centuries who trace their religious origins to India. In addition, references will be given to help the reader learn more about these individuals.



Introduction

This is a brief essay on the meaning of the term guru in the Hindu Tradition. Guru in addition to its common meaning of teacher, also means "heavy" in Sanskrit. The role of the guru is therefore weighty or important because it is a crucial one for a disciple. Choosing the right guru can strongly affect a disciple's spiritual destiny.

The tradition of seeking, evaluating, accepting, and following a guru is deeply rooted in Hindu society from the time of the earliest Hindu writings. However, not all disciples maintain a close outer connection with their guru. While some disciples spend years with their guru, others meet the guru only once in their lifetime. Some see the guru only in visions and dreams. In other cases, the only contact is through written material or pictures of the guru.

In Hinduism, it is believed that certain individuals have developed spiritually to the point where they can lead others to liberation (moksha), or give them access to spiritual states either in this life, or after death. These teachers are believed to have special abilities, such as the capacity to give darshan (a transfer of blessings or spiritual power from guru to disciple via glance or mantra). In addition, some Gurus are said to be able to enter a disciple's dreams to give teachings or initiation. Sometimes the guru's gaze can cause a profound spiritual experience. Many students claim to sense a spiritual atmosphere around their teacher which affects their moods and perceptions in positive ways.

 
 
 

 
[ed. note] This is not and Indian site but, it offers some great insights.
 

IMPORTANT ISSUES TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A SPIRITUAL TEACHER

1.        What credentials does this teacher possess that qualifies him/her to give this instruction?

2.        How does this teacher maintain his/her authority in the group or in relationships? Does he/she claim to be the only teacher that gives this instruction?

3.        Can you challenge the teacher's instruction? Can you question his/her advice? What happens if you disagree with the teacher?

4.        Who does this teacher report to? If you were to complain about the teacher, to whom would you go? Is there a system of checks and balances within his/her line of authority?

5.        Within this organization who makes the rules? Who can change the rules? How often does this happen? What happens when someone breaks the rules?

6.        Within this organization who makes the rules? Who can change the rules? How often does this happen? What happens when someone breaks the rules?

7.        What will you be expected to 'give up' or 'sacrifice' to study with this teacher? Ask this question in advance and be as specific as possible.

8.        Are students free to leave this teacher/group? What happens to those who leave?

9.        When do you graduate from this instruction?

10.     How does the teacher talk about those who have left the group? Is contact with: them allowed, discouraged, or forbidden?

11.     What attitude does the teacher have toward maintaining relationships with friends, family, and others outside the group?

12.     What is the teacher's attitude toward people outside the group in general? Are you encouraged to be tolerant and understanding, or judgmental and elite?

13.     Are secrets being kept from you? Are doors locked, access to telephones limited, or is information restricted in any way? Do you watch the news or read books of your choice?

14.     Does this teacher insist that the world is coming to an end in the near future? What proof does he/she have of this? Does the teacher use this prophecy to frighten or influence students?

15.     Does this teacher repeatedly remind you to listen to your heart and not your head? If so, why must you disconnect from rational thought to learn this teaching?

16.     Does the group use 'mind-altering' exercises, i.e. meditation/chanting/praying for long periods of time, sleep deprivation, constant busyness, protein deprivation, or the use of drugs? What scientific, documented proof does this teacher have that these practices will enable the student to reach higher states of consciousness?

17.     Ask the teacher about his/her attitudes about sex in the group. If celibacy is strongly advised for the student, ask if the same standard applies to the teacher. If the standards are different, ask why.

18.   Who pays for the leader's expenses and lifestyle? Is it dramatically different from the students: Will your financial responsibility continue to increase to maintain good standing? Is there an annual report for this group? Every bonafide church, charity, and non-profit organization has this information available for anyone who asks for it.

These questions are meant to provide areas of exploration. Many teachers will not respond directly to your inquiries. We encourage you to conduct your own research and scrutinize your teacher as closely as possible. Remember: avoidance to your questions should raise a red flag. A healthy spiritual community, church, or teacher, will encourage questions about their group. Attitudes of avoidance or secrecy may tell you something about what the future will be like in this group. 

 

Rosanne Henry     


 
[ed. note] this is an Indian site.
 
Choosing a Guru

This is a brief essay on the pitfalls of choosing a guru for a Westerner with little experience of India. There are a number of problems with gurus who come to the West but the primary problem is with the expectations of Western disciples. They do not usually understand much about pan-Indian values and culture, and therefore have a difficult time making informed judgments about gurus and their behavior in the West. One of the functions of the biographies at this site is to help disciples make such informed choices.

In order to understand how best to choose a guru in the Indian tradition, it is best to look at how it is done in India where people have been doing it for a long time. Let us discuss the expectations of Indian disciples.

From my experience in West Bengal (and to a lesser extent Kerala, Delhi, and Sikkim) I will generalize a bit about the rest of India. First a distinction must be drawn between village and urban India. India is mostly village but I will attempt to speak mostly from an educated and somewhat westernized urban Indian's perspective about gurus.

In Bengal, the first thing to be aware of is that it is assumed that the majority of gurus are false, and are trying to support themselves and gain social status by pretending to have knowledge they do not possess. This is in part because Indians expect the guru to be very far along the spiritual path, and it is assumed that only a very few unique souls can be true gurus.

Most urban Bengalis who are interested in finding a guru have seen so many false or questionable ones that they are very skeptical about gurus. They therefore examine any prospective guru very carefully before they even consider becoming a disciple. Such an example was Vivekananda, who went to see Ramakrishna a number of times and only after vigorous internal debate finally decided to accept him as his guru.

The criteria for choosing a guru are complex but a few qualities that are respected are celibacy (seven of the ten Indians mentioned at this site were celibate), lack of interest in money (some gurus like Prahlad Chandra even take a vow to refuse to ever touch money), ability to sit in meditation for hours (and even days) without any movement or disturbance. This criterion is especially important for yogic gurus such as those who are in a Shankaracharya lineage such as Paramahamsa Yogananda.

Other important elements are how the guru spends his or her time. Some bhakti or devotional gurus will spend long periods of time in puja or ritual worship of a deity (an empowered statue on an altar). Others will do homa (or fire) sacrifices in the typical Vedic fashion which last for hours. Still others will sit for long periods and tell religious stories from Indian classical literature (or local village myths) describing the adventures of the gods Krishna and Radha, or Ram and Sita. A classic example of devotional guru was Prabhupad who started the Hare Krishna movement in the West. He would sing Krishna's name (do kirtan) for hours on end and expected disciples to do the same.

Gurus can show they are serious about enlightenment or devotion if they seem to have no other interests but to perform religious ritual, and talk and sing about deities or religious ideas and stories. Such commitment is impressive to many Indian disciples. However since most Westerners are not that familiar with Indian religious ritual, the gurus in the West do not practice them that often and focus more on meditation . It is therefore more difficult to judge a guru's religious commitment based on the amount of external religious ritual he or she performs. Here the Western disciple is at a disadvantage since he or she cannot use this ritual behavior as an indicator of the commitment of the prospective guru.

The lineage of the guru is also sometimes given great importance. Is he or she initiated and by whom? Is the guru's guru known and respected? Is there evidence that the guru was actually given initiation by the person he claims to have initiated him? Many Indians are very suspicious of gurus who claim to "be the path" and are therefore not dependent on a tradition or in a lineage themselves. Westerners should ask questions about lineage and understand the guru's background before accepting any guru as do most Indians.


http://www.flameout.org/flameout/gurus/feetofclay.html and http://www.flameout.org/flameout/gurus/g3.html

The Good Guru Guide

Lotus - Feet of Clay A Reluctant Mystic Looks At Spiritual Movements by John Wren-Lewis

 


This was originally published in "Understanding Cults and Spiritual Movements" in the mid 1980s.


Some, if we believe what they tell us, are born with spiritual consciousness. Others appear to achieve it by prolonged practice of meditation and other disciplines or by attachment to a guru. I had spiritual consciousness thrust upon me in my sixtieth year without working for it, desiring it, or even believing in it. As a result, I have been presented, amongst other things, with a somewhat original perspective on understanding cults and spiritual movements, which is the occasion for this article.

The crucial event was a shattering, out-of-the-blue mystical experience in 1983 which, to the astonishment of everyone who knew me, and most of all myself, left me with a permanently changed consciousness, describable only in the kind of spiritual terms I had hitherto vehemently discounted as neurotic fantasy-language. Not that I would have called myself an atheist or materialist--indeed I had published extensively on the need for a religious world-view appropriate to this scientific age. But I was emphatic that such a faith would have to be essentially humanist in orientation, focused on creative action in the physical/social realm. [1]


[1] See my book, What Shall We Tell the Children? (London: Constable, 1971).
I regarded mystical experience and the whole idea of spiritual search as escape into unreality, fully justifying Freud's diagnosis of religion as humanity's universal neurosis. [2] Even when I collaborated in extensive psychological research on mind-altering drugs in the late 1960's, and shared many of the strange experiences that turned a whole generation on to the mystics, I remained quite unconvinced that such things were more than temporary aberrations of the brain. Psychologically interesting though they undoubtedly were, I found nothing that seemed to justify mystical expressions like God-consciousness or eternity or the pearl of great price, or for embarking on any kind of spiritual quest.

[2] See especially my essay Love's Coming-of-Age in Psychoanalysis Observed, edited by Charles Rycroft (Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1966).
What happened in 1983 would nowdays be called a near death experience or NDE, though it differed in several notable ways from most of those I'd read about in the rapidly-growing literature on this topic (which I had, incidently, dismissed as yet another manifestation of the mind's capacity for fantasy.) In the first place, I had none of the dramatic visions which have hit the headlines in popular journalism and occupy a prominent place even in serious scholarly studies like Raymond Moody's LIFE after Life and Kenneth Ring's LIFE at Death. [3]
As I lay in the hospital bed in Thailand after eating a poisoned sweet given me by a would-be thief, I had no out-of-body awareness of the doctors wondering if I was beyond saving, no review of my life, no passsage down a dark tunnel to emerge into a heavenly light or landscape, and no encounter with angelic beings or deceased relatives telling me to go back because my work on earth wasn't yet finished.

[3] Moody, R.A. - Life after Life (N.Y.: Bantam, 1977) and Ring, K., Life at Death (N.Y.: Coward, McCann & Goeghegan, 1980) For an absolutely superb review of this whole field of study, including the best critical survey yet published of writings both ancient and modern, see Carol Zalesky's Otherworld Journeys (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1987).
I simply entered - or, rather, was - a timeless, spaceless void which in some indescribable way was total aliveness - an almost palpable blackness that was yet somehow radiant. Trying to find words for it afterwards, I recalled the mysterious line of Henry Vaughan's poem The Night: "There is in God (some say) a deep but dazzling darkness". Re-reading the NDE reports collected by Moody, Ring and others many months later, I found some accounts with echoes of my experience, but in nearly all the near-death literature even the most blissful darkness - experience seems to be regarded as a preliminary stage before transition (with or without the famous tunnel) into light. The condition I entered, on the other hand, seemed so complete in itself that light would have been quite superfluous.
An even more marked difference from the general run of near-death experiences, however, was that I had absolutely no sense of regret or loss in coming back from this joy- beyond-joy, this peace past understanding, into physical life. In fact my experience as the hospital's ministrations restored the body's vital signs was nothing like a return. It was more like an act of creation whereby the timeless, spaceless Dark budded out into manifestation, and what manifested was simlpy not the same me-experiencing-the-world that I'd known before: it was Everything that is, experiencing itself through the bodymind called John lying in a hospital bed. And the experience was indescribably wonderful. I now know exactly why the Book of Genesis says that God looked upon all that He had made, not just beautiful sunsets, but dreary hospital rooms and traumatized sixty-year-old bodies, and saw that it was very good.

What I am trying to describe (and have attempted to describe in fuller detail elsewhere [4]) is no vague feeling of "good to be alive." On the contrary, I no longer cared if John lived or ceased to be altogether, and the change of consciousness was so palpable that, to begin with, I repeatedly put my hand up to the back of my head, feeling exactly as if the doctors had removed the skull and exposed my brain somehow to the infinite blackness of space. Occasionally I still do so, for the new consciousness has remained with me ever since, which is the third and most significant difference from what happens in the general run of near-death experiences, and also from the altered states experienced with psychedelics.

[4] "The Darkness of God: An Account of Lasting Mystical Consciousness Resulting from an NDE," in Anabiosis:The Journal for Near-Death Studies, 5, No. 2, Fall 1985. A still fuller and more analytical account is due to appear in the Journal for Humanistic Psychology sometime in 1988, under the same title.
This is in no sense a high from which I can come down. The sense of awe-ful wonders has at the same time a feeling of utter obviousness and ordinariness, as if the marvel of everything-coming-into-being-continuously-from-the Great Dark was no more and no less than just the way things are.
From this perspective, the term altered state of consciousness would be a complete misnomer, for the state is one of simple normality. It seems, rather, as if my earlier state, so-called ordinary human consciousness, represents the real alteration, a deviation from the plain norm, a kind of artificially blinkered or clouded condition wherein the bodymind has the absurd illusion that it is somehow a separate individual entity over against everything else.
In fact, I now understand why mystics of all religions have likened the enlightenment-process to waking up from a dream, but even so I had no thought, to begin with, that the awakening could be other than a temporary glimpse of Reality, which would all be gone by morning. So powerful was this expectation that the next day I spent several hours packing up to leave the hospital and deciding where to go next in precisely the old way, as if I were an isolated individual coping with his environment (after a very interesting experience the night before). Only as I was walking in the hot sun to the police station to report the crime was I struck by the sense of loss that the Dark was missing, and my first thought then was, "Ah well, you've had the Vision - I suppose now you'll have to join the ranks of all those Seekers who spend their lives trying to attain Higher Consciousness." And then, to my amazement, I suddenly saw it was all still there just waiting, as it were, to be noticed, the Dark behind my eyes and behind everything else, bringing again the perception that of course everything exists by emerging fresh-minded from the Dark now! and now!, with a shout of joy yet also in absolute calm.

And still I thought it must all fade away soon; only after the whole cycle of drifting off and snapping back again had been repeated several times a day for some weeks did my mind start getting round to the fact that I might not be going to revert to the old permanemtly-clouded condition. The NDE had evidently jerked me out of the so-called normal human state of chronic illusion-of-separateness, into a basic wakefukness interrupted by spells of "dozing off," simply forgetting the Dark until the sense of something missing from life brings about instant re-awakening with no effort at all. I apparently wasn't destined to become a seeker in any ordinary sense--I'd been handed the pearl of great price on a plate. But my awakening had brought no instructions of the kind reported by some mystics (and by some near-death experiences [5]), about what it was all going to mean for the future conduct of my life. I had an overwhelming wish to pass on the awakening to others somehow, but had received no divine commission to be a guru, and indeed hadn't a clue what to suggest, since I could scarcely recommend taking a potentially fatal dose of poison.

[5] See Kenneth Ring's second book, Heading Towards Omega (N.Y.: Morrow, 1984), and Return from Death by British researcher Margot Grey (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985).
So I began feverishly researching the once-despised world of mystical literature and spiritual movements in quest of understanding and guidance. Indeed as my research progressed I became irritated and concerned by the way most systems protect themselves in advance against any expectation of substantial success-rate, by representing enlightenment as a very high, difficult achievement requiring years or perhaps lifetimes of intense effort; the most articulate modern cartographer of the spiritual life, Ken Wilber, actually makes the comparison with becoming a master musician, scientist or athlete. [6] Such a model is totally at odds with the key feature of God-consciousness as I know it in my own firsthand experience, namely its quintessential ordinariness and obviousness - a feature actually emphasized by many mystics from whom Wilber himself quotes. While I wouldn't go as far as Krishnamurti by totally denying that mediation and other disciplines could ever help towards realizing God as "just the way things are," I know absolutely from my own case that such intensive training isn't necessary, and I see no evidence either from history or from modern movements that it's any kind of sure road to awakening.
[6] See for example Wilber's book Eye to Eye (Garden City, NY: Doubleday/Anchor, 1983) - but the point is common to all his books.
In fact, after four years' intensive research I've come to the conclusion that in ancient traditions and modern spiritual movements alike, theorizing about God-consciousness and enlightenment has totally outrun firsthand experience, often to the point where the oystershell gets mistaken for the pearl (or the finger for the moon, in the famous Buddhist proverb). And I do agree with Krishnamurti that probably the most pernicious theory in this regard is that of the guru as a Master requiring obedience and submis- sion.
Krishnamurti calls it pernicious because it enshrines what he believes to be a fundamental fallacy, namely that the act of submission is a way of transcending the illusion of separate selfhood, when in fact, he believes, it must inevitably confirm that illusion in an insidious way. On this point I wouldn't be quite so dogmatic; while I'm sure submission is indeed subtly ego-confirming in many cases ("I can surrender better than you can"), I'm prepared to believe that on occasion it really might move someone towards seeing through the illusion of separateness and hence awakening to only God as simply the way things are. My own reason for regarding the Master-concept as pernicious is that it imposes an almost irresistable temptation on guru and disciples alike to keep quiet about and/or rationalize away any experience that might detract from the guru's claim to infallible authority justifying surrender.

The classic illustration of this is the pathetic spectacle of spiritual movements insisting that reports of less-than-perfect behavior on the Master's part are either wicked lies put about by enemies or, if evidence cannot be denied, are explainable as the Master's deliberate attempts to shock followers out of uptightness with outrageous behavior, or test their capacity for total surrender. Before my NDE I used to seize eagerly upon such scandel-stories as evidence that gurus were either frauds or madmen or both. Now I know the explanation is more complicated; a few frauds and madmen there may be, but I'm quite sure now that some of the teachers who've been involved in scandals do have first- hand experience of God-consciousness. Things they say or write, often some of their little stories, carry the ring of a truth that couldn't have been culled from secondhand sources.

And for me as an outsider there is no conflict here. In the first place, I know from my own firsthand experience that God-consciousness doesn't abolish human appetites. When I'm in it I don't lose my taste for meat or wine or good company or humor or detective fiction - I actually enjoy them more than ever before. I don't cease to enjoy sexual feelings, nor do I see anything inherently dirty about money. What the consciousness does bring is the cheerful equanimity of knowing that satisfaction doesn't depend on any of these special preferences of John's bodymind being met; it is inherent simply in being, in the Great Dark which is (in G.K. Chesterton's marvellous phrase [7]) "joy without a cause." This, of course, does have a profound ethical effect, since it means that cravings have no power to run my life - but since it's so easy to drift out of the consciousness from time to time, I can and do also lapse from such detachment. (In my particular case, the commonest and nastiest lapses are into impatience, bad temper and argumentation when I drift into the soap-opera called "they're trying to push me around.")

[7] See my article "Joy without a Cause" in The Chesterton Review, XII, No. 1, February 1986.
This was of course another issue on which I initially hoped for some help from mystical writings or a spiritual movement: was there anything I could do, like meditation or diet, to reduce the frequency of drifting out? I was extremely puzzled when my research turned up almost no reference to any such possibility. Krishnamurti is the only spiritual teacher I know whose writings hint at experiences similiar to mine in this respect; everywhere else, it's taken for granted that one is either a disciple on the path, practising meditation or guru-darshan or whatever to reach God-consciousness, or else a Master who is supposed to be in it permanently. Now while I'm quite prepared to believe there may be Masters who enjoy the consciousness uninterruptedly, the total silence about the drifting-out which I experience daily seemed highly suspicious. I was therefore very interested to come upon Agehananda Bharati's important book The Light at the Center [8], in which he asserts quite categorically that "permanent enlightenment" is only a conventional fiction of the guru-system, possibly never actually realized, but maintained in order to foster the total surrender which is believed essential for the system to work.
[8] Agehananda Bharati, The Light at the Center (Santa Barbara, CA: Ross-Erikson, 1976).
The trouble is that once such a system is swallowed, the guru cannot admit to lapses without completely discrediting his claim to have any enlightenment to pass on. So from the highest possible motive, a sincere desire to share his God-consciousness, he is tempted to rationalize, probably even to himself. Sexual advances toward attractive disciples become tantric exercises or studies of the chakras, a beer-belly is due to the descent of shakti-power, outbursts of temper are to weaken disciples egos or to test their devotion, collection of money is needed for spreading the Word, gifts are accepted because the disciples wish to show their devotion, and so on through the whole hackneyed catalog. Even worse, there is a tendency for the wish to spread the Word to pass over into the most insidious of all power-trips, with the Master thinking of himself as God rather than vice-versa, the phenomenon Jung called inflation. I know about this from personal experience; some of my worst lapses into impatience come when I'm wanting to get on with writing about God-consciousness! But because I'm not claiming to be a Master, no-one gets sucked in and I'm soon forced to come off it. When the Master-disciple relationship has been established, disciples have to go along with the Master's rationalizations or abandon the hope they've placed in him.
And from the wider human point of view, I believe the closed, self-confirming guru-system has an even more important defect, even with Masters who manage to avoid such temptations, namely that there is little or no opportunity for theories and techniques to be evaluated against their experiential results and exchanged for better ones. For example, Maharishi Maresh Yogi has given his authority to a scheme of seven ascending stages of consciousness through which disciples are supposed to pass. In my experience the first of his stages, readily attained during meditation, has nothing much to do with God-consciousness at all, and I recognize no others except the two highest, the sixth, which is characterized by worshipful gratitude to the divine, and the seventh, the totally obvious recognition of Unity, of "I am That." Moreover, for me these are not two stages in a process at all, but simply opposite sides of the God-consciousness coin, not withstanding the paradox that by conventional logic gratitude would seem to require someone to be grateful to, and who is there, if I am That? I have no idea what this discrepancy between my experience and Maharishi's theory means, since I've yet to find any of his disciples who've "gotten that far," and he himself remains hidden behind the Master-role, unavailable for discussion. Is he reporting firsthand experience in some way different from mine (maybe more advanced), or has he adapted his God-experience (which I'm sure he's had) to fit traditional yogic theory? The Master-system prevents such questions from being investigated.

I have a similiar, though different, problem with the system of Da Free John, who claims to experience sahaj samadhi, the simple consciousness of only God in everyday life, and then speaks of having gone beyond it into the ultimate mystery of bhava samadhi, the eternal Preluminous Void prior to all manifestation. In my experience these again are not stages on an ascending path, but simply he two sides of That. The world-process of manifestation is the continuous outpouring of the Great Dark in self-giving love, and the Great Dark is not the ultimate Home to which we aspire to return, for none of us ever left it; when we are prodigal sons and daughters we don't really go into any far country, because there can't be such a place--we just forget the Home we never left and can't possibly leave. Now is there some deep difference of experience involved here from which I could learn, or is Da Free John merely interpreting his experience into the traditional upward path framework as a way out of the folly of seeking enlightenment (he says seeking merely confirms the self-sense, which he calls Narcissus), in practice his whole movement seems locked into climbing the rungs of a ladder, while his statements about his own experience, at times refreshingly frank, at others show the same old reticence of the Master-role.

I believe the world desperately needs a new, totally experimental mysticism that will set all the traditional theories on one side and try to find out, more in the spirit of science than of religion, what factors really bring about awakening, which can only happen if those who've experienced awakening eschew the Master-role and discuss their firsthand knowledge openly, lapses and all. That, at any rate, is the cause to which I've decided to devote whatever years remain to me before My FDE (Final Death Experience). If any readers of this article are to help, by writing honestly about their experiences (for instance, if anyone really has made it through Maharishi's seven stages), I'd be delighted to hear from them. For myself, I have to report that over the past four years the Consciousness seems in some strange way to have taken over more of my life quite of its own accord, so that I now drift out much less - and there have been some remarkable side-effects, which I've described elsewhere. [9] Meanwhile, since an essential part of this whole exercise is the ruthless exposure of the fact that Masters have lotus feet of clay, I salute from across the world the work done by this admirable journal.


A pull no punches guru bash - not for the squeamish.

http://www.flameout.org/flameout/gurus/index.html

You may find your favorite guru bashed here, heck - even  the Dalai Lama gets bashed here.


On the lighter side http://www.irrelativity.com/bad_guru.html

Barry Smith's

"Bad Guru Letters"

Dear Bad Guru,

Does my breathing pattern affect my chances of enlightenment?

Respiratory in Reseda


Dear Res,

Yes, a few months of long, deep, conscious, cleansing breaths - in through the nose, out through the mouth - will virtually guarantee enlightenment. But are you sure enlightenment is for you? Does sitting on top of a mountain wearing a diaper really sound like a sound career option? True, you are your own boss, but there’s little room for advancement.

Bad Guru recommends a lifetime of hasty, shallow breaths with your mouth hanging slightly open and a job where you can drink during lunch.

Enlightenment is highly overrated, in my opinion. Think of all the people you know who really think that they are more enlightened than you. Is there anyone you can think of who is more annoying? This question is one which each of us can only answer for ourselves.


 

In GuruRatings@yahoogroups.com

From:  "olodumare_4all"
Date:  Tue Mar 16, 2004  11:31 am

[ed. note] this is an extract from a longer post. i've included it for it's lyrical aspects
 
 
 
Below is an explanation of Olodumare
which is interesting in it's similarities with all the first
and most basic and intuitive understandings of all people and
the various religeons built up around them.

"Within the spiritual system of Ifa there is the firmly held belief
that there is one Supreme Essence, generally referred to as God,
that controls the very destiny of the universe and the things
therein. There is no reality higher than Olodumare and it is to this
Essence that we must submit our beings; for it is Olodumare that
lays out the destiny (ayanmo) of all human beings. Thus, alignment
with Olodumare's original intentions for us is the ultimate
spiritual balance. The Yoruba do not believe that Olodumare is some
entity to be "feared" as is taught in Judeo-Christian thought, but
It is to be harmonized within our very beings and manifested for the
good of the world as sanctioned in Odu Ifa. So, Ifa teaches us to
experience God and live the righteousness which is the result of
this divine drama. There is nothing higher than Olodumare. There is
no thing outside of Olodumare. All things good originate with
Olodumare, and thus, all things must so return. "


 
From:  "skiplaurel"
Date:  Tue Mar 16, 2004  7:49 am
Subject:  What Matters

What Matters

Below is part of an email I received from my friend Peter,

it is my experience that there is such a lovely sweetness in this
little quiet moment, here on the grass with a smiling little cat. This sweetness
is always present, always available, always here. Even in the midst of this pain
and illness, and the screaming and carrying on, ho ho... there is a sweetness
at the center of it all that burns so brightly nothing else matters. Nothing
else is left...

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com


 
tha-tha-that's all folks!

 


#1739 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:31 pm
Subject: #1739 - Wednesday, March 17, 2004
nondualguy
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#1739 - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Click on Reply, compose your letter and Send. All the editors will see your letter.
 
 

 
 
Gill Eardley
Allspirit Inspiration
 
You imagined that you would accomplish this task through
your own strength, activity, and effort. This is the wont
that I have established: expend everything you have in
Our way. Then Our bounty will come to you. On this end-
less road, We command you to travel with your own feeble
hands and feet.  We know that you cannot  traverse this
way with feet so feeble. Indeed, in a hundred thousand
years you will not arrive at the first way station. However,
when you travel this road until your legs are exhausted and
you fall down flat, until you have no more strength to move
forward, then God's grace will take you in its arms.

~Rumi
'Travelling the Path of Love'
Edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee


 

 
 
Daily Dharma
 
"Will not the ocean of joy
That shall exist when all beings are free
Be sufficient for me?
What am I doing wishing for my liberation alone?

Therefore, although working for the benefit of others,
I should not be conceited or consider myself wonderful.
And because of the joy there is in solely doing this,
I should have no hope for any ripening-effect.

Therefore just as I protect myself
From unpleasant things however small,
In the same way I should act towards others
With a compassionate and caring mind."
 ~~Shanitdeva
 
 

 
 
Vicki Woodyard
NDS
 
Who is the true guru?

We have all read that question, "Who is the true guru?"  Some days I think I know.  I have been corresponding via the internet with my friend, Peter, for over a year now.   We sit by the fire of our mutual sufferings and warm ourselves as they burn brightly.

Peter tosses in a log occasionally and so do I.  The gist of it is that when you are being broken and there is no fixing you, what is left to do but be where you are?  It is Peter who has been my guide to what is.  He always says "ho ho" after making a comment on his broken body.  He never speaks about the details of his illness; only saying that he grows weaker and less able to write.

He knows me in a way that a person meeting me face-to-face never can.  I tell him about losing my child,  about going through chemo with my husband and he understands.  Last year when we had to put our dog down,  I asked Peter how old his cat was.  "She is younger than springtime", was his reply.  Actually she is seventeen or eighteen, I forget.

We hit the send button on our little fireside chats, knowing that one day a silence will arise and Peter will have nothing left to say.  In one sense, sorrow is the true guru, and when it burns away the dross of the self, only holy ash remains.  I would like to think that someone would wander by our campfire and smear a bit on their foreheads.  Whether they do or don't will be of no concern to Peter.  Or he would just say, "ho ho."

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com/vicki.html
 
 
 

 
 
Bertram
NDS
 
Dear Members,
 
I am Bertram W. Salzman and this letter will serve as an introduction.
I had the privelage of directing and editing" Abide As The Self" life
and teaching of Ramana Maharshi and "Awaken To The Eternal" life and
teaching Nisartgadatta Maharaj ;produced by Inner Directions
Foundation. Recently Inner Directions published my book: "Being A
Buddha On Broadway" dedicated to Ramana Maharshi among others. Ramana
has said that the only freedom one has is to turn one's vision inwards
and my book is grounded in this teaching. Excerpts of the book may be
acessed at my website www.subtlemind.com
 
I wish to thank you all for accepting me as a new member.
 

Most humbly
Namaste
Bertram
 
------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,
 
The only "who"exists in one's brain cells! So all questions concerning
the activity or non-activity of a "who" is a conditioned mental
activity of the brain cells. This would include the non existence of
Bertram that appears to be writing this letter. Any activity of the
reader would be included as well.To see the truth of this just unname
the world! Undefine yourself right now and sit in silence.That which is
aware of the silence is Consciousness and Consciousness is all.. and
are you different than that? (Please don't attempt to answer this
question if you are patient and wait in silence a wordless answer may
arise. Consciousness is all and as such are you different than Ramana?
 
Respectfully,
Namaste
Bertram

 
 

 
 
Daily Dharma
 
"When you are doing zazen, you are within the complete calmness of your mind; you do not feel anything.  You just sit.  But the calmness of your sitting will encourage you in your everyday life.  So actually you will find the value of Zen in your everyday life, rather than while you sit.  But this does not mean you should neglect zazen.  Even though you do not feel anything when you sit, if you do not have this zazen experience, you cannot find anything; you just find weeds, or trees, or clouds in your daily life; you do not see the moon.  That is why you are always complaining about something.  But for Zen students a weed, which for most people is worthless, is a treasure.  With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art."
~~Shunryu Suzuki

From the book, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", published by Weatherhill
 

 
 
Ben Hassine
Awakened Awareness
 
Essence of Skillfulness - H.W.L Poonja

Typed from The Truth Is, Sri H.W.L. Poonja, Compiled and edited by Prashanti de Jager, pages 455 - 460

Essence of Skillfulness

Whatever comes let it come,
what stays let stay, what goes let go,
always keep Quiet, and always adore Self:
this is the essence of living skillfully
in the world of appearance.
During all activities of life
always know that you are the Self.
The way to live a happy beautiful life
is to accept whatever comes
and not care about what does not come.

Things will come so enjoy them and be happy.
Let the play happen by the Supreme Power;
you will be taken care of.
Be free to be happy, love has no traps.
If you are happy all will be happy,
if you suffer, all will suffer,
if your mind smells bad others will be affected.
Keep yourself happy in Peace,
Light, Wisdom, Consciousness.
This is your responsibility.
Be happy and have compassion
and live hand in hand with nature.
This makes birth worthwhile.
Start from Heart and see that all arises from Heart.
Always do this, always be This.

You cannot be skillful and arrogant at the same time,
but without arrogance all will be skillful,
Face the One, seeing everything as one is no-mind
and this is the pure state of Being, of Self.
When you are one with all
do not hold onto the connections
because this makes them separations
and you will have divided yourself by creating 'other.'

As the lotus does not touch the water,
so do not let the world enter your heart.
Being busy in the world is no trouble
unless you are troubled by being busy.
Then the only trouble is the trouble.

Let attention go to manifestation,
just know that manifestation is Brahman.
Let there be creations and destructions,
All is Brahman and you are beyond even that always.

Your environment is very important
so stay where there is no tension.
make sure that the circumstances within and without
are not disturbing, so be with peaceful beings in peaceful places.
You need a place of love and beauty and peace,
even your own apartment and body must be peaceful.
Love and Quietness is enough.

If you speak ill of anybody else, you speak ill of yourself,
if you speak good, you speak good about yourself.
Words have great power so use only appropriate words.
Speaking from the head is pain and from the heart is pleasure,
so shut your head and your heart is open.

Don't trouble any being and do not let any being trouble you.
Don't get angry with anyone:
the tongue doesn't get angry with the teeth when the teeth bite it,
and this happens sometimes when the food is good.

Contentment is absolutely necessary
because whatever you will be in the next state,
or in the next life is whatever unfulfilled desire
that you have in the present state.
Therefore desire only the Infinite.
Let the other desires arise and see that they arise from me,
from Emptiness, and then let them fall, as waves must.

Don't run after projections on the screen, be very wise.
Do not lose your peace at any cost.
Things will  rise and fall so do not be caught!
Peace is most important, you have to be happy in the lila,
no-mind-limitless-happiness with Freedom in your mind,
not problems. Here in this moment there is no problem
and daily life is within this moment, you cannot walk out of it.
Just try to invite past and future problems into this moment.
They cannot touch Here so do things of Now,
and do not touch yesterday or tomorrow.

Remove all becoming, you are Being.
Becoming is effort, Being is no effort.
You are always That so be like the breeze
that is attached to neither the garbage nor the garden
that it blows over.

Do not run away from worldly activities,
only always keep in the 'I am the Self,' stay as the screen
on which all the projected activities take place.
In all activities simply keep Quiet and know 'I am home.'
Your business is to keep Quiet!

You cannot say that it is a dream unless you are awake.
So in the true waking state, the state of Wisdom,
it does not matter if there are dream objects or not.
Emptiness is not affected by any dream object, not even duality.
Ocean does not complain about the dance of ten million waves!
So don't be concerned about the rise and fall of thoughts.
To be nowhere is home, not allowing thought to land is home.
Allow thoughts to arise, but do not let them land
because thought landing is an object
which brings desire for the object,
which brings possessing of an object, which brings insanity.
There are only two choices: Freedom or insanity.
Choose 'I am free and happy.'

Bad moods are either past or imaginary future,
in the present there are no moods at all.
Moods belong to circumstances, to the past;
Face the sun and there will be no shadow of moods.

Give up all concepts and remain what you are.
Identify yourself as Cosmic Consciousness;
don't accept name or a form.
Detachment is your own nature
so the wise are not attracted to the transient.
Only the foolish cling to that which brings unhappiness
and are thus butchered by time.

This world is a garden, a game, play this divine game very well.
See things only as they are but do not posses them
or you will be in trouble because even your body is transient.
The next breath is not guaranteed so do what you have to do Now:
play well, play wisely, by first finding out who you are.
Yoga only, no bhoga, first finish your work,
then go to the world with a heart that is dancing.
Don't use words for this dance because the game is tricky.
Just be silent.

The world is like a tail of a dog, its nature is to curl.
The best you can do is to stay Quiet
and not let anything bother you.
Visitors will come and go, don't interfere with these waves.
Be always empty and let desires dance.
Being asleep in the waking state is
being asleep to desires and aversions.

The avalanche of vasanas
which may happen as you approach the summit
is notions, intentions, and ideations.
With no intention, there is no summit and
That is Here.

Hidden tendencies arise to leave when you are Quiet,
so it is a good sign when vasanas rise.
Do not be dismayed because they are Self.
Let vasanas arise, they do not exist.
The world is a playground for the wise
and a graveyard for the foolish.
Let the vasanas play, they are transient imaginations
and even the 'I' to which they occur is imagination itself.
Abide as Substratum and allow circumstances to come and go.
Stay Quiet with no intention, or notion,
not even to inquire for Freedom, and don't utter the word 'I.'
Then the gods and demons of the vasanas will vanish.

Your true nature does not come and go.
Play with what comes and goes.
When they arise they will disappear.
Allow them to go away.
Let things happen through mind-ego
and just stay Quiet as they happen,
with the firm conviction: I Am I Am.
This meditation is absolutely necessary to clear tendencies.

Only in the dream do you see objects.
Know that all objects are dream objects
and that the dream snakes are not real.

You have been ignorant for years
so when you know the Truth
you must focus on staying as such for some time.
What else is important.
If you find that you are still in the mind,
never mind! Don't remember!
Then you will not forget.

Though name and form and place and fields are different,
Consciousness is never different, so let there be these differences,
but do not accept and reject anything or you divide yourself
and there is no love in this division:
take a cent from a dollar and you no longer have a dollar.
A fool doesn't look at foolishness and so is foolish.
The wise one looks at foolishness and so is wise.

Have no individuality:
Surrender to space or dissolve the ego with knowledge.
Just keep Quiet and watch the ego.
Keep vigilantly alert; aware but not involved.
Doing is trouble.

Clinging to non-eternal things is arrogance,
No clinging is loving all,
so don't cling and don't don't cling
because both conceal the Truth.
What you have, you have to lose,
there is no water in the mirage, only dry sand.
Be attached only to That
which is impossible to be separate from.

If you have to think, think 'I am pure consciousness.'
If you have to speak, speak about the Self.
If you have to read, read what the Enlightened have written.

I advise you to keep good company, a pure sattvic diet,
attend satsang, and live in harmony with nature.
Be as you Are and allow no concepts to trespass in your peace.
Your foremost duty is to remove concepts and engagements.
Love all beings, love all beings, love all beings.

Treat the ego and mind like shoes:
wear them when you need to go out
and take them off at the door when you are home.
Otherwise the seat in which knowledge would sit is occupied.
The thought 'I am the body' is enough to occupy the throne,
so keep the mind and the ego out with the shoes
until there is no in and no out
and no one left to wear them.

Buddha nature flows from simple doing,
not doer-thinking-doing.
Allow things to happen, you just stay here.
What has to happen is happening
Just remain here as Peace, just remain as Peace,
just remain as Peace.



#1740 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat Mar 20, 2004 2:00 pm
Subject: #1740 - Thursday, March 18, 2004
nondualguy
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#1740 - Thursday, March 18, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose message, and 'Send'. All the editors will see your letter.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Bonne Mère - Savon pour le Corps
Des savons délicatement parfumés, pour nettoyer la peau en douceur.
 
 
 
 
Récolte de la Lavande - Savon Cube aux graines de Lavande
Un vrai savon de Marseille traditionnel, parsemé de graines de lavande.
 
 
 
 
Récolte de la Lavande - Savon Fuseau Lavande
Un savon extra-doux à base d’huile essentielle de Lavande A.O.C.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Wash you face with water with mindfulness.
Do it nicely and use soap, water, wash your face with towel.
Wash your face with mindfulness.
--Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche
 
 
 

 

The Body Shop

http://www.thebodyshop.com/

Mission Statement

  • To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change.
  • To creatively balance the financial and human needs of our stakeholders: employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers and shareholders.

  • To courageously ensure that our business is ecologically sustainable: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future.

  • To meaningfully contribute to local, national and international communities in which we trade, by adopting a code of conduct which ensures care, honesty, fairness and respect.

  • To passionately campaign for the protection of the environment, human and civil rights, and against animal testing within the cosmetics and toiletries industry.

  • To tirelessly work to narrow the gap between principle and practice, whilst making fun, passion and care part of our daily lives.
Milk Soap
 
An opaque, creamy, luxurious bar soap containing organic milk powder
and vitamin E to moisturize and cleanse the skin. Use it with a body
buffer or alone in the shower to cleanse and smooth. 4.5 OZ
 
 
 
 
 
Coconut Soap
 
Contains coconut oil to condition your skin during cleansing.
 
Shea Soap
 
All the moisturizing properties of shea butter in a soap. Contains
Community Traded shea butter. 3.5 oz.
 
~ ~ ~
 
 
I pace the sidewalk
under a white soap moon --
--Janet I. Buck

 

 
 
 
 
 
Eau de Linge (linen water)
 
Pour our fragranced water into your iron before ironing shirts and
linens or mist on bed sheets for a relaxing journey to the South of
France.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Sandstone
 
Ingredients: Sand, Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Sodium Palm Kernelate,
Sodium Stearate, Perfume, Litsea Cubeba Oil, Coriander Oil (Coriandrum
Sativum), Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia
Jasminoides)

 
We find our Brazilian customers. obsession with sand very interesting.
They work very hard on keeping their skin very smooth and supple,
mostly because it.s on show such a lot, and they are always begging us
for products to help them. Ro, who loves going to Brazil to see the
Lush shops, to dance in the carnival and go out all night with our dead
flashy Brazilian partners, learned about their sand thing* and asked
for sand products. Sandstone is our new sand soap. It smells fantastic
- stimulating, lemony litsea cubeba with detoxifying coriander oil .
and works brilliantly. Use the soapy side for washing your whole body
then use the sandy side for your heels and soles, elbows, knees and
even your buttocks, if they really need some serious exfoliation.
(*They sit on the beach and rub sand with suntan oil into their thighs
and buttocks to keep them really smooth.)
 
 
Figs and Leaves
 
Ingredients: Fig Decoction (Ficus Carica), Sodium Palm Kernelate,
Glycerine, Aloe Vera Extract (Aloe Barbadensis), Perfume, Ylang Ylang
Oil (Cananga Odorata), Orange Blossom Absolute (Citrus Dulcis),
Titanium Dioxide, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA,
 
Lovely, nourishing, rich and soft, stacked with fresh figs and aloe
vera, the new Figs and Leaves feels more like a moisturizer than a
soap. The aloe vera and figs moisturize your skin and the tiny seeds
exfoliate as you wash. Scent - divine. Orange blossom instills euphoria
and ylang ylang is known for its aphrodisiac properties (figs and
leaves, Hmmm). Colour - sludgy. Presentation - you get a slice off a
big block with vine leaves on top, looks like a delicious, figgy
Bavarois.
 
~ ~ ~
 
They are all here, six pebbles, one, two, three, four, five, six. In the other bag I have also six. They are bigger, like this. After having picked them up outside, I used soap to wash them carefully, and I dry them. Then I put them into a bag like this. I think today you may like to make your own pebble bag.
--Thich Nhat Hanh 
 
 

 
 
Savon de Marseilles
 
 
 
 
Big blocks of olive oil based soap have been crafted for one thousand
years in the South of France. Since 1688 French law has declared that
only soaps that are produced by following certain ancient methods, and
containing only the purest ingredients, shall bear the famous mark
“Savon de Marseille.”
 
It takes the Maitre de Savon (soapmaster) two weeks to make Marseille
Soap. The delicate mixture of olive and vegetable oils, alkaline ash
from sea plants and Mediterranean Sea salted water are heated for ten
days in antique cauldrons.
 
Cleanse your mind with the soap of concentration, and wash it with the water of meditation.
--Remez Sasson

#1741 From: "Gloria Lee" <glee@...>
Date: Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:54 am
Subject: #1741 - Friday, March 19, 2004
glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 
.
 
.
 
.
#1741 - Friday, March 19, 2004 - Editor: Gloria
 
dancing: the fox treads
  among the pale
  narcissi
in garden moonlight

     ~ Buson, Japanese 1716 - 84

  
"Every creature is a word of God."
~ Meister Eckhart
 
 
St. Francis of Assisi,
lover of all creation,
patron saint of animals
and the environment
 
 
"But ask now the Beasts,
And they shall teach thee;
And the Fowls of the air,
And they shall teach thee,
Or speak to the Earth,
And it shall teach thee."(Job 12:7-8)

"What is man without the beast? If all the great beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beast soon happens to man."
- Chief Seattle

 In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals; for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beasts, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and the moon, man should learn. Tirawa spoke to man through his works.

- Chief Letakots-Lesa of the Pawnee tribe


startled into life like fire

in grievous deity my cat
walks around
he walks around and around
with
electric tail and
push-button
eyes

he is
alive and
plush and
final as a plum tree

neither of us understands
cathedrals or
the man outside
watering his
lawn

if I were all the man
that he is
cat--
if there were men
like this
the world could
begin

he leaps up on the couch
and walks through
porticoes of my
admiration.
 
 ~ Charles Bukowski
from Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
 

 
 
 

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
by T.S. Eliot

The Old Gumbie Cat

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her coat is of the tabby kind, with tiger stripes and leopard spots.
All day she sits upon the stair or on the steps or on the mat;
She sits and sits and sits and sits--and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

send a free Practical Cats card But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
And when all the family's in bed and asleep,
She tucks up her skirts to the basement to creep.
She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice--
Their behaviour's not good and their manners not nice;
So when she has got them lined up on the matting,
She teachs them music, crocheting and tatting.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her equal would be hard to find, she likes the warm and sunny spots.
All day she sits beside the hearth or on the bed or on my hat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits--and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
As she finds that the mice will not ever keep quiet,
She is sure it is due to irregular diet;
And believing that nothing is done without trying,
She sets right to work with her baking and frying.
She makes them a mouse--cake of bread and dried peas,
And a beautiful fry of lean bacon and cheese.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits--
and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
So she's formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,
A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.

So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers--
On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.

 
Entire collection of cat poems available at above link,
with some illustrations by Edward Gorey.
 

 
Edward Gorey 
The entire ABC book of illustrations is online at:
 
 
and http://www.wishville.co.uk/gorey/c.htm  one at a time for slower dl's
 

B is for Basil assaulted by bears.

a bio/story/interview: http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2000/02/15/gorey/index.html?pn=1

He seems to delight in engaging his interviewers with the unspeakable horrors of his life. For example, here he is in 1992, talking to the Boston Globe: "I'm suffering from bronchitis at the moment. Psychosomatic bronchitis, I'm sure. But nevertheless, it's bronchitis. Oh it's all too much, too grim, too lovely, too -- how should I put this? It's general chaos."


If a dog was the teacher

If a dog was the teacher you would learn stuff like:
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure
ecstasy.

When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.

Let others know when they've invaded your territory.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and
pout...run right back and make friends.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk

Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough.

Be loyal. Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle
them gently.


 "The greatness of a nation," said Mahatma Gandhi, "can be judged by the way its animals are treated."


Ben Hassine ~ Awakened Awareness
 

Prayer for Peace 

Pray to whoever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the Bo tree in scorching heat,
Yahweh, Allah, raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekinhah, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, Record Keeper
of time before, time now, time ahead, pray. Bow down
to terriers and shepherds and siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Pray to the bus driver who takes you to work,
pray on the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus
and for everyone riding buses all over the world.
If you haven't been on a bus in a long time,
climb the few steps, drop some silver, and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latté and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already a prayer.
Skin and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile case we are poured into,
each caress a season of peace.

If you're hungry, pray. If you're tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.
Pray to the angels and the ghost of your grandfather.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else's legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheel chair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer that as the earth revolves
we will do less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas, pray for peace.

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds for peace, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine..

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Gnaw your crust
of prayer, scoop your prayer water from the gutter.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

Ellen Bass (Read more of her poems at www.ellenbass.com)



#1742 From: "Mark Otter" <markotter@...>
Date: Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:06 am
Subject: #1742 - Saturday, March 20, 2004
markwotter704
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Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nondual Highlights Issue #1742 Saturday, March 20, 2004

It is when pure consiousness gives rise to concepts and notions within itself that it assumes an individuality (jiva). Such individuals wander in this samsara (world-appearance). In an eclipse what was unseen earlier is seen: even so it is possible to perceive through the individual's experiences the pure experiencing which is the infinite cosciousness. But this self-knowledge is not gained by study of scriptures or with the help of a guru; it can only be gained by the self for itself.

Regard your body and senses as insturments for experiencing, not as self. The notion 'I am the body is bondage; the seeker should avoid it. 'I am no-thing but pure consciousness' - such understanding when it is sustained is conducive to liberation. It is only when one does not realise the self which is free from old age, death, etc., that one wails aloud, "Alas, I am dead or I am helpless". It is by such thoughts that ignorance is fortified. Free your mind from such impure thoughts and notions. Rest in the self free from such notions. Though engaged in diverse activities remain established in a state of perfect equilibrium and rule this kingdom in peace and joy.

The Lord sports in this world-appearance and then withdraws it into himself. The power or energy that creates and brings about bondage is also the power or the energy that dissolves creation and liberates. Just as the tree pervades all its parts and leaves, this infinite consciousness pervades the entire universe. Alas, the ignirant person does not realize it though it is in every cell of his being. He who sees that the self alone is all enjoys bliss.

One should gain this understanding through study of scriptures and company of holy ones. This is the first step. Reflection or enquiry is the second. Non-attachment or psychological freedom is the third. The fourth is snapping of the bonds of vasanas (conditioning and tendencies). The bliss that is derived from pure awareness is the fifth; in it the liberated sage lives as if in half-sleep. Self-knowledge is the sixth in which the sage is immersed in a mass of bliss and lives as if in deep sleep. The seventh state which is known as turiya (the transcendental) is itself liberation; in it there is perfect equanimity and purity. Beyond this (still the seventh stage) is the turiyatita which is beyond description. The first three states are 'waking' states. The fourth is the dream state. The fifth is the deep sleep state because it is full of bliss. The sixth is the turiya or the non-dual consciousness. The seventh is indescribable. One who has reached this is established in pure being devoid of subject-object division. He is not eager to die nor to live. He is one with all. He is free from individuation.

- Vasistha's Yoga, translated by Swami Venkatesananda, and published by State University of New York Press.


The ego is entranced by ... names and ideas... (However) names and concepts only block your perception of this Great Oneness. Therefore it is wise to ignore them. Those who live inside their egos are continually bewildered.

- From the The Hua Hu Ching


The other side of the coin is that I am not it. What we normally define as who we are, this particular body and mind, is not it. The light, the divine, Buddha-nature, no matter what you call it, only comes through me, as it comes through you. When we drop attachment to body and mind there is no distinction between it and self. As the Third Patriarch (of Zen Buddhism) says, any distinction we make sets heaven and earth infinitely apart. If we attach to the notion that "I am it," then our egos swell up and we become very arrogant. We must avoid clinging to the experience of enlightenment, the realization of being it. It flows through me; I am just a conduit.

- Dennis Genpo Merzel


The recollected soul (an-nafs al-mutma'innah) is the one whose enlightenment is brought about by the light of the heart until it is stripped of blameworthy attributes and takes on praiseworthy virtues. Then it turns in the direction of the heart completely, following it in its ascent to the regions of the world of Holiness (`alam al-quds) far above the world of impurity, diligent in acts of obedience and tranquil in the presence of the "Exalter of ranks" until its Lord addresses it by His words: "But, ah! thou soul at peace! Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure! Enter thou among My servants! Enter thou My Garden!"

- From Ahmad Ibn `Ata'Allah


(The) soul is in itself a most lovely and perfect image of God.

In order to reach the summit of this high mount, (the soul) must have changed its garments (resulting in) a new understanding of God in God, the old human understanding being cast aside; and a new love of God in God, the will being now stripped of all its old desires and human pleasures, and the soul being brought into a new state of knowledge and profound delight, all other old images and forms of knowledge having been cast away, and all that belongs to the old man, which is the aptitude of the natural self, quelled, and the soul clothed with a new supernatural aptitude with respect to all its faculties. So that its operation, which before was human, has become Divine, which is that that is attained in the state of union, wherein the soul becomes naught else than an altar whereon God is adored in praise and love, and God alone is upon it ...

- John of the Cross


As Antony, the great servant of God, said, "Holiness is achieved when the intellect is in its natural state." And again he said: "The soul realizes its integrity when its intellect is in that state in which it was created." And shortly after this he adds: "Let us purify our mind, for I believe that when the mind is completely pure and is in its natural state, it gains penetrating insight..." So spoke the renowned Antony, according to the Life of Antony by Athanasios the Great.

- St. Hesychios the Priest in On Watchfulness and Holiness: in Philokalia (Vol. 1)


What is this new mystery which concerns me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I share one condition with the lower world, the other with God; one with the flesh, the other with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, arise with Christ, be joint heir with Christ, become the son of God, yea, God Himself.

- Gregory of Nazianzus


Let me address this question of: What's the difference between dissolving the barriers and setting good boundaries?

This came up in some of the discussion groups, and this question also comes up - you won't be surprised - in many of the places where I do this teaching. I've given this some thought - and I've heard a lot of other people's views on this too, so I've been educated by other people's thinking on this. Currently, this is my answer, and I'm sure it's a work in process.

I feel that setting boundaries, good boundaries - the intention of that - is to allow for communication to happen. And, barriers are shutting down communication.

To set good boundaries takes a lot of courage. And you have to be going through this process of acknowledging your pain, and also what triggers you, and acknowledging how much you can handle and how much you can't handle. Theres already a lot of courage that's gone on in coming to the place of setting boundaries. But, the intention is to make communication clearer.

For instance, the classic situaton of you're in a relationship where you're beaten. And, all your friends are saying, "Why do you stay in that relationship?" Well, it's because of barriers, and turning away, and all of this stuff. Because, why do you to allow this to happen to yourself again and again? Well, it's very complicated, and it has to do with the ego structure and how we are afraid to actually to go into this, and we're hoping that this time the happiness that I'm seeking will come from staying in this destructive relationship.

A barrier is this turning away and staying stuck. There's ignorance involved in barriers. Maybe that's one of the main ingredients of the ego and the self-centeredness, or the barriers, cocoon - however you say it- is ignorance: not really looking at what's going on. So, then, usually with a lot of help from other people, and your own reservoir of courage beginning to come up, and your own reservoir of clarity and sanity and self-compassion getting stronger, you get to the place where you actually say: If you hit me again, I'm leaving, and I'm leaving for good, and I'm not coming back unless you do some work with a therapist, or whatever, around the fact that you keep hitting me. But, from my side, I'm out of here. And then you do it. That's an example of setting good boundaries. But it takes a lot of courage to do that, because that may mean the end of this relationship, which represents a lot of things.

Setting good boundaries is actually pushing you more and more towards going into it. And it's clarifying the situation. It is the most compassionate thing you can do for the other person and for yourself, because it's frightening because the other person is often not going to want to hear-- your boss, your spouse, your child, or whoever it is, is not going to want to hear your boundaries, and they're going to get angry with you.

If you've ever been on the receiving end of someone setting their boundaries, and it provokes you and makes you angry, but at least you know what you're working with. And you can even say, This doesn't work for me, I have to go-- or you decide to stay and work with it. But, at least, there's clarity.

Whereas, with barriers, and the whole way ego works, it just causes a lot of confusion - mixed messages are a sign of barriers - and so the suffering just escalates with barriers.

The idea of setting good boundaries is to provide clarity, communication, and it takes a lot of bravery to do it.

- Pema Chodron from Transforming Confusion into Wisdom, City Retreat, Berkeley Shambhala Center, Fall 1999



#1743 From: "Gloria Lee" <glee@...>
Date: Tue Mar 23, 2004 4:05 am
Subject: #1743 - Sunday, March 21, 2004
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#1743 - Sunday, March 21, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
-  Emily Dickinson

 

 The Spirit of Gardening

 Quotations, Poetry, and History for Gardeners and Lovers of the Green Way
 Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

All selections in this issue on Spring are from wandering in this vast garden...

http://www.gardendigest.com/


Everything
just as it is,
as it is,
as is.
Flowers in bloom.
Nothing to add.

- Robert Aitken, Roshi, As it Is

 

When I see
Heaven and earth as
My own garden,
I live that moment
Outside the Universe.

- A Zen Harvest: Japanese Folk Zen Sayings, p. 53
Compiled and translated by Soiku Shigematsu

 

We learn from our gardens to deal with the most
urgent question of the time: How much is enough?

- Wendell Berry

 

In the third month of spring
the fruit is full on the enlightenment tree;
One night the flower blooms
and the whole world is fragrant.

- Dogen Zenji, 1200 - 1253
Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji, p. 43
Translated and edited by Thomas Cleary

 

"Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance,
even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice."

- The Buddha

 

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of
strength that will endure as long as life lasts.  There is something
infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature— the assurance
that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
-   Rachel Carson


 

Step out onto the Planet.
Draw a circle a hundred feet round.
Inside the circle are
300 things nobody understands, and maybe
nobody's ever seen.
How many can you find?

- Lew Welch
From What Book, 1998, p. 124, Edited by Gary Gach

 

See with your eyes, hear
with your ears.
Nothing is hidden.

- Tenkei


 

There is a reality even prior to heaven and earth;
Indeed, it has no form, much less a name;
Eyes fail to see it;
It has no voice for ears to detect;
To call it Mind or Buddha violates its nature,
For it then becomes like a visionary flower in the air;
It is not Mind, nor Buddha;
Absolutely quiet, and yet illuminating in a mysterious way,
It allows itself to be perceived only by the clear-eyed.

- Daio Kokushi, 1232 - 1308, On Zen
Manual of Zen Buddhism

 

 

A yellow flower
(Light and spirit)
Sings by itself
For nobody.

A golden spirit
(Light and emptiness)
Sings without a word
By itself.

- Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton's Poetry: Emblems of a Sacred Season

 

Whenever learners or those beyond learning awaken the mind, for the first time they plant one buddha-nature. Working with the four elements and five clusters, if they practice sincerely they attain enlightenment. Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment. This is because the four elements and five clusters and plants, trees, fences and walls are fellow students; because they are of the same essence, because they are the same mind and the same life, because they are the same body and the same mechanism.

- Dogen Zenji, Japanese Zen Buddhist Grand Master
Awakening the Unsurpassed Mind, #31
Translated by Thomas Cleary, Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji
Vegetable Nirvana by Ito Jakuchu

 

A wee child toddling in a wonder world ... I prefer to their dogma my excursions into
the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of
birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.
If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

- Zitkala-Sa

 

The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting
and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as
possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't
want paradise, you are not human;  and if you are not human, you don't have
a soul.

- Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, 1996, p. 101


 

There is more pleasure in making a garden than in contemplating a paradise.

- Anne Scott-James


The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty
or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience.

-   Henryk Skolimowski


If not ignored, nature will cultivate in the gardener a sense of
well-being and peace.  The gardener may find deeper meaning
in life by paying attention to the parables of the garden.  Nature
teaches quiet lessons to the gardener who chooses
to live within the paradigm of the garden.

-   Norman H. Hansen
The Worth of Gardening

Beyond its practical aspects, gardening - be it of the soil or soul - can lead us on a
philosophical and spiritual exploration that is nothing less than a journey into the
depths of our own sacredness and the sacredness of all beings.  After all, there must
be something more mystical beyond the garden gate, something that
satisfies the soul's attraction to beauty, peace, solace, and celebration.

-  Christopher and Tricia McDowell, The Sanctuary Garden, 1998, p.13
Cortesia Sanctuary and Center


I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through
which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

-  George Washington Carver


God does not die on that day when we cease to believe in a personal
deity, but we die when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady
radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond
all reasoning.  ...   When the sense of the earth unites with the sense
of one's body, one becomes earth of the earth, a plant among plants,
an animal born from the soil and fertilizing it.  In this union, the body
is confirmed in its pantheism.

-   Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961)

 

It is this subtle dimension of understanding that marks the southwestern
Indian peoples from other religions and separates tribal peoples from the
world's religions. Somewhere in the planetary history religious expression
changed from participation in the sound, color and rhythm of nature to
the abstractions of man outside this context pleading for temporary respite
and hoping in the next life to return to the Garden.

- Vine Deloria, Jr., Frank Waters, Prophet and Explorer


The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark --
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.

- Ryokan, (1758-1831)
Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf
Translated by John Stevens


A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand becoming,
a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning
to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our
falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature. It is a way in
which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very
day in its hotness, and the length of the night, become truly
alive, share in our humanity, speak their own silent and
expressive language.

- Haiku: Eastern Culture, 1949, Volume One, p. 243.
Translations and commentary by Reginald H. Blyth


For thirty years I have been in search of the swordsman;
Many a time have I watched the leaves decay
and the branches shoot!
Ever since I saw for once the peaches in bloom,
Not a shadow of doubt do I cherish.

- Ling-Yün and the Peach Blossoms
D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, 1953, 2nd Series, p. 145,


The road enters green mountains near evening's dark;
Beneath the white cherry trees, a Buddhist temple
Whose priest doesn't know what regret for spring's passing means-
Each stroke of his bell startles more blossoms into falling.

- Keijo Shurin


I praise those ancient Chinamen
Who left me a few words,
Usually a pointless joke or a silly question

A line of poetry drunkenly scrawled on the margin
of a quick splashed picture— bug, leaf,
caricature of a Teacher—
On paper held together now by little more than ink
& their own strength brushed momentarily over it

Their world and several others since
Gone to hell and a handbasket, they knew it—
Cheered as it whizzed by—
& conked out among the busted spring rain cherryblossom winejars

Happy to have saved us all.

- Philip Whalen, Hymnus ad Patrem Sinensis

 

You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
Loving beauty, you caress the bloom;
Soon enough, you'll sweep petals from the floor.

Terrible to love the lovely so,
To count your own years, to say "I'm old,"
To see a flower half-buried in leaves
And come face to face with what you are.

- Han Shan, 630
Translated by Peter Stambler

 

 

Sakura, Sakura.
Noyamamo satomo
Miwatasu kagiri.
Kasumi-ka kumo-ka.... asahi-ni niou
Sakura, Sakura,
Hanazakari.


Cherry Blossoms, cherry blossoms. 
On mountains, in villages. 
As far as you can see. 
They look like fog or clouds.  They are fragrant in the morning sun. 
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms.  
In full bloom.

~ ~ ~

Spring has again returned. 
The Earth is like a child that knows many poems.
Many, O so many.  For the hardship
of such long learning she receives the prize.

Strict was her teacher. 
The white in the old man's beard pleases us.
Now, what to call green, to call blue,
we dare to ask: She knows, She knows!

-  Rainer Marie Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, XXI


Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear
that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments,
not the composer.

-  Geoffrey B. Charlesworth


I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become,
I will always plant a large garden in the spring.  Who can
resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from
participating in nature's rebirth?

-   Edward Giobbi


To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating;
to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the
stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring — these
are some of the rewards of the simple life.

–  John Burroughs

http://www.egreenway.com/months/spring.htm


Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex
their trunks and main branches, so the sap is drawn up to
nourish the budding leaves.  Perhaps we need the gales of life
in the same way, though we dislike enduring them.
-   Jane Truax

 

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.
-   Ellis Peters


Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
-   Robin Williams


O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.
-   Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Green Things Growing


I don't know what smell of wet earth or rotting leaves brought back my childhood
with a rush and all the happy days I had spent in a garden. Shall I ever forget that
day?  It was the beginning of my real life, my coming of age as it were, and entering
into my kingdom.  Early March, gray, quiet skies, and brown, quiet earth; leafless
and sad and lonely enough out there in the damp and silence, yet there I stood
feeling the same rapture of pure delight in the first breath of spring that I used to
as a child, and the five wasted years fell from me like a cloak, and the world was
full of hope, and I vowed myself then and there to nature and have been
happy ever since.  
-   Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, 1898

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


#1744 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:55 am
Subject: #1744 - Monday, March 22, 2004
nondualguy
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#1744 - Monday, March 22, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nondualty.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose your letter, and 'Send'. All the editors will receive your letter.
 
 
 

 
 
Petros
Petros - Truth
 
Satsang with Ramesh Balsekar
 
Petros recently engaged in satsang with Ramesh Balsekar, the successor
of the great Advaita guru Nisargadatta Maharaj. Ramesh, a retired
President of the Bank of India, lives in a large apartment on the top
floor of a five story apartment building in Mumbai (Bombay) called the
Sindhula Building which was constructed by his father in the 1930s and
also houses other members of the Balsekar clan, of whom Ramesh is the
grand patriarch. The apartment is airy and quite homey, filled with the
mementos of a busy lifetime and tastefully outfitted in neat Art-Deco
and vintage 1950s era furniture and fittings.
 
Ramesh is a sprightly 87 years old and appears for satsang every
morning, seven days a week, in a small brightly lit sunroom where his
mostly Western students appear faithfully after waiting on the sidewalk
outside or in a nearby cafe until the signal to enter the building is
given by an attendant. He appeared barefoot in his customary white
pyjamas and took a seat in a small armchair while some twenty students
crowded into the room, onto chairs or pillows on the floor. Through the
open windows one could see the rooftops of Mumbai and off in the
distance, the ocean. Behind Ramesh hung a framed and flower-garlanded
photograph of his master, Nisargadatta.
 
Attendents in an attached room adjusted recording equipment as Ramesh
jumped into the satsang by taking questions from students and
responding to them with his animated style, making points with grand
gestures of his arms and never shy of challenging students'
presumptions. When one student made reference to Ammachi's teaching
about spiritual progress, Ramesh responded, not without irony, 'Why
didn't you stay with her? Yet you are here!'
 
Petros introduced himself and expressed gratitude for the teachings
that Ramesh and Nisargadatta have presented, and indicated that he
first heard of Ramesh via the American teacher Wayne Liquorman six
years ago and expressed a desire then to someday meet Ramesh, and was
overjoyed that now that day had come. Ramesh graciously replied with a
silent folding of his hands in the traditional Indian gesture of thanks
and respect.
 
The dialogue between Petros and Ramesh that ensued centered on profound
issues involving the nature of the 'deepest understanding' of
enlightenment or non-doership and its relation to the life of the
individual; how or whether it makes a difference in society and the
world, and whether one can know for oneself whether one has attained
this 'deepest understanding.' Ramesh replied with characteristic humour
that 'one could always take a lie detector test!' (The entirety of the
conversation was too elaborate to easily summarize here, however.)
 
The two-hour satsang concluded with the singing of some Sanskrit
bhajans and silent pranaming toward the teacher by each student in
turn.
 
 

 
 
Toombaru
NDS
 
 
When his chidren had grown older...he informed them that the stories he had read over the years were really isolated segments of an infinitly vast interrelated flow that had been segmented and isolated for their convenience.

He waited quietly for their response.

They talked among themselves for several minute............

"Daddy", said the oldest, "Isn't that just another story?"


"GO TO YOUR ROOM"......He yelled.


 
 
 
"The Day I Thanked Nis"
By Pete
NDS
 
The dismal ally stunk of sewage and garbage. As I approached the
house, a stray dog slunk away, its eyes full of fear.  It was a young
emaciated dog, almost a puppy- stray dogs don't grow old in Bombay. I
gave a sigh of relief as I entered the narrow stairwell. It smelled
of dust and cheap incense. Going up, the steps groaned menacingly
under my weigh.

   In a small second floor room sat an old man dressed  in white. The
massive head with the prominent cheekbones seemed misplaced on his
frail body. The moment I entered, he opened his eyes and stared at me
without surprise, or any hint of inquiry. The eyes dwarfed the head,
as the head did the body. From then on, I only saw the piercing eyes,
as if, disembodied, they floated  in the room's penumbra. After my
salutation, he gestured toward a cushion.

  "Where do you come from?" he asked.

  "I come from the future."

  He laughed, and his chest rumbled with phlegm. The laugh sputtered,
and  then, exploded into a fitful cough.  "I have no future," he said
in a strangled voice.

  "Your words do. In the future your words are read by millions. They
have liberated hundreds of people."

  "They are not my words, and I'm not interested in those imaginary
hundreds. Have they liberated you? "

  "Yes, they have, and I thank you."

   He laughed again, but cut it short and clearing his throat with a
painful grimace, said, "If you were truly liberated, would there be
any need to thank someone who never existed?"

  Now was my turn to laugh. "Yes, I see what you mean. That would be
the only way liberation could work. To liberate one individual at a
time is a hopeless task. Once the dreamer awakes, all the dream
characters are seen as unreal."

  "Nevertheless, you are still trying to awaken the characters in the
dream," he said.

  "Yes, I do. Does it mean that I'm not awake yet?"

  "You are dreaming you are awake, the dream still goes on."

  "But wait, you're fully awake and you still teach."

  "I exist and teach only in your dream."

  "So, when will the dream end?"

  "The day the body dies."

  "You mean I had no need to study and meditate all these years? I
could have had any dream I wanted?"

  "No. There is no 'you' apart from the dream, and there is no dream,
but this one."

  "Well, If I am the dream, I will that you get well, and live as
long as I do."

   He laughed and began to cough again. "Get out," he yelled. "You're
an idiot. Get out. Out!"

   His cough echoed behind me as I hurried downstairs.
 
 

 
 
Allspirit Inspiration
 
The world is not something separate from you and me; the world,
society, is the relationship that we establish or seek to establish
between each other. So you and I are the problem, and not the
world, because the world is the projection of ourselves, and to
understand the world we must understand ourselves. That world
is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are
the world's problems.

From: Krishnamurti's Book of Life Daily Meditations

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The Other Syntax
 
The idea of equality has often been taken to mean dropping to the
lowest common denominator, or settling for the characterless common
middle. Equality as I am suggesting it is our coming together at the
level of highest awareness, pure space, without attachment or
resistance, with complete freedom of experience and consciousness,
merging with others in whatever ecstasy or calm we choose. In all the
vibration levels less than the highest, there are illusions of
quantity and value, of greater and lesser love, intelligence, and
powers. We appear to each other according to the vibrations we choose
to emphasize, but we are equal in potential.

--Thaddeus Golas
 
 
 

 
 
a mary bianco contribution to NDS News...
 
 
Anticipating spring
 
In Alaska, gardening happiness grows as much from planning as from seeing
 
By KATY GILMORE Daily News correspondent
 
(Published: March 18, 2004) 
 
 
This spring, I'm thankful for my good fortune
in a year with high anniversary and birthday numbers. I've been
thinking about how to mark the occasions happily and pondering what
exactly defines "happy" anyway.
 
At a celebratory dinner recently, my husband, whose reading reaches
further afield than mine, contributed this from Socrates: "Happiness is
effective action." At the same meal, a therapist friend described an
intriguing list of "core strengths," attributes (like zest, lifelong
learning and forgiveness) determined by psychological testing to be
associated with happiness. Another guest noted what a privilege it is
to consider any pursuit beyond life and liberty. Afterward, I thought
about gardens and happiness, wondering if garden fantasy or desire is
really a happiness quest.
 
"Happy" seems a little weak as words go, warm and fuzzy with Hallmark
overtones. But a bevy of its appealing synonyms, like "pleasure,"
"delight" and "contentment," describe gardening. In Alaska gardening,
we're cut off from Socratic "effective action" for long months, and
garden happiness springs largely from contemplation. The Northwest
Flower and Garden Show beckoned in February as a fine place to consider
the subject.
 
I arrived in Seattle on a winter Saturday evening illuminated by a
bleary sun setting through sodden clouds. As I rode up the long
escalators in the convention center, a steady trickle of tired but
cheerful-looking gardeners flowed down. They lugged bobbling greenery,
metal and glass garden gewgaws and new flexible plant supports (which
looked like this year's must-have). To fortify myself, I stopped for a
cup of tea and overheard a role-reversed happiness conflict. A husband
said excitedly, "Well, we could tear up more grass and plant," and the
wife interrupted vehemently with "No! Grass is much easier than
flowers!"
 
A jolly green foam tree, triple a person in size, dominated the atrium
entrance. Daffodils, tulips and hyacinth (for the trademark flower show
scent) flourished as pretend woodland at the base. Couples and families
milled about. The flower show encourages make-believe, like the giant
tree, but also camaraderie. I envied a little the Alaskans who make a
joyous garden party of this snow break.
 
You absorb the show's energy just by passing through. A marketplace
presents possibilities for purchased happiness via "see-want-buy," a
phrase I just learned (from an unhappy shopper). People who find garden
happiness by connecting to the natural world staff booths supporting
native-plant societies and bats. The show presents plant possibilities
and combinations. And clever ideas -- I noticed wine corks used as
mulch, colored twinkle lights twisted into blossoms and leaves. I
missed much more.
 
The free lectures offer the most portable pleasure: ideas and
inspiration and real gardening stories. Serendipity happens in the
garden, but planning and knowledge increase the happiness odds. Through
lucky timing, I caught two of Mary Keen's lectures. In the landslide of
gardening books, hers reach out to me.
 
She's actually Lady Keen, a professional garden designer who lives in a
graceful Georgian manor in England's Cotswolds and gardens between a
fragment of original woods and a tiny church she described as "ancient,
timeless and humble." Her garden "wakes up" in February from what seems
to me a very brief sleep and blooms with hellebores and snowdrops.
 
A strong-looking woman with a silver pageboy, Keen spoke fluently
without notes as she showed her slides. In this lecture about color,
she encouraged us to learn to recognize what colors resonate
personally, what pleases us. She doesn't mean just in gardens but in
paintings, clothing and houses. "Your eyes are your best tools," she
said.
 
She pulled a series of scarves from her bag and held them up,
brightening or dulling her tomato-red outfit. She quoted Van Gogh --
"Without orange there is no blue" -- and declared that orange helps to
lift England's often-gray sky.
 
But she didn't promulgate color rules. Keen's only declared rule is the
need to find a consistent style and stick to it, achieve a "unity of
purpose." Later, she did offer a sobering statistic: Gardens are 30 or
40 percent design and 60 or 70 percent maintenance. Who does the work?
The answer to that question might go a long way toward defining one's
style and the route to garden satisfaction.
 
Elegant topiary and a four-square design (though the beds are
charmingly uneven) give her garden structure. Within the boundaries,
she encourages the harmony of native wildflowers and self-seeding
plants to give the garden "a bit of an unruly feel." More than once,
she mentioned Piet Oudolf, the innovative Dutch plantsman, as a Keen
influence.
 
Her slides and words sang of garden delight to me: the feeling of being
completely surrounded in the garden, the light of dawn and evening,
narrow paths with stone steps moving from shadow to sun, and quiet
places to rest the eye. She saluted the "fleeting perfection" of
ephemeral blossoms, "little wonders" she enjoys anticipating almost as
much as seeing, an attitude that would serve her well in Alaska, where
so much garden pleasure is anticipatory.
 
On Sunday afternoon, dressed in a long, bark-brown skirt and cocoa
quilted jacket, Keen repeated her message that your garden must please
you. You're a little messy or a little obsessive or both? Then meld the
traits as Keen herself does. In spite of stunning photos of her
gardens, she maintains that a good garden has nothing to do with
grandness but rather with "personalness." The gardens she admires are
ones that "hang in the head," ones you will "dream about and wish you
were there."
 
She's an unlikely contrarian, this proper Englishwoman, and I heard
disagreeing murmurings when she admitted to enjoying proliferators like
Welsh poppies in her beds. To my delight, she invited -- with a smile
but with force -- anyone who wanted to use poison and not be "green" to
leave the lecture room.
 
She used "happy" to describe the stacked stone homage to Andy
Goldsworthy at a client's place on the Greek island of Corfu, which
also memorializes the pleasurable day spent gathering the rocks from
the land. She cherishes meaning in garden choices: a rose with
significance or a message embedded in her garden gazebo's floor that
spells "CALM DOWN" with the letters of her family's names. A garden is
about home for her, and without hesitation she called it a process, not
a product. Her favorite garden is hers, and yours should be yours.
 
Gardening has so many gates inviting one in: being part of the bigger
picture, practicing kindness to the earth and its critters, exploring
wonder and possessing beauty. Maybe best of all, it offers a
never-ending source of challenge and the chance for fulfillment from
problem solving.
 
Back in Alaska, I encountered a gardener in the grocery store line. In
a couple of sentences, we were lost in imagining a hop vine
embellishing a driveway and reaching for a high deck. Engrossed, we
walked out into the 18-degree evening and frozen parking lot, happily
picturing summer in our gardens.
 
Artist Katy Gilmore lives and gardens in Anchorage.
 
 
 

 
 
Humor
 
Trying to vote in Florida
 
 
 
 

 
 
Daily Dharma
 
"To realize pure mind in your delusion is practice.  If you try to expel the delusion it will only persist the more.  Just say, 'oh, this is just delusion,' and do not be bothered by it."
 ~~Shunryu Suzuki

From the book, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", published by Weatherhill
 
 

 
 
Harsha
NDS
 
When we mind our own mind with awareness, that is a
good practice. Study of scriptures, and most
meditation and yogic methods fall under this category.

When we do not mind our own mind in awareness, that is
a superior practice and called the yoga of awareness.
Self-Inquiry taught by Sri Ramana leads to that.

When there is no mind to mind and only Pure Awareness,
there is no practice and no practitioner. The ancients
sages simply called this Reality at the core, the
Self, our true nature. The Sanskrit term
Sat-Chit-Ananda is very precise. Self being
Self-Existent, Chit being Self-Knowledge, Ananda,
being Self-Ananda. The meaning of Sat-Chit-Ananda
cannot be intellectually comprehended. It requires
direct Self-Knowing and it becomes crystal clear, Self
It Self being that Formless Clarity.

The Formless Being which exists in all forms as
Existence without support, That is One without a
second, is One's Own Self. Based on the strength of
this knowledge which is completely and absolutely
direct, the Advaitic sages have said Aham Brahamasmi!

That is the origin of the saying, "I AM THAT"

Love to all
Harsha
 
 

 
 
Vicki Woodyard
NDS
 
Gizmo
 
So many people are studying the words of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta.  We sit and read all over the globe, drinking tea, eating fruit, contemplating what seems to us like the ideal way to be.  We feel our suffering and yearn for the peace of these awakened beings.  I know.  I have forgotten Ramana altogether when Bob was in the hospital and I was shuttling back and forth, caught betwixt and between home and there, between suffering and peace. Everything is relative....and heartbreakingly so when we are asleep. I don't know the awakened state.  If I did, I would be giving real satsang instead of with a fake guru like Swami Z.  But you know what, even a fake guru is better than none at all.

Now don't go getting your shorts in a knot when I say that.  I am just pulling your leg.  That is all Swami is about.  He knows that I don't know and I know that he is just a figment of my imagination.  He says that if he is a figment, then I just a gizmo!

Ah, now that's fake humility.

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com/satsang.htm

#1745 From: "Michael A. Read" <maread@...>
Date: Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:32 am
Subject: #1745 - Tuesday, March 23, 2004
mareadba
Send Email Send Email
 
#1745 - Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - Editor: michael
 
Highlights Home Page: http://nondualty.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letters to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose your letter, and 'Send'. All the editors will receive your letter.
 

 
Spiritual Materialism
or
Is Enlightenment an Object?
or
 Is it really not some superhuman accomplishment at all?
 
 

Enlightenment, awakening, realization, and understanding are words used to describe the goal of the seeker and the attainment of the so called enlightened, awakened, or realized. You'll please excuse me if I don't use the term understood. It just sounds odd to refer to oneself as understood...doesn't it?
 
To find enlightenment it has been said, is to find the ultimate in bliss, peace and happiness. It is to attain the highest forms of samadhi, where-in all attachments are broken and the ego is finally put to rest or at least put into perspective. Awakening from the dream, or to the dream or within the dream have all been used as aphorisms for enlightenment. At any rate the great goal of all seekers is to obtain the exalted state of pure being called enlightenment.
 
Some say that there are degrees and levels to the attainment of enlightenment. While some claim that enlightenment is sudden and when found dispels all notions, even that of levels and degrees. Others say that once found enlightenment can be lost. And yet others state without a doubt that there is no such thing as enlightenment or enlightened beings.
 
There are also criteria for enlightenment that can be used to check and see if you or someone you know might be enlightened.
 
The questions for this edition are - Is enlightenment an object? Or, is it really anything like the expectations that so many seekers have of it? Will awakening confer a special status? Are the so-called realized any better as people or are they simply living in a form of spiritual or mental delusion?
 
The web site http://peterspearls.com.au/glossary.html offers this definition of enlightenment:

ENLIGHTENMENT

(not some superhuman accomplishment) A natural state of 'felt' oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form. The revelatory experience of the Absolute or God or Christ being your true Self. The spontaneous impersonal event at the end of the process of seeking in which there is the spontaneous, intuited, total understanding in the heart that there is no doer and never was a doer or seeker -- the ego, the "me," is completely annihilated; see doer, ego, seeker, seeking

Perhaps enlightenment is nothing more than the ordinary mind at rest. Then again perhaps seeking and the ending of seeking,  are simply nothing more that natural events that happen. And perhaps enlightenment, the much sought after state of knowing one's own self as the eternal self, just happens. And perhaps the mascot of MAD Magazine, Alfred E. Newman, is right to ask, "What, me worry?"

as ever - be well,

michael

 


"Ah, enligjtenment. What a surprise! It was here all the time." - Anon.
 
That which is the finest essence--this whole world has that as its soul. That is Reality. That is the Self (Atman). That art thou.

Hinduism. Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7
 


http://www.zen-satsang.org/WritingSellingWaterByTheRiver.htm

Selling Water By the River
Selections from the Talks of Adyashanti

Many seekers do not take full responsibility for their own Liberation, but wait for one big, final spiritual experience which will catapult them fully into it. It is this search for the final liberating experience which gives rise to a rampant form of spiritual consumerism in which seekers go from one teacher to another, shopping for enlightenment as if shopping for sweets in a candy store. This spiritual promiscuity is rapidly turning the search for enlightenment into a cult of experience seekers. And, while many people indeed have powerful experiences, in most cases these do not lead to the profound transformation of the individual, which is the expression of enlightenment.

In speaking regularly with spiritual seekers, it dawned on me one day how addicted so many of them are to the power of charisma. They swap stories about how powerful this or that teacher is and compare experiences. They get a charge from it, many mistaking charisma for enlightenment. Charisma attracts at all levels: political, sexual, spiritual, etc., and it feeds the ego's desire to feel special. The ego loves getting hits of power - it's like a form of spiritual candy. The candy may be sweet but can you live on it? Does it make you free? Freedom is not necessarily exciting; it's just free. Very peaceful and quiet, so very quiet. Of course, it is also filled with joy and wonder, but it is not what you imagine. It is much, much less. Many mistake the intoxicating power of otherworldly charisma for enlightenment. More often than not it is simply otherworldly, and not necessarily free or enlightened.

In order to be truly free, you must desire to know the truth more than you want to feel good. Because, if feeling good is your goal, then as soon as you feel better you will lose interest in what is true. This does not mean that feeling good or experiencing love and bliss is a bad thing. Given the choice, anyone would choose to feel bliss rather than sorrow. It simply means that if this desire to feel good is stronger than the yearning to see, know, and experience Truth, then this desire will always be distorting the perception of what is Real, while corrupting one's deepest integrity. In my experience, everyone will say they want to discover the Truth, right up until they realize that the Truth will rob them of their deepest held ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. The freedom of enlightenment means much more than the experience of love and peace. It means discovering a Truth that will turn your view of self and life upside-down. For one who is truly ready, this will be unimaginably liberating. But for one who is still clinging in any way, this will be extremely challenging indeed. How does one know if they are ready?  One is ready when they are willing to be absolutely consumed, when they are willing to be fuel for a fire without end.


If you start playing the game of being an "enlightened somebody," the true teacher is going to call you on it. He or she is going to expose you, and that exposure is going to hurt. Because the ego will be there, standing in the light of Truth, exposed and humiliated. Of course, the ego will cry "foul!" It will claim that the teacher made a mistake and begin to justify itself in an effort to put its protective clothing back on. It will begin to spin justifications with incredible subtlety and deceptiveness. This is where real spiritual sadhana (practice) begins. This is where it allbecomes very "real" and the student discovers whether he or she truly wants to be free, or merely wants to remain as a false, separate, and self-justifying ego. This crossroad inevitably comes and is always challenging. It separates the true seeker from the false one. The true seeker will be willing to bare the Grace of humility, whereas the false seeker will run from it. Thus begins the true path to enlightenment, granted only to those willing to be nobody. Discovering your "nobodyness" opens the door to awakening as beingness, and beyond that to the Source of all beingness.

Do not think that enlightenment is going to make you special, it's not. If you feel special in any way, then enlightenment has not occurred. I meet a lot of people who think they are enlightened and awake simply because they have had a very moving spiritual experience. They wear their enlightenment on their sleeve like a badge of honor. They sit among friends and talk about how awake they are while sipping coffee at a cafe. The funny thing about enlightenment is that when it is authentic, there is no one to claim it. Enlightenment is very ordinary; it is nothing special. Rather than making you more special, it is going to make you less special. It plants you right in the center of a wonderful humility and innocence. Everyone else may or may not call you enlightened, but when you are enlightened the whole notion of enlightenment and someone who is enlightened is a big joke. I use the word enlightenment all the time; not to point you toward it but to point you beyond it. Do not get stuck in enlightenment.

Ego is the movement of the mind toward objects of perception, in the form of grasping; and, away from objects, in the form of aversion. This fundamentally is all the ego is. This movement of grasping and aversion gives rise to a sense of a separate "me," and in turn the sense of "me" strengthens itself this way. It is this continuous loop of causation that tricks consciousness into a trance of identification. Identification with what? Identification with the continuous loop of suffering. After all, who is suffering? The "me" is suffering. And "who" is this me? It is nothing more than a sense of self caused by identification with grasping and aversion. You see, it's all a creation of the mind, an endless movie, a terrible dream. Don't try to change the dream, because trying to change it is just another movement in the dream. Look at the dream. Be aware of the dream. That awareness is It. Become more interested in the awareness of the dream than in the dream itself. What is that awareness? Who is that awareness? Don't go spouting out an answer, just be the answer. Be It.

Enlightenment means the end of all division. It is not simply having an occasional experience of unity beyond all division, it is actually being undivided. This is what nonduality truly means. It means there is just One Self, without a difference or gap between the profound revelation of Oneness and the way it is perceived and lived every moment of life. Nonduality means that the inner revelation and the outer expression of the personality are one and the same. So few seem to be interested in the greater implication contained within profound spiritual experiences, because it is the contemplation of these implications which quickly brings to awareness the inner divisions existing within most seekers.

Spiritual people can be some of the most violent people you will ever meet. Mostly, they are violent to themselves. They violently try to control their minds, their emotions, and their bodies. They become upset with themselves and beat themselves up for not rising up to the conditioned mind's idea of what it believes enlightenment to be. No one ever became free through such violence. Why is it that so few people are truly free? Because they try to conform to ideas, concepts, and beliefs in their heads. They try to concentrate their way to heaven. But Freedom is about the natural state, the spontaneous and un-self-conscious expression of beingness. If you want to find it, see that the very idea of "a someone who is in control" is a concept created by the mind. Take one step backward into the unknown.

There is nothing more insidiously destructive to the attainment of liberation than self-doubt and cynicism. Doubt is a movement of the conditioned mind that always claims that "it's not possible ... that freedom is not possible for me." Doubt always knows; it "knows" that nothing is possible. And in this knowing, doubt robs you of the possibility of anything truly new or transformative from happening. Furthermore, doubt is always accompanied by a pervasive cynicism that unconsciously puts a negative spin on whatever it touches. Cynicism is a world view which protects the ego from scrutiny by maintaining a negative stance in relationship to what it does not know, does not want to know, or cannot know. Many spiritual seekers have no idea how cynical and doubt-laden they actually are. It is this blindness and denial of the presence of doubt and cynicism that makes the birth of a profound trust impossible. A trust without which final liberation will always remain simply a dream.

All fear comes from thought in the form of memory (past) or projection (future). Thought creates time: past, present, and future. So fear exists and comes from the perceived existence of time. To be free of fear is to be free of time. Since time is a creation of thought, to be free of fear you must be free of thought. Consequently, it is important to awaken and experience your Self outside of thought, existing as eternity. So question all notions of yourself that are creations of thought and of time -- of past, present, and future. Experience your eternalness, your holiness, your awakeness until you are convinced that you are never subject to the movement of thought, of fear, or of time. To be free of fear is to be full of Love.

Many spiritual seekers get "stuck" in emptiness, in the absolute, in transcendence. They cling to bliss, or peace, or indifference. When the self-centered motivation for living disappears, many seekers become indifferent. They see the perfection of all existence and find no reason for doing anything, including caring for themselves or others. I call this "taking a false refuge." It is a very subtle egoic trap; it's a fixation in the absolute and all unconscious form of attachment that masquerades as liberation. It can be very difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive fixation because they literally have no motivation to let go of it. Stuck in a form of divine indifference, such people believe they have reached the top of the mountain when actually they are hiding out halfway up its slope.

Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the polar opposite of being fixated in the relative. With the dawning of true enlightenment, there is a tremendous birthing of impersonal Love and wisdom that never fixates in any realm of experience. To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true Emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, Wake up! Then, your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain.


Maybe I can point you to the great Reality within you. Maybe you will awaken to the direct experience of Self-realization. Maybe you will catch the fire of transmission. But there is one thing that no one can give you: the honesty and integrity that alone will bring you completely to the other shore. No one can give you the strength of character necessary for profound spiritual experience to become the catalyst for the evolutionary transformation called "enlightenment." Only you can find that passion within that burns with an integrity that will not settle for anything less than the Truth.

Enlightenment has nothing to do with states of consciousness. Whether you are in ego consciousness or unity consciousness is not really the point. I have met many people who have easy access to advanced states of consciousness. Though for some people this may come very easily, I also noticed that many of these people are no freer than anyone else. If you don't believe that the ego can exist in very advanced states of consciousness, think again. The point isn't the state of consciousness, even very advanced ones, but an awake mystery that is the Source of all states of consciousness. It is even the Source of presence and beingness. It is beyond all perception and all experience. I call it "awakeness." To find out that you are empty of emptiness is to die into an aware mystery, which is the Source of all existence. It just so happens that that mystery is in love with all of its manifestation and non-manifestation. You find your Self by stepping back out of yourself.

Ramana Maharshi's gift to the world was not that he realized the Self. Many people have had a deep realization of the Self. Ramana's real gift was that he embodied that realization so thoroughly. It is one thing to realize the Self; it is something else altogether to embody that realization to the extent that there is no gap between inner revelation and its outer expression. Many have glimpsed the realization of Oneness; few consistently express that realization through their humanness. It is one thing to touch a flame and know it is hot, but quite another to jump into that flame and be consumed by it.

First published in the Fall/Winter Inner Directions Journal
© 1999 THE INNER DIRECTIONS FOUNDATION, INC.


Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism.

The basic problems of spiritual materialism are common to all spiritual disciplines. ... The heart of the confusion is that man has a sense of self which seems to him to be continuous and solid. When a thought or emotion or event occurs, there is a sense of someone being conscious of what is happening. You sense that you are reading these words. This sense of self is actually a transitory, discontinuous event, which in our confusion seems to be quite solid and continuous. Since we take our confused view as being real, we struggle to maintain and enhance the solid self. We try to feed it pleasures and shield it from pain. Experience continually threatens to reveal our transitoriness to us so we continually struggle to cover up any possibility of discovering our real condition. "But," we might ask, "if our real condition is an awakened state, why are we so busy trying to avoid becoming aware of it" It is because we have become so absorbed in our confused view of the world, that we consider it real, the only possible world. This struggle to maintain the sense of a solid, continuous self is the action of the ego.

Ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality. For example, if you have learned of a particularly beneficial meditation technique of spiritual practice, then ego's attitude is, first to regard it as an object of fascination and, second to examine it. Finally, since ego is seeming solid and cannot really absorb anything, it can only mimic. The ego tries to examine and imitate the practice of meditation and the meditative way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate the practice of meditation and meditative way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate spirituality, since real involvement would require the complete elimination of ego, and actually the last thing we want to do is to give up the ego completely. however, we cannot experience that which we are trying to imitate; we can only find some area within the bounds of ego that seems to be the same thing. Ego translates everything in terms of its own state of health, its own inherent qualities. It feels a sense of great accomplishment and excitement at having been able to create such a pattern. At last it has created a tangible accomplishment, a confirmation of its own individuality. If we become successful at maintaining our self-consciousness through spiritual techniques, then genuine spiritual development is highly unlikely. ... In following a spiritual path we may substitute a new religious ideology for our former beliefs, but continue to use it in the old neurotic way. ... He discovered that struggling to find answers did not work. It was only when there were gaps in his struggle that insights came to him. He began to realize that there was a sane, awake quality within him which manifested itself only in the absence of struggle. So the practice of meditation involves "letting be". ... In true meditation there is no ambition to stir up thoughts, nor is there an ambition to suppress them. They are just allowed to occur spontaneously and become an expression of basic sanity.

the rest of it at: http://www.oregonvos.net/~jflory/spiritual_materialism.htm


 

Tricks of the Tirade:

What are they up to?
Seen them with their shtick showing?

Tricks of the Tirade:

What are they up to?
Seen them with their shtick showing?

more at:
http://www.globalserve.net/~sarlo/Shtick.htm

"Satsang hijinks" terminology from Greg:

LUCKNOW DISEASE - linguistic malady befalling seekers at Papaji's.  Characterized by never using the word "I" - to encourage one's self and also show others that there is no one at home here.  Instead, they would say stuff like "This form is going to the rest room."

ADVAITA SHUFFLE - Conversational gambit.  What Andrew Cohen accused Gangaji of doing when she didn't want to talk about ethics and enlightenment.  Jumping to the absolute level at odd times.  Like when the receptionist asks why you were late for your doctor's appointment.  "There's no one here to go anywhere or be late for anything."

LANDING - Losing one's enlightenment.  What Gangaji accused Andrew Cohen of having done.   Term used by those who think of enlightenment as a kind of thing that can be lost.  Something like claiming enlightenment and then getting peevish and petty over who pays the tip at the diner.

NONDUAL POLICE - Those who badger others to use nondual terminology.  Whenever they hear someone saying something like "I'm going out for coffee," they barge in:  "WHO is going out for coffee??"  Nondual police want everyone to always be in constant Ramana-self-inquiry-mode.

THE EYE THING - Keeping eye contact with the other person as long as possible.  Whoever drops their gaze first is not as established in the Beloved.  Some blinking is OK, but not too much.  The deeper into the Self you are, the longer you can hold it.  Used by many satsang teachers.  One of my friends can out-stare anyone.  He kinds of drops into a Candida-mind-fog, and hours can go by.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The "beyond" shtick is a standard dodge in the biz, another way of saying "I am the greatest, Buddha and his ilk are barely worthy to kiss my feet," whereby mere oneness with the cosmos is a second-rate phenomenon and the true prophet of God is the real deal.

Variations on this theme include Maitreya Ishwara's "Beyond Advaita," Vijay Shankar's "Turiyatita," the Hare Krishna's idea that Krishna is above all this and so on. It is as divisive and self-aggrandizing as any sectarian endeavour. (See "only begotten son," and "last prophet of God"). 
– Sarlo


"Satsang hijinks" terminology from Greg:

LUCKNOW DISEASE - linguistic malady befalling seekers at Papaji's.  Characterized by never using the word "I" - to encourage one's self and also show others that there is no one at home here.  Instead, they would say stuff like "This form is going to the rest room."

ADVAITA SHUFFLE - Conversational gambit.  What Andrew Cohen accused Gangaji of doing when she didn't want to talk about ethics and enlightenment.  Jumping to the absolute level at odd times.  Like when the receptionist asks why you were late for your doctor's appointment.  "There's no one here to go anywhere or be late for anything."

LANDING - Losing one's enlightenment.  What Gangaji accused Andrew Cohen of having done.   Term used by those who think of enlightenment as a kind of thing that can be lost.  Something like claiming enlightenment and then getting peevish and petty over who pays the tip at the diner.

NONDUAL POLICE - Those who badger others to use nondual terminology.  Whenever they hear someone saying something like "I'm going out for coffee," they barge in:  "WHO is going out for coffee??"  Nondual police want everyone to always be in constant Ramana-self-inquiry-mode.

THE EYE THING - Keeping eye contact with the other person as long as possible.  Whoever drops their gaze first is not as established in the Beloved.  Some blinking is OK, but not too much.  The deeper into the Self you are, the longer you can hold it.  Used by many satsang teachers.  One of my friends can out-stare anyone.  He kinds of drops into a Candida-mind-fog, and hours can go by.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The "beyond" shtick is a standard dodge in the biz, another way of saying "I am the greatest, Buddha and his ilk are barely worthy to kiss my feet," whereby mere oneness with the cosmos is a second-rate phenomenon and the true prophet of God is the real deal.

Variations on this theme include Maitreya Ishwara's "Beyond Advaita," Vijay Shankar's "Turiyatita," the Hare Krishna's idea that Krishna is above all this and so on. It is as divisive and self-aggrandizing as any sectarian endeavour. (See "only begotten son," and "last prophet of God"). 
– Sarlo


Spiritual Materialism

I had two psychics from the Berkeley Psychic Institute read me on Friday (Thanks LJ!). Like dueling fiddles, except it was psychics. My dad wants to start the Berkeley Sidekick Institute - with classes like “Be the best #2 you can be!” and “Capes: colors and fabrics” and “Superhero Co-dependence - the pitfalls of sidekick life”. Having a psychic reading is like looking at the back of your head after you get a hair cut. It's interesting to see - but doesn't really matter since you can't see it every day.

One of the psychics called the Dalai Lama “The Daddy Mama” - an appropriate nickname for the most integrated and evolved public figure on the planet. The psychic said that I should ask my Tibetan Lama past life to recede into the mists of time - having him hang out with me in this life is like letting a bus driver have the wheel in a new neighborhood. No Steven Segal jokes please. But I let my inner Tibetan Lama come out to play at the Dalai Lama “concert” at Shoreline Ampitheater yesterday.

I got there around 8am and found a spot on the lawn facing center stage - and more importantly, behind a cute punk rock girl named Gina who had come down from Oregon. She had been to the last 3 days of the Dalai Lama's teachings and was pretty blissed out. After finding the optimal seat, I went shopping. I probably dropped $300 at the Dalai Lama's gig - $50 ticket, $10 to park and $100 for videos of the 3 days I had missed (a ridiculous purchase as I have no TV), plus a wide array of religious tapes, accessories and crap that I have no room for. In every line I stood in, I made the same dumb joke about going home and rereading “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” - I was laughing, but the people next to me just nodded sagely and looked guilty. The author, Tibetan crazy guy Chogyam Trungpa, would have laughed and asked me to buy him a beer.

The program was The Medicine Buddha Empowerment, which is, well, um….an empowerment. Kinda like an initiation/purification/healing, but the best part is that you can pass it on. It's the most religious thing I've ever seen the Dalai Lama do. His usual show for westerners is “Cultivate good thoughts and be kind and you will create happiness. Minimize negative thoughts and you will minimize suffering.” This seems incredibly simplistic. But the Tibetan dogma is very complex and intellectual - quite scientific in its thorough exploration of the self, the universe and ultimate truth. And it's also quite esoteric and mystical. Yum. The psychics told me that my soul is plenty developed, I need to start enjoying my body. My spiritual self is on the right track - I need to work on being on the earth. Phooey. They actually told me to eat chocolate ice cream.

The Dalai Lama made everyone repeat the Bodhisattva vow 3 times between each visualization. He was quite firm that the power given was not to be used for personal gain - only in service to others. Here's the vow:

With a wish to free all beings
I shall always go for refuge
To the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
Until I reach full enlightenment.

Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
Today in Buddha's presence
I generate the mind of full awakening
For the benefit of all beings.

As long as space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain,
Until then, may I too remain
And dispel the miseries of the world.

Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha was explained to me as “Home, the road home, and your fellow travelers on the way home.” Some of my “sangha” take refuge in movies and beer. Or new cd's and pizza. I take refuge in books and housecleaning. After the empowerment, I went to a picnic and took refuge in barbeque and cigarettes. Something about doing spiritual stuff just makes me want to be a bad girl. Naughty, rebellious angel, I am.

But I did go home and put on my angel costume for the AIDS candlelight march last night. As I was putting on my wings, a bird tried to fly into my bedroom window - but it was shut. The march was beautiful and sad, and more focused on the plight of Africa and the lack of compassion from the UN, the pharmaceutical companies, and the Bush Administration. The tax cut is $1.6 trillion. Africa needs $7 billion for healthcare and prevention. Can you say “greedy bastard”? At the end of the march they had us call out the names of those who had died, and someone yelled “They called him patient Zero!” Very spooky. I got on the “party cable car” to ride back to the Castro, and the song “You're my Angel” came on the PA. I stepped off on Market and 15th and sitting on top of a trash can on the corner was the sheet music to Handel's Messiah.

Hallelujah.


ORIGINAL MIND, NO MIND

The passages in this section discuss the original mind or true self of the human being, which is the proper ground of enlightenment. The Original Mind is the intrinsic essence of mind, the true self. It is inherently pure and good, and in Christian terms it can be said to participate in the Kingdom of God. In Eastern traditions it is prior to thought, prior to desire, prior to any conceptualization at all. It is discovered by stripping away all sensation, desire, concepts, intellection, volition, and awareness of "I." It partakes of the Oneness of all. Buddhism calls this mind the Buddha Nature, and much of Buddhist practice is aimed at its realization. They also call it "no-mind" because it is without any grasping at a (selfish) self. Taoists agree, and seek to strip away all intellection and formalism in order to arrive at the spontaneous activity of the natural man who lives at one with the Tao of the universe. Some of the passages here criticize pious attempts to delineate a true nature of man based on doctrinal or formal criteria like Goodness or Benevolence, saying they only increase delusion by imposing artificial obstructions in the way of the functioning of the true self. Instead, all attachments must be stripped away until there is nothing but emptiness. Then the heart can be heard. Cf. Immanent, pp. 113-18.

The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, "Lo, here it is!" or "There!" for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

3. Christianity. Bible, Luke 17.20-21

 

more at: http://www.unification.net/ws/theme022.htm

 

 


#1746 From: "Mark Otter" <markotter@...>
Date: Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:21 pm
Subject: #1746 - Wednesday, March 24, 2004
markwotter704
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Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nondual Highlights Issue #1746 Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Editor's note: Caveat Emptor. I'm grappling with the problem of "the doer" in my own life, and so the question of "nondual activity", or to push the envelope a bit further than my own life-situation, "nondual activism" has arisen here. This edition of the highlights is in some way part of my struggle to understand, or perhaps to let go of understanding and allow activity to happen; I'm not sure. Anyway, please don't think that every quote is to be taken literally, I'm just trying to get my head and heart around the issue. Be well, Mark.

PS I'm sitting in today for Joyce, who's back is bothering her. I wish her a speedy recovery!




There is no neutral ground -- no neutral ground -- in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.

All of us are called to share the blessings of liberty, and to be strong and steady in freedom's defense. It will surely be said of our times that we lived with great challenges. Let it also be said of our times that we understood our great duties, and met them in full.

- Two short excerpts from remarks by U.S. President George W. Bush on Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, from the East Room of the White House, on March 19, 2004

The full speech may be found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040319-3.html






The profoundest wisdom coincides with the profoundest compassion. At times, wisdom/compassion indicate intervention, at others times they indicate non-intervention. Each of us must act and let-be in light of the greatest wisdom and compassion available to us. In so doing, we will make contributions as well as mistakes. For this, perhaps we should each apologize in advance, but in making such an apology, we must also offer forgiveness to all the rest, each of whom is acting according to his or her own best wisdom and compassion, though--of course--in some cases not much wisdom or compassion is available! In such cases, the outcome is not very pretty. Nonduality does not mean simply sitting around doing nothing, but neither does it mean incessant action, as if the mirror opposite of an alleged passivity. I think that David Loy's account of the Taoist notion of WU WEI in his book, NONDUALITY, goes a long way toward making sense of the idea that nonduality means going BEYOND activity and passivity. I hope that all of us can see BOTH that "all is well" and that "there is plenty of good work to be done"!

Happy Holidays!

Cheers, Michael

- Excerpt from an internet post by Michael E. Zimmerman, Department of Philosophy, Tulane University

More here: http://csf.colorado.edu/seminars/nondual-ecology/proceedings/0330.html




To live your life intensely and on the edge-of-the-wedge, act "as if" you're experiencing everything that shows up for you for the very last time.

Obviously, sooner or later, this will certainly be true.

Then every conversation, every cup of tea, every bird in flight, etc, becomes a cause and an opportunity for celebration and gratitude.

Create deep passion in your life for something heartfelt ... and then stay fully committed to it.

Taking a stand in life is even more important than the nature of the particular stand that you're taking.

Amazingly, the universe doesn't really care what you want to get committed to.

It just doesn't like you to be "wishy-washy."

Chuck Hillig, from his book Seeds for the Soul, published by Black Dot Publications


I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest
joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin
leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen
off Newfoundland,
At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking,
At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the
Texan ranch,
Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving
their big proportions,)
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands
and welcome to drink and meat,
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,
A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,
Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,
The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place,
The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.)

- excerpt from Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself, as contributed by John Metzger to Nonduality Salon - A

The rest of the poem is here: http://www.bartleby.com/142/14.html



The front page of the Nonduality Salon - A may be found here: http://www.nonduality.com/activism.htm






The interesting thing is, this is reality. This is just simple reality. It is not some exalted state of enlightenment. It is just recognizing what is obviously, irrefutably true. There is just Awareness experiencing form. If you really check and see, it is just Awareness meeting Awareness. There is only really one of us here in the whole game. The interesting thing is, you see, since this is reality, since this is just what is real, how might life be if it was lived like this? If there was not the referencing of something that anyway does not exist, how could life be? How would world economics be if there was no sense of "you" and "me"? Competition would disappear. Starvation would disappear. Environmental degradation would disappear. You know, I came from quite an educated family and I had a good education, so everybody was interested in solutions, political solutions, environmental solutions, but it became really obvious to me from quite early on, when I was about fourteen, that the only solution is to awaken from this dream. As long as action is taken based in separation, you can "Greenpeace" as much as you like and Greenpeace is a great organization, but it is still coming from separation, you see. It is still "us" against "them" - bad guys and good guys. You can come up with all kinds of new political systems. You know, Marx was really idealistic. I mean, if you read "Das Kapital," he had fantastic ideas, but you can't implement a different system without first changing Consciousness. It has been the same with everybody who has tried to shift the external.

Nothing is really going to fundamentally shift because the underlying blueprint has been left untouched. It seems like it is only through this shift from separation to wakefulness that life on this planet can be lived as it is intuitively meant to be lived. You know what I mean? You look around and you see so much funny stuff going on. There's the weirdest stuff goes on on this planet, you know. I mean, stuff that when you look at it, it looks just crazy.

I used to live in Bali in Indonesia and they are cutting down the rainforest very fast there. I found out that there are teak trees there which are really beautiful and very valuable hardwood which they cut down, put them on boats and take them 200 miles offshore and dump them into the ocean. This is because Japanese businessmen are amassing hardwood in warehouses in Japan and they want to keep its value high. So other companies cut trees but these Japanese companies pay for them and just dump them in the water; abandon them just to keep investment high. Now, somebody doing that has to have billions of dollars already. What kind of thought process is at work with billions of dollars that is willing to risk the environment just to keep value? It has to be a thought process that is thinking in terms of limitation, that is thinking in terms of "me" and "you." So, what kind of world could it be, what kind of manifestation could it be where this imaginary separation is just no longer referenced?

- Part of the Preface to an essay entitled "Epicenters of Justice," by Drew Hempel, the rest of which may be found here:

http://www.lightmind.com/library/hempel/preface.html




Her search for something to take its place led her from San Francisco to India and to Poonjaji, "a remarkable teacher."

"In meeting him all I really saw was that there was nothing to do, nothing to seek for. That only imagination impedes happiness. We imagine that we're separate. We imagine that we have these problems."

Imagination gives rise to what Ingram calls the "story." Each of us spins his or her own story, allowing it to dominate our thoughts and actions as each day, each chapter unfolds. The story is about each of us, what we have done, what others have done to us, what we have lost and what we have acquired. We get caught up in our own stories, their emotional ups and downs, their tensions and triumphs. We fiddle with them, rewinding and replaying the past and fast forwarding to the future.

This story-driven way of life is unnatural, Ingram says, and takes a toll on all who live it. Ultimately, such stories create suffering, she says. What is natural is an immaculate, shining presence that exists in each of us, before the story starts, underneath it. In her classes and retreats, Ingram tries to help her students recognize this presence, to swap the suffering of story for genuine happiness, the freedom of just being.

"It's an immediate recognition of what is already the case, right now, a present awareness," she says. "You don't attain it, you just relax into it, a stream of now."

Poonjaji led Ingram to this awareness, one that she says has brought her the joy and love that had been missing in her life. With it came an overwhelming compassion and a call to activism. Her book, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, is a collection of interviews with a dozen contemporary social activists including the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Cesar Chavez.

"This love I am speaking about more and more wants to give itself away, to be of sevice to others," says Ingram, who co-founded the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization In The Hague, Netherlands.

By her own estimate, Ingram has given more than a thousand "Dharma Dialogues." In the two-hour sessions she calls "interactive meditations" she welcomes questions and comments as she describes her experience, encouraging what she calls "a switch in perception."

"Assume the mind is mad," she says. "Freedom is in the impersonal welcoming of whatever madness arises and in the calm knowing that it all inevitably passes."

It is a matter of releasing beliefs, pictures or stories that obscure the shining presence and resisting the temptation to replace them with new beliefs, pictures or stories.

"It's more about subtraction than addition," she says.

- excerpt from "Delving into 'Dharma Dialogues'", an article about Catherine Ingram, written by Nancy Haught for the Oregonian, January 30, 1999

The full article is here: http://www.geocities.com/~cathing/oregonian.html




II

Garlic and sapphires in the mud
Clot the bedded axle-tree.
The trilling wire in the blood
Sings below inveterate scars
Appeasing long forgotten wars.
The dance along the artery
The circulation of the lymph
Are figured in the drift of stars
Ascend to summer in the tree
We move above the moving tree
In light upon the figured leaf
And hear upon the sodden floor
Below, the boarhound and the boar
Pursue their pattern as before
But reconciled among the stars.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.

Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.

- T. S. Eliot from his poem Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton.


The full poem is here: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/?wid=7104






KAIA: John, it sounds to me like you have moved to a place of acceptance of whatever will be, including the possibility that higher mammals may not roam the earth fifty years from now. I don't hear outrage at other humans: you have just said that blaming ourselves is part of the illness of alienation. And yet, you have not given up. On the contrary, you seem to have given yourself quite fully to the possibility that humans will awaken to this crisis. You craft your life around that likelihood, moving from land to land, singing, reporting on the destruction, giving workshops. Your face lines tell that you grin a lot, your body says it's relaxed. Where are you, John?

JOHN: I'm here with you, a being who feels her connection to the planet. I'm sitting close to another amazing being with strong rough bark for skin and tendrils so delicate they suck nutrients from the soil and I hear another winged being trilling between our words. So, in every moment, I am surrrounded by wonder and beauty in myriad forms. I am also in the eye of the hurricane. Yes, I look as clearly as I can at the reports of destruction. I release all my hopes and pleas that such things are not so. With that release, tremendous energy is freed up for me to calmly accept the state of things as they are and to create passionately and lovingly all that I can to change the flow. I stay in touch with my wild love for beings of all kinds as much as possible so as to nourish myself and so as to model for others that it is safe here. You can open your eyes to what is happening and not go crazy or you can lose yourself in endless depression. It is good here. I am present to as much of earth as I can be. I am awake to my life.

- Excerpt from 'In the Eye of the Hurricane: An Interview with John Seed, from the book The Soul Unearthed, edited by Cass Adams, and published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York.


#1747 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:14 pm
Subject: #1747 - Thursday, March 25, 2004
nondualguy
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#1747 - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - Editor: Jerry
 
Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letter to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose your message, and 'Send'. All the editors will see your letter.
 
 

 
 
This issue is about silence.
 
 

 
 
Gill Eardley
Allspirit Inspiration

From: 'Ask The Awakened: The Negative Way'
by Wei Wu Wei

Golden Silence

The faculty that distinguishes man from all other animals is
that of speech, and he makes use of it with the enthusiasm
of a convert and the lack of moderation of a child with a
new toy. The popular notion of government, at all levels, is
government by talking, and often it amounts to little else.
The inefficiency of this is demonstrated by the fact that
when obvious security is at stake, as in the case of ships at
sea and armies on land, government by talking is abandoned
and there is substituted for it the rule of one man, whose
word is law and whose words of command are so brief as
to ignore syntax. When it has happened that in the first
enthusiasm of popular revolutions that natural law has been
temporarily abrogated the ship has been known to sink and
the army to be beaten.

It is instructive, and also entertaining, to observe that one of
man's methods of showing respect, on the death of a celebrated
individual or in commemoration of a catastrophe, is to observe
one minute, or even two, of silence, that is to refrain from talking
for that all too brief period; and that has been apt to prove too
great a strain for regular application. It would appear that the
maintenance of silence is well-nigh insupportable to the average
man, and at the same time he cherishes an illusory notion that
almost anything can be achieved by chatter. Verbiage is his primary
occupation, and his method of self-assertion, and in many countries
even a musical programme on the radio rarely lasts for more than
a few minutes without being interrupted by an outburst of entirely
superfluous 'gab'. 'Gab', in short, is his idea of living, and he
expresses his ideas, even the most erudite, with the exception of
higher mathematics, in the greatest possible number of words
instead of in the fewest.

 But talking is probably the greatest hindrance to the development
of man's spiritual possibilities, and of all forms of activity the
one which most efficiently bars his way to that higher state of
consciousness which is his unique possibility, his right, and his
only certain justification. This is hardly an original observation;
the Ch'an masters evidently knew it - since they spoke so briefly
as to be barely comprehensible, and the most vital sutras, shorn
of subsequent repetition, give their message in a few lines.
The fact is recognised in Christianity by the Trappists and in
India yogis impose on themselves long periods of silence, and,
when abroad, single days at stated periods.

 This need not be taken to mean that even the most serious
occidentals who follow the urge towards enlightenment should
abandon speech. In the course of every twenty-four hours one-
third is already devoted to silence, but they might perhaps
realise that chatter is not only a hindrance, as has been pointed
out, but is quite clearly a psychological mechanism of defence
against progress on that path on the part of the skandha-impulses
operating in collaboration with the I-concept developed by the
phenomenal 'individual'. It is neither difficult nor rare to be able
to observe that mechanism in operation, and in such cases at
least mental discipline, as it is called, is necessary, though the
element of discipline should be merely a result, the result of
understanding and observing that mechanism at work.
This understanding need in no way hinder communication of
ideas, of all kinds of interesting observations, of humour, even
of gossip - for there are sixteen hours available for all that as
well as for periods of silence. Perhaps there need not even be
anything so formal as periods of silence, but just an abandonment
of absolutely superfluous 'gab'?

gill
Allspirit Website:
http://www.allspirit.co.uk
 
 
 

 
 
Mark McCloskey
 
I Am (Reflections on the Road)
 
I just had the most wonderful life experience of traveling completely
around the earth on a three week business trip, flying 37,000 miles,
stopping in 6 countries, meeting scores of new friends, experiencing
new situations, different cultures, foods, and ideas and yet being able
to be a still, ever open witness to the miracle of being, the miracle
of I am.
 
You see dear friends, the secret of who you are is "that" you are. This
"I am" is constant. It is the pure silent consciousness of the here and
now within you. It is the sameness in you and I and all. It is, because
it is, and you are, because it is. It is you, it is I and it is one,
and that is love.
 
Speeding 7 miles above the earth, at night, in a floating metal tube,
at nearly the speed of sound allows one to see glimpses of this truth.
As the earth moves slowly by below, one cannot see the borders and
boundaries of countries, the separations of cultures and languages, the
histories and struggles and stories of billions of peoples and
traditions. No, one can only see a glimmer of lights glistening
silently below, each a separate jewel reflecting together as simple
light-beckoning me above to see this magnificence-to behold the wonder
as it unfolds: mere light, shining forth in the darkness, and yet each
light expressing its being and its connection to all, as one. And yet,
I too, 37,000 feet above. am just another light in this collection of
splendor, all reflecting the simple fact that "I am" is light itself.
 
And when the plane lands in different cities and towns, the
differences, though seemingly apparent, fade quickly, for the I am
manifests its sameness through and within the apparent dualities. There
is but one heart and one light and it is all. Whether in the busy
cities of New York, Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Saigon, Guagzhou or
Hong Kong, or the smaller places like Bucks County, Porto Belo,
Samutsakorn, Phan Thiet and Shantou, all which appear as separate and
different become one in a continual echo of "I am" in the eyes of each
person I meet, each smile that opens itself, each hand shake and each
hug that warmly beckons to be met in kind. You see my friend, the
lights which glimmer are mere reflections of the light of oneness
within each and every heart, the light of sameness which is the gentle
light of silent love. There is only one self, one heart, one smile in
all this. This has always been and shall always be. There is only this.
 
One does not need to travel the earth to know this. Merely gaze in the
eyes of your beloved, your friend, your child, your boss, the guy in
the car next to you on the expressway: it is the exact same statement:
I am you! With this simple phrase, this simple realization, you can
know the secret heart of the universe and in that find the joy and
peace of just this, right here and right now. I am.
 
To the world and all the many beautiful friends I have met and known on
this trip I say: Thank you, Obrigado, Danke, Khawp khun khrap, Cám ón,
Xie Xie, Doh je. Thank you all for showing me who "I am."
 
 
 

 
 

The most perfect and direct expression of Nonduality is the silence of
Being. But, since silence is a somewhat ambiguous communication tool,
we concede grudgingly to the use and proliferation of slightly less
ambiguous words and concepts.
 
--Dennis L. Trunk
 
 

 
 
Priyadarshana
 
The Dharma-Door of Nonduality
 
Then, the Licchavi Vimalakirti asked those bodhisattvas, "Good sirs,
please explain how the bodhisattvas enter the Dharma-door of
nonduality!"
 
(Many bohisattvas spoke, among them Priyadarshan.)
 
The bodhisattva Pratyaksadarsana declared, "'Destructible' and
'indestructible' are dualistic. What is destroyed is ultimately
destroyed; hence, it is called 'indestructible.' What is indestructible
is instantaneous, and what is instantaneous is indestructible. The
experience of such is called 'the entrance into the principle of
nonduality.'"
 
(Others continued to speak.)
 
When the bodhisattvas had given their explanations, they all addressed
the crown prince Manjusri: "Manjusri, what is the bodhisattva's
entrance into nonduality?"
 
Manjusri replied, "Good sirs, you have all spoken well. Nevertheless,
all your explanations are themselves dualistic. To know no one
teaching, to express nothing, to say nothing, to explain nothing, to
announce nothing, to indicate nothing, and to designate nothing--that
is the entrance into nonduality."
 
Then, the crown prince Manjusri said to the Licchavi Vimalakirti, "We
have all given our own teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the
teaching of the entrance into the principle of nonduality!"
 
Thereupon, the Licchavi Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at
all.
 
The crown prince Manjusri applauded the Licchavi Vimalakirti:
"Excellent! Exellent, noble sir! This is indeed the entrance into the
nonduality of the bodhisattvas. Here there is no use for syllables,
sounds, and ideas.
 
When these teaching had been declared, five thousand bodhisattvas
entered the door of the Dharma of nonduality and attained tolerance of
the birthlessness of things.
 
Thurman notes that this moment is the most famous of this scripture,
Vimalakirti's moment of silence on the subject of nonduality, i.e., the
ultimate. He points out the Vimalakirti had spoken about this issue on
many previous occasions and that his silence here is the appropriate
silence to the profound contemplation induced by the elucidations of
the bodhisattvas.
 
 
 

 
 
 
For about six months Ramana lived in the temple in a trance, maintaining almost complete silence and seemingly oblivious to his physical discomfort.
 
...
 
"Ramana’s primary teaching was the teaching of the quest for the self. He called this the atma-vicarana, the enquiry into the atman or Self. Between 1900 and 1902, while he was maintaining silence in Virupaksha cave, he wrote out instructions for the disciple Gambhiram Seshayyar. After Seshayyar’s death, these were arranged and published as a book under the title Self-Enquiry. To read Self-Enquiry, click here: http://nonduality.com/ramana3.htm. Here is a brief portion to get your started:
 

D: What is meant by saying that one should enquire into one's true nature and understand it?

M: Experiences such as "I went; I came; I was; I did" come naturally to everyone. From these experiences, does it not appear that the consciousness "I" is the subject of those various acts? Enquiry into the true nature of that consciousness, and remaining as oneself is the way to understand, through enquiry, one's true nature.


#1748 From: "Gloria Lee" <glee@...>
Date: Sun Mar 28, 2004 4:15 am
Subject: #1748 - Friday, March 26, 2004
glee_be
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#1748 - Friday, March 26, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee
 
Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letter to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose your message, and 'Send'. All the editors will see your letter.
 

 

Zen does not confuse spirituality
with thinking about God
while one is peeling the potatoes.
Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

- Allan Watts

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin..... 
But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten 
through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt 
to be paid.Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these 
obstacles were my life.

-   Alfred Souza
 

How can we ever lose interest in life?
Spring has come again
And cherry trees bloom in the mountains.

- Ryokan

 

 
 
 
 

Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla

“From too much love of living,
Hope and desire set free,
Even the weariest river
Winds somewhere to the sea—“

But we have only begun
To love the earth.

We have only begun
To imagine the fullness of life.

How could we tire of hope?
— so much is in bud.

How can desire fail?
— we have only begun

to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision

how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors.

Surely our river
cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?

Surely it cannot
drag, in the silt,
all that is innocent?

Not yet, not yet—
there is too much broken
that must be mended,

too much hurt we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.

We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.

So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,

so much is in bud.
 
~ Denise Levertov ~
 
(Candles in Babylon)



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If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed for.

-Chinese Proverb



 
Welcome to the Save Our Environment Action Center -- a collaborative effort of the nation's most influential environmental advocacy organizations harnessing the power of the internet to increase public awareness and activism on today's most important environmental issues.
 
 

There are sacred moments in life when we experience in rational and
very direct ways that separation, the boundary between ourselves 
and other people and between ourselves and Nature, is illusion.
Oneness is reality.  We can experience that stasis is illusory and
that reality is continual flux and change on very subtle and also
on gross levels of perception.
-   Charlene Spretnak

 
It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen,
to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky;
to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon;
to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one
by one, and the myriads that no man can count, and lo!
the universe is white with them; and you and I are here.
- Marco Morrow
 

Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and
easy answers,  and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory
in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the
multitude of causes and consequences that are  inherent in each
experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.
- M. Scott Peck

 

 
"The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate.
It is for us to harmonize with this order."

-Henry Miller
 

 
 
The Wisdom of don Juan
 
As long as a man feels that he is the
most important thing in the world, he
cannot really appreciate the world
around him.  He is like a horse with blinders;
all he sees is himself, apart from everything
else.

-From Journey to Ixtlan
 
~ ~ ~
 
The flaw with words is that they always make us feel
enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world they always
fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without
enlightenment. For this reason, a warrior seeks to act rather than
to talk, and to this effect, he gets a new description of the
world where talking is not that important, and
where new acts have new reflections.

-From Tales of Power
 
~ ~ ~
 
For an average man, the world is
weird because if he's not bored with it,
he's at odds with it.  For a warrior, the
world is weird because it is stupendous,
awesome, mysterious, unfathomable.  A
warrior must assume responsibility for
being here, in this marvelous world, in
this marvelous time.

-From Journey to Ixtlan
 
 

 
Tom Hickcox ~ Awareness-theWayToLove
 
There isn't enough darkness in all the world
to snuff out the light of one little candle.

       Anon

 

 
 
DG ~ Daily Dharma


"Having had an experience of letting go, even just once, proves beyond a
shadow of a doubt that it means getting rid of a great burden. Carrying
one's hate and greed around is a heavy load, which, when abandoned, gets
us out of the duality of judgment. It's pleasant to be without thinking;
mental formations are troublesome.

"If we succeed even once or twice during a day to let go of our
reactions, we have taken a great step and can more easily do it again.
We have realized that a feeling which has arisen can be stopped, it need
not be carried around all day. The relief from this will be the proof
that a great inner discovery has been made and that the simplicity of
non-duality shows us the way towards truth."

~Ayya Khema


From the web site, "Vipassana Fellowship."
 

 
"We jump from picture to picture and cannot follow
The living curve that is breathlessly the same."

Louis MacNeice
 
 

 
 
Daily Buddhist Wisdom
 
In learning this path, it is only important to walk on the real
ground, to act on the basis of reality.  The slightest phoniness,
and you fall into the realm of demons.
 
-Liao-an 
From "The Pocket Zen Reader," edited by Thomas
Cleary, 1999. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala
Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com


http://www.beliefnet.com

 

 
That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever
you do, you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it,
to cherish it is your basic urge. Since time immemorial you loved
yourself, but never wisely. Use your body and mind wisely in the
service of the self, that is all. Be true to your own self, love
yourself absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as
yourself. Unless you have realized them as one with yourself,
you cannot love them. Don't pretend to be what you are not,
don't refuse to be what you are. Your love of others is the
result of self- knowledge, not its cause. Without
self-realization, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all
doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are
that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you
realize the depth and fullness of yourself, you know that every
living being and the entire universe are included in your
affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you,
you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear
and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only
self-realization can break it. Go for it resolutely.
 
 
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
 

 
 
Pinkfish ~ Allspirit
 
 
 
What is the Heart?

What is the heart? It is not human,
and it is not imaginary. I call it

you. Stately bird, who one moment
combines with this world, and the

next, passes through the boundary to
the unseen. The soul cannot find you

because you are the soul's wings, how
it moves. Eyes cannot see you: you

are the source of sight. You're the
one thing repentance will not repent,

nor news report. Spring comes: one
seed refuses to germinate and start

being a tree. One poor piece of wood
blackens but will not catch fire.

The alchemist wonders at a bit of
copper that resists turning to gold.

Who am I that I'm with you and still
myself? When the sun comes up,

the complicated nightmind of the
constellations fades. Snowforms do

not last through July. The heart-
quality embodied by our master, Shams

Tabriz, will always dissolve the old
quarrel between those who believe in

the dignity of a human being's decisions
and those who claim they're all illusion.

~ Rumi

from "The Glance", trans. by Coleman Barks
 
 



#1749 From: "Michael A. Read" <maread@...>
Date: Mon Mar 29, 2004 3:00 am
Subject: #1749 - Saturday, March 27, 2004
mareadba
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#1749 - Saturday, March 27, 2004 - Editor: michael
 
Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
Letter to the Editors: Click 'Reply', compose your message, and 'Send'. All the editors will see your letter.
 

The Changing Face of Religion
 
a brief look
 
Dear Friends,
 
By some estimates there are thousands of religions on the planet. The four major groups are Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. Each of these religions have been around for quite some time. During that time each of them has split into a variety of practices or sects. And each sect has become in effect a religion in its own right. During my childhood and youth I was, in order, a Baptist, a Mennonite, and a Catholic and in my early 20's I was involved in a guru cult. Within each of these affiliations I was taught, either directly or indirectly, that all other churches or religions were wrong and could not provide the path to salvation. I figure that I'm due four times the salvation of most folk who simply pick one religion and stick with it.
 
That being said, this edition is not about the four major belief systems of the world today. Instead, let's take a brief look at some of the newer religions. Some of them you may have already heard about and some of them you probably haven't. But take a look and you may agree that religion is what the religious say it is. Then again, you may not.
 
If I inadvertantly list your religion and it offends, well, as the saying goes -
one person's religion is another person's belly laugh.
 
This edition concludes with an interview of Michael Washburn by Paul Bernstein where they discuss life's three stages - infancy, ego and transcendence.
 
with a grin - be well,
 
michael
 

 
             Omkar    Emblem of the Martinist Order    Calumet        Romuva
 
 

 
Have you ever seen the cult classic movie Plan Nine From Outer Space? The director of that (let's be generous) film was the notorious Ed Woods. He was an enthusiastic producer/director/actor and transvestite. Somehow and for whatever reason, somebody has created a religion based on the man.
Take a peek for yourself at: http://www.edwood.org/
 
 

 
 
The First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis
 
``For unto you is born this day in the city of Memphis a Presley, which is Elvis the King.''


And Elvis saw them berating the poor recording artist, whose music was terrible and lyrics insipid, and Lo, the King said unto the mob:
      `Let him who is without bad singles cast the first rhinestone.'
      And the mob turned down their eyes, each considering his own Don't Worry Be Happy or Man in the Mirror, and shuffled off.
      `Thank you,' said Elvis. `Thank you very much.'
 
editor's note: picture widened to reflect a elvis as last i saw Him

Then there is the Church of the Subgenius.
 
 
SubSITE
Official Website of The Church of the SubGenius™
Maintained by The SubGenius™ Foundation, Inc.
in the name of

J.R. "Bob" Dobbs
High Epopt
Living Slack Master
 
 

 
 


Our Mission is to place the Claims of Joozis The Meshuga of Milpitas in front of the Jews for Jesus


This isn't a religion, I don't think http://www.winkingjesus.com/ but it is the home of the winking Jesus. Really. And it also asks the question - what would Jesus do for a Klondike bar.


The three links used above were found at

http://members.aol.com/swankivy2/religion.html

Where you can also find satanic hampsters, sea monkey worship, and learn that Bert (of the Miuppets) is really evil.


The following was found at: http://tftb.com/deify/yesthis.htm

Any Star Wars fans out there? You may have already heard of this one http://www.jediism.org/

The Jedi Religion

Jediism is not the same as that which is portrayed within the Star Wars Saga by George Lucas and Lucasfilm LTD.  George Lucas' Jedi™ are fictional characters that exist within a literary and cinematic universe.  The Jedi™ discussed within this website refer to factual people within this world that live or lived their lives according to Jediism, of which we recognize and work together as a community to both cultivate and celebrate.


On the more serious side: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/aar-nrm/

The
New Religious Movements
Group

The New Religious Movements Group is an American Academy of Religion program unit that seeks to enhance understanding of alternative, emergent, or new religious movements (NRMs) past and present. For each annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in the third week of November, the NRM Group seeks papers to be presented that utilize some form of historical, theological, sociological, anthropological, psychological, or folklore methodology in the study and interpretation of NRMs.


Not of this world 

http://www.ashtarcommand.ws/

Welcome!

Welcome to Soltec's communication centre for the Ashtar Command, proudly overseen by Ashtar. We broadcast new material from the Command, and are honoured to deploy new missions as they are given. We also offer activities in which you can participate, plus free membership. We invite you to join us and become part of our active online centre.


 
 

SALVATION FROM AIDS AND CANCER OFFERED IN CENTRAL PARK

On March 25, 1998, Hon-Ming Chen , leader of Chen Tao / God's Salvation Church, announced in Garland, Texas, that God will not appear on Earth in person on March 31, 1998 as Chen had previously prophesied. Chen had also announced that God would appear on television channel 18 worldwide on March 25 at 12:01 a.m., U.S. Central Standard Time. When God failed to appear on TV on March 25, Chen -- who was eagerly awaiting with his followers the historical event in Garland -- announced that: "Because we did not see God's message on television tonight, my predictions of March 31 can be considered nonsense". Chen (who speaks only Chinese and was translated by a Chen Tao interpreter) added: "I hope that everybody can still have the true belief in God, in the existence of God. Even though the image doesn't show on the television, I don't have any reason to doubt the existence of the supreme being, God." Chen said at first on March 25 he will stay in Garland "to continue studying and researching." He insisted that his followers are free to go their own way, and have always been. Police continued to keep a watch fearing a possible mass suicide, although nothing in Chen Tao's behaviour so far points to a suicide. Between March 31 and April 1 Chen in fact seemed to recover from the prophetic failure and announced to the followers: "You yourself have become Gods". As usual in similar groups, the prophecy for the faithful did not fail: God appeared -- not in person but in the body of the members of Chen Tao. Chen then left Garland and inspected areas in Michigan and New York for the group to relocate. In May 1998 the majority of members left Garland. Half, with visa problems, returned to Taiwan. Half moved to Lockport, New York. According to independent researcher Rodney Perkins, Chen had a vision in which he saw the numbers 17 and 78. While the lake regions in upstate New York was being considered from some weeks, Olcott was selected because it is where Routes 17 and 78 intersect.
Later, a group moved to Brooklyn, New York, where a "counseling center" has been organized (see programme hereunder), while services promising to heal from AIDS and cancer are offered daily in New York's Central Park, now recognized as God's new main base.

 

editor's note: emphasis added


 
 
Unarius Academy of Science
 

The Unarius Academy of Science is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational foundation centered in El Cajon, California. The Academy's purpose is to teach the "connective and higher spiritual understanding of consciousness as an evolutionary mandate attainable by all individuals searching for the meaning of life." The word Unarius is an acronym for Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science (Unarius Academy of Science: 4).

The Academy's founders, Ernest and Ruth Norman (archangels Raphiel and Uriel, respectively), met in Los Angeles in 1954 at a psychics' convention, where Ernest, a scientist, electronic engineer poet, and clairvoyant, was lecturing on "Inner Contact from the Higher Beings" (UAS: 6). It was at the convention that they conceived the Unarius mission. They soon founded the Unarius Educational Foundation to study the nature of man, his spiritual evolution, and his connection to the universe.

The next 17 years were building years for Unarius. During this time, the Normans participated in spiritualism conventions and events to spread their message. They also authored 20 books, including Ernest's Voice of Venus, an introduction to Unarius beliefs. The Normans were able to gather a small following before Raphiel's death or, in Unarius terms, his "transition to the higher planes of light worlds" in 1971 (UAS: 6).

Unarius underwent great changes after Ernest's death. Ruth, a charismatic and flamboyant new leader, provided a great infusion of energy and motivation to the group (Kossy). She founded Unarius' headquarters in El Cajon, near San Diego, in 1972. Three years later she created the Center for New World Teaching for the study of Unarius teachings and education of students. She also greatly increased the group's visibility by publishing books and videos about information on the interdimensional science of life that she had received from higher beings after Ernest's death.


The three preceding links were found at:  http://www.csus.edu/indiv/t/tumminia/UFO.HTM

Diana's Space Page


minorities cartoons, minorities cartoon, minorities picture, minorities pictures, minorities image, minorities images, minorities illustration, minorities illustrations

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/m/minorities.asp


 The full interview is at: http://members.tripod.com/~pbernste/life3.htm#Top

Life's Three Stages:
Infancy, Ego, and Transcendence
Michael Washburn interviewed by Paul Bernstein
[first published Spring 1998 on the Online Noetic Network]
 
Introduction

    I decided to interview Michael Washburn because the outlook presented in his books seems very helpful to people searching and struggling with personal spiritual issues.

    Washburn -- a philosopher who integrates psychology with religion -- asserts that who we ordinarily think we are (our ego) is only a part of our experience. The vaster part he calls the Dynamic Ground, in which he unites what others call our unconscious, our instincts, our libido, and the spiritual forces that inspire us. In other words, Washburn insists that Jesus, Freud, Buddha, and even medieval alchemy were all offering us, as closed-minded egos, ways to open up to the realm of the unconscious and spirit -- even though those pioneers and their followers may not have agreed with each other's ways of expressing that understanding.

    Further, Washburn wants us to appreciate that we can hardly avoid a spiritual life eventually, because the ego causes its own misery and despair if it remains closed to the world it has made unconscious. The ever-so-common "mid-life crisis" is closely related to the ancient's "dark night of the soul". What's happening in such cases, explains Washburn, is the opening of the ego to the forces it had closed itself off from, in its earlier necessary stage of development.

    His model shows us the lifelong see-saw between the larger Dynamic Ground (call it God if you like) and the individual self, who at birth is immersed comfortably in the larger Ground, then gradually develops an identity of body as separate, then mind as its own, and then as an adult, bumps up against its own limits in so identifying. The ego, Washburn teaches, is good enough at operating in the 3-dimensional world of matter and unilinear time, but cannot of itself encompass the world of eternity in which this 3-dimensional world is suspended. Also, the ego's development from infancy to adulthood inevitably involves traumas that later limit its flexibility in even the 3-dimensional world. In the effort to transcend those limits (to become more effective in concrete goals like work and family) the ego meets opportunities to transcend itself, and so to open up again to the Dynamic Ground. This is the experience we adults have called transpersonal, transcendental, or spiritual. It comes from the same "place", says Washburn, as the libido, our dreams, our demons, our neuroses -- what our culture and our traditional psychologies have perhaps misleadingly labeled as a "lower" rather than the "higher", "more spiritual" realm.


 

 


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