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?

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

Thich Nhat Hanh

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

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

	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.

more from Tony Parsons

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

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. [...]

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

 

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

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

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

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

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. He 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

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.

---

 

    

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.

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]

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