On the point of death

Papaji said:

‘Where is the Buddha?

Bring him in! Bring him in!’

The disciples heard

Not one more syllable from him.

Did the Buddha come in?

How could he?

He was never not there.

---

 

Sam

NDS

 

Spent last weekend going to the Keukenhof (Kitchen Garden) and the beach at Noordwijk..

 

Share the trip with us at:

 

http://home.hccnet.nl/sam.pas/bolle_streek/

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

Adithya Comming

NDS

 

>>Why can't I destroy my ego?

To destroy something it must exists.

Ego is just a phantom, a fictious entity that gets created to go
along with a bodymind when needed. And, sometimes there is a need for
it ...specially for the protection of a form, a bodymind. The problem
comes only when you try to carry it all the time, only when you feel
this `need', `desire' all the time. Anything arising or ending in
a `me' simply creates this need and acts as its fuel, catalyst.

`Wanting' to destroy   ego ...is one way to create it.

Let it just be and it dies. It can't exist on its own. It can't exist
without a `want'.


###

Trying to destroy ego is futile.

It is simply a function not an entity.

The functions gets executed when needed. Sits idle when it is not
needed.

Problem is feeling the `need' all the time.

The `need' to destroy ego is ...just another need.

 

 

---

 

 

"My job is to show that the great chasm between these dualities can be bridged and crossed, and perhaps isn't even there at all."

 

http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=7541

Spotlight on: Raven Kaldera

Together In Faith: Journey Into Inclusiveness

 

By Jason Michael

Originally printed 4/29/04 (Issue 1218 )

A female-to-male transgendered activist and shaman, Raven Kaldera is a pagan priest, intersex transgender activist, parent, astrologer, musician and homesteader. Kaldera, who hails from Hubbardston, Mass., is also the author of "Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook" from XLibris Press. The founder and leader of the Pagan Kingdom of Asphodel and the Asphodel Pagan Choir, Kaldera has been a neo-pagan since the age of 14, when he was converted by a "fam-trad" teen on a date. Since then, he's been through half a dozen traditions, including Gardnerian, Dianic, granola paganism, Umbanda, Heithnir, and the Peasant Tradition. He is currently happily married to artist and eco-experimentalist Bella Kaldera, with whom he co-founded the Institute for Heritage Skills.

Between The Lines: What is faith?

Raven Kaldera: Trust in the Powers That Be, however you see Them; trust as strong and stalwart as you can make it. Trust that They do see wider and longer than you, and that you have a unique path to follow with Their aid.

BTL: What role does faith play in politics?

RK: Faith has always played a role in politics, if only because faith creates worldview and is the guardian of values. The best thing that can happen to our country at this time, when it comes to faith, is for people to understand that diversity is a good thing, and that includes diversity of faith. I'm strongly ecumenicalist; I have a great respect for faith of any kind, so long as they have respect for my own faith, and I think that building bridges between faiths is important.

BTL: What is the message that you hope to bring to the Together In Faith conference?

RK: I'm an FTM transgendered, intersexual shaman. My very presence is as an avatar of crossing boundaries. I am a walker between worlds, in many ways - the mundane and the spirit worlds, male and female, intersex and transgender, ancient paganism and modern life, and many others. My job is to show that the great chasm between these dualities can be bridged and crossed, and perhaps isn't even there at all.

Between The Lines is proud to be a sponsor of the American Friends Service Committee's Together In Faith conference. Scheduled for May 22, 2004, the conference is for people of all religions and spiritualities and aimed at creating LGBT-affirming communities. For more information, visit www.togetherinfaith.com

#1789 - Thursday, May 6, 2004 - Editor: Gloria

Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
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He was 91 and had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years.

Born in 1912, and a native of a working-class section of New Haven, Conn., he has long been regarded as one of the foremost teachers of Zen Buddhism in the Western world.

After World War II, Mr. Kapleau worked as a court reporter at the military tribunals in Germany and Japan, a racking experience that later drove him onto a spiritual path.

His 1965 book, The Three Pillars of Zen, introduced many Americans to Zen Buddhism, a traditional Japanese religious practice of disciplined meditation and self-examination. It is still considered a seminal text.

He wrote many other books.

Mr. Kapleau is survived by his wife, deLancey, and a daughter, Sudarshana.

”He will be missed by thousands,” said Margaret Lee Braun, a Brighton writer and friend who was with Mr. Kapleau when he died lying in a recliner in the center’s sunlit garden. “He gave us so many gifts — genuine teaching about life and death, a genuine spiritual practice.”

A student of Mr. Kapleau’s for more than 30 years, Braun called him “a profound person of his era.”

In a 1966 interview, Mr. Kapleau said that after the war, “a sense of the futility and the horror of life was very strong with me.”

Propelled by the defensive testimony of the Germans — and the testimony of Japanese defendants who acknowledged guilt and its consequences — Mr. Kapleau in 1952 started a 13-year study of Zen Buddhism in Japan.

He returned to the United States in 1965, an ordained Zen priest, and founded the Rochester Zen Center a year later in a rented house at 10 Buckingham St.

For years since then, it has been in linked converted mansions at 5 and 7 Arnold Park. It remains one of the premier U.S. centers of Zen Buddhism.

Mr. Kapleau’s death “is the culmination of an amazing life,” said John Pulleyn, who administers the center. “What he started in Rochester has grown worldwide.”

Seven successive nights of services for members and friends started Thursday at the center. They will be followed by weekly services for seven weeks.

A public funeral service, said Pulleyn, will be held “sometime in the future.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0507LQ45VBK_news.shtml

In 1966, shortly after the publication of his first book, The Three Pillars of Zen, he came to Rochester to found the Zen Center. His other books, published subsequently, are Zen: Merging of East and West, To Cherish All Life, Awakening to Zen and The Zen of Living and Dying: A Practical and Spiritual Guide.

8 Books by Roshi Philip Kapleau, with good descriptions:

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Kapleau,%20Roshi%20Philip

excerpt from:

Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
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In the morning, bowing to all;
In the evening, bowing to all.
Respecting others is my only duty--
Hail to the Never-despising Bodhisattva.

In heaven and earth he stands alone.

A real monk
Needs
Only one thing--
a heart like
Never-despising Buddha.

-   Ryokan
    Translated by John Stevens
    Three Zen Masters, p. 128

#1792 - Sunday, May 9, 2004 - Editor: Gloria

Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
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It is hard to find
A man who has desire
For what he has not tasted,
Or who tastes the world
And is untouched.

Here in the world
Some crave pleasure,
Some seek freedom
But it is hard to find
A man who wants neither.

He is a great soul.

It is hard to find
A man who has an open mind,
Who neither seeks nor shuns
Wealth or pleasure,
Duty or liberation,
Life or death. . .

He does not want the world to end.
He does not mind if it lasts.
Whatever befalls him,
He lives in happiness.
For he is truly blessed.

-Ashtavakra Gita 17:4-7

From "The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita," by Thomas Byrom, 1990.

Highlights Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
 
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Illuminating the Shadow: An Interview with Connie Zweig  

http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/zweig.html  

Excerpts:  

In psychology, the dark side of human nature is
often described as the alter ego, the id, or the
lower self. The great Swiss psychiatrist Carl
Jung called it the "shadow." By shadow, he meant
the negative side of the personality, the sum
total of all those unpleasant qualities that we
would prefer to hide. While Carl Jung coined the
term "the shadow," the idea of a dark side of
human nature dates back to antiquity and has
figured in some of our most famous stories and
myths, from the dark brother in the Bible to Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  

For psychotherapist Connie Zweig, the shadow
represents one of the most important yet least
understood aspects of human nature. We all have a
shadow, she says. The challenge is to meet it
face-to-face, for unless we come to terms with
our own dark side, we're condemned to be its
victim.  

Connie Zweig's latest book is called Romancing
the Shadow. It's the follow-up to her bestselling
anthology from a few years ago called Meeting the
Shadow. Zweig is the founder of the Institute for
Shadow-work and Spiritual Psychotherapy in Los
Angeles.  

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

Scott London: Of all the metaphors that have been
used to illustrate the shadow in recent years, my
favorite is Robert Bly's image of the big bag
that we drag behind us.  

Connie Zweig: Yes, he said that we spend the
first half of our lives putting everything into
the bag and the second half pulling it out.  

London: What did Carl Jung have in mind when he
formulated this idea?  

Zweig: He believed that everything that is in our
conscious awareness is in the light. But
everything of substance which stands in the light
-- whether it's a tree or an idea -- also casts a
shadow. And that which stands in the darkness is
outside of our awareness.  

As Jung saw it, the shadow operated at several
levels. First, there is the part of the mind that
is outside of our awareness. He called this the
personal unconscious or personal shadow. That is
the conditioned part of us that we acquire from
our experiences in our childhood when that which
is unacceptable, as determined by the adults
around us, is cast into shadow. It may be sadness
or sexual curiosity. Or it may be our creative
dreams and desires. That's personal shadow. But
there is another level as well. Jung also talked
about the "collective unconscious" or the
"archetypal shadow."  

London: What are some of the most common
manifestations of the personal shadow?  

Zweig: The personal shadow is that part of us
that erupts spontaneously and unexpectedly when
we do something self-destructive, or something
that is hurtful to someone else. Afterwards, we
know it's been around because we feel humiliated,
ashamed, and guilty.
...
I would say the personal shadow is that part of
us that feels like it can't be tamed, can't be
controlled. For instance, many parents who
struggle with their children with impulses of
rage that rise up, and they yell, or maybe even
hit the child. Then, afterwards, they say to
themselves, "Oh, my God, I can't believe I did
that. Who am I?" That's the shadow.
...
London: I remember a conversation I had with the
writer Phil Cousineau. He distinguished between
spirit and soul. Spirit is in the heights, he
said, while soul is in the depths. While we tend
reach for the heights, it's usually in the depths
that we find that sense of aliveness. As he put
it, "You don't tell Aretha Franklin to `Get up,'
you tell her to `get down.'"  

Zweig: Yes. I think that what has happened in our
eagerness to be more spiritual, more conscious,
more aware, is that we've only gone up. And some
of us have been left floating up there in the
skies, just over the mountain tops, like
helium-balloons. We've lost the contact with the
lower worlds, with the passions, the instincts,
sex, desire. We've made desire wrong and have
wanted to be free of our attachments and our
cravings, as the Buddha teaches.  

Read the entire article: http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/zweig.html    

From Highlights #89  

Dan

I am looking at Self as meaning unification, organization,
wholeness. Self has relationship therefore to soul, self,
peace, harmony and God. All of these are words that relate
to a unity or organization of experience and perception.
The experience of all as Self is the experience of no
outside, no other, total unity. Thus, the Self inevitably
raises a Shadow. The Shadow being related to "outsideness,"
"otherness," "disunity." The Shadow can be associated with
illusion, ignorance, suffering, separation, or evil.
Thus, realization of Self doesn't necessarily mean the
resolution of the Shadow. I am using the term wholly Other
to refer to whatever is beyond Selfness and Shadowness. The
Other as whatever cannot be subsumed in the categories of
Self or Shadow (Shadow is not truly beyond Self, as it
remains associated to Self). Because of this Other, a
person who has experienced Self would be best not to be
complacent.

A person may yet need to encounter and work with Shadow, may
need to find where Self and Shadow "arise together," may
need to have any remaining sense of identification with
Selfness dissolve in the wholly Other.  

The Nonduality of Life and Death: A Buddhist View of Repression
By David Loy
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/davloy.htm  

...the sense-of-self always has, as its inescapable
shadow, a sense-of-lack, which (alas!) it always
tries to escape. It is here that the
psychoanalytic concept of repression comes in,
for the idea of "the return of the repressed" in
a distorted form shows us how to link this
fundamental yet hopeless project with the
symbolic ways we try to make ourselves real in
the world. This deep sense of lack is experienced
as the feeling that "there is something wrong
with me." To the extent that we have a sense of
autonomous self, we have this sense of lack,
which manifests in many different forms. We have
already noticed one: the craving to be famous,
which is a good example of the way we usually try
to make ourselves real -- through the eyes of
others. In its "purer" forms lack appears as
ontological guilt or, even more basic, an
ontological anxiety at the very core of one's
being, which is almost unbearable because it
gnaws on that core. For that reason all anxiety
wants to become objectified into fear of
something (as Spinoza might say, fear is anxiety
associated with an object), because then we know
what to do: we have ways to defend ourselves
against the feared thing.  

The tragedy of these objectifications, however,
is that no amount of money can be enough if it is
not really money that we want. When we do not
understand what is actually motivating us --
because what we think we want is only a symptom
of something else -- we end up compulsive,
"driven." Such a Buddhist analysis implies that
no true "mental health" will be found short of an
enlightenment which puts an end to that
sense-of-lack which is the shadow of the
sense-of-self, by putting an end to the
sense-of-self.   R

ead the entire article: http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/davloy.htm]    

Nisargadatta Maharaj  

The person is a very small thing. Actually it is a composite, it cannot
be said to exist by itself. Unperceived, it is just not there. It is but the
shadow of the mind, the sum total of memories. Pure being is reflected
in the mirror of the mind, as knowing. What is known takes the shape
of a person, based on memory and habit. It is but a shadow, or a
projection of the knower onto the screen of the mind.    

From 'A Course in Consciousness'  

http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/new_page_4.htm  

Idealism was first expounded by Plato in his cave
allegory in The Republic (see, e.g., Julia Annas,
An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, p. 252,
1981). Prisoners are in an underground cave with
a fire behind them, bound so they can see only
the shadows on the wall in front of them, cast by
puppets manipulated behind them. They think that
this is all there is to see; if released from
their bonds and forced to turn around to the fire
and the puppets, they become bewildered and are
happier left in their original state. They are
even angry with anyone who tries to tell them how
pitiful their position is. Only a few can bear to
realize that the shadows are only shadows cast by
the puppets; and they begin the journey of
liberation that leads past the fire and right out
of the cave to the real world. At first they are
dazzled there, and can bear to see real objects
only in reflection and indirectly, but then they
look at them directly in the light of the sun,
and can even look at the sun itself.  

This allegory is related to idealism in the
following way. The shadows of the puppets that
the prisoners are watching represent their taking
over, in unreflective fashion, the second-hand
opinions and beliefs that are given to them by
parents, society, and religion. The puppets
themselves represent the mechanical, unreasoning
minds of the prisoners. The light of the fire
within the cave provides only partial, distorted
illumination from the imprisoned intellects.
Liberation begins when the few who turn around
get up and go out of the cave. Outside of the
cave, the real objects (the Forms) are those in
the transcendental realm. In order to see them,
the light of the sun, which represents pure
reason, is necessary. A similar allegory using
today’s symbols would replace the cave with a
movie theater, the shadows with the pictures on
the screen, the puppets with the film, and the
fire with the projector light. The sun is
outside, and we must leave the theater to see its
light.
...
We can adapt Plato’s cave allegory to represent
monistic idealism in the following way. The fire
is replaced by the light of the sun (pure
Awareness) coming in through the entrance to the
cave, and the puppets are replaced by archetypal
objects within the transcendent realm. The
phenomenal world of matter and thoughts is merely
the shadow of the archetypes in the light of
consciousness. Here, we clearly see a
complementarity of phenomenon and Noumenon. To
look only at the shadows is to be unaware of
Awareness. To be directly aware of Awareness is
to realize that the phenomenal world is merely a
shadow. The shadow world is what we perceive.
Awareness can only be apperceived, i.e., realized
by a knowing that is beyond perception.
Apperception liberates one from the shackles of
the cave, and exposes one to infinite freedom.
Apperception is the proof that consciousness is
all there is.  

EAST ROCK SHADOWS  

by David Hodges  

I just got back from walking up to East Rock with
my camera. I wanted to get there before the sun
went away. Two nights ago the gloom of early
evening deterred me from taking pictures. Tonight
I got some good shots of the way East Rock towers
over our neighborhood.  

East Rock is a massive rock formation left over
from when the glaciers pushed through, scraping
everything in their path to form Long Island just
to our south across the Sound. All that was left
were West Rock, East Rock, and Sleeping Giant,
all of which are rocks formed of uplifted strata
from ancient seabeds. East Rock is a vertical
striated reddish-brown formation some 300 feet
high, with a War Memorial on top along with
benches and picnic tables and those sight-seeing
binocular things that you drop a dime into. You
can see East rock at the end of all the
north/south streets in our neighborhood, towering
over everything, and I think I got some good
shots of that.  

As I walked along East Rock park, a playing field
at the base of East Rock, there was a game of
Frisbee just getting underway with a group of
college-aged kids. They were playing much as we
used to play in college. I think the game is
called Frisbee football. It is like soccer, it is
played by passing the Frisbee from teammate to
teammate, with frequent changes of possession
when the Frisbee is dropped or intercepted.  

I stopped to watch for a while.  

I remebered how in college my group of friends
often played Frisbee. There was a group of guys a
year older who we would play against. My
teammates, mostly more athletic than I, were an
amazing bunch and frequently we won. In
particular, we had the combination of Jon and
Jim. Jon was an impossibly good looking boy-man
with an impish personality and phenomenal
athletic and musical gifts. Jim was taller, less
graceful, but very athletic and strong.
Frequently during our games Jon would run way
downfield. I can just see the way he used to
scamper with his cut-off shorts the only clothing
he was wearing. Jim would wind up and fire that
Frisbee on an impossibly long, looping trajectory
way ahead of Jon. But Jon would accelerate, leap,
and catch the Frisbee at the last moment, and
come down laughing as he did so. We would all
clap and holler and celebrate.  

Jon was the first of our group to get married and
the first to attempt suicide.  

Jim died at a young age of leukemia, leaving a
wife and several small children.  

Jon spent some time in a psychiatric hospital
where he received shock treatments. He moved to
California where he joined up with some ashram,
and he would come into San Francisco (where I
lived at the time) to play his violin in the
street for money. After a while I refused to let
him crash in my apartment because I thought he
was demonstrably psychotic.  

I remember one of the last things he said to me
before I lost touch with him. I ran into him on
the street near the Cannery where he had his hat
on the pavement while he played his violin. He
told me how great things were at the ashram and
how happy he was without possessions or
attachments. As I turned to leave he shouted
after me, "Find God!"  

I think I already had though at that time I
didn't know it. God was a white Frisbee, spinning
through the soft evening sunlight, on a green
lawn, into the hands of a leaping angel.

 
David keeps an enjoyable Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/wandertheearth/  

Alice Coltrane - Universal Consciousness

Alice Coltrane

The following excerpt is from Laurence Galian's "The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis"

“As long as there is duality, [one’s] relationship is with Adam and Eve. But when duality departs, the one [reality] is God. When the path of Lordship (rububiyat) appears, the dust of humanness departs.”

- Jabir Bin Abdullah Ansari

I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things”.

- Isaiah 45:7

THE VEILING OF TRUTH

The various schools, dergahs, ashrams, tekkes, organizations, and holistic centers that purportedly teach paths to “enlightenment” have some poor track records of late. To cover up their students’ widespread lack of enlightenment, the teachers of these schools portray enlightenment as something that is infrequent, unusual, and difficult to achieve. Ibn Ata’allah of Alexandria states, “One should distrust the shaykh who tells you that enlightenment is ‘far off,’ and trust the one who assures you that it is ‘near’.” Shaykh Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi illuminates, “Radical non-dualistic masters state that all conscious beings are already awake and that wakefulness is the very nature of consciousness. If you raise your hand before your face and hold up three fingers, you will know with absolute clarity and certainty, without any ambiguity, those are three fingers, not four fingers or five fingers. That kind of clarity is the natural, innate awakeness of consciousness.”  

            The traditional approaches toward spirituality are failing us during these difficult times. These schools turn out people who dress in “spiritual garments,” who can regurgitate an endless amount of aphorisms and spiritual-sounding jargon, yet these schools have failed truly to introduce these students to the All-Pervasive Reality of Existence. What perplexes us is the number of Sufi Sheikhs that give lip service to Rumi, al-Hallaj, al-Ghazali, and Ibn al-‘Arabi, yet do not heed these saints’ advice to transcend religion! These “lip-service” Sheikhs insist on emphasizing disciplinary religion and shariat over the World Encompassing Spiritual message that these saints exhorted. As the distinguished dancer-choreographer, Robin Becker who is deeply involved in Sufi studies, points out, “Breath cannot move through tension.” Certain Sufi Sheikhs, steeped in the traditions of their homeland, forget the fact that, “The Tradition offers us its ritual, culture, and wisdom, but we must apply these under new and always changing circumstances . . . we are dealing with a society that has different economic structure, gender relationships, and social norms.”

            Contemporary spirituality has fallen into a great error! Specifically, we are referring to the error of focusing exclusively on Love and Light. We object to the “white light” view of the spirit world because this depiction overlooks the robustness, color, texture, strength, passion, fullness, and depth that the spirit world possesses. The spirit world of the “white lighters” is a thin, insipid, and one-dimensional place. These people are existing in an unreasonable state of happiness. “Dark” spirituality is not encouraged nor acknowledged as a valid spiritual way by various contemporary spiritual commentators. We recommend that the spiritually inclined heed the wisdom of Rumi on the subject:

            “The inhaling-exhaling is from spirit,           

            now angry, now peaceful.      

            Wind destroys, and wind protects.”

            Because Western religion has created this image of the “God of Good in Whom there is no Darkness,” a grand enantiodrama is occurring around the globe. The “Light” has been over emphasized in religion, and they have sentenced its opposite characteristic to the dungeon of society’s collective unconscious. Sometimes the repressed characteristic bursts forth wildly into daylight with a lethal force. We are witnessing this enantiodrama enacted daily as we watch the Evening News.

            Tekkes, spiritual centers, and dergahs, are not immune from this process either. Michael Rogge writes, “Man in a herd may not show the best side of his nature. Unconscious drives may reign his behavior. This is applicable especially in circumstances that man strives for the spiritual. He may tend to show split-personality behavior. On one hand the spiritual personality which is supposed to have come to terms with his animal nature. It is wise, friendly and compassionate on the outside. In the shadows lurks the personality that has been forced into the background, still ridden with all the expulsed human frailties. In moments of weakness, it will see its chance to play hideous tricks. It will do so without being noticed by the person involved. The result being: uncharitable behavior, envy, malicious gossip, harsh words, insensitivity, unfounded criticism and even worse, not expected from such charismatic figure. It is one of the main reasons for people leaving a particular group in great disappointment.”

The Sufi poet Kabir informs us that,

            “Between the conscious and the unconscious,

                        the mind has put up a swing;

            all earth creatures, even the supernovas, sway         

                        between these two trees,

                        and it never winds down.”     

            The followers of the “Good God” often denigrate the use of dark imagery. Yet, they miss an essential point. Certain aspects of our being exist in the evening twilight and night. The seed grows in the darkness of the earth. The fetus develops in the darkness of the womb, and the soul awaits rebirth in the darkness of death. Black also represents the feminine aspect of the Divine, an aspect overlooked by Western culture for too long. 

            Another aspect of the Divine of which Western culture is frightened is Death. Western society is conditioned to avoiding death. We do not wash, dress, and bury our dead - we give the job to funeral directors. One hundred years ago death was still a personal phenomenon. Black represents Death. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. states, “Without death there is no dark for the diamond to shine from.” The Sufi does not fear Death. He or she sees it as part of a sacred integral cycle. Death is the greatest gift of Allah. In his commentary on the Forty Traditions, Ibn Kamal says, “When you are confused, seek the help of the people of the tombs.”      

            Some modern day Sufis would have us distance ourselves from Islam and its matrix – Judaism and Christianity. These contemporary Sufis are uncomfortable with certain aspects of the above-mentioned religions’ holy books and histories, for example, the wars of Yahweh and Israel mentioned in the Torah, or the battles of the Prophet as he spread Islam recorded in the Qur’an. While these aspects are indeed unpleasant, life contains wars, murders, and terrible bloodshed. We are not asking the reader to embrace orthodox religion, but we are asking the reader to seriously consider accepting that spirituality is not a way to distance oneself from life’s unpleasantness. Spirituality is lived every day by every human on the face of the earth. As Shaykh Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi insightfully observed, “Let’s not talk about “spiritual” life. This sounds as if there are a few people living a spiritual life and the rest of humanity is not. This period of testing, of feeling everything is lost, happens with regularity to all human beings. They must get through it and that’s the way they grow. Human life itself is spiritual life.”

            Life is not lived in “weekend retreats,” but through watching our parents die, earning our livelihood, the sweat and tears of raising children, and the daily interactions with everyone with whom we come in contact. This author gently warns the reader that if he or she prefers spiritual pleasantries and platitudes to the harsh realities of life, then we have not written this book for this type of person. People experience anxiety attacks, depression, nervous breakdowns, divorces, illnesses and frightening experiences. People do fight; they argue all the time. Some contemporary spiritual people believe that a truly spiritual person should be so “advanced” that these events do not occur to him or her. This is hogwash. We must nurture and develop each part of us.  

            We point out the fact that a child that does not eat properly will not physically and mentally develop correctly. A child that is not given love by his or her parents will not emotionally develop correctly. Food but no love, love but no food, will not make a mature adult. Humans have physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects. Each must be cared for and appropriately nurtured.      

            The great spiritual initiate and Sufi, Gurdjieff, would not teach prospective students whom he thought were psychologically immature. Kabir Helminski, servant of Mevlana, defines maturity as follows, “By maturity we mean that overall development of character and virtue, including the ability to express oneself and participate effectively in the life around us.” First, Gurdjieff would send the “psychologically immature” to a psychiatrist with whose work he was familiar, who, in turn, would send them back to Gurdjieff when the psychotherapy had developed and steadied their emotions. 

                           Besides the aforementioned aspects, each human being (except for the Prophet Muhammad – Peace be upon him), no matter how beautiful, walks around with a shadow at their feet. The journey to marifat (becoming the mirror of Allah) may be long or it may occur at your next breath, but in the meanwhile, we must encounter duality. Duality is as “Divine” as non-duality. The light and the dark must be regarded as sacred so we do not fall into faulting Allah for the thorns on the rosebush. Completeness, al-insan al-kamil, comes in stages, and one instruction of those stages is to be nonjudgmental and to embrace all parts of your being and life. There are no shortcuts. Do not try to take shortcuts. 

            At the beginning levels, the Murid prays for marifat, and sincerely tries to live as though this was a reality. At the intermediate levels, the Murid only praises Allah and only sees Allah. At the advanced levels, the Dervish returns to the sacred garden of duality as the Gardener.      

            We hold that pretending to be living in a state of marifat is dangerous for the inexperienced Murid. It is dangerous because the Murid often puts him or herself into the mind-set of denial, pretending he or she is a perfect spiritual being without a fault. Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind. We feel that this attempt to be “perfect” is psychologically dangerous and a red-carpet invitation to the ego to run amok. Or else, the Murid will take the other tack, which is thinking him or herself to be a worthless and sinful, nobody. During your lifetime many events will happen, events that are not pleasant and that are painful. Often Allah sends these experiences to us for our spiritual development. In that sense, they can in no wise be construed as faults of the person or of the universe. Human experience is sacred – from the pain of childbirth, to the joy of seeing your newborn child. Spirituality is NOT about escaping unpleasant aspects of human existence. It is about Remembering our Source.

© 2003 Laurence Galian. All rights reserved.

Further information on this book: http://www.quiddity-inc.com/

Laurence Galian wishes to express his profound
gratitude to Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Professor of
History, Walla Walla College, who introduced him
to Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs through
her presentation at the 2004 "2nd Annual Hawaii
International Conference on Arts and Humanities"
(Honolulu, Hawaii) entitled: "A Space Between
Heaven and Earth: Shaker Gift Drawings and the
Shaker Aesthetic". Professor Amodt can be reached
at: Walla Walla College, 204 S. College Ave.,
College Place, WA 99324. aamote@...

'Tis the gift to be simple

'tis the gift to be free,

'tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.

And when we find ourselves in the place just
right

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend and we shan't be asham'd

To turn, turn will be our delight

Till by turning turning we come round right

- "Simple Gifts"  

The following is an excerpt. To access the notes and to read the entire article please visit

http://www.quiddity-inc.com/id10.html

THE CENTRALITY OF THE DIVINE FEMININE IN SÛFÎSM*

LAURENCE GALIAN

Copyright 2003 Laurence Galian. All Rights Reserved.

The Eternal Feminine
Draws us heavenward.
—Goethe

The world famous Islamic Sûfî poet Mevlana
Jalaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273) writes: “Woman is
the radiance of God; she is not your beloved. She
is the Creator—you could say that she is not
created.”[1] This paper calls attention to an
unexpected and little explored fact of immense
significance in Islam: at the center of Islam
abides the Divine Feminine.

...

Sûfîsm cherishes the esoteric secret of woman,
even though Sûfîsm is the esoteric aspect of a
seemingly patriarchal religion. Muslims pray five
times a day facing the city of Makkah. Inside
every Mosque is a niche, or recess, called the
Mihrab - a vertical rectangle curved at the top
that points toward the direction of Makkah. The
Sûfîs know the Mihrab to be a visual symbol of an
abstract concept: the transcendent vagina of the
female aspect of divinity. In Sûfîsm, woman is
the ultimate secret, for woman is the soul.
Toshihiko Izutsu writes, “The wife of Adam was
feminine, but the first soul from which Adam was
born was also feminine.”[16]

The Divine Feminine has always been present in
Islam. This may be surprising to many people who
see Islam as a patriarchal religion. Maybe the
reason for this misconception is the very nature
of the feminine in Islam. The Divine Feminine in
Islam manifests metaphysically and in the inner
expression of the religion. The Divine Feminine
is not so much a secret within Islam as She is
the compassionate Heart of Islam that enables us
to know Divinity. Her centrality demonstrates her
necessary and life-giving role in Islam.

Sûfîsm, or as some would define it “mystical
Islam” has always honored the Divine Feminine. Of
course, Allâh has both masculine and feminine
qualities, but to the Sûfî, Allâh has always been
the Beloved and the Sûfî has always been the
Lover. The Qur’an, referring to the final Day,
perhaps divulges a portion of this teaching: “And
there is manifest to them of God what they had
not expected to see.”[17]

Islam is aniconic. In other words, images,
effigies, or idols of Allâh are not allowed,
although verbal depiction abounds. There was a
question long debated in Islam: can we see Allâh?
The Prophet said in a hadith, “In Paradise the
faithful will see Allâh with the clarity with
which you see the moon on the fourteenth night
(the full moon).” Theologians debated what this
could mean, but the Sûfîs have held that you can
see Allâh even in this world, through the “eye of
the heart.” The famous Sûfî martyr al-Hallaj said
in a poem, “ra’aytu rabbi bi-‘ayni qalbî” (I saw
my Lord with the eye of my heart). Relevant to
the focus of this paper is that Sûfîs have always
described this theophanic experience as the
vision of a woman, the female figure as the
object of ru’yah (vision of Allâh).

There was a great Sûfî Saint who was born in 1165
C.E. Besides Shi’a Muslims, numberless Sunni
Ulemas called him “The Greatest Sheikh”
(al-Shaykh al-Akbar).[18] His name was Muyiddin
ibn al-‘Arabî. He said, “To know woman is to know
oneself,” and “Whoso knoweth his self, knoweth
his Lord.” Ibn al-’Arabî wrote a collection of
poems entitled The Tarjumân al-ashwâq. These are
love poems that he composed after meeting the
learned and beautiful Persian woman Nizam in
Makkah. The poems are filled with images pointing
to the Divine Feminine. His book Fusûs
al-hikam[19], in the last chapter, relates that
man’s supreme witnessing of Allâh is in the form
of the woman during the act of sexual union. He
writes, “The contemplation of Allâh in woman is
the highest form of contemplation possible: As
the Divine Reality is inaccessible in respect of
the Essence, and there is contemplation only in a
substance, the contemplation of God in women is
the most intense and the most perfect; and the
union which is the most intense (in the sensible
order, which serves as support for this
contemplation) is the conjugal act.” Allâh as the
Beloved in Sûfî literature, the ma‘shûq, is
always depicted with female iconography.

Read the entire article here:

And continue your exploration of the Divine Feminine via Galian's book...

http://www.quiddity-inc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

#1800 - Monday, May 17, 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.

ANNOUNCEMENT
For those who read German, the latest edition of Nicthduale Highlights, edited by Hans Schultz, is available: http://nonduality.com/hlg8.htm. It is published every few weeks. To join the list and receive each issue as an email (no discussion) please visit http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/Nichtduale_Highlights

R.K. Shankar
I Am
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iam

Translation of Verse 1 of Existence Forty by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi: Introducing Auspiciousness

 " 1  Apart from Existence, does the (Ever-)Present Awareness abide ?

    2  Because the (Ever-)Present Truth abides in the 'Heart' without
thinking,

    3  who is 'he', (the one, who is) thinking of the (Ever-)Present Truth,
called 'The Heart' ?

    4  Thinking (of the Truth) is only '(being) That (which is) abiding in
the Heart as (It) Exists' (thus) perceive (and)....

Yours in Sri Bhagawan
RK Shankar

from Inner Bliss: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InnerBliss

LALLESHWARI  and  KASHMIR  SHAIVISM


LALLESHWARI 

While expounding the relevance of Kashmir Shaivism our deepest gratitude goes to Lalleshwari, whose teachings give a unique opportunity to have insight into this mystic philosophy. She conveyed its essence in a simple way for benefit of the humanity.

 

Emanating from the basic Creed of Kashmir Shaivism she stresses positive acceptance of the material world rather than the philosophy of escapism. We can rather say that God has made man in His own image. It is His Own Maya Shakti which makes man to see differently. Therefore, real joy can be gained as we live in this world and go about our work. Avoiding suppression and denial like great puritans, we should exercise moderation in living and turning away from the ambition of wealth, power and pleasures of senses. This will prepare us for the inward journey to realize God.

 

We can, indeed, get the spiritual thrill by reproducing a few mystical outpourings of her heart :-

 

GRACE OF GOD IS INDEPENDENT OF HUMAN EFFORT.

Some Thou pushed towards Bliss Thyself !
Some struggled very hard !
Some got drunk and obsessed :
Some one's Sadhna ended in Vain !

 

TO REALISE HIM OVERCOME THE BARRIERS

Shiva abides in all that exists anywhere ;
Do not discriminate between a Hindu and a Musalman ;
If you are wise, recognize your true Self ;
That is the true awareness of God.

 

DO NOT ESCAPE THE WORLD

Some renounced their homes, some the hermitages ;
stay as you are and be firm in your mind.
Thereby you will get established in the Self ;
What is the good of smearing ashes.

 

MODERATION IN LIVING

Overeating will not permit you reach the goal ;
Willful abstention from food makes you conceited.
Eat moderately to be a normal person ;
Moderate eating would surely lead to unbolting of the
Gates !

 

LOOK FOR GOD WITHIN

Looking for the mystic Moon within me ;
It was--like searching for the like.
I found Narayana (Shiva) permeating everywhere/
everything ;
Why this sport of diversity, Oh Lord !

 

ON KUNDALINI

Crossing the Six Forests, came the SHESHIKALA
oozing,
The Prakrti was sacrificed (burnt out) with the air
(Prana).
With the fire of love, I roasted my heart,
Thus SHIVA was realized by me.

 

BLISS

I, Lalla, entered through the garden - gate of my soul ;
There, O Joy ! I found SHIVA united with SHAKTI.
Overwhelmed, I got immersed in Lake of Nector.
Even though alive or dead, what can existence do unto me !

 

CONCLUSION

Let us work for upliftment as our goal. With our own self - effort we should change and strive for enlightenment. Let this change permeate from man to family, to state and nation as a whole. Leading to universal good this will usher in peaceful and conflict free world.