Skip to search.

Breaking News Visit Yahoo! News for the latest.

×Close this window

NDhighlights · Nonduality Highlights
  • Members Only
  • Files
  • Photos
  • Calendar

The Yahoo! Groups Product Blog

Check it out!

Group Information

  • Members: 2285
  • Category: Other
  • Founded: Jun 3, 1999
  • Language: English
? Already a member? Sign in to Yahoo!

Yahoo! Groups Tips

Did you know...
Hear how Yahoo! Groups has changed the lives of others. Take me there.

Messages
Message #
Search:
Advanced
 Messages Help
Messages
Topics
Hot Topics
Messages 3878 - 3907 of 4930   Oldest  |  < Older  |  Newer >  |  Newest
Messages: Show Message Summaries Sort by Date ^  
#3878 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Sun May 2, 2010 4:33 am
Subject: #3878 - Friday, April 21, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3878, Friday, April 21, 2010




To be sure, we all have a great deal to learn from each other. However, the process of subtle arrogance and self deception in the spiritual arena is perhaps the most damaging of all illusions. I am a Buddhist, or a Yogi, or a Pagan, or a student of the Fourth Way or the Kaballah or some other mystical or ecclectic school, and I imagine that Christians are at least somewhat deluded. Or I am a Christian, perhaps a Catholic or an Evangelical, or a Course in Miracles student, or a Muslim, or a Jew, and maintain some pretense that my version of "God" or "Love" is somehow more accurate than "theirs." But in fact, when we think "Jesus said so-and-so," or "The Buddha taught thus-and-such," we might ask ourselves, "How would I know, and why am I repeating this?" If we face it sincerely, it is hard to avoid the discovery that all we are doing is trying to justify our own opinions and their connected feelings, perhaps seeking to be tied in with some powerful authority figure(s) which is fortified by our own conditioning. So we each have our private and group stories about things, and continue to surreptitiously elevate ourselves and put each other down.

But in fact, there is no private liberation or salvation. (Where is the "one separate" from the rest, to be saved, except in some mental fiction?) Of utmost importance, finally, is putting an end to this devious and hurtful process of "spiritual ego," of imagining there's some kind of competition, and that there's someone who has to defend his or her particular spiritual turf against others. If you stop using your transient body or your thoughts or feelings as points of reference, it will be obvious that there is no "someone" and there are no "others." That whole thing is a paranoid fantasy, a pathological delusion, in this case in the name of whatever religion to which we happen to subscribe. So let's call a spade a spade: God, the Absolute, does not belong to anyone, nor to any particular group. (So why pay homage to a limited god?)

Furthermore, Enlightenment, Self Realization, does not belong to anyone either. (In fact, everything belongs to Enlightenment. So why pay homage to a limited enlightenment?) Although it may occur in virtually any context - Buddhist, Christian, Yogic, Sufi, Hindu, Fourth Way, Muslim, Taoist, Jewish, Wiccan, 12-Step work, shamanistic, agnostic, scientific and so on, Spiritual Awakening, the Realization of Emptiness, the Tao, cannot be owned. How could That which is infinite be possessed by any religion, tradition, path, lineage, teacher, or hierarchy, all of which are limited? Is God a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim? Is Enlightenment controlled by Buddhists or Yogis or Hindus? How could That which is formless be made to conform to any set of assumptions about liberation, past or future? (If you still find yourself resisting that possibility, you might ask yourself how you would know, one way or the other, and what motives are tied up in thinking about it in any specified way, for or against. Why maintain beliefs or disbeliefs at all?) Is truth a really a matter of subjective opinion? Is not truth, if that word means anything at all, an ongoing process of careful observation and uncompromised, undefended honesty?

It's time we stop pretending, subtly or overtly, that our particular group is superior in some way. That's a hidden way of saying, "I'm superior," (and therefore not inferior). Let's bring our woundedness, our childhood fears and hurts of inferiority, covered over by the pretense of individual or collective superiority, to a total and absolute halt. Completely. Now. If we need to weep, then let's weep together. And let those tears of shame be tears of relief, tears of joy, in finally putting down this burden of trying to defend and justify what we have imagined ourselves to be. What doesn't exist doesn't need to be defended. It never did.

Particularly in recent years, many of us have had very powerful awakenings, but these experiences, in and of themselves, do not mean that much unless we allow ourselves to be transformed, completely, by what we have discovered. If we try to use them to validate our religious and peer identities and opinions, with our various secret and subtle motives and perceptions so shaped, we corrupt our awakening, and are already entangled in delusion. (And when we make ourselves or our group or our path or the teacher we've identified ourselves with special, we make ourselves separate.) The most any spiritual institution can do is to support and celebrate what is already real and true without reservation.

Full awareness, peace, freedom, clarity and joy can, and do, only exist now. If any of us still find ourselves suffering from the symptoms of ignorance, divisiveness or competition, that is to say, fear, envy, anger, sorrow, frustration, disappointment, jealosy, self-loathing, guilt, depression, loneliness, despair, or confusion, it is because we are still negotiating with God, still negotiating with Truth, still negotiating with Love, still negotiating with Freedom, still negotiating with Serenity. The pain is none other than the agony of lying to ourselves about what we want more than anything else. It is like finally finding the lover we have always longed for, but holding back in terror of losing that love.

Why put this moment off? That which you seek is That which you already are, and always have been - you are not separate, you cannot be separate from the Absolute, from Infinite Consciousness Itself. If you dare to stop pretending that you and your life are based on some mental version of things that arises out of memory, you will find out beyond any doubt! This is not some kind of wishful thinking or grandiose mental trick. Rather, with total and unflinching sincerity, with no psychological defense or self deception whatsoever, search your heart and find out what you permanently are, what you've been all along. Find out if there has ever been a separate "Other." If you discover there never has been an other, is there one now? Could there ever be? Why pretend anymore?

If you dare to give your heart, your soul, your mind, your body, and your life, unconditionally, to what you discover to be true, you will know an infinitely deep and abiding peace that has never been even a breath away. This bliss, this tranquility depends on nothing, and It is not capable of ending. Furthermore, it doesn't make a bit of difference what you've ever done... or not done. You can put an end to the battle. Yes, that's correct, just walk right out of the war, right now. All you have to do is surrender, absolutely and completely, not to me, not to some authority figure, or some organization or institution, but surrender only to your own deepest Purity.

God and your own Unbounded Love are not different. If you truly give yourself up completely, it will shock your whole system. It will suddenly dawn on you,

"Oh my God, what a fool I've been! What was I thinking?"

Then the absolute insanity of giving yourself to anything else will become apparent. Why wait? Why put off your own complete and total liberation? In your innermost and outermost places, in every single moment, Love waits for you everywhere. Is there really something else you would rather do? Is it possible that the thing that you fear the most, the thing that you avoid the most, is what you truly desire the most? It cannot abandon you. Even if you choose to ignore It, betray It and walk away, It is always closer than your next breath. Suspend all opinion and debate, and find out for yourself.

- Scott Morrison, posted to NondualitySalon




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3879 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Sun May 2, 2010 5:47 am
Subject: #3879 - Saturday, May 1, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3879, Saturday, May 1, 2010




Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

- Rabindranath Tagore, posted to The_Now2



Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You're covered with thick clouds.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

~Rumi... who else?

"the speechless full moon.."

god, he's good.

- dg, with the help of Rumi, posted to DailyDharma



There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels



Children are living beings
- more living than grown-up people,
who have built shells of habit around themselves.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary
for their mental health and development
that they should not have
mere schools for their lessons,
but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love.

- Rabindranath Tagore, posted to The_Now2



A newborn baby is the purest form of a human being. This purity remains until the baby understands me/mine, you/yours.

- Baba Hari Dass, from Silence Speaks, posted to AlongTheWay



The ocean billowed, and lo!
Eternal Wisdom appeared
And cast forth its voice and cried out . . .
That was how it was and became.
The ocean was all filled with foam
and every fleck of this foam
Produced a figure like this,
and was a body like that,
and every body-shaped fleck
that heard a sign from that sea,
It melted and then returned
into the ocean of souls . . .

- Rumi, translation by Annemarie Schimmel, from I Am Wind, You are Fire, posted to Sunlight




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3880 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Mon May 3, 2010 6:55 am
Subject: #3880 - Sunday, May 2, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3880, Sunday, May 2, 2010




Friend, whatever you are, you must not stand still:
One must from one light into the other spill

- Angelus Silesius (1624 - 1677), English version by Gabriel Rosenstock, posted to SufiMystic



I wish I could tell
which were my darkest hours
and how even then through the broken glass
were shining rays of light

"Those were happy times," you might sigh
and wanting to remember
the colorful feathers
when the burden seem as un-lift-able as broken wings

Hold close to the center, my dear
folding around the edges
like tender meat leaning into the knife
and disappear

I wish I could let you know
that you are never lost
and when you stumble,
you simply fall, fall into God

There is no other ground

- Annette Knopp



A short fairy tale about Being:

 Once upon no time, there was an infinite and eternal Being. Needless to say this was one big Being. Being infinite and eternal meant that no matter where or when it went, there it was. And of course, anything that big was made of empty space, as space is the only thing big enough to be that infinite.

While space is a wonderfully low maintenance thing to be, since it can't be harmed, this Being still had a problem: There was no one else. Since it was already every-where and every-when, there was no place or time for anyone else. It was not a horrible problem, but still there was no one else to talk to, dance with, or play with.

What's an infinite Being to do? It can't really just create lesser beings inside of itself as that would not be very interesting to an infinite Being. For a truly infinite and eternal being to create little lesser beings to play with would be like you or me making dolls to play with as an adult. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's not very interesting after a while.

Then it had a great idea! Being infinite meant it also had infinite potential, so rather than create lesser beings, it decided to create more infinite beings. At first this would seem impossible since there is the question of where would you put another infinite Being? There already is no space left over once you have one infinite Being. But the great thing about space is that it is completely empty as long as it is pure space or pure potential, so two spaces can actually occupy the same space!

That was the solution! So, Being created an infinite number of infinite space Beings just like itself. In a sense, Being cloned itself. Now rather than having just a wind-up doll version of a Being to relate to, it had real, fully amazing infinite Beings like itself to relate to.

Even better, it quickly discovered that as long as one of the infinite space Beings stayed "home" as infinite space to hold the endless universes in place, then all of the rest were free to contract into all kinds of shapes and sizes. In fact, all a Being of infinite potential has to do to contract into a different shape or size is think about it, and voila it happens! That is the power of infinite potential!

Now not only could all of these infinite Beings hang out as one very big space (which of course really meant hanging out as one Being, since two spaces in the same space are really still just one space), they could also play at contracting into all kinds of lesser expressions of their infinite potential.

Now why would they want to do that? Why would something infinite want to experience being less than its infinite self? Well remember these Beings are not only infinite but also eternal, and eternity is a very long time! That means they all had a lot of time to kill. What does it matter if you spend a little time experiencing yourself as less than your complete potential, especially if you can do an entire eon standing on your head and still have all the time in the world?

And so Being, as many Beings, was now free to talk, dance, create, and play in all kinds of crazy wonderful ways because now there was someone "else" to talk, dance, create, and play with. Party time!!!

Ever since, it has been discovering all of the different things it can identify with and thereby temporarily become, and all of the truly strange and amazing things it can do once it has become less than itself. Infinite space can't really play soccer or be a super nova or fall in love or have its heart broken or create a new universe or fly a kite when it is expanded into its original nature as infinite space, but if it contracts into a form or expression of itself, then it can do all of that and more!

So that is what it has been up to ever since, and it is really just getting started since it still has so much time on its hands; the rest of eternity is still a very long time. That is also why it is so amazing to relate to others: because it is never some lesser incomplete being across the table from you. It is always an infinite Being with infinite potential that you are talking to or playing with. No wonder they are so convincing in their role as an apparent separate individual. It is really God playing that role. There are only Gods upon Gods upon Gods being everybody and everything and doing everything that is done! That is what we all are.

Pretty clever solution if you want to have some fun, don't you think?

- Nirmala



Life is a direct and immediate experience
of the Infinite
manifesting through the finite
in the present moment.

We simply do not recognize it as such
because of our narrow focus
on the finite.

Relax into your own immediate experience
of Perceiving - of Clear Seeing -
here and now, in this moment.

Shift your attention
to the infinitely vast and
edgeless nature of the present moment,
and suddenly -
you will immediately recognize,
and directly experience,
Reality dynamically emerging as This,
here and now.

There is nothing more or other.

- Metta Zetty



When you recognize
that every experience
is contained within
the innate Completeness
of Reality...

...and that this Wholeness
extends far beyond
the particulars
of any individual experience...

...then you can savour
this Completeness
within each and
every experience.

- Metta Zetty




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3881 From: "Gloria Lee" <editglo@...>
Date: Tue May 4, 2010 12:41 pm
Subject: #3881 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 

#3881 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
"Light will someday split you open, even if your life is now a cage...
Love will surely burst you wide open into an unfettered, blooming new galaxy."
- Hafiz
 
Hillary Brenner on Facebook
 
 

Even the sense of "I am" is composed of the pure light and the sense of being.
The "I" is there even without the "am". So is the pure light there, whether you
say "I" or not. Become aware of the pure light and you will never lose it.
The beingness in being, the awareness in consciousness, the interest in every
experience - that is not describable, yet perfectly accessible, for there is nothing else.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
 
Kenneth Larsen on Facebook
 
Only the dead can die, not the living. That which is alive in you is immortal.
In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making everything shine.
Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling.
Unthinkable, it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being.
It is the immovable background ...of motion.
Once you are there, you are at home everywhere. 
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
 
Kia Pierce on Facebook
 
 
The most sublime truth of all
has never been stated or written or sung.
Not because it is far away and can not be reached,
but because it is so intimately close,
closer than anything that can be spoken.
It is alive as the stillness in the core of your being
too close to be described, too close to be objectified,
too close to be known in the usual way of knowledge.
The truth of who you are is yours already.
It is already present...
- GangaJi
 
Cullen Anderson on Facebook
 
 
The enlightenment I speak of is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery of one’s true nature. This discovery is just the beginning—the point of entry into an inner revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution; it simply makes it possible. If one cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness, then one is still in a prison.
- Adyashanti
 
Beatrize Danzler on Facebook
 
 
"Light will someday split you open, even if your life is now a cage...
Love will surely burst you wide open into an unfettered, blooming new galaxy."
- Hafiz
 
 
 
No simple riddle,
no magic fiddle.
One or two or all together
looking for the single feather.
When we ask
who gets the task?
Begin to think
here is the link:
I and that out of the hat
Remember when,
first count to ten.
One white swan
on the lake at dawn.
No to and fro
just letting go.
No thing is staying off or on.
Not even zero, nothing, none.
 

by Alan Larus

 

http://www.ferryfee.com/Bluesky/Ten.html 

 

Flower, dew, and spider's web

photo by Alan Larus


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3882 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Tue May 4, 2010 3:18 pm
Subject: #3882 - Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3882 - Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
The Mental Pause

I am going through the Mental Pause. Not the menopause. This comes about
the same time, though.  Some advaitists teach this as an actual
principle, can you imagine? They would have us do this on purpose! They
advocate being in a room and staying with the emptiness. Not wondering
why you came into the room in the first place. Was it to get some peanut
butter or to defrost the refrigerator. Do Zen masters have this problem.
Do they just sit and forget stuff, like milk and bread on the way home
from the zendo. Are there patriarchs of peanut butter?

The old master sat with
his tongue stuck to the roof
of his mind.
Yum.

I am an advocate of all things tasty, fresh and good for you. I just
can’t always remember it. So I end up eating Fritos and Cheetos and
Cheeze Whiz and Cocoa Puffs with whole milk instead of soy or almond
milk. I am like that in my impermanency. My thoughts are definitely
impermanent. That is perhaps why I cannot finish what I start. War and
Peace, to me, might include installments of Tvgasm.com and Facebook
pages of my nearest and dearest jillion friends. I don’t Twitter because
I don’t have time for the inanity. Stop the inanity. Now there’s a good
Tweet.

The new master sat
with his iPad
watching the old frog
plop into the virtual pond.
Blog. Tweet.

As I travel through the badlands of this essay on the old gray mare of
my mind, I suddenly decide to alight and encamp among the blog rushes
growing wild around the virtual pond. Soon I am lost in thoughts of
assorted and sundry enlightened ones blogging about their spiritual
virtuosity. The reeds and clarinets of awakened egos are suddenly giving
me a headache of monstrous proportions. Before I know it, I will be just
another nondual celeb faking it until I am making it.  So onto the final
haiku:

I dismantled my walking stick today
and sat down on the ground of my being.
Ouch.

Vicki Woodyard
http://www.bobwoodyard.com

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3883 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Thu May 6, 2010 1:15 am
Subject: #3883 - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3883 - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Lost Satsang - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
 
Watch the Trailer
 
 
Excerpts from Nisargadatta's Lost Satsang:
 
The whole manifestation of this world is an expression of the same Consciousness that you are.
 
You should not love anything other than your true nature, Consciousness. Deep desires, deep expectations: How can that be love?
 
Your body identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding yourself should be your only priority.
 
Your body desires will lead you nowhere.
 
~ ~ ~
 
If you don't understand the "I Am" how can you understand the rest?
 
~ ~ ~
 
To abide in consciousness is the true religion. The human brain creates religions.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Consciousness has to appear in this form, so this form can recognize Consciousness.
 
~ ~ ~
 
How can words explain that from which words originate?
 
~ ~ ~
 
Everything depends upon your form, but you are formless.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Don't ask me practical questions. I cannot relate to them. I never talk to the body identity level. Stay in the "I am". That's all there is to do.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Without food there is death and the idea "I am" vanishes. Consciousness is beyond any idea.
 
You can only watch events happen. You can't use Consciousness to do or undo anything.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Your body identity is like a very tight screw. Your idea of being an individual, is a screw. You must loosen it up. Let go of your personal identity and the screw will open as much as needed.
 
You are full of concepts. Just do as I say.
 
~ ~ ~
 
If you wish to use your intellect dwell on your nine months in the womb. What is in the womb is not different from what is happening now.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Anything that can show you what you are is actually pointing out what you are not.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Questions only exist as long as you think you are the body and the individual.
 
~ ~ ~
 
What I am saying is very simple.
 
You listen to me or you can go.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Grasp the knowingness principle and move ahead in life. Like a swimmer caught in a vortex has to dive to the bottom of the river, then has to swim to the surface, outside of the vortex, and only then he is free.
 
~ ~ ~
 
We live like worms in hot sand, always needing help, but I am not a worm. I am the manifested and the unmanifested.
 
~ ~ ~
 
Before death comes it is necessary to follow a Sage or a Guru.
 
~ ~ ~
 
My Guru's Guru clapped while his vital breath was leaving his body. Will you?
 
 
The Lost Satsang - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
 
Watch the trailer:
 

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3884 From: "Gloria Lee" <editglo@...>
Date: Thu May 6, 2010 8:17 pm
Subject: #3884 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 
 

#3884 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
Yes, this issue has a lot. A book review, CD music links, even a book excerpt.
Greg and Alice will richly repay your time spent. Best to go listen to his songs,
words cannot do them justice. -Gloria
 

The Now Exspirientuality - The Way of Unity: Conversations with Dog - Book 1 
 
by Greg Allen Morgoglione
 
 
 
What happens when a singer, songwriter, musician really and truly "gets" what life is all about? To begin with, it puts him on a somewhat different career path than the road to seeking stardom. He starts playing his guitar for the old and sick in nursing homes, and then singing to the young children who are going for treatment of severe afflictions. And then, perhaps surprisingly, Greg writes lyrically of how they are "the band of angels comin' for to carry me home" while giving much of the credit for his insights to his dog. And he's not kidding! OK, there is a playful sense of humor at work in Conversations with Dog, but essentially the Canine Messiah's wisdom is not some clever joke. Alice can smell phony a mile off and will have none of it.
 
 
The songs came before the book, and introduced Alice, the Canine Messiah, and her wisdom to the world. Alice believes "you can teach humans new tricks". She says, "It's as though you'd been asked how things might go in Your Vision of Heaven...Show Me, you know. And Now, Gregory, you find yourself Here, waking up with your Fellow Beings, waking up with me." The lyrics are a distilled essence of Alice's vision, and the music itself is folk-rockish. People who heard "It's Time That Time Was Overthrown"  wanted to hear more from and about Alice, which prompted writing the book. I want to mention here that you can listen and catch the flavor for yourself at the music link. These profound and inspiring tunes are a good way to take Alice on the road with you. Did I mention Greg rides motorcycles?
 
Now, this book is way, way more than another journey to some future enlightenment. That whole trip is dismissed in the Preface. "Sometimes it seems as though This Here Now is a problem for Utopia-talking spiritual seekers. [...] Let me find another book that laments This Here Now, and yet another with steps to a Dream of That There Then, where no one has to Be Like Them." No, all that talk is just more fuel for getting through the illusion of Time. "Time will not get you to where you have long dreamed of Being. Time is where you have long dreamed of Being." If the real story begins with Unity and ends in Unity, then hey, what else can this seemingly in-between time be but Unity? "Our stories have convinced many of us that This Here Now is an exception to Unity." When really, it is like this, "The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the Earth, but men do not see it," as Jesus put it.
 
 
If we convince ourselves that we don't see Unity, then we aren't likely to express Unity, nor likely to act as if we see it. Alice simply says, "Look Again."  Because quite simply it all begins with seeing Unity, not thinking about it or trying to believe in it. It's not that complicated, because what you see is what you get to experience. If this book were a movie, right here is where the spoiler alert would need to appear. "It reveals The One Exercise-an immediately accessible real-time meditation to practice on the streets of your life as a way to enlightenment-Now!" Can the Canine Messiah show you how to see Unity? I believe so, I truly do.
The world is all a stage, and thus each of us is a showman, staging the show
of our LifeTime, our show of how it might go. And a showman, as Alice
points out, is a shaman, a dreamer of healing dreams, one who sees beyond
and brings healing visions back to share, to act out with healing intent. 
 

Music website: www.gregallenmusic.net 

[use the Catalogue link for Time O.T. CD, mp3 only $5.]

Greg Allen Songs  previous albums
 
 
Book Excerpt:
 
The Now Exspirientuality and
Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center
 
On the fourth Friday in September 2007, I ran face-first into the overwhelmingly enlightening realization of The Now Exspirientuality. It had been four weeks to the day since I had been introduced to The One Exercise and chosen to engage it. Kluge Children’s Rehabilitation Center had been instrumental on both Fridays.
 
Community Venue shows, in my mind, are performances. I have the sense that most “real” musicians, and most folks in fact, categorize them otherwise, but I do not. I have never been comfortable with the idea that I am somehow special because I “play for Them.” Feeling sorry for Them is not why I started playing at a nursing home in 1995. I started playing there because I am a musician and I was asked to begin playing there. It’s an audience thing…
 
So I’ve always rejected the “special me” idea. Most certainly I am participating in something special, but I have never felt like I was the special thing in the mix. It has always seemed a naïve idea to me. And yet, there was this recurring thing…
 
 
On the fourth Friday in August 2007, I’d had an “emotional” moment when some parents wheeled their child over to enjoy the music. It was clear that he was enjoying the music, and there I was, unable to continue singing. The thought ran through my head that “these are the moments that I do SongSharing for, and here I cannot handle it. How lame.”
 
“Gosh, Alice,” I had said when I got back to the van. She waits outside KCRC, van parked in the cool morning shade. “It happened again – the emotional thing. What is that?” I explained what had transpired.
 
     This is the result of a basic idea that you have, Gregory – the idea that Others should not have to Be as you think this young man is Being. You continue to hold on to the noble but misguided idea that in a perfect world no Others will have to Be like This.
 
     This idea of Poor Others is born of your choice to See the World Divided, to adopt Divisive Vision that sees Self and Other, Duality, Multiplicity. However, as we have lately been discussing, most all of your cultural stories begin with Unity and claim to be headed back to Unity. This begs the question…
 
“What could This Here Now possibly be, besides Unity?”
 
 
Playing at the game of Duality, the game of Multiplicity. The ten thousand things.
 
     The useful point for you is that the emotion you are experiencing and unable to channel into the performance is emotion you do not understand, that’s all. This is safe to say, yes?
 
“Yes. Most definitely. That’s a good way to say it, that I want to be able to channel this energy into the moment, not have it detract from it. And I definitely don’t understand it.”
 
     You simply need to Look Again, Gregory, through the lens of Unifying Vision.
 

She went on to explain The One Exercise and I went on to engage it. It was an interesting four weeks, and the fresh Now perspective of The One Exercise grew quickly on me. On the fourth Friday in September, again at KCRC, a similar scenario began to unfold when some parents entered the lobby and heard music. They turned their son’s wheelchair and he lit up, and they headed my way. I relaxed further into Unifying Vision and the song I was playing. I allowed my eyesight to blur into the middle distance beyond the young man, allowing him into the soft, open musical space, allowing the aspects of Unified Experience to be as they be, and in a moment our eyes came together and…
 
 
In a flash I was beside myself, outside of myself, outside of my presence, something… I was still very much Here, playing my guitar and singing, and quite comfortable in that aspect; and I was simultaneously Here, observing, watching the KCRC scene unfold as though I was watching a play from a box seat above the stage. My cosmic partner and host was a profound presence of which I was highly aware, but not in any formal sense, and I know for certain that it was the young man from the wheelchair. There were Fellow Beings observing with us as well, but I do not know who. I know it was comfortable. I know it was all good.
 
We watched the musical moment unfolding in a sort of crystal orb, like a fragile, oblong, hollow glass ornament. At one point I had the image of those early glass orb ideas of the Universe. The space all around was filled with countless crystal orbs, each a scene; a sparkling crystal Universe dancing with ItSelf like the snow in a well-shaken globe…
 
And it became very clear to me that there is nothing wrong with this young man, nothing at all. It became very clear that there is nothing wrong with anyone in a Community Venue audience. I’d known it all along, but never like This. The overwhelming inescapability of pure equality was humbling.
 
As I eased back into a more familiar association with my physical form I felt electrified, and I’m certain I hovered above the seat of my chair on some sort of force field for the remainder of the performance. I wasn’t certain what had just happened, and I looked at the young man in his wheelchair. He wasn’t letting on anything, but he was digging the music.  His whole body was smiling.
 

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3885 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Fri May 7, 2010 12:50 pm
Subject: #3885 - Friday, May 7, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
 
#3885 - Friday, May 7, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
News of people, plans, and programs.
 
 
 
 
 
Vedanta – The Vision of Non-Duality

Five Day Campout in the Portland Area

9th – 13th July 2010
 

James Swartz aka Ram will give a laid back five day retreat in the Portland area. He will unfold the classic Vedanta text Atma Bodh (Self Knowledge). This informal retreat will involve two daily talks and satsang on demand. Attendees are responsible for their own sleeping arrangements, cooking and campsite fees. There will be no charge for the teaching, but donations will not be refused. The venue will be close enough to Portland to allow those who are not comfortable tent camping to stay in nearby motels. The morning talk will start at 10:00 am which will allow those staying outside to comfortably have breakfast and get to the campsite in time. The evening talk will end early enough to permit those staying outside to return to their motels at a reasonable hour. It is important that you express interest as soon as possible so we will know how many campsites to reserve. For more information contact Lida at lidavangeest@...
 
 
 
 
This is a very nicely designed website by Jason Sawicki, from whom I'm sure we'll be hearing more:

The Institute of Spiritual Awakening
 
 
In brief, the Institute was formed out of an overwhelming passion to serve all of humanity in the realization of the true Self. Unlike traditional Institutes, the ISA is not one of learning, but of deconstructing ... of unbecoming. Spiritual seekers are presented with teachings from both classical and contemporary non dual teachers, along with the exploration of leading science in physics and cosmology, in a one to one or group satsang format. There is no price for any of the teachings, in line with the purpose of reaching as many people in the world as possible. The Institute will be continually looking for those whose realization leads them toward teaching, enabling the Institute to naturally branch out. In the future, the ISA will also be looking to sponsor many leading conferences and leveraging the power of the media in film to nurture the growing awakening that is unfolding.
 
 
 
Robert Wolfe is interviewed on his website
 
 
During Robert's travels he has labored as an auto assembly line worker in Detroit, as a carnival worker, a journalist in New York City, on a farm of a Zen community in California, as a landscaper, a financial consultant, a janitor. After living in the Mendocino area for about twenty years he bought a camper van and moved onto a property in a redwoods forest where he studied the inner life intensely. Something fell into place there after a number of years, and out of that period of solitude, Robert began writing and sharing his observations on the reality that surrounds and includes us. Shortly thereafter, Robert moved to Ojai, California where he continues to live and write.

A magazine interview from 2004 is extracted below. The monograph 'The Absolute Enigma' from Living Nonduality also contains biographical details.
 
 
New Spirit: You've been running a classified listing, under Classes, that is brief and somewhat unusual: "One-on-one discussion... non-duality explored". What can you tell me?

RW: I was baptized at 13, and an atheist by age 20 - due to the hypocrisy I saw in religion. But by age 30, I became interested in Zen, to discover spiritual truth directly. But I then put all that aside, to focus on my marriage and career - both of which ended in dissatisfaction. So, I returned to my earlier questions with a resolve to answer them fully. This took three years, and much solitude and contemplation. But, about 15 years ago, a sudden and thorough transformative awakening occurred. Since then, my only real interest has been to assist others to discover for themselves their true essence.

NS: From the standpoint of Zen?

RW: From the standpoint of any and all direct spiritual traditions. I've had enough time to become conversant with what is effective among the teachings, both historic and contemporary; particularly the message of advaita, which means "not two". Nonduality is at the root of Hindu, Buddhist, Tao, even Christian spirituality. All point the seeker to ultimate truth, once one has unraveled the mystery in what is being said.

NS: What part do you play?

RW: Minimal. I had no teacher, so I can attest that one is not necessary. What one has to confront is the divisive, dualistic nature of our very thought process. All that a teacher can do is challenge your false perceptions until you recognize for yourself their deceptiveness. That profound "Aha!" can arrive in as little as a half hour, for a person with an open mind.

NS: You discuss these matters on an individual basis?

RW: Over the years, I've experimented with various approaches. I've found the most fruitful to be a direct dialogue; sometimes this is done by phone, or even by correspondence, such as with a prison inmate.

NS: And fruitfully?

RW: A trail marker can only point the way; not everyone is interested in departing the highway. To awaken to your true essence is likely to fundamentally change your life. Even the prospect of this evokes paralysis in many people. But, thanks to New Spirit, I've been able to be of assistance to men and women from Goleta to Santa Ana.

NS: According to your listing, at "no cost".

RW: I'm retired. My only interest is in sharing the wonder of the discovery that it has been my fortune to partake of.

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3886 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Sun May 9, 2010 4:50 pm
Subject: #3886 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3886, Saturday, May 8, 2010




There is A madman inside of you
Who is always running for office.

Why vote him in,
For he never keeps the accounts straight.

He gets all kinds of crooked deals
Happening all over town
That will just give you a big headache
And glue to your kisser
A gigantic
Confused Frown.

- Hafiz, posted to AlongTheWay



There are two kinds of seekers: Those who seek happiness by changing outer circumstances, and those who seek happiness by trying to change themselves. Neither way works.

- Adyashanti, posted to The_Now2



A great insight is only as good as the surrender it engenders.

- Adyashanti, posted to The_Now2



Just as a speck in the eye, by causing inflammation, may wipe out the world, so the mistaken idea: "I am the body-mind" causes the self-concern, which obscures the universe. It is useless to fight the sense of being a limited and separate person unless the roots of it are laid bare. Selfishness is rooted in the mistaken ideas of oneself. Clarification of the mind is yoga.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels



Let go of body and mind, until you reach a state of great rest, like letting go over a cliff ten miles high, being like open space. And don't produce representations of discriminations of random thoughts arising and passing away; the moment a view sticks in your mind, use the sword of wisdom to cut it right off, not letting it continue.

Huai-t'ang, posted to Distillation



Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the Divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable. It is true.

Thomas Merton, posted to Distillation




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3887 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Mon May 10, 2010 4:50 am
Subject: #3880, - Sunday, May 2, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3880, Sunday, May 2, 2010




Awakening: The Modern Heresy

There are many factors contributing to our inability to recognize our Original Nature and our own inherent state of Natural Awareness. Perhaps the greatest of these is our addiction to the process of searching for meaning and truth. In our modern Western culture, we have often cleverly cloaked and disguised this addiction with a rationalization that it is the journey, not the destination, that is important.

While it is vitally important to recognize that:
Reality is continuously manifesting through a dynamic
and on-going process of unfolding, and
in an Infinite universe, we may never actually
arrive at a final destination or end point,
...we often lose sight of the inherent completeness and
perfection of Reality, as it is, within the present moment,
and we use the popular metaphor of a spiritual journey as
a way of justifying our restless wandering and searching
for an elusive and mysterious Essence that seems to be
missing from our lives.

By convincing ourselves that there is something noble and humble in never arriving at our spiritual destination, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to recognize our own essential and fundamental nature, and doom ourselves to living within a perpetual state of psychological and spiritual homelessness.

In fact, I believe an assertion that one has experienced an Awakening or Realization has become the ultimate modern heresy, for this declaration challenges and sabotages the accepted, intellectual assumption that we must be forever journeying toward a distant and unreachable destination.

In many Eastern religious traditions, however, there is a much greater willingness to accept the possibility that experiences of Awakening may actually be a legitimate insight into, or recognition of, the fundamental and essential nature of Reality. I have begun to suspect that, in most cases, this openness and willingness -- at least to consider the radical possibility we might one day awaken into a liberating recognition of our innate and Original Nature -- may be an essential precursor to the actual experience of Realization, itself.

Without this willingness to accept the possibility that we might one day actually experience a stunning Realization of who and what we really are, we will be forever destined to wander in search of a Reality that, ironically, is inherent within the immediacy of the present moment.

- Metta Zetty



Part 3 of a 5-part poem called "drops of rain"...

It was the buoyancy of Water
that finally
broke
my heart;
how
it held me
when
I let go,
unafraid.

- Anna Ruiz, posted to NondualitySalon



Words of wisdom
Spoken at the right time
In the right company
Are chipping off
Petrified concepts and ideas
Breaking off
Fossilized thoughts and beliefs
Revealing
The underlying ever-present
Boundless
Everlasting life,
Just
As it always
Is.

- Yosy Flug, posted to allspirit



Listen for the stream
that tells you one thing.

Die on this bank. Begin in me;
the way of rivers with the sea.

- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, posted to AlongTheWay



One night I asked Love: "Tell me truly, who are you?"
It said: "I am life eternal, I multiply the lovely life."
I said: "O you who are beyond each place, where is
your home?"
It said: "I am together with the heart's fire and beside
the wet eye,
I am a dyer; due to me every cheek turns saffron-colored.
I am a swift-footed messenger, and the lover my lean
steed.
I am the crimson of the tulip, the merchandise's worth,
I am the sweetness of lament, the unveiler of all that is
veiled . . ."

- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 1402, translation by Annemarie Schimmel, posted to Sunlight




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3888 From: "Gloria Lee" <editglo@...>
Date: Tue May 11, 2010 2:44 am
Subject: #3888 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 

#3888 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
Whatever we need is what is given.
Whatever moment we are in is the moment we need.
- Adyashanti
 
 
Radical Emptiness

To the extent that the fire of truth wipes out all fixated points of view, it wipes out inner contradictions as well, and we begin to move in a whole different way. The Way is the flow that comes from a place of non-contradiction - not from good and bad. Much less damage tends to be done from that place. Once we have reached the phase where there is no fixed self-concept, we tend to lead a selfless life. The only way to be selfless is to be self less - without a self. No matter what it does, a self isn't going to be selfless. It can pretend. It can approximate selflessness, but a self is never going to be selfless because there is always an identified personal self at the root of it.

Being selfless isn't a good, holy, or noble activity. It's simply that when there is no self, selflessness happens. This selflessness is very different from having a moralistic standpoint. When action is selfless, it tends to do no harm. It tends to be the salvation, the secret alchemy that awakens and removes conflict. It's a byproduct of not having a self. It just so happens that reality is overflowing with goodness and love.

This is radical emptiness - where everything is arising spontaneously. There is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the right thing or the wrong thing to do. In ego-land it's helpful to have an ego that can discriminate between right and wrong, but at a certain point, that's not what you are operating by. You are operating by the flow of the Tao, which is a higher order of intelligence. You don't need to intellectually discriminate anymore because the Tao discriminates without discriminating; it knows without knowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unenlightened. Since there is no self, there is nothing to be enlightened or unenlightened.

We can talk about enlightened beings and non-enlightened beings, and conceptually that has a use. But when there is no self, when there is radical emptiness, the whole enlightenment thing is sort of irrelevant because reality has become conscious of itself, which is enlightenment. That's what is often missed. People believe that enlightenment is an improvement on reality, like becoming a super human being or God-knows-what. But enlightenment is when reality is awake to itself as itself within itself.

- Adyashanti
 
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
 
 
 
photo by Alan Larus
 
 
Some quotes below from Adyashanti collected from the Cafe Dharma website.


“Spirituality is not about coming up with the means to manage a situation.
It’s about relinquishing one’s attempt to control what’s happening.”

"The truth is you can’t try to let go. Trying is the opposite of letting go.
To let go is to relinquish trying. To let go is much more like to let be."

"All separation is literally imagination."

"Delusion hides itself in our most prized forms of conditioning --
spirituality and religion."

"A great insight is only as good as the surrender it engenders."


"We are but imperfect manifestations of an absolute perfection. In an
absolute sense, no manifestation can manifest the entirety of the
perfection. Yet each being has an infinite capacity to embody what they
realize in their humanity. If our awakening is genuine, we realize that what
we are is what everything is. It is whole and absolutely complete, and in
that sense, it is perfect. And that wholeness, that completion, that
perfection, has an infinite capacity to manifest itself more clearly and
more abundantly through our humanity. When the ultimate is realized in the
genuine spiritual awakening, that's the ultimate, that's the end point. But
your humanity has no spiritual finish line. It has an infinite capacity to
reflect absolute perfection. Always being, always becoming -- at the same
time with no contradiction."

 "To forgive, you have to join with the thing you're forgiving."

"The true silence isn't when your mind goes quiet, but it is that which is
still and silent even when the world isn't."

"Our bodies and psyches are designed to purge themselves of suffering."

"The desire to get rid of desires maintains the entire game. Your awakening
depends on seeing through it."


"There are different streams of infinity, of emptiness. If you become very
aware, you can feel the stream of emptiness that certain teachings embody."

"A mature healthy relationship with a spiritual teacher requires mutual
respect. The teacher needs to respect you as much as you respect them."

"What you run from owns you."

"The deeper a teaching is, the more you'll see in it, and there's no end to
that."


posted to TheNow_2 by Jani
 

 
photo by Alan Larus

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3889 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Tue May 11, 2010 10:23 pm
Subject: #3889 - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3889 - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
Allie Kane and Dr. Stewart Bitkoff are featured.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Allie Kane is a soulful poetic storyteller who loves to create images in the minds of her listeners. She has been playing around the Halifax North End open mic venues and house parties for the past four years waiting for moments of inspiration. “I love paying attention to timing in music, watching the crowd, using the silences and the pauses just the same as the sound and movement. It is all a part of the performance; the awkward moments, just the same as the moments where everything seems insinc…” (Allie, 2010)
 
Allie grew up in Ottawa with roots in Anitgonish and Halifax. She has found memories of her summer vacations out east, finally when she was 18 she moved to Halifax to explore the seashores. Now, living in Halifax for more than five years music is a big part of her life. Songwriting for Allie is a passion that helps to balance her life as a student, yoga teacher and lifeguard.
 
She is close to completing her BA at Saint Mary’s University, majoring in Religious Studies. Studying world religions has been an aid to inspire many of her songs. “I love to hear the teachings of the old religions, they show us our history. I especially draw ideas from the eastern religious concepts such as Buddhism and the way of the Tao. I find the lessons multi-dimensional and constantly re-surface in my path of self discovery.” (Allie, 2010)
 
The images of the “spiral of time” and “love’s circle” are often found in Allie’s poetry and music. Allie sings from her heart and from the depth of her soul. She likes to keep her music honest and simple.
 
Songwriting and singing for Allie is a constant exploration of humanity. She draws her music from personal experience and what is present in her day to day life. “Most of the time before I write a song, I get into a state of frustration or my mind dwells on a certain lesson or idea… The sensation has to burn enough in me that I have the ache to get rid it, then I remember I can write a about it!” (Allie, 2010)
 
The future directions for Ms. Kane are to continue on this “path of self discovery” through the practice of yoga and meditation, as well, continue teaching yoga to others. She sees herself making a living by teaching movement classes, singing, and working with children. “In all of the different efforts humans are taking to improve our world situation, I feel my path leads me back to my body and teaching others to feel their own bodies again. Learning one’s own mind is important, and the “mind” of our global world, of course, but being in balance with my body brings a certain joy. Children we learn this from.” (Allie, 2010) Come out and see Allie Kane’s next performance… the joy of being at home.
 
Listen to Allie Kane's songs on her MySpace. She's good!
 
 
 
 
 

Illumination

                              

    By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

 

Turtle and Grasshopper were seated outside Turtle’s burrow, watching dragon flies circle the lily pads.  Suddenly, a bull-frog jumped and snatched one of the flies right out of the air.  Sitting on a pad, the frog enjoyed a mid-afternoon snack.

            After a few moments of watching this, Grasshopper turned toward Turtle and questioned: “What happens when we die?  Why does one feed off another?  Why this endless struggle?”

            With a gentle voice, Turtle replied. “In the order of things, there is a balance.  All things are connected and joined.  Without the dragonfly, the frog could not live.  Without the frog, the balance of the Pond would be lost.  The frog helps keep the number of flies and other bugs in order.

            In this connection, there is energy and purpose: as the body of the fly joins into the frog, so, the energy of the fly lives on.  Also, the spark, which gave the fly life, at the moment of physical death, leaves the body and travels upward.  That is the part that lives forever.

            Remember, everything is joined.  Elements which are in the plants, trees and animals are also within us.  These are the elements which make up our body.  Yet, the other part, or spark of life, is of another dimension.  This is the spirit and is part of the spiritual realm.

            Many are the claims about the next world.  Each path has a vision of this.  While views differ, all are united in that there is life after Pond.  This is the distant world.

            Just as you and I must one day decay and our bodies become part of the earth and Pond, so another part lives on.  Joyfully we rejoin the Light.”

            Then Turtle stopped.

            As Grasshopper thought about what Turtle said, Grasshopper realized Turtle only answered the first part of the question.

            Why the struggle?  What really happens at the moment of death?

 

 

                                                The Lesson

 

            And as Grasshopper watched the frog leap for another dragonfly, Grasshopper realized something.

            This struggle exists so that it might be transcended.

            The leap of faith, or understanding, was possible only through intuitive or spiritual knowledge.

            The lasting answer was a spiritual one.  Words could not describe the transcendent nature of the soul and answer all the mind’s questions.

            Reason took you to the door; higher knowledge set you free.  It was a matter of knowing or spiritual experience.

            Then, Turtle looked at Grasshopper and realized Grasshopper had become illuminated.  He was beginning to learn.

                                                           

 A Dream

                                   By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

 

Estevez the water bug hadn’t been feeling well.  He had a headache for days and now his stomach was beginning to ache.  When he got like this, it was a sign that his body was shutting down: too much of everything; too many water micros to eat; too many trips to the far rocks to catch micros; and too many discussions with bug-lings about micro-harvesting and the Light of the universe.

At this point, all Estevez could feel was a throbbing in his bug head and a dull pain in his bowels.  It was time to sleep and rest and recover.  Affixing himself to the underside of a large rock, Estevez fell fast asleep.

As Estevez slept and his body mended, somehow, the world of Pond did just fine without him.  Water bugs continued to play and harvest micros.  Mothers instructed their bug-lings in the things they needed to know. Bugs, in search of micros, made trips to the distant rocks.

While Turtle and Grasshopper noted Estevez’ absence from their weekly discussion group, both thought Estevez must be doing something really important. They reasoned Estevez wouldn’t miss a discussion unless it was unavoidable. So Turtle or Grasshopper did not worry or check on their friend.

 

                                    The Lesson   

 

And as Estevez slept, he dreamt of a Pond which was full of Light: a Pond where bugs and creatures thought of others as frequently as themselves; a Pond where the sick and injured were treated with kindness and recognized for a heavier burden they carried; and this was a Pond where bug-lings laughed, and everyone shared the love they held in their heart for each other.

During his sleep, Estevez realized he was dreaming.  This was not a real place; this Pond existed in his mind.  Estevez was enjoying himself and did not want to wakeup.  It was more beautiful and joyful than anything he had ever experienced.

Then, Estevez heard a command.  Where it came from, he was unsure: ‘Awake!  Make this dream come true.’

When Estevez awoke, somehow, the pain in his stomach was gone and his head was clear.  He was filled with energy and purpose, and was determined to make his dream come true.  What had been taken from him for the last few days, now, was replaced with something finer.

Unfortunately, Estevez realized he did not know how to make this dream come true.  So, he decided to visit with Turtle and seek his guidance.

Turtle explained, ‘Sickness is the great teacher.  When we are ill, the physical world is taken.  When we lose our every day tasks and activities for a time, we question what is really important and lasting.

            Your dream was your answer.  Seek the Light in all things and you will be rewarded.  Follow the path we follow, and one day the Pond of your dreams will come true.  On another level, it is already real.  Remember, this dream is for everyone.’

                                                   *       *

 

__________________

 

Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide To Enlightenment (Llewellyn, 2008) and Journey of Light: Trilogy (Authorhouse, 2004); these books are available on Amazon.com or from publisher. To contact author go to www.stewartbitkoff.com.


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3890 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Thu May 13, 2010 1:11 am
Subject: #3890 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
 #3890 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 

How does a plant grow without an observer?

Q. If I left a plant in my backyard and there is no one to look at it for three weeks, then how we can explain one inch of growth in a three-week time lapse? My question is: If the idealism theory of advaita has some validity, then why after three weeks [with no sentient being perceiving it] does the plant grow one inch? How can we explain the change [its growth] in the time lapse when there was not an observer or perceiver present? If we follow the idealist notion that 'to exist is to be perceived', then how we can explain the one-inch grow?

A. This is one of those ‘confusion of levels’ problems. From the point of view of absolute reality, there is only brahman – no plant and no observer. At the level of empirical reality, there is a separate plant and a separate observer and they are born, grow and die quite independently (although if you leave it for three weeks without watering, you might just bear some moral responsibility for its death!).

Since there is only the non-dual brahman, even at the ‘empirical’ level’, it follows that all attempts to explain things must be wrong in the final analysis. Explanations are interim only, to provide some satisfaction for the inquisitive mind. The interim explanation that is usually employed by traditional advaita is that objects have an independent existence because they are created by Ishvara. So the plant continues to grow, even though there might not be any observers. There aren’t many plants that you can actually see growing anyway.

Another way of looking at it is that the plant and its soil substrate are simply name and form of brahman. Food from the soil brahman is simply moving into the plant brahman, which therefore grows. Just as water moves from ocean to wave as it crashes onto the shore.

-Dennis Waite

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/q_and_a/q_and_a48.htm#q272

 

 


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3891 From: "Gloria Lee" <editglo@...>
Date: Fri May 14, 2010 1:10 am
Subject: #3891 - Thursday, May 13, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 

#3891 - Thursday, May 13, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
The question is not
what you look at
but what you see.

 
- Henry David Thoreau
 
posted to Along The Way
 
 
Can't You See the Mighty Warrior?
 
How often you ask,
What is my path?
What is my cure?
He has made you a seeker of Unity,
isn't that enough?
 
All your sorrow exists for one reason -
that you may end sorrow forever.
The desire to know your own soul
will end all other desires.
 
The smell of bread has reached you -
if that aroma fills you with delight
what need is there for bread?
If you have fallen in love,
that love is proof enough;
If you have not fallen in love,
what good is all your proof?
 
Can't you see? -
If you are not the King
what meaning is there
in a kingly entourage?
If the beautiful one is not inside you
what is that light
hidden under your cloak?
 
From a distance you tremble with fear -
Can't you see the mighty warrior
standing ready in your heart?
 
The fire of his eyes
has burned away every veil,
So why do you remain behind the curtain,
scared of what you cannot see? -
Open your eyes! The Beloved
is staring you right in the face!
 
If a master has not placed
His light in your heart,
What joy can you find in this world? -
 
every flower is lifeless,
and sweet wine has no taste.
 
~ Rumi ~
 
(A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi,
versions by Jonathan Star)



 
 
 
When the Mind is Free of Grasping

The outer world in all its variety and our inner world of thoughts and emotions are not as they seem. All phenomena appear to exist objectively, but their true mode of existence is like a dream: apparent yet insubstantial. The experience of emptiness is not found outside of the world of ordinary appearance, as many people mistakenly assume. In truth, we experience emptiness when the mind is free of grasping at appearance.
- Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
 
 

Emptiness, then, is an adjectival quality of 'dharmas',
not a substance which composes them. It is neither a thing
nor is it nothingness; rather it refers to reality
as incapable of ultimately being pinned down
in concepts.  

- Nagarjuna  

posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle

Some poems and photos by Alan Larus
 
Here are three pages sort of belonging together.
The first one has a picture I like very much, I found it on the web.
It has the slide trombones : )

http://www.ferryfee.com/Bluesky/Spring_cleaning.html
 

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3892 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat May 15, 2010 6:08 pm
Subject: #3892 - Friday, May 14, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 

#3892 - Friday, May 14, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz  

The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights 

 

 

The Fundamental Secret

 

by Colin Drake

 

The movie ‘The Secret’ proposes that one can get one wants by applying ‘the law of attraction’.  ‘Ask, believe and receive’ is the motto of those that wish to create abundance by applying the power of their mind and positive thinking. However there is a much more fundamental secret by which one can realize that one is, at the deepest level, totally abundant and lacking nothing … even if it appears this is not the case at the surface level of body/mind. When this realization kicks in one finds that ‘each moment is enough, or perfect, in itself’ and this leaves one truly ‘wanting nothing’, in both senses of the phrase! Then ‘asking, believing and receiving’ is truly too much effort, and even the thought of ‘positive thinking’ seems positively exhausting!

 

This ‘deeper level’ is always present, for it is within this that the body/mind appear, and can be readily discovered by direct investigation into one’s moment to moment experience:

 

 1. Consider the following statement: ‘Life, for each of us, is just a series of moment-to-moment experiences’. These experiences start when we are born and continue until we die, rushing headlong after each other, so that they seem to merge into a whole that we call ‘my life’. However, if we stop to look we can readily see that, for each of us, every moment is just an experience.

 

2. Any moment of experience has only three elements: thoughts (including all mental images), sensations (everything sensed by the body and its sense organs) and awareness of these thoughts and sensations. Emotions and feelings are a combination of thought and sensation.

 

3. Thoughts and sensations are ephemeral, that is they come and go, and are objects, i.e. ‘things’ that are perceived.

 

4. Awareness is the constant subject, the ‘perceiver’ of thoughts and sensations and that which is always present. Even during sleep there is awareness of dreams and of the quality of that sleep; and there is also awareness of sensations; if a sensation becomes strong enough, such as a sound or uncomfortable sensation, one will wake up.

 

5. All thoughts and sensations appear in awareness, exist in awareness, and subside back into awareness. Before any particular thought or sensation there is effortless awareness of ‘what is’: the sum of all thoughts and sensations occurring at any given instant. During the thought or sensation in question there is effortless awareness of it within ‘what is’. Then when it has gone there is still effortless awareness of ‘what is’.

 

6. So the body/mind is experienced as a flow of ephemeral objects appearing in this awareness, the ever present subject. For each of us any external object or thing is experienced as a combination of thought and sensation, i.e. you may see it, touch it, know what it is called, and so on. The point is that for us to be aware of anything, real or imaginary, requires thought about and/or sensation of that thing and it is awareness of these thoughts and sensations that constitutes our experience.

 

7. Therefore this awareness is the constant substratum in which all things appear to arise, exist and subside. In addition, all living things rely on awareness of their environment to exist and their behaviour is directly affected by this. At the level of living cells and above this is self-evident, but it has been shown that even electrons change their behaviour when (aware of) being observed! Thus this awareness exists at a deeper level than body/mind (and matter/energy[1]) and we are this awareness!

 

8. This does not mean that at a surface level we are not the mind and body, for they arise in, are perceived by and subside back into awareness, which is the deepest and most fundamental level of our being. However, if we choose to identify with this deepest level – awareness - (the perceiver) rather than the surface level, mind/body (the perceived), then thoughts and sensations are seen for what they truly are, just ephemeral objects which come and go, leaving awareness itself totally unaffected.[2]

 

This awareness is always present, for without it we would not be aware of our own thoughts and sensations. Once we see this, and can identify with this deeper level of awareness, then it can be readily realised that ‘each moment is enough, or perfect, in itself’, for awareness just witnesses ‘what is’ at any given moment without wishing to achieve or change anything. Then this ‘each moment is enough’ becomes a powerful tool to overcome boredom, insomnia, mental restlessness, mind created suffering etc… For awareness itself is never afflicted by these problems, and identification with this gives perfect peace for awareness is always still and silent, which is perfect peace.

 

I have found that ‘each moment is enough’, and identification with this deeper level, is a marvellous way to overcome boredom whilst on long flights, as the time seems to pass miraculously and boredom completely vanishes for awareness itself is never bored. In fact boredom is a property of the mind caused by it judging every moment and seeking to change ‘what is’ to suit its own preferences, whereas awareness itself is always content and at peace.

 

This ‘each moment is enough’ is also a great way to overcome insomnia, for once the mind identifies with awareness it stops worrying about sleeplessness. When this occurs sleep automatically takes over if the mind is tired, and if not the peace provided by identifying with awareness provides refreshment and relaxation.

 

So for me ‘each moment is enough’, which implies identification with the pure awareness that one already is at the deepest level, is the fundamental secret. This leaves one ‘wanting no thing’ and ‘being nothing’ for awareness is not a thing, but is the constant conscious field of subjectivity which sees, or witnesses, everything appearing in it.

 

In fact ‘each moment is enough’ can be a ‘magic bullet’ to remove all mental anxiety and agitation. If these do occur then they too can be a wake up call to the fact that we have stopped identifying at the deeper level and are back at the surface level of body/mind.

 

 Beyond the Separate Self aims to provide a framework in which one can investigate directly the nature of Reality, through considering one's moment-to-moment experience. Once the discovery of the deeper level of pure awareness has occurred then one can replace ‘ask, believe and receive’ with ‘investigate, realize and relax’!

 

Find out more about Beyond the Separate Self at

http://nonduality.com/btss.htm 

 

[1] The theory of relativity, and string theory, show that matter and energy are synonymous.

[2] C. Drake, Beyond The Separate Self,  2009, Halifax, p.18-20

 


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3893 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Mon May 17, 2010 2:26 am
Subject: #3893 - Saturday, May 15, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3893, Saturday, May 15, 2010




The Moon of Your Love

Not a single soul lacks
a pathway to you.

There's no stone,
no flower -
not a single piece of straw -
lacking your existence.

In every particle of the world,
the moon of your love
causes the heart
of each atom to glow.

- Muhammad Shirin Maghribi (1349 - 1406), English version by David & Sabrineh Fideler, posted to allspirit



The Meaning of Love

Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.

Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God's secrets.

Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.

Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.

Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.

- Rumi



Overwhelming Delight

Pay attention. Trust Life.
You will eventually discover,
with pure and overwhelming delight,
that you are not separate from
That which you are seeking.

- Metta Zetty



Understand perceive O beloved mind
How can you slumber and be a Lover?
Having received then share it all
Or would you rather lose it possessing?
If crumbs be all that you have to fare
Does it matter if it is saltless or tasty?
When eyes are loaded with deep sleep
What is then the pillow and bedding?
Says Kabir, such is the path of Love
Why lose heart having committed yourself?

- Kabir



A Great Need

Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.
- Hafiz



Looking for your own face

Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.

So you sigh in front of mirrors
and cloud the surface.

It's better to keep your breath cold.
Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.
One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.

What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.

- Attar




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3894 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Mon May 17, 2010 5:33 am
Subject: #3894 - Sunday, May 16, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3894, Sunday, May 16, 2010




Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

-Eckhart Tolle, from The Power of Now



This Amazing Opportunity

Let's remember why we're here at retreat: for this amazing opportunity to really look into the core of our own existence, the core of life itself that is so easy to overlook. It's so easy not to pay attention to it, because it's not noisy and it's not clamoring for attention like all the other aspects of the human mind. Egoic consciousness is always pretending to be the most important thing that is happening.

And yet there's this thread, this sense of something other than, deeper than, more real than, more essential than this scattered and divided noise that so many human beings live in, in their minds. And right in the midst of all that, there is a presence, there is an awareness, an unconditioned awareness, an unconditioned consciousness. Right in the middle of this conditioned mind, conditioned consciousness, is this shining, unconditioned essence. Essence doesn't mean a little part hidden somewhere in us, the little teeny kernel of essence. Essence means the totality, the whole thing. Essence means the truth of you as opposed to the untruth of you.

Essence isn't a small thing, essence is an immense thing. The essence of you is everything you ever see, taste, touch, and experience. Everywhere you go, every step you take, every breath you take is actually happening by the essence, of the essence, in the essence, and to the essence. All the rest is noise and chatter.

So we come here to give our attention, our affection, our time. Our most highly prized commodity is our time. Anything or anyone you give your time to shows immediately what is most important. And I want to remind everyone that what you really are, what the person next to you is, what the children in Africa scraping up the little grains of rice are, this timeless essence, is not hidden. It's not hidden at all. It's in plain view. Everywhere you look, that's the essence. And the mind would say, "Where? Where? I don't see it. All I see is a car, a billboard, a tree, the person in front of me, the funny man on the stage. Where is this essence?"

It's easy to grasp for it, isn't it? "Where is it? What is it? I want to understand it. I want to know about it. How can it work for me? How can I utilize it?" But it doesn't come upon us through the grasping of it, through the striving for it, and through the struggling for it. There's no merit gained through wasted effort, through excess struggle. There are no merit points for the people who drove themselves the craziest along the way to self-realization. For most people it's so obscure that it seems very intuitive to grasp and to struggle instead of relaxing, not grasping, letting something come to you, letting the truth of your being reveal itself to you on its terms, in its way, letting it happen.

It will happen. It's always happening. It's always trying to show itself.

- Adyashanti



It makes no difference what points of view arise. In clarity, they vanish naturally, leaving no trace, like a line drawn in the sky.

- Great Clarity



Clear Seeing: The Indisputable Whole

The Reality I experienced during the epiphany
is not different or separate from
the reality we experience under
"ordinary" circumstances.

What does differ is our interpretation....

In our "ordinary" experience,
the focus of attention is on the finite.
In a revelation of the transcendent,
the focus of attention shifts
to the Infinite Whole.

Ongoing Clear Seeing is
an indisputable, experiential recognition of
the inseparability and indivisibility of both.

- Metta Zetty

Nineteen To the ordinary person, the body of humanity seems vast. In truth, it is neither bigger nor smaller than anything else. To the ordinary person, there are others whose awareness needs raising. In truth, there is no self, and no other. To the ordinary person, the temple is sacred and the field is not. This, too, is a dualism which runs counter to the truth. Those who are highly evolved maintain an undiscriminating perception. Seeing everything, labeling nothing, they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness. Thus they are supported by it.

- from the Hua Hu Ching



Words can never capture that which is beyond all things, but here we go anyway:

The One knows itself as the only reality. This is unquestionable.

The peace, that is the One, is beyond anything that the mind can comprehend. It is absolute. It is a peace born from timeless existence and sole presence that is truly at home with itself. It is a peace that just one taste of would satisfy a human mind for a lifetime. It is a peace so profound that nothing can disrupt it - just as nothing can touch space, nothing can touch this all-prevailing peace. It is vibrant stillness and screaming silence.

The source knows itself as timeless - without beginning and without end. This knowing is absolute. There is absolute certainty in the existence of the One. No question can arise in the One, as all is clearly known. Not a knowing of things, as the human mind collects, (although that is present moment to moment), but a knowing of the single reality, that I Am. The Love and Peace of the One are the same - seemingly different yet in perfect harmony and balance. Nothing moves, while everything is vibrant and seemingly alive.

As seeming individuals, we use a word called love. When speaking of the Love that is the One, the human conditional love is something different. The Love of the One, like the Peace, is absolute and unassailable. It is a Love that is complete and present in a source that is timeless. The mind would draw the analogy to a Love and Peace that have evolved into perfection over a timeless existence. Yet, the word perfection is too limiting.

The One knows itself as all pervading yet without location or space to fill. The One knows itself as absolute power - absolute presence, yet nothing to effect.

The One - as the attempt above describes, is what you are. The One does not exist without what you are and you are not without the One. One presence. One Consciousness. One awareness. There are no individuals within the One.

- John Greven




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3895 From: "Gloria" <gleelee@...>
Date: Mon May 17, 2010 10:19 pm
Subject: #3895 - Monday, May 17, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 

#3895 - Monday, May 17, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee

Nonduality Highlights

 

The Flow

 

 Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 9:45pm
 
I have been so caught up in working on my book that I have not taken the time to enter the flow of intuitive writing, which I love to do. So I am going to clear my head and do that before something else snags my feeble little mind.

I have this to say. In spite of loss and sorrow and not wanting to go on alone, I have, I have. I have conquered innumerable fears for no other reason than it was time. The flow carries us even against our wills. What a mystery we are enacting while we brush our teeth and then eat chocolates before bed. When we strain at gnats and swallow camels. And truffles. And that is who we are.

And who we are not.

For the great mystery is contained within us. It is flowing like wine and congealing like aspic. It is breaking our self-concepts into smithereens and dashing us into the pilings of the cosmic pier. The tsunami of the Self is bearing down on us and we are rushing for cover. No more time for tweeting and blogging and texting while we drive. Too late. It's always too late.

And there is never enough time to turn our lives around by taking thought. That bus pulled out of the station long ago.

And so we fritter our lives away while cancer or AIDS or whatever is taking someone's life tonight. And somewhere hearts are breaking and stomachs are tight with dread and nurses bring pills and patients go suddenly quiet and leave on a mystery train.

And who we are suddenly kicks in. And we do something great. Or not. And maybe a crack opens up in our psyche and an angel wings past it and we feel a chill. And then we know that we are not alone.

And that we are standing on holy ground and wearing mismatched socks and it's okay.

And so it goes.

http://www.bobwoodyard.com
 
 
When The Mind Falls Into The Heart
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)
#3896 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Tue May 18, 2010 5:18 am
Subject: #3895 - Monday, May 17, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 

#3895 - Monday, May 17, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee

Nonduality Highlights

[Note: Gloria has limited computer access temporarily and therefore the unlimited talent of Vicki Woodyard is presented within a sparely designed issue of the Highlights. -jk]

 

 

The Flow
 
Vicki Woodyard

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 9:45pm

I have been so caught up in working on my book that I have not taken the time to enter the flow of intuitive writing, which I love to do. So I am going to clear my head and do that before something else snags my feeble little mind.

I have this to say. In spite of loss and sorrow and not wanting to go on alone, I have, I have. I have conquered innumerable fears for no other reason than it was time. The flow carries us even against our wills. What a mystery we are enacting while we brush our teeth and then eat chocolates before bed. When we strain at gnats and swallow camels. And truffles. And that is who we are.

And who we are not.

For the great mystery is contained within us. It is flowing like wine and congealing like aspic. It is breaking our self-concepts into smithereens and dashing us into the pilings of the cosmic pier. The tsunami of the Self is bearing down on us and we are rushing for cover. No more time for tweeting and blogging and texting while we drive. Too late. It's always too late.

And there is never enough time to turn our lives around by taking thought. That bus pulled out of the station long ago.

And so we fritter our lives away while cancer or AIDS or whatever is taking someone's life tonight. And somewhere hearts are breaking and stomachs are tight with dread and nurses bring pills and patients go suddenly quiet and leave on a mystery train.

And who we are suddenly kicks in. And we do something great. Or not. And maybe a crack opens up in our psyche and an angel wings past it and we feel a chill. And then we know that we are not alone.

And that we are standing on holy ground and wearing mismatched socks and it's okay.

And so it goes.

http://www.bobwoodyard.com
 
 
When The Mind Falls Into The Heart
 

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)
#3897 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Wed May 19, 2010 11:14 am
Subject: #3897 - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3897 - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz  

The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights 

[Sorry about the double issue on Monday, my mistake. -jk]

Michael Gluckman's

Best of the Blogs on Wisdom:

http://www.light-up-your-life.com/BestOfTheBlogsOnWisdom.pdf

 

Are You Sure Of Your Knowledge

Self-knowledge is a unique and wonderful study. For instance if you study birds, you do not

become the birds. If you study nuclear physics you do not become nuclear energy. But here you

become the Self that you always are.

 

Here knowledge and bliss pull you inward, while intolerance for limitation and suffering push

you towards the source.

 

Once you know that you can be free beyond your wildest dreams, and that suffering is not your

normal state, I recommend that you challenge even the smallest amount of suffering and limitation

that you face. Why wait till later to gain your natural state of freedom?

 

Some forms of suffering like those connected with the emotions can seem to hit you over the

head. Other forms may seem to be subtler like golden chains instead of iron chains.

I recommend that you look into even subtler forms of limitation like attachment to the intellect.

That’s because even attachment to the intellect is a limitation compared to what you are. Remember

you see your intellect. It is just an object in your Awareness and not you, because you

are not an object.

 

The intellect is the more definite part of your mind. It is the part that knows. It is the knowledge

of mathematics, science, medicine, printing, and all of the other reserves of knowledge that

dwell in your mind. When it comes to making decisions your emotions might hem and haw. But

your intellect knows; it is decisive. With your intellect you are able to perceive a situation, sum

up its parts, and decide the best path of action.

 

For instance if you were president of the United States, you would listen to your advisors and

your own preferences, weigh them, and make your decisions. This is the function of the intellect.

If you are proud of your intellectual knowledge, you should know some of its limitations. First,

it is possible to make the wrong decision. This alone can get you in lots of trouble. Just ask a

recent president if you can.

 

Secondly, relative knowledge is never complete. As people discover more information in your

field, you constantly have to keep up with your learning so you don’t fall behind. This is a

never-ending chore.

 

And thirdly your mind can change. I know a brilliant scientist who holds many patents. But now

he has Alzheimer’s disease. Now, it is as if all his knowledge is gone. Here’s a side note though;

his love is still there.

 

Now I love to read and learn new things. As long as I can in my life I will keep exploring and

learning. The more I learn the more amazing I find this universe to be.

 

But the fact that I know my knowledge as well as my ignorance, and that I see the changes that

occur to my mind is even more fascinating. That’s because this indicates that I stand beyond the

limitations of my intellect as the seer.

 

So next we will talk about memory. Is it memory that provides the continuity that we experience

in our life? Just continue to follow what I am saying as we trace Awareness back to its source

where it is free of limitations.

 

When we are done with this series of blogs, I hope that you will be standing at the summit of

wisdom. That’s because you are that Awareness and not the limitations that you see. So please

stay tuned. If you find this series of blogs helpful don’t forget to tell your friends.

 

And of course, if you find yourself suffering or feeling limited in any way, just ask questions.

Then when I talk about the mind, I can talk about the things that bother you, and about how you

can be free. And of course your comments are always welcome. This blog is yours too. For more

information go to www.light-up-your-life.com.

 

Best Wishes For a Happy and Healthy New Years,

Michael


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3898 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Thu May 20, 2010 11:54 am
Subject: #3898 - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3898 - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz  

The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights 

 

 

Paintings by John Bramblitt. If your email is not configured to view graphics you may see them at

http://www.bramblitt.net/gallery.htm

 

The following was sent to Nonduality Salon:

This is a short documentary about John Bramblitt, a painter who is blind. 
It's worth a look in that there are some enlightening things he has to say 
about perception.


 http://www.bramblitt.net/documentary.htm

 



Artist Statement

Perceptions




This series is a challenge to what perception truly is. Vision has been
equated with "knowing" even though it is nothing more than a chemical
response to the light that passes through the lens of the eye. Vision at
best is a second hand way of knowing the world; all that can be perceived is
light that has been reflected off of objects. When people look at an image
reflected in a mirror they do not feel that the reflection is real, yet when
it is reflected by the "mirrors" in one's own eye that image is deemed
reality.


Plato spoke of a cave where images were displayed on the back wall, but
these images were only representation of the "real" world and those that
believed that these images were real would never have a true understanding
of the actual world they lived in. For Plato the world of the real existed
outside of the cave; outside of the eye.


"Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees, but what
he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen." - Pablo Picasso


Our misunderstanding about perception is ingrained so deeply that it colors
much of our language.


For instance, we say "I see" when what we really mean is that that we
understand something. Someone is called "blind" when they lack
understanding - blind to the truth or blind to some fact which others see as
obvious. Look in almost any dictionary and you find synonyms for blindness
that include words like: unknowing, unquestioning, careless, heedless,
ignorant, imperceptive, inattentive, inconsiderate, indiscriminate,
injudicious, insensitive, neglectful, oblivious, thoughtless, unaware,
unconscious, undiscerning, unmindful, unobservant, unreasoning. it goes on
and on.


Clearly this is not reality but rather one of those shadowy images that is
cast upon the cave wall. What then is reality? What is Perception?
My series is an effort to answer these questions; not in words but in paint
and canvas - by using images to understand perception. The masked man on TV
and in the movies hides his identity by covering his eyes, and through this
simple act hides all that he is. The identities of villains and even
fictitious heroes such as Spiderman and Batman all fade into oblivion purely
by covering their eyes. My paintings focus on the eyes and the very area
that a mask would cover thereby "unmasking" the subject of the painting
giving no place for the emotions and the truth of the person to hide. You
look at my paintings, but very often they look back.

 

 


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3899 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Fri May 21, 2010 2:21 pm
Subject: #3899, -Thursday, May 20, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3899, Thursday, May 20, 2010




The Mulla nearly fell into a pool. A man whom he knew slightly was near and saved him. Every time he met Nasrudin after that he would remind him of the service which he had performed.

When this had happened several timmes Nasrudin took him to the water, jumped in, stood with his head just above water and shouted: "Now I am as wet as I would have been if you had not saved me! Leave me alone."

as collected by Idries Shah, posted to allspirit



If you wish to move in the One Way do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas. Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true Enlightenment. The wise man strives to no goals but the foolish man fetters himself. There is one Dharma, not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant. To seek Mind with the [discriminating] mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

- Seng-tsan, Verses on the Faith Mind, posted to Distillation



The way of daily life is the way of working with our viewpoints. We do that just as we work with our thoughts in meditation practice. We just recognize: 'this is just a viewpoint. It's not me. This viewpoint has arisen in this circumstance. It is there. I do have a feeling about it, but it's not the absolute truth. It's just a viewpoint.' When we understand that this is a viewpoint that comes from conditions and train ourselves the same as we train ourselves in meditation, when we train ourselves minutely in our daily lives to understand our viewpoints are just viewpoints, this makes a tremendous difference in how we live. When we don't try to protect or justify our viewpoints, suddenly there's freedom, a spaciousness and happiness in our lives.

- Zoketsu Norman Fischer, from the journal, "Karuna," posted to DailyDharma



The mind is a beggar because the concept of want makes you a beggar!  Be only "I AM" and try to lift the begging bowl. Throw away the begging bowl of ego for the throne.

- Papaji, from The Truth Is, posted to AlongTheWay



Even the body is a state of consciousness only; it is not an object which exists ultimately. It appears to be there, but it is really not there. This 'you' and 'I' and all that are phantoms.

You have made a gulf of difference between You and I, which is not really there. It is a mistake that the mind makes. Just as in dreams persons are there, but are really not there, they are only split parts of the same mind, one appearing as the I, the other appearing as you and both are integrated in the single mind in a certain condition.

- Swami Krishnananda, from Facets of Spirituality, compiled by S. Bhagyalakshmi, posted to AlongTheWay



It must be constantly borne in mind while trying to understand the mechanics of the apparent process of manifestation that nothing has actually been created. All that appears is mind-stuff, that of which all dreams are made, and apart from Consciousness itself, nothing exists, neither the mind nor the senses nor their objects.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels



In form you are the microcosm;
in reality you are the macrocosm.

- Rumi, Mathnawi IV: 521, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, from Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance, posted to Sunlight




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3900 From: Gloria Lee <gleelee@...>
Date: Sat May 22, 2010 4:46 am
Subject: #3900 - Friday, May 21, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 


#3900 - Friday, May 21, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee

 

Nonduality Highlights

 

 

"Any consciousness whatsoever
that is past, future, or present;
internal or external;
blatant or subtle;
common or sublime;
far or near --

every consciousness
is to be seen
as it actually is
with right discernment as:

'This is not mine.
This is not my self.
This is not what I am."
 
~Anatta-lakkhana Sutta
Buddha
 
Thanks to Bob O'Hearn
 

 

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come." —Joseph Campbell
 
 
 
Ascetics wander shrine to shrine,    
looking for what can only come
from visiting the soul.

Study the mystery you embody.
When you look up from that,
the dub grass looks fresher
a little ways off, and even more
green farther on.  Stay here.

                   - Lalla
                     14th Century North Indian mystic

posted to Along The Way
 
 
 
 





And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass.




Ezra Pound

 

 


http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Shores/And_the_days.htm


 



 

 

 

 

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


 

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

 


http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Shores/The_tide_rises.htm

 

 

From Blossoms

 

 

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the joy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom
to impossible blossom,
to sweet impossible blossom.

Li-Young Lee


http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Shores/From_blossoms.htm

 

Photos by Alan Larus


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3901 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Sun May 23, 2010 3:47 pm
Subject: #3901 - Saturday, May 22, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3901, Saturday, May 22, 2010




Every sensory and conceptual experience is an illusion. what you see, hear, touch, and taste is really the Unmanifest, the within of the without with which we are surrounded on all sides.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels



You embrace some form
saying, "I am this."

but you are not this
or that or the other

you are "Unique One"
"Heartravishing"

you are throne and palace and king
you are bird and snare and fowler

like water in a jar and river
are in essence the same

you and spirit are the same

your every idol
prostrates before you

your every thought-form
perishes
in your formlessness.

- Rumi, posted to DailyDharma



The notions that I am "this" or "that" are not the root of the problem. It is the idea that I am an "I" at all. All the self-limiting notions are just so many labels that have been added to that core concept.

-  John Wheeler


Ten

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there.

- Lao Tzu, from the Hua Hu Ching, translated by Brian Walker



Letting Go

With each experience of letting go,
we loosen the grip
of our finite and limited identity -
and in so doing,
come closer to recognizing
our inseparability from
That which is Infinite.

- Metta Zetty




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3902 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Mon May 24, 2010 4:14 am
Subject: #3902 - Sunday, May 23, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3902, Sunday, May 23, 2010




If I could have known to value what I owned

i've travelled around
raced through every city
while i knew all along
no place could be found
like the city of love

if i could have known
to value what i owned
i would not have suffered
like a fool
the life of a vagabond

i've heard many tunes
all over the globe
all empty
as a kettledrum
except the music of love

it was the sound of
that hollow drum
that made me fall
from the heavens
to this mortal life

i used to soar
among souls
like a heart's flight
winglessly roaming and
celestially happy

i used to drink
like a flower that drinks
without lips or throat
of the wine that overflows
with laughter and joy

suddenly
i was summoned by love
to prepare for a journey
to the temple of
suffering

i cried desperately
i begged and pleaded
and shredded my clothes
not to be sent
to this world

just the way i fear now
going away
to the other world
i was frightened then
to make my descent

love asked me to go
with no fear to be alone
promising to be close
everywhere i go
closer than my veins

love threw its spell
its magic and allure
using coyness and charm
i was totally sold and
bought everything with joy

who am i to resist
love's many tricks
and not to fall
while the whole world
takes love's bait

love showed me
a path but then
lost me on the way
if i could have resisted
i would have found my way

i can show you my friend
surely how you can get there
but here and now
my pen has broken down
before telling you how

- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 1509, translation by Nader Khalili, from Rumi, Fountain of Fire, posted to Sunlight



"Thus have I heard that the blessed one
was staying at Savatti, residing at the Jetas Grove
in Anatha-pin-di-ka's park.
Then in the dark of the night, a radiant deva

illuminated all the Jetas Grove.
She bowed down low before the Blessed One
then standing to one side said:

'Devas are concerned for happiness
and ever long for peace.
The same is true for human-kind.
What then are the highest blessings?

Avoiding those of foolish ways;
Associating with the wise
And honoring those worthy of honor,
These are the highest blessings.

Living in places of suitable kinds,
With the fruits of past good deeds
And guided by the rightful way,
These are the highest blessings.

Accomplished in learning and craftsmen's skills,
With discipline highly trained
And speech that is true and pleasant to hear,
These are the highest blessings.

Providing for mother and father's support
And cherishing wife and child
And ways of work that harm no beings,
These are the highest blessings.

Giving with Dhamma in the heart,
Offering help to relatives and kin
And acting in ways that leave no blame,
These are the highest blessings.

Steadfast in restraint, and shunning evil ways,
Avoiding intoxicants that dull the mind
And heedfulness in all things that arise,
These are the highest blessings.

Respectfulness and of humble ways,
Contentment and gratitude
And hearing the Dhamma frequently taught,
These are the highest blessings.

Patience and willingness to accept one's faults,
Seeing venerated seekers of the truth
And sharing often the words of Dhamma,
These are the highest blessings.

The Holy Life lived with ardent effort;
Seeing for oneself the Noble Truths
And the realization of Nibbana,
These are the highest blessings.

Although involved in worldly ways,
Unshaken the mind remains
And beyond all sorrow, spotless, secure,
These are the highest blessings.

They who live by following this path
Know victory wherever they go
And every place is safe.
These are the highest blessings.'"

- From the Mangala Sutta, posted to DailyDharma



My hut is roofed, comfortable,
free of drafts;
my mind, well-centered,
set free.
I remain ardent.
So, rain-deva.
Go ahead & rain.

- Subhuti, from Theragattha: Poems of the Elder Monks, found in A Taste of Salt Selections from the Sutta Pitaka




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3903 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Wed May 26, 2010 1:18 am
Subject: #3904 - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3904 - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
I'm pleased to announce a new e-book from Nonduality Publications.
 
 
 
 
 
 

DUTCH TREAT

18 SlamSatS

by

Zil Chezero

The Mule

176 pages. $8.00
Purchase by PayPal and download now:

http://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=1251290

Excerpt from...

"Dear guys and girls,"

We are about to engage in a series of what this mule Zil calls 'SlamSatS'. Although that which we are pursuing has no form and is older than the world, older than time in fact, the way we will be pursuing it does have a form, and it may strike some as 'new'. It isn't, it is just a variation on the ancient 'neti-neti' - not this, not that - approach, be it using a modern vocabulary and expanding itself to persons, enlightened beings and everything else you might hold holy.

Remember as we go on: if you take something personally, look at what it is in you that takes it personally, because it will be something that still thinks it's a person. Mind you, even mules in full view can get insulted. But that would be on topics like their car or their wife. On matters concerning realization they cannot be insulted, because their certainty is not on that level. If, concerning realization, any feelings of hurt or insult might come up in them anyhow, both the insult and the insulter for them will be the source of deep gratitude, because it means something lit up that subsequently was destroyed by the mere fact it was in full view.

Hmmm.

~ ~ ~

Excerpt from...

Separation and Oneness

1 (20) Sometimes I get a long period of oneness, but then it's followed by a feeling of separation. How does this happen?

2 Separation is a thought, do you see that, 20?

3 No Zil, actually I don't. I mean, it's not something I invent, it's something I perceive, like I perceive this room… and what you say...

4 That's what you think, but it is not true. There's this oneness, everything is fine and warm and whatever - and then all of a sudden: 'separation'…

5 Yes, that's what happens.

6 Or so it seems. What's the crux of oneness?

7 Well, absence of separation - or is that just being silly?

8 No, it's extremely well put in fact. There's no separation in oneness. So can oneness recognize separation, does separation have any meaning to oneness?

9 No, that doesn't seem possible...

10 It isn't. So what can recognize separation, something that doesn't know about it or something that already knows?

11 The second one, I guess.

12 Right you are again. In order to recognize separation, there first has to arise something in which the seed of
separation is already present. Which is you, small you, mule. There has to be the belief in an entity that is separated already and only when that has formed, the experience 'separation' can arise. Which means that 'separation' is a belief, a thought of this entity - which in its turn consists of a belief called 'experience'. Thus, separation is a thought of an experience. A belief within a belief.

13 But it doesn't feel like a thought, and on the face of it it doesn't feel like ego either!

14 You can see that it must be there first, can't you?

15 I would have to admit that's the only answer.

16 So mule is there already, only it has not been recognized as such yet. A moment later it takes the shape of separation and then your good mood is ruined. Do you know how it is possible for mule to already exist in that oneness you talk about?

17 I think I'm scared to find out.

18 You'd better, because it will hurt. It is possible for mule, because the oneness you experience is mule too. It's an experience, an experience of oneness. That should have made your alarm go off. Every experience is mule, baby.

19 Damn. So there is no oneness?

20 Yes there is, but never as an experience. Realization does not belong to a level, experience does. Experienced oneness may be a side effect of the realization of oneness, but that does not mean experienced oneness is the same as realization. It's a common mistake of enlightened mules to forget that. And as a result getting attached to this great oneness-experience. Like you are. Separation is a thought, oneness an experience. Both come up. Accept that they do, accept that their appearance does not matter at all. Then you won't be fooled by them.

21 But… if the experience of oneness isn't the oneness itself, what's the point of being realized?

22 None at all for mule. None at all for oneness either, because oneness cannot become more one by realization. The realization that you want, the goodies that you expect - they are all part of muleworld. And muleworld will never become one, because it only exists by the grace of separation. Seeming separation, because all is one and will remain so no matter if you realize that or not. That's why I say nothing changes with realization. There's only experience, and experience does not exist...

DUTCH TREAT

18 SlamSatS

by

Zil Chezero

The Mule

176 pages. $8.00
Purchase by PayPal and download now:

http://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=1251290

 


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3904 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Thu May 27, 2010 1:15 am
Subject: #3905 - Wednesday, May 26, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
#3905 - Wednesday, May 26, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
Charlie Hayes responds to questions:
 

Consciousness appears in the awareness which IS

"Tan1772" writes: I totally "buy" that I exist and I have awareness.

C: Please DON’T! There is absolutely NO way to say a truth that can be bought or believed; “The truth that can be said is NOT the Real Truth”. Do not believe, accept or “buy into” ANY concept! As must be repeated over and over until it really sinks in: These are conceptual POINTERS ONLY. Look where the pointers POINT rather than taking them on board as some “truth!” And have a look: WHO is it that “buys” this anyway?

Q: But that's exactly where I am stuck:

C: WHO is this “I” that “is stuck?” That is a concept, nothing more and nothing actually real. That “I” seeming to be stuck on itself; and the stuckness (glue) itself, is just a habitual firm yet false belief that what you are IS that “I” thought. You assume you ARE that sense of being a separate “me”. No matter how much you try to get “unstuck” you stay stick until and unless you root under that “I:” sense to find out if it is actually real! The glue is your belief in that person, your mask that you wear to prop up a sense of insecurity that “you” have been fighting since about age three.

Q: I feel that my awareness is a function of this body. When my body is gone, my awareness will also be gone.

C: This is a confused view: You do not "own" awareness; you ARE awareness. And yes, the body is required for consciousness, for sure. The Awareness, the Timeless Being, is That which ALLOWS consciousness, body, world etc to appear yet That is absolutely independent of all that, including the consciousness of being-awakeness.  That body and its consciousness disappear in deep sleep every night while Awareness remains ever present giving life to a sleeping body, breathing it, living it, growing its hair, fingernails, being its heart etc., all with NO consciousness whatsoever. So let the seeing be clear that awareness IS PRIOR and Eternal while consciousness comes and goes.

Awareness IS, eternally free, nondual and empty, clear and full in Itself; duality-consciousness is the first appearance IN Awareness. Awareness is Eternal, while consciousness comes and goes. Don’t confuse or collapse these. Awareness ALWAYS IS regardless of the happening of consciousness OR unconsciousness.

Q: Of course I can't say that with experiential certainty…

C: Right. So that cannot be a timeless actual truth, can it!?

Q:  but it seems to be true by observing people who died. They are no long aware of what happens. While I can't locate my awareness (I can't because it's a function of the body rather than something solid), my awareness is nonetheless dependent on the body. The best analogy I can think of is actually the one often used in non-dual teaching: the body is the light bulb that shines the light of awareness. The light is not specific anywhere, but if you take away the bulb, the light also disappears.

Q: Can you 'enlighten' me on this, literally?

C: No. But YOU can, the Real You, which is that unperceivable self shining Light-Of-Knowing that exists forever, prior to, during, and after any and all concepts, experiences and all the manifest passing phenomena. That (Noumenon) is what IS; all else is what APPEARS. AND, these are NOT TWO. Ungraspable for the mind, which can only understand opposites. Stop trying to figure this out There is NO joy in the mind, the field of opposites, positions and concepts and points of view are all useless for this. Stop. Now. YOU ARE. That simple Isness-Awareness which registers consciousness and unconsciousness is what You are. BE That and nothing else. Full Stop Period. And the bottom line is, these are Not Two. You need NO "enlightenment". You already ARE the Light of Being, Awareness arising as Consciousness. It is that simple!

Thanks for writing; feel free to stay in touch until any and all confusion is dissolved.

Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3905 From: "Gloria" <editglo@...>
Date: Fri May 28, 2010 1:57 pm
Subject: #3906 - Thursday, May 27, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee 		glee_be
Send Email Send Email
 

#3906 - Thursday, May 27, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee

The Nonduality Highlights

 

An Investigation of the Mind

 

Published here for the first time, this commentary by one of the great Tibetan masters of the 20th century, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche will appear in The Collected Works of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Shambhala, 2010).

By Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
 
Read the complete text of this article here (Adobe PDF).
 
[ http://www.tricycle.com/investigation-mind ]
 
Introduction:

—Jakob Leschly
© Mattieu Ricard
Commentary on Lama Mipham's The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (c. 1910–1991)

The following teaching is an explanation of the way to examine the mind according to a text written by Lama Mipham, called The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity. Why is this teaching called the "wheel of investigation"? Because just as a wheel revolves all the time, we need to constantly investigate the true nature of things. This constant investigation will eliminate deluded thoughts and lead to an understanding of the true nature of the mind.


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3906 From: "Jerry Katz" <umbada@...>
Date: Sat May 29, 2010 11:46 am
Subject: #3907 - Friday, May 28, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz 		nondualguy
Send Email Send Email
 
 
#3907 - Friday, May 28, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
 
 
 
 
Gene Poole writes on the final episode of LOST.
 
Notice of the upcoming Nondual Psychology Conference in Alberta, Canada.
 
 
 
 
Much on LOST since the final episode;
this is one of my replies to a forum:

---

Good heavens. no pun intended.

One must grasp that all operations of consciousness occur with mathematical precision. Consequently, no `blanks' are allowed
within our personal narratives, our `life stories'.

One factor to keep in mind in analysis of LOST, as well as in our `real world', is this: Nothing occurs without an antecedent.

The chronic alcoholic and the psychotic `fill in the blanks' in their stories by a process called `confabulation'. It seems to me that this also occurs in our ordinary dreams. Much of the `nonsensical' factors of the plot of LOST are accountable by this means; each of the characters are frequently confronted by rather monumental `unknowns', and the process of confabulation manufactures `facts' which would (ideally) `explain' those unknowns. And quite naturally, the viewers are flummoxed by such confabulations, and lately, demand `logical answers'.

The discovery of the `hatch' and the `Dharma Initiative' serve that end; as one digs deeper into an incomprehensible `reality' (the entire life on the island), apparent `explanations' are discovered, but each lead only deeper into the mystery of the Bardo.

Jung might observe that the `hatch' and other (modern and ancient) underground features of the island, represent a necessary descent into the `unconscious' of the characters, notably Jack. In that realm (the unconscious) such fantastical events such as immortality, gods and monsters are to be expected; and each of those serves as pivotal ciphers in the mathematical unfolding of the reality of the Bardo.

Overall, the writers of LOST seem to have a reasonable grasp of the symbology of the human unconscious; eg, how each symbol exists only if it is useful and important, especially when serving as placeholders which (confabulation-wise) bridge the gap between the familiar and the unexpected and unknown.

Indeed, this same 'system' is at work in all of us right now. We choose to `believe' (faith) and also to want proofs (science) which will serve, at least temporarily, to `explain' the mysteries we all face. Jack's `character weakness' was his hidebound `faith in science', which was gradually eroded to nothing, by his final scenes. Locke served the role of seeker via his quest, and thus stimulated everyone to transcend their own inertia. But FLocke was the `finder' whose certainty matched Jack's; and thus is was appropriate the Jack killed FLocke, for certainty (the unchanging) is the enemy of evolution and change. By killing FLocke, Jack re-attained his own proper state, innocence.

Remember; mathematical precision as aided by confabulation. It does not seem like much of a good thing, until you figure that it is all we really have. The placeholders of imaginary antecedents are merely ad-hoc theories, which will mutate (magically, seemingly) eventually into a coherent `reality'. But we must keep in mind, what was revealed in the final episode; the reality we actually have may not be the one we assume.

The plot and characters of LOST are or were in no better or worse position, than we all are, right now. I thank the series writers for having the courage to avoid 'selling out' and to carry forward with the fantastical Dharma/Bardo theme to which we have been witness for the past several years.

The real heartbreak comes when we belatedly realize just how much of our stories we have `made up'. We hope, and blame, based on confabulated plot-lines. LOST has as none other, illustrated this principle in a manner as thundering as Shakespeare.

Success!


==GP==
 
 
 
 
2010 Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference  

EXCITING NEWS: Announcing the first nondual psychology & psychotherapy conference in Canada. The Paradoxica Institute is hosting the Nondual Psychology (and beyond) conference June 17-18, 2010 at the University of Lethbridge in beautiful Lethbridge Alberta nestled in the coulees, and close to the Waterton Mountains. We want this to be a dynamic and transformational conference including powerful and insightful clinical workshops in addition to ground breaking presentations and energizing workshops.  Below is the Conference Program outline.  To register, please click on the PayPal link above.  Join in June's festivities as we celebrate and embrace the flowering of Nothingness together!

2010 Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference
June 17 & 18
Anderson Hall 100, University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta
CANADA

 

Presentation Program

 

Thursday -- June 17

9:00 a.m.  Opening

9:10 a.m.  Gary Nixon, Ph.D. University of Lethbridge, Alberta.  Surrendering At The End of Your Rope In The Nondual Journey:  Embracing Absolute Hopelessness and Total Failurehood.

10:30 a.m. Break

10:45  a.m. Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D.  Psychologist, Pleasanton, California.  What's In Your Backpack? How Emptiness/Surrender is Seen in the Illusory, Empirical World and the Absolute.

11:45 a.m.  Lunch Break

1:00 p.m. Brian Theriault, MEd., C.C.C. Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Resting in the Eye of the Hurricane:  Transforming Trauma through Unconditional Awareness.

2:00 p.m.  Shirley Klippel, Ph.D., San Mateo, California.  The Celtic Portal to the Nondual Experience.

3:15 p.m.  Break

3:30 p.m  Marcia Rich, R. Psych., Ph.D. University of Lethbridge, Alberta.  Interweaving Pathways : The Significance of Shamanic Experience for the Nondual Journey.

5:00 p.m. Wrap up for day

Friday -- June 18

9:00 a.m.  Trent Leighton, Ph.D. Maniilaq-Indian Health Services, Kotzebue, Alaska.  Substance Abuse Counselling from a Nondual Perspective.

10:15 a.m. Break

10:30 a.m.  Jason Solowoniuk, MEd. University of Lethbridge, Alberta.  Nondual Psychotherapy and the Depressed Client.

11:45 a.m. Break

1:00  p.m.  Kyler Evans, MEd. Rising Phoenix Counselling, Lethbridge, Alberta. Accessing Your Birthright: Creativity, Nonduality, and the Pathless Path.

2:15 - 2:45 pm Break

2:45 - 3:45 p.m.  Coming to the End of A Nondual Conference: Closing Exercises and Sharing. 

3:45 - 5:00 p.m. Wine and Cheese Celebration (Sponsored by the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge). 

 

In Order of Appearance:

Gary Nixon, Ph.D. is a transpersonal psychologist, and has been on faculty with the Addictions Counselling Program at the University of Lethbridge since 1998. Gary has been influenced by a long line of Eastern and Western nondual teachers such as Osho, Krishnamurti, Trungpa, Adi Da, Papaji, Nisargadatta, Adyashanti and the works of western transpersonal writers such as Wilber, and Almaas. Gary is passionate about the process of abiding in nondual being in everyday life, and has been facilitating nondual groups over the last ten years as well as maintaining a transpersonal psychology private practice. He is the Editor of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology.

Title:  Surrendering at the End of Your Rope in the Nondual Journey:  Embracing Absolute Hopelessness and Total Failurehood.

This presentation will focus on the transformational opportunity that is available at the end of the journey for the nondual seeker of awakening.  The embracement of "rot", the acceptance of absolute hopelessness, and the relaxation into total failurehood are all pivotal opportunities for the former seeker to see through seeking in the realization that there is no where to go, nothing to do and no answer.  It is here a spontaneous surrender and illumination can take place and paradoxically the journey of abiding in nondual being which has been with all us all along can be embraced.

 

Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. practices as a journeyman psychologist, licensed since 1987 and in the field of Psychology since 1977, doing what works in honoring intuitive wisdom and the flow of Spirit in Pleasanton, California, in the East San Francisco Bay. This one still knows nothing, welcomes, surrenders and celebrates everything, purely engaging in being and doing what is loved. I am not here; only This, Being and now are here. No one in particular home, only Home. He is on the Editorial Board of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology. Will welcomes feedback directly—email: drwilljoel@... This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and the website: www.willjoelfriedman.com.

Title:  What's in Your Backpack?  How Emptiness/Surrender is Seen in the Illusory, Empirical World and the Absolute.

In the movie Up In the Air, George Clooney’s character Ryan Bingham, a corporate road warrior/downsizer who conducts employee firings for cowardly employers, gives motivational talks to corporate audiences asking, “What’s in your backpack?” Clooney’s character presents a backpack and asks his listeners to notice how it is filled with “necessities” as a metaphor for the meaning of life. He advocates carrying an “empty backpack” and ditching extra “baggage” in their lives, like possessions, family and relationships.

Near the film’s end, Clooney’s dispirited character cannot continue the charade and walks out leaving his backpack prop behind. The nirvana of “a relationship-free life” is revealed to be bogus, leaving him with no sense of who he is. Having experienced the joys and disappointments of relationships, he feels a gnawing emptiness that cannot be filled by an airline pillow or bag of peanuts.

In this context, we explore how emptiness/surrender is seen, both false and true, from within three levels/realms of reality—the illusory/dream, empirical/transactional world, and the Absolute. It is typically seen through the ego-mind’s lenses as a deadening, fearful existence culminating in annihilation. This illusory realm is projected onto the empirical world, given that in both realms nothing happens in the past or future, but rather in the present. Emptiness in the relative world can also be experienced as a springboard to awakening by honestly surrendering all that you are not, leaving purely all that you truly are.

Inside the Absolute, of which no one knows anything, everything is ultimate Truth, fascinating, whole and real. Emptiness is now revealed to be a vast empty fullness with nothing to surrender. What is left in the backpack?—nothing and everything, neither and both. There’s no backpack to carry, nothing to do, other than to look, listen, and enjoy the flow of life-energy.

 

Brian Theriault MEd., C.C.C. Over a decade ago, while doing personal trauma work with Gary Nixon, Brian experienced a profound shift in consciousness that radically changed the course of his life. Since then, he has been on a moment-to-moment paradoxical journey of awakening. Brian embraces a transpersonal approach in his personal life and in his clinical work with individuals in Stage II - III addiction recovery and trauma resolution work. He resonates with the profound mystical teachings of Osho, Lao Tzu, Zen and Nisargadatta Maharaj coupled with the work of western transpersonal psychologists, Ken Wilber, Gary Nixon, A. H. Almaas and Stephen Wolinsky.

Title:  Resting in the Eye of the Hurricane: Transforming Trauma through Unconditional Awareness.

Trauma occurs when, in response to a perceived life-threatening event, high states of arousal energy become bound-up in the body-mind due to the contraction/judgment of fear and terror creating frozen moments in time (Peter Levine). The coupling of fear and terror interrupts the natural discharge of pent-up energy and collapses all the other levels of human consciousness. A powerful thawing agent is the experience of relaxing as unconditional Awareness. Nondual psychology and the perennial wisdom traditions describe unconditional Awareness as a vast silence and absolutely still Presence unconditioned by form but seen as none other than form, unscathed by the impact of trauma and eternally available in the midst of moment to moment experiencing. By stepping into the eye of trauma with no judgment, the miraculous healing energy of unconditional Awareness can reveal itself and impart the wisdom of no escape, nothing to fear and no trauma; a Divine mergence and total release into what is. This presentation will draw upon Nondual psychology and elements of Somatic Experiencing through information, experiential exercises and discussion.

 


Shirley Klippel, Ph.D. began her journey in 1983 following a spontaneous nondual awakening that reconnected her to her Celtic heritage. She co-founded  Brookridge Institute, offering conferences in Consciousness and Addictions, obtained a Ph.D. in psychological and mythological studies, and is now involved in dual careers producing documentary films  and facilitating the Game of Transformation. Shirley’s research indicates that the ancient Celts were experiencers of nondual consciousness and her goal is to communicate this discovery. British born, she has lived in San Francisco Bay Area for many years where she maintains her “day” job as Director of Human Resources for a TV station.

Title:  The Celtic Portal to the Nondual Experience.

Surprisingly, I discovered through research into my Irish heritage evidence that Celtic consciousness equals nondual consciousness. Exploration into this Celtic portal was inspired by my own numinous experience in 1983.

The focus of this presentation is the introduction of a lost Western tradition of nonduality. Although the evidence may be fragmentary, what those ancient artists expressed through the sacred stones of Ireland and Brittany, on the backs of mirrors found throughout Britain and on tribal coins everywhere in the Celtic-speaking world tells us that they embraced both realities.  Commentary by art critics Andre Malraux and Ruth and Vincent Megaw are used to support my position as well as clips from an interview with Jody Joy at the British Museum.  In addition to the art, “I am” poems comparable to those voiced by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita by Irish and Welsh bards support my interpretation of the Celtic Worldview and its nondualism.

While both the West and the East had access to this nondual experience, different paths were chosen. The history of the West is one of the dominant culture, one of Cartesian dualism.  However, underneath, suppressed but not entirely eradicated, is the Celtic one of nonduality. Celtic consciousness - both ancient and modern - is best expressed by 19th century Breton writer Ernest Renan: “The essential element of the Celts’ poetic life is. . .the pursuit of the unknown . . .the race desires the infinite.”

This presentation is an adaption of a dissertation entitled: Celtic Siren: A Case Study of William Sharp’s Seduction Experience in which in Numinous Other is Understood and Interpreted. I discuss Sharp’s experience as well as my own as examples of the Celtic nondual experience and through this presentation attempt to win a place for this lost Western path to nonduality.

 

Marcia Rich, Ph.D. has worked as a private practice psychologist for 16 years. Working from an existential-feminist-transpersonal framework, she provides psychotherapy engaging the consciousness of mind, body, emotion and spirit. In the past 3 years, Marcia has been participating in Shamanic training through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and has been integrating Shamanic practice with transpersonal psychotherapy. More recently, she has joined the faculty of the Addictions Counselling Program at the University of Lethbridge, as an Assistant Professor, and is on the Editorial Board of Reviewers of Pardoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology.

Title:  Interweaving Pathways:  The Significance of Shamanic Experience for the Nondual Journey.

This 90 minute presentation is both theoretically and experientially based.  Both the Nondual and Shamanic pathways are explored to reveal the similarities between the theoretical explanations and experiences of practitioners on either path.  Common struggles and barriers experienced by individuals on the nondual path are outlined, which may be worked through using Shamanic practices, revealing the significance of shamanic experience for abiding in nondual being.  An experiential based Shamanic practice will be introduced for participants to experience firsthand and share its relevance for their own nondual journey.

 

Trent Leighton, Ph.D. has spent his professional career dedicated to the development of a mental health model based upon the nondual realizations of the World’s enlightened and awakened masters. The evolution of this process has taken him through a wide breadth of spiritual and psychological teachings that have been “lived” in the lab of daily life and translated into effective counseling practices. After years of creating a successful private practice in New York City, Trent’s current focus finds him working with indigenous villages in rural Alaska applying the realizations of nonduality to those struggling with active addiction.

Title:  Substance Abuse Counselling From a Nondual Perspective.

Intersections between the myriad of psychological interventions and the Non-Dual teachings and practices of many spiritual traditions in the perennial philosophy are becoming increasingly common. One specific area in which this collaboration holds untapped possibilities is the proliferation of substance abuse and addiction that transcends cultural and socio-economic boundaries. To view the metaphysical premise of duality and separate selfhood as conditioned, non-obligatory activities and not literal, causal objects: provides a brand new horizon from which to approach the addict’s impulsive need to drink and drug. The unique vantage of non-duality, or Metanoesis, exposes an underlying “addiction” that is typically not addressed in most conventional psychological models. From Buddhism to Vedanta, there is a indefatigable message that not only are we not the separate pockets of subjectivity we are working so hard to sell, but that such an existential option is not possible in the first place. Coupled with sound counseling practices, this workshop will explore the relationship between the addicts need to get “high” and the defense of the false premise of duality and separation between subject-object that leaves no room for an ego to be anything, including “addicted.”      

Register: http://paradoxica.ca/index.php/conference


Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
#3907 From: "markwotter704" <markwotter704@...>
Date: Sun May 30, 2010 5:40 pm
Subject: #3908 - Saturday, May 29, 2010 		markwotter704
Send Email Send Email
 
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3908, Saturday, May 29, 2010




You are the forest

you are all the great trees
in the forest

you are bird and beast
playing in and out
of all the trees

O lord white as jasmine
filling and filled by all

why don't you
show me your face?

- Akka Mahadevi (12th Century), English version by A. K. Ramanujan, posted to allspirit



Ram Tzu knows this...

God doesn't care
What you had for lunch.
He created tofu and sausage
With the same thought.

Yet you advanced ones
Swell with pride
Convinced your special diet
Is a shortcut to heaven.

Clever you.
Who would have ever thought
To look there.

The fools go on eating poison
In blissful ignorance.
Too stupid and unspiritual
Not to enjoy their
Ice cream, French fries, and red meat.

Ram Tzu says...

Far better to die a single death
Than a thousand little daily ones.

- Ram Tzu, posted to AlongTheWay



It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

- Henry David Thoreau, posted to Distillation



What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, posted to AlongTheWay



The only thing you know as a matter of certainty is the fact I AM. But you do not know who this "I" is. One must first find out precisely who or what it is that is seeking truth and happiness before there is any possibility of knowing the transcendental Reality.

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

Just as the difference between the space in a pot and the space outside it disappears when the pot is demolished, so also does duality disappear when it is realized that the difference between the individual consciousness and the Universal Consciousness does not in fact exist.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels



We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.

Kalu Rinpoche, posted to Distillation




Reply | Messages in this Topic (1)
Messages 3878 - 3907 of 4930   Oldest  |  < Older  |  Newer >  |  Newest
Add to My Yahoo!      XML What's This?
Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Guidelines NEW - Help