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Nondual Highlights #1351- Saturday, February 15, 2003 Editor: Christiana

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Viorica Weissman MillionPaths@yahoogroups.com  

Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of
opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of
being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled
by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and
denying all the rest. The pivot of Tao passes through
the center where all affirmations and denials converge.
He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which
all movements and oppositions can be seen in their
right relationship... Abandoning all thought of imposing
a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.
Chuang Tzu

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/taoism/cz-list.htm

Gill Eardley spiritual-friends@yahoogroups.com  

This was sent to me by a friend, and it is really beautiful.
http://www.byregion.net/rumi  

Joseph Riley Panhala@yahoogroups.com

Here is a relationship booster that is guaranteed to
work:   Every time your spouse or lover says something
stupid make your eyes light up as if you just heard
something brilliant.
~ Rumi

Lady Joyce AdyashantiSatsang@yahoogroups.com  

Dear Friends:  

I just want to say a simple thank you to you.
Nothing fancy, nothing sweet
Just want to thank you
For massaging my feet!!!  

Robert O'Hearn AdyashantiSatsang@yahoogroups.com   

Crooked Cucumber by David Chadwick (The life and teaching of my first Zen Master, Suzuki Roshi).    When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say:  "Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere."   

At the highest waterfall (at Yosemite) I saw the water coming down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It doesn't come down swiftly, as I expected; it comes slowly. And it comes down in groups. I thought it might be a very hard experience for each drop of water to come down such a high mountain from top to bottom.

I thought our life is maybe like this. We have many hard experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water is not originally separated. It is one whole water. So we say, "From emptiness everything comes out." One whole body of water, or one whole mind, is emptiness. When we reach this understanding, we can see the beauty of the flower -- the beauty of human life. Before we realize this fact, all we see is just delusion.   

A garden is never finished.   

Gill Eardley allspirit@yahoogroups.com   

The truth can't hurt you. It's just like the dark It scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark.  ~Elvis Costello  

Maria The_Other_Syntax@yahoogroups.com   

The world tends to trap you in the role you play and it is
always extremely hard to maintain a watchful, mocking
distance between oneself as one appears to be and
oneself as one actually is. James Baldwin 

Richie being_one@yahoogroups.com  

Stress test   http://employees.ford.com/js/stress/html/brand.htm  

Dan Berkow meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com  

Reflections on the current world situation  

I couldn't agree with you more that war is ugly as hell.  

In a way, it is the hell that we live with as the human
condition, and which all our attempts at control simply
lead to new, improved expressions of.  

New improved human civilizations lead to new,
improved ways to destroy human beings.  

There is the wish to control the other, and the belief that
one is in a position to know what is best, and that leads
to games of control and counter control that get
incredibly destructive. It includes cultural games as well
as national games of control.  

The drama is the drama of the human mind, or the
human condition. It involves the human being -- there is
no particular one to blame -- as soon as one instigator
is blamed and killed, another takes that one's place,
and we have to deal with the one who killed the killer.  

If one potential conflict is averted, another springs up in
another place.  

On every side, every culture, every continent, there are
these games of control, countercontrol, on and on.  

There will be massive peace protests involving millions.  

Those millions are as much part of the human condition
that constructs wars as are the ones who are initiating
the moves of war, the willingness to amass and use
weapons, the willingness to blame, the willingness to
claim truth is on one's side and evil on the other.  

The governed and the governed are the same human
being.   The killer and the killed are the same human being.  

That is the sorrow and tragedy of the unfolding
dilemma, the apocalpyse that is rearing its ugly head,
the beast generated by desires to control, which is now
out of control.  

There is no solution for this dilemma, because the
dilemma is the human being, is the human
understanding, which inevitably leads to perceptions
involved in control, which inevitably leads to
technologies to have the advantage, which inevitably
leads to ...  

Of course, those who see what is unfolding will protest,
will speak out against war ...  

That is part of the unfolding drama, the holocaust which
already is in progress -- as the involved nations,
religions, parties, individuals all jockey for what they
think will be the best self-serving position in the chess
game of apolcalypse.  

In which there is no position worth taking, nor which
game can be refused -- not even by suicide, for the
game is the very being involved in "human being..."  

But, it's not about a "him" that's screwing everything up.  

That is how the human body-mind computer operates,
  looking where to assign blame and trying to fix
  the situation.  

We are looking at global holocaust resulting from
  various individuals and groups trying to find
  ways to fix things for themselves, and fix each other.  

Each political figure has a stake for himself,
  his group, and his understanding of the world.  

The conditions of interpersonal manipulation,
  violence, hatred and mistrust of one group by another,
  are pervasive at this point.  It is global.  

If you take in the global picture, you'll see
  there is not any actor doing it, making it
  happen this way.  

Each actor is acting out his or her part in the
  drama unfolding, and the holocaust is already
  happening -- like joining a movie in progress ...
 
The outcries for "peace" can't change the scenario
  that all the humans have built together over
  centuries, but certainly those roles will also
  be acted out ...
 
Self-righteousness gives away that there's an attempt  

to maintain self at the center of the proclamations.  

This is about the "self" in the self-righteous, and
  the manipulations to benefit "self" -- with all
  its ideals and high-sounding motives.
  How could it not apply to Bush?  

Global strategies, control of resources,
   seeking advantage for self and group,
   use of force to establish domain -- over centuries ...
   East and West, North and South ...  

Bush is not the initiator of global strategy, but a
  figurehead, a spokesperson, subject himself
  to manipulations and conditionings over time.  

My perception involves inevitability of what is unfolding.  

I would say, the forces involved are very large, and carry
  the weight of centuries, patterns of interwoven
  abuses across and within cultures over centuries ...  

Passivity is seen as bad -- yet it is the passive
  awareness that is receptive and knows "what is" ...  

The active awareness is certainly necessary in life,
  but if not intertwined with the passive, doesn't
  receive.  

And then, we get proactivity on all sides that is
  self-serving and not listening, not hearing,
  not taking in the total picture.  

I feel that we are already in the midst of great
  tragedy constructed by the human mind intending
  to fix things and avoid tragedies (for "me")
  the ingrained condition of the human biocomputer,
  the me-center, when active and passive are not
  reconciled and there is an attempt to maintain
  an actively doing "me" --  

So, it seems important to open to the heart of human
  suffering brought about by our self-centering ...
  non-avoidance of seeing what comes about
  from our own "automatic doings" and "proactivities" ...  

I'm not totally pessimistic though.   All that happens, is to happen.   And following the hurricane, there is
  new light of a new dawning.  

Yet, it cannot be that there is light
  without darkness, not in this
  world of human experience.    

___________________  

If there is no blame assigned, there is nothing   to fight, and no heroic individual.   The actors don't act from a separable position to
 make things happen, so there is merely an ongoing
 chain of events.  The only thing is that the chain  doesn't move from the past into the future, as most  people assume.  The chain links past, present and  future, and is merely interpreted as if moving from  past to future because of the structuring of the human brain.   And this is my point -- the passive awareness takes in,
  isn't looking to do anything, so doesn't need an
  anchor in a "known" -- the active awareness that wants
  to accomplish something formulates a "known" -- a basis
  on which to apply knowledge toward getting something
  done.  

drhawkinsgroup@yahoogroups.com  

Context and positionality  

Gary Harmon responds to this question:   

[I'd like to know how any of you out there are able to live
from 'context']    Here is a response to the inquiry. These terms keep
reappearing on my 'TV' mind set today relative to
'context'; it is 'Consciousness-without-an-object' and
'supreme-indifference'. Terms that were picked up from
Franklin Merrell Wolff who resided in Arizona until his
death at the age of 98. The context is more perceptible
when indifference is present and positionality becomes
unconcerned, content becomes less important and
context shines forth.   

Jim responds:   Gary and all...I believe that Dr. H[awkins] suggests to
drop positionality...to surrender them. This is a beautiful
invitation. And at first, all kinds of resistances and
obstacles present themselves...and one can fallaciously
conclude that one is not 'progressing' at all. Yet I
believe that that is one of the indicators...or perhaps a
prelude to eventual Realization. So...my suggestion for
all of us...is not to be discouraged when resistances
intensify...when obstacles continue to arise again and
again. And these hindrances wear different
costumes...yet the themes may very well be familiar and
constant. So...what to do? Feel them...back up from
your personal TV mind-set...feel this happening in a
much larger, loving context...and surrender.   

meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com   

Bob Graham: The real horror with nuclear holocaust is
the destruction of life on the the planet and no more
reincarnations.   

Maria Luisa: There is no fear to have. Self will never
cease to Be. Self doesn't need anything. It manifests
continually, not depending on an earth, planet, world,
even universe. Self is sustained in itself. And you are
That. Universes are created spontaneously, eternally,
from ever and for ever. These are projections of the
Self, of You. There is no cease to it. You are that, and
you are immortal. Reincarnation is of the tendencies of
mind. It would be even desired not to incarnate again,
so where's the problem here? Fear is of Ego, because
of the false identification of self with world and the
manifest universe. Earth may "die" but Earth itself can
reincarnate. Fear will not stop unless you realise all
these by yourself.    Pure Existence cannot die. It cannot be non-existent.
And You are That. YOU cannot cease to BE. And this is
the Truth.    Hope you accept and understand all these that has
been said by the sages of all the eras, and Trust,
Surrender and then realize it by yourself.   

Bruce Morgan: Maria Luisa is correct, Bobby. Even
Maya (the manifest universe) is immense beyond
human cognition. This entire planet and everything on it
is but a tiny atom of that which is immeasurable -- and
that is only Maya, the apparent universe of forms!   

Our Earth and the myriad forms upon it are precious and beautiful largely *because* they are transient,
mortal. Who we really are has no qualities. It can neither be described nor incarnate nor die. When we grieve for the hypothetical future passing of certain forms, we mourn for the imaginary on account of our attachment to what we see as "I" and all that "I" enjoys -- yet, until that attachment is clearly seen and thereby falls away, our enjoyment of forms is muted and muddled by the occlusion that *is* an unobserved, transient thought pattern we call "I," the distorting perceptual lens of nominal individuality.    Bob Graham: Thank you Bruce and Maria. There is a
lot of understanding there. Perhaps others on this
thread will take this view also and draw some measure
of comfort from it.   

kenhighcountry LiveJournal  

The Return Of The Native  

I have just spent almost an entire week away from LJ. I
haven't posted, and I haven't read it. What happened is
that I was busily duct taping and plastic wrapping our
house, as per the orders of the Fatherland Loyalty
Bureau suggestion of the Department of Homeland
Security, and I accidentally sealed myself into one of
the bathrooms. It took the fire department and the
Coast Guard a few days to get me out. (If they really
don't want us to be anxious, they should just shut up,
and use their huge budget to pass out Xanax on street
corners.) 

David Hodges' new home   And he said, "What is being given to you is in the
shape of a house. But the house is the container for
peace and contentment. I have the feeling that you are
in the right place, that there are times, and this is one of
them, when you are under God's umbrella and you are
sheltered by his grace."   There is nothing I can add to what Jonathan said except
that I felt shivers down my spine as he spoke. Our
conversation was a prayer as spun out by two friends
who are not afraid of speaking of higher things. 
http://www.outermost.com/images/BishopStAlbum/index.html  

Christiana's reflections on What presides
This weekend, approaching "President's day", I found myself reflecting on my resistance to this president. Thoughts of what it means to 'preside' arose:  

President: One appointed or elected to preside Preside: To possess or exercise authority or control.  

Pondering the imperative for Self-governance (or inquiry and abiding) I remembered things read over 30 years ago by the psychic Ray Stanford. He 'read' and spoke of the Fatima Prophecies. The particular memory-link was a passage related to a prophecy of the assasination of a Pope and the papal seat being left vacant as a symbol of our need to abide the presidence of Self government.   

Some passages, in a different language model:  

.. and this shall symbolize the time when men once more must come to know that the throne within themselves is
empty until they bow before it and know the invisible
Lord of Life and Master of Spirit, mind, and body who
dwells eternal in the temple not made with hands.
The angel of the Mother of Jesus called them-called
all-unto that throne which is empty to the eyes of men,
but is filled to the eye that is single. And She promised
that as it is single, not only your own mind and body, but
the world shall be filled with light as was promised by
Jesus.   This is why it is so necessary in this time that men
cease the striving for material satisfactions and lovingly
do their duty in the world without grumbling. Love God
most, whereby the burden of work and human affairs is
lightened, as Jesus gave that it would be when He said,
"Take on My yoke, for the burden becomes easy thereby."  

Some of you will say, "But what of the forces of Satan?" Do you not know that Satan is mind?  

Mind is of the nature of delusion and duality, excepting
that it takes on the perfect pattern of the lmmaculate
Conception: to respond perfectly to Spirit by and
through devotion, allowing the Holy Spirit to lift it to a
level of purity where it is not falsely identified with body.
Then, it is up to you to have the will to respond. There is
no hope otherwise.   Mind is Satan. Mind is duality. The devil has been
referred to by the number two (or deux, or such) in
various languages. That is because it is of duality, the
devil, Satan is mind itself, for it is that which gives you
false identity with body.

Day by day praise the Lord in action and in thought, but
know that the strength may not be found to do so unless
you go within your own closet. By devotion, still your
mind on the 'eye that is single', as Jesus pointed out.   

Devote yourself as best you know how, withdrawing
your attention from the body to the 'eye that is single'.
Call upon the Supreme Lord of Life, saying, "I perish,
Lord. Let me see Thy Light. Let me know Thy Love. Let
me be Thy Will and do it."  

http://www.ettl.co.at/uc/swedish/english/efatima.htm

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