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Nondual Highlights Issue # 1439 Editor: Christiana

The_Other_Syntax@yahoogroups.com  

"... Perception is a condition of alignment; the emanations inside the cocoon become aligned with those outside that fit them. Alignment is what allows awareness to be cultivated by every living creature. Seers make these statements because they see living creatures as they really are: luminous beings that look like bubbles of whitish light. The emanations inside and the emanations outside are the same filaments of light. Sentient beings are minute bubbles made out of those filaments, microscopic points of light, attached to the infinite emanations..."

TFFW Carlos Castaneda  


Shawn Nisargadatta@yahoogroups.com  

Hold onto the "riverbed." The cessation of thought does not make the bed come into being, but simply clears the water for an easier view. Awareness is always there, be aware of awareness. Nothing can be a hinderance, ultimately.      



DC Vision
allspirit@yahoogroups.com  

Feasting Within Famine  

I dare not exhale
knowing how fragile
the moments are,
when all is right
in my world...
wrapped up in
this absorbtion
of effervescent joy.
 
I dare not speak
or the spell
may be broken.
What good can words
come to,
when there is nothing
to say
to add to
perfection?
 
I dare not seek
beyond the immediate,
for fear
that the anxious world
will crash in on
my solace,
my moment
where the music
of the heart
holds center stage.
 
Why must peace
and contentment
live as estranged neighbors
of mine,
on my street?
Why must joy
be such a rarity?
Happiness is
handed out as samples,
when we are in famine
and denial
of our hunger.
 
I dare not close my eyes,
knowing how fleeting
and fickle
reality is.
I will hold this breath
until either
this perfection,
or I
cease being.
 
©2003 DC Vision
 


Anois Blue Live Journal  

This may be a bit on the mystical side when it really has to do with
one's level of awareness but I think it is magical when you are lost in
contemplation on one subject and similar, connected things come
along when you aren't looking for them. As if the first thoughts pulsate
from a person's body in electro-magnetic waves that attract those
things that are connected and one thing leads to another and then
another until eventually they gather like Pick-Up Sticks lying over and
under each other in one large, colorful connected pile. 
 

A friend posted about Thomas Merton which reminded me to
go in search of my favorite Merton poem and instead, I got lost in
biography and come across a website that attempts to answer the
question, "What was the Christian monk looking to find in his dialogue
with Buddhism?" 
  Merton said about his journey to Asia that he was, "going home to the
home I have never been" and that he wanted to become "as good a
Buddhist as I can." What is that if not a man determined to cement his
own faith by giving himself over to the study of another faith, not with an
eye to denounce it but to embrace it. 
 

He didn't come about that idea on his own. For Merton it was a lesson
he had tucked away for decades, one that he didn't think about when
he was a fierce new Christian with no regard for any other religion. But
then, that makes sense. The less one knows about their own beliefs
the more they have to protect them. 
 

It was as his own faith and understanding grew that he remembered a
moment when he was in his early 20's that had a profound effect on
him. He had met a Hindu monk and asked for suggestions on what he
should read. The monk surprised Merton when he didn't suggest he
read the great Hindi texts, but rather that he should delve into the more
mystical Christian literature such as St. Augustine's Confessions. 
 

That's got to make someone think, huh? It makes me think, Here is a
person so secure in their own spirituality that they can explore and
question and consider how all the pieces fit together and they don't
need me to believe what they believe as some numerical confirmation
of its rightness. That's not common among people, especially in any
discussion of religion or politics. Well, maybe with the exception of the
Jesuits who have made questioning their calling. 
 

Ghandi said that one could find "the deeper roots of one's own
religious tradition by becoming immersed in other religions." 
 

What a way to influence another person--send them back to their own
culture, their own traditions for the answers--let them find them on their
own. That's what it's all about, isn't it? What a respectful thing to do, as
well. 
 


Mary Bianco to NDSN@yahoogroups.com   

What Are You Really Afraid Of? David R. Loy   

David R. Loy argues that our true fear is not of dying, but of not existing
in the first place. 
 

For the most part, we experience ourselves as stable and persistent
beings, apparently immortal; yet there is also a sneaking awareness of
our impermanence, the fact that "I" am growing older and will die. The
tension between these two conflicting perceptions is essentially the
same one Shakyamuni Buddha himself felt when, as the myth has it, he
ventured out of his father's palace to encounter for the first time an ill
man, an aged man, and finally, a corpse. While most traditional
religions resolve this tension by claiming that the soul is immortal,
Buddhism does the opposite. Not only does it accept our mortality in
the usual sense, but it also emphasizes the doctrine of anatta, or
"no-self." 
  Anatta is central to Buddhism, and is closely connected to another
fundamental Buddhist idea: dukkha. Dukkhais usually translated as
"suffering," and is understood more broadly as frustration or
unhappiness. Although psychotherapy today has more specific insight
into the dynamics of our mental dukkha (repression, transference, etc.),
 

Buddhism points more directly to the root of the problem: it is not death
that underlies our deepest fears and mental suffering, but the more
immediate and terrifying suspicion that anatta gives rise to-that "I" am
not real right now. This suspicion appears in us as a sense of lack and
motivates our compulsive but usually futile attempts to ground
ourselves with a fixed, unchanging identity. 
 

Traditionally, religious institutions reassured us that this sense of lack
will be resolved, and local communities provided a social home and
role that made us feel more comfortable with ourselves. Today, our
more individualistic culture means it is my own responsibility to ground
myself-hence the ferocious competition for fame, money, sex appeal,
and other things that, it is believed, will make me "more real." 
 

http://www.tricycle.com/p_articles_id_37.html   


From the editors: Meet the NDH community  

It is serendipity when we editors discover that the spirit and words which show up elsewhere to include in these highlights are written by someone already in this community. We have not mentioned this relationship. Perhaps, it is time to do so.   As we sit in this circle of emptiness together, this affinity is good to be aware of.  

If you have are a reader, and have a personal webpage you would like us to be aware of, please send us the link. If you would prefer not to be "outed" as a list member, let us know and we will, of course, respect this.  

Today may I introduce you to:  

James Traverse http://www.beingyoga.com  

From the "Dimensions of Now" link  

Less is More Nothing is Everything  

Now is. All other dimensions are qualities which describe Now. They are the measurements and dimensions of change. As the definition evolves it includes, and is dependent on, the previous aspects.   

In a certain way, now gets stretched when viewed from other dimensions. The 1st dimension stretches now linearly, the 2nd dimension adds width, the 3rd dimension adds depth, and, the 4th dimension is movement (time) within space. (the 4th dimension is Now completely unfolded).  

Now can be lived Intuitively, but not Intellectually, because the very attempt to understand Now Intellectually is negated by the medium of the explanation (like a wave, the local mind exists as movement - intellectual knowing is identification with the movement - the natural state of the relaxed brain is multidimensional attention).  

Less is More. The Yogic understanding of Less always provides More. In Yoga practice you get more by doing less.  

~ What time is it? Have you ever experienced a time other than this?  

~ It is the identification with the whirl (the world) of the local mind that is the trap because what you give attention to will expand - this is how the I-entity is formed and sustained. So what stops is this concretization of energy as the ego barrier, and, without this energy the barrier collapses, then the Light of what you are naturally acts.  

~ It is the emptiness of a vessel that makes it UseFull.



Buddhists hold key to happiness   http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&e=14&u=/nm/oukoe_health_buddhists  

LONDON (Reuters) - Buddhists really are happy, calm and serene
people -- at least according to their brain scans. 
 

Using latest scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, and not just when they are meditating, which indicates positive emotions and good mood.   

The scanning studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison showed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced
Buddhist practitioners. The area is linked to positive emotions,
self-control and temperament. 
 

Other research by Paul Ekman, of the University of California San
Francisco Medical Centre, suggests that meditation and mindfulness
can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear
memory. 
 

Ekman discovered that experienced Buddhists were less likely to be
shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry as other people. 
 

Flanagan believes that if the findings of the studies can be confirmed
they could be of major importance. 
 

"The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about
conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness
we all seek," Flanagan said in a report in New Scientist magazine. 
 


more from Anois Blue aka Lisa Haynes  

http://www.homestead.com/rainsatnightproductions/LisaHaynes.html  

We are all life time students and teachers, after all--of the things that
move us, of the experiences that shape us, of history, of the earth. We
may be good students or not, but living is the largest act of learning. 
 

What I think I know about learning:  

1. When there are conflicting views, it is just as
     necessary to know the opposing view as it is to
     know your own. Not just to quote it or to throw it
     out in sound bites of derision, but to get inside
     it; to understand why a person would hold it to
     be true; to understand the reasons, the fears,
     the needs behind the view. Arguing for the
     opposite viewpoint allows you to explore your
     own beliefs and if you still hold them after great
     exploration, you will hold them gently and
     respectfully and your arguments will be better
     for it. You won't need to hold your views to you
     with anger which too many of us do, as if anger
     were a weapon of righteousness. 
 

2. School is necessary, yes, but real learning
     occurs when you are on a fearless journey of
     self-discovery; when questions mean as much
     as answers; when one subject leads to another
     and then another in a circle of awareness. 
 

3. Knowledge is a wide river and there's many
     ways to cross it. It is necessary to choose
     respected mentors, not to parrot them but to
     absorb what you can and use what they teach
     (sometimes inadvertently) as stepping stones. 
 

4. If something resonates within you, make note of it.   

5. True learning requires listening, contemplation
     and exploration. There is no pop quiz. Beware
     the true or false and multiple choice portions.
     They may be easier but the bigger points are in
     the essay questions. Don't fear them. 

  ~ You see, thoughts are never linear and rarely are they house-broken.

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