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Nondual Highlights Issue #2046 Wednesday, February 2, 2004 Editor: Mark

Even having all the money in the world won't bring satisfaction, and the remedy for such craving is to offer up our wealth in meditation or give our possessions to others. While it is fine to make offerings to the objects of Refuge, and to donate to charities, what is most important is the 'spirit of generosity,' with which you give your possessions to others. In addition, recognizing that all that you enjoy is the direct result of your previous merit, you can offer up that merit, and the merit is not used up, but increases further. Craving for anything, even samadhi, is like putting on a pair of handcuffs, so relinquish craving so that compassion can arise spontaneously.

- Gaytrul Rinpoche, from the book, Naked Awareness, Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, published by Snow Lion, posted to DailyDharma

You cannot meditate if you are ambitious - you may play with the idea of meditation. If your mind is authority-ridden, bound by tradition, accepting, following, you will never know what it is to meditate on this extraordinary beauty... It is the pursuit of its own fulfilment through time that prevents generosity. And you need a generous mind - not only a wide mind, a mind that is full of space, but also a heart that gives without thought, without a motive, and that does not seek any reward in return. But to give whatever little one has or however much one has - that quality of spontaneity of outgoing, without any restriction, without any withholding, is necessary. There can be no meditation without generosity, without goodness - which is to be free from pride, never to climb the ladder of success, never to know what it is to be famous; which is to die to whatever has been achieved, every minute of the day. It is only in such fertile ground that goodness can grow, can flower. And meditation is the flowering of goodness.

- J. Krishnamurty

Your body is short of time, not you. Time and space are in the mind only. You are not bound. Just understand yourself - that itself is eternity.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That: Talks With Sri Nisargadatta

Once there were many moments,

now not even one.

No beginning to this not even one moment,
no end, either.

Within this not even one moment....
...a parade, a procession of perceptions....
each with their own beginnings
endings, languages of
straight and squiggly lines
cast across the surface of water,

water of life
watery canvas of shifting light
never the same,
always as is..........

welcoming equally light and darkness
infinite variations of shine and shadow
birth and death

all life


restless surface
silent depth
irresistible depth
bottomless embrace
dying daily to this depth

this endless not even one moment of life

waterfall of feeling
falling into itself
its depth
its silence

just as is,
always as is.

No shore
no embarking or arrival

a journey in a dream
river in time
watery destination
the destination of liquidity,
mid-air at the waterfall:

drops of elemental being,
flowing unity
bursting into billion momentary
gleaming tiny fleeting voices

roaring life
pouring life into life
receiving itself
welcoming itself into itself
perpetually

just as is,
always as is.

Nothing bound
nothing loosed

timeless flow in a dream of water,
a dream of shine and shadow
flowing into each other

dissembling and assembling
disintegrating and reintegrating

beyond any comprehension
beyond any narrative description

any motive or goal or
passion or prescription but

just as is,
always as is.


Yes, along the banks of this
river of myself I stagger,
intoxicated by the wine of
my own watery being,

this life of waves
rippling over stillness

the still pool of heart where
feeling breathes so quietly,
so potently while
the tears wells up from this depth -

just as is,
always as is.


Forehead rests
on the cool stone floor
before this altar,

there is no dividing place
separating flesh and bone
from the pillow of stone.


A drifting through endlessness...
eyes blinded by the brilliance
of mysterious light --

its reflection
my own



Palms turned
upward, naturally
holding everything to everything.

Palms as light
as the feather that I am,
feather on wind's breath.


The mere fact that the
yearning is present is proof
of possibility.

That yearning always followed and....

...Something........ placed that kiss
upon my heart,

now the clouds
filled with light
glide through this night

each an exhalation
a sigh from deep space,
the space between sighs
deepening --
deepening into my sighs.

Bowed on knees
A kneeling of heart in my own heart
the heart, life made so
I could feel it.


This is what
it does,

it is
what I do.

Who speaks,
who listens?

Does this water sutra
depend on any lips?

Lips which can only be pressed against Infinity.

I follow backwards into that
yearning of water for
Itself,
that breathing song
I cannot forget


The incense I burn for
the world
burns for me.

Between fingers
a slight sensation
before the final ash --

A final sigh

the momentary flicker
of acknowledgement...

.......of welcome



Ah


- Lips Pressed Against Infinity by Sandeep, posted to meditationsocietyofamerica

This is for everyone...

He desired me so I came close.

No one can near God unless He has
prepared a bed for
you.

A thousand souls hear His call every second,
but most every one then looks into their life's mirror and
says, "I am not worthy to leave this
sadness."

When I first heard His courting song, I too
looked at all I had done in my life
and said,

"How can I gaze into His omnipresent eyes?"
I spoke those words with all
my heart,

but then He sang again, a song even sweeter,
and when I tried to shame myself once more from His presence
God showed me His compassion and spoke a divine truth,

"I made you, dear, and all I make is perfect.
Please come close,
for I
desire
you."

- St. Theresa of Avila, posted to satsangdiarygroup

In atma nivedana (self-surrender) the devotee offers everything to God, including his body, mind and soul. He keeps nothing for himself. He has no personal, independent existence. He has become part and parcel of God. God takes care of him and God treats him as Himself. Grief and sorrow, pleasure and pain, the devotee treats these as gifts sent by God and does not attach himself to them. He considers himself a puppet, as an instrument in the hands of God. He does not feel egoistic for he has no ego - his ego has gone over to God.

This devotee does not feel it is his duty to look after his wife, children etc., for he himself has no independent existence apart from God. God will take care of all for He knows how to lead the world in the right path. He has no sensual craving, for he has no body; it has been offered to God. He only feels the presence of God and nothing else. He has no enemies or friends for he has given himself up to God who has no enemies or friends. He has no anxiety for he has attained everything by attaining the grace of God. He does not even have the thought of salvation - he merely wants God and nothing but God.

- Swami Sivananda

More here: http://sivanandaonline.org/html/kutiryoga/highest/worshipliberation.shtm