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#2370 -
In this issue are selections from the
beginning of each of Chuck Hillig's four
major books. This material has never appeared anywhere else
on the internet and is exclusive to The Highlights. To order
Chuck's books, visit http://www.blackdotpubs.com/html/publications.html
These books are written for anyone who has
some degree of understanding of enlightenment and wants to probe
as far they can no matter where they are starting from.
ENLIGHTENMENT FOR BEGINNERS
(First published in 1977 and praised by Jean
Klein, Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilber, Huston Smith, Timothy Leary,
Francis Lucille, and others. This book is illustrated
with only a few lines per page so that the reader has a
chance to let a few lines sink in before reading further.)
Do you know who you are?
I mean, do you really know?
Oh, I don't mean your "name."
That's not who you are--
that's what you are called.
OK, then, you say,
if I'm NOT my
"name,"
then..... WHO AM I?
WHO am I?
Who AM I?
Who am I?
Am I.....my body?
Am I.....my thoughts?
Am I.....my feelings?
Am I.....what I do?
And who are YOU,
and what are you
doing in
MY universe?
THE WAY IT
IS
Before we begin, here's a very important
question: "Are you sure that you're ready to finally put
It all together?
If you are, then this book could make It a
lot easier for you. And, along the way, you might even discover
what It's really all about.
In fact, after you know how It all works
together, you may even become more willing to simply love It for
being what It truly is.
"Ok, but why do I have to know
about this It thing, anyway? and...why should I love It?"
Well, you should know about It
because, as It's often said,
"To know It...is to LOVE It."
And loving It completely from the Heart
is actually It's all about.
In fact, after you really start
loving It with your Heart, It will probably pop you whole Life...
"insight-out!"
So, before we go any further, are you really...REALLY
sure that you still want to find out about It???
"Well, yes, but It's just not very
clear yet. Tell me more about this strange 'It' thing that we're
supposed to be talking about."
OK, but first you need to understand that
coming up with a definition of "It" has always been,
well, ...a kind of a "problem."
"It's a problem? How is It a
problem?"
Well, for one thing, nobody can agree on
just what to call It! In fact, over the Ages,
"It" has been known by many different names.
"It has different names? Like
what?"
Well, some people have called It:
the tao,
or the Holy Spirit,
or nirvana,
or samadhi,
or the Self,
or The Oneness,
or even something called
"*P*u*r*e**C*o*n*s*c*i*o*u*s*n*e*s*s."
SEEDS FOR THE SOUL
The story of your life is the cosmic
"song of God" that's being played out through the
instrument of your body.
The deja vu patterns that you're
experiencing in your life play out like the repeating chorus of
the song of your Soul.
Even if you're able to change the words,
doesn't it often seem like just another variation on the same old
theme?
So here's a Big Question:
Is you Song happening to you,
for you,
in you
or as you?
~ ~ ~
You will unconsciously attract into your
life those people and situations which will likely stimulate the
unresolved issues of you childhood.
Life condemns you to repeat whatever it is
that you didn't find the courage to fully complete.
In short, all of you past incompletions in
life will always keep showing up for you.
As somebody once said, "The past
isn't over. In fact, it isn't even the past."
~ ~ ~
Life may not have any real
"meaning" other than the one that you have
superimposed upon it.
In short, life will tend to mean for you
whatever you say that life means.
For example, when you say that:
"Life is a drag!"
"Life is a challenge."
"Life is terrible."
"Life is a dance."
"Life is a game."
etc. etc. etc.
...then Life won't disappoint you.
Life will mysteriously show up for you in
ways that fully support your heart's definition of it...no matter
how self-limiting that definition might be.
But you'll have to take some
position on it.
If you're not willing to give your
life any meaning at all, then your inner fear that "My
life is probaby meaningless!" will automatically win by
default.
~ ~ ~
Finding out about the meaning of the dramas
in your life has a whole lot to do with discovering what you've
been, unconsciously, priming yourself to receive.
Perhaps an even deeper purpose of
life, though, is to eventually discover that you're only pretending
that life even has some kind of deeper purpose or
meaning that you can, eventually, "discover."
Maybe the initial discovery is in seeing
that you've only been on a treadmill to nowhere.
Maybe, in the end, life is just the way that
it is.
LOOKING FOR GOD: SEEING THE WHOLE IN
ONE
"It cannot be called
void or not-void
or both or neither.
But, in order to point it out,
it is called...
the Void
--Nagarjuna
The focus of this (w)hole book is all about,
well...
...NOTHING!!!
And here is a (w)hole lot of it.
(An arrow is drawn pointing to an inch wide
whole drilled through the center of the book.)
Pointing out the "nothing-ness" in
the hole is a bit of a problem.
Why?
Because the only way that you can point out
the "nothing-ness" in the hole is if you're also
willing to include the "something-ness" of the paper
that surrounds the hole.
In other words, you can only see some
"nothing" if you're also willing to
see some "something."
You don't believe me? Well, just check it
out for yourself.
Pretend for a moment that you're taking away
all of the paper that's surrounding this particular hole.
What happens to the hole?
Without the paper around it, the hole
apparently just disappears, doesn't it? Nothing's there.
In short, you're able to see this
particular hole only if there's something else there
that's NOT this hole.
Now that's pretty simple, isn't it?
So here's an interesting question:
Although we can see that this hole is in
the paper, is it really accurate to say that this hole is of
the paper. Hmmm. Well...maybe not.
Maybe the emptiness of the hole exists at a different
level that does the so-called "solidity" of the paper.
But, then...maybe it doesn't.
"Form is emptiness;
emptiness is form.
Form is not other than emptiness;
Emptiness is not other than form."
The Heart Sutra
~ ~ ~
To order Chuck Hillig's books, visit http://www.blackdotpubs.com/html/publications.html