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#2766 - Thursday/Friday, March 22-23, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz  http://nonduality.com

 

Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights

 

 


 

 

a note about the nonduality community

 

When you stumble around a corner into a dark alley, the extended nonduality community rests behind a rarely used door. You open it. The room is lit up like an Alex Grey painting, Gnarles Barkley's rapping, Moby-Dick swims by unscarred, aloeswood smoke rises in multiple places, Hafiz reaches for a Dorito with his left hand. 

 

--Jerry

 

 

 

 


 

 

"'I' am nowhere around," and other nondual confessions...

 

Orva Schrock is a longtime consumer and supporter of nonduality, and also a contributor. The Nondual Highlights is pleased to introduce to you his book, Grandpa's Notebooks: The Evolution of an Amish Soul.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Grandpas-Notebooks-Evolution-Amish-Soul/dp/1598003747/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4897241-9294530?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174678739&sr=1-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[from the introduction (spring 2007)] As a youngster growing up in an Amish family, the world I observed and experienced seemed radically different from what my Amish elders insisted was "the truth." Early on I developed the attitude that truth, real truth, was the supreme value to be sought in life. Even as a child my inner life was busy with this basic question: what is the ultimate truth and what would I believe if no one had ever told me anything?

 

.....What is truth? According to the Bible, when Jesus was asked this question directly, He didn't answer at all. For thoughtful persons the search never ends. As we discover new features of the spiritual landscape, the horizon recedes and we must continue still further in hopes of the final and lasting answer.....

 

[from page 58 (1977)] There is a God shaped hole in my soul. I need the illumination of the mystic union. I pray for deliverance from my present "dark night of the soul." I feel that the dawn is near. I have had some glorious visions of light and love but all too brief, all too few. Just enough to keep me going; and I will.

 

[from page 81 (1979)] Last night I dreamed I was dying. I don't know what the disease was but I had it and knew the end was near.....I began to feel and somehow know that nothing was really going to be lost. On the contrary I was about to gain everything. I would no longer be individual; I would be universal......I awoke disappointed to find myself still here, a prisoner in this body.....

 

[page 96 (1982)] In truth there is only God......and there is no proper symbol, way, guru, religion - all these are shadows at best and lies at worst. Take the journey - do not be mesmerized by tales of madmen. Take the journey - do not worship outdated road maps. Take the journey - don't stare at the finger pointing at a vague path. Take the journey; this is what you are here for.

 

[page 135 (2000)] Religion can be superstition. Of that I have no doubt. Once I left formal religion behind, I became a better person in every conceivable way. Happier, kinder, more intelligent, more useful to the good of the earth and humankind. You do not need religion to be moral. I say quite the opposite is true. You need to be fully responsible for yourself to be truly moral and good. 

 

[page 155 (2002)] Then one day, the best and worst day of my life, I decided to come out of hiding. It was so scary, like jumping off a cliff not knowing for sure I could fly. I talked to my wife and others close to me and told them things that could make a drunken whore blush. I told them I'm not who you think I am but with God's help I intend to be a real person with only one personality.....Almost immediately everything in my world changed....I felt unworthy then and still do now but the presence of "God" is with me in a truly wondrous way and I can't imagine living any other way anymore.

 

[page 172 (2002)] As Harding says, "you are capacity for all of creation to appear in." That light of consciousness is where God can be found, can be known, can be experienced directly. The mystery of being is not other than what you yourself are at this moment Once it is seen it will never be forgotten.

 

[page 194 (2002)] The opening of the heart can happen in many ways. The truth is the truth and the ways to realize that are many. Within each person, starting at the heart, is the unique path that person must walk.  Within the heart of each, hidden from view, lies the clear infinitely deep pond of Spirit or Consciousness, the very ground of our being, the home we are always seeking. This is the pearl of great price, the heaven talked about universally in the sacred mythologies and religions of mankind.  

 

[page 219 (2003)] The underlying theme throughout Vedanta is the idea that we can and must awaken to the reality of our ultimate oneness with Brahman, that is; pure being, pure consciousness, pure bliss. They insist that not only is it possible to become aware of this underlying ultimate reality, but that this awakening and realization is the real one thing worth pursuing in life.

 

[page 226 (2003)] It seems obvious now: consciousness is indeed the root and basis of all. It's where God and everything in every infinite universe always appears.....so I need not worry anymore, but if I do worry, I know its just something consciousness is doing now and "I" am nowhere around.   

 

[page 254 (2004)] The clues are there in the amazing book I was raised on [ my father was an Amish preacher ] in that B-I-B-L-E. The clues are there but he didn't see 'em, didn't believe 'em, didn't teach 'em. Like nearly all the fundamentalists, he ignored, "be still and know I Am God", ignored, "Know ye not that ye are Gods", ignored, "for behold, the kingdom of God is within you", ignored, "I shall be satisfied, oh Lord, when I awaken with thy likeness." 

 

Grandpa's Notebooks: The Evolution of an Amish Soul.

 

by Orva Schrock

 

http://www.amazon.com/Grandpas-Notebooks-Evolution-Amish-Soul/dp/1598003747/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4897241-9294530?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174678739&sr=1-1

 

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