Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2802 - Sunday, April 29, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality http://nonduality.com/one.htm
Nondual Highlights
When someone asks what there is to do, light the candle in their hand. --Rumi This is a bhakti issue, and concludes with two very moving videos. The Heart Sutra chant is accompanied by Hubble images from space. The music for the Amma video is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Oh yes, and the "darshan of food".
"We sit in this
courtyard, two forms,
shadow outlines with one soul,
birdsound, leaf moving, early evening
star, fragrant damp, and the sweet
sickle curve of moon. You and I in a
round, unselved idling in the garden-
beauty detail. The raucous parrots
laugh, and we laugh inside laughter,
the two of us on a bench in Konya, yet
amazingly in Khorasan and Iraq as well,
friends abiding this form, yet also
in another outside of time, you and I."
-- Rumi
From the book: "The Soul of Rumi," published by Harper,
SanFrancisco.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0861710525/angelinc
posted to Daily Dharma
a poem for Bob and Mazie...
The Gardeners
In the spring she
drops the seeds, he
covers them. He
digs up the weeds.
She cuts the flowers.
She takes the blooms
and puts them in
every room. They soar
red from the tables, sprout
yellow from the shelves,
hang purple from
the ceiling, blue
from the edges of
lampshades. Clusters
of flowers sit in
tiny pots on every
windowsill, in open
cupboards, behind
the sink. He stands
beside her as she tosses
all the wilted leaves
into a rusty bucket.
This house is heaven's
door, the air gathering
the bashful smells of
blossoms, roots, cut
stems, wet dirt, new
and rotting leaves.
-- Jack Ridl, from Broken Symmetry
"everything illumines" by Yuanwu http://www.pbase.com/1heart/yuanwu
slideshow by Bob O'Hearn
Roy Whenary:
Thanks Ben ...
Yes, South Indian food (as well as Salad Vegetables) are my
favourite foods. Unfortunately, the nearest South Indian Restaurant
is just over 100 miles away!
Yeah, here we have
none at all. There are some Indian restaurants in Hasselt,
Maatricht, Liege and Aachen but they are mostly Tandoori
restaurants.
There is one Southern Indian restaurant in Amsterdam; they even
sell vegetarian dosa.
The best South Indian food I ate in, well, tah tah, South
India...(surprise, surprise!)
And of all the places I ate the best food was in the
Ramanashramam, Anandaashram of swami Ramdas (not to be confused
with Ramdass of Be Here Now), and in the ashram of sri sadhu Om
also in Tiru. There lives a Lady there in ashram of sadhu Om and
she gives her 'darshan' through food. There is a story behind
this.
When I was there the last time I was reading some works by sadhu
Om. I went to the samadhi of Muruganar and sadhu Om and did
pradakshina of their tombs. The day before my departure a friend
there, Rumi, a Tamil man--I lived in his compound at the
time--told me I could go there for books and food. The Lady there
brought the food and I ate it. I felt that when I ate the food it
was a blessing or darshan.
Also Yogi Ramsuratkumarashram had very good food--also darshan
through food.
Basically it had the same quality as the food my mother cooks!
The most important ingredients being love and attention. My
mother cooks sattvica food. She is also vegetarian.
Sri Ramana was also involved with the kitchen work. He did this
so his teaching would be eaten by the residents and visitors!
At least, that is my conviction. When I read the Power of the
Presence series my intuition about this was confirmed.
In those books one can learn a lot about what was going on there
at the time Sri Ramana still lived there in his bodily form. He
was not at all the silent, aloof jnani some people think. He was
also a great bhakta, like a Mother, always keen on the well-being
of his visitors.
Sometimes when visitors came and he was doing construction work,
or whatever was being done at the moment he said: 'I have to go
back to jail.' He felt imprisoned sometimes.
There is one story I recently read. There was a western devotee
(one of the more early ones) he came to stay in the ashram for
some time. And Bhagavan would go and see him in his hut and
scanned through his belongings and asking questions about them.
Most things were probably manufactured in the West, so Sri Ramana
was curious like a child.
One day, the western devotee had put a chair in the hut so Sri
Ramana could sit on it like the 'guru.' After this happened
he never came again.
I find there is a lot to learn from sages and their teachings
through their everyday interactions with people and the world
around them. When I read the Power of the Presence many things
became very clear to me. Things were put into perspective.
Sometimes it was like a was actually there. This is not so
strange, the Indonesian man, my first teacher once told me how he
saw the last day of Sri Ramana before his mahasamadhi. He could
hear devotees whisper and later on the chanting of Arunachala
Shiva. It happened to him in a dream. When he told me this tears
ram down his cheeks and he was staring into empty space as if the
thing was still happening right in front of him. He was actually
there.
Also, in Anandaaahram in Kerala, there was one brahmin, a very
old man and I felt he was a sage, a bhakta. He came to me and
showed me a secret spot where I could smoke! When I was smoking
he was standing there watching me curiously like a child.
He was really looking after us. He ran around and brought us
fruit, towels etc. and was asking whether there was anything we
needed and so on. He was very curious and liked to talk with us.
He looked like an orthodox South Indian brahmin but really, he
was as innocent as a child, he was really a child of God. His Ram
Nam was something I will never forget. I think he had a stroke
because his ability to speak was impaired. But his Ram Nam was
very powerful. He gave us darshan by his simple care and
attention. I felt that Sri Ramana was like this man. It is hard
to explain. I am so very grateful these things happened to us.
This old brahmin, when he was near me I could feel my blind
spots. It was as if by his mere presence impurities just washed
away and all I could feel was ananda. Hence: the Power of the
Presence. So by writing this story I express my gratitude and
offer it.
Love and regards,
Ben.
OM SRI RAM JAY RAM JAYA JAYA RAM
Heart Sutra or paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PsqekVz1eE&mode=related&search=
Ananthasree, the maker of this video for Amma, wrote the following description:
An offering at the feet of
my guru. This montage is symbolic of the intricacies of the
guru-shishya relationship. It primarily represents devotion, and
the desperate longing to merge with the Beloved, or God.
The song is Hallelujah, composed by Leonard Cohen and performed
by Jeff Buckley. The lyrics have a depth that can be explored
again and again, and deep religious and philosophical undertones,
which moved me more than words can say.
This is my visual poem to my guru. I put it out into the world in
the event that it is another persons poem as well. If it is,
enjoy.
Hallelujah stems from the word halal, plus the particle u,
meaning 'and' or 'with', and jah, which is short for Yahweh, the
Name of God. Halal means 'to shine,' and is most often ascribed
to stars.
Hallelujah means: shine with God!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keq9YbloAeQ&mode=related&search
link posted by Bob O'Hearn on GardenMystics__._,_.___