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#3227 -
Monday, July 14, 2008 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
All ClearSightTV's Videos
This site has some excellent hour long
interviews with Western Nondual teachers including Mooji, Alice
Gardner, Neelam, Nirmla, John Sherman, John Taylor, Joan
Tolifson, and Jeannie Zandi, who is Mark Otter's
friend.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/ClearSightTV/videos/
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
Once Ikkyu, clothed in a his
customary shabby robe and tattered hat
went to beg at the door of of a wealthy family's home.
He was roughly treated, ordered round to a back door and
given scraps of
food to eat.
The following day Ikkyu appeared at a feast sponsored by the
family
decked in the brocade robes of an abbot. A large tray of food was
brought and placed before him, Ikkyu removed the robe and placed
it in
front of the tray. The host asked "What are you doing".
Ikkyu
answered "The food belongs to the robe, not to me".
Then he excused
himself and left the table.
posted by Tom McFerran
It is possible that the next Buddha
will not take the form of an individual.
The next Buddha may take the form of a
community -- a community practicing
understanding and loving kindness, a
community practicing mindful living.
This may be the most important thing
we can do for the survival of the
Earth.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
---
gill
http://www.allspirit.co.uk
Being
on the Dot by Pema Chodron
When we hear about
compassion, it naturally brings up working with others, caring
for others. The reason we're often not there for others--whether
for our child or our mother or someone who is insulting us or
someone who frightens us--is that we're not there for ourselves.
There are whole parts of ourselves that are so unwanted that
whenever they begin to come up we run away.
Because we escape, we keep missing being right here, being right
on the dot. We keep missing the moment we're in. Yet if we can
experience the moment we're in, we discover that it is unique,
precious, and completely fresh. It never happens twice. One can
appreciate and celebrate each moment--there's nothing more
sacred. There's nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there's
nothing more!
Only to the degree that we've gotten to know our personal pain,
only to the degree that we've related with pain at all, will we
be fearless enough, brave enough, and enough of a warrior to be
willing to feel the pain of others. To that degree we will be
able to take on the pain of others because we will have
discovered that their pain and our own pain are not different.
Although it is embarrassing and painful, it is very healing to
stop hiding from yourself. It is healing to know all the ways
that you're sneaky, all the ways that you hide out, all the ways
that you shut down, deny, close off, criticize people, all your
weird little ways. You can know all that with some sense of humor
and kindness. By knowing yourself, you're coming to know
humanness altogether. We are all up against these things. We are
all in this together.
From Start Where You Are.
Breathing Room
What can we do but keep on breathing in and
out, modest and willing,
and in our places? ~Mary Oliver
We all need breathing room. A place where we can go to be
recharged.
For me, that room is on the inside. It cannot be located on a
GPS. It
is inside of us that peace descends and no where else.
After my daughter's cancer came back for the second time, she had
to
have it removed — once again from her right leg. More...It
was a
malignant tumor known as rhabdomyosarcoma, a big word to be
destroying
such a tiny person. She was almost six when this recurrence came
about.
I remember it as if it were yesterday. My minister friend Dan and
I
were in the hospital chapel and I was able to practically scream
out:
"It just isn't fair... I can't stand it!" She recovered
from surgery
and had radiation. Then, she was given six months to a year to
live. I
wept as I spoke to someone at St. Jude's (Laurie was getting her
treatments in Atlanta). "Having a child with cancer makes
strong
people weak and breaks weak people." True enough.
So how did I find breathing room during those years? I went
inside. I
journalled, recorded my dreams, studied esoteric philosophies.
Yogananda became my friend, as he has been to many others. Joel
Goldsmith influenced me to a great extent as well as other
spiritual
healers and teachers. Now when I sit in the silence, that silence
is
my breathing space.
One fine day Laurie had to up and leave us. She had been in a
coma for
a few days. But the day before she died, she woke up. I was at
home
and her father told me about this. She sat up in bed and said,
"What
day is this?" What time is it?" and soon was comatose
again. The next
day she died in my arms.
How do you find breathing space after a little child has died?
I am not sure I can tell you in words. I imagine you are with me
as
you read this account. You can probably feel the hot tears
plopping
into the cart as I wheeled her belongings from that hospital
room. As
I told her older brother,"...Laurie died today." The
world stopped.
How was I to breathe again?
I let something else breathe for me; all of those teachings were
inhales and exhales of the spirit. Now I can tell you that the
world
never stops — it just feels like it does. Many who knew
Laurie
abandoned me when she died. They couldn't take it. But the
teachings
were there for me when human beings couldn't be.
This is a world filled with fear and illusion. If you don't know
that,
you will learn it soon enough. My daughter, at the age of five,
knew
the joy of transcendence. She came into the world with it. I
credit
her with pushing me into a higher atmosphere, where God breathes
for
me when I cannot do it for myself. Someone said that thank you is
the
only prayer that you will ever need.
I write to remember that.
Vicki Woodyard
http://www.vickiwoodyard.com
posted to Nonduality Salon