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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3339, Sunday, November 2, 2008, Editor: Mark
little bit of discomfort
Shibli entered a profound mystical state and was placed in an
asylum as a madman. As soon as they heard, his shocked disciples
come to visit him. Shibli asked, "Who are you?"
"We are some of those who love and follow you." Shibli
began throwing stones at his students. They began to run away,
crying, "It's true, Shibli really has gone crazy." Then
Shibli called out to them, "Didn't I hear you say that you
loved me? You could not even bear a stone or two before running
away. What became of that sincere love you claimed you had for
me? Did your love fly away with a couple of stones? If you had
really loved me, you would have patiently endured the little bit
of discomfort I caused you."
- as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, posted to
SufiMystic
To open the chakras is to relax them
In the spiritual-physiological model used by the Order of the
Divine Spirit (and many other spiritual disciplines and
traditions), there are seven sacred energy centres or chakras in
the body - the first in the genitals (symbol - red), second near
the naval (orange), third in the solar plexus (yellow), fourth is
level with the heart (green), fifth in the throat (blue), sixth
between the eyebrows (indigo), and seventh at the top of the head
and above (violet).
We can open these chakras to allow spiritual energy to flow.
To open these chakras is to relax them.
A person I know has most difficulty with their throat chakra.
This comes from many years of bad habits - of using the throat
muscles and vocal chords inappropriately. On another level there
is a karmic history associated with pretending to be someone they
are not in order to impress (for attention, approval, and love),
and not being/accepting oneself with all one's faults, failings
andweaknesses.
Also this person has a constricted throat chakra because they
have not always allowed themselves to express their feelings.
They have "choked back the tears". (Notice that
`choking' happens in the throat).
But now this person has been able to attain Higher States of
Consciousness - high peaks of Insight on a momentary basis, and a
general state of Love and Bliss. They have been able to open
their other chakras to the extent that this has allowed them to
relax and hence relax their throat chakra. This person now speaks
with a deeper more relaxed voice.
Opening the chakras is to relax the chakras. Attaining Higher
States of Consciousness is to relax in the deepest and fullest
sense of the word. It is to surrender to Life. It is to allow
oneself to be a medium for life energies, emotions and events to
pass through.
There is a humorous quip which goes "Don't tell me to relax
- tension is the only thing holding me together!"
In effect we exist as an Ego. The less weare Ego, the less we
exist (the more we are part of the entire fabric of Life). The
Ego can be understood in terms of a complex of tensions in the
fabric of Life. In a sense, the Ego blocks energy and this
creates the illusion of an individual isolated self.
Ego is sustained by karma. And our karmic history contains much
unresolved tension and emotion. Fear is also about blocking
energy, while trust is a signal which allows energy to flow. Fear
is a tension.
(Ego is not bad or wrong. We can learn how to switch back and
forth between Higher States of Consciousness and the Ego state -
that is, the apparent Ego state, or normal state of
consciousness).
One way to describe the path to Higher States of Consciousness is
to relax in the deepest, fullest sense of the word.
In Peace, Love and Light,
JahFe, posted to AdvaitaToZen
Q: I was just checking in with me and I was saying there is
emptiness. I can't see anything else. I can't really see the
world then.
A: Yeah, okay. You're not seeing your projection, then. It's
done.
Q: Is what I'm seeing correct.
A: What you're seeing is not correct or incorrect. What you're
seeing is what you're seeing. That's what's important. What am I
seeing. The mind would say, 'Am I seeing the right thing?'
Q: That's the mind saying, that can't be right because I see
madness.
A: I'm not arguing with that necessarily cause we are looking at
things from a deeper level. It doesn't mean that the more
relative level gets obliterated, necessarily. Right? I can look
and I can go, 'Oh, madness!' I haven't lost the ability. Human
beings. We are the most insane thing that ever walked the earth.
Good Lord, I can see that. It hasn't been moved from my ability.
But the difference is, I can't go into conflict about it. And
it's not just the absence of conflict. When there i a true
absence of conflict there will be the arising of Love.
Unconditional love. So in the face of horror, what arises within
you from your true state is love. In the face of insanity what
arises within you is not internal conflict like, 'God, it's
insane. We're going to kill ourselves. We're so cruel.' That's
mind. You see those things but what arises within you from your
true state is love. That's what starts to arise. That's an
unconflicted being. You still see the insanity. You haven't
become mindless or silly or stupid. And that love is the
experience of non-division internally. When we are not divided
internally, that's the experience, is love. And then we act on
the love instead of acting from the conflict inside. Those
actions are literally infinitely more powerful and more potent.
- Adyashanti, posted to adyashantigroup
The collective disease of humanity is that people are so
engrossed in what happens, so hypnotized by the world of
fluctuating forms, so absorbed in the content of their lives,
they have forgotten the essence, that which is beyond content,
beyond form,beyond thought. They are so consumed by time that
they have forgotten eternity, which is their origin, their home,
their destiny. Eternity is the living reality of who you are.
Some years ago when visiting China, I came upon a stupa on a
mountaintop near Guilin. It had writing embossed in gold on it,
and I asked my Chinese host what it meant. "It means
'Buddha,' " he said. "Why are there two characters
rather than one?" I asked. "One," he
explained.,means 'man.' The other means 'no.' And the two
together means 'Buddha.' " I stood there in awe. The
character for Buddha already contained the whole teaching of the
Buddha, and for those who have eyes to see, the secret of life.
Here are the two dimensions that make up reality, thingness and
no-thigness, form and the denial of form, which is the
recognition that form is not who you are.
- Eckhart Tolle, posted to The_Now2
the truth awaits
the greatest of the risks was taken
when you decided to step out of the womb -
its cosy comforting confines -
into the turbulent tantalising totality of the universe
having done that now what fear?
as you retrace your steps to the
womb of the great power
that shall eventually consume
the one who conceived you into a reality
having known this then why fear?
what is in between is just a few bubbles
of life tending to be eternal
live it as you may, free of fears and doubts
the truth awaits you yonder its boundary
prepare for its finality
relax! let go!
leave your life as fluttering butterfly
ignorant of its clipped life span yet so fine.
- sreelekha premjit