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#3360 - Monday, November 24, 2008 -
Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Nobody ever fails in Yoga. It
is all a
matter of the rate of progress. It is
slow in the beginning and rapid in the
end. When one is fully matured,
realization is explosive. It takes
place spontaneously, or at the slightest
hint. The quick is not better than the
slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering
alternate. Both are natural and right.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj posted to Along The Way
Mindful in the midst of a raging fury
One of the most difficult things to learn is that mindfulness is not dependent on any emotional or mental state. We have certain images of meditation. Meditation is something done in quiet caves by tranquil people who move slowly. Those are training conditions. They are set up to foster concentration and to learn the skill of mindfulness. Once you have learned that skill, however, you can dispense with the training restrictions, and you should. You don't need to move at a snail's pace to be mindful. You don't even need to be calm. You can be mindful while solving problems in intensive calculus. You can be mindful in the middle of a football scrimmage. You can be mindful in the midst of a raging fury. Mental and physical activities are no bar to mindfulness. If you find your mind extremely active, then simply observe the nature and degree of that activity. It is just a part of the passing show within.
--Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
Everything Seeks to Wake Up
It's often not enough to just realize 'I'm not that.' That will totally release relatively less powerful karmic patterns. 'I'm not that, I'm not that, I'm not that.' It can release a lot of karmic patterns but not deep rooted ones, to see 'Oh, I'm not that' that's not going to do it. The deep rooted ones often need a little, you know, mining. You got to get in there, you got to pull them out like a root. You got to take a look even though you may know that's not what I am, it doesn't know it's not what you are. And eventually this whole thing, body_mind_spirit, one continuum, if anything is left out, if an illusion or contradiction or sense of separation is anywhere in the system, its going to pull attention there, isn't it? We all know that. You can know on the level of enlightened mind that you are the divine pure consciousness but if the cells in your body don't know it, they are going to continually pull attention back there. Not because it's wrong or a mistake but because everything seeks to wake up. Everything. Every single piece of us. That's why attention is drawn to that which is unawake. Because everything seeks to wake up. In the end nothing can be avoided. Right? Because its an act of love, right? You can't just leave…oh, it's an illusion…it's not who I am. It doesn't work for some things.
And when you feel
into the nature of unified being, spirit, it has no fear at all.
It's not avoiding anything. I tell people all the
time, get used to it. Once you've seen though everything in
that particular body-mind system and healed the illusory split
and you realize it's all one, get used to it. There's only
7 billion more of you to go. And it's not 'them.' You
aren't them. You are me in another form. I am you in
this form. It's not like a personal thing. It's not
like, well, I've done it, I get the great prize and sorry for
everybody else. The spirit of us that's where it
moves. It moves towards that which is in confusion. The
ego moves away from it. Spirit moves towards it. So
it's a very funny thing, you know? When the awakening
really gets very deep and very full, it reverses itself. You
thought it was all about getting away from suffering and when it
gets full enough there's no fear of suffering so it just flips.
And it goes, 'Oh, that's nice, your whole life will be about
addressing it. Now that you got out of what you thought was
your mess, your perception of you has now become universal
therefore you're not done. You see what I mean. You
get what I'm saying? And I don't mean that everyone's going
to become a spiritual teacher. You'd have to be nuts
to want to do this. It has nothing to do with that. It
has nothing to do with crowds and all that sort of stuff.
If that's your karma… But it's the grandmother, it's the
husband, it's maybe the child, it's the grocery clerk, it's the
person working at IBM. It doesn't take any
particular form. You just become and you are that undivided
self. And that's the perfume you carry. And you
no longer have fear of the apparent division around you.
Adyashanti – Omega 2007 - Disk 8
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
Now No Trace Remains
By Niyazi Misri
(1616 - 1694)
English version by Jennifer Ferraro & Latif Bolat
I thought that in this
whole world
no beloved for me remained.
Then I left myself.
Now no stranger in the world
remains.
I used to see in every object a thorn
but never a rose--
the universe became a rose garden.
Not a single thorn remains.
Day and night my heart
was moaning "Ahhh!"
I don't know how it happened--
now no "Ahhh"
remains.
Duality went, Unity came.
I met with the Friend in
private;
The multitude left, the One came.
Only the One remains.
Religion, piety, custom, reputation--
these used to matter greatly
to me.
O Niyazi -- what has happened to you?
No trace of religion now
remains.
from Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey
Translated by Jennifer Ferraro / Translated by Latif Bolat
Video: Thomas Merton and Chatrul Rinpoche - Christian and Buddhist Mysticism
An outstanding and rare Thomas Merton video, found thanks to Ivan of Poetry Chaikhana.
From http://opensourcebuddhism.org/ where you can view entire video and find more.
This excellent work investigates the relationship between Trappist monk Thomas Merton and his Asian adventures, specifically the relevance of his meeting with Chatrul Rinpoche of the Nyingma Tradition. This work also reveals the Buddhist attitude towards those of other faiths who have attained some higher realization.
Youtube excerpt: