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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3854, Saturday, April 3, 2010, Editor: Mark
You know when you boil it all down to something much simpler than
it is often presented; all of spirituality down to something very
simple, a prerequisite to the whole of spiritual yearning,
impulse, search, whatever you want to call it. It's very simple.
The prerequisite is that you are open and you're available.
That's the prerequisite.
Sadly for a lot of people, they don't become open until they
suffer tremendously. And then maybe they become open, available.
Too difficult to keep the pretense going. Other people have a bit
easier time opening up and being available.
But understand this, that that openness, availability is the
whole entire prerequisite for spirituality. That's what makes
everything possible.
And it doesn't really matter if you've been open before. Maybe
you were very very open yesterday. It does not matter today.
Maybe you're very very open today. Who knows about tomorrow. One
never knows, do they? You never know from moment to moment
whether there will be that availability, that true openness of
heart, openness of mind, openness of spirit. There are so many
way that we can close down. Whether we close down into some sort
of emotional protection, close down into some sort of
intellectual protection. We can even close down as a consequence
of having some sort of spiritual realization. The mind can
decide, "I know. I have awoken, i am one of the awakened
ones...and I know."
And I hope you can feel the armoring just in those words. The
great mental armoring that comes around one's entire being.
So this is my invitation to start from a place of openness, a
place of real availability. Because that's what makes everything
possible.
- Adyashanti, Mount Madonna 2009 First CD, posted to
adyashantigroup
Suffering the consequences of unconsciousness is the fire that
ultimately burns up the false ego, but that's the long, slow,
painful way. The short cut is any spiritual teaching that cuts
through the long way, the painful way of waking up.
- Eckhart Tolle, posted to Distillation
Hamza, the homespun philosopher who peddled truisms in the
teahouse, was droning on: "How strange is humanity! To think
that man is never satisfied! When it is winter, it is too cold
for him. In summer, he complains of the heat!" The others
present nodded their heads sagely, for they believed that by so
doing they partook of the essence of this wisdom. Nasrudin looked
up from his abstraction. "Have you not noticed that nobody
ever complains about the spring?"
as collected by Idries Shah, posted to allspirit
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do
not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it. If you try to
change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose
it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes
there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and
sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.
- Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching, translation by Gia-fu Feng and
Jane English, posted to AlongTheWay
The deniers are their own enemies: by denying,
they keep on wounding themselves.
An enemy is a man who tries to take your life,
not one who takes his own.
The pitiful, veiled bat is its own enemy, not the
sun's.
The sun's shining will kill it -- but how can it
annoy the sun?
An enemy is one who inflicts torment, who bars
the ruby from glowing with light.
But the unbelievers all bar themselves from the
radiance of the prophets' gem.
How can people veil the eyes of those unique
men? No, they make their own eyes blind and perverse,
Like an angry Hindu slave who kills himself to
spite his master,
Throwing himself down from the roof of the
house to inflict on him a heavy loss.
If the patient becomes the physician's enemy, if
the child becomes hostile to his teacher,
In reality they waylay their own roads -- they
themselves have wasted their own lives and intellects.
If a washerman becomes angry with the sun, if
a fish becomes angry with the ocean,
Look and see who loses! In the end, who will
suffer misfortune?
If God has created you with an ugly face,
beware! Add not to it an ugly disposition!
- Rumi, Mathnawi II: 789 - 802, translation by William
Chittick, from The Sufi Path of Love, posted to Sunlight
Eaten alive by
lice and fleas - now the horse
beside my pillow pees.
- Matsuo Basho, from The Poetry of Zen, posted to
DailyDharma
NOT A DAY ON ANY CALENDAR
Spring, and everything outside is growing,
even the tall cypress tree.
We must not leave this place.
Around the lip of the cup we share, these words,
"My Life Is Not Mine."
If someone were to play music, it would have to be very sweet.
We're drinking wine, but not through lips.
We're sleeping it off, but not in bed.
Rub the cup across your forehead.
This day outside is living and dying.
Give up wanting what other people have.
That way you're safe.
"Where, where can I be safe?" you ask.
This is not a day for asking questions,
not a day on any calendar.
This day is conscious of itself.
This day is a lover, bread, and gentleness,
more manifest than saying can say.
Thoughts take form with words,
but this daylight is beyond and before
thinking and imagining. Those two,
they are so thirsty, but this gives smoothness
to water. Their mouths are dry, and they are tired.
The rest of this poem is too blurry
for them to read.
- Molana's Ghazal 2728, version by Coleman Barks from The
Essential Rumi, posted to Sunlight