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#4159- Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
This is a "cult" edition. Is nonduality a cult? What it is? As long as no one knows, we're doing okay.
This was posted to the Rick Ross Forum:
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,97602,97602
Hi. Well i saw threads on "recovering NOWists" and all that and i'm just wondering if it's possible to recover from nondualism, ie. to feel like a separate self again, with body and mind in time, a little me (if anyone knows what i mean) and all that. The reason i ask is because a lot of areas of life, in my case, being a student require a "little me" and a sense of time, ie. being in time and a mind in time i.e. i have to do this, that etc which is largely absent in nondualism. It's just that with this state i feel it's quite tedious annoying getting things done i.e. studying, it takes much longer for me for some reason to read articles, study etc, like your mind isn't totally focused for some reason (and maybe less intelectually inclined) and there's nothing really pushing you anyway to do anything. Like it's just always "now" and time has lost all meaning ie you don't feel like you're in time so it's hard to budget it etc.
Is there a way undo all this or no? I read eckhart's the power of now.
Respond at http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,97602,97602 (You will have to register.)
Here are a couple of responses
sent to the Nonduality Salon email forum:
Jan Barendrecht
It is quite funny that the author
claims to have difficulty focusing on tasks and blames it on
nondualism.
As long as suffering is possible, there is a sense of
"me" (with its counterpart "you") and most
issues
about which thoughts "automatically" are popping up
have "I" or "you" (with all possible
conjugations)
as the subject. IOW when that mental patchwork has
disappeared, focusing / concentration has
become natural (default). However, a large area of former
interests has disappeared as well so one
might arrive at a situation where no more incentive exists to
continue with certain activities.
A proper practice results in (neuro)physical changes so there is
no undo.
Hence the better idea would be several years of practices like
meditation / contemplation before starting
with a study that will have to earn a living for the major part
of one's life. In that case, it is unlikely any stage
"on the path" will interfere with it.
Jan
Gene Poole
Tolle should know; 'there is no
time like the present'.
But to the point, the above user-complaint
vis a vis 'nonduality'.
This entry has something to say, and it references
Jan's recent comment here:
""Almost every major cult and cult-like group
we came upon teaches some form of not thinking
or `mind control' as part of its regular program
of activity. The process may take the form of
repetitive prayer, chanting, speaking in tongues,
self-hypnosis or diverse methods of meditation….
Such techniques, when practiced in moderation,
may yield real physical and mental health benefits….
Prolonged stilling of the mind, however, may wear
on the brain physically until it readjusts, suddenly
and sharply, to its new condition of not thinking.
When that happens, we have found, the brain's
information-processing capacities may be disrupted
or enter a state of complete suspension…disorientation,
detachment…hallucinations, delusions and,
in extreme instances, total withdrawal."
http://www.cultnews.com/
==GP==
On the lite side....
Gary writes...
There's absolutely no compulsion
to stay in our group [NDS or Nonduality Salon email forum] and
you are perfectly free to leave whenever you want.
Just be aware that should you decide to leave our group know that
you have surrendered to the Negative Forces and that you have
left the safe confines of your heart and are now firmly
entrenched in the malicious mind, whose main function is sway you
from the true path.
You are totally free to leave at any time, however, you can be
certain that if you do you will be thwarting your own spiritual
progress and it will take you many many incarnations just to get
back to the level you have attained by being a member of our
group.
Not only that but if you do decide to leave your soul will curse
you for having blown this unique opportunity that has been
granted to you by no less a divine personage than God Him or
Herself.
You are free to leave our group if you want to but don't blame us
when you're hungry and cold and suffering from some horrible
disease next incarnation.
Or maybe even later on in this one, who knows?
Whatever you do, don't say we didn't warn you.
Aum Shanti.
Gary
Co-Chair
Committee for the Preservation of NDS
Enlightenment Blues
by Vicki Woodyard
All of you bleeping people are sitting around waiting to be enlightened. Like they’re gonna call your table any minute. “Fickleman, Enlightenment for Four, your table’s waiting.”
And some bored waitron asks “What kind of whine would you like with that?”
And you say , “I want to be enlightened.”
“Why?”
“So I can hang out my shingle online and give the shingles to other people.”
“What an ass you are. You want to give people shingles?”
“Yes. Like Papaji. I want to spread enlightenment around like the butter on this roll.”
“Papaji? What language do you speak, for chrissakes?”
“It’s Advaitaspeak, sir. I learned it online at enlightenednincompoops.com.”
“Let’s just call you an ass and be done with it. Let’s just call you shitonashingle.com and get you out of here.”
And that’s when the brawl started.
“There is no here, sir. There is no you and there is no me. There is only the Self.”
Bam. Teeth fly out of the Self’s mouth.
The waiter pumps his fist. “Yes! I got it! There is no such thing as enlightenment. There are only idiots waiting to be served up a plate of horse hockey so they can sell it to other idiots wanting to be enlightened.”
And suddenly the room grew quiet and Papaji himself materialized from a disco ball hanging low. He stood there grinning from ear to ear.
“Namaste, Papaji.”
He said nothing. He didn’t have to.
Vicki Woodyard
Author, Life With A Hole In It: That’s How the Light Gets In
http://www.booklocker.com/books/4931.html