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#5091 Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz 

The Nonduality Highlights • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/ 


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The most recent Nonduality Network Talk Radio show may be heard here:

http://nonduality.net/20november2013.mp3

Dustin LindenSmith and Jerry Katz converse about a multitude of things for an hour, including conducting a fundraiser for the CKDU radio station. Lots of interesting topics and we do get into nonduality!

We announced that co-host Mandee has departed NNTR in order to pursue other projects which require her priority. However, Mandee will appear as an occasional guest and as an ongoing inspiration and a model radio host I'll try to emulate best I can. Much gratitude to Mandee for inspiring and initiating this show and for momentum to keep it going. You can keep up with Mandee via her website http://yogaheart.ca


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Brown Alert

All my life I have been described as aloof, quiet, reserved, etc. You get the idea. And my writing is often rowdy and rough. All of us are strange complex creatures of the cosmos, beautiful and frightening, dangerous and deluded. We swim in a metaphoric sea alone and together at one and the same time.

We know each other on a subconscious level. We know what foods we must eat in order to survive. In that we are like any other species. We are energy-emitting thingies that come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us like to be alone more than with others and vice versa.

We can all be scared shitless on hearing dire diagnoses. We can all strike out in anger when attacked. We all wear masks and scuba gear and carry oxygen talks when we climb the heights. We post on Facebook and snub our enemies instead of love them. Everyone is transgressing all the time and no one will cop to it unless forced to do so.

We think once we get things figured out, get our acts together, than there will be world peace and something good to watch on TV. We all think that the government is insane and the wrong people are running the show. No one brushes their teeth quite long enough and no one feels like they can’t wait to get their teeth cleaned because it is so much fun. I shall skip over mammograms, rectal probes and UFOs.

Okay, now that you have read this essay, I am issuing a Brown Alert. No, not for your underwear. Just eat some chocolate. And don’t say I didn’t warn you. I don’t wish to receive any mail about how fruits and vegetables are good for you and that YOU brush your teeth for two minutes and 30 seconds. I might have to stop you from posting on Facebook....

At ease, soldiers. Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. (That’s a joke, too.)

Vicki Woodyard

http://www.amazon.com/LIFE-HOLE-Thats-Wisdom-Awakened/dp/1609102770/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355329551&sr=1-1&keywords=life+with+a+hole+in+it


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Meet new kid on the block Joey Lott...

discovering truth without all the dogma
radical freedom, peace, and happiness


Why That Isn’t It

People make such a big deal about experience. Good experience. Bad experience. Ecstatic experience. Horrific experience. And we seek out the good and the ecstatic while trying to avoid the bad and the horrific.

But this is the mistake. Because there’s something much closer than experience that you can seemingly (thought not truly) miss out on when you’re seeking to get and get rid of certain types of experience.

The reason that this has been on my mind lately is that I’ve been reading more than usual about so-called “spiritual awakenings.” (I’ve been researching to find good places to publish some of my writing, and I’ve read bits and pieces of what appears in these publications.) And frankly, I think that many of these accounts, are still deluded. Any time there is an emphasis on the experience of oneness or the experience of peace or the experience of wholeness – complete with the dissolving of boundaries and the flow of love and the profound sense of stillness and all the fireworks then at the very least these sorts of stories are misleading.

They are misleading because they speak of extraordinary experiences. The sorts of experiences that we are conditioned to seek out. This is why LSD or MDMA is so great – because they can provide these types of experiences. But if you’ve ever come down off of LSD or MDMA then you know that there’s an end to the trip. It’s an experience.

There’s nothing wrong with experience. It’s happening all the time. And I sure as hell would rather pleasant psychedelic grooviness to, say, a fork in the eyeball. So we naturally have preference for what we perceive to be pleasant or at least neutral experience instead of what we perceive to be unpleasant experience. If you have followed this blog long enough then you already know that I’ve had my share of unpleasant experience. And by no means do I actively seek out those unpleasant experiences.

But the idea that experience is “it” – the answer, the solution, the thing to end all suffering – is deluded. The end to suffering is not about experience. It’s about what is closer than experience.

And that is why so many of these so-called “spiritual awakening” stories are just rubbish. It sets up the “spiritual teachers” as someone special who has attained something you want. But what you most want isn’t a thing. It’s not something that anyone has. It’s not about being special. It’s about the utter lack of specialness. It is completely ordinary. It is this. Already this.

If you want to see visions and be blissed out then there are plenty of ways to do that. A good strain of cannabis perhaps? Bhagavan Das kirtans that last all night? An ayahuasca ceremony?

But just because something produces visions and feelings of bliss doesn’t mean it has anything to do with recognizing the simplicity of what is – which is the end of suffering. It doesn’t even mean that it’s good for you!

So the question is: what do you most truly want? Do you want blissed out feelings and visions and extraordinary experience? Or do you want true peace and freedom.

Because they’re not the same thing.

Then again, they are. Because all that is is true peace and freedom.

But as long as you are seeking some extraordinary experience, something other than this, something for a special you to experience, then you’re overlooking what is closer.

What is it that is here regardless of experience? What is it that is here regardless of whether you are feeling special or not? What is here regardless of whether you are even aware of yourself or not?

This. This is always here. Not this that you can give a name to. Not this special experience. Not this idea of who you are. Not this place. Not this vision.

Just this.

It’s so simple. Whatever is, is it. High as a kite or bored out of your mind. This.

My upper back and neck feel like shit. My hands and fingers ache. Sounds. Kids crying. Dog wants to be fed. Feel of air on the nostrils. Saliva. Eyes blinking.

This.

Whatever this is.

It’s never what we call it or imagine it to be. It’s not upper back and neck feel like shit as an idea. It’s the direct, immediate meeting of whatever it is that then gets called something.

It’s not a thing.

It’s this.

This is not special. There is nothing other than this. You cannot compare it to anything else. All comparisons are just this.

You still want something special. You want something other than this. You want psychedelic grooviness. You want great orgasms all the time. You want to never be constipated or get hemorrhoids. You want to never get cancer. Just endless bliss and goodness.

You’ll keep searching. Until you stop. And then there is just this. And it is clear that this is all that ever is. And this is true peace and freedom.

What a relief.

~ ~ ~

About himself, Joey writes...

So here on this site you’ll find information about all of my varied interests. Much of my interests are shaped by my so-called past, which includes anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD,) anxiety, stress, fixation, obsessive thinking, fear, worry, anger, rage, Lyme disease, spirituality, seeking, stupid restrictive diets (vegan, paleo, primal, low carbohydrate, sugar free, salt free, etc.,) diet recovery, satsang, multiple chemical sensitivity, meditation, chanting, prayer, gynecomastia, weight loss, weight gain, overcoming eating disorders, letting go, Law of Attraction, New Thought, and more. But my interests are certainly not limited to any of that!

My passion is sharing the possibility of discovering true peace and freedom, which is available to each of us in every moment when only we know where to look! Or, perhaps, more importantly, how to cease looking so much. Because it turns out that the search for something better is the source of suffering. And the end of suffering is the recognition that this is it.

Check Joey out: http://joeylott.com/

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