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Wednesday, January 4

GENE POOLE AND ANDREW MACNAB

Here is something: (quoted)

From Tony's 'Open Secret' book:

"No Achievement

For me the first realisation of enlightenment, or of the
nature of who I really am, is not something that can be
expressed. What happened cannot even be called an experience,
because the separate experiencer needed to be absent for it
to emerge.

However, what accompanied that happening was a realisation of
such simple magnitude and revolutionary content that it left
me awestruck and quite alone.

One of the things I came to see is that enlightenment only
becomes available when it has been accepted that it cannot be
achieved.

Doctrines, processes and progressive paths which seek
enlightenment only exacerbate the problem they address by
reinforcing the idea that the self can find something that it
presumes it has lost. It is that very effort, that investment
in self-identity that continuously recreates the illusion of
separation from oneness. This is the veil that we believe
exists. It is the dream of individuality.

It is like someone who imagines that they are in a deep hole
in the earth, and in order to escape they dig deeper and
deeper, throwing the earth behind them and covering the light
that is already there."

[all credit to the author]

Now, I ask, as beautiful and accurate as this description is,
what can it 'do'?

Yesterday, Andrew wrote: (my comments inserted)

>Communication is not transmission of information.

Is information ever transmitted

>As human beings we are closed systems

We do have gated orifices which may open and close

>continuously making information,
>making ourselves, in forming.

How we seek to attain equilibrium with the greater system

>Communication is an interactive display of data.
>The other is an interactive display of data.

The greater system produces this possibility

>So this play of pattern matching goes on
>as an invitation to dance,
>or a response to an invitation
>shape shifting dance shamanic
>Permissible? Compulsary?
>A matter of the heart.
>Ah the heart!
>
>andrew

Yes, heart.

Agreed, in that we shape symbols
which conform to criteria of
understandability and putting these
symbols on display with
attribution,

Match patterns and sing of
the perceived sameness or
differences, and may imply
meaning, further displayed,
the dance continues...

But what about this?

What about the impression
that reading the dance-manual
imparts in and of itself, the
ability to dance,
and to dance in a certain
way which has possibly
never been seen, no examples
but myth and memory?

Or if that dance is actually being done,
has there ever been published, a manual
which would so accurately describe that
dance, that anyone who read and
understood that manual, could then with
certainty, recognize that dance?

And if by design or chance,
such a master dancer is found,
will his example impart similar
properties to those who watch?

I would say, that perhaps it could
be so, if watchers became active
dancers.

And yes, this is a matter of heart.

_______________________________________________________________

GENE POOLE AND GLORIA LEE


GENE:
I recently wrote that it is possible to perceive 'other than
the world dream'. Jerry has written about the 'interval';
now, science states that 'space' is actually not empty, but
may be 'full of mysterious dark matter' (dark because we
cannot see it).

Life is not doomed if we take the option of migrating into
'space', no in space-ships, but to learn to live here with
full perception, everything seen, and then step into the
'interval' or 'emptiness', leaving behind dependence on the
physical universe.

The physical universe 'may be' an incubator, and school, to
prepare 'the worthy' for expansion into 'space'. Nonduality
'may be' the fulcrum-point of this possible expansion, acting
as a method of parsing layers of perception.

The issue of 'enlightenment' has been with us for as long as
we can remember. It may be that the actual 'purpose' of
enlightenment is to prepare us for our next evolutionary
step, deliberate and bodiless conscious awareness.

The Holy Scriptures of antiquity seem to indicate the
actuality of versions of 'heaven', and propose methods of
purification of the 'soul' to enable a person to enter the
'afterlife'. It is possible that such scriptural teachings
are actually 'echoes from the future', information embedded
in the holomatrix of the universe.

Our (actual or latent) abilities to perceive 'higher
dimensions' could be our means to understand and navigate in
this space of emptiness; and our ability to co-exist and
cooperate, may also be a key factor in this possible
migration.

It seems that certain 'Masters' have succeeded in 'going
beyond' in this literal sense, which would itself indicate
that the possible future is now.

GLORIA

Shortly after your post, I came across so many parallel
references embedded in this lengthy Alan Watts talk on
emptiness, it was downright spooky. Especially noted, the
examples of navigation problems known to be experienced in
weightless conditions, such as deep sea and outer space, and
how sensory deprivation equates to being body-less. I snipped
these excerpts, most are from part 3 of the talk if anyone
wants to read it all.

All right. We have the same problem on a very big scale, in
what we call the expansion of the universe. All the galaxies
observable seem to be getting further away from each other.
Now, are they going further away from us, or are we going
further away from them, or are they all all together going
further away from each other? Astronomers have suggested that
what is expanding is the space between them. And so we get
the idea of expanding space. This isn't quite the right
answer. What has been neglected in all this, if I can say
either that the objects are moving away from each other,
they're doing it. Or it's equally possible for me to say that
it's the space they're in that's expanding. But I can't
decide which one is which. The meaning of this inability to
decide is that space and solid are two ways of talking about
the same thing. Space-solid. You don't find space without
solids; you don't find solids without space. If I say there's
a universe in which there isn't anything but space, you must
say 'Space between what?' Space is relationship, and it
always goes together with solid, like back goes with front.
But the divisive mind ignores space. And it thinks it's the
solids that do the whole job, that they're the only thing
that's real. That is, to put it in other words, conscious
attention ignores intervals, because it thinks they're
unimportant.

[...] There was a _kamikaze_ pilot who escaped because his
plane that he was flying at an American aircraft carrier went
wrong, and he landed in the water instead of hitting the
plane, so he survived. But he said afterwards that he had the
most extraordinary state of exaltation. It wasn't a kind of
patriotic ecstasy, but the very though that in a moment he
would cease to exist--he would just be gone--for some
mysterious reason that he couldn't understand, made him feel
absolutely like a god. And when I talk to a certain German
sage whose name is Count Van Derkheim[?], he said that during
the war this happened to people again and again and again. He
said they heard the bombs screaming down over their heads,
and knew this was the last moment, or that they were in a
concentration camp with absolutely no hope of getting out, or
that they were displaced in such a way that their whole
career was shattered. He said in each of these cases, when
anybody accepted the situation as totally inevitable, they
suddenly got this amazing kind of enlightenment experience of
freedom from ego.

Well, sensory deprivation, if you know how to handle it, can
be quite interesting. It'll have the same sort of results as
taking LSD or something like that, and there are special labs
nowdays where you can be sensorily deprived to an amazing
degree.

But if you're a good yogi this doesn't bother you at all,
sends some people crazy. But if you dig this world, you can
have a marvelous time in a sensory deprivation scene. Also,
especialy, if they get you into a condition of
weightlessness. Skin divers, going down below a certain
number of feet--I don't know exactly how far it is--get a
sense of weightlessness, and at the same time this deprives
them of every sense of responsibility. They become alarmingly
happy, and they have been known to simply take off their
masks and offer them to a fish. And of course they then
drown. So if you skin dive, you have to keep your eye on the
time. You have to have a water watch or a friend who's got a
string attached to you. If you go down that far, and at a
certain specific time you know you have got to get back,
however happy you feel, and however much inclined you feel to
say 'Survival? Survival? Whatever the hell's the point of
that?' And this is happening to the men who go out into
space. They increasingly find that they have to have
automatic controls to bring them back. Quite aside that they
can't change in any way from the spaceship, because once you
become weightless... Now isn't that interesting?

Can you become weightless here? I said a little while ago
that the person who really accepts transience begins to feel
weightless. When Suzuki was asked what was it like to have
experienced satori, enlightenment, he said it's just like
ordinary everyday experience, but about two inches off the
ground. Juan-Za[?], the Taoist, once said 'It is easy enough
to stand still, the difficulty is to walk without touching
the ground.' Now why do you feel so heavy? It isn't just a
matter of gravitation and weight. It is that you feel that
you are carrying your body around. So there is a koan in Zen
Buddhism, 'Who is it that carries this corpse around?' Common
speech expresses this all of the time: 'life is a drag.

http://www.deoxy.org/w_world.htm

_________________________________________________________________

ED ARRONS

Awareness (as consciousness) moves in quantum leaps through
the body-mind as thought and perception...seeing through the
appearance of the world...into the nature and
interconnectedness of things.

______________________________________________________________________

ANDREW MACNAB

Whatever appears at the gated orifices
whatever appears at the gate
whatever appears
is instantly assembled
into something entirely new.
Something that bears as much resemblance
to whatever appears as you do to the air in your lungs.

________________________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECHT

Art is a neat bypass to the logical mind - when creating it,
possible without verbalized thought. The same happens at the
'receiving' end: no thoughts. It is even possible to notice
that the state of mind has changed because of that... Any
human has a talent for art that can be expressed, but as a
rule it has been suppressed during childhood/education -
unless the talent was too high above the mowing field to be
overlooked... As in the course of events the content of the
entire subconscious will surface, art is the 'easy' and
'natural' way as verbalizing could meet resistance... And
resistance is what veils unconditional happiness, which isn't
'obtained' overnight :) Hence, impossible for 'cave dwellers'
too.

May every day be a happy one,

Jan

__________________________________________________________________

JERRY KATZ

Not only is the NDS website hosted by an excellent, professional service
-- ExpertHost -- but the owner of the company has an interest in nondual
teachings, especially as set forth by Paul Brunton.

He recently sent some links I wasn't aware of, including, from the
posthumous collections of Paul Brunton, Ashtavakra Samhita with
Commentary and translation of V.S.Iyer; Commentaries of V.S.Iyer Vol.1;
Commentaries of V.S.Iyer Vol.2(Advanced).

Please visit <http://nondualIty.com/brunton.htm> to link up.

If you're looking for a website hosting service, please consider
ExpertHost: <http://experthost.com>. The owner is Sudhir Babu. He's a
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you want to investigate further, he'll let you try the service for a
month, free.

Also, you can register domain names with his company for 8.95 each.

_________________________________________________________________________

Two new lists on yahoogroups are Tim Gerchmez's 'Social Train
Wreck', and Sandeep's 'Yearning'.

They're both quite interesting.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/(put list name here)

________________________________________________________________________________

JAN SULTAN

The Reality of the Shift

The most common concept I hear about at Intensives is that
'Enlightenment is Bliss.' The true essence of the shift does
not lie in bliss, which comes and goes like the wind, but in
Presence. There is the third dimensional world of appearance,
which springs from the function of the mind and is
experienced as separation. Then there is the fourth
dimensional reality of pure creative Spirit which witnesses
Itself and the whole third dimension in pure choiceless
awareness, unconditional love, stillness and a peaceful joy
not connected to any specifics. How do I know this? Because
that is my experience most of the time. I call this
witnessing Presence. This is the real meaning and unfolding
of enlightenment. In both of my books so far I have been
leading up to this great secret, hidden deep from the rampant
concepts surrounding enlightenment, and that is that this
Shift involves the emergence of the Witness from the
background of your awareness to the forefront. And just what
does this Witness observe? Presence! This Shift to Presence
is the new bridge between the eternal Oneness and our
illusionary sense of separation. Presence is who we are at
our core essence, but this Presence keeps getting interrupted
constantly by the mind making judgments, resisting,
expecting, and interpreting all sensory input as duality and
polarity. We are always out to lunch and never at home before
the Shift. Then we find Presence, and realize it is always
here in the present moment! It was never really hidden or a
secret. It hangs out in the spontaneous aliveness of the
unknown, beyond the limits of our conditioning and
predispositions. But only here in Presence is the awareness
of 'what is-as is,' and that frees us from the illusion of
separation. Presence and the Witness are synonymous terms in
my vocabulary. This is key to understanding this Shift. The
mind continues to create an illusion of separation in order
to keep 'the game' going. Then there is this Shift, or
bridge, to our new identity that is no longer connected to
and dominated by a mind that can only judge. Now, as if by
magic, the Witness, who we truly are, observes 'whatever
is-as is,' in choiceless awareness. This act of witnessing
that never comes and goes and is always present is what I
call Presence. As the Witness we are not passive. We live in
passionate, active acceptance of what is-as is, releasing
everything the mind may present to the wonder of this
glorious 'be here now' moment. All of a sudden we discover in
this release to the Witness that we are actually the one and
only Source of all there is. Presence is this space of being
so open, so aware, so welcoming of what is, that it would
never occur to the Witness to change or fix anything. It is
all so perfect already-just the way it is-just the way it is
supposed to be! In spite of what the mind offers as
alternatives from its imperfect viewpoint. The Witness
watches the mind run off in a flurry of options and
understands that this is what good little minds are designed
to do. But if you don't identify with it, you are free of it,
even in the midst of it. There is a Witness who is aware and
then there are objects which the Witness observes, like warm
sunshine, a knot of fear in your gut, the smell of hot coffee
in the morning, a huge contraction of impatience while stuck
in traffic. Now there is a letting go even of the one who is
aware and all that remains is Presence itself. Imagine
experiencing the deliciousness of awareness of just being,
doing nothing, understanding everything, and being free of
all need to struggle or engage in any intentional effort to
live this life 'right.' Life just lives itself through you
and you are the Witness of it, lost in Presence, observing it
all in the present moment. However, you can't 'do' Presence
because you 'are' Presence. How could you practice something
that you already are? Something that is totally effortless
and nearer to you than your breathing. All that happens is
this; we recognize the Witness and the state of Presence
naturally occurs. The function of the mind is to interpret,
but identifying with the Witness overrides the sidetracking
of the separated mind. In the cosmic game of hide and seek,
Source has found itself in Presence, while still in a limited
mind and body. Presence contains within it an override of the
normal functions of our divinely designed minds to judge, fix
or become. It overrides the feeling of separation, the
identity with the little 'me' that can only live in the past
or future and doesn't have a clue about the awareness of the
present moment. When Presence is experienced by the Witness,
we are suddenly comfortable in a realm where the future is
always unknown. We are free of the mind's need for certainty
and assurances that we won't be annihilated someday. We can
already feel our eternalness growing as the dream of a
limited individuality slowly dies. Presence is the
Knowingness that we are not just a fraction of the whole, we
are the Source of the whole. Presence springs from who we
are, whether known or unknown at the present moment and we
become aware that we are the source of our multi-dimensional
creation. Presence reveals the oneness and discovery of who
we really are. It is a bridge between the confusion of the
human predicament and the freedom of needing to become and
do. Presence is the secret of finally knowing you are home
for good. Enlightenment means light entering the darkness.
Presence is awareness that blows away the illusions and
concepts that formerly kept us trapped in the darkness of
separation. How simple is Presence! It just sees 'what is-as
is,' and all the concepts around what it is supposed to be
just evaporate. What is the Witness present with? Whatever is
happening, whether pleasant like the taste of good food, or
unpleasant like self judgment, or how you feel about just
being present instead of being productive or at least useful.
Presence shines on all that is happening and knows that all
is well. We can't direct Presence to any particular aspect of
our soap opera because that would interrupt the flow and
would be directed by the mind rather than by the Witness.
Presence just shines on all of life as our infinite, innate
wisdom presents it to us. Presence is all encompassing and
serves as its own reward. Presence is the overall relaxing
into the active embrace of life as it is, and as it presents
itself. Presence is beyond questions, doubts and striving.
The mind goes on override, the breathing evens out, the body
is relaxed and the view looking out over the third dimension
as now seen through the eyes of Source is truly well! Our
senses are more alive than ever before. All of a sudden we
are touching, tasting, smelling and hearing for the first
time in a way that is so fresh and original. We are now the
witness, living in Presence, with our original innocence
finally regained. Life is now real, passionately alive, and
we accept it in its absolute perfection. Just bask in it as
it unfolds. With even a little hint of bliss now and then to
keep it interesting. All my love,

Satyam Nadeen
http://www.satyamnadeen.com/index.html

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