Click here to go to the next issue.

Search all Editions of the Nondual Highlights

Nondual Highlights Home Page: access to all issues by number

DAVID HODGES

Here in the New England it is a gorgeous spring
afternoon, the first really warm day of the year.
People are out and about in their shorts and tees.
I'm sitting here working, with jazz on the stereo,
a breeze wafting in from the open window, sunlight
streaming through the curtains.

Here are a couple of spring haiku from long ago:

I fell in love
With the wings of birds -
The light of spring on them!


and


In my hut this spring,
There is nothing,-
There is everything!

-----------------

GLORIA LEE

Warm here too!!
I am planting wild flowers and roses,
cat following me around.

_________________________________________________________________

HURG

"Wrapped in mystery, hidden in the cave."

The primeval one who is hard to perceive,
wrapped in mystery, hidden in the cave,
residing within the impenetrable depth—
Regarding him as god, an insight
gained by inner contemplation,
both sorrow and joy the wise abandon.1

1. Katha Upanisad, 2.12. From Patrick Olivelle, tr., The Early
Upanisads (Oxford University Press: New York, 1998), 385.

This is a pretty good summary of Ramana Maharshi's method, although
it's written in veiled language. The "primeval one" in this verse is
Brahman (the Self) and the "cave" is the heart center, so the meaning
is: concentrate inwardly (on the feeling of me) until the innermost
self is discerned in the heart and recognized as God. A similar
reference occurs in the Maitri Upanisad 6.34.

reposted from:
http://www.realization.org/page/topics/self_inquiry.htm
__________________________________________________________

they live in the cellar

you've seen the light in the cellar
through the cracks in the floorboards

you've seen movement
throught the cracks in the floorboards

after you lock your doors
and go away

they unlock them

you come home

your computer
and the things you've saved
all your life
are gone

you sit in an empty home

you see movement in the light
coming through the cracks
in the floorboards

they're coming upstairs

they have three horns
one protruding from each temple
and one in the center of the forehead

you want to strike one
hard
for all they've done to you

but he hugs you sensitively
and looks into your eyes
with a mocking sadness

they go back to the cellar

all you can do
is go shopping

and yell at them
to keep the doors locked

when you go away

--jerry

__________________________________________________________

JOHN METZGER

Item has audio. It'll take a minute.

http://www.jaybill.com/~jaybill/article.php?articleID=49


___________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECTH

ANAGRAMS ON FALSE

false , you know.. - Okay! Foul news

false teeth - the last fee

false hair - hail fears

false beard - fears blade

false flair - a frail self

false name - a man's feel

false gods - dog's fleas

false demons - endless foam

false beliefs - feasible self

false ideas - safe ladies

false opinions - if insane loops

false reasoning - infernal as egos

false hope - a posh feel

false explanation - explains fatal one

false politics - if it collapses

false theory - float heresy

false pedestal - spell as defeat

false teachers - fearless cheat

complain the destiny - impotence handles it

______________________________________________________

DAN BERKOW

Usually, realizing involves a subjective change of
awareness, allowing something to be made real due
to new comprehension.

Whatever is made real by way of new comprehension,
depends on the subjective awareness which is doing
the comprehending.

If this subjective comprehension is changed due to
illness, trauma, or death -- the realization is
lost.

What then can be said about realization that
transcends loss?

Such realization doesn't depend on subjective
awareness. And without subjective awareness, there
is no object. Neither a gross object (such as a
computer) nor a refined or subtle object (such as
"love").

We can say that such realization is not subject,
not object.

Once we affirm what it is, we supply subjectivity
with an object.

Having negated subjectivity and objectivity, what
is left? There is no negator to be found, nor an
outcome for a preceding process.

There is no religion involved here, no teacher, nor
teaching.

But saying that there is no teacher or teaching is
merely an idea held by a subjective awareness.

To transcend that very subjectivity -- this is
beyond explanation ...

_______________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ

TEACHER TEACHER

so you wanna be a teacher teacher?
like darshan junkies do you?
like miserable whining seekers do you?

sure you do! you love them and want to help them
you wanna be a good teacher teacher - yes.

teach about jesus and buddha and love and the million ways to paradise
right here right now - and how!

tough roads lie ahead
who has the courage for peace?
do you teacher teacher?

to escape the illusion - go through it
if you chase awakening as an escape,
you have a big hole in your butterfly net!

the drop and the ocean - michael

GREG GOODE:
Beautiful thought Michael-San, a million
ways to paradise! Many, many teachers teach a very
narrow road, one that just happens to pass through
themselves.... If they point to the moon, they keep
the other three fingers pointing directly towards
their own chest!

MICHAEL READ:
Yes, I know. It happens that some teachers are
enamored with their understanding and feel a great
compulsion to share their vision. and often enough
their vision is close enough to other folks that
students are attracted. and so a following ensues.

though we have many teachers, preachers, religions
and such around this world, we do not have peace.
has all of the worlds words of peace ever brought
peace? no.

no one is teaching peace. even those seeking
enlightenment are at odds with themselves.

well the old planet has some shitty things going on
all in the name of peace. and some cry for justice
from a just god.

no act of vengance will bring justice to our
destroyed children. only mercy brings justice.

well, you could at least try it!

__________________________________________________________

JODY RADZIK

GURU CULTS

"a circus of expectation and regret, even as
the bank accounts continue to balloon."

I know I'm being self-righteous, but I think guru
cults suck.

All it takes is a little time spent in one to know
why.

It's almost always one big mindf*ck. People begin
to believe almost anything about their big time
guru. Pretty soon stories about miraculous events
and powers are being told. "Guruji sees your aura
so he always knows you are thinking" or "When
you're asleep guruji comes to give you instruction
on the astral plane" or "Today guruji got me a new
job." It's all bs.

People spend thousands of dollars just to get
close, competing for position among the other
seekers and sycophants. There is jealousy,
bickering and sometimes even treachery afoot.

When people forget themselves in their guru, they
gain nothing. It stops being about realization and
becomes a circus of expectation and regret, even as
the bank accounts continue to balloon.

There are gurus who point at the moon and gurus who
point at themselves. They may both know who they
are, but the guru pointing at her/himself is of a
lower grade, and to see someone go from pointing to
the moon to pointing at themselves is a great
tragedy.

GREG GOODE

Guru cults and the invisible hand

"more nobody teachers and no-teachers are
welcome!!"

Not enough nobody teachers! Couldn't agree with you
guys more!

There's a not-so-subtle social expectation created
in the neo-advaita satsang world. It's an
invisible-hand effect. No one actually states it
out loud, but it's on the mind of many attendees
I've talked to over the years. Namely, to know your
self is the same thing as being a teacher of this
stuff. This erroneous expectation is set up because
(other than in temples), about the only people ever
talking about this stuff have happened to be
teachers charging a fee and offering to pass on to
others what they claimed was given to themselves.
So for most people on this kind of path, the only
examples of "enlightened individuals" were also
teachers. The only people these teachers praise
were *also* teachers.

So people start to think ... "Hmm, if you're
enlightened, then you teach. If you teach, then
you're enlightened. If you don't teach, you're not
enlightened." It makes people pull the plants to
make them grow. It makes ordinariness boring and
makes everybody want to be a teacher.

That's why more nobody teachers and no-teachers are
welcome!!

Love youse guys, as they say in New Jack Sicky (I'm
still in Hong Kong till tomorrow).

JODY RADZIK

"That's why more nobody teachers and no-teachers
are welcome!!"

That's what great about the NDS. It's full of a
bunch of nobodies and we celebrate nobodiness.

Nobodiness is where it's at. Let them desperate
satsang junkies have their somebodies. They deserve
them if they think they need them.

MATTHEW FILES

GURU CULTS

"how can anyone make use of a guru when
they come full of neurosis, full of expectations
and projections?"

what makes a guru cult? well it certainly isn't the
guru. it's those idiots that surround gurus. if a
guru has no followers is he still a guru? i always
cringe when i read wholesale critcisms (retail i
have no problem with) of teachers. believe me, i am
the first to criticize the majority of teachers
especially these new wave advaita guys and gals. i
am also a strong follower/proponent of the
guru/devotee path. the kind of path that says the
guru is higher than god, and to do what the guru
says not what he does, you know, that kind of trip.
But really its all about the students. Not the
teachers. There may be no wealth of good teachers
but the same is true of good students. and by good
student i mean seriously interested in knowing who
you are, not specifically being with a teacher.
there just aren't that many people interested,
despite what they say. another interesting thing is
that somehow there is an expectation that the
dynamics in a group that focuses on a guru should
somehow be different than anywhere else. this just
isn't so, at least for the first 15 years or so of
the group being together. all the ugly dynamics
people see when they look at a "guru-cult" are the
same you find in any group of people if you look
close enough. why would it be any different?
Usually it is the teacher that gets blamed in an
ugly "guru-cult" situation. and there are some ugly
gurus out there, let me tell you, i mean the mugs
on some of these guys would stop a pit bull at 20
paces. and i dont mean just the men. But anyway, if
anyone needs to be blamed, and blame is best when
placed acurately, lets blame the idiot, moronic,
deluded people who come to the guru with no
preparation. how can anyone make use of a guru when
they come full of nuerosis, full of expectations
and projections? they can't. anyone who has some
degree of emotional, psychological maturity will
not be taken in by false teachers. the problem is
that most who do have that level of maturity
believe they don't need a guru LOL. now often what
happens is that when a guru begins his guru thing,
all the people that come to him are in this
wretched state, as most people are, so things look
from the outside (and inside too) pretty ugly. but
again human nature is what it is, and going to a
guru is really no different for most people than
getting a better job. or car or wife or whatever.
it is just more of the search, founded in the same
pain as a search for any material goods. but who
ever sees this about themselves when going to find
a guru. very very few. so hey lets knock off this
guru bashing and bash the students instead, it
might actually make a difference that way.

GREG GOODE

Even though I don't share your strong support for
the guru/devotee path, I think your message is one
of the most candid and lucid statements I've ever
read of this point of view. Thanks for sharing it!

I have a friend in New York who for the last 15
years has been in several guru cults and followed a
few satsang teachers around. Until he didn't. Since
breaking away from all of that, he thought very
deeply about it for a few years. He came to
somewhat the same conclusion you did - Take a look
at the students. In his estimate, most of the ugly
dynamics are due to low self esteem and unresolved
parental issues on the part of the students. He
actually wrote about this and posted it on NDS.
There were several angry responses to his
message....