The Nondual Highlights
The Best of the Internet's Nonduality Email Lists, Forums, Web sites, and More

Editors: Jerry Katz, Gloria Lee, Christiana Duranczyk, Michael Read,
John Metzger

Highlights Issue #1042

Monday, April 15, 2002

Today's Highlights Compiled, Edited, and Designed
by
Jerry Katz

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LISA AND HEIDI

To Pray Or Not To Pray

LISA: ...I was speaking to a friend just yesterday who
suggested that the pattern we find ourselves in is just
the way it is. The tendency to attempt suicide may be
part of that pattern, the tendency to attract negative
energy may be a part of that pattern, intelligence,
wealth, health, tragedy...all predetermined by our
patterns. Yup, I see that no problem, however, my friend
went on to say that there is absolutely no way to change
the pattern. The best that can happen is that we cease
to struggle against the pattern and accept what is.

HEIDI: No offense to your friend, but don't you believe
it. The patterns CAN be changed, and acceptance is not
the way, never was. Acceptance is surrender. Change is
revolutionary.

The how and whys are questions only for those with the
intelligence to understand them - and for them the
answers may be enlightening. For the rest, the
succumbers-to-the-status-quo, there's is but a short and
meaningless life.

LISA: ...we are all a part of a greater whole. Nothing
exists separately. I visualize the whole in terms of a
stream of energy (usually) but lately the form has been
shifting to resemble the anatomy of man and quite
frankly I am convinced that there are a great many of us
that comprise the anus of this being...if we can't
change the pattern how do we move to a more desirable
location?

HEIDI: By first knowing WHERE that most desirable
location is, and certainly not before. You already know
where that is, but even if you reside there, you're
still horribly constrained - by ordinary intelligence.

There are TWO intelligences. The one all are born with,
and the one a few develop. There are techniques for
developing extraordinary intelligence, but if I was to
tell you, you'd take immediate offense.

LISA: In anticipation of being told that by accepting
"what is" and ceasing the struggle one moves to a more
desirable location (or something like that)

HEIDI: Lisa, if anyone tells you that, they're
ill-informed at best and confused at worst. Acceptance
of "what is" is blindness, it's the most ORDINARY of
ordinary views possible, and certainly not extraordinary
in any way. Chew on that.

Then think about the concept OF struggle, of overcoming
the forces that confine you, of freeing yourself from
chains. Do you really believe that non-sense about
"accepting you're already enlightened" dis-information?
Probably not, if you still have a glimmer of life in
you.

The reason why many people here and there, push such
failed viewpoints, is because they don't understand
anything about what they're talking about. And when you
don't understand something, make a clever aphorism or
something, and you never have to deal with it again.
Most of what passes for "enlightenment" literature, is
one guy giving off-handed pep-talks to other guys. Not
so THEY will awaken, but so that THEY will keep coming
back for more. Why? Because if what they were saying WAS
satisfying, or in any way operational, the audience
would just go out and "get enlightened". But, honestly,
how often have you heard of that?

LISA: I say in advance...I stopped struggling years ago
out of sheer recognition of the futility of the
struggle...but the old desire to fight like a cornered
animal arises at times and I am not always sure how to
process that intensity. Squeezin the charmin, -Lisa

HEIDI: ---"friend" to "friend"-- Get BACK on that
horsey, and ride!! Come out of the struggle-free closet,
and start thinking about what you're thinking about, and
try to overcome the automatic tendency to "make sense",
and reduce difficult concepts into aphorism and bad
jokes.

Use your cornered animal energy for your OWN
enlightenment. Don't let some other questionable
lifeform tell YOU what to do and not to do with your own
life.

PS. This was NOT a pep-talk. If anything, it was just
the opposite.

__________________________________________________________________

GINA AND DAVID
from the Alice's Restaurant list

GINA:

Hello All,

I'm a new member as well. I recently stumbled across the
following wonderful poem on
http://store.yahoo.com/scents-of-earth/index.html and am
curious to know if any of you have specific incense
rituals or scents that you use to get yourself into a
creative frame of mind and/or if you have suggestions
for other texts relating to the subject.

Thanks so much. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I don't feel like writing a poem,
Instead, I will light the incense-burning vessel
Filled with myrrh, jasmine, and frankincense,
And the poem will grow in my heart
Like the flowers in my garden.

- student of Hafiz (15th century A.D.)

DAVID:

Gina,

For me it would be Shukokoku, also spelled syukokoku,
and Shu koh koku. It's rich in aloeswood.

But everyone is different. Chinese artists have always
been partial to Sandalwoods because they seem to steady
the hands and relax you.

Cassia or cinnamon has been known to stimulate
creativity.

Marcel Proust was stimulated by the smell of tea as I
recall the story and wrote "Remberances of Things Past"

Galangal of Sanna (jap) Kaempferia galangal might be the
sleeper here. Most Japanese companies use it in their
products.

_________________________________________________________________

SATI PANNA

Went to visit my mom yesterday. It enabled me
to update my websites as well as check my email. I also
decided to take a break from the egroup there. I have
received a surprisingly high amount of feedback on the
diary website. Apparently, someone had shown the URL to
a nonduality egroup. I don't care much for nonduality
really. Trying to find nonduality is as illusionary as
it is futile. I care more about duality, more
specifically knowing dualistic thought patterns.
Discernment liberates. But perhaps that is was others
refer to when they speak of nonduality. Perhaps my
definition of that label is off the mark. Anyway, I was
told that there was a small discussion about whether I
was fake or not. It kinda reminds of why I decided to
quit usenet. To much discrimination. Not that I mind
that people don't believe me. In fact, I think I'd be a
little disappointed if anyone took what I said at face
value. But there are simply too many people in such
forums who cling to their own views and concepts and
think it is valid. It would be more beneficial for them
to examine why they think I am phoney. Personally, I
tire of such discussions. If people want to tell me they
are enlightened, I'll give them the benefit of the
doubt. If my own experience tells me they are not, I
might point out that it doesn't seem that way to me,
provided they are open to such a debate. Going around
and discussing criteria for enlightenment seems silly to
me. Everyone is capable of taking a Sutra or other
scripture and reformulating in their own words and then
claim it to be genuine experience. It's quite difficult
to discern such things based simply on their writings. A
personal discussion might reveal it more clearly, but
again it is uncertain. But if all you have to base your
assumptions on are views and concepts rather than direct
experience, how can you tell even then? In the end, it
doesn't matter at all if those around you are
enlightened or not, or even if they claim it or not.
What matters is your own experience and progress; your
own understanding. Why waste time counting the treasures
of others?

___________________________________________________________________

from http://corewave.com/core/gamei/wwwboard/sub-main.html

"Tommy" by The Who
Posted by Gail Sullivan on July 30, 1997

"Deaf Dumb and Blind Boy lives in a quiet vibration land
Strange as it seems, his musical dreams ain't quite so bad
Sickness will surely take the mind where minds can't usually go
Come on the Amazing Journey and learn all you should know."

Tommy is an excellent example of the distinctions
between inside and outside. While lost "in a quiet
vibration land" this deaf, dumb and blind child manages
to see himself in a mirror. But he is unable to respond
to anything else. Through his infinite contact with
himself he becomes a fully-realized person while still
cut off from society as a whole. Once his mother breaks
the mirror he sets out on a journey as a new messiah,
attempting to lead others down the same path to
enlightenment. ----------------
 

Re: "Tommy" by The Who
Posted by Basho on October 27, 1997

I think that one of the keys to understanding "Tommy"
is that you can see your own reflection in a pinball.
The ball becomes a metaphor for the self as it is
bounced around from bumpers to pins and back. Our control of
the fate of the ball/self is limited to the flippers
and small movements that we can induce in the machine
as long as we don't "tilt" or "drain."

Connection to Spirtuality and Zen:
The "gatha" of Shen-hsiu:
The body is the Bhodi-tree.
The mind is like a mirror bright;
Take heed to keep it always clean
And let not dust collect upon it.

The reply of Hui-neng:
there is no Bhodi-tree,
Nor stand of mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

In a sense, Zen transceds the inner/outer distinction of
mind and world. Phenomenon do not exist "out there"
neither do they exist "inside the mind" They exist as
they are, without discrimination. The "breaking of the
mirror" is enlightenment. When we stop to reflect on our
selves and see the world "as it is" then we can say "I'm
Free and I'm waiting for you to follow me." Whether or
not we with to become Messiahs is a matter of choice
(see Richard Bach's "Illusions").  

___________________________________________________________________

LOBSTER
from Nasrudin Study list

Cause and effect

It seems that Mullah Nasrudin
was once again telling his favourite joke.
Everybody had heard it hundreds of times.
On finishing the Mullah ROTFL (Rolled On The Floor Laughing).
Everyone else was unaffected.
'Mullah why is it you never grow tired of this joke?'
'What,' said Nasrudin catching his breath, 'makes
you think I am laughing at the joke . . .'