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Editorial Quote for Today!
As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
Dick Cavett

Connect the dots

Naomi Evans polishes the floor April 12 before the opening of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's exhibition of vinyl dots and balloons, titled "Dots Obsession - New Century, 2000" at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Australia. The work by the internationally renowned artist is on sale for $145,000, which includes the vinyl dots, 11 balloons and installation instructions.

JERRY KATZ
from LiveJournal 

this is my poem
with the word

beloved

in it

you're going to hear about
mythological
things
and really very historical
things

and some woman or female thing
high above me
in a flowing robe

i'll be getting to that part soon
once i decide whether she has fairy dust
around her
or not

so this is my poem with the word
beloved
in it

and i hope you like it so far

this is my mention of planets
and astrological things

ok i got that out of the way

and this is the part where i mention
that my heart
is overflowing with love
and the love becomes a fountain
or a bird
or some other animal

right about now my
beloved
has to come into the picture again.

ya know, you can't go too long without
bringing the beloved back into the picture.
you know what i'm saying.

i guess i'm supposed to mention clouds too.

does the beloved ever pick up the check?

oh man, saved by the bell.
that's my chick on the phone.
gotta split

GARY MERRILL

It is of the mind to discriminate, to be for or against
To choose light over dark
Good over bad
Enlightened over un-enlightened
Whereas the heart synthesizes
And does not choose
The heart remains forever pure
In totality of all
In gratitude of all
Such love is blind to the mind
But like an open flower
Is Readily available to all
Completely free.  

MARK HOVILA
from NoDoer

This morning I read the following in Talks With Ramana Maharshi.

"Bondage is only the false notion 'I am the doer.'  Leave off such thoughts
and let the body and senses play their role, unimpeded by your
interference."

This can be seen instantly, by anyone, at any time.  See it now!  It is
obvious!  It is unbelievably obvious, which is probably why we don't look,
because we can't believe that such a thing could be so simple.  Just let
what happens happen.  (Duh!  As if wanting it to not happen would change
anything!) Where is the problem?  Where is the suffering?  Where is the
bondage?  Isn't this a lot more fun than trying to decide what to do all the
time? 

NINA
did I hear you correctly?

I said "hello" to the parking garage attendant on my walk home. His
reply was "pretty good".

This is not an unusual happening. In fact, more often than not, when
I say "hello", I get the response that describes how my addressee
thinks they ought to tell me they are doing. "Fine", "Well", "Real
Good", "Could be worse, has been worse", and if you look like you've
got time to spend: "Well, you know..."

So, I wondered...

At first, I thought perhaps the above sort of exchange is the product
of a fairly scripted regional approach to saying hello to people in
public settings. "Hey, how you?" instead of a "Hi" or "Howdy"
or "Hello". The script so well-rehearsed, in fact, that the script is
heard, even when it isn't being followed.

Well, at first I thought it was simply about a scripted greeting.
Then I wondered...

Is that sort of mishearing so uncommon at all? Could it be that most
of our exchanges are scripted? That everything I hear is nothing you
said?

Su, what am I not hearing today?

On that note, I'm out of town, out of the mountains, (out of sight,
dynomite!), down to the sea, to the sand and alligators and windburn.
See you when I'm done vacating.

Nina

BRUCE MORGEN

Habitual banter can be fun
to play with -- here are a
trio of typical mechanical
phrases and the responses I
sometimes use to see if the
banterer is paying
attention:
_____

"Can I have your name, please?"

"What's the matter, don't you
like yours?"
_____

"Please give me your phone
number."

"Well, OK -- as long as I can
have it back!"
_____

"Have a nice day!"

"I hear and obey!"
_____

GREG GOODE

Putting the usual mechanical banter off-balance

Hi Bruce and Nina,

I do the same thing:

Q:  "And what do you do?"  (oft-heard in NYC, they're asking about one's gainful employment)

A:  "Oh, ride my bike, see lots of
     movies and eat nachos, but not
     all at the same time."
 
 

Q:   "And where are you from?"

A:   (taking a small step to the side)
      "Right there."

MARK OTTER

Hi Greg,

I often say (without thinking very much, suggesting that I've merely
rewired my rote-response (hee, hee - or is it waaah...)) "I'm from
Earth."  I'm actually surprised at how many people take offense.

BRUCE MORGEN

That's probably because
they sensed that you're
not being entirely
honest, Mark.       :-)

After all, The Coneheads
often told people they
were "from France!"

"I got a picture postcard
from my brother.  It was
one of those photos of
the earth taken from
space, and his note said
'Wish you were here!'"

paraphrased from
comedian Steven Wright

 GREG GOODE

I know what you mean.  I actually had great fun meeting Mark, and I can tell you he's not from Earth or anywhere around Earth.  :-) 

 HIGH DEE
Focus -part one

 JERRY KATZ

cool distraction. once i took my glasses off and the image blurred it was
only a little while before eleven faces popped out.

Chadwick, the guy who put up the website, has a charming touch with English.
His is the twelfth hidden face. Look:[    http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ee9caa/   (link may not longer be working.)

"I love to wear smart clothes. The problem with me is I wear too smart, at
the time I needed to wear really smart, it is hard to find the right clothes
to wear since the smart clothes does not looks cool on me anymore."

"Japanese is one of my interests. Chese is another interests of mine."

"In Hong Kong, students learn by remembering the book. In Scotland, they
teach you until you understand."

"Hi! My name is Chadwick. I am from Hong Kong. I study in University of Bath
and I am a
Third year student in Electronic & Electrical Engineering. A bit shine, not
many friend in Bath."

"I tell my personal tutor about the exam I failed. He did not know that I had
failed."

" I will try to update it often and hopefully get some new background for
this page (Yeah, this colour looks old and kind of gay anyway.). Feel free to
read."

not really nondualer,
jerry

 BOBBY G
from HarshaSatsangh

I wish I were gone

Hi Everyone:

When I think abut it I must not like who I think I am.

I see myself do things I wished I had not. I am wrong about a lot of
things and I don't like to find out about it. I see a lot of things I
don't like about myself. Since I am wrong a lot I figure there are a
lot of things about myself I wouldn't like if I wasn't wrong about
myself so much. I guess I expect other people to point them out to me
even though I am not willing to do that for them and I don't like
that about myself.

I also see a lot of things I don't like about other people so I
assume they feel the same way about me. I know I am a good guy at
heart, that is I would help somebody if they needed it.  I figure
everyone has this quality at least sometimes.

If I am alright and everyone is alright too why do I want to leave
this ego behind.  Is it because of streets of gold or 72 virgins to
do my bidding if I do?  Is there something better for me.  How could
there be if the ego is gone.  That is me that is left behind. Gone.
Or is it?

The stories are pretty confusing concerning this.  Still I insist I
want to give up this Identification with the patterns and tendencies
that I am accustomed to thinking of as me.  Why?

For me it is because I am a lie.  It takes 90% of the brain to
suppress the remaining 10%, because that 10% erroneously attributes
every thought to another thought, the "me", instead of me.

Love
Bobby G.

 SU GANDOLFfrom GuruRatings This was the first time I was at something called a satsang with a
teacher in the chair (except for a short visit at the beginning of a
much larger Gangagi satsang). From my limited point of view, there is
a layer of "there's nothing to get but I've got it" in the set-up
with the teacher being on a pedestal that is not so freely addressed,
although Neelam is lovely and "real" (one of her words), and I have a
vision of her transmission as a rowing out with you to the middle of
a quiet, (some light shade of) blue lake. (where another teacher
might take you to a mountain)... and I see my wanting something too,
the contradiction in that. I had an interesting experience watching a
young man with one of those ever-present beatific smiles on his face
that was so easy to judge badly. The second day, I decided to see
myself in him, and when I looked again, for the first time his smile
had softened. Like my accepting of him (that part of myself), made it
so that part didn't have to appear so intensely externally anymore. I
pretty much ignored Sai Baba.

:-)
Su

 HELLMAN
from GuruRatings

If you have not seen with your own eyes then you will never truly
discover what has been happening around Oshana, nor will you know me -
and I am not interested in those who do not seek in order to find
but seek instead to deny

To those who say that they are the "I am" they could recognise that
that is not IT. There is no "I" to perceive an "am". Instead what is
there is more like "couldn't give a damn" than "I am" - and yes I
heard it from Dave first, and it made perfect sense in the deepest
part of my being

love & laughter

hellman

JODY
from GuruRatings

That's a clever way to point to the Self, but I'm still
spinning from all those fantastic testimonials:

Something profound happened to me - quite what that
was is a mystery. There was a shift, a different perspective
happened... Somehow everything appeared different - the river,
the boats, the buildings - all seen from another angle to
normal.

Dave should know that this isn't enlightenment. Self
realization isn't seeing anything differently. It's the
*not* seeing of identity, not seeing from a different identity.

I saw my ego/form as merely a construction and without life
- it was as if I had moved outside myself momentarily and I
saw I was FREE.

And that's all another construction, not any closer to
enlightenment than any other construction.

It seems there are so many ways that this is transmitted.
I am constantly in awe. Now it seems that writing can be a
vehicle for this too.

What is there to transmit? It's nice to be in awe, but that
isn't realization either.

Nothing against these folk, but these are just more states
of mind, more ideas about existence. They are not realization.

Dave must know this, yet he's egging them on to manifest
these kinds of experiences.

People get a little yaya and Dave gets the credit and that's
about it. They go home with their new construction of self
and continue to not see who they are.

Just trying to keep it real.

--jody.

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