Sixty-six times have these eyes
beheld the changing scene of autumn.
I have said enough about moonlight,
Ask no more.
Only listen to the voice of
pines and cedars when no wind stirs.
- Ryonen (1797-1863)
Many times have these eyes
beheld the changing seen of NDS.
I have said enough about donuts,
Ask no more.
Only listen to the voice of
maples and cantaloupes when no
posts are posted.
riverjohn (1952- )
ALAN LARUS on NDS
photo: surrender
"how that which I am not came to be off topic"
The meaning of the word love is
quite clear when uttered by Hafiz
for the rest of us
the concept may not always
be the same
A philosophical view like inclusive or not
would in this case be
can we talk about everything
or nothing.
I guess we can.
Not this, not this
leads to the self
where no thing is separate
and here is to be found
true nature of thing
So rather than being of the persuasion
it can take more than a lifetime
get done with it
truly cut off the last thing.
Then what is any thing,
no thing or every thing
and this and that identity.
DAVID BOZZI on NDS
& HS
Sheep In Wolf's Clothing (Part II)
Got the rules laid down on me again today
like a fence
don't know why,
…was just being me.
Everyone around me
resisted the jaws of restraint
to defend me.
They weren't really defending me though.
They were defending some personal
sense of freedom
they perceived was under assault,
but not directly
as capitalist sheep tend to do...
It's funny how when people
as a mass mob
get edgy around profound times of transition,
…like animals before a earthquake.
As I sit and stare
at my supposed defenders
of peace,
I wonder what they've really been affected by
and what real danger that they might have sensed...
Was it really just little old just me?
...or a greater indication
of the sign of the times…?
Personally,
as an individual
I'm much like a single sheep
(granted, with sharp teeth)
but when the entire heard
gets excited,
it can only mean one thing,
…there's lion's around.
They stalk us always,
like the inevitable,
never seen but always there…
In a way, they are like God,
despite being creators
they often dress like Death.
And despite knowing my fate
as an individual
is to always be ready
for the final slaughter,
I can't help but find it ironic
that the very same Urge
that urges us to run
is the very same Urge that urges
the lions to eat us…
DUSTIN LINDENSMITH on
NondualParent
" How my baby has plugged me into the world"
I just had a few precious minutes of quiet awareness time with my
two-month-old
daughter, Zoë, as we sat together looking out our window to the
trees and the lake behind
our house. So far, she's a morning person like me, and she loves
to be awake early, just
looking around quietly and happily, checking out the world around
her.
When I first started to develop an intellectual understanding of
nonduality from reading
Nisargadatta, Ramana, Jerry, and other great sages, I remember
settling into a practice of
negating the world, kind of. In trying to accept that I was never
born and that I would never
die, I would shun any evidence that anything was happening in my
life. If I was having a
bad day, I'd tell myself, "Look man, this isn't even really
happening, so just ignore that
stuff that's 'bugging' you and get on with the business of just
BEING, okay?" Sometimes
this kind of thinking would create a lot of conflict in me.
Cognitive dissonance, I think it's
called.
Over the past couple of years, I've started to develop a more
balanced approach to living in
the world with a nondual understanding, as it were. However, I
still remember thinking
before Zoë was born that her birth and our lives afterwards
would be no different. "It will just
be another occurrence in a multitude of occurrences in my
life," I thought to myself. "I'm
sure it will be great, and fun, and fulfilling, and all that, but
it won't substantially change
who I am."
Well, of course that's true, to a certain extent -- who I AM is
changeless, immutable. But
what I've noticed recently with Zoë -- especially as she nears
the end of her 'fourth
trimester' and is becoming more comfortable in the world -- is
that having a baby DOES
change your physical being quite radically. At least for me, it
has made me focus instantly
and clearly on the changeless, and on the deep connection that
she and I and my wife
share as human beings. Instead of negating the world and its
experiences, I feel like I'm
more fully plugged into it; especially now that I have this new
responsibility to introduce
the world to my new baby daughter.
For the past six months, I've been wrestling with ways to
reconcile my intellectual nondual
understanding with how I live my life, and somehow, having a baby
is helping me to do
that. Nonduality expresses itself in my life today as equanimity,
as clear awareness, and
as objectivity regarding the world and its contents. Having Zoë
here has started a beautiful
fireworks display in the middle of that, and I'm loving every
minute of it so far.
ALAN LARUS on
HarshaSatsangh
photo: a piece of the north sea this evening
How could I try to capture more than two
Using them as a mere device
Telling about a sun on the rise
How lines of gold edge the shades
In this realm where darkness fades
How could I think I can’t get stung
Still I won’t run, I’m on my knees
They all surround me like a swarm of bees
A dance of ecstasy where nectar drips
A taste of honey‘s on my lips.
How could I claim or keep just one
Some jointly bound, some all alone
They merge into a single tone
Ringing in my ears, a golden bell
Dispelling darkness to the depths of hell
How could I live without your name
When found
It was just like any sound
When exposed
In every Word it was enclosed
How could I earn the merit
to know this truth
Even for a day
JERRY KATZ on NDS
"Thank you Jerry. Now this is the old Jerry that I knew!
A real Guru. Not only interested in donuts and gurus feet!"
i'm glad this sounded guru-ish. It came straight out of The
Celestine Prophesy for
Dummies.
Hey, the real guru can talk about anything and be anything. He
doesn't have to be
one way or the other. He might be traditional or might not. It's
what happens
around the Guru: a person becomes unwound. That's the basic idea
of the Guru. When
it's layered with lineage, experiences, levels, titles, history,
language, then it
becomes a web. Nothing wrong with it, one way or the other it
will seem there is a
construct to encounter when engaged by a Guru. It is the play of
the Guru (of
consciousness) to awaken your more subtle constructs, which are
doorways, gateless
gates, that is, not constructs at all.
Jerry
BOB & MAZIE on
HarshaSatsangh
"Making fun of Advaita" by friend of Robert's
THE ABIDING FORMULA - The injunction to answer all questions with
"Don't go into your
STORY, just abide in the SELF." Any question that can't be
simply anwered with this
formula is dismissed as intellectual mind stuff or mere
involvement in one's personal story
(MAYA). Everything is very simple, and it you don't think so, you
are just caught up in the
mind!
THE SILENCE COMPETITION - Contest to see who can stay silent
longer than the other.
The person who speaks first still has a personal story they are
caught up in, and are
therefore no longer abiding in the Self.
THE VULCAN COMPLEX - The importance of keeping your voice tone
very soft and even.
Never show emotion or passion. Whoever shows a trace of care or
concern for anything is
still attached and caught up in more personal Story.
THE PAPAJI PEDESTAL - It is admitted that all beings are in
reality the Self, and not their
personal identity. On the level of the Self, we are all the same
and all equal. The Self is
not thought to have any unique qualities differing from one
person to the other. The
particular body and personality of the individual is considered
incidental. Paradoxically, the
bodymind individual of Papaji is very special and worthy of great
admiration and devotion
(but just don't call it devotion). As George Orwell said,
"We are all equal, but some are
more equal than others".
RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT - This is the contradiction of advising
that we don't need to
have a teacher and we don't need to come to Satsang. All we need
is to stop everything
and just remain in Silence and Abide in the Self. There is
nothing to "get" at Satsang. At
the same time one is encouraged to support the teacher and the
Satsang.
DISSAPPEARING PERSONALITY TRICK - Now you see it, now you don't.
This is the
amazing ability of the Advaitan to have their personality
absorbed in the Self at any
convenient moment. When this occurrs, they remain aloof and
impersonal. Don't invite
them to dinner when this is occurring. And definately don't ask
them anything personal.
"Who is hungry?".
~~~~
These can apply at times to both the teachers and students of the
Papaji lineage of
Advaita. All of this is to be taken with a grain of salt. It is
just enjoyable to make fun of
things. You could say that there is a dark side to everything,
including the formal
Enlightenment paths. Show me the person who doesn't have a
shadow, and I will show
you a person who doesn't stand in the sun very often.
