Sarlo on the feminine in Jehovah NondualitySalon@yahoogroups.com

Witches find it interesting that the name Jehovah is formed by
the four Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vau-He. The first, Yod, means 'I,'
the next three, He-Vau-He, mean both 'life' and 'woman' The
Latin version of these three letters is E-V-E. In other words, the
name Jehovah is feminine and it means 'I am woman, I am life.'
Today a popular chant among witches is based on these ancient
letters: 'IO! Evohe!'

viorica weissman submitted to MillionPaths@Yahoogroups.com

Chuang Tzu-The mind of the perfect man

The mind of the perfect man is like a mirror.
It does not move with things , nor does it anticipate them.
It responds to things , but does not retain them.
Therefore , he is able to deal successfully with things,
but is not affected.

Gary Merrill and Jerry Katz NondualitySalon@yahoogroups.com

Gary proposes: Can we start a rating system for the seekers? They can be rated according to how long
they've been on the way, all the teachers they've known, what they've done and said, how much they know,
and how enlightened they've become.

Wait a minute that sounds like the gurus!


Jerry offers: Take a board. Place a variety of pebbles at one end. Take
the end of the board where the pebbles are, and tilt it up a little.

Some pebbles role to the bottom, other role off the side, others move
slightly, some don't move at all, and all the pebbles that move have
their own path.

Rate each pebble according to its pebbleness, on a scale of one to
five.

It's pebbleness has nothing to do with the test that was applied.

That's what's being done, not only when a person is rated, but when a
person rates or judges what's going on with himself. You look at things
as they are, which is simply as they are, not at their comparative
behavior on a slanted board.

Looking at things as they are is love and ahimsa.

perfect on a slanted board, Jerry

Pebbles on a guitar head: meditation and music

Michael Read meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com

Meditation and music have a lot in common.



I have owned a guitar for decades, more than thirty years in fact.
However, only in the last two years have I even began to learn
how to play one. This protracted delay parallels my meditation
practice and spiritual growth.



Both process had high and low moments. But, as with most
people, the real and immediate needs of family, career, you
know, life took precedence over guitar and meditation practice.



The first time I had a guitar in my hands I tried to play something
complicated. Silly, isn't it? But watch people who don't know how
to play a guitar yet want to so much. They all try to play
something complicated, flub it all up, get a wee bit frustrated,
sigh, and put the instrument down or hand it back with a shy grin.



I found the book "First Guide to Guitar" and learned some simple
tunes from it. The first lesson in the book wasn't a song. No, it
was on timing. Without timing music is just noise. The lesson
was simple. Hold down a C chord and strum 1234/1234/1234
etc. Make each strum the same duration as every other strum.
No, it doesn't make a very melodic tune. However, just try to do it
for 2 minutes. Phew! Harder than it sounds. Now, do it for 5
minutes.



My first experience with meditation involved a technique that
used a 4 count. At that time I was a kid of twenty two years and
though I didn't know it at the time; on the verge of my great
spiritual adventure. But, that's another story.



I was living in a house with from seven to twelve people, it varied.
This was 1971 and the times were definitely a'changing. I was
fresh out of the service and footloose.



One day I picked up a book somebody had left lying about. I
opened it up in the middle and started reading. The passage
described a breath meditation technique. It said to focus
attention on the breath and to breathe in four stages. They were
inhale, pause, exhale, pause - repeat for some time.



Since this was my first experience with meditation I had no
expectations. Here is what happened. After the first few
attempts, my attention went completely on the breath and the
paced rhythm felt very natural. Then I was filled to overflowing
with a state of peaceful joy. It was a living natural thing.



Of course, I was still me - still couldn't play the guitar! And, I still
had all the bags and baggage of my life. No one escapes that.
Fantastic highs and devastating lows occurred as my life
proceeded. Ah, wisdom for the pain. And no regrets for a life
lived with passion.



During the next twenty some odd years I would pick up the guitar
and go through a few short bouts of practice from time to time. I
also joined a cult, got married, fathered two girls, left the cult,
hauled scrap metal, learned computers, had a business or two,
got divorced, raised my daughters, made lots of money, spent it
all, and so on.



Through all this I was a seeker after God. About three years ago I
had the same experience with meditation that occurred at the
age of 22. Although the experience of peace and joy out of mind
was the same as the first time, when there was no
understanding, the last time ended the seeking.



Now, I am still me and there is still baggage, still life. But, I
practice the guitar with joyous abandon.



no doer no doer anywhere but the doing does get done



what a miracle what passion!

Dan Berkow on no independent existence consciousnessIsAll@yahoogroups.com



The observation that nothing exists independently, no concept
has an independent meaning, no image reflects an external or
internal reality, is essential.



If we assume an independent existence to anything, we have
allowed a self-contradiction to be the basis of knowing and
being.



The tendency to assume independent existence, however, is
imbedded in language, thought, memory, causal explanations,
and social organization.



So, we end up questioning all of these things.



The point being this: If I know myself to be who I am, without any
unreal divisions implied by independently existing things, beings,
states, or qualities, then whatever is said won't fool me. And I
won't be looking to gain something from what is said. Gain and
loss being implied in one another. Further, I won't be looking for
what I say to be validated, nor accepted, as acceptance and
rejection are seen the same.



If, however, I assume an independent existence, I will be
experiencing a world with autonomous beings, preferable states,
desirable qualities and experiences, something to get to,
exclusive groups, and special knowledges.



So, it all depends on from whence I come.



All else follows.



The first step is the final step.



Prior to any step is the ending of all steps.

Sandeep on no distinction Meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com


A "negativity" is a perception of the perceiver, reflecting the
perceiver's beingness, in the moment. That beingness, in which
exists, a distinction between "postivity" and "negativity".



That is to be expected as the one who seeks a Guru, seeks
something, no matter what he or she calls it.



And thus the seeking is the very consequence of the existing
sense of distinction between "positive" and "negative".



As I said that's expected, natural.



But in the one, in which all distinctions have ended, there is no
existing concept of "positive" or "negative" behaviour, either
through "oneself", or through an "other".



To the one in which all distinctions have ended, there is no
"disrespectful" question, or an "underserving" seeker.



There is no expectation of a "behaviour" at all.



When beauty is recognized as beautiful, there is already
ugliness;



When goodness is recognized as good, there is already evil.



"To be" and "not to be" arise mutually;



They said to Him: Shall we then, being children, enter the
Kingdom?



Jesus said: When you make the two one, and when you make
the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above
as the below, and when you make the male ad the female into a
single one then you shall enter the Kingdom."



Distinctions are there because of your trained eyes.



Distinction is a learned thing.



Distinction is projected by you.



Nature itself does not seem to know - or care - about the
man-made opposites or about this world of opposites.



Nature seems perfectly satisfied and happy to produce a world
of infinite, rapturous variety; that knows nothing about anything
pretty or ugly, ethical or unethical.



As Thoreau has said, nature never apologizes, never sees the
need of it..."



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

Sandeep on gurus



A Guru does not bring light.



A Guru is a burning.



In that flame, in that milieu of burning, a leap of the flame from
one wick to another, may or may not take place.



In a "Guru", there is none to care whether it does or does not.

Since there is none to care, a "Guru" is truly compassion.



Let the Gurus play. Let the bystanders throw stones or flowers, at
the play.



If for the Guru, the stone is a "stone", or the flower is a "flower",
the Guru is no Guru.

The narrower the circle of my self-identification, the more acute
the suffering caused by desire and fear.

-- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Allow your identity to shift from the particular to the Universal,
and
then watch the restlessness of the mind subside.

-- Metta Zetty