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I met an ex-patriot of the Easter Islands, (monolithic
carved heads...)
who said his native language consisted of verbal lore
accompanied by the geometric pattern of a string game, known
in the US as 'Cat's Cradle'.


You start with a long loop of string, fastened then
repeatedly, between fingers, alternating patterns between
partners, between different sets of fingers. The verbal
story is then metered, and "sumchecked" against this string
play. Childs play. Digital.


But then you think of those 3 to 4 metre heads, like giant
puppet masters of the past still and looking on, I
shudder...:-)


Eric
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When all sense of separate self just got lost into I don't
know. When all the comings and goings are over. Then indeed
there is nothing to convey. Not even on this mailing list.
Yet I try.

Love always,

Mira
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Hello:

Made some changes and additions to the Nonduality Salon web
pages.

Added the following to the Realizers/Confessors List:

(Note: The Realizers/Confessors list is now much easier to
navigate. Instead of one long page of over 200 names and
quotes, it has been divided into eight pages: Main,
Introduction, A-D, E-H, I-L, M-P, Q-T, U-Z)

David | Thayumanavar | Kate Wheeler | Peter Collins | Haiku
Poets (Japanese) | Thomas J. McFarlane | S.S. Shankar |
Mirror | Anand Amrit | William Fahey | Hilda Charlton |
Swami Beyondananda | Durius Nguyen The Desert Fathers | Ma |
Alice Bailey | Padre Pio

Made available Nonduality Salon Chat: fun, informal, just
type in your name and join the discussion; there are no set
hours, you have to poke your head in and see if anyone's
there.

To check it all out, please go to

<a href="http://www.nonduality.com/new.htm">

Note that Mirror is on the Nonduality Salon list. There are
several others on the list that I'll eventually create web
pages for. Mirror/Mira already has a web page (an excellent
one), so it was a matter of linking.


You'll find that the names added form the usual eclectic
bunch. Shankar and Fahey are both artists; their paintings
are featured, though they've composed words to go with their
art.


Collins and McFarlane are mathematicians and their work is
'heavy' and nondual related.


Thanks,

Jerry

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Dan wrote:
Thus, any image is simply an image. When there is no "me"
in any image - there are simply images arising and
departing. What is it then that gives an image its
qualities? How is sensation determined, shape, form,
coming, departing, associations?
Once mind is noticed as itself an image, a very mysterious
quality shines through each and any image or sensory
experience (an image is the reflection of a sense
experience, which is a reflection of a sense experience,
etc.) This "shining" is very inexplicable!

It's not a matter of reflection, memory, thought, or
comparison.


~Mira~ wrote:

Yes. Very well put. I have tried to describe this quality
as 'sameness'. Perhaps it is for the absence of judgemental
and comparing mind activity that images and experiences
shine through with this transparency. I can still see the
quality that my mind attaches to it, but it has nothing to
do with the original, empty, sameness quality. Mysterious
is indeed a beautiful word for it, for this word kind of
excuses the mind for 'not being able to grasp it'.


Thank you Dan,

With love, Mira
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Jim and Dan:

J: <snip> I have convinced myself of things before only to
find out that I was way off base, things I've felt
passionately about, so when people display passion as
evidence that their truth is the TRUTH, I become suspicious.


D: Passion driving the truth, concepts driving the truth,
tradition driving the truth - it all amounts to bringing
something with you into the present in order to understand
the present Starting from the present itself - it can go
anywhere - to passion, concepts, traditions - but the
understanding of it is from itself

J: -I don't want anyone to fully express anything, I'm just
looking for something more than nothing...presented as
wisdom.


D: What is wisdom? There have been so many teachings
already that are supposed to be "wise" - are more needed?
The wisdom you ask for seems likely to be insufficient if it
comes from "someone else." Someone else's wisdom applied to
your experience can only be bringing something with you to
the present.


Dan: The question is, "how mysterious is this very moment,
this exactly as it is?"


J: -Very, I've been paying closer attention, and it gets
more interesting all the time.


D: That's all there is to "do" here...


J: - I've got nothing against words, in fact, it's words of
course that I'm looking for here (as if it could be avoided)
it's just the word nothing thats bothering me.


D: I an empty canvas bothersome? It's just there. Does it
need something to fill it? Well, in this case, there are
endless paintings arising from the empty canvas, moment to
moment. Does calling it "nothing" detract from it? Would
calling it "God" add something to it? If it's yourself,
does that clarify it? If it's totally other, does that make
it any more mysterious?


D: Here you are. Here's "your" experience. Where is the
line between "you" and "your experience"?


J: - I haven't found it.


D: To me, that's an important awareness. One can stay
there, noticing that no "real" line exists - simply
conventions of thought, word, memory. Conventional
assumptions about reality are called into question simply
from noticing that "me" and "my experience"
aren't separable. If there isn't a me separable, then what
separates this moment from any moment? If one moment
contains all moments, and one being contains all beings,
then one "nothing" contains all somethings.
______________________________________________________________________

"Sooner or later you're going to learn the difference...
between knowing the path, and walking the path."


Morpheus, "The Matrix"


(from Tim)
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greetings to all I have just joined there is something here
. . .
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/davemason
here's something from Jim "words dissemble words be quick
words become my walking stick" . . .
from dave

_____________________________________________________________________

Kristi sent several memorable poems. This is one you'll
remember:

Yellow Rose appeared in the parking lot of Shop Smart this
morning in the company of Toad. She, dark haired, and
alive, with the mellow wisdom of middle age; he, red braids
and large hands adorned with many rings, young and seeking.
It is the way of the street, nomadic and tribal. People
appear and disappear. Every moment of time in the company of
goodness is precious; you never forget them. She brought
silverware to our camp at the Pyramid that
night and told me to stop trying so hard. "Tom, will get
tired," she said, "then he will listen. Some battles," she
said,
"cannot be won by fighting."

The next day we went to their camp behind the green bridge,
to a colorful gathering of people and tarps and blankets.
A large central kitchen was organized with cast iron
skillets hung above the fire. Toad presented us with a 5
foot
length of green pipe that he had laboriously beaten into
shape, heating and re-heating the metal until one end was
flattened into an angle at odds to the rest of the pipe.
This end went into the fire and allowed us to blow from the
other end without getting burned; the flames fairly leapt
from the embers as a simple, single breath of air magnified
the elements and goaded them into performing for us. Toad
ran his kitchen with the steady rhythmns of a railroad
conductor. Great clouds of billowing smoke and steam
announced that the
kitchen was gearing up to feed the masses.
We were a small mass that day; we ate beans and rice, soups,
fresh
vegetables and bread, some of it probably
retrieved from the grocery store dumpsters.

Yellow Rose took me by the hand and told me I needed
tending. She rubbed
tiny white and lavendar flowers from a
bush until they frothed into a great luxurious lather. She
washed my face and hands and feet. She simmered rosemary
around her own smaller campfire and washed my hair. She sang
softly and
sweetly under her breath, and reminded me from time to time
that not all battles can be won by fighting.

I never saw her again. I will never forget her.
_____________________________________________________________________

Kristi responded to Eric's tale of how someone knocked at
his door and cohersed him into a 'loan' of $20 and drives
around town in order to engage in apparent drug deal. Eric
called it 'surrender'.


Dearest Eric:


If a brother comes to your door and you are led by light and
love, you say to him:


"Brother, the Lord has sent you......I will give you the
$20.00 you ask for; please do not repay me....some day
someone will come to you and will ask of you....give to him
then......this is the Way of the Lord....but I cannot drive
you around.....I cannot help you hurt yourself.....Go with
God, Brother."


If you are bodhisattva....then you go with him, you help him
buy his drugs, you help him shoot them up....you walk WITH
him in love and respect of his True Nature, unconcerned with
his doings of the body....to teach him what he really
is...and to abide with him while he learns that pain and
suffering is not what he wants.....in this way he learns the
capacity for Trust...which he is lacking, and only through
Trust will he learn of his worthiness and blessedness...you
do not judge him because you do not know the meaning of
judgement; you know only the meaning of presence and
adoration.....eating dinner is no different in that place
from shooting drugs....AND, if you go to jail for his
doings, it doesn't matter, you are then bodhisattva in jail
because it matters not where you are or who you are with or
what you love because you ARE LOVE and can do nothing but
love....


You are not free to walk the path of the
bodhisattva.....bodhisattva has no attachments....knows not
of their meaning......you have children....you are not free
to explore this..........


If, you are called to answer to these situations, and you
feel lifted up by joy and great love, proceed........if you
feel fear or trepidation - pay attention - still, act with
love, but love of yourself and your children as well as him
who you would help. Bodhisattva is surrender of
extraordianry proportions.....what others talk about as
surrender is nothing compared to what you are toying
with....


Much love, Kristi

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