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#1171
Monday, August 19, 2002
Editor: Christiana

Mace Mealer HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com

There will always be one place on earth, where the
needle of a compass will not point north, and another from
which all directions "are" north. From my own view point
we are speaking of the mystery of the seventh direction.
(please excuse me for appearing smarmy or cryptic as it
is not my intent, just an unavoidable aspect of my flawed
nature)

Apherion

At the edge of the land.
At the edge of the sea.
At the edge of the day.
At the edge of tomorrow.
At the edge of yesterday.
At the center of the six directions.
The mystery of the seventh is revealed,
as the heart song of the many
become One.



Aubusson tapestry: River in One: Yael Lurie, Jean-Pierre Larochette


LoveAlways, Mazie & b http://HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com

Robert O'hearn and Mazie Lane submissions and MazieBob Oneheart sharing

~~~~~~~~

Adyashanti Interview

Question: How did awakening and liberation occur for
you?

Adyashanti: I had my first what traditionally would be called
awakening experience when I was 25 years old. This was
very powerful and full of emotion and release and joy and
bliss and all that it is supposed to be full of. But, because
there was so much emotion involved, it obscured the
simplicity of awakeness itself. Like so many others, I
continued to chase certain ideas and concepts of what
awakeness was supposed to be. That caused years of
misery. Gradually over time I had the same experience
reoccur, but each time with less and less emotion. I could
see more and more clearly over time what was the actual
essential element. Then finally an awakening occurred
where at the moment of awakening, there was no emotion
in it. It was just the pure seeing of what is. When there was
the pure seeing of what is, unclouded by emotional
content, it was obvious. It was very obvious that
consciousness recognized itself for what it really is - aware
space before any emotion or thought or manifestation.

Question: Would you say that this is the point at which the
distinction between awakening and liberation occurred?

Adyashanti: No. Even though there was a freedom and
incredible sense of fearlessness and release from not
being confined to the dream of a separate "I", I started to
feel somewhat discontented with that. I didn't know why I
felt discontented, and it didn't bother me in any way. The
discontent didn't touch that freedom, so it didn't bother me,
but I was interested in it.

Then one day I was sitting reading a book, and I folded the
book to put it away and realized that somewhere in some
magic time, something had dropped away, and I didn't
know what it was. There was just a big absence of
something. I went through the rest of the day as usual but
noticing some big absence. Then when I sat down on the
bed that night, it suddenly hit me that what had fallen away
was all identity. All identity had collapsed, as both the self
in the ego sense of a separate me, and as the slightest
twinge of identity with the Absolute Self, with the Oneness
of consciousness. There had still been some unconscious,
identity or "me-ness" which was the cause of the
discontent. And it all collapsed. Identity itself collapsed,
and from that point on there was no grasping whatsoever
for little me or for the unified consciousness me. Identity
just fell away and blew away with the wind.

Question: When you noticed that the identity had collapsed
and was gone, what remained?

Adyashanti: Everything just as it always had been. There
was just the lack of any "I", personal or universal, or the
fundamental unconscious belief in any identity or of fixating
self in any place. The mind can continue to fixate a subtle
identity of self even in universal consciousness. It can be
so incredibly easy to miss. To say "I am That" can be a
very subtle fixation of consciousness.

Question: It's still a landing, a form of identity.

Adyashanti: it's a slight landing, a slight grasping. It's very
subtle. But when it collapses, you are even beyond "I am
That". You are in a place that cannot be described.

Question: And that is what you call liberation?

Adyashanti: That is what I call liberation. Really, in the end,
what you end up with is that you don't know who you are.
You end up in the same place you started out. You truly
don't know who you are because it's impossible to fixate
the self anywhere.

Question: But this not knowing is not the same as
ignorance.

Adyashanti: It's not the same not knowing of ignorance. It's
the not knowing that comes from recognizing that the
whole issue of a self, personal or absolute, is fantasy. Both
the self and the Self are interpretations upon perception,
and nothing more. And when the interpretation ends,
thought ends. When all identity collapses, you abide in the
unknown. There is no tendency left to fixate identity
anywhere - even in a universal somewhere. So, you are left
resting in the mystery as the mystery. It is only then that you
can be truly and absolutely free of all concerns. There is
nothing to say. What can you say? There is nothing to say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sound of OneHeart

Each night i long to sing with this body
pressed against yours,
moving like a melody remembered;
like a rhapsody rushing into the Heart.

i want to sway like a palm frond
on a sandy Mayan beach,
held in your hand conducting music
with the sunlight.
<snip>

This clarity is the progeny of the exquisite transparency of
your touch, the way you wrap The Love You Are around
me.

It is the clarity of the touching itself, recognizing it is what is
being touched, even as it touches.

Recognizing there is nobody there.

Nobody touching.

Nobody being touched.

Just the touching, touching.

This is for everyone, All are Lovers.

Some feel this touch upon their mind. Some feel this touch
upon their body. Some feel this touch upon their heart.
Some feel this touch upon their soul.

Every being feels this touch.

Everybody is this touching,

This OneHeart Sound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trust

"For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness
disappears.

With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the
universe completely.

All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.

All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.

In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no
non-self.

If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is
"Not-two."

In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the
world is excluded.

The enlightened of all times and places have entered into
this truth.

In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand
years.

There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your
eyes."

~ From "The Mind of Absolute Trust"
http://www.nonduality.com/seng.htm

Dustin LindenSmith NondualParent@yahoogroups.com

This time, I thought I'd try something different. Instead of
dancing around the house like an idiot trying to
distract her
from her own crying, I decided to try plain quietness,
and
stillness. I nestled her against my neck, making low,
soothing sounds, and rubbed and patted her back
patiently. She disintegrated further though,
screaming so
hard into my neck that I had to check to make sure I
wasn't
smothering her. I wasn't, and so I continued for a few
more
minutes like that, until I thought I felt her gearing
down a
little.

Then I held her up in front of me to look her in the
face. Her
whole head was red, she was crying sadly but more softly,
and her eyes were squinched up tightly, squeezing out
rivers of tears. I laughed, and held my forehead against
hers, looking right into her eyes. "You're okay, silly," I told
her gently. "You're gonna be fine. Let's just calm down and
take some deep breaths together." Her eyes opened a
little, our faces so close that we could barely make out
each other's eyes clearly, and after another minute or so,
she stopped crying altogether and panted her gasping
breaths that she uses to recover from a huge fit. I brought
her back to my shoulder, and she was fast asleep within
another 30 seconds or so. This time, the whole process
lasted 5 minutes from start to finish.

photo of Dustin's daughter Zoe

Tony and Bob Rose meditationsocietyofamerica@yahoogroups.com

Journal Entry - August 19 - tosime

Focus on deeper physical relaxation, practicing
acceptance and practicing attention.

I practice attention by waiting alertly for the next stimuli.

I practice acceptance by not reacting to whatever comes
up. A wide variety of things come up. I assume that
whatever comes up is a direction on a path. When I react
strongly to something it dissolves and I loose that path.
When I fully accept what comes up, I am taken along that
path. Today's path took me to two waves of bliss which
were different from other waves (hard to describe since
there are few words that are accurate enough).

Physical relaxation is so deep I notice I sometimes drool. I
am learning not to react to this as part of the acceptance
process.

I find observing the memory creation process fascinating.
Things that happened the previous day are "associated"
or linked with different things so that if I ever think of the
these things it will automatically bring up what happened
yesterday.

The skills and attitudes I develop during meditation are
very useful in day to day situations because they help me
to stay calm, stay focused and understand the deeper
processes that are happening in my mind.


Dear Tony, This is a beautiful example of what meditation
is about and how it segues and benefits our moment to
moment life. Thanks for sharing. Bob



from Xan

Discard every self-seeking motive
as soon as it is seen
and you need not search for truth -
truth will find you.

--Nisargadatta Maharaj

(ed note: this weekend, Jerry Katz and I enjoyed silent, clear, empty and playful fellowship with our dear friend, cee in present nonexistence, at her lovely new center)

cee http://www.presentnonexistence.com

There are many modern spiritual teachings that say "now
is the reality," but it (now) is a far, far cry from the truth of
your own Existence. Go deeper than what you see. Go
deeper than what you hear. Don't take even "now" as the
Reality. The now comes and goes. The final perfect
enlightenment in the Advaita is called "no creation." There
is no birth or death. There is no bondage and no liberation,
nothing has been created. No human forms and no world.
That doesn't leave a void. That leaves perfect
consciousness. It's silent. It's vast. And it is perfect,
unutterable bliss. And you will see that past is just mind,
the future is just mind, the now is just mind, and mind as
such does not exist. But the perfection of your self, THE
Self, IS.

http://www.presentnonexistence.com/transcripts/world.htm

more from cee..

Shawn submitted to HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com

"my" consciousness
cee: i kept trying to figure out how "my" consciousness is
the same as everyone elses, but, if the "my" dissolves, that
is not really a question.

nome: here's a funny thing. within the limitlessness of your
own consciousness, where we really don't see a boundary
or a size or shape, within that consciousness there
appears as it were a wave an illusion of certain ideas. one
of those ideas is "i", some of those ideas make up what
you commonly call a personality or a mind-- whatever
seems to mark you off as a separate being.

you are the consciousness and you have these ideas of a
separate being, and then marvelously enough you imagine
you stand as the separate being and refer to the
consciousness as if it were your possession. isn't that a
funny thing? that's very strange.

first we set something apart from ourselves, then we step
into it as if it were ourselves. and look back at ourselves,
thinking that we are a stranger to ourselves. but none of
that is true, none of that is actually happening. there is
really no such thing as "my consciousness" or "your
consciousness". "mine" "your" etcetera, these are just
ideas, and all ideas or thoughts are inert.

the consciousness is the living part. now if you look right
directly into your consciousness it doesn't have an "i" or a
"you" or a "yours" or anything else like that.

upstream of all thought, in your consciousness where you
know nothing other, where you know no thing whatsoever,

there is no illusion.

Jan Barendrecht nondualitysalon@yahoogroups.com

Memories?

mind the memories
empty as space without jar
peace of mind is still
feelings die out by themselves
i won't pay their storage bill

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