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HIGHLIGHTS #1176
Saturday, August 24, 2002
Editor: Christiana

Jerry Katz http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada/ebbsall.htm

Endless Billboards: A Series of Short Writings

From Your Driveway You Can See The Moon


#21 ~ You know what? I'm so sick of hearing about being
conditioned and reacting and our false selves and
what's wrong with us, that I really don't give a damn.
SO WHAT if I'm conditioned and react and all that?
So what? To worry about it, to acknowledge it, to improve
it, isn't any better than having it. The problem is that
people suffer it. People suffer it and then they suffer
getting rid of it. And then they suffer its absence and
then they suffer their coming realizations.

The problem is the suffering of it. Not it.
I'm sure I've done all kinds of crazy things in my life, but one
understanding has never changed since the age of 7.
I AM. That plainly shines forth. It is Being.
And everything else falls into place.
Why crunch the gravel on the path, when one stone,
quiet and whole, awaits attention?

#29 ~ The question to ask, for me, is not what the meaning
and purpose of suffering is, but,
What is the ultimate division that I harbour,
what are its manifold expressions
and how are they reflected in the universe?
Before trying to explain what I see,
I need to see what I see.

#35 ~ What is real has nothing to do with a thing valued.

*
The Middle Path is a point at first, then a corridor, then
the universe, then Grace.

*
Attend to the suchness of everything.

Petros Petros-Truth@yahoogroups.com

Previous lives and awakening

It doesn't matter whether one believes literally in the
concept of incarnation or merely finds it a useful
hypothesis, or a poetic metaphor, as is our position.
Some people have noted a sudden understanding or
vision of their prior incarnations at the time of
awakening, or else such a vision has actually catalyzed
their awakening. It's as if you suddenly see your
"game," and see that there is nothing new or original
about it, that you're simply re-enacting ancient patterns
and conditionings. The point is that awakening means
getting a viewpoint outside of this "lineage" or pattern,
and feeling released from it.

Gloria Lee nondualparent@yahoogroups.com

Giving birth

Sending this especially for Kheyala... :) soon, soon!!

Dogen says:

You should understand the meaning of giving birth to a
child. At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the
mother separate from the child? You should study not
only that you become a mother when your child is born,
but also that you become a child. This is the
actualization of giving birth in practice-realization. You
should study and investigate this thoroughly.


art: Agnes Pelton, Being

Freyja shared TheWayStation@yahoogroups.com

Anna Quindlen "One of my best teachers"

"I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at
Coney Island many years ago. It was December, and I
was doing a story about how the homeles suffer in the
winter months. He and I sat on the edge of the wooden
supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told
me about his schedule, panhandling the boulevard
when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a
church when the temperature went below freezing,
hiding from the police amid the Tilt-A-Whirl and the
Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides.

But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the
boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were
sitting now, even when it got cold and he had to wear
his newspapers after he had read them. And i asked
him why. Why didnt he go to one of the shelters? Why
didnt he check himself into the hospital for de-tox?

And he stared out at the ocean and said, "Look at the
view, young lady. Look at the view."

And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he
said. I try to look at the view. That's all. Words of
wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no
place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. When i do
what he said, I am never disappointed."

"A Short Guide to a Happy Life"

David Bozzi HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com



Real Food

not dream food
is what I need.

Dream food is for fools.

I am starving
but the fool walks
past me
because he knows
all is perfect.

But thank god for that
second man who noticed
something wasn't right.

He's the one
who gave me
this loaf of bread...

Gary Merrill ConsciousnessIsAll@yahoogroups.com

Without Question

Generally we have a question and answer process
going on in order to solve our problems. This gives a
relative solution. Ask how to make a cake, there is an
answer, ask why do you want it, there is an answer, ask
when it was made, there is an answer. The question
and answer process works when talking about 'things',
about some relative existence.

To go beyond 'things', we may have to go beyond all
questions. That is, the questions themselves are
questioned. Looking at this systematically:

'What' - There is only a what, a something, in relation to
another something. Such identity and relation being
basic to any understanding. Wave your what goodbye.

'Why' - That there is a reason, a relation, a cause, can
be shown, but only within a limit. I may want cake
because I am hungry, but why am I hungry? etc etc.
There is no reason for reason, let it go.

'When' - Everything has a time, at least compared to
the time of something else. Some thing has to be
placed in time so that something else can be dated by
comparison. Time is relative, don't linger any longer.

'Where' - Like our 'when' there is no place without
reference to some other place. I only know my territory
by reference to someone else, someplace else. Space
out please.

'How' - That there is a method and a technique can be
shown by an end result eg our cake. But like our 'why'
(and like riding a bike) the initial 'how' remains
unexplained. I know how to get up and take out the
ingredients, I know how to think, until you ask. How
how? Know how.

'Who' - is the personal form of what. That someone is
required to make the cake and be in relation to it. Until I
look for myself. Only to find that this 'who' is the causal
agent a 'why', but hey 'why' isn't a proper answer either.
Well 'you' are in time, but hey, there is no 'when'. Well
'you' are 'how' it happens, but hey, how do I happen?
Well, 'you' are happening 'here', but hey, where is that?

Without question, there is peace. It passes understanding.

Dan Berkow NoDoer@yahoogroups.com

If teachers are oaks and acorns,
what is the soil of the garden in which
they all grow -- high and low?

The soil provides the same nourishment
to oak or acorn, and has no complaints
about small things that grow there,
and doesn't exult when something large
takes root.

Mazie Lane submits:

From "Zen Bones, Zen Flesh: A Collection of Zen and
Pre-Zen Writings," -

95. A Letter to a Dying Man

Bassui wrote the following letter to one of his disciples
who was about to die:

"The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never
die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not
an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither color
nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains.

I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are
facing that sickness squarely. You may not know who
exactly is suffering, but question yourself: What is the
essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need
no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is
as a snowflake dissolving in the pure air."

and Hsing Hsing Ming

To come directly into harmony with this reality just
simply say when doubt arises, "Not two". In this "not
two" nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No
matter when or where, enlightenment means entering
this truth. And this truth is beyond extension or
diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is ten
thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there, but the infinite
universe stands always before your eyes. Infinitely large
and infinitely small: no difference, for definitions have
vanished and no boundaries are seen. So too with
Being and non-Being. Don't waste time in doubts and
arguments that have nothing to do with this. One thing,
all things: move and intermingle, without distinction. To
live in this realisation is to be without anxiety about
non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to
non-duality. Because the non-dual is one with the
trusting mind.

Ken Carey: The extent of your consciousness is
limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with
your love the space around you, and all it contains

Nina Open_Source_Spirit@yahoogroups.com

paradigms, shrouds of universal experience, origins of language, sound


Now I wonder about language as a means of
transmission. Words, shrouds, what is passed is not
the word, but what is within the word, a kernel within a
seed.

Now I wonder about the specificity of words, the
apparent complexities produced from choosing, say,
'compel' over 'impel'. So many fine gradations,
sometimes the word choices are... not quite on target.
But does that change the kernel?

What would it be without words?

Listening for what is not spoken.

I listen for what YOU have to say, what you say with no
words, I find that there is no you, that there is current,
not silence, but current. That is all... keep listening.

Seek my language. That's all... still listening.

What is driving this great compunction to make onself
understood through words?

Jan Sultan NondualitySalon@yahoogroups.com

Silence by Bernadette Roberts

"There is a silence within; a silence that descends from
without; a silence that stills existence; and a silence that
engulfs the entire universe. There is a silence of the self
and its faculties of will, thought, memory, emotions.
There is a silence in which there is nothing, a silence in
which there is something; and finally, there is the
silence of no-self and the silence of God."

Jan: A thought: You can only know of silence if you have
experienced noise. It is the absence of something that
makes known the Presence! The absence of 'you' is
the presence of 'God'. The Universe makes the void
discernable. [Of course, silence is always there as
background to the noise ... and God as background to
'you' ... and the Universe is contained in the void.]



Edward Abbey

The significance of the desert: In the desert, a man
comes directly upon a world that is not a projection of
human consciousness, a world that has not been
interpreted by art or science or myth, that bears no
trace of humanity on its surface, that has no apparent
connection to the indoor human world: In the desert one
comes in direct confrontation with the bones of
existence, the bare incomprehensible absolute is-ness
of being. Like a temporary rebirth of childhood, when all
was new and wonderful.

Jan Sultan

Please join my new group:

UltimateAdvaita · Ramana Nisargadatta Balsekar
<="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UltimateAdvaita">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UltimateAdvaita

Description: The Ashtavakra Gita, Ramana Maharshi,
Nisargadatta Maharaj, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Ramesh
Balsekar have said it all. Their writings are all you need
to achieve Self-Realization or Enlightenment. This
group is for the discussion and postings of their
writings, extracts and quotes. [Of course other relevant
quotes - specially 'Neo-Advaita' - and your own views
are most welcome.]

A story of Self

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