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Highlights
#1177
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Editor: Gloria Lee
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A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a
child of five.
Groucho Marx
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Mazie Lane
on Ramana Maharshi
"If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves,
one a
knowing self, another the self which is known, and the
process of knowing. The state we call realisation is simply
being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything.
If one has realised, one is that which alone is and
which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state.
One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-
realisation, for want of a better term. How to 'real-ise'
or make real that which alone is real?"
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact
that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all
bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired.
All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we
are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire
or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation,
so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Mukti or liberation is our nature. It is another name for us.
Our wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man who
is in the shade, voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the
sun,
feeling the severity of the heat there, making great efforts to
get
back to the shade and then rejoicing, "How sweet is the
shade!
I have reached the shade at last!" We are all doing exactly
the
same. We are not different from the reality. We imagine we are
different, that is we create the bheda bhava [the feeling of
difference] and then undergo great sadhana [spiritual practices]
to get rid of the bheda bhava and realise the oneness. Why
imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
We think that there is something hiding our
reality and that it must be destroyed before the
reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn
when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts.
That which will be on the day you laugh is also
here and now.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Marharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
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Jerry Katz
on NDS
Cee's website is really beautiful.
http://www.presentnonexistence.com
You can read transcripts, hear
audios, watch videos. And
join cee in Satsang if you live near Berkeley, California. I
attended a couple of weeks ago and found it to be formal,
direct, simple, esthetically pleasing. The atmosphere has a
refined and clean sensibility. It's a good place to be.
cee's guru is Nome, whose teaching is based on Ramana's.
--Jerry Katz
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Mace Mealer
on Harsha Satsangh
real food
When you have bread
and you pass it
from one hand
to the other,
does the one
that passes it
applaud itself
for it's generosity?
Listen carefully,
is this the sound
of one hand clapping?
Ordinary Mind, Buddha Mind
"You may say that it is not possible to be
ordinary and holy. When you think this way,
your understanding is one-sided. In Japanese,
we call someone who understands things from
just one side a tamban-kan, "someone who carries
a board on his shoulder." Because you carry a
big board on your shoulder, you cannot see the other
side. You think you are just an ordinary human,
but if you take the board off, you will understand,
"Oh, I am Buddha, too. How can I be both Buddha
and an ordinary human? It is amazing!" That is
enlightenment."
- - Shunryu Suzuki
From "not always so" -- Harper Collins 2002
_________________________________________________________
An Enlightening Joke for Kids of All Ages
from Harsha Satsangh
Just realize that you are dreaming.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
David Bozzi:
I don't know this guy Maharaj,
but that's what I've said all along.
How do we realize we are dreaming?
TG:
That reminds me of a joke:
Two little boys were sitting on a curb for a while.
One of the boys said "My butt's asleep."
"How do you know it's asleep?" the other boy said.
"I just heard it snore."
Sweet Dreams,
xxtg
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Mazie Lane
on Harsha Satsangh
When you make the inside like the outside, and
the outside like the inside, and
the above like the below, and
when you make the male and the female one and
the same, then will you enter the Kingdom of God."
~ Jesus
Estudillo
^^^You enter yourself through yourself.
Stepping outside from the inside
i stepped into God
from God.
It's an inside joke of the Mirthful One.
An inside job if you will.
And you will.
Walking outside along the avenue
of Estudillo into the night's heart,
stupored and dazed and dizzy
with this Dazzling Daunting Beauty,
stopped beneath the towering temple
of Saint Catherine of Siena -
We are staggered still by this Presence.
Stilled to the core of Silence.
Sometimes even simpletons like us
simply get it.
It's this simple -
Simple Simon was a pieman
selling piety and pietas
for a song along the seashore.
i say this for no other reason
except i want to sing tonight so clearly
that we make no mistake about this.
In our simply giving in to Love
we are given everything.
To keep it?
Simple.
Give it back to everyone.
i tell you something's got to give!
Anything goes when everything goes
when one is gone from giving in
and giving up.
"Pardon me," i begin to wonder,
"but don't i know You?"
Not waiting for an answer,
i start to take you in my arms,
these arms of living light,
when suddenly all i can see
is the Beautiful Beloved One before me, saying -
"Hey Baby, would you like a Tootsie Pop?"
i wonder briefly, "Do i want red or purple prasad."
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"What we play is life."
-- Louis Armstrong
It's a Wonderful World....
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.
Oh Yeah