Xan
Million Paths
"Isn't enlightenment an extraordinary thing?"
"No, not at all, that's the point. Enlightenment is our natural and
ordinary way of being. In comparison with separation, awakening
is extraordinary. Suddenly there is no longer a feeling of alienation.
Nothing in particular changes in one's life except the perception
of everything. Give up the idea of bright lights and fireworks, and
that awakening is something extraordinary and almost unavailable.
Simply lie back and rest in the lap of what is. And then it's possible
that your eyes will open and a huge gratitude will fill you."
--Tony Parsons
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David Hodges
NDS
same moviehouse
It always seemed to me that reporting what was On Screen in the moviehouse
was worthwhile but doing that in my journal seemed safer. But now much time
has passed and I realize that the sense of community here is as strong as ever
even though the list now has a History which seems to rise and fall.
I sat out much of it but I am still glad to be here.
Today in New Haven there are two things (at least) going on of note. One is
the return of the Yale students. Every U-Haul and Ryder truck in creation,
every SUV with out-of-state plates seem to be in the streets as the students and
grad students move into their apartments and dorms.
Second is tomorrow's New Haven Road Labor Day Race, a national level 20k
race that attracts runners from all over the world. As I went to Starbucks for my
latte the runners were out in force, doing their training for tomorrow, packs of
them going by.
I went to Starbucks, sat down with my latte at a table full of students doing
classwork, and read this in Wu Wei Wu's "Ask the Awakened - The Negative
Way":
"The benediction of those who already know is surely that we may understand
the truth that can neither be conceived or expressed. This truth is manifest
when we know that we neither are nor are not.
In order to see that, we do not have to look, but to cease to look - for, where
there is no looking, it is."
David (used to be a runner, still a student, neither am nor am not.)
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Jerry Katz
NDS
Hi David,
We are all part of an online community, and I feel the sense of community.
It's all still very new, though some of us might feel like we've been here
forever. .
D: Second is tomorrow's New Haven Road Labor Day Race, a
national level 20k race that attracts runners from all over the world. As I went
to Starbucks for my latte the runners were out in force, doing their training for
tomorrow, packs of them going by.
It sounds very lively. Hey, how come they wont put milk and sugar in your
coffee for you at starbucks? You stand in line to order, then you stand in
another line to put in your milk and sugar. I love their coffee, but all the lines!
Well, at least it's expensive. And the other thing is that it's so hard to get a cup
of coffee in L.A. In Canada you have coffee drive-thrus everywhere. No need
to get out of your car. And you can choose whether you want to pick up your
coffee on the passenger's or the driver's side. Now that's coffee culture.
In L.A., unless you're a totally healthy guy with a fake handicapped parking
permit (which I fully respect), you're gonna have to park a few blocks away or
use valet parking. That's right. Valet parking to get a cup of coffee. By the time
I get out of there it costs me $9 for a cup of joe. That's $13 Candian. For 13
bucks in Halifax I can buy a veggie burger and a ticket to a first-run movie with
stadium seating and a big wide screen in an immaculate theater.
Anyway, i'm getting all hot under the collar. I go to California for the people.
Not the coffee.
D: I went to Starbucks, sat down with my latte at a table full of students doing
classwork, and read this in Wu Wei Wu's "Ask the Awakened - The Negative
Way": "The benediction of those who already know is surely that we may
understand the truth that can neither be conceived or expressed. This truth is
manifest when we know that we neither are nor are not.
In order to see that, we do not have to look, but to cease to look - for, where
there is no looking, it is."
things are really as simple as being childlike and amazed, like, "I'm doing it,
I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I, 'm, 'm, 'm, 'm, 'm,
I 'm, I 'm, I 'm, I 'm, I Am, I Am, I Am, I Am, I Am. I Am, I Am, I Am, I Am.
This is the hardening of I AM. This is diamondic attention. From this point there
is really nothing that can be done, but only as it leans against the gate of the
Absolute (the gateless gate) is I AM 'given things to do'. That is, Grace lays its
hand upon I AM. And then one lives that way, as whatever one lives as and in
whatever they do.
Then when I AM is dragged through the gate, there is awakening. As Buddha
said, "It is awake," often translated as, "I am awake." This is where Wu Wei
Wu is coming from.
Now because the mind-body is such a blockage to gaining this diamondic
attention, this hardening of the I AM, tremendous efforts are made to purify it.
Some purification is necessary. Definitely steps to need to be taken to improve
the body-mind. As well, there has to be inquiry so that the I AM is hardened
and constant.
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James
NDS
Re: Been to non-duality and back
Hi Folks,
Yes! non-duality and back. It is a double spiral that is
recursively celf-similar (imploding and exploding). It is a way of
SEEING and it is 'how' SEEING unfolds.
SEEING is DOING. Concentration and Meditation are 'ways' of SEEING
- Concentration is Definite and Meditation is Infinite *AND* these
qualties are definitely and infinitely nested - every 'single' thing
is Definite/Concentrated and Infinite/Meditative including
Concentration and Meditation (this is the recursive celf-similar
nature of One - it is OneDuality-NonDuality).
In this Light Concentration and Meditation are extreme poles of
the SAME THING --- 'SEEING' from the extreme pole of the physical body
is experienced as 'this is real' ... 'SEEING' which is *allowed* to be
unfocused/natural is 'experience without an experiencer' (these words
point to the 'other' pole which is no'thing') *AND* each of these
'ways' of SEEING are Definite and Infinite.
Seeing is Singular. Its fourfold qualities are like the fourfold
cycle of breath: inspiration-pause-expiration-pause or
OneDuality-NonDuality.
Love,
James
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John Metzger
NDS
Re: Been to non-duality and back
Radical Awakening, Stephen Jourdain, Inner Directions Foundation, 2001
p.38 Yes. Ordinarily we always feel the rupture between ego and non-ego to
be more or less obscure. There's a kind of primitive break between our inner
reality and the rest. At these "moments," the rupture is abolished. Once again, it
is not a question of the simple abolition of duality, but rather the sudden
appearance of a unity in the heart of the duality. One derives from this an
important impression of a healthy, legitimate duality. From what I've heard, a
number of teachings or approaches insist on a "nonduality." Yet, if a falsified
duality exists, there also exists a completely ligitimate duality that manifests
itself not only in space but also in time....... <snip>
In my opinion, it is a grave tactical error to set people going in on an assault on
duality without clarifying the difference between a healthy duality and a
corrupt one. They run as much risk of hurting, or even destroying, themselves
as they do of being saved. One cannot deny duality, since it is the principle of
life. Certainly, a false duality that is the product of a given individual's mind
should be destroyed. I repeat and insist: duality, to the extent that it is a
duplicate of reality, a dreamlike and personally fabricated duality, must be
ruthlessly destroyed. But when this veil, in the center of which we habitually
evolve, is consumed, when this enormous subjective bubble bursts, what is
then left? What will you see once you are outside the bubble? The world,
plainly and simply. There is something! There is me and the tree. Duality
exists....
<http://nonduality.com>
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Greg Goode
NoDoer
Matter IS cool! There are some very cool things that have matter in them: my
bicycle, the videotape I saw last night, the milkshake I drank yesterday.
But as you pointed out, matter is ethereal. It also exhibits a great spectrum of
grossness-to-subtlety. For centuries also, mystics have interpreted the entire
phenomenal world as matter, by having experienced the entire phenomenal
world as energy or subtle forms. This includes auras, subtle phenomena and
entities, thought-forms. This stuff has been given a more scientific gloss these
days because it's called the HEF or Human Energy Field.
So let's stipulate that the hardest rock and the most subtle thought-form can be
experienced as energy, or as matter, something with strict boundaries. All of
that, whether gross or subtle, is just objects that appear in the consciousness.
This doesn't establish a causal connection between matter and consciousness. It
is always incumbent upon the one claiming the causal connection to prove it.
And pointing out that a given person loses consciousness when they lose their
life/brain/head/matter does not prove it. THAT is not the consciousness spoken
of by the mystics. That is rather the waking-state stream of thoughts, feelings
and sensations that accompany that particular life form. Advaita-vedanta calls it
the "jagarita-sthana" or waking state, to be distinguished from the dream state
and deep-sleep state. According to the translations, Nisargadatta calls it
consciousness, but then he reserves the term "awareness" for that to which
consciousness appears. And indeed, the waking, dream and deep-sleep states
do appear and disappear. If they disappear and don't come back, it's called
death.
In advaita terms, it is the jagarita-sthana that perishes at death, not
consciousness.
Part of the reason that this is an age-old debate is that the terms are ambiguous!
Love,
--Greg (still digging matter)
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Robert O'Hearn
HarshaSatsangh
Bhagavan Nityananda
Fingering Light like marbles and polished stones,
the Beloved rolls Nityananda out into this world
like the prized Lotus in a pond of so many Beauties!
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Alan Larus
Did you see below the surface,
fading colours,
reflections of blue sky.
Clouds of insignificance,
an interlude
turning grey.
Did you hear
the same old song:
If you follow me,
I will always fly away.
I chased her without rest
until she stopped
and said:
Green grass at the edge of the lake.