The cat's eye nebula-----

forwarded to ndshighlights by kheyala
(who gave birth to a healthy baby boy - Zachary - yesterday)
Congratulations to the parents and welcome Zachary!

Posted by Dave on the Spiritual Friends list (Tuesday):

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what
you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's
longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are, I want to know if you will
risk looking like a fool for love, for the dreams, for the adventures
of being alive.

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if
you have been opened by life's betrayals ... or if you have become
shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain - mine or your own - without
moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy - mine or your own - if you can
dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic or
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true, I
want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if
you can bare the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy. I
want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every
day and if you can source your life from God's presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine and still
stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full
moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me where you live or how much money you have, I
want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the
children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here. I want
to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not
shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I
want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls
away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly
like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

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

--- In DirectApproach@yahoogroups.com "Mark Hovila"
responds to Arnaud -

Arnaud,

> I am pretty new to Jean Klein's world I discovered a few weeks ago.
> I experienced several times the position of Witness, watching my ego
> reacting to situations. But this position never lasts, as I am then
> feeling very deeply the instant and the reality. Emotions are then
so
> violent I can't stand it, and I come back to my egocentric position.
> Has anyone experienced that? Any idea?

It is wonderful that witnessing is happening! And I know exactly
what you mean when you say "this position never lasts." But something must
have witnessed your emotional outburst, otherwise you would not be telling
us about it, wouldn't you agree?

Here is something I just read in Jean Klein's book I Am:

"When do we witness our actions?

"You are always witnessing your actions, so don't try to witness.
Witnessing is not a function and cannot be represented. It is
extremely important that you realize that you are the witness and that you
cannot try to be it. It is enough that you become fully aware that you are the
witness, for that eliminates the old patterns and the habit you have
of considering yourself to be the thinker or doer.
"When you act you are one with the action, it is only afterwards
that the ego appropriates the act from which it was absent, and says 'I
have done this.' At the moment of acting there is only acting, without an
actor.
"Once the interfering subject is recognized as nonexistent it
disappears. What remains is pure consciousness. Without the ego-
subject there can be no subject/object relation so that what appeared to be an
object can no longer rightly speaking be one. It is nothing but an
expression of this reality, this stillness."

So the next time you find yourself in an "egocentric position," you
could try asking yourself, am I this ego, or am that which is witnessing
this ego?
The witness was there the whole time; it's just that when you ask
yourself this question, you realize it!

Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--- In Nisargadatta@yahoogroups.com "hrtbeat7" wrote:

I see the same world as you do, but not the same way.
There is nothing mysterious about it. Everybody sees the
world through the idea he has of himself. As you think
yourself to be, so you think the world to be. If you imagine
yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear
as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear.
I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is
nothing for me to desire, or fear.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj

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