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#1199 - Monday, September 16, 2002 - Editor: Jerry

from www.iastate.edu/~ucc/diversity.html

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SALON

There is a story about a man who used to play with his
young daughter every evening after work. One evening he
was tired and just wanted to sit down and read the
newspaper. He found a picture of the world in the
newspaper and tore it into pieces and, giving the pieces
to his daughter, told her when she had put the puzzle
together they would play. He thought he would be able to
relax for a while, but his daughter was back in a very
short time.

He asked her how she was able to put the picture
together so quickly. She said, “It was simple - on the
back was a picture of a man. I put the man together and
the world took care of itself.”

________________________________________________________________________

SCHNAPPS FOR THE SALON

The following was posted by a gentlemAn to the NDS
Bulletin Board yesterday:
http://www.escribe.com/religion/nondualitysalon/bb/index.html

You can respond to him privately or on the Bulletin Board.

I'm a schoolteacher. It's a difficult row to hoe and I'm
not sure how much longer I will continue to do so. I've
been put on probation until December...it's a long
story. I'm most content to do nothing, though once I
overcome the inertia I'm able to move in a fairly
coherent manner. My lack of will is most evident. The
job puts many demands on me, and in the midst of my day
I feel pretty much like an automaton. My memory is
abysmal. I feel like a zombie. Perhaps I sound
depressed, but I'm not. I found myself in this state
following the collapse of a two month period of an
oceanic, I-feel-like-Jesus awakening nearly six years
ago while living in San Francisco. Does this match
anyone else's experience here? I identify most closely
with Bernadette Roberts' account. If this is
enlightenment, I need to lose a few more pounds.

___________________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ

"Great images."

http://www.phantimage.net/

_____________________________________________________________________________

MELODY
from NDS


"Then there came at the end of a four day binge a moment
of absolute certainty that that phase of my life was
over. It was like a switch had been thrown. The
obsession was gone. It wasn't a matter of having to
resist or do anything. It was gone. And what was
staggeringly clear is that I hadn't done it."
--Wayne Liquorman

I was saying something similar to someone
the other day.....having had that experience first
with stopping smoking, and then, more recently, I
had that kind of experience with craving foods. It
was exactly like a switch had been thrown, and the
obsessions were gone. With both the smoking
and food habits , there had been years of inner struggle
between those cravings and the more 'responsible'
side of me. And always the craving....and the
obsession.....was stronger. Until one day, the
compulsion dropped. And, in both instances, it
was clear that they had not been dropped by
'me' - not because of any great will on *my* part.
Not at all. Both times it showed me clearly that
'I' was not in charge.

And when I look back at really pivotal times
in my life....times when my life took a real 'turn'
of direction....it is clear to me that I was not in
charge then either. Each one had a taste of
the 'hand of god' moving things around a bit...
kind of like chess pieces....where I happened
to be in just the right place at just the right time,

or when impulses and ideas arose seemingly out of
the blue.... and I found myself following them
without question.

And yet, even with all this experience, my mind
has been preoccupied of late with worry about
future finances.....knowing that a source of income
will fall away in the coming months.

On one hand it amazes me that after all the
examples that Life has shown me that there IS
no doer, that in times of uncertainty, my thoughts
would return so automatically to putting one in
place.

Sometimes these thoughts begin running themselves,
and all of a sudden I 'snap out of it' for a few moments.
Then, instead of swimming in worry, I just observe it for
a while.....and observe the toll that worry takes on my
body. I observe it much like I observed the toll that
my smoking and eating habits took on my body, as
well.

I guess, in a way, that's what worry is - just another
habit. But it's a habit that feeds on a sense of doership.
It's a habit fed by thoughts that there is an 'I' that can
make things happen one way, and not another.....

despite all evidence to the contrary.

It certainly isn't logical. But then again, neither
was my smoking and eating habits either.

And so, I very much appreciate what Ramesh says
about compulsions being some people's sadhana.
It certainly has been so for me. Each compulsion
revealing deeper and deeper layers of ego-identification...

each compulsion digging down deeper to the root
of the 'sense' of me-ness.

__________________________________________________________________________

PETROS
from Petros Truth

Blissful experiences are a great help early on the path,
as they give you a certain motivation to continue. They
can be a dangerous "hook" and blockage, however, when
you hold onto them or continue to try to recapture them
and make them the whole focus of your spiritual life.
This includes activities like visiting every new "guru"
or taking every program or seminar that comes to town,
in the hopes of recapturing some great insight or
feeling you once had. Anything that comes and goes in
this fashion cannot ever be the ultimate truth. That
most basic Fact of your existence is not something that
can be felt, for if it were a feeling, it could be lost
again.

Shortcut to this page:
<="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Petros-Truth">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Petros-Truth

_____________________________________________________________________________

R.K.SHANKAR
from the I AM list.(To join: <"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iam/">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iam/)

MARASOLD: Is there any online resource that u could
refer me to for the reasoning of sankara and gautama on
non-duality. I appreciate your comments.

Dear Friend

The Nyaya Aphorisms of Sage Gautama can be downloaded in
devanagari script (Sanskrit) from the internet. But, I
am not sure whether there is an English translated
version available in the internet. In India, we have
'Motilal Banarsidass & Co', the publishers of spiritual
books, who have published this book in English
translated by some Sanskrit Scholar. I had read this
more than 15 years ago. This contains about 400-odd
aphorisms on metaphysical logic.

As for Sage Sankara's commentarial works, they are
mainly three. His commentaries on the Gita, Upanishads
and the Brahma Sutras Since Sanskrit has been declining
over many years and it is only now in the last decade,
it is resurging, there are very few reliable
translations of Sage Sankara's works. For translating
His works, one needs an extraordinary competence in
Sanskrit, English and Vedanta.

One Sri Krishna Warrier had translated Sage Shankara's
commentary on the Gita. That man hailed from Kerala, one
of the Southern States of India. And, the language
spoken by the people of Kerala is Malayalam.
Incidentally, Malayalam has its strong root in Sanskrit.
And also, Sage Sankara was born in Kerala. Thus, Krishna
Warrier had a native love for non-dual philosophy also.
Again, he was a Professor of Sanskrit and Tagore (a
great Indian Poet) Professor of Kerala University Thus,
he brought out one of the most reliable translations of
Sage Sankara's works in English.

And, about 2 years ago, I typed out about 13 chapters of
the English Translation for a e-list called 'advaita'
over a period of about 6 months. And, incidentally, the
13th chapter deals with Sankara's terse logic on the
nature of Brahman/Self.

I am posting Sage Sankara's commentary on the first
couple of verses of Chapter 13 privately. After you have
digested the same, you let me know. I will post the
commentary on the next couple of verses

Thanks and kind regards
RK Shankar

_____________________________________________________________________________

SVCS
from the I Am list

Question: Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the
truth to the people at large?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: How do you know I am not doing it?
Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and
haranguing the people around? Preaching is simple
communication of knowledge; it can really be done in
silence only. What do you think of a man who listens to
a sermon for an hour and goes away without having been
impressed by it so as to change his life? Compare him
with another, who sits in a holy presence and goes away
after some time with his outlook on life totally
changed. Which is the better, to preach loudly without
effect or to sit silently sending out inner force?

Again, how does speech arise? First there is abstract
knowledge. Out of this arises the ego, which in turn
gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word.
So the word is the great grandson of the original
source. If the word can produce an effect, judge for
yourself how much more powerful must be the preaching
through silence.

Question: Does Bhagavan give diksha (initiation)?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Mouna (silence) is the best and the
most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri
Dakshinamurti. Initiation by touch, look, etc., are all
of a lower order. Silent initiation changes the hearts
of all.

Dakshinamurti observed silence when the disciples
approached him. That is the highest form of initiation.
It includes the other forms. There must be
subject-object relationship established in the other
diksha. First the subject must emanate and then the
object. Unless these two are there how is the one to
look at the other or touch him? Mouna diksha (silent
initiation) is the most perfect; it comprises looking,
touching. It will purify the individual in every way and
establish him in the reality.

-- Hari Aum !!

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