David Cheepen "Under the Rainbow"
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Nondual Highlights #1253 - Saturday,
November 9, 2002 - Edited by Christiana
David Cheepen "Under the
Rainbow"
Wishing the world the courage to live in peace - michael read
Gill Eardley
allspirit@yahoogroups.com
The realization of the Nondual traditions is
uncompromising: There is only Spirit, there is only
God, there is only Emptiness in all its radiant wonder.
All the good and all the evil, the very best and the very
worst, the upright and the degenerate -- each and all
are radically perfect manifestations of Spirit precisely
as they are. There is nothing but God, nothing but the
Goddess, nothing but Spirit in all directions, and not a
grain of sand, not a speck of dust, is more or less
Spirit than any other.
~Ken Wilber
Gregory Goode
DirectApproach@yahoogroups.com
Direct approach and subtle bodies
This notion of subtle bodies is actually a standard
teaching in Buddhism and Hinduism and plenty of
Western esoteric teachings. It's central to the
progressive path, where the student learns to
dis-identify with one level at a time.
And of course if the notion of identification makes any
sense, then of course there can be identification at
very subtle levels. Formal Advaita Vedanta (not
satsang neo-advaita) makes provision for these
levels, and gives ways to dis-identify at each level.
But in the direct approach, *does* identification make
sense when you look into it? In fact the relevant
question becomes:
Whose subtle body is it?
Whose identification is it?
If you strip away all the stuff taken as "mine,"
including the subtle bodies and the identification,
then what is left that *has* these things?
If you truly strip away all this stuff from the one who
*has* it, then that "one" has also been stripped away.
So levels become a non- issue.
Try it and see. This is the direct approach!
Bobby Graham and Dan Berkow
(snips from an interesting dialogue)
HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com
Bob: This flash to me is the space between thoughts. A
chain of thoughts will continue until for some reason I
become aware of myself in the moment. As long as
that lasts another chain does not begin. I call this the
cessation of thoughts.
Dan: Yes, there is a space between thoughts that has
no quality of thought, nor time, nor movement.
Thought arising doesn't really impede or obscure that
space.
It is only the attempt to have an identity within the
passing thought-formation, that gives the impression
of time, a being, an obscuration.
It (space) neither arises nor departs, and has no
dimensionality, no way to be measured.
Choice can only be an image within an arising
thought -- in the space between thought there is no
choice to be made, or not to be made.
And thought is not in the space between thoughts.
And that space is all that is.
There is no place that thought can occur, because the
imagined place where thought occurs, is itself a
thought construct (or "ignorance" as you called it
earlier in this discussion).
Bob: It is this taking things as separate that is a
function of the mind. Just saying the words "things are
not separate" does not stop the tendency to create
dualism.
Dan: I totally agree.
Those words are a thought, and if there is an attempt
to have an identification with or through that thought,
that attempt is itself imagined separation.
Bob: What gives me the greatest feeling of love in the
conceptual world is the notion that there is way out of
ignorance built within the structure itself.
Dan: The way out is by not having a strategy for a way
out (such strategy being ignorance).
The structure dissolves, and that is the way out, by not
having a way out (for "you" "I" am that
dissolving
structure) ...
Bob: Involution is the process of going back through
the sense of "I" to its source. To stop that process
because of a conceptual logjamb is not necessary.
Dan: It's not a process, for a process takes time.
And time is of thought.
And peace transcendent of I, you, and it, is
momentary, is present, is timeless, now.
Not of thought.
That space between thoughts isn't a stance.
It is simply "what is" unimpeded by a formulation of
what it is, not involved in maintaining a relation to
itself through perception and quality, through
experiences of itself in time.
Teegee HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com
Self Realization and liberation - subtle distinctions
To put it more simply, with Self Realization, we have
stillness of mind -- everything is recognized through
knowing (Self).'
With liberation, 'nothing is recognized', meaning
'everything that is not you is recognized through
knowing (Self).' There is memory of it (nothing) during
the process of liberation -- that may, or may not,
become amnesia-related and forgotten after the
process -- or it couldn't be recognized.
Harsha HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com
Fresh as the budding flower
This fragrance, ever new
clear water drops
sliding down the leaves
ground's thirst is quenched
breathing in the morning dew.
Banana plant flower (Stephanie Torbet)
Sundar Rajan HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com
No Mirror Can Ever Shave
By C. K. Anavema Reddy
There is a small piece of conversation from the life of
Sri Bhagavan which, as far as I am aware, has not
been recorded. Though brief, it has remained very
vivid in my memory.
It was in 1940 that one day one of the devotees
sitting in the hall raised the topic regarding the utility
of reading books on religion and philosophy. In reply
Sri Bhagavan said, "You wake up in the morning and
look into the mirror and the mirror shows you that you
have a growth and that you have to get rid of it. You
may go on looking into any number of mirrors; every
mirror will tell you the same thing, but no mirror can
ever shave you. You have to shave yourself. Instead
of wasting time looking into mirror after mirror it is
best to start shaving after having looked into the first
mirror and known the truth."
"So also all books will tell you the same truth, perhaps
in slightly different ways. Instead of wasting time
reading book after book why not realize for yourself
what was obvious from the very first book."
http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/publish/sepoct02.htm
Al Larus
HarshaSatsangh@yahoogroups.com
Just remembered,
to re-member
it takes two.
viorica weissman
MillionPaths@yahoogroups.com
The Master of 'WHO AM I ?'
Pursue the enquiry 'WHO AM I?' relentlessly. Analyse
your entire personality. Try to find out where the
I-thought begins. Go on with your meditations. Keep
turning your attention within. One day the wheel of
thought will slow down and an intuition will
mysteriously arise. Follow that intuition, 
let your thinking stop, and it will eventually
lead you to the goal.
&
The Master of 'I AM' ness
Delve deeply into the sense "I am" and you will surely
discover that the perceiving centre is universal, as
universal as the light that illumines the world. All that
happens in the universe happens to you, the silent
witness. On the other hand, whatever is done,is done
by you, the universal and inexhaustible energy.
viorica weissman NamoRamana@yahoogroups.com
We ought not question whence It comes : there is no
whence , no coming or going in place : It either
appears or does not appear. We must not run after It ,
but we must fit ourselves for the vision and then wait
tranquilly for it as the eye waits on the rising of the sun
which in its own time appears above the horizon and
gives itself to our sight.
-- Plotinus
Joseph Riley
Panhala@yahoogroups.com
My heart is so small
it's almost invisible.
How can You place
such big sorrows in it?
"Look," He answered,
"your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world."
~ Rumi
("Whispers of the Beloved" by Maryam & Azima Melita
Kolin)
www.Panhala.net/Archive/My_Heart_Is_So_Small.html
Gene Poole Open_Source_Spirit@yahoogroups.com
Here is a link:
http://www.scn.org/ncn/chpt7.html
A well written and deeply researched article
which
rationally criticizes 'mass media', including the
entertainment industry, and offers thoughtful insights
concerning the present state of affairs.
poems by Li-Young Lee
Braiding
Here, what's made, these braids, unmakes
itself in time, and must be made
again, within and against
time. So I braid
your hair each day.
My fingers gather, measure hair,
hook, pull and twist hair and hair.
Deft, quick, they plait,
weave, articulate lock and lock, to make
and make these braids, which point
the direction of my going, of all our continuous going.
And though what's made does not abide,
my making is steadfast, and, besides, there is a making
of which this making-in-time is just a part,
a making which abides
beyond the hands which rise in the combing,
the hands which fall in the braiding,
trailing hair in each stage of its unbraiding.
Li-Young Lee Book of My Nights
Nativity
In the dark, a child might ask, What is the world?
just to hear his sister
promise, An unfinished wing of heaven,
just to hear his brother say,
A house inside a house,
but most of all to hear his mother answer,
One more song, then you go to sleep.
How could anyone in that bed guess
the question finds its beginning
in the answer long growing
inside the one who asked, that restless boy,
the night's darling?
Later, a man lying awake,
he might ask it again,
just to hear the silence
charge him, This night
arching over your sleepless wondering,
this night, the near ground
every reaching-out-to overreaches,
just to remind himself
out of what little earth and duration,
out of what immense good-bye,
each must make a safe place of his heart,
before so strange and wild a guest
as God approaches.
Philip Zaleski Ed. Parabola magazine-
current issue on War
The problem of course, is that war seeks to establish
order through the harsh tools of disorder. Thus its
unceasing nightmare quality. Is there any way to
escape this darkness?
The discipline of the Knights leaves us with hope, for
if war has nobility, the noblest of wars is the inner war,
waged against self-love and self-gratification. The
highest of wars is the Self at war against the self. All
of us will face, and some of us will participate, in the
terrible conflicts of this new century. May we
remember always that the best preparation for war is
a heart at peace.
http://www.parabola.org/magazine/current.html
Jerry Katz
NondualitySalon@yahoogrouops.com
New list for those who like quotations:
Nondualgems
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nondualgems
Bob O'hearn Truevision@yahoogroups.com
Even in this dark and windy night
everything is translucent.
Light is dancing between the visible and invisible.
Can you here the soft laughter echoing in the air?
There is no source for this mirth,
and so it must be my imagination.
But if there is no source for this imagination,
then it must just be soft laughter, echoing in the air.
I say i am here, you say you are there.
I wonder how this can be.
What pours through you swoons in me.
My blood runs through the veins that connect the galaxies -
connect the galaxies with soft laughter,
pouring through these imaginary veins with no source,
like wine.
I wonder how this can be -
invisible pouring into visibility.
So translucent in this soft laughter!
I've lost the way back to sobriety.
The little drops of wine I left to mark my way
have apparently evaporated -
laughing softly in the air on this dark and windy night.
Having things be any different than they are has gone
the way of wine drops that now connect the galaxies -
the galaxies that laugh softly in the air, even on this
dark and windy night.
I wonder how this can be:
I set out to find the God who laughs softly in the air,
forgetting it was I dancing
between visible and invisible, softly laughing.
Jan Sultan
Nisargadatta@yahoogroups.com
I talked to some people about non-duality. The first
reaction was ... you mean the bad guys will not be
punished? [In other words they themselves will not be
rewarded in heaven for their suffering, for the ill that
others have done to them?] You see people do not
want to give up their stories. That is why "good
guy-bad guy" type stories are so popular. That is why
the concept of heaven and hell is so acceptable.
What do you think most peoples day dreams are
about? I still sometimes get trapped into day dreams
where I have the power to right wrongs. Hang all the
bad politicians and rescue the suffering masses. [You
may understand it better if you live in Africa ... Here
there is a great need for a superman or a spiderman!
... even if it is only in a day dream.]
My past or my future do not bother me. It is the
suffering that I see around me. It is like a magnet ...
to escape from this 'story' is very difficult.
'What is Truth?' (Pilate to Jesus.)
Jesus answered with silence.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Gulag
Archipelago
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil
people somewhere, insidiously committing evil
deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them
from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line
dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every
human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of
his own heart?
Kheyala: Adventures at Rasa Ranch #71
11/09/02 "Close Call"
The other night, the first rains that we've had for eight
months or so brought with them such mighty winds
that a two hundred foot pine tree snapped and came
crashing down. Everything shook. When we grabbed
our flashlights, we found that the (nearly two hundred
foot) tree had come to rest with its very tip lying gently
against the living room wall of our humble abode.
*Whew!*
Laughing Buddha smiles as tips of
fallen tree gently caress the outside
of Kheyala's home.