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Issue #1263 - Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - Edited by Jerry
Saint Makarios of the Desert
DAVID HODGES
DHARMA PUNK
There's an interesting article in yesterday's Salon about
Noah Levine, Stephen Levine's son. (Stephen Levine is
the author of "Who Dies" and other classic spiritual
books).
Noah Levine took a road through drugs and punk to finally
end up seeing the wisdom of his father and becoming a
self-described Dharma Punk in San Francisco.
"With his shaved head, gold teeth and neck-to-navel
tattoos [Levine] could be standard issue street punk --
until you notice that among the images adorning his arms
are those of Buddha and Krishna, and instead of "hate"
and "love" tattooed across the knuckles of his hands,
he's got "wisdom" and "compassion." "
The article is here:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/11/19/noah_levine/index.html
_____________________________________________________________________
VIORICA WEISSMAN
You may know all the right words, quote the scriptures,
be brilliant in your discussions and yet remain a bag of
bones. Or you may be inconspicuous and humble, an
insignificant person altogether, yet glowing with loving
kindness and deep wisdom.
_____________________________________________________________________
FIRECEREMONY
from Live Journal
Had a view to a white winter sky, some naked branches and
the back wall of a red brick church. The view was lovely
in its simplicity.
On the bus home yellow street lights flooded the black
asphalt like spot lights light a stage. The doors opened
and one passenger exited the bus.
On the way to the front door I checked the mail box and
enjoyed the darkness and cold of the winter night. I'm
beginning to like winter more and more.
_________________________________________________________________________
JAN SULTAN
http://oshoworld.com/e-books/ebooks.asp
[Free 240 Osho Books
Online][Plenty to chew on!][Also
sometimes a lot of haystack to find the gems in :-)]
The moon is one but it can be reflected in millions of
lakes. Reflections differ, but the reflected is one.
Mind is a mirror. When religion is reflected through the
mind a Hinduism is born, or a Mohammedanism or a Judaism.
When the religion is not a reflected one, when one comes
face to face with reality without any mind whatsoever,
when there is no mind between you and the truth, then
there is born THE religion.
Hassidism is THE religion. Sufism is THE religion. Zen is
THE religion. They differ only in names; otherwise they
are all the same. Their language is different but not
their content. They all have looked at the moon, but they
call it different names. Obviously, that is natural. But
they have not been looking at the reflections. They don't
believe in creeds, ideologies, scriptures, dogmas,
doctrines. They know the truth, and when you know the
truth there is no need of scriptures.
You carry the scripture on your head when the truth is
not known. Theories are substitutes, dead. Truth is
always alive, eternally alive. It cannot be confined in
words; the message is wordless. And you cannot come to it
by somebody else because whenever there is a medium, it
becomes a reflection. When your own mind creates a
reflection, what about other minds through which you come
to know it?
One has to come in immediate contact, direct, heart to
heart. Nothing should be allowed between the two: your
heart and the heart of reality. They should respond in a
deep resonance. They should meet and mingle and merge and
there should not even be a curtain of words, knowledge,
concepts. Only then, you know what religion is.
Hassidism is religion, Judaism is just a reflection. Or
you can say the same thing in other words: Judaism is
just the periphery and Hassidism is the core -- the very
core, the living soul, the very center. Buddhism is the
periphery, Zen is the core. Islam is the periphery,
Sufism is the core.
And the core is one; peripheries are millions. On one
center you can draw many concentric circles. You can go
on drawing them; the center remains one.
______________________________________________________________________
Greetings!
If anybody else want's some fresh California Eucalyptus,
I'd be more than happy to send it out to you for the
cost of shipping!
(From one of the incense lists. Contact highlights editor
for further info, if this is still timely.)
____________________________________________________________________________
SERAPHIM
from Live Journal
Two Stories for the time before Christmas. Fire and the
Ordinary Face.
Here are two stories I find which seem to me to belong
in the time before Christmas.... and the first indeed
fits Channukah in its way as well maybe...but stories
for this time and maybe you will find something which
fits for you...
The first is of the first of monks who went into the
inner desert of Egypt...
Abba Lot said to Abba Joseph
'Father I keep the little rule I have as well as I can
and observe fasting and silence and pray and meditate
and struggle to order my thoughts...but I wonder.. why do
I feel something is wrong...something is missing in my
heart still...what more can I do?"
The elder rose and lifted his hands to heaven and his
fingers looked like blazing candles against the evening
sky of the desert and he said
"why not become wholly Fire?" .
Second: the ninetheenth century Russian novelist Ivan
Turgenev dreamed of being in a peasent church in a
village and thinking that man over there is Christ, but
when the man in the dream turned his face it was 'a face
like everyone else's. such an ordinary ordinary face
suddenly I am afraid , I feel vertigo almost as I realize
and come to my senses --a face like all mens faces--THAT
is the face of Christ!"