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HIGHLIGHTS #1274 Sunday, December1, 2002 Edited by Gloria
photo by Al Larus
"In My
Sky at Twilight"
By
Pablo Neruda
(This poem is a paraphrase of the 30th
poem in Rabindranath Tagore's The Gardener.)
You
are taken in the net of my music, my love,
and my nets of music are wide as the sky.
My soul is born on the shore of your eyes of mourning.
In your eyes of mourning the land of dreams begins.
http://www.geocities.com/nerudapoet/lovepoems/inmysky.htm
Aztec
Calendar
make your heart your face
When Bill Moyers interviewed Gregory Nava (EL NORTE, AMERICAN FAMILY), Nava revealed that pre-Colombian myths were the impetus for his career as a storyteller and filmmaker. This previously un-aired conversation touches on the stories that have inspired Nava and the myths and instincts that drive us all. Nava describes his discovery of and connection to this pre-Colombian mythology, "It caused a deep trembling in my heart. It's like an awakening within me of something, because suddenly what I was, who I was, got interconnected with everybody else and everything."
If you look at the pre-Colombian, the great truth, the one phrase that sums up that incredible religious thinking is, make your heart your face.
Take what you have inside of you and put it here so the world can see who you really are. Live honestly. It's another way of saying it. You know?
The ancient pre-Colombians believed in a concept that was called ollin, which means movement. And the idea of making your heart your face was to them the ollin heart.
They believed that everybody had a journey in their life -- something that they needed to do in their life, and that it was everybody's responsibility to find what that was because once they found what it was and other people found what it was then the entire society would find its ollin.
Everybody who needed to be a poet would be a poet, and everybody who needed to be a warrior would be a warrior. But the way to find your journey in life, the way to find your path in life, was to make your heart your face.
And when you made your heart your face it opened your eyes so you could see. And when you could see you could find your path.
~~~~
NAVA: Yes, so it's
like everybody's arguing and disagreeing, and he's always sowing
dissent.
MOYERS: Yes.
NAVA: Yet this god is worshipped and prayed to because there's a spirituality in that that you have to get at in order to deal with it as opposed to cutting it off and dismissing it.
The idea being that whenever you cut something off and try to repress it, it only comes back in a negative way. So the fact is, is that you have to kind of embrace all of these things and realize that they ultimately all are one...
...because this duality that we see in pre-Colombian mythology, you know, all heroes, everybody's twinned, there's no one hero; there's always two heroes. Right? The twins of the Popol Vuh, always doubles, doubles, doubles, everywhere you look...
Has given the false idea that the pre-Colombian mindset was a dualistic mindset. It wasn't. It saw the duality as being one, kind of in a Daoistic way...
http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/
GREG
GOODE
NDS
The inflation of nondually-correct nondual-speak!
Several
years ago, you only had to precede every word with a
"not," and it was
enough. Like, "not-speaking, from not-Greg, to
not-Jerry." Now, as if to avoid getting
caught in the "not" stance, you've got to take steps to
avoid it, while at the same time
avoiding positive assertions and attributions. So now you've
gotta say "Neither
speaking nor not-speaking, from neither Greg nor not-Greg, to
neither Jerry nor
not-Jerry."
(you know
what...),
JERRY KATZ
Well that was then.
This is ... fuhgeddabattit
You got the neti-neti people forbidding anyone to say or do
anything because
they're in this heavy neti-neti mode. They're in vogue these
days. Then you
got your everything-everything people who tell you to go deeply
into
whatever you're doing in order to figure out what it is because
nothing
isn't it. Not too many of them these days, unfortunately, 'cause
I'm dying
for a pack of cigs.
And suddenly now we got the 'neither this nor that' folks. I
kinda like
them, but they're neither here nor there. My question is,
Whatever happened
to the whatever-whatever people? They're saying it doesn't matter
what you
do, you got the world on a string, string around your little
finger. They
let you know what the string's tied to and leave you be.
COLETTE
ZENPEARL
Both mind and words are the time being.
Both arriving and not arriving are the time being.
When the moment of not arriving has not appeared,
the moment of not arriving is here.
Flowing is like the spring ..
When spring flows there is nothing outside spring ..
flowing is completed at just this moment of spring.
~Dogen
photo by Al Larus
TIM GERCHMEZ
NDS
The True Path Is the
One that Works -Scott Morrison
There is some irony in the apparent fact that where honesty and
clarity are most needed, they may seem so compromised, confused,
and
elusive. In truth, there is no path, no road, and no separate one
to
walk it. These are just a metaphors for reality -- the dharma,
satsang, how it is, how it works -- such that "the way"
is also the
destination. Concerning this issue of spiritual awakening and
liberation, there are many people with varying degrees of purity,
skill, and understanding from both East and West, from
traditional to
contemporary, who are essentially selling water by the river.
There
is also sometimes a kind of subtle competition with other people
who
are doing the same thing, and perhaps considerable alarm if
someone
comes along who is giving the water away, to say nothing of those
who
are telling people about the river. This may be inevitable, given
the
dualistic nature of thought, as well as the mind's tendency to
think
only in terms of its own motives and repeat belief and opinion
prior
to investigation.
At some point, for a variety of reasons, we may identify with a
particular religion or organization or path, perhaps because, to
some
degree at least, it offers some useful insights and/or group
support.
Further, there may be a charismatic teacher, or peer pressure or
encouragement, or maybe we're just tired of looking, and here are
some people who seem to have at least some of the critical
answers.
At a certain stage for many people, this process may be helpful,
so
long as the motives of the student are pure and remain pure. It
is
important to keep in mind, however, that even if it is
uncorrupted,
no one designs a given "spiritual path" or methodology
specifically
for you. At best, those means may reflect the insights and
understandings and patterns of the particular person or people
who
put them together. However, ultimately, sooner or later, the real
question persists: What is "the true way?"
The true way is, simply put, the one that works. No one else can
find
it out for you. You must discover it yourself. Satsang, the
dharma,
the truth that liberates, is not yours unless you have
investigated
and verified it so thoroughly that there is no longer any doubt.
Even
genuine mystical paths eventually deliver you to this point, and
then
the rest is completely up to you. You must be the pure scientist,
the
pure artist, and the pure mystic. Otherwise, some water-down,
pre-
packaged institutional version will prevail. You must look with
your
own eyes, hear with your own ears, observe, and consider very
carefully with your own heart. Then, and only then, can you speak
with your own voice.
The requirements are simple and non-negotiable: a rigorous,
uncompromising, unrelenting and irreversable commitment to direct
observation and honesty, as well as an absolute willingness to be
transformed, completely, by what is discovered to be real and
true.
There is also one other that is most helpful, and a perfect and
direct reflection of spiritual surrender itself: an unconditional
willingness to support others in that process.
From There Is Only Now
by Scott Morrison
KHEYALA
12/01/02 "Metamorphosis"
I had an encounter
today that really inspired me. I was dropping a load off at the
local
thrift store when I was greeted outside the door by the owner. We
hadn't seen each
other since I was pregnant and apparently she had been through
some big changes too.
Whenever I used to
see her, she had kind of a sexy look about her. She always wore
flowing dresses with cleavage showing, lace, or both, she adorned
herself with
sensuous earrings and necklaces, and had a full, reddish mane
around her face that
hung down and rested on her shoulders and back. Today I found
that she was dressed
elegantly as usual, only this time there was much less skin
showing; I didn't even
notice if there was jewelry or not, and her reddish, curly hair
was cut short to her chin.
My happy reaction as
I approached her was, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even recognize
you!" "Yeah," she responded, while touching a curl
under her ear, "Really different,
huh?" I half-whispered a slow "wow" and said,
"Let me see..." Then as I leaned
around and she turned to show me the back I said, "It looks
completely adorable."
She thanked me and
we talked for a minute about the large bag I had handed her.
Then she came over to the truck to see Ananda and the new baby,
but all the while I
was still looking at her and I finally said, "Boy, it's not
just a haircut...it's a really big
energetic change!"
She looked me in the
eye and quickly nodded. Then, leisurely, she said, "Well, I
decided it was time for me to let the younger ladies carry the
torch for the long,
flowing hair," winding her wrist downwards in demonstration,
"and the appeal...."
Then she paused and laughed, "I'm 55! I'm ready to be an old
lady now." Chuckling, I
had replied that several things passed through my mind when I
looked at her, but 'old
lady' was not one of them. "I feel much more relaxed
now," she went on to say, "I just
can't explain it."
"It really
shows," I told her, as my palms came together at my chest,
and smiling
warmly I added, "I am so happy for you." She beamed
back at me with an easy joy and
after I'd backed the truck up and started to drive away I saw
that as we waved
goodbye to each other she was still shining.
TIM GERCHMEZ
NONDUAL GEMS
"Do everything with a mind that lets go.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Your struggles with the world will have come to an end."
--Achaan Chah
GILL EARDLY
ALLSPIRIT
From: 'The Zen
Teachings of Huang Po:
On the Transmission of Mind'.
Edited and translated by John Blofeld
All the visible universe is the Buddha; so are all sounds; hold
fast to one principle and all the others are Identical. On seeing
one thing, you see ALL. On perceiving any individual's mind, you
are perceiving ALL Mind. Obtain a glimpse of one way and ALL
ways are embraced in your vision, for there is nowhere at all
which is devoid of the Way. When your glance falls upon a grain
of dust, what you see is identical with all the vast world
systems
with their great rivers and mighty hills. To gaze upon a drop of
water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
photo by Al Larus
AMRITA
OSBOURNE
DAILY DHARMA
"Buddhism is
not a belief system. It's not about accepting certain
tenets or believing a set of claims or principles. In fact, it's
quite
the opposite. Buddhism is about seeing. It's about knowing rather
than
believing, hoping or wishing. It's also about not being afraid to
examine anything and everything, including our own personal
agenda....
Buddhsim is about seeing. That's all."
~Steve Hagen
-----------------------------
From the book, "Buddhism, Plain and Simple, published by
Tuttle.
-----------------------------
Blessings to all. May peace and peace and peace be
everywhere.
**********************************************
<Professor: Christmas shopping is a religion
all its own
Naples Daily News, FL - 27 Nov 2002
... In a new book, the University of South
Florida religious studies professor contends
that the culture of the Christmas season has become a religion
all its own ...