Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
Nondual Highlights # 1295 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Edited by Christiana
Mark Otter (reflecting on Gloria's great highlights yesterday on sound) offers more links: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualitySalon/message/68727
The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence. In
restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence. And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence. "Fools"
said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence And
the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming. 
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls."
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.
- Paul Simon -
"Wednesday Morning 3A.M.", 1964
Cymatics Visual sound
http://www.mysticalsun.com/cymatics/cymatics.html
Wisdom from silence
Hindu scripture: http://www.petama.ch/EM-UW-August.htm
The man who in his work finds silence
and who sees
that silence is work, this man in truth sees the Light
and in all his works finds peace.
Robert Sardello http://www.ofj.org/newsletter/2001/03-sardello.html
Archetypal Silence A
great Chinese sage once said:
"Who will prefer the jingle of pendants if he once has
heard stone growing in a cliff?" This is a beautifully good
brief description of the phenomenon of Silence. Let
me try to extend that description. Silence is not a
derivative phenomenon; it does not originate from
something else; it does not come from sound as its
cessation. We do not experience sound as first and
silence as its end. All we have to do to verify the fact
that Silence is more primary than sound is to drop
into silence for a moment and feel its presence. It is
just there, and does not start when are quiet. When
we are quiet, we sense its presence, but it was there
all along. Silence swirls around us, and also
everywhere within us. We do not become silent;
rather we find our way to the doorway of silence by
the particular kind of attention needed to enter, being
quiet enough to find the doorway in.
Everything, it seems, has its own
quality of silence. It
is a unified but many-qualitied phenomenon.
Silence is experienced as a kind of
touch in which 
our whole body is the sensory organ that is required to be,
as it were, stimulated all at once. We cannot say that
Silence is experienced just in front of us, or
to one side, or above, or in back. It is all around and also
within, but has the quality of complete Otherness;
Silence is Other than us, when we experience silence we
find our soul.
Dave Mason (Searby on LiveJournal) http://pages.britishlibrary.net/clear1/welcome.htm
at the end of the day
what really matters?
that we hold affection for someone
and that someone holds affection for us,
that we do it when it’s easy and
especially when it’s difficult.
and if we can’t do it
then we turn our passion onto why we can’t do it
until
we can.
and everyone knows this,
we just forgot for a while.
Gary Merrill ConsciousnessIsAll@yahoogroups.com
My understanding, no matter how perfect,
was a subtle way of staying safe, of seeking security. This
understanding was apparently necessary, but it had to drop, as it
only continued that which it meant to end. So one takes a chance in not knowing, that it's
safe. Then its clear that the insecurity was only in the position
taking in the first place. So 'truth' is never a matter of
understanding (though neither the intellectual position of
'non-understanding either). The
mind comes in to try and capture truth, but it can't do it,
doesn't need to do it.
Harsha Luther NondualitySalon@yahoogroups.com Discrimination is a key, but perhaps not the key, or it may mean different things to different people. One could argue that up to certain point discrimination is needed, and then one surrenders to the Heart. Approaches vary due to the inherent tendencies of people. If one inquires about the nature of the discriminator that precedes discrimination, the focus of the energy shifts. Different perspectives don't imply right or wrong, just different angles of visions.
Art: Silent Heart Sulamith Wulfing
Presents of Presence
Joseph Riley Panhala@yahoogroups.com
Written on Christmas Eve,
1513, by Fra Giovanni
I salute you. I am your friend, and my
love for
you goes deep. There is nothing I can give
you which you have not. But there is much,
very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in
this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world
is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There
is radiance
and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only
to look. I beseech you to look!
And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as
the world sends greetings, but with profound
esteem and with the prayer that for you, now
and forever, the day breaks and shadows
flee away.
~~~~~
Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time.
It means saying yes to what is.
- Eckhart Tolle
~~~~~
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.
- Rumi
My country is a state of mind.. rendered silent
_Statement_
http://fusionanomaly.net/koxbox.html
The silent unchangeable rhythmic embrace of Nature
Nature! - we are
surrounded and embraced by her; we cannot draw back from her, nor
can we penetrate more deeply into her being. She lifts us unasked
and unwarned into the rhythms of her dance and whirls us away
until we fall exhausted from her arms…we are embedded in
her, yet are as strangers to her. She speaks to 
us unceasingly but does not disclose her secret.
We effect her continually yet have no power over her…she is
the greatest artist - without any visible effort she brings forth
the most consummate creations…in her is endless life, growth
and motion, yet she does not advance. She transforms herself
endlessly - not for one moment does she remain still. She is
constant: her step is measured, her laws unchangeable…"
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
~~~
Calendar of the Soul Rudolf
Steiner
Christmas Mood
38th week: (December 22 - 28)
I feel as if the Spirit Child
in the womb of my own soul
has awakened from an enchantment.
In the radiance of my heart
the Holy Cosmic Word
has given birth to
the heavenly fruit of hope,
which grows, rejoicing,
into the vast universe,
growing out of God's ground
within my being.
http://www.soluna.com/slane/newgr2.htm
Over 5,000 years old, the great tomb at
Newgrange
rises by the river Boyne just to the East of Slane. The
tomb is the passage grave which on the morning of
the winter solstice becomes filled with the dawn
sunlight for one memorable moment every year. At all
other times of the year the tomb of a shrouded in
darkness.
Art: Attis & Cybele, Vicki McDonald Leppek Winter Solstice
Googlism for: silence
http://www.googlism.com
silence is heard
silence is golden and copyrighted
silence is a commons
silence is to dwell in
silence is deathening
silence is costly silence is about to be broken
silence is over
silence is consent
silence is sometimesgolden
silence is amber
silence is telling
silence is to dwell in an hour of quiet
silence is a rare gift
silence is no longer an option
silence is deadly
silence is a long forgotten virtue
silence is broken
silence is survival
silence is death
silence is not an answer in the time of grief
silence is sexy
Woven reflections of silence and stillness
Bede Griffiths: A Life in Dialogue (on Christian Advaita)
by Judson Trapnell
http://www.bedegriffiths.com/Wisdom/wisdom_review2.htm
The principle of nonduality is a key
which opens
Christian scriptural interpretation, theological
reflection and spirituality toward the mystery’s
intrinsic fullness and power.
It becomes clear that the center of
gravity of Bede’s
vision is high, and that to meet the Gospel on its own
ground a descent will be required. Bede’s faith was
deeper than his gnosis, faith reaches lower than
gnosis. Faith comprehends levels of unitive reality
which are too dark for gnosis. Salvation (that is,
divinization), according to the New Testament and
the early patristic tradition, takes place in and through
the body; it is sacramental. A Christian advaita must
be grounded in the dark that is before and after
knowing. There is a nonduality before intuition and
knowledge. There is a baptismal nonduality of identity
deeper than knowing, that precedes experience and
knowledge. There is a eucharistic nonduality
-expressed in surrender- that is fuller than knowing,
and that succeeds mystical experience and
knowledge. Bede's last years witness to this latter
'dark' advaita.
In the “foolishness of God”
which Paul proclaims, the
nondual Absolute descends lower than we can know
or feel. We can imagine a further incarnation of
Bede’s advaitan vision, in which this prior dark and
latter dark of a Christian advaita are recognized in
their sacramental depth. Atman may be recognized in
the baptismal rebirth—in the nondual identity that is
received at the dawn of knowledge, in Christian
initiation. Love and its consummation in the surrender
of self may be understood as a eucharistic
participation in the cross of Christ—in the
actualization of the original nondual gift at the sunset
of knowledge, in the loving gift of self which is
surrender. Symbol, incarnated, becomes sacrament.
Knowledge is fulfilled in body; knowledge is
completed in act.
What is most needed now, if we are to
realize the
depth and power of the Christ-mystery as the great
event of nonduality, may be an understanding of the
advaitan meaning of Incarnation.
Pagan reflections Yule:The
Silence of Winter
Katie Hodges http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/yule/2002_yule03.html
Wisdom and knowledge are birthed from
silence. 
This is not a day and age of silence. With the
constant hum of electricity and the ever-present
undersong of traffic, this is anything but an age of
silence. We have cultivated a culture of noise, of
opinions and voices. I am a product of that culture. I spend my
days
speaking out against atrocities,
voicing my objections and "doing democracy" as a
wise new friend of mine might say. It is a positive sign of our
culture that
we encourage people to speak out about abuse they experience or
witness,
but in that we may have lost the secret power of silence.
Silence is ancient. Silence has been in
the space you
are at this very moment for longer than anything else
has. It will remain after you leave and exist long after
all other things have faded.
Photo: Winter Solstice sunset Santa Monica Gestation Baile Oakes
inX http://www.inxservices.com/SOM/noframes/som/winter_solstice_prayer.html
Where do I live?
In a world where people say anything
that comes to
mind when they are together, because there is
nothing worse than silence, and that silence must be
filled lest they remember that there is one thing in this
world that they hate worse than silence: and then cry
out in their hurt because no one ever listens to them
or tries to understand them and thus ease their pain
of being unique.
Where do I live?
In a world where people are constantly
talking, but
rarely have a thing to say, and seem to have lost their
ears entirely unless it is to the sounds that pleasure
makes that they may find it and the sounds that pain
makes that they may run like hell when it's around.
A short prayer for the time of year:
May I die to all that is of this world
and may I be
Reborn to Live the Union of all things of all worlds In
the One Who Is.
And finally, the silence of a smile... (Santa in a fast food lane)
