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Issue #1322 - Friday, January 17, 2003 - Editor: Gloria
Light,
Where is the light?
Light the fire if you have the desire!
Thunder, rushing wind, nothingness.
Black night, black stone.
Don't let your whole life go by in the dark.
Evidently the only way to find the path is to set fire to my own
life.
~Rabindranath Tagore
from The Other Syntax list
"liquid light" photo by Al Larus
Last Night
Last night as I was sleeping I dreamt a marvelous illusion
that there was a spring breaking out in my heart.
I said, "Along what secret aqueduct are you coming to me
Oh water, water of a new life that I have never drunk."Last night as I was sleeping I dreamt a marvelous illusion
that there was a beehive here in my heart.
And the golden bees were making white combs
and sweet honey from my old failures.Last night as I was sleeping I dreamt a marvelous illusion
that there was a fiery sun here in my heart.
It was fiery because it gave warmth as if from a hearth
And it was sun because it gave light and brought tears to my eyes.Last night as I was sleeping I dreamt a marvelous illusion
that there was God here in my heart.
God, is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives who labor by night stopped, and
the water wheel of thought, is it dry?
The cup's empty, wheeling out carrying only shadows?
No! My soul is not asleep! My soul is not asleep!
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches, its clear eyes open,
far off things, and listens, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.
It listens at the shores of the great silence.
~ Antonio Machado ~
Web version
at www.Panhala.net/Archive/Last_Night.html
by Joseph Riley
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Deafened by the voice of
desire
you are unaware the
Beloved
lives in the core of
your heart.
Stop the noise,
and you will hear His
voice
in the silence.
- Rumi
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"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved"
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999 from Along the
Way by M J Gilbert
http://www.puresilence.org/written_word.htm
"This
silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you,
brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I
stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit
quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.'
Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside
the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence."
Rumi
"Be quiet in your mind, quiet in your senses, and also quiet
in your body. Then, when all these are quiet, don't do anything.
In that state truth will reveal itself to you. It will appear in
front of you and ask," what do you want?"
Kabir
"Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches
their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the
source. Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of
nature."
Lao Tzu
"Things that are real are given and received in Silence. God
has been everlastingly working in Silence, unobserved, unheard,
except by those who experience His Infinite Silence."
Meher Baba
"Be still, and know that I am (God)."
Psalm 46:10
"Thought comes to an end. Then there is that sense of
absolute silence in the brain. All the movement of thought has
ended."
J. Krishnamurti
"There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude.
There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not
lost."
A Course in Miracles
"What exists in truth is the Self alone. The self is that
where there is absolutely no "I" thought. That is
called Silence. The Self itself is the world; the Self itself is
"I"; the Self itself is God."
Ramana Maharshi
"No particular thought can be mind's natural state, only
silence. Not the idea of silence, but silence itself. When the
mind is in its natural state, it reverts to silence spontaneously
after every experience, or, rather, every experience happens
against the background of silence."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Whenever we moderns pause for a moment, and enter the
silence, and listen very carefully, the glimmer of our deepest
nature begins to shine forth, and we are introduced to the
mysteries of the deep, the call of the within, the infinite
radiance of a splendor that time and space forgot"
Ken Wilber
"There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in
the mind's immobility and thought-free stillness.
When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the
purity of the silence."
~Sri Aurobindo
posted by Jan Sultan on Advaita to Zen
Looking For A Monk And Not
Finding Him
- Li Po
I took a small path leading
up a hill valley, finding there
a temple, its gate covered
with moss, and in front of
the door but tracks of birds;
in the room of the old monk
no one was living, and I
staring through the window
saw but a hair duster hanging
on the wall, itself covered
with dust; emptily I sighed
thinking to go, but then
turning back several times,
seeing how the mist on
the hills was flying, and then
a light rain fell as if it
were flowers falling from
the sky, making a music of
its own; away in the distance
came the cry of a monkey, and
for me the cares of the world
slipped away, and I was filled
with the beauty around me.
posted by Gill Eardly
on Allspirit
Brain Helmet
Often I dream
while being aware of my physical surroundings
which generally is unpleasant because
physiologically in the sleeping state
one is paralyzed.
I've seen documentaries on this phenomena
and throughout history this kind of dilemma
was chalked up as interaction with demonic spirits.
Interesting to note
that when this alignment of consciousness & physical
paralysis
occurs to me
I always sense some foreign presence...
Usually in the form of an intruder breaking into
the physical space I am sleeping at.
This experience sucks
even more so because of the fact
I am literally physically paralyzed
(thanks to the 'genius' of evolutional hard-wiring).
This lovely experience happens regularly to me
once or twice a month.
I know I am not unusual with regard to having these types of
experiences.
Over time
I actually figured out what is going on.
There's a scientist from Canada
(yeah Canada, he can't help it)
who developed a helmet
that emits electromagnetic waves
that can be pinpointed and directed to specific areas of the
brain
to stimulate responses associated
with particular brain regions.
(true story look it up yourself)
In the past
when we didn't have the luxury of such
amazing technology
we would have to cut a person's skull open
and poke various regions of their brain
with a metal stick
to observe what kinds of responses were possible
from direct contact.
For instance,
we learnt that if you poked the visual regions
of a person's brain
they would see things that were not readily apparent
to the people poking with the metal sticks...
And such was the case
with regard to different sorts of experience
and perception
with respects to different regions of the brain.
(i.e. sound, sexual stimulation, etc.)
Now this guy from Canada
(a pseudo country, no coincidence)
has taken this approach
to a new level in that
we can now prod our brains non invasively
with an electro-magnetic helmet.
Wow.
One of the more interesting things he found
while poking people's brains
(electromagnectically)
is that there is a region in all of our brains
that when stimulated
elicits an experience
that there is an 'other' present in the room.
Even when all the brain-poking scientists leave the room
and poke
the unsuspecting bearer of this new-age helmet
can't but help but experience
THAT THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE IN THE ROOM
IN THEIR PRESENCE.
Furthermore,
I must inform you at this point
that all people poked electromagnetically
with this amazing brain helmet
in the particular region of our brain
that makes us respond to
and experience some imaginary presence
of an 'other'
are also flooded with a sense of fear.
In other words
this magic button hard-wired in our brains
that makes us experience the presence of 'another'
is not pleasant at all.
It is frightening
to say the least.
I have my own personal theory regarding this
hard-wired button in all of our heads.
It has to do with duality
and the essential
need
an organism in a dualistic environment
must possess in order to survive.
And further
furthermore
I will somehow tie
this intuition of mine
into my regular dream experiences
of dreaming my physical environment
in a state of paralysis
while some 'other' is breaking into my
house as I struggle but cannot move.
And further,
further
furthermore
I may explain why this Canadian scientist
who wishes to patent his amazing helmet
and sell it to anyone who wishes to purchase it
will never be allowed to sell it.
(at least in the United States)
David Bozzi
[to be continued if I feel like it]
pete seesaw wrote:
You do have a lively imagination. But are you aware
of the empty stage. Can you stay in your seat after
the show is over, and for how long?
A good question,
Pete. I like to watch the final
credits roll, even
when no one else remains.
I
don't like it when the floor is sticky with
spilled soda, though.
Have
you ever stayed until they tore down the
building? Have you ever taken a ride
in a time machine, and
watched the buildings rise and fall,
and the seasons go by in the blink of an eye?
-- Dan from Advaita to Zen
Do not seek to
follow in the footsteps of the wise.
Seek what they sought.
~Basho
from Adyashanti Satsang by Mazie Lane