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#1405 - Good Friday, April 18, 2003 - Editor: Gloria Lee

DANCE FOR JOY

He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

-- W. H. Auden in "For the Time Being"  

Marc Chagall
(1887-1985) Français d'origine russe
La Crucifixion blanche
Art Institute, Chicago  

http://www.spiritualite-chretienne.com/christ/Art/Visage-3.html  

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Carolyn Rong  Spiritual Friends  

"I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life.  What
was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest
at midnight!  When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I
was no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name and form had taken
me in its arms in the form of my own mother.  Even so, in death the same unknown will
appear as ever known to me. And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as
well. " ~from gitanjali~ 
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Jan Sultan  SufiMystic  

Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence

The nature of multiplicity is non-dual
And things in themselves are pure and simple;

Being here and now is thought-free
And it shines out in all forms, always all good;

It is already perfect! the disease of uptight striving expunged,
Spontaneity is as it is.

http://www.gileht.com/Dzogchen/   

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"Ripples" photo by Al Larus
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Terry Murphy  SufiMystic  

Bhagavad Gita
CHAPTER XIV
Gunatrayavibhaga-Yoga,
The Yoga of the Distinction of the Three Gunas  

Arjuna said:
What are the characteristics of those
Who have transcended the three Gunas,
And what is their conduct?
How does one transcend these three Gunas, O Lord Krishna?  

Krishna said:
One who neither hates the presence of
Enlightenment, activity, and delusion
Nor desires for them when they are absent; and  

The one who remains like a witness;
Who is not moved by the Gunas,

Thinking that the Gunas only are operating;
Who stands firm and does not waver;  

(verses 21, 22, 23)   http://www.santosha.com/philosophy/b_gita_chapter14.html

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Viorica Weissman  MillionPaths

  DECEMBER 17,1935
Mr. P. Brunton, while reading Upadesa Manjari, came across the
statement that the ego, the world, and God are all unreal. He desired to
use a different word for God or at least a qualifying adjective, e..g., the
Creative Force or personal God. Sri Bhagavan explained that God
means Samashti, i.e., all that is plus the Being in the same way that "I"
means the individual plus the Be-ing, and the "world" means the variety
plus Being. The Being is in all cases real. The all, the variety and the
individual is in each case unreal. So also in the union of the real and
the unreal, the mixing up or the false identification is wrong.   

It amounts to saying sad-asad-vilakshana, i.e., transcending the real and the unreal — sat and asat. Reality is that which transcends all concepts, including that of God. Inasmuch as the name of God is used, it cannot be true. The Hebrew word Jehovah (I Am) expresses God correctly. Absolute Being is beyond expression. The word cannot be replaced nor need it be replaced.  

The Englishman casually said that in prehistoric ages there was spirituality but not high intellect, whereas intellect has now developed. Sri Bhagavan pointed out that "intellect" raises the question "whose intellect?" The answer is, "the Self." So intellect is a tool of the Self. The Self uses intellect for measuring variety. Intellect is not the Self nor apart from the Self. The Self alone is eternal. Intellect is only a phenomenon. People speak of the development of variety as being the development of intellect. Intellect was always there. Dhata yatha parvam akalpayat (The Creator created just as before). Consider your own state, day by day. There is no intellect in dreamless deep sleep. But it is there now. There is no intellect in a child. It develops with age. How could there be manifestation of intellect without its seed in the sleep state and in the child? Why go to history to teach this fundamental fact? The level of truth of history is only the level of truth of the individual.

http://www.hermetic-philosophy.com/ramana_maharshi1.htm#space1  

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Daily Dharma

THE CROSS OF JOY

"Take up My Cross a little bit today. I promise it won't weigh
too much. Know I love  you and let's laugh together.   

Only those who take their own suffering so seriously really
believe I was suffering.  As I stumbled up the hill, only peace
prevailed. There was no cross, no nails, no lance, 

only JOY!   

I try to tell them but they do not listen. They want an excuse
for their own crosses  so they invent mine, they honor mine.
My crucifixion was a time of expectancy, a much  awaited
birth was due. I was going Home as you often wish to do. 

There was no pain.
Who has pain?
Not thee who was never born.
Wipe my brow.
Pick up the end of the
dragging wood,
and let's be together -
to play."

From personal notes

~~~~~

El Greco (Dhominikos Theotokopoulos)
(1541 - 1614) Espagnol
Le Christ portant sa Croix
Musée du Prado, Madrid http://www.spiritualite-chretienne.com/christ/Art/Visage-5.html    

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A Net of Jewels

Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org

The guru who helps you escape from sorrow by prescribing procedures and
methods is not an enlightened guru.  A true sage requires that you face your
sorrow so thoroughly and intimately that it disappears in the very
understanding of itself.

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Gems from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's Conversations

"Just keep in mind the feeling "I am," merge in it, until your mind and
feeling become one.  By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right
balance of attention and affection, and your mind will be firmly established
in the thought-feeling "I am."  Whatever you think, say, or do, this sense
of immutable and affectionate being remains as the ever-present background
of the mind."

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Hafizullah  SufiMystic

The Sufis seek to experience all levels of the human being, not idealizing the
Absolute nor being wholly enmeshed in the relative world, and all the planes in
between.

It is possible to live in a state of nonduality while simultaneously appreciating God in
multiplicity. What distinguishes an advanced adept from the rest of us is that the
ebb-and-flow of consciousness along the continuum between
multiplicity-consciousness and unity-consciousness (and beyond) is not manipulated
and there is a relative freedom from preference for any particular state, letting the
locus of identity reside in whatever place is harmonious and co-emergent with the
dynamic unfolding of reality.

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Gill Eardley  Allspirit

Penetrating Zen

People who are sharp should have their feet on the ground, and need an iron spine,
traveling through the world looking on everything as illusory, holding still and being
the master, not following human sentiments, cutting through discrimination between
others and self, and getting rid of intellectual interpretations of Zen.

Then, when it comes to practical function, responding to conditions, they don't fall
into clichés. Developing single-minded persistence, keeping profound calm, lightening
body and mind, while in the midst of the toil of the world they penetrate through to
freedom.

-Zen Master Yuanwu
'Zen Essence' Translated and Edited by Thomas Cleary

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Zen Oleary  Exclusive to Highlights

Breaths

I can hear the breaths of
wild water-spider orchids
that stand like sentinels
to greet the still dark
bird fluted morning,

neon blue dragonflies
asleep hidden in the
orchid's mat of leaves
rimming the water's edge
quiver to awake with
small wing shudders and
flickering dragon eyes,
 
I hear the orchid's outbreath
in the rising inflections
of a cardinal's song,
I inhale the sound of
small wing shudders that
I cannot hear,

inbreaths and outbreaths
flow in endless waves,
thru this seething life sea
we swim in, frolic in,
we are krill in the now,
plankton in this earth
and galaxied dance,
bedazzled by breath flows,
sound flows, seeded with
ecstasy as we twirl in
dragon outbreaths and write
poems on orchid inbreaths.


~ Zen Oleary

"Seacoast" photo by Al Larus

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