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Issue #1417 - Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - Editor: Jerry Highlights Home Page: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
It is Queen's day here in Holland, celebrating the birthday of Beatrix.. .. A happy day, flags everywhere, children selling old toys no longer in use, playing their instruments to gather a bit of change.., there is eating of poffertjes, lots of walking around and looking at other beings including dogs and ponies.. In Amersfoort there is a 'Lampion Tocht' the night before.. Children dress up and carry paper lanterns.. they follow a band and march a bit through the town.. --Sam
Verian Thomas ( verian) wrote,@ 2003-04-30 14:39:00 |
Taking my mind of pain and depressing things.
As some of you will have come to realise, I have a thing about
bottles and am pursuing the whole ''Bottle Book' idea to it's
final possible conclusion, which will be a giant bottle with me
sat inside on a chair reading a poem. Until then I make do with
smaller things.
This book is titled 1000 Words.
It contains several prose poems cut up into words and phrases.
My camera really hates close ups, the macro function is a liar.
These are mock-ups of what the labels actually say, they are much
nicer in reality.
If you shake the bottle you get to see different phrases and
words through the glass. I'll try a poem later using it.
I'm pleased with it.
Lobster
Nasrudin
The Creator gathered all of
creation and said,
"I want to hide something from the humans until they are
ready for it.
It is the realization that they create their own reality".
The eagle said, "Give it to me, I will take it to the
moon".
The Creator said, "No. One day they will go there and find
it".
The salmon said, "I will hide it on the bottom of the
ocean".
"No. They will go there, too".
The buffalo said, "I will bury it on the great plains".
"They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it even
there".
Then Grandmother Mole, who lived in the breast of Mother Earth,
and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said,
"Put it inside them".
And the Creator said, "It is done".
(Sioux 'teaching' story)
=================
Nasrudin was asked,
"Who are you?"
"It depends on who you believe," explained Nasrudin,
"around here, even I can not be believed
to be impartial!"
== time for some Crusty laughing at Kristians ~ in a KIND way
readers . .
.========
This comes from a Catholic elementary school.
Kids were asked questions about the Old and New Testaments.
The following statements about the bible were written by
children.
They have not been retouched or corrected i.e., incorrect
spelling has been
left in).
1. In the first book of the bible, Guinessis, God got tired of
creating the
world, so he took the Sabbath off.
2. Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah's wife was
called
Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in
pears.
3. Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by
night.
4. The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had
trouble
with the unsympathetic Genitals.
5. Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a
Jezebel like
Delilah.
6. Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles.
7. Moses led the hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made
unleavened bread
which is bread without any ingredients.
8. The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards,
Moses went up
on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments.
9. The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple
10.The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.
11.Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the
Hebrews in
the battle of Geritol.
12.The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son
to stand
still and he obeyed him.
13.David was a hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought
with the
Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.
14.Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700
porcupines.
15.When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the
Magna Carta.
16.When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they
found Jesus in
the manager.
17.Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.
18.St. John the blacksmith dumped water on his head.
19.Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to
others before
they do one to you. He also explained, a man doth not live by
sweat alone.
20.It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to
get the
tombstone off the entrance
21.The people who followed the lord were called the 12 decibels
22.The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
23.One of the oppossums was St. Matthew who was also a taximan.
24.St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony,
which is
another name for marriage.
25.Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony
Mary
NDS http://www.wnyc.org/artofwar/
The Art of War was conceived and curated by WNYC’s Interactive Media department to showcase art created by our listeners (and website visitors) in direct response to the current War in Iraq.
Both pro and anti-war responses
were encouraged, more than 500 submissions were received.
Submissions ranged from photographs, paintings, editorial
cartoons and digital animation. Works were selected for inclusion
by the Interactive Media department on the basis of timeliness,
originality and creativity.
All submitted works are original and the copyright is retained by
the artist.
<http://www.lucidity.com/nasrudin.shtml>
Reload page for a new Nasrudin story.
Still Silent Space
Space is within Space without
obstruction.
Silence is within Silence without
Sound.
Space and Silence move in Stillness.
Space begets Beauty.
Silence begets Peace.
Stillness begets Love.
Be Still and Know.
Love and Gratitude,
James
HarshaSatsangh
Mazie
NDS
From death.com to the Salon
In the year 2000, in the year of my journey into discontent and dissatisfaction with all the years of intense Kriya meditation and waiting for some thing to occur, it occurred to the Friend to send me a computer. I joined my first yahoogroup, quite by what appeared, as accident. Hmm. I had heard of a site that would give you a specific age at which you would die if you typed in all the pertinent details of behavior and experience. It was called death.com. But when I typed that in, I didn’t find myself in front of my hoped-for probability of departure. I found myself at a site called Near-death.com. and they mentioned something called "yahoogroups." It was news to me that any such thing even existed. So I joined nde at yahoogroups. Neat-o. People talking about God and death and the going price for lightening strikes to the heart. I was just embarking on hearing the barkless dog’s bite when to my delight, I found Harsha’s satsang and the NondualitySalon.
So I sat down and began reading what everyone was talking about. Talk about a kid who thought she could swim and then suddenly finding herself in the midst of olympic athletes! I was bowled over at the clarity and the comic caustic-ness, the clear cosmic hum coming from some, like Wimji and Gregsan and Dan the man, and the cause I promoted, (me) having no ground to camp on, caught on quick, via ego, that I better sit tight and keep a lid on it. So I did. I hid in my head and watched and wondered how they all did it, how they all delightedly dialogued and dittoed and dickered and delighted in the Tao of there being no doer.
Somewhere along the way I decided to test the waters. It was inevitable because I was just a wave and the only way back home to the Heart-Sea was to wander fearlessly into the waters of inquiry and surrender as to the why and wherefore I wanted and seemed to need to protect an image of myself "being in the know." You know, like in my school days when I was tormented terribly by the slings and arrows of unkindness and indifference and elitism because I was different, I had arthritis and I walked with a limp, and like Jong had said, it was as if I were Jacob, walking with a limp after having just tasted fire.
I know now that it was all just a case of mistaken identity. I believed I was a victim and they believed they were victims and we all victimized one another in our erroneous belief in doership and identification to the parts we played as the Play made mincemeat out of our hearts and hauled our heads around like a sack of wheat heading for the millstone. How to keep the heart intact and the head full and haloed, that was my art and my gift, to protect the only thing that had ever been a true and loyal friend to me – this Darling ego, this Wonderful friend, with me ‘til the end of time, telling me stories of rejection and recoil, toil and trouble, glory-bubbles being burst in the worst way by way of displaying all the wayward wanderers who haunted my now with the past chant of "Be careful. The ‘others’ will hurt you, abuse you, judge you, reject you, and they will not love you, they cannot love you like I love you…". Their idea of a fine repast? To paste up, post up on persona poles across cyber-space, every single experience and being who I had dreamed had harmed me, had humiliated me, had horrified me, had had a hand in hacking my heart to pieces with leaving me, not liking me, not adoring me and those war-mongers of wu wasted in wanting unconditional love, these were the wraith-like wringers of fingers feeling for safety and fearing falling with every step and stumble along the way. As Rumi said, "Where can I be safe?" In giving up all trying. In seeking outcomes and goals. Recognizing that I was tormenting myself from a million faces traced with my own fearful finger in time and space as the ghosts I needed to face most to give the old heave-ho to the old ideas and imaginings born in the past that had me spell-bound, dream-clown drowned and going ‘round and ‘round the old mulberry bush (hi Sandeep!) and then letting that ship of fools sink in the drinking of the draught of – There is no doer."
I didn’t get it until I got it. I was given a lift in the gifts given from the Judis and the Genes, from the James’ and the Johns, from the Jills and from the Glos, from the ones who know and from the ones who don’t. Bottom line…I don’t know jack shit. I don’t owe jack shit. I now sometimes know jack’s shit and I know that I stowed jack’s shit in the bit where I bought into my own myth and self-importance. Teehee. Take it down to me…identity…indignity…insecurity…infirmity…insanity of I, I, I …inscrutably and indisputably the best itch that ever scratched it’s own ass! Give it up to the friends laying on hands at Harsha’s and the Salon and demanding that all hands be held open Heart-wide as a sign that there is no need to harbor fear. Benediction of the Bhava-bringers is bringing this house down and all my clever clowns are running out with their heads on fire. Desire for outcomes is overcome in the coming out of the closet of clinging to myths and tales of an independent doership and is dipping its tendency-foot in the flaming bathwater of little flickers of fana flowering into blaze and burn. I been learnt, Pa.
We now pause this program for your local emergency broadcast warning:
All characters in this drama are entirely fictional. And resemblance to anyone alive or dead is purely coincidental in nature.
LoveAlways,
Mazie
Savitri
SufiMystic
Can I offer my two cents? For me,
in non-duality no one can say this
is better then that or this is the way and not that one. Each
person
has different needs, different bhavas, dharmas, karmas, etc.
Although
one practice, at the same time everyday, with discipline is a key
factor, as Faristah mentioned, the needs are different with
different
people, in regards to the stages. In the philosophy, it is shown
forth that someone with errant kundalini should not do practice,
no
sadhana. They are told to go back to nature and just dig in the
earth. That is only lesson one - Earth. Therefore, according to
the
reflectory need at a certain space in time in the play of our
life,
we experience different things for expanding and preparation. But
all
this has been said on this forum, even since I have been here. I
am
sure you have seen the posts. And Farishtah just wrote me an
awesome
post aboout being able to step into someone elses moccasins. It
is
true that many get stuck in 'their' perception and 'their'
teachers
teachings. This is a mind issue, for if the teacher really gave
them
Self-Realization, they would not be stuck at all anywhere in
anything. It is a simply key factor that should be places on
cosmic
billboards it seems. It should be announced to all. If the
teacher
does not lead you to your Self, they are a charleton. And many
teachers get caught up in powers and siddhis. Be careful of the
signs
and wonders, they are merely temptations. The needs of all are
dependent on the play for them in this life. The Guru removes
karma
that would have taken lifetimes to get through all alone, and on
the
other hand, not everyone is graced with this provision and their
karma will take them the long road home. That is grace concealing
and
revealing. The Guru helps us clean the basement, something that
many
people avoid and they think they do not have to go down before
they
go up, when in reality, they contract before they expand. The
guru
appears at a certain stage of the walk to show forth a profound
LOVE
that can be experienced. This has been mentioned. This is a
grace. In
Hindu traditions Siva slaughters cupid (false love) in order that
we
can feel the real. I mean who would want to keep partial fake
love
when we can have total freedom to be in Profound Love? Nature
does
contain Essence, but just like small children learn to read, so
must
a hue-man learn to read the signs of life, see the reflections,
etc.
The ignorant do not do that. Oftentimes life's lessons do not
teach
them a thing and in a circle cycle they keep being stuck in the
same
life lesson with no progress. Sometimes we need a helping hand to
throw water on us and wake us up from sleep. The downfall that
you
mention here was touched upon by a mystic writer I read recently
who
said most gurus vibrate at 600 and the student thinks that the
guru's
ecstatic vibes are all there is. The author of this work said the
human is capable of going much further, I think he said, 1200
even,
while still in the body vehicle. Transformation is really a
transformation. The DNA coding continues to cause evolutionary
occurances within the hue-man and anyone not ready for these
alterations could actually explode and yet, those asleep need a
wake-
up call. It is the simply parable of putting new wine into old
wineskins. It doesn't work. We sometimes have to change clothes
and
become the broken clay pot which is watered and remolded. So
timing
and multitudes of 'plays' are required and are occuring all over
the
place. Someone posted recently that our Essential Nature is not
earth, water, fire, air and ether. I think beloved Farishtah.
Yes, we
are in this place, the scriptures and experience are mingled
symbolically in all living beings and Nature as reflections, but
the
Real thing is beyond form. At that point of Realization we are
then
in the world, functioning in it, adoring Creation, but with no
attachment and no aversion. We are in the world but not of it.
And
some of those mystic mentions only come through the grace of a
Self-
Realized being. I have one teacher who agrees with you. He
insists it
is only the natural, only the natural and the Creator. His name
is
Clive Leaf. But the play had him as a teacher, three teachers
ago.
Non-duality is non-duality. It requires the fullness of sight and
the
acceptance of all dichotomies without attachment or aversion,
comparisons or opposing meanings. My Tantric Master has
absolutely no
problem with the mundane and the ordinary. They are the tools we
all
use for moving through every moment. Why deny them, he says. How
can
we really deny them? But to throw out the whole because of some
partially evolved being on this planet seems futile. But we must
be
careful of those who say they are Self-Realized but remain dual
in
thought and action. It is true. But, the pendulum rests in the
middle, not so? Just my blahs blahs for taking or leaving
Daily Dharma
"Once an old Woman came to
Buddha and asked him how to
meditate. He told her to remain aware of every
movement of her hands as she drew the water from the
well, knowing that if she did, she would soon find
herself in that state of alert and spacious calm that
is meditation.
The practice of mindfulness, of bringing the scattered
mind home. And so of bringing the different aspects of
our being into focus, is called 'Peacefully Remaining'
or 'Calm Abiding.' 'Peacefully Remaining' accomplishes
three things.
First, all the fragmented aspects of ourselves, which
have been at war, settle and dissolve and become
friends. In that settling we begin to understand
ourselves more, and sometimes even have glimpses of
the radiance of our fundamental nature.
Second, the practice of mindfulness defuses our
negativity, aggression, and turbulent emotions, which
may have been gathering power over many lifetimes.
Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them,
here it is important to view them, and your thoughts,
and whatever with an acceptance and generosity that
are as open and spacious as possible.
Tibetan masters say that this wise generosity has the
flavor of boundless space, so warm and cozy that you
feel enveloped and protected by it, as if a blanket of
sunlight.
Gradually, as you remain open and mindful, and use one
of the techniques to focus your mind more and more,
your negativity will slowly be defused; you begin to
feel well in your being, or as the French say, 'etre
bien dans sa peau' (well in your own skin). From this
comes release and a profound ease.
I think of this practice as the most effective form of
therapy and self-healing.
Third, this practice unveils and reveals your
essential Good Heart, because it dissolves and removes
the unkindness or the harm in you. Only when we have
removed the harm in ourselves do we become truly
useful to others. Through the practice then, by slowly
removing the unkindness and harm from ourselves, we
allow our true Good Heart, fundamental goodness and
kindness that are our real nature, to shine our and
become the warm climate in which our true being
flowers.
You will see now why I call meditation the true
practice of peace, the true practice of nonaggression
and non-violence, and the real and greatest
disarmament."
~Sogyal Rinpoche
From the book, "The Tibetan Book of Living and
Dying,"
published by Shambhala.
I love this page of Sam's photos. Enjoy... http://community.webshots.com/album/71346897KXZrem