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#1501 - Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - Editor: Joyce (Know_Mystery)  

Jan Sultan ~ SufiMystic  

Self-interest and self-concern - Nisargadatta
  Self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the false. Your daily
life vibrates between desire and fear. Watch it intently and you will see how
the mind assumes innumerable names and shapes, like a river foaming between the
boulders. Trace every action to its selfish motive and look at the motive
intently till it dissolves. Discard every self-seeking motive as soon as it is
seen and you need not look for truth; truth will find you.  

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ~  

http://www.mpeters.de/nisargadatta/index.cfm

Brigitte Mohr ~ BuddhistWellnessGroup   &   Alan Larus ~ HarshaSatsangh

Heaven is calm and clear Heaven is calm and clear, Earth is stable and peaceful. Beings who lose these qualities die, While those who emulate them live. Calm spaciousness is the house of spiritual light; Open selflessness is the abode of the Way. Therefore there are those who seek it outwardly And lose it inwardly, And there are those who safeguard it inwardly And gain it outwardly. ~ Huai-nan-tzu ~

Water Lilies Photo by Alan Larus

Sshomi ~ AlongTheWay

Every mode of perception is subjective

Learn to look without imagination, to listen
without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing
names and shapes to the essentially nameless
and formless, realize that every mode of perception
is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched
or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is
in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience
peace and freedom from fear.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj ~

"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973

Pete  ~ DirectApproach

The Case for Compassion
  Yes, it's only a dream. But that's a fool comfort. You are the dream, the whole dream. You are the one reading this, and the one who wrote it. You are the child looking for food on the garbage dump, the Spanish Doctor in Sweden, the Jew in the concentration camp, and Hitler screaming "Deutschland uber alles." You are Buddha on the cross and Christ under the Bo tree. You might not feel yourself dying from AIDS in a miserable hut in Africa, but you are, and you will feel it one way or another. You are the dream, the whole dream. Make it a compassionate one, a happy one because.... you'll be back, baby!   Best wishes, Pete 
 

Christian & Stephen ~ josephcampbellmythologygroup  

Crowley and Campbell

[Christian]

Isn't Crowley best known for the phrase "Do what
thou wilt" (or more precisely "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole
of the Law")? Is it just me, or does this sound strikingly like
Campbell's maxim "Follow your bliss?"

[Stephen]

Intriguing question. I can see where some might confuse the two -
especially those who misinterpret JC's maxim as advice to give
oneself over to purely hedonistic pursuits, believing bliss means
pleasure but they are two distinct and different statements.

Crowley's words involve the concept of Will - do what You Will shall
be the whole of the law (followed, in the wiccan rede, by the
words "an ye harm none," a caveat missing in most people's minds).
It's a powerful creative principle, involving an individual self
willing an outcome - generated from within, arising from individual
will and desire but Campbell uses bliss for passion - follow your passion, your
reason for being - which might be different from what you will. You
might consciously will to become a lawyer or computer programmer
and/or make a lot of money - but if your bliss, your passion -
your Calling - is music, or teaching, or preaching, or building, or
writing - then by all means, follow the Call...

What is one's bliss?

It is what you are doing when time drops away and you reside in an
eternal now. I sit down to write in the morning, stare into space
alot, flip through books, put words on paper or screen, re-arrange
those words, stare into space a bit more, craft another paragraph or
two

and suddenly notice it's dark outside

...but i just had breakfast...

what happened to lunch?

Where did the day go?

You know you are in your bliss when in an eternal moment ... ("eternal"
doesn't mean "forever," but "timeless" ... from the Latin ... e =
outside; ternal = time). When you are in your bliss, you aren't
thinking about the argument with your spouse, or how you're going to
pay the light bill Tuesday, or what you should do for dinner, or how
the boss came down on you yesterday, or what's on television tonight
... when you are in your bliss, time ceases to exist (whether that
bliss is sculpting clay or crunching numbers).

We don't "will" our bliss: we "discover" our bliss.

How do we discover our bliss?

Socrates' direction is relevant here:

"Know
thyself."

We don't just choose our bliss out of thin air, like choosing a soft
drink ... instead, our bliss chooses us. Sometimes friends and family,
who know our strengths and weaknesses, who have watched our character
form and grow, have have a better sense of our bliss than we
ourselves (how many people on this forum have been telling me for
years to write a book, before I figured that out for myself ... where
do you suppose they came up with that notion? How did they know this
was my bliss before I did?).

Some are lucky ... they know from childhood what they want to do. I
just received a call this evening from a former student, starting her
sophomore year in high school. She asked my help last summer in
editing a novel she was writing. I was brutal ... she wrote draft after
draft and she just learned this afternoon that she has an agent, and a
publisher!

Lindsay has always known that she would be a writer ... no hesitation,
just absolute certainty.

Most of us aren't that lucky. It takes some stumbling and groping
around before we get a sense of who we are and where we are headed.

But once we hear the Call, and heed the Calling, magick happens!

Campbell points out that, when we follow our bliss, "...doors open
where you would not have thought there would be doors ... it's as if
there's been a track waiting there all along ..."

That has been my experience...

(For those who haven't a clue where their bliss lies, Campbell
advises writing down or recording your dreams. Do this long enough,
and clues will leap out at you ... but this takes time and
discipline.)

There is some resonance with Crowley's maxim ... though I'm more
familiar with the wiccan interpretation, which places one's will in
harmony with nature, and advises against harm, proclaiming that the
energy one puts out into the universe, for good or ill, comes back on
oneself three times over (or more, in some traditions)

...but the way I delineate the difference in my head (which may or may
not make sense to anyone else) is that "do what thou wilt" begins
with the individual will, and involves a conscious creation or re-
creation of the world around one

whereas "follow your bliss," while beginning with a yearning within,
is a process of discovery, where the individual finds in the outside
world that which resonates with one's own soul...

the two aren't mutually exclusive ... in fact, they can be quite
compatible ... but the emphasis is different

following my bliss
(and only occasionally
bumping into reality...)

bodhibliss

Bekir Sulunhat ~

Go Away Go away, for sure go away Add another black thorn into my eyelashes Give me the city that I have not got used to Take my parts destroted by your looks And then go away If you should go, go for sure Dosen't destroy this city Merely all the buterflies I touch Would die My hands get cold I am afraid if it rains As well take my hands

Ebru Ebru Painting by Bekir Sulunhat

Ebru   Ebru Painting by Bekir Sulunhat

Ninety Nine   While dhikring the ninety nine names on mystic faces A bewildered face of the century seeking the vaceted manner from the veil in front of the mosques at the twelve sitting cross legged calligraphies My breast is ambergris my skin is amber I cense and poem the words A steam of bitter carnation smiles in my divan Come and read me, spent the night in my divan Take the words from my bosom They flow as the beads of rosary does among my fingers

Paul Cote  ~  AdvaitaToZen  

The case for perfecting
  "When the ego has been cleared of identifiable programs, it then
faces dissolution since its software or tapes have been erased.
However, it has one trick still remaining, a great trap into which
even famous spiritual adepts have fallen. This is the great
confrontation with the supposed reality of the abyss of the `Void'.
That this is merely a product of the ego rather than Reality is
already known to students of these presentations. They will remember
that there is no opposite to the Allness of God. Nothingness is
neither a possibility nor a reality. It is the ego's last desperate
bid for survival.  

The groundwork for the acceptance and believability of this error has
been laid by misunderstanding the teachings of the Buddha. The
correct translation of the Illumined State as "void" actually
means "devoid of content, not containing any thing or form." It was
misconstrued as meaning "nothingness" as the supposed opposite of
Allness. Using reason as a tool, it can be seen that nothingness
cannot exist, or be, or represent a valid option.  

The paradox of the void of nothingness versus the reality of Allness
is the last great positionality to be transcended. Were it not for
the presumed authority of certain misinterpretations of the Buddhist
teachings, it would have fallen away as an error that is resolvable
just by reason. If the nothingness of the Void were the absolute
reality, then there would be neither a seeker nor a void to be found.
To be truly void, even voidness would not be a realizable option as
there would be nothing to realize and no one to realize it.  

The Void is not to be feared but refused. The Void is a trap for the
aspirant who follows the pathway of negation. It does not present
itself as an option to the pathway of affirmation, for to such a
pathway, voidness would present itself as total non-love.  

Allness versus Nothingness is a classical duality and is the ultimate
pair of opposites to transcend. When one follows the strict pathway
of negation, the state of Void as such does indeed present itself.
This results from the error of avoiding love due to the
misunderstanding of love. The attachment to love is really the trap
and the barrier to enlightenment. In Reality, love is freedom, but
attachment to love is a limitation.  

Another error of the pathway of negation is the teaching that one
should release all beauty, perfection, and joy. Here again, the
attachment to these is the barrier. In actuality, these are the
attributes of God. To negate the attributes of God is to facilitate
the arrival of the option of the Void.  

The Void is indeed very, very impressive. One is beyond karma and all
programs. This state appears to be infinite, endless, nonlinear, and
forever. It is so profound that it precludes any thought. It is a
nonlinearity, devoid of any content. Importantly, however, there is
something missing, and that is the presence of Love. This state
presents itself as `beyond Love, and therefore believable to the
pathway of negation.  

In the experience of that state of Void, simultaneously present was
the knowingness that if the Void, or nonexistence, were the ultimate
reality, then what still existed in order to witness the nothingness?
If the Void were the ultimate, there would be no survival to claim
its authenticity. The benevolence of the Self seemed to be the source
of the call, but to respond to it took prolonged and intense endeavor.  

This final duality of whether the Ultimate Reality is existence or
nonexistence had first presented itself in this lifetime at age
three. This soul had gone that way before and, as a spiritual adept,
had chosen the Void. Thus, at each physical death, consciousness went
into the Void because of its belief in its reality, and then it was
shocked and surprised to finds itself back in another physicality. If
the Void were the Ultimate Reality, no return to consciousness would
have been possible. There is no 'knower of the Void' for such a
knower would also have been voided. Because the Void is an illusion
and not a reality, one cannot stay in the Void. When one realizes the
error, one recognizes that what had been experienced had been
oblivion. (The calibration level of this explanation of the Void is
1,000.)  

Oblivion is not an unwelcome desire of the ego; in fact, many people
consciously look forward to the supposed oblivion of death (meaning
no more possible suffering). One can be sympathetic to that wish, but
Reality is insistent that one return to consciousness, awareness, and
the continuation of evolution.  

To repeat, there is no opposite to the Allness, Love, and Totality of
God. Unless one is unreservedly willing to surrender one's very life
and die for God, then spiritual purification should be the goal of
one's endeavor instead of enlightenment."

Joyce  ~ 

Staying Alive

The Personal Identity Game

Objective: The aim of the game is to stay alive!

How to play: There are three rounds. In each round, you will be presented with a scenario and then offered two choices. The decisions that you make determine whether you stay alive or perish. You should always base your decisions on nothing more than the desire to keep yourself in existence. Also, note that you should take each scenario presented to you at face value. The situation will be as described - there are no "tricks" - and you do not need to worry about other 'what ifs'.

At the end of the game you will discover if you have stayed alive or not, although, being a philosophical game, the answer won't be that straightforward...

http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/identity.htm

Quixote ~ smartgroups2  

The Amusement of the Gods 
 
Something wonderful has happened to me. I was caught up into the seventh heaven. For those who might be confused....its right past the sixth, just before the eighth....that's the place..........
 
Anyhow......There sat the gods in assembly.By special grace I was granted the privilege of making a wish."Wilt thou," said Mercury, "Have youth or beauty or power or a long life or the most beautiful maiden or any of the other glories we have in the chest? Choose, but only one thing." Momentarily I was at a loss.( imagine that ) Then I addressed myself to the gods as follows: " Most honorable contemporaries, I choose this one thing, that I may always have laughter on my side." Not one of the gods said a word; on the contrary, they all began to laugh. From that I concluded that my wish was granted, and found that the gods knew how to express themselves with taste; for it would hardly have been suitable for them to have answered gravely: " Thy wish is granted." 
 
Can't remember who authored that, I'm sure someone might know.....it really makes no difference other than to give credit, where credit is due.....I suppose
 
I've realized lately that when you're mad, you don't have to apologize........Oh that's just Quixote, pay no attention, he's crazy.......Ha Ha.....How crazy am I ? .....oops never mind, do not answer that......Let me just say that, " All you who profess to be of the normal, are allowed to cast a stone upon me." Please understand that you will be doing me a favor.........as I enjoy being stoned.....there are worse things in Life......not that I need to make excuses..........so I won't.....I've even heard that is against the law.....who's law? Not mine.......Yes, I do live in this world, but I am not of it........  Q.
 
Is it " Nothing ventured, nothing gained" or " Better safe than sorry?"  

Desmond Chiong ~ BuddhistWellnessGroup

1. Prepare to give yourself 90 seconds of perfect stillness
2. Relax. Loosen up. (No one is watching!)
3. Clear your thoughts. Still your mind. 

http://www.modernbuddhism.com/3/index.html

Tykal ~ AdyashantiSatsang  &  Alan Larus ~ HarshaSatsangh

Untitled   Photo by Alan Larus

None & All   :-) None & All   all that, this   dreaming what it's like to be itself with no and every self to speak of and being the self it dreams of   li ke dreaming and being, two words for the same wordless thing   ~ no (blank) to be save the (blank) one is   - Tykal

Jinavamsa ~ insightpractice

We Want Not To See. We want not to see what we take to be painful or ugly. So we don't look. From not looking comes not seeing. From not seeing comes not knowing. From not knowing comes lack of confidence. From lack of confidence come vulnerability, brittleness, fragility. From vulnerability and such comes fear. From fear comes defensiveness. From defensiveness comes hostility. From hostility comes lack of understanding of others. From lack of understanding comes lack of compassion. From lack of compassion comes superficiality of relationship. From superficiality of relationship comes frustration in the sphere of love. From love frustration comes pain. Not wanting to see pain or ugliness, we close ourselves in, creating some of the very pain we will later have to experience or avoid experiencing. When we see that this is the price we pay for not looking, we are more willing to look even at what we take at first glance to be painful.

      http://www.geocities.com/jinavamsa/books/TheFarShore/WeWantNotToSee.html        http://www.geocities.com/jinavamsa/books/TheInnerPalace/TIP_reviews.html

Joyce  ~  HarshaSatsangh

Poetry as News: Can Poetry Really Change the World?  

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

  "What is Poetry?"
...
"Poetry is news from the frontiers of consciousness.
Poetry is what we would cry out upon awaking in a dark wood in the middle of the journey of our life.
A poem is a mirror walking down a street full of visual delight.
Poetry is the shook foil of the imagination. It should shine out and half blind you.
Poetry is the sun streaming down in the meshes of morning.
Poetry is white nights and mouths of desire.
Poetry is made by dissolving halos in the ocean of sound.
Poetry is the street talk of angels and devils.
Poetry is the anarchy of the senses making sense.
Poetry is the voice of the fourth person singular.
Poetry is all things born with wings that sing.
A poem should arise to ecstasy, somewhere between speech and song.
Poetry is a voice of dissent against the waste of words and the mad plethora of print.
Poetry is what exists between the lines.
Poetry is made with the syllables of dreams.
Poetry is far, far cries upon a beach at nightfall.
Poetry is a lighthouse moving its megaphone over the sea."
... 

Two Lights - Boston Harbor

Art by joyce know_mystery

Entire essay at: www.corpse.org/issue_4/critical_urgencies/ferling.htm

Peter Kloppert ~ Sangha

commentary on grandpa's compassion

 Buddha walking on a grain of sand wich is by narrow minds divided
in a amer ica and a in dia and many etc etera's

Who and what you are in this mystic ?

There is much here that I have read that resonates with who and what
I am not.

To be a Buddha what we are, not a nationality

I'am  

Tim Gerchmez ~ AdvaitaToZen 

Zen site... 
 

Found this rather lighthearted, meandering and interesting set of
webpages after doing a Google search on "stink of enlightenment" ...

http://www.geocities.com/the_wanderling/

Didn't get into it in-depth, but plenty of cute musings and looks
like a lot to do (especially if you enjoy casual reading about Zen
and Buddhism).

Here's another way in (seems like there are a million "doors" in and
out):

http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/modern-era.html

Cheers,

Tim

Helga ~ AdvaitaToZen

Dr. David R. Hawkins

You asked:
~~ "Hey, anyone heard of this guy?" ~~

*** I have.

You posted some excerpts from David's latest book "I" .... which I've just
purchased. I'm still reading his work "Power vs Force".

And I'm hanging around this Map for now :-) .....

http://www.transformationinst.com/sniadach/MAPofCONSCIOUSNESS.htm

There are several Yahoo!-groups discussing Hawkins ......

Smiles from Down Under,
Helga

Panhala ~ Joe Riley  

The Gift of Tongues  

Everything I steal, I give away.
Once, in pines almost as tall as these,
same crescent moon sliding gently by,
I sat curled on my knees, smoking with a friend,
sipping tea, swapping Coyote tales and lies. 

He said something to me
about words, that each is a name,
and that every name is God's. I who have
no god sat in the vast emptiness silent
as I could be. A way that can be named 

is not the way. Each word reflects
the Spirit which can't be named. Each word
a gift, its value in exact proportion
to the spirit in which it is given.
Thus spoken, these words I give 

by way of Lao Tzu's old Chinese, stolen
by a humble thief twenty-five centuries later.
The Word is only evidence of the real:
in the Hopi tongue, there is no whale;
and, in American English, no Fourth World.   

~ Sam Hamill ~      

Lobster  ~ CreativeSolutionsForPeace  & Buddhist_Healing   &  Richard Burnett

METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION    198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION (apologies if you have already received this or find it duplicitous) Below is the Table of Contents of Gene Sharp's book The Methods of Nonviolent Action, Boston 1973. The book is available from War Resisters League, 339 Layfayette St. NY NY 10004 (212) 228-0450 for $13.25, including postage THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION FORMAL STATEMENTS 1. Public speeches 2. Letters of opposition or support 3. Declarations by organizations and institutions 4. Signed public declarations 5. Declarations of indictment and intention 6. Group or mass petitions COMMUNICATIONS WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE 7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols 8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications 9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books 10. Newspapers and journals 11. Records, radio, and television 12. Skywriting and earth writing (Read the rest here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeSolutionsForPeace/message/1508 ) Healing Buddha: http://tooting.webspace.fish.co.uk/medicine/

Ayutthaya, Thailand Photo by Richard Burnett

Toby Wilson ~ AdvaitaToZen  

Impossibility of Transformation
  "You are not supposed to be something higher, you are invited to
adore something higher. The lower is then not left behind, it is
infused, awakened and transformed."    

~ John de Ruiter ~  

Ginger ~ OmniConscious

My father presented a copy of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu many, many years
ago...not sure who did the translation. I too was deeply touched by the
Tao....and then there is The Tao of Pooh...one of my all time favorites.  

"While Eeyore frets ...
... and Piglet hesitates
... and Rabbit calculates
... and Owl pontificates
...Pooh just is."  

When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in
the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and
mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.

      "You may be sure that a question which requires music for an answer, can't be put into words."
 ~ David Lindsay ~    "Voyage to Arcturus"

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