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#1535 - Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - Editor: Jerry
This issue includes excerpts from a few books recently acquired. These are freshly typed and not available elsewhere on the internet. --Jerry
Unfolding
Alexandra Jouaiet
He had never befoe spent much time alone.
The beach with its long expanses of sand, waves spreading out before curling back into themselves, gulls calling, their cries lost echoing back into open winds, this was a wide landscape, washed by waves of wind blowing across his mind's eye. In this world, moving and vibrant, with the movement of a heart's beating or the movement of breath surging, his awareness turned to the voices he found in his mind. He was surprised at the crowded tangle of words he found intruding on these natural spaces, words with cadences and expressions of people long past. There were long ago voices of authority still repeating admonitions, voices of criticism spawned by lack of love or understanding. There were voices of dreams and voices of fears. As he listened, he saw these tapes went round and round without reason, without end, influencing his perception of himself and the world around him.
Walking in new found spaciousness, the voices seemed all the more out of place, reminders of other times and places perhaps, but lacking any present purpose save familiarity. He began to review the values these voices represented, goals he had taken on as a child, as a young man, noticing whether these goals and values belonged to his heart and soul or someone else's. He began to notice where he truly found pleasure, what led to his own sense of fulfillment and well being. He noticed habits and ways where he slipped into auto-pilot, habits which led him down corridors of deadened spirit, passageways of continuation seemingly without windows or intersections that simply went on and on, demanding endurance, stretching life and spirit thin. This seemingly awake, living sleep-world could capture days, weeks, and months of his life before he came up for a moment's true waking breath, even then often only to duck back in and continue treading the same worn pathways.
Now as he began to open up to the inner landscapes of his being, he began noticing what he at, how he dressed, what he did and why. He began questioning assumptions and conclusions he had inherited, tendencies developed under pressures of childhood, strategies to find love, to get attention, to make a place for himself.
What was innately him, his being, his essence?
What was his purpose? What was unique about him? What fascinated him? What made sense to him? Where had he placed his attention in the past and where did he want to place it now?
Read more about this book at http://www.piaccipress.com/
The Texture of Being
Roy Whenary
When one begins to see from a non-dualistic perspective, one's vision suddenly becomes more expansive. This doesn't mean that one adopts an 'anything goes' attitude. It means that one sees the bigger picture, the bigger story behind what appears to be happening in any given situation. Nothing is taken personally. Nothing is greedily sought. In a way, one just stands back from emotional involvement in situations - which also means that one is actually freer to go deeper into things, because emotional involvement actually narrows one's perspective on a given situation.
Emotional involvement is born out of ego, not out of the clear light of one's true nature. To someone who is still involved with the ego, this kind of talk may be seen as a cop-out, emotional escapism, walking away from responsibility and suchlike, but this is not the case. Escapism and walking away from responsibility are also ego activities. When we step back from getting emotionally involved we are opening up the possibility of seeing the situation with greater clarity, which means that a more informed individual can deal more honestly and effectively with the situation that would otherwise be the case.
Read more and order book at http://www.lotusharmony.com/index.htm
Svatmanirupanam: The true definition of one's own self by Adi Sanakara Translated by Dr. H. Ramamoorthy and Nome
from the Introduction:
Being is. Being alone is. The Self is the Absolute, and That is the only Reality. Such is eternally the Truth. Such is the final conclusion of Advaita Vedanta.
This Svatmanirupanam (Definition of One's Own Self), authored by the great sage of Advaita Vedanta, Adi Sankara, is a concise text of this enlightening teaching. As the title declares, it is the teaching regarding the true definition of the Self. The Self is itself Brahman, the vast, formless Absolute, and any contrariwise conception of it is merely delusion. So, this teaching is an exposition of what is truly the Self. As there are not actually two selves, for the true Self is the ever-existent and a false self is never-existent, and since one being the object of another is impossible, this teaching is of the nature of one's own Self. The teaching is the revelation of the Self for the purpose of Self-Realization for those who earnestly inquire to know within themselves the answer to the question, "Who am I?"
The following are a few verses. The original Sanskrit, its romanized version, and a word-for-word breakdown have not been included.
1
I bow to the revered guru's pair of feet,
Which destroy the unbearable pair of opposites,
The dust of which is the ash allaying
The (malefic) planet of erroneous perception.
2
To the excellent guru, the compassionate (one),
I bow,
Who destroys all doubts,
Whose feet instruct one in the nondual experience,
The meaning of the word "That."
3
Scorched by the forest fire of samsara,
Possessed of all practices,
The disciple is enlightened by the Guru
In perfect, accurate words, as to the definition of one's own
(the true) Self.
4
"Oneself exists" -- in this fact
For whom does a doubt exist?
Even in this, if there be doubt,
He who has the doubt, indeed, you are.
5
When one knows that "I am not,"
Truly, Brahman, indeed, it is that knows he is not;
Knowing that "I am,"
Brahman, indeed, it is that knows himself thus.
Read more about this book: http://www.satramana.org/html/svatmanirupanam.htm