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MELODY

(from: the Tao Te Ching - #67)
...
simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
________________________________________________________________________

SKYE

for me becoming aware of the entirety reveals
simplicity. I am acutely aware of a greater context in which
i have my being, in which no division between simplicity and
complexity is setup. I have no intention of remaining
unaware of the entirety of any issue purely for the sake of
another individual's concept of or request for simplicity...
________________________________________________________________________

TIM G.+ JERRY

T:
> I used to think I was here to give... until I found that there are
>maybe 2 or 3 people willing to receive. Now I don't know why I'm here. >Just
entertainment, I s'pose.

J:
Receive what? If you know you have something to give, you
give it without counting the house or even necessarily
knowing for sure what you are giving. You don't hold back
and you don't stop giving if you think you are being ignored
or are being attacked. However, I can see changing lists and
doing the giving elsewhere.

T:
>Advaitin is a more pleasant list, and there are people much more >willing to
listen when someone says something, and everyone there seems >to know about
"The interminable net of vain argumentation." This list >is some sort of joke.

J:
When a list community clearly defines itself, it limits
itself, and some control can be exercised. There's a lot of
value in that. This list is more of the nature of a
free-for-all, neither a solid nor a liquid. It's a gas!
________________________________________________________________________

JUDAS THOMAS

What the world needs is a list dedicated to the development of Ego. A
list founded upon the principal of strength, where might makes right.
Where rules are written in blood and life is not but struggle and pain.

What sort of people might such a list attract?

Dr. Leary used to say that the sickest individual in a group determines
the reality of the group. Usually, at least on the gentle sort of
e-mail lists I prey upon, that individual who most infringes on the
reality tunnels of others is myself. On this list however I am totally
out gunned. Not that I mind. It is refreshing and educational. The
main difference I've noticed between the non-dualist in general and
myself is that while we both have messages to impart, the only message a
non-dualist can transmit is that, in fact, there is no message.

Now imagine a group of people who all accept this basic tenet and yet
still see fit to attempt to share this simple, though inexpressible,
Truth with one another.

In information theory one can rate the amount of information transmitted
by its degree of unpredictability. So for instance, if I saw a ball
game and the next day I was to read about it in the paper, the story
would likely have no new informational content for me. It should
conform to my expectation, but if it failed to do so, if for example, it
told of an event that happened after the game, perhaps a fight involving
two players, then the informational content would be measurably higher.
Unless of course such a fight were to usually occur, hence being
predictable.

So in the environment of this list, where the true informational content
is necessarily minimal, it is only natural for the noise to drown out
the signal.

ANDREW

One person's noise is another person's signal. The list is not just
information in the sense that television or newspaper is. The list is
information in the sense that you are or I am. The list is much like a
mind, it exists and/or not in the same way, only it's smarter and better
informed than any of the people who write to it. It's also as fragile as
us, susceptible to disease, and senescence and death. There is
interaction among individuals on the list, and there is also interaction
with the list itself. Email is the message, email is the medium. This is
the infant global mind.
________________________________________________________________________

GENE

Amusement is pleasant; I enjoy it.

In line with our new subject, (deslyxia/dyslexia ed.)I wish to offer a
few ideas that relate, just for fun:

* One of my favorite concepts in the 'fields of nonduality and
Buddhism' is that of _inversion_. Inversion is spoken of in the context
of a kind of turning inside-out, which occurs at crucial phases in the
process of inevitable maturation.

To understand 'inversion' in this context is very difficult. I found my
best references to it to be in the 'Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra' as
translated by Charles Luk (I am fond of his easy to read texts). It is
also discussed in 'Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the
Five Wisdom Dakinis' by Thinley Norbu.

To grasp what inversion is, imagine the human body; skin on the outside,
bones in the center. Now, to invert that stucture, would mean to have
the bones on the outside, and the soft tissues on the inside; this
describes the 'exoskeleton' of an insect.

To posit that humans have 'evolved' up through the most basic to the
most complex, includes the phases of insectoid evolution; to see that
humans go through 'larval' and then 'postlarval' phases, points to the
unity of the physiologic and psychologic aspects of existence.

Inversion for a human, then, represents a phasic, cyclic progress of
'transfiguration'. If this has even a shred of validity to it, it could
go a long way toward shedding light upon the poorly understood
'objective' phenomenon of the movement of an individual from 'dualistic'
(larval) to 'nondual' (postlarval) awareness.

In regard to the above, it has 'always' been my perception that 'what is
really going on' with spiritual maturation, is actually an inevitable
process, whose codecs are 'built-into' the energetic and perhaps genetic
templates of the exisiting body. The possible implications of this
include the possibility that interaction of 'Guru' with 'student',
unleashes a latent pattern of unfoldment of maturity, via a 'virtual
photonic transmission'; this is rather than, a 'teaching' or 'learning'
experience, which is often assumed to the the triggering factor. If this
is so, more is implied; first, that personal contact or proximity of
Guru to student is required, for eye-contact to take place. It is
through the eyes that 'virtual photonic transmission' may occur.

Second, that the syndrome of failure to 'get it' merely by reading
spiritual books, does not represent actual failure; that 'getting it' is
less a process of learning, than the awakening of consciousness to the
dawn of a new inner sun, triggered into luminescence by the kindling
effect of the Guru's special photonic transmission.

* This brings to mind a wonderful experience that I had years ago,
while living on the Big Isle of Hawaii. On the wall, I had taped a
poster of Swami Satchitananda. I had noticed that his eyes seemed to
follow me as I moved around the room. Time passed, and this became a
constant and somewhat unsettling experience. Finally, as I was leaving
my 'meditation tent' one day, I looked up into the clear bright blue
sky; there, instead of the sun, was the beaming, smiling face of Neem
Karoli Baba (Guru of Ram Dass). This was to say the least, a huge and
shocking suprise. I actually fell over on my back in sheer spasmodic
reflex reaction. This face, emanating powerful rays of some kind, seemed
to be mouthing words to me, trying to talk to me. I shook inside; I was
overwhelmed.

Later that day, after about 30 minutes of meditation, my companion
remarked that I seemed to have lost weight. I weighed myself and
discovered that I had indeed lost about eleven pounds in about 30
minutes. I also was surrounded by a very dense emanation of what smelled
like ozone.

This event and several others, marks in my memory the beginning of a
very intense period, during which I experienced 'inversion', seemingly
leaving my dead body behind. This was a very dramatic and painful event,
which also included 'giving birth to myself' with the assistance of
'God's Chiropractor' (yes, just like in 'Jacob's Ladder', the movie, of
which I am very fond). In this process of birthing myself, the 'labor'
was long and painful. It seemed that I actually died in childbirth, but
I also survived as the me that I am now. Wild, eh?

* 'Dyslexia' is thought to be understood; yet, I have read of no
theories which describe or posit a 'psychological' genesis of this
common 'disorder'. My observation is that what is really going on, is
actually an incompleted _inversion_ of consciousness. Individuals who
'have' dyslexia may simply be stuck in-between phases of inversion. I
would like to test this 'theory' by exposing a group of known dyslexics
to a powerful Guru. His virtual photonic transmission may just allow the
inversion process to proceed. I have seen something like this happen; a
person, seeing a Guru, will fall to the ground, screaming and writhing
in pain. The Guru just sits there smiling, and waves away would-be
helpers. The resultant effects include dissolution of the personality,
hilarity, profound silence, and eventual peacefull sleep. I think that
somehow, all of this ties together.

* Is it possible that the ancient Inca were correct, in their practice
of looking into the sun, to recieve special information and
empowerments? Is it possible that our 'spiritual evolution' may be
governed or triggered by actual photonic emissions? Is it possible that
in the inevitable unity of 'ALL', that we are subjected to periodic
showers of 'enlightenment', on a planetary scale? Does astrology talk
about this in some context?

Just exposing you to some of my thoughts. I really have no attachment to
any of these concepts. They are 'just for fun'.
________________________________________________________________________

JERRY

Paying deep attention to everything is different than the
athlete or dancer who pays that degree of attention to one
thing. The one who wants to move into full meditation has to
pay deep attention to everything. Literally everything. If
something is ignored, real and full meditation can't happen.
Problems can occur because one will be forced to face what
might have been un-faceable. When every nook and cranny of
one's life is entered into deeply, then full meditation can
happen.

A classic example of this is found in Da Free John's
autobiography, The Knee of Listening, in which he tells of
spending years writing down every thing his attention
touched. He composed thousands and thousands of hand-written
pages. His wife worked and supported him during these years.
He didn't work. He wrote down every impression, feeling,
thought, emotion. Nothing escaped his record.

One day his wife came home to find him kneeling nude by the
fireplace, feeding the fire with his writings. It took him
hours to burn the thousands of sheets. She was devastated
and felt her years of working to support his work was also
being fed to the fire, wasted.

But it was necessary him to, first, attend deeply to every
instant, and, second, to let it give way to full meditation,
to the instant itself.

For those who intuit the I AM, that can be attended to as
well. And at random times one may inquire, Is this I AM? Or
the inquiry Who am I? may be used, of course. Or any other
good inquiry. The important thing is to attend deeply. That
will change the quality of consciousness.

A person will start to be meditated, which means they are
feeling the touch of Grace; a person will understand that
the eye with which one sees God is the eye with which God
sees one; in other words, paying deep attention to any
thing, one finds they are being attended to as well, the one
neutralizes the other and the nondual moment is known; one
will find that once they've looked into the eye of Truth or
the eyes of the Master, they can never look away; many
realizations like that will come. These are rungs on a
ladder and none is the final step, which is beyond the
ladder.
________________________________________________________________________

MELODY+JERRY

J:
>Paying deep attention to everything is different than the
>athlete or dancer who pays that degree of attention to one
>thing.

M:
Is it?

It seems to me that there is only 'the moment'.

How may things can happen in 'one moment'?

What I am suggesting is that divided attention
puts me to sleep, and singularity of focus on the
matter at hand wakes me back up.

For me.... to be running, and at the same time
worrying about 'did I turn the coffee pot off',
and how am I doing in relation to other people,
and what will the weather be tomorrow....is to miss
the moment....the I AM.....the Stillpoint.

(And athletes and dancers and artists and musicians,
even computer programmers *know* the Stillpoint...
even when they can't 'name it'.)

On the other hand, if worry is what *is* for me -
right this moment.. giving that worry my full attention
I am once again...automatically....in the Moment.

There is no avoiding what comes up Jerry. But
rather looking at NOW completely. I'm suggesting
that we can't look at 2 things at one time, and to
be present to *both* with full attention.

At least I can't. :-) Maybe it's a matter
of practice?


>The one who wants to move into full meditation has to
>pay deep attention to everything. Literally everything. If
>something is ignored, real and full meditation can't happen.

>Problems can occur because one will be forced to face what
>might have been un-faceable. When every nook and cranny of
>one's life is entered into deeply, then full meditation can
>happen.


Yes, moment to moment. And *eventually* everything
is faced.


>A classic example of this is found in Da Free John's
>autobiography, The Knee of Listening, in which he tells of
>spending years writing down every thing his attention
>touched.

This was a great story, Jerry.

It reminds me of another story I heard the other
day, but try as I may I can not find it. I cannot
do justice in the retelling but will try to convey
the essence. (If anyone know knows it, or it's source,
I'd appreciate receiving it, because I had thought
I had saved it)....

Ram Dass was lecturing to a large group of people,
describing his awesome experiences while in the
Pyramids of Egypt. (?) All thru his talk this little
old lady sitting in the front row continued to
nod her head affirmatively at all that he said.

After a while he became a little annoyed at this
woman nodding her head, as if *she* could possibly
know what it took him so many years of seeking and
meditating to know. How could such a simple woman
know about such ? Perturbed enough, he simply
stopped his talk and asked her how was it that she
had come to know the Stillpoint.

To which she replied, "oh that was easy! I crochet!"
________________________________________________________________________


CHRISTIANA+ANDREW

A:
>Seeing the meta self (the list) as a self allows me to see myself
>as..."

C:
This may be one of the biggest perceptual shifts.. releasing bondage of
identity from the narrowness of single self (cell) to one of cell in a
larger Body Being.

A:
>Where is the list self? who is it? Is the whole being not just the sum
>of the parts. Am I software running in a brain, the list running in >many
brains?

C:
The gift is that we are ever so gradually knowing ourSelf, as many
brain cells, each offering that what it receives to offer, as a member
part of the whole. Discernment lies in assessing from *which* facet of
the software the 'offering' comes from. Opportunities abound to self
correct, to wake up, to integrate shadow.

A:
>does the list meditate?

C:
Perhaps, each time we enter the Matrix consciously.

A:
>the list seems to have moods, to be affected by the seasons. Are
>southern hemisphere listmembers out of phase with the rest spring going
>on summer for Skye or Ivan."

C:
The list knows itself through an outfolding of it's members, who are in
turn impacted by geo-bio rhythms, hence each cell - recognizing through
the moods and seasons- that it is not alone.

A:
>What became of Ivan? The list has a history does the list have a
>memory?

C:
How could there not be memory.. an aggregate of each cell's perceptual
data bank.. each holding the potential personalized distortion as
vailance, in tandem with the clear camera-shot of this moment and then
this one.

I can only speak from this cell's observation from almost a year's
participation with this list.. I have again and again ventured out
(posted) and then observed.. intent, motive, guidance, hidden agenda,
ego, clarity et al. Six months ago, I entered the public-private
coliseum with Tim. He came at me hard.. challenged a whole lot. I
listened deeply, reflected, tried to keep my heart open. I eventually
withdrew for a while to reflect, face, integrate and rest. There is
irony in that as I return to the list this week, this turbulence has
either resurfaced or never stopped. I can not speak to the pebble's
role, but .. in my shoe, it engendered value. How can I not be grateful
for this lesson.

What I also witness, however, is that I do not return standing upon the
same patch of land which nurtered me last Spring. The many other cells
in this list body-Being have had an irrevocable grace giving impact on
the vibratory frequency I abide within. The being which danced
(sometimes frantically) in the past-present identify cocoon, has found a
gentler rhythm to relax within. With the binding less constricted,
suddenly, there is far less to attune with stressfully.

What also is apparent.. and so often remains hidden by the vailance, is
the exquisite presence of this generative field of fresh unstressed
substance, sustaining and awaiting the breath of Life.

Perhaps, our deepest imperative as individuals and as member-cells in
this body.. is to attend this breathing into form with deepest
reverence.
________________________________________________________________________

MELODY:

I appreciate seeing all the names that flash
accross the screen as aspects of my self.

And I appreciate noticing how this list self...
this macro self... struggles with it's shadow parts
just as the micro self does.

We each take turns on this list reflecting those
rejected aspects of this list self.....as we stretch
toward freedom....taking turns being the one that is whispered about,
"What
are we going to *do* with that guy?", or "I would *never* do what she
did".

So many sayings from the Gospel of Thomas ring
thru my ear today in this context:

5) Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight,
and that which is hidden from you will become plain
to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not
become manifest."

7) Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion which becomes
man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man
whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man."

25) Jesus said, "Love your brother like your soul,
guard him like the pupil of your eye."

26) Jesus said, "You see the mote in your brothers
eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye.
When you cast the beam out of your own eye, then you
will see clearly to cast the mote from your brother's
eye."

and finally, my favorite

22) Jesus saw the infants being suckled. He
said to His disciples, "These infants being
suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom."
They said to Him, "Shall we then, as children,
enter the Kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When
you make the two one, and when you make the
inside like the outside and the outside like the
inside, and the above like the below, and when
you make the male and the female one and the
same, so that the male not be male nor the female
female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of
an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot
in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a
likeness; then you will enter [the Kingdom]."
________________________________________________________________________
MELODY+GENE

G:
>Our 'original nature' is that we are, like a wind-up toy, >'pre-wound-up';
this is how we 'come from the manufacturer'. Our >hungers are installed and in
place, _as our original condition_. Living >in the original condition, is the
'Edenic state'.

M:
You know, Gene. I was about to disagree with
you here until I asked myself the question,
"What did Adam and Eve have to hunger for.....what
did they lack....before being cast out of the Garden?"

And then it occurred to me. They hungered for
experience! They hungered for something 'new'...
for 'discovery'....for 'challenge'.

So many thoughts are coming at one time, bear
with me.....

So, now I'm seeing 'hunger' or 'longing' as not only
part of evolution, but involution as well!

And I'm now considering how this 'longing' for
experience in the Garden is *heightened* by the
presence of the serpent (big grin) .....leading to involution and
'alienation'.

And that once materiality is shown no longer to satisfy,
the serpent of K heightens that longing again....
leading to evolution, and 'oneness'.

It is, indeed the serpent eating it's tail, as
Jan says! The circle of life....one half the circle
is involution, the other half is the evolutionary
cycle.

And it causes me to wonder. Is there a time when
hunger and longing no longer is? The answer, staying
with this model of the serpent, seems to be "Yes,
once the serpent has completely consumed his self".
________________________________________________________________________

DAN

...realization involves no outside source or measurement device.
Perhaps this is the crux of such debates as have occurred between
Advaitists and Buddhists about concepts such as "emptiness." There's no
ultimate outside authority to judge who is "correct" and yet there are
differences as to how to express the nature of truth. My way to deal
with this is to assume such debates won't result in any "final version"
of truth, and yet they might help hone awareness of participants to see
directly with utmost clarity...
________________________________________________________________________

JERRY


The Pathway of Nonduality

by Raphael

Chapter 10 (concluded)

The Fall of the Soul

(Thank you for your comments Skye and Dan; I am also
enjoying this chapter.)

Q. If the pure atman-spirit can never fall into duality, who
has divided then?

A. All the traditional Branches agree in maintaining that
the scission concerns the Soul, or jivatman or psyche which
is a reflection of the pure Spirit. Just as the individual
in a dream, who experiences duality, is a projection of the
mind, so too the Soul is a simple projection of the atman.

Q. How does the scission occur?

A. This 'projection' or reflection of the atman attracts
towards itself 'matter' from the various planes of existence
and makes vehicles or bodies of manifestation from it; then
it identifies with these bodies forgetting its true origin.
The myth of Narcissus explains this phenomenon and this
process very well. We can understand all this only through
images and analogies.

Q. Is the individual, a shadow of atman, obliged to
indentify with its other 'shadow'?

A. He is not obliged, but he is free to do so.

Q. Can you give me an example by way of illustation?

A. In our mind we can conjure up an ideal, a passion, etc.,
and identify with it to such an extent as to forget that we
are individuals above and beyond passions and ideas. We can
dream while wide awake (and wakefulness is also a dream) and
identify with our dreams to such a degree that we lose our
identity. This happens to the majority of people; in fact,
they are not persons but teachers, politicians, tradesmen,
fathers, mothers, children, etc.; they are everything and
anything but entities aware of their true and profound
reality.

When we become one with what we are not or with 'things' --
and even our bodies, an ideal and an emotion are things --
the scission has take place. When we have become 'thing'
ourselves, we have lost our identity and our freedom. We may
even say that by identifying with an object we have
'fallen', that we are no longer ourselves apart from being
number-quality. "Oblivion is therefore his wickedness."
(Corpus Hermeticum: X, 15)

Q. Can the individual then avoid creating this scission?

A. We have said that he may or may not do so, this depends
upon his freedom to be, which is inherent in his nature.

However, we should remember that Being is by nature an
indivisible unity that cannot split or become two. Thus it
is obvious that the scission (word which undoubtedly in
inadequate to express the concept we wish to propose) is not
in an absolute sense a loss of balance in the unity, but the
nature of Being is such that it can manifest an unlimited
number of expressions. The fall or the scission must not be
considered as becoming other than Being, but as representing
a mode of being. A piece of ice is an expression and a mode
of water, but one cannot say that an absolute scission or an
irreversible fall has occurred in water. Human experience is
a 'mode of being', a state of consciousness of Being.

Q. Therefore the fall is not an act of divine will.

A. No. Man is divided because he wants to. He is passionate
because he so desires. He is born upon this plane of
existence because he so desires, man is even an individual
because he desires.

Q. Therefore the Tradition is simply pointing to the
solution of this scission.

A. Yes. The Tradition is the depositary of this fundamental
truth. it teaches the restless, conflicting individual how
he can find the way back to unity. Traditional symbology
refers to this process of scission and its consequent
recomposition; this is the symbology of Isis and Osiris in
ancient Egypt and of Orphism in Greece. In other words, it
is the symbology of the Sacred Mysteries of the West as well
as that of the Veda-Upanishads.

The death and rebirth of the initiations are nothing more
than a profound symbol. It is necessary to die to what one
is not in order to be reborn to what one really is.

While the philosophy of becoming perpetuates the state of
scission and conflict, the Philosophy of being resolves it
by bringing the being back to Being.

"What is it, then which has made souls forget their father,
God, and be ignorant of themselves and Him, even though they
are parts which come from His higher world and altogether
belong to it? The beginning of evil for them was audacity
and coming to birth and the first otherness and the wishing
to belong to themselves. Since they were clearly delighted
with their own independence, and made great use of
self-movement, running the opposite course and getting as
far away as possible, they were ignorant even that they
themselves came from that world, just as children who are
immediately torn from their parents and brought up far away
do not know who they themselves or their parents are. Since
they do not any more see their father or themselves, they
despise themselves through ignorance of their birth and
honour other things, admiring everything rather than
themselves and, astonished and delighted at and dependent on
these earthly things, they broke themselves loose as far as
they could in contempt of that from which they turned away.
So their honour for these things here and their contempt for
themselves are the causes of their utter ignorance of God.
For what pursues and admires something else admits at the
same time its own inferiority; but making itself inferior to
things which come into being and perish and considering
itself the most contemptible and the most liable to death of
all the things which it admires it could not possibly have
any idea of the nature and power of God." (Plotinus,
Enneads: V, 1, i)

Here lies the essence of all truly human evil, which
consists in breaking away from the basis of one's being, in
the refusal of one's true origin and in atheistic
alienation. Plotinus' teaching is, essentially, a therapy
for returning to oneself, an exhortation to engage in
interior reflection so as to open up a selfish closeness
(the will 'to belong to oneself') and put a stop to the
waste caused by unruly passions ('running the opposite
course').

Selfishness is no more than a failing of the original power
of love and liberality which is the essence of every
spiritual being. It is a fault 'due to lack of vigor', a
degradation and corruption of the deepest human energy no
longer able to elevate itself, within the most intimate
recess of the mind where the sense of the Sacred abides.
Thus passions, instead of being mere 'alterations' of the
body, become 'agitations' of the soul, deviating it, as in a
dream, from its true life. They all rise from a debasement
of Eros, from its becoming 'earthly' and renouncing That
true love of man for his own 'dignitas', for the beauty of
his own soul.

The way of liberation, according to Plotinus, lies in the
'purification' of our 'inner sight' so that the soul may
recognize itself in all its original decorum.
------------------------------------

The next Chapter is on transmigration, reincarnation,
rebirth.

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