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Tomas Diaz de Villegas wrote:

I'm very interested in getting your impressions on the teachings of the
mystic priest on the site below. For some reason, at this moment, I'm
drawn to understand why it triggers such strong reactions in me
(fearfull feeling of missing something crucial)- I realize that I have a
background of experiences that may make hearing the truth in what is
being said difficult. Maybe it's not necessary for me to understand at
all..yet I feel such a pull to.


Eric responds:

Thomas, what bait you bring to me, the Catholic shark. I hope you take any truth i might offer here,
in the same spirit. I meditated a bit on Padre Pio, a Franciscan Priest,
and got to
the bit about his particular way of confession. Most notably his Open
Heart.

For me, absolute allowance of my heart; trusting in a sense the "universal
heart",
is my only "eyes" in the state of Beingness. I personally can relate
to the task of 'judging others'. This, I find to be nearly universally
unacceptable.
Strangers, Probably all of us here at NDS, my wife. But none of that
changes *my*
perception. Padre Pio used his Heart. My advice, as I did, is move through
the fear you are experiencing. Well, that's vulnerability, returned :-).

About Padre Pio, and giving confession:To this task he brought an advantage
that few confessors have, the ability to read hearts.
Padre Pio's charism enabled him to know when someone was
being deceitful in confession or simply had forgotten a
serious sin, perhaps
through lack of an adequate examination of conscience. In
such cases he was able
to tel the penitent exactly what they did and when, as
well as any relevant
circumstances. This drew many hundreds a day to him,
moved by the grace of
sincere repentance and the knowledge that Padre Pio could
guide them with the
wisdom of God in the spiritual life.

He also drew those who did not believe in his gifts or
who intended to test the
Padre. These were invariably unmasked, often in harsh
ways. In the end they
often repented, made a sincere confession and renewed
their lives, despite their
initial intentions
______________________________________________

Glo:
>Taking nonduality as a license to do harm to another is the grossest
misunderstanding of it there is.

Dan:
Taking nonduality as anything seems to me to be a misunderstanding.

Action brings reaction. This turns
the wheel of karma. Who is not upon this wheel?
To react quickly, not to react, to judge, not to judge... the wheel turns
ceaselessly, does it not?

To prevent wrong and promote good, to regulate the community, to
maintain order... this is the age-old project of civilization.
Each ordered social group determines it rules and
roles, as it decides who needs to be defended and how. To protect the
innocent, to make safety for the vulnerable, to understand how to do this
while fostering compassion... this is the challenge for the community.

Judge not lest yet be judged by the same measure by which ye judge. So
regulate the community, but from a quiet place of nonjudgment.

Awareness includes and trancends emotion and intellect. Neither emotion
nor intellect work appropriately when attempting to drive awareness.
When judgment is heaped upon judgment, the simple truth of the moment
may become obscured by drama, intensity, assertions. We each observe
and our observations reflect one to oneself.

The Tao is like water, going where persons disdain to go.
Truth is like the sands of the Ganges, rich and poor walk upon it equally.
Awareness is like space, empty, open, and spacious.

-- Dan

____________________________________________________


>> Melody:
<snip>
>>In other words, it wants a payoff, or is
attached to the outcome....either of which
ensures a 'dualistic' response to the results

>> ... meaning someone will win/lose, be pleased/displeased, will
like/hate, etc.

>>....which suggests the action was
likely originating from my sense of 'morality' or 'philosophy' or 'duty' or
such.

>> Nothing wrong with that, I'd say. But it shouldn't be confused with
compassion.


Dan:

Melody, I feel that your statements here and others you made very much
resonate with my own perspective. You've elucidated something I consider
important to look at in sorting out all of the various responses in this
recent tumultous time on this list. When one person initiates responses of
the love/hate, win/lose, attack/defense variety, these
responses tend to elicit reactions of a similar order. It's easy for us to
get into "how do I protect myself in this situation" and lost sight of the
"big picture". To me, the "big picture" has no edges, is the kind of
compassionate awareness of which you speak. This awareness has no
divisions and so doesn't aim at specific goals to protect or hurt specific
personalities. That, it seems to me, is precisely why "totality awareness"
is simultaneously so powerful and so elusive for us. It seems so easy for
us to be caught in the drama of who is "in" and who is "out", who will win
and who will lose, and as soon as we're involved in this, we have
"motivation", "desire," and "anxiety" in a situation.

Awareness/compassion
includes and transcends emotion and intellect. Neither emotion
nor intellect work appropriately when attempting to "drive"
provide motivation and goals for) awareness. They work appropriately
when "surrendered into" awareness.
When judgment is heaped upon judgment, the simple truth of the moment
tends to become obscured by drama, intensity, assertions. We then may
each observe and our observations reflect one to oneself.

The Tao is like water, going where persons disdain to go.
Truth is like the sands of the Ganges, rich and poor walk upon it equally.
Awareness is like space, empty, open, boundless.

--- with love -- Dan

__________________________________________________________

from Harsha:

This is from a prior post. Again wanted to
share.......................................Harsha


The Reality of Awareness appears to manifest through the mind/body, and at
the same time it seems that mind/body, ego, indeed all related perceptions,
only exist within the Reality of Awareness. It is the experience of the Sage
that Reality exists along with and independent of the condition of the
mind/body as well. The mind itself can be seen as a condition that appears
to emanate from the Source of Knowing and disappears into that. Therefore,
Reality embraces all conditions and is limited neither by duality nor
Nonduality or any particular theology, philosophy, radical point of view,
etc. Once an ice cube melts into water, it is hard to know which portion of
the water was the ice cube. Similarly, once the mind is absorbed in the
Heart, One Is the Heart. Yet, how can one ever have been out of the Heart as
there is nothing but That. The disappearance of this mystery might be called
Self-Realization.


Reality is not dependent on anything as It is truly One without a second.
There is nothing other than That, and That You are, say the wise Sages.
Therefore, One is Ever the Heart, The Center. Still, to even say that is
limiting, as the existence of a Center implies a periphery, an outer orbit.
This is the mental/intellectual perspective, the play of concepts and
language, and cannot be helped as duality, although less abstract
conceptually, is as real or unreal as Nonduality. No matter how subtle the
level of intellect, it is the domain of concepts and concepts are tools of
Maya. But what is Maya? Can it be anything different than the Self. I see
and "feel" the simplicity of the Self, through both misery and joy and other
conditions and therefore point to that. I hold that the self, although it
appears limited, is indeed the Self, if understood it to be so in all its
reality, clearly and without doubt or confusion. As the Sage of Arunachala
has pointed out there cannot be two selves. A small one and a big one. What
is seen as the conditioned is always the pure and uncontaminated
unconditioned. What could contaminate it? Perhaps the nature of "Seeing"
has to be understood clearly. This simplicity is what I am. To say that
something more is required, other than this simplicity of awareness, this
simple "seeing" might mean that something more is required for the one who
feels something more is required. For others, the simplicity itself, the
simplicity of I AM is enough. This "I AM" feeling/awareness can potentially
be felt under all conditions. This is the "seeing" without the use of eyes.
Where it leads, is said to be independent of conditioning as concepts that
differentiate are seen to be just that (concepts that differentiate). Mind,
memory, etc., exist within Reality, as manifestations of Reality, and appear
to depend on That for movement and cannot be separated from it. Reality can
not be absent at any time. Therefore it is Here and Now. So the wise
aspirant must inquire, "What is "It" that is truly here and now? What is the
meaning of this?

Harsha

____________________________________________________

Jerry:

I've been thinking about this list. It is not founded in a
religion or teaching. It really isn't. Harsha's stunning
list is very free, yet receives its grounding from Jainism
and nondual Hinduism. The beautifully run Advaitin list is
founded in Advaita. Alan Kuntz's intense
ContemplativEclectic list is very open and grounded in
Christianity and Fourth Way teachings, if I read it
correctly. M's solid Ananda list is grounded in Nityananda.

The Salon is really not grounded as the others are. That's
tremendously refreshing to some. I can't imagine this list
grounded in anything like that.

I think we need to realize that not being so grounded can be
destabilizing for some people. Tim, for example, behaves
admirably on the Advaitin list, even as we speak. He's Tim
at his best.

I think that as this list community matures from only a list
with a few people talking about nonduality, to a greater
force in the spiritual domain of people's lives, we need to
understand the potentially destabilizing effect it may have
on people's emotional and mental apparatus and thus take
greater responsibility for everything we say and do.

In other words, we all need to grow up a little. Yet, we
don't have to be polished either. Nobody has to change who
they are or their attitude, but I feel there's a need to be
more aware of the influence exerted and that it is exerted
in an atmosphere that is grounded in no teaching.

There is the possibility of the Nonduality Salon becoming
better known throughout the nondual world and we may have to
slick back our hair and somehow hide the spaghetti stains
some of us can't get out of our shirts.

We can be more sensitive and still give em hell. In fact,
the more sensitive we are, the more hell we can give them.

Trying,
Jerry

_______________________________________________________

___________________________________________

from Xan:

Grace will use anything in illusion
to get us back to Heart.
Unlimited radical intervention.
Whatever it takes.

Sweet and bitter
Burning and comfort
Soft and forceful
Silly and profound

Love has no ideas about it

-
The only quote I ever remembered from Osho:

"Compassion is doing whatever it takes to bring awareness to a situation."

________________________

Melody:

Sometimes God is as gentle
as a summer's rain

Sometimes God roars
with the fury of a hurricane.

Sometimes God is so quiet
you could listen for miles,
and not even Him whisper.

God has more faces
than any of us can imagine.

Just when we 'think' we know
what tomorrow will bring,

God speaks to us,
in all of his Wonder.

___________________________________________________

Tim Harris:

Indeed, the need for non-harm is necessary in order to
open up new paths of greater discovery thus is the
mystery and we should want it no other way. It is the
way. However, consider for a moment the warrior
spirit.

The warrior spirit is that which climbs the walls and
mountains, forges the raging streams, runs through the
fires as it scotches his skin, shuffles under the
barbed wire that tears at his flesh, manoeuvers the
minefields... all of which were built and set by you
to keep the evilness of life away.

He falls from the sky and lands in the mud, knows the
sweat as it burns his eyes, tears rich in salt stream
down his face, and still he faces 'your' greatest
fears, demons, and nightmares while breathing the air
of death and despair that burns deeply in his lungs.

He opens your cage and reaches for you and you scream
and fight and say 'I do not need to be saved! I do not
need anyone! I am all alone and no one can know how
frightened I am! Leave me alone I am so afraid!',
lifting you onto his shoulders he takes your kicks and
screams as you scratch at his face and eyes and he
works his way back through the obstacle course of
'your own' design and he doesn't say a word.

Then, in the next moment, he places you ever so gently
down in the cool grass and you lungs begin to fill
with fresh air and your bones begin to feel a warmth
and your whole 'being' begins to glow again. You open
your eyes to thank this warrior but alas... you can
not... for he has gone back in for another.

Does it matter? Afterall, he can't possibly save them
all?

In your heart... words speak out and you hear them
say: 'It mattered to 'you' my little starfish.'

You turn quickly to see who said these words and you
find that you are lying in a beautiful field and there
is Harsha... as he promised.. waiting silently to take
you the rest of the way home.


Andrew responds:

Great vision...and also;
The warrior spirit first calls and listens for an answer.
The warrior spirit comes to rescue the one who is answering.
The caged one must be calling out for rescue, even though afraid.
The caged one must first see that the fortress s'he has built is a cage.

__________________________________________________

also from Tim Harris:

If no one shook your cage from time to time... how would you know you were
in one? Sometimes, those that are shaking our cages are merely fiddling
with the lock.

_______________________

from Xan:

Judgement is one of the primary functions of ego-mind that holds the illusion
of duality in place.

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