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Fortunate are those who hear of the pure teaching of the Self. Even more
fortunate are those who understand it. They remain unperturbed by the
force of imagination and recognize the stillness that is ever present in
all conditions of the body and the mind.

---Harsha

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I just returned from a satsang given by a teacher named Nirmala. He's
in Phoenix for two nights of satsang and a weekend intensive. He is a
pupil of Neelam who is a disciple of Poonjaji.

There were only five people present, which made for a more personal
session. The most interesting questions came from a 10-year old girl who
happened to be the daughter of the lady whose house we were meeting in.
She was remarkably knowledgable about spirituality in general and seemed
fairly familiar with other teachers. But she was honest in expressing
her confusion about knowing vs. not-knowing and how to overcome that.
Nirmala, to his credit, treated her with respect and did not just hand
out easy answers to humor her. He said that the confusion must be
accepted sometimes. Underlying it is the peace, or the vastness, which
is never affected by what is going on in the mind.

Nirmala made clear that the mind can never grasp the infinite fully. It
can present one side of the truth, but then another side is always going
to come up to counter it. So knowing is countered by not-knowing. We can
go deeper & deeper, and there is no end to this. If we stop in one
place, we are likely to personalize and falsify our understanding. Thus,
acceptance or surrender can be personalized into apathy. The realization
that nothing ultimately matters can be personalized into a sort of
mental paralysis. He said that the important attitude to take is to
always undermine one's certainties, to go deeper.

Also, Suzanne Segal came up in discussion tonight at Nirmala's satsang.
He mentioned her as an example of the uniqueness of the individual's
experience of "awakening" or enlightenment. He said that just as no two
snowflakes are alike, so every individual has a unique way of "waking
up" at the right place and time. Thus there can not really be any
universal techniques or strategies. One should be careful of taking
another person as a model for oneself.

---Petros
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Is it not a denial to assume that Fullness of Self-Recognition is not
possible Here and Now. That is the denial that is more fundamental. Do
not underestimate the power of this denial. It is so deeply ingrained,
it is taken to be a normal condition of existence. It keeps you bound
with imagined leashes.

---Harsha

______________________________________________________________________

I will use each
of your notes to me...to facilitate the
process....looking for body clues...and
then allowing the body to tell it's story.
(Bypassing the mind)....as a means to finding
the resolution of these traumas and memories
that continue to plague me. My sense is
to simply open, expand upon and follow the
images and feelings where ever they take me.

It's all that I know how to do. I'm certainly
open to learn of other modalities, if this
one doesn't 'get me there'.

I'm so greatful to these forums, and for
your presence in my life.

in gratitude,

Melody

_______________________________________________________________________

...on the same shelf holding
L. Ron Hubbard and Edgar
Cayce one may find ACIM and
Krishnamurti. Separating
chaff from wheat is a matter
of walking a narrow way:
always open-minded (receptive)
and never empty-headed
(gullible). Terminal dis-
ease is simply the final agent
of the intrinsic impermanence
of the physical body. Finding
some kind of awe or virtue in a
dead body that resists
decomposition simply underlines
our persistent attachment to
incarnation and personality.

That which was eternal in Sri
Nisargadatta, Krishnamurti, Sri
Ramana, and the Ch'an masters
lives on in and as us, it
comprises the only significant
longevity and the very essence
of health.

---Bruce Morgen

________________________________________________________________________


If it was a choice between living out my existence in an unrealized
state, or receiving total realization such as Ramana Maharshi but having
to accept terminal cancer along with it, I'd rather have the total
realization even with the cancer.

---Petros

_____________________________________________________________________
We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
--- Anais Nin

Jim wrote:
May i most respectfully ask, what woud you consider the difference
between seeing things as they are and seeing things as we are?

Bruce answered:
The latter seems a more
energetic, palapable
description that reminds
us that "we are the world,"
that there is no actual
separation. That said,
there is no "difference."

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