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Nondual Highlights Issue #1826 Saturday, June 12, 2004 Editor: Mark
'Without You, God, I couldn't do anything. I am only Your humble
instrument and I offer my service to humanity.' That is what is
called sacrificing the result of your actions. Only that
sacrifice is real service. All other things are business. You do
something; you get something in return.
Instead of that, life should be motivated this way: 'I am here to
serve.' Or, in other words, 'I am made to serve--I am only a
tool.' Then your heart is always peaceful. There is nothing to
disturb your peace. As one of the saints said, 'I have eternal
peace and bliss. I have no suffering at all. Because all
suffering is created by 'me' wanting to get the reward. Once I
give that up, I have no suffering at all. I am always in bliss.'
God bless you. Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi.
- Swami Satchidananda, posted on meditationsocietyofamerica by
Bob Rose
http://www.swamisatchidananda.org/
The Return
The morning breeze blows through
The meadow grass, moving cleanly
Through an empty mind.
These towering crags of rock stand
With their feet in my heart,
While their lingering patches of
Summer snow glisten in front of,
And behind my eyes.
What need have we for more security?
For we too nestle in those same Arms.
So if we live or die, we face either
Unconcerned - Like the glistening
Snows beneath the summer sun.
And, even though there is nowhere to escape
Together, we will melt serenely
Into the warm, dry winds.
- G. Bluestone
More here: http://hjem.get2net.dk/civet-cat/poetry-stories.htm
These words defeat and victory are so tied up with how we stay
imprisoned. The real confusion is caused by not knowing that we
have limitless wealth, and the confusion deepens each time we buy
into this win/lose logic: if you touch me, that is defeat, and if
I manage to armor myself and not be touched, that's victory.
Realizing our inner wealth would end our bewilderment and
confusion. But the only way to do that is to let things fall
apart. And that's the very thing that we dread the most--the
ultimate defeat. Yet letting things fall apart would actually let
fresh air into this old, stale basement of a heart that we've
got.
- Pema Chodron
Everything we are trying so hard to keep in order, to prevent
from happening, to protect from being what it is or who they are
- what would happen if we just let them go? If the chips just
fell where they may? Can you imagine the amount of energy we are
using trying to keep it all bound up so it doesn't leak? Let
go.... take your finger out of the dike.... let the flood
begin... we won't drown... we won't even have to swim.. we will
just float peacefully on the river of now..
- Dharma Grandmother comment and Pema Chodron quote from the
book, Start Where You Are,
published by Shambhala, both posted to DailyDharma
20.
Ram Tzu knows this...
You are caught
In a web of beliefs.
You spin them from
Your own abdomen
They are made from
The substance of your self.
You believe in
Your own power.
You consider yourself
The Source.
Even though
When under duress
You pay lip service
To an all powerful God.
You believe in
The supremacy of technique.
You are convinced that if
You can but manage...
Your mind
Your money
Your breath
Your energy
Your body
Your faith
Your relationships
Your prayers
You will unlock the door
To peace, happiness and contentment.
Guess again.
More Ram Tzu here: http://advaita.org/aframtzu.htm
When I was about 18 I made the astonishing discovery that all the
major steps of personal growth I had realized were about learning
that something I had thought was important really wasn't at all,
in fact it was getting in my way. Now I'm 58 and that trend
continues.
It seems there is a lot of important unlearning that must happen
to open up the true spontaneous potentiality of being, and it
seems that such unlearning has to do with eroding away anything
to do with doership.
We don't have to learn how to act. But most of us have to learn a
lot about how to get out of our own way.
- Bill Rishel on NDS
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant
intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average
adult.
- Sigmund Freud, contributed by Viorica Weissman to MillionPaths
K'ang and the boy had spent much of the day gardening, and
decided to rest. Taking a basket of fruit that had ripened, they
walked back to K'ang's dwelling. On the way, the boy played with
K'ang's staff, dancing in circles, stabbing, thrusting, and
twirling it at invisible enemies.
"K'ang," asked the boy, "Where did your staff come
from?"
K'ang looked wistful. And replied. "It was given to me by my
Master, many, many years ago."
The boy, awed with respect, moved to hand it back. K'ang made
gassho and said to the boy, "It, like all things is made to
be used."
By then, they had returned to K'ang's living place, and K'ang
with a sigh, lowered himself to the ground. "Make tea,
boy" he said, and the boy stirred the tiny fire, and began
to prepare it, "K'ang, when will I be like you?"
The old man reached into the basket and chose a melon they had
just harvested.
"When your head is like this melon! Content to be a
melon!" And he smiled and said, "And silent..."
- K'ang 7 as told by Jerry M. Pickard
More here: http://hjem.get2net.dk/civet-cat/poetry-stories/kang-stories/intro.htm
There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make
their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish
(as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who
understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and
play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which
is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realising its
unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with
pure being.
- Wei Wu Wei from Fingers Pointing Towards
The Moon