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Nondual Highlights Issue #1861 Saturday, July 17, 2004 Editor: Mark
July
Days
(a short dozen)
i.
hundreds of darning needles
monkey faces shadowed blue
from translucent wings
explode into the afternoon
a crazed horde of
grinning July lust
ii.
the frog sleeps
in the pot of thyme
scent dreaming
he stares
with reproach
as I water
iii.
he pays for
his single beer
with a credit card
payday still
two days away
iv.
wildness
is that joy
inside
that escapes &
threatens the world
v.
a flock
of migrating sparrows
rampage like monkeys
thru the puddles
in the 7-11
parking lot
vi.
birds keep their feathers
in top flight form
my torn jeans
& tee with holes
announce
I'm land bound
vii.
dark blue clouds
cover the sky
like a blanket
birds hunker down
asleep in the blue morning
viii.
books infest the house
promising wonder
they collect dust
piles topple over
thuds in the night
ix.
a huge Cuban frog
leaps to
the kitchen window
& hangs
by velcroed feet
imagining
the wonders inside
x.
my mind burps
these lines as
I do other things
a pencil now lives
behind my ear
xi.
frogs throw out
long tongues
to catch flies
I imagine
your cereal spoon
a silvered tongue
slurping
xii.
we all live really
like wooly caterpillars
within the confines
of a few leaves
on the tree
© Zen Oleary July 15-16, 2004, submitted to SufiMystic
Every thought, no matter how noble, takes one from purity and
peace. Emptiness alone, or Fana, is a counterpoise very necessary
in purification. And this ends finally in realization or
self-fulfillment, which in Sufic terms is called Baka...
In times of world turmoil or even of disturbances in one's family
or social milieu, the best practice is to maintain calmness and
peace of mind, and in Sufism this is done through the practice of
the divine presence (Akhlak Allah)...
This is what is meant that the holy man is in the world but not
of it. He partakes of all activities but does not add to samsara.
He does not add his thoughts to subjects which are disturbing.
Instead, he tries to develop and manifest an atmosphere of
calmness and peace, a living calmness, a vibrant peace...
Murshid Ahmet Samuel Lewis
Takua Taharat: Everyday Life
- Submitted by Farishtah to SufiMystic
I thought that this dialog on Reality between Nome of SAT
(www.satramana.org) and me might be of interest. This is a
transcript from a recent satsang.
-------------------------
N. is Nome, Q. is questioner
Q: Recently, at satsang you gave me instructions of looking at
the substratum. I have been doing this in the way of inquiring as
to what is always so, what is always free, and what is
unchanging? This I have the most intimate knowledge of. It also
turns out this inquiry is very potent, because it turns out what
is always so is what is always so wherever I am.
Listening to your talk this morning gives me still another tool
to use. I am looking to see if there is the sense of separation,
individualization, or what is that. It is clear, when you started
talking about it this morning, that it is just the faintest wisp
of an idea. It seems that there is a sense of time and place for
that. I have a different way of looking at it now. So I feel that
I have new tools to be able to take that inquiry deeper.
N: All right. How are you going to approach this "I"?
What are you going to do by way of practice at this point?
Q: I see two different ways of looking at the same thing. One is
to continue to look at what is real, what is always so. What is
always so is here now. The stuff that is not it is not what I
want to be looking at. I just want to look as directly to what is
so as I am able and discard everything that is not so. This is
one part. The other part is the ongoing inquiry of, given what is
so, "Who Am I?"
N: So, the inquiry to find out what is real and the inquiry to
find out "Who am I?", identity and reality are really
the same thing.
Q: Yes, there were two angles of vision.
N: It appears as two angle of vision to the mind.
Q.: Yes, yes.
N.: But the mind loses itself in either of these angles of
vision. We are dealing with one and the same substance. Called
"identity," or "reality", it is yourself.
When you look at your experience and you determine that there is
the substrate which is present all of the time and there are
other things that are not substrate that come and go, first you
should see it as the substrate. Then, you should see that it
alone is real.
If the rope has been mistaken to be the snake, first we see the
rope as the substrate of the snake; the snake is lying on the
rope in the exact same pattern. (Laugh) Then, we want to see that
the rope alone is there, and there has been no snake. It was
merely a misperception. The Existence that you are is the
substrate. It never changes. It is always so. Everything else
comes and goes. What is always so alone is you and alone is real.
What is not always so is but an illusion or a misperception of
reality. What is not always so in your own experience cannot
possibly be you, because, when it is not so, you are still there
to know that it is not so. Whatever it is that is always so in
you is so entirely formless. Being always so means that it is
ever existent. It is always real.
It is the substrate upon which all unreality seems to come and
go. If it is unreal, does it come and go? Reason takes us this
far in the practice of inquiry, the introspection to know your
Self. The real Self is the substrate upon which the "I"
rises. With the rise of "I," anything else can raise;
with its subsidence, everything else subsides. The "I"
is rising and falling on some substrate. So the "I" is
the temporary, and the substrate, the real Existence, is the
permanent, or abiding, Reality. Can you be two?
Q.: Not two.
N.: So, then, if you inquire, the secondary "I" is not
only seen to be not the continuing reality, but you see that it
is not real at all. Go on making that inquiry into that very
thing which is the substrate, in a non-objective manner, into
yourself, until the very sense of a second "I," a
differentiated thing, is gone. The more you examine it, the less
there is to see of it.
- From AdyashantiSatsang
On a Shivaratri day, after dinner, Bhagavan was reclining on the
sofa surrounded by many devotees. A Sadhu suggested that, since
this was a most auspicious night, the meaning of the verse in
praise of Dakshinamurti should be made clear. Bhagavan gave his
approval and all were eagerly waiting for him to say something.
He simply sat, gazing at us. We were gradually absorbed in ever
deepening silence, which was not disturbed by the clock striking
the hour, every hour, until 4 a.m. None moved or talked. Time and
space ceased to exist. Bhagavan’s grace kept us at peace and
silence for seven hours. In this silence, Bhagavan taught us the
Ultimate, like Dakshinamurti. At the stroke of four Bhagavan
asked us whether we had understood the meaning of the silent
teaching. Like waves on the infinite ocean of bliss, we fell at
Bhagavan’s feet.
T. K. Sundaresa Iyer
Ramana Smrti Souvenir
- from the SAT website: http://www.satramana.org/html/maharshi_stories.htm
"One of the devotees of the temple was well known for his
zealousness and effort. Day and night he would sit in meditation,
not stopping to eat or sleep. As time passed, he grew thinner and
more exhausted. The master of the temple told him to slow down,
to take better care of himself. But the devotee refused to heed
his advice.
'Why are you rushing so, what is your hurry?' asked the master.
'I am after enlightenment, there is no time to waste.'
'And how do you know that enlightenment is running on before you,
so that you have to rush after it? Perhaps it is behind you - and
all you have to do to encounter it, is to stand still.'"
- From the book, "Soul Food," edited by Kornfield and
Feldman, published by Harper Collins, posted to DailyDharma
What happens in your Heart when you simply hold the question, Who
am I or what am I? Even if your Heart is open, you can still
wonder who or what is experiencing the openness. The ultimate
truth will never be captured in an experience, it’s simply
too big to fit in even the most expanded experience. This
provides a clue to the question Who are you? The reason an
expanded sense of your self never quite contains the whole truth
of your Being is that you are everything that exists. Perhaps you
can rest now from the dream of experiencing the ultimate truth.
The truth is not dependent in any way on your experience of it.
It is and always has been functioning just fine through what you
call your experience of a self, without ever being contained in
that experience. The sense of your self (whether expanded or
contracted) is a functioning expression of a much larger Being
that can never be fully captured in experience.
Perhaps the experience of truth doesn’t need to be captured.
Truth is something we can also unfold gradually bit by bit like a
meal or novel that we slowly savor rather than rush through. We
are and always have been realizing the truth even when we
experience only a small part of it. The richness of Being is also
revealed in the small truths that make up our lives.
Being is never harmed by the limited perspectives we experience.
Being is not dependent on any particular way of sensing your self
nor even on the absence of a sense of self. Being is already
resting within the endless opening and closing of your Heart, so
you might as well enjoy the ride.
the truth catches up with me
I am not enough
never have been
never will be
what relief to admit this finite container
can never contain infinity
what joy to find infinity
needs no container
- Nirmala from his new book The Heart’s
Wisdom, Endless Satsang Press
