Click here to go to the next issue.

There is eternal slipping into the
Interval. Nondualists
must be ice skaters. I turn on this
list and I see the air
spinning with triple Salchow's. Nothing
holds. We skate the
ice and slip into the Interval and
skate the ice and slip
some more. It's a sport.

Wait, I gotta tie my skates...

Love,
jerry
________________________________________________________________________

Sanscrit Teacher Wanted

Friends of mine at a yoga center downtown in New York City are mounting
a teacher's training course. I am helping out, and we are looking for a
knowledgeable person to teach the Sanskrit alphabet, sounds, esoteric
correspondences, basic verses, chants, mantras, etc. The schedule will
start in January, and the teacher would be needed for an hour or two
each week or two, for a period of 6 months. Any suggestions? Knowledge
of Vedanta or Patanjali-yoga-sutras very helpful, but not necessary.
Compensation offered, but I'm not sure of the terms yet.

Reply to Greg at <goode@dpw.com>, or call 212-734-6289.

Thanks!!

--Greg


________________________________________________________________________

There is no me, separated into a me and a larger me.
There is only this moment, in which all and everyone occurs.
I used to believe that there was a me, locked inside this moment,
looking
for a larger me.
I found neither the me, nor larger me.
I didn't even find the one that was looking.
What was found, was only this moment.

Within this moment
I can find no distinction
between what could be me
and what could be larger me.

To find such a distinction,
I have to go by definition,
in order to define the difference,
between me and larger me.

What I used to define as me,
and what I used to define as larger me,
are simply definitions, thoughts.
Arisen,
within this moment.

Love,
Mira
________________________________________________________________________

I caught a glimpse of a discussion about staying in a room for a week
and not doing anything; there was a remark to the effect that this would
be unusual. My practice background is in Tibetan Buddhism ala Chogyam
Trungpa and there solitary retreat is very common. In fact in Buddhism
generally everything is very formal and structured and there is lots of
oversight. I've been reading advaita for the last few years and my
general impression is that everyone just makes it up as they go along.
So I was wondering what people in this group actually do or what they
did to achieve a foundational breakthrough, an orientation so they're
not just wandering around in a fog. Ever since I found this list I
pretty much think about "nonduality" all the time. I've stopped reading
books and find myself gazing off into space quite a lot. The only
formal thing I do is sit quietly for about an hour after work. I live
alone, have an easy job and few responsibilities, but I'm sure some of
you have a challenging family, professional, and social life and any
advice you could give on how you manage all that would be welcome.
Thanks for everything, Larry.
________________________________________________________________________


Kristie: I have never seen the body as real since, i.e. as the defining
limitation to experience....makes one wonder about things like
telekinesis and the "joined" consciousnessess of twins separated,
physically, by long distances. It also explains why medicine dances in
tribal cultures work.....what you believe you make true.....if you
believe a woman dancing with bear claws will heal you.....it will!
~~~~~~~~~
Hi, Kristie.. I sure am enjoying reading your various posts... this one
made me remember my own experience, what emerged for me, however, was a
somewhat different 'conclusion'. I also gave birth at home.. and in
spite of a strong 'belief' that I'd participate in 'spiritual
midwifery'.. my body seemed to have it's own agenda. Later.. I read
theories proposing that we give birth in the fashion and from the
cellular memory format of our own birth. My own birth was traumatic
ending in Cesarian and almost causing my mom's life. When I gave birth
it was traumatic.. right up until the midwife surgically broke the sac..
then, for the alleged 'hard part', there was no 'pain' memory and it was
smooth sailing and surrender into a dimension of power. This experience
(all of pregnancy, nursing etc) radically altered my body-mind
perception. It also humbled me in meeting my animal nature.

I don't quite understand why you "real" as 'the defining limitation? And
it's ok if you don't feel like expanding that one.

thanks,
Christiana
________________________________________________________________________


Speaking for myself alone, I was saying that attention goes
to all kinds of places very easily and naturally, mostly
food, sex, money, personal power, self-image; and that God
is one of those places and that it's good to make an effort
to place extra attention on God.

Marcia clearly pointed out that there is a difference
between the mechanical association with subjects related to
people and to pondering or thinking deeply about God. Yes.

When a statement is made, "Think only of God," each person
has to interpret it for themselves. I see God as power and
that it is good to think about that power, or to ponder it;
one can make mechanical associations with it too, I imagine.
Deep thoughts about God should be as easy and handy as a
cigarette. They shouldn't require a special time, place,
setting or frame of mind, as far as I know. They certainly
belong on the coffee table with the chips and the m&m's.

The I AM is what is; it is suchness. God is movement, power,
creation, destruction, the force of Grace; it is the Word
and the Word is I AM, and it is delivered in manifest ways.
To think of or ponder that power is to think of God.

Suchness IS and can't be pondered; God can be pondered from
the disposition of suchness. The two meet, God and suchness
meet when God's movement is recognized as the teaching: I
AM. That is the one occurrence. That is the word of God. The
One Knowledge is to Stand Free, free of God and suchness. So
one understands I AM, one Stands Free, one ponders or thinks
about God, which is the power to deliver the word and which
is not separate from the word I AM and which is not separate
from the suchness of I AM.

Jerry
________________________________________________________________________

Glo Lovely B'day


The Sun Rises, radiant gold and red
bursting through the night sky
spectacularlly spilling God's supreme
Love and Light across the sky

Dark like black iced sentinels the Trees stand
Timing timelessness in eternity
Frozen crystalline holographic icicles spill
crystallized rainbows of color across frozen blades of grass

And Gloria's beautiful insight dances
like an Angel lightly across the pages
Her "ice on fire" is beautifully writ
and humbly i offer you a golden year
full of Joy, Love, Light and Grace

Christiana, I know you less well, but
a year of a chalice which like the container
contains only supreme beatitude :-)

Jan K, welcome to NDS, maybe you'll
be so kind as to play a gig for the Saloonists :-)

En als mijn Hollandse est leuke, het moot werk hebbe ;-)
("If my Dutch is cute, it needs work," Jan B, your dry wit
can save itself for another moment *g*)

Love and Light,
Annette
________________________________________________________________________

poems from her head


hi
a little chunk of history
or
what the thunder really said:

incantations: wise the rhyme
that blows from
tree to tree it's just

soul talk: me breathing
about breathing going about
living. . .not denying

sharing in the secrets of the wet dark
forest hum and beat and buzzzzzz

and rhyme (oh, to make it mine)
a token to remember
nature by. . ..but it's not me

it was never me that
sang-- go ask the pines--go! then
ask the river down the line

go ask the soul that gentle holds
the clouds and lets them go,
bloom, careen, and float on by. . .

as i surrender for a song remember
what i know so long
wise the rhyme that blows from tree
to tree. get off knees and dance!

it's just an incantation
just the trees talking wise
the rhyme
the wise from tree to tree.

love,
gen
________________________________________________________________________


I will be posting the Forty Verses On Reality by Sri Ramana periodically
(from the Mountain Path Journal). Given below is the Introduction,
Invocation and the first three verses.

Harsha


Advaita, non-duality, Identity, is the supreme doctrine. Jnana marga,
the path of knowledge, is the approach to it: Self-enquiry, 'Who am I?',
is the technique Bhagavan taught for this path. There is no more
profound and comprehensive statement of it than his 'Forty Verses on
Reality' which are here given.

Invocatory

i. If Reality did not exist, could there be any knowledge of existence?
Free from all thoughts, Reality abides in the Heart, the Source of all
thoughts. It is, therefore, called the Heart. How then is one to
contemplate it? To be as it is in the Heart, is Its contemplation.
ii. Those who know intense fear of death seek refuge only at the feet of
the Lord Who has neither death nor birth. Dead to themselves and their
possessions, can the thought of death occur to them again? Deathless are
they.

Verses

1. From our perception of the world there follows acceptance of a unique
First Principle possessing various powers. Pictures of name and form,
the person who sees, the screen on which he sees, and the light by which
he sees: he himself is all of these.


2. All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the world, the soul,
and God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests Itself as these
three. One can say, 'The three are really three' only so long as the ego
lasts. Therefore, to inhere in one's own Being, where the 'I', or ego,
is dead, is the perfect State.


3. 'The world is real.' 'No, it, is a mere illusory appearance.' 'The
world is conscious.' 'No.' 'The world is happiness.' 'No.' What use is
it to argue thus? That State is agreeable to all, wherein, having given
up the objective outlook, one knows one's Self and loses all notions
either of unity or duality, of oneself and the ego.
________________________________________________________________________

The words of Ramana Maharshi and stories about the Sage are imbued with
Divine Magic, at least for me. His words are Pure Grace. It is the dance
of
simple clarity that leads to the Heart. I am reminded of the words of
Jnaneshwar that I posted a while back from Jerry's website.


(please note that I have rearranged the verses to suit my taste - my
apologies to the purists). --The book from which these excerpts are
taken,
is entitled "Jnaneshvar:
The Life and Works of the Celebrated Thirteenth Century Indian
Mystic-Poet," by S. Abhyayananda.
Harsha

I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,
The limitless primal parents of the universe.
He becomes as vast as the sky,
Including the entire universe within himself.
Within him
Even darkness and non-existence dwell.

The moon spreads her soft light,
Pervading the entire sky.
It is She Herself
Who enhances Her own form.
If night and day were to approach the Sun,
Both would disappear.
In the same way, their duality would vanish
If their essential Unity were seen.
It can be seen, therefore,
That he who perceives that there is nothing
Does not himself become nothing.
The Self has this same unique kind of existence,
Beyond both existence and non-existence.

The ultimate Reality
Is neither an object to Itself
Nor is It an object to anyone else.
Should it then be regarded as non-existent?

In a tank the water may be so clear
That it appears non-existent;
Though one who looks into the tank may not see it,
Still it is there.

Similarly,
The ultimate Reality exists in Itself,
And is beyond the conceptions
Of existence or non-existence.
--The book from which these excerpts are taken, is entitled "Jnaneshvar:
The Life and Works of the Celebrated Thirteenth Century Indian
Mystic-Poet," by S. Abhyayananda.

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