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Nondual Highlights Issue #2011 Wednesday, December 22, 2004 Editor: Mark
Can
we read this poem too often? Written in a time of terrible war by
our own Buddhist angel declaring Peace on Earth, Good Will to
All.
"Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:
Even as they strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence; even as they step on you
and
crush you like a worm, even as they dismember and disembowel you,
remember, brother, remember: man is not your enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion -- invincible,
limitless,
unconditional. Hatred will never let you face the beast in man.
One day, when you face this beast alone, with your courage
intact, your
eyes kind, untroubled (even as no one sees them), out of your
smile will
bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousands worlds of
birth and dying.
Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon
will continue to shine."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, From the book, Peace Is
Every Step, published by Random House.
Blessings to all. May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
- posted to DailyDharma
The following questions were asked by an aristocratic-looking
American lady. Bhagavan’s answers are a succinct summary of
his practical teachings.
Question: What is the truth that I have to attain? Please explain
it and show it to me.
Bhagavan: What we have to attain and what is desired by everyone
is endless happiness. Although we seek to attain it in various
ways, it is not something to be sought or attained as a new
experience. Our real nature is the ‘I’ feeling that is
always experienced by everyone. It is within us and nowhere else.
Although we are always experiencing it, our minds are wandering,
always seeking it, thinking in ignorance that it is something
apart from us. This is like a person saying with his own tongue
that he has no tongue.
Question: If this is so, why did so many sadhanas [spiritual
practices] come to be created?
Bhagavan: The sadhanas came to be formed only to get rid of the
thought that it [the Self] is something to be newly attained. The
root of the illusion is the thought that ignores the Self and
which thinks instead, ‘I am this body’. After this
thought rises it expands in a moment into several thousand
thoughts and conceals the Self. The reality of the Self will only
shine if all these thoughts are removed. Afterwards, what remains
is only Brahmananda [the bliss of Brahman].
from Living By the Words of Bhagavan, edited by David Godman
- posted to MillionPaths
All there is is This...
The only answer to every question that arises
The ultimate love song
The eternal holliest prayer
All there is is This
lots of love,
enjoy the season everybody...
- posted to NonDualNetwork
Welcome! Welcome to the fair! I can see, you’re already
sitting on the merry-go-round! It’s great how you are
driving! You have a sleek car, with an accelerator and a brake.
But most of all, you have a steering wheel, which you can spin
around, and that’s just what you are doing; though
strangely, as much as you steer it, or put your foot down on the
throttle, or jam on the brakes, the car keeps travelling in the
same direction.
This is how your ‘I’ (the so-called ‘ego’)
works. It steers to the left, it steers to the right, and is
never fully content with the result. It thinks, "I’ll
take a look at the others. How are they driving? How is that guy
doing over there? That one is definitely shifting his weight more
in the curve. I think I’ll try that too." But nothing
changes. The car keeps on going round and round.
Every now and then the merry-go-round stops. Short break. The
Tibetans call this ‘bardo’. Then you look for another
vehicle. "Let’s try the horse. I’ll ride for a
while. Maybe that’s my destiny!" Very smart on your
part! Or perhaps to be truly wise, you take the small scooter
because all this driving has tired you out and left you full of
humility.
During all this steering your ego ripens tremendously. And if by
chance you were aiming in the same direction as the
merry-go-round, then you can triumph: "Wow, I did that
really well! Now, I think I’ve got it!" Now you’ve
discovered how all this works. "I have complete control.
Look here!" You are in harmony with the cosmos, in harmony
with creation. An ego which is so coherent, steers in the same
direction as the merry-go-round is moving. "Look, how I can
steer! The entire merry-go-round moves because I am steering this
way! Here, look at me!"
If you have mastered the art in this incomparable way, then you
can even tell others how they should drive. "This is the way
you have to do it, like me!"
Now you are a fully-awakened driver. "Follow him!"
exclaim a few others enthusiastically. The best thing would be if
you just take over the entire bus: "Get on board here,
everyone, and sit behind me! I am one with the
merry-go-round!" Then you are a guru.
If you want to be active more quietly, you can of course take on
other important jobs such as driving the fire engine, or the
ambulance. Or you may just follow the ambulance, to be on the
safe side!
In all this it is important, that you keep the overview. That you
press the gas pedal at the right moment and break at the right
moment, and most of all that you steer with great skill. That
helps others. In this way you not only keep your vehicle
perfectly on the path, but you also contribute to the successful
ride of the entire merry-go-round! If only everyone would drive
like this! You have everything under control.
Until one day, you accidentally let go of the steering wheel.
Ooops! Now you are surprised. It also works on its own! This
thing drives by itself! Exactly, the Self is driving. You don’t
have to strain yourself. You can lean back and enjoy your Self.
It always drives directly to happiness.
- The Merry-go-round, an
excerpt from a book by Karl Renz, to be published in 2005 by
Inner Directions, link posted to satsangdiarygroup
Watching The Wheels
John Lennon
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
Ah, people asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost
my mind
I tell them there's no hurry
I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
- lyric by John Lennon
Horses
It was from a window I first saw the horses.
It was winter in Berlin: a light
with no light, a sky without a sky.
The air white as a loaf of wet bread.
And there, by the window, bitten off
by the teeth of the winter, a deserted arena.
Then, all of a sudden, ten horses
led by a man, moved into the snow.
Their passing left hardly a ripple, like fire,
but they filled a whole universe
void to my eyes, until then. Ablaze
with perfection, they moved like ten gods, colossal
and grand in the hoof, with dreamy and elegant manes.
Their rumps were like planets or oranges.
Their color was honey and amber and fire.
Their necks were like pillars
carved in the stone of their arrogance,
and out of vehement eyes their energy
glared from within like a prisoner.
There, in the silence of midday
in a soiled and slovenly winter
the horses' intensity was rhythm
and blood, the importunate treasure of being.
I looked - looked till my whole force reawakened.
This was the innocent fountain, the dance in the gold,
the sky, the fire still alive in the beautiful.
I've forgotten the wintry gloom of Berlin.
I will never forget the light of the horses.
- Pablo Neruda, posted to SufiMystic
You
Must Go Blind
You must go blind to see this love.
You must have eyes that can only see
through the skull sockets of the world.
Eyes that break bones and flesh apart
like the beaks of birds of prey.
Sight that rends tissue and blood
into strips of hunger
and then feeds you what you see.
That kind of vision strips appearance
of its shadows.
Dark becomes light, and the light your own shadow:
Your own casting of yourself over the light
as you throw yourself down
for the ground to swallow you.
Your mouth is full of a clear wine
and you speak as the earth speaks
in the silent green well of its genesis.
Your mouth is a vortex of awe and succulence
for star-seeds of unspeakable radiance.
You do not speak for yourself
but only for loves utterance.
There are pathways within your eyes
carrying light-waves that the brain has no knowledge of.
That the body only comprehends
as a vessel that is as pathless as the night.
That Word which form says of its own quick flame
as its blazes into extinction.
Your heart beats its light into reality
from the sound of the void.
A night that has nothing to see or say of itself
but must enter its own blindness
and there speak like the stars
that are blind to their own light
and only shine to make the dark visible as this love.
You must go blind to see this love.
You must go beyond the death dance.
Beyond the fearful footfall
looking through the corpse of difference
and the razor fangs of distinction.
You must be sightless in your own hunger,
and like the bloody maw of a ravenous lion;
when your mouth opens to speak
be as mute and blind as the night
for the light to roar.
- Eric Ashford, posted to truevision
