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Nondual Highlights Issue #2105 Wednesday, April 6, 2005
"I
do not see how one can surrender to suffering."
Forget about surrender for a moment. When your pain is deep, all
talk of surrender will probably seem futile and meaningless
anyway. When your pain is deep, you will likely have a strong
urge to escape from it rather than surrender to it. You don't
want to feel what you feel. What could be more normal? But there
is no escape, no way out.
When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. So
don't turn away from pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it --
don't think about it! Express it if necessary, but don't create a
script in your mind around it. Give all your attention to the
feeling, not to the person, event or situation that seems to have
caused it. Don't let the mind use the pain to create a victim
identity for yourself out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself and
telling others your story will keep you stuck in suffering. Since
it is impossible to get away from the feeling, the only
possibility of change is to move into it; otherwise, nothing will
shift. So give your complete attention to what you feel, and
refrain from mentally labeling it. As you go into the feeling, be
intensely alert. At first, it may seem like a dark and terrifying
place, and when the urge to turn away from it comes, observe it
but don't act on it. Keep putting your attention on the pain,
keep feeling the grief, the fear, the dread, the loneliness,
whatever it is. Stay alert, stay present -- present with your
whole Being, with every cell of your body. As you do so, you are
bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of your
consciousness.
- Eckhart Tolle, posted to The_Now2
in classical teaching the self-nature of all living beings is
said to be sat-chit-ananda (truth-consciousness-bliss).
a long time ago a naive young man in india went to his teacher
and asked "it is obvious i am the truth. it is obvious i am
conscious. but where has the bliss gone? i am full of
misery".
the teacher took a stick and pushed at an ant walking nearby. the
ant recoiled from the pain and went another way.
the teacher said: "the ant was already in bliss. it became
aware of the pain and tried to go back to its state of
bliss."
it took him almost ten years to understand.
-posted to Nisargadatta
No Water, No Moon
Chiyono's Well
The original source for the following was translated into English
from a book called the Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and
Sand), written late in the thirteenth century by the Japanese Zen
teacher Muju (the "non-dweller"), and from anecdotes of
Zen monks taken from various books published in Japan around the
turn of the 20th century.
~~~
The nun Chiyono (Mugai Nyodai, 1223-1298) studied and meditated
for years, most noteably under the venerated Zen master Wu-hsueh
Tsu-yuan (Bukko, 1226-1286, founder of Engakuji temple), on the
ultimate question of existence, but was unable to reach the far
shore.
The more she longed for Enlightenment the further off it seemed.
But one moonlit night she was carrying an old bucket filled with
water from the well that eventually came to bear her name, and as
she walked she noticed the full moon reflected in the pail of
water. As she continued along the path the bamboo strip that held
the pail staves broke.
The pail began to come apart, the bottom broke through, and the
water disappeared into the soil beneath her feet, the moon's
reflection disappearing along with it. In that moment Chiyono
realized that the moon she had been looking at was just a
reflection of the real thing...just as her whole life had been
... she turned to look at the moon in all it's silent glory, and
... that was it. Like the moonlight driven event surrounding the
Enlightenment of the mysterious wandering monk Totapuri, Chiyono
herself disappeared. She was NOT ... and what IS, was.
Afterwards she wrote the following:
This way and that way
I tried to keep the pail of water together,
hoping the weak bamboos
would never break
But suddenly the bottom fell out:
no more water
no more moon in the water
and emptiness in my hand!
- Mugai Nyodai -- Japan's first female Zen Master, from The
Wanderling, posted to SufiMystic
The Way to the Other Shore
Generosity is the first of the ten paramis,
or perfections, in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Parami
literally means "the other shore," and the paramis are
understood both as the means to reach the other shore of
enlighenment and as an expression of the qualities of one who has
done so. These are the virtues that the Buddha brought to
perfection during his journey as a bodhisattva, as described in
particular in the jataka tales, which recount stories of the
Buddha's previous lives. The ten paramis are: generosity,
morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness,
determination, loving kindness, and equanimity.
Mahayana Buddhism also has a list of ten virtues (paramitas)
of a bodhisattva, although a slightly different list from the
Theravadan's, but it is the first six that are emphasized as the
cornerstone of Mahayana practice. They are presented in a number
of sutras and are guiding principles in the two great manuals on
the bodhisattva path: Shantideva's The Way of
the Bodhisattva and Atisha's Seven-Point
Mind Training. They are treated both as
independent virtues and as a progression. The perfections are
cultivated in this order on the Mahayana path:
GENEROSITY, dana,
reverses ego's basic direction, which is to absorb and engulf
everything into its self-created territory. The continual act of
giving out - physically, psychologically and spiritually -
subverts ego's central methodology of possessing everything in
its path and leaves richness and resourcefulness in its place.
DISCIPLINE, shila,
refers to mastering one's impulses and cultivating an evenness of
temperament that transcends agitation and depression. This in
turn inspires such evenness in other sentient beings.
PATIENCE, kshanti, does
not imply waiting for what you want or tolerating its absence
with composure; rather, it refers to the quality of abiding or
remaining in the face of aggression, rather than meeting
aggression with aggression.
EXERTION, virya, means
never tiring of leading the life of bodhisattva. One takes joy in
helping others and is able to overcome the desire to give up in
the face of the insurmountable task of bringing all beings to
enlightenment.
MEDITATION, dhyana,
refers not so much to the formal practice of meditation, but to
the meditative nature of all experience, an unmoving quality that
transcends goal-oriented activity and that exudes compassion that
does not depend on results.
KNOWLEDGE, or WISDOM, prajna,
refers to the highest kind of knowledge, complete understanding
that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence yet still
display form, as expressed in the threefold purity: no actor, no
action, nothing acted upon. Prajnaparamita
is the source of a vast body of teachings and practices, since it
is the capping experience of all the paramitas. Without prajna -
the sword that cuts even itself - all the other paramitas will be
perverted into a quest for self-improvement that is masquerading
as selflessness and compassion.
- Barry Boyce from Shambala Sun,
March 2005
Q. Can I stop this "I Amness" and be before the "I
Amness"?
M: What natural processes can you stop? Everything is
spontaneous. Presently you are in the consciousness, which is
stirring, vibrant. Don't think you are something separate from
this stirring, vibrant consciousness. You, the consciousness, are
the product of the food consumed. At the level of active
consciousness, which is Self, and which is in activity, there
cannot be identity of a body.
Q: How can I be convinced of this?
M: When you remain still in your Self, then you receive the
conviction. You stay in quietude. Give up your identity with the
body-mind.
Q: I know all of this intellectually, but I am not experiencing
it, so I came for satsang.
M: What do you mean by satsang? This is merely a conventional
spiritual jargon. Now you go from here with the firm conviction
the "I am the Brahman, without any shape, form or design,
and without any mental inclinations. I am the manifest
consciousness." When you realize that you are formless,
there is no caste or creed for you, there are not concepts left.
Excerpt from Consciousness and the Absolute:
The Final Talks Of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
posted to JustThis