http://www.livinginpeace-thenaturalstate.com/Bottom%20line%20How%20does%20this%20work.htmClick here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2221
-
Highlights
Home Page and Archive: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
Letter to the
Editors: Click 'Reply' on your email program, compose your
message, and 'Send'. All the editors will see your letter.
New spiritual
teacher Stephen Wingate is introduced.
ts
provides a very interesting follow-up to a news story recently
posted, telling us about a couple of valuable and beautifully
written books on wilderness life.
Ramon
Sender describes a method for achieving bliss that
anyone could try. (Now if I had one for money, girls, and a
raucous sidekick, I'd be all set.)
Wayne
Wirs introduces a new movement he has started called Peace
Cause.
Have a nice
weekend. And write us! Your contribution could appear in the
Highlights as well. However, be patient as it might be a couple
weeks or so before we publish it.
We want to
hear about new websites, new teachers, news stories, brief
original pieces, excerpts from books, or whatever else you think
we'd like to see. Thanks.
--Jerry
http://www.livinginpeace-thenaturalstate.com/Bottom%20line%20How%20does%20this%20work.htm
Stephen
Wingate
Bottom line: How does this
work?
There really is nothing mystical
or magical about this. It is very simple, logical and applicable
to everyone. This is not just for special beings who were
able to transcend their earthly fetters and rise above the lowly
egoic peasantry through years of self-sacrifice and meditation.
That's all bullshit. This is true for anyone and everyone.
These words apply to you and to me:
"We are free here and now, it is only the mind that
imagines bondage. Seeing that there is no such thing as a
permanent, separate person, all becomes clear. You are the
immensity and infinity of consciousness. It is lucid, silent,
peaceful, alert, and unafraid - without desire and fear. To
realize this is the end of all seeking."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
These few words say it all. Let's break them down.
1) "We are free here and now, it is only the mind that
imagines bondage."
Is this true? Consider your own experience. When you
are sitting quietly, not thinking about yourself and your
problems, can anything trouble you? Can there be any
bondage if you are not imagining yourself to be bound? Of
course you are free here and now!! Nisargadatta puts it
another way, too: "Nothing can trouble you but your own
imagination." There is no such thing as
bondage. It is merely a concept!
2) "Seeing that there is no such thing as a permanent,
separate person, all becomes clear."
Is this true? Look for yourself. What is the common
denominator in all of your suffering, all of your problems? What
is at the center of your life situation? What is this
"me" that says, "my" life, "my"
problems? If it is seen that there is no separate me, no
separate person here at all, can there be any suffering?
The me who was bound and suffering is just imagination.
Reading the words and agreeing or disagreeing is not
enough. Seeing this for yourself is the key.
3) "You are the immensity and infinity of consciousness.
It is lucid, silent, peaceful, alert, and unafraid - without
desire and fear."
If I am not the separate person I thought I was then what am
I? Isn't consciousness your essential nature? If you
are not conscious can anything else exist? Can there be a
"me" and "my" story if consciousness is not
there to witness it? What is the nature of pure
consciousness? Isn't it clear, silent, peaceful, alert,
unafraid? So consciousness is what you are: not a separate
person.
4) "To realize this is the end of all seeking."
For what are you seeking? Aren't you seeking for clarity,
peace, freedom from desire and fear? Aren't these the
characteristics of consciousness? You are what you are
seeking! Realizing that you are consciousness, not the separate
person you imagined yourself to be, the seeking comes to an end
and you are free!
When these words are understood and known as the truth they
become your daily living experience. It's as simple as it
looks. There's nothing magical or mystical about it.
There is no need for any mystical experience of universal love
and union. The understanding brings on a simple experience
of Peace and well-being that is felt as the common ground of all
your daily experiences. Happiness and sadness, laughter and
tears, anger and joy: all come and go in this awareness of peace
and well-being. Nothing to gain. Nothing to
lose. Everything is as it is.
ts
Jerry ...
Thank you for these news story links.
This one esp caught my eye:
re:
At first glance I thought the story of a woman in
be that of Kate Austen ... as later recalled in "Northern
Nurse" ...
written by her husband Elliot Merrek.
from the site: [link below]
"Elliot Merrick is known primarily for his superb book
True North,
which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 17
weeks
in 1942.
after the young Australian had spent two years working as
the
nurse at the famed Labrador Grenfell Mission. Years after
he
wrote True North, he decided the adventures his wife had
experienced
at
I have read
True North many times ...
and it remains one of my favorite books about the north ...
however ... the story of Kate Austen's life and adventures
there ...
as told in "Northern Nurse", eclipses those of
Merrick himself, imo.
She spent two years running this remote northern hospital,
as the
doctor had fallen ill and never arrived, and often traveled
alone
via dogsled to administer to women in childbirth, in remote
trapper's cabins in the canadian bush.
An impressive story ... and fact, not fiction.
in addition to "A Woman's Way Through Unknown
Labrador" and
"Northern Nurse", this site also reviews the
books written by
Dillon Wallace, mentioned in the article on "A Woman's
Way Through
Unknown Labrador", along with many more about some
other very
remarkable people.
I don't believe these folks spent a lot of time speculating
and
theorizing, but rather ... were very practical and
pragmatic ...
and paid a great deal of attention to *what is* ...
else they would not have survived to tell the tales.
http://www.canoe.ca/labrador2001/labrador_books.html
may all give and receive peace
-ts-
note from jerry: Thanks for
bringing these books and your insights to our attention.
Ramon Sender
Always a pleasure to
read Ndhighlights. Thank yoU!
I just posted the following to my blog, but there are other
things
there that might also be of interest. (see below the
personal message)
www.raysender.com/blog-1.html
The theory I'm following goes as
follows: every night when we sleep, we
enter Nirvana - we merge with our higher selves or whatever
you wish
to call it. The only thing is that we are not conscious to
appreciate this
absorption into bliss. As a father and grandfather, I have
noted how
babies 'sleep-nurse' -- make the mouth movements in their
sleep, and
though I would try it out. Over the past few years, I have
tried to use
this nursing on the soft palette exercise the moment I
awaken in the
morning, and have written in up on my website various
times.
Even if you think I'm crazy or strange, please try it out. You
won't
regret it.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This morning I managed to start my waking-up nursing
exercise earlier than
usual. That is, I began sucking on my soft palette and
uvula while still
half-asleep -- the 'sleep-nursing' that babies do. About
twenty of these
'pulls' and I dissolved into the sleep-bliss state but
still remained
conscious. Oh-my-gosh, what ecstasy! I went on to do about
two hundred more,
ignoring the signals that I had reached my 'bliss tolerance
ceiling' (more
about that another time) and by then my whole body was in
an indescribable
state of flowing energies. I am not kidding you! And I am
not exaggerating.
One definition of stupidity must be to keep searching for
something you
already have in your hand. That is exactly what I've been
doing. I've been
holding onto this priceless gem of an exercise, 'polishing'
it a little
every morning (maybe up to about 100 'pulls' at most), but
then dropping it
when I hit my 'bliss tolerance level' and starting my
normal morning
routine. I must be truly crazy. Here I am, sitting on at
least this one
exercise that easily achieves a bliss state so intense that
I have to STOP
before I melt into a puddle, and do I concentrate on it?
No, I start
wondering what to have for breakfast, where the car is
parked, etc. Insanity
is to keep looking for ways to enlightenment when I already
have discovered
at least two that trigger my definition of Nirvana - that
incredible bliss
we experience every night while asleep but we are not
conscious to enjoy.
Anyway, I'm going to toot my horn again (I already have
written about this
several times on my website). Perhaps I can convince at
least a few folks to
try this and let me know if it works for them too. If not,
then I'm just one
very lucky guy that God has taken under Her soft and downy
wing. (By the
way, if you are suffering from any sort of heart condition,
please check
with your physician before trying this. It really is a very
potent
exercise.)
When your heart chakra beams lusciously in all directions
from this
exercise, whatever the head decides to do is not at all
bothersome! My goal
is to keep the nursing-on-the-palette going all day today
and see where I am
by the end of the day! I need to put some sort of reminder
on myself --
maybe a rubber band around my thumb? I'll report back
tomorrow. No more
dropping back down into everyday humdrum-hood. I'm going
for the gold this
time! And I'm going to start setting my alarm clock so I
can repeat this
morning's better connection from deep sleep to nursing more
easily.
Your Effect on World
Peace - Where We've Gone Wrong
A message from
Wayne Wirs, Founder of PeaceCause
http://peacecause.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=1
There is a tragic, mistaken
assumption in society that the individual has little, if any
influence
on global events. This false assumption is the key reason for an
overwhelming and far-reaching
sense of resignation, a sense of hopelessness, that world events
are out of our individual control.
The assumption that most people have, whether conscious or not,
is simply this: "I have very little
influence on the world."
Anyone who has read Fading
Toward Enlightenment knows that my nemesis, my bane, is
the Assumption.
I have spent my entire life digging up and unearthing deeply
embedded assumptions. The problem with
an assumption, is that unless we take it out and examine it, we
will unconsciously continue to
believe it.
The statement, "I have very
little influence on the world," is false. "I have very
little direct
influence on the world," is correct. One word. Big
difference. "Direct."
You have a huge, indirect
influence on world events. Because your influence is indirect,
you may
not see it, but I assure you it’s there. Let me prove it
with just two little words: Harry Potter.
The first Harry Potter book did
not become famous because of some multi-million dollar
advertising
budget. Harry Potter wasn't enacted into law, he wasn't a war
hero, he wasn't taught in our
schools, temples, mosques or churches. Harry Potter influenced
millions of people, because people,
quite simply, talked about him. Ironically, most of those people
were little kids. One little kid,
Tommy, read the book, loved it, and then told all his friends,
who read it, and told their friends
and so on. One little kid, Tommy, influenced thousands of other
little kids – indirectly.
You have a huge, indirect
influence on the world. Your influence spreads simply by sharing
your
words and actions with others, sharing what is important to you.
Now let me ask you a question. Is
peace in your life important?
PeaceCause was founded on the
belief that peace will grow and thrive by strengthening personal
peace, and sharing this peace with others. Simple as that. World
peace, one person at a time.
At PeaceCause.org, we provide
the tools, information and inspiration for creating peace in your
personal life. Membership is free, the tools are free, the
articles are free. We want to make it as
practical and feasible for you, the individual, to gain peace in
your life and to help spread peace
to the lives of others.
When you teach a man to fish, he
will teach his village to fish. Teach a man to fish, and you feed
an entire village for generations to come.
PeaceCause : World Peace - one
person at a time.
Send this to the Media!