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#2245
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This issue
features a selection from Nirmala's new book, Nothing
Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self.
You may read more about the book here: http://www.endless-satsang.com/index_files/Page543.htm
In issue
2241 -- http://nonduality.com/hl2241.htm -- I should have mentioned that
the haiga was by Ion Codrescu (
--Jerry
The real job
of any teacher is to make themselves irrelevant. Once the spirit
of curiosity has been fully awakened, you are free from the need
of any teacher because your willingness to question takes you to
the source of Truth. Then, there is no difference
between a teacher and a student; neither has more Truth than
the other. After awakening, your teachers are no longer the
exclusive source of the truth.
Curiosity is
the willingness to look and ask questions: Who am I? What is
always present? What is feeling pain? What is feeling bliss? What
is curious? Where does curiosity come from? After asking such
questions, the next step is to rest in what you have discovered.
Once you have asked the question, the Truth reveals itself, and
you just rest in the truth of your being. You surrender to what
is seen. Resting is just another word for surrendering to the
truth of who you are.
Without also
resting, questioning by itself can actually become a way of
keeping the Truth at arms length after it is seen by rushing to
ask more questions rather than surrendering to what is being seen
in that moment. Questioning has both the power to take you to the
Truth and the power to take you right past it by keeping you from
looking at it for very long.
Neelam tells
a story about a lifelong seeker who had looked everywhere for
Truth. Then, one blessed day, he comes across the house of God.
He rushes up the stairs, reaches for the doorknob, and suddenly
stops, as he realizes that if he opens the door, the story of his
life will end: there will be nothing left for him to seek. He
will lose his identity as a seeker. So, he pulls back his hand,
slips off his shoes so that no one inside the house will hear him
leave, and starts back down the path. Now his spiritual seeking
has been greatly simplified -- he knows he can go anywhere except
to that house. Resting is being willing to open the door and
surrender to what has been discovered.
* * *
Resting is a
recognition of the Absolute Truth, this spacious perfection we're
all dancing in, which is, in fact, who we are. In this culture,
which is so action-oriented, we need permission to rest; we need
to hear that freedom and perfection are already here and that we
don't have to do anything to achieve them. What a revelation it
is to discover this! We never think of looking in stillness, in
the here-and-now, to find the Truth; we are always so busy
looking outside ourselves with the mind.
Once the
Absolute is seen through resting, a subtle grasping to hold on to
that often arises, which is only natural. Who wouldn't want to
hang out where everything is seen in its utter perfection?
Discovering this perfection is such a relief. However, whenever
we fixate anywhere, even in the Absolute, the life drains out of
life, like living in a memory. This is why it is not uncommon for
people to have an awakening and then feel disillusioned six
months later. The Truth hasn't stayed fresh and alive.
This is where
curiosity, the other half of resting, comes in. Curiosity keeps
whatever quality of the Mystery you are experiencing from getting
stale. If you are experiencing peace, for instance, asking, Who
or what is experiencing peace? or Where does this peace come
from? will keep it fresh and alive. Without this curiosity, the
mind will take something like peace and say, "Oh yeah, more
peace -- how boring."
Curiosity
keeps you from landing in the Absolute and hiding there. It keeps
you paying attention -- noticing -- what is true now in this
moment. Papaji used the word "vigilance" for this,
although no word really captures it. What is called for is both
vigilance and curiosity but also, somewhat paradoxically,
surrender. When, by grace, the Truth is revealed, the question
always is, Will you surrender to it? You have to be willing to
give your whole life to the Truth, not just admire it or hide in
it. Surrendering to it means being willing to step into and take
on the perspective of Emptiness, where there is no such thing as
"me" or any thing else apart from it.
Then, what a
wonderful surprise it is to discover that from the perspective of
the Absolute Emptiness everything matters. Everything is
unutterably precious. The Absolute has an incredible love for the
human and for this world, with all its messiness, confusion, and
imperfections. It is surprising how much it cares, although it is
an impersonal caring. If everything is unspeakably precious, what
does that mean? How would that be expressed in the world? It's
obviously not through grasping, which no longer makes sense. What
would you push away? What would you try to hang on to? Everything
is equally precious.
The spiritual
life is not about getting to the Absolute. It's not a one-way
ticket out of town, away from your problems and the messiness of
this world. It's a round-trip ticket: you get to come back and
live this life as the Absolute. What could that mean?
This is where curiosity comes in because the answer to that can
only be revealed in each new moment.
http://www.endless-satsang.com/index_files/Page543.htm