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Gill Eardley: Some favourite quotes
from
'Zen Wisdom', Ed. Timothy Freke.

* * * * * * * * * *
One perfect Nature pervades and
circulates
within all natures.

One all-inclusive Reality contains and

embraces all realities.

One moon is reflected in every expanse
of water.
Every reflected moon is the one moon.

~Yung - Chia Ta - Shih

* * * * * * * * * *
Vimalakurti asked Manjusri what was the Buddha's
doctrine of nonduality. Manjusri answered,
"The doctrine is realized by one who sees beyond forms
and who knows beyond argument. This is my understanding
- what is yours?" In response to this question,
Vimalakirti closed his lips and was silent.

* * * * * * * * * *
It is not one, not two, not both, and not neither.
You can't get hold of it. Don't try. For while the part sees
the Whole, there is no Zen, for there are still two things,
the part and the Whole. Zen awareness must be an
expansion of consciousness beyond all knowledge of any kind and
beyond all process.

~Christmas Humphreys

* * * * * * * * * *
When you do something,
you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

~Shunryu Suzuki

* * * * * * * * * *
Know the One.
Love the All.

~T'ao- Shan

* * * * * * * * * *
Jan: The name of the mind's game is always change. Be it a celebration,
a debate, an accident, a catastrophe, a love affair or a fight, the
essence of delight for the mind is always change whereas Self is without
change. The very idea of something unchanging is ultimate horror for the
mind.

Xan: ~ The idea of something changing out of the range of its control is
also horror for the mind. It has a very narrow range of comfort in
which things behave according to its small definitions and parameters
of safety.
..o0o..

Learning Dialogue between Xan and Michael

Xan: These are the kinds of questions I like to respond to
because they reveal your curiosity about the process
awakening you are in, for personal understanding and
not for developing another useless theory of nonduality.

M: Yes, I am curious about the process.
Seems the more knowledge I have...the less fear.
Putting the knowledge into practice creates
fear which drives me to seek more knowledge.
The experience of the practice creates wisdom.
The past is my wisdom to use today.
The future is my wisdom yet to experience.

M: < Can a person seek challenges, disruption and crisis subconsciously?

X: ~ The subconscious is often the real source of motivating
factors of all kinds.

M: Is the subconscious programmed at birth
or based on our experiences during this life?

M:> How does the subconscious mind fit in with the concept of awareness?

X:~ All levels of mind, conscious and subconscious, are
configurations of thought and memory which are formed,
exist for a time, and eventually dissolve back into their
source which is eternal awareness itself.

M: The experience I am having now
is already dissolved by the time
you read this. It is happening for me now.
It is happening for you now, yet my now
and your now is different as far as our thoughts
and memories are concerned. Right? Or Not?

M: > How do feelings and emotions fit in with the concept of awareness?

X: ~ Feelings and emotions as aspects of the mind/personality
are the same - they are ever-changing and are expressions
of one's temporary existence as a human. Thoughts and
feelings can be seen as waves in the ocean of awareness.

M: Or as clouds,
they come,
they go.
Sometimes the clouds in my awareness get stormy,
my preference is to still them, keep them calm.

M:> Feeling like my heart is going to jump out of my chest,
like my solar plexus is churning...what does this mean?

X: ~ It means you have fear going on in some levels of your mind.
There are very aware people around these days who could assist
you with coming to terms with the fear and allowing it to become
unblocked, released, healed.

M: Can you recommend someone?
Either on this list or send to me privately?

M:> I admit that expressing feelings is new to me and many times
produces pain and suffering inside me after I verbalize them
or just write them down as I do now.

X: ~ Since expressing your feelings is new to you, you are in a
transition where whatever restrained your expression before
seems to be fighting against your emerging freedom.

M: It was fear of rejection and abandonment that restrained
me before. I now realize that I have felt rejected and abandoned
"inside" all my life. So the fear of fear is what I am afraid of.
I see no other way to get past fear except to take action to
reclaim my power, which is my own ability to act...even in the
midst of fear...even though I know, from past experience,
that saying what I want, how I feel, will result is some depression
and anxiety on my part. Feel the fear and just be anyway.

M:> Could this be a result of energy stirring up inside me
and producing an out of balance effect as far as
my inside and outside world?

X: ~ People who are being drawn into awakening often experience
a stirring up of feelings, memories and energies that had been
held down in the subconscious previously by family and societal
programming which gave the appearance of balance. As one's
mind and heart begin to open to the truth of themselves it seems
one is getting out of balance or sometimes even getting a little
nuts. With persistance in discovering the truth of oneself a new
balance is reached not based on the artificiality of personality
defenses and strategies but on the natural condition of beingness.

M: Yes, this does describe my experience perfectly.
Persistance, patience and perserverance,
the three P's that have sustained me over the
last eight years, no, 50 years.

M: > How does one know when they have experienced
"awareness"?

X: ~ Awareness is silent and when investigated is found to
have no boundaries.

M: It just is.

M:> How do you, on this list, define bliss?

X: ~ Bliss is undefinable. It is not an emotion but is subtly felt.

M: Can you expand on this?

M: > How does bliss feel in the world of relationships?

X: ~ Free.

M: > What is the cycle of awareness, consciousness
and bliss composed of? Is there a standard?
Or is it different for each personality based on
their own "stuff", which they have inside them?

X:~ There is no cycle or standard. Those are ideas of
the mind. Awareness and bliss are beyond the realm
of ideas. I have accepted the definition of consciousness
as individual and awareness as universal, so a conscious
person exists within universal awareness, the source of
all individual form expressions.

M: How does evil or evil acts fit in with
consciousnes and awareness?

X: Most individual consciousness in our world is closed, involved
with its programmed identity and the contents of mind which it
projects onto the world around it. As consciousness awakens
it expands, realizes its mind-functioning as just thought and feeling
rather than as an objective reality, and discovers that its original
nature is awareness itself.

Awareness is universal, unlimited and undifferentiated beingness.
It is the same in everyone and everything.
Variations in individual expression still occur.

M: Is a "dying" of the personality ego self
a part of the process of awakening?
I mean could I be in an on again
off again state of mourning for my
old ego personality self, even though
I was hurting...it was a comfortable hurt,
known and accepted.

M: > I don't even know why I am asking these
questions...I am aware that I am asking them,
I am aware that feelings and emotions are
stirring up in me strongly as I write them.

X: ~ Now notice awareness itself more than what
you are aware of.

M: How do I notice awareness if it just is?
> Tim has been a big help to me in understanding
surrender. I guess I have to experience surrender
to really understand it.

X: ~ You got it! All of this must be experienced to
be really understood. Hang in there!

M: Thanks for your compassionate reply.
I appreciate your thoughts and
look forward to learning more.

..o0o..
________________________________

Larry: (Below extract and link are a relatively) new translation and
commentary on Ramana"s "Upadesasaram" by David Frawley. This is an
outline of the path from beginning to beginningless. I think it's part
of a site put together by the Lucknow Poonjaji sanga (?). Here's a
couple of snips. (">" marks the commentary)

13. Mergence and dissolution are the two types of mind control. The mind
that is merged will rise up again. The dissolved mind is dead.

14. Through control of the prana, the mind is merged. From meditation on
the One, the mind is dissolved.

15. The superior yogi has a dissolved mind. What further duty can he
have, who abides in his own nature?

>Breath control temporarily suspends the mind. Self-knowledge dissolves the
mind permanently. Therefore, however useful a tool breath control is, without
advancing to direct mind control the aim of dissolving the mind cannot be
attained. So one should use pranayama as a means to mind-control and not stop
short with it as the goal. The highest yogi goes beyond it.
------
16. The mind dissolved in the Self repels all objectivity. The vision of
pure consciousness is the vision of truth.

>The key to dissolving the mind is turning one's attention away from all
objectivity. This is the practice of pratyahara or control of the outgoing mind
and senses. It links control of prana with control of the mind. Ramana himself
practiced total pratyahara, simulating the death experience, and drawing all
his prana into the heart, when he had his realization as a lad of sixteen.
Without withdrawal from sensory activity and external attachments, the practice
of Self-inquiry is like gathering water in a vessel with holes in it. Therefore
pratyahara should be practiced as the basis for Self-inquiry.
----
30. One's own awareness free of the ego, this is the great tapas and the
Word of Ramana.

>This pure awareness beyond the separate self is the highest knowledge. But it
is not conceptual. It is like a great fire. It is the tapas or ascetic practice
that Ramana proved in his daily actions. Ramana did not merely talk about
Self-realization or teach it as a mere theory, fantasy or emotion. He lived it,
to the extent of letting his body be eaten by ants and mosquitoes while he was
in samadhi. Those who want to achieve this state must have the tapas to bring
it about or they are only indulging in wishful thinking. Many years of such
tapas are usually necessary to achieve the goal.

This teaching is also Ramana's Divine Word. It arose from the Divine
Word in the heart and is not a product of human thought or any person's
ego, even Ramana's. It is very easy to read such teachings and not
difficult to understand them logically. One can use them to create a
mental or emotional high. But their true realization is quite another
matter and entirely beyond our human limitations. To reach that we must
dedicate ourselves to the task in all that we do and in all that we are.
http://www.poonja.com/Ramana.htm
_________________

Daily Updates … http://www.nonduality.com

Petros: Jerry ~~ your site just keeps getting better and better! I am
in awe at the work you must put into it. You can see what a lazy ass
webmeister I am by comparing it to my own site. Kudos.

____________________

Larry: I think I lost my voice. If anyone finds it, please return it
immediately; I NEED it. There's no one speaking for me over here. I
keep coming up with these great ideas, but ultimately they're not me. If
they're not me, they seem kind of useless. Go figure.

Phil: I think I've lost my mime. If you see him, approach *very*
quietly. Pretend to be a carrot.

Gloria: Consider yourself lucky over there, Larry. Obviously I have
lost my mind..cause I have no ideas of my own, but I keep hearing voices
telling me they have great ideas, so one of them might be your voice!
Ultimately, I only know I am me because I receive email here, hence the
sense of unreality when it stops coming in...

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