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Nondual Highlights Issue #2294, Saturday,
October 22, 2005 - Editor: Mark
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We come into this world empty-handed. What do we do in this
world?
Why did we come into this world? This body is an empty thing.
What
is the one thing that carries this body around? Where did it come
from? You must understand that, you must find that. So, if you
want
to find that, you have to ask yourself, "What am I?"
Always keep
this big question. Thinking has to disappear. We have to take
away
all our thinking, cut off our thinking. Then our true self
appears,
then our true mind appears...
- Zen Master Seung Sahn
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A letter written by Bankei:
Allow me to address you this brief message. Concerning your
religious practice: as your thoughts haven't yet stopped, you
must
make every effort to rouse your faith, completely forgetting all
thoughts, of every sort - thoughts of cherishing good and
loathing
evil, of loving or hating, of worldly affairs, of cherishing
buddhahood, of loathing delusion or cherishing enlightenment. If
nothing at all remains in your mind, then your religious practice
is
complete, so if you can come to this quickly, I'll be able to
give
you my acknowledgement. By assiduously rousing your faith, you'll
quickly escape the delusions.
When you have escaped them, I'll know it, and at that time I'll
be
able to give my acknowledgment to that one who has escaped.
Respectfully,
Bankei
- from Bankei Zen, translated by Peter Haskel, posted to
AdvaitaToZen
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it is here
in the breath
it is here
in the stillness between breaths
it is here
in the active mind
it is here
in the resting mind
it is here
in the dream's panorama
it is here
in each moment of awakening
it is here
when all is well
it is here
when fear has nothing left to fear
even then
there is pure noticing
even then
there is no need for doing
no frantic searching
can find the obvious
no seeking needed
to find that which seeks
it is here
where it can never be lost
or found
- Nirmala, from Gifts With No Giver, posted to MillionPaths
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THUS SPAKE RAMANA - 117
That Knowledge is (real) Knowledge which transcends both
knowledge
and ignorance. There is no object to be known 'there'. When one's
true nature is known, then there is Being without beginning and
end;
it is unbroken Awareness-Bliss. Remaining in this state of the
Supreme, the Realisation of that which subsists when all trace
of 'I' is gone, is good tapas.
-posted to RamanaMaharshi
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Don't Postpone Your Yes!
Muhammed is said to have said,
"Whoever belongs to God, God belongs to."
Our weak, uneven breathings,
these dissolving personalities,
were breathed out by the eternal
Huuuuuuuu, that never changes!
A drop of water constantly fears
that it may evaporate into the air,
or be absorbed by the ground.
It doesn't want to be used up
in those ways, but when it lets go
and falls into the ocean it came from,
it finds protection from the other deaths.
Its droplet form is gone,
but its watery essence has become
vast and inviolable.
Listen to me, friends, because you
are a drop, and you can honor yourselves
in this way. What could be luckier?
than to have the ocean come
to court the drop?
For God's sake, don't postpone your yes!
Give up and become the giver.
- Rumi, Mathnawi IV:2613-2622, version by Coleman Barks,
One-Handed
Basket Weaving, posted to Sunlight