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#2318 - Friday, November 18, 2005 - Editor: Jerry Katz
There are four really nice contributions to this issue of The Nondual Highlights. We start off with a poem translated from the Irish language by Gabriel Rosenstock. Then a brief submission to the Highlights sent in by David Spero. And then excerpts from two new websites by madman Ralph Nataraj and pure nothing nondualist Charlie Hayes.
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--Jerry
Not Mine
Not mine this
house
Not mine the
books I read
Or write
Not mine the
food I eat
Or what I
drink
The air I
breathe
The clothes I
wear
Nothing is
mine
All that is
And all that I
touch
Is Yours
alone, is You.
The maggot
deep in my grave
Is You.
~ ©
(from the Irish)
David Spero
The only way to end suffering is to plunge into the silence of the Self, into that place where suffering has already been conquered. You can spend eons trying to unravel the knot of your own misery, deconstructing various fears and limitations, yet never awaken permanently - for any form of deliberate action will only strengthen the knot of separation. Even successful spiritual practices will tend to create subtler and subtler aspects of "the me." Enlightenment, therefore, only arrives in the form of a Gift. After all efforts have failed, locate Grace and surrender to That, whether in the form of a living Spiritual Master or within the Invisible Absolute of your own Self. Grace is the Master, whether He speaks or remains silent.
Ralph Nataraj
http://www.advaita-tantra.com/index.htm
In our sadhana (on the Path of Yoga, Beauty & Delight) we do not have to dig up corpses to meditate on them, we do not have to eat human flesh, we do not have to perform elaborate fire-rituals, we do not resort to extreme ascetism, you don’t have to wander around in the wilderness for months or years. Let’s call it common sense sadhana.
Important points for us are:
* Do fierce self-inquiry
* Spend time alone (in nature)
* Practise regular (daily!) meditation
* Make the body strong, souple and healthy
* Develop the finer senses and antenna’s
* Learn the 3-D listening to music
* Open yourself to Grace
* Be true to yourself
* Develop surrender and devotion
* Swallow a red pill
* Free yourself from mental slavery
* Practise poetry, dance and/or music
* Learn to step outside of the mind
* Develop more and more inner honesty
* Be fully determined in this journey of
Self-discovery!
Please understand that many approaches are nihilistic in nature.
Others involve strong ascetism. This is not the path of ascetism!
This is the merger of bhoga and yoga. There is nothing wrong with
any pleasure! It is fantastic to be touched and to enjoy. We are
not the ones who do extreme fasts. More important is to really
enjoy the food. But realize as well! Be prepared to suffer and to
sacrifice but when the bliss comes; ride its waves! Always be
willing to help other people. Be humble and strong as well. Take
the life of JC as a great example but don’t buy the theory
of sinning. Learn to conquer the mind. Realise the goal of life.
Don’t aim for worldly happiness but way beyond that. Use
pleasure and pain as a stepping stone to the beyond. Try to find
the door-opening to Wonderland. Squash the low self-esteem and
the feelings of unworthiness that have nothing to do with who you
are. Enjoy a wonderful sex life and allow the energy to take you
to the magic kingdom. Practise Self-remembering on the peak of
intense joy or deep sorrow. Pray but not for your petty self.
Meditate and realize who is the one who practises meditation. Be
easy and free. There is very little room on this path for people
who are overly serious. Watch the movies that I recommend several
times. Feel, hear and see more intense. Be amazed by the wonders
of nature and the miracle that our universe is. Realize when you
look at the stars and the moon. Be more sensual. Feel the erotic
power in your hips and pelvic area.
Tantra is all about energy. Develop great energy! If you are ‘a boring person’ then you won’t make it with us; go and do new age stuff. Make sure you are very grounded. Stretch your limits. Be willing to behave outrageously in public! Don’t be too hot on material success. When it comes enjoy and share it. Spend it wisely. Be loyal to the Resistance. Find out more and more what it means to be true to yourself. For many of you it would be good to have two sessions of bodywork per week. Work on each other if you don’t have the money to visit a good bodyworker weekly. Do daily stretching and yoga. Become very intimate with the body. Enjoy beauty. See the beauty all around you. Realize how lucky you are and be much more grateful. A complaining attitude will lead nowhere. Investigate feelings of superiority or arrogance. Be tolerant towards all people. Try to feel compassion. When there is injustice, allow your heart to be squashed instead of becoming angry and feeling revengeful. Learn when to fight and be willing and ready to fight. Don’t behave like a lamb when you are a lion. Allow the superman or the Diva to come out and express.
Be determined to separate the real from what is not real. Develop a relationship with your favourite God, master or deity like Shiva, Maria or JC in your heart. Make this love very strong. Let it permeate your entire being. Offer all activities to your higher Self. Remember to practise proper breathing techniques. This is also very important. Remember to practise daily breathing techniques. This is also very important. Don’t take in all kinds of spiritual teachings from all sorts of people. Really stick to one thing and master that!
Our kundalini-sadhana is also through music and dance. When
you learned 3-D listening, do the above-mentioned things and
dance in my energy-field or in your own guru-principle, you will
feel the rise of Kundalini. She can go totally to Sahasrara while
dancing! It is the modern way of sadhana but you need to trust
and let go. Dance in trance.
I hope we can start an ashram. Then things will really
start! Many of you do not realize what you are missing. Music is
a great and very fine art. We are blessed to live amidst
technology as opposed to five years ago when certain things were
not possible yet, so fast is music advancing. YB&D-dancing is
the expression of Nataraja. It is the eternal dance of Shiva and
Shakti. The dancing can lead you to great ecstasy and profound
inner experiences. It can totally set you free as it squashes
ignorance and pours out the sweet ambrosia of Life. But it is not
only the dancing. It is dancing in the Path of Yoga, Beauty &
Delight.
10-5-2002
Charlie Hayes
http://charliehayes.blogspot.com/
Q: But some days I just wake up in a trance to get taken
over by the egoic "me" and it's been extremely
frustrating and discouraging. The reactive "me"
continues to upset people ( my family) along the way and I can't
seem to get out of the trance until it's too late and I've said
or done some crappy thing I always end up regretting; the
"me" then suffers more so in return. It's been a crappy
cycle.
Charlie: I am very familiar with this seeming
"flip-flop." Ask some of my former friends :-) about
the giant multiple chips on my shoulders and the thin skinned
sensitivity that this organism, this thing called charlie,
appeared as. THEN, Consider the possibility that even THAT is
Oneness, appearing AS that.
Again, what the Teachings are pointing to is NOT an experience
that comes and goes. I burned so many bridges that it really
became clear that NO "other" (dreamed character) could
really help in an ultimate sense ... because there is no me and
no other. But of course, "knowing" or
"understanding" that and three bucks will get you a
fancy cup of coffee. So, as Sri Nisargadatta pointed out, I
finally had to come to grips with the fact that ONLY the True
"I" that I am and You Are is the One, the Guru, that
takes us all the way ... to Nowhere. Now Here. The Sages ...
"Sailor" Bob, Tony, the two Johns, Nathan and the
others who I have experienced as the "Real Deal," only
point us back, to our Self, and the looking must happen Here.
Then it is seen (by NO one) that the One you are seeking is the
One that always IS playing the GAME of seeking its Self.
have a look at When and Where all that, the vicious circle,
arises? Is it not in Presence Awareness Its Self, the natural
light of pure impersonal Knowingness? And look for who gets taken
over? Have a good look. When IT (the so called ego-mind)
seemingly takes over ask, as soon as "you are aware"
(as soon as there is Awareness-Observing) of having "been
taken over," what is that ME that I believe, know, feel, and
think that "I am"?
The only truth you can know is that you exist ... "I
am." Stick with that. Ask the tough questions. What am I
REALLY? What is Real? What is Eternal? What is a "me?"
What is the "I?" Before the THOUGHT "I am" is
the pure NON conceptual "I" ... One-without-a-second
... seek the Source of the "I" thought. Don't stop with
"understanding" OR "experiencing"
conceptually "I Am Presence!" Don't leave the cake half
baked.
One powerful pointer is to see that you are never ever not
present and aware. You must be awake already to see that you are
(seemingly) doing this or that and then judging yourself for
doing this and that. What is being pointed to in Non-Duality is
simply that ALL of this appears presently IN the Awareness of
Being that is never not there, and AS an aspect or expression of
That. NOT TWO. The holographic dream- "me" can only
appear ON or IN that natural being-presence-aliveness that is
never ever missing. But it is so obviously here and now that
"we" miss it, or appear to! Looking outward to the
circumstances and the actions of the "doer", we miss
the SPACE on and in which the doer appears. So step one, so to
speak, might be to simply notice, whatever is happening, that for
anything to happen YOU as presence, awareness, must first BE.