Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2352-
In this issue are some excerpts from Leo
Hartong's new book, From Self to Self.
The following is from the website which
publishes and sells the book:
From Self to Self contains a
compilation of expressions, questions and answers that came about
in response to Leo’s highly praised first book ‘Awakening
to the Dream’. Leo writes with characteristic insight and
uses metaphor to illuminate the paradoxical and apparently
confusing nature of non-dual reality.
His
original writing is reinforced by a wide knowledge of non-duality
in other spiritual traditions and he weaves these together with
his own direct path to present clear pointers to contemporary
seekers. Each short chapter concludes with an appropriately
chosen quotation taken from various sources. Also included, as
the final chapter, is the full text of the Hsin-hsin Ming by the
third Chan patriarch Seng-ts’an.
“The
words in this book repeatedly point to the essence which knows
the reading as it takes place. Rather than an encouragement to
follow a lengthy path, it is an invitation to step off the path.
It does not point to ‘your’ awareness, but to Awareness
itself in which the idea of ‘you’ appears. It does not
point to ‘your’ beingness, but to the undeniable
Beingness that appears as you.”
You may order From Self to Self, by
Leo Hartong, at http://www.non-dualitybooks.com/
Leo's website is http://www.awakeningtothedream.com
. His weekly newsletter, whose spirit is like that of the
Highlights, is excellent: http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/newsletter/
Excerpt from chapter 13
No Claim, No Blame, No Fame
As I am sitting at my
computer writing these words, I become aware of the sensation of
thirst. Simultaneously comes the thought, "A cup of tea
would be nice." This all happens spontaneously without me
first deciding to be thirsty and then to think of tea.
If you watch your mind, you will see that thoughts arise of their
own accord. Please, do not simply accept or reject this. When you
honestly observe and investigate, it will become clear that you
are not the thinker of your thoughts. What this chapter will try
to show is that you are also not the doer of your deeds. This may
go against your deepest convictions and beliefs, so I ask you to
suspend the judgment that may come up as a reflex and see what is
really being offered here.
All apparent decisions and choices are thoughts. To act upon a
thought feels like choice and is labeled choice by the language,
but choice is really just the expression of whatever thought
arises most predominantly. I did not choose my desire for tea,
nor did I choose the stronger desire that I should finish the
paragraph first, but that is what is spontaneously happening.
This is not to say that I am an apparatus without free will.
There is actually no individual here to be deprived of free will.
The thought of "I" and the thoughts of tea and typing
merely unfold as a manifestation of the animating energy of Pure
Awareness.
From this perspective, there is a sense that life is simply
living, thinking, and acting through you and as you. The Taoists
call this Wu Wei, which loosely translates as non-doing. This
does not mean doing nothing in the sense of inertia, but rather
that everything -including "your" thoughts and actions-
is happening naturally and of its own accord. Lao Tsu describes
it in the Tao Te Ching as follows:
Tao, without doing anything,
Leaves nothing undone
(37)
And again:
Less and less is done,
Till only non-action
remains.
Nothing is done, yet
nothing is left undone. (48)
In Buddha's words:
Suffering exists, but
none who suffer,
The deed there is, but
no doer thereof.
We all know the feeling of being in the flow of things. At such
times, we lose ourselves in our activity. Writers frequently have
this experience when the words seem to simply pour onto the page
and they have no idea what the next line is going to be until
they write it. Most athletes also have moments when suddenly
everything clicks and they manage to perform beyond their normal
capacity. There are sometimes moments during lovemaking when
lovers melt into a union that knows no separate individuality. Or
what about narrowly averted accidents on the highway where you
later wonder just who was steering the car? I'm sure if you think
about it, you have had several such experiences in which you
forgot yourself and everything seemed to magically fall into
place.
This forgetfulness is very different from forgetting your
friend's birthday or where you put your glasses. Nor is it like
the absentmindedness induced by too much booze or too many
tranquilizers. It is a forgetfulness that is alert and alive.
This losing oneself in the flow is a taste of what is meant by
"the action of non-action."
All works are being done by the Gunas (or the energy and power)
of nature, but due to delusion of ego, people assume themselves
to be the doer. (3.27) *
Although being in the flow feels wonderful, the idea of our
actions happening by themselves instead of through our free will
can be upsetting. This is especially true for the western mind,
which tends to view free will as either an inherent quality of
one's prized individuality or a gift/test from God to see if one
is strong enough to do the right thing. For the atheist, his
doing or failing to do the right thing may be a measure of his
true character; for the religious person there is a lot more at
stake, since for him it determines the quality of his after-life.
From the free-will point of view, the idea that something is
living through us can be quite objectionable. It seems to reduce
us to mere marionettes, implying a helplessness, which is hard to
accept. Furthermore, there arises a fear that if nothing we do is
truly our own action, then people have an excuse for undesirable
behavior. What is overlooked in such arguments is that all
activity is of the one Self, appearing as the multiplicity of
characters that apparently do the thinking, acting, and choosing.
To excuse our undesirable behavior on these grounds does not
work, for there will still be consequences. You may protest that
the thought that led you to steal from your employer simply
arose, and you are not responsible; but then neither is your
employer responsible for the thought that led him to fire you and
press charges.
Ultimately, since the ego is an illusion, it cannot be deprived
of free will nor can it be the victim of predestination. The ego
is neither the doer nor the non-doer; it simply does not have an
existence independent of the Self, any more than a character in a
novel exists independently of the author who portrays him. He and
all other characters in the story arise from the imagination of
the writer.
* The Bhagavad-Gita
Copyright 1988 by Dr. Ramanand Prasad