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Nondual
Highlights Issue #2427, Wednesday,
March 22, 2006, Editor: Mark
Zen, Advaita and Celebration
Zen is the very essence of meditation. In Sanskrit, dhyan means
meditation. When Buddhism moved to China, dhyan became Ch’an.
After absorbing the tantric influences of that culture, it spread
to Japan and culminated in Zen. The insistence of Zen masters on
meditation has kept the tradition vibrant and fresh.
The Zen insight that the ultimate reality is nothingness or
emptiness comes close to advaita. The understanding of advaita
holds that everything (the universe) came out of nothing (the
void). The Void is the womb of creation. Thus the Void has the
power, intelligence and ability to design, create and sustain
existence. This means that nothingness or nirvana is God. Advaita
then culminates in the oneness of existence and non-existence
through the medium of consciousness. The understanding of advaita
is compelling, yet some enlightened teachers do not understand
its nondual and impersonal theistic implications. The reason is
timing.
When the clarity of advaita is married to the inner focus of
meditation the result is holistic and transformative
spirituality. The time has arrived to consummate the union. The
synergy of meditation and advaita is Unity.
Advaita’s significance is that it provides a rational basis
for surrender. Merely understanding the logic of advaita without
living in surrender is the booby prize; intellectual
enlightenment does not free you from suffering.
Living in surrender without understanding advaita is better;
surrender is transformative. The most important issue is your
transformation, not understanding spiritual philosophy. Jesus
gave humanity four potent words: Thy Will Be Done. They help you
remember that you too can surrender to divine will, even if life
itself is at stake. Followers of all religions are burdened by
irrational beliefs; they are taught that blind faith is the only
way to salvation. Those who understand and apply ‘Thy Will
Be Done’ have a direct connection to God. If you can put
aside your unverifiable beliefs and focus on meditation and
conscious surrender to life-as-God, you are blessed.
Zen does not rely on belief, devotion or prayer. Instead Zen
focuses on growing in consciousness through silent meditation.
And it works. Many meditators have found freedom on the path of
awareness, but were often burdened with a serious spiritual ego
along the way.
Celebrating the journey as the goal helps to dissolve the serious
spiritual ego. Celebration is Osho’s great contribution to
the world of meditation. His vision of Zorba the Buddha embodies
the celebration of life-as-God in the context of the
transcendental awareness of Buddha.
When the diligent focus of Zen is applied in the context of
advaita and celebration, we have the most effective method of
rapid awakening: conscious, playful trust in the One. Finally it
is time to integrate the ancient antagonists of meditation and
advaita. Unity can flower at last.
- excerpt from UNITY -The Dawn of Conscious Civilization
by Maitreya Ishwara, posted to consciousoneness
Think of Nothing
Thinking, you are separated from existence. Thinking is not a
relation, it is not a bridge, it is not a communication ? it is a
barrier. Non-thinking you are related, bridged; you are in
communion. When you are talking to someone, you are not related.
The very talk becomes a barrier. The more you talk, the further
away you move. If you are with someone in silence, you are
related. If the silence is really deep and there are no thoughts
in your mind and both the minds are totally silent, you are one.
Whenever you are silent with someone, you are one. When you are
silent with existence, you are one with it.
This technique says be silent with existence and then you will
know what God is. There is only one dialogue with existence and
that is in silence. If you talk with existence, you miss. Then
you are enveloped in your own thoughts.
Try this as an experiment. Try it with anything ? even with a
rock. Be silent with it ? take it in your hand and be silent ?
and there will be a communion. You will move deep into the rock
and the rock will move deep into you. Your secrets will be
revealed to the rock and the rock will reveal its secrets to you.
But you cannot use language with it. The rock doesn’t know
any language.
Confined in thoughts you will be in misery. Unconfined, beyond
thoughts ? alert, conscious, aware, but unclouded by thoughts ?
you will be joy, you will be bliss.
Osho: Excerpted from The Book of Secrets
Blessed One, take this secret instruction to heart.
Is space anywhere supported? Upon what does it rest?
Like space, Great spirit is dependant upon nothing ...
Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases;
Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself,
The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends
And supreme enlightenment is gained.
Like the morning mist that dissolves into thin air,
Going nowhere but ceasing to be,
Waves of conceptualization, all the mind's creation, dissolve,
When you behold your mind's true nature ...
Although space has been designated "empty",
In reality it is inexpressible;
Although the nature of mind is called "clear light",
Its every ascription is baseless verbal fiction.
The mind's original nature is like space;
It pervades and embraces all things under the sun...
The body is essentially empty like the stem of a reed,
And the mind, like pure space, utterly transcends
the world of thought:
Relax into your intrinsic nature with neither abandon nor control
-
Mind with no objective is Great spirit ...
And, with practice perfected, supreme enlightenment is gained.
The clear light of Great spirit cannot be revealed
By canonical scriptures or metaphysical treatises...
The clear light is veiled by concepts and ideals.
By harbouring rigid precepts the true understanding
is impaired,
But with cessation of mental activity all fixed notions subside;
When the swell of the ocean is at one with its peaceful depths,
When mind never strays from indeterminate, non-conceptual truth,
The unbroken Spirit is a lamp lit in spiritual darkness...
KYE HO! Listen with joy!
Investment in dogma is futile; it is the cause of every anxiety.
Since worldly involvement is pointless, seek the heart of
reality! ...
A single lamp dispels the darkness of a thousand aeons;
Likewise, a single flash of the mind's clear light
Erases aeons of karmic conditioning and spiritual blindness.
KYE HO! Listen with joy!
The truth beyond mind cannot be grasped by any faculty of mind;
The meaning of non-action cannot be understood
in compulsive activity;
To realise the meaning of non-action and beyond mind,
Cut the mind at its root and rest in naked awareness.
Allow the muddy waters of mental activity to clear;
Refrain from both positive and negative projection -
leave appearances alone:
The phenomenal world, without addition or subtraction,
is Great spirit.
The unborn omnipresent base dissolves your impulsions and
delusions:
Do not be conceited or calculating but rest in the unborn essence
And let all conceptions of yourself and the universe melt away...
Then gaining long-life and eternal youth, waxing like the moon,
Radiant and clear, with the strength of a lion,
You will quickly gain mundane power and supreme enlightenment.
May this pith instruction in Great spirit ...
Remain in the hearts of fortunate beings.
- Tilopa's Mahamudra Instruction to Naropa, posted and edited by
Poetic_Mysticism
THE WHOLE POINT
I saw that everything, just as it is now, is IT - is the whole
point of there being a life and a universe. I saw what when the
Upanishads said, "That thou art!" or "All this
world is Brahman,"
they meant exactly what they said. Each thing, each event,
each experience in its inescapable nowness and in all its
own particular individuality was precisely what it should be,
and so much so that it acquired a divine authority and
originality.
It struck me with the fullest clarity that none of this depended
upon my seeing it to be so; that was the way things were,
whether I understood or not, and if I did not understand,
that was IT too. Furthermore. I felt that now I understood
what Christianity might mean by the love of God - namely,
that despite the commonsensical imperfection of things,
they were nonetheless loved by God just as they are,
and that this loving of them was at the same time
the godding of them.
- Alan Watts, reposted to NondualitySalon after posting to GR
(GuruRatings?)
SPRING IS CHRIST
Everyone has eaten and fallen asleep. The house is empty.
We walk out to the garden to let the apple meet the peach,
to carry messages between rose and jasmine.
Spring is Christ,
raising martyred palms from their shrouds.
Their mouths open in gratitude, wanting to be kissed.
The glow of the rose and the tulip means a lamp
is inside. A leaf trembles, I tremble
in the wind-beauty like silk from Turkestan.
The censer fans into flame.
This wind is the Holy Spirit.
The trees are Mary.
Watch how husband and wife play subtle games with their hands.
Cloudy pearls from Aden are thrown across the lovers,
as is the marriage custom.
The scent of Joseph's shirt comes to Jacob.
A red carnelian of Yemeni laughter is heard
by Muhammed in Mecca.
We talk about this and that. There's no rest
except on these branching moments.
- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi,
posted to Sunlight