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Nondual Highlights Issue #2445, Wednesday, April 12, 2006, Editor: Mark
Suppose we lived in a land where very few people had
ever seen or heard a bird! The birds were there, all
around us, but we were conditioned to not look up, and
to ignore their call.
Now, suppose, among us, were a few people, we called
them Great Beings, who had actually seen a bird,
heard its song, and told us all about these wondrous
creatures.
We might ask, Well, tell me how can I too know this
creature? And suppose the Great Beings gave us
lengthy, detailed explanations, and a huge,
complicated picture puzzle to put together - we were
told that when we put the puzzle together, we would be
able to see the bird.
But a few of these Great Beings also told us that we
did not have to read about the bird, or put the puzzle
together; all we had to do was look up, and listen.
But we were in the habit of looking down so much, and
closing our ears to any sound that was foreign - our
ancestors had looked down and plugged their ears for
eons - that we say thank you, but we would rather read
about the bird and put the puzzle together first. Then
maybe someday we will be lucky enough to know what a
bird truly is.
oh, darlin's, maybe today we can consider taking off
our blinders and earplugs and open to seeing and
hearing the call of our True Nature - it is not in our
books, in our "work," or even in our dreams. It is
right here, right there, wherever we are, in a flight
and a song across a trackless sky.
- dg, posted to DailyDharma
A newborn baby is the purest form of a human
being. This purity remains until the baby understands
my/mine, you/yours.
- Baba Hari Dass, posted to AlongTheWay
A certain Bhikkhu once asked the Blessed Buddha: Venerable Sir,
1: What is Feeling?
2: What is the cause of Feeling?
3: What is the way to emergence of Feeling?
4: What is the ceasing of Feeling?
5: What is the way to cease Feeling?
6: What is the satisfaction in Feeling?
7: What is the danger in Feeling?
8: What is the escape from Feeling?
There are, Bhikkhu, these three Feelings:
1: Pleasant Feeling, Painful Feeling, &
Neither-painful-nor-pleasant Feeling. This is Feeling...
2: Sense Contact is the proximate cause of Feeling...
3: Craving is the way leading to the emergence of Feeling...
4: Ending of contact, ceases Feeling instantly...
5: This Noble Eightfold Way is the way to cease Feeling...
6: The delight and joy of Feeling: This is the satisfaction
within Feeling...
7: That Feeling is impermanent, subject to change &
suffering: This is the danger in Feeling...
8: The removal & elimination of desire and lust for Feeling:
This is the escape from Feeling...
Comment:
Running after pleasurable feeling like mad robots, beings come to
pain & death again & again...
- The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha.
Samyutta Nikaya, posted to meditationsocietyofamerica
What Do You Mean by Love?
Love is the unknowable. It can be realized only when the known is
understood and transcended. Only when the mind is free of the
known, then only there will be love. So, we must approach love
negatively, not positively.
What is love to most of us? With us, when we love, in it there is
possessiveness, dominance, or subservience. From this possession
arises jealously and fear of loss, and we legalize this
possessive instinct. From possessiveness arise jealousy and the
innumerable conflicts with which each one is familiar.
Possessiveness, then, is not love. Nor is love sentimental. To be
sentimental, to be emotional, excludes love. Sensitivity and
emotions are merely sensations.
. . . Love alone can transform insanity, confusion, and strife.
No system, no theory of the left or of the right can bring peace
and happiness to man. Where there is love, there is no
possessiveness, no envy; there is mercy and compassion, not in
theory, but actually—for your wife and for your children,
for your neighbor and for your servant. . . . Love alone can
bring about mercy and beauty, order and peace. There is love with
its blessing when "you" cease to be.
- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life,
posted to MillionPaths
When water is still .. it is like a mirror,
reflecting ...
And if water thus derives lucidity ...
from stillness ...
How much more the faculties of the mind?
The mind of the Sage ...
being in repose ...
becomes the mirror of the universe ...
.. the speculum of all creation ...
- Chuang Tzu, Chap 13, posted to Poetic_Mysticism