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xan:

The Highest Teaching

~ Highest, schmighest.
What does that have to do
this silent joy creeping
through my everywhere.

x
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***Christiana reports:


Hello friends..

I would like to attempt some reportage of this sharing which just took
place here in California. The challenge for me lies in that.. so much of
what took place, did so on nonverbal levels. I could say.. we had a lot
of fun and simply walked in Love for several days, and that would indeed
suffice. But as some of you may wonder what my experience was like, let
me dip a bit deeper.

I picked Gene up from the airport. I had no idea what he might look
like. He had suggested I look for the 'purple aura' <smile>. When off
strode a man, with gait like a magus, I knew it was Gene Poole. He
proceeded for several days to inform, challenge, astonish, amuse, create
with and love us. His range is boundless, his Heart huge.

We next met Jerry. Jerry has ancient, intelligent eyes which simply hold
space. Beyond what Petros termed 'self effacing' is deep abiding.
Jerry's temperament is similar to my own and I knew a joyful ease of
being with him. He is fun, gentle and wise. But y'all already know
that!
The energy fields these two men seem to resonate within, as they appear
to me.. with the caveat that each is other.. only Self:
Gene Poole .... powerful space, directed momentum.
Jerry Katz .... powerful space, undirected suchness

During our time, we ate great food, walked on stunning beaches, shared
deeply, visited a friend of Gene's, and
simply and profoundly entered the aliveness of being present in Love.

Throughout the visit, this Salon was ever-present. When the four of us
assembled for dinner, I was struck by the diversity of our natures each
aligned within this centrality of Heart. Jerry is insightful and his
humor is subtle. He carries the robustness of his freedom as quiet
presence. We were a representation of this community and the Power was
stunningly joyful.

That I could don the hat of hostess was grace for me. I offer deep bows
to Bruce for his delightful insight into 'God' showing up as the 'divine
double date by the sea'. Indeed, I am deeply moved.

Christiana
~~~~~~~~~~

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***Kristi and Petros on telling personal stories:


***K:
...We have, at different times, offered little pieces of "reality"
through our experiences of trauma, or suffering, and had them pretty routinely
rebuffed...


***P:
Maybe it all depends on context and intent. It is too easy to become
identified with "telling stories" or "personal experiences," which after all
are endless. If a story opens the door to understanding, then it is valuable
to tell, as yours often are.

***K:
I would hope that a list such as this would welcome tales of personal
experience that invite us, or demand of us, that we become aware,
of how we react to suffering...or the appearance of unloveableness....or the
appearance of foolishness...of instability....instead we sweep it under the
rug.....I think, because it makes us uncomfortable, suggesting to me, that
"enlightenment" as it is characterized here, frequently has not occasioned
much change, from the regular, ordinary world, in how we relate to others.

***P:
An excellent point. It is these tales, the ones that challenge others to
increase their awareness of the world around them, that are very important
here.

***K:
I don't have any answers here.....actually, I do think I have some unique
insights here because I have had some extraordinary life experiences,
especially with the "unloveable", the "wounded," and those who
threaten the survival of others.....but have become very tentative about
sharing those on the list...

***P:
I wish more people would share their stories, as long as those stories point
beyond themselves to greater insights, that can really benefit everyone.
Sometimes it's easy to fall prey to the demon of self-pity (as I have),
forgetting that there are stories a thousand times more "extraordinary" and
painful than those we've personally experienced.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***Dan responds:


*The Ocean of Stories*

I am the ocean of stories,
yet I myself have no story.

In me and by me, are all tales told
that are told.
Yet nothing is said by me of myself.

All the stories arise from me and return to me.
All are equally me and not me.
No story is prized above another.
No story is rejected.

I am the story of all stories.
Yet my tale will never be told.

Listen for me in silence.
Look for me when it's dark.
Feel me when all nerves are still.
Know me as the one with no story,
no name, no purpose, no meaning.

My currents intermingle all the stories
that are you,
Weave them to and fro,
yet keep each distinct and clear.

Like a fish, you swim through me,
never knowing I am there,
telling the story that is you.

Love,
Dan
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***KKT teaches about fullness of Self and Emptiness:

Whether ultimate reality is fullness
of the Self or Emptiness has always been
a fascinating problem. It had been for long
debating between Buddhists and Advaitins,
and among Buddhists themselves
(Yogacara with the Mind-Only theory
and Madhyamika with the Shunyata
or Emptiness theory)

Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an
(Chinese Zen) but sometimes is regarded
as the real father of this tradition, in his
famous Platform Sutra said that "seeing
one's own original nature is enlightenment."
His view was condemned by other Buddhists
as heretic because orthodox Buddhism
believed in (absolute) No-Self. His Platform
Sutra was burned after his death :-)

In this post I like to present another
interesting view of Dzogchen which
arrives to conciliate the two apparently
opposite conceptions: Self and Emptiness
as Harsha-ji states:

<< Harsha:
My experience is that the Self as Sat-Chit-Ananda is Both the Fullness of
Consciousness and the Total Emptiness from which all things originate. The
two notions appear different only from the perspective of the mind which by
nature is caught up in diversity. In the Knowledge of the Self, You are the
Self. You are the Perceiver and the Perception and yet there is Absolutely
Nothing to Perceive. You are the Emptiness from which you are born. If we go
behind the feeling/awareness of the I AM, we can intuitively sense this.
Holding on to this intuitive sense of Emptiness which can be seen/felt in
the Present Beingness/Nowness and merging with it is a natural path for
some.
>>

KKT: In the following explanation, I
use many information from the book
"The Crystal and the Way of Light:
Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen" by
Namkhai Norbu.

The main objective of Dzogchen
(The Great Perfection) is to point out
for us to recognize our PRIMORDIAL
STATE or NATURAL STATE. This
Primordial State is complete and
perfected by itself from the very beginning.
Therefore, there is nothing to achieve,
to arrive, to become, to "do" or even
to transform (as in the Tantric Path)
or to renounce (as in the Sutric Path,
i.e. Hinayana and Mahayana)

This Primordial State has 3 aspects:

(1) Essence
(2) Nature
(3) Energy

For a better understanding of those
3 aspects, Dzogchen uses the example
of a mirror as a comparison to this
Primordial State.

The mirror is always pure, clear, limpid.
This voidness or emptiness of the mirror
is also the voidness or emptiness of the
mind. One could recognize this voidness
easily, for example, if one looks into
one's own mind, any thought that arises
can be seen to be void in the three times,
past, present, and future. That is to say,
if one looks for a place from which the
thought came, one finds nothing; if one
looks for a place where the thought stays,
one find nothing; and if one looks for a
place where the thought goes, one finds
nothing: voidness. This voidness or
emptiness is the ESSENCE of the
Primordial State. This voidness is not
some sort of 'thing', or 'place', but rather
that all phenomena, whether mental
events, or apparently 'external' actual
objects, no matter how solid they may
seem, are in fact essentially void,
impermanent, only temporarily existing,
and all 'things' can be seen to be made up
of other things, in turn made up of other
things, and so on.

Yet, even the mirror is void, reflections
continue to arise in it, just as all phenomena
- whether as mental events or as actual
experienced objects - continue to manifest
in the mind. Things continue to exist,
thoughts continue to arise, just as reflections
continue to arise in a mirror, even though
they are void. This capacity to reflect is
the NATURE of the Primordial State. And
the mind does not enter into judgment, it
simply reflects in the same way the mirror
does.

How phenomena manifest is as ENERGY.
This Energy is compared to the reflections
that arise in a mirror.

So we have the 3 aspects: Emptiness
(ESSENCE), Awareness (NATURE),
and Fullness (ENERGY) all together.

Don't forget that Dzogchen which exists
only in the Bon tradition (ancient Tibetan
religion prior to the introduction of Buddhism
in Tibet) and in the "old" Nyingma school,
was often comdemned by the 3 "new"
schools as heretic :-)

Note: Tibetan Buddhism has 4 main
schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and
Gelugpa (HH Dalai Lama belongs to
the Gelugpa). In the Nyingma tradition,
Dzogchen is considered as the highest
teaching of Tibetan Buddhism (and of
all other religious traditions because
Dzogchen as a universal truth is not
confined only to Buddhism). Please
don't feel offence, just an opinion :-)

Following is a very beautiful song:


THE SONG OF THE VAJRA

Unborn,
yet continuing without interruption,
neither coming nor going,
omnipresent,

Supreme Dharma,
unchangeable space, without definition,
spontaneously self-liberating

- perfectly unobstructed state -
existing from the very beginning,
self-created, without location,
with nothing negative to reject,
and nothing positive to accept,
infinite expansion, penetrating everywhere,
immense, and without limits, without ties,
with nothing even to dissolve,
or to be liberated from

present beyond space and time,
existing from the beginning,
immense 'yin' (*), inner space,
radiant through clarity like the sun and the moon,
self-perfected,

indestructible like a Vajra,
stable as a mountain,
pure as a lotus,
strong as a lion,
incomparable pleasure
beyond all limits,
illumination,
equanimity,
peak of the Dharma,
light of the universe,
perfect from the beginning.

(*) Tibetan Yin, Sanskrit Dhatu dimension.


May all sentient beings recognize their Primordial State :-)


Namaste,

KKT
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***Dan:
Larry, what happened to the experience of "simply
being here" of which you wrote? Experientially, how do
you regard emptiness, an I-sense, relinquishment, or ultimacy (if you
do)?
<snip>
-- Love -- Dan


***Larry:
"Simply being here" became a problem, unexpectedly. I was
withdrawing from the world because I was throwing too much energy into
"being". I basically decided I didn't want to withdraw. So I dropped it.
What remains is a distinct but not particularly "significant" detachment
from attachment. There is a difference that I don't have to do anything
about. So, it's on-going, day to day, new stuff all the time. Not a
struggle or a panic like it was before but not really wasting time
either in spit of indulging in old vasanas, "tendencies". I like xan's
advice to Carol concerning empathic reactivity. She basically said don't
change your ways, just add awareness. Works for me :-)

Larry


***xan:
~ Dear Larry, I amend my statement:
Be awareness, deepen in awareness, expand as awareness.
Otherwise there may be a tendency to compromise our awakening.


with love
xan


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***xan on transformation:

Awakening to the truth of yourself will transform you. It will change your
body and mind in ways you cannot control or predict. Any fantasies you have
about living your life according to a fairy tale of enlightenment will be
smashed. Your capacity to enjoy will increase beyond your wildest dreams and
your worst fears will show up in front of your face. Long-term health
problems may spontaneously heal, or you may get sicker than you've ever been.
You may have headaches like you've never felt before and you may have a
sense of well-being you never imagined possible. Your closest relationships
may become harmonious or hellish or disappear altogether. You may withdraw
from the world for a time or be drawn into interactions with a wider range of
people. Your treasured ways of thinking and feeling will change and your
sense of control will be stretched, dissolved or shattered. If you run from
the discomfort of these shifts you only postpone the exquisite intimacy of
your transformation. If you continue to see and let go of surfacing
fragments of conditioned mind identity, the mutation will continue and become
more subtle.

Eventually you get used to it and don't resist any more, or even welcome the
rough spots for the deepening breakthroughs they herald. There may be
sticking points for anyone in a human body
at any level that, with surrender, reveal themselves to be gateways deeper
into the indescribable.

As creatures of comfort we may find we would rather keep the old familiar
ways than abandon ourselves to the unknown of Absolute Love, as well as to
the unknowable direction of our so-called lives. Once there is discovery of
silent boundless consciousness there remains the tendency to try to maintain
control and the familiar life.

If you long for the perfection only reached through surrender, control must
be let go moment to moment. If you are satisfied where you are, there is no
problem with it. Complete and total reabsorption is an inevitable
eventuality, and Grace will pursue you in its own time to the end of the
world as you know it.

blessings
xan

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