Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2516 - Tuesday, July 4, 2006 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Vicki and Martin join up in this issue of The Nondual Highlights. These are posts which have appeared in the Nonduality Salon over the last days and months. Something for everyone.
Is it safe to post here?
by Vicki Woodyard
I want my life to be exactly as it is, including the tears,
fatigue
and self-induced stress. As Ram Dass' guru said,
"Can't you see it's
all perfect?"
Today I bought some key lime taffy, mini-biscottis and a new
pasta
pot. I came home happy as a clam and sampled the goodies
with a cup
of coffee. So much fun for under fifty dollars.
After lunch I sat down to read for a while and soon I found
myself
weeping. I just totally let it happen and this thought
arose. This
is the life I choose to live and it includes the sloppy plop of
tears
down my cheeks. They prove I am alive and well. And
that is what
tissues are for.
Why was I crying? I am not even certain; something about it
being
just me on an orb of billions. Some of them don't even use
deodorant.
Some don't care if they drive drunk and most will not wake
before
they die. I had rather be alone and in tears. They
are mine, after all.
Without a sense of humor, I would have died a death by tears long
ago.
But my ha ha has kept me in health and my boo hoo's not too
bad
either. I am insane, unknown and perfectly capable of
eating my way
through a bag of salt water taffy without any help.
I can read my online bank statements so I don't get
overdrawn. I can
coccoon at a moment's notice and certainly risk the great
adventure of
having dinner with a friend if I so choose. But sometimes I
choose
otherwise, and then all hell breaks loose. I am called
eccentric and
isolated. Guilty on both charges. Does anybody have
my back?
Copthorne MacDonald and The Wisdom Page
contributed by Martin
"Early in 1980 I did a five-week retreat in my apartment,
and devoted
it to this practice. I found the practice highly effective. It
helped
create psychological distance between mind contents and the
primal
sense of identity, and led me to associate that sense of identity
with Being. I will describe one of the key happenings during
those
five weeks - not because anyone will repeat it exactly, but
because
it illustrates the kind of door-opening event to which intuitive-
stage practices can lead.
During periods of sitting meditation, I settled into, and got
familiar with, the basic sense of self - that fundamental sense
of
existence or basic identity, the I AM feeling. It was a
comfortable
mental space, and the mind got quiet just as it had whenever I
watched breath sensations for a prolonged period.
By two weeks into the retreat my mind had become very still and
quiet, and I became aware of subtle changes in the quality of
feeling
connected with this experience. I noticed that each time I
settled
into the I AM mental space it felt a little different. I then
noticed
that the difference had something to do with where my attention
rested, and how broadly it was focused. If my attention happened
to
settle on the chest/heart region, I tended to have loving
feelings.
If it settled on a muscled area like an arm or shoulder, then the
sense of being, or self, had a warm quality. If attention came to
rest on the stomach, it felt slightly heavy, in that "heavy
meal"
sense. If attention broadened out to include the whole body I
experienced happy feelings, a kind of quiet joy.
One morning I started to play with this, moving the focus of
attention around, and noting the changes in the sense-of-self
experience. I gradually moved the focus upward, stopping to feel
each
sensation along the way - chest, neck, lips, nose. I continued to
move awareness upward, little by little, until finally it was
directed at the inside of my head. When I reached a certain point
in
this transition the body-sensation components of the sense of
self
disappeared. The basic sense that "I exist" became
almost completely
free of content, free of sensory modulation. It was close to no
experience at all, close to a pure void, almost nothing - except
I
knew that I was still intensely aware.
I saw two things at that moment. First, there really was a pure
awareness free of content. Second, since I had moved my sense of
self
slowly, gradually to where all sensation vanished, what was left
-
pure awareness - was obviously the true home of that sense. This
maneuver had caused the last thing that was not "me" to
fall away.
There was nothing left but pure awareness staring into a void
containing only that low-level visual sensation that always
exists as
a sort of irreducible background noise. Direct experience had
confirmed for me what perennial philosophy teachers had been
saying
for centuries: The true "me" is awareness itself. The
words of
Nisargadatta again:
If I ask you what is the taste of your mouth, all you can do is
to
say: it is neither sweet nor bitter, nor sour nor astringent; it
is
what remains when all these tastes are not. Similarly, when all
distinctions and reactions are no more, what remains is reality,
simple and solid.
And:
Give your heart and mind to brooding over the "I am,"
what is it, how
is it, what is its source, its life, its meaning. It is very much
like digging a well. You reject all that is not water till you
reach
the life-giving spring.24
Those physical sensations I experienced when awareness focused on
the
body provided subtle content for the "I am" experience.
But the
nature of that content changed as attention moved from one body
part
to another. Only one thing was always constant, always present:
awareness itself. When awareness shifted to an almost
sensation-free
place it became obvious that my basic identity was the one
constant
factor: pure awareness - that which remained when the physical
sensations were not. The life-giving spring.
My earlier concept of unity was a unity of process. All the
specifics
in the universe were part of one big specific - the total
process. It
was a horizontal kind of unity. Now I intuitively saw another
kind of
unity, a vertical unity in which the myriad specifics were all
one
with the underlying general. It was the unity of
interpenetration.
The eternal medium of Being interpenetrated, supported, and
allowed
the everchanging message of form and function to exist. And my
true
identity was the medium itself.
I wrote: "The perceived world looks the same as it always
did. It's
just that there is now this cognitive sense that Being underlies
everything I perceive. It's a sense of the depth of things, a
sense
of the attributes of things, of Being, of capital-S Self
permeating
the old view. Life, awareness, organic wisdom, and love are seen
in a
new way. They are no longer seen as isolated events, but as the
all-
pervasive reality poking through the illusion here, there, and
everywhere. I sense the reality of the medium and its values in a
way
I never did before."
I reflected on my basic sense of being or selfhood always having
felt
basically the same whether I was four or 44. My subjective self
had
always felt ageless. I now saw that the real me was ageless. I
was
the same timeless universal awareness that had watched the cosmic
show since t=0. For the previous 44 years it had been taking in
the
view through the Cop Macdonald porthole. The same awareness -
identical in quality, universal in nature - also watched the show
in
countless other places. For the first time in my life I felt
really
close to animals. That was my true Self watching the show in the
cat's head and everywhere else.
I also realized that I was more than awareness. I was the life
that
animates the body/mind, the energy that makes life possible, and
even
the mass involved in every body's structure. I was these and
other
intrinsic qualities of the universal medium of existence. I was
the
eternal ground of being in all its aspects. Existence, the
universe -
the whole cosmic show including the Cop Macdonald body/mind - was
an
ephemeral media event, a modulation of Being. I, Being, was the
source of the cosmic show and its audience. I interpenetrated
this
ever-changing display and was its changeless foundation. I was
the
permanent medium; the universe was my temporary message.
I thought about humanity. We human beings were deluded gods, lost
in
the drama, taking the game too seriously - sucked in like fans
watching a movie or a football game. Identification with the
body/mind was the prison. Detachment. Mindfulness. Awareness.
Those
were keys to the prison door. Once we stepped through the door we
could see that our true identity was the one ground of being that
gave rise to the game. At that point we could choose just to Be,
and
watch - or choose to get involved in the game again with a caring
detachment that allowed more daring and effective play than ever
before.
As that retreat ended, the metaphor that came to mind was one of
ascent. All my life I had been climbing a hill, and as I climbed,
my
field of view had gradually enlarged. I had spent time reading
and
traveling and having a great variety of experiences - and as a
result, my view of what is had gradually become broader and more
detailed. Since I never wanted to miss anything, I'd always kept
my
eyes on the ever-growing view of the valley below. Then, during
that
retreat, I turned around, away from the valley and toward the
hill
itself. Instead of finding myself just facing the hill, I
discovered
that I was now able to peer over the top and see what was on the
other side. I saw that there was another valley on that side: the
realm of Being. I experienced a sudden step-function increase in
my
appreciation of what there was to see and explore. I was not yet
living in that other valley. I didn't know it in intimate detail.
But
I now knew beyond any doubt that it was there."
( http://www.cop.com/info/twch9.html )
http://www.cop.com/
Copthorne Macdonald was born Chicago, USA in 1936. He
immigrated to
Canada in 1975, and is a citizen of both the US and Canada.
Copthorne is a writer, independent scholar, and former
communication
systems engineer. His interests include the nature of
reality
(including consciousness and mind), the development of wisdom,
the
global problematique, and the challenge of creating a sustainable
future. He has written extensively in all of these areas,
and his
published writing to date includes 7 books and over 130 articles,
reviews, and column installments. His latest book, Matters
of
Consequence (Big Ideas Press, 2004), is a comprehensive map of
the
human situation that encompasses what is really important in
life,
addresses our search for meaning and significance, and deals with
humanity's future in a positive solution-oriented way.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich - Bend It
by Martin
When i was 4 years old
i used to dance to this single
whirling around like a little dervish
until i lost body-control.
It was like a 3 minute rave
speeding up from a slow stomping rhythm
to high speed
With a similar method Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi
tried to wake up the spirits of the slow-minded
people of anatolia 800 years ago ;-)
At one occasion while dancing
and spinning around to the song
a bright vastness opened up and filled the whole room
through the angle of my eye
i saw that my parents were observing my dance from
the next room, smiling.
But there was no room, no me , no parents
All of it was just this vast open shining Brightness.
And there was Love.
"Bend it bend it just a little bit
and take it easy show you're liking it
and lover you know that we're gonna hit
the heights 'cause I'm sure that we're made to fit
together just like pieces of a
jigsaw puzzle what's the hustle
Bend it bend it just a little more
without you baby I'm so insecure
but you can make me feel that I am sure
I've got a sickness only you can cure
so just relax there's stacks of time but honey
please don't tease me try to please me
Bend it bend it just a little bit
and take it easy show you're liking it
and lover you know that we're gonna hit
the heights 'cause I'm sure that we're made to fit
together just like pieces of a
jigsaw puzzle what's the hustle
Bend it bend it just a little bit
and take it easy show you're liking it
and ahh show me now yea that's right oh yea"
if you see change as a constant,
the constant never changes.
Eternity never dies.
and Becoming never is.
~ ~ ~
Soltice
The deepest point of Mother earths friendly vow
to the beloved sun.
~ ~ ~
Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others,
for
those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act
for yourself. Face
the truth.
--Katherine Mansfield.
But I tell you, my lord fool,
Out of this nettle, danger
We pluck this flower, safety.
~ ~ ~
...after the night of wholeism abuse,
all the klein-bottles formerly
filled with squareroots were empty - minus one:
filled from the beginning on thrugh all the Yugas
it is still being.
~ ~ ~
Bashu was asked by Huang: 'What is the secret underpinning of
form?'
Bashu replied: 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!'
Huang was very upset, ran into the kitchen and broke the dishes,
screaming: 'when this mosquito bites - everything is lost!'
from the 'brute force zen-archives'" at Ruhpolding, Bavaria