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Nondual Highlights
Issue #2606, Saturday, October 7,
2006, Editor: Mark
The desire for truth is the highest of all
desires, yet, it is still a desire. All desires
must be given up for the real to be. Remember
that you are. This is your working capital.
Rotate it and there will be much profit.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am Tha: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj, posted to AlongTheWay
The key to the phrase 'one's own true nature' is in the phrase
'Being- consciousness', which is unfortunately the best possible
English translation of the tamil word 'Iruppunarvu' or the
'feeling of being alive' 'consciousness that one is present' or
the 'clear knowledge that I am present here now'.
The only knowledge that one can be absolutely sure of is this
awareness. 'I exist here now'. Every other thought or even
feeling that I am this, I am that, or I am like this, my
character etc etc, are all secondary and so contaminated.
The entire task of Self enquiry and the goal of self realization
is to separate out 'I am here now' from the limited feeling 'I am
here now as so-and-so'
- Ravi, posted to atma_vichara
It is a very high stage on the path of love when a man really
learns to love another with a love that asks no return.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The nature of life on earth is illusory and in the Sanskrit
tongue it is called Maya or illusion, and every soul having the
spark of the divine love, forgets the use and the purpose of that
spark and begins to love itself most.
By a keen study of human life, man will find that as a rule, when
he claims that he loves, in reality he loves himself, he loves
his own benefit in life, he loves another for the help that other
gives, for his goodness, for his kindness, for his service, but
in all this he surely loves himself, and it is for himself all
the while he thinks he loves another.
It is a very high stage in the path of love when man really
learns to love another with a love that asks no return, when he
does not seek love for the sake of love in return, then love
becomes pure, the lover gives, and gives and gives, but even that
is not the purpose of life, it is still greater. The Perfect One
who is the source and origin of the whole creation, is the
Perfection of Beauty. All beauty on earth or in heaven belongs to
Him, and the purpose of the creation of every soul is to progress
in the path of love until the soul arrives at a stage where it
may find the Perfection of Beauty.
The development of love is often hindered by different obstacles
in life. The first obstacle is ourselves. We begin our life with
selfishness, and all that we want is for self, and if there is a
tendency to love, it is for one's own happiness, and one's own
joy. When the question comes, 'How much do you love me, and how
much do I love you?' it has come to be a trading in love. 'I love
you, but you do not love me' is as much as to say, 'I have bid so
much, and I expect a return of love'. This is trading in love,
and trade cannot lead anywhere, because it makes one think of the
self, and love is beyond that. To love is to give; it is not to
take at all. The true lover never speaks of what he has done for
his beloved, for he loves for love's sake, not for the sake of a
return.
To what does the love of God lead? It leads to that peace and
stillness which can be seen in the life of the tree, which bears
fruits and flowers for others and expects no returns, not even
thanks in return. It serves, and cares for nothing else, not even
for appreciation. That is the attribute of the godly.
- posted to SufiMystic
Come, arise from the depths of your heart!
You are alive and born of the living.
O lovely one, aren't you suffocated
by this narrow tomb?
You are the Joseph of the time, the bright sun:
arise from this prison and show your face!
Your Jonah has been cooked and absorbed
in the belly of the fish:
to deliver him there is no way
but glorification of God.
- Rumi, Mathnawi II: 3132-3135, version by Camille and Kabir
Helminski, Rumi: Daylight, posted to Sunlight.