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#2639 -
The Nondual Highlights
This is an excerpt from Spiritual
Enlightenment, The Damnedest Thing, by Jed McKenna: http://wisefoolpress.com.
This book is about an enlightened guy named Jed McKenna who had
run an ashram. It consists of teaching dialogues
with students at various stages of understanding,
descriptions of his life, and confessions of his enlightenment
and knowings.
"Which two or three dozen?" Mary
asks, and it takes me a moment to realize that she's jumping back
to my statement about which books would remain if I were more
discriminating about the library.
"Oh, I'd want to be a little careful
answering that," I say. "The reason for the books I'd
choose wouldn't be that they are particularly enlightened or
enlightening books, or even specifically on the subject of
enlightenment. My choices would be based on what I feel is useful
knowledge on the path to enlightenment, which is very different
from enlightenment itself. In this light, I'd have a bunch of
books and maybe some movies, too, because they're often a common
experience we share and can provide interesting framework for
highlighting certain issues..."
"Like what?" she asks.
I think about some of the movies I've seen
in the last few years that most everybody would be familiar with.
"Well, The Matrix would be a good
example of a movie I could get a lot of use out of. Total Recall,
The 13th Floor, Blade Runner -- those are all good looks at the
flimsy and even arbitrary nature of what we call reality. Joe vs.
the Volcano is another one I'd use because of the parable-like
view it takes of the death-rebirth process. There are probably a
few dozen more if I thought about it. The Peter Brook version of
The Mahabharata certainly. All the Mornings of the World would be
a nice look at the teacher-student relationship. What Dreams May
Come to demonstrate the relationship between thoughts and
reality. Plenty of others, for different reasons.
I pause to consider and decide I'd better
stick with general recommendations not too open to
misrepresentation. I don't want to mention any books that would
require me to include a lengthy disqualifier.
"As for books, besides the ones that
you would all guess -- various versions and translations of the
Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching -- there'd be a version of the
Mahabharata accessible to Westerners. The Three Pillars of Zen by
Roshi Phillip Kapleau, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein,
The Razor's Edge by Maugham, Walden, Leaves of Grass, Emerson's
essays, anything by Stan Grof, Hero With A Thousand Faces by
Joseph Campbell, Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, and so
forth -- all good for different reasons. There would also be a
small collection of channeled material, some spiritual novels
with a theme of rebirth..."
Almost everyone reacts at the same time to
the mention of channeled material. The general response seems to
be a mixture of suprise and disbelief.
"I find channeled material very useful
and interesting, not just for teaching, but for my own
understanding of the phenomenal world in which, as you can see, I
exist just like anyone else. If you want me to be specific, I'd
say I like Michael for understanding ego and personality
structure. When it comes to personal reality, I like Seth. If I
have questions about flow and manifestation and desire, then I
read Abraham. I might be forgetting something, but those are the
main ones I like. A Course In Miracles certainly has its
moments."
"So those channeled entities were
instrumental in your own...?"
"Oh, no, no, not really," I wave a
hand dismissively. "It's more like, combined, they make up
my user's manual for being a human on earth -- Being Human 101.
This is why I want to be careful about this discussion. I like
the books I mentioned, but I don't really look at them that
often. Usually just when I have a specific question."
"So what do you read for
amusement?" asks Mary.
"Besides Harlequin romances? I like
Osho -- the enlightened guy formerly known as Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh." Some surprise registers through the group about
this, which is quite understandable. If one equates enlighenment
with sainthood, then Osho might come off as more of an
anti-saint, especially if one has only heard the stories of
murder plots and free love and power grabs and tax evasion and
the ninety Rolls Royces. I like his teaching style. I like his
take on Zen. I am in awe of his mind.
"And novels. I read a lot of
fiction." I can see from their reaction that I need to say
more. "All right, you got me. I spend a lot of time just
killing time. I play video games, read books, watch movies. I'd
say I probably blow several hours a day that way, but I don't see
it as a waste because I don't have anything better to spend my
time on. I couldn't put it to better use because I'm not trying
to become something or accomplish anything. I have no
dissatisfaction to drive me, no ambition to draw me. I've done
what I came to do. I'm just killing time 'til time kills
me."
This seems to have a quieting effect on the
group. I suppose they hadn't considered the possibility that
enlightenment was the end of a lot of things we don't normally
think of as having ends. Finally, Mary breaks the spell by
returning us to the discussion of books.
"What if you were stranded on a desert
island," she asks, "and could only have one book?"
"Easy," I reply, "Calvin and
Hobbes."
Everyone laughs. I close my eyes and lean my
head back and everyone takes that as a signal to give me some
peace. They talk among themselves but I am not listening to them.
I'm listening to everything and nothing and feeling the light
rain on my face and breathing the fresh night air, bringing it
all the way down so it cleanses me and carries away the heaviness
that builds up after long periods in character. I'm not tired or
ending the evening, I just want to not hear my own voice for
awhile. I want to pay attention to the rain and the breeze. I
want to let one topic fade out so that a new and fresher one
might come along.
Spiritual Enlightenment, The
Damnedest Thing, by Jed McKenna: http://wisefoolpress.com