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#2653 - Sunday,
November 26, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nondual Highlights
When you arise in the
morning, give thanks for the
morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks
for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no
reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with
yourself.
--Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief
If you look deeply
into the palm of your hand, you will
see your parents and all generations of your ancestors.
All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in
your body. You are the continuation of each of these
people. To be born means that something which did not
exist comes into existence. But the day we are born is
not our beginning. It is a day of continuation. But that
should not make us less happy when we celebrate our
Happy Continuation Day.
Since we are never born,
how can we cease to be?
This is what the Heart Sutra reveals to us. When we
have tangible experience of non-birth and non-death,
we know ourselves beyond duality. The meditation on
no separate self is one way to pass through the gate
of birth and death.
Your hand proves that you
have never been born and
you will never die. The thread of life has never been
interrupted from time without beginning until now.
Previous generations, all the way back to single cell
beings, are present in your hand at this moment. You
can observe and experience this. Your hand is always
available as a subject for meditation.
--Thich Nhat Hanh, Present
Moment, Wonderful
Moment
hunches
we don't think in straight lines
like rulers on a grid
we think in the roundness of sounds
the panoply of words
exhales of the unknown
along the bare skin of the mind
gut hunches
like the burrowings of feral pigs
on long afternoons
in unmapped fields
n.m.rai
http://spiritfeedings.blogspot.com/2006/11/hunches.html
"Great
poetry can alter the way we see ourselves.
It can change the way we see the world. You may
never have read a poem in your life, and yet you
can pick up a volume, open it to any page, and suddenly
you see your own original face there; suddenly find
yourself blown into a world full of awe, dread, wonder,
marvel, deep sorrow, and joy. Poetry at its best calls
forth our deep Being, bids us live by its promptings; it
dares us to break free from the safe strategies of
the cautious mind; it calls to us, like wild geese, from
an open sky."
--Roger Housden
'Ten Poems to Change Your Life'
Gill Eardley on Allspirit
Flight of the Garuda,
Song 6:
by Shabkar Tsokdrug Rangdrol
E-ma-ho!
Listen again, fortunate heart-children!
That which is widely renowned as mind, does anyone have it?
No one has it!
What is it the source of? It is the source of samsara and
nirvana and their myriad joys and sorrows.
What is it believed to be? There are many beliefs according
to the various vehicles.
What is it called? It is named in countless different ways.
All ordinary people call it "I."
Some non-Buddhists call it "self."
Shravakas call it "individual egolessness."
The Mind Only School label it "mind."
Some call it "Prajnaparamita," "transcendent
knowledge."
Some label it "sugatagarbha,"
"Buddha-nature."
Some name it "Mahamudra."
Some give it the name "Madhyamika."
Some say "the single sphere."
Some name it "dharmadhatu," "realm of
phenomena."
Some call it the name "alaya," "ground of
all."
Some call it "ordinary mind."
Despite the innumerable names that are tagged onto it,
Know that the real meaning is as follows:
Let your mind spontaneously relax and rest.
When left to itself, ordinary mind is fresh and naked.
If observed, it is a vivid clarity without anything to see,
A direct awareness, sharp and awake.
Possessing no existence, it is empty and pure,
A clear openness of non-dual luminosity and emptiness.
It is not permanent, since it does not exist at all.
It is nothingness, since it is vividly clear and awake.
It is not oneness, since many things are cognised and known.
It is not plurality, since the many things known are inseparable
in one taste.
It is not somewhere else; it is your own awareness itself.
The face of this Primordial Protector, dwelling in your heart,
Can be directly perceived in this very instant.
Never be separated from it, children of my heart!
If you want to find something greater than this in another place,
It's like going off searching for footprints although the
elephant
is right there.
You may scan the entire three-thousand-fold universe,
But it is impossible that you will find more than the mere name
of
Buddha.
This is the song which indicates the natural state of the main
practice.
http://www.khandro.net/meditation_garuda.htm
Gill Eardley on
Allspirit