I
am a free bird. I have no duties to perform or obligations to
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#2689 - Thursday, January 4, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nondual Highlights
the way of the bird
A Free Bird
(for Heike)
http://www.wayofthebird.com/FreeBird.htm
I
am a free bird. I have no duties to perform or obligations to
fulfill.
Name and form do not belong to me. I have forgotten the limitations imposed by knowledge.
The eyes see, the ears hear, but there is no one who is looking, no one who is listening.
The body and the brain are alive and alert, but there is no mind, no thinker.
Thoughts come and go, but they never disturb the peace that is always present.
Like an actor on the stage, I perform whatever actions are required of me. Still I know that it is all a play.
Who can say what life is? The body breathing, the senses responding—what could be more miraculous than this?
In this liberation, there has never been any bondage. I understand that there is nothing to understand.
In this completeness, there has never been any incompleteness. I know that I am the One.
There are no words to express what I am. Thought cannot encompass it.
Reality cannot be broken into parts. Therefore, notions of this and that, I and you, are illusion.
This world appearance is like a ripple on the surface of the ocean. I feel the depth of that ocean, but I cannot describe it.
The world of forms appears, but has no substance. I see no separation anywhere.
I do not know myself or experience myself as a separate person. I do not know or experience others as separate persons.
I am friendly with everyone, because I do not feel that others are different from me.
I invite everyone into my own happiness. There is only Oneness there, so how can you call it love?
I do not want anything, nor do I not want anything. All seems good to me as it is.
My true nature is silence. I sit quietly in my Self.
Those who need me will find me. I know that I will also receive whatever I need.
I have no thoughts about the future. I know that there is never any moment other than this one.
This life around me is my Self. I meditate on that Self with devotion.
The flame of life is always lit. I am the devotee and the object of devotion as well.
I am both full and empty, foolish and wise, asleep and awake. I do not understand myself!
I cannot locate myself anywhere in space. I cannot experience myself at any point in time.
I do not exist in any shape or form, and yet I am. My being is a mystery to me!
I perceive beauty, but it is not projected by me, nor does it come to me from outside.
Beauty and goodness are in the nature of existence itself. That is the conclusion I come to.
This human form has its weaknesses and strengths, but I know that I am not that. Therefore I am not constrained by the body.
I do not conceive of myself as being like this or like that. Therefore I am not constrained by thought.
I never experience a state in which I am not aware. Therefore I am not constrained by ignorance.
I know that one day this body will fall away and all knowledge of the world will end. Therefore I am not constrained by knowledge.
Like a flag flying in the wind that shows that the wind is there, this world reveals my existence, but I remain unknown.
Is there anything I need to satisfy me? No, I am content with my Self.
"I" am not enlightened, awakened, or Self-realized. There is no one to whom those words can be applied.
May all those who seek the Self come to this understanding—that there is no path that leads to the one who is seeking.
May all those who practise spiritual disciplines come to this understanding—that there is nothing you can do to become what you already are.
May all seekers everywhere come to the end of their seeking and live freely in peace and happiness.
I am a free bird. I have no duties to perform or obligations to fulfill.
Himachal Pradesh, India, May 2004
http://www.wayofthebird.com/FreeBird.htm
http://www.wayofthebird.com/Unsent_letter4.htm
Enlightenment
Dear Friend,
The so-called “enlightenment” or “Self-realization” has significance only to the spiritual seeker, the one who imagines himself or herself bound and who is in need of liberation. The actual event or change known as enlightenment is really a non-event. It involves the disappearance of the wrong assumption that there is somebody there who has something to gain. Spiritual seeking ends when it is understood that you are the one you were seeking. You are already yourself. When that dawns on you, naturally you give up the pointless pursuit of looking for yourself.
Enlightenment gets built up in the mind of a seeker so that it seems like something great and wonderful. That is the nature of “two.” It imagines separation and then longs for oneness. Oneness becomes “the goal.” But that’s OK. It is part of the natural process by which oneness, having become two, becomes one again. It is part of the play that it is not understood that oneness is all. Only after the famous “awakening” takes place does the understanding finally come and twoness finally goes away. Then “enlightenment” is seen as something of a joke. There never was any seeker! Then you understand how Maharaj tricked you. He was never there either!
Well, so it goes.. Everything is still perfect, just the way it is. How can that be so? Because whatever happens, happens as a result of everything else that has already happened and cannot be otherwise. Isn't that a perfect, flawless system? It all follows the natural law, like water running downhill, or fruit ripening on a tree. The mind may torment itself with thoughts like “why don’t I fall off the tree?” but things remain always just the way they have to be.
Shanti..
A.
The Desolate Field
Vast and grey, the sky
is a simulacrum
to all but him whose days
are vast and grey and --
In the tall, dried grasses
a goat stirs
with nozzle searching the ground.
My head is in the air
but who am I . . . ?
-- and my heart stops amazed
at the thought of love
vast and grey
yearning silently over me.
--William Carlos Williams