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Dave's encouraging words:

Doing what you have to do is as hard as
knowing why. Pain is pain, peace is
peace.
Seeing through the veil can give you the
strength to convert the former into the
latter. Especially now, don't let it go,
but by all means get down and get
dirty.
d.
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Mary tells herself something:

All this discourse, Mary, has been an interesting side trip. Set the
compass on Home and on the ONE who will guide you there. A leap of
faith is just that, a leap. Time to take that leap.
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Jan B's rhyming wisdom:


What makes them move so very slow?
A lot of mass that has to go
The mass of all that karmic goo
Makes realizing Self taboo

So just let the slowmos* pass
Until they gather critical mass
Then things are starting to burn well
And will give rise to "Dante's hell"

Instructing them would be in vain
What would that harvest but disdain...

The fire that burns itself is rare
So handle it with greatest care
It leaves "What is" as just delight
And seals one's lips forever tight

It can't be moved or be improved
And it knows neither wrong nor right
But all explaining is in vain
What would that harvest but disdain...

* slowmos, slow movers

Jan
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Joyce and xan about inclusion and exclusion, resistance and nonresistance,
duality and
wholeness, etcetera:

<snip>
...I am reacting to
something that I read in a chat a few days ago somewhat to the general tone
that neurotics and those confused and needy are not welcome at satsangh...a
sort of sense of "them" that didn't belong, didn't get "it" etc. And, a
kind of an attempt to be awareness of oneself as a kind of bare awareness,
empty of what it is aware of, washed clean of all thoughts, all things.

When I remember to allow it, open to it, I experience the presence of
awareness that is Wholeness with nothing and no one left out. As someone
pointed out to me, looking out now, I have what others appear to be, looking
in, I am what they are. But, when I identify with those left out - and
don't wish to identify with those perceived to be doing the exclusion - pain
arises. I find it very difficult to welcome pain as part of the Whole -
well, some kinds of pain much easier than others. Which - of course, as
usual - is the arising of fear....so I allow fear and welcome it - but, this
still doesnt help me to accept/respond to what I perceive as exclusionary
activity, the "false", in the name of spiritual growth. And yes, I note
awareness arising as that and all perception - but injustice in the world
continues - how does the student welcome this as Wholeness?

I can usually see when my perceptions are "personal", distorted and confused
- but when others seem agree in the perception of the event such as what Im
writing about - then there must be some truth there beyond any personal
projection? Ive never been able to resolve this -

you see, muddled.

Joyce


Dear Joyce

Stepping into this conversation, here, I was also quite
amazed that anyone would want to set any terms
whatsoever for who should be welcome to satsang.
*Sat* itself has no such terms, of course.

I've investigated the activities of exclusion and inclusion of
the vagaries of the world quite a bit .... understanding that
exclusion is the maintenance of duality and wanting to know
how to transform my "dark side" through inclusion. What I
learned was, all I needed to do was to stop the subtle mind-
activity of resistance. Wholeness is natural and original, so
as what is humanly fabricated is seen for what it is and ceased,
wholeness is revealed. For some time my practice was simply
Non-Resistance.

Also, just because a group of people agree about a delusion,
it does not become real. When has human agreement ever
been a real test of truth?

with love
xan
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xan on the difference between watching the watcher and awareness of awareness:


~Dear Kristie

The watcher and layers of watching you are describing reveal
your involvement in what is being watched. To be done with it
become aware of awareness itself, letting go of engaging with
all that stuff that comes and goes, including evaluation, ordering,
self-manipulating, etc. etc. Awareness itself is what you have
always been and will always be. You can relax into and as that.


with love
xan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marcia saying something different about watching:

There is a huge difference between introspection and analysis and
self-observation. If you find yourself giving reasons like "I am
avoiding issues that need to be resolved" you can be sure that
you are in your head analyzing and introspecting. If you can just
watch, the watching itself will begin to change things. As you
are there is no way that you can "fix" anything. You can't
wake up. You don't know how. Thinking that you can is
a huge mistake. All you (or I) can do is to just watch impartially.
The watching itself will bring all sorts of things to light. It is the
light that begins to change things not anything that you can do.
The activity or the doing that you can do is to watch impartially.

Marcia
~~~~~~~

Kristi and Melody about watching and procrastination:


Kristi:

<snip>
Watching can become
disassociative.........being aware that there is no sufferer....can induce
inertia.......the practices and/or concepts themselves are not inadequate or
wrong-minded but they can be misapplied.....and I have misapplied them.

Hi Kristi,

I have too. And you make an important point, highlighting the inertia
that can be induced....the procrastination....in (for me) hiding behind
such phrases as "there is nothing to be done" and especially "all things
unfold naturally, in their season". While this is certainly true of a
tomato:
if you try to rush the maturation of a tomato, you will get a tomato with
'something' missing...with the fullness of expression lacking, but

I have used such a statement to justify "not now....maybe tomorrow".

I have used such a statement to *deny* the very season standing
before me. What diligence it takes to empty ourselves of resistances
......resistances to living the ripeness of each season - no matter how
it suits our tastes.

I share your walk.

Melody
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Dave aka manchine:

Just don't get lulled into stopping there.
The first coming of Christ was one man who was All, could it be that
the second coming is All who are One.

There is lots of work to do.


Jerry:

Yes, the lets not think we might not be singing lullaby's
here. Isn't I AM the first coming, and isn't Standing Free,
or Full Enlightenment, the second coming? So there's nowhere
to go and nothing to do, really. Well, that's another
lullaby. It's a good question, Are we, instead of awakening,
deceiving ourselves and causing lulling? It's very possible
we're moving from dream to another. It's almost impossible
to be awake.

Jerry
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Jerry on muscular Gurus:

...By muscular I mean
extremely powerful, forceful, vigorous with respect to
Kundalini or Being, such that one has almost no choice but
to either be a devotee, or to resist being one.
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A couple of snippets from Mira:

Ah yes, the beauty of the destination as it paves every stone along every way.
Even when I discovered that there never was anything but the destination, that
all is
this destination already, I was thankful for the journey nonetheless.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is no one anywhere in particular. Thoughts about non-duality do not
interfere
with what one is. What one is IS stillness. What one is IS noise. What one is IS
thoughts. Only when one starts to conceive of oneself as being something in
particular, in reference to a particular location, can one conceive oneself to
rest
somewhere in stillness. If one does not conceive of oneself in any particular
way,
actually has no conceptions about ones beingness, nature or location at all,
then
resting 'somewhere' is quite impossible.
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After he had journeyed
and his feet were sore
and he was tired
he came upon an orange grove
and he rested
and he lay in the cool
and while he rested, he took to himself an orange and tasted it
and it was good
and he felt the earth to his spine
and he asked, and he saw the tree above him, and the stars
and the veins in the leaf
and the light, and the balance
and he saw magnificent perfection
whereon, he thought of himself in balance
and he knew he was.

And he thought of those he angered
for he was not a violent man
and he thought of those he hurt
for he was not a cruel man
and he thought of those he frighteneed
for he was not an evil man
and he understood
he understood himself.

Upon this he saw that when he was of anger or knew hurt or felt fear
it was because he was not understanding
and he learned compassion
and with his eye of compassion
he saw his enemies like unto himself
and he learned love
Then, he was answered.

Just open your eyes
and realize the way it's always been
just open your mind
and you will find
the way it's always been
just open your heart
and that's a start.
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Gill sent this:

"It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an
individual.
The next Buddha may take the form of a community -- a community practicing
understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living.
This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the
Earth."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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