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#2766
- Thursday/Friday,
Nondual
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
a note about the
nonduality community
When you stumble around a
corner into a dark alley, the extended nonduality community rests
behind a rarely used door. You open it. The room
is lit up like an Alex Grey painting, Gnarles Barkley's rapping,
Moby-Dick swims by unscarred, aloeswood smoke rises in multiple
places, Hafiz reaches for a Dorito with his left hand.
--Jerry
"'I' am nowhere
around," and other nondual confessions...
Orva Schrock is
a longtime consumer and supporter of nonduality, and
also a contributor. The Nondual Highlights is pleased to
introduce to you his book, Grandpa's Notebooks: The
Evolution of an Amish Soul.
Available at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Grandpas-Notebooks-Evolution-Amish-Soul/dp/1598003747/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4897241-9294530?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174678739&sr=1-1
[from the introduction
(spring 2007)] As a youngster growing up in an Amish family, the
world I observed and experienced seemed radically different from
what my Amish elders insisted was "the truth." Early on
I developed the attitude that truth, real truth, was the supreme
value to be sought in life. Even as a child my inner life was
busy with this basic question: what is the ultimate truth and
what would I believe if no one had ever told me anything?
.....What is truth?
According to the Bible, when Jesus was asked this question
directly, He didn't answer at all. For thoughtful persons the
search never ends. As we discover new features of the spiritual
landscape, the horizon recedes and we must continue still further
in hopes of the final and lasting answer.....
[from page 58
(1977)] There is a God shaped hole in my soul. I need the
illumination of the mystic union. I pray for deliverance from my
present "dark night of the soul." I feel that the dawn
is near. I have had some glorious visions of light and love but
all too brief, all too few. Just enough to keep me going; and I
will.
[from page 81 (1979)]
Last night I dreamed I was dying. I don't know what the disease
was but I had it and knew the end was near.....I began to feel
and somehow know that nothing was really going to be lost. On the
contrary I was about to gain everything. I would no longer be
individual; I would be universal......I awoke disappointed to
find myself still here, a prisoner in this body.....
[page 96 (1982)] In truth
there is only God......and there is no proper symbol, way, guru,
religion - all these are shadows at best and lies at worst. Take
the journey - do not be mesmerized by tales of madmen. Take the
journey - do not worship outdated road maps. Take the journey -
don't stare at the finger pointing at a vague path. Take the
journey; this is what you are here for.
[page 135 (2000)]
Religion can be superstition. Of that I have no doubt. Once I
left formal religion behind, I became a better person in every
conceivable way. Happier, kinder, more intelligent, more useful
to the good of the earth and humankind. You do not need religion
to be moral. I say quite the opposite is true. You need to be
fully responsible for yourself to be truly moral and good.
[page 155 (2002)] Then
one day, the best and worst day of my life, I decided to come out
of hiding. It was so scary, like jumping off a cliff not knowing
for sure I could fly. I talked to my wife and others close to me
and told them things that could make a drunken whore blush. I
told them I'm not who you think I am but with God's help I intend
to be a real person with only one personality.....Almost
immediately everything in my world changed....I felt unworthy
then and still do now but the presence of "God" is with
me in a truly wondrous way and I can't imagine living any other
way anymore.
[page 172 (2002)] As
Harding says, "you are capacity for all of creation to
appear in." That light of consciousness is where God can be
found, can be known, can be experienced directly. The mystery of
being is not other than what you yourself are at this moment Once
it is seen it will never be forgotten.
[page 194 (2002)] The
opening of the heart can happen in many ways. The truth is the
truth and the ways to realize that are many. Within each person,
starting at the heart, is the unique path that person must walk.
Within the heart of each, hidden from view, lies the clear
infinitely deep pond of Spirit or Consciousness, the very ground
of our being, the home we are always seeking. This is the pearl
of great price, the heaven talked about universally in the sacred
mythologies and religions of mankind.
[page 219 (2003)] The
underlying theme throughout Vedanta is the idea that we can and
must awaken to the reality of our ultimate oneness with Brahman,
that is; pure being, pure consciousness, pure bliss. They insist
that not only is it possible to become aware of this underlying
ultimate reality, but that this awakening and realization is the
real one thing worth pursuing in life.
[page 226 (2003)] It
seems obvious now: consciousness is indeed the root and basis of
all. It's where God and everything in every infinite
universe always appears.....so I need not worry anymore, but
if I do worry, I know its just something consciousness is doing
now and "I" am nowhere around.
[page 254 (2004)] The
clues are there in the amazing book I was raised on [ my father
was an Amish preacher ] in that B-I-B-L-E. The clues are there
but he didn't see 'em, didn't believe 'em, didn't teach 'em. Like
nearly all the fundamentalists, he ignored, "be still and
know I Am God", ignored, "Know ye not that ye are
Gods", ignored, "for behold, the
Grandpa's
Notebooks: The Evolution of an Amish Soul.
by Orva Schrock
http://www.amazon.com/Grandpas-Notebooks-Evolution-Amish-Soul/dp/1598003747/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4897241-9294530?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174678739&sr=1-1