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#2799 -
Nondual Highlights
Thanks to all who took the time to
respond, especially considering the length of the "not just
a book review".
Seems to me that he is simply trying to
manipulate what is,
trying to be mr nice guy. The whole point of nonduality is
that there is no one here that CAN do anything. All we can
do is watch as creation unfolds/is happening. Creation is
not only trees
rocks, etc. but thoughts, actions, emotions, et al....
we have no power over any of it. We just like to think we
do.....and that we can cause the effect.
''Believing there is a separate entity who
needs to do something about his experience, and trying to change
the experience is at the root of suffering"
Stephen Wingate...from his book...
..." Dogs, Cats,and Dreams of Spiritual
Awakening"
Just a few thoughts,
With smiles and love,
Louise
HI, Glo,
David Carse addresses this issue so beautifully
in his book, "Clear Brilliant Stillness". Highly
recommended for those who dare!
Love, Patrice
Well, I agree with Tom Huston and I've read
all the advaitic books and teachers ad nauseum and know what they
are saying yet I STILL want to strangle George Bush and Dick
Cheney!!!! Now what???
Millie
Hi Gloria,
VERY interesting topic today. It's what my life has
been about for a couple of decades now -- trying to define
consciousness.
Thanks for YOUR writings. I look forward to
them as
daily readings.
Jenny
----
Thanks
for Tom Huston's review of Arjuna's new book - The
Translucent Revolution. Before commenting on Huston's
remarks, I wish to add my thoughts concerning the
content of Arjuna's work. His contention that
" we are in an age of spiritual awakening" and
that millions from all over the globe are experiencing
this. I can best do this by contributing a small
bit about my own understanding of this evolutionary
phenomenom.
In
l980 I experienced a profound alteration in consciousness
following a year of deep despair and a sense of disenchantment
with life as it had turned out - in spite of the fact that I had
been a "successful achiever" and seemingly had
acquired the toys that life was alleged to be about (by
conditioned mind). I had no previous experience with meditation
nor Eastern mysticism but I had had a lifelong - meaning
since early childhood - to "know the truth". At
that time I had been a licensed psychotherapist for 7 years yet
the experience was a switch in polarity which was
experienced both physically and mentally. I almost
immediately found myself meditating hours daily. Within
another few years I was gifted with clairaudiance and began to
hear the voice of a seeming disembodied
intelligence (as best as I could describe it to myself at
the time). A very early message said this:
"If
you observe what has come to pass you will see that a Devine
Manifestation is being
produced
in the space occupied by the so-called "I". It
appears to have little relation
to
to the identity of 'Jenny" as she sees herself as it
is in actuality a World Consciousness -
a
Universal or Christ Consciousness which will appear in the
collectives of those who can
receive
it. It will be a multiple manifestation in many of what
previously was manifested in
only
a few of the great teachers/masters.
"The
individual life will give way to the Universal, so to speak,
although in outward
appearances,
the individual person remains the same ."
Many
other similar messages were given and I commend Arjuna, Tony,
Katie and all the others who have tried to "word"
the experience. I've been trying that for the last
few years and everytime I get about 100 pages, I
re-read the stuff - am dissatisfied with how I've said it -
and start over. After about 5 start-ups, I
decided to just put it off until it comes through with less ego-I
still clinging to it.
Regarding
the term: Neo-Advaitins and Translucent -
part of the problem of trying to "word it" so
that others will understand is in the very act of wording -
or materializing it so the lower thought system will understand.
When the event occurs - the lower thought disappears except where
needed in everyday tasks. There is simply a
large body of "Knowing" which is the
"Self" usually spoken about which is "Information
Mass" or the totality of each soul's
experience in all it's various lives. Also the lower
thought or the flux of the mind-stream is collective and
we are all part (as well as total) of that. We are each a
devine thoughtform or idea put into manifestation by this
Creation Mass and IT has It's own agenda.
At
the time of 911 I was told "The events of
9/11 are the beginnings of an era where many souls will
move into a higher consciousness range and continue with their
process of evolution ---while many more will stay on this plane
of the collective as a majority mass hasn't evolved enough yet to
handle the current conflict other than in the past ways - i.e.
hate with hate, etc. Yet an era of 25,000 years
is ending and evolution will transport into the Spiritual
4th Dimension where sanity will rule via profound changes such
as........"
So
I would say - let's disregard the philosophic debate
over labels for various activity for that is simply problems
again with "the wording". The term
"Translucent" is really pretty great because it
is extremely difficult to know (and particularly accept)
the fact that in recent years I have begun to just hate having
to go out into the public because people actually stare at
and oftentimes move too close to me or follow me
around in the grocery store and when shopping.
I
was told and understood that I now contained a higher vibration
and others were picking this up. That eased the
problem a little and gave me the understanding that I was
"here to serve only and not take any of this too personally"
On
page 3, Huston speaks of the "postmodern citizen"
as a "sensitive self"...easily offended...frequently
victimized...and in constant need of affirmation to boost his or
her self-esteem". I would like to suggest that this
may be true in many; yet it seems to go with the new
territory. It has taken a heap of courage to face the
notion that the little i thing now is expected to
tell the truth in all circumstances (previously we were burned at
the stake for this); and live the truths we
have been given. I think Arjuna expresses this in his
statement where he asks himself if his new understanding follows
into his everyday world of relations, work, etc. Well,
I think we who have been gifted with the new awakening are
all asking ourselves that question continually. I
personally recommend the various 12-Step Programs for
they (the steps) are devinely inspired to give us the
tools for doing just that. And that one simple program
alone is turning out many, many individuals who are awakening to
this new evolution in consciousness.
Jenny
Munday LCSW
"That may be true, but given what I now
know of translucency, I think it's only fair to share a fourth
vision of the future that seems the most attuned to the facts at
hand."
~Tom Huston
Potentially
habitable planet found
Dear Ones! For
the first time since the recent reception of those rude and
annoying transmissions intermittently beamed our way from
somewhere in the
indeterminate vastness, astronomers have finally managed to track
down the
strange signal, and found it originating from a gorgeous sand and
surf planet in a
system just a bit outside our galactic quadrant and – yes --
it is potentially
habitable for us, a discovery those on the Population Council
also hale as a big step
in the ongoing search for "Nice places -- not just to visit,
but to proudly call
Home!" As some may recall, this Council was formed one day
when it was perceived
that there was suddenly more than one of us.
The slight
down-side of this thrilling news, however, is that the resident
teeming
life-forms on this world are apparently involved in an
increasingly accelerated
campaign to render the lovely place uninhabitable, a nuisance
that can readily be
neutralized (if we act fast) by the efficient Agents from Stellar
Pest & Climate
Control Division. An easily engineered adjustment in planet
temperature, for
example, would raise the oceanic water levels temporarily and
wash away the land
detritus in no time at all. Once the waters recede during the
subsequent mop-up
operation, we would have the whole globe to ourselves.
Dear Ones! This
planet seems to be just the right size for our much-planned and
discussed interstellar expansion, it’s not too far away for
our transports, and
wouldn’t it be a shame to let it go to waste? Who knows when
another such
opportunity will present itself?
LoveAlways
sent by Bob O'Hearn
Nicely written piece. One thing I extracted
from this piece is that
in the march to that actively peaceful and compassionate place of
being non-dual, the revolution of demystification hasn't so much
to
do with burning the wise writings of old but with personally
becoming "it" if its relevant. And that is entirely a
matter of
personal choices. Personally, I feel that when one lives in a
state
of non-duality, then much of those ancient texts (and not so
ancient)
can transform from a subject-object relation to one of simply
peeling
one's personal onion skins away. Many of those ancient texts can
thus be seen as autobiographical. I've often seen, in my own
writing
also, that the walk into being non-dual is always primed for the
ego
trap of reinventing yet more duality, often even in the form of
what
can be seen as fundamentalist. What is neo in this moment is
dated
by the end of this sentence. Reformation is often a moment in
time,
which some moments later become re-entrenched in what
the "protestants" rebelled against. What is gorgeous
with the vedas
that elucidate non-dualism are their descriptions of the endless
layers of ego's onion skins... and that just like we in the
sensory
dimensions of duality compassionately reach out a hand to our
fellow
person in hurt, so too are there spiritual dimensions, where
"hands"
reach out also. The point of advaitism is to eventually become
those "hands" that are often taken on faith alone if
one is an
adherent to a particular religion. Hence, there really is no
issue
with a non-dual to the advaitic perspective. The only issue
exists
within the ego as it struggles to acknowledge the duality
illusion it
has constructed for itself, and many of the Vedas and what sits
at
the roots of most religions takes one, step by step, from duality
to
non-duality. Most surviving religions and even science have the
same
layers of that onion skin as one's personal ego. Einstein often
talked of the fundamental difficulty he had to describe
relativity
since his perspective of it grew beyond the classical
understanding
of his contemporaries. And then he himself fell into the trap he
criticised others for having, when he encountered the arguments
of
Bohr and others plumbing the newer non-classic mechanics of the
uncertainty principle etc. It's not a matter of denying the old
onion skins that were but of going beyond them. Newtonian
mechanics
work fine if one wants to drive from
extra-solar sojourn, one would need to go beyond
though without rejecting all that.
There are times in my life where deep devotion to what many might
judge as a fundamentalist. But what I have always noticed is that
when I honestly plunge into that mystery, then I am simply
peeling
the onion skins back to where there is very little I and very
much "neti neti," and here there exists no mystery.
I really enjoyed the part of this article that
describes "judgement." If one at the same moment points
out
another's entrapment in some space of duality with acknowledging
one's own equal entrapment, then one is not only helping another
but
at the same moment reducing one's own ego fixation on duality. In
a
sense, this is Christ's teaching also. To love one's neighbor as
one
self... to be selfless... cultivates those inner qualities that
lead
to the jnana understanding of non-duality.
-----
In the above,
where I wrote "Personally, I feel that when one lives
in a state of non-duality, then much of those ancient texts (and
not
so ancient) can transform from a subject-object relation to one
of
simply peeling one's personal onion skins away," I'd change
"when one
lives..." to "when one wants to live..." Because
when one lives in a
state of non-duality, the only point of anything where others or
a "subject-object paradox" are involved has to do with
the reduction
of suffering that duality triggers, so that the one entrapped can
truly unravel his or her own mystery. The big problem with
understanding this is often time. An action here... a thought
there... Often, it is difficult to see how one's behavior, even
if
considered transluscent, is but another, albeit subtle, cubby
hole of
duality. I know a few people, and I include myself in this, who
come
upon a stable plateau of something relatively close to
non-duality,
only to be bit blind to my own entrapment when relating
non-duality
with others. I know many who have found their place of comfort
and
instantly criticize any voice which confronts that comfort
slightly.
This is often why I feel personally that if neo non-dualism can't
integrate advaitism, then its just another "ism" of
one's ego
fixation on duality. There is such a wealth of wisdom in the
Vedas
and other texts, if we'd just get beyond the personality issues.
Ashoka, posted on Nonduality Salon
You can't take it too seriously when
they put people into groups like translucents,
neo-advaitins.
Basically you have an individual sitting at
a computer, or at the store, or at work. No one's thinking,
"I'm a translucent." When you're on the toilet
are you thinking, "I'm a neo-Advaitin"? If your
girlfriend just threw you out, you might think, "I'm a
jerk." That would be a lot more
useful thing to ponder.
These groupings and associated
gimmicks, such as testing for levels of
consciousness, recognizing that someone is radiating an
inner light, judging how often someone uses the word
"I", are out of the 60s. They are the mood rings
we wear at 54.
You have to like all the packagings of
nonduality, though. Me, I'm part of the Neo-Nondualist movement.
It consists of everyone in the world and exactly
whatever they're doing right now.
Jerry, on Nonduality Salon
Hi Gloria,
I have a few comments about this
article. It appears to me that Ken Wilber and some of those
who are associated with him enjoy criticizing those who have
different opinions and/or ways of experiencing reality.
Many of the disciplines that they criticize are not as
*intellectual* as Ken and his crew and they especially seem to
enjoy attacking those who have not articulated and defined
everything that they experience and know intuitively.
Wilber's group seems to espouse the strongly held belief that one
will not "evolve" to higher "levels" without
criticism, fighting, opposition, and judgement unless they are
goaded to grow--As if we don't expand our awareness from a sense
of inspiration or love or intuition. In my own personal
experience, it has always been curiosity, love, and inpiration
that have moved me along and motivated me to discover more of who
I am.
Concerning Huston's argument that
neo-advaitins are all relativists who are "calling
back" all criticism and judgement...
"By immediately “calling back”
all criticisms or judgments, the nondual relativist virtually
guarantees that he or she abides perpetually in flatland, the
spiritual ice rink of the sensitive selves. Liberated from the
responsibility of ever having to challenge another, the nondual
relativist revels in human relationships that remain smoothly
uninspiring. Any impulses to rise up, to change and grow to a
higher level of spiritual integrity, are happily nullified on the
spot."
I don't believe this is really
happening. I believe that many spiritual teachers and those
who are aware of the nondual ground of being are very *aware* of
all of their judgements and oppositions and they don't attempt to
suppress them. It is my experience that awareness of
judgement and simultaneous awareness of the
absolute automatically takes some of the charge away from
the judgements and opposition. Awareness naturally
diminishes opposition and brings more and more peace into all
situations. I can only think of Ramana Maharshi, who
lovingly spoke to each person in a language that he/she could
understand, and whose calm, peaceful, and loving example
inspired so many of us (including Ken Wilber.) As I said
before, impulses to "rise up, change, and grow" come
from inspiration, love, curiosity. For me, they never come
from being lambasted by someone who believes he is "higher
level" than I am.
I honestly don't know what is inside each
individual who is "neo-advaita". I know that I
have gained different inspirations from many of them, and I also
know from my own personal and direct experience that the more I
integrate the nondual ground of awareness in each moment of my
life experience, the more peaceful and content I become.
With that peace and contentment, I seem to have more natural
energy and more love towards others. It just seems to grow
organically without me "trying" to be loving. The
only real effort that I make is to bring more of that
"nondual awareness" into more and more moments of my
daily life--while typing, washing dishes, speaking with
others. If I'm judging another or even lambasting them, I
observe myself doing that without trying to manipulate it or
drive it away. Awareness itself always changes things and
brings more peace into every situation, and the
"change" is real, genuine. And, I am
sensitive and empathic towards others. That happened
naturally too.
Sincerely,
Julie