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Nondual Highlights: Issue #2845, Saturday, June 16, 2007, Editor: Mark
We all came into this world gifted with innocence,
but gradually, as we became more intelligent, we lost our
innocence.
We were born with silence,
and as we grew up we lost the silence and were filled with words.
We lived in our hearts,
and as time passed we moved into our heads.
Now the reversal of this journey is enlightenment.
It is the journey from the head back to the heart,
from words back to silence;
getting back to our innocence in spite of our intelligence.
Although very simple, this is a great achievement.
- Eckhart Tolle, posted to SufiMystic
NEITHER IS RENUNCIATION THE SOLUTION
Anytime you're practicing renunciation, you're deluded. How about
that! You're deluded. What are you renouncing? Anytime you
renounce something, you are tied forever to the thing you
renounce. There's a guru in India who says, "Every time a
prostitute comes to me, she's talking about nothing but God. She
says I'm sick of this life that I'm living. I want God. But every
time a priest comes to me he's talking about nothing but
sex." Very well, when you renounce something, you're stuck
to it forever. When you fight something, you're tied to it
forever. As long as you're fighting it, you are giving it power.
You give it as much power as you are using to fight it.
This includes communism and everything else. So you must
"receive" your demons, because when you fight them, you
empower them. Has nobody ever told you this? When you renounce
something, you're tied to it. The only way to get out of this is
to see through it. Don't renounce it, SEE THROUGH IT. Understand
its true value and you won't need to renounce it; it will just
drop from your hands. But of course, if you don't see that, if
you're hypnotized into thinking that you won't be happy without
this, that, or the other thing, you're stuck. What we need to do
for you is not what so-called spirituality attempts to do
--namely, to get you to make sacrifices, to renounce things.
That's useless. You're still asleep. What we need to do is to
help you understand, understand, understand. If you understood,
you'd simply drop the desire for it. This is another way of
saying: If you woke up, you'd simply drop the desire for it.
- Anthony De Mello, posted to The_Now2
The Sense of Separation
"Rise above the separate self." "Transcend the
ego." When we listen to such statements, what usually
happens is that we enter into a kind of subtle (or not so subtle)
struggle with this sense of separation. We resist the
"I," wish it wasn't there, try to make it go away. But
any attempt to make the separate self-sense disappear, simply
reinforces the very thing we're trying to free ourselves from.
It's analogous to meditation where our efforts to try and quiet
the thinking process merely serve to create more waves. The
thought, "There shouldn't be thought," is simply more
thinking. Thought fighting thought. The result? More waves.
So it is with our relationship to the self, this sense of there
being a personal "I." Our resistance to it simply
reinforces the illusion that there is actually something there (a
self) to be gotten rid of. Struggling with the sense of
"I" only creates more separation, more division.
The paradox is that only through our absolute acceptance of the
separate self-sense will we wake up from the dream of separation.
John Astin, posted to The_Now2
Blink...
If
we could
truly
perceive
the present moment
as
being perfect,
it would be unnecessary
to do
as little
as to even
blink,
in order
to have
the experience
of
perpetual intense joy
and
infinite contentment...
In Light and Encouragement, ARIAL. posted to Mystic_Spirit
Such bliss is a gift of spirit to be used with care to benefit
All life and is gained only through the open heart.
With unity of soul purpose comes resurrection and eternal life.
You can achieve anything, even the divine self as the door to
time's eternal secrets opens.
- from a deck of Tarot cards, posted to AdyashantiGroup
And once you have started listening, you will be able to listen
to the
sound of running water, to the wind passing through the pine
trees.
You will be able to listen to the music of silence in the dark
night, to the
music of the birds in the early morning. You will start listening
to so
many things that you will be in a state of immense amazement that
this
world was available to you --and so close--but you were not
available to
this world...."
- Osho, posted to DailyDharma
Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,
let them sleep.
This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
I you want to improve your mind that way,
sleep on.
I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.
If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,
and sleep.
- Rumi, Ode 314 from Like This, Coleman Barks