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#2889 - Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee

Nondual Highlights

When looking up Scott Morrison, I found out how to retrieve "lost" websites, thanks to Sarlo's GuruRatings.

"A fabulous resource for spiritual and other web detectives is The Wayback Machine , sponsored by archive.org, which has collected and archived billions of "information" web sites, complete with links and pics, with multiple dated versions of those with evolving content. Some of the disappeared sites below can be found there. Just enter the old URL in their search box."

For example, those no longer available writings by Scott Morrison can be read by clicking on the earlier dates.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.openmindopenheart.org/

Our own Jerry Katz has more old versions of Nonduality.com than Carter has liver pills. (Does that phrase date me, or what?) Some of the earliest dates are blocked, but many others can be seen, for your edification or amusement.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://nonduality.com 

Robert Adams is another valuable resource whose website disappeared.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://robertadams.org 

Remember to remember: 'whatever happens
- happens because I am'. All reminds you that
you are. Take full advantage of the fact that
to experience you must be. You need not
stop thinking. Just cease being interested. It
is disinterestedness that liberates. Don't
hold on, that is all.

--Nisargadatta Maharaj

posted to AlongTheWay

In India, I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back in my lap. We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I. I would toss it out, and it would come back. I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat. Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in and tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go. Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So you see, our teachers come in many forms.

--Joseph Goldstein

Labels ...........Chapter 23

The important thing is not to know who "I" is or what "I" is. You'll never succeed. There are no words for it. The important thing is to drop the labels. As the Japanese Zen masters say, "Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions." Drop your theories; don't seek the truth. Truth isn't something you search for. If you stop being opinionated, you would know. Something similar happens here. If you dropped your labels, you would know.

What do I mean by labels? Every label you can conceive of except perhaps that of human being. I am a human being. Fair enough; doesn't say very much. But when you say, "I am successful," that's crazy. Success is not part of the "I." Success is something that comes and goes; it could be here today and gone tomorrow. That's not "I." When you said, "I was a success," you were in error; you were plunged into darkness. You identified yourself with success. The same thing when you said, "I am a failure, a lawyer, a businessman." You know what's going to happen to you if you identify yourself with these things. You're going to cling to them, you're going to be worried that they may fall apart, and that's where your suffering comes in. That is what I meant earlier when I said to you, "If you're suffering, you're asleep."

Do you want a sign that you're asleep? Here it is: You're suffering. Suffering is a sign that you're out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality, when your falsehoods clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.

Anthony de Mello, SJ

posted to Adyashantigroup

We are the sole creators of this dream, which has absolutely no purpose other than our awakening from it.

In reality, we are surrounded by and embraced in unconditional love, whether we respond to it or not. Our experience in time sets up a perfectly appropriate creation, exactly suited in its grand happenings and tiny nuances to the particular and unique needs of our reawakening. The source of the hidden principle is ourselves, and it is fired by our longing to come home.

--Tony Parsons

posted to AlongTheWay

GN: If this is the truth, why then do I go on experiencing limitations, suffering and illusion?

Rinpoche: The Buddha, too, experienced them in the same way as you, otherwise he would not have been able to transcend them and then to point out the way of liberation. Without sleep, there is no awakening. Without samsara, there is no nirvana or liberation. But you only awaken to your own Buddha-nature by learning not to separate samsara and nirvana.

You know that one of the many names given to the Primoridal Buddha is Universal Goodness, precisely because it is present in all beings without any discrimination. Individual Buddhas manifest in the three moments of time by recognizing that single original base. So love yourself and all beings just as the Primordial Buddha that is in every being, that loves itself and all of life, so you will understand the true sense of awakening to the state that is already awake..."

--Lundrup Tenzin Rinpoche

From the wonderful little book, "Mahamudra and Atiyoga (Dzogchen)" by Baroetto, published by Printworld Ltd.

posted to DailyDharma

This is from 'Half Way Up the Mountain - The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment' by Mariana Caplan

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who personally knew many of great saints of our time, is said to have stated that he had met only three enlightened beings in his whole life. If his assessment was correct or even nearly correct, and he knew only three enlightened beings on the whole planet of the hundreds, if not thousands, of masters he had met, it is certainly presumptuous for even talented spiritual aspirants to casually talk about enlightenment as if the experience of it was common. Judith Leif says, "We can talk about experiences that come and go, but enlightenment is much more than we can talk about."

Many teachers are far more interested in demonstrating enlightenment, and encouraging their students to demonstrate it, than in sitting around talking about it. Trungpa Rinpoche asserts, "One has to create the situation around one, so that one does not have to say, 'I am the Awakened person.' If one had to say such a thing and demonstrate it verbally, one would not be awakened." Psychologist Gary Mueller agrees:

"Enlightenment needs no announcement, or recognition. It is a natural process of the soul's evolution." In fact, excessive reflection on who is and isn't enlightened, and evaluating every move to see if it is "enlightened" action or not, can be a distraction from enlightenment itself. Robert Svoboda observes:

"If you're enlightened, why not just sit quietly and be enlightened. It used to be that people were swamis. Then they became bhagwans. Now, so many people are avatars-incarnations of God coming down on earth. So where you see inflation, you have to think that the underlying currency is losing some of its value. So why start naming yourself anything? Why not simply go about your business like Kabir did? He didn't bother naming himself anything. He just sat, and he wove, and he wrote songs, and people came to him and he talked to those people. He worshipped God and had a nice time and that was fine. He didn't make a big deal about anything. He enjoyed life."

People talk about enlightenment primarily because an every-day existence, full of the struggles and demands of ordinary life, sounds very painful in comparison to the enlightenment they dream of. Yet, Philip Kapleau asks:

"In what ways is an enlightened person different from one who isn't? Although they may ignore conventionality, the awakened do not flaunt their behavior. Neither do they put people into a bind by imposing shoulds and oughts on them. Their lives are simple and unpretentious. They are full of gratitude and compassion. Those truly enlightened do not boast of their enlightenment. just as a truly generous person doesn't say, "I'm a generous guy, you know," so one who has integrated into life what she or he has realized in awakening will not wear enlightenment as a badge and shield. The fully awakened are modest and self-effacing. While they do not hide their light under a bushel basket, as the saying goes, at the same time they are not pushy or aggressively self-assertive. They know that in truth there's nowhere to go; they are already there."

In the larger context of the demands of the true spiritual life lived in full, perhaps enlightenment is not what is referred to as "the pearl of great price." Perhaps enlightenment is something else. Perhaps it is just one more point, albeit a significant one, in the endless flow of service required by the enlightened life.

posted to Allspirit by Gill Eardley

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