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Nondual
Highlights: Issue #2934, Saturday, September 22, 2007
All human problems arise only because the basic fact of
phenomenal manifestation is ignored - that the entire
manifestation is merely conceptual. Nothing is created, nothing
is destroyed. All questions pertaining to birth, life, death or
rebirth are therefore utterly misconceived. WHAT IS is truly
simple. We only make it complicated and incomprehensible by
thinking and philosophizing about it.
Feelings and emotions are all based on duality. So long as they
continue to dominate one's outlook, duality will continue to have
a firm hold, excluding the real holiness, the wholeness that is
UNICITY.
- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels
Ego is the movement of the mind toward objects of perception, in
the form of grasping; and, away from objects, in the form of
aversion. This fundamentally is all the ego is. This movement of
grasping and aversion gives rise to a sense of a separate
"me," and in turn the sense of "me"
strengthens itself this way. It is this continuous loop of
causation that tricks consciousness into a trance of
identification. Identification with what? Identification with the
continuous loop of suffering. After all, who is suffering? The
"me" is suffering. And "who" is this me? It
is nothing more than a sense of self caused by identification
with grasping and aversion. You see, it's all a creation of the
mind, an endless movie, a terrible dream.
Don't try to change the dream, because trying to change it is
just another movement in the dream. Look at the dream. Be aware
of the dream. That awareness is It. Become more interested in the
awareness of the dream than in the dream itself. What is that
awareness? Who is that awareness? Don't go spouting out an
answer, just be the answer. Be It.
- Adyashanti, posted to adyashantigroup
To take hold of your mind, you must practice mindfulness of the
mind. You must know how to observe and recognize the presence of
every feeling and thought which arises in you. The Zen Master
Thuong Chieu wrote, 'If the practitioner knows his own mind
clearly he will obtain results with little effort. But if he does
not know anything about his own mind, all of his effort will be
wasted.' If you want to know your own mind, there is only one
way: to observe and recognize everything about it. This must be
done at all times, during your day-to-day life no less than
during the hour of meditation.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, from The Miracle of Mindfulness, posted
to DailyDharma
Contact with the awareness of the Absolute can come about only
when the mind is fasting, when the process of conceptualization
has utterly ceased. When the mind feasts, Reality disappears.
When the mind fasts, Reality enters.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar, from A Net of Jewels,, posted to
AlongTheWay
The Breaking Wave of Love
Ah, once more he put a fire in me,
And once more this crazy heart
is craving the open plains.
This ocean of love breaks into another wave
And blood pours from my heart
in all directions.
Ah, one spark flew
and burned the house of my heart.
Smoke filled the sky.
The flames grew fierce in the wind.
The fire of the heart is not easily lit.
So don't cry out: "O Lord, rescue me
from the burning flames!
Spare me from the army of thoughts
that is marching through my mind!"
O Heart of Pure Consciousness,
You are the ruler of all hearts.
After countless ages
you brought my soul
all it ever wished for.
The eyes of all people happy and sad,
are closed to the truth.
May their eyes be opened!
May they look upon God
and get drunk on His beauty.
May their hands reach toward the Truth.
May their ears hear the voice of the Beloved.
May the shadow of a Master
fall upon everyone who has devotion.
All the world praises you,
But where did this "you" come from?
All the universe is born of Love -
But where did this Love come from?
O Shams,
you are the owner of the land of life -
the light of every heart;
Even the King of Love
knows no love
that is not yours.
- Rumi, Ode 881, version by Jonathan Star, from A
Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi
Love is not about needs but about seeing beyond your conditioned
needs and desires to the essence of the other person and sharing
at that level. Essence's purpose in relationships is to
experience Oneness with another - to experience love. It has no
other purpose. It is not trying to get anything from the other.
It is just happy to be with the other and celebrate that
beingness together.
Gina Lake, from Choosing Love: A Guide to Spiritual
Relationship