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#2939 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
One: Essential
Writings on Nonduality. Amazon site: http://nonduality.com/one.htm
Check availability at your local Borders Store: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp?tt=gn
Question: Alcoholism, Bukowski, Anna, Woodyard, Spero.
Answer: Name a disease, a drunk, a diva, a doll, and a David.
This one is an edgy issue of the Highlights. We're a very independent publication. Like nonduality itself, we can't be nailed down. I hope readers enjoy this edgy side of the Highlights.
I offer these to increase your
anecdotal knowledge base as well as demonstrate yet another path
of
experience to nonduality.
I am a recovered alcoholic, a son of alcoholics, and a product of
an
alcoholic lineage.
Let me first state that there are people today who say they are
alcoholics, ( or addicts, or manics, etc. ) as an excuse for
behavior.
While this may be true, it is not what what I am writing about.
Alcoholism is a door - an oppourtunity - to experience and
ultimately
to embrace/surrender to nonduality.
There are late stage, hopeless alcoholics who
have experienced a
paradigm shift in perspective, as a result of what is known as
"the
death march of ego". Self destructive behavior, taken to the
level
described numerous times in "The Big Book of Alcoholics
Anonymous",
can, if survived, induce an out of body experience where one will
come
face to face w/one's higher self - the place in consciousness
where
the illusion of the mind's self-generated "seperation"
exists.
It is here where seperation can be experienced
and examined for what
it is, and it's purpose.
I will never forget the moment I came to the
realization that " I am
Not my Head ".
This may sound silly or simplistic, however,
this revelation was
profound and confirmed what I had known since childhood - I AM !
One cannot rationalize I AM. The constructs of the mind - the
image
building, the lies, the judgemental and reactionary nature cannot
comprehend the all/nothingness of I AM.
It's just too quiet there - it drives the monkey brain crazy !
I could share PROFUSELY concerning nonduality, however, I will
refrain. I will share an author who has helped me greatly in my
personal quest for greater understanding/participation in
nonduality.
This is Walter C. Lanyon. Lanyon was one of a group of early 20th
century enlightened authors, including Joel Goldsmith, Mary Baker
Eddy
and Emmett Fox who were given to revealing the true nature of the
Christian belief system, outside of all the trapings and dogma.
My favorite epiphany is from John - " at a time when ye
THINK, not - I come "
Be still and know I AM is the exercise. Re-Cognition of I AM is
the goal.
Peace be yours, Mike
How's this for nonduality?
Life Is A Bukowski Poem
First Charles Bukowski's (1920-1994) poem:
my uncle Jack
my uncle Jack
is a mouse
is a house on fire
is a war about to begin
is a man running down the street with a knife in his back.
my uncle Jack
is the Santa Monica pier
is a dusty blue pillow
is a scratching black and white dog
is a man with one arm lighting a cigarette with one hand
my uncle Jack
is a slice of burnt toast
is the place you forgot to look for the key
is the pleasure of finding 3 rolls of toilet paper in the closet
is the worst dream you've ever had that you can't remember
my uncle Jack
is the firecracker that went off in your hand
is your run-over cat dead outside your driveway at 10:30 a.m.
is the crap game you won in the Santa Anita parking lot
is the man your woman left you for that night in the cheap hotel
room.
my uncle Jack
is your uncle jack
is death coming like a freight train a clown with weeping eyes
is your car jack and your fingernails and the scream of the
biggest
mountain now.
Life Is Like A Bukowski Poem
Life Is Like A Bukowski Poem
public, raw and ugly
no punches held
back,
rough, red scars on a
beaten-down body
a drunken Soul
thirsting for more,
as if you're defending
your own all-alone life,
as if an energy
sucks you through
to the other side
where his poems
live
oh, so fuckingly beautifully,
alive.
(I wrote this poem early this morning, before I attended the
funeral
of a 'patient' who reminded me much of my Mother.)
--Anna
The Testing
The testing of our foundational beliefs happens at least once a
day.
Like the obnoxious noise interrupting our TV show, it drills into
our
brain, reminding us that we are not real. If we are smart, we
will use
that pause to say thank you for the reminder.
"Do not adjust your set" is another old-fashioned
reminder. It isn't
our problem; it is that of the broadcaster. Fiddling with the
knobs
does us no good. Really.
Some of us carry our sets around with us in our heads. It's
unfortunate, because there are no knobs at all on these; we just
think
there are.
Every now and then someone heaves a sigh and then their set.
After the
loud crash, the peace seems real. Ah, but it isn't. That kind of
peace
cannot be had so easily. For that you need a dish.
--Vicki Woodyard
George: Okay, David, since
you are examining your work here in public,
I'd like to ask straight out: what is your work? I have some
sense of what it is, and enjoy seeing you;
but further off-the-cuff explanations from you here would be
clarifying..
David Spero: Well, George,
in a nutshell, I really don't "teach" anything at all.
I show up, sit with those who also show up, then allow the
"natural
state" of sahaja samadhi give its own teaching,
radiate its own
perfume. That "teaching," as I've come to understand
and interpret it
with my limited mind, is a coexistence of advaita Vedanta,
devotional, and kundalini realizations - all blended - arising
spontaneously out of One Supreme Unidentifiable Awareness, which
can't
be located in time and space. I often talk about things that
people
want to hear, "enlightenment topics," or I give a
specific talk based
on the general atmosphere present in the room that evening. It's
pretty simple, really. Bliss is contagious and no effort is
required
to taste It. In a way, I just keep everyone entertained while
That
does Its work. It's quite powerful, absolutely effortless and
utterly
simple. "I" really does not know how this manifests and
yet "I" is
that very happening. I hope this helps....
David Spero, http://www.davidspero.org