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#2952 -
Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The Baal Shem Tov said:
"When you look into the face of your
friend, you're looking into a mirror."
If your face is the face of God,
you will see God in your friend.
If not, then not.
posted to GardenMystics by Tom
If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
- Rumi
Those who seek liberation for themselves
alone cannot become fully enlightened. Though it may be said that
one who is not already liberated cannot liberate others, the very
process of forgetting oneself to help others is itself
liberating. Therefore those who seek to benefit themselves alone
actually harm themselves by doing so, while those who help others
also help themselves by doing so.
- Muso Kokushi, in Dream Conversations
Interpersonal love between two human beings
is, in the initial stages at least, a sort of proving ground for
the concept of realization in one lifetime, and an opportunity to
actualize the Bodhisattva ideal. For this often all too brief,
shining period, we are completely honest, thoughtful, open, and
wonderfully vulnerable----and we are so happy to be honest,
thoughtful, open, and wonderfully vulnerable that we stop
thinking of ourselves and think entirely of others.
I am speaking here of that period before all
the jealousy, insanity, selfishness and possessiveness sets in.
Our happiness suddenly comes from our
delight in our lover's happiness. We enjoy giving. We enjoy
sharing. We enjoy protecting. We enjoy nurturing. Really, we
begin to enjoy all the things that Bodhisattvas enjoy, and we
wish it could last forever. It is even happier if we fall in love
with a spiritually evolved person---we feel as if we can save the
world.
I have known some tertons during my life,
and the one thing I noticed was the great love and devotion they
had for their consorts: something quite distinctive, you know? It
might surprise you, but by way of example I want to remember that
His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche was one of the most romantic
gentlemen I ever met.
So, as a Buddhist, there is absolutely,
positively no reason whatsoever why you could not or should not
fall in love and I would in fact encourage you to do so. The only
thing I would ask is that you try to stay in love even when
everything else changes. Stay in love when time seems to ravage
you: when your teeth fall out (when his or her teeth fall out),
when there is no good news anywhere, when you are tempted to
stray, when you are tempted to ignore, when you are tempted to
forget. I would encourage you to be brave, to be strong, to be
daring if necessary.
Because, when you are in love, you are
acting toward one person with all the perfection you can muster
and that, at least, is a start. There are certainly other
dimensions to this---a mudra is a mudra is a mudra---and I know
all about that "universal love" excuse for
interpersonal failure, as well. What I am suggesting is that you
get it right, somewhere and with someone, at least for a little
while, at least once in your life. Once you learn how to do it, I
would also ask you to honor your beloved by extending your
generous spirit to others.
Then if you want to get really busy and save
the world, be my guest.
- Tulku Urgyan Tenpa Rinpoche
posted to GardenMystics by Bob O'Hearn
When you awaken to truth as it really is,
you will have no occult vision, you will have no
"astral" experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will
awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize
that truth was always there within you and that reality was
always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown
and developed through your efforts. It is not something which has
been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts.
It is not something which has to be made more and more perfect
each year. And once your mental eyes are opened to truth they can
never be closed again.
- Paul Brunton, Notebooks
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
Bob O'Hearn
Ordinary People and Saints
http://www.pbase.com/1heart/image/85853203