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#2964 - Monday, October 22, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
As long as you
do not see that it is mere habit,
built on memory, prompted by desire, you will
think yourself to be a person - living, feeling,
thinking, active, passive, pleased or pained.
Question yourself, ask yourself. 'Is it so?'
'Who am I'? 'What is behind and beyond all
things?' And soon you will see your mistake.
And it is in the very nature of a mistake to
cease to be, when seen.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
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"I Am That", posted to AlongTheWay
~ When Realization Dawns ~
We
think that there is something hiding our
reality and that it must be destroyed before the
reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn
when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts.
That which will be on the day you laugh is also
here and now.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
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"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
"Discipline" is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you're wrong. But self-discipline is different. It's the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret. They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it. But look within and watch the stuff coming up -- restlessness, anxiety, impatience, pain -- just watch it come up and don't get involved. Much to your surprise, it will simply go away. It rises, it passes away. As simple as that. There is another word for self-discipline. It is patience.
-
Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain
English
"Your acceptance of what is takes you to a deeper level where your inner state as well as your sense of self no longer depend on the mind's judgments of "good" or "bad."
When you say "yes" to the "isness" of life, when you accept this moment as it is, you can feel a sense of spaciousness within you that is deeply peaceful.
On the surface, you may still be happy when it's sunny and not so happy when it's rainy; you may be happy at winning a million dollars and un-happy at losing all your possessions. Neither happiness nor unhappiness, however, go all that deep anymore. They are ripples on the surface of your Being. The background peace within you remains undisturbed regardless of the nature of the outside condition.
The "yes" to what is reveals a dimension of depth within you that is dependent neither on external conditions nor on the internal conditions of constantly fluctuating thoughts and emotions.
*
Surrender becomes so much easier when you realize the fleeting nature of all experiences and that the world cannot give you anything of lasting value. You then continue to meet people, to be involved in experiences and activities, but without the wants and fears of the egoic self. That is to say, you no longer demand that a situation, person, place, or event should satisfy you or make you happy. Its passing and imperfect nature is allowed to be.
And the miracle is that when you are no longer placing an impossible demand on it, every situation, person, place, or event becomes not only satisfying but also more harmonious, more peaceful.
*
When you completely accept this moment, when you no longer argue with what is, the compulsion to think lessens and is replaced by an alert stillness. You are fully conscious, yet the mind is not labeling this moment in any way. This state of inner nonresistance opens you to the unconditioned consciousness that is infinitely greater than the human mind. This vast intelligence can then express itself through you and assist you, both from within and from without. That is why, by letting go of inner resistance, you often find circumstances change for the better.
*
Am I saying, "Enjoy this moment. Be happy?" No.
Allow the "suchness" of this moment. That's enough.
*
Surrender is surrender to this moment, not to a story through which you interpret this moment and then try to resign yourself to it.
For instance, you may have a disability and can't walk anymore. The condition is as it is.
Perhaps your mind is now creating a story that says, "This is what my life has come to. I have ended up in a wheelchair. Life has treated me harshly and unfairly. I don't deserve this."
Can you accept the isness of this moment and not confuse it with a story the mind has created around it?
*
Surrender comes when you no longer ask, "Why is this happening to me?"
*
Even within the seemingly most unacceptable and painful situation is concealed a deeper good, and within every disaster is contained the seed of grace.
Throughout history, there have been women and men who, in the face of great loss, illness, imprisonment, or impending death, accepted the seemingly unacceptable and thus found "the peace that passeth all understanding."
Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.
*
There are situations where all answers and explanations fail. Life does not make sense anymore. Or someone in distress comes to you for help, and you don't know what to do or say.
When you fully accept that you don't know, you give up struggling to find answers with the limited thinking mind, and that is when a greater intelligence can operate through you. And even thought can then benefit from that, since the greater intelligence can flow into it and inspire it.
Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.
*
Do you know of someone whose main function in life seems to be to make themselves and others miserable, to spread unhappiness? Forgive them, for they too are part of the awakening of humanity. The role they play represents an intensification of the nightmare of egoic consciousness, the state of non-surrender. There is nothing personal in all this. It is not who they are.
*
Surrender, one could say, is the inner transition from resistance to acceptance, from "no" to "yes." When you surrender, your sense of self shifts from being identified with a reaction or mental judgment to being the space around the reaction or judgment. It is a shift from identification with form - the thought or the emotion - to being and recognizing yourself as that which has no form - spacious awareness.
*
Whatever you accept completely will take you to peace, including the acceptance that you cannot accept, that you are in resistance.
*
Leave Life alone. Let it be."
Excerpted from: http://commonground.ca/iss/0406155/eckhart_tolle.shtml
posted to TheNow_2 and Wisdom-l
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Leaf_2.htm
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Leaf_1.htm