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#3041 - Thursday, January 10, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
Editor Gloria will be back soon! I know, I miss her too. She's okay, just a technical computer thing.
Posts from two new people, Sina and Cyril. And revelation by ts of a website on solitude.
If you have time, please visit my new blog: http://nonduality.org. Over the years I have been asked questions about the business of nonduality, so this blog, for now, is focused on that.
-Jerry
Portion of a letter I received:
My name is Sina (male), I live in Sweden and I am 23 years old.
Whatever You Are, You Are Awake
by Sina
Everyone is awake, actually.
Everyone is awakeness. The only things that aren't awake and
never will be awake are mind objects. Of course a mind object
can't be awake. It's just a thought or image. If you believe that
the thought describes you, you will think that you are not awake
either. Or rather, awakeness will believe that it is not
awakeness.
Disidentify from all the mind objects. Whatever you are, you are
seeing the object, and it can't be you, right? Whatever you are,
you are not the thought image you see. Maybe you never
really see what you are, your true nature. You just stop
believing in the "false natures". It's not like you can
"not know" your true nature anyway. You do know it. You
just need to cleanse it, so to speak. Don't try to find
awakeness, because that implies that you can lose it, when really
it's in the awakeness that the thought of "trying to find
awakeness" arises.
It's not really accurate to say that "you are
awakeness" either. Awakeness is. The idea of
"I" arises in it. It's just another thought. If you try
to get rid of it you just focus on it and reinforce it. It's
better to try to see it as a thought. "Dreaming" is
simply believing that thought is something other than thought.
"Thought is not thought. It's reality." That's the
hypnosis. That's the sleep.
But if you adopt the mental position of "that is a
thought", (which is a thought) you will again rigidify and
feel trapped.
Have you ever mixed potato flour with water? (Didn't see that one
coming, huh? :-) Try it, add just enough water to make it into a
dough. Then take it into your hands and play with it. You will
notice that while you move it around and roll it into a ball, it
remains solid. But the moment you stop moving it around it
becomes fluid. It has that strange capacity to be solid when in
motion, and fluid when still.
The mind is similar.
If you relax a little in your observation but keep observing,
everything will slowly and gently unmask. Everything false
naturally wants to fall apart.
It's amazing how much
resistance we have towards simply letting it do that.
Ben Hassine contributes the following via Nonduality Salon:
Cyril wrote:
'Both in Orthodox spirituality as in the spirit of Zen it is not
about satisfying our minds with doctrines and slogans. Prayer and
meditation can be a way to be authentically without direction. In
the West there lives a fool for God, his name is Bob Dylan--he
wrote this poem 'Like a Rolling Stone' and also 'Blowin' in the
Wind.' When I first heard these songs on a transistor radio it
was as if I knew how Hui-neng must have felt when he first heard
the Diamond Sutra recited. For three months it was as if I walked
on a frozen lake burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit burning
inside.
Be aware of those knowing all the answers. It is written that the
poor in spirit are blessed. With the true spirit of Zen say your
prayer. Expect nothing. Be authentically as you are from moment
to moment. Be vigilant. Sleep little, eat little. Stay up and
pray. Get up early. Be aware of your shortcomings. Don't let them
hinder you. It is written that before you ask, your God knows
what you need. Stand before your God naked in the caverns of your
heart.
The ink is finished. A poor
weasel as I am, I can't go and buy ink in the local store.
Anyway--Go with God!'
Pod Tvoyu Milost,
signed,
Cyril.
ts brings excerpts from a remarkable website:
Everyone says Tushita, Heaven is fine,
but how can it match this old hut of mine?
~ Stonehouse (Ching-hung), from his Mountain Poems
When a grasshopper sits on a blade of grass, he has no thought of
separation, resistance, or blame. Human children prefer
dragonflies
whose wings and bellies are as red as chili peppers. But the
green
grasshopper blends completely with the green grass, and children
rarely notice it. It neither retreats nor beckons. It knows
nothing of
philosophy or ideals. It is simply grateful for its ordinary
life.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves
http://www.hermitary.com/
resources and reflections on hermits and solitude.