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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3043, Saturday, January 12, 2007, Editor: Mark
We have all spontaneously experienced the grace of being fully
present - moments where time stands still and we overflow with
feelings of joy, wellbeing and gratitude. These peak moments
surprise us, perhaps while meditating, making love, being in
nature, or engaging in a creative activity or an athletic pursuit
that we love. The experience of being fully in the Now is when we
feel most fulfilled, effective and alive.
Living in the Now has infinitely more to offer than peak
experiences. In the present we're connected to our most authentic
self, we access our highest potential. It is in the Now that we
are healed, and build healthy relationships. We discover that
which has always been waiting for us: Presence - the felt sense
of unconditional love, the rightness and oneness of all things.
Here we learn trust and free ourselves from our negative
thinking. We are no longer ruled by fear. Simply put, the most
important thing we can ever learn is to live in the Now.
Yet, to live consistently in the Now requires that we recognize
where we go when we leave it. Consider the question, "Where
do I go when I leave the Now?" You will discover there are
only four places you can ever go. Your mind will carry you into
the past or the future, or into ideas about yourself or others.
Me, You, Past, Future - these four places are the poles of two
basic dynamics in our experience of ordinary consciousness. The
first: our brain's wiring that perceives time as a movement from
past to future. The second: the dualistic, subject-object, nature
of our consciousness - as soon as there is self, there is other,
the observer and the observed. The subject is "I" or
"me." The object can be anything we think about: a
person, money, our job, God. Once our minds leave the present, we
easily become the victims of delusion. These delusions are
self-made, built from the ways that we identify with our stories
about ourselves, others, the past, or the future.
The word "story" indicates that our thinking about
ourselves, others, the past, or the future is always an opinion,
a judgment, or a belief; we cannot ultimately know it to be true.
On a rainy day, to say, "It is raining" is a fact. To
declare, "It's a miserable day" is both a story and a
negative judgment. Our stories become true for us because we
believe and identify with them. Each story generates some emotion
or feeling in us not intrinsic to the actual moment itself.
When we go into the future, we worry about virtually anything:
our health, our finances, our children's futures. Alternately, we
hope for virtually anything: a promotion, winning the lottery,
the perfect partner. The result of future stories is to fill the
Now with fear or hope. Fear creates misery, but hope is also
problematical. When we tell ourselves stories that conjure
positive feelings, it is generally because we don't know how to
connect with and accept what we are actually feeling.
Going into the past, we feel guilt, nostalgia, or regret. We
blame ourselves or others for what happened moments ago or
decades past. We tell ourselves everything would be better if
only we, or they, had acted differently. We burden the present
with what we have chosen consciously or unconsciously to believe
about the past, rather than discover who we really are in the
Now. Living in the past we have no foundation, no true self, to
stand on. This new moment, filled with infinite possibility,
becomes the victim of recycled misery, or is disappointing
because we compare it to some past happiness. Until this moment
fills us and is enough, we can never know our own fullness.
When our minds carry us into me (subject) stories we create
grandiose or depressive beliefs about ourselves. By identifying
with them, we lose contact with our larger awareness that can
allow us to simply see these stories and not become possessed by
them. Grandiosity causes us to discount others; depressive
beliefs create loneliness and insecurity. Believing these stories
we cannot really love ourselves or invite love into our
relationships.
Finally, when we move into you (object) stories we become angry,
jealous, hurt, or make someone so special we give our power away.
These emotions pollute us and blind us to who others really are,
while we lose the ability to feel compassion for them.
This ceaseless poisoning of Now by our past, future, me and you
stories is the principle source of the conflict, distrust and
emotional suffering in our lives and in human affairs. Without
them, we discover that we are sufficient just as we are. Life is
good. We understand that others are victims of their stories, as
we have been, and spontaneously feel empathy for them instead of
judgment. To become conscious of who we really are, releases us
from so much unnecessary suffering. We feel connectedness,
gratitude, and happiness. Learning to live more consistently in
the Now, we make peace within ourselves and in our world, for
what we do for ourselves, we ultimately do for everyone.
- Richard Moss, MD, from The Mandala of Being: Discovering the
Power of Awareness, posted to The_Now2
It's funny how people sort of worry about "doing
non-doership" being a problem when looking into the notion
of doership. I'd like to address this, and introduce a new
analogy into the "nondual lexicon" :
Doership = crack addiction
Ppl do not realize that their worry stems from coming from the
addicted end of the spectrum. "Oh my god, you mean cut back
on the drug so I'm doing almost nothing? Horrors!"
Try it, it won't bite. You probably won't be able to stay cut
down for long, as crackheads are driven to use. Loneliness and
boredom will raise their ugly heads, and you'll be back on the
train again.
If by chance the addiction is broken, you can "chip" as
much as you like. Be deeply contented doing nothing, and do
'whatever' beyond that. But you will have to give up the fear of
cutting back first, so you can fully investigate the cycle.
Cheers.
- Tim G, posted to NondualitySalon
Doership
what a strange animal
I can't liken it
to anything in nature
(or out of it)
the best I can do
is make a loose analogy
and hope the reader
will know
by sense of smell
(be nice now!)
what I am getting at
So doership
what is it like?
It is like a man
in a hole
trying to get out
by tugging
with great assiduity
on the straps
of his own boots
all the while
unbeknownst to him
somebody is pulling him up
with a rope
Once out of the hole
the guy
takes his boots
and has them bronzed
and hung up
for comment
and appreciation
and, yes
for love.
- Z, posted to Nonduality Salon
A few years back I was in our local Wal-Mart Super Center. It was
right before Christmas and the place was packed. I noticed people
smiling at me. Strangers, smiling. I wondered why and then
noticed I was happy and smiling. I wandered aimlessly through the
store for awhile smiling at everyone I met. I discovered that for
a few seconds the smiles I received back had a genuine quality I
hadn't often seen. I felt better and better. I went home smiling.
I don't hear many people speak of smiling or being very happy
when they leave Wal-Mart.
This evening I had the greatest experience yet. I came across
what I would judge to be a tough nut. An elderly gray haired
gentleman with a lifetime of worries displayed on his face. Jaw
firmly set, in need of a shave, tattered and thin coat, a few
bargains in his basket. I didn't think he would look up. I
noticed my smile had faded through my snap judgments of him which
quickly turned onto myself. Our eyes met. His face began to
change from a gray to a glow. It reminded me of the growing
Grinch smile from the Christmas cartoon. This man's face grew
younger as his smile widened. I felt my own face stretching to
make space for my growing happiness. Our eyes held firmly as our
smiles almost laughed out loud. Our childhood smiles nodded
simultaneously as we passed each other on the jellies and jams
isle.
I smiled on through the store carrying coffee, bologna, cheese,
and a sense of amazement about why I didn't get a cart for the
rest of the things I would soon be juggling. As I headed for the
check out line, I saw my new old friend I haven't met yet.
Although his posture showed his struggles, his face beamed down
on the dozen eggs riding where a child would usually sit. Our
smile. The very same smile you can feel defying the law of
gravity at the corners of your mouth. Right Now.
- Tim M, posted to adyashantigroup