Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3064, Saturday, February 2, 2007, Editor: Mark
Love cannot come to those who have a desire to hold on to it, or
who like to become identified with it.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Awakening reveals that there is no personal self, and that
everything is myself. It appears to be a paradox. We find we are
nothing and absolutely everything simultaneously. When we see
this, we realize there is nothing more happening other than love
meeting itself -- or we could say you are meeting yourself, or
the Truth is meeting itself, or God is meeting itself. Love meets
itself each moment, even if it's a rotten moment. This will never
happen through the egoic state of consciousness, filtered through
the mind. But from the innocence, love is simply meeting itself.
If you love me, it meets that. If you hate me, fine, it meets
that, too. And it loves meeting that. I am talking about the One
meeting itself, realizing itself, experiencing itself.
There is a love that includes the good feelings that we associate
with love, and also far transcends good feelings. It is a love
that's much deeper than an experience. Have you noticed, with
whatever quality of love you have experienced, that when true
love arises, it opens up both your mind and emotions? It's an
openness to whatever is happening. The egoic state of
consciousness is always closing the doors. Emotionally and
intellectually, it's always slamming things shut as soon as the
moment isn't the "right" kind of moment, which is about
ninety-nine percent of the time. But the innocence and the love
do not slam the door shut, even in the face of something that is
very unpleasant.
Notice that the more you see past your sense of personal self,
the more innocence creeps in. And the more innocence is known,
the more love sticks its head out and starts to experience life,
live this life, and move within this life. The wisdom becomes
available now because one is open. So the wisdom deepens, and the
innocence deepens. And the innocence allows for more love, and
the more love there is, the more room there is for wisdom, and so
it goes. These qualities of love and innocence are what make
liberating wisdom possible. They are not only outcomes of the
blooming of your true nature, they are also what make awakening
and the embodiment of it, possible.
In Zen, one of the definitions of enlightenment is the
harmonization of body and mind. This also means the harmonization
of spirit and matter. When spirit and matter are in harmony, it's
as if a third entity is born -- that's really the Buddhist
"Middle Way." The Middle Way has nothing to do with the
notion of being halfway between two opposites. The Middle Way is
when spirit and matter are in harmony -- when the inherent
oneness is realized. Spirit and matter are not two different
things, they are two aspects of the One. This is the realization
of our true nature.
As humans we become identified with matter. Matter includes every
subtle and gross manifestation. Matter is anything that can be
touched, seen, felt, perceived, or thought. A feeling is matter
and emotion is matter, as is a body, a car, or a floor. The
essence of matter is spirit. Matter is animated by spirit, by the
life force, and they cannot be separated. Although we can speak
about them as if they are two things, if we take away the life
force, there is no matter. It's not as if there is dead matter.
There is no matter. Part of realization is moving from
identification with matter (which manifests as personality or
"me") to identification with spirit. True enlightenment
is when matter and spirit are in harmony. We could call this
harmony nondifferentiation or oneness.
When we realize that we are spirit, there may be a much deeper
harmony than there was before that realization, but there can
still be some disharmony. So it is helpful to understand the
value of exposing ourselves to the teaching, which is the same as
exposing ourselves to what is, each and every moment. We need to
expose ourselves as we would to the sun if we want to get a tan.
Instead of putting on clothes, we take them off. If we want to be
free, then we don't clothe ourselves with our concepts, ideas,
and opinions; we take them off. Then something happens quite by
itself. In order to deepen this harmony, we cannot hold on to
concepts just like we cannot stay partially dressed and get a
full tan. We will not get transformed. But once we are really
naked and completely exposed, we can become transformed or
awakened in a very natural way.
- Adyashanti, from Emptiness Dancing, posted to The_Now2
People believe themselves to be dependent on what happens for
their happiness, that is to say, dependent on form. They don't
realize that what happens is the most unstable thing in the
universe. It changes constantly.
The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come
to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or
event--through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to
you--ever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you,
from consciousness itself and thus is one with who you are.
Eckhart Tolle, posted to The_Now2
Be aware of being conscious and seek the source of consciousness.
That is all. Very little can be conveyed in words. It is the
doing as I tell you that will bring light, not my telling you.
The means do not matter much; it is the desire, the urge, the
earnestness that counts.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That