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#3179 - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
A poem by Shannon,
notice of Jeff Foster's tour in the U.S.A. and Toronto,
and a teaser for Dennis Waite's new and already controversial book, Enlightenment: The Path Through the Jungle.
The Friend Came to Ravish Me
I want to keep it a secret that the Friend
has entered me
and pierced me in my wanting.
This Friend seduced me into giving up my identities
or at least the feeling of importance that "I" derives
from them.
This Friend got a foot in the door and walked on into my heart.
It was not a romance like I expected.
We flirted for years with
Love letters and then conversations of the heart.
We courted, and when I was still enough the Friend came round and
took me in arms
Kissed me, and gave me a taste of the Beloved inhabiting me all
along
and then The Friend left me there hot and bothered and wanting.
Can't we move in together?
Can't you stay here all the time and never leave?
Won't you make continuous love?
I went around stalking the Friend, not
trusting the Beloved.
I went looking for the Friend.
I tried to manipulate the Friend into staying and making love to
me.
I so hungered for tastes of bliss!
Then Love alighted at odd moments when I
noticed the beauty of something
like a twisted tree's branches or a childs smile or the perfect
sound of a note.
The Friend seemed to become scarce when
sought.
Then I laughed and turned my back, playing hard to get.
The Friend came running then!
I noticed Love would stick around anytime there was peace, quiet.
And flee when others were around
I had to be alone for us to see one another.
We have a secret love affair, the Friend and I.
Nobody knows that I am being ravished by Love
of my own being, now sitting in waves of bliss.
It is better that way that they just think
I don't have much to say anymore
I have become more ordinary, a bit of a simpleton,
The girl who lost her opinions,
One who sits there happily
secretly being ravished and made Love to in raw daylight
in front of everyone, even her grandmother,
which is enough to make you laugh
when you think about it.
Falling into fits of laughter
about nothing
because everything is unspeakably joyous
at this moment.
And laughter doesn't need a reason to arise.
--Shannon
Jeff Foster
is going on the road. His schedule is:
June 16th to July 2nd - California - San Francisco, Bay Area
July 2nd to 9th - Washington D.C. / Frederick, Maryland
July 9th to 16th - Chicago, Illinois
July 16th to 30th - Toronto, Canada
Full details of meetings are available at www.lifewithoutacentre.com
Jeff Foster is the author of two books: Life Without a Centre: Awakening from the Dream of Separation:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Without-Centre-Awakening-Separation/dp/0955399904/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b Beyond Awakening: The End of the Spiritual Search: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Awakening-End-Spiritual-Search/dp/0955399971/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1
The big duality of nonduality is the two kinds of teachers or communicators.
One kind of teacher is the guide. He or she functions to guide you to toward a full understanding of the way things are.
The other kind of nonduality teacher is the confessor. He or she confesses or simply states the way things are.
Many nonduality teachers function in both ways.
The guide:
The guide leads you to enlightenment or at least a better psychological condition. The guide has a plan, a program, a practice. The guide is extremely useful and helpful, and some would say necessary.
The confessor:
The confessor is different. Either you get what the confessor is saying or you don’t. The confessor says that "this" is … "it".
What is "it"? Perfect knowledge. Pure experience. The Self.
The moment vs this:
What is another description of "this"? You could say it is the moment. However, it is finer than the moment. Since "this" is so refined and small, it is incredibly vast, just as subatomic particles are associated with a vastness of knowing.
The moment is not the same as "this". You can be in the moment, perceive the moment, recall a time when you were in the moment, do a meditation to put you in the moment. You can Kodachrome the moment.
None of that is true for "this". You can’t be one with "this". You can’t perceive or photograph "this".
The moment is the Now. People are convinced about the value of living in the Now, in the moment. That’s not true for "this". "This" is only confessed. The confession is the Kodachrome.
Presence:
The confessor not only teaches through confession of his or her truth, but also silently. The silent teaching is called presence. Again, it’s not only the spiritual person who has presence. Anyone in any field of endeavor could have presence and teach through their presence.
Presence is silent confession.
Two in One:
As I said earlier, many teachers function both as guide and confessor. They express themselves through clear instructional guidance and through verbal and silent confession. Guiding and confessing are not necessarily separately occurring functions. While the teacher is guiding you in the steps for proper meditation, for example, she or he is also being the confessor, silently, as presence.
Keep in mind that when you hear a nonduality teacher speak, you may be hearing an emphasis on guidance or confession.
Traditional Advaita and Neo-Advaita:
Teachers of traditional Advaita teach as guides. Since they are enlightened, presence, or silent confession, is always cast like a lighthouse beam.
Teachers in the so-called Neo-Advaita tradition teach by confession primarily, silent and verbal, though they serve as guides, as well.
I'm currently reading Dennis Waite's new book, Enlightenment, The Path Through the Jungle, which points out the flaws of Neo-Advaita and suggests how they should be corrected.
For example, Dennis says, "The untutored seeker does not know what questions to ask to understand the nature of reality. This is why a prolonged course of teaching is required first." That is the voice of traditional Advaita Vedanta.
Dennis claims the voice of Neo-Advaita goes, in part, like this: "Neo advaitins claim that whatever is the case is the 'story' of the seeker, whether it be confusion, identification or suffering, that "is" reality and, by definition, is 'ok'."
It looks like an interesting book, doesn't it?
Tony Parsons, a strong representative of the Neo-Advaita camp (though I don't think he would agree that he is "a representative of the Neo-Advaita camp") has already written a response to Dennis's book. I'll be featuring my review, Tony's response, and Dennis's response to Tony, starting Friday the earliest, but probably not till next week. I imagine I'll post the three writings in three separate issues.
Meanwhile pick up Dennis's book here: http://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Through-Jungle-Dennis-Waite/dp/1846941180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211973285&sr=1-1
This is already a controversial book, as you'll see by reading the reviews at the page above. By the way, the foreword is written by Greg Goode. I"m looking forward to the responses to this book from different quarters.
--Jerry Katz