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HANS DEUNHOUWER

I couldn't resist reading this little book of Tony Parsons
("The open secret") yesterday. Wonderful book (94 pages
only !) Did you read it ?

He writes : (Free traduction from Dutch) quote One day i
was walking in the park and my mind was fully preoccupied
by my expectations about the future that could or could not
happen. I choose to let go of those projections and to
simply become aware of my walking. I noticed that the
footstep was there and gone and would never be repeated
again. While this was happening, a transition happened in
me from the awareness of my walking to my experiencing of
it. What happened then is beyond any description. It seemed
as if a complete silence and presence came down on
everything. Everything became timeless and i did not exist
anymore. I disappeared and there was no longer anybody
looking. end quote

Nothing of what we all expect that should happen. Nothing !
It simply happened. And he is not talking at all about ego
death and all that stuff. He said he never did anything
special. And there are other examples as well of people to
whom it happened who were not even interested in what we
are talking about. It just happened. It shows the utter
futility of even talking about it. It looks more and more
of just an occupation of the mind, bringing about exactly
the opposite of what we are talking about or of what we
would like to achieve.

And that shows that there's only one thing to do : forget
about the whole thing or at least understand that it has
nothing to do with reality. The whole thing simply exists
but in our minds.

This doesn't mean by the way that i will be off list :)

I will continue to add some more crap to the already
existing pile as long as it may take.
___________________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECHT

a little insightful exposé about growth and
decay:

insight of growth
insight of decay
growth of insight
growth of decay
decay of insight
decay of growth
insight of the growth of insight
insight of the growth of decay
insight of the decay of growth
growth of the insight of decay... etc.

Yes, insight in the growth of the decay of... Nah! insight
growing insight ad infinitum... That's why the trees are
growing sky-high through heaven's roof :) For those who can
see the sweet, ripe mangos hanging, ignore that little
gardener with the large white beard and enjoy.

good appetite!
___________________________________________________________________

DAN BERKOW

I love to look at the ocean, it is a reflection of the
Ocean that can never be seen.

_________________________________________________________

ADI DA

Understanding is the recognition of seeking as the active
principle of one's life. It recnognizes the effects of
seeking, its qualities and sources, the areas of its
operation, and the methods of its functioning. It sees that
seeking is the substance and the entire meaning of every
moment of one's ordinary life.

But radical understanding, since it is radically aware of
seeking, is not seeking. Radical understanding is prior to
and apart from every kind of seeking and the entire drama
of ordinary life. Therefore, it not only sees all life as
seeking, but Enjoys itself as fundamental Reality Prior to
all seeking. It Realizes no-seeking, non-avoidance,
non-separation, unqualified relatedness, and unqualified
Consciousness.

***** Adi Da, from the Knee of Listening
____________________________________________________________

GREG GOODE

First there's presence. Then there's absence. Then absence
of absence.

_______________________________________________________

SKYE CHAMBERS

if you have no illnesses fasting is very good for the body.
I did many 14 day fasts in my 20's, always at health spas,
under the guidance of doctors. The first five days are the
most difficult. The release of toxins never made me high
rather, depressingly nauseous. Because the body's habit of
releasing gastric juices doesn't stop immediately and
stomach biles are nauseating on an empty belly, still
triggering them at the mere thought of food, for the first
few days. Also the body reverts everything in the colon
back into fuel. All motions come to a screeching holt from
day one. Health spas do colonics to avoid reabsorbing
toxins. Not necessary just feel much better faster.

For me The high always started around day 5 when the body
starts seriously converting body fat into glucose for the
brain and you go into a state of *ketosis* search that word
on the net. The body will feel tired regardless of your
mental reasons for fasting. In its wisdom it makes you
conserve energy by slowing you down while it goes into deep
cleansing stages. All the best glo, by the 14th day the
body is as high as a kite (so too therefore are you)
because its so blissfully clean, perfectly balanced and in
a still, deep deep state of meditation. The benefits and
miracle of fasting fills books.

_________________________________________________________

ANDREW MACNAB

A diamond shines though it is transparent as glass.

***

The question 'Am I real' does have a definite and
unconditional answer but I can't honestly say that the
answer is only 'yes'. 'No' is fine too. Contrary to
expectation both are true without conflict, they are not
two different answers, though they seem so.

***

today's zippy strip is kind of NDSish
http://www.sfgate.com/sf/zippy/

________________________________________________________________

I am ...is

the Way,
the Truth,
the Life,
the Beginning,
the End,
the Good,
the Bad,
the happy,
the sad,
the joy,
the suffering,
the witness,
the observer,
the scorned,
the lover...

--Michael
_________________________________________________________________

MARK OTTER

There is a lovely column in the May Shambala Sun, by Rachel
Naomi Remen, called Meaning & Beauty. Here are the first
few paragraphs:

"Few of us pursue meaning deliberately. Most of us focus
our attention elsewhere, accumulating knowledge in the
belief that we will be able to trade it for a good and
fulfilling life. Knowledge enables us to build a box to put
our life in, but the box is itself empty. Only meaning can
fill it up.

Over the years, it has seemed to me that there is a deep
connection between meaning and beauty. Neither is a
function of the intellect; both can enrich a life. Meaning
feeds and strengthens the soul in the same way that beauty
does, and perhaps we develop an eye for meaning in the same
way that we develop an eye for beauty.

Recently, I found myself in someone's kitchen listening to
a discussion between an art teacher and some friends about
the nature of "aesthetic perception." As the only
non-artist there I was mystified by this idea, and when the
others drifted away I asked the woman who had first used
this odd phrase what it meant. She laughed. "It's a way of
seeing," she said, and told me how a friend of hers teaches
it to a class of seven-year-olds.

He begins by giving each child some water in a clear glass.
Then he tells the children that something is going to
happen in their glass of water. They must watch what
happens carefully, but they cannot talk about it right
away. First they will spend a few minutes just looking and
afterwards everyone will have the chance to tell the whole
class what they saw. Then he walks through the classroom
with a bottle of red ink and puts a single drop of red ink
into each child's glass.

The children are entranced, and the discussion that follows
is very lively. Some children have seen an angel in their
glass; others have seen the wind, or a flower, or the face
of their grandma. They are delighted with these differences
and listen to each other with rapt attention. The
excitement builds and then the teacher presents them with
the real lesson for the day. "Well," he says, "What is all
this about? Angels and grandmas and the wind? After all, it
is only a drop of red ink in a glass of water... isn't it?"
But of course, in certain important ways it is not.

We all live far more meaningful lives than we know.
Uncovering this meaning does not require us to live life
differently but to see life differently. Finding meaning in
the events of your life is not very different than seeing
the angels in a glass of water. It requires a sort of
double vision; an openness to living simultaneously in the
world of ink and water, and the world of mystery and the
soul."

Well, there is more to the column, but that says what I
want to say, so I will stop there. I suggest that meaning
is not something in the world that our mind sees and
appreciates, but that it is something our heart brings to
the world to give it life. We ARE the breath of life that
God breathed into the clay to create mankind.
Meaningfulness is absent from the world until we supply
it.So, neo, don't be stuck in the birth canal, push on
through.

_______________________________________________________

TIM GERCHMEZ

Lately I find that I am everywhere or nowhere. I'll be
doing something on the computer, and realize I do not know
where I am, or how much time has passed, what day it is,
even whether it's evening or morning. All thought is seen
to be regurgitated memory. It seems that "why think?" is
the predominant question, and there genuinely seems to be
no reason, no justification to think at all. Why bother
endlessly regurgitating the past?

_________________________________________________________

SARLO

dropping some beliefs is a very good step and will get you
out of what seemed to me to be a fairly inflexible
position. If it feels uncomfortable for a while, that's
natural and okay. This whole idea of meaninglessness can
easily be circumvented if there is seen to be NO NEED for
meaning, which is after all no more than a conceptual
construct. No meaning no meaninglessness, clears the way
for just being.
________________________________________________________

JOE

My mind and gut feel alot of anger. But, so what.
Ultimately, it surely IS all thought. Just thought. Not
even your thought - Not even joe's thought. (And, once one
is aware of the anger, it almost feels good, eh? This
awareness stuff is great...)

I have probably imbibed millions of words in the attempt to
understand how to find the balls to try to be silent
inside. Then, after 25years, my gut, I guess, said: Shut
Up! And things got quieter and quieter inside for about
five consecutive months. Those five months made the
previous 25 years seem like a kiddie primer. Then - yes, I
took some long walks and "let" myself think some of this
stuff out... Whoa, calling Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, Dr.
Fine!!! It has been pretty quiet and pretty interesting,
since... says the mind...

It strikes me as inconcievable that Ramana and Nisargadatta
are somehow in error.

The Silence works. No question about it. Though, of course,
it may take millions of words read, spoken, and written
before that's a possibility...

In the middle of what was perhaps the quietest day of my
quietest period (according to the mind's deep analysis of
such things), I was sitting quietly on a cushion in an
upstairs room. It was snowing out. There was not even a
thought that it was so incredibly quiet. Then, suddenly,
the mind said: HEY, wouldn't it be GREAT to sit like this,
outside, in the spring, in an Adirondack Chair? I wonder if
I have enough skill to actually construct an Adirondack
Chair... Hell, I might even wake up in a chair I made
myself!

Yup, that's the same mind that tells me it can't be done.
Take care, Doc. Have a beer, or a toke and take a quiet
walk...

___________________________________________________________

XAN

I spent 6 months with Papaji in India and am gratefully
spending the rest of my life with him in my whole being.

***

I do not represent anyone but myself, but I do have a sense
of being a part of Ramana's lineage as an intimate heartful
and always deepening connection.

***

For me, by not trying to do anything about the discomfort
of meaningless there came a subtle shift to the complete
comfort and safety of "not knowing". It's a giving up ...
surrender.

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