Click here to go to the next issue.

Yeah! It is a trick. And I love it.
What a blessed mess! But I do love it so.
Call me crazy, call me what you will.
Don't care. Ain't gonna study war no more!

Hup Ho!
Don'cha know
Beings of light
Beings of dark
All are illusion
Play!
Beat the drums of Life and Play!
Hup Ho!


HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - and Love - Michael

__________________________________________________________________

DAN BERKOW


Do they see me, who say they know me?

I know them not and they know me not.

They have addressed an image,
frozen in the mind -- which
itself is merely a grasping
which holds nothing.

I, who am thus come and gone,
am unrecognized.

They address me not, who think
they know me.

______________________________________________________________

Jan Barendrecht uploaded photos of his guest in Tenerife,
Liliana Peschal, longtime participator in these lists.

http://www.egroups.com/files/NondualitySalon/Liliana/

While you're in the photos section view the artistic photos
-- including ones of Jan -- taken by Liliana in Tenerife,
The Canary Islands.

http://www.egroups.com/files/NondualitySalon/TwoFold+Way/

And, heck, just to round out the picture, may as well view
gorgeous photos of Tenerife at
http://www.egroups.com/files/NondualitySalon/Tenerife/

signed, Tenerife Board of Tourism

__________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECHT

The practice of brahmacarya by itself is worthless and
probably impossible unless it is rooted in devotion; that
this is a fact will surface through devotional works,
mostly poems and there are many, even by those having
practiced a form of self-enquiry. When the "goal" (no "I")
is "reached", often devotion is forgotten by those who were
"forced" to it and that one can rejoice in all feelings as
they have been purified from the false notions simultaneous
with the end of "I" - the Buddha mentioned this (rejoicing
one's feelings again) as a possibility - isn't known.

The hidden hint is that "progress" from then on will be
independent from whatever practice as practice pertains to
the "I". But tendencies are like flywheels: when the power
stops, they keep on running for a while. So the practice of
negating and ignoring the mind-body will continue to
influence one's life whereas the mind-body could be enjoyed
to the full, without attachment, detachment or delusion. It
is like saying that the beauty of a flower can't be enjoyed
because its nature is transient. Without the burden of the
emotional memory, trauma-like events have become impossible
as "the root of suffering" has been extracted and this
enables one to "experience" everything "as is".

Those unfamiliar with devotion could even be unpleasantly
surprised by the fact that their "natural" responses now
are completely out of control, instead of under control of
the "I" and its sadhana; the consequences are
predictable...

So if and how Maya will be enjoyed will depend on one's
practice that led to nirvana...

__________________________________________________________

TIM GERCHMEZ

Dear Glo,

Like everyone else (or most everyone else?), I don't really
know what the hell I'm talking about (or even why I'm
talking about it), but I go ahead and talk about it anyway,
for the joy of it. If/when the joy goes out of it, I often
leave here for awhile.

Words have no power, other than as they resonate (or don't
resonate) with the reader. It's when the personal enters
the equation that problems tend to arise (somehow, the
mailing list forum seems to encourage the personal outlook,
whereas books don't). Some focus on the personality of the
writer -- it's important to them. Some don't feel there
even is such a thing as individuality, or personality.

Sometimes I speak with authority, or in an authoritative
tone. I don't mean to come across as arrogant... in fact, I
don't mean to come across as anything at all. How can what
I say possibly have an influence on the reader, other than
what they themselves add to it?

(Sometimes I wonder though, if it were a famous sage
talking rather than me, if it would be perceived as...
never mind. :-)

My life is devoted to 'nondual discovery.' This isn't a
sunday afternoon church thing to me. Sometimes (often?) I
get too serious, because... well, I can't put it into
words. Dan-Ji used a term I forgot, maybe it was "urgency."
These matters are of utmost urgency here. There is a lot of
choicelessness involved. The motive is love, the obstacle
is thought.

Nisargadatta: "The mind creates the bridge, the heart
crosses it."

I love you too,

Tim

________________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE

Those who stand on the shoulders of others are liable to
fall and break their necks. It is only useful until the
"inner Guru" (Grace, Satguru, the Self) is discovered.
After that, there is only standing alone. You do yourself a
great disservice by clinging to the belief that others are
necessarily on a spiritual "quest." ... All thought is
derivative, but "Being-knowing" (see Jean Klein) is not
derivative. If you do not believe in the presence of an
"inner Guru," it is because you have not discovered It yet
within yourself. It *is* yourSelf.

__________________________________________________________

THE JOURNEY: DAVE (MANCHINE) AND MIGUEL-ANGEL

DAVE: " (...) Some of us know that there is no one among us
who IS to be journeying, but until we make the journey we
can not see that. (...)"

MIGUEL-ANGEL: I don't understand. Who/What is it that
journeys? The Self? The mind?

DAVE: Oh what a journey it is.

The sentence which you quote seems to have a contradiction,
but when looked at more profoundly, it is not at all so.

Before making the journey, we do not know that we are not
separate, it hadn't occurred to us (heaven forbid) that we
REALLY don't exist as a separate entity. Now for most of
the world, this realization never happens. For those among
us here on this list, it happens to a much greater
percentage, some sooner, some later, some perhaps only
"intellectually".

Now if your question is serious, one could suppose a couple
of things:

1) That since before you can remember, you always knew you
were not seperate, in which case, go to some beach
somewhere and put your feet up, because there's nothing
more to do. It would be difficult for you to even help
"others" make the journey.

2) Or that your understanding of non-separation is still
fairly intellectual, making it difficult to understand the
contradiction of the sentence.

Anyways, your question could also be a nudge, in which case
I will try to be more direct in the answer.

It is the Self, and the mind that make the journey, the
ego, which is constructed for the very purpose. It's like
we are little vehicles or cocoons. Where does that Self
come from? That's the delicious part.

Those of us who have been touched, have seen that... How
does one expalin? Before I saw anything I was separate, and
that seemed normal. When I saw I AM, I saw that I was
separate, but it was very confusing, something didn't make
sense. I started the journey, thinking I was still
separate, although I had seen "existance". I was confused,
I had the same question, as you perhaps, but backwards,
"how can it be that I AM?". My ego was so strong, it didn't
want me to see the "whole truth". How was I going to answer
that question? I finally realized that if I removed the
"I", the question didn't need answering.

That is "my" experience. It appears that it is distinct for
others. The question must arise, or nothing happens. In my
case, a peek at the answer made the question arise. It must
be more difficult for those in which the question arises
from intellectual curiosity, because somehow I feel that
the peek at the answer doesn't necesarily come from the
question. It comes when the mind is blank... I must have
been good at that :-)

__________________________________________________________

SPIRITUAL PLASMA: JERRY KATZ AND GENE POOLE

JERRY: Well, let's say this list is biased. There's a
sphere of perception that has formed and stands alongside
all other spheres of perception. We've become a spiritual
plasma. Now what?

GENE: Now we bounce and abide, amongst the other spheres of
plasma; within this sphere, are many spheres. It is the
movement of the spheres within the sphere, which determine
the shape of the NDSphere. Perhaps 'now what' is to allow
the establishment of syncretistic abidance; first among the
spheres within the NDSphere, and then eventually, between
the NDSphere and the other 'spheres of perception'. Such a
syncretism needs a common base; that base being, 'what is',
and what is, is the Great Sphere in which all spheres of
perception interact. Each individual sphere is able to
perceive itself from the POV of the Great Sphere. From this
POV of looking in, may occur the POV of looking out; what
is seen?

JERRY: Prior to any list, this existed. Therefore, can a
person ever leave? Isn't this like a level of manifestation
we find ourselves on?

GENE: Awakening, shaking off the sleep, to find myself
onboard a huge, self-sustaining spaceship, hurtling through
the cosmos, warmed by a nearby 'star'. I struggle to find
the controls; in the meantime, I reconcile myself with the
possibility that 'this is all there is'. Besides, whoever
made this whole thing, hid the controls from those who are
not yet competent to make command decisions. I see; only by
mastering my mini-ship, will I be competent to fly the Big
One. Only by skillful means, can I pilot my own course; in
the meantime, Grace is my autopilot.

JERRY: Or like a Ray of Knowledge? How much choice do we
really have? Isn't Pure Being the name of the incense in
God's cult house? How free is anyone? How do you get out of
the plasma?

GENE: I am this plasma; I am plasmatic, formless, ethereal,
all-pervasive, energetic and static; I am the basis for
electrostatically charged meat, I am the protoplasm which
that meat is. I am the organizational information which
regulates the survival of that meat, and I am the complex
of information which has ordered itself into a simulation
of identity, and I have a name for that... which is

==Gene Poole==

__________________________________________________________

TIM GERCHMEZ: Mental concepts are the only thing that
prevent clear seeing, or "Being-knowing." How many
understand the nature and extent of the concept-web in
which we are woven?

ROGER ISAACS: Thanks for your post Tim.

I'm not entirely comfortable with "mental concepts are the
ONLY thing that prevent clear seeing..."

Certainly mental concepts can be a major block. I'm sure
that for some people clearly recognizing this is
sufficient. Yet, the problem could be approached from
different angles.

But what about emotion? Powerful emotion seems like it
might be prior to thought, a deep raging fire prior to
thought. Will the tidal wave of emotion cease while our
external lives are not in order? As Barry Long says "you've
got to get your life together".

How about looking at this from the perspective of a more
physical approach. Even if mental conceptualization ceases,
if the body is not purified sufficiently, clear seeing will
not occur. I'm taking the kundalini approach here. From
this perspective it's not mental conceptualizing that's the
block. The blockages are more physical in nature. The
rising kundalini extinguishes thought, so in this approach
perhaps nothing need be considered except tending the fire.

I'm sure there are other ways of looking at this...

Tim, I find much of what you say very moving, I'm touched
deeply by some of your words. HOWEVER, you seem to have a
bit the "...THE ONLY THING..." disease. That's egoic
identification isn't it? Creation is extraordinarily
diverse, those who proclaim "...THE ONLY THING..." or
"...THE ONLY WAY..." are exposing their own internal
conflict and inviting those who hear their words to step
into these subtle conflicts & subtle identifications.

__________________________________________________________

HANS DEUNHOUWER

the one thing that matters for me at this moment, is this
sense of *me*. i prefer it calling that instead of *ego*
because ego has a sense of reality in it whilst * sense of
me* indicates somehow that it's not *really real*. So
personally i am not concerned at all with names and i don;t
care if it's a feeling or an emotion or whatever one wants
to call it. that's psychoanalysis and that's something that
does not interest me at all. there is this sense of *me*
that declares itself the center of everything. so whatever
i do, is done from this center and is therefor very very
limited. It is created by our needs and desires and is
rebuild over and over again by those same things. It keeps
itself alive in this way. Little by little the the
realization is dawning that there's nothing you can do.
Whatever the *me* does, it does it to achieve something and
thereby reinforces itself. endlessly. and whatever means
whatever. everything you do and that means *everything*.
However beautiful a thought or a concept or a dream is, it
is just that. Nothing of any value. A fire will never go
out if you keep on feeding it. So that's where i am. Let it
happen. If i am this i am this if i am that i am that if i
am sad i am sad. that's what i am. that's all. I am the
totality of it all. that's why the mind can not contain it.
all the rest are inventions. We have to let go of all our
stories and look at things afresh without any knowledge.
Reality can not be know, it is simply there right before
our eyes. It was a beautful day today. we walked throught
the park and i realized all this beauty is just there. we
don't have to do anything. To look at it is ok, Not to look
is ok. Daydreaming is ok. Speaking to yourself all the
time, is ok. Do not condemn it, do not hold unto it.
there's nothing to gain or to loose. it is as it is.

__________________________________________________________

HARSHA

Reality/Self/God/ (or whatever we choose to call it) seems
too utterly mysterious to be confined to only approaching
it in a particular way. All approaches and paths to the
truth belong to the mind. Yet, the mind itself is stunned
into Silence and dissolves when pulled into Reality. So
what can be really said other than that, everyone may
approach and love and worship their God in any way they
like. After all, even the way we approach the path or God
or Self is not in any sense up to us. It is the
irresistible pull of the Heart manifesting in innumerable
ways.

And as Pascal said, Heart has its reasons, which reason
cannot know. It seems like that to me.

__________________________________________________________

CHRISTIANA DURANCZYK

Surrounding the lovely campground at Capitol Reef NP,
Utah.. amidst flowering orchards, stand thousands of trees
each containing multiple 10 inch opaque sacs. Being curious
about what might be contained therein, I walked under one
tree and saw, within each sac, hundreds of squirming
caterpillars. As I stood looking up, one such creature
'wormed' his way out of the sac and landed *plop* on my
forehead. I wish I could say that I had the peace of mind
to stand still and let it make it's way down my face, but I
was so startled that I jumped back and then stood and
watched it crawl around my feet. Perhaps, I'd softened it's
landing. Certainly it opened mine. I then observed that
there were hundreds of these caterpillars milling around..
each on their journey to becoming... a
crawling till we soar.. Chrystiana

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