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#3451 -
Monday, February 16, 2009 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
When a man comes to his real senses,
he will recognize
that he has only one problem: "How can I come into
awareness of, and oneness with, my true being?" For it
is to lead him to this final question that other
questions and problems have staged the road of his
whole life. This answered, the way to answer all the
other ones which beset him, be they physical or
financial, intellectual or familiar, will open up.
Hence Jesus' statements: "Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven and all these things shall be added unto you,"
and "To him that hath [enlightenment] shall be given
[what he personally needs]."
-
Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > posted
to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
There's one great delusion that lies at
the core
of all of our suffering: the false belief in the reality
of the separation of life and in the subsequent
true existence of an individual ego.
All fervent attempts to control or to mortify this
illusory ego through penance, rituals and sacrifice,
however, will only serve to intensify the delusion
that this ego is actually very real and that it only
needs to be, somehow, subdued, conquered or
destroyed.
- Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
posted to Along The Way
Where Does Compassion Come From?
Seeing the suffering in the world around us and in our own bodies and minds, we begin to understand suffering not only as an individual problem, but as a universal experience. It is one of the aspects of being alive. The question that then comes to mind is: If compassion arises from the awareness of suffering, why isn't the world a more compassionate place? The problem is that often our hearts are not open to feel the pain. We move away from it, close off, and become defended. By closing ourselves off from suffering, however, we also close ourselves to our own wellspring of compassion. We don't need to be particularly saintly in order to be compassionate. Compassion is the natural response of an open heart, but that wellspring of compassion remains capped as long as we turn away from or deny or resist the truth of what is there. When we deny our experience of suffering, we move away from what is genuine to what is fabricated, deceptive and confusing.
--Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
Forwarded from Jani at Now2@yahoogroups.com
Dear all,
I found this talk by Adyashanti, speaking about life, love, and
fear, to be really
interesting.
http://globalonenessproject.org/videos/adyashanticomplete
love and light,
jani
On the subject of Krishnamurti, Ramana and Gurdjieff, a book has just come out which is the biography of a woman named Ethel Merston who worked very closely with all 3 from 1920 until all their deaths. She was a remarkable woman in many ways, and her book is a first hand account of being close to all these teachers (and many others). She ends up as closer to Ramana than the others which is very interesting. Lots of dialogue with Ramana that's never been published before.
posted to Open_Awareness by Steve Summers
A Woman's Work With Gurdjieff, Ramana Maharshi,
Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma & Pak Subuh
by Mary Ellen Korman
The spiritual life story of Ethel
Merston based on her diaries and recollections is an important
historical work, as well as a keen insight into many of the
seminal teachers of her times. Merston was one of Gurdjieff's
first English pupils and lived at the Prieuré from 1922 until
1927. Her seriousness and organizational abilities led Gurdjieff
to put her in charge in his absences. Fritz Peters gives a
wonderful account of what she had to put up with (he gives her
the name Miss Madison) in his Boyhood with Gurdjieff. In
India, she lived at Ramana Maharshi's ashram for many years. She
gives a first-person account of his death and also the meeting
between The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and Anandamayi Ma (with whom
she often traveled). She also attended many of Krishnamurti's
talks and seminars in the 1930s, was a friend of Sunyata, Alain
Daniélou, Krishna Prem and Swami Omananda. In the 1950s she was
initiated into Subud by Pak Subuh at J. G. Bennett's Coombe
Springs study house. At Mendham, she met again her friends from
her Gurdjieff days—Mme de Salzmann, Mme Ouspensky, Olga de
Hartmann and Peggy Flinsch—and was introduced to Lord John
Pentland.
"There are few comprehensive
accounts of individual Western pioneers who were interested in
Indian spirituality in the first part of the 20th century. Ethel
Merston left an intimate record of her journey as she constantly
questioned and searched for a remedy to relieve the malady of her
soul. We owe to Mary Ellen Korman our appreciation for
chronicling that time and bringing to life many of the people
Ethel Merston encountered, and who we never quite knew as fellow
seekers committed to the search for higher truths."
—The Mountain Path, The Journal of Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi
http://www.gurdjieff-legacy.org/30books/productsearch.php?continue=fourth&keyword=Merston&page=2