Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3463 - Friday, March 6,
2009 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
In this issue, Greg Goode writes about the Nondual Dinners he's been holding for over ten years in New York. His description is followed by a poster he designed for one of his dinners, and the written description of that meeting.
If you are interested in starting their own nonduality gathering, or finding out about others, join our new forum, Nonduality Gatherings: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualityGatherings
Another Kind of Gathering - Nondual Dinners
"Nondual Dinners" have been going
on for over a decade here in New York City. In the mid-1990s they
were called "Nacho Satsangs," to distinguish them from
the Papaji-style satsangs where you couldn't eat or freely
converse during the event! About 1998 or '99 we began to call our
events Nondual Dinners.
We meet in a classic 24-hr Greek diner, about once a month (it
used to be once a week). The events are free, except for what
food and beverages we order. The attendance is between 4 and 14
people. 14 is the official max because of the restaurant and
table size. We do get to sit in a back room, where they are
accustomed to having other meetings.
And the food is a great example of diner fare. Fresh, with lots
of variety.
If we can, we have a topic and speaker, which we choose by
consensus. It can be on any topic related even tangentially to
"nonduality,
Who has attended? Writers, scientists, psychologists,
anthropologists, musicians, satsang teachers, rabbis, priests,
mystics, tantric practitioners, billionaires, food critics, TV
stars, people from many different religious and spiritual
backgrounds.
Everyone has a voice, and the events usually evince a
companionable sharing and dialoguing. Every once in a while
someone comes who tries to dominate everyone else. But those
times are few and far between.
You name it, we've talked about it: Advaita, Buddhism,
Christianity, Judaism, Sufism, enlightenment, emotions, language,
books, UFO's, gurus, sex, philosophy, teachers and teaching
styles, the variety of paths, unadorned gossip and plain
conversation. Only once in all the meetings I remember did we
ever talk about current events or politics. That was the eve of
this last presidential election, and only one person in
attendance was even interested. He did most of the talking!
I guess over the years we have met about 200 times in total.
There is another group in Seattle doing the same thing last I
heard, meeting in a food court at a mall. There could be many
others as well. If you like to talk about this stuff, and if you
like to eat, then it's a nice mix!
At our last meeting, we spoke about an innovative but not new
format of nondual teaching - emptiness teachings using
Western sources. [The flyer for the meeting and a
written description, follow:]
Joyful Irony
Joyful irony is a holistic and nondual way to engage the
Madhyamika Buddhist Emptiness teachings in a secular Western
context. It is a radically deconstructive, pragmatic, time-tested
and life-affirming way to embrace the webwork of relations that
give meaning to life.
Joyful irony is not a path. It is not meant to replace one's
path. It shows up more as an attitude toward one's path. An
ironic engagement of Buddhism, Advaita, Christianity, Judaism,
Islam or Zoroastrianism can add the taste of lightness to
whatever else is being experienced. And for those studying
Emptiness teachings themselves, joyful irony provides a Western
approach.
The joy in joyful irony results from realizing the
essencelessness of the self and the world, which are no longer
experienced as heavy, independent, or fragmented. The joy enables
one's insights to expand towards more loving and compassionate
engagement with others.
The irony is a lack of attachment to views, resulting from the
insight that even one's most cherished views are devoid of
essence and objective grounding. This irony inspires a spirit of
creativity, making life precious and joyful.
Quotes
To be in harmony with emptiness is
to be in harmony with all things.
--Nagarjuna
When neither something nor nothing
Remains to be known,
There is no alternative left
But complete non-referential ease.
-- Shantideva
Actualization of emptiness dissolves the afflictions
of delusion, clinging, and antipathy into insight, nonclinging,
and compassion.
--C.W. Huntington, Jr.
An ironist, therefore, is not just like an artist, but is an
artist...
--Douglas Colin Muecke
Epic irony is rather an irony of the heart, a loving irony; it is
greatness filled with tenderness for little things.
--Thomas Mann
Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you
want. In Webster's terms, 'nirvana' means freedom from pain,
suffering and the external world, and that's pretty close to my
definition of Punk Rock.
--Kurt Cobain
Introductory Readings
Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope.
Especially Ch. 3.
Adrian Kuzminski, Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks
Reinvented Buddhism.
Mark Siderits, Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy:
Empty Persons.
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern
Truth in Ancient Wisdom.
Marie McGinn, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to
Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, How to See Yourself as You
Really Are.
Contact
Greg Goode
greg@heartofnow.com