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#3575 - Friday, June 26, 2009 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - The first periodical publication on nonduality - Submissions welcome http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Greg Goode presents
"ATMA DARSHAN's Preface" - Video Commentary, Part 2 of 5 Parts (AVI video, 5 minutes) http://www.heartofnow.com/files/links.html#ad.preface.p2 (you will also find Part 1 on this page.)
This video discusses paragraph 4 of the
Preface, in which Atmananda gives a capsule summary of the method
that he uses in his published works more frequently than any
other. "Bringing the universal under the individual." I
also think it's his most powerful method. At least it helped me
more than any other approach I'd ever come across. Because
Atmananda's description is so extremely compact in this
paragraph, I have endeavored to unfold it in this video.
BeliefNet is the most popular spiritual website on the Internet. For several years you could not find a single article on BeliefNet which included a form of the word "nonduality". In the last two or three years that has changed. Here are stats for search results on http://beliefnet.com
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"Nonduality" is close to becoming a household word in mainstream spirituality. It needs one good push over the edge.
Yosy
:) friends and companions, today (26 june)
happens to be my
birthday. so i am sending you a small gift tale... comments as
usual appreciated.
this is the last part of the adventures of the friend of god, our
wonderful
grand-grand-grand-grandfather abraham, and his wife, the
beautiful
sarah. as they were getting old, a heir, a son was
what grandpa abram wished more
then anything. grandma sara, loving her spouse wholeheartedly,
brought him,
according to custom, her favorite young slave/maiden, beautiful
hagar, as
a bedmate, saying: "she will give birth on my knees, and
this will be as if the
child is mine" indeed, hagar bore abram a son, fulfillment
of his dream.
he was given the name ismael, and all were happy.
after some years, god in person came to
visit his friend, and promised him
that in spite of their advanced age, he and sarah will have
another son.
and indeed, despite of sarah's disbelief and scornful laughter,
in due time
sarah too bore a son. he was given the name itzhak
some time later sara, observing her
husband's love and affection towards his
firstborn, though son of a slave (at this time ismael was
thirteen, almost a man,
and obviously his father's favorite), made sure there is only one
unquestionable
heir to the household, their son itzhak. to ensure that she went
to abram and told
him to send hagar and her son away, claiming that they were
plotting against
the newborn. unable to comply with such a a demand, to drive his
son to the
dessert and almost certain death, abram turned to god for help,
but god said:
"do all your wife says. I will take care of hagar and
ishmal. do not worry".
this was the beginning of the two great
hebraic dynasties, stemming from
abraham the hebrew, friend of god. first came family line of the
sons of ismael,
later called the arabs, and then the line of son's of israel son
of itzhak, later known
as the jews. as confirmed by god, both are direct descendants and
inheritors of grandpa
abraham tradition. and from their father's side, they are blood
brothers.
in their later years, ismael became known
as the example of perfect love
and respect of a son towards his father, abraham the friend of
god. he abided by
his father constantly, and served selflessly and devotedly till
his last.breath.
as to itshak, he grew up with feelings of
guilt, knowing that his elder brother
(who left when he was a baby), dear first son of his father, was
chased away
so that he will have no competitor. thus he feared the future
meeting with his
brother, but to his relief when the time came ismael accepted him
warmly,
and they parted in peace… next generation, his son
yaakov, added to and
deepened the inherited feelings of guilt – for
aiding his mother to cheat his old,
blind father, and stealing the firstborn's blessing, rightly
belonging to his
brother esaw. thus identity traits opened a rift of mutual
misunderstanding, causing conflicts
and an almost unbridgeable gaps between the views of the descends
of the two
proud hebrew tribes. this bloody conflict lasts (with notable
exceptions, like the
golden age in middle-ages spain) till today.
for the ismaelic tribes, honor and respect
form a core attribute of identity.
this is a common trait unifying all communities, though the
interpretations
may vary according to time, place and people (particular
community).
but it is certainly far more important and crucial then all land
and possessions,
social and/or economic status, and it's dictates, followed
fanatically, extend
far beyond even closest family ties.
as to the sons of israel, namely the jews,
deeply hidden guilt became the inseparable
trait of their tribal identity. thus honor and respect, though
very important and valuable
for themselves, do not play such a central role in their
identity's mental makeup. on the
other hand, this deep "god knows I deserve it" feeling
produced and developed one
of the indispensable tools, which enabled tribe members to exist
and flourish worldwide,
and cope more-or-less successfully with successions of disasters
up to this day - the
ability to laugh at themselves..the divine sense of humor is a
most important weapon in war
against the only real enemy of humanity: the self-conceited
ignorance.
oh yes, and apparently the hebrews do what
their wives tell them to do…
as my dad told me "remember, son. men rule the world..
women rule men"
alhamdulillah!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thus evidently the muslim branch of abraham's children has to
learn
to stop taking themselves with deadly seriousness, and develop
the
sense of humor, the divine gift; inherent in all adam's children.
while the jewish branch have to realize
that since the only respect one
truly has is the respect extended toward "others", the
way to get back
their self respect is to honor everybody, and first of all their
apparent
enemies
BOOM! _()_
yosy
~ ~ ~
Jan
Thanks for the gift Yosy, and a happy
birthday :-)
A (translated) quote from Ramana on the occasion:
“You who wishes to celebrate the birthday, seek first whence
was your birth.
One’s true birthday is when he enters THAT which transcends
birth & death - the Eternal Being.
At least on one’s birthday one should mourn one’s entry
into this world (samsara).
To glory in it & celebrate it is like delighting in &
decorating a corpse.
To seek one’s self & merge in the self: that is
wisdom."
;-)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
:) thank you jan, my friend...
Even before
We emerged
Into this world
Of land and sky
We all
Were divers
Effortlessly floating
Fish-like…
Immersed
Weightless and dreaming
In safety
Of all-pervading waters
Protected well
Beneath
Mother’s
Beating heart.
And then
Fighting for breath
We died as fish
Into this world
Of weight
And sorrow.
People call
This death
Birth.
One day
I shall return
To my great
Mother’s womb.
Some will say
He drowned
And died
But I
I shall be home
Again.
shabbat shalom all,
yosy