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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3619, Sunday, August 9, 2009, Editor: Mark
What we appear to be is a fleeting shadow, a distorted and
fragmentary reflection of what we all are when we no longer
assume that we are that phenomenal appearance.
- Wei Wu Wei, from The Tenth Man, posted to SufiMystic
The Master must have known that his words were frequently beyond
his disciples' comprehension. He spoke to them nonetheless in the
knowledge that a day would surely come when his words would take
root and blossom in the hearts of those who heard them.
One day he said, "Time always seems so long when you wait -
for a vacation, an examination, for something yearned for or
dreaded in the future. But to those who dare to surrender to the
experience of the present moment -- with no thought about the
experience, no desire that it return or be avoided -- time is
transformed into the radiance of eternity."
- Anthony de Mello, SJ, posted to The_Now2
lift the veil
lift the veil
that obscures
the heart
and there
you will find
what you are
looking for
- Kabir, English version by Sushil Rao, posted to SufiMystic
Often we see other sentient beings as hassles: "This
mosquito is disturbing me. Those politicians are corrupt. Why
can't my colleagues do their work correctly?" and so on. But
when we see sentient beings as being more precious than a
wish-fulfilling jewel, our perspective completely changes. For
example, when we look at a fly buzzing around, we train ourselves
to think, "My enlightenment depends on that fly." This
isn't fanciful thinking because, in fact, our enlightenment does
depend on that fly. If that fly isn't included in our bodhicitta,
then we don't have bodhicitta, and we won't receive the wonderful
results of generating bodhicitta--the tremendous purification and
creation of positive potential.
Imagine training your mind so that when you look at every single
living being, you think, "My enlightenment depends on that
being. The drunk who just got on the bus--my enlightenment
depends on him. The soldier in Iraq--my enlightenment depends on
him. My brothers and sisters, the teller at the bank, the janitor
at my workplace, the president of the United States, the suicide
bombers in the Middle East, the slug in my garden, my
eighth-grade boyfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid--my
enlightenment depends on each of them." All sentient beings
are actually that precious to us.
- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron from Cultivating a Compassionate
Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig, posted to DailyDharma
Love is a flame that burns everything other than itself. It is
the destruction of all that is false and the fulfillment of all
that is true...
True Love is far greater than anything that could be called
personal. True Love is a non-personal miracle. It is the nature
of reality itself. It is the natural and spontaneous expression
of the undivided self.
Intuition of this degree of Love magnetically draws the
individual toward it, and at the same time, causes fear to arise.
This Love is seeking the dissolution of all separateness, all
me-ness, all self concern.
Love cares not for the me, it cares only for that which is true,
undivided and whole.When the me dissolves, when it surrenders
itself to a unity far greater than anything the mind can
comprehend, that is Love.
Non-personal Love is not a feeling, yet within it there can be,
and there is, feeling and emotion. But the feeling and emotion
are not derived from a personal me. The feeling and emotion are
derived from the absence of a personal me.
'There is profound responsibility in being Love,' ...more than
the mind could imagine or hold up under. If most human beings
truly realized the impact that they have on the whole, they'd be
crushed by the realization of it.
- Adyashanti, from The Impact of Awakening