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#3666 - Friday, September 25, 2009 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The following is from Alan Mann's Nowletter, hot off the presses and which may be read in full at
http://traherne.org/NOW 142 files/NOWletter 142 Web.doc
Koestler, The Invisible Writing, p. 353
Page 143, endnote 103. It is appropriate to quote Arthur Koestler here. Koestler, who is considered by Heywood as 'fiercely logical', finds it difficult to admit that he has had what he calls a 'mystical experience' that cannot logically be explained and writes about it as follows:
It is extremely embarrassing to write down a phrase like that when one has read The Meaning of Meaning and nibbled at logical positivism and aims at verbal precision and dislikes nebulous gushings. Yet mystical experiences, as we dubiously call them, are not nebulous, vague or maudlin; they only become so when we debase them by verbalisation. However, to communicate what is incommunicable by its nature one must somehow put it in words, and so one moves in a vicious circle. When I say the 'I’ had ceased to exist I refer to a concrete experience that is verbally as incommunicable as the feeling aroused by a piano concerto, yet just as real only much more real. In fact its primary mark is the sensation that this state is more real than any other one has experienced before, for the first time the veil has fallen and one is in touch with 'real reality' the hidden order of things, normally obscured by layers of irrelevancy. ...The 'I' ceases to exist because it has by a kind of mental osmosis established communication with and been dissolved in the universal pool.
Richard Rohr - The Naked Now Book Tour
Excerpted from
http://breadhere.blogspot.com/2009/09/richard-rohr-naked-now-book-tour.html
It is a bit of a mystery to me that Rohr has not gotten himself thrown out of the RC church. He goes pretty far and wide and yet seems to have no real repercussion, which is great.
Rohr often speaks about the challenges of dualistic thinking, a topic near and dear to my heart.
Rather than the constant need to divide and objectify the world around us with various labels such as left/right, right/wrong, good/evil, republican/democrat. liberal/conservative, progressive/orthodox and so on. Rohr suggests that perhaps we should consider the invitation to live in the tension between the poles and enter into what we encounter there.
This is something easier said than done and Rohr acknowledges that. In his talk he remarked that this is much of the work of the "second half of life." I think that he may be right about that; although there are many younger people who have inner wisdom, some of this comes later. It really does take time to get to this place.
In the figure of Jesus Christ, we really have this ultimate expression of non-dualism. Starting from the position that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine and that he was of both heaven and of earth, Rohr brought forth the more mysterious and contemplative elements of Christianity.
In his own words, the new book, The Naked Now, is the follow-up and companion piece to his landmark work (those are my words), Everything Belongs. I did not buy the new book yet, too much other reading right now, but I do look forward to it, as I love Everything Belongs.
As for prayer, Rohr really makes strong points about prayer not being something we do in any task-like fashion, but rather a journey that we undertake. So often prayer, due to what we learn in church, is a matter of doing certain things to please some hungry God. What we should seek is a union with a God who initiates all and loves us deeply, passionately and a God who does not see us in the divided ways we see ourselves.
I will say that after having experienced Richard Rohr three times that he is warm, wise and a generous and compelling speaker with something worth hearing!
Jim Dreaver writes in his newsletter:
A Day in My Life...
Dear Friend,
Got out of bed at 6.30 am this morning, an hour or two before I usually get up. I slept well, as I mostly always do, but only for about four hours.
Problem was I stayed up till after midnight watching Schindler’s List on TV. A powerful, emotionally-searing movie I saw years ago. I got caught up in the drama, of course, and for maybe ten minutes after, reflected on man’s inhumanity to man, and the fact that I felt so grateful for my mission here: to help people to be free, so that tragic events like the Holocaust do not happen again.
When I awoke, it was from a dream about the design of my book, end your story. Begin your life… which I am getting ready to publish in hardcover. I spoke a few comments into the small digital recorder I keep by my bed, got up, went to the bathroom, made my bed, turned my laptop and cell phone on, and then went downstairs.
While the water was heating up for coffee, I got down on the floor and did my morning exercise routine. After I made coffee and had a peach, I went out to greet the day, and formulated my intentions, seeing them as already having happened, just as I write in the last chapter of my book. I visualized myself winning the lottery (I am already free, so now I give myself the experience of material wealth), having a beautiful partner in my life, my book a best-seller, and my son, Adam, healthy, happy, and successful. Then I let go of everything in my mind, and just came back to the flow, beauty, and fullness of the present.
I love it here in Los Angeles. After thirty-plus years living in northern California, the weather here is so mild, and the ocean temperature is still almost 70 degrees. I swim at least several times per week, usually off Santa Monica beach. There are always big, buffeting waves there. In end your story. I write about the cleansing, healing effect of visiting the ocean in northern California, but it is too cold to swim. I grew up swimming in the ocean in New Zealand, and it is wonderful, truly great, to be able to do that again.
But I won’t swim today. After a breakfast of crackers and cheese, I’ve been working at my laptop all morning, making phone calls to my book designer, adjusting the layout, connecting with friends around our going to see the Dalai Lama Saturday morning in Long Beach. I’ve never seen him in person before, so it will be good to experience him and pay my respects.
I just finished my raw vegetable salad, my favorite lunch, and shortly I’ll head off to the gym for my lower-body workout. I go three times a week, and still do yoga and walk a lot for exercise. Yesterday, at the beach, I actually ran in short bursts along the hard sand by the water’s edge. It felt good. When I come back from the gym I’ll watch some baseball, and then take a nap. The baseball season is almost over now, and the LA Dodgers, at the top of their division, are headed into the play-offs. I’ve been a baseball fan ever since Barry Bonds came to the San Francisco Giants fifteen years ago.
Tonight I get to do one my favorite things of all: gathering with a group of people in a home in Culver City, and teaching them the art being, of living without stress, conflict, or suffering. And there’s nothing we have to do in order to realize that! It is all about seeing, shifting our perception. Amazing!
Love and blessings,
Jim