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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3681, Saturday, October 10, 2009, Editor: Mark
TRUTH is the most obvious thing one could find, or not find, and
any intricacies in the understanding of it are, without doubt,
entirely of our own making through our incorrigible habit of
conceptualizing everything. If one but stops conceptualizing,
TRUTH is staring us in the face!
- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels
Realize that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is
seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or
imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will
experience peace and freedom from fear.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That, posted to The_Now2
Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don't
want to suffer, don't go to sleep.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
Enlightenment is nobody's possession or attainment. It is simply
there in the absence of the density of the mind-identified sense
of self. In the absence of that density, the condition, the state
of enlightenment is there. It's always been there even before.
The sun just shines through now. The sun could become obscured
again because it's nobody's possession.. Nobody says 'I am in
possession of the state of enlightenment!' Now who are you? It's
in the absence of you that it is there. The absence of the
mind-made you...
... The only way the dimension of the sacred can come into this
world is through the awareness of the background which is
awareness of awareness. Space. Inner space. We said this morning
in any interaction ask yourself whether there is space in the
interaction. The very question makes it possible for space to
open up. This is really no different from asking whether there's
love in the interaction because out of that, love arises. The
awareness of that is love. I don't use that word too often,
because it's been misused a lot.
So to see this is the essence of our retreat, the essence of any
spiritual teaching, to see this, to realize this truth that is so
simple is one thing, no thing. That realization they call satori
in Zen, when you for the first time see [the nature of] Reality.
And its another thing to live it in your daily life. The ability
to live it could be called enlightenment. And again it's not that
helpful a concept because it sounds like an achievement.
Somebody's achievement. And one could almost say that the essence
of enlightenment is the opposite of "somebody's
achievement." Enlightenment and perhaps some of you may have
come here expecting to gain something. It's not a
"gain" of anything since it's already here. It would be
closer to the truth to say that enlightenment is a loss of
something. Of that which covers it up.
- Eckhart Tolle, from a retreat at Omega, October 2002
Day and night there is movement of foam on the Sea.
You see the foam, but not the Sea. Amazing!
We are dashing against each other like boats
: our eyes are darkened though we're on clear water.
O you who've gone to sleep in the body's boat,
you've seen the water,
but look at the Water of the water.
The water has a Water that is driving it;
the spirit has a Spirit that is calling it.
- Rumi, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, from Rumi:
Daylight, posted to AlongTheWay
Lies!
They say,
"The King of Love will turn from His lovers." - Lies!
They say, "The darkness will never turn to dawn." -
Lies!
They say, "Do not sacrifice your life for love's sake.
When the body dies, you will die." - Lies!
They say, "You can go beyond the cycle of time
but your soul can travel no further." - Lies!
People who are caught in their own vanity say,
"The lives of the prophets are nothing but fairy
tales." -
Lies!
People who have lost their way say,
"The servant can never reach God." - Lies!
They say,
"The Knower of Secrets does not tell His
servants all the mysteries of the Unseen." - Lies!
They say,
"He does not reveal the heart's innermost secrets.
He does not lift His servants up to heaven." - Lies!
They say, "One who is born of Earth
will never join the angels of heaven." - Lies!
They say, "The Sun of God does not fill this whole world;
He misses a few atoms." - Lies!
Now go to that inner stillness.
Some say, "You will not hear the voice of God there." -
Lies!
- Rumi, version by Jonathan Star, from Rumi - In the Arms of
the Beloved, posted to Sunlight
If a tree could fly off, it wouldn't suffer the saw.
The sun hurries all night to be back for morning.
Salty water rises in the air, so the garden
will be drenched with fresh rain.
A drop leaves home, enters a certain shell,
and becomes a pearl.
Joseph turns from his weeping father, toward Egypt.
Remember how that turned out!
Journeys bring power and love
back into you. If you can't go somewhere,
move in the passageways of the self.
They are like shafts of light,
always changing, and you change
when you explore them.
- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, from These Branching Moments,
posted to Sunlight