Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3766 -
Monday, January 4, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers. - Joan Baez
"This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives. This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth. To be one with the truth for just a moment, Is worth more than the world and life itself." - Rumi
posted on Facebook by Chris Hebard
by Alan Larus http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=110210&id=100000236878552&ref=nf
"The silence of a quiet
mind is the essence of that beauty. Because it is
silent and because it is not the plaything of thought, then in
that silence
there comes that which is indestructible, which is sacred. In the
coming of
that which is sacred then life becomes sacred, your life becomes
sacred, our
relationship becomes sacred, everything becomes sacred."
- Krishnamurti
Scott Kiloby
When we say that all there is, is
`this,' it includes the whole
ball of wax. Recognizing timeless presence reveals that
time is an
appearance of presence, as is cause and effect, becoming,
evolution,
etc. Yet it doesn't mean that we throw all those
appearances out.
This, again, is why I think the teaching of inseparability is
important.
This is not about denying time, cause and effect, evolution, and
other
concepts. It is about seeing that they are concepts and
they are
appearing within timeless awareness. They are inseparable
from the
awareness within which they come and go. So far from being
a denial of
the "world," this is about seeing that the world is an
inseparable appearance within that which sees the world.
This is the
end of separation. It is not just the end of believing we are
separate
people. It is the end of believing that awareness is some
metaphysical
realization detached from our everyday experience. There is
no
awareness "over here" and the world "over
there." There
is no separation between what we are calling awareness and the
world.
This was expressed beautifully by the Indian sage, Shankara:
The world is an illusion
Brahman alone is real
Brahman is the world
The recognition of awareness is the seeing that what we took to
be
totally real, the "world," is merely an appearance
within
something completely stable and eternal-awareness. The
world is
illusory, like a dream. And there is an actual recognition
of awareness
available. It's not a fairy tale. But then we see
that there is no
separation between those two things. There is no gap.
Brahman
(awareness) IS the world.
In Zen, it is expressed this way:
First there are mountains
Then there are no mountains
Then there are mountains again
As mountains return, we see that they (and all other
"things")
have no independent existence from the space within which they
appear.
You are THAT.
This is stated in other ways when we say that consciousness is
the
content of consciousness and vice versa, or emptiness is none
other than
form. This is "not two." Non-duality.
When I speak of recognizing non-conceptual awareness, that is the
seeing
that there are no mountains. Mountains are concepts.
There is no
world. The world is a set of beliefs. Yet, when there
is real clarity
in that, concepts appear again. Yet now they are seen to be
what they
are, empty, inseparable appearances within the empty awareness
that sees
them.
So, in the recognition of awareness, life will continue to unfold
in
appearances. Isn't it wonderful and mysterious to realize
this?
Non-duality leaves you right where you started, in the here and
now, but
without the notion of separation.
How will that manifest in the future? Will "This"
appear
differently? Of course it will, appearances move and
change. That is
what they do. Awareness is like the unmoving and unchanging
space
within which that happens. The two are inseparable.
We want to be clear about the fact that "future" is
nothing more
than a thought appearing in present awareness, right here and
now. This
brings it home completely. We see that we are already at
home. This is
utopia. This is love. This is the Kingdom of
Heaven. In seeing this,
there really is the possibility of transformation,
ironically. There
will be the appearance of a next moment. And it will also
be
`this.' But it will look very different. It may
appear
conceptually as "evolution."
How will it actually look? Who could know . . .
We could speculate.
And speculation is quite fun. Maybe there is a bright
future for
humanity. Maybe the earth will destroy itself. Who
could know?
Although there is no "we" ultimately, paradoxically, we
are in
this together. This unfolding.. What else is there to
do other
than to be peace, to show compassion, to love, to be there for
others
when there is suffering, to speak of how separation is
illusory? How
that will manifest is a mystery. We'll see.
posted on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAStudyGroup/