Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3817 - Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Gene Poole, Eric Gross, and Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
give three different glimpses.
Gene Poole
The "me-thing"
from Nonduality Salon
The current ongoing struggle to validate
the 'me-thing',
has led to attempts to equate that with the 'true nondual'
thing, thus somehow suggesting that the two are really one.
But; if the actual definition via Advaita is true:
" One without a second" (instead of 'not-two)
Then, we are all 'off the hook', for the 'me-thing'
is the non-existent 'second', no matter how much
work is put into the attempt to equate the 'me-thing'
with the 'One'.
If there is agreement that 'it cannot be put into words',
then there would be a halt to that ongoing struggle to
do so.
After that point of agreement, words would be taken
as merely 'talking about it', rather than an attempt to
prove that the 'me-thing' is actually 'It'.
The 'me-thing' is infamous for trying to hijack
ownership of 'It'. This shows all over the place, for
example in 'priests' of various religions, who claim
ownership of the 'way to god' and all that.
A person has a 'belief' that is so strong, that it is
used as the foundation for growing impossible
concepts, sort of like 'hydroponics', and thus, will
display such 'beliefs' in writing, gesture toward the
thing growing in the tank, and state 'this is god',
to the horror and hilarity of all who observe.
With strong beliefs in the forefront, the background
(the fictional nature of the me-thing) goes unnoticed
by the 'believer'. Sort of like the ventriloquist who is
so into his act, that for him, the dummy is the actual
person, and he himself 'disappears' in the intensity of
it all.
So the 'beliefs' offered are the dummy, which is actually
a creation of the ventriloquist, who actually is simply
another 'me-thing', himself a 'fictional character' who
believes in himself just as strongly as he believes in
his wooden dummy. Sort of ridiculous, but still, the norm.
Eric Gross made a 2 minute video of his visit to the Cloisters Museum of Medieval Art in New York City. Nice contrasting subway and Cloister images:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU_d1qolzco
Here is a description of the Cloisters, and a longer video, from another YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdR6npVRBqM&feature=related
This uptown branch of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is worth the 45-minute subway ride from midtown
(plus a pleasant 10-minute walk through Fort Tryon Park.) Perched
on the tip of Manhattan, on four acres overlooking the Hudson
River, the castle-like Museum is comprised of five Medieval
cloisters imported from France and filled with art and artifacts.
It is the largest single collection of medieval art and artifacts
in the United States. The Cloisters, as described by Germain
Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris,
"the crowning achievement of American museology," is
devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The
Museum building itself incorporates portions of original medieval
chapels, monastic cloisters, a chapter house, and other
architectural elements dating from the 12th through 15th
centuries.
Perhaps the most celebrated attractions are The Unicorn
Tapestries, a group of seven wall hangings that vividly portray
the mythological hunt and capture of a unicorn. Other gallery
objects include religious sculptures, water vessels shaped like
animals, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass and ivories.
Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe,
dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the
twelfth through fifteenth centuries, are exhibited in this unique
museum.
Many visitors come for the building itself: one room recreates a
12th-century chapel, The Fuentiduena Chapel, and another, the
Chapter House (from Notre-Dame-De-Pontaut). The chapter house was
so named because the monks would sit and listen to one monk read
one chapter aloud from the monastic rule book. All of the
business of the monastery and even group confession also took
place in the chapter house.
The monastery gardens are as breathtaking as the vistas
overlooking the Hudson. The herb garden in the Bonnefont Cloister
contains more than 250 species of plants which were grown during
the Middle Ages. Its design is typical of a medieval monastery
garden plan, but no attempt was made to replicate any one
monastic garden in particular. Some kind of ceremonies or rituals
accompany the picking of herbs. Some herbs were to be picked at
sunrise, while looking towards the east, in silence, or without
looking behind oneself. Many of these herbs are associated with
love, others used for cooking and seasoning, and still others for
artistic purposes.
A tour of this place truly imparts a feeling of being in another
time.
Spiritual Traveler: The Grand Bazaar
Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
Traveler:
What is the purpose of life? From your
perspective, why do we come here to live, work, experience, enjoy
our self and then journey to another place?
Master:
The great cycle of life is an opportunity to
experience who we are on many different levels and join in
partnership with the Creator. Within each of us is a spark
that is most like the Light. We are sons and daughters of a
King who have come here to create our own reality, daily. Once
we understand this, we can consciously use our many abilities and
spiritual capacity to fully enjoy and participate in this
multi-level experience called life.
Life is the grand bazaar; an opportunity to do many
things and have all kinds of adventures. Daily, through our
experience and consciousness, we help create our own reality.
Then, after many experiences, it is time to journey to the next
place.
Like the stars in the evening sky we are here to
illume the darkness; each in our own way providing Light, hope,
and expressing that which is highest within our self.
Fundamentally, the journey is a spiritual one.
Filled with many opportunities to experience, express and create.
Once the traveler embraces this reality- all comes from the
spirit- the real searching and work begins.
As basis and throughout its fabric, all life is spiritual. The Creator, through spiritual ether, generates the physical and everything is connected through this physical and spiritual composition: providing awareness and life energy. Consequently, all life exists simultaneously within a physical and spiritual reality; with each of these 2 dimensions having numerous levels of expression.
The Light/Creator/God, or highest directing element, originates beyond both the physical and spiritual; and in order to manifest, operates in our universe through ether and multiple spiritual forms, directing and creating. It is said, life forms exist in endless variety; with each form having its own specific higher spiritual directing and delineating aspect. Higher directing aspects, or forms, are created through the Light/Creator and provide overall substance and direction to every group of living thing. Some term these higher directing aspects, ‘Monads.’ Consequently, there is a specific Monad for humanity, another for animals, fish, birds, plants, insects and every other living form in the universe.
The human soul is comprised of spirit; this spiritual fabric is made-up of a substance termed ether. Spiritual ether is the building block of the universe. Additionally, the soul has as its center, a ‘heart,’ or Divine spark which governs both its higher and lower nature. This spark is most like the Light itself. It is said the Light/Creator created the spiritual form of man/women, through the Holy Monad or ‘Idea of Man,’ and breathed life, consciousness and individual awareness into each traveler’s soul.
By Higher Design, each traveler has individual awareness; ability to become aware of their own capacity to create, destroy and freely choose. This conscious awareness is different than other life forms. Consequently, within each traveler there is an aspect or spark of Divinity, which makes us all most like the Creator. Internally, this energy is our soul’s center and is the driving force or heart which governs and expresses mind, emotion, physicality and soul. When our physical form ceases, it is this heart and primal energy which helps direct our soul’s travel to the next phase.
So it is accurate to say, all travelers have spiritual ability, and that all physical life draws sustenance from a higher, spiritual form. Additionally, since each traveler is unique and there are endless levels of spiritual capacity; these levels being dependent upon each traveler’s individual life plan, destiny, and capacity to choose.
Thoughts
to Ponder
Sadly, many leave without making provision for the next part of their journey.
____________
Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide to Enlightenment (Llewellyn, 2008) and Journey of Light: Trilogy (Authorhouse, 2004); these books are available on Amazon.com or from publisher. To contact author go to www.stewartbitkoff.com.