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#3946 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Accommodate Whatever Arises
Understanding that there is no solid, singular, or permanent “me” makes it possible to accommodate whatever arises in life without feeling so intimidated by our experience, without rolling over like a defeated dog in a dogfight. We can see that things arise due to our karma playing itself out and that it does not necessarily have to be so personal. In this way we can identify with something greater—which is our nature itself.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, "Realizing Guiltlessness" (Winter 2004)
Read the complete article here
Jacob, almost seventy, was in the
midstages of Alzheimer's disease. A clinical
psychologist by profession and a meditator for more than twenty
years, he was
well aware that his faculties were deteriorating. On occasion his
mind would go
totally blank; he would have no access to words for several
minutes and
become completely disoriented. He often forgot what he was doing
and usually
needed assistance with basic tasks-cutting his food, putting on
clothes,
bathing, getting from place to place.
Jacob had occasionally given talks about Buddhism to local groups
and had
accepted an invitation to address a gathering of over a hundred
meditation
students. He arrived at the event feeling alert and eager to
share the teachings
he loved. Taking his seat in front of the hall, Jacob looked out
at the expectant
faces before him and suddenly he didn't know what he was supposed
to say
or do. He didn't know where he was or why he was there. All he
knew was that
his heart was pounding furiously and his mind was spinning in
confusion.
Putting his palms together at his heart, Jacob started naming out
loud what
was happening: "Afraid, embarrassed, confused, feeling like
I'm falling,
powerless, shaking, sense of dying, sinking, lost." For
several more minutes he
sat, head slightly bowed, continuing to name his experience. As
his body
began to relax and his mind grew calmer, he also noted that
aloud. At last
Jacob lifted his head, looked slowly around at those gathered,
and apologized.
Many of the students were in tears. As one put it, "No one
has ever taught us
like this. Your presence has been the deepest teaching."
Rather than pushing
away his experience and deepening his agitation, Jacob had the
courage and
training simply to name what he was aware of, and, most
significantly, to bow
to his experience. In some fundamental way he didn't create an
adversary out
of feelings of fear and confusion. *He didn't make anything
wrong.*
-from Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a
Buddha, by Tara Brach, Ph.D. posted by Gloria Barrera on Facebook
photo by Alan Larus
Interviewer: What's the best advice you ever got?
Warren Buffett: The power of unconditional love. I mean, there is no power on earth like unconditional love. And I think that if you offered that to your child, I mean you’re 90 percent of the way home. There may be days when you don’t feel like it, it’s not uncritical love, that’s a different animal, but to know you can always come back, that is huge in life. That takes you a long, long way. And I would say that every parent out there that can extend that to their child at an early age, it’s going to make for a better human being.
posted to Daily Dharma by
Amrita Nadi
finding my mind ... isn't
mine!
Last night I watched a TV program called “Finding My Mind.” This is how the program was described: This program unravels the mysteries of the brain. For thousands of years philosophers have tried and failed to come up with satisfactory answers to questions such as ‘who am I?’. But recently neuroscientists have made some fascinating and unnerving discoveries. Here, Oxford University professor of mathematics Marcus du Sautoy takes a journey deep into his own brain – a willing guinea pig for some of the most extraordinary experiments known to neuroscience – to discover where ‘free will’ and ‘self’ actually come from. [.....]
The post continues at http://thisunlitlight.wordpress.com/
You can watch a video clip at: http://www.sbs.com.au/schedule/SBSONE/2010-07-06/SBS%20Sydney
Reader's contribution from miriam louisa
Ed. Note: This is a fantastic blog and website, please look around. I especially appreciate her list of links to: wideawake women