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#3968 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Ordinary Freedom
by Jon Bernie
Order here:
This wonderful
collection of Jon’s teachings really captures his ability to
point us back to our own innate freedom. What makes Jon’s
teachings so powerful and relevant, though, is that no part of
the human experience is denied. Indeed, there is an open
encouragement for all of our human experience to be included and
embraced as a means of discovering the infinite ground of being
within which all of our experience unfolds.
~ Adyashanti, from the foreword
Here is a chapter I typed
out for readers of the Nonduality Highlights:
Allowing the
Truth to Unfold
How is it possible to be
free of suffering, free of the struggle? By direct perception.
That's all that's required. Nothing more, nothing less. Freedom
from suffering simply means not being identified anymore, which
means not being separate anymore. We only suffer when we're
identified, and we're only identified when we're separate.
When we perceive
directly, there is no separation. There is only perception. What
we perceive may be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral; but
it is the truth of this moment, whatever qualities it
happens to possess. And so we allow, we trust and allow the
deepening of our awakening to the truth of this moment, the truth
of our being, to unfold in its completely unknowable,
unpredictable way.
Our egos want
predecitability; they want insurance. That's the survival mind,
the organism instinctively wanting to survive. And of course
there's nothing wrong with that -- the survival instinct
obviously has its place. But it doesn't cultivate freedom. It
cultivates, at best, comfort and safety. And that's okay,
actually. Safety doesn't have to be abandoned for you to be free.
You can be comfortable and safe. In fact it's probably required,
in some sense, for the body-mind to feel secure and safe, so it
can be, relax and allow letting go to happen.
So we sit down, we're
quiet for a while. And gradually the unwinding happens -- of the
mind, and the body, and the heart. And then maybe we get a
glimpse, or a taste, of freedom; and if we do, then we give our
attention to that. We surrender to that presence. Dropping out of
our heads and surrendering to stillness, one-pointed presence,
effortless vastness. We let it take us, completely. That's what
surrender is.
On the one hand it gets
easier and easier. On the other, it gets more and more difficult,
more intense. It's paradoxical, actually. As the water gets
calmer, the fire gets hotter. I'm saying a lot of words here, but
it's actually nothing very complicated. In fact it's profoundly
simple, so simple it really doesn't even require words. The words
can be interesting and hopefully useful, and if the words are
useful then let's talk. But really, it's like we're just hanging
out and having a conversation. Even though you're sitting over
there and I'm sitting over here, we can dismantle some of the
formality.
If what I'm saying is not
making sense to you, or is causing some reaction in your mind or
your body or your heart, or something's getting activated and you
want to look at it more closely, then feel free to bring it up
and we can explore it.
That's not required
though. We can just sit here. The presence in our being together
is really the fire of transformation. If you feel that presence,
just allow it to happen. But if it's bringing up unfinished
energies in you, then feel free to engage, and we'll do our
little dialog. Because as you face your truth, whatever that is
in the moment, and you're really able to express it, that process
contributes to everyone's letting go. That's why it's fun to do
this in a group. It's the mutual freeing of everyone. When you're
here you can feel it happen.
Presence always activates
that which is still unfree. The truth always activates the
untrue. Our mind may be convinced things are one way, when the
reality is something else entirely. So question your mind, by all
means, question what you believe. Question it right out of
existence! Because what you believe isn't true -- it's only
belief.
Truth is not believable;
truth is, period. It has nothing to do with belief. It doesn't
matter whether you believe the sun's going to come up or not.
It's absolutely irrelevant. Beliefs can be useful for some
things, of course. But that's all beliefs are: useful or not
useful, functional or not functional. But they're not true. To
the extent that you believe your beliefs, you suffer, and other
people suffer too. Just read the news.
People are sometimes
afraid they're not going to be able to function if they don't
hold on to their beliefs. They worry that they're going to fall
apart, and all chaos is going to break loose. But actually, when
you really let go of all belief, what breaks loose is profound
equanimity.
Ordinary Freedom
by Jon Bernie
http://www.non-dualitypress.com/product.aspx?p=b7d4f237-6f5c-48b9-a5fd-bbdbf1a43410