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#4042 - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Here are entries from 3 blogs.
Nonduality America blog
http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/awareness-never-changes/
Awareness Never Changes
Richard C. Miller
Beyond the moving mind lays a background of
Stillness that never changes.
The mind must come to know the Self as this pervading background
of Stillness.
Realize that nothing observed or
experienced is you.
Nothing experienced binds or obscures you.
Take no notice of what is not your Self.
Nothing observed is ultimately who we are.
Be aware of being aware.
Be aware deliberately and consciously.
Broaden and deepen this field of awareness. Y
ou are always conscious of the mind.
Now be consciously aware of yourself as being aware.
Be Awareness.
In this there is no separation of observer and observed.
Look upon the objects of the world.
See that all objects are extensions of Awareness.
There is only Awareness.
There is only Presence.
There is only God.
*Words Richard C. Miller
Slow Advaita blog http://slowadvaita.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=50
I discovered vedAnta after the publication
of words from an empty boat. I was gradually oriented to classical advaita
teaching shortly afterwards, through the writings of Dennis Waite, the
Italian sage Raphael and the jagadgurus
of Sringeri.
Meditation upon such steady wisdom has made it possible for me to
become a little more clear on the fine points of wisdom. But I
should specify that the clarity is not the result of a vague
'spontaneity'. Nor is the fruit of mere nondualist
autosuggestion. Rather it is the result of bringing my mind into
harmony the words of the wise.
***
If it is possible for me to have some success in this, it would
have to be possible for anyone else to have similar success. But
the voices of distraction are innumerable. I spent years
distracted by the hope of saying something unique, of somehow
adding to wisdom or of discovering some new facet of wisdom. In
the back of my mind, I was puffed up with these kinds of
thoughts. It took time and effort to get some distance from them.
***
Without overcoming egotism, it is not possible to experience
peace of mind. As another passage from kaTha upanishad states,
"Not by him who has not desisted from evil conduct, who does
not possess shama, etc., who has not collected, who does not have
a mind at peace can this be attained by praj~nA alone."
Egotism holds the mind to manas. However, by overcoming egotism,
we are more readily able to ascend to the intellect, and in this
way meditate upon the profound truths, such as those revealed by
the Scriptures and the wise through words.
In short, although words and the mind "turn back" from
Reality, they are also central to Its realization. Where the mind
and words intersect, knowledge of whatever order is possible. As
the aitreya upanishad states, "The world is lead by
knowledge. Knowledge is the basis. Knowledge is brahman."
by Adi Vajra
Non-Duality means non-duality. It's funny how, through our
manic searching and desperate attempts for control we can very
easily imagine separateness in our lives. We have this
in-built tendency to create very subtle conditions for
Truth. We may understand intellectually that everything is
One, but through our experience we always conjure up exceptions
to that. In this way we tend to try to exclude what we
don't want, or create some condition that prevents someone or
something else from being whole. But, non-duality means
non-duality...just because a person may not know all the
spiritual languages, or be able to astrally project themselves
doesn't mean that they aren't just as much the One as anything
else.
In our truly natural state, which is just right now, there is
nothing excluded from the totality of existence. But the
mind would believe otherwise, the mind would organize and
interpret experiences down to the nth degree, hoping to somehow
get a grasp on the eternal and unbound~ but it can't be done!
Non-duality is the relaxation of the mind to the essential truth
that there is nothing to fix, nowhere to go, nothing to become...
Non-duality is the basic nature of our Being, that aspect of our
Being that includes everything. The aspect of of our Being
that isn't concerned with analyzing reality, or making
assumptions based on false evidence.
Non-duality is the direct experience of your own Self, and the
recognition that your own Self is in its essence no different
that anything else.