Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
As in most
Buddhist teachings, the point of Mara is not to "believe
in" Mara
but to understand what Mara represents in your own practice and
experience of life.
"Mara's army
is just as real to us today as it was to the Buddha," Jnana
Sipe
said. "Mara stands for those patterns of behavior that long
for the security
of clinging to something real and permanent rather than facing
the question
posed by being a transient and contingent creature. 'It makes no
difference
what you grasp', said Buddha, 'when someone grasps, Mara stands
beside
him.' The tempestuous longings and fears that assail us, as well
as the views
and opinions that confine us are sufficient evidence of this.
Whether we talk
of succumbing to irresistible urges and addictions or being
paralyzed by
neurotic obsessions, both are psychological ways of articulating
our current
cohabitation with the devil."
from somewhere on
the internet ,^)
posted to Daily
Dharma by Amrita Nadi
Ed
Note: Article here: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/mara.html
Work, Watch, Wait by Art Ticknor
So Jesus said to
those Jews who believed in him, "If you live by what I say,
you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the
truth will set you
free." John 8:31-32
Chela-A: What
does it mean to know the truth? Teacher: Knowing the truth
is not a knowing in any form you're familiar with. It's seeing
what is as
opposed to what seems. "What is" is what you truly are.
Do you know what
you are? Do you see the truth?
A : Apparently
not. I don't really know what I am, and I certainly don't feel
free. So I must not see the truth.
T : What do you
tell yourself the reason for the non-seeing is? Do you feel
it's because the truth is in the dark and when light
reveals it you'll be able
to see it? Because a new "eye" has to open
in order to see it? Something
else?
A : I keep seeing
my personal self! It's annoying. It's just a damned notion,
but I take it to be so real. No, no other light, or
new eye, just a stupid
conviction that needs to stop happening..
"Unclenching" sounds kind of like
what's needed.
T : Yes, the
personal self is a clenched fist. A fist has no sight. Only the
Truth/Self sees, and only the Truth/Self sees
itself. Reflecting back on
my life, I could say: "I looked away and saw a
projection of myself. I
looked back and saw my real self.."
Teacher to
Chela-B: Do you feel you currently see the Truth, or that it's
hidden from you? If you do see it: do you recognize it or admit
the
implications of what you see; if not, how do you explain to
yourself the
non-recognition or non-admission?
B : I feel that I
can see the Truth. I can see that all things arise and
disappear in the view, including every single aspect
of I/me. I/me is not-I,
yet all not-I are contained in I.
I tell myself
that there must be something I'm NOT seeing clearly, which is
why I persist in craving, seeking and trying to
become something. I don't
know which of the two categories this explanation
falls in, since the
explanation probably contains aspects of both. I am
tending toward the
interpretation that if I notice what I haven't yet
noticed, then the
unbelief or non-admission would be impossible to
sustain.
T : "As a
child, I held on to childish beliefs."
Chela-C:
Hidden. The mind is attached to the mental drama and pretend
ego-building but could tire of this and begin to turn its inquiry
to
the observer truthand over time somehow the resistance would
wear out and a vision would happen that hasn't yet. I've also
been
assuming, since what I see isn't me I need to see something I
haven't yet, when the observation is part of the truth too. It's
that
kind of mental blinders (in this case a misinterpretation
perhaps)
that keep the view focused on the parts rather than the whole and
I don't know how many are left and how long it'll take to see
them.
T: "I was in love with sorrow."
Chela-D: I often
feel like I see the Truth. I don't fully accept it because I
still have attachments to untruth. Some of these attachments I'm
not seeing yet. Some I'm not willing to let go of yet.
T: "I concocted elaborate stories to try to still the
troubled waters."
Chela-E: It
feels like it's hidden. I tell myself it's not seen because I'm
not
ready yet due to continued strength of the ego (individuality
sense)
and all its attachments. I can hypothetically understand that
Truth
may be perfectly obvious and I'm just ignoring it because of
this.
Also, the Truth as expressed by those reporting back feels
extremely right, but somehow seems too good to be true. T:
"I
prayed to my Self, imploring my Self to show me the way, to
reveal
the truth of myself to myself. But when my Self asked me if I
were
ready, I said: 'Not just yet.'"
Chela-D: I've
been working hard, writing down my observations, learning new
things, etc. Is all this an elaborate story I've
invented to avoid the Truth?
T:
That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself. You're the
only
authority to gauge whether my
response ("I concocted elaborate stories
to try to still the troubled
waters.") fits your situation.
D: Is despair
a valid strategy?
T:
Despair (loss of hope) is not a strategy. It's a feeling-reaction
that
generates a belief or
conviction. The feeling is a fact; the belief or
conviction is an
interpretation that may be more or less valid. The
existentialists like Sartre
and the popular crop of today's advaitins (who
share the view that
"you're already enlightened … just admit there's no
self," etc.) represent
exhausted seekers who stop short of realization by
latching onto the belief that
there's nothing to be done. That's a
premature interpretation of
hopelessness. Of course some people never
start seeking due to an
adolescent interpretation of hopelessness
("there's no
answer" or "it's too big for me to tackle," and so
on). A
valid strategy is to make our
life a laboratory for finding the truth of
what we are and to feel our
way intuitively, allowing intuition to refine
the strategy as we go along.
Mental clarity increases as we "back up"
within the mind ... as more
and more of the mind's activity comes into
view. Final mental clarity is
only possible if we can see mind from a
higher perspective.
Chela-B: There
was a deflating effect of your statement that endures to
right now. Thing is, we've done this before. The affliction, the
response, the
story, the forgetting – and repeat the cycle. Perhaps there
is a bit more
honesty, a bit more acceptance of my complete ignorance, than the
last cycle.
What is it that your question and feedback was designed to do? Is
there a
better way for me to approach this? To show that it's time that I
let go of
mental forms that have been repeating since childhood? But if I
am
convinced I am those mental forms then how is that necessary
higher
perspective achieved?
T: What I
said was a statement reflecting my life-experience triggered by
your answer to the question. You might
take a look at whether your
prolonged focus on your balloon's
frequent deflation is a possible
defense mechanism that allows you to
avoid looking at the facts that life
is trying to present to you … and
therefore allows a reinflating of the
balloon (ego, self-belief) to prevent
its collapse.
Chela-E: Had a
big blow to the seeker ego this past week by realizing that
I'm the same old unenlightened schleb I've always been. It's like
there was a
house of cards being built up represented by hours of meditation,
retreat
attendance, doctrine study, etc., which was severely shaken and
damaged if
not toppled. This resulted in being distraught and a lingering
feeling of
gloominess. Seeking activities will continue, but I feel the
grandiose ideals of
Enlightenment need to be replaced with practicality, simplicity
and realism.
~ ~ ~
Recognizing what
you truly are takes work – possibly years or a lifetime of
work. I doubt if anyone puts in the necessary effort unless they
come to see
(i.e., intuit) that it's the only solution to their deepest
question, desire or
dissatisfaction.
What obstructs
our clear view is a field of faulty beliefs about what we are.
Life erodes those beliefs over time, sometimes providing traumas
that knock
them down. We can speed up the process by intentionally looking
for them
and consciously doubting them. Introspection – watching the
mind's activity
and looking for patterns – provides the data to challenge
the validity of
self-beliefs. We work then relax; pray then listen; push then
wait.
We can't force a
breakthrough to self-knowing. The pins have to line up
properly for the lock to open, and we don't know what key will do
that.
If you have any
questions or comments of your own, email Art Ticknor .
http://tatfoundation.org/forum2011-02.htm#4