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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4189 Sunday, March 13, 2011
Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. So stop trying to
change reality. That's crazy! Stop trying to change the other
person. We spend all our time and energy trying to change
external circumstances, trying to change our spouses, our bosses,
our friends, our enemies, and everybody else. We don't have to
change anything. Negative feelings are in you. No person on earth
has the power to make you unhappy. There is no event, condition,
situation, or person. Nobody told you this; they told you the
opposite. That's why you're in the mess that you're in right now.
That is why you're asleep. They never told you this. But it's
self-evident.
- Anthony de Mello
Interpretation
All that we experience is subjective.
There is no sensation without interpretation.
We create the world and ourselves;
Only when we stop do we see the truth.
The world exists, but we cannot truly be one with it
in our normal modes of consciousness.
Our minds know the world by constructing conclusions
from the data of our sense.
All that we know is filtered and interpreted.
Therefore, there is no such thing as objectivity
or direct knowledge of the world.
Everything is relative because we are each condemned
to our particular vantage points.
As long as we all have different perspectives,
as long as perception relies on our sense,
then there cannot be an absolute truth.
All knowledge from experience, valuable as it may be,
is imperfect and merely provisional.
Inner truth is only glimpsed
by disconnecting the mechanism of interpretation.
If we can withdraw the activities of the senses
and isolate that part of the mind responsible
for filtering sensory input,
then we can temporarily shut off the ongoing process of
interaction with the outside world.
We will then be in a neutral place
that is wholly turned inward.
We are left with an absolute state,
entirely without distinction or relativity.
This is called nothingness,
and it is the truth underlying all things.
-Deng Ming-Dao, from 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, posted to
The_Now2
Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my
fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it
from the bad?" Or is it possible for the lamp to say,
"I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I
will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say,
"I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me,
but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of
what love is about.
- Anthony de Mello
Love is the strongest medicine. It is more powerful than
electricity.
- Neem Karoli Baba, from Miracle of Love, by Ram Dass,
posted to AlongTheWay
The Heart of Relationship
Awakening to the truth of perfect Unity means to awaken from the
dream of a personal self and personal others to the realization
that there is no other. Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses
of the absolute unity of all existence, but few are capable of or
willing to live up to the many challenging implications inherent
in that revelation. The revelation of perfect unity, that there
is no other, is a realization of the ultimate impersonality of
all that seems to be so very personal.
Applying this realization to the arena of personal relationships
is something that most seekers find extremely challenging, and is
the number one reason why so many seekers never come completely
to rest in the freedom of the Self Absolute. Inherent in the
revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no
personal me, no personal other, and therefore no personal
relationships. Coming to terms with the challenging implications
of this stunning realization is something that few people are
willing to do, because realizing the true impersonality of all
that seems so personal challenges every aspect of the illusion of
a separate, personal self. It challenges the entire structure of
personal relationships which are born of needs, wants, and
expectations.
It is in the arena of personal relationships that the illusion of
a separate self clings most tenaciously and insidiously. Indeed,
there is nothing that derails more spiritual seekers than the
grasping at and attaching to personal relationships. The
revelation of perfect unity reveals the true impersonality of all
relationships. The ego always interprets "impersonal"
as meaning cold, distant, and aloof. However,
"impersonal" simply means not personal, or void of a
separate me and a separate you. The mind cannot comprehend a
relationship without separate entities, much as a character in a
dream cannot comprehend that all other dream characters are
simply manifestations of the same dreamer. Yet when the dreamer
awakens, he instantly comprehends that the entire dream, and all
the characters in it, were none other than projections of his own
self. In the dream there is the appearance of separate, personal
entities in relationship, but upon awakening, one comprehends the
impersonal (non-separate) Self that is the source of all
appearances.
To deeply inquire into the question "Who is another?"
can lead to the direct experience that the other is one's own
Self -- that in fact there is no other. However, I have seen that
for most seekers, even this direct experiential revelation is not
enough to transform the painfully personal ways they relate. To
come to this profound transformation requires a very deep
investigation into the implications inherent within the
experiential revelation that there is no other. It is in the
daily living of these implications that most seekers fail. Why?
Because, fundamentally, most people want to remain separate and
in control. Simply put, most people want to keep dreaming that
they are special, unique, and separate, more than they want to
wake up to the perfect unity of an Unknown which leaves no room
for any separation from the whole.
There is a powerful tendency in most spiritual seekers to avoid
probing deeply into the implications inherent within profound
spiritual experience and revelation, because these implications
are always threatening to the sense of a separate self, or ego.
It is the implications inherent within profound spiritual
revelation that demand the transformation of the apparent
individual.
Inherent within the revelation of perfect unity is the
realization that there is no other. The implications of this
realization reveal that in order to manifest that unity in the
relative world, one must renounce the dream of being a separate
self seeking to obtain anything through relationship with
another. Indeed, personal relationship appears to happen in the
relative world, but in reality, all appearances simply arise as
temporary manifestations of a unified whole. In the relative
world these appearances are in relationship, but not as separate
entities. Rather, they are the play of the one Self projecting
itself as apparent entities in relationship to one another.
As long as you identify yourself with the projection of
separateness, you will continue to deny that you are the Source
of all projections. When you truly and absolutely awaken to this
fact, and comprehend the overwhelming implications inherent
within this awakening, you will continually experience that all
apparently personal relationships are in truth nothing other than
the play of your Self.
To realize that the personal me is an illusion born of false
identification with the body, thoughts, and emotions brings a
profound sense of freedom. This is fundamentally the realization
of emptiness, of what you are not. But contained within the
realization of emptiness (formlessness) is also the realization
of what you ARE. In the most absolute sense, you ARE this
conscious emptiness which is the source of all appearances
(existence). But you are the appearance as well - not just one
part of the appearance called "me," but all of it, the
entire whole.
This is the challenge, to let your view get this vast, to let
your view get so vast that your identity disappears. Then you
realize that there is no other, and there is nothing personal
going on. Contrary to the way the ego will view such a
realization, it is in reality the birth of true love, a love
which is free of all boundaries and fear. To the ego such
uncontaminated love is unbearable in its intimacy. When there are
no clear separating boundaries and nothing to gain the ego
becomes disinterested, angry, or frightened. In a love where
there is no other, there is nowhere to hide, no one to control,
and nothing to gain. It is the coming together of appearances in
the beautiful dance of the Self called love.
To the seeker who is sincere, an experiential glimpse of this
possibility is not enough. If you are sincere, you will find it
within yourself to go far beyond any glimpse. You will find
within your Self the courage to let go of the known and dive
deeply into the Unknown heart of a mystery that calls you only to
itself.
- Adyashanti