Click here to go to the next issue.

>>>Jerry:

The Wei Wu Wei website many have been waiting for, is up and
running. Lots of excerpts:

<<http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com>http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com>

(this wei wu wei guy was a domain name genius. whenever you
type any url you gotta use his initials! Maybe i'll change
my guru name to 'Com'. "Hey, have you been to Com's satsang?
Wow, man.")

"The Sage no longer differentiates between dualism and
non-dualism (advaita), for he does not cognise them as
different." --www

nervously offering my new name,
Master Com

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>>>Benihan:


Hello All,

I have recently joined this list. I am interested in exploring the
possibility of starting a non-duality video/audio Satsang group in New
England area. I can host the weekly or biweekly video/audio Satsangs at my
house in Cambridge, Mass starting this fall. I am already a member of a
similar group but they only watch Gangaji videos and I'd like to add a
variety with this new group. You're welcome to bring your video/audio tapes
from non-dualist teachers like Jean Klein, Gangaji, Francis Lucille, Ramesh
Balsekar etc. Because we'll supply our own videos, there's no cost to join
this group.

Frankly I am a fan of Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi. Since they didn't
speak English and video taped their Satsangs in Hawaii, we can at least read
sections from their classic books.

For more information on how to help please contact me directly at
Benihan@aol.com.

Many thanks,

Benihan

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>>>Gloria wrote:

What do you guys think of this idea of Being/becoming.

A NET of JEWELS
daily meditations for seekers of Truth
RAMESH S. BALSEKAR
http://www.advaita.org
August 5

The individual self can exist only as a process of becoming, whereas
THAT WHICH IS is the perennial state of BEING. Therefore, its
realization is the annihilation of the individual.


>>>Jerry:
I think the challenge with such a question is addressing it
with purity. I mean addressing from who I am. My tendency
has been to think how someone else would answer it, like
Ramana or someone like that, or whether my answer would be
approved by a famous Advaitin, or whether it accords with my
image. If a person can see the question as though seeing it
for the first time, then the challenge is met. It's really
hard to do that because every word in the above quote is so
loaded.

'The individual can only exist as a process of becoming'. It
sounds like he's saying that individual existence and change
are the same thing. Now I have to question whether I know
that or whether I'm repeating something I've heard. Because
somewhere I've heard that things are always changing. But do
I really know that? Do I know that change, or becoming, is
constant? You know what? I really can't say I know that. The
only things I can say I know are those that seem to accord
with what others have said, with what has been published, or
with what I've said in the past.

But Gloria, I respond to you, by saying I stand here
unknowing, without a word of response. I give up everything
I've read and heard. I cannot respond. Or, rather, I could
respond. But who really can answer from purity? Who really
knows?

I take this opportunity to ask who really speaks from their
own knowing? And what is that knowing? And who speaks
without mental approval from someone they look up to?
Addressing those questions can plunge one into an unknowing.

With Advaita moving more and more into the mainstream, it is
an important challenge. People have to be responsible for
knowing, they have to speak for themselves. It's important
to know one's own voice, and if one doesn't know it, then
admit it. People on spiritual paths do take responsibility
for a lot of things and lives can improve tremendously. But
sometimes they don't take responsibility for their knowing;
it seems they resort to the knowing of their teacher or
teachers as put into words.

The knowing of the teacher in never put into words. I don't
see how it can be. I don't see how any handful of words can
capture the teaching of the teacher. Yet when some people
write or speak, they mentally consider whether a particular
teacher or Guru -- as imaged through the teacher's or Guru's
writings or words -- would approve. It's nuts! I think that
speaking independently is not only possible but that it is
easier to do than to speak with the mental approval of an
outsider, and that outsider can be the image of oneself. The
latter outsider is really a dangerous one!

trying to keep my head above the rising tide,
Jerry

------------------

>>>Dave (Manchine)

That's the beauty of a forum like this. Sometimes, it may appear
that the interchange of opinions and the grind of clashing
concepts is no different than that of the outside world, but
we (that's we, not one individual) have a focus, albeit semi-distracted.

Like I said, when someone asked me, "what is right, what is wrong?",
"How can one draw the line?" It just sort of draws itself, actively.

I think it's a very important point that you make. Let go! THIS
is IT!

Love Dave

--------------------

>>>Mark Chrsitopher Valentine:


of Nothing,

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
-Matthew 6:11

of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.
something will come,
of Something: except Peace.

Nature herself – who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand – is the
porcelain past evolving the clay future:
She is rushing and unmitigated;
the all becoming the all becoming.
Nature is Something -- Something is waxing.

of Something,
will come something: except Peace.
nothing will come,
of Nothing: except Peace.

Nature herself – who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand – is the
porcelain past involving the clay future:
She is crying and unassuaged;
the all becoming the all becoming.

nothing will come,
of Nothing: except Peace.
of Something,
will come something: except Peace.

Nature herself – who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand – is the
clay future revolving the porcelain past:
She is dying and unpalliated;
the all becoming the all becoming.

something will come,
of Something: except Peace.
of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.

Nature herserlf – who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand – is the
clay future devolving the porcelain past:
She is rushing
and crying
and dying:
the all becoming the all becoming.
Nature is Something – Something is waning.

of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.
of Something,
will come Something: except Peace.

Peace will come of Nothing: Death is Nothing.
Sorrow will come of Something: Dying is Something.
Something will come,
of Nothing,
will come Peace.

-MCV

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>>>Gene Poole:
Hi Jerry,

I am familiar with what you say here.
>>>(vis post of a couple of days ago about lucid dreaming)

In my own such dreams, I have the experience of leaping vastly ahead,
and of preparing the future for myself. This includes pruning or
parsing my identity, to the point that I am undistinguishable from
the future.

>>>Jerry:
Hi Gene, isn't the leap 'vastly ahead' the same as the leap
into the deep present? I'm not sure why the 'future' is
used, unless the feel of the process of the pruning and
parsing dissolves the future and in that dissolving the
future opens as a vast and evident emptiness.

>>>Gene:
This is no different in 'waking' or 'dreaming'. I admit that I have
lost the distinction between the two.

>>>Jerry:
Whether one is dreaming or waking, there could be the
clarity that 'this is it' and so there would be no
distinction there between waking and sleeping. While I can't
say I have that clarity with every dream, or hardly any
dream, and while there is unconscious deep sleep, there
remains a continuity.

I don't feel that I awake to a new day each day. Nor do I
feel that going to sleep marks the end of the day. Sleeping
and waking happen, and so do dreams, but there is a
continuity of empty being that knows no break, no
discontinuity. However my body certainly knows waves of
emotion, thought, feeling, and all that, including
sleepiness and alertness! These waves always settle,
eventually, into the continuity of empty being. So there is
no distinction between waking and sleeping.

>>>Gene:
If I don't like the future, I don't like myself. If I like myself, I
like the future.

I am like the future; when I get there, I will be only what I am.

>>>Jerry:
In a sense, then, there is really no getting there. If
anything, I feel the future comes; it's like an ever-welling
of an ocean wave on the horizon.

>>>Gene:
Face it, the future haunts like a ghost, making identity squirm.
Whose footfalls are those, heard upstairs at midnight?

==Gene Poole==

>>>Jerry:
The footfalls are vibrations sent to break down the wall
obstructing the view of the horizon. Until one can see the
horizon, the future can haunt.

Jerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
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>>>Harsha:
The company of peaceful Sages (Satsangha) and living in harmlessness is
considered the primary influence that leads to Self-Realization. The forced
attempts to discard various habits and conditioning and practicing different
techniques to calm the mind have built in limits, unless one is already
inclined towards such practices. If strong inner motivation is present, one
is automatically propelled towards Self-Awareness and Meditation. The fog of
confusion then quickly evaporates and leads to Self-Seeing, Self-Being,
Self-Realization, and the Silence of the Heart.

Meditation and mind calming methods, etc., can be effective at many
different levels if practiced in the context of a clear understanding. Such
practices, however, cannot by themselves end the fundamental agitation of
the mind which continues at more and more subtle levels and causes
suffering. The nature of the mind is to hanker after that which is not real
and is constantly subject to change. Not knowing who we are, where we come
from, and where we are going, we still continue chasing after dreams built
on the sandcastles of desires. If we become aware of this, we can see the
fundamental nature of suffering, and direct our attention to the mystery of
life and the nature of our perceptions.

A True Guru knows no Time and Space. The Self Reveals It Self from Within.
Listen. Remain aware. Be utterly indifferent to the clever words, miracles,
and magical techniques that promise salvation. If you have the courage, open
your wisdom eye and see clearly what attracts you to such things and people.
What is it that they have to give you that you do not have? Question
seriously and honestly and go to the root of your hopes and fears. There are
many active marketers of "wisdom." Understand that, like you, they have
their own challenges and suffering. With compassion for them and for others
and one's own self, one should keep one's vision utterly, totally, and
completely pure. It means that you should not give in to the attraction of
confusion and compromise in seeking the Truth.

Do not settle for anything! Do not settle for anything - until there is
nothing left to settle for.

Let your effort be absorbed in peaceful Self-awareness. There is absolutely
nothing else to be done.



Nothing given,

nothing taken.

See the sights,

be not mistaken.

You have everything you need.

Think not that you must awaken,

now or later for heaven's sake.

Know only this for certain,

That You Are Already Wide Awake!


Love to all
Harsha

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