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#4353 -
Monday, August 29, 2011 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
We think that there is something hiding our
reality and that it must be destroyed before the
reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn
when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts.
That which will be on the day you laugh is also
here and now.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Along The Way
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Vikash, I had dinner with Papaji just before he died. He was a
very ordinary
and happy person. I gave him some cigarettes and bourbon that he
used for
currency for the back stage guys. He was just sitting at his
kitchen table with
the TV on. He counsels all the gawkers to simply give up the
search. Now that
he and Ramana are dead, ordinary folks on this group are sharing
the same
said wisdom while enjoying their lives without conflict. The here
and now
does not need thinking to change anything. The here and now is
always
already utter acceptance. No additional effort is required. Keep
the message
and leave the messenger. Keep simple faith and leave belief.
Being happy and
ordinary does not require effort. The happy and ordinary are in
communion
with the sacred, already.
by John Troy, writing in the Facebook group, Conversations With
Avant-garde
Sages
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The Absolute and the Relative - Separation?
By Bill Lindley
"Awakening" is not a choice or "position". It
is not about choosing the right
path among others, or landing on a "better" concept.
Awakening is awakening
from all those things, not awakening to them.
One of the self declared "awakened teachers" on
Facebook, continually talks
about the mixture of "absolute" and
"relative" language as being at the heart
of all misunderstanding between "seekers" and teachers
of non-duality. This is
also used to point to the "neo"; that somehow not quite
legitimate teacher,
who mixes his absolute and relative like cocktails.
The "Absolute" contains the relative within it. They
are not separate. The
relative is not some "bastard stepchild" of the
Absolute, but an expression of
it. You are an expression of the Absolute; Love itself.
Separating the
expression of Love from Love itself is in the mind. The
expression is the Love
itself in expression. Your "form" is the expression of
Love. Temporary, from
dust, but the substance is Love.
It may be difficult to mix Absolute with relative, but this is
the choice of the
universe in it's expressions. This is what acceptance is all
about. Our "self
declared awakened teacher" mentioned above seems to have
difficulty in
accepting the nebulous quality of "clear"
understanding. (see Nebulous Clarity;
(https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=118768064850624 ) Yes,
the
awakened see clearly that there is no clear seeing. As I once
wrote in my
Blog, "When you completely understand that there is no
complete
understanding, your understanding is complete."
This "need" to separate Absolute from relative, may be
present in the early
seeker, but once awakening takes place, the "two" blend
into the
understanding. The "relative" including the "I
am", and the "persona", are
seen for what they are. The "I am" and the body/mind
are "still" there, but
seen as useful "tools", necessary for their own
survival only, but not at all
necessary for the understanding.
Initially in the search, we may need to "discriminate",
vivika. But once all this
"separation" in the name of non-duality is seen
through, we need to accept.
Accept the paradoxes, the "Nebulous Clairity." Embrace
the relative in the
name of the Absolute, the "expresser" of the
"expression". Life opens before
you. Every moment is a miracle. Don't separate the miracle into
"Absolute"
and "relative", but embrace both as one, Tat Tvam Asi.
Peace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is only the Present, where else should I meet Ramana?
By Bill Lindley
What is the relevance of the Scriptures? What is the degree of
reverence we
should show for a Buddha, a Christ or a Ramana Maharshi?
I was reading some comments to a thread a friend had put up on
neoadvaita.
It had deteriorated into a discussion of the need for following
"past" sages,
such a Ramana Maharshi . Ramana is dead, it was said. Ideas about
him are
only imagination and a need for "heroes". Is that all
they are? More stories?
Ramana's "story" entered "mine" back in
physical time, in 1986. Now, they
are both "stories" with a time bound history. But at
that nano-second of what
was then "the now", Ramana and "I " met.
Described out of another's
memory (David Godman's), Ramana became a part of my mental and
visual
experience. Not a "dead" Ramana, wrapped in history,
suffering from poor
translations, but a Ramana that lives for me, right here, right
now. There is
only the present, where else should I meet Ramana?
We are all expressions of Love, unfolded continually. When the
folds of Love's
potential reveal both the expressions of "me" and
"Ramana", the expression
of love for Ramana, and Ramana for me is complete. This is not
the loving or
"worshiping" of a "past" or "dead"
being, but a new presence of "my"
expression" and the "expression" which is Ramana.
If Ramana enters my life,
in the form of a dream, a book, or even a reference on Facebook,
this is a
new "experience", a "now" experience.
This is why it is so important to have your own experience with
Ramana, or
Christ or Buddha. Regardless of translation, reference or
concordance, ask
yourself, "what does this say to me ?" Even if someone
else recommended it,
or compels you to read it, it is you that it speaks to; you
alone. There is but
one voice to hear, and one voice to speak.
What is the relevance of the Scriptures? When they present
themselves, their
voice meets your ear, their heart meets your heart. No time
intervention, the
voice speaks, the ear/heart hears, and an unfolding. New with
itself, not
"past", but always lively, in the "now".
And the saints? The sages, the Buddha, the Christ, Ramana, or
Nisargadatta?
Do we owe them reverence or respect? They asked nothing, but for
our
attention. But they, and we, are expressions of Love itself. We
are created to
love each other; our guides, as well as those entrusted to us.
There is only
the present, where else should I meet you? There is only the
present, where
else should I meet Ramana?
Peace
"If I allow you to interpret Ramana's words for me, who will
be found to
interpret Ramana's Smile?"
comment:
...we are the Christ, Buddha and Ramana only in relationship. We
have
no "existence", nor do "they" outside of
being expressions of Love. The "Love,"
the "relationship" is the reality.
The present moment is now, full of paradox. How else can Ramana
and I,
and you, for that matter, be one? We flow together; one Love in
many
expressions. Relationship without subjects or objects. Pure
relationship, pure
flow. There is only Love, and its expressions, its
"relationships".