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#4390 -
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Like everything mental, the so-called
law of causation contradicts itself. No thing
in existence has a particular cause; the entire
universe contributes to the
existence of even the smallest thing; nothing could be as
it is without the
universe being what it is. When the source and the ground
of everything is the
only cause of everything, to speak of causality as a
universal law is wrong. The
universe is not bound by its content, because its
potentialities are infinite;
besides it is a manifestation, or expression of a principle
fundamentally and
totally free.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
from "I Am That", posted to Along
The Way
The Monday issue, as is often the case, did
not go out until Tuesday. It had the
first quote by Steve Jobs in the entire dozen years or so that we
have been doing
Highlights. It was a memorable one from his 2005 Commencement
Address at
"Your time is limited, so don't waste
it living someone else's life. Don't
be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of
other
people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions
drown out
your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage
to follow
your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you
truly
want to become. Everything else is secondary."
~ Steve Jobs
If you have missed hearing or reading this
incredible speech in its entirety, here
is a link. It is "insanely" good, especially his
comments about death.
text and video available here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1006/Steve-Jobs-s-2005-Stanford-commencement-address
My
third story is about death.
When
I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you
live each day as
if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be
right." It made an impression
on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in
the mirror every
morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my
life, would I want to
do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has
been "No" for
too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering
that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever
encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because
almost everything
— all external expectations, all pride, all fear of
embarrassment or failure - these
things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is
truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to
avoid the trap
of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.
There is no
reason not to follow your heart.
STEVE
JOBS
1955
- 2011
You
Reading This, Be Ready
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life -
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
~
William Stafford
(The Way It Is)
Web
version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Be_Ready.html