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Saturday, August 19


Hi Everyone.

Saturday was such a slow day.....

today's digest is not just 'the best of' the
NDS for Saturday -

it's also the 'extent' of the
NDS for Saturday.

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JABBA sends an announcement from Dave Oshana:


I am pleased to announce that Dave Oshana now has an
egroup.com forum list at:

http://www.egroups.com/group/oshana

below is his latest message for your inspection.

jabba

Dave Oshana's Interactive Permanent-Bliss Dialogues
Radical Identity Changing Dialogues

What use is 'a Dialogue with Life itself' on the Internet?

Dear Friend,

It is proposed that the Oshana list will include transcripts of
Interactive Permanent-Bliss Dialogues - real conversations with real
people from
public and private meetings.

However, I would like to point out that if a Dialogue is to be
life-changing that it
should be *your* dialogue. It is *you* that gets 'IT' and it is
*you*
that will change -
finally, forever, permanently.

Having said that, useful qualities result from 'over-hearing' the
Dialogues: faith,
commitment, staying power, insight, peace, bliss, joy and
contentment.
But the 'job' is
not done until the 'contentment' is permanent. This 'contentment' is
of a radically
different order compared with any experience that I had before it
happened. It is
unshakeable, and brings many desirable secondary benefits: stability,
security,
wonder, awe, clarity, definiteness, confidence.

These gifts are not for me to hide. But to give away, to share with
you who wants to
take them, meaning: to find them in yourself, to be completely
satisfied, to be
finished with `searching for more'.

I will endeavour to answer online queries as time permits and publish
extract here
(anonymously if you prefer). But what could be better than meeting
for
`real' over a
cup of herbal tea or a steaming bowl of noodles?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MICHAEL:

About four years ago I was going through some major pain and
suffering. I prefer not to relate the story. It's just a story.
Suffice it to say that 'boy, life sucked!' :-(

I was reading some self-help text and this gift was given:

The text asked the question about suffering, 'Why, me?'
The answer was, 'Why not you? What makes you so special that
you shouldn't suffer?'

The feeling was the Universe was throwing all of my suffering
back into my face and just laughing IT's ass off! And, inviting
me to laugh along! So I did! :-)))))))))))


GLORIA:

Just to confirm that indeed that thought can be "helpful"...here is another
example.

A few years back, my boss had a 14 yr old son who with some friends snuck out
one
night joyriding. Even the accident they had wasn't that bad, but thru a
freakish
circumstance his son was killed. For any parent, your child's death has to be
the
worst possible nightmare, so he and his wife went to some grief group for
parents who
had lost children. As he was later telling me about this, the single most
consoling
thought that became like a compass to guide him thru the worst of his feelings
was
initially heard as a shock. Someone told one of the "oh, why did this have to
happen
to me" parents.. "Well, why not you? We live in a world where accidents and
terrible
illnesses, and crimes happen all the time..why should you be the one spared?"

Now this isn't meant to say a person should not grieve...but that added part of
it..
the piling onto the feeling of loss the particular suffering of feeling singled
out
to suffer. The myth that everybody else is not. I mean why else could Buddha
make
that the foundation, the first noble truth..if it isn't true that life is
suffering
for everyone?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENE POOLE:


NDS

Jerry: Processing suffering


Hi Jerry; you wrote:

"I offer this as an inquiry, "Processing suffering?"."


Gene replies:

Jerry, on the distant planet Proxima-B Prime (that is not what the
locals call it!), the inhabitants live under continual bombardment by
various radiations. If a human were to go there, it would be certain
death, but the locals have 'evolved' within this (what is to humans)
violent and toxic effusion of radiations.

To say that the inhabitants 'do not suffer' from this incredible and
constant rain of radiation would be a misstatement; the fact is, that
like us, they have adapted immunity to compensate for their
environment. If a local inhabitant loses a certain degree of
integrity of immunity, they suffer terribly, and thus they have
evolved a system of medicine which take into account the
vulnerability which manifests upon loss of immunity/integrity.

One of the first resorts of the local medical community is to place
the one who has lost a degree of immunity into a special sheltered
area, in which the effects of the radiation are attenuated. This
gives a chance to diagnose and repair whatever ailment is responsible
for lethal immunodeficiency.

Interestingly, and perhaps of interest to us humans, is that the
prime prescription for health and sustaining integrity of immunity,
is to live without any protection whatsoever; it is seen that the one
who seeks shelter from the violence of the radiations, eventually
weakens, and thus must take refuge, to avoid death. On this distant
planet, survival is reinforced by an ethic which states that honesty
and nakedness is 'The Way'.

On this distant planet, in the records of their long history of
civilisation, appears the story of "The One" who appeared among them,
who first codified 'The Way'. "The One" is revered as a saviour of
sorts, but there is no human term which is the exact equivalent of
his title. "The One who... first awakened us" would be close, though.

It seems that in times past, the inhabitants were far fewer in
number, and suffered greatly. The problem (unknown to them at the
time) was that they were always attempting to find shelter from the
violence of the radiation-fields which permeate their world. Various
technologies were contrived, which were supposed to be protective,
but each invention, no matter how hopeful, eventually led to
weakening rather than strengthening immunity.

The locals could not get away from the radiations; and it was the
radiations which were by them, blamed for their sufferings and
premature deaths, even though it was these same radiations which were
also responsible for all life on the planet. All foods and life-forms
are built of various stepped-down attenuations of these energies,
identically to how our solar radiations are captured and stored as
carbohydrates by our Urthian plant-life.

The Advent of "The One" of Proxima-B Prime:

"The One" was at first scorned by the locals, for his habit of going
naked all the time, and of spending all of his time in the direct
path of the strongest radiations. Eventually, however, they began to
ask him how he managed to survive, and even be happy, in this direct
and unprotected lifestyle. He replied that he himself suffered, but
that he had had a deep realization, which led to his decision to try
living unprotected. He advocated that others give it a try;
eventually, many of the locals became literally his 'followers', as
his lifestyle was also quite nomadic. He and his ever-growing numbers
would trek across the glowing landscapes, eating uncultivated plants,
and gaining new converts by virtue of their obvious strength and
immunity.

The philosophy of "The One" can be summed up quite simply:

'Those who hide, weaken and die. Those who go naked, become strong.
Our true nature is to go naked; by hiding, we deny our true nature,
and nature denied is nature scorned. If we scorn our true nature, we
deny ourselves the life which our nature would provide. If we want
life, we must accept our nature.

'Our nature is strengthened by that which we would avoid; it is
avoidance which must be avoided, and that is done by embracing what
we would flee. We cannot avoid vulnerability, so we must embrace it;
in the embracing our our vulnerability, we also gain what we would
lose by fleeing.

'By seeing through this seeming paradox, integrity is found. Life is
not sustained by fleeing death, but by embracing life.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MARY responds to GLORIA:


Dearest Gloria,

What do I see in Mark? Hmmmm..... good question. Yikes. Maybe I should dump
him. I
think I'm waiting for him to become a millionaire or get a big boat. Yeah, I
think I'll
dump the creep.

thanks for the suggestion,
Mary

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