#4551 - Monday, March 26, 2012 - Editor: Gloria
Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Beingness rests in the heart of all being.
~Ramana Maharshi
"Allow nature to teach you stillness."
~Eckhart Tolle
When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.
~Layman P'ang (c. 740-808)
[48] In the sandalwood forest, there is no other tree (from
The Shodoka)
By Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku
(665 - 713)
English version by Robert Aitken
In the sandalwood forest, there is no other tree.
Only the lion lives in such deep luxuriant woods,
Wandering freely in a state of peace.
Other animals and birds stay far away.
Hsuan Chueh is perhaps best known for composing the Cheng Tao Ko, a
collection of Zen teaching poems. This work has been popularized in
the
West through the influence of Japanese Zen schools, where it is
known as
The Shodoka and he is referred to as Yoka Genkaku.
www.Poetry-Chaikhana.com
"Every animal knows more than you do."
—Native American Proverb
"What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men
would
die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the
beasts also
happens to man."
—Chief Seattle
"Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole
world."
~Ramana Maharshi
We must learn to trust that what needs to open within us will do so,
in just
the right fashion. In fact, our body, heart, and spirit know how to
give birth,
to open naturally, like the petals of a flower. We need not tear at
the petals
nor force the flower. We must simply stay planted and present.
~Jack Kornfeld
via Daily Dharma
Let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull of what you really love.
It will not lead you astray.
~Rumi
(Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Be_Silently_Drawn.html
"Spotted Eagle" by Peter Shefler
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
#4552 - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Science and Nonduality Conference and Neti Neti Films (with Maurizio
and Zaya) present a project we can all be a part of. Looks like
they'll make a film out of all the contributions. I would like to
invite and encourage everybody to submit something -- a selection of
your writing, your art, your favorite quote, whatever.
If you wish to promote this project, please re-post this notice in
your blog, facebook, etc., or just this link:
What is the "new spirituality"?
If you have to express the new spirituality with a video, an image,
symbol or one sentence what would that be?
Please send us your ideas in a visual format, a photo, a short clip
so that we can insert them in a short collective video. Your
contribution can be in any of the formats below:
one image
one video
one word
one symbol
one song
one sentence
one quote
If it is a word it can be you saying it, putting it on a card and
taking a photo, writing on the sand? it?s your idea, go with it.
Your offers can be in ALL languages, if not in English please help
us by providing a translation of your presentation! Looking forward
to play with all of you. Click here to upload your contribution no
later then May 1st!
http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/dropbox/du/
Send us your vision and spread this post and url so more people can
contribute to it. Think out of the box, be creative, be bold, be
irreverent, but most of all... BE! :-)
#4553 - Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Anamika
http://noname-allthereis.blogspot.ca/
Ruthless Truth
One of the things the seeker does not want to hear
especially when it has invested a lot of time, money and intensity
into the search: hours of meditation, buying and reading
spiritual books, going for satsangs and retreats etc.,
that the search can be dropped right here and right now,
as there is no golden pot at the end of the rainbow.
There will be no enlightenment in the future.
Never.
Whatever Is is only ever Now.
Always perceived at this moment,
To be seen only Now
Only ever Now
Did you notice its always Now?
The ruthless truth is that the person you believe yourself to be
will never get it.
The pristine awareness that you are already
does not need any improvement,
does not need any process to be able to comprehend itself.
Enlightenment, freedom is not for the person
its freedom from the person.
and...
What you are looking for is
what you are looking from.
Already the case.
You are That
(But then who knows... :
maybe even though the seeker does not want to hear this,
it might be that awareness, trying to recognize Itself through you,
drops this information in your lap, so you,
after investigating this belief of being a person and seeing the
fallacy of it,
might finally relax, sit back and enjoy the show ;-) )
Nathan Gill wrote:
> > I see now that no transcendental event has any
significance in the light of the
> > plain, ordinary, everyday clarity
of what you really are.
snip
> This type of experience
can happen when the mind becomes very quiet
> and still, and in that very still
almost
> thought free mind, one's true nature gets reflected, and
>
one feels extremely happy and peaceful.
Dhanya writes:
In an effort to demystify this type of event
I offer here the Sanskrit term for this type
of experience, whether one calls it transcendental,
blissful, fool's gold, or whatever the technical
term for it is 'ati sukshma vritti.'
Ati (very) sukshma (subtle) vritti (thought form)
So the reflection of the 'light of consciousness'
(again if one wants to use those term) in a mind
which is very calm and peaceful is called an
ati sukshma vritti. It can be mistaken for
the recognition of the truth, but it isn't the
recognition of truth because for one thing
it goes away, and for another it is not a direct
cognition of one's true nature. In other words,
the sense that my identity is as the body mind individual
is still firmly in place.
Yosy writes:
demystifying the mystical
the mystics
use similes
to express
the divine love.
but me - for me
love of god
elevates
every experience
to the mystic heights!
my lover's body
is the perfect
divine temple.
no doubt.
and
lovingly
tenderly
caressing
her skin -
a prayer
most sublime.
and a kiss - oh, the kiss!
kissing your
lips
my beloved one
is
a most rewarding
rapture of unity!
the secret book of books
lies hidden
shyly
between her thighs.
beautiful
divine
landscape.
we
are
what is.
yahuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!
always and forever.
what the devout
call
divine love
is but a simile
for this
intoxicating
god given
experience.
life!
****************************
_()_
yosy
Jot down Scott Kiloby's upcoming dates in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island:
Thursday Evening, Apr. 26, 7-9 PM:
Nina Carmel's Country Barn
43 Old Sudbury Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
Fri-Sun, Apr. 27-29:
The Providence Institute
18 Imperial Place -6A, Providence, RI 02903
Times & Ticket Prices:
Apr. 27-29, 2012
Thursday: 7:00-9:00 pm - $20-25 (sliding
scale- pay as you can afford)
Friday: 7:00-9:00 pm - $20-25 (sliding
scale- pay as you can afford)
Saturday: 10:00am-5:00pm - $70 (in Advance) / $80
(at-the-door)
Sunday: 10:00am-1:00pm - $30 (in Advance) / $40
(at-the-door)
What is the "new spirituality"? Contribute your creative video
response to this film project that I gladly endorse:
#4553 - Thursday, March 29, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Very seldom can one recommend a book before reading it, but this is
the
one! I was already an avid reader back when Swami Z stories first
appeared
some years ago on Vicki's website. While many profound truths are
wryly or
sarcastically uttered as humor, Swami Z just happens to be the most
lovable
curmudgeon of a guru you'll ever meet. When baking cookies for his
kitchen
table satsangs with mostly complaining and questioning disciples, a
group
that includes a grown man with his stick pony, hilarious
conversations take
place that somehow magically convey to you all the comfort and
delight of a
warm cookie fresh from the oven. Treat yourself!
Authored by Vicki Woodyard
Vicki Woodyard wrote A GURU IN THE GUEST ROOM as a blend of fantasy
and wisdom about awakening. In this book, she introduces the reader
to
Swami Z and his disciples; a motley crew of characters that spring
up
around him to learn that they are the Self. If you want to have an
awakened wink, this book is for you!
https://www.createspace.com/3827123
I love talking about nothing.
It's the only thing that I know anything about.
~Oscar Wilde
My Life
My whole life is mine, but whoever says so
will deprive me, for it is infinite.
The ripple of water, the shade of the sky
are mine; it is still the same, my life.
No desire opens me: I am full,
I never close myself with refusal-
in the rhythm of my daily soul
I do not desire-I am moved;
by being moved I exert my empire,
making the dreams of night real:
into my body at the bottom of the water
I attract the beyonds of mirrors...
~Rainer Maria Rilke
via Christopher Hebard on FB
Our task is to take this earth so deeply and wholly into ourselves
that it will
resurrect within our being.
~Rainer Maria Rilke, letter to Witold Hulewicz, November 13, 1925
via Ivan M. Granger
by Rashani Rea
Most people think excitement is happiness - but when you are excited
you
are not peaceful - true happiness is based on peace.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
One of the dysfunctional patterns of the mind is the assumption that
the
Now needs to be filled with something all the time. Of course you
have to
do things, but see if you can also experience the spaciousness of
this
moment, the inherent goodness of this moment, regardless of what it
contains.
~Eckhart Tolle
If you want to know who someone is,
what is flowing through or not flowing,
stay in a listening posture.
Close your eyes inside your companion's shadow.
But always remember,
you have your own source.
Never leave that.
Explore the inner foundation stone by stone.
~ Rumi
#4555 - Friday, March 30, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
A FEW POEMS
by Gabriel Rosenstock
~ ~ ~
Sheet Music for Bird Song
One by one they vacate the memory cells
move out ? we know not where ?
faces of the disappeared
Wraiths drifting home from a club
mist strolling a heath
shadows witnessed by crows
footsteps stalked by a one-eyed alley cat
Before leaving, unceremoniously,
this walking, wondering,
wishful world of men
to become tattered leaflets
notices in train stations, post offices,
strangers who enter our lives
because of their absence
touching us because they are of our time, our place
What is the sum total of the vanished?
Have they gone back to school
learning again how to say
?Good night, see you in the morning!?
Do they assemble
like fixed stars on frosty nights
disappearing over and over again?
A voice mumbles
?They are spread out all over the earth
and under the earth ??
A second voice:
?Dust, they are dust ??
A third declares
?They live and laugh and cry like us
tenacious, insubstantial as gossamer ??
First the names appear
and to that known record is added
more and more names
ribboning back in time
in more directions than I know
a parchment the colour of a wintry sky
before dawn?s childish daubings
I gaze into that stippled void
look! it was there all along
sheet music for bird song.
~ ~ ~
Stag
The boy?s eyes are full of wonder.
What is it you have seen,
his father asks.
The boy has no words to describe the great stag.
What can he do? Sing?
He dances for his father
the first steps of the Highland Fling.
~ ~ ~
Recurring Nightmare
The people?s spirit cracked like dry bone.
In time they answered
to other names
in another language
computer-compatible
that fitted them like tight jeans
They quickly mastered new-fangled things
sending text messages to illiterate aunts
back in Source of White River territory
where the intestines of a black pig are still used
for divination
They exercised their vote.
A certain delightful paleness entered their cheeks
and they walk now to a new, bold rhythm
pausing only to look in shop windows
combing back their sleek hair
Their diet today is more varied.
Babies come into the world and are baptised
without that lost look in their eyes.
They speak volubly -
Rapid fire -
time is now more precious than before
One of them publishes a poem abroad
to much acclaim
another is paid what you?d spend in a year
for modelling underwear
On hot summer nights
when the air conditioning fails
they dream the sacred waterfall ?
In olden days a seer would sit
on a threadbare bullock hide
and in a recess behind the bright roar
plunge into ancestral silence
invoking the restless spirit of the falls
emerging from a corona of spume
to scatter his pearl-strung litanies:
all who listened were rooted to the ground
and were healed.
~ ~ ~
His Grace
Nobody quite knows who you are
or why you?re there
taking up such valuable space
almost enough for a wine bar.
Your name suggests
a Church of Ireland bishop
as does your poise.
Let me guess,
you once did the Grand Tour
your daughter sketched the Coliseum
you instructed your secretary
to pay the sum of five pounds
to the Gaelic League.
You preached sermons
about vanity
the illusion of grandeur and fame
you cared for horses.
Who are these people passing by?
Not the type who seem to know much
about old English roses.
Why don?t they look up?
Some do
but your gaze is elsewhere
towards heaven
or, further still, the troubled Empire.
~ ~ ~
Comfort Lady: a soldier remembers
It was plain she had lost her reason
as I had lost my soul
Sleeping with a dead animal?
Yes ? You could say that
She had lice in her hair
For years afterwards
my mouth sagged
as though I?d had a stroke
Old pleasures yield nothing.
Gardening ??
There seems to be as much death
as life in the soil
The pageantry of seasons?
Crumbling stage scenery
After the war
she leaped to her death, I am told,
emitting a sound
like an eagle?s whistling cry
I write this down
so that my children and my grandchildren
will know of my shame
A leaf has just landed on the veranda
I pick it up, examine its veins
and half choke: time passes, a running sore.
I went to die for the Emperor
and lived -
this is my sorrow.
~ ~ ~
Sweeney in Gleann na nGealt ? the Valley of Lunatics
They give me donkey?s urine to drink
Watercress to chew
For mental aberrations
Delusions
I am not mad
If I am mad
So is the wind
Auroras streaming down the slopes of Gleann na nGealt
You cannot see them?
I will show them to you
I have them here
In the glowing palm of my hand
~ ~ ~
Féileacán
Féileacán
ar fhuinneog.
Bhíos in ann féachaint trína sciatháin.
Ar feadh uair an chloig ina dhiaidh sin
bhíos in ann féachaint trí gach aon ní
is tríom féinig.
~ ~ ~
Butterfly
Butterfly/on a window./ I could see through its wings./ For an hour
afterwards/I could see through everything/ see through myself.
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4556, Saturday, March 31, 2011
Desperately seeking simplicity
this time i must confess
i feel a total hate for myself
while crowded and swarmed
my heart wishes to be a single self
seeking that single pearl
i crave to dive deep into this sea
but fear of murderous waves
makes me beg for your help my friends
scattered with so much going on inside
i long for nothing but an inner unity
duality must be abandoned
if you seek to drink the soul of unity
you must bet and lose
everything you've ever owned
if you truly desire
to become one with your beloved
listen to the secret sound
of the revelation now
when your quest aspires the skies
fly away from this lowly earth
my heavenly soul
who only nests in the heights
is tired of its house on earth
it wants to abandon the body
it wants to take the final flight
- Rumi, Ghazal 3210, translation by Nader Khalili from Rumi,
Fountain of Fire, posted to Sunlight
Here's a message for the faithful
what is it that you cherish
to find the Way to see your nature
your nature is naturally so
what Heaven bestows is perfect
looking for proof leads you astray
leaving the trunk to search among the twigs
all you get is stupid
- Hanshan, from The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, translation by
Red Pine
Instead of searching for what you do not have, find out what it is
that you have never lost. That which is there before the beginning
and after the ending of everything; that to which there is no birth,
nor death. That immovable state, which is not affected by the birth
and death of a body or a mind, that state you must perceive.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That, posted to AlongTheWay
Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
- slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.
- Thich Nhat Hahn
When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.
- Layman P'ang (c. 740-808), from The Enlightened Heart - An
Anthology of Sacred Poetry, edited by Stephen Mitchell, posted to
AlongTheWay
#4558 - Monday, April 2, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."
— Aristotle
Everything that is in the heavens,
on the earth and under the earth
is penetrated with connectedness,
is penetrated with relatedness."
~Hildegard of Bingen
via Tom McFerran
photo via Susan Lucey
Teaching Dharma
The sparrow feeding among tall grasses,
Is in no way inferior to old Shakiamuni:
Its unexcelled grasp of perfect Dharma
Evident in every chirp, and every peck.
~Pete Sierra
The Decisive Experience
With your conduct unpredictable,
you make the final leap into awareness
without the slightest basis for determining
what is spiritual or not - this bare state with
no reference point is beyond the cage of philosophy.
Whether eating, moving around, lying down
or sitting, day and night you rest in infinite evenness -
you experience the true nature of phenomena
as their equalness.
There are no gods to worship, no demons to exorcise,
nothing to cultivate in meditation - this is the completely
"ordinary" state.
With this single state of evenness, there is openness,
a relaxed and unstructured openness.
How delightful - things are timelessly ensured without
having to be done, and being free of effort and
achievement, you are content.
~Longchenpa
via Daily Dharma by Amrita Nadi
photo by Mazie Lane
April
A whole new freshman class
of leaves has arrived
on the dark twisted branches
we call our woods, turning
green now—color of
anticipation. In my 76th year,
I know what time and weather
will do to every leaf.
The liberating truth is not static; it is alive. It cannot be put
into concepts
and be understood by the mind. The truth lies beyond all forms of
conceptual fundamentalism. What you are is the beyond—awake and
present, here and now already. To be here, all you have to do is let
go of
who you think you are. That’s all! And then you realize, "I’m here."
Here is
where thoughts aren’t believed. Every time you come here, you are
nothing. Radiantly nothing. Absolutely and eternally zero. Emptiness
that is
awake. Emptiness that is full. Emptiness that is everything.....'
#4559 - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
This issues features announcement of Vicki Woodyard's brilliant new
book, A Guru in The Guest Room. No one writes about nondual
consciousness with such large doses of humour -- and chocolate chips
-- as does Vicki.
A Guru in the Guest Room is a collection of writings by Vicki
Woodyard about her fictional housemate, Swami Z. It includes a small
cast of characters including Vicki herself. They attend satsangs,
and even satsnag, with Swami Z.
Like the movie actor in The Purple Rose of Cairo who stepped out of
the movie screen and into the real world, Swami Z steps out of the
book:
?Vicki has a good sense of humor when she writes about me, but when
she leaves the computer, she forgets how funny being human is. She
mopes around with the best of them.?
And although Swami Z has a cookie habit that ?would sicken more than
it would heal,? this cookie dough that is A Guru In The Guest Room
consists of humor, wisdom, and cool chips of reality. But, Vicki
points out, ?Cookie-making is a messy thing. I swear we have sugar
rings in the bathtub.?
Thanks to that messiness, there is lots of life in this book.
Through it all, the eye of wisdom never blinks. Is that the eye
painted onto Ruin, the stick pony? Some say Ruin is the true Guru in
the book.
Who is the true Guru? What was Swami Z?s response to Vicki?s
question, Who am I? Did Larry really sell Ruin on eBay? What does it
mean to chew the scenery instead of the cookies?
Maybe it all comes down to what Vicki calls her direct path: ?Loving
the script and the characters.? Speaking of which, one of the
characters in this book is one of the greatest fictional Gurus in
history. I?m just not saying who it is.
More blurbs for A Guru In The Guest Room
?This is a touching and heartfelt story that both entertains and
teaches. It?s funny, too! Where else will you hear about a guru
calling his satsang attendees, ?my peeps?? In an age where so many
books on enlightenment leave out the human element, this hits you in
the face with it. It is balanced between transcendence and plain
old, beautiful, ugly humanness. The story takes you through the
trials and tribulations of awakening, the confusion, the doubt, the
ego, and the egolessness. Don?t be fooled by the fact that it?s in
story form. It contains page after page of delicious cookies of
wisdom. Enjoy it! Books on enlightenment don?t always get this real
in order to show you the unreal. It ends with the deepest wisdom of
all, wrapped up in such plain English that you may not know what hit
you.? Scott Kiloby, author of Living Realization and The Natural
Rest Method, www.kiloby.com
Swami Z?s late-in-the-alphabet name hints that this constructed
image can be the last such image a reader would need. His various
roles in the book invite you to stand up tall and step forward. Greg
Goode, author of Standing As Awareness and Direct Path: A User Guide
Prasad from a Pez Dispenser
by Vicki Woodyard
I met Swami Z today in the Sleep Department at Macy?s and I am in
love. After taking many incarnations (and often subways) to achieve
enlightenment, I now find a man who is giving it away for free. And
his kindness is such that if you don?t like it, he will also take it
back. I tell you, I was taken aback. There is nothing that this
Swami of the Jammies will not do. He allows anyone to attend
satsang. And I mean anyone?even if they are wearing robes and
calling themselves silly names. You can bring your blanket and suck
your thumb. You can suck his thumb; he doesn?t care.
I had one question that I wanted Swami Z to answer. Would I be
getting enlightened this lifetime? Of course I would, I was told. As
soon as he took his groupies to lunch. I?m sorry?what he really said
was, ?You groupies are out to lunch!?
What I totally love about Swami Z is his ability to dispense junk
food while remaining blissfully unaware of the calories. No other
guru knows so little about what is good for you. His magnanimity is
matched only by his paunch. I am quite paunch-drunk, in love, bowled
over by this guru giving satsang while counting his sheep. Some
gurus would shear them, but not Swami Z.
He asked me what I wanted for Christmas and when I told him that I
wanted all the children of the world to be fed one decent meal, he
offered to make it for them. Sad, but true. His cookie habit would
sicken more than it would heal. I tried to question him about his
life pre-enlightenment, but he said that like everything else in his
life, it was a snore. I wanted more. He thought I said ?Smores,?
because he has those, too.
I said, ?Can you tell me what life as a child was like for you??
?Of course,? he said, rummaging through his box of Cocoa Puffs with
a misty eye. ?Of course I can, but I won?t.? And that pretty much
sums up the teaching.
#4560 - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Lydia Davis, Ellen Emmet, and Canela Michelle are featured.
Lydia Davis
?Awareness is like a thread that passes through the eye of the
needle to embroider in dimensions of existence on the fabric of
nothingness.? -Anonymous (?)
Lydia Davis teaches graphic design at a college near where she lives
and is a regular Highlights reader.
Interview with Ellen Emmet
The Yoga of Nonduality
http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/ellen-emmet-the-yoga-of-non-duality/
?Our true nature is unchanging Awareness. It is the source and the
substance of all things. It welcomes all experiences. Its reality is
our shared reality, without limits and universal. However, many of
us believe that Awareness is limited and personal. We feel ourselves
to be located inside a limited physical body. This deep sense of
separation is at the core of all psychological suffering.
Once we realize and abide in our true nature, the body, the mind and
the world become our instruments to express and celebrate our innate
understanding, our loving nature and our deep sensitivity to beauty.
Nonetheless, on the way, many of us are called to embark upon a deep
exploration of our most intimate and direct experience??
Nonduality Magazine: Please join us as I have a chat with Ellen
Emmet about Non-Dual Therapy, Authentic Movement and The Essence of
Yoga.
I see you were invited to speak at the SAND 2012 Conference in
Europe. http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/europe/ Congrats! Tell
us about that please. What will you be speaking about or presenting
etc.?
Thank you! I?ll be offering a workshop on the body and non-duality.
It will include guided meditation, experiential explorations of the
body (yoga) and conversations. I hope these meetings will address
this:
That to become fully established in the non-dual
understanding we must take a close look at our experience at the
level of feeling, sensing and perceiving.
The belief in separation lives in unfounded
conceptual interpretations of our experience; that?s the level of
thinking.
But it also and especially hides in less visible and irrational
layers of feeling in the body. Some are simple intimate sensations
that create the sense of being located inside the body. Others are
more complex or subtler and very effective in giving a pseudo
physical and energetic reality to the separate entity.
This level of exploration is often overlooked in the contemporary
teaching of Advaita. It seems we are willing to look at our thinking
in the light of our true nature but less open to offering our body
to that very same light. Yet how can the body-mind be
re-orchestrated by this understanding if unseen identifications are
still operating at the level of feelings?
Both activities of investigating the mind and the body are sacred
and natural. Neither come from a person. They come from the
Invisible; they are the beautiful gesturing of Presence back towards
Itself.
Nonduality Magazine: You state that Francis Lucille was your teacher
from back in 2001. Can you tell us about some of the body awareness
sessions and the many friendly encounters with Francis during those
few years please? How did you find him initially?
Ellen: Up until my meeting with Francis, I was busy seeking relief
from ?my? suffering: The intense anxiety that coursed through my
body or the heavy cloud of depression that enfolded me in a dark
cocoon, expressed themselves through interconnected patterns of
thinking, feeling and reacting. They were all I seemed to know or
access of myself and they were not acceptable! So most of the time,
I seemed to be caught in a repetitive cycle of avoiding, resisting
and seeking.
Yet at the same time I can now see that there was a deeper more
impersonal quest at work: a sacred quest. This one was motivated by
the deep intuition of the Truth, which reached my mind and body in
little glimpses here and there: in a meeting with a special friend,
through the writings of enlightened beings, through dreams, in the
dance?
Eventually this invisible thrust brought me to Francis Lucille. It
was a sacred meeting. Through it the light of Presence shined bright
and pure. During many years I was moved to spend as much time as I
could with Francis, eventually moving to Temecula where he lives. In
this company my body and mind seemed to become highly receptive to
the highest transmission of non-dual understanding.
Living near him and other friends, cooking, joking, meditating,
doing yoga, simply hanging out, returned me to the truth over and
over. The transmission was direct and pointed to a permanent
establishment in Peace, Happiness and Love.
During the body awareness sessions we were persistently, patiently
and repeatedly pointed back to our true nature at the level of
feeling and sensation.
The feeling of being a separate limited being was met at that level.
It was investigated openly, fearlessly and seen clearly for what it
was.
Up until then, the realm of the body had remained impenetrable,
irrational, layered by half visible feelings and scary like the dark
forest in which the children get lost in fairy tales. But now we
were being guided into the darkness with a torch and gentle
encouragement. We could discover in our own time that the big,
looming shadows were not ogres but trees, and the witch in the hut
was just a little old lady. Soon we could see the whole forest in
the light of day and the world and the horizon beyond stretching
infinitely in all directions. Eventually the body was known as
unfolding sensation reabsorbed in its very substance: infinite, open
Awareness.
Read the entire interview here:
http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/ellen-emmet-the-yoga-of-non-duality/
Canela Michelle
Writing, Satsang schedule, Newsletter
Hello EveryOne,
This week?s invitation is to look at, and Be With what honesty is to
you.
Honesty is such a relative commodity, changing vastly depending on
who it is that is looking at ?what is honest? and how one defines
honesty. Often, people do not even realize that they have a
definition of honesty and mostly assume that honesty is a common
truth.
The only honesty that is a common truth is the honesty that arises
in the moment, from yourself to yourself. Depending totally on
the depth of connection with yourself, the honesty will be a
reflection of that. That is why honesty often changes over
time - as one continues to evolve, one moment slipping into the
next, deepening in this experiencing of life happening, how
?honesty? appears to be will change accordingly.
It can be so freeing to remember that no one else can share the same
definition of honesty as yourself. Just as you are flowing
along, getting to know yourself and your world increasingly, so is
everyone else. If and when you feel shysted by another because
they don?t appear honest to you, remember that honesty is relative
and will mean something different to another.
What you can be sure of is this honesty with yourself when you look
for it in the moment ?so key: ?in the moment?? it does not
stretch beyond that as it may shift to something new in only another
moment?who knows?! All one can look for is what is true for
themself in a moment and respond from That as one does.
In actuality then, the ?definition? (any idea of that) is let go of
when one looks in honesty with themselves for what is true in a
moment ? this truth will be made up of what appears in the moments
of looking, not any definition beyond the moment. When you
give yourself the freedom to let go of any definition (as they are
revealed to you, or as you find them) of honesty, you instantly also
release any wanting of ?another? to be more ?honest? or to conform
to an idea of honesty (according to you) and instead be with what is
actually true.
Come along and Be With us in Satsang with Canela where the space
supports finding out what is true for you in each and every moment.
If you find this email supportive, please share it via email, or go
to the ?Right Here, Right Now Blog? to share via facebook and
twitter at:
http://canelamichelle.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/relative-honesty/
(I would love your support to share this with others ~ thank
you!)
Satsang Meditation with Canela
North Vancouver, BC
Evening Satsang Meditation
Monday ? April 16th 2012 **Please note the date change!
Thanks
7pm - 9pm
#31-150 East Queens Road
North Vancouver, BC V7N 1G6
Financial commitment: $15
Please RSVP/info: Nancy at: 604-985-3299
or
nanriecken@telus.net
White Rock, BC
Evening Satsang
Meditation
Friday ? April 20th 2012
7:30pm ?
9:30pm
981 161A St, South Surrey, BC, V4A
8R4
(you must enter from 9th Ave & Stayte
St.)
Financial Commitment:
$15
Please RSVP/info: Bill or Tina at:
604-531-0359
Or billyruppel@gmail.com
Calgary,
Alberta
Evening Satsang Meditation & Daytime
Intensive
Weds. June 13th 7pm-9pm
& Sun. June 16th 12pm-5pm
Individual Sessions Available June 17th.
Weds. Evening Satsang: $15
Sunday Daytime Intensive: $60
Attend both events: $65
Please RSVP for address & Info.
Contact: Eric Mortimer eric@ericmortimer.com
Lethbridge,
Alberta
Paradoxia Nondual
Conference
June 14th & 15th, 2012
8:30am ? 5:30pm Each Day
University of Lethbridge,
4401 University Dr W Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4
To Register or for info: www.paradoxia.ca
Satsang with Canela Michelle & Gary
Nixon
June 16th, 2012
10am ? 5pm
Financial Commitment: $75
RSVP & info: Gary Nixon @ Gary.nixon@uleth.ca
Toronto, Ontario
Area
Week Long Retreat at
?The
Gathering?
July 27th ? August 2nd, 2012
Register & info. here: http://zoxon.com/ref/10770
Prague, Czech
Republic
Weekend Non-Residential
Retreat
Sept. 21st ? 23rd, 2012
Individual Sessions Available Sept. 24th.
Fri. Sept. 21st, 7-9pm, 250 CZK
Sat. Sept. 22nd & Sunday Sept. 23rd, 10am-5pm,
1200 CZK per day
Or a package price for the whole weekend - 2400 CZK
Register & info. contact: Joshi at josef.sila@gmail.com
or http://www.maitrea.cz/canela-michelle-meyers
London,
England
Weekend Non-Residential
Retreat
Sept. 28th ? 30th, 2012
Individual Sessions Available Oct. 1st.
Fri. Sept. 28th, 7-9pm Non-Dual Talk £10 (at the Pub)
Sat. Sept 29th & Sun. Sept. 30th, 12am-5pm
£40 per day
StillPoint Centre for Well Being,
18 Devonshire Row, London
Register & info. contact: Brett Vallance at
valance.brett@gmail.com
Newsletter
1. Awakening Webcast Weekly Series, in
support of ?The Gathering? ? first webcast featuring this Canela
Michelle! April 15th, 11am PST/2pm EST / 7pm GMT. Sign
up here:
http://zoxon.com/ref/10770/awakening-webcast-weekly-series.html
(See also in this newsletter #7 below for more new info on ?The
Gathering?)
2. ReiKi Level One Anyone? Someone is
ready to take ReiKi Level One with this Canela starting on Thurs.
April 19th 2012 ? would you like to join us? ReiKi Level One
is taught in four classes, three hours each, approximately one week
apart. Dates and times negotiable by participants. Check
out the website for details and/or reply to this email with your
questions. www.canelamichelle.com
3. You might notice in the listing of
Satsang events above, the addition of Calgary, Alberta in
June. Eric Mortimer, who attended one of the Satsang events
when this Canela was in Calgary last year, will be organizing and
hosting that event. Thank you Eric! See the event posted
here: http://goo.gl/kbeYD
4. Ask any questions and receive support
freely through email ~ canelamichelle@telus.net Soon there
will be a ?Questions & Answers? page on the website.
5. Canela Michelle is one of the keynote
speakers at 11am on June 15th at the Paradoxia Nondual Conference as
well as Co-facilitating Satsang with Gary Nixon on June 16th from
10am-5pm. For more information and to register for the Conference go
to: www.paradoxia.ca To register for the Satsang event,
contact Gary Nixon @ Gary.nixon@uleth.ca
6. Satsang with Canela will be in London,
England again this coming September as well as in Prague, Czech
Republic. If you know people who live in these areas, please
do let them know of these events. Or if you live in Europe and
would like to host Satsang with Canela since she will be over there
anyways, let her know. Distances seem short in Europe when one
lives and is accustomed to Canada J
7. ?The Gathering? July 27th ? August 7th,
2012 is now offering daily ticket sales making this event
affordable for every pocket!! Check it out and register
here: http://zoxon.com/ref/10770 and then click on ?Ticket
Sales? on the menu just under the banner.
8. Welcome to all of the new subscribers to
this list! You are welcome to ask any questions, or share
responses, that might rise in response to these Satsang
Invitations. Just click on reply and ask/share.
With Love to you all?.exactly as you are, no more, no less than
That. (keeping this as it is in each Satsang Invitation as it
remains so true)
Canela Michelle
Canela Michelle is available to offer ?Satsang Meditation? in your
area - contact us through responding to this email or through:
www.canelamichelle.com to find out how easy that is.
#4561 - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene
in a
stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls
catch light
from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.
- Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on
to what you
believe, even if it is a tree which stands by itself. Hold on to
what you must do,
even if it is a long way from here. Hold on to life, even when it is
easier letting
go. Hold on to my hand, even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing
"Grainy Taste"
Without a net, I catch a falcon
and release it to the sky, hunting
God. This wine I drink today was
never held in a clay jar. I love
this world, even as I hear the great
wind of leaving it rising, for there
is a grainy taste I prefer to every
idea of heaven: human friendship.
-
Ghazal (Ode) 328
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
via Along The Way
photo by Alan Larus
How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of
course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam
about. All you can do is to shift the focus of con-
sciousness beyond the mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
via Along The Way
All doubts will cease only when the doubter
and his source has been found. There is no
use removing doubts one by one. If we clear
one doubt, another doubt will arise and there
will be no end of doubts. But if, by seeking the
source of the doubter, the doubter is found to
be really non-existent, then all doubts will cease.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
photo by Russie Wight-Waltman
"There is an old shed near my house. Each April, after their long
journey from
Africa, the swallows return to the same nests in its rafters. They
refurbish the
nests and soon new little swallows will hatch out there. It is
fascinating that the
destination of such a huge continental journey is the fragile little
grass and mud
homes in the roof of an abandoned shed. It suggests that one can
undertake
any voyage if the destination is home. Humble or grand, home is
where your
heart belongs.
When it is a place of shelter and love, there is no place like
home."
John O'Donohue, "Benedictus"
Halleluiah
Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!
And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.
Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.
~ Mary Oliver
(Evidence)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Halleluiah.html
To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love
what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when
the time comes to let it go, to let it go." - Mary Oliver
This is what is means to answer the call, to commit to being here in
a human
life, as a human being: to love what is mortal, to love what is
unpredictably
changing & impermanent, to love while being mindful that
everything, every
person, every place, every moment we love will change & pass,
but to love
anyway. And to love what you love fiercely, no holds barred, nothing
held back,
knowing that the reality of who & what you are here & now as
a human being is
inseparable from this world, this life you claim & inhabit
fully."
#4562 - Friday, April 6, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Fred Davis's Awakening Clarity blog is featured. He put together a
beautiful page about my life in nonduality.
Komal and Prem Daas are also featured.
Finally, I'm pleased to announce some extraordinary people who will
appear on my Taking Nonduality Seriously panel at the Science and
Nonduality Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in early June,
2012.
I was honored to be featured on Fred Davis?s Awakening Clarity blog:
http://awakeningclarity.blogspot.ca/
I tell some more of the nonduality story there.
What I really like is Fred?s appreciation of his guests. His
introductions to each featured person make his site unique. Fred?s
love, amazement, and wonder for each guest not only comes through
but one can imagine that it extends to every element of existence.
And that may be the great hidden value of his work, which reminds me
of what Neem Karoli Baba said, ?Love EveryOne, Feed EveryOne,
Remember God, Tell the Truth.?
In Highlights issue #4560, the following quotation was given along
with Lydia Davis's graphic design.
?Awareness is like a thread that passes through the eye of the
needle to embroider in dimensions of existence on the fabric of
nothingness.?
I indicated that the author of the quotation was not known. However,
Highlights reader Prem Daas knew exactly where the quote came from.
He had interviewed the person who spoke it. It was the teacher
Komal, a sage living in Austin, Texas, who has never been featured
on the Highlights. Watch the video here. I believe you'll like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Zb6jAV-qg
Prem Daas writes:
It was truly my pleasure to spend a week with [Komal], filming and
asking any question which arose. Near the end, he said, "All I
know is that Everything Is." When he said that, a wave of love
and energy flooded my entire being and I had a glimpse and a sense
of what he truly meant.
Later, in I AM That, I read Nisargadatta say, "The bottom line is
this: Nothing Is."
And a few weeks ago, I read Tony Parsons say, "Nothing is
Everything."
What higher Truth could there be? Everything Is. Nothing
Is. Nothing is Everything.
Science and Nonduality Europe ... News... Taking Nonduality
Seriously panel.
I've created a second panel discussion for Euro-SAND, entitled
Taking Nonduality Seriously. It features
Puppetji http://www.youtube.com/user/puppetji69,
Tim Freke http://www.youtube.com/user/timfreke
David Ellzey http://www.youtube.com/user/11davidellzey.
Paul Smit http://www.allesoverniets.nl/ ,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4EBEko7RWs
What would you like to ask this panel? Send your question in reply
to this email.
~ ~ ~
Read more about Euro - SAND and register:
http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/europe/
~ ~ ~
What is the "new spirituality"? Contribute your creative video
response to this film project that I'm pleased to endorse:
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4563, Saturday, April 7, 2011
A Small Market Between Towns
There's a town where the soul is fed, where love hears
truth and thrives, and
another town that produces lies that degrade and starve
love. Your voice is
a small market set up between the two towns. Goods arrive
from both directions, flimsy,
fake items and honestly made, wholehearted tools and wares.
Some travelers immediately know
which is which. Some voices open a shop and spend sixty
years chearting customers,
gossiping when they leave, and flattering women to get their
attention. Others weary
of the marketplace altogether and rarely go there.
- Rumi, Mathnawi VI, 4276, 4281-82, 4298-4300, version by Coleman
Barks from The Soul of Rumi, posted to Sunlight
Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and
that, there is another self more really us than I. And the more you
become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it - the
more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything
else that is. You are a function of this total galaxy, bounded by
the Milky Way, and this galaxy is a function of all other galaxies.
You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great
telescopes. You look and look, and one day you are going to wake up
and say, "Why, that's me!" And in knowing that, you know that you
never die. You are the eternal thing that comes and goes, that
appears - now as John Jones, now as Mary Smith, now as Betty Brown -
and so it goes, forever and ever and ever.
- Alan Watts posted to AlongTheWay
Gnats inside the wind
Some gnats came from the grass to speak with Solomon.
"O Solomon, you are the champion of the oppressed.
You give justice to the little guys, and they don't get
any littler than us! We are tiny metaphors
for frailty. Can you defend us?"
"Who has mistreated you?"
"Our complaint is against the wind."
"Well," says Solomon, "you have pretty voices,
you gnats, but remember, a judge cannot listen
to just one side. I must hear both litigants."
"Of course," agree the gnats.
"Summon the East Wind!" calls out Solomon,
and the wind arrives almost immediately.
What happened to the gnat plaintiffs? Gone.
Such is the way of every seeker who comes to complain
at the High Court. When the presence of God arrives,
where are the seekers? First there's dying,
then union, like gnats inside the wind.
- Rumi, Mathnawi III: 4624 - 59,version by Coleman Barks, from The
Essential Rumi, posted to Sunlight
It is being dead to self that is the recognition of God.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: There is a poem by the
great Persian poet Iraqi in which he tells, 'When I went to the gate
of the divine Beloved and knocked at the door, a voice came and said
- Who art thou?' When he had told, 'I am so and so', the answer
came, 'There is no place for anyone else in this abode. Go back to
whence thou hast come'. He turned back and then, after a long time,
after having gone through the process of the cross and of
crucifixion, he again went there - with the spirit of selflessness.
He knocked at the door; the word came, 'Who art thou? ', and he
said, 'Thyself alone, for no one else exists save Thee'. And God
said, 'Enter into this abode for now it belongs to thee'. It is such
selflessness, to the extent that the thought of self is not there,
it is being dead to the self, which is the recognition of God.
One finds this spirit to a small extent in the ordinary lover and
beloved, when a person loves another from the depth of his heart. He
who says, 'I love you but only so much, I love you and give you
sixpence but I keep sixpence for myself, I love you but I stand at a
distance and never come closer, we are separate beings'- his love is
with his self. As long as that exists, love has not done its full
work. Love accomplishes its work when it spreads its wings and veils
man's self from his own eyes. That is the time when love is
fulfilled, and so it is in the life of the holy ones who have not
only loved God by professing or showing it, but who have loved God
to the extent that they forgot themselves.
- posted to SufiMystic
I went everywhere with longing
in my eyes, until here
in my own house
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4564, Sunday, April 8, 2012
Accept the Unacceptable
"Is not suffering due to the fact that it is forced upon us? Suppose
we would do consciously what nature does unconsciously? Suppose we
could offer ourselves willingly to be molded and buffeted by life?
We are the offering placed on the altar of the world. If we would
sacrifice what we wish most, we would gain a tremendous freedom.
This is what is asked of us, the greatest gift of all, always what
we want most, for ourselves, for the inner most of ourselves, our
own heart.
It is the acceptance of the unacceptable that is asked of us.
So we are tested. To make evident whether our heart's treasure is
earthly or heavenly.
There is no Good Friday without an Easter. No dark night without a
dawn, and no oppression without a release, and the sacrifice is
followed by an outburst of such momentum that it shakes the very
heavens. The veil of the temple is split; there is a tremor on
earth.
You are resurrecting every time you overcome yourself.
- Pir Vilayat Kahn
Happy Resurrection, everyone!
~dg, posted to DailyDharma
You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around
you. All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many
directions. If you say something kind, your kind words go in many
directions, and you yourself go with them. We are ... transforming
and continuing in a different form at every moment.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
And he who has considered all the contrasts on this earth, and is no
more disturbed by anything whatever in the world, the Peaceful One,
freed from rage, from sorrow, and from longing, he has passed beyond
birth and decay.
- The Buddha
As you learn to leave alone the activity of unconsciously trying to
be the mindbody that you think that you are - the mindbody that this
"you" is currently flowing through - and you learn to move as this
one that you truly are - this "you" of you; the very heart of
existence - steadily, consciously and momentarily, the continuity of
the ever deepening of this innermost as it keeps on entering its
manifestation, through this mindbody that you find yourself flowing
through, allows you to simply bubble in the sheer joy, pleasure,
peace, delightfulness and stillness that this "you" of you is.
- Elysha
The night kissed the fading day
With a whisper:
"I am death, your mother,
From me you will get new birth."
- Rabindranth Tagore
God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own
nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn. I was no
longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in
everything.
- Bede Griffiths
This means that we have barely
disembarked into life,
that we've only just now been born,
let's not fill our mouths
with so many uncertain names,
with so many sad labels,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much yours and mine,
with so much signing of papers.
I intend to confuse things,
to unite them, make them new-born
intermingle them, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the unity of the ocean,
a generous wholeness,
a fragrance alive and crackling.
- Pablo Neruda, from Too Many Names
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#4565 - Monday, April 2, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Such love does
the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
when I get
home.
~ St. Francis of Assissi
photo by Alan Larus
The heart is nothing but a sea of light.
~ Rumi
photo by Peter Shefler
We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light. We are the space
between the fish and the moon,
while we sit here together.
~ Rumi
photo by Peter Shefler
Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.
~ Theodore Roethke
Beyond what we wish
and what we fear may happen
we have another life,
as clear and free as a mountain stream.
~ Rumi
I can see with the utmost clarity that you have never been, nor are,
nor will be
estranged from reality, that you are the fullness of perfection here
and now and
that nothing can deprive you of your heritage, of what you are. You
are in no
way different from me, only you do not know it.
~ Nisargadatta
The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your
words,
above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world
lives within
you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world.
~ John O'Donohue
Not until a person dissolves,
can he or she know what union is.
There is a descent into emptiness.
A lie will not change to truth
with just talking about it.
~ Rumi
Joseph Chilton Pearce says that Bernadette Roberts’ book, "What is
Self,"
profoundly influenced the latter chapters of his Evolution’s End:
Claiming the
Potential of Our Intelligence, whose final paragraphs begin with the
following
assertion: "Truth is function, not a thing, idea, event, or semantic
slogan.
Truth is how creation works. Understand function and you are home
free."
http://www.firedocs.com/carey/roberts.html
via Susan Lucey
All these forms - appearance emptiness
Like a rainbow with its shining glow
In the reaches of appearance emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes
Every sound is sound and emptiness
Like the sound of an echo's roll
In the reaches of sound and emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes
Every feeling is bliss and emptiness
Way beyond what words can show
In the reaches of bliss and emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes
All awareness - awareness emptiness
Way beyond what thought can know
In the reaches of appearance emptiness
Let awareness go - oh, where no mind goes
#4566 - Tuesday, April 11, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Juno, The World's Most Quiet Place, and Jeff Foster are featured.
Poems by Juno
http://junocristi.blogspot.ca/
LOVE IS A SHOOTING STAR
Love is a shooting star
So quick
So beautiful
It dazzles my night sky
Making me wish
For the moment
To never end
~ ~ ~
My Love Stands Patiently Like A Tree
My Love stands
Patiently
Like a tree that waits to be kissed
By the rays of your sun
Or to be touched
By the Light
Of your glowing moon
I am here
To cherish all that you bring
I shed my leaves in your Winter
And grow them back in your Spring
~ ~ ~
THANK YOU
To the lost and confused,
thank you for inspiring me to lead.
To the learned and wise,
thank you for inspiring me to remember.
To the daring and vigilant,
thank you for inspiring me to fight the good fight.
To the proud and triumphant,
thank for inspiring me to celebrate.
To the passionate and spirited,
thank you for inspiring me to dream.
To the joyful and free,
thank you for inspiring me to dance.
To the witty and humorous,
thank you for inspiring me to laugh.
To the peaceful and grateful,
thank you for inspiring me to live.
To the kind and gentle,
thank you for inspiring me to love.
To the broken & beaten,
thank you for inspiring me to heal you.
We all crave it, but can you stand the silence? The longest anyone
can bear Earth's quietest place is 45 minutes
Orfield Laboratories' 'anechoic chamber' in the
U.S is 99.99% sound absorbent
Volunteers see hallucinations after a short while
By Ted Thornhill
They say silence is golden ? but there?s a room in the U.S that?s so
quiet it becomes unbearable after a short time.
The longest that anyone has survived in the ?anechoic chamber? at
Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is just 45 minutes.
It?s 99.99 per cent sound absorbent and holds the Guinness World
Record for the world?s quietest place, but stay there too long and
you may start hallucinating.
How do we stop running away from ?the mess of life??our pain, our
predicaments, our frustrations, our failures, even our longing for
freedom and enlightenment?and start flowing with all of it?
Is it possible to find an effortless ?yes? to this moment, no matter
how challenging our lives become?
Is it possible to stop seeking love, peace and enlightenment in the
future, and discover them where you already are?
THE DEEPEST ACCEPTANCE:
RADICAL AWAKENING IN ORDINARY LIFE
Jeff Foster invites us to take a fresh look at our present
experience and discover the ocean of who we really are: a non-dual
awareness that has already allowed every wave of thought and emotion
to arrive. ?Just as the ocean ?accepts? every wave,? teaches Jeff,
?so too has our awareness already allowed and accepted what is
here.? Jeff talks of deep acceptance not as a passive surrender, but
as an intelligent and creative emerging into life just as it is. And
it is not something that happens ?one day?, or only happens to
special people ? it is always happening, if we have eyes to see it.
Recognizing ourselves as the ocean of deep acceptance radically
transforms and simplifies the way we see the world ? our
relationships, how we communicate, our attitude towards physical
pain and depression, how we deal with addictions, and our search for
spiritual enlightenment. Candid, thoughtful, humorous?and deeply
compassionate toward those searching for a way out of suffering?Jeff
inspires us to stop trying to ?do? acceptance?and start falling in
love with ?what has already been allowed.? His simple, accessible
and direct teachings point us back to who we really are in this
moment ? already perfect, whole, and free.
Silence, laughter, lightness, and a sense of real intimacy, honesty
and friendship are the hallmarks of encounters with Jeff. His
meetings are very spontaneous and informal, and there are plenty of
opportunities to share and ask questions, if you are so moved. And
of course, if you just want to sit in silence and listen, without
sharing, then that?s fine too.
?The floodgates are already open ?
this moment has already been allowed in,
just as it is??
ABOUT JEFF FOSTER
Jeff was voted #51 on Watkins Review?s 2012 list of the world?s 100
Most Spiritually Influential Living People and has published four
books in over six languages. His latest book The Deepest Acceptance
will be published in 2012 by Sounds True.
Jeff speaks clearly and simply about the journey of awakening and
self-realization. He presently holds meetings, retreats and private
one-to-one sessions around the world, gently but directly pointing
people back to the deep acceptance inherent in the present moment.
He points to a discovery of who you really are, beyond all thoughts
and judgments about yourself, even in the midst of the stress and
struggle of modern day living and intimate relationships.
His teaching style is direct and uncompromising and yet full of
humanity, humor and compassion. He believes that freedom is
everybody?s birthright. He belongs to no tradition or lineage, and
makes his teaching accessible to all.
JEFF FOSTER?S 2012 USA SCHEDULE
We rely nearly 100% on word of mouth. Please share with anyone you
think may be interested:
CALIFORNIA
Thurs 12 April
Evening meeting in San Francisco, CA
Friday 13 April
Joint evening meeting with Jon Bernie in El Cerrito, CA
Saturday 14 April
Day intensive at Open Secret Bookstore in San Rafael, CA
Sunday 15 April
The Deepest Acceptance in Relationship ? Special event in
Sebastopol, CA
20-22 April
Jeff speaks at Inner Directions Conference, La Jolla, CA
COLORADO
28 April
Special invite-only event hosted by Sounds True in Boulder, CO **
NOW FULLY BOOKED ? SORRY! **
FLORIDA
4-6 May
Meetings at Unity on the Bay church in Miami, FL
NEW YORK
15-20 July
5 Day Retreat at the Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY
?I?m not interested in the story of your incredible awakening. I?m
not interested in how much you?ve read and learnt about
enlightenment. I?m not interested in your spiritual attainments. No,
no. I love you too much for that. I am deeply interested in who you
really are, right now ? before all stories. Even this one.? ? Jeff
Foster
For details about the above meetings, and more, please visit
CSS is a structured teaching offering study and practice, as
well as defined leaders, with Joel Morwood heading the cast of
characters. Here's an article from the current letter which I think
gives a sense of their organizational and social nature, as well as
the measured kind of voice in which they like to speak. It's kind of
"churchy" but in a good way. If CSS seems right for you, I can
personally recommend it. Heck, I'd probably study with them if I
lived in Oregon. Seems like they offer a very good discipline with
nice people.
Long Journey to Here
CSS Practitioner Nancy Miller
If I try to establish a theme that runs through my life, it would be
searching, exploring, trying to find a place I belong.
I grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, a conservative upper-middle-class
community north of Detroit. My parents had a difficult time and
escaped their pressures by drinking. I had little supervision and
spent most of my time alone, exploring the lake near my
grandparents' house, roaming in the woods, riding my bike for miles.
As a very young girl, I experienced several dangerous and unsavory
incidents with neighborhood boys and even a cousin.
Singing became my passion. It helped me establish ethics and
behavior which kept me out of trouble. The Presbyterian church was
my home, not because I felt any religious fervour (the church seemed
hypocritical), but because I loved the music and singing in the
beautiful sanctuary. When I wasn't singing, my nose was in a book.
In 1961, I went to Germany as an exchange student. I lived with a
family that adored me, opening my eyes to the non-supportive
situation in my own family. It was extremely difficult to return to
the US.
In college I had my first exposure to non-dual thinking in a
Comparative Religions course. It excited me, but there was no place
to go with the ideas once the class ended. I dabbled in
self-hypnosis and had several out-of-body experiences. I flirted
with drugs and alcohol. With my college glee club, I traveled to
Puerto Rico, and after graduation I returned there to teach 6th
grade. I became very close to a Puerto Rican family; Mama, a devout
Catholic, taught me about kindness and the potential power of
religion in life. But I was too unsettled to embrace any such
structure. I left Puerto Rico to pursue a master's degree and to
teach English in New York City.
I then began three years of travel?teaching in Spain, back to Puerto
Rico, and then several years around the US with my first husband and
baby, selling fine art out of the trunk of our car and playing
tennis. For a while I studied self-hypnosis from a paperback, my
first brush with meditation. After those three years we divorced.
More searching. I met my husband, Neal, in Chicago. We renovated
Victorian buildings together as general contractors, which I then
managed. At one point I managed 350 apartments in 8 separate
buildings. I was too busy working and raising 3 daughters to think
much about anything spiritual, although I did read the Seth books,
studied extensively with the Jehovah's Witnesses, did the Course in
Miracles, and had several deeply insightful and frightening
self-hypnosis sessions.
It was only after we moved to Eugene in 1988 that my life began to
turn around. I counseled with a wonderful man, Jerry Saltzman, and
then became involved with the Re-Evaluation Counseling (peer
counseling) community. I learned how to listen effectively and to
encourage the expression and discharge of deep feelings. I love my
peer Counselors and gained the understanding that I am not alone in
my suffering. I thought I had found my place, but as usual, things
changed.
I met Rich Marlatt through physical therapy, who suggested CSS and
meditation. Two years ago I took the Foundations Studies course,
taught by Todd Corbett. This was my first exposure to non-dual ideas
and to meditation practice. All of this felt comfortable to me,
natural, and took me to a deeper place. My experiences in
Foundations Studies confirmed my interest in the Center.
This is my second year in the Practitioners Group. It?s been helpful
to see that meditation can be approached in different ways. I?ve
appreciated getting closer to people in the CSS community.
I find meditation to be grounding, and I know when I get confused
there is a way back to equilibrium. The non-dual vision makes more
and more sense, and I appreciate the guidance available to me. My
whole perspective on everything has changed. It?s been such a gift!
Maybe I have found an answer. Whatever happens, there is no place to
go anymore. My place is where I am at this moment.
#4568 - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.
Dear friend of Open Gate Sangha,
Sounds True is overjoyed to announce that both Adyashanti and Mukti
will be joining us for our first annual Wake Up Festival -- a unique
gathering in the beautiful Rocky Mountains designed to accelerate
and support spiritual awakening.
Bringing together people who approach awakening from many different
perspectives -- dancers, musicians, yogis, poets, energy healers,
neuroscientists, and of course, spiritual teachers -- the Wake Up
Festival is a celebration of human possibility and heart. Featuring
bestselling authors such as Jack Kornfield, Shinzen Young, Reggie
Ray, Gangaji, David Whyte, Geneen Roth, and Coleman Barks --
together in one transformative gathering -- we will immerse
ourselves for 5 days in:
The Power of Community -- How our individual journey can be
massively enriched and accelerated when we meet people with whom we
feel called to share particular gifts and insights
Learning from Great Teachers -- How being in the presence of a great
spiritual teacher is like sitting next to a living fire of
awakening; their passion, knowledge, and experience illuminate us
Transformative Spiritual Practices -- How we can engage and
experiment in different spiritual practices from the wisdom
traditions of the world, exploring how to clear stuck energy,
release the past, and connect with limitless space
Celebration -- How one of the best ways to open our hearts is
through music, poetry, and dance, celebrating that we already have
everything we need to savor the beauty and perfection of the moment
Each morning we wake up to the rising sun, to new visions and new
possibilities. The Wake Up Festival is an opportunity to radically
and powerfully renew yourself at the deepest level, for your own
benefit and for the sake of the whole. I hope you will join us!
Yours on the journey,
Tami Simon
Founder and Publisher, Sounds True
PS -- Register by April 15 for the Wake Up Festival and you will
receive a $200 early registration discount on your tuition.
#4569 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Being Human 2012 The Science of Human Experience
A Symposium held March 24, 2012, sponsored by the Baumann Foundation
You may views some of the talks at
http://fora.tv/partner/Being_Human
The coming decades will bring a shift in our worldview as
fundamental as any in the past five hundred years. As we use the
tools of science to explore the nature of humanity, we are learning
more and more about how our brains function and what motivates our
behavior, built-in biases and blind spots.
These fresh insights are interesting scientifically, but they also
evoke significant questions about our lived experience. These
perspectives challenge our basic assumptions of who we are, both as
individuals and as a society.
Join us at Being Human 2012 to deepen your understanding of these
revolutionary insights and to explore how they can shape your
experience of life. Participate in the first-ever multidisciplinary
public dialogue led by the scientists, thought leaders, and
philosophers pioneering this exploration to discover and experience:
How has evolution shaped our brains to construct
a model of reality?
How does the subconscious mind influence the
decisions we make?
What is the relationship between self and
culture?
Are you who you think you are, or is that just an
illusion?
What does science tell us about our interactions
with fellow humans?