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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4570 From: Mark Date: 2012-04-14
Subject: #4570 - Saturday, April 14, 2011
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4570, Saturday, April 14, 2011





Freedom is freedom from worry. Having realized that you cannot influence the results, pay no attention to your desires and fears. Let them come and go. Don't give them the nourishment of interest and attention.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels




Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

- from the Tao Te Ching as translated by Stephen Mitchell, posted to The_Now2




First, lay down your head
then one by one
let go of all distractions.
Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring and
nourished by its sweet waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

- Rumi, from Rumi: Hidden Music, translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, posted to AlongTheWay




You may believe that this whole universe is a dream and all human beings mere dreamed characters within that dream, but so long as you yourself remain outside that dream and view it as an individual separate from it, you cannot approach closer to the Truth.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels




Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?

- Pema ChГѓВΆdrГѓВΆn




"Sublime Generosity"

I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.

The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

He said, "You're not mad enough.
You don't belong in this house."

I went wild and had to be tied up.
He said, "Still not wild enough
to stay with us!"

I broke through another layer
into joyfulness.

He said, "It's not enough."
I died.

He said, "You're a clever little man,
full of fantasy and doubting."

I plucked out my feathers and became a fool.
He said, "Now you're the candle
for this assembly."

But I'm no candle. Look!
I'm scattered smoke.

He said, "You are the sheikh, the guide."
But I'm not a teacher, I have no power.

He said, "You already have wings.
I cannot give you wings."

But I wanted his wings.
I felt like some flightless chicken.

Then new events said to me,
"Don't move. A sublime generosity is
coming toward you."

And old love said, "Stay with me."

I said, "I will."

You are the fountain of the sun's light.
I am a willow shadow on the ground.
You make my raggedness silky.

The soul at dawn is like darkened water
that slowly begins to say "Thank you, thank you."

Then at sunset, again, Venus gradually
changes into the moon and then the whole nightsky.

This comes of smiling back
at your smile.

The chess master says nothing,
other than moving the silent chess piece.

That I am part of the ploys
of this game makes me
amazingly happy.

- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 1393, version by Colman Barks from The Essential Rumi, posted to Sunlight




Group: NDhighlights Message: 4571 From: Mark Date: 2012-04-16
Subject: #4571 - Sunday, April 15, 2012
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4571, Sunday, April 15, 2012





The Lover is the Beloved.
The subject of your search is the object,
and so you will never find it.
The only way to love Self
is to BE IT!

- Papaji, from The Truth Is, posted to AlongTheWay




The Beloved is all, the lover just a veil.
The Beloved is living, the lover a dead thing.
If Love withholds its strengthening care,
the lover is left like a bird without wings.
How will I be awake and aware if the light of the Beloved is absent?
Love wills that this Word be brought forth.
If you find the mirror of the heart dull,
the rust has not been cleared from its face.

- Rumi, Mathnawi: I:30-34, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski from Rumi: Daylight, posted to Sunlight




When you start to see the light that you really are,
the light waking up in you, the radiance,
you realize it has no intention to change you.

It has no intention to harmonize.
It has no agenda.
It just happens.

The Truth is the only thing you'll ever run into that has no agenda. Everything
else will have an agenda.
Everything.

That is why the Truth is so powerful.
Give up your agendas and continue to expose yourself (to the Truth), and
harmonization will naturally occur.

Freedom is the realization
that this deep, deep peace
and this unknown
are what you are.
Everything else is just an extension of that unknown.

Bodies are just an extension of that unknown.
The trees outside are just an extension of the unknown
in time, in form.
Thought and feeling are also extensions of the unknown in time.
The whole visible universe, in fact,
is just an extension in time of this unknown,
this mountain of quiet.

So it's really important to get to the point of maturity
where you are willing to look at what is fundamental.
There is a difference between pulling the weeds of confusion out
and getting to the root of Truth.

Did, you ever pull weeds from a lawn, grabbing only their tops,
and discover they were back again so quickly
that it was as if the lawn was never weeded at all?
Clearing out identification is like this.

- Adyashanti from Emptiness Dancing, posted to The_Now2




The great teachers of humanity become streams of love.

Bowl of Saki, April 15, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Forgiveness is a stream of love which washes away all impurities wherever it flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running, man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget.

The great personalities who have descended on earth from time to time to awaken in man that love, which is his divine inheritance, have always found an echo in innocent souls rather than in great intellects. Man often confuses wisdom with cleverness, but a man can be clever and not wise, and by cleverness a person may strive and strive, and yet not reach God. It is a stream, the stream of love, which leads towards God. ... Law has no power to stand before love; the stream of love sweeps it away. When the woman accused by everyone was brought before Christ, what arose from the heart of the master? The law? No, it was love in the form of mercy and compassion.

In correcting a mureed of his faults it is not the intellect that is of much use. It is the pouring out of the stream of love which can wash away the stains; closing one's eyes to their faults, forgiving them, and yet correcting them with all tolerance, gentleness, and humility; making before them all things natural, nothing too horrible, but showing them the picture of a better life and thus drawing them toward that which is ideal and beautiful. When the teacher finds that the mureed is wrong he will not tell him that he is wrong, but will show him what is right.

The great teachers and prophets, and the inspirers of humanity of all times have not become what they were by their miracles or wonder-workings; these belong to other people. The main thing that could be seen in them was their loving manner. ... One may ask: How to cultivate the heart quality? There is only one way: to become selfless at each step one takes forward on this path, for what prevents one from cultivating the loving quality is the thought of self. The more we think of our self the less we think of others.

There is no greater magnetic power than love. Its magnetic power is very great. It changes a person's voice, his heart, his manner, his form, his movement, his activity, everything becomes changed. What a difference between water and rock; that smoothness and that liquid state of being, the rise and fall of the surface of the water compared with the rigidity of the rock! The great teachers of humanity become streams of love. It is the first sign of the sage or holy man that he himself becomes love. His voice, his feeling, his presence, everything makes one realize that there is something open in him which we do not find in everybody; this something is his deep love.

- posted to SufiMystic




What Hurts the Soul?

We tremble, thinking we're about to dissolve
into non-existence, but non-existence fears
even more that it might be given human form!

Loving God is the only pleasure.
Other delights turn bitter.

What hurts the soul?
To live without tasting
the water of its own essence.

People focus on death and this material earth.
They have doubts about soul-water.
Those doubts can be reduced!

Use night to wake your clarity.
Darkness and the living water are lovers.
Let them stay up together.

When merchants eat their big meals and sleep
their dead sleep, we night-thieves go to work.

-Rumi, Mathnawi I: 3684-3692, version by Coleman Barks from Say I Am You, posted to Sunlight




Group: NDhighlights Message: 4572 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-04-17
Subject: #4572 - Monday, April 16, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
#4572 - Monday, April 16, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
Wherever you have dreamed of going, I have camped
there, and left firewood for when you arrive.
В 
- Hafiz
В 
В 

В 
On a ten-thousand-story-high mountain
my hut sits at the very top
I shaped three Buddhas from clay
and keep an oil lamp burning
I ring a bell cold moonlit nights
and brew tea with pond ice
But ask me why Boddhidharma came east
and I can't say a word
В 
- Stonehouse
В 
В 

В 
В 
There is nothing but water in the holy pools.
I know, I have been swimming in them.
All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can't say a word
I know, I have been crying out to them.
The sacred Books of the east are nothing but words.
I looked through their covers one day sideways.
What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through.
If you have not lived through something it is not true.
В 
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  - Kabir
В 
via Along The Way
В 

В 
GOD POURS LIGHT
В 
God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching darkness.
В 
The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink
В 
while God pours light
В 
and the trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.
В 
Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched lips
В 
as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup
set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.
В 
- Hafiz
В 
В 
В 

В 
В 
I went everywhere with longing
in my eyes, until here
in my own house
В 
I felt truth
filling my eyes.
В 
- Lalla
В  14th Century North Indian mystic
В 
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
via Along The Way
В 

В 
I've been looking for a long, long time,
for this thing called love,
I’ve ridden comets across the sky,
and I’ve looked below and above.
Then one day I looked inside myself,
and this is what I found,
A golden sun residing there,
beaming forth God’s light and sound.
В 
- Rumi
В 
via Emilie Unkrich
В 

В 
В 
As you dissolve into love, you're not thinking about loving; you're just being love,
radiating like the sun.
В 
- Ram Dass
image: Ben Heine
В 
via Alene Kramer
В 

В 
Many an individual has turned from the mean, personal, acquisitive point of view to one
that sees society as a whole and works for its benefit. If there has been such a change
in one person, there can be the same change in many.
В 
- Mahatma Gandhi
В 
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4573 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-18
Subject: #4573 - Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4573 - Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
В 
В 

В 
В 
Nondual versions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are presented.
В 
Excerpts from each one:
В 
"'Who Am I' is a recent documentary movie on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji)."
В 
"Chanting the BuddhaÂ’s name is a humble path. The more learning you have, the more difficult it will likely be."
В 
"We are too much in our minds today and have let our hearts and souls languish for far too long. So what do we have to offer 21st C. Americans as Christians?"
В 
В 

В 
В 
'Who Am I' is a recent documentary movie on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji).В  Most of it is filmed in India, and includes footage of Arunachala, Mumbai (where Maharaj lived and taught), and Lucknow (where Papaji lived and taught.)В  It includes interviews with prominent devotees of these sages, including David Godman, Dr. Kriben Pillay, and S. Mullarpatan, and also includes music by musicians who were influenced by these sages such as Kirtana.В  It is on You Tube in 5 parts:
В 
You may find them all listed here:
В 
В 
Here are there separate URLs:

Part 1:
В 
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Part 2:
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Part 3:
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Part 4:
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Part 5:
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On knowledge and humility
В 
“Nowadays, there are quite a number of scholars who study Buddhism. However, almost all of them simply read the words of the sutras and commentaries seeking arguments and rationalizations to prove that they are versed in the Dharma.
В 
Those with the sincerity and devotion to cultivate according to the Dharma are few indeed! I have always said that to reap the real benefit of the Dharma, you should approach it with a truly reverent mind. One-tenth of reverence and devotion annihilates one-tenth of afflictions and evil karma, and increases merit and wisdom by one-tenth — and this applies to two-tenths, three-tenths, or total reverence and devotion.” (Pure-Land Zen, Zen Pure-Land, p. 24).
В 
More true today than in the early twentieth century China when Master Yin Kwang penned it in a letter to his disciple.
В 
Whenever I login to Buddhist forum, I immediately regret it. ItÂ’s rare to find congenial words. One expert after another, having graduated from Google University, proffers their deep and hard-earned wisdom, vying to outdo each other.
В 
How difficult it is to feel reverence and devotion. Sutras and commentaries are approached as historical artifacts rather than living texts, capable of transforming us, and thereby, in a very real sense, saving us. Books and teachings are cheap, like water, which is of infinite value, but seemingly free and therefore unappreciated.
В 
Do you find it challenging to approach the Dharma — whether books, teachings, or teachers — with reverence and devotion?
В 
I do. IÂ’m naturally an iconoclast, although you might not think it, given the nature of this blog. IÂ’d better say, I was an iconoclast, a Zen student, a hardened nondualist. However, after some fleeting insights, earth-shattering to me at the time, I found myself still floundering in bad habits, negative thinking, and just plain misery. This is, of course, natural, if one hasnÂ’t had the basic training in virtue, generosity, and loving-kindness. In these foundational aspects of the path, I am still a newborn.
В 
For those who speak a good game, Yin Kwang writes:
В 
“There are also certain individuals of great talent and ability, whose writings can astound the gods. However, their actions are no different from those of the dullards in the marketplace. The root cause is their rejection of phenomenal cultivation and cause and effect [karma]. This grave error is repeated by other people; it is a case of betraying the Dharma with oneÂ’s body (actions). The depth of such offenses and transgressions is immeasurable! Witnessing this, those endowed with profound wisdom can only sigh in pity and compassion.” (Pure-Land Zen, p. 26).
В 
Reminds me of myself. More importantly, however, this applies to many of us today. Most of us naturally overestimate our insight and progress.
В 
Please be aware of this tendency. Great misery follows arrogance. The path to awakening resides in humility.
В 
Chanting the BuddhaÂ’s name is a humble path. The more learning you have, the more difficult it will likely be. Drop your extensive learning. Just come back to your breath. Namu Amitoufo. Let the BuddhaÂ’s name bring you back to simplicity.
В 
В 

В 
Non-dual Thinking
В 
by Pat Adams
В 
I am co-leading a Sunday School at my church on two contemporary figures, one Catholic—Fr. Richard Rohr(The Naked Now) and one protestant—Cynthia Bourgeault, an Anglican priest, (The Wisdom Jesus)who have had enormous influence on how I write about the Life of the Spirit. They both write and speak of non-dualistic thinking, beyond the either/or preferences of our minds which are most at home judging and distinguishing and separating, which is where most of Christianity is today. “I am right and your beliefs are wrong.” “You have to believe what I believe to be saved.” We Christians are at war with one another, even as Christian influence and primacy is waning in our culture.
В 
Apparently we see no difficulty with our enemy-combatant stances towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, because, if anything, our attitudes are getting worse. WeÂ’ve forgotten what Paul wrote about the church being the body of Christ, that Jesus was about love, that God is Love, and that love is inclusive, honoring, forgiving, kind and merciful. Herein lies the fault line in contemporary Christianity: the more we argue about what is right and hang on to our way of doing Christianity, the more we drive people from our churches and send them out hungering for peace and love somewhere else.
В 
We are too much in our minds today and have let our hearts and souls languish for far too long. So what do we have to offer 21st C. Americans as Christians? If we follow Jesus, our lives are about prayer and an ongoing, close relationship with God, where at every turn we are in close communication with God. We have given over not just our minds to God, but also our hearts, souls and bodies. We are living in GodÂ’s love in our lives and we see life from a wholly new perspective. This is the non-dual thinking I referred to above: it embraces all that is before it, without objection, entering into the present, the presence, if you will, of God to examine what is before us. So now we see with not just our minds which would dissect and miss the essence of what we see, but with our hearts and souls and bodies.
В 
This essence-to-essence seeing means that we are able to see the flaws in the person before us without judging and their best qualities without preferring them. We hold all that is before us, say in this sunset or that person, and we meet the Holy Spirit in the midst of this experience.В  And we have been moved and changed by what we have encountered. Now we have moved beyond our minds into the way God sees the creation, people and planets. This is love. In this way we participate in GodÂ’s free-flowing love in us and through us and out to everything and person me meet. This is non-dual awareness, always seeking out the essence of the other and then enjoying, participating in that essence, just as we enjoy and participate in the essence of God which is Love.
В 
В 
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4574 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-19
Subject: #4574 - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4574 - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
В 
В 

В 

Nirvana, Awareness and The Absolute
В 
В 
by Colin Drake
В 
В 
Although the Buddha remained silent when asked about the existence of an Absolute Reality, here is an Г‚вЂ˜inspired utteranceÂ’ he is said to have been made about nirvana:
В 
В 
В 
There is monks a domain, where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no wind, no sphere of infinite space, no sphere of neither awareness nor non-awareness; there is not this world, there is not another world, there is no sun or moon.В  I do not call this coming or going, nor standing, nor dying, nor being reborn; it is without support, without occurrence, without object.В  Just this is the end of suffering.[1]В 
В 
В 
В 
This suffering is overcome when one stops craving by realizing that Г‚вЂ˜phenomena or sense objects are impermanent Â… and empty of self or anything belonging to selfÂ’. [2]В  This cessation of craving leads to escaping from the samsaric cycle of conditioned arising and to nirvana, as Nagasena pointed out when answering the questions of King Milinda:
В 
В 
В 
The cessation of craving leads successively to the cessation of grasping, of becoming, of birth, of old age and death, of grief, lamentation, pain, sadness and despair – that is to say the cessation of all this mass of ill.В  It is this cessation that is Nirvana.[3]
В 
В 
В 
That nirvana, or Г‚вЂ˜awakeningÂ’ is achieved by realizing the truths of anicca and anatta, which leads to the cessation of craving, is also stated in the Dhammapadda : Г‚вЂ˜Him I call a Brahmin who is free from I, me and mine, who knows the rise and fall of life.В  He is awake: he will not fall asleep again.Â’[4]В  One is free from Г‚вЂ˜I, me and mineÂ’ when one realizes that there is no essential self, anatta, and one knows the Г‚вЂ˜rise and fall of lifeÂ’ when one realizes the truth of impermanence, anicca.В 
В 
В 
В 
It is interesting to compare this with that which is discovered when one investigates oneÂ’s direct experience which consists of thoughts/mental-images, sensations and the awareness of these. This reveals the properties (or non-properties!) of awareness, the constant conscious subjective presence which is found to be:
В 
В 
В 
MotionlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  StillВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all movements occurring in it.
В 
NoiselessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  SilentВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all sounds occurring in it.
В 
FormlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  VoidВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all forms occurring in it.
В 
FlavorlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  BlandВ В В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all flavors occurring in it.
В 
OdorlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  NeutralВ В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all odors occurring in it.
В 
SenselessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  InsensateВ В В В В В В В  Aware of all touch/feelings occurring in it.
В 
ThoughtlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  QuietВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all thoughts occurring in it.
В 
ImagelessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  EmptyВ В В В В В В В В В В В  Aware of all mental images occurring in it.
В 
StainlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  PureВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  Untainted by anything occurring in it.
В 
FaultlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  PristineВ В В В В В В В В В В  Undegraded by anything occurring in it.
В 
LimitlessВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  InfiniteВ В В В В В В В В В В В  The source/container/dissolution of all things.
В 
В 
В 
If one truly identifies with awareness by seeing (and Г‚вЂ˜feeling) that this represents the Г‚вЂ˜aware nothingnessÂ’ relative to which, in which and by which all Г‚вЂ˜thingsÂ’ are seen; and that this is the underlying substratum in which mind/body (thoughts, mental images and sensations) appear and are Г‚вЂ˜seenÂ’, then one can merge the mind into this resulting in peace. For this one has to remain Г‚вЂ˜aware of, and identified as, awarenessÂ’ throughout the investigation. In this there is Г‚вЂ˜no selfÂ’ (anatta), all things are seen to be impermanent (anicca) and there is the absolute cessation of craving Â… which is nirvana.
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В 
Let the wise merge the speech in the mind, and the mind into intelligence (philosophical reason); let him merge intelligence in the great self (pure awareness), and that self into peace.
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В 
В Beyond the unmanifested seed is Brahman [aware nothingness] Â…  None beholds him with the eyes for he is without visible form.В  Him words cannot reveal, mind cannot reach, eyes cannot see.
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В 
Yet in the heart is he revealed through meditation Â…  When all the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest Â…   That say the wise is the highest state.В  He who attains it is freed from delusion.
В 
В 
В 
(Verses from the Katha Upanishad)
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This Г‚вЂ˜aware nothingnessÂ’, consciousness at rest, is the Absolute Reality in which all things, cosmic energy – consciousness in motion, arise, are spied, abide and subside. As all motion arises in stillness, exists in a substratum of stillness, is seen relative to that stillness, and subsides back into stillness. So the realization of the Absolute, by investigation of experience, leads to nirvana. Or you could say that nirvana is synonymous with being totally identified as, and with, awareness - The Absolute Reality.
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В 
Colin Drake's books are available at http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[1] Udana 80 in, R. Gethin, Г‚вЂ˜The Foundations of Buddhism, 1998, Oxford, p76-77
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[2] Choong M., Г‚вЂ˜RELS305/405 Buddhism: A History, Lecture NotesÂ’, 2004, Armidale, p.14
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[3] Conze E., Milindapasha in Buddhist ScripturesÂ’, 1959, Harmondearth, p.156
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[4] Easwaran E., Г‚вЂ˜The Dhammapada,verse419Â’, 1986, Petaluma,В  p.199
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4575 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-04-20
Subject: #4575 - Thursday, April 19, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4575 - Thursday, April 19, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
Live Stream Retreat with Eckhart Tolle June 17-20, 2012
В 
Join Eckhart Tolle in his personal four-day retreat via live web streaming from
the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, this coming
June. From Sunday evening to Wednesday at noon EST, Eckhart will join you in
exploring how life always has been, always is, and always will be in the now.
В 
В 
Price
$69.95 which includes the download of all of your sessions to your home computer
after the event.For more information, and to sign up for the retreat,В В click here
В 

В 
You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all
going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by
the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.
В 
- Thomas Merton
В 

В 
В 
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more
intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much--the wheel, New York,
wars and so on--while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water
having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were
far more intelligent than man--for precisely the same reasons."
В 
- Douglas Adams, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

В 
"Bliss is not an experience, it is your nature. This is the Heart of the Wise. This
Gift is always calling to everyone, ‘You are seated in the Heart of all Beings.’ This
is the Truth: Your face shines."
- Papaji

В 
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.
- Ellen Emmet

via Emilie Unkrich
В 

В 
With us, one needs to be a waking sleeper,
that in the state of wakefulness,
you may dream dreams.
В 
The thought of created things
is an enemy to this sweet waking sleep;
until your thought is asleep, your throat is shut,
no mysteries can enter.
В 
Mystical bewilderment must sweep thought away;
bewilderment devours thought
and recollection of anything other than Love .
В 
-В Rumi

Mathnawi III: 1114-1116
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
В 

В 
photo by Alan Larus
В 
Instructions
В 
Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
В В  what your heart beats loudly for
В В  what feels heavy and full in your gut.
There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket.
В 
- Sheri Hostetler
В 
В 
В 
(A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry)
В 
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Instructions.html
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4576 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-21
Subject: #4576 - Friday, April 20, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4576 - Friday, April 20, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
В 
В 

В 
В 
Memories of a Seeker
В 
by "GliderGuider"
В 
В 

I was recently struck by an article on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/andrew-bowen-12-religions_n_1425009.htmlВ about a young man named Andrew Bowen. He was thrown into a crisis of faith by the death of his unborn daughter, and took a novel approach to resolving his annoyance with God. He decided to spend a full year investigating one religion each month, from agnosticism (?) to Jainism. While I applaud his decision on one level, it still feels like a bit of a touristy thing to do - sort of, "If today is Tuesday, you folks must be Baptists." Andrew got something out of it (including a new career, apparently) but it seems to me that there must be more to the spiritual search than a year's worth of channel-surfing.
В 
That story about Andrew sent me back 40 years to the days of my first marriage. In honour of Seekers everywhere and in honour of the Search itself, I'd like to tell the story of the remarkable woman I married. We weren't married very long - about six years or so - but she left an indelible impression that helped shape much of who I am today.
В 
Her name was Janice, and that's her in the picture above. We were married in 1970 in true hippy style - at sundown on the summer solstice, on a prayer rug beneath a weeping willow on my parents' front lawn. She wore a white lace mini-dress, and I was resplendent in purple lace bell-bottoms. The spiritual content of the ceremony was properly ecumenical - Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian traditions were all represented, and of course the reading "On Marriage" from Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" was de rigeur.
В 
My memories of Janice are not so much of a person, but rather of a force of nature. She was sort of an F5 tornado of a human being. She was utterly uncompromising in every aspect of her life, both good and bad. She was indifferent as to whether her path took her through the darkness or into the light. She lived as much out of her Shadow as out of her Buddha-nature, and gave equal tribute to both.
В 
I'm still not completely sure why she agreed to marry me. I suppose meeting someone who was interested in "chaining myself to the tiger" as I put it, had certain novel possibilities. Hey, it was 1970 forgodsake. To mangle Socrates, the two of us believed that "The unlived life is not worth examining."
В 
Anyway, back to the point. Throughout her life Janice was a seeker after deeper truth. To slake that thirst, she drank from a wide variety of spiritual wells. Over the 35 years of her adult life she explored the following streams, in approximate chronological order.
В 
United Church of Canada: This was the religion of her parents. She left it at age 15 due to a dispute over her fervent support of a minister who was convicted of contributing to juvenile delinquency. She was much in favour of juvenile delinquency, but much less fond of authoritarian religious structures and the sort of people who buttress them.
В 
Baha'i: She said these were the best "religious" people she met, overall. She found them to be kind, empathetic, socially conscious, activist, strong on real family and real community. She was all set to join, but there turned out to be three deal-breaking rules: 1) No drinking; 2) No drugs. 3) No sex before marriage... Oh well, on to the next.
В 
Theosophy: Esoteric as hell, but very inclusive. In retrospect I think that Theosophy was the closest to her core attitude about the Search: look at everything, and find truth wherever it lives. Unfortunately, in staid little London, Ontario in the 1970s there wasn't much of a Theosophical community.
В 
Unitarian: This was my contribution, my birth religion. She attended services (or more properly "panel discussions before coffee") for about a year. She ended up looking around at all these dried-out intellectuals, forever wedded to their thoughts about experience rather than experience itself, and asked perhaps a bit too loudly, "What's the fucking point???"
В 
Zen Buddhism: Alan Watts was one of her main teachers. She was captivated by the innate, unresolvable paradoxes embodied in the ko'an, and venerated the man who brought this stream of non-dualism to popular Western culture.
В 
Rajneesh: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (aka Osho), the Indian mystical tiger and spiritual renegade, was her other main influence. If she venerated Watts, she totally adored Rajneesh. She'd been a paraplegic from MS since before I met her, but if she'd been able to walk she would have run like the wind to The Ranch (or "Rajneeshpuram") in Oregon to become a neo-sanyassin. She was quite enthusiastic about Bhagwan's idea of enlightenment through orgasm.
В 
In Watts and Osho she found the perfect combination to express her restless, paradoxical spiritual interests.
В 
Quaker: This was her spiritual home for the last 5 years of her life. When she died - a quadriplegic, many years after we split up - her memorial was in the Quaker tradition of silence broken by quiet personal expressions. It was my first experience of a Quaker service, and I was deeply moved. It seemed she had found a resting point in her journey.
В 
Along the way she dipped her toes into a lot of other streams: entheogens (though back then we just called it tripping); the writings of Seth, the grand-daddy of all the channeled reality-explicators; Wicca and shamanism; Sufi, Taoism - the whole nine yards.
В 
None of her searching was about the rituals of religion, let alone about finding "comfort". It was all about discovering the ways people have found to express their personal relationship with things greater than themselves - with transcendent ideas, feelings and experiences - and finding out which of those expressions spoke to her personally.
В 
She died of septicemia from bed-sores in 1996 at the age of 48, completely satisfied that she had wrung every last drop of juice she could out of her life. Her spiritual searching made her a richer, more vibrant, more alive person. Her Search was one essential facet of of the diamond of her being - like her bone-deep anarchism, her openness to all experience, the multiple sclerosis that defined her physical limits, her volcanic Tantric energy (to put it politely), her absolute refusal to compromise with anything or anyone she considered shit, and her overall lust for everything life had to offer.
В 
If you get the impression that I'm still in awe of her 15 years after her death, you'd be right. What a fucking amazing woman.
В 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
В 
Afterword: I first met my Twin Flame Kathleen shortly after I married Janice. The three of us were part of the same hippy/art circles and got to know each other quite well. Kath and I speculate that Janice may have taken on an incarnational duty, a "soul contract" agreed among the three of us before we came here. One of Janice's tasks seems to have been to keep Kathleen and me apart, not to let us rejoin prematurely so that the fruits of our union could ripen in their own time. I like to think of Janice now, smiling enigmatically at the miracle that has come into being with her help. This note is my tribute to that incomparable human being, and the part she continues to play in my life.
В 
~ ~ ~
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4577 From: Mark Date: 2012-04-22
Subject: #4577 - Saturday/Sunday, April 21/22, 2011
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4577, Saturday/Sunday, April 21/22, 2011





When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

- Henry Ford, posted to AlongTheWay




Take advantage of this human boat;
Free yourself from sorrow's mighty stream!
This vessel will be later hard to find.
The time that you have now, you fool, is not for sleep!

- Shantideva, posted to DailyDharma




The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Jelaluddin Rumi, version by Coleman Barks




The Key and the name of the key is willingness

Caught in the self-centered dream,
Only suffering.

Holding to self-centered thoughts,
Exactly the dream .

Each moment, life as it is,
the only teacher.

Being just this moment,
compassion's way.

Am I willing to live with the only teacher? Am I willing to stop and drop my grip (grasping) (self centered thoughts).

- bondzai, posted to SufiMystic




When someone causes you harm,
forget your own pain, and look at their
suffering with compassion.
This is the practice of a Bodhisattva.

- dg, posted to DailyDharma




No matter how large or small, beautiful or ugly,
Those who annoy you or those who please,
See all as your mother, and offer your loving-kindness.
This is the practice of a Bodhisattva.

- dg, posted to DailyDharma




The Coming of Light

Even this late it happens:
the coming of love, the coming of light.
You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
sending up warm bouquets of air.
Even this late the bones of the body shine
and tomorrow's dust flares into breath.

- Mark Strand, from New Selected Poems, posted to The_Now2




I do not cease swimming in the seas of love,
rising with the wave, then descending;
now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it;
love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

- Al HallГѓВЎj






Group: NDhighlights Message: 4578 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-04-24
Subject: #4578 - Monday, April 23, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
#4578 - Monday, April 23, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
Most quotes found on FacebookВ to celebrateВ Earth Day
В 
В 
To the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
~ William Blake
В 
В 
So I see it is true: all objects in existence are wildly in love.
~ Meister Eckhart

В 
Photo by Lori Mazzuca in Hawaii, Dolphin and whale playing aВ game.
В 
Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world
understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak,
without even making a sound, to another soul.
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett
В 
В 
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the
contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.
~ Rachel Carson
В 
В 
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where
nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~ John Muir
В 
В 
There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that
heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet.
~ Brooke Medicine Eagle
В 
В 
В 
В 
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.
~ Ellen Emmet
В 
Photograph by Beverly Joubert, National Geographic
В 
I am speaking of the life of a man who knows that the world is not given by his
fathers, but borrowed from his children; who has undertaken to cherish it and do it
no damage, not because he is duty-bound, but because he loves the world and loves
his children.
~ Wendell Berry
В 
В 
В 
If you talk to the animals they will talk with you
and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them you will not know them,
and what you do not know you will fear.
What one fears one destroys.
~ Chief Dan George
В 

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in
peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
В 
In Praise of the Earth - John O'Donohue [For Earth Day]
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/In_Praise_of_the_Earth.html
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4579 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-25
Subject: #4579 - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4579 - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 
The latest doings with James Traverse, Scott Kiloby, and Gary Crowley are featured.
В 
В 

В 
В 
James Traverse's new video:
В 
В 
Here is the transcription, but it's meant to be watched and heard:
В 
Namaste'

Welcome to Nisarga Yoga

Nisarga means without parts. It also means natural as in nature and the most natural thing is to be what you already are.

Nisarga Yoga is about experientially understanding your true nature.

The stance of this yoga approach is as Awareness~Presence.

The benefits to health and well-being are by-products of this practice; the practice itself is specifically about the experiential understanding of your true nature.

Nisarga Yoga or Natural Yoga is yoga in the nondual tradition. All of Nonduality literature is filled with pointers to your true nature, yet there is no truth in any of these pointers when they remain concepts. This is because the words and thoughts are not the true experience.

The vast majority of human beings think that they are separate from each other and from the objects of the world. Their thoughts of separation are fed by a very deeply embedded me feeling as they have concluded that they reside somewhere inside their body and experience other people and an external world from this internal location. The stance as Awareness~Presence is a means of clarity whereby the truth of the matter is understood experientially.

When you stand as Awareness~Presence it is clear that a separate body, mind and world is never experienced. Instead experiencing appears as sensing, thinking and perceiving.

However when you take your stand as the mind and body, which is what the vast majority of human beings have been conditioned to do, the same experiencing as sensing, thinking and perceiving is labeled sensations, thoughts and perceptions by the mind. This mental lableling has its place functionally, yet it is essential to understand that in truth it is a superimposition of the mind on experiencing. The outcome of this activity is that experiencing is falsely concluded to be appearing to a separate self that resides in the body and experiences an external world.

When it is clear that these false mental conclusions unfold as a consequence of your stance, then the attention that feeds them falls away such that they die of starvation. The Presence that is self-shining when these false superimposed mental conclusions do not arise is your true nature as experiencing, which is another name for Awareness~Presence.

There are two postures that are especially helpful in establishing your stance as Awareness~Presence - they are the first and last postures presented in the video. Thus it is recommended that you give particular attention to these two postures. You will find additional information about them in the file that came with this video.

Let's begin Nisarga Yoga.


В 
В 

В 
В 
Scott Kiloby upcoming appearances:
В 
Venues:


Thursday Evening, Apr. 26, 7-9 PM:

Nina Carmel's Country Barn

43 Old Sudbury Road В 

Lincoln, MA В  01773


Fri-Sun, Apr. 27-29: В 

The Providence Institute

18 Imperial Place -6A, Providence, RI В 02903



Times & Ticket Prices:


Apr. 27-29, 2012

В  В Thursday: В 7:00-9:00 pm - $20-25 В (sliding scale- pay as you can afford)

В  В Friday:В В 7:00-9:00 pm -В $20-25 В (sliding scale- pay as you can afford)

В В  Saturday:В  10:00am-5:00pm - $70 (in Advance) / $80 (at-the-door)

В В  Sunday:В В 10:00am-1:00pm - $30 (in Advance) / $40 (at-the-door)


Registration & For More Info: В www.scottkilobytalks.com
В 
About Scott's Work & Philosophy
В 
Scott travels across the U.S. and overseas giving talks in which those attending experience nondual presence.В  In these meetings, every position and belief gets challenged, including every belief about the self, others, and the world, and also all of our ideas about spirituality.В  This leaves those attending completely open to allow the present moment to unfold in a new way, free of identification with thought.В  The point of the meetings is allow each person attending to go home and discover for themselves the freedom Scott's message is pointing to.В 
В 
What is Scott's overall message?В  It's the Middle Way.В  The Middle way is freedom from dualistic extremes.В  We come to a site like this because we believe separation is real.В  We believe we are separate people living in a world of other separate things and people.В  In that stage of our lives, we tend to emphasize "personal" viewpoints about ourselves, others, and the world.В  We think the world is something objective that our minds are commenting on.В  We emphasize these personal viewpoints believing that it is reality.
В 
Through the kind of pointing on this and other sites, we can come to realize that separation is illusory.В  We experience reality as nondual.В  At that point, we may begin emphasizing "impersonal" thoughts such as "All is Oneness," "nothing exists," and "It's all awareness."В  These are fine insights.В  But the Middle Way is freedom from these extremes of emphasizing personal and/or impersonal mental viewpoints.В 
В 
The Middle Way usually shows up for us naturally once the belief in separation has been seen through and once we no longer cling to our impersonal thoughts (once we stop being stuck in the idea of the Absolute).В 
В 
In the Middle Way, we know that separation is not real, yet we fully engage on every level with the conventional world of people, places, and things.В  We know that nothing has an independent nature, yet we are free in the midst of our very lives--free to live and act as people in the world, sharing a message of freedom and love, changing our world, and not denying relative existence, relationships, community, family, and all other aspects of life.
В 
We live our lives asleep. Our minds are programmed for self-centeredness. This programming causes us to spend our lives seeking the future for a sense of contentment we can't seem to find.В  It causes conflict in our relationships.
В 
To say that we live in self-centeredness and conflict is not a moral judgment.В  It's a statement of fact.В  Look around.В  The good news is that awakening from this self-centered dream is possible in this lifetime.В  This awakening reveals a depth of freedom and contentment that no relationship, job, material item, self-improvement plan, or other worldly accomplishment can bring. This level of freedom frees us from our endless seeking towards future.В  It frees us from conflict so that our real nature as love shines through, into every area of life.
В 
We believe we are separate selves.В  It's a belief system.В  That is all.В  No one told us this in school.В  Our teachers did not tell us the truth because they didn't know.В  Our parents didn't know either.В  So we've inherited this sense of separation.В  It goes unexamined throughout our whole lives . . . until a desire to know the truth arises.
В 
This is about truly waking up out of the self-centered dream of being a separate person.В  In that awakening, the wholeness that we've been seeking in the future and in worldly things reveals itself to be ever present. Every experience is accepted and loved as it is.В  This is about seeing through this belief in separation.В  In the simple recognition of presence as our true nature, we go from being self-centered to being selfless.В  That makes all the difference.В  That seeing is what life is all about.В  It's why we are here on earth.В В 
В 
This freedom can never be captured by words.В  It cannot be known as a belief or a mental position.В  It is much too simple.В  It is your very presence.В  And yet words are all we have to communicate with each other.В  In looking for freedom in the future, or in ideas about yourself, others, or the world, it is missed.В  In relaxing completely into the present moment, you see that it was never lost.В  It is always and already here.В  And this presence, this freedom of hereness, includes all stories of ourselves, others, and the world.В  Once the belief in separation is seen through, we are free to experience and celebrate life in all its diversity.В 
В 
Come and find out what we're talking about!В 
В 
В 

В 

Gary Crowley's new website:
В 

The website is totally free to anyone and everyone seeking joint pain relief, soВ 
hopefully it will be of use to you or someone you know.В 

Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional.В - Buddhist proverb

And sometimes our pain is optional, too. - Gary Crowley
В 
В 

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4580 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-26
Subject: #4580 - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4580 - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 
Ilie Cioara, Louis Brawley and U.G. Krishnamurti, and Rick Linchitz were recent guests on Fred Davis's Awakening Clarity blog. Excerpts from their appearances are featured.
В 
В 

В 
В 
This is excerpt written by Ilie Cioara and edited and translated by Petrica Verdes, is from Awakening Clarity.В  See the entire article here: http://awakeningclarity.blogspot.com/
В 



The Wondrous Journey into the Depth of Our Being
By


Ilie Cioara



IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE there is nothing static, dead or frozen. Everything, but absolutely everything, is in eternal movement. Even within the so-called still nature reigns the same intrinsic law of movement.


MOVEMENT AND NEWNESS, in perfect interconnectedness, affirm themselves as uniqueness. In this context, the moment represents the hand of the clock, used by Infinity in order to record the movement of Eternity. It is always new, as well as creative and transformative, in an ascending manner, progressively.


IN ORDER TO BE ABLE to encounter the newness of the aliveness in its movement, we must come out and greet it the same way. Thus, we donÂ’t return to the past, to what happened, nor do we project ourselves into the future, in pursuit of an imaginary purpose or ideal to fulfill.


WITH A COMPLETELY EMPTY MIND we simply watch life as it unfolds. Nothing comes between us and the movement of life, in the form of images, opinions etc. Such a simple and direct meeting with the moment transcends us spontaneously from the finite world into Infinity.


AND JUST AS QUICKLY, like lightning, we detach, in order to be free again, and therefore completely available to encountering the next moment. Nothing is anticipated and nothing is accumulated from the lived moment.


THE PURITY AND INNOCENCE of the mind is our constant companion, as each moment becomes an opportunity of creative “being”. Through this way of “being” – as pure Consciousness – we ourselves create a new world in which Love, beauty, compassion and kindness become a reality positively influencing the whole of humankind.
В 
В 

В 
В 
The entire article that this excerpt is from is currently posted on Awakening Clarity.В 
http://awakeningclarity.blogspot.com/


The Invisible Man
By
Louis Brawley

AGREEING OR DISAGREEING had absolutely no place in my interactions with U.G. Krishnamurti. Teaching or not teaching was irrelevant. There came a time when I saw that there was nothing there to argue with, no entity promoting or defending any idea, rather it was life attacking all ideas as false. After that happened I was thrown back on the idea of control, supposed to spring from will and understanding. I can testify that my understandings were totally, utterly useless, what he called “empty words and empty phrases”. В Around U.G. this fact hit me with all the force and indifference of nature. Usually it came in the form of one of his 'blasts'. Before I met him IÂ’d heard the expression blast' used to describe one of his rants. I assumed it was an exaggeration until I witnessed it for the first time. One evening we were sitting around while U.G. was talking to Mario about his job. The two were sitting face-to-face discussing MarioÂ’s affairs after he just arrived after a long day of work and a six-hour drive from Cologne to Gstaad. В U.G. teased him quite a bit then suddenly an angry tone ripped into the exchange like a sudden tide, taking us all by surprise and focusing all of us on one point like a hot poker. MarioÂ’s face turned red with the force of it. Because of his dynamic energy, the effect was like sitting inside a thunderstorm as we sat watching. It went on intensifying until it seemed unbearable, then suddenly it broke and he patted Mario on the arm after telling him to “Getoutofhere!” gently as a lamb. Later Mario told me he knew exactly why it happened and was grateful for it.



В 
This is an excerpt taken from Fred Davis' introduction of Rick Linchitz on Awakening Clarity, where Rick is appearing this week as part of that website's Guest Teachings Series.В 

http://awakeningclarity.blogspot.com/


NOW IT'S TIME TO TELL YOU my embarrassing Rick Linchitz story.В  My ego can always use a good smack and there's nothing like a bit of public humiliation to bruise it.В  I should tell you that this body retired from its former position as the Center of All Universes back in 2006.В  However, it only did so in order that it might rise from the dead and claim a new position, which is not quite so lofty, but is still special enough.В  I became the Hub of All Things Nondual.В  Now, as Hub of All Things Nondual, this body, of course, has all the insider info on every Nondual writer and teacher in the world.В  Have a burning question about some of the people in our community?В  Just ask Fred.В  If he doesn't know them, nobody knows them.В  I swear to you, this is just how this mind thinks.


SO WHEN NON-DUALITY PRESS sent me a copy of Rick's new book, No Me and No You, I thought, "Well here's a new guy.В  Maybe I can "discover" him!"В  Forget that he already has a book out from the largest publisher of Nondual titles in the world.В  Never one to lets facts get in the way of my blind enthusiasm, I, the Swifty Lazar of Nonduality, am single-handedly going to make him a star!В  Can you believe this?В  It's true.В 

В 
HOWEVER, it was during the process of doing the research for this profile that Swifty got rather a rude awakening.В  First off, I found out Rick wasn't exactly a newcomer: he woke up the same year I got sober: 2000.В  So he's been around the scene--awake, mind you--for a dozen years.В  So while I was still crawling walls and drinking coffee out of Styrofoam cups, he was palling around in Costa Rica with Satyam Nadeen.В  Oddly this somehow bothers my ego less than having a person who woke up after I did to have the audacity to be more clear than I am!В  Scott Kiloby, for instance, had the nerve to wake up a year after I did and then become my teacher.В  That is grounds for a serious resentment and is very nearly unforgivable. (By the way, throughout this article I am speaking plainly, not in theВ  revered and self-protective Nondualese tongue.)В 



AT ANY RATE, the scales peeled and fell from Swifty's bespectacled eyes when he discovered that Rick has been doing satsang in Europe since 2001!В  Rick was traveling around with Nadeen dispensing wisdom in distant lands while I was still running around my old backyard making amends for a lifetime of sin.В  Next, you can imagine my outrage when I found out that Scott had once again outdone me by interviewing Rick three years ago on his Kilologues site.В  Unbelievable.В  And, as if that wasn't bad enough, it turned out that Scott had a lot of company.


RICK LINCHITZ, whom the Hub of All Things Nondual had never heard of, has been heard of by damn near everyone else.В  He had, in fact, already been profiled earlier this year by Matt King in the altogether excellent blog (grumble), Nonduality America.В  He can also be found on Jetz TV in Germany, and he has a second book available over there in a German-language-only edition.В  I did discover something this week: I discovered Swifty had also been outdone by Never Not Here back in 2010, when Richard Miller did a wholly wonderful interview with Rick in Rick's home on Long Island.В  I also found Rick on YouTube, saw him on Kenneth Madden's website, and on the Guru's Feet wesbite.В  And oh, did I mention that Rick spoke at the Science & Nonduality Conference in 2011 and will be speaking there again this year?В В 


SO, IT IS JUST POSSIBLE that I am just a wee bit late in discovering Rick Linchitz.В  He is everywhere, now including Awakening Clarity. I am hereby officially retired from Hubdom.В  At least until I'm not.

http://awakeningclarity.blogspot.com/

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4581 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-04-28
Subject: #4581 - Thursday, April 26, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee


#4581 - Thursday, April 26, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
All good things are wild, and free.
~Henry David Thoreau
В 
photo by Alan Larus


В 
Transcend the words
Have the experience for yourself, and then there will be nothing to say.
~Robert Adams
В 


The mystical is not HOW the world is, but THAT it is.
~Ludwig Wittgenstein
photo by Alan Larus
В 

В 
В 
"For the mind in harmony with the Tao all selfishness disappears.
Without even a trace of self-doubt you can trust the Universe completely.
All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold onto.
All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being."
В 
~Seng Tsan
Verses of Faith in Mind
В 
via Alene Kramer on Facebook
В 

В 
"Maybe Spring" by Alan Larus
В 
В 
All seeking is a search outside yourself for peace, happiness...
True peace is not found by looking to the future
but realizing now that anything and everything
arises in the already-present Peace that you are.
В 
~Siddharameshwar Maharaj
via Along The Way
В 

В 
"The wisdom of Enlightenment is inherent in every one of us. It is because of the
delusion under which our mind works that we fail to realize it ourselves, and we
seek the advice and guidance of enlightened ones." ~Hui-neng
В 
From the book: "ONE - Essential Writings on Nonduality," by Jerry Katz
published by Sentient Publications.
via Daily DharmaВ 

В 
Mind transcends birth and death. The essence of mind is pure Consciousness
that never leaves reality, even though it experiences the things of the senses.
В 
In the equanimity of the Absolute, there is nothing to renounce or attain.
В 
~Niguma
В 
Tao & Zen group on Facebook
В 

В 

The nature of the mind is non-arising,
What need is there of
knowledge and views?
В 
Originally there is not
a single dharma;
Why discuss inspiration
and training?
В 
Coming and going
without beginning;
Sought for, it is not seen.
No need to do anything;
It is bright, still, self-apparent.
В 
The past is like empty space;
Know anything and the
Basic principle is lost,
Casting a clear light on the world,
Illuminating, yet obscured.
В 
If one-mindedness is impeded,
All dharmas are misunderstood.
Coming and going thus,
Is there need for thorough investigation?
В 
Arising without the mark of arising,
Arising and illumination are the same.
Desiring to purify the mind,
There is no mind for effort.
В 
Spontaneous wisdom
Throughout time and space
Nothing is illuminated;
This is most profound.
Knowing dharmas is non-knowing;
Non-knowing is knowing the essential.
В 
Using the mind to maintain quietude,
Birth and death forgotten;
This is original nature.
В 
~Niutou Farong (594-657)
"Song of the Mind: Wisdom from the Zen Classic Xin Ming"
В 

В 

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4582 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-04-28
Subject: #4581 - Friday, April 27, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4581 - Friday, April 27, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 
В 
В 
Sunset at Ross Barnagh, Co. Mayo, Ireland
В 
В 
В 
eternity
paid a short visit
to Ross Barnagh
В 
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В 
В 

Announcing a new book...
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В 
THE INVISIBLE LIGHT
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В 
Infrared photographs by Ron Rosenstock
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В 
Poetry by Gabriel Rosenstock
В 
В 
В 
I am pleased to announce that my new book,
В 
THE INVISIBLE LIGHT, is in development.
В 
It will contain 25 infrared images, accompanied by Gabriel Rosenstock's poetry and haiku.В  The poems, written in Irish (Gaelic) will be translated into English, Spanish, and Japanese.В  It will be a very special book with worldwide appeal.В  The photographs will be reproduced using the highest quality duotone printing process.
В 
Poetry translations: English by Gabriel Rosenstock, Spanish by Francisco X. AlarcГѓВіn, Japanese by Mariko Sumikura.

Pre-publication, limited special offer:
В 
The first 100 people to pre-order The Invisible Light will receive a signed and numbered copy of the book along with a signed limited edition 8 x 10 print of the above image for $150.
В 
Sponsorship opportunities:

Twenty sponsorship opportunities also are available for $500. Sponsors will have their name and company logo listed on a special recognition page within the book and will receive a signed copy of the book along with the 8 x 10 print of Sunset at Ross Barnagh, Co. Mayo. Ireland.
В 
To be included in the recognition page, I must have all your information by May 12th. The publication date will be June 21, 2012.
В 
To order the book: You can reserve a signed copy for $35, plus $5 for mailing and postage.
В 
Check, credit cards and PayPal are accepted. For credit cards, please send the credit card number, expiration date and your mailing address via email or to the postal address below. If you prefer, you can phone in the credit card information at 508-414-8661.
В 
Please leave a message if I'm not home.
В 
My Best,
Ron Rosenstock

91 Sunnyside Ave.
Holden, MA 01520.
USA
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4583 From: Mark Date: 2012-04-29
Subject: #4583 - Saturday, April 28, 2011

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4583, Saturday, April 28, 2011



We are a haystack, the wheat entangled
with the hay;
Through the reviving wind, disentangle
the wheat from the hay,
Let the sorrow go to the sorrow, the joy
to the joy,
Let the mud go to the mud, and the heart
rise to heaven.

- Rumi, version by Muriel Maufroy from Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi, posted to AlongTheWay



Meeting

Today I met a journeyman thatcher.
He had not been born with that life in his blood;
One day he just dug up his roots and left.
Never looked back.

He said that sometimes as he swept the thatch
Up onto a roof and heard the shingle of the trees.
The fields' chase, he was blown
Out of the mad motorway of this age

To a place that you never could buy,
A place that is on no map.
He had heard it and touched it in roofs,
In thatch, just once or twice, for a moment.

In him now the back lanes, the side roads
Of a timeless time, a land where hay ricks
Still jolt and topple. I sensed the sunlight in him
Warm as a whole summer.

- Kenneth Steven from Wild Horses, posted to allspirit



unknown existence
undiscovered beauty
that's how you are
so far
but
one dawn
just like a sun
right from within
you will arise

- Rumi, from Ghazal 2840, translation by Nader Khalili from Rumi, Dancing the Flame, posted to Sunlight



The Self

It is small and no more visible than a cricket
in August. It likes to dress up, to masquerade,
as all dwarfs do. It lodges between
granite blocks, between serviceable
truths. It even fits under
a bandage, under adhesive. Neither customs officers
nor their beautiful dogs will find it. Between
hymns, between alliances, it hides itself.
It camps in the Rocky Mountains of the skull.
An eternal refugee. It is I and I,
with the fearful hope that I have found at last
a friend, am it. But the self
is so lonely, so distrustful, it does not
accept anyone, even me.
It clings to historical events
not less tightly than water to a glass.
I could fill a Neolithic jar.
It is insatiable, it wants to flow
in aquaducts, it thirsts for newer &; newer vessels.
It wants to taste space without walls,
diffuse itself. Then it fades away
like desire, and in the silence of an August
night you hear only crickets patiently
conversing with the stars.

- Adam Zagajewski, posted to allspirit



...pain and pleasure are the crests and valleys of the waves in the ocean of bliss. Deep down there is utter fullness.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels



You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

- Eckhart Tolle, posted to The_Now2



В 

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4584 From: Mark Date: 2012-04-29
Subject: #4584 - Sunday, April 29, 2011
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4584, Sunday, April 29, 2011





We Might Have To Medicate You

Resist your temptation to lie
By speaking of separation from God,

Otherwise,
We might have to medicate
You.

In the ocean
A lot goes on beneath your eyes.

Listen,
They have clinics there too
For the insane
Who persist in saying things like:

"I am independent from the
Sea,
God is not always around
Gently
Pressing against
My body."

- Hafiz, from: The Gift, translated by Daniel Ladinsky




Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

Chapter 1

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
. I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
. I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place
. But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5

I walk down another street.

- Portia Nelson, posted to The_Now2




Your love lifts my soul
from the body to the sky
And you lift me up
out of the two worlds.
I want your sun
to reach my raindrops,
So your heat can raise my soul
upward like a cloud.

- Rumi




In all the great religions it talks about the transparency of the wise man, of the sage. What it means is that when a stimulus comes to you from another person, instead of rushing out from your centre to meet it, and defending yourself against it if it's undesirable, or dragging it in if it's desirable, you deliberately let it go through you, saying to yourself,

"This is not my infinitely originating self-creative being. It is an external so I will let it go through. I will literally let it go through."

The 'cept' in percept and concept is from a word meaning to capture. When the stimulus comes to you from anyone at all you tend to grab, to hold it while you examine it, and at the very moment of holding it you have created an object which wasn't there until you grabbed at it. The conceptual world is a world created by people who, through fear, through anxiety, grab at every energy as it comes in.

Now the wise man says don't grab, let the stimulus come, and count it for what it is ... a phenomenon: simply a form not originating in your infinitely originative being, but coming from beyond your unique being, and therefore to which you will say, I open the door, you can go through. Rather like when you're on the motorway and somebody overtakes you in the fog at ninety miles an hour and you wind the window down and say, pass, friend, on your way to death. You let them go and you don't emulate their behaviour.

Think about this, because it is the most important psychological trick you could possibly know about. To make yourself transparent to insult, and to praise, offered to you from outside your being. Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, and don't be injured by insults thrown at you by other people ... who have their own problems anyway.

- Eugene Halliday, posted to The_Now2




LOVE

When your mind becomes motionless
and the brilliant eyes of the peaceful mind
take a straight look down into the depth of your heart
you will see the life-force pulsating and thriving
in the warmth of pure love.

As you experience this pure love
what we all call "heart"
beams of light will begin to radiate from the center of it
for heaven is there in eternity.

If you can release this radiance of love
and allow it to flow through you,
your heart will become light.
The spirit will get liberated into the air
and then, from a place of inner stillness
you will know what it would be like
to be an eagle and soar in the evening skies.

And most of all,
you would understand
what it would be like
to be perfectly sane.

- Bhante Wimala




In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?

- Rabia al Basri




Nonexistence
within existence
is my Rule
getting lost
in getting lost
my Religion.

- Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani




At first
I was irridescent
Then
I became transparent
Finally
I was absent

- Paul Kantner from the song Starship, from the album Blows Against the Empire


Enlightenment is a Gamble

Time to cash in your chips
put your ideas and beliefs on the table.
See who has the bigger hand
you or the Mystery that pervades you.

Time to scrape the mind's shit
off your shoes
undo the laces
that hold your prison together
and dangle your toes into emptiness.

Once you've put everything
on the table
once all of your currency is gone
and your pockets are full of air
all you've got left to gamble with
is yourself.

Go ahead, climb up onto the velvet top
of the highest stakes table.
Place yourself as the bet.
Look God in the eyes
and finally
for once in your life
lose.

- Adyashanti from My Secret is Silence: Poetry and Sayings of Adyashanti




Group: NDhighlights Message: 4585 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-05-01
Subject: #4585 - Monday, April 30, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4585 - Monday, April 30, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness.
Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.
~Shunryu Suzuki
В 
photo by Peter Shefler
В 
Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky.
Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them.
Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly.
So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there.
When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind.
When thinking goes, there is only clear mind.
Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes,
You must not be attached to the coming or the going.
~Seung Sahn
В 
В 
by Tom McFerran
В 
В 
What is there to realize? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything
new or achieving something which we did not have before. We dig a well and create
a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just
removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and
is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras
[innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the
Self will shine alone.
~Ramana
В 
В 
В 
The Teacher is one who knows the Truth and can transmit this Truth to a
humble one by look, by touch, by thought, or as Arunachala does, by Silence.
This Silence is the Light that does not move.
~Papaji
В 
В 
"When one sees that form is empty, one realizes great wisdom and no longer dwells
in samsara. When one sees that emptiness is form, one realizes great compassion
and does not dwell in nirvana."
~Fa Zang
В 
В 
A deep love and caring arises from within emptiness, from nowhere. This love and
caring seeks only the Truth in every moment and in all circumstances. True love is
something far greater than anything that could be called personal. True love is a
non-personal miracle. It is the nature of reality itself. It is the natural and
spontaneous expression of the undivided Self.
~Adyashanti
В 
В 
В 
Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places
where other people see nothing.
~Camille Pissarro
В 
В 
As long as this exists...
by Anne Frank
В 
"As long as this exists," I thought, "and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the
cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy." The best remedy for those
who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be
quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that
all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple
beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that
then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances
may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
В 
Anne Frank, excerpt from The Diary of a Young Girl.
photo by George Jisho Robertson
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4586 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-02
Subject: #4586 - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4586 - Tuesday,В May 1, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 

В 

Doorway to Total Liberation

Conversations with what Is

by Scott Kiloby
-

Description: Doorway to Total Liberation is the latest e-book (.pdf) by Scott.

In this book of dialogues, Scott Kiloby has developed an inquiry that leaves you surrendered in the flow of the present moment, feeling complete and whole in your experience, while still able to move, work, and create in your life fully.В  Scott uses this very simple inquiry to bring people back to their direct experience, which always reveals that liberation is right here, right now. We simply overlook it.

Order here:

http://doorwaytoliberation.com/buy-doorway-book/

В 
В 

В 
В 
Nothing Has Essential Meaning
В 
by Colin Drake
В 
There are many things that we are told,

Have meaning as to who, or what, we are,

Our body whether young or old,

Possessions, maybe even our fancy car!

В 

Our occupation and astrology,

Г‚вЂ˜Chinese yearÂ’ and nationality.

Our religion and numerology,

Ancestry and personality.

В 

ItÂ’s true they influence the body/mind,

With which if we misidentify,

Makes it more difficult to find,

Awareness our true identity,

В 

For each adds another layer,

Of separation and partition,

Which must be peeled away ere,

We awaken, thus completing our Г‚вЂ˜missionÂ’.

В 

So we must be careful not to read,

Meaning into things which come and go,

Thoughts and sensations which are the seed,

When clung to as Г‚вЂ˜ourselvesÂ’, the ego.

В 

At the deepest, fundamental level,

No things have essential meaning,

If not seen this our lives bedevil,

Clouding existence with its gleaning.

В 

In fact we should studiously avoid,

Any thought which objectifies the Г‚вЂ˜IÂ’,

Which is pure Awareness and thus devoid,

Of characteristics Â… the subjective Г‚вЂ˜eyeÂ’.

В 

В 

From the new book of poems : Poetry From Being A Light Onto The Self

В 

If you are interested in more articles, poems, or my books these may be found at

В 

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/colin108atbigponddotcomВ 

В 

Colin Drake's ebooks are available for immediate download at

В 

http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm

В 

В 


В 

В 

Anamika (in Holland)
В 
В 
В 
В 
biting the cheeks

Early morning, grey skies hanging low

over the still sleepy village.

No other sounds than the ticking of the clock

the humming of the heating system

and the typing of these words,



Cold wind biting the cheeks when going out.

The busyness and tension in the way people move

while they greet you friendly and are quickly on their way again

Family is warm and welcoming.

Some tulipfields are out and while driving through polders,

greeting you in colours bright pink, red and yellow.



Always just this open emptiness seeing and noticing

whatever it is.

The simplicity of life..
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4587 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-02
Subject: #4587 - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4587 - Wednesday,В May 2, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
I know every reader of the Highlights knows about Non-Duality Press and probably owns a few copies of their books. This issue re-acquaints you with this most dedicated and outstanding publisher andВ distributorВ of quality nonduality books on the planet.
В 
Be sure to visit their updated website:
В 
В 

Non-Duality Press

Founded in 2004,В Non-Duality PressВ has become established as the leading publisher of contemporary literatureВ on the subject ofВ non-duality.В 

Julian Noyce, was first drawn to the approach through the works of Jean KleinВ and Ramana Maharshi. As he searched for more material he realised there was an unmet need for authentic and accessible contemporary writing on the subject which led him to set up Non-Duality Press.

Our ongoing aim is to make available the work of authors who have the inner authority that comes from first-hand experience and who are outstanding communicators with a characteristic and original flavour. Each author in his or her unique way attempts to communicate the experience of awakening and the expression of truth in precise but everyday, jargon-free language.В 

Why Non-Duality?В 

We may find ourselves asking, 'Why am I here? What is life? Who am I?' Sooner or later any intelligent person asks these questions. What you are looking for is what you already are, not what you will become. What you already are is the answer and the source of the question. In this lies its power of transformation. It is a present actual fact. Looking to become something is completely conceptual, merely an idea. The seeker will discover that he is what he seeks and that what he seeks is the source of the inquiry.В 
Jean Klein -В Who Am I?В 

We sell books and audio-visual material worldwide, mostly online, via this site and other sources, but we also supply bookshops, conferencesВ  and retreats. В We ship to every continent (although no-one has yet ordered from Antarctica) and have licenced Г‚вЂ˜ourÂ’ books to foreign language publishers – Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Danish

Julian has been joined in the business by his wife, Catherine – whom you can see here on Conscious TVВ 

We are unique in that we are a tiny, independent company with a worldwide reputation and readership and contacts throughout the USA, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

We operate on an ethical basis, working fairly with authors and customers.В  Questions of ethics and morals are debated by teachers and seekers, but whether or not there is a doer and whether or not there are any choices in life, we stick to our principles. We have a simple lifestyle, so that we can be generous as well as fair. We use good quality print on demand for most of our books, to avoid wasteful warehousing and pulping of excess stock. We do short high quality runs of hardbacks if appropriate.

We are developing our resources page because our responsibility is to do more than sell books. There are links to areas of interest for readers interested in non-duality and excerpts from published and unpublished material, including accounts of awakening from people who generally avoid publicity, but have agreed to share their experience.

We support charities, particularly SARA in Lanzarote В http://saraprotectora.org/la-37/uk, Wiltshire Wildlife В http://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/ and The Trussell Trust http://www.trusselltrust.org/

Here is aВ colourful listВ of books published by Non-Duality Press:

http://non-dualitypress.org/collections/books

В В 

Many of these books have been featured and reviewed by me. I've written lengthy reviews to about 8 of them. AndВ I plan to feature excerpts from more in coming weeks and months.

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4588 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-05-04
Subject: #4588 - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4588 - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
Another teleseminar? Really?В 
В 
Then I had a brainstorm. Or more of a question, really. Who are we teachers,В 
anyway, I asked myself. Beyond the images that we endeavor to project, what isВ 
life really like for us?В 
В 
What happens when we step off the stage? When the workshop is over and weВ 
return to our own daily existence?В 
В 
What I envisioned were teachers being willing to share, quite frankly, what they’re
working through right now. What’s their edge? What’s still messy and unclear for
them? What may become a teaching story down the road, but right now is their own
work?
В 
http://teachingwhatweneedtolearn.com/
teachingwhatweneedtolearn.com
В 
Here'sВ  an opportunity to listen for free this summer to folk like Ram Dass, Terry
Patten,В  Guy Finley, Tama Kieves, Sally Kempton, Isaac Shapiro, Krista Tippett,
ReggieВ  Ray, Diane Musho Hamilton, and Byron Katie.
SPONSORED by Sounds TrueВ 
В 
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В 
В 
"At any moment, we are either giving humanity the gift of our clarity or our
confusion. And that clarity or confusion is affecting the humanity around us, the
world around us. It is manifesting. It is taking form."
~ Adyashanti
В 
В 
"In the end it’s all very simple. Either we give ourselves to Silence or we don’t."
~ Adyashanti
В 
В 
В 
....well past midnight....sitting still in the garden....listening to the wind sweep the
marine layer past the near full moonlight....nightbirds singing all the while this
enchantment....the eucalyptus gently rustles....and in this silence, one can hear....even
the flowers breathe
~Susan Holden
В 
photo by Alan Larus
В 
В 
В 
For a moment I saw a beautiful moving river.
Then a vast water with no means of crossing it.
В 
For a moment, I saw a bush full of opening buds.
Then no roses, no thorns, nothing.
В 
For a moment I saw a busy cooking fire.
Then no hearth, no smoke, no flame.
В 
I saw the great mother of kings, Kunti.
Then, the next moment, sitting here, is
the helpless old aunt of the potter's wife.
В 
~В Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
В 
В 
В 
В 
Wabi-Sabi – the Japanese aesthetic of beauty
В 
We live in a world where new is good – perfection is strived for – and young is
beauty. We thought however that we would share with you today a beautiful
aesthetic that the Japanese believe in – it is the principal of Wabi-Sabi. In a
nutshell, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and
accepting the natural cycle of growth. It is simple, uncluttered and it values
authenticity above all else. Wabi-Sabi is about flea markets instead of big box
stores and malls; it’s about aging wood not laminate. The principals of wabi-sabi
celebrate crack and crevices and believe that it is a sign that loving has left
behind.
В 
It is so easy to discard what isn’t new and forget what has aged – but stop and look
closely next time at a pot that isn’t perfect – a flower that isn’t fully standing tall
– or the aged face of the people around you – they all have a story to tell.
В 
В 
В 
В 
I said Oh no! Help me!
And the Oh no! became a rope let down in my well.
I've climbed out to stand here in the sun.
One moment I was at the bottom of a dark, fearful narrowness,
and the next,
I am not contained by the universe.
If every tip of every hair on me could speak,
I still couldn't say my gratitude.
In the middle of these streets and gardens,
I stand and say and say again,
And it's all I say,
I wish everyone could know what I know.

~ Rumi
В 
В 
В 
What's In The Temple?
В 
In the quiet spaces of my mind a thought lies still, but ready to spring.
It begs me to open the door so it can walk about.
The poets speak in obscure terms pointing madly at the unsayable.
The sages say nothing, but walk ahead patting their thigh calling for us to follow.
The monk sits pen in hand poised to explain the cloud of unknowing.
The seeker seeks, just around the corner from the truth.
If she stands still it will catch up with her.
Pause with us here a while.
Put your ear to the wall of your heart.
Listen for the whisper of knowing there.
Love will touch you if you are very still.
В 
If I say the word God, people run away.
They've been frightened--sat on 'till the spirit cried "uncle."
Now they play hide and seek with somebody they can't name.
They know he's out there looking for them, and they want to be found,
But there is all this stuff in the way.
В 
I can't talk about God and make any sense,
And I can't not talk about God and make any sense.
So we talk about the weather, and we are talking about God.
В 
I miss the old temples where you could hang out with God.
Still, we have pet pounds where you can feel love draped in warm fur,
And sense the whole tragedy of life and death.
You see there the consequences of carelessness,
And you feel there the yapping urgency of life that wants to be lived.
The only things lacking are the frankincense and myrrh.
В 
We don't build many temples anymore.
Maybe we learned that the sacred can't be contained.
Or maybe it can't be sustained inside a building.
Buildings crumble.
It's the spirit that lives on.
В 
If you had a temple in the secret spaces of your heart,
What would you worship there?
What would you bring to sacrifice?
What would be behind the curtain in the holy of holies?
В 
Go there now.
В 
~ Tom Barrett
В 
В 
(Keeping in Touch)
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В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4589 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-04
Subject: #4589 - Friday, May 4, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4589 - Friday,В May 4, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 
In this issueВ a shvester,В a shiksa, and a shlemiel.
В 
В 

В 
В 
Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, yoga teacher and Г‚вЂ˜guruÂ’ born Joyce Green, dies at 71

By Alan D. Abbey · April 29, 2012

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, a yoga teacher and spiritual leader who was born Joyce Green in Brooklyn, died April 14 at 71, leaving behind a large and complex legacy including thousands of devoted followers, celebrity acolytes, disgruntled former colleagues, and intentional communities in Florida and elsewhere. (Note: Please click here or read below for a discussion of why this obituary was posted on The Eulogizer.)В 

Bhagavati died, or as an announcement on the website of the ashram she founded in 1971 put it, “left her body,” after a three-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

A statement by the ashram quoted actress Julia Roberts as saying of Ma Jaya, “There are few people in one's life that create only the warmest and most powerfully positive impact imaginable. Ma Jaya was one of those people to me and my family. She was a beautiful person who shined with love and understanding in all ways. Her transition was deeply sad news and yet, as with all she did, it brought me even closer to her words and her teachings."

Singer Arlo Guthrie, who has known Ma Jaya since 1984, was quoted in a Florida newspaper as saying, “IÂ’ve met a lot of people that were very important. Some were nuts and some were great and some were a little bit of both. But I can honestly say no one I ever met in my entire life was as funny and as sincere and as courageous and as unapologetic as she was.”

Ma Jaya did “what any good spiritual practitioner does - they give people the tools to believe they can do the things that other people tell them they canÂ’t. She helped us see the better part of ourselves,” said Guthrie.

Guthrie, whose mother,В Marjorie Guthrie Greenblatt,В was a Yiddish poet and Martha Graham dancer, said he and Joyce Green, whom he did not know at the time, “grew up literally blocks away from each other” in BrooklynÂ’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. ”When I heard her voice in all of its bravado, I saw through it immediately, and I just adored it. It was like speaking to a girl from home. She was a yenta. You talk that way to everybody in the world no matter how important they think they are. You talk that way to the biggest religious leaders in the world and you can see why they loved her. Nobody else had the honesty to talk to them like that. She was herself when she met them.”

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati was “born into a Jewish family in 1940” and “grew up in a cellar apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, just a short walk from the ocean and the famous Coney Island Boardwalk,” according to her website.В She was married at 15 to an Italian-American Catholic, and had her first spiritual awakening, a vision of Jesus Christ, while trying to lose weight in her early 20s, according to her website and various accounts. Christ told her to "Teach all ways, for all ways are mine," her website said.

As early as 1973, she began to “teach all ways, giving a contemporary voice to the great truths that underlie all spiritual paths,” her website said. Her teachers included Indian spiritual leader Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, Neem Karoli Baba, Ramana Maharshi and Shirdi Sai Baba. The ashram she founded, Kashi, was designed to offer “an interfaith path of life.” Her website quoted her as saying her teachings were not a religion. “Rather, she encourages her students to use what she teaches within their own faiths or traditions.”

In an email response to an inquiry from The Eulogizer as to whether Bhagavati was still Jewish, ashram spokeswoman, Swami Anjani, wrote:

Ma remained the quintessential Jewish mother – loving, nurturing, in-your-face – for her entire life. Ma always wore a Star of David and a Brooklyn pendant – saying, “Never forget your roots."

The best person to describe her would be Rabbi Zalman Schacher-Shalomi. Reb Zalman and Ma loved each otherÂ’s ability to celebrate divinity in all ways.

One Florida newspaper said that over the past decades, her ashram drew “hundreds of practitioners of spiritual lifestyles outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream.” Over the years, the ashram housed AIDS patients in respite care, was the setting for a private grade school, and developed By the River, an affordable senior communal living facility. The ashram and satellite operations in Atlanta and Los Angeles have also run support programs for gays and lesbians and food distribution centers. As many as 150 of the ashramÂ’s students lived together over the years.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ashram was hit with charges of being a cult and misuse of funds. Ma JayaÂ’s chief accuser was her former public relations director, who sued and then settled his case before publicizing details of many of his claims. An anti-cult website offers links to many media articles, letters to the editor, and other documents claiming Kashi was a cult-like operation. But the Florida newspaper article quoting Guthrie said,

Ma Jaya was a colorful, charismatic and sometimes controversial figure...Unapologetic may be one way to describe Ma JayaÂ’s reaction when confronted with various controversies over the years, most of which seem to have faded away in the past decade.”

She won numerous religious and interfaith awards in recent years.

Note: I gave long and hard thought about whether to write a Eulogizer item about Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, who was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn and was seen in many photographs with a Magen David around her neck, even as she embraced Hinduism and the teachings of other faiths. Some I consulted said, no, that even though she came from the Jewish world, she had left it. Yet I felt compelled to give a taste of her complex and controversial life. With this item before you and with the links embedded in this article that can give you more about her, I throw the question open to Eulogizer readers: Should this person, and others who may have similar life paths, be featured in a blog of Jewish obituaries? I will collect and publish (if you permit) any and all thoughtful responses. - Alan Abbey

The Eulogizer highlights the life accomplishments of famous and not-so-famous Jews who have passed away recently. Write to the Eulogizer at eulogizer@.... Follow the Eulogizer on Twitter @TheEulogizer

source: http://blogs.jta.org/eulogizer/article/2012/04/29/3094176/ma-jaya-sati-bhagavati-yoga-teacher-and-guru-born-joyce-green-dies-at-71

В 


В 

Byron Katie

http://www.thework.com/downloads/little_book/English_LB.pdf

When you argue with reality, you lose—but only 100% of the time.

Personalities donÂ’t love—they want something.

If I had a prayer, it would be this: "God spare me from the desire for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen."

DonÂ’t pretend yourself beyond your own evolution.

An unquestioned mind is the only suffering.

You either believe what you think or you question it. ThereÂ’s no other choice.

No one can hurt me—thatÂ’s my job.

The worst thing that has ever happened is an unquestioned thought.

Sanity doesnÂ’t suffer, ever.

If I think youÂ’re my problem, IÂ’m insane.

I donÂ’t let go of my concepts—I question them. Then they let go of me.

You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.

Reality is always kinder than the story we are believing about it.

IÂ’m very clear that the whole world loves me. I just donÂ’t expect them to realize it yet.

There are no physical problems—only mental ones.

Reality is God, because it rules.

When I am perfectly clear, what is is what I want.

Arguing with reality is like trying to teach a cat to bark—hopeless.

How do I know that I donÂ’t need what I want? I donÂ’t have it.

Forgiveness is realizing that what you thought happened didnÂ’t.

Everything happens for me, not to me.

Gratitude is what we are without a story.

В 

В 
В 


Group: NDhighlights Message: 4590 From: Mark Date: 2012-05-05
Subject: #4590 - Saturday, May 5, 2011

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4590, Saturday, May 5, 2011





You didn't come into this world.
You came out of it,
like a wave from the ocean.
You are not a stranger here.

- Alan Watts, posted to AlongTheWay




Imperfection Is Not Our Personal Problem

After graduating from college, I moved into an ashram, a spiritual community, and enthusiastically devoted myself to the lifestyle for almost twelve years. I felt I had found a path through which I could purify myself and transcend the imperfections of my ego - the self and its strategies. We were required to awaken every day at three-thirty A.M., take a cold shower, and then from four until six-thirty do a sadhana (spiritual discipline) of yoga, meditation, chanting and prayer. By breakfast time I often felt as if I were floating in a glowing, loving, blissful state. I was at one with the loving awareness I call the Beloved and experienced this to be my own deepest essence. I didn't feel bad or good about myself, I just felt good.

By the end of breakfast, or a bit later in the morning, my habitual thoughts and behaviors would start creeping in again, and those ever-recurring feelings of insecurity and selfishness would let me know I was falling short. Unless I found the time for more yoga and meditation, I would often find myself feeling once again like my familiar small-minded, not-okay self. Then I'd go to bed, wake up and start over again.

While I touched genuine peace and openheartedness, my inner critic continued to assess my level of purity. I mistrusted myself for the ways I would pretend to be positive when underneath I felt lonely or afraid. While I loved the yoga and meditation practices, I was embarrassed by my need to impress others with the strength of my practice. I wanted others to see me as a deep meditator and devoted yogi, a person who served her world with care and generosity. Meanwhile, I judged other people for being slack in their discipline, and judged myself for being so judgmental. Even in the midst of community, I often felt lonely and alone.

I had the idea that if I really applied myself, it would take eight to ten years to release all my self-absorption and be wise and free. Periodically I would consult teachers I admired from various other spiritual traditions: "So, how am I doing? What else can I do?" Invariably, they would respond, "Just relax." I wasn't exactly sure what they meant, but I certainly didn't think it could be "just relax." How could they mean that? I wasn't "there" yet.

Chogyam Trungpa, a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist teacher, writes, "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality." What I brought to my spiritual path included all my needs to be admired, all my insecurities about not being good enough, all my tendencies to judge my inner and outer world. The playing field was larger than my earlier pursuits, but the game was still the same: striving to be a different and better person.

In retrospect, it is no surprise that my self-doubts were transferred intact into my spiritual life. Those who feel plagued by not being good enough are often drawn to idealistic worldviews that offer the possibility of purifying and transcending a flawed nature. This quest for perfection is based in the assumption that we must change ourselves to belong. We may listen longingly to the message that wholeness and goodness have always been our essence, yet still feel like outsiders, uninvited guests at the feast of life.

What has helped me the most since then is to remember that imperfection is not our personal problem - it is a natural part of existing. We all get caught in wants and fears, we all act unconsciously, we all get diseased and deteriorate. Yet, when we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.

The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfection." This means accepting our human existence and all of life as it is.

So, while the trance of feeling separate and unworthy is an inherent part of our conditioning as humans, the good news is that so too is our capacity to awaken. We free ourselves from the prison of trance as we stop the war against ourselves and, instead, learn to relate to our lives with a wise and compassionate heart. When we learn to cultivate and embrace our lives with what I call Radical Acceptance - accepting all the different and varied parts of ourselves - we begin to rediscover the garden: a forgotten but cherished sense of wholeness, wakefulness, and love.

- Tara Brach, from her blog http://blog.tarabrach.com/В , posted to The_Now2.




As long as this exists...

"As long as this exists," I thought, "and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy." The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.

- Anne Frank, excerpt from The Diary of a Young Girl. posted to The_Now2






Where We Live

Inside a house I live, inside
a room that knowing makes, then
far inside something greater no one
can find or say.

And you live beside me,
millions of stars away.

- William Stafford, posted to allspirit




Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

- Mary Oliver from Evidence, posted to allspirit




Chickpea to Cook

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it's being boiled.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

"Don't you try to jump out.
You think I'm torturing you.
I'm giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life beings,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
"Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can't do this by myself.

I'm like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn't pay attention
to his driver. You're my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking."

The cook says,
"I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher."

- Rumi, Mathnawi III, 4160-68, 4197-4208, version by Coleman Barks, from The Essential Rumi, posted to Sunlight



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4591 From: Mark Date: 2012-05-06
Subject: #4584 - Sunday, April 29, 2011

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4584, Sunday, April 29, 2011



Mother of us all

Mother-of-us-all prays to free us
from our image of perfection
to which so much suffering clings.

When in the shadowy mind
we imagine ourselves imperfectly,
praying to be freed from gravity
by enlightenment, she refines our prayers.

Putting her arms around us
she bids us rest our head on her shoulder
whispering, don't you know
with all your fear and anger
all you are fit for is love.

- Stephine Levine, from Breaking the Drought, posted to allspirit
В 


Perceptions

For a moment I saw a beautiful moving river.
Then a vast water with no means of crossing it.

For a moment, I saw a bush full of opening buds.
Then no roses, no thorns, nothing.

For a moment I saw a busy cooking fire.
Then no hearth, no smoke, no flame.

I saw the great mother of kings, Kunti.
Then, the next moment, sitting here, is
the helpless old aunt of the potter's wife.

- Lalla, posted to AlongTheWay



First there is a mountain,
Then there is no mountain,
Then there is.

- Donovan



The Allman Frothers - Mountain Jam from Eat a Peach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuNz2idDtY

В 



When all the false self-identifications are thrown away, what remains is all-embracing love.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels



That this entire phenomenal show of the universe has no purpose indicates the obvious futility of seeking a goal in life. No sooner is a goal conceived than spontaneity is at once destroyed and the self conscious ego takes over in destructive competition against everything that comes, thus missing all that is worthwhile in life. It is, indeed, the "purposeful" life which entirely misses out on the purpose of life! The true purposeless vision misses nothing and enjoys everything without inhibition.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels




The past is long gone
from here
there is no way back
how could there be

the present is over too quickly
for feeble desires
to have any effect
except to hide peace

the future races ahead
forever out of reach
of dreamy wishes
and useless plans

and yet when I rest
in the endless now
every need is satisfied
in ways never imagined

- Nirmala, from Gifts with No Giver


Group: NDhighlights Message: 4592 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-05-07
Subject: #4592 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
В 

#4592 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things,
and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
В 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
В 
В 
В 
В 
Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever
is exposed to the light itself becomes light.В 
В 
~St. Paul
В 
В 
В 
You didn't come into this world.
You came out of it,
like a wave from the ocean.
You are not a stranger here.
В 
~Alan Watts
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
via Alene Kramer
В 
В 
В 
At the end of the talk someone from the audience asked the Dalai Lama, "Why
didn't you fight back against the Chinese?" The Dalai Lama looked down,В 
swung his feet just a bit, then looked back up at us and said with a gentleВ 
smile, "Well, war is obsolete, you know. " Then, after a few moments, his faceВ 
grave, he said, "Of course the mind can rationalize fighting back...but theВ 
heart, the heart would never understand. Then you would be divided inВ 
yourself, the heart and the mind, and the war would be inside you."В 

В 
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama serving the homeless in San Francisco
В 

"To be awake is to be unconditionally open to all that is. It is to be
completely without prior opinion or assumption about anything. To stay
awake is to surrender, totally, to unedited and unrestricted awareness,
to abandon the pretense of both past and future."
~Scott Morrison
В 
via Daily Dharma
В 
В 
В 
Love causes us to be deeply connected in an unspoken way.
It happens when we’re really available, really open.В 
В 
~Adyashanti
В 
В 
В 
В 
Silence
В 
Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally is only silence. Silence
is free from beginning and end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is
causeless. Its greatness lies in the fact that it simply is. In silence all objects
have their home ground. It is the light that gives objects their shape and form.
All movement, all activity is harmonized by silence. Silence has no opposite in
noise. It is beyond positive and negative. Silence dissolves all objects.
В 
It is not related to any counterpart which belongs to the mind. Silence has
nothing to do with mind. It cannot be defined but it can be felt directly
because it is our nearness. Silence is freedom without restriction or center.
It is our wholeness, neither inside nor outside the body.В 
В 
Silence is joyful, not pleasurable. It is not psychological. It is feeling without
a feeler. Silence needs no intermediary.В 
В 
Silence is holy. It is healing. There is no fear in silence. Silence is autonomous
like love and beauty.
В 
It is untouched by time. Silence is meditation, free from any intention, free
from anyone who meditates.
В 
Silence is the absence of oneself. Or rather, silence is the absence of
absence. Sound which comes from silence is music. All activity is creative
when it comes from silence. It is constantly a new beginning.В 
В 
Silence precedes speech and poetry and music and all art. Silence is the home
ground of all creative activity. What is truly creative is the word, is Truth.
Silence is the word. Silence is Truth. The one established in silence lives in
constant offering, in prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual love.
В 
~Jean Klein
В 
via Gloria J Barrera
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4593 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-09
Subject: #4593 - Tuesday/Wednesday, May 8, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4593 - Tuesday/Wednesday,В May 8, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
I've combined two days worth of issues in this one, featuring articles on Advaita.
В 

В 
В 
Fred Davis features Dennis Waite in the Awakening Clarity blog:
В 
DENNIS IS an adherent and advocate of traditional Advaita Vedanta.В  I love his definition of Advaita, which I'll reprint here from our Pointers section: "Advaita is an extremely simple philosophy. It's complete essence is summed up in its Sanskrit name: a - not, dvaita - two. In a very real sense, there is no need for a book to explain it. It can be summed up in a single sentence: There are not two things."В  It doesn't get any better or clearer than that.

FOR THE CURIOUS,В  the second term, "Vedanta", means "end of the Vedas," which is where the Upanishads fall--at the very end of that vast block of Hindu hymns, rituals, and teachings that are chiefly formulaic and ritualistic, though their study and practice are said to lead one to mokSha, or liberation. "Veda" means "knowledge," and there is no knowledge higher than Self-knowledge.

THE UPANISHADS, the Indian scriptures that came behind the Vedas, could be said to be the foundation stones of modern Nonduality, though they themselves are now thousands of years old.В  So we can say that Advaita Vedanta is the set of Nondual teachings that arose when some probably disillusioned and certainly very wise men found the Vedic teachings to be incomplete, shall we say, and thus they went the way of the mystic--the way of direct individual experience.

I DON'T MEAN to come on like a scholar here; I'm certainly not.В  I'm sure someone who knows much more than I--of which there is a great horde--will happily whack me on the head for historical errors I've perpetrated here.В  Nonetheless, my introduction will have to do.В  What I am trying to do is provide a bridge between much of what you may be finding on YouTube and your local bookstore and what you'll find on Dennis Waite's marvelous website, Advaita Vision, and in his teaching here today.В  To myВ  mind, Advaita Vision is the most authoritative and in-depth Advaita Vedanta site on the Internet.В  I love the fact that with the recent relaunch it is now far more open and eclectic. My plan is to have Dennis back here again in July with an excerpt from his upcoming book, Advaita Made Easy, so stay tuned.В  We'll see if he can deliver on that promising title!
В 
Read the entire article here:
В 
В 
В 

В 
В 
Lifestyle & Vocal Coaching
Sound Yoga Therapy
В 
В 
The Sound Yoga System consists of three main components and works with the body, mind and spirit. Asana class is taught from a solid foundation, step by step with focus on mindfulness and awareness of the body and breath. During Five Elements Sound Circles external sounds of singing bowls and Pythagorean Tuning Forks are used to balance the Five Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether). Raga Vocal Meditations work with the mind and breath by using the voice and the ears to develop listening skills and musical awareness. A Raga is similar to the Western musical scale with each Raga having a unique mood, attitude, story and image. Learning a Raga can be likened to getting to know a friend. With time and care invested the experience deepens.

В 
Practice-first lesson
В 
Advaita Vocal Practice
В 
SaReGaMa infused with the lessons of Advaita Vedanta
В 
First class–30 mins
В 
Becoming established in Sa:
В 
В В В  Find a comfortable seated position
В В В  Repeat after the teacher in the repetition of Sa with use of hands to support Sa
В В В  Individual Adjustments
В В В  Join with teacher in Sa, continuing repetition
В В В  Establish open eye focal point
В В В  Joint Sa continued focus on unity
В В В  Bring awareness to sequence of in breath and breakdown of sounds within Sa:
В 
В В В  Sssss
В В В  AhÂ…
В 
В В В  Joint Sa continued focus on unity
В В В  Bring awareness to in breath at nostrils, bringing Prana into the eyes
В В В  Joint Sa continued focus on united vibrations
В В В  Bring awareness to face during in breath
В В В  Joint Sa continued
В В В  Bring awareness to internal space inside skull during in breath, opening the inside structure
В В В  Joint Sa continued
В 
Sa call and response — to establish student and group in Sa without support of teachers voice, to find unity/unison within a group
В 
Beginning Raag Practice–Alhaiya Bilaval
В 
Tones used:
В 
Â…Â….Ga (grace note)
Sa Re
В 
Method:
Call and response
В 
Question from student:
В 
Why use of hands when singing and breathing?
В 
Answer from teacher:
В 
Two main reasons: 1) to consciously connect to receiving Prana and Sound which is always present; 2) to maintain the activation of Vishnu or the sustaining aspect when singing
В 
Question:
В 
What is the meaning of SaReGaMa?
В 
Answer:
В 
In general each raag has its own rasa or flavor with a prevailing bhava or attitude. A Raag is an entity with a life complete and unique.
В 
Bilaval Raag established at the end of the 16th centuty has been described in the following manner:
В 
A lady looking in the mirror, putting on her earrings, anticipating the arrival of her lover
В 
В 

В 
В 
The following is from Ramesam Vemuri's blog:
В 
Essence of Advaita -- A Question- Answer Session - Part 1/3
В 
(Excerpted from Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana, Book - II)
В 
Rama:В  Revered Master!В  How can the Subject (Knower) be free of the object (the known)?В  The thought, “I am contracted”, is very strongly entrenched within us.В  How do we reverse it?
В 
Sage Vasishta:В  The inanity of the mind responsible for such an illusion will fade away from a study of Self-Knowledge.В  The formless, eternal and tranquil liberation can be achieved by proceeding on the Knowledge Path.
В 
Rama:В  If a substance has several components and attributes within it, then a detailed study of those parts and properties may gradually add up to a complete knowledge about the substance.В  But what you are talking here is about a substance that is indivisible and without any attributes whatsoever.В  That is the Consciousness-Knowledge.В  Does the word Г‚вЂ˜completeÂ’ ever be applicable to a description of such Knowledge?
В 
Sage Vasishta:В  True Knowledge cannot be Г‚вЂ˜a knownÂ’.В  Nor is it possible to teach anything about Pure and Absolute Knowledge.В  Hence once the misapprehension owing to ignorance is eliminated, whatever remains at the end is called Complete Knowledge.
В 
Rama:В  What would then happen to the separate knowable component of Knowledge that was within the Knowledge?В  Moreover when you use the word Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’, does it imply the Г‚вЂ˜process of knowingÂ’ or Г‚вЂ˜a means to knowÂ’ i.e. Г‚вЂ˜something causal to the act of knowingÂ’?
В 
Sage Vasishta:В  Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’ implies the process of knowing.В  With respect to this type of Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’, there is no difference between what is Г‚вЂ˜to be knownÂ’ and Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’.В  They are like the movement and wind.
В 
Rama:В  If that were to be the case, the imaginary difference between what is Г‚вЂ˜to be knownÂ’ and Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’ has to be something like the horn of a hare – an impossibility to occur.В  A thing that is impossible to exist cannot be instrumental in getting any work done.В  But we find in the world that all works in the three time periods of past, present and future get executed by the difference between Г‚вЂ˜what is knownÂ’ and the Г‚вЂ˜KnowledgeÂ’ (what is perceived and perception).
В 
Sage Vasishta:В  You seem to opine that a non-existent thing can never be seen and it cannot be a cause for happiness or sorrow.В  But are you not able to see a dream though it does not exist?В В  DonÂ’t you experience happiness and sorrow in a dream?
So the beingness or otherwise of a thing cannot be decided based on the criterion whether it appears or not.В  The decisive criterion cannot also be the thingÂ’s ability to cause happiness or sorrow.В  The real principle will have to be whether the thing can be sublated or not.В  If a thing cannot be sublated, we have to accept that it truly exists.В  If it can be sublated, it lacks existence even though it has an appearance. Sublation refers to the elimination of a thing along with its cause as, for example, the snake in the rope.
Examined from this stand, if you find a thing to be separate from you and is external to you, it has to be an imagination only.В  There is no possibility for the existence of a substance within you and be separate from you.В  Hence there is no question of any separate substance being present either inside you or outside you.В  Therefore, there is no scope for any transactions happening.
В 
Rama:В  How can this be acceptable, Sir?В  You, me, the five fundamental elements, the world around us are all directly seen by us.В  How are we to deny their existence completely?
В 
Sage Vasishta:В  Rama, you are attempting to establish the true Г‚вЂ˜beingnessÂ’ or otherwise of a substance based on the things in this creation and by an analysis of their cause-effect relationships. For example, you think that a pot is made out of a real lump of clay.В  Hence the pot, you seem to conclude, has also to be real.В  The approach adopted by you is okay.В  But then dig deeper.В  Go back to the very beginning of creation.
What was there prior to creation?В  There were neither any substances nor any tools.В  There was only an imagination.В  Hence the Macrocosm (Virat Purusha) born at the beginning of creation, the five fundamental elements etc. have got to be illusory.В  Therefore, the substances that appear to us have also to be illusory. It follows from this that the world and the transactions that go on within it are unreal, though we have a direct perception of them.

Read the entire excerpt here:
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4594 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-05-11
Subject: #4594 - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
В 

#4594 - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
В 
Questions only satisfy the mind and the intellect. They do not help one to
awaken. It is only when everything is dropped, that you begin to awaken and
see the futility of questions.В 
~Robert Adams
В 
В 
В 
In this valley, love is represented by fire, and reason by smoke. When love
comes, reason disappears. Reason cannot live with the folly of love; love has
nothing to do with human reason. If you possessed inner sight, the atoms of the
visible world would be manifested to you. But if you look at things with the
eye of ordinary reason you will never understand how necessary it is to love.
Only a man who has been tested and is free can feel this. He who understands
this journey should have a thousand hearts so that he can sacrifice one at
every moment.
~AttГѓВўr
В 
Love makes the world less worldly, less dense, more transparent to the divine
dimension, the light of consciousness itself.
~Eckhart Tolle
В 
В 
Question: "Brahman is real. The world is illusion" Yet others say, "The world
is reality." Which is true?
В 
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Both statements are true. They refer to different
stages of development and are spoken from different points of view. The
aspirant starts with the definition, that which is real exists always. Then he
eliminates the world as unreal because it is changing. The seeker ultimately
reaches the Self and there finds unity as the prevailing note. Then, that which
was originally rejected as being unreal is found to be a part of the unity.
Being absorbed in the reality, the world also is real. There is only being in
Self-realisation, and nothing but being.
В 
Question: Sri Bhagavan (Ramana Maharshi) often says that Maya (illusion) and
reality are the same. How can that be?
В 
Sri Ramana Maharshi:В  1. Brahman is real, 2. The universe is unreal, and 3. The
universe is Brahman.
В 
В 
В 
If you see the illusion you are enlightened, but if you think that you are
enlightened you are in the illusion!В 
~ Papaji
В 
How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible.В 
Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to findВ 
yourself in them.В В 
~ Eckhart TolleВ 
photo by Alan Larus
В 
Be
В 
"There is a reality even prior to heaven and earth;
Indeed, it has no form, much less a name;
Eyes fail to see it;
It has no voice for ears to detect;
To call it Mind or Buddha violates its nature,
For it then becomes like a visionary flower in the air;
It is not Mind, nor Buddha;
Absolutely quiet, and yet illuminating in a mysterious way,
It allows itself to be perceived only by the clear-eyed."
В 
~Daio Kokushi
В 
В 
Who Am I?
В 
Feel your reality,
In the stillness,
In the quietness,
When there is no mind,
No thoughts, no words.
В 
Who are you then?
You just are.
В 
I AM.В  I AM.
I am not this.
I am not that.В 
I AM.
В 
I am That which has always been.
I am That which will always be.
В 
I AM THAT I AM.
В 
~Robert Adams

Silence of the Heart
Dialogues with Robert Adams
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4595 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-12
Subject: #4595 - Friday, May 11, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4595 - Friday, May 11, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
В 
В 

В 
В 
In my work I've emphasized the importance of the word "nonduality", that simply knowing the word is like taking a magical pill that will work its way through your mind to clarify it. Once you learn a new word, you start to see it, and in seeing it you pick up some context and meaning regarding it. You come to understand it. I rarely see anyone talk about the importance of the word nonduality or some form of it. However Fr.В Richard Rohr mentions it in the following video clip. He says,
В 
"[Christians] didn't know how to experience [nonduality], for the most part, except at the mystical level. Of course we've alwaysВ had the Christian mystics who 'got it.' But we never used the word 'nondual'. We needed the East to give usВ theВ word. And once you have the word, the clarification follows afterward, it seems to me." --Fr. Richard Rohr. From the video sample at
В 
В 
В 

В 
В 
В The word nonduality
В 
В by Jerry Katz
В 
One of my stumblings into nonduality was upon the word itself. One day in the early 80s I was sitting at the counter of a deli in Santa Monica and the guy beside me was reading an oversized leather bound book. I casually asked him what he was reading. He said, “The Upanishads.” I asked him what it was about. He didnÂ’t answer me at first. He looked away, up and down, like he didnÂ’t want to be bothered with me, but also as though he felt obligated to say something. After a few seconds he looked straight into my eyes and said the word as though it were a challenge: “Non-du-al-i-ty.”
В 
In that way the unspoken power of the word was given to me. Here are 7 reasons why the word nonduality is powerful:В 
В 
1. The word nonduality is relatively fresh and untainted by loose-end connotations, such as the words Zen, consciousness, or spirituality are.В В 
В 
2. The word nonduality, for full understanding, demands its experience, not merely belief.
В 
3. The word is a key that opens search engines and allows you to encounter, engage, and contribute to a multitude of teachings, conversations, and people.В 
В 
4. The word nonduality is a portal, revealing the nondual perspective of many fields of knowledge: literature, psychology, cinema, education, art, physics, neurosciences, ecology, philosophy, mathematics, architecture, dance, music, martial arts, and more.В 
В 
5. The word, like any word when it is first heard and valued, is a magnet. Once a person hears the word nonduality, it becomes a magnet drawing attention to other appearances of the word. As well, the user of the word becomes a magnet for others who are sensitive to the appearance of the word nonduality.В 
В 
6. The word nonduality is a “red pill.” Recall that in the movie The Matrix, Neo was offered either a blue pill or a red pill. The blue pill would have returned Neo back to his dream world whose unreality he sensed but did not understand. The red pill would have awakened him to who he really was, which would have begun his journey through life and to the source.В В 
В 
The word nonduality could work as a red pill if you value its meaning enough to follow it as deeply as you can. When Neo was being given his choice of pills, his teacher and mentor Morpheus explained to him:В 
В 
"This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goesÂ…. Remember, all IÂ’m offering is the truth, nothing moreÂ…."
В 
7. The word is a pointing to “the seemingly indefinable underlying nature of reality.”   
В 
8. The word is a category holding “the body of works created by those who are open to experiencing life/reality beyond the limiting beliefs and definitions of mind.”
В 
At one time the word nonduality was essentially unknown to the public. The word belonged to philosophers, scholars in comparative religion, Buddhists, and Hindus. The last 15 years have seen the coming together of world teachers and the Internet, the wide dissemination of the teaching of nonduality in a variety of forms, the waking up of many, and the entry of the words nondual andВ nonduality -- in numerousВ languages --В into the spirituality mainstream.В В 
В 
I hereby declare May 16 as "Use-The-Word-Nonduality Day." So use В some form of the word nonduality in your conversations with friends, family, strangers, and co-workers, and in that way pass around the key to a more sane way of living.
В 
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4596 From: Mark Date: 2012-05-13
Subject: #4596 - Saturday, May 12, 2011

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4596, Saturday, May 12, 2011





Man is what he believes.

- Anton Chekhov




The universe will validate your beliefs

Your strongest held beliefs about "how things
are" will draw into your life those very experiences
that will work to support and prove your strongest
held beliefs about "how things are."

The Universe loves you so completely that it's
compelled to present itself to you in ways that will
tend to validate your strongest held beliefs - no matter
how self-limiting or off-the-wall those beliefs might be.

In short, the Universe wants to make you right.

- Chuck Hillig from Seeds for the Soul, posted to AlongTheWay




Who Am I?

Feel your reality,
In the stillness,
In the quietness,
When there is no mind,
No thoughts, no words.

Who are you then?
You just are.

I AM. I AM.
I am not this.
I am not that.
I AM.

I am That which has always been.
I am That which will always be.

I AM THAT I AM.

- Robert Adams from Silence of the Heart - Dialogues with Robert Adams, posted to AlongTheWay




Neither silence nor yogic postures
enable you to enter there.
In that state there is no knowledge,
no meditation, no Shiva or Shakti.
All that remains is That.
O Lalli, you are That.
Attain That.

- Lalleshwari




Realizing Your True Nature

Awakening to the truth is a deep realization of what you are as an experience. What is it that is feeling? What is it that is thinking or sensing? This is not about coming up with the right name for it, so don't name it for a moment. It's about just noticing, just experiencing. Feel it. Sense it. Welcome it. Spiritual awakening is realizing what occupies the space called "me." When you listen innocently, you'll see that there really is something more here than a me.

Your me is always experiencing this moment in relation to some other moment. Is this moment as good as it was two weeks ago? Will it be the same today as it was yesterday? The me worries about what it knows and whether or not it is good enough to get enlightened. Your me might call itself Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Advaitan, atheist, agnostic, believer, or nonbeliever, but no matter what your me is identified with, when you become very open and relaxed, you can suddenly be aware that something else is occupying your body-mind. Something else is looking out from your eyes, listening from your ears, and feeling your feelings. That something has no qualities. Realizing your true nature is realizing what is present without qualities. We can call it the emptiness of consciousness, the Self, or the No-Self. To directly experience this emptiness - the aliveness of it - is spiritual awakening. It is to realize yourself as beautiful nothingness, or more accurately, no-thing-ness. If we say it's just "nothing," we miss the point.

When your image of the me takes a break, you'll find all you are doing at that moment is just being open. You feel quite relieved that you are not trying to get to another moment or a better experience. You feel yourself just being in a very relaxed, easy sense of peace. You haven't gained anything at all—you're not smarter, you don't necessarily know more than anyone else, and you haven't suddenly become holy. If you are resting as your own true nature, then you feel that there is really nowhere else to go.

At that moment, you feel as if your path has ended. It can be hard to end it when so much is invested in your path, but if you really want to be free, you must want to know the truth more than anything else. And when you do, you find that the truth is so damn empty. There is so much nothing to it. There is so much nobody there, just a very vivid awakeness.

But even then you can realize the truth and still not operate from it. You can have a very deep awakening experience and still not function from that awakening because the me is still convinced that a me is necessary. The me always brings you back into relationship with another—it can be the world and me, my job and me, the dog and me, whatever. Have you noticed how the way you relate to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations is often slightly adversarial? How it's never quite the right moment? How it's almost perfect, but not quite? The Buddha said, "All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire." This is the movement of the me who always wants a little more out of the moment.

The me is clumsy. As my mother used to say, "You're like a bull in a china shop." Did you ever hear that? If you let your mind imagine a bull getting loose in a china shop, that's how the me is. It's knocking things over, things like the most precious china. With a whisk of its tail, there goes . . . grandma's four-generation-old antique china cups! Boom - they're gone. When your me is operating, it's like that bull. It tends to make a lot of noise because it's always in a slightly adversarial relationship with its moment. It produces noisy thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or opinions. It also likes to search, moving its head around, scanning for the right emotion in the body, scanning through the mind for the right concept. It's always in movement like a radar, looking for the right thing to happen.

As soon as you move your attention away from the radar scan, you start to notice something else. Inside, there is something that is not creating nearly as much noise as the me. This something else, this openness, this awakeness, is not searching for the next moment or scanning for the right emotion or experience. You can get the sense of it now. What does it feel like to simply be awake? Whether you think you are awake or not doesn't matter - don't worry about that for now. What does the awakeness itself feel like? What is the experience of that awakeness before you try to be more or less awake? Just with a willingness to open, you can start to feel it. How does this awakeness feel? How does this openness feel? Just by bringing your attention there, just by noticing without any effort, this formless or empty sense of being heightens itself as if to say, "Someone is finally paying attention."

When this openness is present, you can recognize how it experiences your body. How does openness experience a feeling, emotion, or thought? How does it experience the movement called "me?" Allow yourself to get a real taste of this. This openness is in a completely different relationship with everything that exists, starting with you. It's in a different relationship with the moment; it's not going anywhere. Have you noticed? It's not trying to achieve something else. It hasn't elevated you or demeaned you. Start to sense the profound innocence of this openness. It's not perceiving from the past—not from the last moment, much less from the accumulation of a lifetime. It's perceiving only in this moment.

Openness has not accumulated anything, so it's free. It has a profoundly innocent but wise relationship to everything. It is something primary, awake, and alive. You can sense how incredibly precious it is. When you look right into it, there is nothing there. Let yourself experience this openness, this nothingness. Let yourself see how it experiences your body and mind right now, in this moment. It's so different from the experience of the me. This nothingness is the peace that surpasses all understanding, and it's right here at your fingertips.

Awakeness is inherent in all things and all beings everywhere, all the time. This awakeness relates to every moment from innocence, from absolute honesty, from a state where you feel absolutely authentic. Only from this state do you realize that you never really wanted whatever you thought you wanted. You realize that behind all of your desires was a single desire: to experience each moment from your true nature. You find that simply walking outside and seeing a leaf in the breeze or seeing a street person on the corner is the most exquisite of experiences. You don't need anything big; each moment has a beauty all its own. Even the very ugly moments have a beauty when experienced from this innocence, this beautifully disarming state of awakeness.

During any moment, you can ask yourself, "What is it like for emptiness to experience this moment? What is it like for awakeness?" Really listen, because openness is quiet and soft. You can't insist upon it. You can't grab for it, so don't reach. Just open. Look for the openness, feel from the openness, and relate from the openness. It can freak you out if you're not used to it. If you find yourself in a place that you don't like, just ask how openness is experiencing this moment. A shift happens, and you find yourself saying, "I'll be damned - it's actually enjoying this!"

This relationship from your heart, from the truth of your being, from openness - is something that can't be taught. I remember what it was like when I went as a Buddhist to undertake the precepts. You read through them, study them, and kind of take them inside. You do whatever the little me does with them, like deciding you are going to do a really good job of it - until you find out otherwise. You think you know what the precepts are, then you really awaken to your true nature and realize that this is how your true nature naturally sees things. It's very simple. That's it. Now you don't need any precepts because your true nature sees that way all the time. You don't need to be reminded of how your true nature sees. You only need to be reminded of what your true nature is.

So if you want to find out how openness relates to each moment, just go inside. Be that openness. Be that emptiness. All you can do is ask yourself, inquire for yourself. How is it relating to this thought in my head? To this person? To this moment? You can see this. Go directly to the source, to the only authority that is finally liberating: your own awakeness, your own emptiness perceiving this moment. It will teach you how to live.

Adyashanti, Berkeley, California, March 17, 2002





Group: NDhighlights Message: 4597 From: Mark Date: 2012-05-14
Subject: #4597 - Sunday, May 13, 2011

Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4597, Sunday, May 13, 2011





Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source substance. If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds.

- Huang Po, from The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, translated by John Blofeld




Renouncing all that the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs completely to him who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself nor someone else, one is supremely united by a completely unknowing inactivity of all knowledge, and knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing.

- Dionysius the Areopagite, from Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, translated by Colm Luibheid




Great accomplishment seems imperfect,
Yet it does not outlive its usefulness.
Great fullness seems empty,
Yet it cannot be exhausted.

Great straightness seems twisted.
Great intelligence seems stupid.
Great eloquence seems awkward.

Movement overcomes cold.
Stillness overcomes heat.
Stillness and tranquility set things in order in the universe.

- Lao-tzu from the Tao Te Ching, translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English posted to AlongTheWay




When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

- Eckhart Tolle, from Stillness Speaks




You only perceive that appearance of Brahman that lies in the senses and is in you. Pursue your meditation.

Disciple, I mean to know.

I do not imagine 'I know him well,' and yet I cannot say 'I know him not.' Who of us knows this, knows him; and not who says 'I know him not.'

He comes to the thought of those who know him beyond thought, not to those who imagine he can be attained by thought. He is unknown to the learned and known to the simple.

He is known in the ecstasy of an awakening which opens the door of life eternal. By the Self we obtain power, and by vision we obtain Eternity.

For a man who has known him, the light of truth shines; for one who has not known, there is darkness. The wise who have seen him in every being, on leafing this life, attain life immmortal.

- excerpt from the Kena Upanishad, translated by Juan Mascaro, from The Upanishads




Come my love
pass through my will
as through a window
shine on my life
as on a meadow
I, like the grass,
to be consumed
by the rays of the sun
on a late summer's morning.

- Thomas Merton




In Love that Long

I am here, this moment, inside the beauty,
the gift God has given,
our love:

this gold and circular sign
means we are free of any duty:

out of eternity
I turn my face to you, and into
eternity:

we have been in
love that long.

- Rumi, Ghazal 2325, version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin from The Glance, posted to Sunlight



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4598 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2012-05-15
Subject: #4598 - Monday, May 14, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee


#4598 - Monday, May 14, 2012 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ В 
В 
В 
The louder our world today is, the deeper God seems to remain in silence.
Silence is the language of eternity; noise passes.В 
В 
~Gertrud von Le Fort
В 
В 

"All too often people come to meditation in the hope of extraordinary results,
like visions, lights, or some supernatural miracle. When no such thing occurs,
they feel extremely disappointed. But the real miracle of meditation is more
ordinary and much more useful....When you realize the nature of mind, layers
of confusion peel away. You don't actually 'become' a buddha, you simply
cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent
spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being."
В 
~Sogyal Rinpoche
В 
В 

"When one realizes oneself, one realizes the essential nature of the universe.
The existence of duality is only an illusion and when the illusion is undone, the
primordial unity of one's own nature and the nature of the universe is
realized, or made real."
В 
~Namkhai Norbu
В 
В 
В 
"...At a certain point, when I realized that 99 percent of what people are
doing to wake up is actually reinforcing the dream state. It’s shocking!
В 
You know that all the things we tell each other to calm ourselves into a totally
deluded oblivion like, “All roads lead to God.” No, they don’t. Or “all paths
lead to the top of the mountain.” All paths lead nowhere near the top of the
mountain. The good ones, even the half-way decent ones, are only circling the
bottom of the mountain. All the rest are usually going in the opposite direction
as quickly as possible.
В 
Actually, all paths lead away from the truth. How’s that? There is no such
thing as a path to the truth.
В 
The Truth is already here. Where are you going?"
В 
~Adyashanti

Meditation Masters on Facebook
В 
В 
В 
В 

В 
life is a garden,
not a road
В 
we enter and exit
through the same gate
В 
wandering,
where we go matters less
than what we notice
В 
~ Bokonon
В 

(The Lost Book)
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
S:Does 'enlightenment' come all at once or in stages?В 
В 
R: It appears to come in stages, but in truth it happens all at onceВ  when it
happens. Awakening happens suddenly, like when you turnВ  on a light bulb in
the darkness. The darkness immediatelyВ  disappears. When you turn on your
own light, maya, ignorance,В  disappears. You are home. It happens when you
don't want it toВ  happen. As long as you want it to happen there is somebody
whoВ  wants it to happen. That somebody has to disappear. The personВ  that
wants it to happen is keeping you back. That is the personal I.В  Silence is the
best way to wake up.
В 
В ~Robert AdamsВ 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4599 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2012-05-16
Subject: #4599 - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4599 - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlightsВ 
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В 
Anita Moorjani was in the last hours of her life, ravaged by cancer. Perceived by doctors and others as being in a coma, she was actually aware of everything going on around her. She came to see herself, and everyone, as love. Returning to her body, she knew she would be okay. Rapidly the tumors began to shrink and her organs reversed their shut-down mode and began to function. That was five years ago and the cancer has not returned.
В 
While her story is about living with cancer,В it is also a confession and a pointer to one's true nature as love or awareness. This is not a confession of radical nonduality as she speaks about a center, a core, and a me. But this is a fine pointing to a livable, realizable nonduality and a suggestion that some cancers may be stimulated byВ living from fear and tension and healed by functioning out ofВ relaxation andВ love.
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I watched the entire video and enjoyed it:
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В 
В 
So, yeah, The Gathering got cancelled:
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The Gathering is a spiritual Woodstock that brings together awakened teachers from all of the worldÂ’s traditions.

The Gathering has been cancelled.В 
В 
Dear Friends,
В 
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the news that The Gathering has been cancelled.В  Our marketing and promotion efforts were reaching a point of diminishing returns, without bringing in anywhere near enough ticket sales to make the event viable.В  So the decision has been made to cease operations.
В 
The Gathering was a cherished vision, and I accept that the universe has affirmed it not to be in alignment with what wants to happen at this time.
В 
~ ~ ~
В 
The organizer wrote on an earlier version of the website at http://web.archive.org/web/20101023013042/http://zoxon.com/ticket-purchases.html:
В 
The overall budget to produce The Gathering is US$125 million (about €100 million).В  We are planning on 100,000 participants, so our minimum production expenses work out to $1250 (€1000) per person.
В 
Beyond the production budget, we also have an intention of making a fair profit, which will be split 50/50 between the hosts and our company.В  These funds will not only reward our hosts for showering their blessings on us, they will also help us to provide ongoing teachings to the world.
Please use all of the above factors to see what amount feels right for you.В  Nobody will be turned away for financial reasons, so please choose an amount that feels like the right balance between supporting The Gathering and respecting your own finances.В  You will find yourself being rewarded for your contribution many times over.
В 
I'll only comment on this single sentence:
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The Gathering is a spiritual Woodstock that brings together awakened teachers from all of the worldÂ’s traditions.
В 
First, Woodstock was spiritual. It was, and is, all about the spirit of a generation and the celebration of our innate freedom and love. The Gathering, however,В was more about the opposite, with its restrictions, lack of freedom to leave the gathering, segregation of teachers and non-teachers, and its foundation in ridiculous amounts of money. Conceivably, each teacher could have received $500,000 payment in profit sharing if this business plan actually "manifest." (The organizerВ was asking $1770 per person, expecting 100,000 people, planning for $125,000,000 in expenses, leaving a profit of $52,000,000, of which $26,000,000 would have been divided among perhaps 50 self-realized teachers.)
В 
Second, the emphasis on bringing together the teachers rather than bringing together the people is, in my opinion, a mis-direction of energy and attention. The proof is thatВ The GatheringВ attracted many fine teachers and no attendees.
В 
It makes you wonder who is more awakened, the teachers who agreed to be part of this or the seekers who realized it was all a joke.
В 
Goodbye Gathering. Goodbye "Awakened Teachers." Hello life.
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В 

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В 
Scott Kiloby appearances this weekend
В 
Venue:
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In the MiltÂ’s Place Lodge at King Pine Ski area, of Purity Spring Resort
in East Madison, NH.В  This is about 15 minutes south of Conway, NH on Route 153.
В 
King Pine Ski Area at Purity Spring Resort
В 
1251 Eaton Road, Route 153 • East Madison, New Hampshire 03849
603.367.8896 • 800.373.3754 • fax: 603.367.8664
В 
В 

Dates & Times:
В 
May 19 & 20, 2012
В 
В В  Saturday, May 19:В  7:30 - 9:00 PMВ  - "Finding Peace"
В В  Sunday, May 20:В  10:00 AM - 5:00 PMВ  - Workshop

Registration:
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Reservations for this day-long seminar can be made online at www.evergreenforwellness.org or by phoning 603-651-7475.

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