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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4840 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-02-12
Subject: #4840 - Monday, February 11, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4840 - Monday, February 11, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice
within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will
realize the unity of all things.
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~ Dogen Zenji
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Zen Poems, Haiku & Writings on Facebook
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"One of the biggest problems in mythology is this one of putting the individual in
accord with nature. The world in which the primitive people are living becomes
mythologized. One of the problems in our tradition is that the land –- the Holy
Land -- is somewhere else. So we've lost the whole sense of accord with nature.
And if it's not here, it's nowhere."
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~ Joseph Campbell,
The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, p. 7
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Thanks to Susan Lucey for link to fantastic images.


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Everyone should have themselves regularly overwhelmed by Nature.
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~ George Harrison
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Trees are sanctuaries.
Whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.
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~ Herman Hesse
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Alan Larus Photography

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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
- whilst 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.
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— Douglas Adams, English writer and dramatist (1952-2001),
The HitchhikerÂ’s Guide to the Galaxy
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One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to
you. But if you don't talk to the animals, they won't talk back to you, then you
won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear, and when you
fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, you will
destroy yourself.
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~ Chief Dan George
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Photo of Kevin Richardson, known as the Lion Whisperer. He is a South African
animal behaviorist who has conducted extensive research in Africa being
accepted into groups of wild animals.
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"On the back of a horse you will find Paradise on earth."
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~ Stella A. Walker
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Photo by Johnny Lundgren, Sweden
(fotografjohnnylundgren.com)
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4841 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-13
Subject: #4841 - Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В #4841 - Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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The material for this issue is from One Hundred Poems From The Chinese, by Kenneth Rexroth, New Directions Books, 1971.

Kenneth Rexroth said: "Tu Fu (713-770) is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of a majority of those qualified to speak, the greatest non-epic, non dramatic poet who has survived in any language. ... For me his response to the human situation is the only kind of religion likely to outlast this century."

Tu Fu poems translated by Rexroth:

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BANQUET AT THE TSO FAMILY MANOR

The windy forest is checkered

By the light of the setting,

Waning moon. I tune the lute,

Its strings are moist with dew.

The brook flows in the darkness

Below the flower path. The thatched

Roof is crowned with constellations.

As we write the candles burn short.

Our wits grow sharp as swords while

The wine goes round. When the poem

Contest is ended, someone

Sings a song of the South. And

I think of my little boat,

And long to be on my way.

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SNOW STORM

Tumult, weeping, many new ghosts.

Heartbroken, aging, alone, I sing

To myself. Ragged mist settles

In the spreading dusk. Snow skurries

In the coiling wind. The wineglass

Is spilled. The bottle is empty.

The fire has gone out in the stove.

Everywhere men speak in whispers.

I brood on the uselessness of letters.

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MOON FESTIVAL

The Autumn constellations

Begin to rise. The brilliant

Moonlight shines on the crowds.

The moon toad swims in the river

And does not drown. The moon rabbit

Pounds the bitter herbs of the

Elixir of eternal life.

His drug only makes my heart

More bitter. The silver brilliance

Only makes my hair more white.

I know that the country is

Overrun with war. The moonlight

Means nothing to the soldiers

Camped in the western deserts.

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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4842 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-13
Subject: #4842 - Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4842 - Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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An excerpt from
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В 
SCHOOL FOR LOVE
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the sustaining consideration
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The snow
is taking
away
our
footsteps
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Hypothesis: Love.
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What we see and hear gets into us, Suppose it becomes images and imaginations. If we don't "suppose," if we tighten up on what we say, we cement ourself.
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Images appear haphazardly in dreaming and in day-dreaming. Love is one of these. A big fine word in the Occident, "love" is rather looked down upon in the Orient as inferring individual overheating.
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Suppose then we package images and imaginations. Can we release them? Can we take what we see and hear fresh, undefined with surprising possibilities, as if for the first time?
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Of course. When we blink we relieve our eyes of image fixations. When we leave our tongue up against our mouthroof imaginations are released. This stops talk. It has been observed that throat muscles are talking subvocally much of the time until we quiet them.
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As eyes blink as we willingly release staring, and as tongue lifts, we pause. This pause cleanses us of seeing strains and overtalk. If we continue pausing, trouble lines begin to leave our face.
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If you stop visual fixing and imagining and pass your palms slowly over your face without touching it, you can suppose you are smoothing facial surfaces and you will be, since we tend to become as we image and imagine.
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This subject is taboo. No one investigates the finest known instrument in universe, our own. We customarily overwork and overuse it, beat it up, wear it out without ever once observing ourselves instrumentally.
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Where are we going in our rush for machinery to have living more convenient and to travel around the stars? We are going out and around. May there be another inner travel? May who be more important than what? May this who be the presence of love, not just the love we make and name but a brilliance including and sustaining us?
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To touch this brilliance fills our hands with buds and flowers.
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Well, I have marked some white paper with black words. You have "read" these words. On you go, on I go, but as we stop to consider whatever we are doing and who is doing, we are rather magically in another world, as if in opening our closed hands a new world appeared in them, as if a mother were holding her newborn child, as if everything were quite all right.
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This considering, any considering, I call love.
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~ ~ ~
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Reps, Paul (1989-12-15). Square Sun Square Moon: A Collection of Sweet Sour Essays (Kindle Locations 1173-1188). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4843 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-02-15
Subject: #4843 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4843 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment.
It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.
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~ Rabindranath Tagore
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"Love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear;
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun, more last than star..."
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~ E. E. Cummings
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"Love is a travel. All travelers whether they want or not are changed.
No one can travel into love and remain the same."
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~ Shams Tabrizi
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Aimless Love
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This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.
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In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailorÂ’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.
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This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.
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The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.
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No lust, no slam of the door –
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.
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No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor –
just a twinge every now and then
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for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.
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But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.
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After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,
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so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.
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~ Billy CollinsВ В 
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(Nine Horses)
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4844 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-15
Subject: #4844 - Friday, February 15, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4844 - Friday, February 15, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Interview with Joel Lesko
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Conducted by Jerry Katz
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Joel Lesko is a long-time meditator and a filmmaker. He set out in this film, Tears of the Buddha: Spiritual and Emotions, to find out what modern Buddhistic, or Advaita, non-dual oriented teachers teach - about spirituality, and specifically about how to orient towards oneÂ’s inner emotional life on the spiritual path.

Joel's film explores the spiritual path through the lens of emotion: are emotions an impediment to spiritual growth? What about so-called unspiritual emotions like anger and hate? Do emotions trap a seeker in the personal self? Rather than another documentary about a teacher's enlightenment, the documentary questions age-old teachings about emotions and leads to an important conversation about individual selfhood - is it real or is it an illusion? Joel interviews leading teachers including Gangaji, Eli Jaxon-Bear, Jeff Foster, and others, and shares his experiences from more than 35 years in practice.

Trailer, reviews, download info: http://brightagefilms.com/

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Play or Download link:
http://nonduality.com/joellesko5feb2013.mp3

Watch on YouTube

Tracks:

0:00 - 3:15 Ashland, Oregon. Tears of the Buddha introduced. Some spiritual autobiography leading up making of Tears of the Buddha. Importance of paying attention to nondual teachings in relation to how daily life is lived.

3:15 - 5:09 The making of Tears of the Buddha compared to the publication of the film. Does the filmmaker Joel disappear into the self-inquirer in the making of this film?

5:09 - 10:04 How Joel got into filmmaking and how his goals and purpose have changed toward his own investigation. The two major challenges in the making the film.

10:05 - 12:43 What Joel learned about himself from making Tears of the Buddha. What teachers are really saying regarding emotions and how it bears on your life.

12:43 - 14:15 Redefining of enlightenment in terms of embodiment. Karl Renz. Gratitude to the teachers interviewed.

14:15 - 17:28 Joel's impression of the persona of the teachers he interviewed. The scripted versus the personal side of teachers exposed. The sealed-off character of most teachers he interviewed. Gangaji.

17:28 - 19:34 Some people's enlightenment discounts the personal, Joel says. A new public conversation on spirituality and emotion.

19:34 - 21:03 The one teacher who said emotions, rather than consciousness, are intrinsic to life. Daniel Barron. How could enlightenment be redefined?

21:03 - 27:24 Joel's use of the term "Buddhistic" and the nature of the title Terms of the Buddha. Reflections on the Buddha. What if the essence of our human life is not consciousness? The gnawing feeling in the heart despite 30 years of meditation. The validity of emotions.

27:24 - 29:36 Spirituality as an escape from being human. Maybe we're here to embrace our woundings rather than dismiss or transcend them.

29:36 - 32:32 Getting personal about facing that gnawing. Psychotherapy. Karl Renz's view on the self and transcendence. Dealing with the self meets up with the realization/teaching that there is no self.

32:32 - 34:04 Nature of teachers as confident. Value of film as a featuring of teachers addressing same questions.

34:04 - 38:43 Joel is asked about what he meant at the end of Tears of the Buddha, as far as what Buddha would teach today and the wholesale transcendence of the person. What if there is something more essential than transcendence of duality? Success as a filmmaker is the raising of questions. The teachers are missing something.

38:43 - 41:51 Is a teacher essential? Questions in that regard. Shadow questions. Looking at emotion rather than transcending. Emotional healing of wounds. Karl Renz and Daniel Barron.

41:51 - 48:29 Tears of the Buddha. Some revelations on making it. Some further comments to enhance the viewing and to clarify the themes.

48:29 - 51:08 Dealing with everyday life. Emotion as just energy moving and what that means for your personal life and looking at the root of what a teacher says regarding emotions.

51:08 - 54:18 Some financial and creative realities on making Tears of the Buddha. Christopher Alexander saying to create something as though it's a "gift to God."

54:18 - 58:00 Transcendental Meditation and some more of Joel's background. The truth of nondual enlightenment and stretching that over daily life as if that's the whole truth, and problems created. Embracing emotional life.

58:00 - 1:00:11 Our conditioning negativizes certain experiences or could avoid them by asking, "Who is asking about negative emotions?"

1:00:11 - 1:06:46 The inquiry of asking what is most essential. Spiritual conditioning saying that emotions are impediments. Listening deeply to the teachers in the film because they tend to use the same words. Staying open. Asking "What if" questions.

1:06:46 - 1:09:36 Teachers conditioning their students. Joel's experience with emotions while studying TM. The split between feeling what you feel and being conditioned to seal off those feelings.

1:09:36 - 1:16:00 Vipassana meditation giving space to emotions and the possibility that this could create a splitting off or a transcendence or a diminishment of experience. Anger. The nature of spirit, heart, and humanity. Depression arising from avoidance of emotion through nondual transcendence.

1:16:00 - 1:20:14 Joel asks about Jerry's background in publicizing nonduality. The nature of nonduality interviews. Jeff Foster's view of emotions. Teachers changing. The apparent fixity of older established teachers.

1:20:14 - 1:25:10 Joel's corporate film work related to education and the workplace. His future film based on Buddhistic questions.

1:25:10 - 1:26:47 Reflections on the interview. The word "Buddhistic" and need to clarify it for people who expect it to be tied to Buddhism.

Play or Download link:
http://nonduality.com/joellesko5feb2013.mp3

Watch on YouTube

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4845 From: Mark Date: 2013-02-17
Subject: #4845 - Saturday, February 16, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4845, Saturday, February 16, 2013





When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.

- Madeleine L'Engle




Deeply understanding and accepting that life and living is based on change, whether one likes it or not, is a great step ahead.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels




A mouse and a frog meet every morning on the riverbank.
They sit in a nook of the ground and talk.
Each morning, the second they see each other,
they open easily, telling stories and dreams and secrets,
empty of any fear or suspicious holding back.
To watch, and listen to those two
is to understand how, as it's written,
sometimes when two beings come together,
Jesus becomes visible.
The mouse starts laughing out a story he hasn't thought of
in five years, and the telling might take five years!
There's no blocking the speechflow-river-running-
all-carrying momentum that true intimacy is.
Bitterness doesn't have a chance
with those two.
The God-messenger, Khidr, touches a roasted fish.
It leaps off the grill back into the water.
Friend sits by Friend, and the tablets appear.
They read the mysteries
off each other's foreheads.
But one day the mouse complains, There are times
when I want sohbet, and you're out in the water,
jumping around where you can't hear me.
We meet at this appointed time,
but the text says, Lovers pray constantly.
Once a day, once a week, five times an hour,
is not enough. Fish like we are
need the ocean around us!
Do camel bells say, Let's meet back here Thursday night?
Ridiculous. They jingle
together continuously,
talking while the camel walks.
Do you pay regular visits to yourself?
Don't argue or answer rationally.
Let us die,
and dying, reply.

- Rumi, version by Colman Barks, from Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Back, posted to SufiMystic




A man who moves with the earth will necessarily experience days and nights. He who stays with the sun will know no darkness. My world is not yours. As I see it, you all are on a stage performing. There is no reality about your comings and goings. And your problems are so unreal!

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels




Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?

Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it.
It's frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.
The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.
The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold.

But the blue rain sinks, straight to the white
feet of the trees
whose mouths open.
Doesn't the wind, turning in circles, invent the dance?
Haven't the flowers moved, slowly, across Asia, then Europe,
until at last, now, they shine
in your own yard?

Don't call this world an explanation, or even an education.

When the Sufi poet whirled, was he looking
outward, to the mountains so solidly there
in a white-capped ring, or was he looking

to the center of everything: the seed, the egg, the idea
that was also there,
beautiful as a thumb
curved and touching the finger, tenderly,
little love-ring,

as he whirled,
oh jug of breath,
in the garden of dust?

- Mary Oliver from Why I Wake Early




What To Remember When Waking

In that first
hardly noticed
moment
to which you wake,
coming back
to this life
from the other
more secret,
moveable
and frighteningly
honest
world
where everything
began,
there is a small
opening
into the new day
which closes
the moment
you begin
your plans.

What you can plan
is too small
for you to live.

What you can live
wholeheartedly
will make plans
enough
for the vitality
hidden in your sleep.

To be human
is to become visible
while carrying
what is hidden
as a gift to others.

To remember
the other world
in this world
is to live in your
true inheritance.

You are not
a troubled guest
on this earth,
you are not
an accident
amidst other accidents
you were invited

from another and greater
night
than the one
from which
you have just emerged.

Now, looking through
the slanting light
of the morning
window toward
the mountain
presence
of everything
that can be,
what urgency
calls you to your
one love? What shape
waits in the seed
of you to grow
and spread
its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting
in the fertile sea?
In the trees
beyond the house?
In the life
you can imagine
for yourself?
In the open
and lovely
white page
on the waiting desk?

~ David Whyte from The House of Belonging



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4846 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-02-18
Subject: #4846 - Monday, February 18, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee


#4846 - Monday, February 18, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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As unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary
are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth.
~ Bhagavad Gita
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When there's silence, it becomes omnipresent.
~ Robert Adams
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Learning how to love is the goal and the purpose of spiritual life - not learning
how to develop psychic powers, not learning how to bow, chant, do yoga, or even
meditate, but learning to love. Love is the truth. Love is the light.
~ Lama Surya Das
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via Cathy Ginter on Facebook
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Fall
into place.
Befriend
entropy.
Be the slope
of grace,
the soaring wing
that dances on gravity.
Rise only
by surrender,
not knowing how
the melody is made
out of listening silences.
There are ten thousand reasons to be unhappy.
Not one of them is this
cherry blossom.
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~ Fred LaMotte
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I never knew

Take off the backpack
Lie down in the long grass.
Pull up the blue sky-blanket.
Rest.

So many years of Dharma practice,
Straight-spine diligence, straining toward
enlightenment.
Today.
This hillside.
Just this.

Lie down in the long grass.
Let the earth take you.
Deer tracks and horse dung
and the eye within the eye,
revolving and luminous.

I never knew this.
Did no one ever tell me?

I remember my Zen master in the interview room,
Г‚вЂ˜Trust yourself,Â’ he said. Г‚вЂ˜Just be yourself.Â’

I think his meaning was this:

Take off the backpack,
Lie down in the long grass.
Let the sky take you.
Rest.
Breathe space
into space
into space.

I never knew there was this much light!

~ Helen Dhara Gatling-Austin
October 31, 1998

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http://thisunlitlight.com/2012/09/06/i-never-knew/

via Miriam Louisa on Facebook


Sand Hill Crane

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To deliver oneself up,
to hand oneself over,
entrust oneself completely to the silence
of a wide landscape of woods and hills,
or sea and desert; to sit still while
the sun comes up over the land
and fills its silences with light.
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...few are willing to belong completely
to such silence, to let it soak into their bones,
to breathe nothing but silence, to feed
on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life
into a living and vigilant silence.
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~ Thomas Merton
from Thoughts in Solitude
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4847 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-20
Subject: #4847 - Tuesday/Wednesday, February 19-20, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4847 - Tuesday/Wednesday, February 19-20, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Interview with Sage Stoneman

conducted by Jerry Katz

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Sage Stoneman is 18 years old and lives in Ojai, California where he is an intern at the Krishnamurti Foundation of America.

Play or Download link:
http://nonduality.com/sagestoneman13feb2013.mp3

Watch on YouTubeВ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmNVM0CTEQ&feature=youtu.be

Tracks:

0:00 - 3:51 Living in southern California. Introduction. Krishnamurti Foundation of America in Ojai, California. http://kfa.org/ Nature of the internship program of which Sage is a part. Meaning of sangha at KFA. Living at KFA and what it's like.

3:51 - 7:08 The internship further described. More about the KFA. Michael Khronen as coordinator. Where Sage lives on the property.

7:08 - 9:52 What a typical day is like for Sage as an intern. What other interns do during their day. Free time.

9:52 - 12:11 Dialogue group that meets. About sharing rather than giving opinions, theories, or talking about learned things.

12:11 - 17:17 Sage's introduction to Nisargadatta's I Am That, and having read it at age 15. An experience at age 12 where his father Rafael introduced him to self-inquiry. Other milestones in investigation of self. Appreciation of Nisargadatta.

17:17 - 20:20 How following the teaching of Nisargadatta cut off many other material and spiritual pursuits. Dealing with crushes on girls and wanting to party and living with the teaching and knowing of what his reality is. (Here's a reminder that Sage is 18 years old.)

20:20 - 23:50 Attendance at the Science and Nonduality Conference 2012 and perceptions about it. Nonduality as a concept that can be worshipped like any other religion. A recent turning where it is seen that suffering could be discounted as part of all that is.

23:50 - 28:58 The source of such turnings and relation to living at KFA and sangha. The kinds of discussions at KFA. Interns Zach and Francesca mentioned. Looking at experience in the moment. Contentment described as in the moment, not elsewhere.

28:58 - 30:51 Seeing how thought creates discontentment out of nothing. Attending to these thoughts by way of a certain looking, and what is seen.

30:51 - 34:04 The nature of action with regard to contentment. The need to achieve something through action. Action not changing what one is. Allowing action free of the idea of them bringing anything.

34:04 - 35:50 J. Krishnamurti's teachings as newly appreciated.

35:50 - 37:44 Applying for the KFA internship program: http://kfa.org/intern-students.php. How Sage got in. Jaap Sluijter mentioned.

37:44 - 41:03 Talking to his friends about these understandings. The gaining of a "great clarity" in communicating these understandings.

41:03 - 45:47 This clarity in communication further discussed. The importance of listening to people. The nature of listening. Thought as an apparent intrusion to full attention on a person. Seeing beyond meaning, words, and interpretations, and the totality of a human that opens up.

45:47 - 49:57 The effect of this deep listening on relationships. Dealing with anger. Nature of anger.

49:57 - 53:36 Two people communicating via deep listening. The nature of "you" and "I" as the same.

53:36 - 58:57 The valuing of seeing the fact that we exist or are alive. Relation to the "I am" as described by Nisargadatta. Contradictory teachings in Nisargadatta. Seeing beyond the contradictions. Staying with "I am."

58:57 - 1:02:59 Following the "I am" compared to reality beyond the "I am." Sage's experience of being beyond consciousness and the meeting of a girl he really liked who didn't like him as much, and what was learned from that. Truth in Nisargadatta's teaching not contained in anything such as his words.

1:02:59 - 1:05:13 "Really listening" or deep listening applied to reading.

1:05:13 - 1:07:24 Teaching these understandings in high school.

1:07:24 - 1:08:41 Attending the Science and Nonduality Conference 2012 and what he enjoyed.

1:08:41 - 1:10:37 Sage's generation and a focus on questioning. Closing.

Watch on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmNVM0CTEQ&feature=youtu.be

Group: NDhighlights Message: 4848 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-20
Subject: #4848 - Tuesday/Wednesday, February 19-20, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4848 - Tuesday/Wednesday, February 19-20, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Here are some books you can acquire, written by some good people I know.
В 

В 
Nondual Reflections: A Journal with Quotations by Ancestral and Contemporary Women and Men
Compile by Rashani
В 
Inspired by the SAND conference, last November, Rashani put together a beautiful journal, which includes more than forty collages with words by women and men who are exploring and sharing nonduality.

It has 144 pages and is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches in size.

A wonderful gift.

$19 each/3 or more are $15 each.

Postage for one is $5.25. postage for three to ten is $13.
В 
If you are interested, contact Rashani:
В 
808 929-8043
rashanirea@...
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Dissolved, byВ Tarun SardanaВ is available as eBook now on Kindle for only $1.В It's a great book!
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One: Essential Writings on Nonduality, edited by Jerry Katz

I call Jerry the forefather of modern, internet nonduality. ... Your book gave me context to know that this is a truth that's been around a long time and somewhat of a basis of major religions, which helped me to relax into the inquiry a little bit more, because the mind in the beginning was resisting figuring what is this all about: Where is it coming from? Will I go insane? Will I die?В -Scott Kiloby

This is without doubt the finest collection of Nonduality-flavored writings available today.
-Jeff Foster

To bring [nonduality] down to public consciousness is in many ways an absolute gift. Thanks for writing ONE. ... Thanks for opening my eyes to nonduality ... We hope to talk to you again. --Rollye James, Coast to Coast AM

A very readable overview. True freedom arises through the discovery that separation is an illusion and that everything is, quintessentially, only One. This book can be an opening. Very well done and highly recommended. -Chuck Hillig

ONE is a clear and concise guide to the most universal truth of all: that the world between our ears that we call "me, myself, and my story" does not actually exist. When we see this, when we actually realize our true, nondual nature, conflict and suffering leaves us, and peace and joy prevail. -Jim Dreaver

"Shows beautifully how ... ancient traditions have pointed RIGHT HERE." -Greg Goode

Click here - One: Essential Writings on NondualityВ on Amazon.com


Group: NDhighlights Message: 4849 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-02-22
Subject: #4849 - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4849 - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
В 
В 
В 
В 
The Silence of the Stars
В 
В 
When Laurens van der Post one night
In the Kalihari Desert told the Bushmen
He couldn't hear the stars
Singing, they didn't believe him.В  They looked at him,
Half-smiling.В  They examined his face
To see whether he was joking
Or deceiving them.В  Then two of those small men
Who plant nothing, who have almost
Nothing to hunt, who live
On almost nothing, and with no one
But themselves, led him away
From the crackling thorn-scrub fire
And stood with him under the night sky
And listened.В  One of them whispered,
Do you not hear them now?
And van der Post listened, not wanting
To disbelieve, but had to answer,
No.В  They walked him slowly
Like a sick man to the small dim
Circle of firelight and told him
They were terribly sorry,
And he felt even sorrier
For himself and blamed his ancestors
For their strange loss of hearing,
Which was his loss now.В  On some clear nights
When nearby houses have turned off their televisions,
When the traffic dwindles, when through streets
Are between sirens and the jets overhead
Are between crossings, when the wind
Is hanging fire in the fir trees,
And the long-eared owl in the neighboring grove
Between calls is regarding his own darkness,
I look at the stars again as I first did
To school myself in the names of constellations
And remember my first sense of their terrible distance,
I can still hear what I thought
At the edge of silence where the inside jokes
Of my heartbeat, my arterial traffic,
The C above high C of my inner ear, myself
Tunelessly humming, but now I know what they are:
My fair share of the music of the spheres
And clusters of ripening stars,
Of the songs from the throats of the old gods
Still tending even tone-deaf creatures
Through their exiles in the desert.
В 
~ David Wagoner ~
В 
(Traveling Light)


В 
В 
В 
В 
Here's what most astronauts will never tell you.
В 
Who would have thought traveling to outer space could be such a profound experience?
OK, probably everybody, but these former astronauts really articulate it in a way that was
just a little mind-blowing.
В 
Ed. Note. This is a short film, so worth watching. Speaks to the realization of oneness
viaВ visual images from space.
В 
В 
(pastable link for plain text viewers)
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4850 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-23
Subject: #4850 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4850 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В 
В 
В 

В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
Master of Self-Realization: An Ultimate Understanding

by Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj
В 
Recorded and Edited by Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj (who also wrote prefaces contained in the volume)
В 
"Every sentence in this book has the potency of giving you the fruit of Self-Realization. One who will read regularly and ponder over these discourses will himself become the channel for the expression of the inherent spirit of these words." -Nisargadatta Maharaj
В 
About:
В 
In this book is a collection of 130 talks that were given by Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, guru of Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Shri Ranjit Maharaj. The talks in this book were recorded and edited by Nisargadatta Maharaj and were originally published by him in two volumes in the Marathi language under the name of "Adhyatma Jnanacha Yogeshwar" in the years 1960 and 1961. The text was reprinted in the year 2000 at the insistence of Shri Ranjit Maharaj. Afterwards it was translated into English for this book, truly a modern day spiritual classic in its own right. Also included within the covers of this book is the text "Master Key to Self-Realization" which was authored by Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj in the form of a methodical explanation of many fundamental principles of Advaita Vedanta and Self-Realization. The teaching found here helps the aspirant to form a solid foundation for understanding the fundamental principles of non-duality and in realizing one's True Nature. (431 Pages)
В 
В 
Review:
В 
Worship at the Feet of the Sadguru and Self-Realize
В 
Review by Nova137
В 
This work is a translation of words spoken by the Maharaj from November 11, 1934 to December 8, 1935. They contain in Them the fruit of Realization Itself. A disciple of His Grace, Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who had the remarkable privilege of recording these Spiritual Discourses of His Holiness, wrote two beautiful Prefaces (one for each of the two Volumes). Nisargadatta's Teachings are immortalized in the Discourses recorded in "I Am That". Also included are the informative "Note from the Editor" (by David Moe); "A Few Words About This Book" (by Satish Avhad); and "Translator's Note" (by D.A. Ghaisas). These three together give the reader a better sense of the rich Advaita history leading to the Spoken Words of His Holiness Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj. As David writes at the end of his Note: "Jai Sadguru Parabrahman!"
В 
The main text of Master of Self-Realization is made up of three parts. Part I is "Master Key to Self Realization" authored by His Holiness. Master Key is 7 Chapters within 76 pages, that open the book, prepping the reader well for the adventure he or she is about to undertake. Part II is Volume 1 of His Holiness' Discourses that concluded on October 2, 1935. Part III is Volume 2, the first Discourse of this Volume given October 3, 1935 and the last given December 8, 1935. The purity in this work is timeless. A work spoken in 1934 and 1935 might have some monastic and/or patriarchal biases. This work has none. In fact, where one might expect some great principle of "family" being rejected for the monastic mount or monestary, we don't find this at all. Women and family are given proper due. This beautiful set of advaita teachings is so fresh you immediately See its timelessness and eternal wisdom. Like a symphony it repeats the main chorus over and over again, but gently, never forced. The main chorus is: Your Ultimate Nature is the Supreme Self or Paramatman, Pure Brahman. Tat Tvam Asi!
В 
The jiva becomes the aspirant or initiate when he or she somehow, somewhere or sometime decides to take up the spiritual path of awakening to the divine within himself and all life. How long one walks the path is ultimately up to the Self, but the aspirant can reduce the effects of Maya by devotion at the feet of the Sadguru or by being led to an external Guru. Next in an aspirant`s life, the Sadguru becomes the aspirant Who then becomes the Jnani with Self-Knowledge awakening fully to the fact of Atman (Self).
В 
Potential buyer, a supposed jiva who is really the Self, buy this book. If you have no "official" path in this life yet, let this be the first step. There is every chance that you will Realize the Self by the end of your very first reading. If your faith is great and you devote your entire being to His Holiness, It may be possible in one sitting for you to meet your Self. But, it is also possible that The Science of Self-Realization as given in these three parts will come across to you as so simple that you will be in utter denial that It Is So. You will read the words and dream even more dreams of God and Realization. You will continue to imagine Realization and Project what you Think It will Be. If so, you will have to tread on your Path until the Self is given more preeminence in your life as the sole Reality of What You Are. Attempt at all times to think of your Self and nothing else. Do not give even a single thought, projection or moment of your imaginary time to anything else and you will Realize the Self. It is but a matter of time.
В 
Potential buyer, a supposed devotee on His own Path. If you have a detailed Path and have recognized that you have sat at the feet of your inner Guru with the utmost of devotion, then maybe you too will Realize during the reading of this book like Me. Perhaps you are stuck as I was in the Void of the Causal Body and only need a slight tweak in your practices to allow the Self to dissolve you completely and finally enter into the Turya state of the Great Causal Body. Or, perhaps you are a Realized One and by some incredible bit of bad fortune don't know about "Devotion after Liberation". Let His Holiness Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj introduce you to Uddhava's request that Krishna grant Him Devotion after Liberation so that Uddhava would not become like "wood" and could continue to be devoted at the feet of His Beloved Master after Self-Realization. If so, You, too, can definitely benefit from reading this book!
В 
Or, perhaps you are just interested in non-dualism and Its Teachings. Perhaps the dualistic philosophy of traditional religions no longer makes any sense. If so, buy this book and let the simple understanding and teachings on Advaita Vedanta laid bare in It become your True Friend. To do this, though, the content of Master isn't something you just read. This is something that you live, eat and breathe every moment of your life.
В 
How does One come to Realize? Through worshipping at the feet of the Sadguru! If you unfamiliar with what this means buy this book. Briefly, though, this means that you practice the teachings you have been given from within and from without. This starts with all of the principles your mother and father or any good mentor has taught you growing up. The Sadguru, however, is every jiva's inner Guru. Thus, He is with you always. You just need to learn how to let Him speak. Through various practices meant to quiet the jiva's mind, the voice and vision of this inner Guru grows stronger and begins to dominate the jiva's attention. This is Self-Attention of the aspirant on the path.
В 
The path the initiate has been on is of integral importance to the type of attention the initiate will end up giving to the Sadguru. To become an initiate, every jiva must accept some of the common teachings about the jiva: you are conditioned by the world of illusion, time and attachment to shape and form. This attachment is called "ego" which is illusion or "Maya". This Maya is the jiva's mind that thinks the body and the world it inhabits is real. The Sadguru will teach you that your True Nature is Love beyond all transient phenomena. All the suffering that you have ever experienced will be seen for what it truly offers, nothing. His Holiness will convince you of This. He will convince you that to worship at His feet is the Blessings of God and the Source of Life-Energy (Chaitanya). A promise of contentment, peace and blessings without compare will be repeated over and over, sometimes subtlety and sometimes not so subtlety. A promise to go beyond all of your present conceptualizations will be stated clearly and succinctly. For You are greater than any concept, including that of "God". The very concept of "ego" as who you are and "God" as Being separate from you will be so dissolved you'll wonder what those teachings ever offered You!
В 
Finally, This work has many helps to understanding including the Master Key already mentioned as well as many key words in English with their transliterated Sanskrit word in parentheses. This enhances the English speaking aspirant's wonder and excitement all the more, enriching the experience greatly. All of It will help untie the bonds of existence and free You to accept your True State as God Incarnate.
В 
Buy It today.
В 
I AM eternally grateful to the Sadguru. May all Realize the Self. I AM the Self I sought, Sri Sakshat-Paramatman Uddhava Maharaj.
В 
~ ~ ~
В 
Order from Amazon.com hard copy:
В 
В 
Order from Amazon.com Kindle edition:
В 
В 
(You don't need a separate Kindle reader. Just download a free Kindle reading app here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dig_arl_box?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771)
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4851 From: Mark Date: 2013-02-24
Subject: #4851 - Saturday, February 23, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4851, Saturday, February 23, 2013





When you encounter the negative emotions formidable army
Don the solid and excellent armor of patience,
Thus, unscathed by the weapons of harsh words
and vindictive blows
Pass through them to reach the land of nirvana.

~ NgГѓВјlchu Thogme Zangpo from The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

Commentary by Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche:

There is no peace for a person whose mind is filled with anger. Anger needs to be subdued by the army of patience. for it is your only true enemy. It would be impossible for you to experience harm if your own anger, in the past, had not brought about the causes from which your present harm arises, like the returning echo of your own voice.

Look too at the true nature of anger itself. It is as ungraspable as writing on water. Let resentment vanish of its own accord, and as soon as the fiery waves of angry thoughts subside, let everything become like an empty sky, where there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose.




The practitioner of self-liberation is like an ordinary person as far as the way in which the thoughts of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, manifest themselves as creative energy. However, the ordinary person, taking these really seriously and judging them as acceptable or rejecting them, continues to get caught up in situations and becomes conditioned by attachment and aversion.

Not doing this, a practitioner, when such thoughts arise, experiences freedom: initially, by recognizing the thought for what it is, it is freed just like meeting a previous acquaintance; then it is freed in and of itself, like a snake shedding its skin; and finally, thought is freed in being unable to be of benefit or harm, like a thief entering an empty house.

Freeing or liberating thought does not mean ignoring, letting go of, being indifferent to, observing, or even not having thoughts. It means being present in hope and fear, pain and pleasure, not as objects before us, but as the radiant clarity of our natural state. Thus anger, for example, when experienced dualistically, is an irritation which we may indulge in or reject, depending on our conditioning. Either way we are caught up in it and act out of it. But when aware of anger as a manifestation of clarity, its energy is a very fresh awareness of the particulars of the situation. However, these particulars are no longer irritating.

- Longchenpa from You Are the Eyes of the World, translated by Kennard Lipman and Merrill Peterson




On the one hand when you regard disturbing emotions as emptiness, your practice turns into "taking emptiness as the path" and not the disturbing emotions. Thus your practice doesn't become the short path.

On the other hand, if you indulge in the disturbing emotions, thinking they are something concrete, it's like eating a poisonous plant and is the cause which binds you to samsara.

For these reasons, just as poison can be extracted from a poisonous plant and taken as a medicine, the special quality of this teaching lies in the fact that any disturbing emotion that may arise is wisdom the moment you relax in naturalness. Look directly into it; don't deliberately reject it, regard it as a fault, indulge in it concretely or regard it as a virtue.

- Khenchen Thrangu from Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar




Maitripa's Concise Summary of Mahamudra

Homage to Great Bliss!

Mahamudra is knowing that
all things are one's own mind.
Seeing objects as external is just noetic projection.
The whole of "appearance" is as empty as a dream.

The mind as such is merely a flow of awareness,
without self-nature, moving where it will like the wind.
Empty of an identity, it is like space.
All phenomena, like space, are the same.

That which is termed Mahamudra,
Is not a "thing" that can be pointed to.
It is the mind's own nature
that is Mahamudra [i.e., the Absolute State].

It is not something to be perfected or transformed.
Thus, to realize this, is to realize
that the whole world of appearance is Mahamudra.
This is the absolute all-inclusive Dharmakaya [i.e.,the Ultimate Embodiment of Buddhahood].

Uncontrived and just as it is,
the inconceivable Dharmakaya,
is itself effortless meditation.
Trying to attain something is not meditation.

Seeing everything like space, like a magical illusion,
Neither meditating nor not meditating,
Neither separate nor not separate:
Such is the Yogin's realization.

All virtuous and evil actions
Become liberated through this knowledge.
The sinful defilements become the Absolute Gnosis itself;
becoming the Yogin's friend, this is a fire consuming the forest of trees.

Where then is going or staying?
Who then needs to run to a Monastery to meditate?
If one does not understand this point,
liberation will be but a temporary event.

When the true nature is realized,
one abides in the unwavering state.
Whether or not one is in the state of Integration or not,
There is nothing to be corrected by antidote or meditation.

Whatever arises is devoid of self-nature.
Appearances are auto-liberated into the Sphere of Reality (Dharmadhatu).
Conceptual creation is auto-liberated into Absolute Gnosis (Mahajnana).
The non-duality [of these two] is the Dharmakaya.

Like the flow of a great river,
Whatever occurs is meaningful and true.
This is the eternal Buddha state,
The Great Bliss, transcending the Worldly Cycle.

All phenomena are empty of self-identity,
Wherein even the concept of emptiness is eliminated.
Free of concepts, clinging not to mental projections,
is the Path of all the Enlightened Ones.

For those fortunate to connect with this teaching,
I have uttered these words of heartfelt instruction.
Thus, may all sentient beings
become established in Mahamudra.

Colophon: This exposition of Mahamudra (in thirteen four-lined stanzas) was given orally by the Master Maitripa to Marpa Chos-kyi-lodro, who translated it into Tibetan. It was translated into English from the original Tibetan text belonging to Bardok Chusang Rimpoche of Tingri by a Ngakpa-Yogin of the Dharma Fellowship.



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4852 From: Mark Date: 2013-02-25
Subject: #4852, Sunday - February 24, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4852, Sunday, February 24, 2013





When Emotion Overtakes You

Question: Is there a special technique or methods to help when we are overtaken by emotion?

Ram Dass: The question was, are there spiritual techniques when you are overcome by emotion? Well, I'll tell you, as your practice gets more and more powerful, what happens is you see the stuff as it starts before it gets so overloaded and so invested with adrenaline and all of that. You don't let it get so intense. By the time it gets out of control and so immense, then you just wait. You wait. The best thing to do at that point is to sit quietly and to let it pass. Now when an emotional upset starts, it may start out of a thought process, but then it starts to involve all of the body — the adrenaline and all kinds of chemical reactions. Then often, one of the ways out of it is to work with the body. For example, running or movement. Taking a walk. Doing things which start to release the energy, the kind of chemical buildup. Because you get that kind of nervous energy when you are emotionally upset. Then there is meditation–quieting down and allowing yourself to see how lost you've gotten. I mean on the deeper devotional path, there is the offering of the emotion to God. Saying, "Here, You take it. I offer it to You." There is appreciating your humanity. "Yea, here I am. I'm human. I just lost it again. Ah so!" There's the Ah so — Right? "Okay. Once more. Boy, am I hung up." These are all spiritual techniques. See, it's the upleveling. It's the ability to see it without denying it. Not saying, "I'm not really upset." "I am upset. Far out. Here we are again." It's like talking with God and saying "Oh, look at how deliciously human I am." Not to milk it. Not to keep feeding it, but not to push it away. That's the quickest way through. To acknowledge it, allow it, and then use body energy to keep working out the chemical stuff that's built up and the tension in the body that's been built up. And then get on with it and just keep letting go, letting go, letting go. Sometimes music does it. There are a lot of techniques that do it.

And then you see that it's your expectations of your own mind that are creating your hell. "I expected you to beÂ…" When you get frustrated because something isn't the way you thought, examine your thinking, not just the thing that frustrates you. And you will see that a lot of your suffering is created by your models about how the Universe ought to be. And your inability to allow it to be. If I meet somebody that is a liar and a cheat, they are like an elm tree. They are the essence of lying and cheating. If I have a model people shouldn't lie and cheat, then I am immediately in opposition to that person. I don't have to play games with them. I may say "In the future, you and I can't play together, because you are a liar and a cheat and I can't play with you" but I at least appreciate and allow them their lyingness and cheatingness. That's their problem, not mine. My problem was my expectations. If you have a model that everybody is good and then somebody isn't, then you end up hating the world and being all upset about the world because it isn't the way you expected it to be. It's like you come here and it's a beautiful day, so you expect the next day is going to be beautiful. Then it rains, and you are disappointed. Isn't it funny that when it rains, you should be disappointed? To take nature and allow nature, when it's in its natural state, to make you miserable. It says something about you. It's like decaying and dying. If you are upset about decaying and dying, you've got a problem. You really do.

- Ram Dass




The Immensity of Solitude

When the mind is free of all of its content, all of its conditioned thinking, it enters into the solitude of silence. That silence can only arise when one sees the limitations of one's thinking. When one sees that his or her thoughts will not bring truth, peace, or freedom, there arises a natural state of silence and inner clarity. And in that silence there is a profound solitude, because one is not seeking a more advantageous relationship with thought or with the accompanying emotions that are derived by thought.

In that solitude all ideas and images are left behind, and we can intuitively orient ourselves toward the unborn and uncreated ground of being. In that ground we find our true being; and in the same manner in which our being is uncreated, it is also undying. Therefore, all that we will ever be or can be is found in our solitude (within ourselves) and is timelessly present in its fullness and completeness, now and eternally.

It is within our deepest solitude, where we take leave of every image and idea of ourselves as well as of God, that we come upon the fullness of our being. And in that fullness of being we recognize the divinity of all things and all beings, no matter how great or small. For divinity is not something earned or given, but lavishly present within all. To have the eyes to see the divinity of all beings is to bring light into this world.

So we are given this one small task: to cease being what we are not, and to be what we eternally are. Such a task would seem to be a gift of Love, but how often is it denied in favor of the blind security of conforming to the dictates of our fear and blame? If we would only see that all limitations are self-imposed and chosen out of fear, we would leap at once into the arms of grace, no matter how fierce that embrace might be.

It is Love that leads us beyond all fear and into the solitude of our being. There we find our utter aloneness because we stand free of all the false comforts of illusion and find the capacity to stand where no one else can stand for us. We are alone not because we have isolated ourselves behind an emotional defense or false transcendence, but because we are no longer held captive by either the mind or fear.

To stand alone in true solitude is to stand in the recognition of the absolute completeness and unity of all manner of existence. And from that common ground, where nothing and no one is foreign to you, your love extends across the magnitude of time and embraces the greatest and smallest of things.

- Adyashanti



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4853 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-02-26
Subject: #4853 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4853 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
В 
В 
"A mind that is awake, intelligent, free,
why should it need, why should it have
any 'experience' at all?
Light is light; it does not ask for more Light."
В 
~ J Krishnamurti
В 
via Amrita Nadi on Daily Dharma

В 
В 
В 
Blending with the wind,
Snow falls;
Blending with the snow,
The wind blows.
By the hearth
I stretch out my legs,
Idling my time away
Confined in this hut.
Counting the days,
I find that February, too,
Has come and gone
Like a dream.
В 
~ Taigu Ryokan
В 
Zen Poems, Haiku & Writings on Facebook

В 

"Luckily no spiritual path, when actually practiced, is ever what you thought it
would be. If it was it would be limited to the size of deluded projection. "
В 
Rumi, Hafiz, said many many things Â… some sweet as sugar, greeting card
material, some harsh as flame. To choose the one and ignore the other turns
spiritual nectar into pabulum. Nisargadatta, Ramana said many things about not
seeking but they also said many things about the fierce work needed. To give up
spiritual seeking while preserving other types of seeking is truly lamentable.
Dzogchen says many things about everything being the play of luminous wisdom
awareness and also points out the need to differentiate between mindÂ’s nature
and its confusions .. to play the relative off against the ultimate in order to
avoid spiritual work is the way to perpetual immaturity. Maturity comes when
one ceases to use spirituality to gild the bars of the cage, and instead one uses it
to remove the veils which obscure living realization.
В 
~В t.k. , a recent talk byВ traktung yeshe dorje
В 

В 
Ed. Note: If you feel you do not have time for all three, the last is "pure gold".
В 
В 

В 
Incredible interview. This is gold!
В 
David Godman is one of the best articulator of Ramana's teachings, at least to
the Western conditioned mind. The biggest value here is the revelation that the
English writings (or translations) describing Ramana's death experience are very
limited. Once we understood the way Ramana described this in Tamil (or Telugu)
the whole experience gets a much deeper meaning and makes perfect sense in
terms of Self Inquiry. Absolute Gold, thank you for posting this.
В 
Andri Lindbergs
В 
RAMANA-David Godman part 1
В 
Ramana -David Godman part 2 (15 min.)
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4854 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-27
Subject: #4854 - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4854 - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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В 
В 

В 
В 
Volume Five of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology is hot off the presses:
В 
В 
In this issue is featured the editorial by publisher Gary Nixon and introductions to some of the articles.
В 
Also included isВ notice of the Paradoxica Conference in June in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. I went to one of the conferences. It was intimate, beautifully organized, and it offers an intense group satsang following the conference. I highly recommend the Paradoxica experience, if you can get there.
В 
В 

В 
В 

Written by Gary Nixon, EditorВ В В 
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В 
The radiant flowering of stillness is unexplainable as it is beyond you or me. It is a flowering of existence. One has to die to existence for stillness to flower; as long as there is somebody there, there is somebody “efforting” or managing stillness. Desiring awakening or stillness is still just desire, a mortgage on the present moment for the future. When all desire is seen through, the illusion of the separate self dissolves. With this, we realize there is nowhere to go, and nothing to do. We relax, and stillness reveals itself.
В 
But, what is required these days is much more. Awakening needs to keep evolving, and it is clear that resting on top of the mountain or embracing the passive void is no longer enough. We need to come down and share our awakening and all encompassing love in everything in life: with our friends, family, institutions, communities, and the whole globe. We rest in no-knowing innocence, and reside in non-conceptual awareness, and yet, let existence reveals its secrets, and we plunge into new creations and valuations that emerge from this wondrous beingness place.
В 
We are hollow bamboos of non-doing doing so the lightning radiance of active infinity can shine through. And even allowing ourselves to rest as prior to existence itself, prior to consciousness, we realize we are at home no matter what, we were here at the beginning and we will be here at the end. All of this frees us to enjoy the eternal dance, the eternal play of existence. Always transcending ourselves as we realize this journey never stops, we joyously embrace this wondrous existence, and celebrate this infinite bedazzling mystery.
В 
We hope you enjoy the articles of Volume Five of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology as we continue to try to push the edges of the frontiers of our journey into nondual awakening and beyond.
В 
В 
TARGETING COMPULSION: A Tree That Only Grows in the Dark

Written by Scott KilobyВ В 
В 
“There is nothing sweeter than seeing the emptiness of all things.” This is what Scott KilobyÂ’s work is all about.
В 
After a twenty year battle with addiction, Scott Kiloby began looking in a different way.В  Instead of turning away from negative thoughts and feelings from the past and looking for release in the future, he began to face his suffering directly.
В 
He began to allow all negative and positive energies of thought, emotion, and sensation to be as they are.В  He began to rest and recognize presence as the stable foundation in which these energies temporarily come and go.В  Through inquiring into the nature of the belief in separation, and how it arises, and making presence primary in his life, Scott discovered that the key to release from the addictive cycle exists in the one place addicts refuse to look—the present moment.
В 
In the summer of 2012, Scott began experimenting with Colette Kelso, a facilitator of his Living Inquiries.В  As a result of those sessions, Colette and Scott developed the Compulsion Inquiry, which will be elaborated upon in this article.
В 
AN ILLUMINATING SWEEP FROM DUALITY TO NONDUALITY

Written by Jac O' Keeffe
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In this article, Jac illustrates that desires and ownership of any thoughts are the root causes of all suffering. Dropping the perspective that your life is yours can be a challenge. The ego will fight to maintain its status quo. Removing yourself from the centre stage of your own perspective can generate resistance. Nonduality is an invitation to step out of your own way. Truth will show itself sooner or later, with or without your co-operation. This article maps the key tricks of mind that maintain the idea of a separate and autonomous 'you.'
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FALLING IN LOVE WITH WHAT IS ALREADY ALWAYS HERE AND FREE: An Interview With Nondual Teacher Gangaji

Written by Will Joel FriedmanВ В В 

Two phone interviews of nondual teacher Gangaji were conducted on March 13, 2012 in Maui, Hawaii and on December 6, 2012 in Ashland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband Eli. Gangaji shares her life journey of seeking happiness and continually remaining unfulfilled until she travels to India and meets her spiritual teacher or guru Sri H. W. L. Poonja, better known affectionately as Papaji. In our spirited exchange punctuated by shared laughter, she is remarkably candid about the challenges she faced in her family, her awakening in India, and how she continues to linger in nondual awareness with the conflicts and challenges life brings. In sharing the emptiness of complete freedom in infinite limitless consciousness and still silent awareness, she elucidates the nuances of the real—in presence living in the dualistic world. At the same time, she passionately points to the really real—the changeless, ineffable, and unknowable eternal Absolute in the nondual realm, eternally available for glimpses in our direct experience right here and right now. She describes her awakening, and the awakening available for everyone in every moment, as falling in love with what is already always here and free.
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More Articles...

DIVING INTO THE FIRE OF TRAUMA: A Nondual Approach to Healing and Awakening
FROM Г‚вЂ˜ALLÂ’ TO Г‚вЂ˜SOMETHINGÂ’ TO Г‚вЂ˜NO-THINGÂ’ TO Г‚вЂ˜ALL THAT ISÂ’
THE NEW, TRUE INFINITY: A new definition of infinity puts some long-pondered questions in a new light and provides a startling look at reality.
SELF-INQUIRY: LifeÂ’s Most Empirical Investigation
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If you can possibly do it, attend the 2013 Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference
June 13 & 14, 2013В (Post conference sessionsВ  June 15-16)
Anderson Hall 100, University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta
CANADAВ 
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We have an exciting line up for this year's Paradoxica Nondual Psychology conference June 13 & 14, 2013.В В  Confirmed for 2013 are Scott Kiloby, author of “LoveÂ’s Quiet Revolution: The End of the Spiritual Search” and “Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment”  and Canela Michelle Meyers, nondual satsang facilitator and best-selling author of “Right Here, Right Now Meditations – Satsang Invitations for Expanding Awareness.” As well, we are excited to announce leading edge nondual facilitators Jac O'Keeffe from Ireland and Shayla Wright from Nelson have confirmed they will be joining us. Nondual therapist & professor Gary Nixon, author of "The Sun Rises in the Evening" a book on nonduality and addiction recovery, will be backВ  this year with more on transformation at the frontiers of awakening. Tom Crockett will pick up on the leading edge of transformation with his talk "Beyond enlightenment: Postcards from the edge." Brian Theriault, nondual therapist will also be back this year with his work on grief and life issues as well as nondual therapist Jason Solowoniuk. Nondual healer Silvija will also be joining us from Calgary as well as southern Alberta satsang faciitator Aha. Recent author Sally Ross ("The Selfward Facing Way") from Victoria will also be landing here to talk about her bare essentials meditation way to discover the reality of existence.

We also are pleased to announce there we will be post conference group/satsangs again this year. After last year's intense group satsang, Canela Michelle Meyers and Gary Nixon will be back together co-facilitating on June 15, and Jac O"Keeffe will be hosting a satsang on June 16. Sally Ross will be hosting a meditation satsang on Friday night, June 15, and we are happy to announce that Scott Kiloby will be doing a satsang on Thursday night, June 14. Register separately for these satsangs through the contact person listed below.
For conference inquiries,В  please contact Gary Nixon atВ  gary.nixon@....
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See the entire program here: http://paradoxica.ca/index.php/conference
В 
2013 Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference
June 13 & 14 (Post conference sessionsВ  June 15-16)
Anderson Hall 100, University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta
CANADA
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4855 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-02-27
Subject: #4855 - Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В #4855 - Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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The Wisdom 2.0 conference, a four-day gathering of the Silicon Valley crowd to address the intersections of spirituality, mindfulness, and technology, took place this past weekend. Author and conference attendee Jay Michaelson blogged his experiences at the summit here on the Tricycle blog throughout the weekend. Today's post covers the last day of the conference, which was yesterday (Feb. 24, 2013).
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LetÂ’s Get Real
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by Dr. Jay Michaelson
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Yesterday at lunch, the friend I was eating with had to run to a meeting, so I stayed outside basking in the California sun. (Today I return to 20-degrees-and-rainy New York.)В  Naturally, I eavesdropped on the conversations around me, including two people at the table sharing stories of their military service. Improbably, one of them looked a bit like a goth, with short black hair and makeup, and I wondered what had brought them to Wisdom 2.0.
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Turns out the "goth" was Meg Pinasco, a former Marine whose presentation today was probably the best in the entire Wisdom 2.0 conference, and a healthy reminder of why itÂ’s so important and so frustrating.
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Pinasco, “born in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma,” served for several years in the unit guarding President George W. Bush. As she shared today, she was sexually assaulted while serving, and subsequently suffered from PTSD as well as other trauma-related conditions. Making matters worse, her superiors chose not to pursue her case, and, like other veterans, Pinasco was afraid to go to the VA for fear of being labeled as damaged goods. She was eventually put on cocktails of meds, which she says didnÂ’t work, and eventually hit bottom, ultimately attempting suicide and landing in the hospital.
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Following her release from the hospital, Pinasco found her way into a program called “Honoring the Path of the Warrior,” which included mindfulness and meditation, as well as a five-day retreat at the Tassajara Zen Center. “I thought meditation was for crazy hippies—no offense” she said to the laughs of the crowd. “But this program saved my life.” Her depression lifted, her twice-nightly nightmares decreased in frequency and intensity, and by the time the program was over, she said, “I was ready to live my life again.”
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Coming on the heels of two daysÂ’ worth of tech millionaires, celebrity idolatry, and high-powered networking, PinascoÂ’s story—and those of her fellow panelists—reminded me of why we bother with this meditation thing in the first place. Dukkha is not the self-inflicted stress of a technology executive; itÂ’s the real stuff, the kind of suffering that merits the Pali wordÂ’s original meaning: brokenness, stuckness. IÂ’m delighted, really, that mindfulness can also relieve the stresses of privileged, fortunate people. But PinascoÂ’s story, simple as it was—indeed, it is entirely un-unique—moved me to tears.
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To top it off, the panel of veterans, moderated by Congressman Tim Ryan, was followed by an aw-shucks presentation by a young girl who had managed to raise over $400,000 to fight child slavery by selling lemonade and soliciting donations. The customers “give whatever's in their heart, and we give the kids freedom,” she said. Wow.
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Rachel Bagby, the "sound artist" who opened Wisdom 2.0 back on Thursday night, said in the following session, “LetÂ’s get real.” And indeed, Marianne Williamson took up the challenge, peppering Congressman Ryan with policy points like a radical William F. Buckley. This, too, felt deeply refreshing. IÂ’m sure some in attendance expected Williamson to tell us we could meditate our way to world peace, but in fact her message was the exact opposite: that we have to translate our dharma insights into voting, organizing, repealing Citizens UnitedÂ…
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“The Buddha would not have become enlightened had he not seen human suffering,” Williamson said. “In the Old Testament, slavery precedes the Exodus to the Promised Land. In the New Testament, thereÂ’s the suffering on the cross.”  Real suffering—the kind Pinasco experienced—thatÂ’s what animates those of us who not only meditate but teach, or write, or evangelize on the dharmaÂ’s behalf. And thatÂ’s probably why so many of us are ambivalent about gatherings like Wisdom 2.0.
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And yet, I donÂ’t want to end this final dispatch from the Concourse Center in San Francisco on the all-too-easy note of mocking a straw man. For some people, sure, mindfulness simply greases the wheels, and makes an already fortunate life that much more pleasant. But I donÂ’t think that is true of most of the folks at Wisdom 2.0, or its organizers. At worst, corporate mindfulness is a gateway drug that will bring some minority of practitioners into a more meaningful engagement with the reality of life. But I think itÂ’s better than that. I think that for a significant percentage—maybe significant enough to make a real difference—it will lead to the conclusion that Rilke drew from gazing at a statue of Apollo. Not that you must visualize your happy place. But that “you must change your life.”
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Dr. Jay Michaelson is the author of Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment (forthcoming 2013 from North Atlantic Books).
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4856 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-03-01
Subject: #4856 - Thursday, February 28, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4856 - Thursday, February 28, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is
difficulty or chaos. Whether weÂ’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a
combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of
unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isnÂ’t an experience free of
challenges, free of rough and smooth—itÂ’s an experience thatÂ’s expansive enough
to include all that arises without feeling threatened.
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~ Pema Chodron
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Alan LarusВ Photography
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В 
Joan Tollifson
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I just got word that someone I knew took his own life recently, someone who had a very clear nondual
understanding. Many years ago, I remember hearing of a Zen teacher who committed suicide. His students
found him hanging. What a teaching! Many people imagine that “enlightenment” (whatever that might be) means
you wouldnÂ’t do something like that – you wouldnÂ’t kill yourself, you wouldnÂ’t be depressed, you wouldnÂ’t have
financial problems or health problems or personal problems or problems of any kind—you wouldnÂ’t need
Zoloft—and if you were terminally ill, you wouldnÂ’t want the morphine—youÂ’d want to be clear and alert and
“fully present” at the moment of your death (presumably so that you could get a good start on a successful new
incarnation of your self – ho ho ho).
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In the world of meditation or “the Power of Now,” what people tend to mean when they talk about clarity or
awakeness (or “enlightenment”) is being fully present here and now, awake to the nonconceptual, sensory
reality of this moment, not entranced in stories and ideologies.
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But in my experience, the most liberating realization of all is the recognition that there is no way NOT to be
here now—that EVERYTHING is included in What Is, even the EXPERIENCE of confusion, or depression, or
anxiety, or apparent encapsulation in a separate bodymind, or even the compulsion to take your own life or the
life of someone else.
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Unlike some radical nondualists, I do still talk at times about “being in the Now.” Maybe one day IÂ’ll stop
doing that entirely. IÂ’ve mentioned in some of my writing that with my fingerbiting compulsion, whenever there
is complete attention to the bare actuality of fingerbiting (i.e., the bare sensations without the storyline or
the labels or the judgments), when there is total acceptance of it being just as it is, when there is no effort or
desire or intention to change it, when there is complete awareness and total presence with the bare happening
itself, the biting immediately stops. (It may start again a moment later, but in that moment of complete
attention and total acceptance, it stops.) This experience is completely nonverbal and nonconceptual. It is
concentrated but relaxed, alert but effortless, open and unbounded, free awareness. It is frequently called
“being in the Now” because there is no story happening of past or future, no ideas about “me” and “my life” –
just simple awake presence Here / Now. This kind of presence and attention to the present moment is what
many schools of meditation aim to cultivate.
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And this can indeed be helpful for dealing with addiction, depression, anxiety, stress, physical pain and other
forms of suffering. And as I have often said, sitting quietly, doing nothing, tuning into the nonconceptual
sensory reality that is so easily ignored in our busy world of information bombardment MAY help to directly
reveal impermanence, interdependence, the absence of any real separation between inside and outside, the
mirage-like nature of the self, and the ungraspable, inconceivable and unavoidable nature of reality. All of
this CAN be very liberating—it certainly seemed so for me—and for a very long time, I associated this
experience of presence with true awakening or real clarity, and I had the sense that enlightenment or final
liberation would be the state of abiding permanently in that kind of presence—being “in the Now” all the time.
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But of course, that kind of experiential "being in the Now" inevitably comes and goes. For some people, it is
an easy state to access—for others, it is more elusive. Some bodyminds have more stormy weather than others.
Some people naturally have more equanimity, greater calm, and a better ability to concentrate and relax and
“be present” than other people. Some people are by nature more tightly wound, more hyperactive, buzzing
with thoughts and impulses flying off in different directions, more easily “distracted” from what they are
“supposed” to be concentrating on. Some people can happily sit quietly doing nothing for hours, while others
canÂ’t sit still and “do nothing” for more than a few seconds. And while training and practice may be able to
alter our basic nature to some degree, it can never turn a turtle into a rabbit, a dandelion into a rose, or a
shrub into a giant redwood tree.
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Some of us are given the abilities, the aptitude, the inclinations, the interests, the drives, the urges, the
concerns, and the circumstances that compel us to join or lead a movement for social justice or environmental
protection. Others of us are given the abilities, the aptitude, the inclinations, the interests, the drives, the
urges, the concerns, and the circumstances that compel us to take up a spiritual practice such as
meditation—and some of us have the interest and the ability to persevere at this practice, while others quickly
or eventually lose interest. Some of us are compelled toward radical nonduality, many of us are not. Each of us
is an expression of nature, just as each tree, each animal, each flower, each rock, each cloud and each
rainstorm is an expression of nature. Some trees are tall and straight, some are short and gnarled. Some buds
open and blossom, others die before that ever happens. ALL of these varied forms and happenings are an
expression of nature.
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Nothing holds still. Every form is inseparable from everything around it, and each form is nothing but
continuous change. Impermanence and flux are so thorough-going that no-thing actually forms as a solid,
persisting, independent entity—except conceptually, as a mental idea. No-thing is actually separate,
autonomous, or self-sufficient. Everything is one whole indivisible happening—seamless and
boundless—ever-present and ever-changing.
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At some point in my journey from Here to Here, it became clear that ALL states of consciousness ("being in
the Now" AND being entranced by thoughts and stories) are equally included in What Is, and that ALL of
them are passing experiences. All these different experiences are impersonal in the sense that they have no
owner, no author, no subject—they are simply expressions of nature like the ever-changing movements of the
outer weather. It was realized that biting my fingers is simply a compulsive happening of nature that is no
more wrong or unenlightened or personally caused than a thunderstorm or a cloudy day or a gnarled up tree or
any other expression of nature. It doesnÂ’t MEAN anything “about me.”
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That discovery or realization was a big relief. The NEED to get rid of this compulsion and all the ideas about
what it meant about me fell away. The biting continues off and on when it does, but there is no judgment or
evaluation of it, none of the previous conflict with it that used to be present. The interest and the inclination
to pay total attention to it in any given moment (to “be in the Now” with it) may or may not arise, and it
doesnÂ’t matter either way. There is no longer any idea that “being here now” is the superior spiritual state and
that “I” must make that happen.
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ItÂ’s clear here that everything happens in the only way possible. Some people are compelled to do terrible
things like child molesting and serial murder in the same way that I am still compelled to bite my fingers. Only
by grace (aka luck) is my compulsion fingerbiting and not serial murder or molesting children. No one chooses
to be a serial killer or a child molester, and although most of us find such behavior repugnant and disturbing,
it is as much a part of nature as erupting volcanoes, earthquakes, tornados, plagues, and animals eating their
young. That doesnÂ’t mean we have to like it, or that we wonÂ’t put serial killers in prisons and do our best to
keep child molesters away from children. But it does mean we may have compassion for these unfortunate
people who are driven to do things that they themselves may find abhorrent, acts that make them social
pariahs and outcasts. We donÂ’t get to choose the part we play in the Cosmic Dance.
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The most liberating realization is that ALL of it is What Is – the parts we like and the parts we donÂ’t, the
“being here now” and the “being lost in thoughts and stories,” the calm experiences and the turbulent ones, the
moments of heaven and the moments of hell, the heroes and the villains and the ordinary folk in between.
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And we really have no way of KNOWING what THIS (this presently appearing happening) is. We can only BE
it. We ARE it. It is ALL there is. Our attempts to understand this happening, whether through physics or
neuroscience or biology or philosophy or spirituality, are always limited. We can never stand outside this
happening. Subject and object are not two. The observer is inseparable from the observed; they are one
event. Any understanding we have is partial and always subject to doubt. But we cannot doubt BEING here.
We cannot doubt this present happening, this aware beingness. We can doubt any explanations of it (that it is
a dream, or a brain experience, or a bunch of atoms and molecules doing a subatomic dance), but we cannot
doubt the bare ACTUALITY of the happening itself, the beingness of Here / Now – THIS, just as it is.
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And we can notice that it is no way in particular, for it is ever-changing. Anything we try to grasp will vanish
and disappear. Anything we THINK is permanent (including any IDEA or any EXPERIENCE or any subtle
IMAGE of the One Self or Consciousness or Primordial Awareness or Emptiness) will vanish and slip through
our fingers like water, air or smoke. And yetÂ….
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THIS is undeniable. You cannot NOT be as you are – this ever-unfolding, ever-present event that is always
Here / Now. This event may show up as the mirage-like thought-sense of bring a separate-self encapsulated in
a bodymind looking out at the world. It may show up as an experience of undivided wholeness. It may show up
as the experience of “being here now,” or it may show up as molesting children, committing serial murders,
planning a genocide, drinking yourself to death, committing suicide or biting your fingers. It may show up as a
giant meteor hitting the earth and wiping out an entire continent, or it may show up as a gentle spring day.
However it shows up, it is all one undivided happening without beginning or end.
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Of course, this begs the question, what do we mean by realization or enlightenment? We thought at first that
realization meant “being in the Now” and that enlightenment meant “being in the Now” all the time. From that
perspective, it seemed like we were going back and forth between “getting it” and “losing it.” It seemed that
“realization” meant something experiential, something “deeper” than merely understanding all of this
conceptually or believing it as a philosophy. But then we realized there was no way NOT to be here now, and
no one apart from Here / Now to be in or out of it. There is no separate “somebody” to be lost or found,
realized or not realized, enlightened or unenlightened.
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The whole spiritual adventure melted away. We were left with life, just as it is.
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That doesnÂ’t mean being left in a state of perpetual bliss or having a continuous EXPERIENCE of “being in the
Now” (except in the sense that EVERY experience is one of being in the Now). It doesnÂ’t mean we are always
calm, decisive, spontaneous, relaxed, fearless, happy and filled with love. Some people by nature have more or
less stormy weather than others, just as some places are by nature sunnier and others more overcast and
cloudy. Realization simply means it is ALL recognized as What Is, even the absence of that recognition. ItÂ’s
not a perpetual EXPERIENCE – but rather, the understanding that EVERY experience is one whole happening
without an experiencer, even the experience of apparently being a separate experiencer. Nothing is left out.
Nothing is not it. And there is no “it” to be found!
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Like the edge of the earth that our ancestors feared they might fall off, the problem weÂ’ve been trying to
solve is imaginary. We are no longer seeking heaven without hell, or up without down. We donÂ’t mind being the
short tree instead of the tall tree because we know itÂ’s all a play, and weÂ’re the Whole Show. And this isnÂ’t an
EXPERIENCE or a special STATE of consciousness. It is JUST THIS, Here / Now, EXACTLY as it is!
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How is it? It just moved! And yet, Here it is!
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4857 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-03-01
Subject: #4857 - Friday, March 1, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
В #4857 - Friday,В March 1, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Here's another really good article from Fred Davis's Awakening Clarity blog:
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Rating the Experts
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by David Lang
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My friend and teacher, Douglas Harding, used to say that before we see who we really are, we read the scriptures to see if we have got it right (Г‚вЂ˜itÂ’ being our own spiritual experience), but after we see who we really are, we read the scriptures to see if they have got it right! Making the point that true spirituality is concerned with the question of our fundamental identity, he was emphasizing that ultimately only I am the authority on what itÂ’s like to be me, and only you are the authority on what itÂ’s like to be you.В  Scriptures can be useful guides-on-the-side, but their validity should be measured against our experience, not the other way round.
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In this post, I invite you to exercise your own authority by seeing for yourself if some of the masters got it right. My proposal is that we test a few of their assertions by using some of what Harding called Г‚вЂ˜experiments.Â’ Harding claimed that basic truths about our essential nature are as observable and verifiable as physical truths. If the sages claim that we are one with all things yet at the same time empty of all things, for example, or that we are infinite, or perfectly still, then we shouldnÂ’t have to take those ideas on trust but should be able to verify them for ourselves, just as we shouldnÂ’t have to take on trust the idea that a heavy object drops at the same speed as a light one. In both cases, spiritual no less than physical, we should be able to test the propositions for ourselves.
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One objection to HardingÂ’s premise is that testing how fast two objects of different weights fall is easy to do—you can try it with a penny and a quarter—but determining if we are one with all things is incredibly difficult. The Buddha, for example, uniquely gifted and motivated as he was, nevertheless spent years, indeed, lifetimes preparing himself for the supreme moment of self-realization. We are not the Buddha—so goes the objection—and it would be both incredibly presumptuous and a huge mistake to believe that we are at this very moment and in this very place poised for enlightenment.
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There are two answers to this objection. First, how do we know we are not ready for self-realization? If it does take many lifetimes to reach readiness, isnÂ’t it possible that we have in fact already spent those lifetimes (but have simply forgotten them) doing all the things necessary to prime us for the supreme moment? Our penny might be just about to drop. ItÂ’s worth taking a few minutes to look at who we really are, just in case, isnÂ’t it? What can we lose?
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The second answer is even more radical. It is simply the claim that self-realization is easy, no matter who we are or how prepared we might or might not be. This brings us conveniently to the first of the assertions by spiritual masters which I am proposing we test. Ramana Maharshi, the preeminent twentieth-century Hindu authority on self-inquiry, said: “It is easier to see who you are than to see a gooseberry in the palm of your hand.” What could be easier than seeing a gooseberry—or the equivalent ordinary piece of fruit, depending on where you live—in the palm of your hand? Just about nothing.
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Was Ramana right? LetÂ’s see by doing one of HardingÂ’s experiments. Please:
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Point at your feet and notice your feet there.
Point at your knees and notice your knees there.
Point at your chest and notice your chest there.
Point at your head and notice the absence—yes, the absence—of your head here.
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Nothing could be easier than that, right?
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Of course, IÂ’m not asking you to imagine that if you pointed at your head you would see its/your absence. IÂ’m asking you to take the time and make the effort (little as it is) to actually look. You know the analogy about the difference between reading the menu and eating the meal or between looking at a brochure on Hawaiian vacations and spending two weeks lying on white sand beaches sipping margaritas (I mean, juiceÂ…)? ItÂ’s true of the experiments, too. Just reading about pointing at your absence—taking it on trust or imagination—is nowhere near the same as actually seeing the absence of your head. ItÂ’s the looking that matters, not the idea or the image. So if you didnÂ’t actually point and look before, perhaps you could do so now. There isnÂ’t really much value in reading this essay without testing for yourself the propositions put forward in it.
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~ ~ ~
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4858 From: Mark Date: 2013-03-04
Subject: #4858 - Saturday-Sunday, March 2-3, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4858, Saturday-Sunday, March 2-3, 2013





Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.

Izumi Shikibu, translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani




On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.

Issa, translated by Jane Hirshfield




Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind. The right use of mind is in the service of love, of life, of truth, of beauty.

- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels




For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No. It's clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and saying it,

he goes from honor to honor, strong in his conviction.
He who refuses does not repent. Asked again,
he'd still say no. Yet that no—the right no—
drags him down all his life.

C.P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard




Leucon, no one's allowed to know his fate,
Not you, not me: don't ask, don't hunt for answers
In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes.
This could be our last winter, it could be many
More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks:
Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines
And forget about hope. Time goes running, even
As we talk. Take the present, the future's no one's affair.

- Horace, translated by Burton Raffel




If there is no thought, there is no "me" and if there is no "me", there is neither thought nor desire nor fear. The whole intent and purpose of Self-enquiry is to focus the attention intensely and ceaselessly on the sense of "I" so that the spurious imposter "me" and its identifications are exposed as nonexistent.

- Ramesh S. Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels




You who want
knowledge,
see the Oneness
within.

There you
will find
the clear mirror
already waiting.

Hadewijch II, translated by Jane Hirshfield



Group: NDhighlights Message: 4859 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-03-05
Subject: #4859 - Monday, March 4, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4859 - Monday, March 4, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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The analysis of pointers is pointless.
~ Eckhart Tolle
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"You're either attaching to your thoughts or inquiring. There's no other choice."
~Byron Katie

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photo by Yasar KoГѓВ§
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All of the "words of wisdom" are in your own heart,
so why waste time listening to someone else speak them?
The Buddhadharma is the same.
The principles in the sutras come from our own hearts.
The wisdom and happiness of all buddhas comes from our own minds.
~ Heng Ch'au
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Do not fight against pain; do not fight against irritation or jealousy.
Embrace them with great tenderness, as though you were embracing a little baby.
Your anger is yourself, and you should not be violent toward it.
The same thing goes for all of your emotions.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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I love the dark hours of my being.
My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.
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Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that's wide and timeless.
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I,5
Rilke's Book of Hours, Love Poems to God
translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
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Alan Larus Photography
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I live in town without all that racket
horses and carts stir up,
and you wonder how could that be
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Wherever the mind dwells apart is itself a distant place,
picking chrysanthemums at my east fence,
far off, I see South Mountain:
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mountain air lovely at dusk, birds in flight returning home
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All this means something, something absolute.
Whenever I start explaining it, IÂ’ve forgotten the words.
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old tracks are lost,
new country is revealed with its wonders!
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Thanks and goodbye everybody, take care.
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Tau Chyen,
sixth dynasties period
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At some point along the way, there is a surrender of interpretation, of trying to
figure it out, of mentalizing things to a fine powder. At some point, there is a
moment of realization that there is wonder and joy and beauty and love in this world
that doesn't need understanding, but instead seeks just a bit of space to be.
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~ Jeff Anderson
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Rest nakedly in truly not knowing.
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Until now we have opted for trusting
our minds, images and ideas,
rather than trusting the spaciousness
from which all arises.
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What an opportunity is available now
to trust the unknown spaciousness of the heart.
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~ Gangaji
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The Gift
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There is a gift which can never be given.
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I could give you a dried flower to keep forever in your scrapbook of ideas,
or I could show you a field where one fleetingly dances with the wind...
but can never be yours to hold.
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Truth always dies before it can be spoken,
rather than become a withered and eternal lie.
This moment is the field in which it plays in ever-changing forms...
alive, uncatchable and wild.
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You are this wind, this field,
this flower and this truth...
this gift unowned, unheld,
ungiven and untold.
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~ Peter Baker
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George Jisho Robertson Photography

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