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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4880 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-04-02
Subject: #4880 - Monday, April 1, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4880 - Monday, April 1, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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Yasar KoГѓВ§ Photography
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Such Singing in the Wild BranchesВ 
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It was spring
and finally I heard him
among the first leaves—
then I saw him clutching the limb
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in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still
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and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness—
and that's when it happened,
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when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree—
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying,
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and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward
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like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing—
it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed
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not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the perfectly blue sky— all, all of them
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were singing.
And, of course, yes, so it seemed,
so was I.
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn't last
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for more than a few moments.
It's one of those magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true,
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is that, once you've been there,
you're there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?
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Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then— open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
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~Mary Oliver,
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"Such Singing in the Wild Branches"
Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays,
Beacon Press, Boston, 2003
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Yasar KoГѓВ§ Photography
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Some Questions You Might Ask
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Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?
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~Mary Oliver,
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"Some Questions You Might Ask"
House of Light, Beacon Press, Boston (1990)
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Yasar KoГѓВ§ Photography
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Thirst
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Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the hour
and the bell; grant me, in your mercy,
a little more time. Love for the earth
and love for you are having such a long
conversation in my heart. Who knows what
will finally happen or where I will be sent,
yet already I have given a great many things
away, expecting to be told to pack nothing,
except the prayers which, with this thirst,
I am slowly learning.
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~Mary Oliver
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"Thirst", Beacon Press, Boston, 2006
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4881 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-02
Subject: #4881 - Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4881 - Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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THE BOOK OF UNDOING
Direct Pointing to Nondual Awareness
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by Fred Davis
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Chapter One
A Look at the Book and the Process
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This book has arisen from Direct Pointing sessions that I've had with clients around the world.В  These deceptively simple inquiries and dialogues work.В  Men and women who have studied Nonduality for decades, both in and out of structured traditions, without experiencing even the first authentic glimpse of themselves have come to recognize their true nature during these talks.В  Some of them have been glimpses, and others remain ongoing.В  Still others, who were confounded by oscillation when we began to talk, have moved from there into stable Nondual awareness.В  And of course there are a few people who've reported no change at all; such is the way of it.
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I will be using the term "awakening," but we should be clear that this is simply languaging to speak about a topic that is extremely difficult--impossible, actually--to communicate.В  Silence is really the best medium for this message, but a blank book is unlikely to be very helpful, so we'll plow on ahead using the best words that we can find.В  The core of all Nondual teachings is the experiential discovery of our shared true nature.В  We could further say that just beyond the core of Nonduality lies an incredibly sharp and skillful vocabulary, which grows sharper daily as more and more teachersВ  emerge, and the teachers we have grow in experience.
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Every teacher represents a unique set of hard and soft conditioning (nature and nurture), and thus each views the singular landscape in a slightly or radically different way.В  So too will their experience, understandings, and presentations be distinct.В  While this can cause some element of confusion, particularly early on, it also births a wonderfully diverse set of approaches.В  We need all we can get, because it is the languaging of the teacher that is most widely and easily communicated, and therefore most apt to lead us from that place just beyond the heart, and into the heart itself.
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It is the peculiar nature of Nondual teachings that we can only hear who and what we can hear.В  We could fill a stadium with awake beings, yet you or I might only be able to really resonate with a few of them.В  This doesn't mean the rest of these folks are wrong or deluded, it simply means they're someone else's teachers.В  If we are sincere in our own approach to the teachings, we may be sure that we will find a teacher or teaching that we will resonate with perfectly.В  We can't fail to; that's just how it works.
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This teaching, my teaching, so to speak, starts from a position that is not new, yet which remains fairly radical.В  I presume that clients don't need to wake up, because they are always already awake.В 
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Awakeness is not something you experience, it's what you are.В  By the same token, I presume that there's no need for you to come out of oscillation and into stability, because you are always already still.В  Stillness is not something you experience, once again it's what you are.В  Having understood the absolute truth of these things, we then embrace the relative nature of them.В  In other words, knowing all of this, I then go about the business of waking people up, or pulling them out of oscillation!В  It's just one of many paradoxes we'll encounter.В  If you've no stomach for paradox, you won't stay with Nonduality very long.
В 
~ ~ ~
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Read the rest of Chapter One here:
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4882 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-04
Subject: #4882 - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4882 - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Part two: LIVING HERE
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by James Waite
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We touch, and are touched, by our nature - common goodness.
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Communion-with-Self.
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I lived the first 38 years of my life pedaling around familiar terrain within sight of the hospital I was born in. Early marriage, family, career, cars and houses – you know it! – the whole imported dream that turns into a nightmare! Of course, these nightmares are exactly what we need to wake us up! And we’d all be suffering that dream today, if not for the sheer potency of (unimagined) reality to bring us to our knees. In truth, life has its own very subtle yet powerful demands which, sooner or later, must be faced. In my case, my imagined life took me on a long ride away from home, then brought me back with a steep drop down the back of Mount Ego, at speed and with no brakes! Suffice it to say that I fell into Grace; that in losing all control over what I wanted, I came into contact with what I needed. That contact is what we could call communion-with-Self.
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Self – an introduction.
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Never, in those wildest dream-days, could I imagine that today IÂ’d be sitting here in Berkeley writing this article about Natural Well-Being founded on the simple recognition of who we are and what this is. But before we explore that, IÂ’d like to tell you one more short story about something that I saw recently in the New York Times that amazed me enough to remember a few relevant details (but not enough to copy it for any future, fuller, reference) The article was about a major, world-wide study done by teams of social scientists at well known universities on the structure and functioning of humans in society.
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This extensive study took 6 or 7 years to fully conduct, and it involved the in-depth investigation of all humanity – across almost all the languages, nationalities and cultures in the world. Its findings had many things to say about the human condition, but the most important thing it had to say for me – and one which the sages of all times and places have said for centuries, and which you also intuitively “know” – is that all mankind has one basic and common characteristic: “goodness.” (I use the term “goodness” in quotes, because there were other words in other languages that, according to the study authors, came closer to describing this common human factor, but the term “goodness” was felt to be the best word to express this quality in English.)
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“Of course!” I sighed to myself in recognition. Intuitively, we all know our own, and therefore, “others,” innate goodness. We know that is our nature; we – all people, everywhere, at all times – operate from their inbred sense of goodness. (By one calculation, over 105 billion people have come and gone on this planet – that’s a lot of goodness breeding goodness, albeit painfully!) Call it whatever you like, in whatever language you like, all this goodness is real and happening, here, now and always. It’s essentially who we are and what this is – love.
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Natural Well-Being is Love
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So we don’t need to look far and wide for this love, this goodness; we are it. It’s our nature, and when we recognize and honor this “goodness” in our self, we immediately apprehend it in another. We see into the core of our being, our “existence” and know not only our human dimension in time and space, but also our divine dimension as timeless and infinite. Our residing here is easy, natural and normal; and this being in love is realized and celebrated in simple, everyday aware living!
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Living here is our nature.
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~ ~ ~
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Here is an interview I conducted with James Waite:
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4883 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-04-05
Subject: #4883 - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4883 - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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"Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see."
~Carl Jung
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Yasar KoГѓВ§ Photography
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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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Alan Larus Photography
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I have fallen in love with Love herself.
She is the mother of 10,000 lovers.
She is the mistress I meet
deep in the lily.
I go into the forest and find her
lying in the trillium, waiting, waiting.
When anyone says, "I love you,"
they mean Her.
We are the garden.
She is the Spring.
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~Fred LaMotte
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Alan Larus Photography
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If I was to translate the enlightened state down into human terms, I'd have to
describe it as contentment. Being nobody, going nowhere, needing no reason to
exist. To the ego, that probably sounds a little boring, and of course to an ego it is.
But then again, there's really nothing for the ego in enlightenment. In
enlightenment, the egoic false self is rendered an irrelevant illusion, a mask, a
character that nothingness wears while pretending to be human.
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Not only is there nothing in enlightenment for the ego, the ego is really nothing but
a defense against enlightenment. I'm not saying that ego is bad or evil because its
not. I'm saying that ego is a social and personal construct and therefore an illusion.
But there's nothing wrong with an illusion. A painting is an illusion; a movie is an
illusion; a good novel is an illusion. The problem isn't with illusion; the problem is
with the emotional attachments and addictions of ego.
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~Adyashanti
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4884 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-06
Subject: #4884 - Friday, April 5, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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#4884 - Friday, April 5, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Today's entries are from the Nonduality Highlights group on Facebook:
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Peter Baker

Not that
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Nothing I say is meant as a challenge to your experience of life,
only to your interpretation of it. But itÂ’s
not even that really,
itÂ’s just to remind you that your interpretation, however clear,
is only an interpretation
and not the experience itself.
And when I say Г‚вЂ˜yoursÂ’ itÂ’s
not even that really,
I mean Г‚вЂ˜mineÂ’.
I am saying this to remind myself that this is nothing more than
my interpretation, and only an interpretation, of something
that cannot be interpreted but only lived.
And when I say Г‚вЂ˜mineÂ’ itÂ’s
not even that really.
Whatever appears to be said by whoever appears to be saying itÂ…
well reallyÂ…
itÂ’s not even that.
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John Devitt

Nothing to do, nowhere to go refers to the perfection that is already present, needing no effort on our part to be attained.
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Mark Reddy

If I am as honest as I can be in this moment then I am not one with everything but separate,everything is in front of me,even the things I hold so close as mine,even my own heart is alive,beyond any control of mine,but then what have I left behind me,within me when all is laid bare,the heart before my eyes is behind me,within me,In total separation I see there is no separation at all,I have given all of myself to the world and there is so much more to see than when kept as mine.
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4885 From: Dustin LindenSmith Date: 2013-04-07
Subject: #4885 - Saturday, April 6th, 2013 - Editor: Dustin LindenSmith
Several years ago, I started to set aside my favourite or most notable issues of The Nonduality Highlights because I thought that excerpts from some of them would make a great book. I've since learned from Jerry that obtaining publishing clearance from the huge variety of sources our newsletter comes from would likely be too onerous and/or costly, so that idea sort of died on the vine.

However, as a matter of course, I still set aside my favourite issues and Jerry has kindly given me license to play the role of "guest editor" to share some of these favourites with all of you. Today is my first of these issues, which I call "Highlights of the Highlights." This one is from January 2006, and it features an excerpt from a book by the wonderful James Braha called "Living Reality." I hope you enjoy it! 

Incidentally, the now-defunct Urban Guru CafГѓВ© podcast archives also contain a great interview with James Braha which you can listen to from their page here -- the Braha episode is #66:

http://urbangurumagazine.com/?page_id=292

The Urban Guru Café has now transmogrified into the Urban Guru Magazine, I've also just recently learned. Lots of interesting nonduality-based content there, also. 

Dustin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jerry Katz jerry@...>
Date: Sat, Jan 28, 2006 at 11:02 AM
Subject: [NDSN] #2376 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - Editor: Jerry Katz
To: NDH ndhighlights@yahoogroups.com>, NDS nondualitysalon@yahoogroups.com>, iam iam@yahoogroups.com>, NDSN ndsn@yahoogroups.com>


#2376 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - Editor: Jerry Katz
 
The Nondual Highlights
 
Archive and Search Engine: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

We welcome your letters, original submissions, book/movie/music reviews, news of websites and blogs. Send the info in a reply to this email.
 
 
 
 
This Nondual Highlights exclusive features a typed excerpt from Living Reality: My Extraordinary Summer with "Sailor" Bob Adamson, by James Braha.
 
An excerpt also appeared not long ago in Highlights #2358: http://www.nonduality.com/hl2358.htm
 
Living Reality reads like a cool glass of clean water and is a solid contribution to today's literature of nonduality. I very much like the inclusion of crisp, sharp color photographs. There are 15 color photos showing James, his family and friends, and mostly Bob Adamson and Bob's wife Barbara. I think that for twenty bucks, this 322 page book with color photos is a good deal. Throughout the book there is a sense of family - friends - guru that is untainted and without a hint of cliqueishness.
 
To read more selections and to order Living Reality, visit http://www.jamesbraha.com/home.html
 
Bob Adamson is one of the most unadorned, accessible nondual teachers around. Podcasts with Adamson are refreshing: http://snipurl.com/m0gc.
 
 
 
 
"It doesn't matter what your experience is." A brief excerpt from Living Reality.
 
Bob: So, how are you going?
 
James: Pretty good. I was thinking about something Nisargadatta said: "Either you live in a world of desire and fear, or you live in freedom." I still live with desires and fears. They're not nearly as intense as they used to be, but they're essentially still here. And I wonder how much this understanding deepens.
 
Bob: Well, it can't actually deepen. You're already that pure intelligence energy, which you've always been. But, different insights come up through the mind. You might call it clear understanding or better understanding. The essence is still the same. It's always been "one without a second;" it can't be added to and nothing can take away from it. It's already That.
 
James: Recently a friend of mine said something interesting. "Many people think they're enlightened. Wait until they hear some bad news, like having cancer, and then they see how real their liberation is."
 
Bob: Well, if they have the true understanding, they will realize that it doesn't matter because they were never born anyway. The fear of death disappears altogether. Naturally, the way you die gives some concern. You wouldn't want to be sick or in pain for a long time.
 
James: I've noticed that when I'm sick with a really bad cold, non-dual understanding doesn't make it a heck of a lot better. What that physical pain is there.
 
Bob: Yes, but even the intensity of that physical pain lessens a lot if you can stay with it moment by moment. If the mind is constantly judging and labeling pain, then it can snowball and get worse and become overwhelming. But there's always a sense of peace or well-being in the background. Nothing's been touched there.
 
James: I've also been thinking about the fact that, in essence, nobody's better off than anyone else. I hear stories and read books where people claiming enlightenment say they "live in paradise," and things like that. Then, of course, I start desiring what they have. I want that paradise. But that must be nonsense.
 
Bob: Well, have a look at all that. Those are all experiences. They come and go. What you are is the experiencING. The experience and the experiencer are conceptual. But the experiencing is the actual. The experience of silence is not better that the experience of chatter. They are both experiences. The experiencing, which they happen on, has never been touched. The experience and the experiencer are like reflections in a mirror. The mirror is the experiencing essence, which allows experiences to happen. It doesn't matter what your experience is.
 
James: That's where I start to get tangled. I would definitely prefer to have nice experiences. It doesn't seem like it's "all the same" whether I have a good experience or bad experience or flat experience. I want the good ones. That plays on my mind a lot, because I seem to have continual flat experience -- nothing great, nothing terrible. Just flat. And I wonder, "Shouldn't there be some nice experience happening"? I understand intellectually that that would simply be another experience but...
 
Bob: It's just what it is. It's that "cognizing emptiness," if you like. It's pure awareness, or pure intelligence energy. Things appear and things disappear. And if a preference comes, that appears on it also. You couldn't have preferences without that essence.
 
James: Is it purely conceptual about this "screen" or the "experiencing that's always there?" Does it give you some solace that it's there? Do you experience it?
 
Bob: You don't "experience" it, but stay with the subtlety of it and you'll see that in there is the uncaused joy, the uncaused happiness, the uncaused love... . This is not the pairs of opposites -- love/hate, joy/sadness, pleasure and pain. It's the uncaused love and compassion. It's subtly there on its own. As you're sitting with that subtleness, it'll become more pronounced. Sitting with your essence gives it a chance to become more pronounced. And even though the so-called pleasure or pain and things are going on, there will always be that underlying sense of well-being. Nisargadatta puts it in the negating way: "There's nothing wrong anymore."
 
James: This sounds like what often happens to me at night. I'll be in bed waiting to fall asleep, or I'll awaken in the middle of the night, and this experience occurs where all thoughts have abated and I'm with a kind of dramatic silence or subtleness. It seems like an experience. But it's not, is it? It's just what is.
 
Bob: Exactly. It's pure isness.
 
James: One night, this was happening and I notice my shoulder was hurting. And, honest to God, it became clear to me that the sensation was in fact a concept -- an idea in the mind! Then I realized all existence is an idea. What doesn't this happen more often?
 
Bob: Well, give it a chance. Allow it! You'll see it's happening all the time.
 


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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4886 From: Mark Date: 2013-04-08
Subject: #4886 - Sunday, April 7, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlightsare available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4886, Sunday, April 7, 2013




I have no idea why I'm doing this. I know nothing that would qualify me to be an editor of the NDhighlights, and particularly, I have no idea why I would be in a position to review Jeannie Zandi's new CD. However,,,

Jeannie's CD is entitled "Benevolent Thief." I met her in Taos NM, where I was basically unable to make a living. On my way out of town, I went to Albuquerque (I have to sound that out phnonetically every time I try to spell it...) with Pamela Wilson, who's asked Jeannie to teach in the Advaita tradition. She (Pamela) suggested I go live with Jeannie for a short time to ponder my decision to leave and so I did. Jeannie welcomed me into her home, with her young daughter and her boyfriend, and I was treated with true grace until I found a place for myself. I'll be grateful for this until my dying day.

So, here I am giving some sort of review of her new CD. I've only listened to one track. "Benevolent Thief" it's called. It's deep, silent and wonderful. As a bit of a music tape creator, I find some of the gaps between songs a bit long, but this is satsang. It's silence personified, and the next bit of sonic wisdom is well worth the wait. I love this track, and I will report next week on track two. I'm going to stretch this out, as it's both a great pleasure to me, and I'd like to give this CD some time to percolate...

Some quotes from the track... "just let the creature of your body soften and take up residence here... soften and open... really just letting attention just meander through the field, softening as it goes..." "leaving everything behind but just this... the entire reservoir of stored knowledge; leaving it behind to be innocent and opened..."

I have one favorite word, and I tend to reserve it for wonderful things, and so unreservedly award it now... "Yum."
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4887 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-09
Subject: #4887 - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4887 - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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A couple of postsВ by Pete and BillВ from the Advaita to Zen list advaitatozen@yahoogroups.com
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And something from the long lost brother Wayne Austin. Remember Wayne? Whatever happened to him?
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PETE SIERRA
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Explaining quantum theory
В 
Physicist David Mermin advice for his fellow
scientists about explaining quantum theory is
"Shut up, and calculate." In other words the
theory is all practice and no theory. It only
makes sense when expressed in numbers, not in
words.
В 
It hit me, that it is also applicable to nonduality.
Shut up, and practice! Don't get me wrong, I'm
not suggesting we should stop posting, or
discussing it with others, but that we should
stop explaining it ourselves.
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Silence explains Nonduality best than words.
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~ ~ ~
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BILL RISHEL
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Whatever is going on,
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don't be distracted...
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just sink deeper into Stillness.
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The Birdhouse

by Wayne Austin
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Ya know, I think spiritual texts and "How to....", books have a lot in common. They all hold out the promise if you do it right and follow the instructions the outcome will make you proud. Whether it be how to build a birdhouse or how to become saved they both follow a similar set of instructions.
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First off you have to buy the book. Of course you can try it on your own but it is generally acknowledged that a fool who attempts to build a birdhouse without expert help won't be waking up any time too soon with the sound of sweet chickadees in his ears, just the same as any fool knows that without expert instruction in the salvation department he might find himself heading south when his goal was north.
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So you set out to learn how to get to your final goal with the help of your book. Right off the bat you know you need help or you wouldn't have bought the book. God forbid that you would build a birdhouse or a life that doesn't look like someone else.
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The book advises you to "gather materials" so you hikes yourself off to the hardware store for wood, nails and glue, or if you're trying to build a better life you do a mental inventory to see how many people you've hurt that you want to forgive and how you've generally made a mess of trying to be like god.
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With materials gathered it is now time to assemble them so you read the first sentence in the chapter on assembly: "Be sure you have all the materials needed or your birdhouse will not welcome our feathered friends." So you once again take inventory and find that you forgot to forgive old Uncle Teabert for the time he said he didn't think you'd ever amount to anything.
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With that done you buckle down to work. The book advises to only do so much at a time and to remember, "Rome wasn't built in a day", and the longer and more care you put into your birdhouse (salvation) the better the results will be. If you pay attention you won't find yourself with a bird house with its roof on the floor or stuck in purgatory hoping like hell someone is praying to get you out.
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Finally the day arrives, the end of the book and tangible results that you've been making progress. The birdhouse looks pretty good and if you were a bird you'd certainly live there. You've been feeling better spiritually too because you've finished the lessons and forgave a lot more people then you thought you were mad at when you started. You sit there admiring your handiwork and turn to the final chapter which says: "If your birdhouse, (life), seems to have something missing or if it doesn't look as good as the one Jesus the Great Birdhouse Builder, built, turn to the first chapter and do it again. Practice makes perfect." And so with a sigh, you start all over again, determined that next time will be the last.
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Like I say, birdhouses and salvation have a lot in common.......birds don't need a birdhouse and your soul needs no saving unless, that is, you have nuthin' better to do with your time.
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~ ~ ~
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Whatever happened to Wayne Austin? He was a sharp, paternal-type teacher with his own following and a beautifully expressed teaching. He had an active Yahoo Group back in the day, endofthesearch. Let me know if you know what happened to Wayne. His book Heart Whispers is available through Amazon.com:
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4888 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-10
Subject: #4888 - Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4888 - Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
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Thanks to Wayne and Bruce for sending me info on Wayne Austin. From them I learned about this site with Wayne's writings:
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and this anti-Wayne Austin page:
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Today's issue features the solid wisdom ofВ Colin Drake. If anyone knows of any anti-Colin Drake web pages, let me know. We could use the publicity. -Jerry
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Staying Awake by The Bodhisattva Vow
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В by Colin DrakeВ 
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Here is a recent e-mail encounter with a reader of my books:В 
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From: XXXX
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 8:33 AM
To: Colin Drake
Subject: Oscillation---В 
В 
Hi Colin,
В 
I havenÂ’t written to you in some time, but your writings are still at the foundation of much of my knowledge and practice of non-duality.
В 
The problem is, since I’ve retired, my mind, which was formerly more occupied, has reared its ugly head again in an apparent attempt to regain control of my persona through identification with feelings of failure, depression, anxiety, etc. Since you address this very issue at the beginning of “Beyond the Separate Self”, I thought perhaps you might suggest a “modus operandi” for dealing with this situation; even writing this email required me to overcome feelings of torpor, lethargy and shame---perhaps my “self-realization” was neither as authentic of durable as I thought---the Universe seems to have a tendency to bring one down a notch or two when reality doesn’t match his perception of spiritual progress. It’s quite disappointing, and any thoughts you might have on the subject would be very welcome.
В 
Best Wishes,
XXXXВ 
В 
From: Colin Drake
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 9:24 AM
To: XXXX
Subject: Re: Oscillation---В 
В 
Dear XXXX, As I am sure you know I have done nothing but attempt to answer this question. I am sure that you realize that the 'I' and 'me' that is referenced above (in your email) is not the Magnificent Pure Pristine Radiant Awareness that lies at the core of your (all) being, and that it is this constant self-referencing (identified with this 'small self') that reinforces the problem. I have attached the three articles that I feel address your particular problem the best. [editor's note: the attachments have not been included.]В 
В 
One thing I would also suggest is to find something constructive for the mind to do, for few minds can exist in a vacuum without generating non-existent problems to solve, and as realizing that one is Awareness is extremely simple (see poem) this does not fit the bill! Maybe when one is totally awake one can live with a silent mind except for when it is called on to solve the problems of day-to-day living, but as modern living presents much fewer of these than formerly this would require an extreme degree of awakening to live in only this mode. Even on the Bodhisattva path (of Mahayana Buddhism) the stages require the aspirant to constantly engage with the world in an attempt to support the awakening of all beings. As I am sure you can see this is a never ending problem allowing the mind plenty of scope. In this regard I am extremely lucky ... and you too can be by taking up this challenge helping those you encounter to be aware of a nondual way of looking at the world. I do hope this has been of some help, Love, ColinВ 
В 
From: XXXX
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 10:14 AM
To: Colin Drake
Subject: Re: Oscillation---
В 
Thanks so much, Colin---your response was a great help and an even greater reminder to remain vigilant and avoid complacency!
В 
Love and Peace,
XXXX
В 
В 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
В 
В 
В 
This exchange highlights the problem of living with a mind that has insufficient constructive work to keep it content, for as I say on page 10 of Beyond The Separate Self:В 
В 
For most of us much of our waking time is spent in obsessive thinking about Г‚вЂ˜ourselvesÂ’ and our relationships with other people. This is especially true when we are not working, using our minds in a productive activity; or when we are not relaxing in such a way that engages the mind such as reading a book, playing a game or watching a screen. For the mind is akin to an onboard-computer which is a wonderful tool for problem-solving, information storing, retrieval and processing, and evaluating the data provided by our senses. However, when it is not fully utilized it tends to search for other problems to solve, and if these are not presently available it tends to speculate about the future, delve into the past, or imagine in the present, creating non-existent problems which it then tries to solve!В 
В 
Most people tend to identify with their mind, rather than seeing it as a tool, which creates myriad problems. This causes everything to be seen through the filter of the mind: its opinions, judgements, and self-interest. When this happens we cease to see things as they really are which lessens our ability to relate to the world in a natural healthy way. Imagine the problems it would cause if your computer decided that it was Г‚вЂ˜youÂ’ and coloured all the information it retrieved from the internet with its own arbitrary opinions and judgements. In this case you would be unable to rely on any of this information, and if you did then any decisions made using this would be liable to be faulty.В 
В 
Now it is easy to see that this identification with the mind is greatly exacerbated by having nothing (useful) for the mind to do, unless one is completely Г‚вЂ˜awakeÂ’ when this misidentification is not present. In this case it is possible to live with a silent mind until it is required to solve a problem, plan something or engage in communication with those around us. As such it is in Г‚вЂ˜working modeÂ’ and relapses back into silence when the task in question is completed. However, this is not the case for most of us who flip-flop between being Г‚вЂ˜awakeÂ’, identified with pure Awareness, and being asleep identified as a separate object in a universe of such. In this latter state the unoccupied mind will naturally Г‚вЂ˜speculate about the future, delve into the past, or imagine in the present, creating non-existent problems which it then tries to solveÂ’.В 
В 
So it is very beneficial to have a useful activity for the mind to carry out, to prevent this counter-productive speculation. For this speculation, and wallowing in the past, reinforces the sense of a Г‚вЂ˜separate IÂ’, making the periods of Г‚вЂ˜awakeningÂ’ shorter and more infrequent. Moreover, if one can discover a useful activity which satisfies the mind whilst also tending to facilitate Г‚вЂ˜awakeningÂ’ and staying Г‚вЂ˜awakeÂ’ then this is the ultimate win-win scenario! For it overcomes the problem of the mind being “the devilÂ’s playground” and instead turns it into “The AbsoluteÂ’s instrument”.В В 
В 
One of the best ways to do this is to help facilitate the Г‚вЂ˜awakeningÂ’ of others, when one has flipped to being Г‚вЂ˜awakeÂ’, which in turn keeps one Г‚вЂ˜awakeÂ’ whilst this activity is occurring Â… another beautiful win-win!!В  So I would urge you all to take the Bodhisattva Vow which is to aid all beings to Г‚вЂ˜awakenÂ’ by any means that you can, which also strengthens oneÂ’s own Г‚вЂ˜awakeningÂ’Â… This activity is endless and contains a seemingly infinite number of Г‚вЂ˜skilful meansÂ’ to be discovered and utilized, giving the mind plenty of scope to be of genuine use and attain fulfillment.
В 
~ ~ ~
В 
Beyond the Separate Self and Colin's other books are available through http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4889 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-04-12
Subject: #4889 - Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee


#4889 - Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
At the Teahouse, 6 am
В 
Sunrise at the octagonal hut;
beyond, where two decks meet,
a lizard does pushups in the sun.
I see the green, chattering world
through the window, I see
my image in the window.
Both are present; are both true?
A bee enters the hut, buzzes
insistently against the window,
but the window won't yield
to his wishes.В  I want to
show him the open door,
say this world through the glass
is only an illusion but I don't.
How long will he hurl himself
against the dusty glass?В  How long
will we believe we are not free?
В 
~ Holly Hughes
В 
(America Zen - A Gathering of Poets)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/At_the_Teahouse.html
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
Alan Larus Photography
В 
В 
I Tell You
(excerpt)
В 
I could not predict the fullness
of the day. How it was enough
to stand alone without help
in the green yard at dawn.
В 
How two geese would spin out
of the ochre sun opening my spine,
curling my head up to the sky
in an arc I took for granted.
В 
And the lilac bush by the red
brick wall flooding the air
with its purple weight of beauty?
How it made my body swoon,
В 
brought my arms to reach for it
without even thinking.
В 
*
In class today a Dutch woman split
in two by a stroke - one branch
of her body a petrified silence,
walked leaning on her husband
В 
to the treatment table while we
the unimpaired looked on with envy.
How he dignified her wobble,
beheld her deformation, untied her
В 
shoe, removed the brace that stakes
her weaknesses. How he cradled
her down in his arms to the table
smoothing her hair as if they were
В 
alone in their bed. I tell you -
his smile would have made you weep.
В 
*
At twilight I visit my garden
where the peonies are about to burst.
В 
Some days there will be more
flowers than the vase can hold.
В 

~ Susan Glassmeyer
В 
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4890 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-12
Subject: #4890 - Friday, April 11, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4890 - Friday, April 11, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
В 
В 
В 
В 
В 
Interview with Elena Nezhinsky:
В 
В 

Elena's websites:
В 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGzc4BNE14 (This Youtube video that explains Liberation Unleashed, what we do and how we do it, and where to go if there is an interest to engage in this work with a guide.)
В 
Elena writes,
В 
"This was a delightful interview. Almost as though Jerry and I were sitting in his kitchen in Halifax, Nova Scotia, drinking tea. This is how Russian friends usually meet - in the kitchen by the tea pot. The conversation just rolls about anything that comes up, and between friends there are no places where the conversation can't go. So this was just like that. Very lighthearted talk where many people's names who helped me to do this work, came up with much gratitude and appreciation. And some of the nonduality teachers names came up with all the respect to our own uniqueness, that creates the variety of the work we do.
В 
"Jerry and I spoke a lot about this and that, and I think people might be curious in a simple conversation. Many are tired to hear about awarness and awakening, emptiness and void. People want human talk, but also we had some of that "awakening stuff" in between, so we covered it all.
В 
"What I am looking for in this interview is people's relation to me as one of them (and its true) , approachable and ordinary (all true), at the same time I want to evoke curiosity to look for themselves, like i did. Hope this was the essence of the interview."
В 
Interview tracks:
В 
0:00 - 2:49 Light-hearted opening. Elena not seeing herself as a teacher, rather a sharer.
В 
2:49 - 4:49 Giving compared to sharing. Sharing coming out of appreciation.
В 
4:49 - 8:58 Charisma possessed by teachers or sharers. Elena speaks about why she thinks she is effective as a sharer.
В 
8:58 - 13:51 Role of curiosity in her spiritual milestones. Encouraging curiosity about language. Elena gives the example of curiosity around "sitting" and shows how it leads to clear seeing.
В 
13:51 - 20:04 Elena's spiritual journey as reclusive and why she started to search. Her life with vipassana meditation discussed. How it created the sense of separation and the urge to look elsewhere. Value of attending an Adyashanti retreat. Asking what is true.
В 
20:04 - 23:55 Elena feeling that she was standing at the gate. Seeing illusion of self. Seeing what is real and pointing the mind toward registering it.
В 
23:55 - 26:27 Liberation Unleashed. http://liberationunleashed.com. The power of the movement.
В 
26:27 - 33:36 Elena's in-person teaching. John R. Shirley invited Elena to Florida for meetings. Invited to Costa Rica by Gonzalo Fernandez. Profound value of relationship with Shane Wilson.
В 
33:36 - 36:33 Meditation as purification. Elena's work as radical. Value of meditation or practice when conditioning arises strongly. Help with integration. Pamela Wilson, Scott Kiloby, and Rupert Spira mentioned as helping with integration.
В 
36:33 - 42:16 Elena is asked about value of outsiders when locals are available. Why bring in outside teachers? Gonzalo Fernandez, Alvaro Lopez, Jenny Ortuno mentioned. Local meetings in Costa Rica.
В 
42:16 - 45:13 Elena's work as not progressive, only one look to see illusion of self, therefore different than satsang. Her work is more focused. Value of local groups discussed.
В 
45:13 - 50:11 Liberation Unleashed discussed as a movement. It's nature. Ilona Ciunaite mentioned. Elena's book and how it got written. It can be seen that no one wrote the book, rather it is a kind of movement. Paradox.
В 
50:11 - 54:33 The sense that nothing is happening while much is happening. Limitations of language in talking about these things. Meaning of "I am That" discussed. Via Negativa. Experience itself.
В 
54:33 - 55:36 Elena speaks of taking care to not mix methods. She doesn't ask, "Who is looking?" but she arrives in the same place as that inquiry.
В 
55:36 - 1:03:06 Gary Falk mentioned. Being silent together. Elena talks about the kinds of audiences at her meetings. Some are more energetic, some are more relaxed. Elena's preference. Inspiring people to look. Nature of attention. "Clear seeing is not peace." People's expectation. Working on integration. The moment when people realize the self doesn't exist.
В 
1:03:06 - 1:06:26 Elena's feelings about holding meetings and being seen as a teacher. The nature of how her meetings unfold.
В 
1:06:26 - 1:14:17 Elena talks about Korean sauna she goes to. Elena's childhood, growing up. Volcanos. Sauna as a pointer to illusion of self. Sweat lodges and Vipassana as ways to see if there is a self that chooses sensations. Shinzen Young's sauna meditation as a way of feeling sensations of the body.
В 
1:14:17 - 1:18:47 Elena talks about her house catching fire. Pamela Wilson mentioned. Value of hearing that others are having a hard time. Breaking up of her family and job. Meaning of this falling apart.
В 
1:18:47 - 1:21:06 Anything not aligned with your essence will be destroyed. You function from inspiration, not motivation and gain clarity about what to do.
В 
1:21:06 - 1:28:07 We talk about making money in nonduality and Elena is very open about it. Respecting people's service. Wanting to share donations with those who volunteer at her meetings.
В 
1:28:07 - 1:34:58 Giving and receiving. Rita Friedman mentioned as example. Conditioning with regard to giving and receiving. Elena talks about Florida. Miracle as total flow and as life unfolding.
В 
1:34:58 - 1:38:46 Elena talks about having the best time in Costa Rica. Jenny Ortuno mentioned. Elena talks about meetings and the awareness of people who attend with regard to direct pointing. Cesar Teruel, Gonzalo Fernandez, and Unmani Liza Hyde mentioned.
В 
1:38:46 - 1:40:32 Working with people who are confused, at their end, no longer believing anything. Conclusion.
В 
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4891 From: Dustin LindenSmith Date: 2013-04-13
Subject: #4891 - Saturday, April 13th, 2013 - Editor: Dustin LindenSmith
#4891 - Saturday, April 13th, 2013 - Editor: Dustin LindenSmith

This week's "Highlights of the Highlights" comes from an issue originally edited by Mark Otter for the Dec 1st 2007 issue. Each excerpt Mark included in the issue spoke to me in a different way, but my favourite piece below is by Robert Adams. The following snippet speaks directly to the way that I've come to view the world, and in many respects, it's becoming a sort of personal mantra for me: 

There are no problems. There is nothing wrong. Everything is unfolding as it should. 

Indeed! I've noticed that whenever I acknowledge the inherent truth of this statement, my worries and anxiety just slip noiselessly away from me. The universe is indeed unfolding exactly as it should, for how could it be any other way? If it was meant to unfold differently, then it would have. The fact that it has unfolded in this way, in this moment, means that it was meant to be just so. Any quarrel we have with that, we have with our own selves. It would do just as much good to to complain about which side of the earth the sun rose on this morning.

Dustin


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: markwotter704 markwotter704@...>
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2007 at 11:49 PM
Subject: [NDhighlights] #3003 - Saturday, December 1, 2007
To: NDhighlights@yahoogroups.com


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

Nondual Highlights: Issue #3003, Saturday, December 1, 2007




Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you, look on it not as a failure, but as a helpful signal that is telling you: "Wake up. Get out of your mind. Be present."

- Eckhart Tolle, from The Power of Now, posted to AlongTheWay



There are no problems. There is nothing wrong. Everything is unfolding as it should. Everything happens in its own time. Space and time are illusions. They really do not exist. They're stationary. Causation doesn't exist either. No thing has a cause, therefore no thing has an effect. Cause and effects are again products of your own mind. When the mind is quiet, karma ceases. Samscaras are non-existent. There never was a cause for anything. But if you feel that in a previous life you did something wrong and now you are paying the price, or if you think that you did something wrong in this life and you're paying the price, then you'll pay the price, because that's what you think.

- Robert Adams



We're quite addicted to subtle discussions;
we're very fond of solving problems.
So that we may tie knots and then undo them,
we constantly make rules for posing the difficulty
and for answering the questions it raises.
We're like a bird which loosens a snare
and then ties it tighter again
in order to perfect its skill.
It deprives itself of open country;
it leaves behind the meadowland,
while its life is spent dealing with knots.
Even then the snare is not mastered,
but its wings are broken again and again.
Don't struggle with knots,
so your wings won't be broken.
Don't risk ruining your feathers
to display your proud efforts.

- Rumi, Mathnawi II: 3733-3738, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, from Rumi: Daylight, posted to Sunlight



You have to ask yourself the question "Who am I?" This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

- Ramana Maharshi



Ramana's great question was, "Who am I?"

Nowadays it's easy to see that we are this formless intelligence inside. Yet so many of us, in our innocence, still think that thought is thought, and that it's an object, and that it's going to be there for eternity, yacking away about nothing, bothering us.

Now, if we are not who we are, how come everything else is who they are? Wouldn't it make more sense to say, "Well, if I'm not my role, maybe nothing else is its role."

And rather than wondering what that role is, just ask it directly, "Who are you?" It's so much faster than trying to figure it out.

You don't ask it, "Who am I?"

One of thought's functions is to project onto you, because you have no form. It has to come up with projection after projection, and just in case you relax out of your role it has to create an diversion, quickly.

So ask it, "Who are you?"

Curiosity is the way wisdom gets revealed inside. It is the forerunner of wisdom. Curiosity arises and, if you sit with it, connected right underneath is the wisdom. They are not two.

Each one of these servants inside, from the most irritating of emotions, can reveal an incredible amount of wisdom when you interview it. First of all they show you their functions, and if you have ever had curiosity about how creation was created, or how bodies function, or what the nature of emotion is, or the nature of thought, or the nature of wisdom, all of it is there. These are amazing biocomputers, and you can ask and they will reveal anything you want to know.

Be really tender with thought. The pressure we put on it is extraordinary. It's only because thought is also the great mystery that it is able to function with all that pressure of disapproval and dislike and aversion and "I wish you would be quiet" - and all our rude projections: that you are not spiritual and you are the only thing keeping me from my freedom, and would you please just shut up!

That is why in all the great spiritual traditions, at their heart is tenderness - just to be kind inside, and then everything rights itself. Fear rests. Confusion rests. Everything that was perturbing the system rests. Because they know that when you are tender inside you no longer need their services, because you have returned to your true nature.

- Pamela Wilson



Dennis:
It seems to me that 'thinking' is one of the greatest obstacles to enlightenment. All the masters say that there is, in truth, nothing to be done - but manas will not have it so! How should we cope with thinking?

Francis:
There are three kinds of thoughts:

1. Practical thoughts, which are useful in conducting our business or our daily life, like, for instance, "I need to get some gas". This type of thought should not be suppressed (we don't want to run out of gas!). Once it has been given due consideration and the required steps have been taken, these thoughts leave us spontaneously.

2. Thoughts related to the Ultimate, to our understanding of the non-dual perspective, such as "there is, in truth, nothing to be done". These thoughts come from the Ultimate. If we welcome them, they purify the mind from its dualistic conditioning and eventually take us back to their source. They bring about clarity and give us an adumbration of the bliss which is inherent to our real nature.

3. Thoughts related to the notion of being a personal entity, such as desires, fears, doubts, which includes day-dreaming and other kinds of wishful thinking. Some thoughts of this third kind are apparently innocuous and, for this reason, difficult to detect in the beginning. A strong emotion conducive to suffering and disharmony such as jealousy or fear will be easily detected, whereas I may indulge for some time, without noticing it, into picturing myself on the beaches of the French Riviera with a beautiful companion.

It is a common and frequent error to consider any kind of thought as an obstacle to self-realization. The thoughts of the third kind are the only ones that are obstacles to being knowingly established in the Absolute. There are two ways to deal with these thoughts as they arise:

A. If we are not yet convinced that we are not a limited personal entity, whenever we notice such a thought, we should attempt to find its source, the ego. Of course, our attempt to catch the ego fails, as Ramakrishna points out, which takes us directly to the non-existent center of the onion. At this moment, the ego vanishes and we experience our innate freedom (for what looks like a very short moment). This glimpse at the truth reinforces our conviction that we are not a personal entity.

B. Once we are convinced that we are not a personal entity, the thoughts of the third kind usually keep reoccurring for some time as a matter of habit, in the same way as inertia keeps an electrical motor running after its power cord has been unplugged. In this case, there is no need to investigate the origin of these thoughts; we can simply drop them as soon as we notice them.

- Francis Lucille
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4892 From: Mark Date: 2013-04-15
Subject: #4892 - Sunday, April 14, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4892, Sunday, April 14, 2013




As I mentioned last Sunday, Jeannie Zandi has a new CD available. Benevolent Thief is a lovely set of invitations to be here now (6 tracks; approx 1 hour and 6 minutes total if my math is correct).

Here are some more short transcribed excerpts to whet your appetite. The CD can be obtained directly from Jeannie, and you can ask her how to do so by visiting her website http://www.jeanniezandi.com/4.html



Track 2 (Body of God) "Come. Here. Now. With every bit of attention and strength that you have... Join the feast. Savor it. Body of God; the manifest world. Nothing left out."

Track 3 (Take This Too) "Let your heart become a meaty, fleshy, tender heart; a three dimensional heart; a weighty heart. Filled with the spacious love of God and rooted in the fleshiness of Earth. Let your whole body become heart."

Track 4 (Going Nowhere) "And you might notice as you let your attention really sink into this experience of being, that we move away from the reference points that keep us oriented: past, future, where we're going, who we are, who we love, where we parked the car. For this little while, let yourself fall into this gap and be lost; just floating in the unknown. Everything you ever knew for now on the shelf. Simple undifferentiated, undefined, going nowhere being; a whole room of it."

Track 5 (Swallowed by the Dark) "Bring the kind of softening mercy to anything tight in you, anything in pain; that just allows it to be as it is. Don't try to do a spiritual "leap frog" over it or clean it up. There's a beautiful dark depth that you are as simple being. This culture doesn't recognize it. It calls it nothing, which is actually pretty accurate. It devalues it pretty much to nonexistence. And that's what we need turn toward tonight. That's what you're invited to turn toward; nowhere; nothing; through the feel of "just here."В  Not one tiny little agenda item ahead of 'just the feel of right here.'"

Well, there's lots more, but hopefully you can get a feel of what Jeannie's sharing. You need to listen to hear her gentle loving delivery which has a quiet intensity that is her's alone. As I said last week, "yum."
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4893 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-04-15
Subject: #4893 - Monday, April 15, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

В 

#4893 - Monday, April 15, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
В 
В 
В 
THE PATH

Where is this going
В В  this path
В В В В В  into the future?
В В В В В В В В  into the past?
В В В В В В В В В В В  the paper on which this poem is written will crumble
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  and dissolve
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  into what?
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  the poem itself will fade -
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  into what?
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  the poet too
В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  and the winding path
В 
В 
Yasar KoГѓВ§ Photography
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В 

Gabriel Rosenstock’s Path translated into Greek by Yiorgos Chouliaras

ΤΟ ГЋЕ“ГЋЕёГЋВќГЋЕёГЋВ ГЋвЂ˜ГЋВ¤ГЋв„ў


Προς τα πού πηγαίνει

   το μονοπάτι αυτό

      προς το μέλλον;

         προς το παρελθόν;

            το χαρτί όπου είναι γραμμένο το ποίημα θα γίνει κομμάτια
               και θα διαλυθεί

                 ÏƒÎµ τι;

                     το ίδιο το ποίημα θα ξεθωριάσει -
                        σε τι;

                           ο ποιητής επίσης

                              και το ελικοειδές μονοπάτι

В 

В 

bhГѓВ­ sГѓВ© riamh
bunoscionn -
Cuan MГѓВі

it has always been
upside down -
Clew Bay


Image: Ron Rosenstock
Text: Gabriel Rosenstock

В 

speak, stones! В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  labhraГѓВ­gГѓВ­, a chlocha!

why don't you speak?В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  cГѓВ©n fГѓВЎth nach labhraГѓВ­onn sibh?
В - deserted villageВ В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В В  - srГѓВЎidbhaile trГѓВ©igthe
Copyright ©2011 Ron Rosenstock all rights reserved
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В Deserted Village, Achill Island PHOTO-HAIGA
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Image: Ron Rosenstock
Text: Gabriel Rosenstock
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(Photo-Haiga)
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4894 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-16
Subject: #4894 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4894 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
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В 
David Whyte
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Life at the Frontier: The Conversational Nature of Reality
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~ ~ ~
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If you don't want to watch the video, which is an excellent one, you might read this interview with him:

http://www.soundstrue.com/weeklywisdom/?source=podcast&p=1641&category=IATE&version=full

Here is an excerpt:

If you tend to the things that are most important to you first, you donÂ’t actually need to spend much time. You can spend even just twenty minutes or half an hour, an hour as you get further into it, perhaps a couple of hours. The rest of the day, and all the other chores, including getting the curtains cleaned and cleaning out the refrigerator and getting the car to the garage to be worked on--all of those things actually can take on a kind of delight instead of something that is standing in the way of your real life.

One of the things that we have to learn in life is “What is my core conversation?” Of course, that is one of the great pedagogical questions when you’re growing up through your teens and into your twenties and thirties. It is finding out, “What is my conversational frontier?” And the only way that you find it out is often by making a lot of mistakes and getting into relationships that aren’t good for you, getting into work that’s not good for you, or doing the work in a way that’s not good for you.

But eventually, if you’re sincere, you start to get closer and closer to what is real in your life. But you’re also, while you’re doing that, gaining self-knowledge, otherwise there will be a place that you come to where you’re just too afraid of taking the next step. This is what delineates what you could say is the “serious practitioner or artist, the serious conversationalist” from those who are constantly, throughout their life, on the periphery and never able to step into the core. That core is where parts of you start to shrivel away, to disappear, shaved away, and you get this sense of a nucleus.

This kernel or nucleus – this creative crucible – is not something that exists just by itself. So when you’re talking about this creative conversational core, it’s something that’s working with all of the phenomenology of life around you. It’s constantly looking, hearing, seeing, and creating this identity – this “frontier identity” where you’re partaking of both at the same time so what you think is you and what you think is not you.

~ ~ ~
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Some good samplings of David Whyte's audio books at http://nonduality.com/bookstore.htmВ (enter David Whyte into the search box)
Group: NDhighlights Message: 4895 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-17
Subject: #4895 - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4895 - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
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Singer/songwriter Rita MacNeil, Canadian and Nova Scotia icon, died at the age of 68.
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Her song Working Man, a tribute to coal miners in Nova Scotia, brings tears and chills:
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Working Man
written by Rita MacNeil
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ItÂ’s a working man l am
And IÂ’ve been down under ground
And I swear to God if ever see the sun
Or for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again will go down under ground
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At the age of sixteen years
Oh he quarrels with his peers
Who vowed theyÂ’d never see another one
In the dark recess of the mines
Where you age before your time
And the coal dust lies heavy on your lungs
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At the age of sixty-four
Oh he'll greet you at the door
And he'll gently lead you by the arm
Through the dark recess of the mines
Oh he'll take you back in time
And he'll tell you of the hardships that were had
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God I never again will go down under ground
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В 
Robert Wolfe

http://www.livingnonduality.org/absolute-enigma.htm

All of the things which man thinks of as relative to each other (such as “you” and “I”) are simultaneously inseparable from this non-relative actuality. This presence (or anything which we would call absolute) could not be apart from anything, however relative it may appear to, or be thought to, be. We may, consciously or unconsciously, choose to perceive from a relative viewpoint. But that is not the sole perception that we are capable of.

From the so-called “cosmic”, or non-dual, viewpoint, our chronic perception of things as relative to, and separate from, each other is false. To recognize that it is false is to open the mind to the potentiality of truth.

Where there is any possibility that the essential condition in this cosmos is the condition of an all-pervasive presence, please inform me how you could be apart from that. This is not to say that, from the relative viewpoint, some thing cannot be argued to exist apart from its “creator”, or some such. But one must recognize, as I trust you do, that the nature of the absolute does not lend itself to finite distinctions. When you refer to “me” on one hand, and “God” on the other, you are not in a discussion of the non-relative. This, again, is one of the reasons why it is important to understand the indivisible essence of the absolute.

And it is this understanding—when it is so clear as to be startling—that is the substance of unitive realization. When it is indubitably recognized that your nature and the nature of the absolute are fundamentally the same, indivisible nature, this is the “recognition of one's true identity": the realization that any and all identity is eclipsed by an actuality which renders separative distinctions ultimately meaningless.

Such a realization, or non-dual perspective or awareness, cannot help but have a profound effect on one's consideration of “personal individuality”. One cannot recognize that truth, of all-pervasive indivisibility, and continue to maintain the fiction of separate personification—of the “me” that was born and the “I” which dies.

This fruit of the realization—that the absolute essence of all being does not “come” from some place nor “go” anywhere—quenches our deepest, final fear, the fear of extinction. Then the liberated may, indeed, “take no thought for the morrow.”

~ ~ ~

Good interview with Robert Wolfe conducted by Brendan Smith:

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

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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4896 From: Gloria Lee Date: 2013-04-19
Subject: #4896 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee

#4896 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - Editor: Gloria Lee
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Violence & Silence: How to Heal the World
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What is it about tragic events that calls us to silence and stillness?
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ThereÂ’s a profound message in this impulse. The message is: remember the sacred
nature of life; connect to it; let it guide you.
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ItÂ’s hard to remember the sacred when youÂ’re multi-tasking. By stopping, a space
opens up within you and around you. It takes stopping and stillness, to see what has
been there all along.
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Yes, thatÂ’s what stillness reveals: that the sacred nature of life is ever-present; that all
life is sacred.
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You donÂ’t have to do anything to achieve sacredness.
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Nobody does. ItÂ’s not a prize. Not an award. ItÂ’s what you are. Me too. Everybody and
everything. ItÂ’s all sacred.
But, the mind has a hard time with stillness; the mind cries, “What about the violence?
If life is sacred, where does all the violence come from? And donÂ’t we have to do
something to stop it?”
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There are many ways of analyzing and answering these questions. The mind can take
many perspectives: political, historical, economic, religious.
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But, before you adopt any perspective, consider this: what is the quality of
consciousness that you bring to the perspective?
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It’s not the perspective that is primary—it’s the consciousness that “looks” through the
perspective.
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Consciousness is primary; perspective is secondary, which is why stopping
and stillness are so vital.
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Before you analyze, and definitely before you act, be still.
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DonÂ’t perpetuate the patterns of the past. Be still.
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DonÂ’t seek answers or even understanding. Be still.
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Breathe and let the waves of emotionality settle; be still and reconnect to the sacred
essence of life and your life.
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How often in a typical day do you stop and become still?

Do you practice stillness or are you constantly on the move?

Do you rest in the sacred nature of life as-it-is or are you perpetually rushing forward?

Straining to make things happen? Controlling people and events?

If so, youÂ’re not alone.

WeÂ’ve all been conditioned as perpetual motion machines; this never-stopping compulsion
obscures the recognition of lifeÂ’s sacred nature. ItÂ’s the relentless (and reactive)
movements of the mind that create the conditions for violence.

We all need to become better students of stillness.

This is not a plea for inaction—there is a need for wise and healing action. An acute,
even an urgent need. But wise and healing action only arises from a consciousness that is
awake to the sacred.

The scattered, speedy, emotionally fragmented consciousness is blind to the sacred.
Actions that arise from a reactive mind only add more violence to the mix. (This is true
on a global scale and around the dinner table.)

Which is why stillness is the pre-requisite for healing and helping the world.

By cultivating your capacity for stillness, you serve the world.

By deepening your attunement to the sacred, you heal the world.
Today—and every day from now on—make time for stillness and silence.

В 

Eric Klein is one of the few people on the planet who is both a lineage holder in a 5,000
year old yoga lineage and a best-selling business book author. You can get his free book
50 Ways to Leave Your Karma: Freedom, Fear, and the Art of Getting Unstuck at
www.wisdomheart.org/50Ways. / Eric has worked with over 35,000 people to infuse
greater meaning, awareness, and purpose into their work and lives. His book You are the
Leader You’ve Been Waiting For won a 2008 Nautilus Book Award for being “a
world-changing book promoting positive social change and responsible leadership”. He is
the author of the best-seller, Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the
Power of People at Work (over 200,000 copies sold) and To Do or Not To Do: How
Successful Leaders Make Better Decisions. / He lives in Encinitas, California with his
wife Devi. Learn more about their work (and listen to their fusion kirtan music) go to
www.wisdomheart.org.

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Like elephant meditation on Facebook.

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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4897 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-19
Subject: #4897 - Friday, April 19, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4897 - Friday, April 19, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
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Announcing a new and important book from Non-Duality Press:
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The Sun Rises in the Evening: Beyond addiction and limited recovery to embracing wholeness
by Gary Nixon PhD
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I'm going to write a review of this book and hopefully interview Gary, but for now I want to announce the publication of the book, which is today. I feel it's an important book because Gary is the central force behind not only a nonduality community in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, but an academic community as well. He is an associate professor at the University of Lethbridge where he directs the addictions counseling program. I think it's always significant when nonduality meets academia.
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The following is from the book's promotional material:
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In The Sun Rises in the Evening: Beyond addiction and limited recovery to embracing wholeness, Gary Nixon PhD gives us a specific framework for dealing with recovery from addiction, focusing on the issues that arise after the first stages of recovery.
В 
What is remarkable, and most helpful, is that Gary doesn't spare himself - we learn that he has made the journey that he is inviting us to share, from the time when he shouted out in a session 'I want to be number one!' through all his attachments to being the best ever at being enlightened, via an abyss of despair, to a place where... and here we can best quote Gary himself: "There is no longer any special status to claim, and all of life is embraced in a friendly way. We are not the special one, just a friendly being in existence, living in the vast suchness of existence, open and vulnerable to life. But now we are free to bring our joy and passion into the world."
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Is this a book about recovery from addiction? Yes, it is - but it's more and that 'more' applies to most of us who have an undefinable sense that we have not quite embraced the wholeness for which we claim to be seeking.
В 
About the author: Gary Nixon is Director of the Addictions Counselling Program at University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, where he is an Associate Professor. At age twenty-three and qualified in law, he felt a call to make the transformational journey his career path and completed a Masters and a Doctorate in psychology with a focus on the integration of Western transpersonal psychology and Eastern contemplative traditions.
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He pursued 'spiritual enlightenment' with the same vigour and dedication that he gave to his academic career, only to find that intense striving and seeking for spiritual success brought him to a place of 'absolute hopelessness and total failurehood.' Thus it was he came to understand that in seeking a spiritual goal he was merely reinforcing the illusion of a narcissistic separate self. Now that he is no longer 'special', he has come to rest naturally in being - friendly with all existence. Gary enjoys a celebratory ordinariness of the days living with his wife Marcia and going for daily long runs in the coulees.
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He maintains a private nondual psychotherapy practice working with individuals and groups - this complements the passionate legacy of his published academic work and his editorship of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology. He hosts the annual Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference.
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~ ~ ~
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Amazon.com link:
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Group: NDhighlights Message: 4898 From: Mark Date: 2013-04-22
Subject: #4898 - Sunday, April 21, 2013
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm

Nonduality Highlights Issue #4898, Sunday, April 21, 2013




Things went down we don't understand, but I think in time we will

- Robert Hunter

May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today, but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion. We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds.

- Marianne Williamson



To love our enemy is impossible. The moment we understand our enemy, we feel compassion towards him/her, and he/she is no longer our enemy.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.

- Rachel Joy Scott (1981-1999); Student, First Victim Of The Columbine High School Massacre



In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength.

- Buddha

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

- Plato

The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.

- John Green, Looking for Alaska

Fear grows out of the things we think; it lives in our minds. Compassion grows out of the things we are, and lives in our hearts.

- Barbara Garrison

Give children at least as many chances to show compassion as they have to be competitive.

- Erica Layman

The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.

- Andrew Bennett

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

- Elisabeth KГѓВјbler-Ross


Group: NDhighlights Message: 4899 From: Jerry Katz Date: 2013-04-23
Subject: #4899 - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz
#4899 - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nonduality Highlights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/
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This is a newsy and busy issue. I hope you like it.
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In an earlier issue I included some writing from Wayne Austin and asked whatever happened to him. Wayne wrote me a note that was thoughtful and kind and spoke a little about how the early days of internet nonduality how it compares to the more noisy current times.
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A brief Message from Swami Abhayananda:

I am making all my books, proems, and articles available for free download for the benefit of all interested spiritual seekers. To download any of the books, proems, or articles listed on my website, please click on this link: http://themysticsvision.weebly.com/downloads.

Happy reading!

Sincerely yours,

Swami Abhayananda

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Nondual Awareness Retreat, Sept. 4-15, 2013, California

If you would like to experience a retreat that does not circle around a specific teacher, teaching, or tradition, this is for you. Sounds like it'll be very much like the iconic retreat we had in 2001 at the Zen monastery in Rhode Island:

Details here:

http://nonduality.org/2013/04/23/nondual-awareness-retreat-sept-4-15-2013-california/

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Rafael Stoneman writes:
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Hey Jerry, I have my book Tears of Grace available on LuLu now if you shall ever like to check it out. The link is:
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Sincerely,
В 
Rafael Stoneman
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Issue #2 of One: The Magazine is online:
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It's a big and colorful gift basket of varied writings.

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Looks like Chuck Hillig is writing material for a new book. These are from his Facebook page. I don't know if anyone ever got better than Chuck at writing the nondual one-liner.
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Spiritual pride often becomes the final refuge of a dying ego still living in terror of the approaching annihilation.
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Believing that there are “stages in enlightenment” is just another one of the “stages in enlightenment” that you’ll have to stop believing in.
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In the dream world, there’s enough room for both a “you” and a “God.” In awakening, however, you’ll both have to disappear.
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Quantum physicists just reaffirmed what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” This idea really isn’t new at all. According to the Sufis, “You can’t pick a flower without troubling a star.” Consciousness, it seems, is entangled with ITself.
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~ ~ ~
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Chuck was way ahead of the nondual times. His books are available at
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