Highlights #500
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Saturday, Oct 14
POU:
Yes in 'this' village square, besides those enjoying the
afternoon
sun, or
simply enjoying the laughter of children playing, also
'this' village
square
has a visit from a person going thru their personal
spiritual
puberty.
All that that was once loved, must now be rejected in
order to
establish new
values for oneself.
and yes also those who simultaneously are a slave and
devotee to the
system
they experience (d) a personal suffering under.
and yes also the Prometheus' who in returning from their
costly
ascensions
now have new spiritual toys to display in order to
attempt once again
receive love from others..
and also the Icarians who just hate the idea of ever
landing yet again
in
the seeming reality of what is not...
and yes also the matriarchal heroes seeking the pristine
state of
unity. The
grand striving of the patriarchal s believing the
masculine goal is to
break
free of the mother goddess and establish one's
independence
and yes Eros running here and there denying psyche's call
for love
and
unity ..
and yes western mystics teaching the transendental, and
the eastern
mystics
teaching that God is immanent
I saw Odysseus preparing for departure and Oedipus
searching for his
mate
Ericksonian's quietly whispering "there's a number
of things that you
don't
want me to know about, that you don't want to tell me.
There is a lot
of
things about yourself that you don't want to
discuss".
There is a coffee table with Bruno Bettelheim's disciples
discussing
the
irreplaceable importance of fairy tales.
There Krishna's disciples reading the Bhagavad Gita
"I am the origin
of all,
from me all things proceed ..... I am the Self,
established in the
heart's
of all beings, there beginning, middle, and end ..... I
am the
gambling of
the cheats. I am the vigour of the strong. I am victory.
I am
effort. I
am the principle of harmony in the good".
There are the philosophizer's discussing the wound in
Christ's side,
delivered by Longinus's spear, is a counterpart of that
of the Maimed
Fisher; the crown of thorns is a counterpart of the
Bodhisattva's
turning
wheel.
There are also Nietszche's disciples describing the
euphoria of
Nietzsche
when he opened Schopenhauer's major opus, "The World
at Will and
Idea".
And yes, in this village square, we have Sri Ramana
answering the
question,
"there is no creation".
And yes, we have renowned German psychotherapist, Alice
Miller,
whispering
to a friend questioning the whole of psychoanalytical
theories and
modern
day psychiatric methods.
And yes we have the village idiot who claims to hear
voices in his or
her
head. And yes, we have clowns, academics, and gangsters.
We have
those
selling belief systems. We have those selling second hand
used belief
systems.
And yes, it is a fine sunny afternoon here in the village
square. And
I
suddenly awoke to the laughter of children playing in the
village
square and
realised I had been dreaming on this sunny afternoon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DAN and JERRY respond to
MATTHEW's earlier post:
> There are only two things:
> bullshit and nothing.
>
> Werner Erhardt
JERRY:
This is true. And when a person first discovers it, it is
always
someone
else who's putting forth bs, never them.
When this list was started it was clearly for the purpose
of
prattling.
I believe that purpose is stated in our list description.
Prattle is a
euphemism for bullshit. Any scripture worth its salt
declares itself
to
be prattle, because who can say what 'is'?
DAN:
There are at least two more things:
a) an expansionistic training program
to impose my view of the two things,
and
b) an ex-wife who got the shit
kicked out of her, and
left with nothing in
place of self-esteem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HARSHA:
Some days ago, I saw on television the violence in the
Middle East
caught by
the live camera. In one of the scenes, I saw a terror
stricken young
boy
perhaps 9 or 10 hiding behind his father as there was
shooting all
around
them. One could see the incredible helplessness and fear
in both their
eyes.
It was a sight of a father not being able to protect his
son in
trouble. How
painful to watch. The anchor then said that the boy had
died. There
were
other scenes of rage, of people throwing stones, and
soldiers being
captured
and tortured and killed. There were scenes of women and
children
crying. I
don't know who was who and what their religion was. It
just seems like
the
heart breaking never stops. It goes on all over the world
in some
form.
Over 2500 years ago, the Jain Tirthankra Mahavir noted
that All life
wants
to live and flourish without exception. He taught that
the way to
peace for
humanity was through mutual support and help. By helping
others, we
only
help ourselves. By giving room to others, we make room
for ourselves.
Nonviolence is not a religion. It is the supreme
principle for
evolution. It
is the radiance of Self-Realization. If we have realized
our true
nature as
Being, then we see that Being permeates all life. How do
we separate
ourselves from "others." How do we look away
when "others" are
suffering. I
know in the spiritual life everyone is doing their best
and hope our
prayers
will reach out and heal some broken hearts.
Wishing for all of you, peace and love and comfort in
your lives.
I pray that everyone realize reconciliation, forgiveness,
and kindness
in
their lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHITE WOLF:
There is one word which describes the way of non-duality
for me: LOVE.
I
was at a Jesuit Retreat recenty with Father Tom Allender.
He was
talking
about violence, domestic violence and psychological
violence of which
the
violence in the east is a mere shadow. Violence is just
another word
for
Suffering. Father Tom reminded us that the first
commandment of Jesus
is,
"You must love your neighbor as yourself." Then
he asked us why we
did not
do this, Love our neighbor as our oursel?." He said
that is because
we have
not died to the self, we have not been born again in the
Godhead that
is
Christ, we do not love our true Self. Subtle distinctions
here, but
truth
is subtle. He told that when we can learn to love our
true self we
can
then love our neighbor as we should. I embrace truth in
all
religions. I
have yet to find one that does not come to this
conclusion. It is as
Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj points our in "I Am That."
The best thing we can
do is
become a light unto ourselves. Or as Bede Griffeths
admonishes us,
"We must
walk through the darkness to find love." Or we must
take up our
cross of
suffering and carrry it until our frail human
self-serving love into
the
Divine Love that is Compassion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DAN:
Humor lightens the load, disperses
the burden.
If pain is humor's fuel, light is humor's
friend.
Humor knows that pain doesn't define my being.
Humor can cover pain as well.
And there comes a time to be with the pain,
without covering or attempting
to lighten, simply noticing
as is.
To be wounded is to be mortal.
To be born as eternity is to be unsplit.
To be one who is "mortal eternal" is to
breathe one's wound without
defense, without strategy,
without escape. It is to laugh
and cry, while being where there
is no laughter or crying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from WHITE WOLF:
"Give us this day our daily bread."
-Matthew 6:11
of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.
something will come,
of Something: except Peace.
Nature herself - who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand - is the
porcelain past evolving the clay future:
She is rushing and unmitigated;
the all becoming the all becoming.
Nature is Something -- Something is waxing.
of Something,
will come something: except Peace.
nothing will come,
of Nothing: except Peace.
Nature herself - who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand - is the
porcelain past involving the clay future:
She is crying and unassuaged;
the all becoming the all becoming.
nothing will come,
of Nothing: except Peace.
of Something,
will come something: except Peace.
Nature herself - who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand - is the
clay future revolving the porcelain past:
She is dying and unpalliated;
the all becoming the all becoming.
something will come,
of Something: except Peace.
of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.
Nature herserlf - who can be no better
or worse made but by her own hand - is the
clay future devolving the porcelain past:
She is rushing
and crying
and dying:
the all becoming the all becoming.
Nature is Something - Something is waning.
of Nothing,
will come nothing: except Peace.
of Something,
will come Something: except Peace.
Peace will come of Nothing: Death is Nothing.
Sorrow will come of Something: Dying is Something.
Something will come,
of Nothing,
will come Peace.
-Mark Christopher Valentine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENE:
Objects in space are all in relative movement, and that
is why they
are seen. Only space itself does not move; and awareness
is movement
in that space of non-movement. It is that relationship of
movement to
NON-movement which seems to fill awareness, and to signal
consciousness.
Naturally, our attention is drawn to movement, but it is
only our own
stillness and silence as awareness itself (space) which
allows a
comparison to be made. Stillness is what is looking at
movement,
creating movement by the act of looking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from Joel Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence
Years ago, during the 1950's, as part of a long
international journey,
I
flew to Joahannesburg, South Africa. When I arrived,
there was only
my one
little piece of baggage waiting for me, and the two large
pieces were
missing. Immediately, the airline personnel began
searching for my
baggage, but they did not find it anywhere. Despite a
great deal of
speculation and hullabaloo no baggage was found.
For three weeks I was in South Africa without baggage and
without
money,
although my needs were taken care of minimally by the
airline. The
whole
time I was convinced that my bags would show up, which
was a very
wrong
conviction.
Two nights before I was to leave for India, I sat down to
give this
whole
incident some serious consideration. "This
represents a failure on my
part. What is the failure? What has gone wrong
here?"
As I sat in my room, pondering and meditating, finally
the answer
came: "This is a spiritual universe, and yet here I
am waiting for
baggage, when the truth of the matter is there isn't any
baggage. All
that
baggage is, is part of the belief of time and space -
space that is
occupied by baggage, time in which it could be lost, and
space in
which it
could be lost. Here we are trying to find baggage, which
if it were
found
would only be more evidence that the material world is
solid reality
and
obeys physical laws."
"There is no truth to this whole picture because we
are living in a
spiritual universe where nobody has any need of baggage.
Whatever
there is
of reality is incorporeal, spiritual, and omnipresent;
and whatever
appears
as finite baggage in time and space must be no more than
an image in
thought and can have no reality to it; so I have been
fooled into
hoping
and waiting for material baggage to turn up in a
spiritual universe
where
every idea is omnipresent."
With that I retired for the night.
The story came to a quick conclusion after that
realization. The next
day
the assistant manager of the airline at Johannesburg had
an
inspiration
come to him and the baggage was found in a room where no
one had
thought to
look before. Nobody had thought of that possibility until
I
remembered we
were not dealing with material baggage but with
Omnipresence.
The suffering of this world is due to our looking around
for a piece
of
personal baggage - even expecting it to be in its right
place. That
is the
error. There is no place for you or me, or for any he,
she or it,
except
in the only place where it is to be found and that is in
Omnipresence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew:
the way i see it is that drawing conclusions is just
something mind
does. It is a simple and natural function of mind. Where
the "problem" arises is in our identifying with
the conclusions that
mind has drawn. So to me, trying to stop mind from
drawing
conclusions is a total waste of time, except perhaps as a
minor
begining exercise. Mind draws conclusions endlessly, and
that
process just needs to be seen clearly for what it is; a
function of
mind
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHITE WOLF:
The metaphor is
never strong enough to bear the weight of the wisdom it
attempts to
give
form to. What is wisdom today will be childish
foolishness by
tomorrow. The
sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Spirit is
always beyond
mind
and forcing consciousness to expand continuously with or
without
effort
until suddenly, every direction you turn one is
overwhelmed by Truth
and
Beauty, Beauty and Truth and you are in Love with Love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SANDEEP responds to this
statement made by Sri Aurobindo:
> Not only a truer knowledge,
> but a greater power comes to one
> in the quietude and silence of a mind
> that, instead of bubbling on the surface,
> can go to its own depths and listen.
And so to obtain this "greater power" one tries
to go into one's depth
and
listen to the quietude.
Who is to listen?
Who knows this "true knowledge"?
Who experiences the quietude?
To whom does this "great power" come to?
Such bubbling nonsense.<s>
But then Aurobindo was as much an example of the
perfection of
manifestation
as anything/anybody else manifested.
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Greg
Goode •
Philosophical Counseling • Caring
dialogue that heals and empowers 
