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Sunday, October 22


vaster than unlimited consciousness you are
illuminating the thousand thousand suns you are
naked as can be, without a single stitch of anything
naked silence, naked bliss, naked naked brilliance, you are

--cee

________________________________________________________________

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
And I intend to end up there.

-- Rumi (sent by James Bean)

_________________________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE

My interest in astronomy and the Hubble pictures can hardly be
called a truly scientific one. What drives me and allures me is
more akin to the hunger of a thrillseeker, just to be there
alters the inner landscape of my being in ways indescribable.

So one place we went on our recent trip to New York, was the new
planetarium. It is one thing to talk about light-years in the
millions, which frankly is so mind boggling as to be
incomprehensible, in the sense of having no frame of reference
with which to imagine what is meant. It is quite another to be
given the visual and kinesthetic sense of travelling such vast
distances and seeing the universe, not just from the earth view,
but from "out there" looking back, towards where our entire
galaxy is a tiny star among millions of others. This view of the
entire universe startles, in that unlike our usual view of a
star filled sky, it is not homogeneous in appearance. Three
dimensionally, picture a foam of bubbles, with the "stars" seen
being actually myriads of galaxies containing stars, and these
forming a loosely connected skin around the bubble surfaces with
vast, dark empty spaces between them. It is an image reminding
one of a net, perhaps that of Indra's net of jewels.

Still stunned by the visual impact of seeing such vast space,
one emerges to take a walk thru time. Only on this walkway, one
step is approximately 75 million years. So with your 360 steps,
you cover the events of a 13 billion year evolution of the
universe. At the end, all of known human existence till now is
the width of.... one human hair.

________________________________________________________________

MANCHINE

The garbage was overflowing in the bucket under the sink.

I was down there changing the bag, picking up the scraps I
dunno, potatoe peels or something. I paused and looked at what I
had in my hand. Garbage scraps! How in God's name could it be!
Incredible. It's just not fair, when half the world is in crisis
and the rest is searching... that I had the answer in my hand.

I looked up at my wife and said "it's here, it's just so
incredible!". She smiled. It stays with me longer now and comes
more often, but be damned if I know how to explain it.

Well we try! amid the criticism. It's not their fault, nor ours.
It's just that way. I guess it isn´t meant to be explained!

So why do I talk about it? To confirm that it IS.


___________________________________________________________________

GENB POOLE SENDS QUOTES:

"Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know
men." -- Confucius

"Words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are
truly endless." -- Mother Teresa

"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of
that." -- John Stuart Mill

"The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by
very beautiful things." -- Jean De La Bruyere

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain
stupid." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein

"The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you
don't know anything about." -- Wayne Dyer

"The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the
less capable you are of loving in the present." -- Barbara De
Angelis

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent
of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
-- Buddha

"When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out -- because
that's what's inside. When you are squeezed, what comes out is
what is inside. -- Wayne Dyer

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished
by your anger." -- Buddha

"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide
your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your
mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you
control your own destiny." -- Albert Ellis

"Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own
behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to
some other individual or organization or entity. But this means
we then give away our power to that entity". -- M Scott Peck

"Fear not those who argue but those who dodge." -- Marie
Ebner-Eschenbach

"Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes." --
Charles Caleb Colton

"Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or
a fool from any side." -- Jewish Proverb

The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That
which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise.
-- Bhagavad Gita

"When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and
a half." -- Gracie Allen

______________________________________________________________

JODY

Realization cannot be "learned." It is a blessing that bestows
Itself directly. Those that have been blessed this way find
themselves compassionate toward those who are seeking the
blessing, and therefore they post.

The NDS has the highest concentration of brahmajnanis known on
the planet. Unfortunately, those who are seeking frequently see
themselves reflected in those who are blessed, and rather than
taking the opportunity to learn about themselves, they attack
that which they hate in themselves by attacking those they see
themselves in.

...

Shiva lies prone under my Mother Kali. He rests in nirvakalpa
samadhi as She does all the dirty work of manifestation and
liberation. She will rip you to shreds if you are favored by
Her, and then She might even show you who you *really* are,
which is perfect nothing absolute.

There is no "learner," there is nothing to "learn."

...

I've never claimed anyone on the NDS is enlightened. I *know*
however, that many are Self realized. Realization comes,
enlightenment follows, usually after having lived a lifetime in
Self realization.

It's not a matter of being "less" blessed. Every single person
on this planet is living their lives as the Self. Every single
one. The blessing for some is that they know it, directly and
experientially. Others may not have this blessing yet, but they
aren't less blessed in any way. The fact is, Self realization
changes nothing about one's life except the understanding of who
one is.

Before Self realization, one takes themselves to be their
body/mind. After Self realization, one knows directly and
experientially that they are the Self. However, any crap that
was in the mind before realization will continue to exist after.
Pain, shame, humilation, desires, they all continue to exist, in
the *mind*. While the jiva that has been blessed with Self
realization now knows that they aren't the mind, the mind keeps
on going like that Eveready bunny. So, while the realized person
knows he/she is stainless and ever free, he/she is stuck dealing
with the same muck the rest of us do.

When Self realization occurs, one sees that they are No thing,
that there really is no learner, and that there is nothing to
learn. We all live in the being of Self. Realized or not, it is
true for all.

_____________________________________________________________-

SKY AND SANDEEP

SKY: There isn't a single dream or fragment of a dream in this post,
or generally, anywhere on NDS, that I haven't seen posted ad
infinitum and ad naseam on NDS. And yet I'm obviously not sick
enough of it to stop posting.

SANDEEP: Then where is the problem,what is the issue for you, Sky? Or is
it the game of wanting to be a saviour and save the NDS nerds
from themselves?

LOL.

For Heaven's sake, it is an inert E Mail List, a cyber-meeting
place, anybody everybody can come and say their piece or not say
their piece, once or ad-infintum, stay to listen to other's
pieces or stay and hit the del key as many times as preferred or
move on, if it is felt that the del key will soon be
dysfunctional with the number of times it is hit.

As simple as that.

--------------------------

JOHN METZGER

Sky, is what you are trying to say is that people are full of
boloney? Or is the boloney empty of people? NDS as filet of
baloney?...as the mustard? Happy cutting, John


What I have in Buddhism
is nothing.
What I wish to attain
is nothing.

Let me explain.
In perceiving the Dharma
I achieved nothing --
What worries me is not
nothing
But everything, the trouble is
number,
But since everything is nothing
then I am worried nil.
In seeking to attain the Dharma
I failed, attaining nothing,
And so I succeeded the goal,
Which was, pure happy
nothing.
No matter how you cut it
it's empty delightful boloney

Mexico City Blues, Jack Kerouac

____________________________________________________________________

WHITE WOLF

Mind becomes increasingly Subtle, the process seems to just be,
contiuously moving without end or exhaustion, the Heart becomes
increasingly Compassionate, standing alone and unchanging, the
Spirit ever expanding and contracting into ever deeper realms of
Joy.

...

"We and world are less alive than dolls and dream."
-e.e.cummings
If we know we are dreaming a dream within a dream, are we still
dreaming? If we dream we are Awake, is the wakefulness still
nothing but dream? If we know that we dream we can enjoy the
dream even when it is a nightmare, because you see its end even
before it begins. All manner of things are well. The words that
dance upon the page are nothing but a metaphor for the dance of
the body which in nothing but a metaphor for the dance of the
soul which is nothing but a metaphor for the the dance that is
Spirit. Spirit is. The universe is nothing but a vessel for
Spirit falling out of unity, peace and boredom into
multiplicity, diversity and suffering. How much difference is
there between harmony and conflict. None. The one rests on the
other. The inordinate preference of one over the other is a
preference for duality and suffering. Enjoy the dance when it
leads into the cool waters and over the burning coals!

______________________________________________________________________

AARON ULLREY

I did take the time to locate some really interesting verses in
the Vijnanabhairava, trans. by Jaideva Singh. I will list a few
of the them below:

Verse 127

That which cannot be known as an abject (sic.), that which
cannot be grasped (i.e. that which is elusive), that which is
void, that which penetrates even non-existence all that should
be contemplated as Bhairava. At the end of that contemplation
will occur enlightenment.

Footnote to verse 29

The absolute void is Bhairava who is beyond the senses and the
mind, beyond all the categories of these instruments. From the
point of vie of the human mind, He is most void. From teh point
of view of reality, he is most full, for he is the source of all
manifestation.

Verse 38

. . . He will, then with the help of the power of the void,
become of the nature and formof the void.

Verse 43

If in one's body, one contemplates over sunya (spatial vacuity)
in all directions simultaneously (i.e. without succession)
without any though-construct, he expereiences vacuit all around
(and is identified with the vast expanse of conscioussness).

Verse 116

Wherever the mind goes whether towards the exterior or towards
the interior, everywhere there is the state of Siva. Since Siva
is omnipresent where can the mind go (to avoid him).

and a note to 116 that I think is really important:

Since everything is Siva, the aspirant need not be perturbed if
he is unable to concentrate on some mysterious universal
reality.

My comments:

This last note is so important. If all is nondual, if all
reality is reality, there is no grand mystery, there is no key
to open the door to fullness, there is nothing but the one,
reality, siva. It is not up to the aspirant to find some high,
esoteric truth. Experiencing the one and living a spiritual life
is not about esoteric thought. Living with the one is a point of
mindfully living in the one, as the one.

A teacher once said to me, "Aaron, spirituality is not the Siva
Sutras. Spirituality is living with the divine at every moment."
And the haunting words Swami Dayananda said to me "You have
experienced the truth, you are the only one there. Now you need
a guru and the teachings." There is only one, and it is a point
of living in it, not of concentrating one's mind on some
"mysterious universal reality". There is nothing supernatural or
mysterious about it.

The vijnanabhairava is a 160 verse text that speaks mostly of
meditation techniques and ways to see Bhairava. It is a tantra
so the form of the text is a dialoge between Bhairava and the
goddess. Bhairava, Siva, instructs the goddess, sakti, on how
to see him when one is in illusion. It is quite the book. I
found it very powerful.

-----------------------

LARRY

Thanks for the quotes. I read some of this stuff a few years ago
and, needless to say, didn't get it. I haven't read
Vijnanabhairava so I poked around a little and found out that
Bhairava is the wrathful aspect of Siva similar to the Buddhist
Mahakala. Does Vijnanabhairava mean the holy wrathful aspect of
consciousness or what? Also could you expand on the connection
you see between Bhairava and sunya (emptiness).

Besides that, I found something that sounds familiar to NDS.
This is from Dyczkowski's _The Doctrine Of Vibration_ and is
concerned with the means (upaya) to liberation. This last of the
four means is "no-means" (anupaya):

"In fact, there is nothing we can do to free ourselves. All
forms of practice,whether internal or external, depend on
consciousness and so cannot serve as a means to realise it. He
who seeks to discover this reality by practice is like a man who
tries to see the sun by the light of a fireflu. Those who are in
the realms of "No-means" (anupaya) recognize that the light of
consciousness shines as all things. All the opposites merge and
their seeming contradiction is resolved. Liberation and bondage
become synonymous just like "jar" and "pot" indicate the same
object. No-means (anupaya) is the experience of the absolute
(anuttara) beyond both transcendence and immanence (Siva and
Sakti). Undefinable and mysterious, it is neither existent (sat)
nor non-existent (asat), neither is it both nor neither."

In a footnote it says, "This means is very important in
Abhinavagupta's Trika which aims primarily at the realization of
Anuttara." Do you know if this has been translated or if anyone
has written anything on anupaya in KS?

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