I was quite taken with the idea put
forward by
David
Hodges about
nonduality being the "open source" version of modern spirituality
in yesterday's NDH:
Just because you are a smart person, steeped in
technology, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a deep
spiritual connection. Just because your rational brain
rejects what you see as the mythologies on the trash heap of
spiritual history, doesn’t mean that you can’t construct a
viable alternative.
The hacker’s path is now, at this time in history,
the one to watch. And NonDuality is the spiritual hacker's
Open Source operating system.
There are many paths to God.
I quite enjoyed reading about the "intentional
community" that he has developed, especially with respect to the
makeup of the community's weekly meetings and their
consensus-based approach to solving problems and making
decisions. Fascinating stuff; I trust there's a book in there
somewhere. I also appreciated David's description of what
surrender means to him, and how that sets a certain context for
his own inner drive and his interpersonal relationships:
When faced with oppositional energy from someone or
some situation I try non-resistance, the way a martial
artist might. Then the oppositional energy often is deflated
or transformed into something good.
Surrender also means I
stopped having anything to prove. I stopped trying to
perfect myself. I prefer to be whole, with a lot of flaws,
then to aspire to perfection, which is a recipe for making
oneself crazy. Surrendering the personal will means opening
up to the incredible manifestation power of the universe. So
many things have manifested for me at the right time, that
trying to exert will to make them happen seems pointless.
I posted something on
Facebook this week about focusing our attention on what's going
well on our lives, as opposed to focusing our attention on what
needs to be fixed. I've been developing a hypothesis relative to
the obesity support groups I participate in, based on the idea
that many of us (especially the disregulated eaters among us)
have a constant narrative running through our minds that we're
not good enough, that we'll never be able to control our urges,
and that we don't deserve to be healthy, well-adjusted people.
Mindfulness = a clear
awareness of what is really happening in this very moment.
It can be difficult to maintain mindfulness if you
perceive that what you're doing is wrong. It's painful to
sit and camp out on the feelings that arise from thinking
about what you're doing wrong in this life, or what isn't
going properly.
So I say, don't do that. Don't devote any mental
energy towards whatever in your life is NOT going right.
Reflect over and over on anything and everything
you've done since you woke up today that is GOOD. There is
almost always more of that than the bad, although it's
more common for us to think otherwise...
The post inspired some
commentary from folks who don't seem to believe that we're
intrinsically GOOD inside. I had a similar experience at a
support group run by a clinical psychologist who simply refused
to accept my premise that we might be able to recover from our
emotional eating habits by looking inward and accepting
ourselves wholly for who we are, flaws and all, and learning to
trust our own true instincts about how, what and when to eat.
In closing, I'd like to highlight an issue of Mark's from
earlier this year that I marked at the time as being
particularly good. It focuses on recognizing your own intrinsic
goodness, how to be happy, and how to recognize the
unsubstantial nature of the stories we tell ourselves. Please
enjoy.
Dustin
---------- Forwarded
message ----------
From:
Mark <markwotter704@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 11:37 PM
Subject: [NDhighlights] #4864 - Saturday/Sunday, March 16/17, 2013
To:
NDhighlights@yahoogroups.com
Archived issues of the NDHighlights
are available online: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
Nonduality Highlights Issue #4864, Saturday/Sunday,
March 16/17, 2013
"Why is everyone here so happy except me?"
"Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty
everywhere," said the Master.
"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"
"Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to
see inside."
- Anthony de Mello
Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find
yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a
statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here,
he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this
other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his
work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive,
straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that
is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and
never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall
shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of
virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely
established in the stainless shrine... Never did eye see
the sun unless it had first become sunlike, and never
can the soul have vision of the First Beauty unless
itself be beautiful.
- Plotinus
You see persons and things not as they are but as you
are.
- Anthony de Mello
At this time in our present history we have the ability
to be conscious of the stories we have been taught and
how they define us, as well as the stories we
unquestionably have believed about who another is. And
we can take responsibility for the result. We can marvel
when we discover that the stories of previously
demonized others (enemies) are as beautiful and
multi-layered as our own. We mature when we see that
some of the stories cherished as the foundation of a
culture are revealed to be flimsy and insubstantial and
sometimes outright false. One generation's true and
defining story can be proved to be a lie in the next
generation. Stories that celebrate freedom and
revolution against tyranny can turn on themselves and
become stories of reigns of terror.
We recognize the location of the story in our flesh and
emotions. From this recognition choice is born. We have
most often either chosen to continue the given story or
to rebel against that story. Naturally we have been
thrilled to discover that we can choose to live a
different story, one we feel more in alignment with.
There is yet another choice. We have the capacity to
take a moment and release all stories. We can experience
what it means to be nobody.
Underneath all the stories, we can experience that deep
core of ourselves that is historyless, genderless and
parentless. That presence is unencumbered by
relationships and has no past and no future. In the core
of our beingness we are free of definitions.
Unencumbered by our definitions we experience ourselves
as conscious intelligence aware of itself as open,
endless space. This instant of being storyless is an
instant of freedom. For even if our story is filled with
light and beauty, to the degree that we define ourselves
through that story, we are less free.
After such a moment, stories are never the same. They
can be present, as they most likely will be, but they no
longer have inherent power to define us. The inner
wealth that is available to us is then not limited or
augmented by particular inner or outer events. While the
personality or the "creatureness" of each individual
continues just as stories continue, the underlying
awareness, the true "I" has come home to itself.
- Gangaji from Hidden
Treasure: Uncovering The Truth In Your Life Story
Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural
state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs
until they have been polluted and contaminated by the
stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness
you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot
be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it
already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then
why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop
something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have
to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop
something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only
hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your
cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From
having identified with all kinds of labels!
- Anthony de Mello, from Awareness
The game is not about becoming somebody, it's about
becoming nobody.
- Ram Dass