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#5108 – Tuesday, December 11, 2013 – Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - View with better formatting and full graphics: http://nonduality.org/2013/12/11/5108-tuesday-december-11-2013-editor-jerry-katz/
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Nonduality Network Talk Radio is on the air Wednesday at 12:30PM EST. Listen at ckdu.ca
My guest is James Traverse. We’ll be talking about Jean Klein, playing various clips, and seeing where the flow takes us! If you want to be part of the show send me your phone number. I can call one or two people. I’ll take the first who responds with preference for people who have not yet been on the show. You can talk about anything having to do with nonduality.
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Pope Francis sounds like Osho is this recent statement:
In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh? -Pope Francis
Here’s Osho:
I will not be talking about Christ, but about Jesus. Let Christ be imprisoned in the churches – that is the right place for Christ to exist. I would like Jesus to enter your hearts. Forget Christ, remember Jesus. But just the opposite has happened. People have forgotten Jesus and their minds have been hammered continuously for two thousand years, hammered to remember Christ. Christ cannot transform you, because there exists no bridge between you and Christ. Then there exists an unbridgeable abyss. But with Jesus you are close. You can call Jesus “brother, but you cannot call Christ “brother.” And until you feel a deep brotherhood, a bridge, how can Jesus be of any help to you? Jesus is tremendously beautiful. His beauty has a dimension of its own.
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What Are We Seeking?
by Randall Friend
What exactly is it, that we are seeking? In spirituality, are we seeking a new experience, like a new ride at the amusement park, some new state of experience, or do we really want to know WHAT we are?
What if knowing WHAT you are ultimately has nothing to do with experience?
Certainly the discovery of WHAT you are can lead to some interesting experiences, but isn’t the point of all this to really find out WHAT you are? Isn’t this really the point? So we must focus on the discovery of what exactly it is that you are, and not what you take yourself to be, not what you believe yourself to be, not what you have been told that you are.
The ocean and the wave are great examples. Can we admit that ultimately, wave is really just ocean? No matter how unique wave is, it really isn’t anything but ocean itself. Ocean has risen up in a particular, unique pattern. Ocean races to the shore, picks up a few brave surfers along the way, and then finally ends in a spectacular crash upon the shore. In all this, what happened to wave? It ended. But what happened to Ocean – to what wave really WAS? Nothing happened to ocean. Ocean’s expression in this case just ended.
Did wave have an independent existence? Was wave something independent of Ocean? No – wave IS Ocean. Our existence is exactly like this.
Let’s call it Life. Life IS. Life is FROM WHICH all expressions come – the tree – the cloud – the bird – the thoughts – the bodies – Life is that substratum of existence, and all expressions really are THAT IS-ness we can call “Life”. So the tree didn’t come into Being independently – it didn’t have its own existence but all along was just Life. Life patterned as Tree for a while then Tree ended – Life’s expression ended. Tree is dead but Life remains.
That body-mind you have taken yourself to be has come – you take yourself to be some new existence – something has independent existence. That means – you take that body-mind as WHAT you are. That is called Identity. Therefore whatever happens TO that body-mind seems to happen to you. But is that body-mind an independent EXISTENCE? Or is it simply just another expression of Life, another expression of what-IS?
Aren’t you really what-IS and not JUST the subsequent expressions of THAT? Just like the ocean, haven’t you mistakenly identified with the wave and missed your true essence and IS-ness as the Ocean? As Life itself?
Instead of trying to invoke some mystical experience, focus on the idea of existence itself. Can existence come and go? Does existence begin anew with each new experience? Or does THAT which IS remain as those expressions come and go? And isn’t that ME just another transient expression of Life?
Isn’t then Life just the infinite potential for ANY expression? Does the expression ever limit that substratum of existence?
Can you really be anything but THAT which IS? And is there more than ONE of THAT? This is ultimately what these various disciplines of spirituality are pointing to. This is the point of the spiritual traditions which point to One without a Second.
You are THAT which IS. Discern Experience from Existence. Find out if identity is correctly placed upon that transient, fleeting experience, or if it should be placed upon what actually IS, FROM WHAT any experience comes.
If you are truly seeking yourself, you cannot find it by seeking experiences but only by finding out WHAT those experiences ultimately ARE. You are seeking your true Self – that Self is the “self” of everything.
Start by questioning your own existence – was I really ever born? Did I really begin?
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About/Contact
Randall was seeking from the age of twelve, disillusioned with traditional Christianity, discovering a world of differing Religions and taking a natural inclination towards Buddhism. Though years of study and practice went by, no contentment was to come. It was through the writings of Alan Watts that Vedanta was discovered and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj book “I AM THAT” was read. After reading this book, the flame was lit and Randall was determined to meet someone who was in the “lineage” of Nisargadatta.
Randall read about Sailor Bob Adamson and his book “What’s Wrong With Right Now – If You Don’t Think About It.” Gilbert Schultz edited this book and Randall began a conversation with Gilbert. Over a few months the so-called “prerequisites” were there but still no contentment. There was sleeplessness – a constant mental flood of questions.
Randall called on Sailor Bob a few times – Bob pointed in the most simple way – the mental flood was replaced with a clarity of inquiry. What was considered beyond question was put under critical scrutiny. The house of cards called separate reality crumbled – the bottom fell out of the paradigm of individuality – the message hit home and it was clear that reality is whole – it is glaringly obvious. Gilbert and Bob were the signposts – pointing away from ignorance and toward Self-Knowledge. Nothing changed – it was realized that reality is already whole and what-I-am is that wholeness.
Randall has a book with Non-Duality Press, offers Skype conversations, and can be contacted via email – seehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18004296258866577268 for email address.
Avastu Maruti is the Second Life Avatar for Randall Friend.
Randall Friend wrote the book You Are No Thing, published by Non-Duality Press