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It was the usual busy Sunday,
and included a thread of Bob
Dylan lyrics launched by Kristi
the previous day, to which the
ever-communicative Tim replied
with the mention of a song
title:

Ahh, but I love Bob Dylan's
music... So fresh still, even
30 years afterthe fact...

Tangled up in Blue,
_________________________________

The ever musical Aleks
responded with some lyrics from
a Dylan favorite of hers, one
very much in the Walt Whitman
poetic tradition:

likewise tangled. . .

here's a bit from a favorite:
"let me drink from the waters
where the mountain streams flood
let the smell of wild flowers
flow free through my blood
let me sleep in your meadows
with green grassy leaves
let me walk down the highway
with my brother in peace
let me die in my footsteps
before i go down under the ground

go out in your country
where the land meets the sun
see the craters and the canyons
where the waterfalls run
nevada, new mexico, arizona, idaho
let every state in this union
seep down deep in your soul
and you'll die in your footsteps
before you go down under the ground.

--let me die in my footsteps
bob dylan
_________________________________

Not to be outdone, yours truly
came up with vintage Dylan
lyrics from "My Back Pages":

"In a soldier's stance I aimed my glance
at the mongrel dogs who teach,
fearing not I'd become my own enemy,
in the instant that I preached.
Good and bad, I defined these terms,
quite clear, no doubt somehow.
Ah but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now..."
-- Bob Dylan
_________________________________

Inspired, Jerry proposed the
following improvement to Dylan's
"Love Minus Zero - No Limit":

In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no truth like silence,
And in silence no truth at all.
_________________________________

Unable to leave well-enough
alone, yours truly offered the
following tweak to Jerry's
contribution (the last two
lines of the verse):

She knows that nothing speaks like silence,
and that silence doesn't speak at all.
_________________________________

Later, Tim presented the following
lyrics for Aleks to set to music:

"Where do I live?"

Where do I live?
In an apartment?
(neti, neti)

Where do I live?
In Seattle?
(neti, neti)

Where do I live?
In Washington?
(neti, neti)

Where do I live?
In America?
(neti, neti)

Where do I live?
On Earth?
(neti, neti... neti, neti...)

Where do I live?
In the universe?
(neti, neti... neti, neti..)

Nowhere is my home
Nothingness is my throne...
(neti, neti... neti, neti...)
(neti, neti... neti, neti...)

I don't live in a place,
I don't dwell in a space...
There's nowhere that I am,
And everywhere that I am,

No place I can call home,
Like Dylan's rolling stone,
(neti neti... neti neti...)
(neti neti... neti neti...)

My Being rolls ever on,
In an endless joyous song...
Through worlds without a name
Where nothing is the same...
Oh the place where I am dwell,
It is heaven, it is hell...
It is sky and it is grass,
Has no time, no space, no mass...
Has no light, no dark, no near,
Has no hate nor greed nor fear,
Has no inward draw of breath
Ending silently in death

(neti neti, neti neti...
neti neti, neti neti...)
_________________________________

The intrepid universal satsanghi,
Petros, reported on his encounter
with Neelam and Nirmala:

The best surprise was seeing
Nirmala there. For those who
don't know him, Nirmala is a
disciple of Neelam who now teaches
on his own. I had met him in
Phoenix a couple of months ago and
gave a short report of it. He sat
up on the platform with Neelam,
thus providing us with a rare
"double-headed" satsang. Both
answered questions alternately,
but Neelam corrected Nirmala on
one occasion when he seemed to be
getting off track with someone.

Nirmala is soft-spoken and has a
light touch, but Neelam is
unquestionably the star of the
show. She is really developing a
strong presence about her. She
has an infectious giggle that can
break any incipient tension or
confusion that arises, yet can
turn on a strong steady gaze when
one needs to enter into the
Silence. She is remarkably
sensitive and really seems to
feel the pain or anger in a
person's voice. There are always
one or two people to whom satsang
is a new experience, or who don't
really "get it" about nonduality
or the Self, or who are stuck in
a mind-trip. Where I would tend
to insult someone, Neelam never
loses her patience.
_________________________________

The prolific Dan declares:

The only relevant teaching is
from one's Self IMO, or from God
as simultaneously immanent and
transcendent, said another way.
One's Self as Self *is* the
"instruction," the "teaching,"
the "how" to which you refer. In
other words, there is no "how" to
any of this, simply pure
spontaneous manifestation of Self
within Self via Self. The
manifestation, termed Maya by
Hindus, is none other than Self-
activity. The instruction to
which you refer seems to me to be
the ever-increasing recognition of
Maya as Self-activity.
_________________________________

To which the estimable Harsha,
recently returned from vacation,
added:

Very beautiful Dan. What else
could it be? Only Self Recognizing
It Self through It Self. Not as a
process, although the process is
inevitably a part of the movement
from the perspective of the mind,
but as a Fact when the mind is
absent or absorbed. As a Pure and
Simple Fact of Self-Knowing, Self
Recognition, Self-Abidance with or
without the presence of the mind or
the body.
_________________________________

Melody tells a tale:

About a year ago I devised my own
experiment. I opened 2 new email
accounts and and signed on under
2 names, one male and the other
female. I then subscribed under
those aliases to 2 mailing lists
on which I actively participated.

(I was rather busy those couple of
weeks, chatting on 2 lists as 3
different 'voices'. <s>)

I was astonished at the difference
in responses. Writing under a
masculine name, my IQ seemed to
increase significantly. As the
'other woman', people who tended
to respond to 'Melody' in a more
of a debating style, responded in
a much friendlier and open way to
this 'new' woman.

It was a remarkable experiment
for me. It helped me to drop a
lot of conceptions about 'who I
am', especially in relation to
others. It helped me to see so
clearly how we tend to project
onto people certain
characteristics, and how those
projections become 'stuck in
form' quite easily....
surprisingly so in nondual
forums.

Silly though the experiment may
sound to some, I wouldn't have
missed it. What an eye opener.
_________________________________

Antoine resonated with Mel:

Meeting people originally met on
the internet, over the years,
also has been to me an "eye"
opener on the projection i was
still making in relation to
body/mind relation.

As for writing an email, if ever
i feel, when writing to someone,
a doubt come that i am actually
writing to Jerry, Tim or Melody.
I realize that in fact i am
writing to myself. And Pufff, a
"liberation" comes from it.
_________________________________

Gene Poole presented a not-so-
magnum opus using some computer
analogies among other device to
agree with both Petros and Jan:

Petros wrote in reply to Jan:

<<snipperoo>>

We could go further, and ask if
there is such a thing per se as
the passage of 'time' without a
mind that experiences this
passage and marks it; or if
there is 'space' without a
mechanism for cognizing that
space.

It's impossible to imagine what
'reality' is like without or
outside of a mind -- obviously,
as long as we are (or think we
are) human minds.

Jan had written:

So in principle the entire
process can be impersonal. Much
of the information is stored so
that instead of interpreting
something as an car, it can be
recognized, once one has become
familiar with the concept of car.

Still, it's just a remembered
concept.

Now writes Gene:

In my view, both views are correct.
One does not cancel the other. Both
views taken together comprise what
we all must bear or deal with.
Trying to eliminate one view will
employ a force which will ultimately
disrupt the function of the process,
and lead eventually to starting
over, perhaps painfully.

_1 Petros is correct in his
statement "as long as... ", above.
And also in his later statement that
"... it's just a remembered concept".

_2 Jan is correct in his assumption
that (as I interpret his position)
'it is all just information'. He is
aware of the process of 'flattening'
a multilevel (multilayer)
presentation to make the essential
information available to 'all
operating systems'.

Again, I see that both POVs are
correct and not mutually exclusive
at all. Further, the capability to
'see' from both POVs is essentially
a 'built-in' error-correction system,
perfected for our survival. That is
what nonduality is; the built-in
guidance of a process to survival,
similar to the 'check-sum' error-
correction of electronic data-
transfer. It is the compound of
'duality and nonduality' which afford
the survival-tool of difference AND
non-difference.

Survival implies that there is a
stepping as organic Being to knowledge
of the limitations of that organic
Being, and the consequent puzzling of
the reality of Being itself.

Consider this; 'immortality' does not
mean 'to be mortal, yet forever'.

From the nondual POV, immortality is
realization of self as the entire
continuum, from the 'beginning' to the
'end'. The 'end-note' is the same note
as the beginning-note, and all
experience is the symphony of
differentiation which occurs 'in-
between'. To attempt to exclude any
'piece' of our nature is to threaten our
nature; that is why nonduality is the
way that it is, an enforcement of
immunity. That 'eternal note' of
beginning/end, that same note, is always
playing, and serves as the reference-
beam which resolves the puzzle of the
information of the hologram
of supposed 'temporal' existence.

Listening to that symphony of
differentiation, one may hear a 'blank'
or gap. What is missing is the acceptance
or tolerance of the rejected part, not
the part itself. Abiding, one may hear
the entire symphony, sans gaps. Thus, it
is not the 'information' which is the
issue, but the factors of how it is
recognized; that is why we debate
productively over issues of consciousness,
and poorly over dogma and 'beliefs'.

Some may say, in a passion of 'boiling it
down', that once Being is resolved, that
nothing else is relevant; I find that POV
to be in error. To present 'seekers' with
the answer to the puzzle is to ask the
question, yet, all too often the seeker
will rest in the answer and forget the
question. This is my objection to 'boiling
it down', no matter the enthusiasm of the
one who seeks to reduce 'it all' to what
will or has become a platitude or homily,
mere 'nondual graffiti' on the walls of
the rest-stops of the freeway of life.

"Ramana was here... "

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