Click here to go to the next issue.

Thursday January 18th


Mind the mind.
-- Jan

Mind the store.
Don't store the mind.

-- Dan


Don't mind the store
Give it away.

Harsha



Here, take it!
It's yours from before
the beginning ...

Dan


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



Good clip showing on Shockwave.com Pink Floyd
Wish you were here.
(Just wanted to share.)


So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field
from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade,
your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exhange
a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We'er just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
year after year.
Running over the same old ground
what have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here

Pink floyd



Thanks for the pointer and the lyrics, Paul.

I've always thought that was a poignant song. It's a tribute to Sid
Barrett, who couldn't get back enough to function after tripping out.
(one of the more famous acid casualties.)

Love, Mark



Dear Mark and Paul -

Thanks - interesting stuff ...

That happened to Danny Kalb of the
Blues Project, too.

Going where there is no distinguishing
of this from that, and integrating
such nondistinguishing with
differentiating this from that --
so that one still can "function"
as involved in "space-time" --
to be able to live "in the world
but not of the world" -- requires strength --

the story of the ten oxherding pictures --
"reintegration is necessary" --

the danger is "absorption" in
"primal fusion" -- the
regressed state in which nonseparation
is the fusion of child and mother,
this and that - without distinction,
without the ability to "form and organize
time and space" --

Warnings about this abound in various
places - e.g. Qabala, Tibetan Buddhism,
even Freudian therapy -- where regression into
psychosis is considered as a last-ditch
defense against overwhelming feelings/perceptions.

Love,
Dan


Hello Dan,

What do they say about these warnings in Buddhism or where ever?
How to avoid? Or maybe, You can mention some books about that? I
thought the danger was in believing in a state experienced to be that
of enlightenment. Or perhaps K experience's.



Love,
Paul


Dear Paul,

Certainly "unhinging if not integrated" applies to K experiences,
although I wasn't specifically referring to that.

Not as much referring to warnings in books (although these abound)
but referring to the protection provided
by the teacher-student
relationship. Each "step" is monitored.
If there aren't signs of readiness, the next
"step" isn't offered. My understanding is
that with Advaita teachings, a similar
dynamic occurs. Certainly, this is
true with Qabala, also Taoist and shamanic paths,
although with the
modern trend toward open dispersion of
information, the information in each of these
teachings is accessed much more readily.
Which offers more accessibility, but possibly
more "misuse" (although nothing is out of place).
The same thing with substances, when too easily
accessed (and often in nonconducive conditions),
unhinging, rather than opening can result.

The danger I'm referring to is the danger of being
unhinged, of losing one's previous integration without
a new "re-integration", so to speak.

The "loss of identity" is the loss of self and world.
There is no ground beneath, there is the death of
the entity one thought one was.
Each of these disciplines warn that prematurely
pushing someone to a point of psychological/spiritual
"stress" can dis-unify the structure taken as reality,
without the readiness to live as the structureless
being with no center. Then there is fragmentation
rather than wholeness. This seems to be what happened
with the people we were discussing, using psychotropic
substances. It's as if the center is lost, yet centerlessness
isn't accepted and integrated in a way that allows the use
of language and perception compatible with day to day social
life. So there's a kind of centerless being that is seeking for
a center, finding and losing a center repeatedly - a state
called "psychosis" in the West ... although some people
don't necessarily stay stuck there forever (it may feel like
forever to them, though) ...

Love,
Dan


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____


Omkara:

...But am I the only one getting really tired of the
temporary/changing always
being referred to as "unreal"?


-------------------------------No you aren't. To me everything is
real.
..............matthew


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____


Omkara:

...I do question (literally, and often) just how "entertaining" the
conversations here are. Really, not terribly. I also question "why
my continued presence on the NDS list," but since there is no answer
forthcoming, what else to do but fall back on the fact that there is
no "I" guiding the actions of this body... ?



Sometimes, they are most enjoyable - I still remember a Halloween that was
rather
funny...
And that is how sentient life is supposed to be - once the nature of maya is
understood.
The presence on the NDS list is for the simple reason that humans aren't
designed for
solitary life but to function in a small community instead - all members will
benefit
from each
other,
the sum is more than the total of seeming individuals.
...
Jan


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____


> Maharaj:
>
Ones freedom lies in being free to fulfill the need of the moment, to
obey the necessity of the situation. Freedom to do what one likes is
really bondage, while being free to do what one must, what is right,
is real freedom.

--------------------This to me is consideration that i think is
usually overlooked. The freedom that we all read about and talk
about and seek for is not about personal freedom. It is not about
having our way, getting what we want, doing the things we
like,(though that may happen too, if you are lucky) in fact it is not
really about any kind of freedom at all. It is about slavery.
Spiritual Slavery. It is slavery to fullfill the need of the moment,
slavery to obey the neccesity of the situation, slavery to do what
one must, slavery to do what is right. There are no choices and no
options. What ones life becomes, is a life of service. Service to
those around us, service to the "other", all "others" not just the
ones we happen to like. This is the demand that is placed on one, the
burden that one carries, when he/she realizes and becomes responsible
for already existant and always present enlightenment. The bondage of
being free to do what one likes, as Maharaj says, is also slavery but
it is slavery to the machine, slavery to all our conditioning, our
habits and chronic thought patterns and emotions. The things we like
to do are of the same conditioning as our hate, fear and prejudices
and all the other things we say we dont like to manifest and wish we
could change. So either way you look at it there is no freedom. We
are either a slave to the machine or a slave to god, no choices or
options in either case. Take your pick. (ha ha, as if we could.)
....................matthew

top of page