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Friday February 16, 2000



JERRY

Thanks for sending this material on Heart Meditation, Xan. The tonal note that
is brightest to me when I read these posts I would call 'gratitude'. It takes
me back to the thread on spiritual apathy. Instead of looking for solutions or
ways around perceived obstacles, how about gratitude for what is? Through
gratitude, all possibilities reveal themselves. Through gratitude, Grace
chooses and delivers the right one.


JAN B.
SOMETHING FISHY


A deep sea fish isn't aware that it is surrounded by water,
that its body is mainly consisting of water,
unless it dreams to be out of the water and suffocating...

And when it wakes up, what can it tell?
That there is only water - but who would see?
Or that it has been dreaming to be out of the water?

When the dream becomes such a nightmare
as to be suffocating,
waking up is spontaneous

When the dream becomes lucid
the sudden clarity it wasn't dreaming at all,
and there only is water

Those tragedies of renouncing the "dream" and then discovering there wasn't one...
The mercy, not to discover that at the end of a lifetime¹...

Instead of renouncing the "dream"
Renounce the foolish notions about dream, dreamer and dreaming...
And live happily like that deep sea fish, knowing there is no dream, only water...

Jan

¹pun intended



A nice person sent the following. If perhaps you would like to get together with these folks, write me
for further information.
--jerry

I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. There is a very small unorganised
group of people here who have occasional meetings, sometimes a
few people, more often only 2 or 3. Almost always a 'spur of the
moment', knock on the door type, coffee and cigarette affair. My
door is the one that gets knocked on. (I'm sure they only come
to see the parrots and snakes)

While the core of any discussion here is, on the face of it,
advaita, I prefer to talk about the time I was hit over the head
and beaten to a pulp. The quick, no effort, easy way to
enlightenment. (Of course effortlessness has no substance
without its corollary, effort.)

I have, for my sins, a degree in Sanskrit and Linguistics and
love to bore the pants off people, then watch the glint, as I
convince them that "tad dvAramapavargasya" -- "It (Grammar) is
the door to liberation." This is ajAtavAda par excellence. LOL!!


TIM

Hi List,

Look at this article regarding the snow here:

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/snow16ww1.shtml

Jeez, what whining, problems, problems, problems!!

Am I the only one in the entire 'puget sound area' who woke up this
morning, noticing the pleasant muffled silence and absence of traffic, went
out and enjoyed the beauty, took some pictures, and thought no more of it?

What the hell is wrong with the world? People run around like chickens
with their heads cut off.

People miss the beauty... they miss it utterly.

Puzzled,

Tim


Photos from "Newcastle Snowday" (today) are available here:

http://photos.yahoo.com/fewtch


DAVID

Tim -
I know, I know. Here in Connecticut the morning of our big snowstorm,
the only people out enjoying the snow were me and about 4 other guys all
taking pictures. Oh, and I ran into a woman from my yoga class too, who was
out grokking the beauty of it all.

I don't know whether it is the automobile or the media that have given
snowstorms the aura of disaster that they have.

My father, who grew up on a farm in Maine, told me once how, when he was
a boy, they would hitch up the horses to big logs and roll them along the
roads after a snowstorm to press the snow down and make good surfaces for
the buggies and sleighs. And about how in the winter they would skate to
school along the frozen surface of the river.

Even when I was a kid in New Hampshire we didn't get snow days because
the schools were right in the neighborhood, everyone walked to school so
there was no worry about school buses getting stuck.


DAN


>What does it mean to have a (spiritual) practice?

It means there is the ongoing thought that certain activities
or nonactivities have a special significance, and this significance
is related to a quality or goal defined as spiritual.

>Would you say you have a practice?

Neither yes nor no:

the nondoing which is all doings,
the nonmeditation which is the universal
meditation.

>Is it possible to have one?

Sure, why not?
It's possible to have an ice cream cone,
so why not a practice?

> Is it possible to not have a practice?

Sure, just like it's possible not
to have an ice cream cone.


OMKARA

> What does it mean to have a (spiritual) practice?

It is something useful in the beginning, to counteract the idea
of 'not having a spiritual practice' :-).

> Would you say you have a practice?

No more than I have anything else.

> Is it possible to have one?

No, but it's possible that one may have you.

> Is it possible to not have a practice?

No, nor is it possible to avoid a practice.



WHITE WOLFE


The Spirit of Keltia<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />



“I know the way you can get…”

-Hafiz



i know what happens when you go a wandering



when downward you blindly stumble and fall

forget the old ways of chants and magick

get lost in the labyrinth of the dark forest

lose the way of returning to the secret grove



the secret grove at the heart of the golden mountain



squirrels stop playing and screaming

they fight not over the nuts and acorns

even the relentless blue jay ceases cawing

halts its endless attacks on tanager and robin



when you go a wandering, i know what happens



when far and wide you meander and scramble

mindless of what is hidden from the foolish

delude yourself with fantasy dark and strange

discover not the path of returning enchanted waters



the enchanted waters streaming from the silver spring



the honey bee sits still and buzzes not

from columbine to aster to lily to rose

the wildflowers refuse to bud and bloom

hiding their scent in the shadows of the sun



i know what happens when you go a wandering



crawl to a stop in a muddy slough of sorrow

rip the sacred chants to pieces seeking meaning

weigh every word on a scale like a dead fish

bite your end to find your beginning like a snake



not only the grasses and sedges become afraid

but the spore of black dirt, ferns, mosses, lichens,

all things fecund and living seek shelter and dream

return with you to your end that is your beginning



when you go a wandering, I know what happens

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