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Wednesday, April 11


JAMES TRAVERSE

That which is solicits us. It vibrates in a particular way that
we identify with and know as I Am.

This is the blessing of sages like Ramana Maharshi,
Nisargadatta, or my reacher Jean Klein. Theses folks do use
words to prompt us but their true teaching is in the vibration
of their 'being'.

I call Jean my teacher but he didn't really teach me anything -
mostly he said things like 'be available', 'be the welcoming' -
the Truth will solicit you.

When one truly listens, the vibration of 'what is' solicits you.
The listening facilitates a resonance/harmony with 'what is' and
the I-image 'you' falls away - what remains is the solitude, or
Silence of 'what is'.

Love to All, James

________________________________________________________________

MACE MEALER

What value suffering,
but to unveil
the divine radiance
of compassion?
What value the enemy,
but to challenge
the capacity
to forgive?
What value loss,
but to make free
the tender mercy
of the heart?

____________________________________________________

WHITE WOLFE

the agony and ecstasy of love

"He will drink it little by little
and will not be able to swallow it agreeably,
and death will come to him from every quarter,,
but he shall not die..."

- Qur'an 14:17

with languishing eyes
with starving hands
i crave you
sweet mirabai
oh beloved,

gangaji,

fragile days shuffle like old men
hobbling down a dusty worn path

broken nights stagger drunkenly
and shatter like a dropped glass

while i rage out my lyric heart
to a blazing sun and piercing moon

the choiring birds at dawn torment
my longing with sweet mockery

ugly words come from fools who
have lost faith in higher, divine love

yet your poet lifts his glass once again
to drink you once more, flawless dark one,

death after birth, birth after death
crying, cry, crying of your white arms

as glittering shards of a broken crystal
cut bare feet are my lonesome nights

stumbling through a neglected garden
like old men my tedious days shuffle

teacher,
oh lover
dear mirabai
i hunger for you
with a bottomless heart
with clairvoyant sight
as one awaiting first love’s tender kiss

as mira awaits mark, mark awaits mira
endlessly, without effort, infinitely

eternally, within and without, mortally
mark loves mira as mira loves mark

together we await our first holy kiss of fire
parched agony and ecstasy of distilled lust

melting bent minds and broken hearts to fluidity
flowing golden anodine nectars of joy and bliss

humming a new canticle celebrating first true love
i sing my burning for you, my beloved, into song

mark christopher valentine
(april 11, 2001)

__________________________________________________________

TIM AND GLORIA

Dear Dan,

Reading something Jerry contributed to The Core, I sense
something in these words:

"There is no movement toward understanding. There appear to be
movements away from or toward understanding: wild or stray
circles, sometimes stunning as crop circles. Understanding in
the present is 'no movement'. No dashing circles. It is the
knowing of I AM."

I think it's time to stop talking about 'unravelling of concept
webs," "deconditioning" and other such "changes" as if they
actually occur. Why continue with the 'as ifs'?

As seen from here, these pointers are weak. I like what Jerry
has to say above. 'is' never changes. There is in actuality no
"concept- web" to unravel, no "changes to be made," no
deconditioning. The movement 'toward or away from' understanding
is apparent only.

Understanding IS. No gradual enlightenment, no instant
enlightenment, in fact no enlightenment at all. Just
understanding, always and ever-present. No viewing 'the average
person' (just another conceived entity) as "lacking
understanding" or somehow different from "Tim," no more subtle
egotism. There is nobody, not Tim, not anyone... only, there is
understanding.

This is, of course, 'as seen here'. It's time to carry this
message: That understanding always is. It doesn't need to be
found. Nothing needs to be gotten rid of, nothing needs to be
gained, nothing needs to be changed.

How to find a way to 'carry the message' more softly, more
silently, without referring to 'concept webs' and this and that?
It will take care of itself, quite nicely. Understanding 'seeks
us'. Apparent movement occurs. Nobody is doing anything or
not-doing anything. Stillness, silence and peace of 'this'
overrides the concepts of 'ignorance' and 'illusion'. What never
was, never needs to be talked about.

There is only this.

Love,

Tim

Dear Tim,

What you wrote brings tears to my eyes, the peace of it can be
felt. This sounds so wonderful... to abide in/as this
"stillness, silence, peace" is to "be" this understanding, this
is the "peace that passes understanding" .... and so to speak
from this *place* in such a way that the message may be heard is
indeed a challenge.

Best wishes are with you for what you express as: "How to find a
way to 'carry the message' more softly, more silently, without
referring to 'concept webs' and this and that? "

To some extent, in order to be understood, it is required to
speak " to the language" of the question ... and to really hear
what is being asked is another challenge. Because to those
'caught in maya' the rope really does appear to be a snake, and
reactions are according to how it seems. Good as it is to know
how it is, to know IAM, words spoken from this knowing can
"appear" incomprehensible. So it is to walk a a razor's edge to
speak truth and in a way it may be heard, by acknowledging how
it seems in the language of the question. A question consisting
of concept webs may need some unraveling, yes?

Perhaps the whole confusion of maya may be summed up as how the
one seems separated into two. So good to know that it really is
not. And good to know how to "carry this message"...

What is heard here from those "Dan messages" is a voice of
inexhaustible patience, mercy, and compassion... yet speaking TO
the questions asked. So if we are done with concept webs, no
doubt Dan will not inflict them on us anymore, either...ha, ha.
Who is arguing ? Who is moving?

Love to you, Gloria

___________________________________________________________

DAN BERKOW

There is only "this" :
life at the "razor's edge"
where nothing happens,
and nothing fails to happen ...

As there is neither something
nor nothing to understand,
what can fail to be understood?

_________________________________________________________

TIM GERCHMEZ

tiger

i used to be a tiger,
baring my fangs at
whatever moved,
bringing down the
antelope.

now i am the ground
upon which the tigers
fight and i remain flat
and feel the feet above
and the claws slashing
as the tigers keep
fighting each other.

natural and wild they
are, and they do not
know what they do, for
they are only tigers.

wildly they rip at one
another and i am the
support upon which
their paws rest.

i am the ground upon
which they nurse their
young and where they
sleep and i am not
different from them
except that i do not
fight.

... Omkara ...

_________________________________________________________________

JAKE ROLANDSON

Doc, never before have I seen such disrespect by so many that have
learned so much from you and those names and people you represent.

They tend to forget that there are many, many eyes on you and your work
and are apparently arrogant enough to believe that they got to you
first and that the truth about you can be contained. We have witnessed
and documented their treatment of you (since the time you were runover
when you were five) as well as listened to many powerful and
influencial voices, both old 'and' young, that have sat and do sit with
those that conspire against you.

As you said one time long before, when down on the delta, you were
surrounded by every armed branch the forces could muster and all you
managed to peep out was 'getting the story in your diary when you got
away'... remember that? Jimmy was there too.

You were right then and you are right now. Your 'state' and thinking
processes are well documented.

Hell, like heaven, or any other world, is only a frame and state of
mind which can be controlled and manipulated by the many interests that
are out there including those that are trying to merge their identities
with your own. Like that TimG... how long have you known it was him?

I picked up on your conversations about three weeks ago after the
nachos... Bet he and his friend think they are ahead of the game...
trucks don't start or run without 'spark' plugs and as for the
gasoline... many monks have found other purposes for these.

You are right in not trusting any of them. Stay ahead as you have been.
I, and many others, have monitored their work, lives, and patterns of
living and they are a bunch of ducks all in a row. Stupid, blind and
surrounded we all agree that a nonviolent solution is to leave them
pinned there in their pathetic leaching existences. The world is
changed somewhat and people agree that there are those that share
common purpose and that the enimies of this should be left in their
insanity.

When they finally hit the bend in the road, the rope will snap their
chicken necks and for those that survive this fall... there are many of
us waiting with their names firmly pursed on our lips.

I think the game is about to get ugly and perhaps you should step out
of the picture for a while Doc and I, having compromised this temporary
gig, (btw -- I love the way you hand these names around... very cool.)
must come around before we can continue. Perhaps there are a few more
ghosts out there.

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