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Wednesday May 2nd


Dear lists,

Next week, I'll be going on a business trip to Paris and Frankfurt. Paris,
May 9-15. Frankfurt, May 16-29. Anyone would like to get together for
cappuchino or dinner (we have nacho satsangs and curry satsangs in NYC),
let me know either on the lists or by e-mail: <goode@dpw.com>

Love to all,

--Greg


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____





--- Dear Gene,
An Elder among my people is one who is very old, who has seen much
and has gained great wisdom from what has been seen and experienced.
I am only 35, so i am not old enough to be considered as Elder here.
I do take time to listen and learn from them if they have something
they wish me to know, as we all should do with the elderly. To place
them in a home and forget them is foolish and cruel. They have so
much knowledge and they have cared for us when we could not do so
for ourselves, so when its time that they cant always care for
themselves properly, it is then time to give back the gift we
borrowed and care for them. I dont expect I will be here long
enough to reach the age usually expected of an Elder due to health
concerns, and this is of no real consequence. Given the expected
condition of my body as i age, i dont think i have a desire to reach
such an age. It is only important to me to do all that i can, while
i still can, to be of use to them. Leave something for them that
will make things better for them all if possible. Its very simple
really, when i go to sleep each night i am unsure what i will find
when i awake. So when i wake to find that i am still viable for
another day, then i should be pleased that i have another
opportunity to do something nice for someone else. What i need i
have, what more could i ask?
Love Gracie


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



--- Dear Mark,
I am not sure what you meanby vices. i dont drink, the taste is
horrid, i dont smoke, which is a good thing as my lungs are shot
already, and i have never partaken of drugs, i never understood why
anyone would want to. i like to know what i am doing and where i
am, to remember what i have done in the morning. SO if these are the
vices, no i reckon i dont have any. I am not perfect however, my
temper is legendary, 1/2 native, 1/2 irish is a volitile mix <grin>.
I am known for my stubbornness. If i think it is the right thing to
do, then it is no point arguing with me, best to just not be there
if you dont aprove. I am kinda on a mission of sorts i guess.
feeling that I am on borrowed time and it must be earned. Never
sure when my IOU will be called in, so everything must be now. Hard
for some to grasp, equally hard for me to explain. i do however
get tired. I push until i have done too much usually then i fall
on my face and lay there a while. take a day or two in bed maybe to
recover then it is back to the routine most consider to be
extreme. To each his own i always say, but that is only in so far
as you do no harm. One person's rights, in my opinon, end the
moment they infringe upon the rights of another. We all have
choices, either we will or we wont do a thing, it should always be
part of the consideration how it will affect the others involved
before you decide to go on with it. Just my opinion of course, all
are free to disagree, but i am comfortabe as i am, if others are
pleased that is good, if they arent, well.......... maybe next time
i can do better.

Love Gracie

________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



What if they threw a war and no one came?!
What if they threw a party and no one came?!

Light, Love, and Laughter is available for all of us.

So of course is bitterness, judgement, pain, and strife.

Can a person choose how they will live? Yes and no.

No: when in a active/reactive state. In this state everything and
everyone is weighed by your internal sense of how things should be.
You are merely responded to stimulus. The stimulus may be real or
imagined.

Yes: when we start to see that we are reacting to events and we start
to take an honest look at this we can begin to let go of the
active/reactive way of living. How do we start seeing that we are
living our lives merely in response to stimulus? We begin to have a
sense that something just isn't working.

We start to see that there are programmed responses within us. If we
are lucky, we start to have those experiences that allow us to
question our belief system. An example of this is when we intend to
say one thing but actually are suprised to find ourselves saying
something else. Or, we find ourselves becoming upset (even violently
ill) in circumstances that to another seem totally ordinary.

[my sister's first husband was a mountain of a man. he was 6'4" and
about 300 pounds. if he saw you dunk a donut into your coffee, he
lose all color, would double over in agony and begin retching. and he
could not talk about it!]

The natural process of life calls us to be well rounded, joyful,
gentle, mature, and whole beings. It is also natural forces that stunt
our growth. We are all products of nature. We all have plateaus during
our growth. And we do continue to grow no matter how long we may
appear to be stuck on a plateau. Of course our body may die while we
are exploring an anger plateau, a victim plateau, a self righteous
plateau, a joyous giving plateau and so on.

These plateaus are not so much a progessive series of levels rising
higher and higher until we reach some sort of state of divinity. These
plateaus are scattered across a vast plane of existance. From time to
time we may find ourselves on a plateau that gives us a somewhat
'higher' perspective and we thereby may get a little 'boost' in our
growth process.

What are we growing toward or becoming? Whole, living, laughing,
loving, courageous, involved, compassionate, and caring beings. We
become open to the unbounded wonder and miracle of existance.

There is a wellspring of peace inside of each of us. If we look for
it, we can find it. If we focus our attention on what is right or
wrong with somebody else, we can miss it.

May each of us have a long and prosperous life filled with beauty and
joy.

HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - it's easy being god - Michael

ps - as long as one doesn't begin to believe one's publicity :-)


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



It occurs to me, reading the messages here today....

how strong is the impulse to be of service to others.

Just as Gracie shares beautifully of her desire to help others,
I suspect that such an impulse is fundamental in each of us......
even (and especially) those of us who post on these
forums..... and even if it what gets heard is nothing more
the 'spewing of nondual lingo' or the 'stirring of conflict'.

Someone said to me elsewhere the other day, "Sounds like
you just found your heart".

That struck me as such an odd thing to say.....odd in that
I was surprised by the implicaton that she had never
'heard' my heart before then.

I didn't just 'find' my heart. That's silly. But what I can
see now is: by the time my 'offering' would get
expressed,

the 'heart of' what was shared would have become wrapped
by so much unconsious material,

the 'gift' had become unrecognizable.

And so what gets 'shared' with others is rarely
what we intended. What gets 'shared' is that
which is trying so hard to 'get seen'.

Melody

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Great insight: raises problems on several levels. How often do we
know our own intentions? If we were completely clear, perhaps we
could allow our intentions to become reality. Do we have the capacity
to act on our intentions? This requires a certain skill. And why
should we expect the result of our intentions to be a particular
result in any case? We need to be open to what happens and not what
we intend to happen. I get stuck on the relationship between
self and other, and this basic unit of communication. It seems
to be easy for some to intuit that this is "what its all about",
but it seems a mystery to me. Thanks for sharing this, Melody. TerryWednesday May 2nd


Dear lists,

Next week, I'll be going on a business trip to Paris and Frankfurt. Paris,
May 9-15. Frankfurt, May 16-29. Anyone would like to get together for
cappuchino or dinner (we have nacho satsangs and curry satsangs in NYC),
let me know either on the lists or by e-mail: <goode@dpw.com>

Love to all,

--Greg


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____





--- Dear Gene,
An Elder among my people is one who is very old, who has seen much
and has gained great wisdom from what has been seen and experienced.
I am only 35, so i am not old enough to be considered as Elder here.
I do take time to listen and learn from them if they have something
they wish me to know, as we all should do with the elderly. To place
them in a home and forget them is foolish and cruel. They have so
much knowledge and they have cared for us when we could not do so
for ourselves, so when its time that they cant always care for
themselves properly, it is then time to give back the gift we
borrowed and care for them. I dont expect I will be here long
enough to reach the age usually expected of an Elder due to health
concerns, and this is of no real consequence. Given the expected
condition of my body as i age, i dont think i have a desire to reach
such an age. It is only important to me to do all that i can, while
i still can, to be of use to them. Leave something for them that
will make things better for them all if possible. Its very simple
really, when i go to sleep each night i am unsure what i will find
when i awake. So when i wake to find that i am still viable for
another day, then i should be pleased that i have another
opportunity to do something nice for someone else. What i need i
have, what more could i ask?
Love Gracie


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



--- Dear Mark,
I am not sure what you meanby vices. i dont drink, the taste is
horrid, i dont smoke, which is a good thing as my lungs are shot
already, and i have never partaken of drugs, i never understood why
anyone would want to. i like to know what i am doing and where i
am, to remember what i have done in the morning. SO if these are the
vices, no i reckon i dont have any. I am not perfect however, my
temper is legendary, 1/2 native, 1/2 irish is a volitile mix <grin>.
I am known for my stubbornness. If i think it is the right thing to
do, then it is no point arguing with me, best to just not be there
if you dont aprove. I am kinda on a mission of sorts i guess.
feeling that I am on borrowed time and it must be earned. Never
sure when my IOU will be called in, so everything must be now. Hard
for some to grasp, equally hard for me to explain. i do however
get tired. I push until i have done too much usually then i fall
on my face and lay there a while. take a day or two in bed maybe to
recover then it is back to the routine most consider to be
extreme. To each his own i always say, but that is only in so far
as you do no harm. One person's rights, in my opinon, end the
moment they infringe upon the rights of another. We all have
choices, either we will or we wont do a thing, it should always be
part of the consideration how it will affect the others involved
before you decide to go on with it. Just my opinion of course, all
are free to disagree, but i am comfortabe as i am, if others are
pleased that is good, if they arent, well.......... maybe next time
i can do better.

Love Gracie

________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



What if they threw a war and no one came?!
What if they threw a party and no one came?!

Light, Love, and Laughter is available for all of us.

So of course is bitterness, judgement, pain, and strife.

Can a person choose how they will live? Yes and no.

No: when in a active/reactive state. In this state everything and
everyone is weighed by your internal sense of how things should be.
You are merely responded to stimulus. The stimulus may be real or
imagined.

Yes: when we start to see that we are reacting to events and we start
to take an honest look at this we can begin to let go of the
active/reactive way of living. How do we start seeing that we are
living our lives merely in response to stimulus? We begin to have a
sense that something just isn't working.

We start to see that there are programmed responses within us. If we
are lucky, we start to have those experiences that allow us to
question our belief system. An example of this is when we intend to
say one thing but actually are suprised to find ourselves saying
something else. Or, we find ourselves becoming upset (even violently
ill) in circumstances that to another seem totally ordinary.

[my sister's first husband was a mountain of a man. he was 6'4" and
about 300 pounds. if he saw you dunk a donut into your coffee, he
lose all color, would double over in agony and begin retching. and he
could not talk about it!]

The natural process of life calls us to be well rounded, joyful,
gentle, mature, and whole beings. It is also natural forces that stunt
our growth. We are all products of nature. We all have plateaus during
our growth. And we do continue to grow no matter how long we may
appear to be stuck on a plateau. Of course our body may die while we
are exploring an anger plateau, a victim plateau, a self righteous
plateau, a joyous giving plateau and so on.

These plateaus are not so much a progessive series of levels rising
higher and higher until we reach some sort of state of divinity. These
plateaus are scattered across a vast plane of existance. From time to
time we may find ourselves on a plateau that gives us a somewhat
'higher' perspective and we thereby may get a little 'boost' in our
growth process.

What are we growing toward or becoming? Whole, living, laughing,
loving, courageous, involved, compassionate, and caring beings. We
become open to the unbounded wonder and miracle of existance.

There is a wellspring of peace inside of each of us. If we look for
it, we can find it. If we focus our attention on what is right or
wrong with somebody else, we can miss it.

May each of us have a long and prosperous life filled with beauty and
joy.

HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - it's easy being god - Michael

ps - as long as one doesn't begin to believe one's publicity :-)


________________________________________________________________________________\
_____



It occurs to me, reading the messages here today....

how strong is the impulse to be of service to others.

Just as Gracie shares beautifully of her desire to help others,
I suspect that such an impulse is fundamental in each of us......
even (and especially) those of us who post on these
forums..... and even if it what gets heard is nothing more
the 'spewing of nondual lingo' or the 'stirring of conflict'.

Someone said to me elsewhere the other day, "Sounds like
you just found your heart".

That struck me as such an odd thing to say.....odd in that
I was surprised by the implicaton that she had never
'heard' my heart before then.

I didn't just 'find' my heart. That's silly. But what I can
see now is: by the time my 'offering' would get
expressed,

the 'heart of' what was shared would have become wrapped
by so much unconsious material,

the 'gift' had become unrecognizable.

And so what gets 'shared' with others is rarely
what we intended. What gets 'shared' is that
which is trying so hard to 'get seen'.

Melody

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Great insight: raises problems on several levels. How often do we
know our own intentions? If we were completely clear, perhaps we
could allow our intentions to become reality. Do we have the capacity
to act on our intentions? This requires a certain skill. And why
should we expect the result of our intentions to be a particular
result in any case? We need to be open to what happens and not what
we intend to happen. I get stuck on the relationship between
self and other, and this basic unit of communication. It seems
to be easy for some to intuit that this is "what its all about",
but it seems a mystery to me. Thanks for sharing this, Melody. Terry

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