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Tuesday, July 24


GARY MERRILL AND DAN BERKOW

GARY: Hi Dan (Mr Navy Blue),

A good meeting of minds! (please don't mail back
'that which was never apart can't meet :-))

DAN: Yes. Assuming myself to be a partialized
being, and then trying to get away from that
partialized experience, is just partializing
partialization!

GARY: So easy to overlook this and division comes
in through the back door. And we then see that even
division is OK and there is no need to divide
against division. Division not divided against is
no longer division. Division then partakes of the
whole and the fraud of separating it from
non-division from oneself as an object is clear. It
could be expressed as 'Iam both division and
non-division and neither'! :-) The 'Iam' in this
instance being both 'I am and I am not and neither
of the former' ! :-) :-) Who will cast this first
stone?

DAN: True. We tend to focus on oppositions as a way
to "know something", including "who we are" in
relation to "who we are not" ... particularly "what
is against me" and "what I need but don't have" ...

As all-inclusiveness, I include my own destruction
... inside and outside are no longer referencing
criteria ...

GARY: Its also clear that desring and wanting go
on, hunger for instance. But 'completion' for want
of a better word is continual, so eating etc isn't
done to fill a hole which can't be filled by an
object. One could use the loaded word 'love'
instead of completion ie where there is no division
there is love and that is sufficient without
addition.

DAN: As nothing continues as a separable identity,
the speech and feeling that claims itself as
suffering in the form of a separable identity, *is*
the only separable identity to be found *anywhere*!

GARY: The self is self-created! No one to blame, no
one to remedy it. Self existence is independent of
self :-)

DAN: There's nowhere to go and no one to get there,
ever. If words, thoughts, and feelings arise as if
there could be an ongoing form that suffers, needs,
or fears ... such arisings are simply the same as
all other arisings -- carefully and silently
observed, they arise and depart without any
continuing being *really* involved.

GARY: 'Carefully and silently observed' sounds like
a method (expression ala Ramesh) I rather think you
don't mean it! The observer remains the observed,
on piece. The stirrer is not separate from the
stirring in my kitchen :-)

DAN: Where's the teacher? There is only the
teacher. Where's the student? There is only the
student. What is the teaching? There is only the
teaching.

GARY: Where's where? and Whats what? :-)

DAN: Yes. It's quite marvelous really. Every thing
carries and is its own space. All space is all
things. And all spaces and all things occupy no
space and are nothing.

GARY: Beats me!

DAN: Singularity.

GARY: Unboundedly so!

DAN: The only thing to b(other) about, is the sense
of there being something to be b(other)ed about,
and someone who could be upset.

But who's b (other) ing?

GARY: (Both) er and two(gether) tis human to er,
twas putting er at the end that made an er(er) like
think(er), observ(er), know(er), do(er)

Your errant friend, Gary.

_______________________________________________________
the following was sent by Shankar to the I Am list:

Explanatory Note on the twofold impact of all
works:

We do all our works with our conscious surface
minds. As we do the work, it ends in the middle of
our doing, into a seed. This seed gets formed in
our conscious mind. And, it goes down and gets
lodged into the basement of our subconscious mind.

We are the Supreme Self, having assumed an
individual body. But, the Supreme Self with the
entire universe as Its body, is the Personal God,
or ISvarA.

This ISvarA determines in which birth this seed has
to materialise into our outer circumstances. This
materialisation occurs only in a subsequent birth
by the Will of ISvarA. In very special cases, laid
down in the vEdAs, the same materialises in the
current birth itself. This He does in such a way
that will enable us to turn inward, enquire into
the Self, resolve the seeds into the Light of the
Self, and attain Self-Realisation.

1 This seed becomes active 'only when it
materialises' into our outer circumstances, in some
subsequent birth, 'in the form of the fruit of the
action' from which this seed was formed. 2 Until
then, the seed keeps 'acting indirectly' on the
conscious surface mind, by constantly propelling
the same from below, into same or similar type of
actions. Thus, in the current birth it is in
'sleep' because it is yet to manifest its fruit in
some future birth. Also because, it 'acts unawares'
by propelling the conscious surface mind from below
it. Thus, our conscious surface mind can be said to
be constantly in a state of 'sleep-walking'
(somnambulism).

We can resolve the the seed into the Light of the
Self in any particular birth by performing
Self-Enquiry. Suppose we do not so resolve the
seed. Then it will be carried forward to the next
birth. It will then exist in that subsequent birth,
as part of our subconscious mind.

Suppose we do not so resolve the seed in that
subsequent birth also. Suppose further that the
seed is not ordained by ISvarA to materialise into
the outer circumstances in that birth. Then it will
be carried forward to the next birth. It will then
exist in that subsequent birth, as part of our
subconscious mind.

And so on, until it is either resolved by us, or it
materialises by the Will of ISvarA into the fruit
of our action.

_______________________________________________________
JAN BARENDRECHT

editor's note: Jan is submitting some brilliant
poetry/graphics which I haven't figured out how to
send to the highlights. The archive of messages
carries the graphic separate from the message. The
message often can't be read anyway in the archives
because it is often light yellow font on white
background. Just thought I'd let the readers know
they're missing something. I think Gloria can send
the graphics, although my computer won't open them.
--Jerry

_______________________________________________________

MATTHEW

Do you know why the rooster spreads his
lamentations every dawn? To let the living know
that another night has faded into the mirror of
morning light and we haven't gotten any closer to
deserving the name human being.

-Shaikh Abu Saeed, 10th century mystic, from
"Nobody Son of Nobody"

.......matthew
_______________________________________________________

SHANKAR

Summary of Work, Devotion and yOgA discussed in
verses 1 to 9 of upadESa undiyAr

Verse 6 - SUPERIOR IS THE MENTAL (REPETITION OF
GOD'S NAME). (BUT,) THIS(!) (MENTAL REPETITION) IS
THE 'DELAYED RIPENING OF MEDITATION'.

Verse 7 - 'MEDITATING WITHOUT BREAK', IS TO THINK
IN A 'SPECIALLY INVESTIGATIVE' FASHION.

Verse 8 - ONLY THE 'DISCERNMENT (OR THE INSIGHT)'
OF THE 'NON-SEPARATENESS' (OF THE LORD FROM US), BY
WHICH HE (THE LORD) BECOMES THE 'INNER' (SANCTUM
SANCTORUM), IS THE BEST AMONGST ALL (THE
DISCERNMENTS OR THE EFFORTS TO SEE THINGS CLEARLY
WITH THE MIND).

Verse 9 - TO ABIDE IN THE 'DISCERNMENT OF THE
EXISTENCE' (OF THE LORD 'NON-SEPARATE' FROM US), IS
THE PRINCIPLE OF SUPREME DEVOTION.

A. DESIRELESS WORK MUST PRODUCE IN US THE PERMANENT
INSIGHT TO PERCEIVE GOD WITHIN:

Work or effort dedicated to God without desire
makes the mind fit for merger into the Self (verse
3). Spiritual Effort means the effort to see
clearly with the help of the mind, the process of
merger into the Self. And, the best spiritual
effort is the insight by which we see God as our
inner sanctum (verse 8). If we constantly abide
with this insight, then we have Supreme Devotion to
God (verse 9).

Therefore, we see that by the desireless action our
mind is made fit for merger into the Self (verse
3). And, this fitness MUST give us the insight by
which we see God as our inner sanctum. And, this
insight is the best spiritual effort (verse 8). So
desireless action dedicated to God produces in us
the best spiritual action of insightfully
perceiving God within ourselves. And, we must make
this insight permanent. Then, we have Supreme
Devotion to God (verse 9).

B. ONE CAN STRAIGHTAWAY START REPEATING THE NAME OF
GOD MENTALLY AND THEN MAKE SUCH REPEITION UNBROKEN:

There are three kinds of prayers. The usual type is
to pray aloud. Still better is to just mutter
within oneself. Still superior is the silent mental
repeition. But, even this silent mental repetition
is only the delayed ripening of meditation (verse
6).

Because, only the silent mental 'unbroken'
repetition can in fact be called a 'meditation', or
a 'specially investigative type of thinking' (verse
7).

Also because one can straightaway begin to repeat
God's Name silently within the mind. And then,
reach upto the stage of unbroken silent mental
repetition, which is investigative thinking.

It is not at all necessary to go through the stages
of praying aloud, and muttering within oneself.
Because, even in these two cases, the mind is the
one which is actually engaged in the process.
Although with the help of the words uttered loudly
through the mouth, and with the help of the words
muttered in a low tone with the mild rolling of the
tongue within the mouth. Hence, coming to silent
mental repetition through loud prayer and low
muttering is called the delayed ripening of
meditation.

NEXT IS THE 'CULMINATING GLORY' OF THE VERSE 10 OF
UPADESA UNDIYAR BY SRI BAGAVAN.

_______________________________________________________

JOHN METZGER

Driving them ol' trucks between semesters to pay
for a degree in philosophy gave way finally to
accepting driving as part and parcel of the manual
labor aspect of a monastic outlook. Even after
managing to become a grade school principal I
returned to driving for its contemplative aspect,
an emptiness that allowed me to ponder a word from
Nietzsche or Merton or Bubba Free John and maybe
those same words under the influence of a joint or
two. AH< the good old days!! The last nine years
have me driving a couple hours a day for a big
rehabilitation facility, w/o any drugs save a
little ibuprofen. With a geometric increase in the
number of vehicles in the last few years without a
concurrent increase in highways, I would say,
Jerry, please don't become a truckdriver. Maybe if
you could climb up behind the wheel of a big rig
and give the air horns a long, long, loud honk, the
desire would dissipate a little out of your
systemLOL. Our friend Alan is still on that long
and winding road, finding buddha in the turning of
the gears, peace in a driving beyond driver and
driven.. I think back to being six years old and
missing school to ride with dad in his gasoline
tanker to shift the gears since he had
rheumatoid(sp) arthritis and couldn't manage but to
painfully steer. Hard times! all the best Jerry,
John

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