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Kristie reflects on her period
of homelessness:

Yes, homeless people can
definitely be obnoxious, and
alcoholic, and territorial,
etc....but that is what they do,
not who they are.....Just like
everybody else on the planet....
That's the learning isn't it -
to see the who in everyone not
the what....the who is
perfection....

No, my experience was not the
"usual" in the sense that I was
not drug addicted, alcoholic etc..
But in spite of the fact that I
was a very normal person in every
sense of the word....I was treated
by the world as though I were sub-
human...in this sense my
experience was very "usual." There
is guilt by association the
constitution notwithstanding.....
Kindness as a corollary to the
enlightened state of mind, whether
or not permanently achieved, is a
very sophisticated trait....by
rights, every human being we
encounter every day is a member of
our community...to treat each and
every one....even the smelly, rude,
obnoxious ones, as the son of God,
to treat them as though they were
an enlightened being, if though
they don't know it themselves, is
part of the process of seeing that
enlightenment IS only our
awareness of it waxes and wanes...

Judgement is a process of
evaluation....it is not necessary
to living life, and is the wall and
gate to transcendence.....every
grievance held or considered blocks
the light of awareness.....
forgiveness is the antidote......
forgiveness is a state of mind which
induces a sense of expectant
celebration in all situations....it
is a state of mind which sees the
enlightened being, the holy son of
god, in all people, in all places, at
all times....the mind does not even
stop to consider whether or not it is
being conned....it simply offers of
its abundance, which ,may take the
form of patience, a smile, money or
any of a variety of other "things"....
it uniformly extends energy....it
cannot do otherwise....and so the
person need never feel swindled, or
put upon, or hurt, which is all too
often the result of judgement. If you
are angry, or depressed or sad or sick
you have judged and are holding a
grievance....check it out.....give it
up......Yes, judgement happens, the
first step to releasing is accepting,
but judgement need not happen, or at
least it need not be hosted.
_______________________________________

Harsha puts homelessness in an Indian
context:

In India, the homeless are in much
worse shape than here. Mother Theresa
did a lot of work with there with the
poor and the homeless as all know.
Sadhus who are well known or are heads
of organizations or part of
organizations are of course different
and live comfortably. Other well known
holy men never lack for food and shelter.
Ramana Maharshi had a difficult time
initially and his body suffered much as
he was not much interested in seeking
food and was usually in Samadhi. Others
had to feed him. After some time, when he
started begging for food in the streets,
the householders would be waiting for him
hoping to be picked. The Sage tried to
pick a different house each time from
which to eat and in later years
remembered those days with great
affection and fondness.
_______________________________________

Harsha also forwarded this item from
Frank "Egodust" Maiello":

hariH OM!

the only way to arrive at the pure NOW
is either by stopping thoughts or
effectively ignoring them.
the latter is moksha.

when this happens, we see, hear and feel
with a richness and clarity that has no
parallel in the world of Mind.
simply because Mind, by nature,
functions through limits and comparisons.
whereas the pure NOW (field of brahman)
functions wholistically, where each NOW
(the *eternal* NOW)
is a perfect hologram of brahman--regardless
if it includes the saguna outbreath of maya.

being in the pure NOW is where we *are*, in
truth, each and every now. :-) we *are* the
continuum of NOW itself.

NOW always was, is, and always will be NOW.

What everyone *seems to* struggle with, is an
innocently mis-perceived overlay, caused by an
unfathomable mistake called ego: Creator of
Mind; Commander-in-Chief of all Illusions;
Sustainer of all Misconceptions.

namaste
_______________________________________

Frank's words inspired Jerry:

The NOW sees the halting of the endless
train known as thought.

The stopping of the train, the halting of
its pressure and noise, is an immediate
relief, and one is energized by it. The
world, then, takes on a completely
different look, and the words used to
describe it are sacred hobos on that
extraordinary train.
_______________________________________

A personal journal passage shared
by Tomas Diaz de Villegas:

to see the source of conflict in anyone,
in my own past experiences, in myself

it is to look at the very fact of meaning
itself

when I write a letter to one of these
people, sharing with them the conflict
that I feel between I and them, and
sharing my openness to the source of this
conflict- without self-protection entering
into it, then I am truly connecting with
the heart of that person or that "problem"
- I am establishing contact with the
source of meaning that is right here and
now.

the source of meaning is not recognized as
present becuase we hide the very real fears,
problems, and dilemmas which crowd our
consciousness, our awareness- we seem to
ignore them or deny them becuse we are so
desperate to solve the problems. We see that
our state of mind is feeling crowded, we
compare it with experiences we have had and
find that we are not measuring up to the
peacefull mind identity we hold so dear. In
desparation we get involved with bouncing
between critisizing ourselves and defending
ourselves- between looking and protecting.

When we stop resisting an open confrontation
with our problems, dilemmas, worries,
relationship issues, ..etc- when we give
ourselves the time alone to just see the
problems we have inside, when we look in the
direction of our hearts, of our center of
meaning, we will see the problems, the
scenarios, the past, the issues, the questions
and the despair- the self-protections and
confusions as we keep open to them, refusing
to shut down or close our eyes to our heart,
we begin to find that all these things, all
the problems, the worries, the frustrations,
the people, all the world, all we know and
feel as existing, in fact, is emerging out of
the very substance of meaning

all the parts, all little problems merge with
each other, Other merges with I, separate
suffering merges into One suffering, separate
issues merge into One issue, separate fears
into One fear, separate resistences into One
resistence

Absolutely all knowledge and feeling is seen
as emergeing from the singular stream of
meaning that is arising from the central source-
that heart

that heart, that central source, illuminates
all- it provides the meaning of every word we
use, of every object we crave and love, of
everything we hold dear (be it a person, an idea,
a teaching, a way of expressing things, an
activity, a problem, a trauma, an injustice..
etc), of everything we wish to avoid and reject,
of every person, teaching, experience, problem,
issue, doubt, fear..etc that we react against

whether is is scientific meaning, religious
meaning, philosophical meaning, psychological
meaning, relationship meaning- however we choose
to split up and compartmentalize meaning- it is
all an expression and movement of this single
stream of meaning emerging from the center like a
sun that shines within- it is truly at the center
of existence meaning is the solar wind emanating
from this inner sun- the light that illuminates
from eternity
_______________________________________

Jan's succinct statement on the nature of
ego:

A strange property of the "I" thought is, when it
is gone, it is impossible to remember its former
existence. Hence it is said it is an illusion.
Another strange property is that knowing the
aforementioned one doesn't take away this fear.
It can't be taken away; it is inherent to the "I"
thought.
_______________________________________

Melody waxes poetic over her pet,
"Simba":

I had one of those zen-like moments earlier
today watching my cat.

A wasp was in the house, struggling against
a window pane....sometimes being still, sometimes
struggling to fly.

My cat sat very quietly with her nose only a
couple of inches away from this wasp, and she
did nothing but watch...

She was not afraid of it, she did not try to
attack it, or tease it, nor try to get it to
fly away. She simply 'watched' the struggle of
life.

Being in the world but not of the world.
_______________________________________

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