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Friday, September 7

MICHAEL GALAHAD AND JAN BARENDRECHT

ºHey Jan.
º
ºFree you from your form like an image in a stone? Done my old friend. Now,
ºwhat is this road to freedom that you seek and how may I help you along
ºthat
ºjourney?
º
ºI am not God. I am Jesus.

There isn't a road and if Jesus would hold a
roadshow here i wouldn't attend even if the drinks
were free. And i'm not seeking as whatever to be
found could not possibly add something worthwhile.
But if you insist on helping, pay the internet
bills - they're high! :)

___________________________________________________________________________

DAN BERKOW

Jan Sultan contributed:
Many spiritual seekers get "stuck" in emptiness, in
the absolute, in transcendence. They cling to
bliss, or peace, or indifference. When the
self-centered motivation for living disappears,
many seekers become indifferent. They see the
perfection of all existence and find no reason for
doing anything, including caring for themselves or
others. I call this "taking a false refuge." It is
a very subtle egoic trap; it's a fixation in the
absolute and all unconscious form of attachment
that masquerades as liberation. It can be very
difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive
fixation because they literally have no motivation
to let go of it. Stuck in a form of divine
indifference, such people believe they have reached
the top of the mountain when actually they are
hiding out halfway up its slope.

- Adyashanti



The one who is on top of the mountain
speaks to the one who is half-way
up, about how stuck the other one is.

The one on top knows something that the
one half-way only thinks he or she knows.

The one half-way up now is convinced to
go to retreats, meditate harder,
look deeper into everything. He or she
has gotten over the block of motivation
to get unstuck because the benevolent
one on top has been compassionate enough
to speak about the view on top.

One question: What is the perspective that
allows the one on top to view self on top
and someone else as half-way? And what
is the perspective that allows one half-way
to view another as on top?

An observation: These two perspectives require
each other, and construct each other.
They need each other.

A final question: How, now, will unstuckness
from these two views, mutually reinforcing
each other, occur?

-- Dan

HARSHA

When it is pointed out and fully grasped by a
mature mind. The need (and greed) to be something
other than what one already is, is a condition.
Seeing through this in peace and in clear vision
dissolves the condition into the unconditional.

________________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ

"Shortly after I began teaching I noticed that almost everyone coming
to see me held a tremendous number of superstitious ideas and beliefs
that were distorting their perceptions and limiting their scope of
spiritual inquiry." --Adyashanti

yup!

In order to do this you must come out of hiding behind any
superstitious beliefs and find the courage to question everything,
otherwise you will continue to hold onto superstitions which
distort your perception and expression of that which is only ever
AWAKE.

_______________________________________________________________________

SU GANDOLF

A leaf *is* the tree. I see.
But the leaf is not a tree.

A tree *is* the leaf.
But the tree is not a leaf.

The fixed specific is the whole. The fixed whole, the specific. But
unfixed, the specific is the specific, the whole the whole. Nothing is
other than it is.

"No self" teachings, as no *separate* self teachings, I am the teacher
of. There is no teacher, too.

Blown away, today, by love (without a lover).
Blown away? Leaf, Tree...
Dying, leaf becoming
Me.

~Su

______________________________________________________________________

MAZIE

Dear Friends,

Michael wrote a small poem that was further whittled down to this:

nothing
nothing
abundance

How cool is that?

Love, Nothing But Abundance,
Mazie

___________________________________________________________________________

HARSHA

An actual story about romance from the Ramana Maharshi
newsletters........Harsha

***************************************

An inmate of the Ashrama who had been serving
Bhagavan Ramana for many years started visiting a
certain woman in the town. Her relatives came to
know of it and decided to catch and kill the man.
One night they caught him at her house, bound him
hand and foot and locked him up in a room,
postponing the cutting of his throat until they had
found a safe way of disposing of the body. Our man
managed to escape and came running to the Ashrama,
pursued by his enemies. When he entered the gate
they gave up the chase. He entered the Hall
trembling and fell on the ground shouting: "Save
me, save me.'' Bhagavan ordered the doors to be
shut and said: "Don't fear, tell me what happened."
After having been told everything, he looked at the
culprit with understanding and pity and said
reassuringly: "Don't fear any more. Go and sleep."
From the next day the man was at his work and
Bhagavan would not mention the matter at all.
Everybody in the town came to know what happened.
The Ashrama people requested Bhagavan to send the
man away, for his presence would tarnish the good
name of the Ashrama. Bhagavan called the man and
told him in front of everybody: "You have done some
wrong, but you were too foolish to keep it secret.
Others do worse things, but they take care not to
be caught. Now, the people who were not caught want
you to leave the Ashrama because you were caught.
They will make your life miserable. You had better
stay outside for some time, until things settle
down." The man stayed with some devotees outside
the Ashrama and came back after a few months.

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