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Sunday, September 23

GARY MERRILL

Beginners mind doesn't know about enlightenment;
Beginners mind doesn't know about truth;
Beginners mind doesn't know about Americans, Palestinians, Jews, Hindus;
Beginners mind doesn't know about evil;
Beginners mind doesn't know what is right;
Beginners mind doesn't know the answer;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is a leader to follow;
Beginners mind doesn't know that he/she should be like someone else;
Beginners mind doesn't know about birth and death;
Beginners mind doesn't know how serious it is;
Beginners mind doesn't know the problem let alone the solution;
Beginners mind doesn't know about duality and non-duality;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is something to practise;
Beginners mind doesn't know how to behave;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is an enemy;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is something to fear;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is a lack of love;
Beginners mind doesn't know there is something to get or lose;
Beginners mind doesn't know about the past;
Beginners mind doesn't know about controlling everything;
Beginners mind doesn't know there's something wrong;
Beginners mind doesn't know

Begin again.
Gary.

_________________________________________________________________________

ERIC ASHFORD

Meditation is a personal looking for being. The
personnel we bring to the search, begin by
ransacking their own pockets, then making false
accusations of theft of identity.

Preliminary investigations are as a seance between
several controversial ghosts we bring together for
dispute over ownership of a space none can inherit.
Once we have cleared the protesters, and
malcontents from the floor, the real inquest can
begin.

The house of meditation is itself is a haunting,
but every window opened, can make it an ashram for
contemplation of our real estate. Please ignore all
lights and phenomenal occurrences in that placeless
domain. They are merely residual discharges of an
internal weather pattern we have removed ourselves
from.

What we have hidden, the heart will reveal. We can
dress the naked, but we cannot add to nakedness.
Wellness cannot be ill, only the building can fall
sick. Find a room beyond dis-ease, and conduct an
experiment with the parts. The result will be the
sum of the question - there are no parts.

The privacy of God is no secret, any room we make
for our inquiry is an information bureau. Private
information informs without detail, being a window
to wholeness. Making space, we become the
spaciousness of knowing.

What happens next does not happen at all. As we
fall off the edge of the world, we cannot even
congratulate ourselves. If we can, we are still
hanging on to a part somewhere.

Investigation is not meditation. Meditation is not
meditation unless the one who inquires ceases the
search for the being who searches. The smile of the
Buddha is the grin of a Cheshire cat. God loves
Herself in you, and this is all that you need to
take back to the world.

Where have you been
that you have returned?
Into what evil did you fall,
and what remains of God?
Who was it that forgot?
Who remembered?
When the One became two-
nothing changed.
All is well.

Love (with apologies to Dire Straits)

eric.

___________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ

Awakening - interesting word. A dictionary
definition is 3. a revival of interest or
attention.

Perhaps it is the dropping of one's preoccupation
with one's misery.

Why? That is the question more than any other. Why
- has been the motivation for me to seek. I
remember in school hearing scientific explanations
for many things. But, no teacher could answer the
question of why.

Take the simple things. The color of the sky is
blue. Why? Because the air molecules absorb all
light spectra except blue. So, blue is reflected
back and we see it. But, why blue? Why does this
happen this way? heeheehee Just because it does?
Basically - yes.

The scientific explanation covers only the apparent
phenomena. That is all science can do. We can
discover so much with science. There is a point
where science fails to explain anything.

And that is again - why? No, not why does science
only go so far.

Fundamentally - why does anything exist at all?!

Just because it does - that is acceptance.

The first time I got an answer to my little
question was at the age of fifteen. The answer was
music. I did not hear this music with my ears. No,
I heard it with my entire body! And I knew then
that I was being played - by the universe. And it
felt good.

I knew from an early age that I was different than
most folk I knew. It wasn't the fact that we are
all unique - it was something more than that. I
could see that we were all reactive. We did one
thing while saying another. No one had any control
and folk believed some many different things!

In this regard I was no different - the difference
was that I could see it happening.

I could see that I was more open than most folk.
That was and still is the major difference. It
doesn't make me better - not at all. No one is
better than anyone else.

I remember clearly so many things from my
childhood, youth, and young adulthood. Back in the
sixth grade (social studies class) (early sixties)
Mr. H. our sociology teacher was telling us about
propaganda. Mr. H. made it out that propaganda was
a pack of lies being passed off as the truth. He
told us of how Russia used propaganda to teach the
Russian children whatever lies would keep them in
line. He went on about this for nearly five minutes
- maybe more.

Well, something clicked inside my pointed little
head and I put my hand in the air.

"Mr. H.", I asked, "since we are all just kids here
and have no experience of the world, how do we know
that what you are telling us is true?"

He didn't like that question at all! But, I could
see that some of the other kids were nodding their
heads in agreement.

This is the approach I took to awakening. So many
words have been written and spoken about awakening.
A lot of them tend to contradict each other or at
best only describe a small viewpoint - and a seeker
can easily become befuddled and confused.

A person has to find out for himself/herself. And
it is tricky!

Now, I am awake. And the key for my awakening was
the gift of being open and intuitive.

Somewhere along the line (of my life) intuition
demanded that I not become as the saying goes - set
in my ways. I could see that adults who were 'set'
had a hard if not impossible time of learning
anything new. Not only that, they could become
violent over the most absurd things! I still
remember two 'grown-ups' nearly coming to blows
over which make of car was better - Chevy or Ford!
Sure it sounds ridiculous now, but then it was a
real eye opener for me.

Today I see that people are more interested in
protecting their belief systems that in taking good
care of one another. Religion, politics, economics,
and so on are all ways of doing and being and
trying to make some sense of of this vast universe
that will go on whether there are human beings or
not.

For the life of me I can't see any reason to murder
each other over anything.

Murder, neglect, abuse - all are rampant on this
planet. And what can be done about it? Is it
evolution in action? Will the meek truly inherit
this good good earth? Does that mean that a lot of
humanity (aggressive people) must die and leave the
meek gentle ones to eke out a living as best they
can?

Or, will the meek rise up and refuse to murder?
Will they voice their gentleness in no uncertain
terms thus shaming those with violent tendencies
into re-evaluating their actions?

Who can tell?

I know that this human species is special. We have
unlimited possibilities, talents and gifts. Until
we learn to open up we will do - what? - what we
have done all through our brief brief history. We
will murder and hate and oppress and neglect and
destroy.

All because we haven't learned to open up and just
live!

During the process of awakening I was shown that
there is no 'ultimate purpose' to life. There is no
God who is weighing the relative goodness of souls
so some can be burned in eternal fire and some can
be rewarded with eternal bliss. That is a childish
fantasy.

There is pain and there is pleasure. No doubt about
that! Either one could be described as a form of
bondage - so what?!

We are all slaves to life - no exceptions. Life is
to be lived and that is the meaning and purpose of
life.

So what to do - what to do?

Do anything - do nothing!

Wake up! Take an interest in life! Be open!

Of course these are only suggestions - I cannot
force anyone to 'wake-up'.

What I can do is to be open - cherish life - let
people work it out for themselves.

Tickle their funny bone from time to time - it
helps!

Sometimes grab folk by the elbows and lead them
away from the fights they are trying to start - and
whisper loving words in their ears.

I know this - without a doubt - without a
reservation - without hesitation - it is good to be
alive! Even when it hurts!


-----

I stumble drunkenly from door to door
Pounding on windows
And yelling - there is too much love!
It can't all be just for me!
Come and share!
There is plenty!

Michael

___________________________________________________________________________

HARSHA

This relates to the visit of Professor Thomas, a
Sanskrit professor at University of Oxford -
December 26, 1937. I have selected certain portions
of his conversation with Sri Ramana.

Professor: Love postulates duality. How can Self be
the object of love.

Sri Ramana: Love is not different than Self. Love
of an object is of an inferior order and cannot
endure. Whereas the Self is Love, in other words,
God is Love.

Professor: Does Sri Bhagavan advocate Advaita.

Sri Ramana: Dvaita and Advaita are relative terms.
They are based on the sense of duality. The Self is
as it is. There is neither Advaita nor Dvaita. I AM
THAT I AM. Simple Being is Self.

Later, at another point in the conversation Ramana
Maharshi commented on the use of the term
Sat-Chit-Ananda (Jody would like this).

Sat denotes being beyond sat and asat.
Chit beyond chit and achit.
Ananda beyond bliss and non-bliss.

--From the "Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi"

___________________________________________________________________

JERRY

yeah, i'm enjoying your letters too michael. back
in the fifties the nonduality salon website had a
'chevy men click here' and a 'ford men click here'
button. Remember that, oldtimers? We had a
'nonduality for housewives' section. Wonder bread
was like, wow, really healthy. Nonduality Salon
lunch boxes were all the rage. And there was
nothing like giving your girl an NDS pin shaped
like the logo. It practically guaranteed you'd get
to second base!

still trying to get to first base,

jerry

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