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Tuesday, October 2


MICHAEL READ

from the Avadhut Gita (The Song of the Avadhut)

chapter 1

verse 51

When water and water are mixed
There is no difference between one and the other.
It is the same with matter and spirit.
This is very clear to me.

verse 52

If I've never been bound,
I can never be liberated.
How could you think that the Self
Is limited by formlessness, or limited by form?

Nice little verses, no? Inspirational, direct, and
powerful? Perhaps. Or, they are nothing more than
sentimental spiritualistic - drivel.

When I first read them I just laughed! The message
in these two little verses state the truth of the
matter. There is no separation from god.

God - what a concept! No matter what we believe god
is or what our philosphy for living may be, there
is something that encompasses everything.
Instinctively we know this to be so. We look at the
vastness of a starry night's sky and often wonder
what is there? How big is it, this universe? And
what is our place in it?

How was it created and why?

And so we may become seekers, scientists,
philosophers, athiests, diests, and so on and so
on. We strive to make sense out of this existence
by carving out a little slice that makes a personal
sort of reality. A zone of comfort that defines
sanity for us, if you will.

I remember something absurd from my largely
christian upbringing. It was the explanation that
'God' wants us to love him. If we love him, we get
to go to heaven. God gave us free will so that we
could love him or not. And, 'God' already knows who
loves him and who gets to go to heaven and who will
be sent to hell. Huh? What's the point - that's
what I thought at the time (age 16 or so).

Is god some sort of sadist? Does he/she/it hang
around with a bunch of 'yes beings' amusing
themselves with creatures such as us? Does god say
'hey look, there's old so and so! Having a nice
little life - tell you what - let's screw him up a
bit and see what happens!'

And does god say, 'hey look, there is somebody who
needs a little help. What do you say, my angels,
should we help him out a bit?'

All religions have an element of the fantastical
and dramatic about them. They are designed, to some
extent, to be a guideline on how one can lead a
beneficial life. There are moral and social
guidelines found in each religion. And the basic
truth is often covered up by religion - though it
is stated.

That truth is, god is all there is - all there is,
is god.

Ah, but we are a naive, gullible, credulous, and
somewhat childish species. We prefer a good fairy
tale to the truth. We enjoy being tricked -
sometimes. (big grin here)

I'll tell you the big secret to finding god - there
is no secret to finding god.

And that is why 'awakening' is so difficult. It's a
trick! You and I are god in the flesh. We are not
separate from god - we only appear to be. Why? So
that the drama can appear to have meaning!

Gosh! IS it only a play? Well, in a word, yes. We
are god and we are playing all the parts.

Of course everything I've said here is only
blabber! There is no need to take it at all
seriously.

A quote from the late Scott Morrison:
"Enlightenment is nothing more than being totally
in love with everything."

From me: "Your life is the universe's way of
enjoying itself."

From the delightful universe of 'Star Trek': IDIC -
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.


Live long and prosper.

-----

Created Me

To know myself
I created me
And set me down
In eternities garden.

There I wove
A mask of tears
To hide myself away
And play the game of seeking.

Teasing myself with visions of me
As a higher truth
I drank of bitters and spice
And became noble and delved in vice.

When then I seemed to have enough
I dropped the ball, refused to play
And gave to me another day
Of dawning joy.

------

Peace - at play in the fields of eternity - Michael

ps without a passion for life - how could all of THIS exist?

________________________________________________________________

MATTHEW

from The Sun, October 2001.

no man consciously chooses evil because it is evil;
he only mistakes it for the happiness that he
seeks. .......Mary Shelley

____________________________________________________________

JAN SULTAN

INTERVIEW WITH CATHERINE INGRAM

Q: What do you mean by 'it was done'? You became
enlightened?

CI: Enlightenment is not a word I use. I prefer to
call this a natural way of being, the most natural
actually. Or just radiant presence or dear
awareness, clear seeing. I don't use the word
enlightenment because the term itself is very
loaded. To many people it implies a kind of Big
Bang after which you are eternally in a steady
state called enlightenment. While in fact the
actual experience is a kind of opening in
spaciousness, here and now, which allows anything
to come and go, with no resistance. It is not a
state, it is just relaxing into a natural ease of
being. It's already here. When people use the word
enlightenment, it implies some point in time that
you hop into or it happens to you and then you are
there for ever more... I don't think this is a good
way of thinking about it.

Q: Then let me put the question this way: with
Poonjaji you realized your true nature?

CI: Yes, but what I saw was a recognition of
something I already knew. I just hadn't been paying
full attention to it. I hadn't given it it's due,
it's importance, until I met Poonjaji. 1 didn't
realize: this is IT. And then I saw it really was
~. And it became more and more IT, over time.
Everybody has the potential of knowing and living
in this vastness. Everyone has an awakened nature
and is consciousness manifesting. It just has to do
with what you are paying attention to. Some people
are paying more attention to this ease of being.
They are allowing their attention to rest
essentially in this ease of being. Little bubbles
on the screen may come by and sometimes they get a
little attention, but that's about it. While
normally people are lost in the bubbles on the
screen; they focus on them. That's the difference.
It is a switch of perception.

Q: A switch in perception which usually takes place
as a gradual process?

CI: Well, it can happen totally instantaneously
too. Some people recognize their true nature right
away and that is where their attention rests from
that moment on. But for many people it is a process
of getting used to it. It is not a process of an
occurring; it is a process of a consistency. It is
a deepening and a slow relaxation into that
recognition. .... It takes a moment to realize that
the central problem is gone before you realize that
all the other problems that were hanging on to it
are also gone. The moment you recognize your true
nature, it takes a moment to realize that all your
problems were hanging on the central erroneous
belief that you are somebody. When this belief is
gone, all the problems are gone at the same time.
To realize this is waking up fully from the dream.

Q: How did the process of realizing your true
nature develop for you?

CI: When I first recognized this pure awareness,
that nobody ever touches, which nothing ever sticks
to, it was very thrilling to me. I thought that I
would never again notice anything else. But the
little bubbles, neuroses and all kinds of things
came up again. They caught my attention for a
little while. And then they fell away again and
there was this spaciousness, vastness again. So on
one hand I could say it has been a gradual process.
But on the other hand I would say it has really
gone quite quickly and continuously. And it still
goes on and on.

______________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE

OUT OF GOD'S HAT

The stars poured into the sky
Out of a Magician's hat last night,
And all of them have fallen into my hair.
Some have even tangled my eyelashes
Into luminous, playful knots.

Wayfarer,
You are welcome to cut a radiant tress
That lays upon my shoulders.
Wrap it around your trembling heart and body
That craves divine comfort and warmth.
I am like a pitcher of milk
In the hands of a mother who loves you.

All of my contents now
Have been churned into dancing suns and moons.

Lean your sweet neck and mouth
Out of that dark nest where you hide,
I will pour effulgence into your mind.

Come spring
You can find me rolling in the fields
They are exploding in
Holy battles

Of scents, of sounds - everything is
A brilliant colored nova on a stem.

Forest animals hear me laughing
And surrender their deepest instincts and fears,

They come charging into meadows
To lick my hands and face,

This makes me so happy,
I become so happy

That my rising wink turns into a magic baton.
When my soft-eyed creatures see that wonderful signal
We all burst into singing

And make strange and primal beautiful sounds!

My only regret in this world then becomes:

That your shyness keeps you from placing
Your starving body against God

And seeing the Beloved become so pleased
With your courage

That his belly begins to rock and rock,
Then more planets get to leap
Onto the welcome mat of existence
All because
Of your previous love.

The friend has turned my verse into sacred pollen.
When a breeze comes by

Falcons and butterflies
And playful gangs of young angels
Mounted on emerald spears

Take flight from me like a great sandstorm
That can blind you to all but the Truth!

Dear one
Even if you have no net to catch Venus
My music will circle this earth for hundreds of years
And fall like resplendent debris,
Holy seed, onto a fertile woman.

For Hafiz
Wants to help you laugh at your every
Desire.

Hafiz
Wants you to know

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's
Arms

Is already

Perfect!

("The Gift" -- versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

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