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10/28/01 Sunday

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GARY MERRILL
Doing Time - The Now is the Now or is it?


>It can be quite frightening to realize that the Now is not the Now and
never has been.

Perhaps we can say that the concept 'now' has value in a particular system,
a particular frame of reference. The reference being what is not now, the
past and future. We know what we mean by 'now' the same way we know what we
mean by 'green' for instance. However if I spoke a foreign language then the
meaning would be missed. Likewise then we know what we mean by 'real',
'true' at least superficially.

As I said before in questioning the notion of time one is led to question
the nature of objectivity and conceptuality itself. Such conceptual notions
will continue to have value within the same framework which gives value to
'self' and the subjective element in the objective system. Taoistically I
suppose one would say 'self and not self mutually arise and are dependent'.

My curiosity, for better or worse, is to ask, inquire, into what is it like
to 'experience' without any conceptual framework, to look without any
conceptual glasses? We may be blinded by our own conceptions, or
preconceptions. Can the world be ever seen anew? This may be a futile effort
but I think at least it may alleviate the dogmatism and conflict arising
therefrom caused by those who know what is right and are fighting it out as
a result.

There are two further points to look at simplicity and love. With respect to
'simplicity' we can look at it the same way and say that
simplicity/complexity form part of a conceptual system. We may then ask is
there a simplicity before this system a 'beginners mind' as it were. Again
with 'love' as an object and as personal means of satisfaction then its
relevance will be limited and satisfaction will be temporary. So it has been
asked is there such a thing as 'unconditional love' that would not be
limited to any particular form. If there is such a thing then it would seem
clear that commitment to any system, which would be self referential, would
have to stop.

Not by coercion but understanding we may be free, and funny if this love we
searched so hard to get should come for free also.

A lot of the above needs further development and enquiry of course, but I
think it represents a start


ANDREW


Where you going traveller?
Traveller there is no path
but the trail of your own footprints.

love,
andrew


ERIC ASHFORD
excerpt from "Arise"

The open heart never lays down without falling into itself as
a lover. Sleep no longer engulfs, but gently undoes the past,
unwinding all that you need carry no further. When you
awake to your love, loves eye will open in you, and you shall
be this light that elucidates you naked to the morning. You
will be content to be your own answer, and the questions of
those grown old in themselves with endless self inquiry, will
appear to you as little poems of awakening that they sing in
praise of none other but you.


Be healed by every loving thought.
Somebody deceived you
they gave you an idol and told you to kneel.
Stand up now, and laugh.
You did this to yourself.
Pinch yourself awake and smile like God.


ANDREW
"There is a very easy way to the Buddha. Those who do not create
various evils; those who do not try to cling to life and death but, with deep
compassion, work for all beings, respecting
their elders and sympathizing with those younger; those who do not deny things or
seek them or think and worry about
them - they are called the Buddha. Don't look for anything else."

Dogen

HARSHA
Silent Heart


It is often said that if one simply stops the seeking, the wanting,
Realization will happen. It might be true if the seeking stops spontaneously
and the mind consciously loses its identity into its Source.

I wonder whether one can just give up seeking and wanting Realization.

Probably one cannot give up wanting any "want" until the wanting has waned.
One can certainly concentrate on wanting "total and complete blissful
surrender." Perhaps that is helpful. The fundamental issue is the
"wanting." Surrender happens when the wanting has waned or has been
suspended, or one simply has become completely indifferent to all wanting.
In other words, one has become "wanted out".

There is a Gate to the Kingdom of Heaven. To approach this Gate, one must be
a seeker. But the Gate does not open to seekers. And seeking cannot be given
up by will or effort.

It happens when you have been waiting and waiting and waiting. Waiting can
be a form of doing also. Then it is a long wait. You might be doing
anything. Meditation, Yoga, Pranayama, etc. These are all essentially forms
of waiting. And waiting can be helpful. It tires you out. It is Grace that
finally makes us so indifferent to any "seeking" or "wanting", that we
forget what we had wanted, why we had wanted it, and what we had been
waiting for. Here and Now the Primal Being Reveals It Self as Eternal, as
the very Core of our existence, being Existence It Self. It is the Now-ness,
the Here-ness, Ever new, the perpetual Silence of fullness and
Self-fulfillment.

To enter the Kingdom of Heaven one must be completely naked and bereft of
all things. Seekers can approach the Gate but cannot enter.

There is no path to this entrance because there is no where else to go. It
is not to be found in the future in some other place. There is no future and
there is no other place separate from Here and Now. Self can only be known
in the Present because It Is ItSelf the Present.

It Is the Total Presence.

Love to all
Harsha


RASHMI MOORJANI
The Salon

Just a coincidence
Surely not
Landing on a planet
"The Nonduality Salon"
For what?
I know not
For how can I know
That which I cannot
That which has brought me here
For no purpose
For no reason
But just to play
Just to react
And interact
Just to make me feel
What I feel
And make me think of Nonduality
Think of Nonduality
What's that?
Let me look into my dictionary
Wait a minute
There doesn't appear to be such a word
So I look up Duality
Twofold: Mind and Spirit
Evil and Good
Hmmmmmmmm.
That means it is wholesome
Unlike Duality
Full, Wholesome, Unitary
This Ultimate
Is what?
I do not know
For how can I know
That which I cannot
That which has brought me here
To play the game of dualism
To understand
In order to Just Be It
Or Leave It
I still do not know.

Rashmi Moorjani

DAN & ANDREW
Doing Time


>
> > There is nothing that doesn't appear and disappear.
>
> There is nothing that appearing and
> disappearing.

That too.

> > Who is there to say real or unreal?
>
> There is only the real.
> What isn't real, isn't there.

Dan, you were the one who spoke of reality and unreality, when you said, a post ago,
" > Nothing real can be made to disappear.
> Only unreality can go away."

> > Look around; this is the world, changing, always
> > changing.
>
> For whom?
> Who is looking at the world and
> noticing how it changes?
> You? Are you changing or not?

Yes me. I am changing, the world is changing,
we are not two.

> Always changing compared with what?

If I understand you, you are saying that
change is only inferred by comparing
the present to the past. Or changing to unchanging.

Not so...
The felt aliveness of
all the worldself is change.


> > Time is the being of the world.
>
> Who's version of time is the being
> of the world? Yours, an ant's,
> a galaxy's?

I am time, the ant is time, the galaxy is time.

> >
> > Sometimes it's fun to speak of 'beyond'
> > but come on, who're ya foolin'?
> > This is it folks.


> What is it? What "this" are you
> talking about? The concept of
> time isn't "this" ...

Time is this. The quick, alive, changing :) worldself is this.


> > *Certified correct* by andrew
>
> So, uncertify it :-)
>
> Uncertify all statements
> about reality,

Oh ok.

> and be it :-)

No alternative.

> Dan

andrew

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