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12/4/01 Tuesday

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JERRY KATZ

December 4. Happy Birthday to Christiana and Gloria. Thank you for what
you've given to so many. You're important in my life.

Love,
Jerry


SU GANDOLF
hummology - attention on the attention


The first part of this doesn't ring true for me. Or, maybe it's that
it does, but so does it's opposite. What I observe internally is that
when some path, or teacher, is discovered to have been "found" by
many others, that is when I doubt it, even if my own experience is
that it is authentic (i.e.: I acknowledged its power before I knew it
was considered a path or a teacher). And you also see time and again
in books and accounts of the spiritual journey (proud?) recountings
of meetings with teachers who had say, three students, or of
awakenings that happened with only minimal contact with a teaching
(i.e.: I was not "one of them" I merely saw the truth for myself).
Like we want to say our path is unique, even though it is the same
story over and over. And yet it is unique, whether we are supposedly
following a well-worn path or not. Do we really have a choice? Is
there an inauthentic spiritual journey? An authentic but un-spiritual
jouney? An authentic spiritual going-nowhere? (actually, I kind of
like that one)
Life is. path, pathless, neither, both... don't know.

Love you,
Su

JERRY KATZ

hi Su,

yes, i mean yes the path could follow tracks at some point and then one goes
off a well known track and onto a lesser known one, then back on a well
travelled one. Coming down the mountain, there are no tracks, no mountain,
there is a 'standing alone', which might mean a presence in a void: no
mountain, no track. (first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain).
Then there is a climb up another mountain. This new mountain walk is
trackless and mountainless, i would say.

I think the first mountain, the void, and the second mountain, happen all at
once. Even as one is climbing the tracks of the first mountain, one is
climbing the second mountain and is standing alone in the void. At least a
person can look at experiences and file them in one of those three slots.

Well, i guess I just created more tracks for the first mountain.


JERRY KATZ

> Nonduality and Schizophrenia <http://nonduality.com/s.htm>

I forgot that there are no attachments going through, and I had attached the
entire web page. So here's an introductory note:

Nonduality and Schizophrenia features the fine writings of
Spencer Perdriau. There is no else who has beaten
schizophrenia and speaks so well about it from the nondual
perspective, as Spencer. His knowledge is first-hand and his
advice sound and practical.

One per cent of the population has schizophrenia. There is a
35% recovery rate. The upcoming movie, 'A Beautiful Mind', is
about a schizophrenic man who went on to win a Nobel
Prize in Economics.

There are many fascinating links on this new web page.
Everything from Edgar Cayce's advice (which jibes in many
ways with Spencer's) to Philip K. Dick's wild thoughts on
managing schizophrenic tendencies with the i ching.

I hope you'll spend time at the web page and visit the links.
I think it's one of the best things on the entire web site.
No kidding.

<http://nonduality.com/s.htm>

Jerry

GLORIA LEE

This is a true story of how a previously isolated island has traversed 6,000 years of human history in two
decades. So, in a way, its the story of what has happened to all of us. If you are asked for a password, you
can get one free. -Glo


http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/02/magazine/02ISLE.html?searchpv=past7days

Many on Babuyan still remember the ''before time,'' when there was a settled egalitarianism rather than
every-man-for-himself enterprise, when no one here knew that the Ibatan were poor in a world of vast
wealth. Within their tiny civilization of 1,400 people, you can see so clearly the effects of modernity and
measure what is gained against what has been lost. And in the person of Ruben Dican, the richest and most
modernized figure on the island, you can see the struggle to manage a problem that is new to them, but quite
familiar to the rest of the world: the divide between haves and have-nots.

[...]

After walking an hour in the midmorning heat, we come across Joaquin, an ancient, loinclothed man in a tiny
hut, chewing on areca nut, a local narcotic. Judi, after a few questions, determines Joaquin was born in 1917,
probably in May. The man, it turns out, is Frank's great-uncle, his grandmother's brother. This is not too
surprising -- almost everyone on the island is related. Frank, holding his son, gently eases under the grassy
eaves of the hut's doorway, and with her digital camera, Judi takes a picture of the three of them, crossing
four generations, for the book.

It is striking how far their paths have diverged in such a short period. Frank spends his days worrying about
the yield of his rice crop, businesses he might start and how he'll ever manage to send his son to college.
Joaquin is concerned about feeling in harmony with the ''invisibles'' and spearing wild pigs. After the photo is
taken, they chat briefly about relatives. The old man, squatting on the floor of his hut, looks quizzically at
Frank, who is dressed in a polo shirt, and says, ''It does not look like we are related.''

After we leave Joaquin, Frank seems reflective. Rundell pokes at him to get a sense of why. ''Written
language gave us a way to capture our history and compare ourselves to people everywhere,'' Frank says
after a moment. ''Now that we have a past, I find that I think only of the future. I always feel a clock ticking
and time rushing by. But Joaquin, he lives always in the present. He hears no clock. Once, that's the way we
all were.''


TERRY S.
on hummology

Early on, when non-dual awareness (or whatever you want to call it)
is realized a typical thought might have been, "hey, what I've been
doing worked, I've got to share this with others." That's when folks
come up with things like 'Hummology'.

The author didn't follow these instructions to the letter. They are a
condensation of years of various kinds of practice probably. He's
just trying to help others with a shortcut.

Yes, nisargadda and ramana have simple teachings, but what path
led you to appreciate that simplicity? And what path led them to be
able to express their thoughts/no thoughts so elegantly?


JODY


I'm fairly certain that when someone comes to nondual awareness,
the first thing they realize is that what they were "doing" had
very little to do with it.

Nondual realization happens of its own accord. The connection
between the practice and the realization is apparent and
tenuous at best. Rather than being the end of a long, hard
journey, it's more like a sudden remembering of something
long forgotten. You've been walking for years in the sun
looking for your sunglasses, and you finally get to see that
your glasses have been on your head the whole damn time.

Once realization has manifested, it can be seen more clearly
what occludes and what encourages, and this becomes the basis
of what is expressed in a satsang.


JERRY

This is notice of a new journal. Looks interesting.

------------------------------------------------------------

The PsychoSpiritual Research Institute (PSRI), an online
center for the study of consciousness and psychospiritual
transformation, invites you to visit our new free online
publication,"The Journal Of Psychospiritual Transformation."
Our first issue includes articles by Charles Tart, Fred
Abraham, Dana Gaynor, Paul Wildman, Frank Mosca and Nancy
Poitou.

The url/web address of our journal is:

http://psychospiritualresearchinstitute.com/journalofpsychospiritualtransformation.htm

The PSRI online institute is composed of a variety of related
sites including research, distance learning, and consulting
centers, as well as a publishing group and a small catalog of
transpersonal books and measures. PSRI also provides a free
members center where you can download any of a wide variety
of related ebooks at no charge.

To reach PSRI directly go to:
http://psychospiritualresearchinstitute.com

Happiness and peace in the new year,

Dana Gaynor, Ph.D. Director: The PsychoSpiritual Research
Institute (PSRI) Editor-in-Chief: The Journal of
Psychospiritual Transformation

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