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JERRY KATZ

I wrote the following a few months ago and I want
to look at
it again.

"Lately I've been swimming a bit. I've noticed I
could stay
in the deep end of the pool and tread water. Or I
could go to
the shallow end and stand up. I've noticed that the
shallow
end is a totally different experience.

When I go to the shallow end, I get to give up my
practice of
treading water. I enter a more fundamental
practice."

This sounds stupidly obvious: the shallow end is a different
experience than the end of the pool that's over your head.
And the advice or recommendation sounds stupidly obvious too:
if you get tired of treading water in the deep end of the
pool, go to the shallow end and stand up.

The only advice that's more stupidly simple is spiritual
advice on the order of, "Stop seeing the ego as real."

Perhaps the shallow end is like knowing I AM. In that
position the whole story, the source of suffering, can be
seen. There are only a few adults and mostly kids in the
shallow end. The masses are out in the deep end treading
water or floating on all kinds of crazy objects designed to
feel substantial and like real ground.

From the shallow end the whole story can be seen. The ladder
is nearby. It's easy to climb out and enter the nondual
reality, though it may take a while to dry off.

______________________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECHT

from Social Train Wreck list

Nice name for a list. And it does ring a bell... I've met
quite a few proverbial parrots who would have been able to
fly, but only without the heavy flight manuals tied on their
back...

When knowing the 'esoteric' meaning of Christian holidays,
it's impossible to celebrate any of them, other than once, at
the proper occasion... Which could be one requirement to be
classified as 'social train wreck'.

Prosit, Jan

_________________________________________________________________________

GENE POOLE

As moderator, it is my duty to inform One and All that
'Lobster' or someone using his authentic email address has
broadcast email which implies that he has died, and has been
'born again'.

His XML/graphics-rich email has a strong 'Sufi' slant. There
is a link to a website which contains among other things, a
looped soundtrack, and several links to his online
productions.

It appears to me, that Ed may have finally 'passed' the
identity- concretion which has been known as 'Lobster', an
event which may have been rather profound, minding size of
that 'stone'.

If this is the case, my impulse to celebrate certainly
overcomes any urge to mourn for the lost shell, and instead
to wish the inner meat a fond fondue in the cheese-pot of a
new life.

<http://pages.britishlibrary.net/lobster/rip/>

___________________________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE

This is not the age of information.

This is not
the age of information.

Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.

This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.

People are hungry,
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.

- David Whyte
"Loaves and Fishes"
from The House of Belonging

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