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Thursday, February 7, 2002

Because of Our Wisdom

In many parts of the world
water is
Scarce and precious.

People sometimes have to
walk
A great distance

Then carry heavy jugs upon
their
Heads.

Because of our wisdom, we will
travel
Far for love.

All movement is a sign of
Thirst.

Most speaking really says,
"I am hungry to know you."

Every desire of your body is holy;

Every desire of your body is
Holy.

Dear one,
Why wait until you are dying

To discover that divine
Truth?


("The Subject Tonight is Love" - versions of Hafiz by
Daniel Ladinsky)

__________________________________________________________________

JAN SULTAN

The Non-dual Reality has no aims or objectives, or likes or
dislikes. It is just an unbiased, un-interfering observer.
However, it is experiencing, the world fully via it's
creatures senses. [Not that it is separate from its
creatures].

There is definitely no evidence of a human like 'god', who
sits in judgement or interferes in any way [whether to
reward or punish] in the enfolding of this manifestation.
Anyway who is there to be judged? Unless of course it was
part of the fiction/game.

We [the manifest part of us] however can change, in however
infinitesimal way, what is happening in this unplanned, yet
regulated Universe. [Regulated by various laws of physics,
evolution, spirit, etc.]

Evolution! Now, how much part does this play in the game
that is going on? Is the recent increase in spiritual [not
blind religious] awareness a part of the evolution?
Remember human beings have been on this world for more than
6 million years and religion and spirituality are a recent
phenomena.

Why this interest in the 'game'? Because I am beginning to
realize that it is as much a part of us as our non-dual
roots. Burying our heads in the non-dual sand could also be
part of the game, so no judgement there.

What does your intuition/insight tell you? [I think the
game and its rules could be different for each of us. Don't
underestimate the power of 'all that/there is' (God).
Remember the uniqueness of finger prints and snow flakes]


GREG GOODE

If something is an observer experiencing the world, it's
not Non-Dual Reality. It's what's called the witness. It
has objects, the witnessed. The witness is an important
stage in gauged-teaching models, and serves to point out
that it makes no sense that the objects exist or act on
their own.

____________________________________________________________________

JAN SULTAN

Ramana says that the spiritual heart is situated on the
right side of our chests. Aziz says that it is situated in
the middle of the chest.

I, myself have never felt it on the right side! Am I left
hearted? :-) For me it is somewhere in the middle, more
towards the left than the right. However when I feel
emotionally moved then it expands all over and even wants
to burst free!

Is the emotional heart separate from the spiritual heart?

What are your views on all this?

VIORICA
from HarshaSatsangh

Q: You have said that the Heart is the centre of the Self.

A: Yes, it is the one supreme centre of the Self. You need
have no doubt about it. The real Self is there in the
Heart behind the jiva or ego self.

Q: Now be please to tell me where it is in the body.

A: You cannot know it with your mind. You cannot realise it
by imagination, when I tell you here is the centre
[pointing to the right side of the chest]. The only
direct way to realise it is to cease to fantasize and
try to be yourself. When you realise, you automatically
feel that the centre is there. This is the centre, the
Heart, spoken of in the scriptures as Hrit-Guha [cavity
of the heart], Arul [grace], Ullam [the Heart].

Q: In no book have I found it stated that it is there.

A: Long after I came here I chanced upon a verse in the
Malayalam version of Ashtangahridayam, the standard work
on Ayurveda [science of life, health and medicine],
wherein the Ojas Sthana [source of bodily vitality or
place of light] is mentioned as being located in the
right side of the chest and called the seat of
consciousness [samvit]. But I know of no other work
which refers to it as being located there.

Q: Can I be sure that the ancients meant this centre by the
term 'Heart'?

A: Yes that is so. But you should try to have rather than
to locate the experience. A man need not find out where
his eyes are situated when he wants to see. The Heart is
there ever open to you if you care to enter it, ever
supporting all your movements even when you are unaware.
It is perhaps more proper to say that the Self is the
Heart itself than to say that it is in the Heart.
Really, the Self is the centre itself. It is everywhere,
aware of itself as 'Heart', the Self-awareness.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

JAN BARENDRECHT

In the course of events, three heart centers will be felt:

1. the one at the center of the axis (sushumna) - one of
the first 'painful' experiences denoting K. awakening
2. the physical one (referred to by a psalm's phrase "test my
kidneys and my heart") In alchemical and gnostic texts, the
Holy Grail
3. the one at the right of the axis, felt when
all the other centers have been 'pierced'. So it is likely
to be the last one noticed.

These 3 events aren't path-specific but invariant road
marks.

"I, myself have never felt it on the right side! Am I left
hearted?"

Now you know why you didn't feel it - you haven't yet
noticed the meaning of that psalm, or the Holy Grail :)
That has to come first...

"For me it is somewhere in the middle, more towards the
left than the right. However when I feel emotionally moved
then it expands all over and even wants to burst free!"

In my case, in 1970, the 'rose of the heart' (center on
axis) was the second event of a sudden and sharp burning
pain. Not knowing what it meant, it didn't disturb the joy
of 'awake and empty' but increased it beyond imagination!

"Is the emotional heart separate from the spiritual heart?"

There is no such separation - all centers are related also
to emotions but each in a specific way.

"What are your views on all this?"

No views - just memories :) Great ones though faint - love,
joy, laughter, ecstasy, boundless energy, just 3 hours of
sleep/day. Only possible, when experientially knowing "
there is nothing to lose" and living up to that..

____________________________________________________________

ED ARRONS

It could blow one's mind, one who has stood in awe of the
night sky filled with stars, to think there are no stars
out there other than the experienced perception of light,
photons that have journyed for millions of light
years...arriving home, having never left. Such is the
hidden nature of memory, of experience, and of life itself.

________________________________________________________________

JB789

an 8 year old wonder preacher

Seen a TV-program yesterday, on young preachers in the US..
The kind of preachers who exercise 'spiritual warfare'
against the Devil, as they call it. A father and his two
sons, travelling across the US for years, 'spreading the
word of the Lord'...

The film showed first the older kid at 8 .. he was full of
confidence preaching, gesticulating, repeating loudly 'yes
Lord, we have Poweeeer over the Devil' and the audience
would reply 'Halleluia.. !' and so on. Another preacher, 46
years old came to be blessed by the kid. The reason was
that after 30 some years of preaching, he was not doing so
well, he was in a crises/depresion.. so the kid recommended
'faith and reading the Bible some more'.. and put his hand
on the older preacher's head, who thereupon started to
shake and speak in tongues and then collapsed.

The father was proud of him. The child had no friends. Got
no school education. As soon as he would be with other
kids, he would ask 'what time is it' and go away .. he
would hardly ever have eye contact with them.

At 14, .. one day when preaching, a woman came to him with
her hands up in the air, ready to be saved/healed .. the
kid puts his hand on her forhead and asks the Lord to
remove the Devil who, he thought, possesed her.. also said
that this is because she does not go to church to hear the
word of the Bible, often enough .. Now, she happened to be
a local priest's wife ... and her husband was in the hall
also. At one point, very upset he (the local priest) starts
to yell at the kid, denouncing him as being a false/fake
preacher .. The kid got very ofended and hurt, and while
the local priest and his wife were walking towards the
door, the kid-preacher started to yell: 'Remove this Demon
from your house my Lord.. OUT of my Saviour's House you
Deeeeevil !' ..while pointing his intensely vibrating
finger. (Well, it worked, of course.. he was on the way out
anyway.)

Following this incident, the kid went behind the stage and
with his finger vigorously pointing at, supposedly the
Devil ...roared : "How Can Youuuu Do this to me ?!.. after
soooo many years of me preaching.. and you Still put bad
thoughts in my head !?.. I will Not let youuuuu ... be lost
you Demon !!..".. on and on went the conversation and the
threats. (I imagine that the Devil.. -If he was around..
which apparently 'Was' the case-,.. must've head a great
time to see how he could affect a preacher ..)

At 18, he was again interviewed .. he was hardly preaching
any longer,..was alone mostly in his room, on his bed,
sleeping much,.. but still travelling with the father. He
was constantly depressed. No friends .. Asked how he was
feeling, he said, faintly mumbling, that he "was tortured
by the Devil" and sadly wondered "WHY would he do that to
me ?!"

His mother was also worried about him .. he would go around
as if drunk with his eyes hardly open, and was incessantly
touching his face and eyes, looking rather disturbed and
damaged. His mother said, "he just needs a damn pair of
glasses !, and he's gotta get a girlfriend like other boys
and a job !",..but admitted that he and the father, were
'Obsessed with demons, the Devil and hell'. She said he was
'himself' and felt good only 1 out of 24 hours, while he
was preaching. Even so, she was proud of her son being a
preacher serving the Lord and to her, he was chosen by God.

He was asked if he was happy. In a rather feeble and
depressed tone of voice and rather reluctantly, he said '..
not really .. uuuhh I don't know ..'

His younger brother (about 10 yrs. old) was also to be
ordained as a preacher.. by another preacher .. On the way
to the place, his father told him how proud he was to have
him continue the spiritual warefare aginst the Devil,..

At one point the father asks the young son : "Son .. are
you looking forwards to be Ordained ?!" And the son replies
"Oh Yaaaaa !".. and two seconds later he adds : " .. What
is 'Ordained' Daddy ?!"

At the end of the documentary (I have to underline.. this
was not a fiction-movie but a documentary) the older son,
now 20, was asked what he would like in his life .. He
replied "I would like a church, filled with 5.000 people,
to whom I can talk and preach the word of the Lord .."...
but his tone of voice was still revealing his depression
and also the lack of confidence and eagerness, he used to
have, at the age of 8.

God and the Devil.. responsible for everything .. a tragedy
of extreme dualism ? And the fight/warfare against the
Devil, .. did _the fight_ create the Devil ? A case of
intense conditioning, with no possibility for realease from
it claws ? Apparently so... Would there be a 'Devil' if
there was no 'God'.. and viceversa ? And is this
conditioning, The 'devil' itsself ?

His father was asked by the interviewer, in connection with
the kids bad state : 'should'nt you just have him stop
doing all this, and let him have a normal life ?' The
father replied : 'Well, some doctor said he might be
autistic, but they do not really know .. No, no,.. my son
has been chosen to do the work of the Lord'. Apparently,
_both_ of His sons. And he divorced his wife, and continued
traveling, spreading the word and hoping one day, to have
his own church.

regards, Jb PS. In a way, the kid-preacher, is an enviable
position .. a position where one can exercize power, one
can send anyone whom one does not like to hell while others
applaud, one is listened to and gets Hallluia feedbacks,
one can indulge in desires for personal fame and success,
one is never contradicted, one receives gifts from the
congregation, one can channelize one's anger by projecting
the Devil on the object of hatred, one can do swing on the
emotional universe as one pleases, one can feel the
strength generated by the attention of the yes-sayers
listening, one can escape from one's depressions, one can
freely judge another, one can generate fear in another (the
Fear of God), one can regard oneself as a kind of a
Superman fighting the Whole world's evil ones.. one has a
meaning for the duration of one's whole life, ..and all
this with the 'guarrantee' that in the end, one will be
victorious .. and succesful .. and all this, in the name of
the Lord.

I mean,.. to win with one's opinion over another's, or a
phylosophical/political dispute, must be sheer and fragile
peanuts, compared to the 'joy the Lord can give' and the
guarrantee for winning, while in his service.

As a matter of fact, I know a bit about that joyful feeling
of 'speaking for the Absolute Truth'.. (.. you too ?!) but
alás, it does'nt last long .. _Some_ ignorant ! fool, comes
along, and puts a needle into my bloated of self-worth and
confidence baloon ..

But then,.. they would Not dare to do such an evil thing,
IF I was an Authorized speaker,.. would they ?!

GENE POOLE
Your posting is relevant.

I have indulged in a good deal of Christian education, and
rarely, only occasionally, have I heard the transcendental
view which is (IMO) actually 'Christian', which is this:

Satan tempted Eve (read: all of humanity) by introducing
the concept that she could 'do' something, even though,
everything was already being 'done for her' by God.

It was the idea of 'doing' which Satan introduced, and
which appeals to the childish 'ego' as 'I am doing'.

Then, the arrival of Jesus, who signaled the end of warfare
between God and humanity; Jesus message from His father,
that 'you are forgiven', and the blood-pact with God, 'who
gave his only son' as a mark of His Word.

Jesus arrival, life, and death signified our newfound
'maturity'; our faith is tested around the issue of his
ressurection; "Let God Do It".

It is the issue of 'doing' which has to be confronted now
that we have the sophistication to understand the subtle
distinctions involved.

The failure of the Christian way, is to neglect to
understand that indeed, Jesus 'won the battle against
Satan', and that we merely have to stand with Him, to enjoy
the benefits of his sacrifice, and thus also to commune
with God The Father.

Fundamentalists of all stripe miss the mark, when
advocating 'doing', as though something could actually be
'done'.

The actual parallel between Christianity and nondualism
(using those terms is somehow painful) occurs in the
abiding; one may call it 'faith' or 'realization', as well.
Our troubles are over, when we finally put aside the hubris
of the assumption of 'doing' ('ye can be as God!' was the
first temptation).

The issue of the existence of a 'do-er' is secondary to the
point of whether 'doing' is possible. It seems possible,
and that is exactly the temptation to lead one out of
abiding in faith or realization.

So even though 'Satan' still breaths his constant
temptation, we are assured that by leaving behind the
assumption that there is anything to be gained by 'doing' ,
we allow God to do it all for us, which of course 'He' is
already 'doing', as only 'God' can do.

Abding, observing the flow within and without, a natural
language is heard and eventually understood, and this is
the voice of the living universe, revealing itself to us.
It is a gentle voice, easily lost in the clamor of lives
characterized by fighting a battle which was literally won
(by design, not chance) centuries ago.

Gene Poole

[Note to reader: I mean no offense to Christian or to
Christianity; I am expressing my own view of what is
embedded in the Biblical/historical record. I am not a
theologian, nor am I a 'practicing Christian' by most
definintions. Hear ye; nothing need be done, but the Will
of God.]

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