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Wednesday, February 20, 2002

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CHRISTIANA DURANCZYX
report from CA gathering and photos of Jerry

Greetings NDS friends..

I've just come home from the inner and outer
beauty of Southern California, the Inner Directions
gathering of a dozen clear presenters; and several
smaller private gatherings. Fourteen of us, with
online affiliation, gathered for dinner and a lively
circle on Saturday night. Jerry, cee, Chuck Hillig,
Dave and Barbara Lambert (who host satsanghs in
LA), Jody, Petros, Rudy from Michigan,
Dianne and Tom Murphy (see-what-is list owner), Andrew (a vibrant, intellectually challenging young SD
lawyer), my dear friend Metta Zetty (one of this year's presenters) and her husband Gary. We each felt
fortunate to be in the presence of such good people. A weekend of heart, great smiles and the fun of
physically meeting the eyes behind the online affinity.

I've attaching a couple of photos taken of Jerry. From serene emptiness, to the fullness of donut schtick.
Perhaps others will share the evening photos.

If any of you are considering attending the retreat in Nova Scotia next October, know that these gatherings
are delightful and rare opportunities to be present in fellowship.

Love,
Christiana


CEE
inner directions quotes from cee

wonderful friends,
fred asked me to share something from the inner directions gathering so here
are a few
(out of context an maybe not precise) quotes from some of the presenters.

Francis Lucille:
"unless someone asks me a question, i have nothing to say,
everything is quite well."

"unless you are free, you won't enjoy your tendencies"

"true silence is the presence that makes all things possible"
"that which dies is always an object-you'll never see consciousness die"
"when the t.v. dies (the body)-the broadcast is not dead"
------------------------------------------------------
Douglas and Catherine Harding
(he was celebrating his 93 birthday, they had us do many practical
experiments
that graphically showed us we don't exist as separate entities -and made it
undeniably clear that there is nothing above our shoulders)

"there are as many ways home-to the place we never left-
as there are ways out of it"
-----------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Rami Shapario
"shabbot means more than just resting for a day-- it actually means "TO CEASE"
-------------------------------------------------------
Metta Zetty
"you can't step off your path--where you ARE, is your path"
----------------------------------------------------
Leonard Jacobson
"awake simply means i am fully present-i am no where else"

"always call the ego 'sweetheart' or 'darling'-and tell it to give you a
break"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Adyashanti
"the relationship between the spiritual teacher and the student
is like two arrows shot at full speed and meeting head on in mid air-
both lose all their concepts"

"when one is awake, the sense of self is something like the scent of perfume,
it is purely functional,--it doesn't mean there IS a separate self.

"satsang is the fire that burns up all our concepts"
--------------------------------------------------
Gangaji
" i'm glad Adiya said everything"
----------------------------------------------------
Seikh Abdoulaye Dieye
(a contemporary sufi mystic from Senegal)
"when i got here they gave me the book of Ramana Maharshi--
i devoured it like the popcorn you gave me--his truth is my truth, the truth
of all"
-----------------------------------------------------
with love and joy, cee
www.livejournal.com/users/presentnonexist
www.presentnonexistence.com

JOYCE SHORT

Douglas and Catherine Harding
> (he was celebrating his 93 birthday, they had us do many practical
> experiments
> that graphically showed us we don't exist as separate entities -and made it
> undeniably clear that there is nothing above our shoulders)

What fun! Are you now "headless"? A huge spaciousness filled up with
everything but you? Or perhaps even better, everything is you, spaciousness
filling spaciousness for all to come and go without hindrance? Joyce


JAN B.

Thanks for the laugh Joyce - A much quoted analogy is that of the jar,
its space being the same as space containing the jar.
What is overlooked, is that neither the jar, nor it's 'inner space,
nor the 'outer' space does babble :)
Hence swami Sivananda's remark, the smell of garlic emanating
from a jar even remains after thorough cleansing.

Jan


GREG GOODE

Hi Jan,

That's a great analogy about the garlic smell. I've read lots and lots of Swami Sivananda's work, but never
that bit!

A few years ago in Germany, I heard a story about Douglas Harding from friends of his. It seems that
when he got married, he was so much in love with his new wife that he couldn't bear being without her - so
he became a dualist, so that both he and she would exist and could be together :-)

Lve,

--Greg


GLORIA LEE
Roses Underfoot by Rumi

Forward From: "Mazie Lane"

From "the Soul of Rumi" -

Roses Underfoot

The sound of salaams rising as
waves diminish down in prayer,

hoping for some trace of the one
whose trace does not appear. If

anyone asks you to say who you
are, say without hesitation,

soul within soul within soul.
There's a pearl diver who does

not know how to swim! No matter,
pearls are handed him on the

beach. We lovers laugh to hear,
"This should be more that and

that more this," coming from
people sitting in a wagon tilted

in a ditch. Going in search of
the heart, I found a huge rose

under my feet, and roses under
all our feet! How to say this

to someone who denies it? The
robe we wear is the sky's cloth.

Everything is soul and flowering.


I open and fill with love and
other objects evaporate. All

the learning in books stays put
on the shelf. Poetry, the dear

words and images of song, comes
down over me like mountain water.

Rumi

~~~~~


JOYCE
jokes from Dzogchenpas



> > 1. Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying
> > two dead raccoons.
> > The stewardess looks at them and says, "I'm sorry,
> > gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

> > 2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One
> > went to Hollywood and became a famous actor.
> > The other stayed behind in the cotton fields
> > and never amounted to much. The second one,
> > naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.
> >
>>3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but
> > when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank,
> > proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.
> >
> > 4. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the
> > Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces:
> > "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."
> >
> > 5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused
> > Novocain during a root canal?
> > He wanted to transcend dental medication.
> >
> > 6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a
> > hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing
> > their recent tournament victories. After about
> > an hour, the manager came out of the office and
> > asked them to disperse.
> > "But why?" they asked, as they moved off.
> > Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
> >
> > 7. A woman has twins and gives them up for
> > adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt
> > and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family
> > in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan
> > sends a picture of himself to his birth mother.
> > Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband
> > that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal.
> > Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen
> > Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
> >
> > 8. These friars were behind on their belfry
> > payments, so they opened up a small florist shop
> > to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy
> > flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across
> > town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the
> > good fathers to close down, but they would not.
> > He went back and begged the friars to close. They
> > ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh
> > MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town
> > to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat
> > up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd
> > be back if they didn't close up shop.
> > Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and
> > only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.
> >
> > 9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot
> > most of the time, which produced an impressive set
> > of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little,
> > which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he
> > suffered from bad breath. This made him ....what?
> > (A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.)

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