| a little wayne .... |
[May. 7th, 2008|03:23 pm] |
.... goes a long way. here's a little something from Wayne Liquorman's newsletter for this month (i've added quotes to distinguish from my comments which follow):
"Is there something you have done that up to that moment you swore you would never do? Perhaps it was something as simple as wagging your finger in the face of your child (an action your mother did to you and that you promised yourself you would never do to your own child). Or perhaps you had an extra-marital affair despite believing such behavior was wrong. If you examine the history of your life you may recall several such "embarassments". How is that you did these things that you were adamant that you would never do?
The usual, surface claim of the ego is that "I-the-ego" was responsible. "I" could have and should have done better. "I" should have resisted the temptation. "I" should have been stronger, wiser. "I" should have been less self-centered, less selfish.
The Living Teaching encourages you to look deeply into these actions. Such events can serve as windows into the Truth of what was functioning in those moments. What Universal (non-egoic) forces might have been at work to produce the action in question? Genes? Hormones? Conditioning? Can you begin to isolate any of the influences?
By looking, there may be seeing. In seeing, there may be Understanding."
***************
the "little embarassments" mentioned above seem to have been the sum total of this life (viewed by "me") for the longest time. this continued until it was seen how none of what happens can be regarded as separate. it was a huge relief to discover that the ego is effectively powerless and really does none of the stuff that it "thinks" it does.
beyond that, i can say that i've had this on again off again involvement with Wayne's (and Ramesh's) teaching for sometime, for several years now, really, and it, for the longest time, seemed kind of inside out from what Ramana - who's teaching i regard as the principle teaching - teaches, pointing as it does at the life, whereas Ramana seems to be pointing to the reality beyond the life.
i've come to see though, once the distinction was seen for what it was, that they are not different, the life (totality in action), or the totality at rest.
wherever one goes, one is. there's no getting around it.
cheers!
g |
|
|
| I hope this is okay.. |
[May. 6th, 2008|07:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | smashing pumpkins | ] |
Share thoughts, opinions, questions.
Recommend movies, books.
Rant and rave, whatever!
JOIN![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) paranoid_ones |
|
|
| For anyone here who's following Battlestar Galactica |
[May. 6th, 2008|10:35 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Ride Me High" - J.J. Cale | ] |
Am I imagining it, or is Gaius Baltar turning into a nondualist teacher? |
|
|
| Book of Life |
[May. 6th, 2008|01:12 pm] |
|
A large hardcover book
open to the middle take a look
one page on the left
one page on the right
half the story in one hand
and the other half in the other
The left side seems like the beginning
The right side seems like the end
The left page could be me
The right page could by you
But close the book
and there is only one
one complete story of everything
and everyone
and no mind to discriminate
beginning or end
left or right
me or you
on the spine there is a title
but it's written in a language no one can translate
but everyone knows that it feels like love |
|
|
| We're all tines on a single comb |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|03:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "What A Dream" - Sidney Bechet | ] |
I was playing around the other day with my two year old son. I grabbed his feet and said, "I've got you, Macky!". He laughed and said, "You not got Macky, you got Macky's feet." I flashed on the misidentification that creates duality. His feet aren't separate from him, just like I'm not separate from the universe. What's the difference between the universe and the universe's Mordecai? Hell if I know! |
|
|
| william samuel |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|02:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | sleepy, but it's a good sleepy | ] |
thanks to jerry katz (nonduality.com - nonduality highlights) for this link:
http://www.williamsamuel.com/wsbio.htm |
|
|
| Journey Prayer |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|10:44 am] |
I wish you peace upon your path my friend
and if you do not have any that you can find
share in some of mine for a while
until you find your own
in the end though, you never will
until you are willing to be alone
And in that place that is not lonely
or bereft
the needs die and fall away
desires reduce to food and water
and to share an open heart
is all that matters
I wish you peace in this inevitability
this alone place
where we all will collapse inwards
and die before we die
and no amount of "try"
can conjure up hands to hold on
to what you once were
I wish you peace on your journey
to this alone place
where you will find a fullness that is emptiness
and a well of love that is bottomless
and a heart that feels endless and belongs to the world |
|
|
| the three elements of our nondual universe |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|02:03 pm] |
While I was working on a project last week (a health assessment worksheet for my clients), I was struggling with a way to phrase the questions for the three different elements of self - physical, emotional, and intellectual - in a way that would result in useful answers without me needing to explain the elements in great detail. What I came up with was surprising to me, and kind of fascinating to consider. I'm still not completely convinced that it's correct, but there does seem to be something to it. So I put it to you intelligent, passionate, and physically manifest folks, what do you think of the idea that:
Physical = The Past
Our "physical" self refers to what has happened to us in the past, and is the sum total of all the things that we've taken into our body (which are now stored in our body as the matter that makes up our various organs, fluids, and other interesting substances).
Intellectual = The Future
Our "intellectual" self refers to what we "think" might happen in the future, as we expend our cognitive energy postulating possibilities.
Emotional - the Present
Our "emotional" self refers to a third, somewhat independent, state of being where we assess (get a "feeling" for) the level of our own health in relation to the health of other living things in the environment.
It might seem just a bit counterintuitive at first glance, but the more I look at it, the more it seems right. It would help explain the appearance of the different kinds of consciousness that different species have. More "primitive" beings that aren't seen to have much if any "consciousness" would have brains primarily functioning in the past with very minimal ability to predict the future or understand what the current status of their health is. And the more mid-range beings (which we often call "social animals") having brains with the ability to know the past and get a feeling for whether or not they are presently successful, but not really having the higher brain function to understand what might happen in the future. And finally, beings with full consciousness ("self-aware social animals") would have the ability to see the past, understand the possibilities of the future, and get a sense of what it all means for them personally right now.
All three of these elements combine to create a full experience in the nondual universe (as we human beings experience it, at least).
What do you folks think? |
|
|
| Speeds of the Mind |
[Apr. 22nd, 2008|12:05 am] |
The mind has two speed settings.
Forward
Reverse
The heart has only one speed setting
This present moment
The heart never stops. But sometimes the mind does, and then we find peace as we collapse into that heart space. One shows us recreations of illusions in an endless parade. The other shows us truth and connection to source that is always there.
As i talked to my friend today i was thinking about this notion. She was standing there, leaning against the wall, tears streaming down her face. I could hear her heart and I could hear her mind and could tell which one was louder for her. I could see her fast forwarding to an imaginary unhappy future and rewinding and reviewing her illusions of an unhappy past. She jumped between the two, never landing in the present moment with me. Until I touched her heart. Literally, just like in an appointment, I placed my hand on her heart and spoke some words. Then the tears came harder and she knew what she truly was hearing her heart say and could hear the heart in the moment. But when I pulled my hand and my energy back, the mind went back to rewinding and fast forwarding. I walked away with this realization of how the mind, quite literally, just isn't made to survive in the present moment. It is specifically working hard to keep us from ever being there, generating duality so that the ego can remain intact. |
|
|
| Flight and Wings |
[Apr. 18th, 2008|08:08 am] |
The bird wishes to fly
this is true
stretches it's wings
and wonders what to do
for the right one is weighed down with nightmares of the past
and on the left, dreams of the future
all wings with the soul caught in between
duality on the left
duality on the right
temporarily arresting chances of flight
it will have to sit there on the ground
but if it can love to watch these things go round
slowly it will shift
and with each passing wind it will drift
higher up into bright loving sky
to beat it's wings through the still air of the present moment |
|
|
| Nonduality Teacher walks into a bar... |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|11:48 pm] |
Okay so this nonduality teacher walks into Duality Doozies, a local bar and she orders a drink...bottled water.
This guy ambles up next to her, obviously drunken. He sits down and orders another round.
Her: Hey,you look familiar
Him: No, you never seen me before lady.
Her: C'mon really, I am sure I recognize you from somewhere
Him: I preciate the sentiment but there is no way you...
Her: (interrupting) I've got it! Abandonment! Is it really you? My God how have you been?
Abandonment: Lonely, feeling lost and hopeless, how else would I be?
Her: Well, where have you been, god it's been such a long time..what, like 3 years now?
Abandonment: (chuckles derisively) 3 years....try 5 lady...5 long years since you dumped me!
Her: OH come now, come now...I didn't mean to. It wasn't on purpose. You just sort of...fell away one day. Truthfully, I did sort of miss you sometimes.
Abandonment: Don't even try to make me feel better. I am abandonment for Christ's sake. Can't make me feel better. But, I at least have some friends now. We meet up here every Friday. See 'em over there at the corner table?
Her: (she looks over and recognizes the three men sitting there) You have got to be kidding me. You all hang out together here?
Abandonment: Yup. Want to say hi to them? (before she can respond he waves the three over)
Guilt: Hey w'sup. Sorry I haven't been around lately. I know I should have tried harder to hold on to you but man, you were determined to let me go. Still it's my fault really. I should have...
Her: (interrupts) Believe me Guilt, it's quite alright. In fact I don't blame you one bit for leaving. There just wasn't much room for you anymore in my life.
Righteous Anger: I don't even want to talk to you right now! What do you want?
Her: Same old rants huh?
Righteous Anger: Yeah, so what! All I can say is that it's your fault for blowing me off. All that whacky nonduality talk. We had something good going there for a while. Proving people wrong was so satisfying. I can't believe the mistake you made letting me go.
Her: Well, I have to say I am quite okay with the change old friend.
Judgment: Hey, what about me?
Her: Yeah, we had some good times as well didn't we?
Judgment: Hey is that a judgment?
Her: (laughs heartily) Maybe so, but you'll probably still be here when I am walking out the door.
Judgment: Why is that?
Her: Because like those feelings, I just don't believe in you anymore. I mean, you all exist, somewhere, but I just don't believe in the stories you told me any longer. So, guys...have another one on me. Bartender! Here's a twenty, another round for my old pals here.
All of them: Oh thanks, you are such a cool pal.
Her: Well if I ever decide I need you all again, at least I'll know where to find you.
She walks out.... |
|
|
| Quote for the day: |
[Apr. 12th, 2008|10:47 am] |
"Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my
doing; it is a path leading to success and truth."
Bruce Lee
(1940-1973, Chinese-American Martial Artist, Actor, Director, Author) |
|
|
| Your turn |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|07:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | calm | ] |
Seekers are like people standing with their backs to a reading lamp wondering why there's a shadow that keeps them from reading their book. If they just turned around they'd be able to read just fine. If seekers just turn their attention around and look inside, if they just get out of their own light, they'll see that what they've been seeking was already there, they just had their backs to it. |
|
|
| Another bit of fun |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|08:00 pm] |
At the end of the day we have no choice, we're stuck in this game with our inner voice.
When the voice speaks we appear to choose, one option to win one option to loose.
Winning and loosing is all the same, remember.... it's all just a game.
When the game ends no one can know, but the fact remains, we reap what we sow.
So we sow what is "good" and reject what is "bad", but despite this, we're still sometimes sad.
Yet always it 's known, that there is no control, and feeling this sadness is just part of our role.
Accept the role and there can be no strife, through acceptance we win, this game called life. |
|
|
| In the Ocean |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|11:42 am] |
We feel tremendous love and it is like an ocean. We are at the beach and we run out towards it. You run into the water and even though it's only knee deep, the pull of unconditional connection is so strong, even at knee depth, that you feel immersed completely.
The mind kicks in at that point because the experience is so unusual, the lack of duality so stark, that comparison begins.
Suddenly the ocean, even at knee depth feels ready to drown you and you can imagine huge waves forming out there. And you 'think' you can realize that you will drown if you remain there. The mind runs through all the implications of what it thinks it will be like to be immersed. With the mind comes fear.
So, you run like hell back onto the shore....or at least you turn to run.
You stood there long enough that your feet have sunk into the sand and you can't run.
So, the waves of love and acceptance and connection, the tidal force of nondual reality-is coming in and you can do nothing but be present, feel your feelings, and trust.
There is a high tide and a low tide, like cycles of the moon. During the low tide you can have room for thinking and stablizing, and feeling fear. During high tide you have to use long forgotten and latent skills that duality keeps us from knowing. During the high tides, when you can't move and you are submerged, these forgotten ways of being must force themselves to the surface. In essence, one must learn to grow gills, to breathe in a whole new way.
-Charlie |
|
|
