Nonduality
Salon (/ \)
issue number two -
October, 2000
Nonduality Salon Magazine
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THE
CITY DOESN'T CARE
by
Polar, Judit Dawn, David Hodges, and Mark Otter
POLAR
The way I see it the nonduality experience can easily
become a comfortable place for the sleepy unaware ego to
hang out in. In
large part it is a projection on the enlightend state
encouraged by students of Indian mystics who were looking
to escape the realities of everyday life in the West.
Fair enough - but nowadays some are returning home and
realising (yes)there is
more work to do. Hmmmmm.... Encouraging the idea of
nonduality is only telling half the story. Try:
"Sorry I was late today boss and we missed that
$10million contract but we are all one so it doesn't
really matter does it..." Or: "Sorry I fucked
your friend last night but I love him/her also and we are
all one aren't we..." Or: Scenes from the Serbian
war which don't need to be gone into here.... ... you
know what I mean from your own life I'm sure. Nonduality
is a beautiful space but it's easy to get stuck there,
and it is really poor without the shitty richness of
separation on the planet we actually live in. New York
City...wow...gas stations and everything... So today
there is a creation called heaven and yesterday there was
one called hell. Is there any difference? Damn right
there is - pain and separation are a part of this thing
called life and that's where I see the challenge to bring
the nonduality experience back into this place called
home.
JUDIT
DAWN
Dear Polar,
in the late hour of the early night I am pondering over
your words "shitty richness of separation", it
is that, that keeps me up late in the night sweating to
find the right words, trying to connect, looking for
approval, feeling guilty of not being able to create more
beauty of nonduality, yes I guess I just love that
creation.
Love Judit
DAVID HODGES
Yeah, the city...the city doesn't care. The city will
break your heart. Just when you think you have found a
nice apartment the city will raise your rent. Just when
you get used to parallel
parking your car, the city will break in and steal your
radio. You'll be walking along having a fine nonDual walk
and the city will roar past in a big fume-spewing bus. Or
the city will jump in front of you demanding spare
change. The city...you'll find a lover there for a night
but in the morning she'll leave and never come back.
You'll go out to the park to get some sun and some jerks
will be playing rap music too loud. You try to meditate
and about a million fire trucks go screaming past your
house. The damned city. Too loud, too noisy and you can
never get enough of it.
The city is like the deity in the Old Testament...on
moral grounds, undefendable, so the only thing you can do
is give it
praise.
Wait..what about Duality?...well...Duality sleeps in the
nearly hidden dry canal bed under Orange Street,
shivering with the homeless people. Duality sits on a bar
stool at 2 AM Saturday night still hoping against hope to
get laid. Duality stays all day in the library looking
for answers in dusty old books. Duality argues with the
meter maid and duality smokes its big
cigar in the park on a fine Autumn afternoon. Duality is
always
hungry and Duality is afraid to die. Duality is about to
alienate its last friend by borrowing 20 bucks which it
knows it
will never repay. Duality is out looking for those guys
who are
hiding out in NonDuality and is going to kick their ass.
MARK OTTER
Yeah, the country doesn't care. The country will break
your balls. Just when you think you have found a nice
rock to sit on,
the country will send a mosquito to get your itch going.
Just when you get used to gazing at the sky and the
clouds, the country will distract you with flowers and
other sexual safety deposit boxes just bursting to get
your seed. You'll be walking
along, having a fine Dual walk and the country will grab
you with spider webs and prickly seeds and velcro
imitations meant to spread the word. The evangelist
country will take your heart and open it wide. Open
hearts bleed. If you're wide, you can't afford to make
pickles and jam. You can't afford to have a dog named
Jake and domestic hens to give you eggs you won't
fertilize with your patient love and feed with your
placental hopes. You can't take the time to slow down to
meet the season's needs. You live in the city and can
never get enough of it because it does not exist.
The country is like the Torah, you must argue with it for
months on end just to reap a crop of cautious agreement
on the
definition of terms. And even then, you know you will
talk for
years to know the truth. The only thing you can do is
take the other side and argue it with joy for the
learning that will come.
Well, what about Nonduality? Nonduality sits in the dried
up
stream bed and waits for the spring that it is.
Nonduality throws an acorn at you and chatters in tongues
hoping you will leave well enough alone. Nonduality asks
for ice and responds to steam. Nonduality rises just to
fall. Nonduality loves this word play and you. (and so do
I)
The
above exchange occurred on Nonduality Salon email list
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