Limpid ocean, clear sky,
and moon-reflecting snow;
this is the realm
without a trace of
the holy and sentient.
At the opening
of the diamond eye,
flowers of vanity fall.
The whole universe
vanishes into the realm
of extinction.

- Han-Shan Te-Ch’ing (1586)


HARSHA 9/29/98

The non-dual state (call it Self or No Self or something beyond either of
those, etc.) contains within it Absolute Certainty, not as a part of it, but
simply as That Which Is. When Gurus speak of different states or stages of
Realization (Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and beyond), it seems to me that they are
caught in the trap of the mind which is easily fascinated by the trivial and the
superficial. The Total and Radical Abiding in the Absolute Being does not allow
for such differences. If there is still something left to go Beyond or Transcend
then Realization/Recognition of the Absolute is not Clear and Steady. The Self
Realized person sees his/her own mind as a particular type of condition arising
out of the Absolute and is at ease with that condition.
~~

DAVID HODGES NDS 5/10/99

Occasionally I sit in a cafe and write while sipping a coffee or cappuchino.
Here was what I wrote last Friday before leaving for a retreat:

You people sit and chatter in this cafe talking about "what happened" while
God sits in your midst. God waits and guards and protects you to an extent
you cannot imagine. The noises rise and surge - voices, music, the espresso
machine. People walk in, the door squeaks, timers beep. Yet under it all,
Reality is quiet and peaceful.
Sometimes it seems to be a problem of focus. Personal self is blurred and
jerky and Reality is hard to make out. When the focus clears you discover
that what seemed to be the movement of armies on a foggy plain turns out to
be a bird singing mightily in new leaves of a booming blossoming tree.
When Self appears in your life, you redouble your efforts to get clear. You
see why it is worth it. You think it will be heart-breaking to give up the
personal, but it is heart-healing. You thought you were at home in your
personal world, but your whole life feels like an exile and a lament
compared to coming home to God. When Self announces itself, even though it
be as through a fog, all the tightness of the personal releases, lets go.
No need to hold tight anymore. No need to cast about for consolation. No
need to search anymore. Breezes blow from no known source. Light shines
within from no observable sun. Silence is heard with an unutterable
thunder. God's voice booms from the silence of pure listening.
~~

JAN BARENDRECHT NDS 5/31/99

What's real is plain, I feel. But maybe the real doesn't feel plain at
first. Maybe that's it. Perhaps someone else has some ideas. -Jerry

What's real came unasked for, as the surprise of surprises, it left nothing
to desire and was incommunicable. The "first meeting" led to another
surprise that made what's real to all day normality, independent of any
activity which is even less communicable.

What is real, cannot be learned, cannot be taught, it is free, ever present
and cannot be sought.
What is real, cannot be earned, cannot be bought, is without "me" and
without any thought.
What is real, cannot be yearned, is neither existence nor is it naught.
~~

DAVID BOZZI poem 3/15/2000

So we meet again.
Surprised?

'Till not again or not ever.

I'm pleased to have met you
Every time we meet.

And me?

On the way over here
I passed a school of logicolists.

I heard them classify me
as I walked by.

But you, never you.
~~

NDS 5/4/2000

My desire is to realize pure love. ~neo

That's easy.
Just quit everything else. ~xan
~~


JERRY KATZ 7/20/02

Take a board. Place a variety of pebbles at one end. Take the end of the
board where the pebbles are, and tilt it up a little. Some pebbles role to the
bottom, other role off the side, others move slightly, some don't move at
all, and all the pebbles that move have their own path.

Rate each pebble according to its pebbleness, on a scale of one to five.

It's pebbleness has nothing to do with the test that was applied.

That's what's being done, not only when a person is rated, but when a person
rates or judges what's going on with himself. You look at things as they are,
which is simply as they are, not at their comparative behavior on a slanted
board.

Looking at things as they are is love and ahimsa.

perfect on a slanted board,
Jerry


~~

DAVID BOZZI 11/24/02

whatever

I am both disease and healing,
all at once.

I am fire and the cold water
that puts me out

I am the softness of vulnerability
and the rock
that knocks me out.

I am love and contradiction.

If you behave the way I want you to
I feel fulfilled,
if not
fuck you...

Pull the mask from my tainted face
and lo and behold
hell and heaven birthing
this body and earth.

Truth tells me
there is nothing that is mine,

But that is exactly so
the opposite
of how I am inclined...

Some may say that
that's a cosmic joke

but I say personally
it's a curse cast like a fishnet
to capture
stray strands
of awareness lost
in this sea of dreaming planet

dreaming

you are not me

and I am not you...
~~

ANDREW MCNAB 11/24/02

The tree outside my window is there when I look, the same tree
yet different each time.
Each one of the myriad things that flow from the nameless
mother has unique characteristics and while it changes constantly
from its inception to its burning out it is still unlike any other.

In reality you are the mother, or the mystery beyond. In this world of discourse you
are one of the myriad things.



photo by Al Larus
~~

7/29/99
ANDREW MCNAB

Just listen to the silence that shines so brightly through all perception.

HARSHA

Yes. Beautifully stated Andrew.

The Silence.

Where is it not?

When is it not?

What is it not?

To See it is to Be It.

~~



photo by Al Larus



HARSHA 01/19/98

"Spiritual practice is not easy.

It's better not to begin unless

you intend to finish it.

The unfinished business will haunt you."

- Chogyam Trungpa

~~

Spiritual practice is not hard.

You have always been doing it.

But begin whenever you wish.

It is already done.

- Harsha