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NDhighlights #1344
Saturday, February 8, 2003
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"War is both father and king of all.... It shall be
understood that war is the common condition, that strife is
justice and that all things come to pass through strife."
So wrote Heralcitus, who lived in Ephesus in the 6th Century BC.
At what stage is it right to defend ourselves? Do we wait for a
chemical attack? Or do we strike now? If the USA and Britain had
squashed the Nazis in 1937 they might have saved 11 million
lives. Who knows, perhaps the Japanese might not have attacked
Pearl Harbour.
Maybe
Maybe
so many maybes.
My heart goes out to those pursuing world peace through pacifism
but I ask myself, when would I step in to save the life of my
tender four-year-old son? When the wolves are at the door? At the
end of the street? Or still up in the hills?
It is very difficult to see all ends. Violence begets more
violence and if we want to break that cycle we have to start
somewhere. When should that start happen I wonder? I salute the
pacifists. My heart is with them but my eyes are on the hills . .
. .
I have not come to terms with this bottom line - what would I do
to defend my wife and son? Even more pressing on my mind right
now, is when would I do it? I lack the courage of a Ghandi
because I could not watch my wife and son suffer whilst I
renounce violence. Perhaps that is what it takes, when enough of
us find that courage, perhaps then we will have the critical mass
to install a long-term peace.
As John Lennon said:
"What if they gave a war and no one came?"
even so, my eyes are on the hills . . . . .
Dave Mason LiveJournal
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rejuvenation LiveJournal
So many thought provoking comments recently - reflections that go
on both loudly and silently between men, women and young people.
All concerned, angry, upset, indifferent or some other emotion...
myself included. I don't think there has ever been another time
in my life that I have ever felt so unsure of the future as now.
I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Everything I
have leaned toward trying to reach with my spiritual being - of
being present and not looking forward or back... is before me and
so many others as well. The 9/11 - the wars and rumors of war -
the distrust - the alerts - the general fear and uncertainity -
the stuckness. It's awful. It's ugly. I don't like it... but
there is nothing I can do about it... in and of myself to change
what "Is". The more I reflect, the more stuck I become.
So, what to do? All along - the "good words" from the
wise Sages, we embrace only when things are going smoothly? They
where so easy to follow then, but now what? What should happen
when the alert color changes? Does the "within" change
to? Does it revert to the "old man/every man for
himself" or does it become invisible? All these questions
that circle my mind... and then I keep hearing a tiny voice that
tries to be heard over all that other mind chatter saying that
the only way the true self will ever know the right answer - is
in it's silence. Peace within myself. I have no authority over
anything else.
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viorica HarshaSatsangh
An educated visitor asked Bhagavan about dvaita and advaita.
Maharshi :
Identification with the body is dvaita .
Non-identification is advaita.
from Talks with Ramana Maharshi ,
InnerDirections Publishing , 2000
page 34
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Sandeep being_one
Things To Do At Wal-Mart While You Wait For Your Family To Shop
1. Get boxes of condoms & randomly put them in peoples' carts
when they
aren't looking.
2. Set all the alarm clocks to go off at 10-minute intervals.
3. Make a trail of orange juice on the floor to the rest rooms.
4. Walk up to an employee and tell him/her in an official tone,
"I think
we have a code 3 in housewares," and see what happens.
5. Put some M&M's on lay away.
6. Move CAUTION WET FLOOR signs to carpet areas.
7. Set up a tent in the camping department, tell others you'll
only invite
them in if they bring pillows from the bedding department.
8. When someone asks if they can help you, begin to cry and ask,
"Why
won't you people leave me alone."
9. Look right into the security camera and use it as a mirror
while you
pick your nose.
10. Dart around suspiciously while humming the theme from
'Mission
Impossible.'
11. While handling guns in the hunting department ask the clerk
if he
knows where the anti-depressants are.
12. In the auto department practice your Madonna look using
different size
funnels.
13. Hide in the clothing rack and when people browse through
whisper "PICK
ME! PICK ME!!!!!"
14. When an announcement comes over the loud speaker assume the
fetal
position and scream "NO! NO! It's those voices again!"
15. Go to the fitting room and yell real loud....."Hey we're
out of toilet
paper in here!"
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Dan Berkow Consciousness Is All
I can't set out to do meditation, because I am then
pursuing a thing I call meditation, or a state.
I can't do nothing to meditate, because then
my not doing anything becomes the thing I am pursuing.
The same is true for understanding, or silence.
Meditation then is nonpursuit of anything,
in which nonpursuit is not avoidance of pursuing --
the nonpursuit is one's natural condition,
uncontaminated by concept-as-if-real.
This objectless being involves no subject, nor subjectivity.
This is peace. That nothing was ever done to
anything by anyone or anything, nor ever could
be.
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It is said that Buddha once indicated that if you have even just
heard
about the concept of Enlightenment, you are in the final 7
incarnations prior to Realization. He was a meditator right up to
and
including his last lifetime before Enlightenment. There is a
concept
that goes something like " You are already Enlightened, and
need not
seek anything; you don't have to meditate, just look deeply at
what
is". Looking deeply at what is, is meditation. Don't be
afraid to call
it that, or be fearful of being a "seeker", or looking
for or having a
Guru, as if these things are something to be ashamed of. It's all
a
part of your spiritual evolution. And that has been going on for
hundreds of thousands of lifetimes. Now, after millions of
millenniums, you are in the last few hundred years of finally
reaching
your goal. And yes, you will then live happily ever after.
Peace and blessings,
Bob Rose, President,
Meditation Society of America
http:www.meditationsociety.com
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It won't be a surprise, the word "politician" is like
the proverbial manna for
the aficionados of anagrams:
smart politicians - patriots in claims - minor capitalists
honest politicians - halt! nice positions
active politicians - tip: anti-social vice
male politician - O, illicit apeman!
lazy politicians - illicit zany soap
president - nested rip
honest president - serpent hedonist
democracy is... - icy comrades
government is.... - given monster
dumb politicians - dim publications
:-)
Jan NDS
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Realization is a word, a toy, that
people like to throw around and play with,
sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes not.
Enthusiasm fades, as do all qualities attached
to a human being, as does the formulation of
"human being" ...
Words are given about realization, not because
there is any happening called realization,
nor because something needs to be said
about it.
Words are given only because a word may dissolve
a stuckness in concept-as-if-real.
The truth of realization is neither an activity
nor an event -- so the word realization
is utterly misleading -- there is no realization.
Generally, tendencies are moving along through time,
forming a being "as if" -- on an ongoing basis.
For the dissolution of the "as if" attempt, the
conglomeration of hopes, fears, desires --
for the ceasing of the intent to continue ...
Well, that can't possibly be a space-time event.
A word is a space-time event.
Although there is nothing that can be said or
done to be awake, to be who one actually is
not existing within the imagined placement of
an experiential locale --
It wouldn't be correct to say "do nothing"
or "realize there is nothing to do" --
Either of those are merely a reaction against
space-time activity, and so are also
conditioned and conditional.
This is why words are offered.
Many will banter words around about day
to day life events, or concepts about
something they think occurs for someone
as "realization."
To know, such that one's knowing and being
are one, and there is no knowing to have,
nor being to express --
That is a rare understanding, indeed.
There is no form of knowing, being, or
doing which is not included.
This occurs beyond the relationship factors
of day-to-day being, doing, and word exchange --
without occurring or being perceived --
yet not in any way a lack of something
occurring or being perceived ...
One could say "no subject or
object" as "totality awareness of/as *is*"
Thanks for sharing your inquiry.
Dan Berkow Realization
Alan Kuntz replies:
Well how about transformation?Is there a wish to be transformed?
If not a wish or desire to be enlightened which is simply 3rd
state self reflective self consciousness for most of us I guess
there wouldn’t be anything to realize.
Realization is not a toy or a game..We all enter this game with
motivation at least towards friendship, community .
The word church means Dialogue
and so in light of this list or other list we dialogue about the
self and what self means and we talk about the many various
selfs.Just let your selfs out and there will be a lot to realize
and you might not even like it LOL.
Dan replies:
Transformation turns something into something else.
Realization doesn't change something into something
else.
All somethings drop because they never have been.
Including any experiential qualities that could
be called "realizing" ...
Yet your day to day life is not interfered
with in any way whatsoever.
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Gill SufiMystic
Views on Incongruity
Spend a little time thinking about incongruity; about deliberate
incongruity.
First consider the little-recognised fact that exposure to
deliberate
incongruity enables one to become used to new and unfamiliar
things rapidly. New
things often seem incongruous, however important they ultimately
prove to be.
The capacity to see beyond incongruity can be equal to the
ability to adjust.
Second, realise that incongruity, if you can become accustomed to
encountering
it, may stimulate your inner senses, and help them to work on a
higher level.
Most people do not allow themselves to face incongruity when it
appears at
random in their lives. They avoid it and thus rob themselves of
the stimulating
effect which it can have.
From 'Knowing how to Know ' Idries Shah
Updated website http://www.thomasmertonbooks.com/
The February TAT Forum is now available at http://www.tatfoundation.org/forum.htm