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Nondual Highlights Issue #1708 Saturday, February 14, 2004 Editor: Mark

 The Doer

The first thing is to recognize when the doer resurrects itself in a given moment is that it is only a temporary appearance. Its not who you are and its not a problem; its just something appearing in consciousness. Who is the One who is aware that this doer has arisen? You are THAT.

The next thing is to enter into a deep inquiry into what is it in you that causes or triggers the arising of the doer. Find out. Spend the next month watching. Not as something to change or analyze, but as a very alive, open curiosity. 'What is it that invokes this doer within me?'

Finally, determine the truth of what is actually happening in each moment. When this doer arises, it is arising out of a concept. For example, the concept that the state of freedom is not yet stabilized. It will then go about trying to stabilize it (that very and only thing in us that is absolutely eternally stable). Instead of feeding its movement to 'do' this stabilizing, stop. Inquire. Is it true that freedom is not already here?

As you continue to inquire, moment-to-moment, it eventually becomes evident that, despite what the mind is reporting, 'it' is always actually here. This is discovered upon investigation into the truth. That which is always already here, is the state the doer, in its misunderstanding, is trying to achieve.

- Karen McPhee

More here: http://www.livingnow.ca/


 
TWELVE

By the time you are twelve your affections are fixed.

Then come the decades that roll your heart like a cheese

In the sea. Yes, it is surreal.

Then you are twelve again, and old.

And you find the waxed red ball of your heart on the shore.

And you are not surprised by anything now except

That you should love at the end what you loved

At the beginning.

- Stan Rice from
The Radiance of Pigs published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1999

More here: http://www.stanrice.com/poetry/bkspoetry.htm




"To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love."

More here: http://www.eckharttolle.com/mainpage.htm




love is a place...

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds


- ee cummings




"We are the creators and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other's burden."

- Nisargadatta Maharaj



 
The Monkey, The Snake And The Goat

A Snake charmer moved from village to village to entertain folks with his acrobatic team of a monkey, a snake and a goat. Once, while wading across a river, he balanced the snake basket on his head, sat the monkey on his shoulder and guided the goat with his hand. The water level was low but there flowed a strong current.

The charmer cautiously took his steps, with an eye on all three of his team. Midway, where the force was fierce enough to drag away the goat, he tightened his grip on it. The other two were safe above. Or were they? The monkey, by nature, was mischievous. It was restless and couldn't resist playing a game. It slowly opened the snake basket. The snake within the darkness of the basket sprung up with its head high and tongue hissing... sss sss sss. The sound and fury, frightened the monkey and it fell into the water.

The current began to drag the monkey away. A split-second effort to save the monkey threw the charmer off balance and he dropped the snake basket into the stream. To catch hold of the basket, he lost his grip on the goat. Within seconds, all three of his companions - the monkey, the snake and the goat were carried away by the current. In real life, our mind is the monkey. It is restless and difficult to predict.

Many times it causes trouble and leads us into serious trouble. Instead of helping us float across the ocean of life, it throws us into the ocean. Therefore, it is wise that we control and master our mind.


- Yogiji Maharaj

More here: http://www.swaminarayan.org/yogijimaharaj/talesofwisdom/index.htm


 

QUESTION: When I contemplate my real nature I am in the "I AM," a feeling of love without cause pervades in me. Is this feeling correct or is it still illusion?

MAHARAJ: It is the bliss of the Self. You feel the presence of "I AM." You forget everything, the concepts and the illusion. It is a non-conditional state. This felicity appears when you forget the object, but in the felicity there is still a little touch of the self. After all, it is still a concept. When you are tired of the outside world, you want to be alone, to be in yourself. It is the experience of a higher state but still of the mind. The Self has no pleasure nor displeasure. Without the I, "I AM." The complete forgetfulness of the illusion means that nothing is, nothing exists. It is still there, but for you it has no reality. That is what is called Realization, or Self-Knowledge. It is the realization of the Self without self.

If someone calls you, you say, "I am here," but before saying, "I am here," You were. The illusion cannot glue something more to Reality. It cannot glue something extraordinary to Reality because Reality is at the base of everything that is. All that exists, all that you see, the objects of your perception, all that is due to Reality. The ignorance and the knowledge do not exist They are not. So what expression can you give to them.

When you objectivize something, that means there is something expenenced. As soon as you feel something, you are away from your Self, from the Self. You feel love, that is better than being in ignorance, but after all it is still a state and a state is always conditioned. The non-conditioned is stateless. It is the experience of the non-existence of the illusion. As soon as you feel the least existence, it is ignorance. It is very subtle; ignorance and knowledge are both subtle. It is difficult to understand, but if you really enquire, you will get that state. That is, and has always been, but you don't know; that is the difficulty. There is not a single point where Reality is not. You experience existence through objects but all this is nothing. It is omnipresent, but you cannot see it. Why? Because You are the Reality itself, so how can you see yourself? To see your face you need a mirror.

Real happiness is inside you and not outside. In deep sleep, you are happy. You forget the world. Therefore, happiness lies in the forgetting of the world. Leave the world as it is; don't destroy it, but know that it is not. Do everything you have to do, but be detached by understanding that whatever you feel, perceive, and achieve is illusion. It doesn't exist, and your mind must accept that.

The saints say, "Since all is nothing, how can this nothing affect you, touch you?" So what to do? The mind is nothing else but knowledge. People differentiate the mind from knowledge, but this is not correct. There is nothing in the world. It is illusion. Only Reality is, and when you understand that the illusion is really illusion, how can it affect you? How can you even feel that it affects you? The lotus leaf is produced from water; it is on top of the water, but it is not touched by water. If you pour water on it, it drifts away; it is not touched.

When you understand that nothing remains, there is no more question of love. The felicity of the Self that you feel is still the pleasure of knowledge. First you must be aware, and then you become Reality itself because you are He. Therefore, there is no harm in living in the illusion, the world, but as it doesn't exist, you are not touched. The lotus stays in water but doesn't care for it.

In this way you must experience your true nature. I say experience, but there the words do not exist because it is beyond space, beyond zero. And the words cannot penetrate there; they stop there. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said, "From where the words come back is my state." Still, he was a king and was ruling but he knew that nothing is. You don't understand that nothing can touch you. When you feel that nothing touches you, you are out of illusion. That is the highest point of philosophy and you can reach there. There, there is no Master nor disciple, for both are one. The duality doesn't exist, only oneness is and nothing is outside it. Therefore, stay in the illusion, but by understanding.

Two friends wanted to play a trick on another friend. One of them started to insult the other one, but he was laughing at the insult. The third one was troubled, and said, "How can you laugh when he is insulting you?" He was laughing because he had the key to the game, but the third boy didn't understand. In the same way, a Realized person, though living in the world, understands that all this is nothing and whatever happens, nothing is happening. Therefore, they are not touched. People are always in fear of what happens or what will happen. They are afraid of what people will say. They think, "What am I going to do? What will happen to me?" They fight or enjoy.All these bondages are due to the mind.

The one who is out of the circle understands that all is nothing. It doesn't exist; it is only ignorance. it is said that only the one who dives deep into the ocean can find the pearl. The one who remains on the surface is carried away in the stream of pleasure and suffering. You must dive deep to the depths of the unlimited because that is where you are. Never stop at the limited. The gold doesn't care for the shapes it takes in the ornaments; it may be the shape of a dog or of a god, it is unconcerned with the form. In the same way, be indifferent to things because they do not exist.

Nothing can touch you. You are unattached. The mind must come to the point of the complete understanding of the illusion. There lies your state. Nothing remains for he who has understood. There is no more gain or loss. Don't ask if you can acheive Reality, because you are Reality, so why say "Can I?" First of all go out of the circle. Leave everything one after the other and go deep in your Self. Come back then, and be in all.

What you have described is a good state, no doubt, but go a little further. When the mind accepts that all is illusion, only illusion, then you are in your Self. The body and the mind are illusion; you should be happy to know that. Get rid of their identification. The only thing the Master does is to give its real value to the Power which is in you, to which you pay no attention. He does nothing more. It was a stone and the Master reveals its true nature which is diamond. He makes you the most precious stone.

I am omnipresent, almighty, I am the Creator of all which is. When you are at the base of all, you are in all. Therefore, even a murderer cannot be considered as bad. Whatever is happening, it is "my order." Be the master, not the slave! You are the master.

- Sri Ranjit Maharaj

More here: http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/ranjit.html



My Divine Love 'tis for You

Sweetness of honey
I thought would describe you best...
but each drop of honey ...
is destined to be savored only by one!

Then it dawned upon me,
that you are a fragrant rose
that lights up an entire universe
as it spreads its Loving Divine Fragrance!!

Little wonder, though
when the fragrance of a rose
concentrates into a drop of honey
humans desire to own and control You!!!

Go fill each breath of fresh morning air
with Your essence, my Love Divine ...
May each time that I open my soul
We breathe in Your Joyful fragrance,

sans fear, or limits of reality!

(c) Rohini Ranjan Bose
July 22, 2001




POETRY

And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating planations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesmal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.


-Pablo Neruda




Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours;
yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out on the world,
yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good
and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

- Teresa of Avila

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