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Nondual Highlights Issue #1861 Saturday, July 17, 2004 Editor: Mark




July Days
(a short dozen)


i.

hundreds of darning needles
monkey faces shadowed blue
from translucent wings
explode into the afternoon

a crazed horde of
grinning July lust


ii.

the frog sleeps
in the pot of thyme
scent dreaming

he stares
with reproach
as I water


iii.

he pays for
his single beer
with a credit card

payday still
two days away


iv.

wildness
is that joy
inside
that escapes &
threatens the world


v.

a flock
of migrating sparrows
rampage like monkeys

thru the puddles
in the 7-11
parking lot


vi.

birds keep their feathers
in top flight form

my torn jeans
& tee with holes
announce
I'm land bound


vii.

dark blue clouds
cover the sky
like a blanket

birds hunker down
asleep in the blue morning


viii.

books infest the house
promising wonder

they collect dust
piles topple over

thuds in the night


ix.

a huge Cuban frog
leaps to
the kitchen window

& hangs
by velcroed feet

imagining
the wonders inside


x.

my mind burps
these lines as
I do other things

a pencil now lives
behind my ear


xi.

frogs throw out
long tongues
to catch flies

I imagine
your cereal spoon
a silvered tongue
slurping


xii.

we all live really
like wooly caterpillars

within the confines
of a few leaves
on the tree

© Zen Oleary July 15-16, 2004, submitted to SufiMystic





 




Every thought, no matter how noble, takes one from purity and peace. Emptiness alone, or Fana, is a counterpoise very necessary in purification. And this ends finally in realization or self-fulfillment, which in Sufic terms is called Baka...

In times of world turmoil or even of disturbances in one's family or social milieu, the best practice is to maintain calmness and peace of mind, and in Sufism this is done through the practice of the divine presence (Akhlak Allah)...

This is what is meant that the holy man is in the world but not of it. He partakes of all activities but does not add to samsara. He does not add his thoughts to subjects which are disturbing. Instead, he tries to develop and manifest an atmosphere of calmness and peace, a living calmness, a vibrant peace...

Murshid Ahmet Samuel Lewis
Takua Taharat: Everyday Life

- Submitted by Farishtah to SufiMystic





I thought that this dialog on Reality between Nome of SAT (www.satramana.org) and me might be of interest. This is a transcript from a recent satsang.

-------------------------
N. is Nome, Q. is questioner

Q: Recently, at satsang you gave me instructions of looking at the substratum. I have been doing this in the way of inquiring as to what is always so, what is always free, and what is unchanging? This I have the most intimate knowledge of. It also turns out this inquiry is very potent, because it turns out what is always so is what is always so wherever I am.

Listening to your talk this morning gives me still another tool to use. I am looking to see if there is the sense of separation, individualization, or what is that. It is clear, when you started talking about it this morning, that it is just the faintest wisp of an idea. It seems that there is a sense of time and place for that. I have a different way of looking at it now. So I feel that I have new tools to be able to take that inquiry deeper.

N: All right. How are you going to approach this "I"? What are you going to do by way of practice at this point?

Q: I see two different ways of looking at the same thing. One is to continue to look at what is real, what is always so. What is always so is here now. The stuff that is not it is not what I want to be looking at. I just want to look as directly to what is so as I am able and discard everything that is not so. This is one part. The other part is the ongoing inquiry of, given what is so, "Who Am I?"

N: So, the inquiry to find out what is real and the inquiry to find out "Who am I?", identity and reality are really the same thing.

Q: Yes, there were two angles of vision.

N: It appears as two angle of vision to the mind.

Q.: Yes, yes.

N.: But the mind loses itself in either of these angles of vision. We are dealing with one and the same substance. Called "identity," or "reality", it is yourself. When you look at your experience and you determine that there is the substrate which is present all of the time and there are other things that are not substrate that come and go, first you should see it as the substrate. Then, you should see that it alone is real.

If the rope has been mistaken to be the snake, first we see the rope as the substrate of the snake; the snake is lying on the rope in the exact same pattern. (Laugh) Then, we want to see that the rope alone is there, and there has been no snake. It was merely a misperception. The Existence that you are is the substrate. It never changes. It is always so. Everything else comes and goes. What is always so alone is you and alone is real. What is not always so is but an illusion or a misperception of reality. What is not always so in your own experience cannot possibly be you, because, when it is not so, you are still there to know that it is not so. Whatever it is that is always so in you is so entirely formless. Being always so means that it is ever existent. It is always real.

It is the substrate upon which all unreality seems to come and go. If it is unreal, does it come and go? Reason takes us this far in the practice of inquiry, the introspection to know your Self. The real Self is the substrate upon which the "I" rises. With the rise of "I," anything else can raise; with its subsidence, everything else subsides. The "I" is rising and falling on some substrate. So the "I" is the temporary, and the substrate, the real Existence, is the permanent, or abiding, Reality. Can you be two?

Q.: Not two.

N.: So, then, if you inquire, the secondary "I" is not only seen to be not the continuing reality, but you see that it is not real at all. Go on making that inquiry into that very thing which is the substrate, in a non-objective manner, into yourself, until the very sense of a second "I," a differentiated thing, is gone. The more you examine it, the less there is to see of it.

- From AdyashantiSatsang




 




On a Shivaratri day, after dinner, Bhagavan was reclining on the sofa surrounded by many devotees. A Sadhu suggested that, since this was a most auspicious night, the meaning of the verse in praise of Dakshinamurti should be made clear. Bhagavan gave his approval and all were eagerly waiting for him to say something. He simply sat, gazing at us. We were gradually absorbed in ever deepening silence, which was not disturbed by the clock striking the hour, every hour, until 4 a.m. None moved or talked. Time and space ceased to exist. Bhagavan’s grace kept us at peace and silence for seven hours. In this silence, Bhagavan taught us the Ultimate, like Dakshinamurti. At the stroke of four Bhagavan asked us whether we had understood the meaning of the silent teaching. Like waves on the infinite ocean of bliss, we fell at Bhagavan’s feet.

T. K. Sundaresa Iyer
Ramana Smrti Souvenir


- from the SAT website: http://www.satramana.org/html/maharshi_stories.htm






"One of the devotees of the temple was well known for his zealousness and effort. Day and night he would sit in meditation, not stopping to eat or sleep. As time passed, he grew thinner and more exhausted. The master of the temple told him to slow down, to take better care of himself. But the devotee refused to heed his advice.

'Why are you rushing so, what is your hurry?' asked the master.

'I am after enlightenment, there is no time to waste.'

'And how do you know that enlightenment is running on before you, so that you have to rush after it? Perhaps it is behind you - and all you have to do to encounter it, is to stand still.'"

- From the book, "Soul Food," edited by Kornfield and Feldman, published by Harper Collins, posted to DailyDharma




What happens in your Heart when you simply hold the question, Who am I or what am I? Even if your Heart is open, you can still wonder who or what is experiencing the openness. The ultimate truth will never be captured in an experience, it’s simply too big to fit in even the most expanded experience. This provides a clue to the question Who are you? The reason an expanded sense of your self never quite contains the whole truth of your Being is that you are everything that exists. Perhaps you can rest now from the dream of experiencing the ultimate truth. The truth is not dependent in any way on your experience of it. It is and always has been functioning just fine through what you call your experience of a self, without ever being contained in that experience. The sense of your self (whether expanded or contracted) is a functioning expression of a much larger Being that can never be fully captured in experience.

Perhaps the experience of truth doesn’t need to be captured. Truth is something we can also unfold gradually bit by bit like a meal or novel that we slowly savor rather than rush through. We are and always have been realizing the truth even when we experience only a small part of it. The richness of Being is also revealed in the small truths that make up our lives.

Being is never harmed by the limited perspectives we experience. Being is not dependent on any particular way of sensing your self nor even on the absence of a sense of self. Being is already resting within the endless opening and closing of your Heart, so you might as well enjoy the ride.
the truth catches up with me
I am not enough
never have been
never will be
what relief to admit this finite container
can never contain infinity
what joy to find infinity
needs no container


- Nirmala from his new book
The Heart’s Wisdom, Endless Satsang Press





 

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