Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#1905 - Sunday, August 29, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Consciousness is the
totality of the known in the immensity of the unknown.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
~
Those whom heaven helps
we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn
this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not
reason
it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be
understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be
destroyed on the lathe of heaven.
- Chuang
Tse: XXIII (Chap 3 epigraph, *The Lathe of Heaven*)
~
A passionate belief in a
cause does not excuse
you from not knowing what you are talking about.
- Thomas Sowell
~
The time you enjoy
wasting is not wasted time.
-Bertrand Russell
Padamalai
Padamalai
Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Recorded by Muruganar, First English Translation
Edited and annotated by David Godman, 396 pages
$20.00 plus shipping and handling. How to order.The original Tamil work comprises 3,059 two-line verses that either praise Ramana Maharshi, record his teachings, or express Muruganar’s gratitude to him. This collection contains representative samples from all these categories, while concentrating on the teachings. Of the book's 1,750 verses approximately three-quarters of them contain direct statements by Ramana Maharshi on all aspects of his teachings.
Padamalai is available from the following distributors:
In the US: Avadhuta Foundation: mail@avadhuta.com
In the UK: The Ramana Maharshi Foundation, London: alanadamsjacobs@yahoo.co.uk
In Europe: Inner Quest, Paris: InnerQuest@free.fr
In India: Sri Ramanasramam: ashrama@ramana-maharshi.org
Padamalai may also be ordered directly from my site: www.davidgodman.org
A book extract is
available in our files section, with permission of
David Godman. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights/files/
Alan Larus photo: http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Shake_dry.htm [check back if website is still down]
"Look well to the
growing edge. All around us worlds are dying and new
worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is
being born.
The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in
the
darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new
lives, fresh
blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra
breath
from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else
has
failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon
all
endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the
incentive to
carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their
reason, the
source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into
ash."
~ Howard Thurman
You are so fortunate being able to put much effort of body, speech and mind into seeking inner reality, your true nature. When you check how you have spent most of your life, you can see how fortunate you are having the chance to make this search even once. So fortunate!
I'm not just making it up, "Oh, you're so good," trying to make you feel proud. It's true. However, to really discover that all human problems, physical and mental, come from attachment, is not an easy job. It takes much time. [...]
This is not just some philosophical theory, either. It is really true, based on living experience. In fact, not only Buddhism, but all religions recognize the shortcomings of attachment. Even worldly people talk about its drawbacks. But, you know, even though we say the words, "Attachment this, attachment that," we don't really recognize it as the biggest problem on earth.
Therefore, what I'm saying is, it would be wonderful if you could recognize that your own attachment is the cause of every single problem that you experience. Problems with your husband, wife, children, society, authorities, everybody; having a bad reputation; your friends not liking you; people talking badly about you; your hating your teacher, your lama or your priest; all this truly comes from your own attachment. You really check up.
We Westerners always have to blame something external when things go wrong. "I'm not happy, so I'd better change this." We're always trying to change the world around us instead of recognizing that it's our own attachment that we have to change.
Just take a simple example. When someone hurts you by telling you that you're greedy, although you blame the person for how you feel, the hurt actually comes from your attachment. First of all, people, perhaps even your parents or your spouse, don't like your attachment-driven behavior, so they complain, "Oh, you're so greedy," hurting your ego. And then, instead of accepting their pointing out your selfish behavior, your attachment to always being right, perfect, causes you angrily to reject what they say. The fact that your ego, your wrong-conception mind, cannot accept criticism is itself a big problem: your ego wants you to be right all the time, and your attachment creates its own philosophy of never listening to advice, no matter who gives it, closing off your mind. It is very important that you learn to deal with these problems in the best possible way.
~Lama Thubten Yeshe
From the website http://www.lamayeshe.com/lamayeshe/attachment.shtml
posted on Daily Dharma
by Anapachen
Therefore I tell
you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not
life more
important than food, and the body more important than
clothes? Look
at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
much more
valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a
single hour to
his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how
the lilies of
the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell
you that not
even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of
these. If
that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here
today,
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more
clothe you,
O you of little faith? So do not worry saying, 'What shall
we eat?'
or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the
pagans run
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need
them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry
about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day
has enough
trouble of its own.
---Matthew 6:25-34
Lilies
I have been thinking about living like the lilies that blow in the fields. They rise and fall in the edge of the wind, and have no shelter from the tongues of the cattle, and have no closets or cupboards, and have no legs. Still I would like to be as wonderful as the old idea. But if I were a lily I think I would wait all day for the green face of the hummingbird to touch me. What I mean is, could I forget myself even in those feathery fields? When Van Gogh preached to the poor of course he wanted to save someone-- most of all himself. He wasn't a lily, and wandering through the bright fields only gave him more ideas it would take his life to solve. I think I will always be lonely in this world, where the cattle graze like a black and white river-- where the vanishing lilies melt, without protest, on their tongues-- where the hummingbird, whenever there is a fuss, just rises and floats away.
- Mary Oliver
Ten Years Later
Today's poem is by David Whyte.
He was in a large part responsible for
reawakening my love of poetry in recent years.David's poetry is
rich and
infused with a meditative sense of reality but I find
particularly compelling
when I've listened to one of his readings. If you get a chance,
track down
some of his recorded talks and listen. I think you'll be moved.
[Editors note:]
David Whyte, under "Poetry
& Prose" tab has an audio interview on website:
http://davidwhyte.bigmindcatalyst.com/cgi/bmc.pl?page=home.html
Following are excerpts from a thought-provoking interview with David on Irish Radio,
appropriately titled "The Power and Place of Poetry."
If you would like to listen to the complete interview in RealAudio™ please click here!
Ivan
PS -- If you haven't discovered it yet, there has been a hidden
"Easter
egg" on the Poetry Chaikhana web site. Go to the home page
and let your
mouse pointer roll over the seated figure. When you do that, the
banner
changes to a brief quote about spirituality. The quote changes
daily...
============
Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana
 |
Ten Years Later By David Whyte When
the mind is clear --from The House of Belonging, David Whyte |