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#2463 -
This issue considers the cancellation of the
podcast, The Advaita Show featuring 'Sailor'
Bob Adamson, cancelled because there was nothing new to
say. We open with the announcement of cancellation and this
is followed by commentary which questions whether there is really
nothing new to say.
The Advaita Show #027 - The Very
Last Show
http://advaita.thepodcastnetwork.com/
Well it was fun while it lasted but I think the general
consensus today was that this show has run dry. There’s
nothing left to say. No questions left to ask. No new answers
left to give you. Nothing new to say that Bob hasn’t said ad
infinitum over the last 27 shows. So thanks for tuning in over
the last 6 months and for playing The Advaita Game ™.
Let me summarize what we have learned from his Bobness…
Find out who is asking the question and the questions will
disappear.
You are already that which you seek.
Thank you and goodnight.
-----------------------
The blurb above refers to a podcast which
for the last few months has featured spiritual teacher
'Sailor' Bob Adamson. "Nothing new to say," they say.
They cancelled the program.
From the extreme nondual point of view there
is no one and nothing being said. The extreme nondual point of
view is that there is God without a second. If there is only God
there cannot be anything else, therefore it is God "without
a second."
Then why has God, Truth, or Nonduality
reserved for us the domain names of our lives?:
firstmarriage.com, religiousschool.parents.net, lousyexlover.org,
myguru.tv, sitdownandshutup.info, and the ever popular
horrificabuse.com/mental-illness.htm.
Even though there is God without a second,
we still want to say, "Wait a second. If nonduality means
there is only God, it means there are not two things; there is
nonseparateness. But why do things seem separate? When we're
feeling pain why can't we remember there is only God without a
second and then suddenly feel better? Seems like it's more a
matter of there being God without a Seconal."
Things seem very, very separate from
God, Truth, or nondual reality. However, no matter what we do or
how smart we are, we cannot find a bridge that reaches from our
lives to some place or condition we know as nondual
reality. We think we can do something to find or to build
such a bridge, but isn't that an admission that
nonseparateness is not the case? How can that be? The
Kabbalah responds to talk of such a condition in the same
way my mother responded back in '65 to news that I wanted to
take a shiksa to the prom: "God forbid!"
Here's the passage from the Kabbalah in
its entirety: “Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be
solely God. If you suppose that Ein Sof emanates until a certain
point, and that from that point on is outside of it, you have
dualized. God forbid! Realize, rather, that Ein Sof exists in
each existent.”
Islamic tradition, as set forth by Ibn Arabi
is very similar: “If you think that to know Allah
depends on your ridding yourself of yourself, then you are guilty
of attributing partners to Him – the only unforgivable sin
– because you are claiming that there is another existence
besides Him, the All-Existent: that there is a you and a
He.”
According to the above two passages, the
Jews and Islamics agree perfectly. ("Oy, I'm
plotzing!") There is only God, Allah, Truth, Reality,
Nonduality. Reality is nondual. There is nothing to do other than
"Let God be solely God," say the Jews. We cannot rid
ourselves of ourselves, say the Islamic teachings.
On the one hand we know there is nothing and
no one and nothing new to be said, and on the other hand we feel
the opposite and that there is lots to say. So what's going on?
These teachings quoted do not say everything
is the same. There are in fact distinct things, people,
conditions of joy and misery, situations, objects. What is being
said is that those things are nonseparate from God, Truth, Allah,
nondual reality. They are not "one with" God. They are
not blended into God like a smoothie. Those things and God are
"not two." Please look at something in this poem
which was included in a recent issue of the Highlights:
I live far off in the wild
Where moss and woods
Are thick and plants perfumed
I can see mountains rain or shine
And never hear market noise
I light a few leaves in my stove to heat tea
To patch my robe I cut off a cloud
Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years
Why suffer for profit and fame?
Ask yourself: Is this poem a blended smoothie of
mush? Look and see that there are very distinct,
individualistic elements within this poem conveying
nonseparateness from God. Great poetry and art present
extraordinary individuality. So does nature herself.
Things become more distinct when embedded in
the recognition of the nature of Truth, which is nondual.
Writing about the design of buildings, the architect/theorist
Christopher Alexander says, "In the moment
where...non-separateness is attained in a thing, and it truly
becomes one with the things which surround it, it stands out
shining with an extraordinary power. ... This is, perhaps, the
central mystery of the universe: that as things become more
unified, less separate, so also they become most individual, and
most precious."
Things are nonseparate from God. Since that is the case,
there is no need to be a smoothie maker such as John de Ruiter
who poured this out of his sacred blender and onto his home page:
"True life begins with profound honesty. Only such wholeness
of orientation can reveal pure beingness, and allow recognition
of our authentic, true nature, reflecting its pure, inviolable,
Absolute source."
Compare de Ruiter's words to the poem above. Those who
understands nonduality or nonseparateness are the
opposite of smoothie makers. They are the geniuses of
individuality and preciousness. Everything quoted in this letter,
including my mother, is individual and precious. Only de Ruiter's
words are homogenized nothing, which he uses to bring people into
his website and world.
Nothing new to say? There is much new to say. There
are distinct things to bring forth and no end to
them. They are nonseparate from God, nonseparate from Truth,
nonseparate from Allah, nonseparate from the Absolute. They are
the URL's of our lives and the web pages within them. Because
they are nonseparate from God they have to be extraordinarily
distinct, individual, and precious.
That one series of podcasts with 'Sailor' Bob Adamson ended
does not mean there is nothing new for Bob or his producer to
say. It does not mean they do not share the understanding set
forth in this letter. It means there was no longer the
inspiration to create within that form.
--Jerry Katz