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Nondual Highlights Issue #2530, Wednesday, July 19, 2006, Editor: Mark
...But if in your
fear you would seek
only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your
nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all
of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart',
but rather, 'I am in the heart of God'.
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be
your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody
to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for
another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your
heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
- Khalil Gibran, from The Prophet,
posted to DailyDharma
Q: Are there not good desires and bad, high desires and low?
NM: All desires are bad, but some are worse than others.
Pursue any desire, it will always give you trouble.
Why desire at all? Desiring a state of freedom from
desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you
free, because you are free. See yourself with
desireless clarity, that is all.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That: Talks
with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to
AlongTheWay
Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You're covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet.
Quietness is
the surest sign that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon
comes out now...
- Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, posted to Mystic_Spirit
Why put this moment off? That which you seek is That which you
already are, and always have been - you are not separate, you
cannot be separate from the Absolute, from Infinite Consciousness
Itself. If you dare to stop pretending that you and your life are
based on some mental version of things that arises out of memory,
you will find out beyond any doubt! This is not some kind of
wishful thinking or grandiose mental trick. Rather, with total
and unflinching sincerity, with no psychological defense or self
deception whatsoever, search your heart and find out what you
permanently are, what you've been all along. Find out if there
has ever been a separate "Other." If you discover there
never has been an other, is there one now? Could there ever be?
Why pretend anymore?
If you dare to give your heart, your soul, your mind, your body,
and your life, unconditionally, to what you discover to be true,
you will know an infinitely deep and abiding peace that has never
been even a breath away. This bliss, this tranquility depends on
nothing, and It is not capable of ending. Furthermore, it doesn't
make a bit of difference what you've ever done... or not done.
You can put an end to the battle. Yes, that's correct, just walk
right out of the war, right now. All you have to do is surrender,
absolutely and completely, not to me, not to some authority
figure, or some organization or institution, but surrender only
to your own deepest Purity.
God and your own Unbounded Love are not different. If you truly
give yourself up completely, it will shock your whole system. It
will suddenly dawn on you,
"Oh my God, what a fool I've been! What was I
thinking?"
Then the absolute insanity of giving yourself to anything else
will become apparent. Why wait? Why put off your own complete and
total liberation? In your innermost and outermost places, in
every single moment, Love waits for you everywhere. Is there
really something else you would rather do? Is it possible that
the thing that you fear the most, the thing that you avoid the
most, is what you truly desire the most? It cannot abandon you.
Even if you choose to ignore It, betray It and walk away, It is
always closer than your next breath. Suspend all opinion and
debate, and find out for yourself.
- Scott Morrison