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Nondual Highlights Issue #2698, Saturday, January 13, 2007, Editor: Mark





~ Openness ~

An important part of satsang,
when we gather together to explore Truth,
is being open-hearted.
Some human beings find it easier to be open-minded,
and some find it easier to be open-hearted,
but to really be here now
is to be both.

When you are open,
you do not filter your experience,
nor do you barricade yourself.
You do not try to defend yourself,
but you open to the mystery
by questioning what you believe.

When you give yourself this amazing gift
of not trying to find yourself within some particular concept or feeling,
then the openness expands
until your identity becomes more and more the openness itself,
rather than some point of reference in the mind called a belief
or a particular feeling in the body.

The point is not to get rid of thoughts or feelings,
but just not to feel located inside of them.

- Adyashanti. Emptiness Dancing, from adyashantigroup




MAITRIPA'S ESSENTIAL MAHAMUDRA VERSES
Translated into English by Nicole Riggs

To innermost bliss, I pay homage!

Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say:
All phenomena? Your own mind!
If you look outside for meaning, you'll get confused.
Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,

And mind is merely the flux of awareness,
No self nature: just energy flow.
No true nature: just like the sky.
All phenomena are alike, sky-like.

That's Mahamudra, as we call it.
It doesn't have an identity to show;
For that reason, the nature of mind
Is itself the very state of Mahamudra
(Which is not made up, and does not change).
If you realize this basic reality
You recognize all that comes up, all that goes on,
as Mahamudra,
The all-pervading dharma-body.

Rest in the true nature, free of fabrication.
Meditate without searching for dharma-body:
It is devoid of thought.
If your mind searches, your meditation will be confused.

Because it's like space, or like a magical show,
There is neither meditation or non-meditation,
How could you be separate or inseparable?
That's how a yogi sees it!

Then, aware of all good and bad stuff as the basic reality
You become liberated.
Neurotic emotions are great awareness,
They're to a yogi as trees are to a fire - FUEL!
What are notions of going or staying?
Or, for that matter, "meditating" in solitude?
If you don't get this,
You free yourself only on the surface.

But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you?
Abide in an undistracted state.
Trying to adjust body and mind won't produce meditation.
Trying to apply techniques won't produce meditation either.

See, nothing is ultimately established.
Know what appears to have no intrinsic nature.
Appearances perceived: reality's realm, self-liberated.
Thought that perceives: spacious awareness, self-liberated.
Non-duality, sameness [of perceiver and perceived]:
the dharma-body.

Like a wide stream flowing non-stop,
Whatever the phase, it has meaning
And is forever the awakened state:
Great bliss without samsaric reference.

All phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature
And the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground.
Freedom from conceptual activity
Is the path of all the Buddhas.

I've put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come.
By this virtue, may all beings without exception
Abide in the great state of Mahamudra.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Colophon:
This was Maitripa's Essential Mahamudra Instruction
(in Tibetan: Phyag rgya chen po tshig bsdus pa),
received from Maitripa himself and translated by
the Tibetan translator Marpa Chökyi Lodrö.
©Nicole Riggs 1999. Reproduction welcome if not for
profit and with full acknowledgement, posted to meditationsocietyofamerica




The first peace,
which is the most important ...

Is that which comes
within the souls of people

When they realize
their relationship ...

Their oneness with the universe
and all its powers ...

And when they realize
that at the center ...

Of the universe dwells
the Great Spirit ...

And that this center
is really 'everywhere'

It is within each of us.

- Black Elk - Oglala Sioux, posted to Mystic_Spirit




I smile like a flower not only with my lips
but with my whole being
for I am alone with the King and
have lost myself in him.

At dawn your flame seized my heart
but left behind my body.
I will shout and raise havoc until
you come back for me tonight.

My Beloved, do not let anger estrange my heart
be generous, invite me to your feast.
Let no one be deprived of the joy
of your company.

- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 84, translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, Rumi: Hidden Music, posted to Sunlight




Ever since

Beloved,
Ever since
Your grace removed
My hearts
Hard shell of "me"
All my eyes behold
Wherever and whenever
Everyone I face
Is
Totally
Enlightened

- yosy, posted to NondualitySalon

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