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#2903 -
This
is Always Enough
John Astin
Just released... August 3rd
[Editor's Note: Information on ordering
appears at the end of book excerpts.]
Clear and Still
A review by Gloria
Lee
Silent Retreat
The nametag
says it all:
"I am
observing
silence"
How true.
This is indeed
what I am -
the observing silence,
and everything
that is observed.
John Astin
To see fish at the bottom of a
pond, the water needs to be both clear and still. So does the
observer. John Astin renders his precise observations
with the artistry of a Zen master's ink drawing. Simplicity
and naturalness characterize both his poems and prose. This
book is a work of art that will stop you in your tracks.
Will you see the vision of reality pointed to by the words?
It would be hard to miss, presented in a way that goes
so directly to the heart of the matter. Indeed, why
complicate it? Few writers can paint a picture of
essential truths so succinctly and with
such loving grace. Like a hologram, each poem
somehow contains the whole.
There is also a familiarity with the
ways life can slip by us, how the moment may elude us.
Reading the section "Our Argument with What Is"
provides invaluable insights that question our habitual ways of
thinking and our unexamined assumptions. The
way "All Strategies Eventually Fail" is actually
good news! So what if we are going from one unknown to the next
unknown? Hasn't it ever been thus, whether we realized it or not?
"There is no escaping the truth of
this impermanence, is there? But who would ever want to?"
~ ~ ~
The mystery that is aware of this moment
has already
accepted it, as it is. We
cannot create this radical acceptance
and we are powerless to make it go away,
for the very nature
of awareness is to accept, without
conditions, what is.
~ ~ ~
To not-know is to be free, free from the
prison of your own ideas.
~ ~ ~
Awareness is free -- free from knowing
what will
happen next, free from knowing what
should happen next, free
from knowing what anything
really is, free from knowing the
reason for anything, free from knowing
what freedom is.
~ ~ ~
The Story
Rest here and watch.
See how long it takes for
the story to reappear –
that ancient legend that tells us
this is not enough.
Keep watching.
Can you see it happening?
Nothing is missing, is there,
until the mind comes back
to tell us there is,
no problem
until the storyteller returns
to tell us something is wrong.
Can you see?
The whole thing
is made up –
the destination
and the path
to get there.
Every story,
even the one
that tells you to stop
telling stories,
is a lie, a tale of lack
where none
has ever been.
(From Chapter I: This Constant Lover)
~ ~ ~
Only the mind seeks confirmation,
validation and approval.
What is awake is simply awake. It is not
dependent on
or conditioned by anything or anybody.
It requires no
validation, no approval. It needs no
outside authority to
confirm or support it. It is its own
confirmation.
~ ~ ~
"It is impossible to lose the only
thing there is."
~ ~ ~
All the spiritual prescriptions and
practices -- be
non-attached, accept what is, be open to
experience, do not cling,
be compassionate -- these are
all descriptions of awareness
itself, descriptions of what you have
always been.
~ ~ ~
The awareness that you are has never
believed a single
thought the mind has produced. Only
thought has ever
believed thought. "That's
true." "That's false," thought
believing thought -- the wheel of
suffering...
~ ~ ~
This Human Heart
Everything
I have belongs
to You.
Everything
I am
is You.
And yet still,
there is
something
in this very
human heart
that keeps
saying:
"Here,
take this
too."
~ ~ ~
What is being pointed to here is not "yes" as
opposed to "no,"
not a surrender that is in opposition to resistance.
This is the yes that has no opposite,
the yes that has room in it for both yes and no,
the openness that has space even for the closing.
~ ~ ~
Every Argument
Every argument
the mind
can conjure up,
every belief
and feeling
that cries out,
"This could
not be God,"
is met by
the sheer force
of this mystery
that welcomes
everything.
We are forever
drowning
in that Love...
©2007 John Astin
~ ~ ~
In August of 2007, Non-Duality Press - http://www.non-dualitybooks.com/
released "This Is Always Enough," John
Astin's latest collection of poetic and prose reflections on
the non-dual nature of reality.
Ordering information: http://www.non-dualitybooks.com/Astin_Always_Enough.htm
John Astin's website: http://www.integrativearts.com/
To see more of John's most recent writings,
please visit his blog at Out
Beyond Ideas