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Nondual Highlights: Issue #2930, Sunday, September 16, 2007, Editor: Mark



To become cold from the coldness of the world is weakness, to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world and yet to keep above it is like walking on the water.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The spiritual path is easiest if there is not something pulling one from behind; and that force is the life in the world, one's friends, surroundings, acquaintances, and one's foes. Remain, therefore, in the world as a traveler making a station on his way. Do all the good you can to serve and succor humanity, but escape attachment. By this in no way will you prove to be loveless. On the contrary, it is attachment which divides love, and love raised above attachment is like a rain from above nourishing all the plants upon the earth.

There is only one thing that helps us to rise above conditions, and that is a change of outlook on life. This change is made practicable by a change of attitude. .. For a Sufi, therefore, not only patience to bear all things is necessary, but to see all things from a certain point of view that can relieve him for that moment from difficulty and pain. Very often it is one's outlook which changes a person's whole life. It can turn hell into heaven, it can turn sorrow into joy. When a person looks from a certain point of view, every little pin-prick feels like the point of a sword piercing his heart. If he looks at the same thing from a different point of view, the heart becomes sting-proof. Nothing can touch it. All things which are sent forth at that person as bullets drop down without every having touched him.

What is the meaning of walking upon the water? Life is symbolized as water. There is one person who drowns in the water, there is another who swims in the water, but there is still another who walks upon it. The one who is so sensitive that, after one little pin prick he is unhappy throughout the day and night is the man of the first category. The one who takes and gives back and makes a game of life is the swimmer. He does not mind if he receives one knock, for he derives satisfaction from being able to give two knocks in return. But the one whom nothing can touch is in the world and yet is above the world. He is the one who walks upon the water; life is under his feet, both its joy an its sorrow.

Verily, independence and indifference are the two wings which enable the soul to fly.

To become cold with the coldness of the world is weakness, and to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world and yet to keep above the world is like walking on the water. There are two essential duties for the man of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and expanding, and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; one must be fine and yet strong, one must be loving and yet powerful.

- posted to SufiMystic




The only truth which is not a concept
is the sense of presence,
here and now.
'I am,' not 'I am Joe or Jane.'
This impersonal sense of presence
in the present moment
is the only truth.

Ramesh S. Balsekar, posted to The_Now2




Throughout the three times, abide effortlessly in the infinite original state of mind, just as it is. This is what is meant by the `practice of meditation.' Neither controlling the breath nor restraining the mind, rest in uncontrived awareness with the delighted innocence of a child. If thoughts and memories arise, stay in the presence of one's true nature. Recognize that the waves are not different from the ocean itself.

- Saraha, from the Mahamudra Dohakosa, posted to DailyDharma




Wanting is the urge for the next moment
to contain what this moment does not...
wanting can't be satisfied
: when we get finished with one desire there's always another.
As long as we're trying to satisfy desire,
we're increasing wanting...
when we see that no object of mind can in itself satisfy,
then nothing that arises can draw us out
and we begin to let go
because there is nothing worth holding onto...
To realize that there is nothing to hold onto
that can offer lasting satisfaction
shows us there is nowhere to go
and nothing to have an nothing to be -
and that's freedom.

- Stephen Levine, posted to The_Now2




The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, it is a reality to be experienced.

- J.J. Van Der Leeuw, posted to The_Now2




Mastery of Life

Become at ease with the state of "not knowing." This takes you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret. It is afraid of not knowing.

So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.

Artistic creation, sports, dance, teaching, counseling -- mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer involved at all or at least is taking second place. A power and intelligence greater than you and yet one with you in essence takes over.

There is no decision-making process anymore; spontaneous right action happens, and "you" are not doing it. Mastery of life is the opposite of control. You become aligned with the greater consciousness. It acts, speaks, does the works.

From: Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle, posted to The_Now2

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