Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2993 - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Beside the Point
The sky has never won a prize.
The clouds have no careers.
The rainbow doesn't say my work,
thank goodness.
The rock in the creek's not so productive.
The mud on the bank's not too pragmatic.
There's nothing useful in the noise
the wind makes in the leaves.
Buck up now, my fellow superfluity,
and let's both be of that worthless ilk,
self-indulgent as shooting stars,
self-absorbed as sunsets.
Who cares if we're inconsequential?
At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings,
in our irrelevance; at least come and make
no difference with me.
-- Stephen Cushman
From Consciousness -- Tremendous Love Arises
Another quality that arose was love. This love is simply for existence. What is born in awakening is a love of what is -- of everything that is. The fact that there is anything at all seems wonderful because when the insight of awakening goes very deep, there is a realization about how tenuous existence is. I don't simply mean that we could be killed at any moment. I mean we see an unbelievable miracle, we see how unimaginably easy it would be for absolutely nothing to be here. That anything exists at all is seen as an absolute and utter miracle, and from that seeing there is the birth of so much love simply for what is. It's a different love than when we love getting what we want or we find the perfect partner. This is a love just for the fact that we have shoelaces or for the fact that toenails exist, that kind of love. A tremendous love arises simply for the miracle that is life, realizing that all and everything is the One.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
posted to adyashantigroup & Wisdom-l
Becoming, which results from clinging, involves the idea of having or being something more satisfying than at present. We want to become a very good meditator, or we want to become spiritual, or more learned. We have all sorts of ideas but are all bound up with wanting to become, because we are not satisfied with what we are. Often we do not even pay attention to what we are now, but just know that something is lacking. Instead of trying to realize what we are and investigating where the difficulty actually lies, we just dream of becoming something else. When we have become something or someone else, we can be just as dissatisfied as before.
--Ayya Khema, When the Iron Eagle Flies
"Finally, there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana, also. It is then that God's Power is realized. The Self reveals itself."
- Ramana Maharshi, Talks, p. 101-102
"By their failures lovers are made aware of their Lord. Lack of success is the guide to Paradise."
- Maulana Rumi
"Failure is the foundation of success, and the means to achieve it." - Lao Tzu
posted to Wisdom-l by Peter Holleran
http://www.amongstclouds.com/home.html
American director Edward A. Burger takes us on his
unforgettable journey into the hidden lives of China's forgotten
Zen Buddhist hermit tradition. "Amongst White Clouds is a
look at the lives of zealot students, gaunt ascetics and wise
masters living in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and
valleys of China's Zhongnan Mountain range." The Zhongnan
Mountains have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow
Emperor, some five thousand years ago. Many of China's most
realized Buddhist masters attained enlightenment in this very
range! And now? It is widely thought that this tradition was all
but wiped out by the twists and turns of history. "Amongst
White Clouds" shows us this is not the case. One of only a
few foreigners to have lived and studied with these hidden sages,
Burger reveals to us their tradition, their wisdom, and the
hardship and joy of their everyday lives. With both humor and
compassion, these inspiring and warm-hearted characters challenge
us to join them in an exploration of our own suffering and
enlightenment in this modern world.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6miAPuNYj8
posted by Bob O'Hearn