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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3107, Sunday, March 16, 2008, Editor: Mark
The separation from God began a journey of love. The
individuating consciousness seeks, through the experience of
human reality, to know itself fully and completely so that it can
return to the Oneness with a greater light and a greater
understanding. This adds to the reality of the Oneness for all
things are in a state of continual expansion and creation.
- Emmanuel, from Emmanuel's Book, by Pat Rodegast
The body is a material thing and needs time to change. The mind
is but a set of mental habits, of ways of thinking and feeling,
and to change they must be brought to the surface and examined.
This also takes time. Just resolve and persevere, the rest will
take care of itself.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
To see God we must be non-existent
Until man loses himself in the vision of God, he cannot be said
to live really.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Man wrongly identifies himself with the physical body, calling it
'myself.' And when the physical body is in pain he says, 'I am
ill,' because he identifies himself with something which belongs
to him but which is not himself. The first thing to learn in the
spiritual path is to recognize the physical body not as one's
self, but as an instrument, a vehicle, through which to
experience life.
Every soul seeks after beauty; and every virtue, righteousness,
good action, is nothing but a glimpse of beauty. Once having this
moral, the Sufi does not need to follow a particular belief or
faith, to restrict himself to a particular path. He can follow
the Hindu way, the Muslim way, the way of any Church or faith,
provided he treads this royal road: that the whole universe is
but an immanence of beauty. ... Therein lies the whole of
religion. The mystic's prayer is to that beauty, and his work is
to forget the self, to lose himself like a bubble in the water
[like a drop in the ocean].
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is
humility; the first thing that comes to man's vision is his own
limitedness. The vaster God appears to him, the smaller he finds
himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes when he loses
himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is
called fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ
under the name of self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching
wrongly and considers renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that
the teaching is to renounce all that is in the world. But
although that is a way and an important step which leads to true
self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God.
There is a [Hadith] which says: 'Mutu kubla anta mutu', which
means, Die before death. A poet says, 'Only he attains to the
peace of the Lord who loses himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man
shall see me and live.' To see God we must be non-existent.
- posted to SufiMystic
It is untruth that is difficult and a source of trouble. It
always wants, expects, demands. Being false, it is empty, always
in search of confirmation and reassurance. It is afraid of and
avoids enquiry. It identifies itself with any support, however
weak and momentary. Whatever it gets, it loses and asks for more.
Therefore put no faith in the conscious. Nothing you can see,
feel, or think is so.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That, posted to
NondualitySalon
God comes when the ego goes. When you are nowhere, He alone is
everywhere. He takes the position of your personality. You
vanish, and He comes in, not before that.
- Swami Krishnananda, posted to AlongTheWay
The Self We Share
Thirst is angry with water. Hunger bitter
with bread.The cave wants nothing to do
with the sun. This is dumb, the self-
defeating way we've been. A gold mine is
calling us into its temple. Instead, we
bend and keep picking up rocks from the
ground. Every thing has a shine like gold,
but we should turn to the source! The
origin is what we truly are. I add a little
vinegar to the honey I give. The bite of
scolding makes ecstasy more familiar. But
look, fish, you're already in the ocean:
just swimming there makes you friends with
glory. What are these grudges about? You
are Benjamin. Joseph has put a gold cup
in your grain sack and accused you of being
a thief. Now he draws you aside and says,
"You are my brother. I am a prayer. You're
the amen." We move in eternal regions, yet
worry about property here. This is the
prayer of each: You are the source of my
life. You separate essence from mud. You
honor my soul. You bring rivers from the
mountain springs. You brighten my eyes. The
wine you offer takes me out of myself into
the self we share. Doing that is religion.
- Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks