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#3152 - Wednesday, April
30, 2008 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
EckhartTolle writes that "A new heaven is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and a new earth is its reflection in the physical realm."
And….In reading Tolle's A New Earth, he states that "A significant portion of the earth’s population will soon recognize, if they haven’t already done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die. A still relatively small but rapidly growing percentage of humanity is already experiencing within themselves the breakup of the old egoic mind patterns and the emergence of a new dimension of consciousness. What is arising now is not a new belief system, a new religion, spiritual ideology, or mythology. We are coming to the end not only of mythologies but also of ideologies and belief systems. The change goes deeper than the content of your mind, deeper than your thoughts. In fact, at the heart of the new consciousness lies the transcendence of thought, the newfound ability of rising above thought, of realizing a dimension within yourself that is infinitely more vast than thought. You then no longer derive your identity, your sense of who you are, from the incessant stream of thinking that in the old consciousness you take to be yourself. What a liberation to realize that the voice in my head is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. The awareness that is prior to thought, the space in which the thought or the emotion or sense perception – happens."
Six Photographs by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/Bluesky/Bottom.html
If you haven't yet seen the "most emailed" video talk by Jill Bolte Taylor... here it is, don't miss it! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
(or - if you don't do video...)
more Ted talks: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list
Embodied Enlightenment
Enlightenment must be lived here and now through this very body or else it is not genuine. In this body and mind we find the cause of suffering and the end of suffering. For awakening to be an opening into freedom in this very life, the body must be its ground. Embodied enlightenment is not about special psycho- physical accomplishments, mastering the yogas of inner fire, fulfilling sexual tantras, or developing a rainbow body. Yes, certain Tibetan lamas can sit naked in the snow at 18,000 feet and generate sufficient heat to melt the snow in a twenty-foot circle around their bodies. And Catholic saints have demonstrated stigmata and miraculous healing powers. "But these powers are not the true miracle," said the Buddha. "Awakening to the truth is the miracle." Embodied enlightenment is about living wisely in your particular body, as it is, on this day, in this amazing life.
Western Buddhist meditation master and nun Pema Chodron calls this understanding "The Wisdom of No Escape."
*It is helpful to realize that being here, sitting in meditation, doing simple everyday things like working, walking outside, talking with people, eating, using the toilet, is actually all that we need to be fully awake, fully alive, fully human. It's also helpful to realize that this body that we have, this very body that's sitting here right now in this room, this very body that perhaps aches, and this mind that we have at this very moment, are exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, and fully alive. Furthermore, the emotions that we have right now, the negativity and the positivity, are what we actually need. It is just as if we looked around to find out what would be the greatest wealth that we could possibly possess in order to lead a decent, good, completely fulfilling, energetic, inspired life, and found it all right here.*
Enlightenment flowers not as an ideal, but in the miraculous reality of our human form, with its pleasures and pains. No master can escape this truth, nor does enlightenment make the vulnerability of our body go away. The Buddha had illnesses and backaches. Sages like Ramana Maharshi, Karmapa, and Suzuki Roshi died of cancer in spite of their holy understanding. Their example shows we must find awakening in sickness and in health, in pleasure and in pain, in this human body as it is.
How do we touch this body of life, the joys and sorrows of it? An embodied awakening neither denies nor reviles the body, nor does it grasp and mindlessly indulge in pleasures. In embodied awakening we become present for the life that is given us, respectful of what the Tibetans call "this precious human form." Tsong Khapa, the Tibetan master, taught: "This human body is more precious than the rarest gem. Cherish your body; it is yours for this one time only ... a thing of beauty that passes away." Such a respectful presence allows the life of our body to be blessed.
From: 'After the Ecstasy, the
Laundry'
by Jack Kornfield
posted by Gill Eardley http://groups.yahoo.com/group/allspiritinspiration/
A Contribution to Statistics
Out of a hundred people
those who always
know better
-- fifty-two
doubting every step
-- nearly all the rest,
glad to lend a hand
if it doesn't take too long
-- as high as forty-nine,
always good
because they can't be otherwise
-- four, well maybe five,
able to admire
without envy
-- eighteen,
suffering illusions
induced by fleeting youth
-- sixty, give or take a few,
not to be taken
lightly
-- forty and four,
living in constant
fear
of someone or something
-- seventy-seven,
capable of happiness
-- twenty-something tops,
harmless singly,
savage in crowds
-- half at least,
cruel
when forced by circumstances
-- better not to know
even ballpark figures,
wise after the fact
-- just a couple more
than wise before it,
taking only things
from life
-- thirty
(I wish I were wrong),
hunched in pain,
no flashlight in the dark
-- eighty-three
sooner or later,
righteous
-- thirty-five, which is a lot,
righteous
and understanding
-- three, worthy of
compassion
-- ninety-nine,
mortal
-- a hundred out of a hundred.
Thus far this figure still remains unchanged.
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
(Poems: New
and Selected, trans. by S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/A_Contribution_to_Statistics.html