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#3365 - Friday, November 28, 2008 - Editor: Jerry Katz

Nonduality Highlights

Greg Goode's regular Friday column is entitled Nacho Satsang. It is  a reprint of an article he wrote for Nonduality Salon Magazine, a briefly lived online publication back in 2000.   Also notice of two taken lives in Mumbai.    

NACHO SATSANG

by Greg Goode

 

It's nacholicious! Just like a tortilla chip, I saw there was no inside or outside.
--Jon Evans, Ch'an Buddhist, San Diego


The spoon's got to go into the pot along with the beans. Only then will the incessant self-monitoring stop.
--Michael Rosker, Psychic Energetics Healer, New York

We have nacho satsangs. Each Tuesday evening in Manhattan at 6pm, for the last two years or so. Instead of Arunachala, Bombay or Rishikesh, we have Tacocina, Samalitas, and Burritoville. Burritoville is our favorite. Nachos, tacos, burritos, corn chips, refried beans, sour cream, guacamole and hot sauce. And to drink, Jarritos Mexican sodas -- pineapple, tamarind, guava, strawberry and fruit punch. You order, go to the counter, pick up the food, and chow down. These are the trappings for deep, intimate, but fascinating conversations about emotions, ego, Self, love for the Guru, finding the Witness, and the non-localization of awareness.

There's no charismatic leader, no approved school of thought. Just open, honest, democratic inquiry and sharing among friends. Sometimes it's just two of us, sometimes four or five. Sometimes people come from the tri-state area to join us. There are quite a few who've just returned from quests in India, passing through New York on the way to a satsang-dense area like Boulder, Sedona or Berkeley, and want to keep the rhythm going.

Nachos make for good satsang. The restaurant provides a colorful setting and handy objects. Lots of visuals and props. There's the nonduality of the infinitely circular nacho plate. The chips are the physical body, the hot sauce is the guru, the salt is the embellishment of concepts and baggage, and the flimsy plastic spoon is that pesky small self that people try to spoon away. When someone asks what kind of technique they can use to make the last vestiges of the ego drop, my friend Michael is tireless about throwing his spoon onto his plate, looking into their eyes with great love, "You can't do it like that. It's all got to go! Be willing to face it all! You're trying to use the spoon! Instead, the spoon itself's got to go into the pot along with the beans. Only then will the incessant self-monitoring stop," he tells them.

One visitor had just come from a months'-long stay at Lucknow, Papaji's hometown in India. "I love Papaji, I attended his funeral, and just took another trip to fill up with His energy. Everything is Consciousness, they say, but some things are special - and Consciousness is One with Papaji and comes from Papaji," he said. "I'd rather merge with Papaji than be enlightened," he gushed.

"Please, do so!!" we urged.

"Well, I can't, not quite yet. I'm getting closer, but I was really close for a while!"

So we pointed to the nacho plate and swirling our hands around it, asked, "Consciousness is everywhere, right?"

"Yeah...?" he said, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We slid the bottle of Tabasco sauce to a far corner of the table and pointed to the bottle, "But you see Papaji only THERE, right?"

"Right!" he said, with a beatific smile on his face.

We pointed back to the guacamole on top of the nachos, "If Consciousness is everywhere, and Consciousness is One with Papaji, then isn't Papaji there, too?," we said, dipping a chip into that very same guacamole, and taking a bite.

He thought for a few minutes, "Hmm, well, I guess so," he said, looking unconvinced, then a bit dejected. "But I want to feel Him in my heart wherever I go."

We were finished eating by this time and cleaned a place on top of the nacho plate. We plunked the bottle of Tabasco onto the plate. "Maybe," we suggested, "in addition to seeing Consciousness as limited to Papaji, you can try to see Papaji unlimited as Consciousness. He can never leave you, nor can you leave him."

No thinking this time. "Yes! That sounds good! That way I will be merged," he said. We did a high five all around. The we took our final swigs of soda, bussed the trays to the turn-in area, exchanged hugs all around, and left.

--Greg Goode http://heartofnow.com

From: Mahamuni Date: November 28, 2008 9:23:00 AM PST To: Robert Burke <VedicFire@comcast.net> Subject: Probably near where the hospital Guru practiced medicine
Probably near where the hospital Guru practiced medicine.


Former Art Professor, 13-Year-Old Daughter Killed in Mumbai Attacks
Alan and Naomi Scherr Had Come to India on a Spiritual Journey
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 28, 2008; 12:00 PM

Twelve years ago, Alan Scherr committed his life to meditation and spirituality, moving his family to the Synchronicity spiritual community in Faber, Va., about 30 miles southwest of Charlottesville in the Blue Ridge mountains.

It was that spiritual journey that led the former art professor at the University of Maryland to be in Mumbai Wednesday evening, eating a late dinner with his 13-year-old daughter at the Oberoi Hotel, when armed gunmen attacked. Both Alan and Naomi Scherr were killed. Local media had reported that they were killed at the historic Leopold Cafe, but U.S. officials later said that the two died at the Oberoi.

The Scherrs were among 25 participants from the Synchronicity community who had traveled to a program in Mumbai. Four other members of the group were injured in the shooting, the Associated Press reported.  
~ ~ ~

     Dear Family & Friends,
Although a tragedy, let us pray for the peace and repose of the souls of Alan & Naomi Scherr who were brutally gunned down at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai during this latest brutal terrorist attack.
Let us give pause to reflect upon the meaning of their deaths, and not hasten to react in anger with revenge, but honor their memories of their brief life on this planet in peace and love.
As Alan summed up his practice:

"For me, real freedom means living life in each moment, as it unfolds, without concepts or conditions." Scherr wrote. "It is a life very few choose because it requires an orientation and re-prioritization of life that is, in many ways, antithetical to our modern Western culture. And yet, it is always available whenever one is truly focused upon self-mastery. The miracle of this life continues to unfold for me on daily basis."

(See full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112801360.html?nav=rss_email/components )

Thus, though violent, tragic and sad, this is not the time for a knee-jerk reaction, like the rush to war and revenge in Iraq.  It is rather an opportunity for all parties, friends and enemies, to approach the 'Peace Table' to hear  grievances of victims, and of all the oppressed, in all societies, in all nations.
I am asking the United Nations, as Swami Chinmayananda did in the later months of 1992 in his address to them, "Peace, do we have it?"
It is time for all to redouble the effort for peace.
I firmly feel that if we do not root out the causes or anger due to political oppresion and economic injustice, and the suffering they cause such as homelessnes, hunger and sickness, because of lack of shelter, food, clothing and the basic love and respect these engender, then we shall have no peace.
We must do what we can for peace!
Yes, I am pointing the finger at the root causes for violence in the world:  political oppresion and economic injustice - multinational corporate and individual greed.  These political and economic playing fields needs to be leveled in order for true peace to exist!  And national politics are inextricably welded to corporate greed.  Greed and corruption of power need to be annihilated in order for peace to succeed.
Otherwise we are rushing foolhardy headfirst into an irreversable worldwide depression, suffering and annihilation the likes unseen & unimanginable, horrific & terrible.
What to do?
Paraphrasing the Buddha and the Christ:

At no time is hatred overcome by hatred, hatred is only overcome by love.  So, blessed are the peacemakers, their's is the kingdom of heaven!

We are home to war and violence, let us work hard instead to make this heaven on earth:  a planet of peace, justice and love!
It is now required that each and everyone work to the best of his and her ability for peace.
On my part, I am inviting each and everyone of you to join me in Cosmic appeals to Peace at the Sarasvati Mandiram's Vedic Fire Ceremony.  See http://yssf.com and click on the Fire Ceremony link for details
It is at the Vedic Fire that appeals to Master of the Fire, Lord Agni, imparts to us each, individually and collectively, palpable realization thru pulsations and vibrations of prana, tranquil energy!
It is prana that infuses the planet and individuals with holistic healing energy at the Causal, Subtle and Physical/Mental body levels.
The Vedic Fire flows effortlessly into a silent meditation, that transforms one's consciousness into a deep peacefilled silence that permeates all creation and all things, visible and invisible.  
And finally we end the fire ceremony with the Shanti peace mantra.  (see at the very bottom of this e-mail)
The Shanti mantra is tremendously powerful and permeates all aspects of heaven and earth.  If you attend, you will feel & experience this!
To me this is the most direct way to effect change for your own well being, and the well being of the planet, sun, moon, stars and galaxies!
Thursday December 4th, I shall be leading the Vedic Fire with traditional Sanskrit chanting beginning at 7:00 PM  that will be followed by a Kirtan of delightful bhajans by Peggy Burgess at 8:00 PM.
I shall be continuing this tradition on all other Thursdays a half-hour later at 7:30 PM.
I am offering you all a very heartfelt invitation for the upliftment of all humanity for a total transformation to peace and love on our mother planet.
Be so kind to forward this invitation to all your friends, near and dear, and from afar!
Thank you very very much and much love to all!
(((((Om)))))
Peace
Robert 

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