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#3575 - Friday, June 26, 2009 - Editor: Jerry Katz  

The Nonduality Highlights - The first periodical publication on nonduality - Submissions welcome   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights    


Greg Goode presents  

"ATMA DARSHAN's Preface" - Video Commentary, Part 2 of 5 Parts  (AVI video, 5 minutes)   http://www.heartofnow.com/files/links.html#ad.preface.p2 (you will also find Part 1 on this page.)  

This video discusses paragraph 4 of the Preface, in which Atmananda gives a capsule summary of the method that he uses in his published works more frequently than any other. "Bringing the universal under the individual." I also think it's his most powerful method. At least it helped me more than any other approach I'd ever come across. Because Atmananda's description is so extremely compact in this paragraph, I have endeavored to unfold it in this video.
   


BeliefNet is the most popular spiritual website on the Internet. For several years you could not find a single article on BeliefNet which included a form of the word "nonduality". In the last two or three years that has changed. Here are stats for search results on http://beliefnet.com    

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"Nonduality" is close to becoming a household word in mainstream spirituality. It needs one good push over the edge.    


Yosy  

:) friends and companions, today (26 june) happens to be my
birthday. so i am sending you a small gift tale... comments as
usual appreciated.  

this is the last part of the adventures of the friend of god, our wonderful
grand-grand-grand-grandfather abraham, and his wife, the beautiful
sarah.   as they were getting old, a heir, a son was  what grandpa abram wished more
then anything. grandma sara, loving her spouse wholeheartedly, brought him,
according to custom, her favorite young slave/maiden, beautiful hagar, as
a bedmate, saying: "she will give birth on my knees, and this will be as if the
child is mine" indeed, hagar bore abram a son, fulfillment of his dream.
he was given the name ismael, and all were happy.  

after some years, god in person came to visit his friend, and promised him
that in spite of their advanced age, he and sarah will have another son.
and indeed, despite of sarah's disbelief and scornful laughter, in due time
sarah too bore a son. he was given the name itzhak    

some time later sara, observing her husband's love and affection towards his
firstborn, though son of a slave (at this time ismael was thirteen, almost a man,
and obviously his father's favorite), made sure there is only one unquestionable
heir to the household, their son itzhak. to ensure that she went to abram and told
him to send hagar and her son away, claiming that they were plotting against
the newborn. unable to comply with such a a demand, to drive his son to the
dessert and almost certain death, abram turned to god for help, but god said:
"do all your wife says. I will take care of hagar and ishmal. do not worry".  

this was the beginning of the two great hebraic dynasties, stemming from
abraham the hebrew, friend of god. first came family line of the sons of ismael,
later called the arabs, and then the line of son's of israel son of itzhak, later known
as the jews. as confirmed by god, both are direct descendants and inheritors of grandpa
abraham tradition. and from their father's side, they are blood brothers.  

in their later years, ismael became known as the example of perfect love
and respect of a son towards his father, abraham the friend of god. he abided by
his father constantly, and served selflessly and devotedly till his last.breath.  

as to itshak, he grew up with feelings of guilt, knowing that his elder brother
(who left when he was a baby), dear first son of his father, was chased away
so that he will have no competitor. thus he feared the future meeting  with his
brother, but to his relief when the time came ismael accepted him warmly,
and they parted in peace… next generation, his son yaakov, added to and
deepened the inherited feelings of guilt – for aiding his mother to cheat his old,
blind father, and stealing the firstborn's blessing, rightly belonging to his
brother esaw.   thus identity traits opened a rift of mutual misunderstanding, causing conflicts
and an almost unbridgeable gaps between the views of the descends of the two
proud hebrew tribes. this bloody conflict lasts (with notable exceptions, like the
golden age in middle-ages spain)  till today.  

for the ismaelic tribes, honor and respect form a core attribute of identity.
this is a common trait unifying all communities, though the interpretations
may vary according to time, place and people (particular community).
but it is certainly far more important and crucial then all land and possessions,
social and/or economic status, and it's dictates, followed fanatically, extend
far beyond even closest family ties.  

as to the sons of israel, namely the jews, deeply hidden guilt became the inseparable
trait of their tribal identity. thus honor and respect, though very important and valuable
for themselves, do not play such a central role in their identity's mental makeup. on the
other hand, this deep "god knows I deserve it" feeling produced and developed one
of the indispensable tools, which enabled tribe members to exist and flourish worldwide,
and cope more-or-less successfully with successions of disasters up to this day - the
ability to laugh at themselves..the divine sense of humor is a most important weapon in war
against the only real enemy of humanity: the self-conceited ignorance.  

oh yes, and apparently the hebrews do what their wives  tell them to do…
as my dad told  me "remember, son. men rule the world.. women rule men"  

alhamdulillah!
 
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
thus evidently the muslim branch of abraham's children has to learn
to stop taking themselves with deadly seriousness, and develop the
sense of humor, the divine gift; inherent in all adam's children.  

while the jewish branch have to realize that since the only respect one
truly has is the respect extended toward "others", the way to get back
their self respect is to honor everybody, and first of all their apparent
enemies  

BOOM!   _()_
yosy

  ~ ~ ~  

Jan  

Thanks for the gift Yosy, and a happy birthday :-)
A (translated) quote from Ramana on the occasion:

“You who wishes to celebrate the birthday, seek first whence was your birth.
One’s true birthday is when he enters THAT which transcends birth & death - the Eternal Being.
At least on one’s birthday one should mourn one’s entry into this world (samsara).
To glory in it & celebrate it is like delighting in & decorating a corpse.
To seek one’s self & merge in the self: that is wisdom."
;-)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


  :) thank you jan, my friend...

Even before
We emerged
Into this world
Of land and sky
We all
Were divers
Effortlessly floating
Fish-like…
Immersed
Weightless and dreaming
In safety
Of all-pervading waters
Protected well
Beneath
Mother’s
Beating heart.

And then
Fighting for breath
We died as fish
Into this world
Of weight
And sorrow.
People call
This death
Birth.

One day
I shall return
To my great
Mother’s womb.
Some will say
He drowned
And died
But I
I shall be home
Again.

shabbat shalom all,

yosy

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