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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4028, Wednesday, September 29, 2010, Editor: Mark
Editor's note... Glo asked me to put this in the Tuesday HL, but
I forgot. I apologize to you, the reader, and to Glo...
Sorry, the Facebook photo album is apparently not open to
non-members.
Most of the images of Japanese Gardens were by William Corey.
So those and many more can be seen on his main website.
http://www.williamcorey.com/
http://www.williamcorey.com/japanese-garden-photography-portfolio/index.\html
Question: From the standpoint of Consciousness, it would seem
that enlightenment is a myth and so the search can end - nothing
to do and no one to do anything. I get this intellectually but
the seeking goes on and despair and frustration are the only
outcomes...
Peter: This is a good point, something "each of us"
seems to face at one time or another.
It sounds as if there is an identification with thoughts about
Awareness, rather than identifying as, or simply being, Pure
Awareness Itself. It also sounds as if "you" have done
a lot of sincere studying and hard work on this.
Now it's time to "rest" and enjoy. Why?
Who alone is aware right there as You? Awareness or Self Itself
is the only One being aware, conscious. It already is
"at" Itself; It already is fully being Itself (and
there is no other) so the "work" already is
"done." Any continued attempt is actually futile. It
sounds as if this is clear, too - no becoming and no other to
become.
Let's call this already-present Awareness the New You, or Real
You - which, again, is the Presence of Awareness Itself - and
which NEVER fails to be present, to perfectly be what It is, and
does not require any "work" to be present.
The New You is effortless. And this is your new homework
assignment, given to You by Your Self: Make no effort at all.
That means no more thinking about Awareness, no more thinking
about enlightenment - because after all, New You (Pure Awareness)
doesn't think. Stop reading. Stop looking on the computer for
awhile. Stop trying.
- Peter Dzubian
However, in the absence of the experience of our true nature,
there is this danger of the sense of self simply landing on a new
belief in no self. The sense of self moves from a limited and
painful identification with the mind's idea of who you are to a
more open and freeing idea of emptiness and non-existence. While
this may be a relief, it can eventually be just as limiting as
the original ego identification. When our sense of self has
identified with nothingness, emptiness, or no self, we can become
stuck there. This is often reflected in a kind of defensiveness
of this new identification: Anytime you are challenged, you
deflect the criticism or conflict by retreating more fully into
the idea of no self. Or you turn the tables on those challenging
you and try to convince them that they don't exist, therefore
their concerns aren't valid. This new identification with no self
can feel flat, dry, and detached. Life feels like it has no
meaning or value. So what was once a helpful and freeing
dissolving of limiting structures has become a new fossilized and
limiting identity.
- Nirmala, from That is That
88.
Ram Tzu knows this. . .
You have tasted ecstasy
Drunk deeply of its nectar.
So you embrace it
Or reject it.
What does it matter?
Addict or ascetic
You are caught in the web
Of your own ego.
The harder you struggle
The more surely you call the spider.
- Ram Tzu (aka Wayne Liquorman), from No Way For the
Spiritually "Advanced"
The gift we have been given is the one called possibility, whose
intent offers to tie all together, creating strands of a whole
life rather than a disintegrated one. The gift we have been
granted is what throws light into dark places. The gift held out
to us has always been present. But accepting the gift has a price
- courage. It is an undying courage that allows any of us to whip
the dream horse and startle awakening.
- Carla Woody, from Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage
All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no
give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere
fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.
- Mohandas Gandhi
When we know love matters more than anything, and we know that
nothing else REALLY matters, we move into the state of surrender.
Surrender does not diminish our power, it enhances it.
-Sara Paddison
Editor's note #2: "So..."
The New You is effortless. And this is your new homework
assignment, given to You by Your Self: Make no effort at all.
That means no more thinking about Awareness, no more thinking
about enlightenment - because after all, New You (Pure Awareness)
doesn't think. Stop reading. Stop looking on the computer for
awhile. Stop trying.
- Peter Dzubian