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#4083 - Monday, November 22, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Your duty is to be and not to be
this or that.
'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth. The
method is summed up in the words 'Be still'.
What does stillness mean? It means destroy
yourself. Because any form or shape is the
cause for trouble. Give up the notion that 'I
am so and so'. All that is required to realize
the Self is to be still. What can be easier than
that?
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
posted to Along The Way
Writings of Scott Kiloby
excerpt:
See that the very ideas that you
cling to keep you trapped. And ultimately,
the idea that keeps you trapped the most is the idea that there
is a separate
you. When you see thoughts arise that tell you “this is how
life really is,” or
"this is how I really am," let them pass. Just be for
one moment without those
thoughts. That is where freedom lies.
It is our ideas about freedom,
about enlightenment, happiness, truth, and
spirituality, that keep us trapped. They are just ideas. Ideas
are great. But
when they are treated as truth, we really live in delusion. When
you see your
favorite ideas about enlightenment, happiness, spirituality, and
truth arise, let
them pass. Be free.
In just being without thought, you
are stripped naked. You have no
expectation, no hope, no past, no future, no story, no other, and
no object. It
takes thoughts to have all those things. In just resting right
there, you find
the doorway to freedom.
And when it dawns on you that
freedom is here and that it lies at the very
core of our existence, you are then free to entertain thoughts,
have
expectations, tell stories and even talk of objects “out
there” in the world.
But now you know what is really happening. Now you will never
take your
thoughts to be delivering reality.
Anyone can have this freedom. All
it takes is the desire to not emphasize the
past, the future, your hope, your beliefs, your positions, and
your
expectations. To just be in a state of not knowing has a profound
effect on us,
as humans. Take this leap into the unknown. Find the freedom that
is already
here.
http://kiloby.com/writings.php?offset=0&writingid=264
Possibilities
I prefer
movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the river.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.
I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.
I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.
I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.
I prefer the earth in civvies.
I prefer conquered to conquering countries.
I prefer having some reservations.
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages.
I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
(Nothing
Twice, trans. by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Possibilities.html