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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4372, Saturday, September 17, 2011
Like the weak fibers that acquire great strength when braided
into a rope, illusion repeated innumerable times in memory
acquires the strength of reality.
- Ramesh Balsekar, posted to ANetofJewels
Is not suffering due to the fact that it is forced upon us?
Suppose we would do consciously what nature does unconsciously?
Suppose we could offer ourselves willingly to be molded and
buffeted by life?
We are the offering placed on the altar of the world. If we would
sacrifice what we wish most, we would gain a tremendous freedom.
This is what is asked of us, the greatest gift of all, always
what we want most, for ourselves, for the inner most of
ourselves, our own heart.
It is the acceptance of the unacceptable that is asked of us.
So we are tested. To make evident whether our heart's treasure is
earthly or heavenly.
There is no Good Friday without an Easter. No dark night without
a dawn, and no oppression without a release, and the sacrifice is
followed by an outburst of such momentum that it shakes the very
heavens. The veil of the temple is split; there is a tremor on
earth.
You are resurrecting every time you overcome yourself.
- Pir Vilayat Kahn, posted to DailyDharma
Use whatever challenge comes into your life as a kind of fuel for
the flame of consciousness. That is done through surrender to
what is. Some people may need more of that than others. If you
choose presence in your daily life you may not need the drastic
challenges.
Eckhart Tolle, posted to Distillation
Mukti or liberation is our nature. It is another name for us. Our
wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man who is in
the shade, voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun,
feeling the severity of the heat there, making great efforts to
get back to the shade and then rejoicing, "How sweet is the
shade! I have reached the shade at last!" We are all doing
exactly the same. We are not different from the reality. We
imagine we are different, that is we create the bheda bhava [the
feeling of difference] and then undergo great sadhana [spiritual
practices] to get rid of the bheda bhava and realise the oneness.
Why imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?
- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from Be As You Are: The Teachings of
Sri Ramana Maharshi, edited by David Godman, posted to
AlongThe Way
When I press my hand to my chest,
it is Your Chest.
And now You're scratching my head!
Sometimes you put me in the herd
with Your other camels.
Sometimes You place me at the front of the troops
as the commander. Sometimes You wet me
with Your mouth like You do Your seal-ring
just before You plant Your power.
Sometimes You round me
into a simple door-knocker.
You take blood and make sperm.
You take sperm and create an animal.
You use the animal to evolve Intelligence.
Life keeps leading to more Life.
You drive me away gently
as a flute-song does a dove
from the eaves.
With the same song
You call me back.
You push me out on many journeys;
then You anchor me with no motion at all.
I am water. I am the thorn
that catches someone's clothing.
I don't care about marvelous sights!
I only want to be in Your Presence.
There's nothing to believe.
Only when I quit believing in myself
did I come into This Beauty.
I saw Your Blade and burned my shield!
I flew on six hundred pairs of wings like Gabriel.
But now that I'm Here, what do I need wings for?
Day and night I guarded the pearl of my soul.
Now in this Ocean of pearling currents,
I've lost track of which was mine.
There is no way to describe You.
Say the end of this so strongly
that I will ride up over
my own commotion.
- Rumi. version by Coleman Barks, from Like This, posted
to Sunlight
The temple bell stops
but the sound keeps
coming out of the flowers.
- Basho, posted to Distillation