Creation is constant movement, eternal newness and absolute
freshness. It never repeats itself, it is never static and it is
never caught in the trap of time and space.
The individual mind, no matter how cultured, has no access to the
phenomenon of creation and cannot understand it, because the mind is
always old and outdated. Each movement of this particular mind
separates and limits. Thus, with such a mind, we will never, in any
circumstances, be able to discover the mysteries of the movement of
creation.
Therefore, this ordinary mind must be silent! But how can we make it
become silent? Only in one way: when we encounter it simply and
directly, with the flame of Attention, without having any motives or
ideals to accomplish.
If the meeting happens in the right way, the mind becomes quiet - it
becomes completely silent - and in that moment our whole being is
detached from the known. From then on, the vessel of consciousness,
thus emptied, is able to encompass and understand the newness
brought forth by the movement of life.
Therefore, a new mind, without limits and without knowledge; in its
stillness, it is creative and through it, the person is always new
and active. Such a mind, in a state of Pure Consciousness, creates
radical changes in the structure of the ordinary man by its simple
presence.
There is within each of us
a spacious vitality,
an innate Awareness,
a patient presence
inviting us into
a larger experience
of who and what we really are.
It is willing to wait
as long as is necessary
for us to exhaust ourselves with all our searching -
at which point, we will finally let go of and release
all that we have imagined ourselves to be,
finally discovering
who and what we have been all along.
poor little story!" If the story keeps coming back, it means it's
desperate for a little loving attention.
If you are always going, "Oh, it's just story," of course it's going
to renew its effort: "No, I'm not!"
If a certain situation continues to arise, just let it sit with you.
See it as your devotee. Grant it the compassion to be able to sit
with you. Say, "Yes, you are welcome here." Even story. In the
beginning it's good to get firm with stories, because there are way
too many of them. But it's like Reader's Digest; you have them
condensed down to the top five issues, right?
When you're feeling strong, or if you have a friend to sit with,
just sit in the silence until you're soothed, until the body and
brain are soothed, and then invite the story to come sit. It will
start to activate the body, and then the brain will start to bring
in strategies to fix it and try to help. So thank the brain, and
then attend to what's happening in the body. Stories have another
function, other than bothering us. They're designed to dissolve the
defenses in the body. They're like armor. So you sit with the issue,
the upset, and see where it's triggering in the body, and then just
allow awareness to move into it and permeate the upset - like
awareness has hands, and it's soothing and loving.
What you're doing is helping the body let go of the past. One of the
ways the body creates release is by recreating something from the
past in order to pull it out of the earth of the body. Otherwise it
stays deep. This system of release is strange - almost reptilian,
it's so ancient. These bodies are from another time. Even though you
get a fresh, new body every time, a lot of the defenses are
recreated through thought. That's why I say bring the story here.
There's no lack of brilliance in the design of either the body or
the way it lets go, or even that this world is so harsh. Robert
Adams used to call this the remedial planet, because when you really
want freedom, this is where you come.
It's sweet: the body asks for a blessing through its upset, its
agitation. It's invoking the Beloved, awareness-consciousness:
"Please, master, come here. Please heal me." And if it's really
frantic, then it will be sending out distress signals all the time.
So it has another function: to awaken the Beloved. It awakens the
satguru through its distress.
Ramana used to say, "I would follow a devotee into hell if need be."
So when hell or agitation arises in the body, it's luring the
satguru out of the heart. Everything is an invitation for the Buddha
to awaken and bring peace, even to the body. It calls for the laying
on of hands, the welcoming and soothing. Even doubt is asking for
your love. Doubt is talking to you, saying, "Master, is this true?"
When you see your body and thought as your devotees, you have a
completely different relationship with them. Where else are they
going to go for truth?
Try to be done now
with deliberately provocative actions and sales statistics,
brunches and gas ovens,
be done with fashion shows and horoscopes,
military parades, architectural contests, and the rows of triple
traffic lights.
Come through all that and be through
with getting ready for parties and eight possibilities
of winning on the numbers,
cost of living indexes and stock market analyses,
because it is too late,
it is way too late,
get through with and come home
to the silence afterwards
that meets you like warm blood hitting your forehead
and like thunder on the way
and the sound of great clocks striking
that make the eardrums quiver,
because words don't exist any longer,
there are no more words,
from now on all talk will take place
with the voices stones and trees have.
The silence that lives in the grass
on the underside of every blade
and in the blue spaces between the stones.
The silence
that follows shots and birdsong.
The silence
that pulls a blanket over the dead body
and waits in the stairs until everyone is gone.
The silence
that lies like a small bird between your hands,
the only friend you have.
Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your
name. Listen
to the living walls.
Who are you? Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.
Rather
be what you are (but who?)
be the unthinkable one
you do not know.
O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you
speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the unknown
that is in you and in themselves.
I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
and this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones they burn me.
How can a man be still or
listen to all things burning?
How can he dare to sit with them
when all their silence is on fire?
#4438 - Monday, November 28, 2011 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
I know that my spirit belongs
to the spirit of all spirit.
I know that I belong to the
city of those, who have no place.
But to find my way back there
I need to let go of my knowing.
When a negative emotion arises in the mind, its nature is quite
pure. It
is energy, an experience in the body and the mind. That's all. It's
not
substantial. And it is fleeting unless supported. It is a shimmer of
light
and will transform by itself.
Even confusion is clear in its nature; it's only when we have a
problem
with the problem — and either grasp at it and continue with it or
fight
with it and try to push it away — that the negativity is
supported.
Left alone, it dissolves, it self-liberates.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
(from Healing With Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in
Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen. Mark Dahlby, Ed. Snow
Lion Publications, 2002.)
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that
comes to
you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have
contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in
your
gratitude.
I assume there is sincerity in this meeting, the sincerity to really
look
and to discover what life is. The fact that you are sincere means
that you
have already searched in many directions. The longing to search for
life
in many directions, to discover your true being, comes from an inner
urge to find the truth, the inner urge to discover yourself. If you
really
seriously search in all directions you become exhausted and speaking
psychologically, bankrupt. You feel completely helpless: you are in
despair; you no longer know where to turn; all streets are dead
ends;
your thinking can no longer help. This crisis is the most important
moment in your life. You come into a state of complete not-knowing.
You have no hope or expectations anymore. It is a rare occasion in
which the thinking is confronted with its limitations, and because
it is
useless as such, the thinking gives up, then you are open, open for
nothing, only open for openness. This openness is the threshold of
your
true nature. Remain there in not knowing and you will see what
happens.
Life is forever giving us exactly what we need in order to stand
unguarded amidst the fullness of life. All that is ever required of
you is
to simply say yes.
"When the questions you have resolve themselves into just one
question, your question, then that question must detonate, explode
and
disappear entirely".
All the Highlights editors at one time or another have quoted Van
Morrison's lyrics. He's the guy who wrote and sang Brown Eyed Girl
and who wrote the song Gloria, among many other recognizable hits.
This lyric hasn't yet been quoted in the Highlights. I've included a
link to him singing it on YouTube.
Chop that wood
Carry water
What's the sound of one hand clapping
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
Every second, every minute
It keeps changing to something different
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
It says it's non attachment
Non attachment. Non attachment
I'm in the here and now, and I'm meditating
And still I'm suffering but that's my problem
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
Wake up
Enlightenment says the world is nothing
Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion
And nothing is real
Good or bad baby
You can change it anyway you want
You can rearrange it
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
Chop that wood
And carry water
What's the sound of one hand clapping
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
All around baby. You can see
You're making your own reality everyday because
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
One more time
Enlightenment. don't know what it is
It's up to you
Enlightenment. don't know what it is
It's up to you everyday
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
It's always up to you
Enlightenment, don't know what it is
~ ~ ~
Personally, I like Brown Eyed Girl better, but here are other
Highlights issues featuring Van Morrison:
Dustin LindenSmith is guest editor. He prepared and submitted
today's feature, which is a beautiful reading. Dustin is a
co-organizer of our monthly Nonduality Satsang Meetups in Nova
Scotia. Thank you, Dustin!
This is an excerpt from St. Augustine's Confessions from ca. 397,
dealing with the perception of past, present and future. His
Wikipedia page sets some interesting context for the part which I'm
about to transcribe:
The latter part of Augustine's Confessions consists of an extended
meditation on the nature of time. Even the agnostic philosopher
Bertrand Russell was impressed by this. He wrote, "a very admirable
relativistic theory of time. ... It contains a better and clearer
statement than Kant's of the subjective theory of time - a theory
which, since Kant, has been widely accepted among philosophers."[44]
Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that
God exists outside of time in the "eternal present"; that time only
exists within the created universe because only in space is time
discernible through motion and change.
I'm not sure exactly where this excerpt comes from in the entire
work, for I read it in a literature review called Lapham's Quarterly
and its exact placement in the original text was not noted. What I
have before me also appears to have been translated into ordinary
modern English, while several of the translations I saw online are
in a sort of archaic format with a lot of entreaties to "O Lord" and
the like. This excerpt is very clean and simple, and I really
appreciate how lucidly it describes how our perception of time
informs the nature of our very existence. (At least, that's how I
read it!)
-----
If the future and the past do exist, I want to know where they are.
I may not yet be capable of such knowledge, but at least I know that
wherever they are, they are not there as future or past, but as
present. For if, wherever they are, they are future, they do not yet
exist; if past, they no longer exist. Do wherever they are and
whatever they are, it is only by being present that they are.
When we describe the past correctly, it is not past facts which are
drawn out of our memories but only words based on our memory
pictures of those facts, because when they happened they left an
impression on our minds by means of our sense perception. My own
childhood, which no longer exists, is in past time, which also no
longer exists. But when I remember those days and describe them, it
is in the present that I picture them to myself, because their
picture is still present in my memory.
Whether some similar process enables the future to be seen, some
process by which events which have not yet occurred become present
to us by means of already existing images of them, I confess, my
God, that I do not know. But at least I know that we generally think
about what we are going to do before we do it, and this preliminary
thought is in the present, whereas the action which we premeditate
does not yet exist because it is in the future. Once we have set to
work and started to put our plans into action, that action exists,
because it is now not future but present.
By whatever mysterious means it may be that the future is foreseen,
it is only possible to see something which exists; and whatever
exists is not future but present. So when we speak of foreseeing the
future, we do not see things which are not yet in being, that is,
this which are future, but it may be that we see their causes or
signs, which are already in being. In this way they are not future
but present to the eye of the beholder, and by means of them the
mind can form a concept of things which are still future and thus is
able to predict them. These concepts already exist, and by seeing
them, present in their minds people are able to foretell the actual
facts which they represent.
Let me give you one example of the many from which I could choose.
Suppose that I am watching the break of day. I predict that the sun
is about to rise. What I see is present, but what I foretell is
future. I do not mean that the sun is future, for it already exists,
but that its rise is future, because it has not yet happened. But I
could not foretell the sunrise unless I had a picture of it in my
mind, just as I have at this moment while I am speaking about it.
Yet the dawn, which I see in the sky, is not the sunrise, although
it precedes it; nor is the picture which I have in my mind the
sunrise. But both the dawn and my mental picture are seen in the
present, and it is from them that I am able to predict the sunrise,
which is future. The future, then, is not yet; it is not at all; and
if it is not at all, it cannot possibly be seen. But it can be
foretold from things which are present, because they exist now and
can therefore be seen.
Forgive the wholesale borrowing, sometimes it's irresistible and too
good to miss.
This post interviews the founders of the Science and Nonduality
Conference.
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New post on Non-Duality America
Is the next Buddha the Community? Interview with Maurizio and
Zaya Benazzo
by Nonduality America Blog
Pic Emily Goodman
According to the founders, "the Science and Nonduality Conference
was created to provide an arena where various aspects of nonduality
can be explored, discussed, and experienced. Part seminar,
part festival, part conference, this event also explores science and
combines meditation, philosophy, art, music, dance, and entheogens
to point the way to nondual experience, to aid in integrating
nonduality into daily life, and to deepen the understanding of a
fundamental nondual reality.
The conference opens up these experiences for further exploration.
It places each attendee face-to-face with each other and with
individuals living from the life-spanning varieties of non-dual
expression.
This gathering is also a celebration of the bottom-line truth of our
existence: that in our distinct and individualistic arisings and
turnings, we are truly not limited, bound, or separate."
Who are the conference founders?
When Zaya and Maurizio met in 2008, it immediately became clear that
they could make a lot of noise together in this illusory world! They
discovered that the only book they had both been reading for the
past several years was "I Am That" by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Almost immediately, they went to India together to shoot The Legacy
of Nisargadatta Maharaj. The rest, as they say, is history…
Maurizio was brought up in Italy and went through many incarnations,
always looking for answers under every stone. In 1986, he came to
the USA on a 98 year-old sailing boat. He started working as an
actor, model, and then filmmaker, but his thirst for knowledge was
never satisfied, until he encountered I Am That in 2001 while
shooting the documentary "Short Cut to Nirvana" in India.
Zaya hails from Bulgaria and has degrees in Engineering,
Environmental Science, and also Film. For many years, she worked as
an environmental activist in Holland and Bulgaria. She later
produced and directed several award-winning documentaries in Europe
and the United States. Her life long passion for science and
mysticism finally came together with the emergence of the
conference.
The team known as Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo are truly inseparable!
I sent over some interview questions and they proceeded to knock
them out "tag-team" style. Let me explain: First Zaya answered
[while M was driving!] and then they switched and Maurizio answered
[while Z was behind the wheel]. They were read aloud once more and
the finishing touches were added and sent. I thought that was
adorable! Enjoy the interview.
Matthew: Congratulations on starting one of the most interesting
conferences of the last decade! SAND is one of the few public events
that make it possible for non-dual thought to emerge. It’s a great
coming together of teachers, scientists, authors, musicians etc. I
think such a “meeting of the minds” helps to facilitate in-depth
discussion, fresh material and a genuine [in-person] way for folks
to network in the community.
What’s your take please?
Yes, this year the feeling of community was palpable. Walking in the
hallways you could feel the invigorating energy that only a
like-minded, creative, mature community can spark. The combination
of scientists, teachers from all traditions, philosophers and
artists created an explosive mix that is still reflected in the
feedback we are still receiving. “The next Buddha is the community”
became the mantra of the gathering this year.
What would you say sparked your first interest in the connection
between Science and Nonduality?
Both of us have always been interested in science and mysticism and
for us somehow they were never separate. When we first met we went
to India to film a movie about Nisargadatta Maharaj and one of the
translators told us that Nisargadatta used to say: “…this is a
scientific knowledge. One day scientists will come to understand all
this very easily. It is scientific…” A few months after we found
ourselves organizing this event. But, this is just another story! We
do what we do and that is what it is.
Do you believe it is necessary to convince scientists of the
non-dual nature of reality and vice versa?
We don’t believe that it is necessary to convince anybody about
anything. We see our work more as a reflection of what “is” rather
then having a mission or a goal to meet. The beauty is that many
scientists do know and touch through their work the essential
nondual nature of reality but most likely will not use the language
the nondual teachers will use to describe it.
Do you believe it is important to help “nondualists” pay more
attention to scientific theory?
Science today can tell us quite accurately about the body mechanisms
from which the mind and the ego emerge, so, in a way, it becomes
easier to understand things mystics have said for centuries like:
“the ego is an illusion”.
Today you no longer have to believe the mystics blindly as you can
also study the mechanisms through which this illusion manifests.
For example, teachers from all traditions have said: “you are not
the doer.” Now mainstream neuroscience proves, beyond any reasonable
doubt, that the sense of “I” comes later, after our actions have
been performed. And up to six seconds later!
It would be interesting to know, which events were typically drawing
greater numbers of participants - sessions with the prominent
scientists and or spiritual leaders?
We asked that question in the evaluation form this year and to our
surprise we discovered that the community has an interest in both
aspects of the conference and they enjoy the balance.
What might a match between nonduality and science look like or does
there need to be a match?
There is no need for a match.
We simply offer different fingers pointing to the same moon. Science
can help us understand [more deeply] the wisdom teachings and vice
versa. There is no “absolute” truth out there. Neither science nor
spirituality can give us “final, absolute” answers.
At SAND, we simply invite our audience to experience thing by
themselves and take nothing for granted. There is no absolute truth
out there… There is only what is and how you perceive it is your
point of view of it, your personal truth.
I applaud you guys for inviting more exploration of entheogenic
studies as there are a lot of misconceptions about their usage. They
can be a portal or “opening” in Consciousness [albeit temporary] and
or successfully used to treat some patients with responsible
administering etc. What’s your view on this?
Entheogens are another portal, a large [for some] finger-pointing to
the moon, it’s very potent and direct portal that many have had the
opportunity to explore at some point in their path of discovery of
what is. These “substances” allow us to perceive our reality in a
slightly different way opening the space for questions and deep
insights.
That is why we have created a partnership with MAPS
(Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). MAPS
organize a session every year on entheogens as portals to non-dual
awareness. Next year we will have even more sessions designed to
inform and discuss this topic along with more dialogues about social
justice and ecology.
It appears you are growing rapidly. Did you expect such a great
turnout—so fast? Now in its third year, what are your future goals
for the conference?
We didn’t expect such a fast growth. We thought this was a very
niche, extravagant, subject in which not many will be interested—but
clearly there is a deep longing and need for this conversation.
Again, we don’t have “goals.” We believe the moment we create goals
it is easy to get disconnected from what is in front of us needing
to be expressed. What we do is listen to our community, encourage
feedback and suggestions while, we share what touches and inspires
us personally.
And more and more communities around the world are requesting to
bring the conference on the road.
The event is also attracting folks from all over the world, what do
you attribute that too? Flying halfway around the world for a single
conference is an amazing testament!
Yes the audience is not local as we expected it to be at the
beginning. This year we had people from twenty-one different
countries and thirty-five states in the US. Evidentially “this
understanding” spreads all over the globe regardless of boundaries
and socioeconomics. It’s a movement trickling from every corner of
the globe. The next Buddha is the community!
I’ve heard you might be taking the conference to Europe next year,
is that true and what are your expectations for that locale. How do
you think the European mindset differs on such material and speakers
vs. the U.S.?
Yes, we will have the first SAND European conference in Holland May
31st-June 2nd, 2012. Since both Zaya and I were born in Europe and
choose to move to the USA to work it is quite tingling to get back
in there with a project.
We have a local organization helping us with the logistics and they
are giving us a lot of advice and our European SAND community is
already quite large (due to social media channels and the many
Europeans that came to SAND already). It’s going to be a lot of fun!
We are exploring a new format and most likely we’ll have less
speakers and longer sessions. The goal, as in California, will be to
involve the audience and reduce the separation between speakers and
audience. Again: “The next Buddha is the community”.
You’ve always put out a very attractive 3-DVD set for purchase. I’ve
enjoyed the mini interviews and questions you ask some of the key
speakers at each event. This is a great way to experience the depth
of the speaker(s). Kudos on that! How did that come about?
We are both filmmakers and before we started the conference we were
already creating media, film, DVD’s, etc. on topics related to the
conference, so creating a DVD series was a natural evolution of what
we do. But this project is also pointing at the evolution of the
event; the interviews become a way to document the evolution of the
conference.
The interviews are made primarily by Zaya together with our good
friend Nick Day and the two of them are an awesome production team.
I noticed for this year’s event, you added a streaming video option
for folks who could not attend and or perhaps in another country.
Tell us about the ForaTV service.
All the sessions from the conference are available now on ForaTV. We
were looking for a way to make the conference available to everyone
who couldn’t afford to travel. They’re a great channel and allow
many people to be with us without traveling half way across the
globe.
But, [if we wish to be picky], the issue with ForaTV is that it is
not free and it is becoming clear to us that this material, this
knowledge, belong to the community and it should be available for
free. Next year we will have a different arrangement and we have
some great ideas about our internet presence that will be unveiled
very soon!
I have to ask, it seems folks are buzzing about the
commercialization of nonduality and or the “spiritual marketplace”
as some call it. What are your thoughts on this subject?
Does anyone complain about people charging money to design, promote
or sell solar panels or items that will reduce our carbon footprint?
I don’t think so.
It is great to see professional people devoting their time and
energy in creating “dreams” designed to make the world a better
place instead of thinking about money as a motivator.
To us the only factor is where your motivations are. We don’t see
what we do as a commercial product. It is a sincere labor of love
which financially doesn’t make sense at all. We have no financial
partners, foundations or universities behind us. As long as there is
an inspiration and energy we probably will keep doing it.
Is there a way to promote responsibly?
Surely there is a way to promote responsibly and the line is drawn
by your motivation! We do very little promotion because we don’t
have the resources to do more and in any case we see our community
growing more from word-of-mouth which is way better than
advertising.
We can only do what we can and look at what happens next.
I read some of the feedback on your blog from the first event (that
took place back in 2009). This a summary of what the participants
requested:
less speakers
longer talks
more integration between talks and experiential
a science closer to our day-to-day experience
and better coffee…
Were you able to meet the challenge and offer that in 2010 and how
about 2011? At least for better coffee? Haha!
Since the first year we have 30% less speakers, “only” one hundred
and twenty or so.
We shortened the talks and the integration is slowly happening but
it is not as complete as we would want it to be. We definitely got
better coffee…we seem to have solved that issue at least!
There are so many little issues that are solved every year.
Don’t forget we are not conference organizers and volunteers mostly
run the event. By-the-way, our volunteers need a huge thank you for
their hard work and commitment! They are an amazing group of
committed people.
I really appreciate being asked to moderate a panel this year on
behalf of Non-Duality America. Although I could not attend, I am
honored to be asked. The fact that gatherings like this exists
is such a blessing for all.
Thanks again for hosting such a fun + creative experience and for
your service and dedication…very inspirational!
Is there anything you would like to add?
Matt, really, without you there will be no conference. It is people
like you devoting their time to “this” that are creating the
foundation for such an event to materialize. And it is people like
your readers [yes, I am talking about you], that are making all this
happen.
Thank you both for being who you are and for doing what you do.
“THE NEXT BUDDHA IS A COMMUNITY!”
Love, Maurizio & Zaya
Nonduality America Blog | November 30, 2011 at 1:52 am | Tags:
ForaTV, I Am That, M.A.P.S, Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo, Neti Neti
Films, Neti Neti Media, Nick Day, SAND, SAND 2011, Science and
Nonduality, Science and Nonduality Conference, Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj | Categories: Live Events, Spotlight on Teachers | URL:
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#4442 - Friday, December 2, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"The general principle of temporal cause and effect would be
disrupted, replacing the concept of time-imposed consequential
duality with the notion of underlying non-duality or unity
consciousness. ... 'Omnia vivunt, omnia inter se conexa' or
'Everything is alive, everything is interconnected,' as Cicero
proclaimed in Rome, half a century prior to the birth of Christ."
[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are
not necessarily representative
of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective
Socratic dialogue on global
opportunities and threats.]
Albert Einstein is considered to be the father of modern physics.
His theory of relativity is the
building block on which our scientific understanding of how things
move in the four dimensions of
space-and-time rests. Our physical bodies and material universe
exist within that same space-time
continuum. Some weeks ago, the scientific community received word
that Einstein might have been
wrong!
Flawed Assumption?
Many scientists, including Einstein in 1905, had assumed that
certain forces or particles or waves
-- including light and radio -- travel at a certain fixed speed in a
vacuum, relative to the
observer. And that nothing can travel faster than that. It was
inspired guesswork, backed up as
usual by elaborate mathematical formulae. Out of that basic
assumption, Einstein and other
"experts" concluded that the fastest thing of all was photons, which
they referred to as "the speed
of light." Light, they collectively stated, can travel at 299,792
kilometres per second or 186,282
miles per second, and nothing in the entire cosmos can outrun it.
First Time Machine?
In recent weeks, physicists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva,
Switzerland, report they have
discovered subatomic particles called neutrinos that do travel
faster than light. In fact, they
travel so fast, they may be able to get to a destination before they
even left! Specifically,
scientists working on ItalyÂ’s OPERA experiment at CERN clocked the
neutrinos as travelling faster
than the speed of light. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN could
well be the worldÂ’s first time
machine!
Ghost Particles
Neutrinos are subatomic particles with a mass close to zero.
Scientists began looking at time
travel several years ago to explain anomalies that had been observed
in several experiments with
neutrinos. Neutrinos are nicknamed ghost particles because they
react so rarely with ordinary
matter. For example, trillions of neutrinos hit our bodies every
second, yet we donÂ’t notice them
because they zip through without apparently affecting us.
What are the Implications?
All great revolutionary discoveries in science started out with an
unexpected discrepancy that
wouldn't go away. So if neutrinos are capable of superluminal --
faster than light -- motion, then
what are the implications of this for science and society in the
21st century?
1. EinsteinÂ’s special theory of relativity would then be null and
void. It would need to be
replaced by a new theory: one that encompasses faster than light
travel. Einstein's relativity
states that whether an object is at rest or in motion is highly
subjective to the perspective of
the person viewing that object and also that the speed of light is a
constant, physical barrier and
that to surpass it would take an infinite amount of energy. CERN's
neutrino experiments are
challenging some of those basic assumptions.
2. This would open the door for time travel -- up until now, the
domain of fantasy and science
fiction! Although neutrinos couldnÂ’t generate the kind of energy
for human time travel but
scientists predict that they could carry some sort of message that
might be encoded into them and
then they would be able to take that message with them and it could
arrive in the past, technically
before it was written, bringing us to the next possibility:
3. The general principle of temporal cause and effect would be
disrupted, replacing the concept of
time-imposed consequential duality with the notion of underlying
non-duality or unity
consciousness. The corollaries of this scientific sea-change are
phenomenal and it may well be that
our perceived reality influences the underlying unified reality
reflexively. These herald a new era
beyond Newton and Einstein. What we think and imagine has a
fundamental consequence upon events and
may be as germane to them as our actions. Perhaps our intentions,
aspirations and observations, are
not simply a prelude, but actually influence the present scene and
final outcome. What Heisenberg's
uncertainty principle was alluding to may only be the tip of the
iceberg as far as a deeper
understanding of our relationships is concerned, which is yet to
come. "Omnia vivunt, omnia inter
se conexa" or "Everything is alive, everything is interconnected,"
as Cicero proclaimed in Rome,
half a century prior to the birth of Christ.
4. The standard model of particle physics would need to be adjusted
to incorporate superluminal
particles in the near future.
5. One explanation for how neutrinos are able to travel faster than
the speed of light is that they
are not actually travelling in a straight line, but hopping into one
of the separate dimensions
predicted in String Theory, which acts as a kind of shortcut. It is
postulated that neutrinos may
travel through a fifth dimension beyond the four of space-and-time!
God Particle and Time Machine
One of the major goals of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in
Switzerland is to find the elusive
"God Particle" or Higgs boson: the particle that physicists invoke
to explain why particles like
protons, neutrons and electrons have mass. If the collider succeeds
in producing the Higgs boson,
some scientists predict that it will create a second particle,
called the Higgs singlet, at the
same time. According to quantum physics, these singlets should have
the ability to jump into an
extra, fifth dimension where they can move either forward or
backward in time and reappear in the
future or past. “One of the attractive things about this approach
to time travel is that it avoids
all the big paradoxes,” according to Prof Thomas Weiler at
Vanderbilt, “Because time travel is
limited to these special particles, it is not possible for a man to
travel back in time... before
he himself is born, for example. However, if scientists could
control the production of Higgs
singlets, they might be able to send messages to the past or the
future.”
M-Theory
M-theory is a “theory of everything.” A small cadre of theoretical
physicists have developed
M-theory to the point that it can accommodate the properties of all
the known subatomic particles
and forces, including gravity, but it points to 10 or 11 dimensions
instead of our familiar four.
This has led to the suggestion that our universe may be like a
four-dimensional membrane or “brane”
floating in a multi-dimensional space-time continuum called the
“bulk.” No wonder we are unable to
make sense of our world and our place within it on so many
occasions!
Sterile neutrinos are less detectable than regular neutrinos because
they interact only with the
gravitational force. As a result, sterile neutrinos are another
particle that is not attached to
the "brane" and so should be capable of travelling through those
extra dimensions. Sterile
neutrinos travel faster than light by taking shortcuts through extra
dimensions. According to
EinsteinÂ’s general theory of relativity, there are certain
conditions where travelling faster than
the speed of light is equivalent to travelling backwards in time.
This has led quantum physicists
into the realm of time travel.
Conclusion
A lot of confirmations need to be made before the extraordinary
claims made by CERN's OPERA
experiment of faster-than-light neutrinos are accepted as true. As
Carl Sagan once said,
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
As Prof Heinrich Päs at Dortmund proposes, "Even if true, this
result neither proves Einstein wrong
nor implies that causality has to be violated and time travel is
possible. Things can move faster
than the speed of light without violating Einstein if either the
speed of light is not the limiting
velocity as one can observe it ... or space-time could be warped in
a way so that neutrinos can
take a shortcut without really being faster than the speed of light.
As our three space plus one
time dimensions look pretty flat, this would require an extra
dimension, the fifth dimension."
If the fifth dimension truly exists, as suggested by recent
sub-atomic particle experiments,
amongst multiple dimensions, the implications of this discovery go
beyond time travel and are truly
colossal. The new scientific discovery may yet herald the dawn of a
new age in the 21st century
where a number of pre-conceived notions are likely to be superseded
by new rules of engagement and
acknowledgement of hitherto hidden sensitivities. This new
scientific understanding may well pave
the way for a quantum step change in our civilisation's approach and
behaviour.
On the human scale, as science implies that we are all resonating
within an interconnected
vibrational energy web, does not the very concept of what is
"personal" -- as in thoughts -- come
into question? If we exist within one highly subtle,
inter-permeable, and inter-responsive matrix,
what should be the new rules of our engagement? Should thoughts and
words be elevated to a similar
status to actions? Should harbouring negativity be considered
civilised? Will these new scientific
discoveries herald an age of greater personal responsibility, as we
endeavour to attune more
sensitively our "selves" to the greater social, economic and
political fabric into which we are
enfolded together?
We welcome your thoughts, observations and views. To reflect further
on this subject and others,
please respond within Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn's ATCA Open and
related discussion platform of
HQR. Should you wish to connect directly with real time Twitter
feeds, please click as appropriate:
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online:
http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4443, Saturday, December 5, 2011
Put a chair in the middle of a room.
Sit in the chair.
See who comes to visit.
- Ajahn Chah
Walk around, take a shower, drink coffee, go to work, pick up the
kids, watch tv, meditate, make love, post on facebook... and see who
comes to visit. What if every visiting thought, emotion, sound,
sensation, just visits and we pay no attention to them?
What happens is that all that energy we put into reacting to
everything going on around us, within us... converts into
compassion...
Really! It does. Try it. If we do nothing about what presents itself
for the day, our thrust for Buddhahood, our innate Buddha Nature, is
freed and it can only bring joy... in the spontaneous response to
the needs of others who we then encourage to sit with us and watch
who visits.
Joy and sorrow are the light and shade of life; without light and
shade no picture is clear.
Bowl of Saki, December 3, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Joy and sorrow are each part of the other. If it were not for joy,
sorrow would not exist; and if it were not for sorrow, joy would not
be experienced.
There is going forward and there is going backwards, there is
success and there is failure, there is light and there is darkness,
there is joy and there is sadness, there is birth and there is
death. All things that we can know, feel and perceive have their
opposites. It is the opposite quality which brings about balance.
The world would not exist if there were not water and earth. Every
thing and every being needs these two qualities in order to exist,
to act, and to fulfill the purpose of life; for each quality is
incomplete without the other. ... by a deep insight into nature we
discover that the creation is the same as the Creator, that the
source is the same as the goal, and that the two only mean one.
There are two ends to a line but the line is one, and this oneness
is manifest in all things, though man seldom gives any thought to
this subject. This amazing manifestation, this world of variety,
keeps us so puzzled, so confused, and so absorbed in it that we
hardly give ourselves any time to see this wonderful phenomenon: how
the one and only Being shows Himself even in the world of variety.
How does a part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?
Don't try to put out a fire
by throwing on more fire!
Don't wash a wound with blood!
No matter how fast you run,
your shadow more than keeps up.
Sometimes, it's in front!
Only full, overhead sun
diminishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you!
What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this, but it would break
the glass cover on your heart,
and there's no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree, feathers and wings sprout
on you, be quieter than a dove.
Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.
When a frog slips into the water, the snake
cannot get it. Then the frog climbs back out
and croaks, and the snake moves toward him again.
Even if the frog learned to hiss, still the snake
would hear through the hiss the information
he needed, the frog voice underneath.
But if the frog could be completely silent,
then the snake would go back to sleeping,
and the frog could reach the barley.
The soul lives there in the silent breath.
And that grain of barley is such that,
when you put it in the ground,
it grows.
Are these enough words,
or shall I squeeze more juice from this?
Who am I, my friend?
- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 2155, version by Coleman Barks, from The
Essential Rumi, posted to Sunlight
Archived issues of the NDHighlights are available online:
http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htm
Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4444, Sunday, December 4, 2011
True meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless
surrender, pure silent prayer. All methods aiming at achieving a
certain state of mind are limited, impermanent, and conditioned.
Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True
meditation is abidance as primordial awareness.
True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when
awareness is not being manipulated or controlled. When you first
start to meditate, you notice that attention is often being held
captive by focus on some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations,
emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is
conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the mind
compulsively interprets and tries to control what it is aware of
(the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw
conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning.
In true meditation all objects (thoughts, feelings, emotions,
memories, etc.) are left to their natural functioning. This means
that no effort should be made to focus on, manipulate, control, or
suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is
on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting as
primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness is the source in
which all objects arise and subside.
As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's
compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being
will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and
abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or
anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness
to be revealed as your natural condition.
As you rest into stillness more profoundly, awareness becomes free
of the mind's compulsive control, contractions, and identifications.
Awareness naturally returns to its non-state of absolute unmanifest
potential, the silent abyss beyond all knowing.
How can the mind which has itself created the world accept it as
unreal? That is the significance of the comparison made between the
world of the waking state and the dream world. Both are creations of
the mind and, so long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds
itself unable to deny their reality. It cannot deny the reality of
the dream world while it is dreaming and it cannot deny the reality
of the waking world while it is awake. If, on the contrary, you
withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn it within and
abide there, that is, if you keep awake always to the Self which is
the sub- stratum of all experiences, you will find the world of
which you are now aware is just as unreal as the world in which you
lived your dream.
- Ramana Maharshi, from Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana
Maharshi, posted to AlongTheWay
If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations,
you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. It is
your restlessness that causes chaos.
#4445 - Monday, December 5, 2011 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The whole universe is shining as One,
Without any split or break, or separate parts.
The idea of 'Maya' is itself the great delusion;
Duality and Non-duality are merely concepts of the mind.
To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the
wilderness we fear is the pause within our own heartbeats, the
silent
space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same
grace.
"In the presence of Sangha, in the light of Dharma,
in oneness with Buddha -- may my path
to complete enlightenment benefit everyone!"
In this passing moment karma ripens
and all things come to be.
I vow to choose what is:
If there is cost, I choose to pay.
If there is need, I choose to give.
If there is pain, I choose to feel.
If there is sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning -- I choose heat.
When calm -- I choose peace.
When starving -- I choose hunger.
When happy -- I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet.
What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it is my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go.
Being with what is -- I respond to what is.
This life is as real as a dream;
the one who knows it can not be found;
and, truth is not a thing -- Therefore I vow
to choose THIS dharma entrance gate!
May all Buddhas and Wise Ones
help me live this vow.
Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it
as if
you had chosen it. Aways work with it, not against it. Make it your
friend
and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your
whole
life.
Look, it cannot be seen -- it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard -- it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held -- it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;
Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark;
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
#4446 - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Happy Birthday to Highlights Editor Gloria Lee (left) and to former
Highlights Editor Christiana Duranczyk, right hand person on the
journey to nonduality.
Happy birthday to both you. You are the two most influential women
in the marathon run to control the world of nonduality. Or maybe its
a run away from the world of nonduality. Either way, I wish you a
very happy day, and thank you for being in our lives. It's a deep
honor and gift to know both of you. Just imagine, we knew each other
in our 40s. And now we're all 39. We could only have achieved that
through our profound understanding of spirituality, quantum
entanglement, and the nondual reality of things and mainly because
of all the beer we drank.
I've written an article recently, 'Shaving Science With Ockham's
Razor" which is posted at the integralworld.net website. It is
aimed primarily at skeptics, but incorporates practices and ideas
from both the Advaita and Buddhist traditions, as well as ideas from
Owen Barfield, Alan Wallace and Sri Aurobindo (yes, I know that Sri
Aurobindo's "purna advaita" is often not considered legitimate in
the nonduality community, but... well, more on that another
time:>)).
Jan (my wife) and I are currently working on a series of videos
illustrating the ideas in the "Shaving Science" essay, and are
looking for people who might be interested in trying out some of the
practices and give us constructive feedback (or come up with new
ones!).
The Shaving Science essay is at www.integralworld.net/salmon3.html
A commentary by philosopher David Lane is posted at
www.integralworld.net/lane27.html.
There is also a follow-up essay, "Shaving Visser, Goswami, Lane and
Carter with Ockham's Razor, at www.integralworld.net/salmon4.html
Thanks so much for any suggestions, and keep up the good work!
Best,
Don
PS: a tad bit more on that Sri Aurobindo comment above - we (jan and
I) wrote a book, "Yoga Psychology and the Transformation of
Consciousness: Seeing Through the Eyes of Infinity"). The first 5
chapters cover many of the ideas in the "Shaving Science" essay -
the main theme being that no scientific finding requires a
materialistic foundation, and non scientific finding precludes the
possibility of consciousness as a causal factor. The rest of
the book lays out Sri Aurobindo's "psycho-cosmological" vision, in a
way we think is fully compatible with the best of physics,
evolutionary biology and neuroscience. I've had discussions
with many who feel that Sri Aurobindo's vision is in opposition to
non-duality, and generally have found that the opposition is based
on a misunderstanding of what he was saying. I hope when we
post our videos on the net next year, we'll be able to start an
online conversation about this. I think it ties in with much
that is "transformational" in the world today - from Occupy Wall
Street to the Arab spring, and much much more. well, enough
for now...:>))
"If the fifth dimension truly exists, as suggested by recent
sub-atomic particle experiments,
amongst multiple dimensions, the implications of this discovery go
beyond time travel and are truly
colossal."
I've been saying this---I called it HDI theory (Higher Dimensional
Interaction)---on YouTube for a couple of years now, ironically, it
was just days prior to my awakening:
- Quantum Entanglement Solved in Under Two Minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXuVsSawQVQ
- Mystery of Quantum Entanglement Solved (Details):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbTuFFr61Qk
Wayne (Wirs)
http://WayneWirs.com
#4447 - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
This is a film describing a sudden awakening which includes
descriptions of energetic spiritual phenomena and which addresses
the nondual nature of things. Joan Halifax, Stephen Schwartz, and
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee are some familiar faces in the film.
An interesting trailer is here:
http://wakeupthefilm.com/
Synopsis:
Jonas Elrod was leading an ordinary life until he woke up one day to
a totally new reality. He suddenly could see and hear angels,
demons, auras and ghosts.
The documentary movie WAKE UP follows this fascinating story of an
average guy who inexplicably developed the ability to access other
dimensions. Physicians gave him a clean bill of health and were
unable to provide an explanation. What was it? Why was it happening
to him? One thing was certain for this 36-year old man – life as he
had known it would never be the same.
With his loving but skeptical girlfriend by his side, Jonas
crisscrosses the country as he searches for answers and delves
deeper into this thrilling world of the phenomenal and spiritual.
Along the way, he encounters an amazing group of religious teachers,
scientists, mystics and spiritual healers who help him piece
together this intricate puzzle.
The film shows how all of us can search inward for our own peace and
happiness while contributing towards a positive shift in global
consciousness. WAKE UP is a call to consciousness to everyone who
sees it; an invitation to accept that there is more to this life
than meets the eye.
1(20) Sometimes I get a long period of oneness, but then it's
followed by a feeling of separation. How does this happen?
2Separation is a thought, do you see that, 20?
3No Zil, actually I donÂ’t. I mean, itÂ’s not something I invent,
itÂ’s something I perceive, like I perceive this roomÂ… and what you
say...
4ThatÂ’s what you think, but it is not true. ThereÂ’s this oneness,
everything is fine and warm and whatever - and then all of a sudden:
‘separation’…
5Yes, thatÂ’s what happens.
6Or so it seems. WhatÂ’s the crux of oneness?
7Well, absence of separation – or is that just being silly?
8No, itÂ’s extremely well put in fact. ThereÂ’s no separation in
oneness. So can oneness recognize separation, does separation have
any meaning to oneness?
9No, that doesnÂ’t seem possible...
10It isnÂ’t. So what can recognize separation, something that
doesnÂ’t know about it or something that already knows?
11The second one, I guess.
12Right you are again. In order to recognize separation, there first
has to arise something in which the seed of separation is already
present. Which is you, small you, mule. There has to be the belief
in an entity that is separated already and only when that has
formed, the experience ‘separation’ can arise. Which means that
‘separation’ is a belief, a thought of this entity – which in its
turn consists of a belief called ‘experience’. Thus, separation is
a thought of an experience. A belief within a belief.
13But it doesnÂ’t feel like a thought, and on the face of it it
doesnÂ’t feel like ego either!
14You can see that it must be there first, canÂ’t you?
15I would have to admit thatÂ’s the only answer.
16So mule is there already, only it has not been recognized as such
yet. A moment later it takes the shape of separation and then your
good mood is ruined. Do you know how it is possible for mule to
already exist in that oneness you talk about?
17I think I'm scared to find out.
18YouÂ’d better, because it will hurt. It is possible for mule,
because the oneness you experience is mule too. ItÂ’s an experience,
an experience of oneness. That should have made your alarm go off.
Every experience is mule, baby.
19Damn. So there is no oneness?
20Yes there is, but never as an experience. Realization does not
belong to a level, experience does. Experienced oneness may be a
side effect of the realization of oneness, but that does not mean
experienced oneness is the same as realization. ItÂ’s a common
mistake of enlightened mules to forget that. And as a result getting
attached to this great oneness-experience. Like you are. Separation
is a thought, oneness an experience. Both come up. Accept that they
do, accept that their appearance does not matter at all. Then you
wonÂ’t be fooled by them.
21ButÂ… if the experience of oneness isnÂ’t the oneness itself,
whatÂ’s the point of being realized?
22None at all for mule. None at all for oneness either, because
oneness cannot become more one by realization. The realization that
you want, the goodies that you expect – they are all part of
muleworld. And muleworld will never become one, because it only
exists by the grace of separation. Seeming separation, because all
is one and will remain so no matter if you realize that or not.
ThatÂ’s why I say nothing changes with realization. ThereÂ’s only
experience, and experience does not exist...
Order Dutch Treat as an e-book here:
http://nonduality.com/dutchtreat.htm
#4448 - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
'We are the bees of the invisible. We wildly collect the honey of
the
visible, to store it in the great golden hive of the invisible.'
The surest sign of spiritual progress is a total lack of concern
about
progress. There is an utter absence of anxiety about anything like
liberation and a sort of hollowness in one's being, a kind of
looseness
and involuntary surrender to whatever might happen.
If I was to translate the enlightened state down into human terms,
I'd
have to describe it as contentment. Being nobody, going nowhere,
needing no reason to exist. To the ego, that probably sounds a
little
boring, and of course to an ego it is. But then again, there's
really
nothing for the ego in enlightenment. In enlightenment, the egoic
false
self is rendered an irrelevant illusion, a mask, a character that
nothingness wears while pretending to be human.
Not only is there nothing in enlightenment for the ego, the ego is
the
defense against enlightenment. I'm not saying that ego is bad or
evil
because it's not. I'm saying that ego is a social and personal
construct
and therefore an illusion. But there's nothing wrong with an
illusion.
A painting is an illusion; a movie is an illusion; a good novel is
an
illusion. The problem isn't with illusion; the problem is with the
emotional attachments and addictions of ego.
My dear!
You haven't the feet
for this path --
why struggle?
You've no idea where
the idol's to be found --
what's all this
mystic chat?
What can be done
with quarrelsome
fellow travelers,
boastful
marketplace
morons?
If you were really a lover
you'd see that faith and infidelity
are one...
Oh, what's the use?
nit-picking
about such things
is a hobby for
numb brains.
You are pure spirit
but imagine yourself a corpse!
pure water which thinks
it's the pot!
Everything you want
must be searched for --
except the Friend.
If you don't find Him
you'll never
be able
to start
to even
look.
Yes,
you can be sure:
You are not Him --
unless
you can remove yourself
from between
yourself
and Him --
in which case
you
are
Him.
English version by
Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady
One of the most famous phrases popularized by Horace is carpe diem,
sometimes translated as "seize the day." Carpe diem comes from
Horace's Ode I-XI, the 11 ode in his first book.
Heather McHugh translated one ode:
"Get wise. Get wine, and one good filter for it.
Cut that high hope down to size, and pour it
into something fit for men. Think less
of more tomorrows, more of this
one second, endlessly unique: it's
jealous, even as we speak, and it's
about to split again ..."
The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.
The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.
The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.
And one word transforms it into something less or other --
illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert.
Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands
glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow
arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues.
Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica.
To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper --
metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa
carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.
The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always --
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.
~ Dana Gioia
(Interrogations at Noon)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Words.html
#4449 - Friday, December 9, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"When such dualities cease to exist / Oneness itself cannot exist. .
. . / With a single stroke you are freed from bondage; . . . / To
know this Reality directly / is possible only through practicing
non-duality. / When you live this non-separation, / all things
manifest the One, and nothing is excluded. . . . / Not here, not
there— / But everywhere right before your eyes. . . . / Don't waste
your time in arguments or discussion / attempting to grasp the
ungraspable." (Clarke)
I have condensed a great deal here, so I would recommend you study
it in context should you wish to explore it further.
We say 'non-dual' because, as previously stated with reference to
Zhuangzi, "One and the saying make two." This is merely semantic, of
course, but it does make the point.
The Zen vision of 'enlightenment' is primarily described as
'sudden', as opposed to gradual, although some concessions are often
made to a gradual realization leading up to the sudden epiphany.
To experience non-duality, we are told, we must practice
non-duality. This leaves us with the chicken/egg dilemma, but that
may be the point. Breaking the mind's attachment to cause and effect
becomes the breakthrough. Here is a gate.
Oneness means oneness; nothing is excluded. Another gate.
Nowhere in particular; yet in every particular. Another gate.
Realization is experiential; it is not intellectual, nor can it be
attained through reason. Arguments and discussions about the nature
of reality do not bring us any closer to it. Why do we argue? Should
I argue for the non-dual position? Will that make me non-dual? Will
it make you non-dual? It is only an idea. Living in the dualistic
mind, ideas matter because they help to make me someone, someone
'right' in contrast to some-other 'wrong'. What would it be like to
be utterly unconcerned with the opinions of others vis-Ã -vis my
own? Perhaps even those opinions would fall away. And then I would
float away; for these opinions are a great burden on my heart.