Click here to go to the next issue.

Search all Editions of the Nondual Highlights

Nondual Highlights Home Page: access to all issues by number

(editor's note: Yesterday we expressed
concern
about Sandeep's whereabouts. He is
alive and
kicking, and the following letter
appeared on the
Yearnings list. --Jerry)


It took the entire day to go through
the Inbox and
some 400 odd messages on the
Yearning archives. A
smiling glow started and went on
increasing till
there was nothing but the glow, seeing
all the
movements which took place on this
List and at your
ends, in the last 5-6 days.

Thanks to Madhurima and Percy, it
seems "Godhra" is
now not unknown on this List. The
circumstances,
which brought me into that Dante's
Hell is not so
important. What could be done, got
done. Some
lives, which were to be saved, got
saved. Many did
not.

I am alive, (that's a bit evident) There
are some
body issues, which once again
Madhurima, with her
excellent network, has already
mentioned here,
which causes, let's say, some
restrictions. They
will pass. But that does crink up the
efficiency in
typing E mails, so addressing all of you
at a
common platform Percy, it's nice to see
you in the
light. Now keep playing. How about
some Croatian
haikus?

Melody, Sharlene, Diana, John,
Albert,Michael,
Caiti, Freyja, Claire, Ashe, Judi (I see
you are
here, no doubt to find out what
mischief I have
been upto), kinshuk, Harvey and all
others, a hug
of embracing love. Thank you, seems
silly, for the
emotions that arose in you all.
Madhurima,
Ahaaaaaa, you are what you are. I see
some
newcomers on the List. Welcome.

Have a look at some of the initial
posts on this
List, which gives you a flavour of this
space,
wander around the Photo section,
download some of
the Music Files, if Yahoo still has
them. And share
your yearning. Cohibas in burnt hands,
Remy Martin
flowing through internal holes, let the
fun times,
continue. LOL. Yaba Daba gopeee
goooo.



______________________________________________________________

JAN SULTAN contributes

MINISTER'S MESSAGE Your True
Companion: The Self
Within Contemplate the teachings.
Gain a vision of
the exalted spiritual being that you
truly are.
By Swami Chidvilasananda

With great respect, with great love, I
weLcome you
with all my heart. In the sacred text
called the
Atmabodha the great sage
Shankaracharya says: "When
a seeker hears the Truth and
contemplates it, the
fire of knowledge is kindled within.
Then, freed
from impurities, he shines like gold."

The teachings that you hear from the
great ones and
the scriptures ignite a beneficial fire
within.
This fire is beneficial because of what
it begins
to burn away: painful thoughts,
unresolved
feelings, dampening emotions and the
old tenacious
grudges you have been lugging around
for years. It
is the Truth blazing in the teachings
that reduces
your useless tendencies to ashes.

The more you contemplate the
teachings, the more
they enter you. As you examine their
worth
attentively and try to apply them,
increasingly you
see their impact on your life. You come
to
understand their incredible power,
which enables
you to uphold dharma, to live a life of
goodness.
You realize how timely these timeless
messages are
for you, right now. And you begin to
surrender to
your own inner Self. This is what the
teachings
give you: the power to surrender to
your Self again
and again. When that happens, these
beautiful,
fruitful teachings begin to arise from
within of
their own accord. Having heard them
over and over
again in the scriptures, in satsangs,
from fellow
seekers, you let them anoint your
being. And then,
as the Atmabodha says, you shine like
gold.

The kind of life you lead when you
follow the
teachings, when you become aware of
God's presence
in your heart, is truly golden. You no
longer live
an ordinary life, you live a golden life.
You live
yoga. You are not just marking off the
days, the
weeks, the months. Each day becomes
a beautiful
garland of your contemplations, your
unselfish
deeds, profound transformations,
meditations, kind
thoughts, enlightening revelations and
purposeful
living. At the end of the day you offer
this
garland to the Great Lord whose glory
your heart
sings without ceasing. But it doesn't
end there.
Everything that happens in the night
also becomes
an offering to the Lord. Each day and
each night
become another exquisite garland for
you to offer.

The teachings of the sages are
penetrating. Take
them in. They are valuable. Even if you
are able to
grasp only a minuscule portion of what
you hear or
read, allow your heart to embrace it.
Allow the
teachings to penetrate your being. It
doesn't
matter if you are hearing a teaching for
the first
time or for the thousandth time, allow
it to reveal
a newer, greater meaning. Let it enter
you. Then
that tiny ray will expand and your
intellect will
be illumined by its radiance.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna
tells his
disciple, Arjuna: "Truly, nothing in this
world
purifies like knowledge. He who in time
becomes
perfect in yoga finds this knowledge in
his own
Self." Knowledge of the Self arises
from within. As
you walk the spiritual path, knowledge
of the Self
becomes your true companion. It
stands by you.
Whatever happens, whether you are
joyful or
sorrowful, whether you are making
progress or being
challenged by adversity, knowledge of
the Self
supports you. It steadies you and
lights your way.

This message that the scriptures give
is very
piercing. They want to take you beyond
the bondage
of the physical body. They want you to
realize that
the body is as transitory as a
butterfly's wings,
and that the happiness you find in it is
just as
short lived. Become aware that there is
a greater
happiness, they say. The wisdom of
the Self, the
light of God within--that is your true
companion.
When everything works, when nothing
works, the
knowledge of the Self keeps you
anchored; it keeps
you afloat. Welcome the teachings of
the sages and
scriptures wholeheartedly and
generously. Give
yourself to spiritual practices as you
never have
before. Embrace your true companion
within.

Have you ever seen rain falling on
parched ground?
Isn't it amazing how quickly the tender
green
shoots push their way to the surface?
It can happen
in the twinkling of an eye. Think of the
grace of
the teachings in the same way--as the
sweetest rain
falling from heaven. This shower of
grace falls
upon each moment of your life. Each
moment is
saturated with the wisdom of the
teachings. Allow
yourself to be soaked in this wisdom.
Let the
refreshing knowledge of the Self rise
from the core
of your being and bring forth its fruit.
Truly the
core of your being is so strong, so
courageous. It
is stronger than steel, more radiant
than gold. So
reach the core of your being. Don't get
stuck at
the different layers of skin, muscles
and tissues;
don't become enmeshed in the
different strata of
emotions and feelings. Keep traveling
deeper and
deeper within. Reach the strong core of
your being,
where you abide all of the time.
Embrace your true
companion within.

Allow each moment of your day to
become the
embodiment of the Truth. Always
remember that each
person carries the golden light of the
teachings.
Let each object shimmer with God's
message. Let
each element of nature reveal God's
magnificence,
God's compassion, God's generosity,
God's love, the
Guru's unconditional love, the ecstasy
of the
heart. Be with God as He creates the
days and
nights and suffuses them with His
splendor. Embrace
the true companion within, the
knowledge of your
own Self, the wisdom of your own Self.

With great respect, with great love, I
welcome you
all with all my heart. Sadgurunath
Maharaj Ki Jay!
Your own,

Swami Chidvilasananda

____________________________________________________________

ANDREW AND HEIDI

ANDREW: Categorising is done by
governments, by
corporations, by institutions. It's a tool
of the
violence based dominance oriented
patriarchal
culture. It's hard to imagine how they
could
function without categorising people.
Maybe they
can't. An individual can. andrew

HEIDI: Whoa - this is interesting
stuff...
"Categorising is done by governments,
corporations,
institutions."

...though, sheer non-sense.
Categorizing is done by
brains, men's brains, nothing but men's
brains, and
is a simple result of thought being a
polarized
energy.

Consider: there ARE no governments,
corporations,
institutions - what there ARE are men,
bunches of
men, accumulations of men, with a
coherent STORY to
tell about WHO they are and WHAT
they're doing
there.

And further, categorizing has nothing
to do with
"violence based dominance oriented
patriarchal
cultures" - which is just another
categorization,
cooked up by the same brain, for the
same original
reason - to "think". (Just because a
person says
something is true, does not mean it IS
true - at
best, it's just a "fact", and FACTS are
neither
true nor not-true.)

A man could NOT think, did the brain
not categorize
impressions, observations, into
time-based discrete
words and phrases, symbols,
metaphors. Everything
would just merge into mind-mush, and
no one could
think at all.

Non-dual thinking on a topic you're
interested in,
is impossible; all thought once
expressed is
subject to the polarization inherent in
the flow of
energy through the brain - it carries
either the
affirmative or denying charge.

Non-dual thinking on a topic you're
interested in,
is not 'thinking', as one customarily
defines it -
it is an act of will, it is a channelling of
energy
into areas of the brain which have
never considered
'that topic' before.

To make any reply to a thought
(whether it was
first "heard" in your own brain, or
someone posted
it here), forces the energy into either
the pro or
con flow - forces it into dualism.

The only possible non-dual expression,
is one which
is indifferent, independent, uncaring of
which way
the thread proceeds, and is quite like
EXPLORATION.

Explorers don't give a damn which way
the river
flows. Explorers take note, and then
move on.

Quite unlike - Educators, who take
note, and then
get quite stuck - to the extreme point
of acquiring
degrees, credentials, and initials
behind their
name, and who MUST argue a point
they DISAGREE
with, until all the energy in the original

"act-of-expression" is completely
drained (the
"TG/Are you gay" thread comes to
mind, here.)

Are you an Educator, or an Explorer?
Which would
you prefer to BE?

ANDREW: I write nonsense, and so do
you. I've heard
before that there's something called a
brain
residing inside somewhere called my
head and inside
this thing, thinking is going on. I've
even heard
that there is multichannel input into
brain, called
perception, which is of other things
outside itself
that it thinks about! Not only that, but
there are
billions of these brain things, each
functioning
independently. And each of these
brains belongs to
something called a man. Farfetched I
know, but
anything's possible I suppose. All
hearsay of
course. Now I'm not sure whether
these men are
supposed to exist inside or outside
these brains.
Outside I guess, because they have
these brain
things. Then I hear about things called
government,
corporation, and I'm not sure where
they're
supposed to exist either. Lets see if I
have this
straight; there is something called a
brain, which
percieves and thinks about something
called a man,
which possesses it. Further, it
perceives and
thinks about other men each
possessing a separate
brain. There are men, because they
possess brains.
We are real because we have brains.
This is one of
those things we can tell each other.
The government
is not real, because it has no brain.
We can tell
each other this too.

____________________________________________________________

BOBBY G. RESPONDS TO JEROEN'S
ARTICLE

JEROEN:
Dear members, As I am new to the
group, I would
like to say hello to everybody. I read
some posts
and found them very interesting.
Although 'human
rights' are no usual subject for the
group, I would
like to invite you to read the following
text. In
this essay I try to develop a 'new'
(nondual)
perspective on human rights by
combining the
convergences and 'transcending' the
contradictions
between universalism and cultural
relativism (or
essentialism and non- essentialism
(cfr. Rorty)).
If this is no topic for you, I am sorry to
have
bothered you. Please do not hesitate
to comment and
criticise. I thank you very much for your
time and
help.

Warm regards,
jeroen

you can find the text here:
http://www.vub.ac.be/boerplato/jeroenscriptie.html

BOBBY G.:
Dear Jeroen:

I do not know a lot of western
philosophy and am
not qualified to hold a conversation
about its
specifics. I read a lot of your essay and
it was
very clear and understandable ( once I
looked up a
few terms) if one has a grasp of
nondualism.

I think you did a great job on your
stated
objective with a nondual perspective
on human
rights. How can there be a heirarchial
order of
ethics in a relativist world? That is the
question
as it appeared to me. If the world is
created by
each individual then there could be no
universal
scale of human rights? Is that a fair
estimation of
the crucial question. Your essay seems
to answer it
at any rate.

You have a fan.

Love Bobby G.

( bg-Is the "then" supposed to be
than?)-"As such,
non-essentialism (thus also
universalism) is more
likely to support then to criticise the
status quo
of the world."

"The cultural relativist emphasises
exactly the
diversity of normative ethic; each
community has
the right (!) to develop its own
morality according
to its own traditions" (This exclamation
point is
very expressive. I took it to mean
these
relativists are assuming a universalist
right and
denying it in the same breath.)

"Crucial is that both perspectives
explain the
meaning of FGM ( bg- Female Genitalia
Mutilation)
from their own normative morality;
both try to fit
it into their view on roles, rules and
norms. From
an absolutist ethic, the universalist
labels it a
patriarchal, denigrating practice. From
a
relativist ethic, cultural relativists
celebrate it
as a form of empowerment. By doing
so, both are
creating roles and norms in the web;
thus they
render every aspect of it false from its
roots,
viz. allowing oneself to be situated,
being in the
world or real-isation of the thing
itself."

"As the phenomenal world 'is a
representation of
entities, events and processes but not
the thing
itself', 'we participate in a process
whereby the
universe observes itself - and the
universe becomes
both the subject and object of
experience'.
Therefore, beyond good and evil,
beyond humans and
rights, beyond democratisation and
citizenship,
lies the participation in this
real-isation."

bg-These are my favorite quotes from
your essay.

___________________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE contributes

A disciple went to his yogi master one
day asking
for the secret of enlightenment. The
master told
him to repeat the following mantra for
4 years and
then return.

"When you breath in, say the mantra
Sen-Sah." The
disciple did as he was told and
returned 4 years
later.

"I think I've got it down," he said.
"What's next?"

The yogi master told him to stop the
first mantra
and repeat another one for 4 years and
return.

"When you breath out, say the mantra
Hoo-maah".

4 years later the disciple returned,
proud that he
had followed exactly his master's
directions, but
slightly disilusioned.

"I did exactly as you said master," the
discpile
whined, "but I have not attain
enlightenment. What
I am doing wrong?"

"Put the 2 mantras together for the
next 4 years
and return." replied the master.

4 years after, the diciple returned
again, this
time with the small smile of
enlightenment on his
face.

"It was not until just yesterday that I
understood
what you meant master," the disciple
said, shaking
his head, laughing.

"Some people take longer than others,"
replied the
yogi, pleased that his disciple had
finally
developed Sen-Sah Hoo-mah, a sense
of humor.

_____________________________________________________________

JAN BARENDRECHT

COMMENTARY ON ASHTAVAKRA
GITA

ºAll things arise,
ºSuffer change,
ºAnd pass away.

That is what that seems - whatever is
observed
is change itself.

ºThis is their nature.

Things do not have an intrinsic nature:
Neither does change which isn't a
thing.

ºWhen you know this,
ºNothing perturbs you,
ºNothing hurts you.

Pain is just pain.
But a threshold exceeded and it surely
hurts.
Need evidence? :)

ºYou become still.

When pain is strong enough, it surely
inhibits thinking.

ºIt is easy.

A good question for the list statistician
:)

ºGod made all things.
ºThere is only God.

Another way of stating that the creator

creates him/herself.

ºWhen you know this,
ºDesire melts away.

Knowledge certainly doesn't quench
the
appetite for donuts!
And that is but one of many appetites.

ºClinging to nothing,
ºYou become still.

Clinging to nothing still is clinging.

ºSooner or later,
ºFortune or misfortune
ºMay befall you.

But such classification can only arise
when there is clinging!

ºWhen you know this,
ºYou desire nothing,
ºYou grieve for nothing.

The desire to desire nothing still is a
desire.
And grieving surely occurs when
forgetting that.
Which results in clinging to knowledge.

ºSubduing the senses,
ºYou are happy.

That has led to practices like staring in
the
sun standing on one leg for days :)

ºWhatever you do
ºBrings joy or sorrow,
ºLife or death.

Joy and sorrow are but phases
of the mind like ebb and flow of the
ocean.
They happen too without any
interaction.

ºWhen you know this,
ºYou may act freely,
ºWithout attachment.

There is no such thing as free action:
a stone thrown out of a boat will cause

waves invariably rocking that boat.

ºFor what is there to accomplish?

A modification of mind which no longer
supports
the potential for "suffering" in its
broadest sense!

ºAll sorrow comes from fear.
º From nothing else.

No: sorrow comes from unmet
expectations,
whether "sensible" or "insensible"
ones.

ºWhen you know this,
ºYou become free of it,
ºAnd desire melts away.

A good question for the list statistician
:)
Desire only goes away at the evidence
of
'something vastly better' already
'there'.

ºYou become happy
ºAnd still.
º
º"I am not the body,
ºNor is the body mine.
ºI am awareness itself"

Without experiential verification, the
unavoidable
event of death will make it desirable.
Pop! goes the clinging :)

ºWhen you know this,
ºYou have no thought
ºFor what you have done
ºOr left undone.

Well, hopefully not so when partaking
in traffic :)

ºYou become one,
ºPerfect and indivisible.

Indivisible from what?

º"I am in all things,
º From Brahma to a blade of grass."

Yes, identification is difficult to
conquer ;-)
Not to mention, a few lines further on,
these
things are labeled 'nothing'!


ºWhen you know this,
ºYou have no thought
ºFor success or failure
ºOr the mind's inconstancy.

Success and failure, the notions of
the mind denoting clinging.
Still easy to overcome?

ºYou are pure.
ºYou are still.

Isn't that a generalization of the kind
"Sunday morning the city is quiet"?

ºThe world with all its wonders
ºIs nothing.

Thanks for the laugh! a few lines
earlier was written:
'God made all things.'
'There is only God.'

Ergo, God is nothing too and so is the
mind-body.
Hence, desires, clinging, it is all
nothing!
So why bother at all.

ºWhen you know this,
ºDesire melts away.

But they are nothing - hence cannot
melt away
as less than nothing doesn't exist
(yet?).

ºFor you are awareness itself.

So are desires and clinging!

ºWhen you know in your heart
ºThat there is nothing,
ºYou are still.

No, you only know that the perpetual
noise in the head
is nothing too, as are all your moods
and feelings.
But your wife and kids might disagree!

Laughingly,
Jan

_________________________________________________________________

DOUG FRANCE
from his mailing list

http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-02-11/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-140940.asp

Wholly In Consonance With Hum
Pleasure

_________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ

Thanks for the responses to the recent
rant 'did
you ever?'.

One gentle person reminded me that
God is my Father
and one should always talk nicely
about one's
Parents. Thanks for the sweet
message.

Another person just hooted in laughter.
Somebody
else wondered how I got the camera in
their house.

The warning was included because
calling god a son
of a bitch and an asshole is sure to
piss somebody
off! <grin>

I am sure that there are those who
might picture me
sitting at the keyboard, jaw clenched,
eyes
bulging, hair in disarray, all the while
fiercely
gripping the edge of my desk as I pour
out my
bitter angst against an uncaring
universe.

Phew! Nah, I smiled the whole way
through. I
consider the rant to be a neglected art
form. A
classic rant can be found in the book
"The Sayings
of Old Ch'eng on the nature of the
original mind"
as translated by Mike Dickman.

In the book Old Ch'eng is addressing
the monks in a
monastery. He tells them "Shave-pated
monks, you
are shutting your own eyes with mud
and complaining
you can't see. ... The fact you do not is
simply
because of your incessant jabbering to
yourselves
and others."

He holds nothing back as in:

""Too weak to see into the original
mind and to
live on your own resources, you hide
your pettiness
and insignificance behind the castoffs
of others:
piling up points of view, cultivating
their
nuances, differences and
convergence's.

What fakes! Because you can amaze
idiots with
tricks like this, you imagine yourselves
enlightened?

You have seduced yourselves! Your
sickness is
entirely incurable!"

At the end Old Ch'eng reveals the
secret to knowing
original mind. Namely, that there is no
secret to
knowing original mind.

Though the setting is a monastery and
Old Ch'eng
appears to be talking to the monks, he
is really
talking about all of humanity. He
speaks
straight-out as someone who has been
there and done
those things that hold one back. He
knows and has
no fear. He also knows that his words
aren't
important - "Whatever I have to say
about original
mind cannot help you in the slightest
except,
perhaps, to push you into looking for it
yourselves
and coming to see it face to face,
without artifice
or reference to outside authority." He
also says -
"If you let yourselves be seduced by
the words and
cheap illusions of the wise, you are
lost."

A good rant can hit hard right at the
things kept
just below the surface. Our hopes,
fears, dreams,
and idiotic musings are all fair game
for a good
rant. If the rant causes a strong
reaction, then it
serves to point at some area in need
of
examination. Did it make you angry? If
so, take a
look at the source of the anger and
thereby let it
dissolve. Did it make you miserable, or
happy, or
whatever? If so, then maybe you can
take a close
look to see what it is that is having
these
reactions. If not, then do whatever
suits.

Like any artistic medium, a rant is also
a form of
self expression. When a painter can
really 'see'
something in the subject that seeing
comes through
on the canvass. The rantor must be
open to seeing
within himself the things he rants
about.
Otherwise, he is just being
argumentative. Old
Ch'eng had to at one point in his life
see that he
was just as stupid and deluded as the
monks he
addressed.

The inspiration for 'did you ever?' came
from
recent readings of the various lists I
belong to,
the world news, joyful music, and the
laughter of
children.

The feelings in 'did you ever?' came
from those
times in my 'personal' drama when I
hated God, The
Universe and Everything. The feelings
we may have
all had at one time or another when we
were just
plain old pissed at the unfairness of it
all. The
times when we delved into a morass of
our own
making, full of self pity and
selfishness. The
times when we accept all the
shittiness of life and
learn to laugh at our antics.

No, I did not need to dredge up and
relive old
feelings of anger and angst in order to
write 'did
you ever?'. But without having gone
through those
experiences (more often and longer
than was
enjoyable) the rant would have no
power to evoke
reaction. But, no, I didn't write the
rant just to
get a reaction. That would be silly!

It was fun in writing and the reactions
are
delightful, though. Hey, one might as
well have a
good time, eh?

loving you - michael

top of page