Oneness and Duality

 

Oneness

Expressed
It loses its expression 

Defined
It loses its definition 

In its emptiness
It is the cradle of all existence 

In its fullness
It is creator of all things 

Ever empty
It surrenders into the mystery 

Ever full
It creates into the unknown 

Of one source, they differ in name
Yet both arise from the one 

Oneness beyond one
Herein lies the key to all mysteries

---

Duality

Beauty is seen only because of ugliness
Greatness is known only for its lack 

Emptiness and fullness are born of each other
Difficulty and ease create one another

Long and short grow out of each other
High and low reflect one another 

Sound and listening complement each other
Front and back follow one another 

And on it goes… 

Thus the wise pay no heed
Their acts without words showing the way 

So do all things flow without thought 

Creating without possessing 
Acting without attachment
Achieving without claiming achievement 
Existing without laying claim to existence 

Thus moves all life unto eternity

---

Tao Te Ching

The Way of the Wise

Chapters One and Two

Oneness and Duality

Taken from Lesson 20 of the Transformation Course,                            available at this link

A Most Profound Near-Death Experience: Mellon-Thomas Benedict's Inspiring Story

 

(The take-away is ancient memory, stored in our biological structure, is meant to evolve and flower forever. We are designed to embody a never-ending unfolding of alive, aware, Consciousness, intimately knowing itself through each individual. To awaken to this fact begins the process......Suzen)

PEERS - Public Education & Empowerment Resource Service

Mellen-Thomas Benedict is an artist who survived a near-death experience (NDE) in 1982. He was dead for over an hour and a half. During that time, he rose up out of his body and went into the light. Curious about the universe, he was taken far into the remote depths of existence, and even beyond, into the energetic void of nothingness behind the Big Bang.

Eminent near-death experience researcher Dr. Kenneth Ring has said, "His near-death experience story is one of the most remarkable I have encountered in my extensive research on near-death experiences."

Note: For a rich collection of profound near-death experience stories and near-death experience resources, click here.

Near-Death Experience Story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict 

In 1982, I died from terminal cancer. My condition was non-operable. I chose not to have chemotherapy. I was given six to eight months to live. Before this time, I had become increasingly despondent over the nuclear crisis, the ecology crisis, and so forth. I came to believe that nature had made a mistake – that we were probably a cancerous organism on the planet. And that is what eventually killed me. 

Before my near-death experience, I tried all sorts of alternative healing methods. None helped. So I determined that this was between me and God. I had never really considered God. Neither was I into any kind of spirituality. But my approaching death sent me on a quest for more information about spirituality and alternative healing. I read various religions and philosophies. They gave hope that there was something on the other side.

I had no medical insurance, so my life savings went overnight on tests. Unwilling to drag my family into this, I determined to handle this myself. I ended up in hospice care and was blessed with an angel for my hospice caretaker, whom I will call "Anne." She stayed with me through all that was to follow.

Into the Light 

I woke up about 4:30 am and I knew that this was it. I was going to die. I called a few friends and said good-bye. I woke up Anne and made her promise that my dead body would remain undisturbed for six hours, since I had read that all kinds of interesting things happen when you die. I went back to sleep. The next thing I remember, I was fully aware and standing up. Yet my body was lying in the bed. I seemed to be surrounded by darkness, yet I could see every room in the house, and the roof, and even under the house.

A Light shone. I turned toward it, and was aware of its similarity to what others have described in near-death experiences. It was magnificent and tangible, alluring. I wanted to go towards that Light like I might want to go into my ideal mother's or father's arms. As I moved towards the Light, I knew that if I went into the Light, I would be dead. So I said/felt, "Please wait. I would like to talk to you before I go."

The entire experience halted. I discovered that I was in control of the experience. My request was honored. I had conversations with the Light. That's the best way I can describe it. The Light changed into different figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, archetypal images and signs. I asked in a kind of telepathy, "What is going on here?"

The information transmitted was that our beliefs shape the kind of feedback we receive. If you are a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a feedback loop of your own images. I became aware of a Higher Self matrix, a conduit to the Source. We all have a Higher Self, or an oversoul part of our being, a conduit. All Higher Selves are connected as one being. All humans are connected as one being.

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was like all the love you've ever wanted, and it was the kind of love that cures, heals, regenerates. I was ready to go at that time. I said "I am ready, take me." Then the Light turned into the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen: a mandala of human souls on this planet. I saw that we are the most beautiful creations – elegant, exotic ... everything.

I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human beings in an instant. I said/thought/felt, "Oh, God, I didn't realize." I was astonished to find that there was no evil in any soul. People may do terrible things out of ignorance and lack, but no soul is evil. "What all people seek – what sustains them – is love," the Light told me. "What distorts people is a lack of love." 

The revelations went on and on. I asked, "Does this mean that Humankind will be saved?" Like a trumpet blast with a shower of spiraling lights, the Light "spoke," saying, "You save, redeem and heal yourself. You always have and always will. You were created with the power to do so from before the beginning of the world." In that instant I realized that we have already been saved.

I thanked the Light of God with all my heart. The best thing I could come up with was: "Oh dear God, dear Universe, dear Great Self, I love my Life." The Light seemed to breathe me in even more deeply, absorbing me. I entered into another realm more profound than the last, and was aware of an enormous stream of Light, vast and full, deep. I asked what it was. The Light answered, "This is the River of Life. Drink of this manna water to your heart's content." I drank deeply, in ecstasy.

The Void of Nothingness 

Suddenly I seemed to be rocketing away from the planet on this stream of Life. I saw the earth fly away. The solar system whizzed by and disappeared. I flew through the center of the galaxy, absorbing more knowledge as I went. I learned that this galaxy – and the entire Universe – is bursting with many different varieties of life. I saw many worlds. We are not alone in this Universe. It seemed as if all the creations in the Universe soared past me and vanished in a speck of Light.

Then a second Light appeared. As I passed into the second Light, I could perceive forever, beyond Infinity. I was in the Void, pre-Creation, the beginning of time, the first Word or vibration. I rested in the Eye of Creation and it seemed that I touched the Face of God. It was not a religious feeling. I was simply at One with Absolute Life and Consciousness.

I rode the stream directly into the center of the Light. I felt embraced by the Light as it took me in with its breath again. And the truth was obvious that there is no death; that nothing is born and nothing dies; that we are immortal beings, part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly.

It would take me years to assimilate the Void experience. It was less than nothing, yet greater than anything. Creation is God exploring God's Self through every way imaginable. Through every piece of hair on your head, through every leaf on every tree, through every atom. God is exploring God's Self. I saw everything as the Self of all. God is here. That's what it is all about. Everything is made of light; everything is alive.

(To Continue Reading CLICK HERE)

RETURN OF THE WARRIOR

 

Elva Thompson, Contributor
Waking Times

“It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives.
Nourish it then
That it may leaf
And bloom
And fill with singing birds!

Hear me, that the people may once again
Find the good road
And the shielding tree.”  – Black Elk

Dystopic reality

Are you wondering what the HELL is going on in this shit show reality? The sheer insanity of world events and the palpable madness of our spiritually unplugged leaders is spectacularly obvious even though the masses cannot see it. Floods and fires ravage the planet leaving disaster in their wake. Seventy percent of wildlife has been destroyed in the last decade. Hundreds of thousands of birds are dropping lifeless from the sky, dead fish line many coast lines and whales are beaching and dying.

So what is going on?

The end of a grand cycle

“We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.”― Carlos Castaneda, 

 

Planetary cycles within cycles are all ending in crescendo. December 21st 2012 was the marker for the end of the twenty six thousand year period known as the Grand Cosmic Year. And, the Old Year has to die before the New Year can begin. Everything is about to change…. and we will be literally hurled into an inconceivable new world. The signs are already here for those who can see beyond the narrative pedaled by the matrix hive mind.

As we speak, there is a magnetic pole reversal in event mode. Two north poles battling it out and playing havoc with the jet stream. The magnetosphere is weakening and as cosmic rays increase we can expect many challenges in the days and years to come. Catastrophe is served up not only by the evil that runs this world but the cosmos in its cycles of creation and destruction. It is time to choose our path amid the chaos that is erupting all around us. We can either ride the mental fear train into oblivion or we can return to the wisdom of our ancestral way of life and find inner peace.

Becoming brave

“We don’t need anyone to teach us sorcery, because there is really nothing to learn. What we need is a teacher to convince us that there is incalculable power at our fingertips. What a strange paradox!”― Carlos Castaneda

 

Strange paradox, indeed! For we do have incalculable power at our fingertips. The question is how do we find it?

There is much truth in the old adages: “Knock and the door will open.” “Ask and you will receive.” Visualise and knock on the spiritual door. The gate that leads to a re-connection with archetypal aspects of Self. Our eagle nature, wolf nature, bear nature, fox nature, hare nature, deer nature, etc. – our natures both predator and prey. Shaman’s of the older days understood that all things in the outer world were One in inner space and everything that exists is contactable.

All tribal once

Do not forget that we were all tribal once before evil overtook us. It is no accident that our shamans and healers were taken by the government to lunatic asylums many in a ball and chain and later murdered. No accident that sonic language – the language of the spirits was banned along with sacred ceremonies and spirit calling. Indigenous children all over the world were brutalized by the bible toting invaders for speaking their native language.

What was the invading evil so afraid of?

Could it be our spiritual power and the realities attached to them?

(TO CONTINUE READING CLICK HERE)

DOWN TO EARTH - UPLIFT TV

UPLIFT TV

Wounds as the Path to Awakening

BY PAUL LEVY, AWAKENING IN THE DREAM

What an utterly weird, amazing and utterly frightening time we are living through. Many people are walking around with masks on their faces, and yet inwardly we are all being unmasked. We are being confronted with all of the dark shadows inside of us—our wounds, traumas and unhealed abuse issues—that we’ve been able to postpone looking at up till now. All of these shadow energies are not only in our face, but behind it as well, which is to say that we are confronted within our very soul with the darkness of the world we live in, which is a darkness in which we all share. I am curious about how these seemingly darker forces in our world (which we see playing out all around us in the outer world) have to do with our inner experience of being wounded. 

I can talk for myself. Since the advent of the global pandemic, I have felt even more intensely both the light AND dark aspects of myself, as if they are interdependent parts of a deeper process wherein one is evoking the presence of the other. Due to the feeling that there’s no time to waste—a sense of urgency—it’s as if the creative light-filled part of me has gotten more vibrant, while at the same time, the deepest darkness embedded in my unhealed wounds also seems stronger. The creative tension between the two—between the light and dark parts of myself—has correspondingly intensified to a practically unbearable degree. As my light increases, the darkness within me is simultaneously coming to the fore, making itself known to the point where it’s getting harder for me to look away from it. 

It’s as if the light that I am getting in touch with is illumining everything in me that is not of the light, i.e., that is dark, which makes sense as the purpose of light is to reveal darkness. As I more deeply connect with the light of my nature, my subjective experience is that there is a seemingly darker force within me that wants to prevent me from connecting with my light at all costs. 

Maybe this is just me, but I have an intuition that this is an archetypal, impersonal and universal situation. I find myself easily imagining that an analogous process might be going on for many, if not all of us (be it consciously or not). The question is: do we indulge in our coping strategies to keep these seemingly darker and wounded parts of ourselves at bay (food, drugs, Netflix anyone?)—which is ultimately to be avoiding relationship with ourselves—or do we unmask ourselves and turn to unflinchingly face the darker, wounded parts within us? 

Our wounds are semi-stable resonance patterns of vibratory energy to which we have become accustomed as existing in a particular way. They are held in place by how we pay attention to and interpret them. If we intentionally start attending to our wounds in a new and different way we change their resonance pattern, i.e., the way they manifest.

CLICK HERE TO READ FURTHER

Collective Evolution and Individual Enlightening are the Same Thing

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

WAKING TIMES

Revolution–the real kind–is an inside job.

This is not a click-friendly fact to highlight. Whenever I talk about revolution as having more to do with sincere inner work than with demonstrations and pitchforks and the proletariat rising up against the bourgeoisie, I get met with a lot of blank stares and dead air. It’s much more click-friendly to talk about how terrible this or that politician or oligarch or media figure is and how they should be launched into the sun with a giant crossbow.

It’s true though. Revolution is an inside job.

This is not a click-friendly thing to say because it is not an egoically pleasing thing to say. When they ask why the world is screwed up and what to do about it, people want to be told that it’s because of those Bad Guys over there and they need to be put in their place by these Good Guys over here; they don’t want to be told they need to disentangle themselves from egoic consciousness so they can see clearly enough to operate in an efficacious way.

But it’s a fact.

This is not some new agey, metaphysical philosophical position. I’m not saying that there are no villains outside yourself or any of that dopey spiritual woo woo crap; there absolutely are horrible people in the world who absolutely are doing horrible things that have absolutely horrible consequences for all of us. I’m not saying that if you do inner work you’ll magically make the sociopathic elites who are manipulating humanity toward its doom somehow turn into nice people via some esoteric mystical principle or anything like that. And I’m definitely not saying not to organize, demonstrate or take large, decisive actions against establishment power structures.

What I am saying is that the most effective thing you can do to fight the bastards and create a healthy world is to bring clarity to your own inner processes, so that’s where your energy should be most emphasized.

(CLICK HERE TO READ MORE)

One Buddha Teaching That Will Tell You More About Yourself Than Anything Else

 

by Andrew Barker in Collective Evolution

No Self

In Buddhism one of the ‘Three Characteristics’ is No-Self (the other two are impermanence and suffering which are closely associated with this). This refers to the illusion of reality having a permanent and separate self.

There is this notion that there is a permanent “I” or “me,” which is a separate entity that can be found. The obvious assumption of we are our body sounds good until we look at it and say “this is my body,” which implies at that moment that whatever owns the body wasn’t the body. The observer and the observed; duality denies our body being what we are. It is also in a state of impermanence, and at a sensate level it is made up of energy flickering at a similar rate to reality.

Perhaps thoughts are the “I.” They may seem more like the true “me” than the body does. But they come and go and are changing constantly too, as well as the majority of them not being under our control at all. They too aren’t something solid enough to assume they are the “I.” The ego is a process of identification with reality (physical and mental phenomena), not a thing in and of itself; it is like a bad habit. Not being a thing, it cannot be destroyed as some people say, but by understanding our bare experience, our mind, the process of identification can stop.

There is also something frequently called the “watcher” or “observer,” which is observing all of these phenomena. Strangely, the watcher can’t be found either, as it seems to sometimes be our eyes, sometimes not; sometimes it’s images in our head; sometimes it seems to be our body and sometimes it’s watching the body. It seems odd that this watcher to which all of this is being perceived by, which seems separate from reality and which seems in control of “us” is constantly changing and completely unfindable.

One of the biggest clues in solving this mystery is that if we are observing it, then by definition it isn’t us. Reality is made up entirely of sensations, and to begin to unravel this mystery is to begin to awaken. Reality with a sense of a separate watcher is a delusion. So who or what is it that awakens?

What Awakens?

In short, it’s all of this transience that awakens! Here’s an explanation, keep in mind this is an attempt at summarizing something quite complicated. (Not really!)

No-Self teachings directly counter the sense that there is a separate watcher, and that this watcher is “us” that is in control, observing reality or subject to the tribulations of the world. These teachings stop the process of mentally creating the illusion of a separate self from sensations that are inherently non-dual and utterly transient.

 

There are physical phenomena (everything we perceive with our senses) and mental phenomena (thoughts, feelings, emotions). These are just phenomena, and all phenomena aren’t a permanent, separate self as they are completely impermanent and are intimately interdependent. These phenomena arise and pass as we venture through reality, i.e. the sound of a bird singing comes into existence and then dissipates.

There is also awareness of these phenomena, but awareness is not a thing or localised in a particular place, so to even say “there is awareness” is already a large problem, as it implies separateness and existence of it where none can be found. Awareness is permanent and unchanging, and it is said that all things arise from it, and all things return to it. It could be called God, Nirvana, The Tao, Allah, the present moment, the Buddha nature or just awareness.

While phenomena are in flux from their arising to their passing, there is awareness of them. Thus, awareness is not these phenomena, as it is not a thing, nor is it separate from these objects, as there would be no experience if this were so.

True-Self

True-Self teachings point out that we actually are all these phenomena, rather than them being seen as observed. As phenomena are observed, they can’t possibly be the observer. Thus, the observer, which is awareness, cannot possibly be a phenomenon and thus is not localised and therefore doesn’t exist. Duality implies something on both sides: an observer and an observed. However, there is no phenomenal observer, so duality doesn’t hold up under careful investigation. When the illusion of duality permanently collapses in awakening, in direct experience, all that is left is these phenomena, which is the True Self.

There’s a great little Buddhist poem by Kalu Rinpoche that sums all this up:

We live in illusion and the appearance of things.

 

There is a reality, we are that reality.

 

When you understand this, you will see “you” are nothing.

 

And, being nothing, you are everything.

Improvisational Relationship

By Suzen

After reading This Article, I came up with a new idea, a new term. I call it “Improvisational Relationship”. I have noticed how in all relationships, we have expectations and concepts about how it is supposed to progress, gleaned from generations of programming. Especially in intimate relationships, we self-sabotage by getting stuck in old ways of communicating that never really connect. The relationship erodes because we are attempting to plug ourselves in old models of relating that do not have any flexibility or ingenuity, no inventiveness or creativity, no spontaneity or aliveness.  So what if we did relationship completely differently, as an exercise in ad-libbing our way through it?

Awareness is the key to this, as is microscopic honesty. It means no hidden agendas or secrets or withheld communications. It means putting all your cards on the table at all times, never anything up your sleeve. And it means a direct commitment every moment to being as conscious as possible and completely responsible for everything going on inside you, including the propensity to project on and blame others for causing uncomfortableness.

So how would this look? Let’s take a very simple example of a situation that could lead to an argument in “normal” circumstances.  Let’s say on partner suggests a meal out, perhaps for Chinese food. And the other partner responds with, “Chinese food? How could you suggest that when you know I hate Chinese food?” Suddenly drama ensues without either party looking at the deeper levels occurring here. How different it would be if partner #2 responded with, “Wow, I am noticing how strong an aversion I have to your suggestion, not only to this idea I have had for a long time that I do not like Chinese food, but also why would someone who loves me suggest something I dislike? I think I need to look at this deeper. Let’s go to that new Chinese restaurant and see if we can maintain our connection while there.”

Now we are in the realm of discovery, of adventure, a willingness to investigate the unknown. And this can’t be a one-way street, it has to be flexible enough to accommodate the testing and expanding of boundaries held by both parties to the experiment.

The point is to live completely in the moment, completely sensitive to and aware of the ways the past tries to elbow in on the present, locking us into previously designed scripts that no longer serve the Love we know we are. Love has no boundaries, no chains, no expectations. It is active, alive, free-flowing, and dynamic. It cannot be captured in a concept, a word, or a belief system. It is like trying to grab and jail the wind.

For generations, we have been inculcated with images and stories and experiences of relationship that often are dysfunctional and distorted, that do not include simple kindness, forgiveness, and affection. Maybe as children we had these experiences, but all too often, as we become grown-ups, this simple and uncomplicated way of relating falls to the wayside and we are caught up in the cultural dogmas of marriage, family, and child-rearing.

My son, Orion, has been involved with a way of exploring improvisation called “Story Games”. These are like role playing games, but live and sometimes fully theatrical, with costumes and props. More often, they are played around a table with a group, beginning with the outline of a situation, and roles and personalities are designed through a role of the dice. It is much like life in how it unfolds for us, where we find ourselves in parts and scenarios that appear unexpectedly and spontaneously. We truly have little control over how life unfolds, as much as we would like to think otherwise. In these games, one finds oneself often exploring and playing out very different facets of our personalities, sometimes encountering in the interactions with others our emotional limitations and boundaries. There is a pre-set agreement in these games that no one is required to act out anything they feel uncomfortable with: there is always a pre-arranged signal to call “time-out” in these circumstances. But most of the time, people are willing to go all the way through out of curiosity and discovery as to how things might play out. It is a fearless and exuberant exploration, sometimes therapeutic in nature, of our relational characteristics. The people who enjoy these games have often explored intimately with each other many possibilities of relating that allow them much more flexibility and leeway in their relational choices. They are not so hemmed in by conventional ways of thinking.

My participation in some of these exercises has stretched my own ideas about myself, especially those labels that confine me to the pre-defined roles of “mother”,  “woman”, and “spiritual”. What are these labels anyway except ways to make static and unchanging something that is part of the dynamic flow of living itself? These words are only useful when pointing to objects as we attempt to constantly fine tune our communications about them. But they ultimately have no objective or subjective meaning, in a world seeking its own evolution and as we individuals strive for liberation.

I am in the active process of discovering where I still harbor old definitions of self, especially in intimate relationships. It cannot be contrived, this feeling my way into the landscape of relating from pure unfathomable consciousness first, allowing myself to discover how it may unfold without attempting to control or manipulate the outcome. The pre-programmed personality must step aside, sometimes unwillingly, in order to allow an unhurried and instinctive developing of events. This primal and original aware self is deeply drawn to encounter this way of Being. There is a raw truth in it, vital and undisguised. It leaves me naked to my very soul, vibrant like a leaf dancing in the wind, in resonance with Life itself. Here is where I meet the Beloved of my Heart, in true celebration of our Oneness.

Bringing this to life in my physical existence, grounding it onto the earth and making it real, seems to be the goal of this lifetime now. Practicing this improvisational relationship in playful, childlike ways is enjoyable and generates much laughter. It is not a serious exercise, but a spirited one. It gets me immediately out of the mind matrix and into the Now. It is the leading edge of life as inventive art, a movement that arises from and increases creativity. It is Joy come alive.

David Icke, et. al. - We Think We Are Humans

Beautiful message....you are Consciousness.

GRATITUDE

Russell Brand - The Only Thing That Matters Is Love

Spiritual Deconstruction: What is "Mind"?

This is the third video in my spiritual deconstructions series. This material is meant to present the possibility of liberation occurring in this lifetime, as is your birthright. It is a matter of re-identifying oneself with non-localized consciousness itself instead of the content of one's personal "mind". By questioning unexamined assumptions, one can open the door to this realization and be a conduit for the evolution of consciousness expressing through humanity on this planet.

*Quantum Physics* Welcome to the Matrix!

A Delicate Balance - Miyoko Shida Rigolo

Consciousness operates within a delicate balance, poised in awareness, following the energy of attention. Where is your attention now?

2013 A Message of Realization to Humanity

Great visuals......Enjoy!

Violence and Silence: How to Heal the World

by Eric Klein

What is it about tragic events that calls us to silence and stillness?

There's a profound message in this impulse. The message is: remember the sacred nature of life; connect to it; let it guide you.

It's hard to remember the sacred when you're multi-tasking. By stopping, a space opens up within you and around you. It takes stopping and stillness, to see what has been there all along.

Yes, that's what stillness reveals: that the sacred nature of life is ever-present; that all life is sacred.

You don't have to do anything to achieve sacredness.

Nobody does. It's not a prize. Not an award. It's what you are. Me too. Everybody and everything. It's all sacred.

But, the mind has a hard time with stillness; the mind cries, "What about the violence? If life is sacred, where does all the violence come from? And don't we have to do something to stop it?"

There are many ways of analyzing and answering these questions. The mind can take many perspectives: political, historical, economic, religious.

But, before you adopt any perspective, consider this: what is the quality of consciousness that you bring to the perspective?

It's not the perspective that is primary-it&# 39;s the consciousness that "looks" through the
perspective.

Consciousness is primary; perspective is secondary, which is why stopping and stillness are so vital.

Before you analyze, and definitely before you act, be still.

Don't perpetuate the patterns of the past. Be still.

Don't seek answers or even understanding. Be still.

Breathe and let the waves of emotionality settle; be still and reconnect to the sacred essence of life and your life.

How often in a typical day do you stop and become still?

Do you practice stillness or are you constantly on the move?

Do you rest in the sacred nature of life as-it-is or are you perpetually rushing forward?

Straining to make things happen? Controlling people and events?

If so, you're not alone.

We've all been conditioned as perpetual motion machines; this never-stopping compulsion obscures the recognition of life's sacred nature. It's the relentless (and reactive) movements of the mind that create the conditions for violence.

We all need to become better students of stillness. This is not a plea for inaction-there is a need for wise and healing action. An acute, even an urgent need. But wise and healing action only arises from a consciousness that is awake to the sacred.

The scattered, speedy, emotionally fragmented consciousness is blind to the sacred. Actions that arise from a reactive mind only add more violence to the mix. (This is true on a global scale and around the dinner table.)

Which is why stillness is the pre-requisite for healing and helping the world.

By cultivating your capacity for stillness, you serve the world.

By deepening your attunement to the sacred, you heal the world. Today-and every day from now on-make time for stillness and silence. 

Read entire article at Elephant Journal

INSIGHTS

by Anamika

Insights. 

Are they true?  

Or they seem clear and we just assume that 

they are true because there is clarity?

How do we know?   

How do we know anything?

And how can this passion for truth lead to anything anyway, 

as at the end of everything,  when one really goes to the end,  there is nothing.   

Emptiness  

Everything falls apart,  returns to source.  

Void.   

At the end of everything is Nothing.   And at the beginning as well.

All expressions,  all intimations,  insights,  come up and disappear.  

Born out of Emptiness and returns.   

Only Emptiness remains.

Insights can point to the direction of truth at the moment of expression,   

but then they are instantly passed their prime. 

Their moment of glory is immediate, never to return.
 

The pointing to what Is, eternal and unchanging is true,   is real.

Is the golden grail all through the ages,  the alchemist gold,  

the description of nirvana,  the diamond of the sutras.  

But the language used to express becomes 

archaic and out dated in no time.  

As This is ever fresh and new,  and cannot be captured by any word,  

not even the most sublime as it defies all descriptions. 
  

Its beyond the known,  

beyond language,  

beyond labels,  

its always pristine,  

always experienced in the ever present Now.   

Its the ever ongoing open experiencing of all that is. 

 

Try as you might,  
you will never not be this, 

As this is All there.

 

http://noname-allthereis.blogspot.ca/2013/04/insights.html

You Are What You Seek - Nonduality and the Awakening You Are

pfeldtman@gmail.com

We're All In This Together

by Ryan Moore

I need to know you're with me

It seems a simple choice -
succumb, or overcome?
Succeed, or fail?
Winner, or loser?

The english language is riddled with dualities,
each one of them cheapening
the fascinating variegated integrity
of creation itself.
(I.E., us.)

Many of us are force-fed these notions
and our mind, fulfilling it's function, digests them -
integrating yes/no understandings into our identity.

Are you fat, or skinny?
Stupid, or smart?
If you're not pretty you must be ugly,
and if you're not a 'have'
you must be one of the unfortunate 'have-nots.'

Are you good at dancing? Bad at sports? Can you sing, or not?
Do you have your shit together, or don't you?

Are you living up to your potential? Yes or no?

Think positive!
(Don't think negative, don't think negative, don't think negative.)

Be courageous!
(But what if I'm afraid?)

Happy people are successful!
(Great, now I'm sad and unsuccessful.)

Truth is not an either/or,
truth is terrifyingly brave
and grievously joyful.

Life is radiantly monstrous
and perfectly, perfectly fucked up.

I have been depressed for the past 24 hours,
and in my depression have found hope unconquerable -
for it has already been conquered, has already surrendered.

I would see humanity expand,
and slip loose of all the dualistic shackles
attendant to the experience
of being consciousness incarnate.

We are a phenomenon of consciousness itself, and so innately unconstrained.
We do not succumb or overcome, win or lose.

It may appear that way to those taken in by the scoreboard's simple illusion:

"Oh well, good game... we lost."

Did you?

It can be a horrifyingly ecstatic sensation, to surrender to the truths that lie beyond the boundaries of either/or.

As I commit more and more fully to abandoning myself to what is, something new seems to be happening. I sense the subtle emergence of a crystalline quality in myself, a quality that seems to suffuse everyday life with a moment-to-moment ability to be peacefully, attentively, alertly, and contemplatively present.

I don't find it easy, I find it a challenge to completely surrender the widely-held belief system which insists that there's a right way and a wrong way to do, a right way and a wrong way to be.

Often I find myself desperate for some evaluative criteria the same way I'd be desperate for air underwater - there is a similar sense of losing myself.

Often I race back to dualistic standards like a child fleeing back to mom and dad - the playground is too noisy, too confusing, too chaotic and I don't know what to do, don't know how to play, don't know what the rules are... at least with mom and dad I know if I'm doing it right or not.

When this happens, I can be pretty hard on myself - I've had a lot of practice establishing unrealistically high expectations and then berating myself when I fall short.

I find it hardest when I feel isolated.

Although I can be quite articulate here in blog-world,

in the face-to-face interactions of everyday life I'm often at a loss

when asked to speak about what I'm doing with my life.

People ask me questions like:

"What did you do today?"

or

"What are you working on?"

and I don't know how to answer. Once I tried saying:

"I'm intentionally outgrowing the dichotomy of polarity, because I'm utterly inspired by the vision of what humanity will inevitably collectively accomplish once we all do the same."

...and the conversation sort of stalled at that point.

To continue reading CLICK HERE.

The Philosophy of Anon

Anon
1 : archaic : at once : immediately
2 : soon, presently /tomorrow will be here anon - Nathaniel Hawthorne/
3 : after a while : later /more of that anon/

You live in a Universe

that exceeds your perception of it
You may see it, taste it
hear it or feel it
And while it contains all those things
It is more

To name the Universe

is an attempt to limit

limitlessness
Yet there is a part of us
that speaks
And that part needs names
So let us call this Universe,
Reality
with the understanding
there is more to it
Then we can ever name

There is also a part of us
that wants to be free of naming
Wants to be free of detail
free of manifestation
A part that only wants
the underlying mystery and magic
of Reality

The historical conflict between these two parts
these two engines of the mind
Is perhaps the result of a misunderstanding
We often feel it would be best
to be one and destroy the other
But who would cut off his right hand
because he wants to be left handed?
Who would willingly blind himself in one eye
or deliberately destroy one foot?
Who wants eternal Daylight
or forever Darkness
Why then should we seek only to name Reality
or to end all naming?
It is in the balance
that we find the universal harmony

Perhaps this dichotomy
is part of the natural human heritage because
We perceive this Reality
through the filters of our human brains
the Left and the Right minds
The Left brain understands
Logic and Language
The Right brain understands
Love, Magic and Religion
The Left analyzes and dissects
The Right synthesizes and creates
But who would want only one or the other?
Who would want rainbows of only one color?
All mystery and manifestation within us
arises from our perception and reflection
of the Universe
But the Cosmos is not obliged to reside
only within our grasp of it
Who can truly say
there is no more?
Who can limit the limitless?

You have been told there are
Three dimensions, perhaps Four
Things are not Black or White but Grey
such dogma denotes limited thinking

Believing thus you bleed
all color, texture and taste from Reality
We live in a multi-dimensional Universe
Unbound in its responses

to our eyes
hands and pallet
Our waking and dreaming mind
And still extending beyond

Perhaps when you name a thing ugly
you limit the beauty you can find in it
Perhaps when you name a thing bad
you limit the good that you can see in it
Is this a really balanced perception?
We may limit our perception
but we can not limit the Universe

Living is balanced by Non-living
Arduous is balanced by Easy
Day by Night
Love by Fear
Light by Darkness
Hope by Despair
Heat by Coolness
Earth by Fire by Water by Air by Earth . . .

None of us can expect an endlessly easy life
we all must touch Reality
Or spend our lives trying to hide from it
But when overwhelmed by one extreme
remember the other is not far away
You will discover that Reality is balanced
but not perfectly symmetrical
Such Cycles are a means of Balance
Everything happens
It just doesn't happen all at once
That's why we have Time

Let us consider for a moment
the two aspects of Balance
There is static Balance
where all things stop
all motion stops
no sound, no heat, no matter . . .
Nothingness
And there is dynamic balance
such as a man walking
the middle of a curving road
Know the difference
You can not control a thing
by only stopping it
Control comes from directing the motion
of things

When Balance is achieved
Is it possible to act
without doing anything?
To dance without moving?

Is it possible to be taught
without a teacher?
To have without holding?
To Act outside of Fear or Anticipation of reward?

Is it possible
to let things appear in the distance
move to this place
and let them go
While perceiving the balance
of this motion within Reality?

It is said that our current aspect of Universe
Began in a great explosion
or rending of nothingness into which
one tiny seed of energy became everything
The speaking side of the mind
sees the Wonder of this
The mysterious side of the mind
sees God

A beginning
a middle
what of the end?
Is this not in keeping with Balance?
The Past and the Future
fuse in this Instant
Anon

While the Matter/Energy of this Cosmos
remains balanced
The possibilities are without limit
The Universe is
the Well of first things
A storehouse of new and old things
ever evolving, growing, changing
The Universe is an ever opening flower
And You are part of the Dance
You are not divorced from it
how can you be an unnatural thing?
Are your atoms from somewhere else?
Is your pattern so bizarre?
You are human and share
in the heritage of human beginning
middle and end
How could it be otherwise?

Inside of You . . .
you are a universe
There is the infinite circular ring of You
surrounded the receding
Great out-there
and filled with the vast
Great In-here
The Universe touches your universe
at every points
and all points beyond
You can paint your walls
any way you like
Or you can learn
to see the subtle colors
already there

Hold to the center of the Universe
If you talk of it
and do not dance with it
you will become confused
If you paint it with all the pigments known
and do not reflect it
you will become murky
If you follow the rituals of others
with infinite attention to detail
you will become disillusioned

But if you face each moment
with an open hand
an open heart
an open mind
You will be the Master
of the Moment
And a life is built
of such moments

It is said that the Universe
is running down
But is in this degradation of energy
lies the integration of Life
Human life is the water
that runs uphill
Notice how beautifully
Order arises out of Chaos
without breaking any of the True Rules

The vast open spaces within the Universe
contain an indeterminate number of worlds
The Universe is always pregnant
giving birth to the New
This birthing is the rising up
from the ashes
The fresh breeze of Spring
within the depths of Winter
It is always present within you
How will you use it?

It is said
That which is not born can not die
Is that wisdom?
Is that eternal?
Perhaps . . .
But each moment is born
used
and passed to the past
If these moments are of no use
why do we build them?
Each is special, different
unique
Not a thing to be wasted
If you waste the moments of your life
you will end up
with a bunch of wasted moments

The Past touches the Future
As this moment
this instant
this Now
Anon
Right now
The waters of the Sea
are transformed into the mist
And in this same instant
the clouds are congealing and twisting
And in this same instant
the rains are nourishing all things
And passing through caverns
creek and riverbeds
Running away
away to the Sea
All in Motion
all in Balance
as it should be

There are myriad other examples
of this balance in process
and you should take time
to name them and see them in your mind
Do this and you will never grow bored
You must keep you mind ductile

In living
remember the Earth, the Air, the Fire
and the Rain
I know we have much fancier names than these
But you get my drift

Keep things simple
in your mind
Children have such complicated minds
to be truly simple
you must be older

Confront your adversaries
with your understanding of the Truth
Examine your own motives
seek counsel in wise people
Be Fair and Just
They are people too
and people generally will not do
things that they feel are wrong

If a person does a bad thing
he will have to lie to himself
Saying
"I have the right to . . ."
Or
"He hurt me and my honor demands . . ."
This is an attempt to avoid responsibility
to make the other an object
which can be destroyed with impunity
It is a lie

Try to avoid making such lies
But when the Truth is manifest
as it always must be
Forgive your opponents
forgive your friends
forgive yourself
Odds are its all non-sense
though it wont seem so at the time

Chose a vocation that you enjoy
Avoid over zealous competition
Commerce, like Life, is a process
not a means to an end
Avoid comparing yourself to others
Each of us has many attributes
and envy is not a nice one to have

Father and Mother your Children well
Any civilization
which does not prepare a place for
the children
Has about one generation
to realize its mistake


William C. Burns, Jr.
chyfrin437@yahoo.com