'In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves."
-- Rumi
"The silence after a lifetime of silence and the silence after a lifetime of talking is the same silence."
-- Nisargadatta
Generally speaking, we seem to find silence either boring or unbearable. Most parties I've attended over the years seem to get rated, in no small part, by the volume of noise registered: the louder the cacaphony, the better the party. Perhaps life in the noise lane is some kind of hugely enjoyable respite from eternal silence... (Continue)
in the silence of the Buddha, spring,
water, sun & fertile ground abound.
'Ignore the invisible and sooner or later the visible will also disappear.'
-- Hannah Arendt
Space, Time and Your Present Awareness are not affected by what occurs in existence. All three add up to a whole lot of invisibility and yet they alone make existence possible ... (continue)
illusion of a gap
'What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.... Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.'
- Erwin Schrodinger, Physicist
'Jesus said to them, 'When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside... then will you enter the Kingdom.' - Gospel of Thomas
An elderly gent once complained to the sage, Ramana Maharshi, that he was reaching the end of his life, had studied the Vedas for many decades and was still heavy laden with burdens and woes. The Maharshi said, "You are on the train anyway. Whether you continue to carry your load or put it down makes no difference."
We are so afraid to die and yet all that passes is the illusion of separation. Not that it's easy to let go of a lifetime effort spent gluing and scotch taping together a self-hood that freaks out at even a slight insult. I mean, look at us. We defend this separate self like our lives depended on it, when, in fact, only separation depends on it. Painful as it is to separate ourselves from others, we seem to be addicted to the task. Separation enables us to stand out, and to 'stand out, or stand forth from' is the root of Latin 'existere'. We exit being in order to ex-ist in the illusion of separation.
Just here our suffering laden human battle is waged; most of us desperately trying to make the best of a mortal situation that will one day kill us, while generous sages tirelessly point out the value of abiding in the non-local center of our true nature, the place between... well... between. The 'between' place joins. It is where the barrier to which Schrodinger alludes in the above quote is seen through. It is where all opposites, even being and non-being, are seen to be 'not two.' It is where the unreality of separation becomes as obvious as the pain of separation.
Philosopher, Nicholas of Cusa, called this centerless center Divine and defined it as "a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."
An Angel pointed and said to William Blake, there is your eternal lot, "between the black and white spiders."
The Buddha said, 'I am awake and my way forward is called the Middle Path.'
Advaita pronounces, "Neither this nor that am I." Advanced Advaitans add, "I am also not 'not this' and not 'not that'." (i know, I know. Don't complain to me about it).
Penultimate word from the brilliant scholar-poet, Roberts Avens, "The soul is never identical with any literal perspective: the distinctness of the soul consists precisely in its ability to see through all mutually opposing views, systems, positions."
'And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly seas.'
-- Ezra Pound
It's like that, setting out fresh,
forever, each once and only time breath.
The Tao was up 300 points this morning following
unexpected gains in uncontrived respect and devotion
unexpected gains in uncontrived respect and devotion
The Half Life of Radiance
Everything dies except the ever present part of ourselves that we can never find. That part of us is truly alive. I mean really alive. It is Aliveness itself.
Sensations, feelings, legacies, galaxies, they all arise and subside. It's a Clear Out Sale like no other. Everything must go.
What does not die, says Nisagradatta about ten thousand times, is that prior awareness which registers consciousness-and-its-objects. That awareness is not to be found as any sort of object -- physical, mental, subtle, causal, imaginal -- yet without it there is no consciousness of form.
Swami Muktananda once referred to that unfindable, supremely brilliant, supremely intelligent, no-thing awareness as the number 1 that gives value to all the zeroes in the universe. It's a nice analogy because it indicates how absolutely dependent each and every living thing is upon that singularity that never shows up, but which alone makes the whole show possible.
Paradoxically speaking, that number One is numberless because it is also present in, and as, the life force that animates all sentient forms. So the Vedantins cleverly refer to it as 'not two' instead of one. 'Not two' means you can't put that awareness here and everything else over there. Awareness transcends our categories of numeration, opposition and conceptualization. With respect to awareness, Acharya Peter Wilberg, brilliantly observes that all things arising within it, appearing unto it, are 'distinct, but not separate' from it.
Sensations, feelings, legacies, galaxies, they all arise and subside. It's a Clear Out Sale like no other. Everything must go.
What does not die, says Nisagradatta about ten thousand times, is that prior awareness which registers consciousness-and-its-objects. That awareness is not to be found as any sort of object -- physical, mental, subtle, causal, imaginal -- yet without it there is no consciousness of form.
Swami Muktananda once referred to that unfindable, supremely brilliant, supremely intelligent, no-thing awareness as the number 1 that gives value to all the zeroes in the universe. It's a nice analogy because it indicates how absolutely dependent each and every living thing is upon that singularity that never shows up, but which alone makes the whole show possible.
Paradoxically speaking, that number One is numberless because it is also present in, and as, the life force that animates all sentient forms. So the Vedantins cleverly refer to it as 'not two' instead of one. 'Not two' means you can't put that awareness here and everything else over there. Awareness transcends our categories of numeration, opposition and conceptualization. With respect to awareness, Acharya Peter Wilberg, brilliantly observes that all things arising within it, appearing unto it, are 'distinct, but not separate' from it.
Zen Master Dogen's Meditation Instructions
Consciousness creates the outer world and we who experience it. This doesn't make Consciousness a separate Creator. Consciousness IS the outer realm and all who experience it. And all of THAT, subject and object, is a very small wave in the ocean of What Is. To paraphrase Nisargadatta, without the changeless, perception of change would be impossible.
Duality. It's Mutual
If you watch your thoughts without buying into being them, you’ll start to notice that your mind is capable of generating them without you making any conscious effort to think them up. (continue)
so, to revisit the koan from the Home Page...
"Questioner: Scientists have discovered that... the very act of observation brings about a change in what is being observed.
Nisargadatta: What is being observed also brings about a change in the observer, and unless that change is brought about in the observer, the observer cannot observe the object; therefore, one can never get to the depth of spirituality."
-- Consciousness and the Absolute, p.54
Nisargadatta: What is being observed also brings about a change in the observer, and unless that change is brought about in the observer, the observer cannot observe the object; therefore, one can never get to the depth of spirituality."
-- Consciousness and the Absolute, p.54
Opposites Distract
SINE FIELD -- NOT THE TV SERIES
Our lives, it seems, are governed by pairs of opposites. The pesky things are everywhere: light/dark, birth/death, high/low, good/evil, pleasure/pain, crooked/straight, democrat/fundamentalist, on and on. (continue)
stillness that ain't inertia
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into an ego centered life, along comes David Carse's extraordinary book, 'Perfect Brilliant Stillness'... (continue)
