Saturday, September 19, 2015

Wu Hsin - Priormost principle




The Master began:

The world springs into view simultaneously with the seer of the world.

There is no process of creation whereas there may be hypotheses of
process.

Dreams appear and disappear in like fashion.

The only distinction between the two is duration.

Recognizing the mind means that there is something apart from the mind
that has cognized it before, and now has re-cognized it.

The same applies to the body.

All phenomena are recognized by that priormost principle which cannot
be seen.

That is all for today.


 from Behind the mind
Short discourses of Wu Hsin


pdf download  HERE

Friday, September 18, 2015

Dogen Zenji - Enlightenment is like...



Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, 
or even in one drop of water. 




Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water.
You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.
The depth of the drop is the height of the moon.
Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, 
and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.
Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; 
those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings.





Scott Kiloby - Unconditioned Presence



Perhaps you’ve lived your life not realizing that prior to all the conditioning and conditions, there is an unconditioned presence that is totally and vibrantly free and loving. Maybe you’ve been locked in roles, job titles, beliefs, religions, or thought-based identities. This unconditioned presence is what you are — right now — before you think about who or what you are.
Thought might respond, “There is nothing here.” The mind is so busy looking for something other than simple presence, so busy thinking about life and complicating it, that this unconditioned presence is missed.
Thought places conditions on your experience: “If my wife would stop nagging, I would be happy.” “If my boss would appreciate me more, I would be satisfied with this job.” Do you see the game the conditioned mind plays? Don’t judge these thoughts. To condemn thought is just more conditioned mind. Thought says, “If I could only quiet my conditioned mind, I would be at peace.”
Don’t make an enemy out of thought. Notice that the conditioned mind is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It is thinking. Simply notice the space in which all of that is happening. Notice this unchanging presence that is always and already September here ‘under’ all that conditioning. This presence is unconditioned because it has no interest in placing conditions on your experience. It is naturally and effortlessly at one with what is — regardless of what the conditioned mind is doing.

~ From: Reflections of the One Life


Thursday, September 17, 2015

Oriah Mountain Dreamer - "Writing"



It happens most frequently on ordinary days
Days when I leave dirty dishes in the sink
Ignore the unmade bed
Step over yesterday’s clothes on the floor
Because I cannot stop moving my pen on the page
Can barely keep up
Words spilling out from some secret source

And when I notice the sun headed for the western horizon
I pause and gasp a little, my breath catching in surprise
Sometimes I go down on my knees
Right there on the crumb-covered carpet
Offering my gritty gratitude
Bewildered by the magic
Flooded with awe

I never take it for granted-
Those moments when what I love carries me
I know it for the grace it is
I cannot make it happen
But I can let it take me when it comes
Give myself over without reservation
Let the unbridled heat ignite something raw and real 




Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Robert Wolfe - Living Nonduality



These monographs are a selection concerning nondual realization. Some were written as a reply to letters from correspondents; others were written as a response to a specific inquiry, resulting from an in-person or telephone discussion, over the years since 1988.

The teachings of nonduality have begun to come of age in the West, recognized (at last) as the central essence of Zen, Dzochen, Tao, Vedanta, Sufism, and of Christians such as Meister Eckhart. In particular, the recorded teachings of sages (such as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj) have paved the way for a contemporary generation of illuminating speakers and writers.

What all of these spiritual traditions have in common is a viewpoint which is different from mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

How is it different, and what are the differences? This viewpoint (generally referred to as “nonduality”) is explored in 238 brief and insightful monographs by Ojai, California author Robert Wolfe in Living Nonduality. The direct and immediate experience of universal “Oneness” is often called “self-realization” or “enlightenment”—thus the books subtitle, Enlightenment Teachings of Self-Realization.

PDF HERE


Nisargadatta Maharaj - Ocean of Being



"Q: What is the purpose in reminding oneself all the time that one is the watcher?
M: The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there is the background of awareness, which does not change. The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and cease covering it up, like the moon which obscures the sun during solar eclipse. Just realize that nothing observable, or experienceable is you, or binds you. Take no notice of what is not yourself.
Q: To do what you tell me I must be ceaselessly aware.
M: To be aware is to be awake. Unaware means asleep. You are aware anyhow, you need not try to be. What you need is to be aware of being aware. Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious.
Q: As I can make out, you give distinct meanings to the words ‘mind’, 'consciousness’, and 'awareness’.
M: Look at it this way. The mind produces thoughts ceaselessly, even when you do not look at them. When you know what is going on in your mind, you call it consciousness. This is your waking state—your consciousness shifts from sensation to sensation, from perception to perception, from idea to idea, in endless succession. Then comes awareness, the direct insight into the whole of consciousness, the totality of the mind. The mind is like a river, flowing ceaselessly in the bed of the body; you identify yourself for a moment with some particular ripple and call it: 'my thought’. All you are conscious of is your mind; awareness is the cognizance of consciousness as a whole.
Q: Everybody is conscious, but not everybody is aware.
M: Don’t say: 'everybody is conscious’. Say: 'there is consciousness’, in which everything appears and disappears. Our minds are just waves on the ocean of consciousness. As waves they come and go. As ocean they are infinite and eternal. Know yourself as the ocean of being, the womb of all existence. These are all metaphors of course; the reality is beyond description. You can know it only by being it."

 

 

Wu Hsin - The Doer




"Wu Hsin closes
In summary:
There is a single source,
The Source or
Another name of your choosing.
This world is a mere
Emanation from the Source,
The potential manifesting from
The pure Potentiality,
An appearance
Comprising tens of thousands of things.
Beings are but one of the
Tens of thousands of things.
Sentient and discriminating
Through whom
The Source functions.
This functioning,
Beings have named
Life.
Each being,
According to its nature
Performs its allotted tasks
During its time.
One’s nature is not chosen, controlled
Nor decided upon.
It is as it is intended to be.
One goes through
One’s life
Choosing between the dualities;
Good and bad
Happy and sad
Loving, hating
Interacting with a seeming other.
This is Life,
Alternating between two banks of
A flowing river.
Believing in their individuality,
Beings suffer as they strive to
Protect themselves from
A world that is in flux every moment.
How can they resist the changes of
The ever-changing?
It is a journey
Doomed to fail.
Embracing change is
Embracing What-is
In every moment.
It is saying “yes”
To Life,
Not Life as one would have it
But life as it is.
It is understanding that
There is no one
Doing anything
Other than
The Doer
And that each is an actor
On the stage.
The script is written
The sets arranged.
Watch the play,
Enjoy it.
Laugh, cry,
But never make the story
Your own."

 

PDF 
HERE

Monday, September 14, 2015

Stewart Bitkoff - The Deep Stillness


 


The deep stillness has returned.
Like a gentle wave making its way to shore;
Arriving on the early morning tide
With a sweet sea breeze
As traveling companion.


O Lord, long have I been lost
On this island of fear and desolation.
Now, you have come to rescue me.
Why did I doubt
That you would ever return?


With a loving embrace
Again, You lift me higher
Into that place
Where there is only You,
And all my fears fall away.



Binavi Badakhshani - Mystic



 A mystic is one
who passes away --

He abides in the essence
of that which is Real.

Such a person is pure,
clear wine without dregs.

Now whole, he displays
the Most Beautiful Names.


 English version by David and Sabrineh Fideler  
Original Language Persian/Farsi




Sunday, September 13, 2015

Chuck Surface - “What” I Am...


 

I never enquired, "Who am I?",
For I was quite familiar with "who",
The name, the image of the "person",
That... “felt sense”, and all that it entailed.

In my enquiry, it was not the "who",
But the "what" that intrigued me,
As I wondered what I was,
Before ever I’d been told, or came to know…

All that I had come to take the “who” to be.

“What” was I, before ever I knew I was human,
Man or woman, fat or thin, stupid or smart,
Desirable or not, in any of countless ways,
Before the long history of “person building”…

And the relentless concern for stature.

And so I turned Attention Inward, Within,
No longer thinking “about”,
No longer moving in concepts “of”,
And enquired with all my Heart…

In search of "what”, before "who" ever was…

Unable to turn my eyes upon myself,
To see the seer Within,
I saw, instead, that “what” I was,
Could never be found by sight...

Or by any sense revealed.

Except...
Except...
Except...
Except...

I could... Feel... myself.

I could Feel myself…
Not a thing alive, but simply,
Formless... Unlocatable…
Aliveness.

And so I Rested in the Feeling of “I”,
And as Resting deepened,
The Fragrance of Bliss began to arise,
Barely perceptible at first, soft…

Like Jasmine wafting on a gentle breeze.

And in time, “I” vanished… and yet remained,
As the Pure Essence of Jasmine, Myself,
Before space, before time, before objects ever were,
Before ever I was, as the subject-perceiver…

Before all sensations and perceptions, save one…

For Experience remained... without an experiencer,
For which there are no words adequate,
No concepts or metaphors sufficient,
No images or forms analogous…

But which the scriptures speak of as…

Unalloyed Ecstasy.
The Kingdom of Heaven.
Divine Union.
The Self…

The Great Mystery.

When the world returned,
The Heart was Blessed thereafter,
With the answer to my quest,
The Bliss of Heaven Shining...

Into the experience of manifest Being.

The mind, desperate to "know",
Remained then, and remains to this day,
Unable to comprehend or understand,
“What” it was that Is...

Before Creation appears.

“What” I Am...
Formless… and Manifest,
Nothing… and Everything,
Nowhere… and Everywhere…

Lover... and Beloved.