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Saturday, August 10, 2013

Binavi Badakhshani - I became water


Once the light came
and bathed me in Truth,
I gave up all
planning and plotting.
If you wish
to find transcendence,
leave your little self behind
and realize
that your true self
is the essence of God.

I became water
and saw myself
a mirage
became an ocean
I saw myself a fleck
of foam
gained Awareness
I saw that all is but
forgetfulness
woke up
and found myself
asleep.


Binavi Badakhshani 
Afghanistan (13th Century)

Little is known of Binavi Badakshani, including when he lived (the dates used here are a guess). An early account states that he was a Sufi, initiated by his own father. From his name, it is assumed that he was from Badakhshan in Afghanistan. 

Farid ud-Din Attar - A dervish in ecstasy


A frenzied dervish, mad with love for God,
Sought out bare hills where none had ever trod.
Wild leopards kept this madman company --
His heart was plunged in restless ecstasy;
He lived within this state for twenty days,
Dancing and singing in exultant praise:
"There's no division; we two are alone --
The world is happiness and grief has flown."
Die to yourself -- no longer stay apart,
But give to Him who asks for it your heart;
The man whose happiness derives from Him
Escapes existence, and the world grows dim;
Rejoice for ever in the Friend, rejoice
Till you are nothing, but a praising voice.


Randall Friend - Whole reality

image source

No words can approach it – no concept can grasp it.  It cannot be realized for it is the truth beyond the realiz-er.  It only IS.  What we know is the expression OF that IS-ness, right here and now.  It isn’t something other than, something different, some source which produces a result outside of itself.

This is about pure reality – not an achievement of anything but the dumbstruck realization that reality is already whole, already full, complete, perfect, not divided, not separated.

To talk about it we must talk of Consciousness, that capacity by which the world is known, a world which isn’t something other than that pure reality but is that pure reality in expression, known because of that capacity called Consciousness.

Therefore it has never been the individual who knows a world – the individual is an abstraction of that pure reality, a useful concept which, when taken literally, asserts that reality is a hodgepodge of finite existences, with the individual just one insignificant piece.  The “one who knows” the so-called “world” is not that individual for the individual is something known.  The one who knows is the One itself, the very intelligence or reality which IS that world of appearance, an appearance OF that reality, an appearance which is only available due to the unique gift we call Consciousness.

When that Consciousness ends, the world ends.  The world IS that Consciousness, the moving colors of a kaleidoscope, the kaleidoscope being both the subjective tool of measurement and the objective result of looking – this truly is the meaning of nonduality – the two aren’t brought together but the apparent two are realized to have always been one reality, one truth, one wholeness.

True spirituality is about self-knowledge.  Self-knowledge isn’t the achievement of high-flown spiritual states and experiences, but is the falling away of ignorance, the falling away of false beliefs and assumptions about what you are, the certainty that you are the whole, the pure reality itself, the Absolute.

This realization comes full circle when the Absolute and the apparent are known to be the same – the apparent isn’t rejected, it is known to be the same thing, the same reality.  The apparent or relative or “samsara” if you will – this apparent reality of things isn’t pushed away, no conditions are placed upon it.  It is simply known to be not other than that whole reality itself – it is simply allowed to be whatever it will be, naturally.  There is no effort to allow but just an ease that what IS will appear as it will appear and nothing is fundamentally  happening anyway.  It is one event-less event, one happening, one IS-ness.

You are that already.  Nothing needs to be done to make that so.  It is either realized or it is not.  Even the realization takes place in the relative and is ultimately meaningless.


Friday, August 9, 2013


Joan Tollifson - True freedom

Shoda Koho, Moonlit Sea, c. 1920

How much freedom do we really have? Instead of immediately rushing in with our preferred answer that we are convinced is true, can we leave that question open and unanswered? For me, it is a beautiful koan that continues to unfold and open. Is it possible to wake up, right now, from all the thoughts, ideas, beliefs and habits of mind and body that recreate and reincarnate ‘the same old world’ and ‘the same old me’ moment by moment out of thin air, out of habit?
“Nonduality, Buddhism and Advaita are all in some way about cutting through the imaginary limitations and problems created by conceptual thought –SEEING how we habitually and unconsciously choose bondage over liberation, SEEING how we are doing our suffering. Waking up is discovering another possibility.
“Of course, when I say that ‘we’ do these things, I’m not talking about the phantom self, which doesn’t really exist. So it’s not about blaming ourselves or others for ‘choosing’ bondage or creating suffering. This ‘choice’ happens out of infinite causes and conditions. It happens out of ignorance. It is a kind of hypnotic entrancement, not some personal failure. But it IS possible, when it is, to SEE how this ‘choice’ gets made, to become conscious of how we do our suffering, to wake up from this entrancement. Just as delusion is not a personal failure, awakening is not a personal success. It is the dissolution of that very IDEA of separation, limitation and ownership. Waking up is the activity of the True Self – boundless awareness, the intelligence at the heart of everything.
“Here / Now is totally open and unpredictable. Awareness has no boundaries and no limits. The survival mind keeps trying to locate and solidify itself, get a grip, figure everything out…The SEEING – the awareness – is free and unbound. Here / Now, before thought, we cannot say what is possible and what isn’t. This moment is absolutely new. It has never been here before…
“The biggest miracle is Here / Now – every moment of ordinary life. When…we’re awake, EVERYTHING is extraordinary. What makes it miraculous is not the CONTENT but the AWARENESS that beholds and illuminates and breathes life into the momentary forms. Awareness is what we love in the beloved. When we dissolve into this openness that is always Here / Now, we act from a place that is unbound. When we wake up, the whole world wakes up, because we are not separate….
“By giving nonjudgmental, loving attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it, everything changes naturally. This giving of attention is like breathing – we can’t really say whether we are breathing or being breathed. The attention I’m talking about is open, spacious awareness, not thought, analysis and rumination. It is not a task or a practice. It is our true nature. It has no cause and it seeks no result.
“Is it possible in this moment to drop all of our ideas about ourselves and the world? Is it possible to fully enjoy the delightful sounds of rain or the amazing tastes and aromas of a cup of coffee? And maybe to enjoy not only the rain and the coffee, but also the wonderful and terrible messiness of human life with all its perfection and imperfection – this whole astonishing movie of waking life – without needing it to be any different from exactly how it is, and without imagining that anything has to stay the same. That is true freedom




Awake in the Heartland
The Ecstasy of What Ts
pdf

Ashtawakra Gita - When the mind



The mind desires this,
And grieves for that.
It embraces one thing,
And spurns another.
Now it feels anger,
Now happiness.


In this way you are bound.


But when the mind desires nothing
And grieves for nothing,
When it is without joy or anger
And, grasping nothing,
Turns nothing away...


Then you are free.


PDF Here

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Wei Wu Wei - Here



painting source here

from "UNWORLDLY WISE; As The Owl Remarked To The Rabbit"


    'My absence is what I am,' said the owl, 'and it has been called "the Void".'
    'Yes?' commented the rabbit, toying with a savoury thistle.

    'When I am absent the universe is present,' continued the owl, 'and even you would be welcome.'
    'How delightful!' the rabbit replied, skipping politely. 'But where?'

    'Here,' the owl snapped conclusively, 'absolutely HERE.'
    'And where exactly is that?'

    'Where I am, which is where I was, and always have been,' snapped the owl.
    'Then where will I be?' the rabbit inquired anxiously.

    'Here, HERE, of course! Where else could you be?'
    'But where will there be room for both of us where you are?' asked the rabbit innocently.

    'You will be present in my absence,' the owl explained patiently.
    'I do not see how that can be,' replied the rabbit.

    'You will, you will!' assured the owl, preparing his absence. 'I will see to that.'


Read more here

JaLee - A Lover of What Is

Photo by Diane Yuri

JaLee - A Lover of What Is

Crowded mind delusion stories,
neither pull me in or push me away

Elixirs of emptiness, no-thing-ness peace,
neither pull me in or push me away

No space remains
as separation judgment disappears
Suddenly you
the mirror of me
is me looking back,
as me—
we are free!

Same Source,
different course

A Lover of What Is



 read more  here