manitou

This speaks to me now very directly. I have found that as my memory is leaving me, it's urgent to stay in the Here and Now. And when I do that, the child seems to want to come out to play. So what if I can't remember yesterday and don't think of tomorrow? It's actually a pretty wonderful state - luckily, my roommate is equally child-like, so we really do have a good time around here. Just don't ask me what I had for breakfast.

Burrowing

Harrowing

Run!

Aah. That explains so much...

With you, Creighton, and Steve recommending this one, I just had to order it. I love the fact that she's a metaphysician from that period of time that was so crucial - the late 1800's through the early 1900's. I'd never heard of her - and I've read all of Manley Hall's, Helena Blavatsky, and Mary Baker Eddy. Can't wait to read this lady!

jesus.

V.Y. again - Oh Rama, if you thus overcome this sorrow of repetitive history (samsara), you will live here on earth itself like a god, like Brahma or Vishnu! For when delusion is gone and the truth is realized by means of enquiry into self-nature, when the mind is at peace and thought-waves in the mind-stuff have subsided and there is unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute, when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss. Such a person has nothing to acquire, nor anything to shun. He is untainted by the defects of life, untouched by its sorrow. He does not come into being nor go out, though he appears to come and go in the eyes of the beholder. Even religious duties are found to be unnecessary. He is not affected by the past tendencies which have lost their momentum: his mind has given up its restlessness, and he rests in the bliss that is his essential nature. Such bliss is possible only by self-knowledge, not by any other means. Hence, one should apply oneself constantly to self-knowledge - this alone is one's duty.

NOTE TO MODERATOR: Any chance this topic can be pinned for continual use? THE AWESOME PARAGRAPH THREAD Like when you read something that is so clarifying that it could almost knock one into enlightenment. I think it would be nice to have a place to share those paragraphs that hit very deeply. I just read a paragraph that blows my socks off. It's pg. 248 of Vasistha's Yoga. I've studied this tome before, but I didn't really 'see' this paragraph the first time around, apparently. PRAHLADA continued to contemplate: O self, it is your own light of purity that shines in the sun; your nectarine coolness that radiates through the moon. The heaviness of the mountains is derived from you, as also the speed of the wind. Because of you the earth is firm and space is empty. Luckily, you have been realized* by me: luckily, I have become yours. Luckily, O Lord, there is no distinction between you (the self) and me---you are I, I am you. Whatever is referred to as you (the self) or as I, whichever be the root and whichever be the branch, to that I offer my salutations again and again. Salutations to my self which is infinite and egoless: salutations to the formless self.* (*emphasis mine)

I had the same. I was driving a tedious drive through a desert, and all of a sudden everything in my vision was connected by lines - the trees, the houses, me, the clouds. It was an incredible vision - one that was the proof I needed for the one-ness of everything. And for that moment, I had the answers to everything! I saw how it all fit together, and I understood it. And then it was gone. Along with the blueprint of it all fitting together... I would say that my Kundalini presence had much to do with the development of a third eye. But my third eye speaks in triangles, very strange. But it helps me triangulate dynamics. The concept of 'I'. As I see it, it boils down to I Am, regardless of what path we took or what name we (don't) call it. When the onion layers of conditioning are removed, the light gets brighter and brighter. And the pony at the bottom of the pile of manure is our real Self. The I Am. "God". When they say 'chop wood, carry water' after enlightenment, I take it to mean to just keep doing what you're doing, stay humble, and Become The Task. It casts a whole different light on mopping the kitchen floor. The challenge at this point is to wear it correctly. To not let the ego get involved with this new condition, this thing we've been striving for for years. We truly become servants in a most beautiful way. The money thing seems to straighten out, and the more of it that is shared or given away, the more it seems to appear from strange places.

i wonder how in the world these figures were adopted? No one asked me. Did anyone else get asked?

steam

real

So you're saying they're triangulating little porkers?

investigation

In what language would they think about the fish tank?

Totally agreed. And wasn't it the Nazarene who said something about metaphor sometimes being the only way to express a higher concept?

The character of which you speak was certainly one of our dear Bums who passed. Surely the real life character was Marblehead.

What a wonderful conundrum this is. No - I was actually thinking of mother nature being contained within Mind. Steve was going in the other direction - human nature. That's kind of interesting, seeing as the crux of the Dao is that the dynamics of the universe reflect the dynamics of our own bodies. That is worth some thought. I don't see my mind as separate from yours. I have processed my portion of mind according to my conditioning, you to yours. I think that what lies at the bottom of our de-conditioning is the same essence - the same golden spark, the flame of our existence. But I think of course, it's all mind. It's all little atoms and neutrons and quarks spinning around and around - and one day I realized that for any matter to retain its shape, there must be a consciousness either within the object or the space around it. It only makes sense? What is to prevent all those little atoms from flying apart? (I know - electromagnetics or something) But...what is that? The same as Love?

I see us all as the same divine spirit. My take is that the more we go in to find our tangles, the less distinctive our personalities become. Our likes and dislikes become not as important, we cease wanting to 'be somebody' - at least not in the ego sense. We are the divine presence. If nothing else, we are like tent poles holding up the canvas of truth. We needn't prove to anyone, or to ourselves, our knowledge (more accurately, 'gnowledge'). We become the knowledge. The personality loss is a strange thing. It's a loss of conditioning, and the reactions to conditioning. The person speaks clearly, anchored in truth. The little physical compensations, like facial expressions, actions, words ----those leave the Master and he is solid, straight. He no longer acts in reaction to everything. He just knows.

I don't know whether I've done things right or wrong, but I ride herd on my thoughts. When I catch a critical one I try to immediately change the thought to the positive. It's a conscious thing. (Sort of like 'Gee, that poor woman is sure fat'.....but replacing that with 'oh, those are really great shoes she's wearing'). Seriously. And as I've been doing this for a long time, I can see all the difference in the world as to how my life unfolds. Keeping the eyes focused high up on the hill, trying to make our words match our practice. This, now, is my practice.

Thanks Dwai, I'll look it up for sure. Vasistha's Yoga just makes my heart sing.

Still Vasistha , p.253- "Living is appropriate to one whose mind is well controlled by his self-knowledge and who is aware of the truth. He should live who does not entertain notions of egoism, and who is unattached to anything, who is free from likes and dislikes and has a calm mind, whose mind has reached the state of no-mind. It is proper that he should live who is established in the perception of the truth and who functions here as if playfully, who is inwardly neither elated nor depressed by external events, who is free from the desire to acquire or to reject. He, hearing of whom or listening to whom, people experience great joy - life alone is appropriate to him, and not death."

But how does nature not fit into mind? My understanding (conjecture according to my conditioning) is that there is enough awareness in even inanimate objects to retain their form. Are you speaking of Mother Nature or the nature of mind? I'm thinking it's the same thing.

I'm on it. Right after 500 more pages of Vasistha's Yoga.