manitou

Hi Rose - Nice to have you here - welcome

then comes the deluge. Nature's utterance is brief but o holy crap

automatic speech words all come from the same source different perspectives

It seems like a Catch 22 to me. Are the monks in the huts trying to 'earn' something? By staying in no-mind, this is comforting. To know that this is a dream within a dream is comforting. I just read in Vispashta's Yoga yesterday that the cosmic consciousness 'dreams' objects perceptible in this life as we dream objects in our dreams at night. All I know, is that by remembering that we are all individual whirlpools in the same ocean, that we are all the same stuff and it is illusive that we are actually separate, that I can love my brother as myself much easier. To know that person that I originally am making a momentary judgment on is 'me', in fact. That seems to me to be a worthy mind state to strive for - the universal reality and sameness of one and all, from the largest character to the smallest blade of grass. To spend one's life concentrating on doing virtuous acts for the purpose of earning something seems to be feeding the jiva again - it's still motivated by ego (or our own little illusive whirlpool, which is only temporary movement in the sea of beingness) That's the Catch 22 of it as well. Earning for 'self', which isn't the point either. All I know is I don't know. I just know that I love the connection and the warmth of the heart when I remember daily that 'I am' every other person (or animal) walking around. I can actually feel my heart soften. and to treat them accordingly, with the same kindness I would offer myself. Which brings up a whole other subject for those of us who are not used to treating ourselves kindly, for those of us who feel unworthy. We too are the eternal, and we must remember that daily. Be kind and love. and remember who you are at all times.

Spock sing it to you surprisingly tender mien not known previous* ​* (I took this dog because I knew no one else would, lol...)

save me, SOS from conceptualization no duality

Couldn't pass up these pieces of liberation - Vasistha to Rama, Vasistha's Yoga; "He sees the truth who sees that he is the omnipresent infinite consciousness which encompasses within itself all that takes place everywhere at all times" "He sees the truth who sees that in this body pleasure and pain are experienced on account of the passage of time and the circumstances in which one is placed; and that they do not pertain to him."

Portishead rescued and not a moment too soon save me, SOS

form is emptiness five seven five is haiku does the cowboy know?

Until they are closed our minds are like a newborn's observing it all

Yes, the heart shall cross The place no words penetrate This is all I know

Strange times we are in. What a challenge it will be to see the non-existence of everything that is happening and will be happening; and the challenge of keeping one's mind open, forming no opinions. Remembering that we (and the leaders we will have) are part and parcel of the same matter, without distinction. Merely a rising and falling of that which comes from the void, and returns to the void; as a temporary wave on the ocean. Yes. Happy New Moment, everyone. Love to you all. Really. Big love.

RAMA continued: O sage, thus neither in childhood nor in youth nor in old age does one enjoy any happiness. None of the objects in this world is meant to give happiness to anyone. The mind vainly seeks to find such happiness in the objects of this world. Only he is happy who is free from egotism and who is not swayed by craving for sense-pleasure: but such a person is extremely rare in this world. Indeed, I do not regard him as a hero who is able to battle successfully against a mighty army; only him I consider a hero who is able to cross the ocean known as the mind and the senses. RAMA continued: This world is like a potter's wheel: the wheel looks as if it stands still though it revolves at a terrific speed - even so to the deluded person this world appears to be stable even though in fact it is constantly changing. This world is like a poison tree: one who comes into contact with it is knocked unconscious and stupified. All points of view in this world are tainted; all countries in the world are territories of evil; all the people of the world are subject to death; all actions are deceitful. (from Vasistha's Yoga, Swami Venkatesananda)

Well, it sure explains 35 years of depression, once the coping mechanism of alcohol was removed...

What a cockamamie thing life is, lol. Thanks for your thoughts, Brian. I do realize that you're absolutely right. I'm suspecting there are plenty of folks that don't get down to their bottom truth in this lifetime at all. I actually do feel fortunate to some degree. Hopefully more so as my physical circumstances evolve, as they must. I really do need to listen to my heart - but very slowly, as it's fickle and not yet trustworthy. This will be done with baby steps. but it will be done. Unknown what the end result will be. It amazes me how a person can be so strong in some areas and so weak in others. No getting away from imprints, methinks. But just to see them for what they are, acknowledge that they're there, and have the courage to go in a different direction. And to turn my back on the past, accept new knowledge and wear it anew, integrating it into my thinking. I do know that 'rebelling' against a situation has never worked for me. It never works to 'run away from', as that thing you're running away from is always a ball and chain around your ankle. It must be acknowledged, faced and seen in its entirety, and replaced with different thinking, different actions. It only takes a moment to see it. And I am seeing it. The Catastrophe story above was like a knife in my heart. Truth hurts. At the risk of TMI - I will be going to an AA meeting tomorrow night here in Ocala - a meeting I've never been to before. I have told Joe that it's a women's stag (the best meetings are men and women's stags in which a much deeper level of character is discussed). What I haven't told Joe is that it's an LGBT meeting as well. Lesbian women in the AA program. I haven't found the courage yet to tell him, yet I've told him in the past of my attraction to women. But this is so imminent and I can't seem to muster the courage. I suspect I'll tell him after the meeting because I know I will come back from the meeting with a more comfortable mindset, hearing other women's stories. The name of the meeting is Freedom to be Me. I have been using this as my mantra for several days now, and it is greatly empowering. Just knowing that the meeting is there. I can't wait, really looking forward to just listening and learning. Hope I'm not overstepping this thread with my personal concerns. But those last selections of CT's were just too powerful to let slip by. thanks for your indulgence, I have no one else to talk to. Too much a loner. God, I love all of you.

I feel like I have 'known this but not gnown this' for years. What a crossroads, and how disastrous that it comes late in life. What wasted time. I want to cry. I am crying.

OMG. How this hen is coming home to roost for me. It's becoming real, so very real to me, that we truly are a projector, projecting out the film from the inside to the outside. I am realizing how very dead my movie has been, how delusional. How I have not allowed myself to be Free to be Me. How I have been hiding behind the screen of another, not wanting to hurt his feelings - for years. How unhappy I am and don't even realize it. And that I have done this to myself out of lack of courage, out of convenience. I am currently listening to some Chopra CD's that are really driving this nail home. The fact that these particular passages are being offered up by CT on this thread - at this time in my life - are nothing short of miraculous to me.

For some reason, the above quote of Lobsang Tenzin reminds me of the fisherman alone in a boat, who sees a much larger ship coming right at him, not veering one way or the other. The fisherman is irate and hollering, his ego all afluff, until he realizes that the ship has no captain. At which point he merely gets out of the way and lets the driverless ship pass.

Maybe some of it comes from our own control issues too. Great comment, Jetsun. We absolutely don't. Stosh, come over here by the fire and have a cup of hot chocolate. You couldn't be more wrong.

It's always nice to keep in mind - could anybody have told you what not to do when you were younger? Did you not have to make your own mistakes? I sure did. But those things that 'seemed' the most horrible, like me having to go through years of alcoholism, for example - turned out to be the very best thing in the long run, due to the need to recover and find myself on a completely different path. The opposite path from the one I was on. Yet, had I always listened to my folks, I wouldn't have taken that first drink. But, out of rebellion, I did. All I know is that what is seemingly bad turns out to be very good - and vice versa. Raising kids? Never had them. But I think being a good example would be the best place to start.

We can take heart that, if nothing else, we have left a body of work on this website. We have all been part and parcel of each other's evolution.

Here in the U.S., we now have a new leader. Whether we woke up this morning in extreme elation or extreme disgust as our first emotion, it seems to me that there could not be a better time to put into practice that which we walk toward - the mindset of no opinion, of finding the spaces between the events, of living in the spaces between the words. The mindset of the Master. To embrace the Is-ness of things as they are, not as we think they should be. To live in observation, not inner dialogue; to leave personality behind and live in the context of our Being. To find the space from which thoughts, words, and events derive and dwell there. As luck would have it, I am doing a re-read of an old Eckhart Tolle book, the one in which he tells the 'Is That So' story of the Zen master. I read this last night: "The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All he replied was "Is that so?" "News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. "You are the father, so you look after him." The Master took loving care of the child. A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to see Hakuin to apologize and ask for forgiveness. "We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father." "Is that so?" is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them. "The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: "Is that so?" He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody's victim. He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness." (Thank you, Eckhart!) Mr. Trump is now a leader of the free world. Is that so?

How very simple, once Realized. And to know the purpose of suffering is ultimate liberation.

'Our' way. I'll be in Ocala in 2 weeks - yeehaw! What a nice fall this year, though. Seems like the reds are redder than they've been in the past few years - and there is a lot of multiplicity of color on each tree for some reason - the same tree will have bright yellow and bright red at the same time. Probably to do with the late summer temps, and then the sudden early morning temperature dives. Seemed like the last few falls were, well, muted. This year is a multicolor wonderland, at least in Ohio.

Welcome to TDBs. So glad to have you here -