Tag: non-duality

Silly Musings on Keeping Your Hands Off

“The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking.

If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘Enlightened’, illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it wherever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold.

This is the meaning of: ‘I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind’.”

‘The nature of the Mind when understood, No human speech can compass or disclose. Enlightenment is naught to be attained, And he that gains it does not say he knows.’

-Bodhidharma

—from The Zen Teaching of Huang Po

I’ve been studying the early sources of zen, which is the Japanese name and Buddhist/Indian sources. I use the lower case there because what is written is not Zen. You can’t really study Zen on anonymous social media sites. But the discussions can be interesting and revealing of our dualitic thinking.

Anyone claiming truth is making a power play.

No word can reveal this, silence enshrines it. 

Piercing sensory perception and conceptual thought brings an immediate end to illusion. This is directly seeing and perceiving with the mysterious intuition. This awareness is not exclusive to Zen. Plotinus and Eckart seemed to have come to the same place as the sages. 

Hands off, yes, indeed. 

—-

I think this is where the best art comes from.

Feeling this fire is one aspect, but walking into it is a whole other experience.

Walking into the fire is an act of self immolation, sacrifice and an overcoming of fear and is maybe the only courageous thing we can do.

No longer bound by talent or skill or lack thereof, but truly transcending these. 

I would say walking into the fire is an act of faith as well and opens a portal to nowhere and everywhere.

The raw expression of Jack Kerouac from ‘On the Road’ or the writing of his insane mad friend, Neal Cassady, being western examples.

An enlightened, if sad teacher, Harold Bloom, explored the American Sublime deeply through our literature. I like his thinking on these subjects. He’s a bit too brilliant for me though 😉

Reading Jack Kerouac again and Neal recently and Bloom’s Opus, The Daemon Knows as well as the old zen texts.

Click to access Huangpo.pdf

Jack and his band of merry fools were maybe Holy Barbarians.

The Beats’ Holy Grail: The Letter That Inspired On the Road

Something in their Barbarian ways speaks deeply to me.

I spent my own wild crazy days on the road. 

Now I just enjoy sitting in the garden. 

But that fire lifts you up at key times and can consume you. 

It is too intense to live in. 

The Open Road somehow feels like a quick path to death. 

How many artists have been destructively consumed by the fire of their passions?

But our deeper passions can save us.

Compare these artistic shooting stars to the sages who lived to 120.

I can’t say one way is better than the other.

But I’m in no hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil. 

https://www.christies.com/features/neal-cassady-long-lost-letter-to-jack-kerouac-comes-to-auction-7393-1.aspx

Blow your horn!

Rage rage rage against the dying of the light.

No Path

nopath

“I exhausted myself, looking.
No one ever finds this by trying.
I melted into it and came home,
Where every jar is full,
But no one drinks.” – Lalla

There is no path to the higher Self.

There is no external salvation.

There is no enlightenment.

There is no escape from your predicament.

Heaven is here now.

Hell is here now.

Choose which you will inhabit.

This is the Best Possible World, here and now, you don’t go again.

This is you being confronted with the Truth of Self, what will you choose?

This is the eternal moment…now…now…now…now.

Not only is there no one here seeking, there is nothing to find.

Let me say that again…

THERE IS NOTHING TO FIND AND NO ONE HERE SEEKING

Gibberish? I know it is Truth. That is of no help to you though, is it? Now that we have that out of the way, let me suggest you leave your gurus and teachers if you follow any, they want you too anyway, cast off and sail inside to the shores of knowing led by the True Light of your Self. Either these holy ones, ha, know what I am saying already or they are as lost as the people that follow them. We all need community, but we share in that as equals. There is no higharchy among us needed when all take responsibility for their actions and reactions, we are all equals, because we are of the same stuff. No one has the right to dictate your actions, they can force and coerce you, but you have the choice how you respond with your actions and reactions. This is a debatable point dependent on your understanding of free will, in actuality there may be no free will. In the world around you, you have the illusion of choice, but they are mediated by cause and effect.

Your suffering is illusory, I know it hurts, I didn’t say it will not hurt, but no one is here to hurt and no one is hurting you. A paradox, no? How will you resolve it? The shackles that bind you are bigger than your neck and limbs, they slip on and off.

Perhaps you do or don’t acknowledge the spiritual aspect of your being, but there is one, have no doubts, shrug, or struggle with them forever, it is your individual choice. I care, because we all have a stake in our collective awareness and our contribution. Unbalance unbalances all, I seek balance inside and without, for all of us. A balance and agreement must be made between your shadow and light aspects and if we can all do this, the world around us will be as it is naturally and we can flow in it naturally balanced, with balanced concern and freedom from suffering.

There is no winner, no struggle needed.

Everything here at QU is meant to show you there is a knowing possible in life, you need not be tossed on the waves with no hope. Except it isn’t some rope you must grab external to yourself, or some secret teaching you need to find, you are the rope and your own hope. Bumping through life is not needed forever, though it is necessary sometimes. There is an awareness about the world inside of you that is possible to find, a balance, a cancelling of the terms. There are many ways to approach it and bring it forth from inside yourself.

Simply, you are the path to your own salvation from suffering and doubt…

Act accordingly.

I grew up an Evangelical Christian in the US. It’s a nationalist religion short and sweet. We have all heard from Christian fundamentalists that magic and witchcraft is linked with the Devil and that it is Satanic and you will go to hell if you practice it, but after understanding what real Magick is about and its purpose, its given me some insight into the real reason it is demonized. If we know anything about organized religion it uses ideas and symbols to control and indoctrinate people. Magick and occult practices on an individual level uses ideas and symbols to free a person’s mind and allows them to look at things from different perspectives to gain Self knowledge. If the goal of religion is to keep people ignorant, submissive, and controlled than the knowledge of Magick and the Estoeric practices is just as much a threat to blind faith as the knowledge of science and evolution are to blind faith.

I’m not here to promote the Devil or God, whatever those things are, they aren’t knowable or real maybe.

THERE IS SOMETHING HERE THOUGH

And we are flowing in it. I will keep my options open, I know how it acts, I know myself in it, but I don’t know what it is.  I’m here to remind you of something you forgot about yourself though. Anytime you come here to QU, you will be confronted with alternate ways to see yourself and the world and how to find yourself as the path.

YOU ARE THE PATH

This is the meaning of Christ’s words I found for myself. When you are ready to leave it all behind and go inside, you will begin a journey you will never be able to anticipate in the flow of life, you can be led by a honed intuition with no fear able to take any rough water. You are here to dissolve yourself back into that swirling whatever we are in right now. There is no up or down, left or right, good or evil, yet, in balance, all works out the way it should every moment.

THIS IS THE WAY

 

Know Thyself

“I exhausted myself, looking.
No one ever finds this by trying.
I melted into it and came home,
Where every jar is full,
But no one drinks.

On the way to God the difficulties
feel like being ground by a millstone,
like night coming at noon,
like lightning through the clouds.
But don’t worry!
What must come, comes.
Face everything with love,
as your mind dissolves in God

I didn’t trust it for a moment,
but I drank it anyway,
the wine of my own poetry.
It gave me the daring to take hold
of the darkness and tear it down
and cut it into little pieces.”

[Lalla – 14th Century]

Know Thyself

 

 

Journeys in Bangalore

Sharing some pictures and videos from my recent Bangalore India walkabout. Even a pic of me in there if you have been curious. It’s New Years here! Much thanks to Viktor my trusted guide. We talked of life, family, spirit, and  country, he was the best part of the trip!

Hari Om Tat Sat
Hari Om Tat Sat
Hari Om Tat Sat

Lil ole Me after my offering to Brahma
Viktor!
Ghandi statue
Brahma
Local New Years festival. Flower chariots.
Lord Ganesh
Shiva
Ganesh is fresh!

The Dragon and The Hanged Man

the-great-red-dragon-and-the-woman-clothed-with-the-sun-1810

“Teachers open the door, but you must enter for yourself.”

Great knowledge presented itself
Freely
Swirling Cosmic Consciousness enveloped me
In the path of sweeping change
Caught in the inescapable
The only path forward
I mount the horse of our greatest fate
Delusions of future probabilities
Dispelled
The Dragon rose to confront that
In me divided
Opposites
Do you see
Good
I KNOW nothing
Perhaps you can show me The Way
The Lodge of the Masters
Was here before us all along
What is Right
Exists beyond me
Never stop
I thought I knew this tune
How can I KNOW
Barely crawled out of the muck
You are a slave or a master
You should be fine with either
I can not believe in anything
I can only stay for a moment
And move on to the next moment
I see and feel the threads of my future
Reaching back into me
Hungering
This was the moment of choice
No more choices
Only what IS
I seek naked
Nothing to hide
Nothing before me or you
In my nakedness I feel no shame
I see you in yours
And finally I see
We are the same
We are One

maj12

Breath

image

I try to catch my breath
It slips through my fingers
There is no stopping
Only rising and falling
There is only The Breath

Image – Altarpiece of Jacques de Baerze, detail of `The Divine Breath’

No Separation

goodandevil

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” – Buddha

Two Friends: Teachings of the No Self

My personal journey has led me into communion with the Divine within myself. My poetry is connected directly to that source in me. I have been enjoying many new poems and poets, but few, honestly, no one can touch the enlightened and aware poetry of Rumi for me at this time. I suppose that speaks of the journey itself. There is a progression. Things progress nicely. I wanted to share it with you. This poem cuts to the heart of the journey for me. I love this teaching because it is a conjunction of many such teachings in Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. This is a nexus point of truth. You pay attention to those in a world with so many voices. You have to trust your heart, your only true guide. This is about living a non-dual life, merging the Divine into your conscious awareness. This is possible. It’s real.

The idea of the “No Self” is powerful and universal. There are extreme definitions of this concept. But you can learn for yourself by stopping your thinking and fretting and learning to BE where you are. Your Light is a precious gift. The way to embrace it is to let it Shine and just BE! Don’t hide your Light, you have found as I have, that is impossible. Let your vessels be broken and let the Divine swirling all around you lift you out and up into the highest Heaven.

Two Friends

A certain person came to the Friend’s door
and knocked.
“Who’s there?”
“It’s me.”
The Friend answered, “Go away. There’s no place
for raw meat at this table.”

The individual went wandering for a year.
Nothing but the fire of separation
can change hypocrisy and ego. The person returned
completely cooked,
walked up and down in front of the Friend’s house,
gently knocked.
“Who is it?”
“You.”
“Please come in, my self,
there’s no place in this house for two.
The doubled end of the thread is not what goes through
the eye of the needle.
It’s a single-pointed, fined-down, thread end,
not a big ego-beast with baggage.”

But how can a camel be thinned to a thread?
With the sheers of practices, with doing things.

And with help from the one who brings impossibilities to pass,
who quiets willfullness,
who gives sight to one blind from birth.

Every day that one does something.
Take that as your text.
Every day God sends forth three powerful energies:
One, from the sperm of the father into the mother,
So growth may begin.
Two, a birth from the womb of the ground,
so male and female may spring into existence.
Three, there’s a surge up from the surface
into what’s beyond dying, that the the real beauty
of creating can be recognized.

There’s no way to every say this.

Let’s return to the two friends whose thread became single,
Who spell with their two letters
The original word,
BE.

B and E tighten around subjects and objects
that one knot may hold them. Two scissor blades
make one cut.
And watch two men washing clothes.
One makes dry clothes wet. The other makes
wet clothes dry. They seem to be thwarting each other,
but their work is a perfect harmony.

Every holy person seems to have a different doctrine
and practice, but there’s really only one work.

Someone listening to a millstone falls asleep.
No matter. The stone keeps turning.

Water from the mountain
far above the mill keeps following down.
The sleepers will get their bread.

Underground it moves, without sound, and without repetition.
Show us where that source of speech is that has no alphabet. That spaciousness.

Where we are now is a narrow fantasy that comes from there,
and the actual, outside world is even narrower.
Narrowness is pain, and the cause of narrowness is manyness.

Creation was spoken with one sound, BE.
The two letters, B and E,
to record it, came after.
The meaning of the sound
And its resonance
Are one.

There’s no way to ever say this,
In so many words! And no place to stop saying it.

…Meanwhile, a lion and a wolf were fighting…

You are one!

Be The Change

“Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. When the ocean is searching for you,
don’t walk into the river. Listen to the ocean.” – Rumi

Be here with me now
Fall into the mystery
Feel the nature of existence

Consume me
No middle
Deep ignition

To sense time
Is to be distracted
Recognize where you are

Stop seeking
The more you feel yourself
Blue fire consumes

Only when your words stop
Do you begin to glimpse yourself
See and know yourself in the mirror of life

Awake to the awareness of yourself
That which you see watching you
Is you

In the moment
No separation
No fear
Quiet
Calm
Peace
Reflection

Thought is driven by fear and desire
The flame burns blue in the moment
A cleansing fire

I took the photo for this poem today. It represents the evolution of myself and ourselves connected to all and the Verse, whatever it and we are. I spent the weekend exploring and experiencing my consciousness at the Science and Non-Duality 2015 conference in San Jose, CA with my love. If you have never attended one, I highly recommend it. It is not what you expect, I promise. It’s an experience with a little bit for anyone on any path. I don’t share that to elevate myself or reflect my great spiritual wisdom. I was gathered there through moving without knowing and I had some amazing interactions and realizations, confirmations and challenges, peace and tension.

I wanted to encourage you if you are reading these words to take chances and be willing to throw everything you know away in seeking the truth. Change your mental, spiritual and physical state…as often as possible. Be present and aware of yourself in the world and others and your connection to all. If you have been here reading my ramblings, know I share openly and freely with you my honest spontaneous thoughts, feelings and impressions about life. I hope you are creating magic in yours. Let’s keep the alchemy going. Be the change.

Conference on Science and Non-Duality

I’ll be attending this month in San Jose, CA, 10/22-25, exploring the nature of consciousness. There is still room. I am so looking forward to this.

http://scienceandnonduality.com/exploring-the-nature-of-consciousness-2/program-sand15us/