ATTD News Letter number 17
Monday, October 27, 2003




Q & A

    Question: Joseph's Campbell's "follow your bliss" has touched my heart, and yet, as much as I continue to look for my "bliss," I have not found it in a livelihood which would make my heart sing.

    Are you suggesting that this is just "what is" and that there is nothing I can do to find my life's work and actually earn a living doing that? There is frustration, anxiety and great debt right now; do I have any choice in the matter?

    Answer: As I am not familiar with Joseph Campbell's "follow your bliss" I cannot say anything about the contents of the book. The title seems to suggest that there is a separate you that can either follow or not follow her bliss. From the non dual perspective this concept doesn't make much sense.

    It is not so much that you cannot do anything, but that there is no separate you to do it. Everything done or not done is how IT/God appears to him/herself. The sense of separation, the sense of being an individual, is also IT appearing AS the apparent individual. When seeing many beautiful statues and ornaments all made of go(l)d, you can either focus on all the different shapes or notice that in essence it is all One Substance.

    Everything that happens is an encouragement to see what it is that really lives 'your' live. If there really was a 'you' in control of 'your' thoughts and feelings, would this you ever have an unhappy thought or emotion? Again I am not suggesting that you are helpless, but that there is no you to be helpless.

    The problems you describe are painful. The more there is willingness to be with WHAT IS, regardless of what it is, the more there will be peace. The bliss your looking for gets obscured by the very looking, by wanting things to be different. As Chuang-Tzu said: Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.

    The more we want things to be different the greater the pain. We seemingly run into contradictions here, because if there is a wish for things to be different, then that is the way it is and that might be welcomed.

    Bliss is not something you get, but it is what you essentially are. It is the Aware Space in which the opposites of pain and pleasure arise. It is the deep silence from which everything comes forth and into which it dissolves again. It is the uncaused joy, unaffected by troubles; like a mirror is unaffected by what it reflects. You are THAT, You are the mirror in which both the 'you' and the current pain arises.

    If this is recognized and accepted by no one, there is peace. Suffering may continue or a way out may open up on the relative level. That what you truly are is Bliss itself and there is no one to follow or get it. It is simple and pure being. You Are That.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter mail to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com

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From the book 'Awakening to the Dream.'

    In our dreams we may encounter age-old mountains, oceans, stars, and planets. There may be people and animals, cities and forests. We may experience days or even years passing by. To the dreamer, it is all very real. The dreamer may run from an erupting volcano, and the accompanying fear can be so intense that it jolts him awake, at which point he is no longer concerned with what happened to the volcano or the other objects and characters that just moments ago populated his universe. From the perspective of the waking state, the dream may have lasted only a few seconds. Where was the time, the space, and the objects that filled it? We can say it was inside the dreamer, but it's equally true to say that the dreamer was inside the dream. This common experience clearly shows how apparently solid realities such as the world of objects, space, and time could well be illusory in nature.
The paperback is available at: http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/purchasebook.html
The eBook can be found at: http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/purchase.html

Some short and sweet reviews appeared at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/141200425X/

And a longer one at Swamy's book reviews:
http://www.freewebs.com/swamyreviews/awakeningtothedream.htm
Swamy invites authors of non-dualistic books to use his services.

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From; "Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State" by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

    The nature of phenomena is nondual,
    but each one, in its own state,
    is beyond the limits of the mind.
    There is no concept that can define
    the condition of "what is"
    but vision nevertheless manifests:
    all is good.
    Everything has already been accomplished,
    and so, having overcome the sickness of effort,
    one finds oneself in the self-perfected state:
    this is contemplation.


Publisher: Snow Lion Pubns; (March 1996)
ISBN: 1559390573


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Awakened Poetry


Tantra Eyes
http://www.mandalas.com/tantraeyes.htm

    Three Tantric Buddhist Women's Songs (8th - 11th c.)

    1
    KYE HO! Wonderful!
    Lotus pollen wakes up in the heart's centre--
    The bright flower is free from mud.
    Where do the colour and fragrance come from?
    What reason now to accept them or turn away?

    2
    WHO SPEAKS the sound of an echo?
    Who paints the image in a mirror?
    Where are the spectacles in a dream?
    Nowhere at all -- that's the nature of mind!

    3
    KYE HO! Wonderful!
    You may say "existence," but you can't grasp it!
    You may say "non-existence" but many things appear!
    It is beyond the sky of "existence" and "non-existence" --
    I know it but cannot point to it!

    Found at: http://womensearlyart.net/reference/praise.html

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Quote of the moment!

There is nothing to be reached. There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be attained. The conception that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the goal or peace always. You are the Self. You exist always.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Found at: http://www.deeshan.com
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Smile of the moment!




Sent to me by June from Australia.

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