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Question: I would like to submit to you some remarks that came to me this morning.
"I am" is a thought ( feeling, notion…) appearing in awareness. Right.
Then this thought falsely "thinks" I am awareness. Awareness is me! (I see, I think, I am the doer, the thinker…).
But awareness is not a concept, a thought. The true I am is not a being, awareness is just a pointer to real, living awareness. And awareness is not two, but just One. Then what I am writing to you is it not awareness speaking to awareness? Only this in any case of speaking, acting, thinking?.. And when striving to find truth for years…suffering in different manners?.. Consciousness in its one's man show!? Why is consciousness playing this bad trick to itself? I know, I know there is no "why" because that is a question in the mind, which is but the product of awareness. In some manner this point seems to me this morning a capital riddle? Some say it's all a joke! Many thanks if you want to give "your" point of view. Answer: We may ask "Why does fire burn? Why would it be so bad as to burn everything?" When we do this we have created a puzzle where there is none. The burning is the fire and the fire is the burning. Burning and fire can only conceptually be separated, not actually. We could say that 'fire' and 'burning' are two ways of talking about the same appearance. Consciousness is not playing a bad trick on itself. Like there is no 'why' for the fire's burning, there is also no 'why' for the apparent game of hide and seek that makes up this manifestation: This play of hide and seek IS Consciousness, just like the burning IS the fire. Another way of looking at your "why?" -or 'purpose'- question: The rules of chess only serve a purpose within the context of the chessboard. On the board (or within the game) the pieces have their own 'purpose' but the game itself has no purpose, yet many purposes can be projected into it. Purpose requires the relative/dualistic tools of 'this for that' of 'now and later' of 'from here to there' and so on. For Timeless-Totality there can be no purpose -or future accomplishment- as IT is already everywhere and every-when. There is nothing else outside of IT to which IT could aspire. There is only IT. So, yes, we could say that this is 'awareness speaking to awareness.' or that Consciousness is a one (wo)man show! We may conclude that this is meaningless, but does IT not embrace and transcend the dual pair of meaning and meaningless? And does this not equally apply to many of our most joyful activities, such as singing, dancing or just gazing at clouds drifting by? As part of the play 'purpose/purposelessness' may appear, together with all possible pairs of opposing concepts. While expressing as this dance of duality, IT is forever One. IT is its own purposeless purpose and fulfilment; right here, right now.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com Art by: Jane Bergenn From her: 'Awareness Series' Found at: http://janebergenn.com/index.html Fair Use Notice |
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Although one speaks of appearances as existent and substantial phenomena, and of emptiness as some nonexistent and nonsubstantial phenomenon, in fact the situation is beyond the extremes of existence and nonexistence, like the unity of appearances and emptiness in a dream.
Naïve affirmation amounts to positing that things are existent in being continuous and having identity. Nihilistic denial amounts to positing that things are nonexistent in being momentary by nature but divisible to the point were nothing remains. Neither of these positions is the case, because the fact that time has never existed means that neither a continuity nor a moment has ever existed. About the nonexistence of karma and habitual patterns/conditioning: As for 'karma,' 'afflictive emotions,' 'the consequences of actions,' and 'habitual patterns,' it is impossible that these exist in actuality, for when your experience of them is pure (direct) they accord with the eight metaphors of illusoriness. You may assume they do exist in the mind, but if you examine the nature of their three phases -occurrence, duration, and disappearance- you cannot find either a mind as the support or an afflictive emotion as what it supports, and so they definitely do not exist. You may assume that they (conditionings) exist in the body, but if you investigate the body down to its irreducible subatomic particles, you will find neither a body as the support nor the consequences of actions as what it supports. Non of these has ever existed, just as a flower in the sky has no place to grow or any finite essence of its own. The great Garuda states; In this mind, about which it is fundamentally impossible to posit anything,
From: "The Treasure Trove of Scriptual Transmission"
By: Longchen Rabjam Tibet 1308-1363 
Available at: http://www.padmapublishing.com/index.html Art: Tibetan Thangka Painting Title: 'Garuda' Found at: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/ Fair Use Notice |
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Clarity is Freedom I had tea yesterday with a great theologian, and he asked me, “What is your experience of God’s will?” I liked that question – for the distillation of thought hones thought in others. Clarity, I know, is freedom. What is my experience of God’s will? Everyone is a traveler. Most all need lodging, food, and clothes. I let enter my mouth what will enrich me. I wear what will make my eye content, I sleep where I will wake with the strength to deeply love all my mind can hold. What is God’s will for a wing? Every bird knows that.
~ St. Teresa of Avila ~
From: Love Poems from God:
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. Translated by: Daniel Ladinsky Art by: Martin R. Murk Title: 'Taking Flight' Found at: http://www.originalbirdart.com/murk.htm Fair Use Notice |
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You are that which sustains everything just as it is. You are that which gives birth to all manifestation, seen and unseen, everywhere. You are that which destroys all manifestation in its own timing. You are that which is beyond beyondness itself. It is the sheer isness of everything and it is completely beyond it all as well. Nothing can be said about it and yet you are that one. It is flowing through your very eyes right now, this "motion of aliveness" ~ Elysha ~ Art by: Susan Riddle Title: 'Unseen Unspoken' Found at: http://www.susanriddle.com/ Fair Use Notice |
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Row, row, row your boat... (Or...If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.) A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a crew race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was that the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So American management hired a consulting firm and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new oars, shells and other equipment, and extra vacation days for practices, as well as bonuses. The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new shell, sold the oars, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced to India. |
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