nonduality's topics - tribe.net

The Brain on Spirituality

beki — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:11:09 GMT

I recently finished reading Jill Bolte Taylor's book "My Stroke of Insight" detailing her experience with the illusion of perception being shattered by observing what happened to her mind/ego as she had a stroke.

Has anyone else here read this book? I found it to be a very insightful read. I gives a bit of scientific background regarding how the human brain functons and then expands on it's role in defining how we perceive the illusion of life as experienced it in the physical world as well as it's role in spiritual awareness.

I'd love to hear what others think about the book.

posted in nonduality - 3 replies

The Way of the Wizard

☼Sunshine☼ — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:49:28 GMT

A wizard exists in all of us.

This wizard sees and knows everything.
The wizard is beyond opposites of light and dark, good and evil, ... all pleasure and pain. Everything the wizard sees has its roots in the unseen world. Nature reflects the mood of the wizard. The body and the mind may sleep, but the wizard is always awake.

The wizard possesses the secret of immortality. Deepak Chopra on The Way of the Wizard ... Enjoy

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3313968958314441665&q=Deepak+Chopra&pr=goog-sl

posted in nonduality - 8 replies

First-person spontaneous nirvikalpa samadhi

ed — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:57:20 GMT

Thought my account could provide perspective for anyone exploring non-duality. My Maya Gaia website (begun in 1997) geocities.com/maya-gaia/mysticalexp.html is a chronicle of my efforts to integrate a spontaneous transcendent experience which I had back in 1970. At the time, I was almost completely naive regarding religious, mystical, metaphysical or paranormal epiphenomena - a critical factor in lending credibility to the episode - but the experience started my search for explanation that is still ongoing. My research over the years has led to the conclusion that I experienced a classical Nirvikalpa Samadhi or Cosmic Consciousness with features remembered in extraordinary detail. I'm assuming anyone well-read on the subject would find my subsequent speculations after-the-fact of less interest as they are simply extrapolations of my limited perspectives on some non-dual resources on the Internet- selected through a process of passing them through the filter of my intuitive samadhi insight to see what sticks.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

.

Alexyana — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:55:58 GMT

posted in nonduality - 3 replies

Eckhart Tolle: Allowing for the New Earth to emerge..

zigo — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:48:02 GMT

great video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx526pO9UV0

posted in nonduality - 41 replies

Listen to my spirituality/ meditation podcast!

davidroel — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:23:18 GMT

http://davidroel.wordpress.com
Daily reading on spirituality, meditation, etc.
RSS and email delivery available.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Satsang teacher feedback.

Serendipity — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:46:14 GMT

I would like to start a thread to gather peoples direct experiences of the vast number of satsang teachers out there.

http://www.satsangteachers.com/ (heres a list to start with.)

Please reserve your input to those teachers you have attended at least 5 times. (or if you awoke fully and permanently in their presence.)

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

Advertising policy

atman — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:02:38 GMT

I wanted to survey opinions about advertising on the list. I think it makes sense to prohibit ads which have less to do with the subject matter. The recent ads that were posted have more to do with the subject matter, so I wasn't sure it would be appropriate to deny them to the readership. I'm looking for help in making this decision, so if anyone has an opinion about it, please chime in and let us know what you think.

Thanks.

--jody.

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

questions?

Kent — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:05:15 GMT

Is non-dualism something you experience in a flash then use as perspective in everyday duality life?, a state you visit regularly?, and or do some people actually spend their days walking around at one with everything?

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

My definition of Duality

djsouljourn — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 10:40:26 GMT

The way I interpret the word Duality is: the seeing, being, perception, creating, perpetuating, among other words, of divisive, hatefull, ways of War. That perpetuation of enemy, and realities assosiated with War.
Therefore to me Non-duality is a state or effort of Unity, community, friends, Peace, Lovers, and absoulutly a Profound Lack of War Idealy all the way into the perfect aspects of subtle life, Self, and relationships.

Peace & Blessings

Journey

posted in nonduality - 22 replies

New Moderator

Skeyeopener — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:04:29 GMT

Done with tribe for now. Who would like to moderate? Ooooh, I can hear the gears running on THAT one. ;^)

Peace All...

posted in nonduality - 4 replies

Sufism and Advaita

alex — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:35:07 GMT

from http://www.salagram.net/InterFaith.html

"There have been many Sufi saints in India like Mazhar Jan-i-Janan who accept Ram and Krishna as the Prophets of God..."

"Prince Muhammad Dara Shikoh (1627-1658 AD) the favorite Sufi son of Moghul emperor, Shah Jehan... wrote in his Persian translation of the Upanishads. 'After gradual research; I have come to the conclusion that long before all heavenly books, God had revealed to the Hindus, through the Rishis of yore, of whom Brahma was the Chief, His four books of knowledge, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda.' ... The Quran itself, he said, made veiled references to the Upanishads as the 'first heavenly book and the fountainhead of the ocean of monotheism.' In his Majma al-Bahrain, he sought to reconcile the Sufi theory with the Vedanta. He was able to affirm that Sufism and Advaita Vedantism (Hinduism) are essentially the same, with a surface difference of terminology."

posted in nonduality - 6 replies

IAM - Instant Advanced Meditation

Stacy — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:45:14 GMT

Have you seen these yet? I have been taking live classes with Steven Sashen and we asked him to make them public. He finally, after 2 years, did!

They are the fastest way I've ever experienced nonduality.

Stacy

http://www.advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?af=570391

posted in nonduality - 79 replies

Nonduality videos

Justin — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:32:12 GMT

Found some more nonduality vids on Youtube... for some reason i'd imagined that there wasn't anything on youtube but a quick search proved me wrong! It's good to see this stuff on video at last, here are some of my picks:

Tony Parsons seems a good communicator of this message:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORLGxB-RiTI

As does Jeff Foster, a young guy from the UK, very clear indeed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe4uXqsytzs

And I found a great introductory video here, with a few good interviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivwDfGf0_IU

Does anyone know of any good introductory books to nonduality?

posted in nonduality - 5 replies

Got Self?

Od — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:12:39 GMT

You're invited to join a new tribe called "Self or No-Self, or...."

http://tribes.tribe.net/selfnoself

We are hoping this will serve as a forum for discussion of all concepts of "self and other," as a central issue common to Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and other religions, and to philosophy and science, as well.

All viewpoints are welcome.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

headlessness

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 22:21:26 GMT

Is anyone familiar with this approach to nonduality? It's called "The Headless Way."

http://www.headless.org/English/main.html (a very nice page audio, video, and exercises)

Douglas Harding is, or was a very interesting cat (I believe he's still alive but has Alzheimer's), I think. I've never been able quite to wrap my brain around his ideas but lately I've found myself thinking about them, especially the main one (no head).

Comments?

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Anyone in West LA up for rearranging reality from the inside out?

Andrea — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:12:26 GMT

I just posted an event listing for Integrative Awakening / Living Dharma Satsang.

This is a facilitated group which is based largely on Buddhist Dharma and Hindu Advaita teachings (Ramana Maharshi gets a bit of mention). This is a path to awakening, a practice that you can do while driving, shopping, cleaning house, hanging out with friends, and eventually while engaging frontal lobes for left-brain activities such as desk jobs! (Getting to that point takes awhile; at first I couldn’t hold my awareness and talk at the same time. It’s a muscle, and you have to work it out.)

We use a heart-centered meditation technique, bringing awareness out of the head down to the heart, with Vipassana-style awareness of body sensations in the areas of the heart and belly. This practice is simple, powerful, and as effective as you want to make it. I have never been able to do sitting meditation consistently in this lifetime, and in only four months, I have gotten to the point that I LIKE doing a one-hour sit in the morning, and feel “off” if I miss it! I have actually had moments of truly non-dual awareness while deep into this practice.

We meet on Sunday afternoons starting at 2 pm. Check out the “Integrative Awakening” section on my profile for more info.

Andrea

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

a cute little video

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:44:58 GMT

yes it is!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ivwDfGf0_IU

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

Artists Get it ...

☼Sunshine☼ — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:25:18 GMT

http://www.intelligentinfinity.com/

posted in nonduality - 24 replies

Do you know who you are?

silent-still-axis — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:05:59 GMT

Do you know who you are?

You think you’re a leaf.
A young leaf uncurling in the sun.

Perfect in form,
You grow and absorb light.

Surrounded by older leaves,
all pushing towards the sunlight at the top of the tree.

All the leaves around you are similar in shape and colour,
but only you have your exact shape
and only you have your perspective,
only you fill the space you’re in.

You’ve grown to be an individual,
With a unique view and a unique life.

The older leaves take on beautiful colours,
and the colours turn into decay.

You mourn as the oldest leaves curl and fall,
to rot into the ground.
You mourn because you have forgotten who you are.

No longer young you start to have fear,
alone now and isolated.
you exist in separation.
aware of your short life span,
a tiny leaf dying into the infinate nothing.

You are not dying,
you have just forgotten who you are.

you are a tree.

you only have ideas about your life as an individual,
there is only the concept that we’re a leaf.

in truth there is no separation,

only tree.

posted in nonduality - 3 replies

To All Our Relations - A Prayer

☼Sunshine☼ — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:47:39 GMT

Aho ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8LzOXVsC70

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

The spiritual meaning of your life challenges

Fri, 18 May 2007 23:26:05 GMT

If the moderators will kindly permit a new book announcement, I would like to tell people about a spirituality book I’ve written and recently published that may be of interest and service.

Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth? explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, before we’re born for purposes of spiritual growth.

The book contains ten true stories of people who planned physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents.

The information about their pre-birth plans was obtained by four very gifted mediums and channels, including one who has the ability both to see and to hear the conversations we have with one another before we’re born. The book therefore contains the actual conversations people had with their future parents, children, spouses, friends, and other loved ones when they planned these challenges.

As readers come to understand that they themselves planned many of their challenges, suffering that once seemed purposeless becomes imbued with deep meaning. Wisdom may be acquired in a more conscious manner; feelings of anger, guilt, blame, and victimization are replaced by acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and peace.

A free PDF with a large sample of the book is available on the About the Book page at www.CourageousSouls.com. People may also wish to read the reviews on Amazon.

The book may be ordered on the Courageous Souls web site or from Amazon, including Amazon Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. It may also be ordered from any bookstore or library (in most countries) by providing them with the ISBN number (9780977679454).

Thank you for permitting me to post this message.

Kind regards,
Robert Schwartz
author, Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?
www.CourageousSouls.com

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Sangha ans satsong in Europe?

Eli — Sun, 13 May 2007 23:43:44 GMT

Hi, I'm new to this tribe. Been going to Adya and Mokie (student of his who holds satsongs in SC) for a while now. I am going to Europe to play music and work for 6mos-1year starting June 19th, and one of my main intentions is to connect with satsongs (incl. video satsongs) in Europe. Please let me know if you're there or know people or info or anything (knowing of course we really DON'T know anything for sure). Thanks!

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

sushil — Wed, 09 May 2007 04:44:30 GMT

[Please note : This article is directly related to States of Consciousness, Awareness, Peace, Meditation and Spirituality]

[b]The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues. [/b]

The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.

[b]Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment. [/b]

Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.

Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.

If there are no gaps there is no emotion.

Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.

When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.

There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.

People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.

Emotion ends.

Man becomes machine.

A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.

[b]Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.

Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys emotional circuits.

A fast (large) society cannot feel pain / remorse / empathy.

A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself. [/b]

I am trying to get the following experiment conducted in a psychophysiology/ bio-chemistry laboratory.

There is a link between visual / verbal speed ( in perception, memory,
imagery ) and the bio-chemical state of the brain and the body.

Emotion can intensify / sustain only when visual and verbal processing
associated with the emotion slows down ( stops / freezes ).

The degree of difficulty of an emotion depends upon the degree of
freezing (of visuals and words ) required to intensify and sustain that
particular emotion.

Experiment:

Subjects (preferably actors specialising in tragedy / tragic roles )
will be asked to watch a silent video film showing any of the
following:-

(1) Human suffering.
(2) Animal suffering.
(3) Suffering ( Destruction ) of Air / Water / Land / Trees.

Subjects will be asked to intensify and sustain the subjective feeling of pain/ grief for the sufferer.

The chemical changes associated with the emotion in the body(blood) would be measured by appropriate methods.

The silent video film will be shown at different speeds :
(1) 125% of actual speed.
(2) Actual/real speed.
(3) 75% of actual speed.
(4) 50% of actual speed.
(5) 25% of actual speed.

Results :

(1) Intensity of emotion increases with the decrease in visual speed.
(2) Intensity of emotion is maximum when visual speed is minimum (25%
of actual speed)
(3) The amount of chemical change associated with the emotion in the
body(blood) will be found to increase with the decrease in visual speed.
(4) The chemical change is maximum when visual speed is minimum.
(5) The amount of chemical change will increase with the decrease in
breathing rate. Breathing becomes so slow and non-rhythmic that it stops
for some time at the inhalation/ exhalation stages.

The above co-relations will be valid for all subjects -even for those who cannot feel pain/ grief. Such subjects will experience emotion associated with boredom/ discomfort/ restlessness/ irritability/ uneasiness. The chemicals released will be different but the co-relation between visual speed and amount of chemical will be same( the breathing rates will be different/ fast). All subjects will experience some kind of emotion.

[If scientists can discover 4000 different chemicals in cigarette-smoke then they can certainly detect the few chemicals released in blood when weexperience higher-level emotions like pain, empathy, compassion, remorse etc… ]

In the 2nd stage of experiment we shall replace the silent video film with a Narrator ( Audio only ) and repeat the procedure thereby establishing the link between intensity of emotion and verbal speed. The narrator will slow down verbal speed by-- speaking slowly, stretching words, repetition of words/ sentences & making use of
pause/ silence between words.

Please note:
(1) A thinking mind cannot intensify / sustain any emotion.
While this statement is generally true for all emotions, it is particularly true for all painful emotions.

(2) Pain / remorse / empathy cannot be experienced in a society in which visual (verbal) speed and breathing- rates are fast . It is impossible.

PROOF.
Proof of the link between pain and slow visuals / words :-

In the last century man has made thousands of movies / films on various
themes / subjects. Whenever pain / tragedy is shown in any film the
visuals ( scenes ) and words ( dialogues ) are always slowed down. In
many films tragedy is shown in slow motion. At the most intense moment
of pain the films almost become static / stationary.

Tragedy-films provide direct proof / evidence of the link between pain
and slowness.

Pain can intensify / sustain only when visual ( and verbal ) speed slows
down( stops/ freezes).

[b]Change in visual speed over the years. [/b]

One thousand years ago visuals would change only when man physically
moved himself to a new place or when other people ( animals / birds )
and objects ( clouds / water ) physically moved themselves before him.

Today man sits in front of TV / Computer and watches the rapidly
changing visuals / audio.

He sits in a vehicle ( car / train / bus ) and as it moves he watches
the rapidly changing visuals.

He turns the pages of a book / newspaper / magazine and sees many
visuals / text in a short span.

[b]Change in verbal speed over the years. [/b]

In ancient times verbal processing was “live” in nature—ie it happened when people actually spoke.
Today there is non-stop verbal processing inside the mind through print and electronic media ( newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, computer etc…) as a result of which the verbal content & speed has increased thousands of times.

The speed of visuals ( and words ) has increased so much during the last
one hundred years that today the human brain has become incapable of
focussing on slow visuals /words through perception, memory, imagery.

If we cannot focus on slow visuals / words we cannot experience emotions associated with slow visuals /words.

Before the advent of Industrial Revolution Man's thinking was primarily
limited to :

(a) visual processing ( slow visuals )
(b) verbal / language processing ( slow words )

Today there are many kinds of fast thinking :

(1) visual processing ( fast visuals )
(2) verbal / language processing ( fast words )
(3) Scientific / Technical thinking ( fast )
(4) Industrial thinking ( fast )
(5) Business thinking ( fast )

(3), (4) & (5) are associated with Numbers / Symbols / Equations /
Graphs /Circuits / Diagrams / Money / Accounting etc…

As long as the mind is doing this kind of thinking it cannot feel any
emotion - not an iota of emotion.

In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
In a thinking ( scientific / industrial ) society emotion itself becomes extinct.

Emotion is what remains in the mind when visual/ verbal processing slows down (stops/ freezes)

There are certain categories of people who feel more emotion (subjective experience ) than others.

If we attempt to understand why (and how ) they feel more emotion we can learn a lot about emotion.

Writers, poets, actors, painters ( and other artists )

[b]Writers [/b]
Writers do verbal ( and associated visual) processing whole day- every day.
They do slow verbal ( and associated visual) processing every day.
(A novel that we read in 2 hours might have taken 2 years to write. This is also the reason why the reader can never feel the intensity & duration of emotion experienced by the writer )

[b]Poets [/b]
Poets do verbal ( and associated visual ) processing whole day- every day. There is more emotion in poetry than in prose. This happens because there are very few words ( and associated visuals ) in poetry than in any other kind of writing. There is a very high degree of freezing / slowing down of visuals & words in poetry.

[b]Actors [/b]
Actors do verbal ( and associated visual ) processing whole day- every day. During shooting / rehearsal they repeat the dialogues ( words ) again and again ( the associated visuals / scenes also get repeated along with the dialogues )

[b]Painters [/b]
Painters do visual ( and associated verbal ) processing whole day- every day. They do extremely slow visual processing - The visual on the canvas changes only when the painter adds to what already exists on the canvas.

There are some important points to be noted :

All these people do visual & verbal processing - whole day - every day.
They do slow visual & verbal processing.
They do not do scientific / industrial / business processing whole day - every day.

Most of the city people doing mental work either do this kind of mental processing which is associated with Numbers / Symbols/ Equations / Graphs / Circuits / Diagrams / Money / Accounting etc… or they do fast visual ( verbal ) processing whole day - every day.

This kind of thinking ( processing ) has come into existence only during the last 200 years and has destroyed our emotional ability ( circuits ).

Once we speed up our minds we become incapable of slowing down [it would take years of effort to slow down]. One can understand it this way - A supercomputer cannot process at the rate of an ordinary computer. Once we speed up [and we have been speeding up for several generations now] we cannot slow down because the neural circuits get altered - the bio-chemistry of the brain and its anatomy changes.

[b]Self-Assessment of ( subjective ) intensity of emotion is almost always wrong. [/b]

Suppose the maximum intensity(and duration) of a particular emotion that
can be experienced by any human being is 100 units.

Let us suppose the maximum intensity(and duration) of that particular emotion ever
experienced by two people A & B in their entire life is :
A - 100units
B - 20 units

Now suppose A & B are made subjects on a particular day and are asked
to feel that particular emotion under experimental conditions ( or
outside the laboratory ) and the intensity &duration they actually experience is :

A - 90 units
B - 18 units

If A & B are then asked to indicate the intensity &duration of emotion on a scale
of 0 -10 their response is likely to be ;

A - 9
B - 9

Who is right and who is wrong ?
A is right.
B is wrong - B is wrong by a wide margin - B has experienced an
intensity(and duration) of 18 units out of a maximum of 100 units and his correct / actual score should be 1.8

Self- assessment ( self rating ) can be accurate only if people have
the capacity to experience the highest intensity &duration ( units ) of the
particular emotion under study.

In small(slow)agriculture-based societies the mind used to experience a state of emotion all the time because of physical work and slow visual/verbal processing . People who do physical work experience the same good subjective-feeling which is experienced by people who do physical excercise. [People who do physical work also sleep much better than people who do mental work - the quality of sleep is much better]. If we read one thousand-year-old literature we will not come across the term "boredom" - the concept of boredom did not exist in slow societies. There were long gaps between different visuals and between words/ sentences - and people had the ability to experience/ tolerate the gaps - it was normal for them.

Emotion can intensify / sustain only when visual / verbal processing slows down ( stops / freezes ). In an Industrial (thinking) society people experience very little emotion because of fast ( visual / verbal / scientific / industrial / business ) thinking.

Suppose the maximum intensity and duration of a particular emotion ( for most people ) in a fast society has reduced to 5 units ( from 100 units that people used to experience in earlier /slower societies ).

If such people experience 4 units of emotion they will give themselves a
rating /score of 8 on a scale of 0-10 whereas their actual score should
be 0.4

[Please note :
Fast emotions =emotions associated with fast visuals/fast words/fast breathing/fast heart-rate.
Slow emotions=emotions associated with slow visuals/slow words/slow breathing/slow heart-rate.
Rate of thinking=number of visuals/words processed per minute.
Gaps between thinking =gaps between visuals/ words/ sentences.]

Thoughts and Emotions are interlinked - but different things - totally/ completly different.

Words can be spoken - words can be read - words can be heard.

Emotion is a subjective-experience. Other examples of subjective experience are taste, smell, touch, headache, stomach pain.

One can understand the difference this way :

When we eat an apple we can feel the taste of apple. Apple can give us the taste of apple - but apple is not taste.

If we pour apple juice into a glass - the glass will not feel the taste - it does not have the ability to feel taste.

If a person eats an apple he will feel the taste - because he has the ability to generate taste from apple.

Words/ Visuals can evoke, intensify and sustain emotions - but words/ visuals are not emotions.

In every field there is easy work/activity and difficult work/activity.

In mathematics there is easy mathematics and difficult mathematics. Everyone can add 2+4 within microseconds. A PhD level problem of mathematics would take hours [or more] to solve - and that too only by someone who has spent 20 - 25 years learning mathematics upto PhD level.

Same way in the field of emotions there are easy emotions and difficult emotions. Easy emotions are evoked within nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds - anger, lust, fear, pleasure, entertainment and excitement are some examples. These emotions are associated with fast breathing and heart-rate. These emotions don"t require gaps between thinking to evoke, intensify and sustain. These are the emotions that can be found everywhere in today's fast society.

Then there are difficult emotions - which require ability and years of effort to develop - emotions associated with pain, compassion and peaceful states of mind are some examples. These emotions are associated with slow breathing and heart-rate. These emotions require freezing of thought - freezing of visuals and words - huge amounts of gaps between thinking - to evoke, intensify and sustain.

The experiments I have proposed are primarily meant for those people who understand only the language of science. We don't need experiments to understand that our present lifestyle is destroying our Minds and Environment - the evidence is everywhere - left, right and center. The craze and fetish for science and scientific proof has mainly existed for the last 50 - 100 years. People have lived on this planet for thousands of years without needing scientific proof to understand something. It is Science and Technology that created the consumerist Industrial Society which has led to the destruction of Mind and Nature/ Environment. Who needs more science or more scientific proof. [b]Science is not the solution - Science is the problem.[/b]

[b]IQ Vs EQ [/b]

IQ always has an element of change in it – IQ is about trying to make/ discover/ invent something new all the time.
Change is an inherent feature of IQ.
IQ is also about thinking more in less time—it involves speeding up of mind. Someone who does more mathematics in less time is considered more intelligent in mathematics. IQ is about change and speed.

EQ is about sustainment of the same feeling/experience over a period of time. When we experience any higher-level emotion for 10 minutes we experience the same feeling( subjective experience) over and over again for 10 minutes.
The( same) feeling can sustain only if there is Repetition.
EQ involves Repetition—Constancy—Sameness.

IQ and EQ are contradictory.
IQ and EQ are opposites.
IQ and EQ are inversely proportional.

(1) A thinking species destroys the planet.
(2) Animals lived on earth for billions of years (in very large numbers)
without destroying nature.
(3) They did not destroy nature because their thinking / activity was
limited to searching for food for one time only.
(4) Man has existed on earth in large numbers for only a few thousand
years / a few hundred years.
(5) Within this short period Man has destroyed the environment.
(6) This destruction took place because of Man's thinking.
(7) When man thinks he makes things.
(8) When he makes things he kills animals / trees / air / water / land.
( Nothing can be made without killing these five elements of nature ).

(9) A thinking species destroys the planet.

[b]Intelligence Is A Curse. [/b]

This planet is on the verge of total destruction.

The cause of destruction is – overactivity.
[Out of millions of species in this world the human-species is the only one that has indulged in overactivity]

The cause of overactivity is – Intelligence.
[The environment would never have got destroyed if Man had been only as intelligent as animals]

Intelligence is a curse - a disease - a disability - an abnormality.

Intelligence is the biggest cause/ source of destruction in this world.

[In fact Intelligence is the only cause of destruction in this world other than natural causes]

[b]Mental work is injurious to the mind and planet. [/b]

Life was never good in the past.

Life will never be good in future.

Life can never be good.

Suffering is a part of life - an inherent feature of life. Suffering can never be eliminated.

There is Physical suffering - There is Mental suffering.

In pre-industrial society there were physical diseases caused by virus and bacteria.
In modern society there are hundreds of lifestyle related physical diseases - Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes, Obesity, Multiple Organ Failures.

Mental suffering will always exist. It exists in agrarian society. It exists in industrial society. As soon as we stop working we experience mental suffering.

We avoid mental suffering by working ceaselessly.

There is no higher purpose behind work.

People do not work because they want to work.
People work because they cannot stop working.

The energy generated by the food we eat forces us to work ceaselessly.

Energy = Energy[Physical Work] + Energy[Mental Work] + Energy[Suffering/ Subjective Experience]

All three energies on the right side are inversely proportional to one another.

When we do hard physical work or hard mental work or a combination of physical work and mental work almost all energy is used up in doing work.

When we stop physical work and mental work the unused energy is experienced as suffering/ anxiety/ restlessness/ discomfort. This suffering is so intense - so unbearable - that most people cannot stop physical activity and mental activity simultaneously for even 2 minutes.

People do not work because they want to work.
People do not work for their family.
People do not work for their nation.
People do not work for any reason.

People work because they cannot stop working.

It does not matter what kind of work we do - whether it is physical work or any kind of mental work. As soon as we stop working we suffer from restlessness, anxiety, uneasiness and discomfort.

[ In Yoga and Meditation the goal is to stop Physical Activity and Mental Activity simultaneously - and then transform the subjective-experience of restlessness/ anxiety/ suffering into peace. This requires ability and years of effort ]

For most people it is a choice between physical and mental work.
The switch-over from physical work to mental work is disastrous for the planet.

Man can do the same physical work every day.
Man cannot do the same mental work every day.

When man used to do physical work ( farming and related activities ) he could do the same repetitive work day after day- generation after generation.

After the Industrial Revolution when man switched-over to mental work he began a never ending process of making new machines / things / products-- a process which can only end with the complete destruction of environment ( planet ).

When society switches over from physical work to mental work it starts making thousands of consumer goods. People start calling them necessities. They are not necessities at all - 90% of consumer goods that we see today did not exist 50 years ago.

Food, Water, Air, Little clothing, Little Shelter - these are necessities.

Close your nose and stop breathing for a few minutes - you will then know what necessity is.

Stop drinking water for a few days - you will then know what necessity is.

Stop eating food for a few days - you will then know what necessity is.

Today people are making thousands of consumer goods - not because they are necessities - but because they cannot stop making them. People cannot stop doing work - After switching over to mental work they will keep on making thousands of unnecessary consumer goods. Industrial Society is destroying necessary things[b][Animals,Trees,Air,Water and Land][/b] for makng unnecessary things[b][Consumer Goods][/b]. This is the reason why the switch-over from physical work to mental work is so destructive. This is the point of no-return - once this is crossed the destruction of Environment/ Nature is inevitable.

[b]If we live a simple life there is individual suffering - but no largescale destruction of Environment.

If we live a consumerist life there is individual suffering - plus largescale destruction of Environment.[/b]

The nature of mental work is such that man has to do new mental work every day- in fact he has to do new mental work every moment- Man cannot repeat in the next moment the mental work that he has already done in the previous moment.

A mathematician cannot solve the same problem of mathematics every day- once he has solved it he will be forced to take up a new( unsolved) problem. Even when he is solving one particular problem he has to move from one step to another - there is a continuous change involved -- there is no constancy at any stage.

An engineer cannot design the same machine again and again –once he has made a machine he will try to make changes/ design a new one.

A writer cannot write the same article every day- he will be forced to write something new every day/ every moment (This is also the reason behind endless discussions/ debates/ arguments).

[b]Discussions, Debates and Arguments. [/b]

Let us examine how much discussion we are collectively having in Industrial Society every day.

Millions of pages in print – newspapers / books / magazines.
Millions of web-pages on internet every day.

Now add to this all the conversation (discussion) we are having through radio / television / telephone and several other media every day.

And add to this all the discussion we are having through face-to-face interaction.

The volume of discussion per individual in one week is greater than the total discussion someone living in pre-industrial society would have in his entire life.

There is too much discussion in modern society.
Discussion is not solving our problems – discussion itself has become a problem – a gigantic problem.

A society that does mental work will discuss itself to destruction [extinction]

A society that does mental work will argue itself to destruction [extinction]

A society that does mental work will debate itself to destruction [extinction]

A society that does mental work can never stop discussions / debates / arguments – it is impossible. It will discuss / debate / argue till the last moment of it’s existence.

Discussions / Debates / Arguments – these are creations of a society that has switched-over from physical work to mental work.

Discussions / Debates / Arguments – these are diseases of a society that has switched-over from physical work to mental work.

Discussions / debates / arguments can end only in agriculture-based societies that do physical work.

We cannot do physical-work and mental-work simultaneously.

There is an inverse relationship between physical-work and mental-work.
If one is high [more] the other has got to be low [less]

If we want to do physical work we have to reduce mental activity by the same proportion.
If we want to do mental work we have to reduce physical activity by the same proportion.

There is very little discussion / debate / argument in societies that do physical work - ie, agriculture-based societies - And this is the reason why they are millions of times saner than industrial societies.

Change is an inherent feature of mental work.

Since change is an inherent feature of mental work - a society that does mental work can never be at peace with itself – it is impossible.

A society that does mental work will always be restless.

Only those societies that do physical work [agriculture and related activities] can find contentment and peace.

[b]As long as cities exist we can neither save the environment nor the mind.[/b]

To save the [ remaining ] environment from destruction man will have to
return back to physical work [ smaller communities ].

To save the mind from mental diseases man will have to return back to physical work [ smaller communities ].

[b]Criminality and Abnormality. [/b]

Industrial Society has collectively killed billions of Animals and Trees [ Remember - plant and animal species developed over a period of millions ofyears]

It has also killed most of Water and Air [ Please note - polluting Water and Air is equivalent to killing Water and Air ]

The soil was not fertile when the earth was created. It became fertile - very slowly - over a period of millions of years. And look what man has done - He has covered millions and millions of hectares of land with cement and concrete. All the land that has been covered with cement and concrete has been killed.

Man has stockpiled thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear material and nuclear waste which is going to remain highly radioactive and carcinogenic for the next thousands of years - and which has already leaked into the environment hundreds of times.

There is an arsenal of 50,000 nuclear missiles that can destroy the planet several times over.

What could be more criminal than this.
What could be more abnormal than this.

Lawyers and Judges are trying to catch a few criminals.
They don’t realize the entire Industrial Society is criminal.

Psychologists and Psychiatrists are trying to classify a few people as abnormal.
They don’t realize the entire Industrial Society is abnormal.

Industrial Society is collectively making millions of tonnes of weapons and explosives [of all kinds] every year – and then it wonders why there is so much violence in this world.

Big Mystery.

If you make millions of tonnes of weapons and explosives on earth they are going to be used on earth – they are not going to be used on Mars.

The entire Industrial Society is a terrorist.
The Military-Industrial-Complex is the real terrorist.
Science and Technology is the terrorist.

Make things
Buy things
Sell things

This is not the purpose of life.

Destroy Shopping Culture.

No one deserves more.
Everyone deserves less.
Life can sustain on earth only when everyone has less.

There was a time when Man knew nothing about the number of species and millions of species existed.
Today Man knows the names of millions of species and nothing is left of the species.

It took millions of years for millions of species to slowly come into existence on earth - and man has decimated all other species.

After destroying millions of highly-developed species on earth Man is today searching for a few molecules of life in outer-space.

If a few microbes, a few molecules of methane / water are found on Mars - it becomes the newspaper headline.

They call it progress.

The following is about to come true.

Nature can exist

(1) before man.
(2) after man.
(3) not with man.

Destruction of environment can be divided into two parts - destruction of environment for producing food - and destruction of environment for making thousands of consumer goods. In pre-Industrial Society people destroyed environment primarily for [b]food.[/b] In Industrial Society people are destroying environment for [b]food and consumer goods.[/b] If we want to save environment we will have to bring down the second to the minimum level by not making all unnecessary consumer goods.

Environment can be saved only if we stop production of most [ more than
99% ] of the consumer goods we are making today.

[b]Environment cannot be saved by recycling.

The attempt of an industrial society to save the environment by recycling is like shooting someone 10,000 times and then trying to save him by taking out one bullet. [/b]

Time is running out for this planet.

Regarding Industrialization there is an important point to be noted. Modern Industrial Society has existed for 100 years - 200 years - 300 years. When we compare this period with the total duration for which human society has existed on earth this period is so short - so small that it almost does'nt exist. It is almost zero.

Material things don't bring peace and happiness. Today billions of people have got things which even Kings did not have in the past. Car, computer, television, fridge, telephone - no King ever had these things. But people are still restless and unhappy.

Industrial Society is consuming psychiatric drugs/ sleeping pills by tonnes and tonnes.

A very large percentage of the population is surviving on precription drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

One-third of the population has become fat like elephants.

People talk about increase in lifespan. What is the use of increased lifespan if people have to resort to Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes to pull through life. And just wait a few more years - the average lifespan will soon become zero - human life will cease to exist on earth.

Consumerist-Lifestyle is just not sustainable. If we do not immediately return to living a very simple and frugal life then very soon there will be no human life on earth. We would need several planets[earths] to sustain the present lifestyle.

The human race has been destroying/ killing animals, trees, air, water, land and people from the very beginning of civilization. [b]Science and Technology has increased this destructive capacity millions of times. [/b]

Every man is a serial-killer. The per-capita destruction of Environment - per-capita destruction of Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land is thousands of times greater than what it was 1000 years ago - 500 years ago - 200 years ago.

The [b]Military-Industrial Complex[/b] is all set to destroy whatever life and environment that remains on earth.

There is a reason why the two World Wars happened in the recent past and not 1000 years ago?

It was not possible to have world wars 1000 years ago. World Wars became possible only when Science and Technology developed aeroplanes, ships and other carriers which could transport millions of troops and millions of tonnes of weapons[once again a creation of science and technology] from one corner of the globe to another.

And today one does'nt even need all these to fight a war. One just needs to move finger-tips to launch missiles that can destroy the planet several times over.

Right at this moment there are several countries fighting wars with one another. There is internal war going on in almost half of the the countries of the world. All these wars are being fuelled and sustained by billions of tonnes of weapons produced by the Military-Industrial Complex every year.

And it is going to get worse and worse every day.

If you kill one person they call it murder.
If you kill a few hundred they call it terrorism.
If you kill a few million they call it war.

Science and Technology has made this world [millions of times] more violent and unsafe than before.

Science and Technology has produced billions of tonnes of weapons and explosives - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons - millions of tonnes of Radioactive material [ which will soon be used to make dirty bombs - which are going to contaminate the environment for hundreds and thousands of years]. [b]Science and Technology is the real terrorist.[/b]

[b]Think Positive. [/b]

Psychologists say -- Think Positive.
Politicians say – Think Positive.
Economists say – Think Positive.
Scientists say – Think Positive.
Everyone says – Think Positive.

Arctic ice is melting – Glaciers are melting – Rivers are drying up.
Think Positive.

Fish population in Oceans is down to 1/3 of what it was 100 years ago.
Think Positive.

Pollution levels are going sky-high and valley-deep.
Think Positive.

There used to be millions of members in most species of Animals and Birds. Now they are down to thousands and hundreds.
Think Positive.

Weather is getting more and more irregular and unpredictable.
Think Positive.

Metal everywhere - Concrete everywhere - Plastic everywhere.
Think Positive.

Thinking positive is the height of insanity.
Thinking positive is the height of abnormality.

This is a world that has become completely incapable of feeling Pain, Compassion, Remorse and Guilt.
The planet is getting destroyed moment by moment – and people are thinking positive.

Very soon there will be 1 Animal and 1 Tree left in this world – and people will still be thinking positive.

They will be holding Seminars, Conferences and Global-Summits to save the Environment.

There is an important point which the human-species needs to understand. People think they can save the Environment by doing something.

We can never save the environment by doing something.

It is overactivity that has destroyed environment in the first place.

Human-species is the only one out of millions of species that has indulged in overactivity on this planet [ And for this very reason the human speciesis going to exist on earth for the least amount of time]

And it is not Mild Overactivity – It is Excessive Overactivity – Exponential Overactivity.

We cannot save the environment by doing something.

We can only save it by doing less of what we have been doing - much less of what we have been doing.

If we want to save environment we will have to reduce human activity [overactivity] by 99%.

[b]The Illogical Logic of Man. [/b]

A few birds have got infected with bird-flu and Man has started killing millions of birds.
They say birds are a threat to humans.

Sometime ago there was Mad Cow disease and Man started killing hundreds of thousands of cows.
They said cows are a threat to humans.

Ever since Man came into existence - millions of humans with infectious diseases have transferred such diseases to millions of other people - and will continue to infect millions more in future.
Such people are a threat to rest of the people.
Man should follow the same logic here and kill all infected people.

It is Man who has killed millions of people in Wars and other forms of Violence – and can kill millions more any time in future.
Man should follow the same logic here and kill all people.

It is the human species which is the greatest threat to humans and all other life on this planet - In fact the human species is the only species which is a threat to all life on Earth.

Man has decimated all Animal and Plant species – polluted the Sky and Oceans - and poisioned every square inch of earth.

In a mere 200 - 300 years Industrial Society has destroyed all that Nature laboriously created over a period of millions of years.

Humans pose the greatest threat to other humans.
Humans pose the greatest threat to all other life on earth.

The so-called Rational and Civilized Man should follow the same logic here - and destroy the entire human race.

Please note :

If you indulge in Factory Farming – If you torture the birds – confine millions of them in prison like conditions – depriving them of Sunlight and the freedom to walk and fly – you are creating an environment for the spread of virus and disease.

[b]Lifestyle of Mass Destruction. [/b]

Destruction is an inherent feature of Development.

Progress = Destruction of Nature.
Development = Destruction of Nature.

We can have Sustainable Lifestyle.
We cannot have Sustainable Development.

Development can never be sustainable.
Sustainability and Development cannot exist together.

Development and Sustainability are opposites.
Development and Sustainability are contradictory.

Sustainable Living is associated with consuming less – being satisfied with a simple and frugal life.
Development is associated with never ending desires – always wanting more.

Sustainable lifestyle requires Constancy.
Sustainable lifestyle requires Sameness.
Sustainable lifestyle requires Repetition.

Development is associated with Change.
Development is associated with New.
Development is associated with Transience.

Industrial Societies can never be sustainable – When you make thousands of consumer goods you kill Nature - you kill Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land.

A Society that does mental work [city based] can never be sustainable - it will keep on making consumer goods - destroying the environment moment by moment.

Only agriculture-based societies that do physical work can be sustainable.

The term Sustainable Development is like the terms

Stationary Walk.
Silent Talk.
Wakeful Sleep.
Dark Sun
Gentle Torture.
Dry Rain.
Peaceful War.

There was a time when Man used to say –

I work in order to feed my family.
I work in order to put Food on the Table.

Today man is putting a lot more than Food on the Table.

Cars, Computers, ipods, Aeroplanes, 200 TV Channels, Luxury Yatchs, Caribbean Vacations, Palatial Homes, Video Phones, Designer Clothes, Designer Drugs, Cosmetic Surgery …………… The list is endless.

Man is putting thousands of consumer goods and services on the Table.
There is too much weight on the Table.
[b]And the Table has begun to creak. [/b]

The more you put on your table the more you take out from the mouths of Animals and Birds.

The more you put on your table the more you kill Animals and Trees.

The more you put on your table the more you kill Water, Air and Land.

The more you put on your table the more you kill Mountains and Valleys.

The more you put on your table the more you kill the Sky and Oceans - the Rivers and Lakes.

There are so many things on the Table that one can barely see the Food.

We need just a few things to live.
And we are making thousands of things.

Billions of people are engaged in making, buying and selling of thousands of consumer goods.

Destroy Shopping Culture.

Go back to Simple Living.
Go back to putting just Food on the Table.

sushil_yadav

[b][I am seeking help from volunteers in spreading this message far and wide][/b]

www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo.../catid,6/
www.freeinfosociety.com/wforum...pic.php
www.ephilosopher.com/bb-topic-244.html
www.corrupt.org/transcende...rum/YaBB.pl

[I want to inform the Moderator that I have also posted this article on boards of other tribes related to keywords in my article]

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Nondual I

kalia — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:32:28 GMT

Suffering arises upon perceived duality.
"This will make me happy" -
"That will make me unhappy."
Follow each desire to its end.
Desire wants happiness -
Happiness wants fulfillment -
Fulfillment wants peace -
and peace wants nothing.
All starts from nothing and ends in nothing.
All is nothing.
This nothing is aware.
Awareness cannot be grasped with thought,
and thought cannot exist without awareness.
Everything is thought.
Without belief or inference there is nothing.
Now....where is there to go?
Everything is I.
There is nothing to run away from and nothing to grasp.
It is all I.
What is there to do and where is there to go?
I cannot even perceive anything that is not I.
Space and time.....manifestations of form -
All thought...all I.
You are I just as much as this body and mind is I.
I cannot even move anywhere or do anything.
I cannot even focus.
I is what Is.
All that is is also aware nothing.

"Only Self Is."

In loving appreciation of Adya

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

u.g krishnamurti obit.

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:26:21 GMT

i just found out that u.g. krishnamurti passed on 3.22.07. thouoght i'd share this obituary with everyone. it's a good one.
http://www.well.com/~jct/Final_Remembering.htm

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Numbers

Katrina — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:15:41 GMT

Is the number 3 Universally Sacred?

posted in nonduality - 5 replies

Time in Awareness

nothingnu — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:16:43 GMT

What could be an accurate model or representation of the human organism? Quite often, when we think or feel about ourselves or others around us, we do so in terms of entities or images that have attributes/characteristics which may or may not change under situational/environmental demands. However, what we realize in practice, is that this model is quite inadequate and falls short of accurately portraying and predicting our own as well as others' behavior. Despite the shortfall, the human organism continues to rely on thoughts, senses, and emotions as arbiters of measurement of reality. Through out our lives, we struggle because we believe that somehow we are insufficient or lacking in abstracting the "right" representation and if we "analyze" or "look deeper, further, and harder", we will be able to eventually "perceive" the correct model/image.

But what are we "perceiving?" The human organism is activated/moved/motivated by several interactions of its sense, which are themselves a representational memory of its evolutionary past and its faculties of thought and emotion, which are yet again, based on memory. These senses and faculties, collect nourishment, both physically and psychologically, from within and without to sustain themselves and hence, the whole organism. We can conceive and actually see human beings lacking in one or two senses or faculties (emotional autism, severe mental retardation, etc.) but usually consider one a "vegetable" if one is deprived of all of them.

As we modulate in time from blastula to apoptosis or senescence, these senses and faculties, individually and collectively, cooperate and compete, within a dynamic range of response. And because our thought has predetermined categories within this modulation, and has come up with milestones of health, we assume that as long as those milestones are reached, somehow, there must be an over-riding coherence in all of this - a "homeostasis" within and perhaps, by inference, without. But really, is there such as thing as "homeostasis" outside of human thought?

A physically healthy person by measures of medicine may be psychologically brimming with anger, jealousy, greed, craving, etc., and vice versa. Again, we have created measures of how much greed, selfishness, jealousy is "normal." Senses quite often override chemical and physical devastation of organ systems within, with the result that the person is oblivious to silent diseases with in and is "acting" to promote them, e.g., diabetus, cancer, heart disease, etc. These senses could also be influenced by thought and emotions and vice versa. So amongst this melee of the past attempting to exert its influence on the present, what is the raison d'etre of awareness?

Notice awareness is the only thing (whatever one wants to call it, faculty, sense, or something else) unique that actually delineates time but not as we know it. This may sound ironic but really there is no "now" without awareness. Time is a continuum for all the other senses and faculties. We may say, present, past, and future but really, what is present but the past? What is future but the present modified by the past? The senses and faculties do not stop at "now" or "given an impulse" react. They are continually responding in time - continually. Life does not present experiments like in the animal laboratories to look at responses within truncated intervals of chronological time and prepare conclusions on powerpoint as if the immediate past is separate from the distance or geological past and the immediate future separate from the geological future.

So everything within a human or a living organism is a continuous function in time, which itself is a created entity of how thought perceives "awareness." When we "become conscious of the now" into which the senses and faculties of thought and emotion are flowing, that is what can create a "stepping out of time", out of the flow, heck out of the continuity. That awareness has NO past or future as we define time. It is only NOW! The mistake our faculty of thought does is to categorize the uncategorizable "now" and create a psychological and chronolgical past prior to "now" and a future post "now". But really, all such time is simply non-awareness.

In the NOW, a branch of a huge tree can be aware of the hundreds of distinctive other branches both within and other "types" of trees, and see, that while to the senses and the faculties of thought and emotion, all appear different, they point to not only a seed from which all have arisen but to a continuity in time from which all seeds had to have taken birth. A reflection of this can only be a concept but only in awareness can a being act to live as a whole within and without.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

ULTRACULTURE JOURNAL ONE

Jason — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:41:23 GMT

http://www.ultraculture.org

Ultraculture Journal One is AVAILABLE NOW. UC1 collects under one cover the most volatile and direct transmission of the tantric traditions of India available in the English language, featuring groundbreaking work from culture-spanning masters like Ganesh Baba and Brion Gysin. Ultraculture steers away from mere syncretism to examine the attempts made to translate the teachings of the East into terms which genuinely speak to Western consciousness.

6" x 9", 418 pages, perfect bound, $23.

This is the "Beta" edition as the publication is currently awaiting an ISBN and barcode for distribution on Amazon and in stores; it is available to purchase now without a barcode in what is sure to soon be a limited collector's item...

It is also available as a $10 shareware download.

This issue includes:

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the holographic Garden of Eden

Brion Gysin’s travelogue of his journey to Alamut, the citadel of the Assassins

Lalitanath and Shivanath on the Magick Path of Tantra

Jason Louv’s essential guide to Western magick

Peter-R. Koenig on the occult career of David Bowie

Beat legend Ira Cohen on John Dee and the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious festival in the world

Dave Lowe and Hans Plomp travel across India’s mountains and rivers without end

The psychedelic rantings of Ganesh Baba, the world’s most tripped-out guru

Johnny Templar broadcasts live from the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz

Mordant Carnival on working with Loki, the Man With the Tattered Smile

Elijah casts a Spell to Open the Sky

Joel Biroco on the “War on Terror”

Prince Charming interviews Tibetan Tantric Adept Monica Dechen Gyalmo

New fiction from Jason Louv

New lyrics from the late Jhonn Balance of Coil and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

Treasure chests full of rituals, reviews and wish-granting genies

Cover by Nelson Evergreen

The first in a series, Ultraculture Journal promises to catalyze a twenty-first century actually worth living in.

Welcome to the psychedelic make-out party at the beginning of history.

http://www.ultraculture.org

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

interactive art project on my tribe page,

bragitta — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:30:50 GMT

I am creating an artistic interactive healing project for myself
where I create an art piece
and ask a questions
and the comments that it receives (answers to question)
will inspire the next art project and question

so wont you hop on over to my tribe page
and leave a comment or 2
and even become a new friend

Bragitta

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

There you go again....

Skeyeopener — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:59:21 GMT

An offering from this Skeye....

There you go again....

....leaving me speechless,
not a drop of thought
from this empty
beggar's bowl.

I leave it at your doorstep
in the hope you might trip
and fill it up
with your blood...

...so I may offer it
back to you
like a cup of wine
in this Divine
silent wedding.

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Now&Wow: The Being In The Now Reminder and Oracle Message Tool

Bo — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:19:37 GMT

Dear all,
I'm very inspired by Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, but find it not always easy to be conscious an in the now as often as possible. Especially while working and using my PC hours pass by, without any NOW-feeling.

Therefore I created a tool, which I now present in my website http://www.nowwow.org.

I call the tool Now&Wow: The Being In The Now Reminder Tool. It works like an alarm and reminds you at certain time intervals in a very attractive an smoothly way to be still and feel your body. Sometimes you get a well deserved Oracle message too. Maybe you find it interesting.

A happy Now&Wow!

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

Surrendered

Skeyeopener — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 03:11:11 GMT

yes...

surrendered is all we can be
when the kitchen sink is full
and the fridge is empty...

...and mom is still in bed
at four in the afternoon.

surrendered when
as a child
an old man
you have never met before
and will never see again
(except perhaps once
years later
as a hallowed husk in line
at your service industry job)
asks you behind dark curtains,
"Do you like that?"

surrendered when black children
(whom you were taught to respect
and would even if you hadn't been)
beat you, rip out your hair
and call you names
that make no sense at all
yet ache all the same

Surrendered when you see
a flash of being
like a Pheonix
light up your sight
that sets your heart aflame
and burns it to cinders
because it wasn't her time yet
but you love her anyway

surrendered when every relationship
appears to laugh in your face
or end up a stranger
regardless of how hard you try

surrendered when your only child
is born of a parent
that is at odds with the world
and cannot accept the help
that is offered
and keeps your child hostage
and you realize
perhaps you didn't do all you could

surrendered when the trying
ends in crying
seeking a way 'out'
but realizing this is not
what is wanted

surrendered when you hear
words that ring loud and clear
without understanding what they 'mean'
yet knowing
this is my Heart

surrendered when all the suffering
that went before
is felt to finally be the door
that leads to joy...

...no longer the little boy
nor a man
surrendered leaves no trace
of "who I am..."

yet welcomes it all
to be embraced
surrendered
without a face

I am the little boy
the old man
the black child
the lovers
and mothers
the son...

All One
surrendered
to ourSelf

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

The Holy Trinity

Rekmel1 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:25:50 GMT

I have been thinking about the Holy Trinity of the Christian religion lately and what this might mean or be about. Here are my thoughts:

The Trinity in my view is the Father (God, truth, creator), the Son (Christ, savior, the phallus) and the Holy Spirit (illusion, creation, the Goddess). The figure of Christ is God's alter ego that journeys from God into illusion and returns triumphant. The *we* that you imagine yourself to be, is in the position of the Goddess right now. We see ourselves as primarily being acted upon instead of doing the acting, or in other words *being screwed*. The Christ figure appears to you (and remember this is just imagery for a process of awakening that happens in you and may or may not be accompanied by an apparition at all) and opens his arms and says, "I love you, I am you and you are me". As you embrace him you realize that you always were him as the illusion that you were not him fades away. Then the illusion that you are separate from God fades away as well and your journey out of illusion is complete. This is an incredible journey that happens not once, but forever. In and out in and out in and out. Forever making Love.

posted in nonduality - 42 replies

As I sit...

kalia — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:32:34 GMT

As I sit, thoughts arise.
Sensations of a body also are there.
What is it that sees this sense of me -
In trying to grasp this,
there is involvement with another thought.
On noticing this,
effort stops Now
and Awareness is.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Adyashanti

kalia — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:37:14 GMT

Hi all. I found this new piece from Adyashanti exquisitely beautiful.....

How Very Fortunate
Adyashanti's Reflections After Ten Years of Teaching

It has been ten years since I began teaching, and in those years there has been much change and evolution in the expression of the teaching, as well as the emergence of a growing community and supportive organization. Since I began teaching at my teacher’s request, I have focused on only one thing: to express and transmit the fundamental realization of unity that lies at the heart of all forms of true spirituality in the most direct and unadorned way possible. I have always held the conviction that while the various spiritual traditions and lineages are valuable carriers of ancient teachings, practices, and subtle transmissions, they need to have a constant living renewal breathed into them by truly free and creative human beings lest they start serving the needs of the dream state and not those of the awakened state. It is good to remember that the goal of Buddhism is to create Buddhas, not Buddhists, as the goal of Christianity is to create Christs, not Christians. In the same vein, my teachings are not meant to acquire followers or imitators, but to awaken beings to eternal truth and thus to awakened life and living.

To serve this intention my teaching has been, and continues to be, in a constant state of renewal. As more and more of my students come into the deeper realms of spiritual adulthood, so too does the expression of the teachings evolve to address and clarify the deeper reaches of spirituality. I find that as time goes on I can touch upon more subtle and challenging aspects of spiritual awakening as those who come to see me become more established in the deeper aspects of spiritual realization. It is this spontaneous dance and interplay between teacher and student that breathes new life into our shared exploration and expression of truth.

While the expression and scope of this teaching work evolves, it continues to be rooted in the direct experience of awakening from identifying with the body-mind-personality to the universal truth of what we are. For all things and all beings are enlightened Buddhas from the very start and it is only attachment to identity, ideas, and concepts that obscures this fact. Thus the paradox of already being the very truth that you are seeking. Beware though, for intellectual understanding will do as little to bring you to realization as repeating the word “water” will do to quench your thirst. An intuitive leap of remembrance is what’s called for, for you are awake and nothing, expressing yourself as everything in this very moment.

Never did I anticipate or imagine the size or growth of this Sangha. There were some evenings in the early days of my teaching when I was the only one who came. On such evenings I would sit in silence for an hour or so before gathering my things and returning home. Other times two or three people would come, and over time more and more. From the beginning, numbers were unimportant. I always felt that if I could help just one person to truly wake up, I would feel fortunate. And how very fortunate I have been!

I can honestly say that I know much less now than I did ten years ago when I began teaching. Each day that passes now is a deeper step into the unknown, a place far beyond where thought has ever touched. A place where there are no ideas, ideals, or new theories—but instead a living and dynamic whole which alone can be called sacred, everlasting, and right before our very eyes.

May all beings realize the nature of the ground upon which they stand, and who it is that stands upon it.

© 2006 by Adyashanti.

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Days of our Lives

nothingnu — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:02:43 GMT

We notice our attachment to sex, people, alcohol, pleasure, pain when we are separated from attachment, either in our imagination or in reality, not a moment sooner. The harsh truth, perhaps, the only truth is that we can count on the death of all, the attachment, the attaching identity, and the object of attachment. At first glance, it seems like these are related but somewhat separate entities, i.e., me (that could be the subject and the object of attachment), attachment, and the other as the object of my attachment. We realize the separation between the object of our attachment through out our lives and therefore, perhaps, desperately engage in "attaching" it to our identity so that it could live with us as part of our "selves." In fact, in our language, we turn the noun object into one describing our properties. So, we move from 'I smoke cigarettes." to "I am a smoker", "I love you" to "I am her spouse", "I hate you" to "He is MY enemy." We can see the process unfold clearly when we are the object of someone's desire and attachment and do not share the feeling and are being made part of their identity.

If we retrospectively view our lives, we may notice that sometimes the object of attachment changes from sex, material pleasures, to religious rituals (meditation) but the attachment remains the same. We may explain it as a change inside of us or we may say that the context, the circumstances, or , especially if it is a person we are attached to has changed and hence, our object. But are these three seemingly separate entities separate or the same thing unfolding? Are both attachment and the object of attachment part of all entities? A necessary part of evolution so that life can progress in an accumulative way?

Every being attaches itself in a way that becomes part of the other being. Even the use of the term "attaches itself" seems inaccurate. The meeting of two beings would necessitate the continuation of both via attachment of some significance to each other via fear, detachment, or obsession not just consciously but also at an unconscious and instinctive level. So the process of attachment may seem to be not separate from the subject in which it is taking place. But is there a fundamental difference between attachment to beings and objects such as cars, gadgets, etc.? Not remarkably. Objects of our thoughts created as religious or material goods already come with some significance and can alter us equally well. This significance is not fixed just like in the case of living entities, but changes through out our lives. Of course, the one basic difference is that we are of no significance to the objects of our thoughts unlike entities not created by our thoughts.

Now the interesting thing is that the moment a significance is attached from fear, detachment, to obsession to any of the objects (created or otherwise), the entity doing the attachment is altered in a real physiological sense. There is a response born within that can range from merely endocrinological to physical action. That significance is then held within us in our cellular memories for similar instances in the future. In this sense, all has been reduced to one. The subject, the object, and the process - reduced to cellular memory for sometimes simply the image of the object would suffice in recreating the response. When we die, our cellular memories and significances, and the images that they respond to die with us; however, our living has altered the significance for others already and even our deaths may change the significance and cellular memories in others. We see that when people respond differently at the death of a tyrant or a benevolent leader. Again, all has been reduced to one.

While physical death is certain for each one of us, we can be equally certain that our lives and deaths would alter some other entity and hence, this living planet, beyond our conscious will, thought, or effort to do so. This prompts us to look deeply into the birth of meaning of any kind, conscious, instinctive, or unconscious, for it seems to have enormous implications. How does it come to be? Is it essential and synonymous to living? Is meaning the essence of differentiation? And is differentiation the essence of form?

Form differs and prefers, but it also trans-forms continually; infact, all three are equally vivid properties of form: to differentiate, to prefer, and to trans form. They all imply a fluidity with which evolution proceeds. If life, consciously or unconsciously gets stuck in one by attaching significance to preference or separation/differentiation or transformation without looking at what is, well, we all know what that is like. That is the days of our lives!

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

nondual communities?

ladydeva — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:47:08 GMT

Hello,
I am wondering about finding a non-dual community to live at for awhile. I see lots of permaculture communities/organic farms and seem to be thriving, and I'm wondering if anyone knows of ones that are also based in non-duality?

thanks,
Arlyn

posted in nonduality - 3 replies

Note to Self: You are God

Rekmel1 — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:28:36 GMT

Note to self:

You are god. This may seem very egotistical, but actually it becomes clear that it’s just the opposite as you come to understand the next statement.

You are alone. This does not mean that you loose your family, friends and loved ones that gave you so much comfort throughout your life; it just means that they were never separate from you to begin with. They are within you.

Your mind creates the world around you.

When you die you do not dissolve back into the world around you but instead the world dissolves back into your mind.

When you come into this world you have departed from reality into a world of illusion. You have departed from the real and eternal into the unreal and temporary. This is a paradox because you never really left in the first place. There is no reason for this journey because by its very nature something that is untrue is also unreasonable and so it is that there can be no answer to the question why. It is simply natural that you are not perfect in this world and that you grow old and die. These are the characteristics of that which is not true.

Your higher self (God) is no more concerned about this process than you are concerned about falling asleep at night or expelling a breath. In fact, this process is the breath of life itself and eternal awakening.

With love,

You

This is just my attempt to lay out some thoughts. I have posted this in several other places like casting out a net to see what kinds of different perspectives I could get from people of different interests. It is just a starting point. My goal was to take my thoughts about a very broad and complex topic and try to distill them down to as few words as possible. The intention is that as the reader reads it they are speaking the words to themselves and considering the correctness or incorrectness of each statement. I thought it would be interesting to try to write something in such a way that as I am speaking to another I am also speaking to myself. It’s like standing between two mirrors and seeing reflections of yourself facing away from you stretching off into infinity and leaning forward to whisper a message into your own ear.

My thought is that God is alone. If you think of God as simply that creative force that creates things, and if you think of the space in which these things are created as a mind, then what would you call these things that have been created? I think that you would call them imaginary. This is why I say that God is alone and that all of creation is just imaginary.

I have more thoughts about these things in the blog on my profile. Please check it out if you get a chance.

posted in nonduality - 16 replies

What is Enlightenment?

Rekmel1 — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:53:00 GMT

Enlightenment is the bliss of knowing where you are coming from and where you are going to and why. You are coming from and going to infinite perfection. Enlightenment is understanding that your purpose is to give and receive unending fulfillment. Enlightenment is also understanding that how this is accomplished cannot be reasoned because the means of accomplishing this feat is to abandon reason. To be filled one must first become empty. It can only be said that you cast away your oneness (this is where you give and this is where the illusion begins). Because this is just an illusion, being in this imperfect state cannot last forever. The result is that when it ends, you awaken to the joy and peace of your unchanged infinite perfection (this is where you receive and this is where the illusion ends). This cycle is infinite.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Enjoy.

lodha — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:51:44 GMT

http://blogs.ibibo.com/herald.
Enjoy this blog and recommend if you think its good enough to be shared.

posted in nonduality - 5 replies

Zen for you.

lodha — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:36:26 GMT

Better than a thousand hollow words
Is one word that brings peace.
Better than a thousand hollow verses
Is one verse that brings peace.
It is better to conquer yourself
Than to win a thousand battles.
Then the victory is yours.

- Dhammapada

posted in nonduality - 2 replies

Daily Zen.

lodha — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 02:35:28 GMT

Know the essence of mind. Its intrinsic essence is pure clarity. It is essentially the same as a Buddha. Know the functions of the mind. Its functions produce the treasure of teachings. When its activity is always silent, myriad illusions become suchness. Constantly be aware, without stopping. When the aware mind is present, it senses the formlessness of things. Constantly see your body as empty and quiet, inside and outside communing sameness. Plunge the body into the realm of reality, where there has never been any obstruction. Keep to unity without shifting. With constant presence, whether active or still, the student can see the Buddha nature clearly.

- Tao-hsin (580-651)

Note:-Don't comment. A blank is enough.Plz co-operate.

posted in nonduality - 20 replies

music for You...

Skeyeopener — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:04:58 GMT

http://people.tribe.net/skeyeopener/blog/50ae2ae1-07f0-4e8e-a9a6-970c487a7c57

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Loving Each day.

lodha — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:08:35 GMT

The whole spectrum of your life takes place within God, and
anyone who is residing in the power of love is never
destroyed, never separated, always free, always up, always
growing.

- John-Roger
(From: Living Love from the Spiritual Heart, p. 3-4)

posted in nonduality - 0 replies

Thought of day.

lodha — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:37:03 GMT

To know what you know
And to know
What you don’t know,
That is real wisdom.

- Confucius

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Severance Package of Stillness - Fear

nothingnu — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 06:07:03 GMT

There are many shades of silence. One most familiar to us is the seeming absence of conscious thoughts - sort of a pause between thoughts but the nature of thought that follows the pause sometimes reveals that our brain must have been quite active during the seeming silence that preceded it. Another kind of silence is perhaps, part of our sleep when there is no dreaming but a shutting down of conscious functions. A third kind is a forced or voluntary movement to stop expression while the mind is still very much actively thinking - sort of an active break to think. And then of course, there is death - a complete silence.

But what about silence as absence of any psychological movement, conscious or unconscious? Let's explore this a little. Is there such a thing as active stillness? Already it sounds like a contradiction in terms, plus, calling it a thing feels like wanting to get our head around it to think through what it is.

If one gets up early in the morning, say around 3 or 4 am and there is no cacophony of any life around oneself, one may be able to catch a glimpse of at least some moments when the organism is alert and active but still!
By stillness, I do not mean necessarily without thought but without any motivation or intention. I feel that in that state the inner stillness is in resonance with an outer stillness; in fact , both appear to be one and an actual presence is alive which seems to be very much the ground of all thought and perhaps, one may be so bold to say, even life.

Now the challenge is to continue to be in that resonance amidst all the cacophony around oneself for the stillness is always there in the background regardless of what is happening and it is also always within, regardless of what the body and mind are engaged in. But this stillness has no motive and therefore no momentum. It simply is!

We rarely explore this ourselves or with our children. Instead, the primary objective of parents and society is to stimulate children and then observe the response of the mind and the body, perhaps, shape it to the stimulation. Even the relationship to nature, other human beings, heck the whole world around us is a form of stimulation. But what about discovering this stillness? Not as a deliberate exercise of meditation so that we can gain something out of it, i.e., few moments of calm that would give us the ammunition, the additional energy to indulge in further stimulation.

There is nothing wrong with sitting down in meditation but of course, as we all know our minds are quite cunning and it is quite capable of synthesizing the stillness and peace and silence we desperately seek. Again, one wouldn't have a problem with that either but to note that any construct, if it is not real, rests on a thought and is continually asserting its existence via pleasure/pain and increasing threshold. So pain and gain are increasingly at odds with each other. This is quite the scene in any city in the world today where living is the ritual of stimulation from the moment one is awake to the moment the body crashes into a lull and these rituals are interspersed with escapes of created silence by being in meditation or in nature. Of course, the weekend backpacking trip to Yosemite or Grand Canyon also begins to lose its hold when the scene has been recorded several times and the mind does not want to give attention and same is true of meditation.

So let's go back to the discovery of stillness. Our thoughts associate or project motiveless living or a living where one is not continually excited with pleasure or pain as a dead thing - a boring waste of time. However, it is also quite accurate that one is desperately seeking stimulation if one is forced into an environment of minimal stimulation. One can see why most of us gravitate towards more stimulation from children to grandmothers/fathers from peasants to CEOs, from developing nations to empires. In fact, it seems so endemic and prevalent that we tend to call it "human nature." Of course, our measure of what we call "nature" is simply prevalence. So is disease if it is an epidemic and exists for a while. People forget of how it was to live before the disease and it could also become part of nature. By this notion, really almost any entity including any product created by thought must be called nature. If we accept this, then any world we create could be retrospectively looked upon as "our nature", and that we couldn't do otherwise. To some extent, this is correct but if we also see how this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy then we must allow ourselves to suspend the notions we have created about ourselves, nature, and the world. This is the only possible path to discovery - to allow that one does not know.

Can movement exist in stillness? It seems possible provided motivation does not exist in movement. Motivation is fear and time. Perhaps, time is born out of fear- perhaps, fear is what has transformed into time just like energy transforming from mass.

So the severance package we inherit from stillness is fear which may transform into time. Fear is so not there in the stillness. The moment it comes in, time, reward, punishment, motivation, movement, and hence, the cycle begins.

But where does fear come from amidst the stillness? Fear seems to be originating not in the presence of stillness but somehow when the resonance is severed. Then all that remains is a panoply of constructs in time which we define as knowledge. We use this knowledge to mimic/create that lost stillness, which we really are but have no relationship with the "created world." Those feeble attempts by the mind become all too important when met with failure, they gain a solidity making our lives conduits to create another generation to pass our constructs and knowledge to carry on the search in fear for the created and lost paradise.

Koan
Once you realize your own nature, you are free of "birth and death." When your senses are gone, how do you free yourself?

posted in nonduality - 1 reply

Sri Nityananda and a supreme lesson in non-duality - Bombay Halvah!

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:44:37 GMT

Perhaps the last great Mahaguru, a perfectly realized Man-God, Sri Bagwan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri :

Nityananda ( he insisted this was a title and he owned no name proper ; his mother called him Ram) only ate what people put in his mouth w.o him asking. If he was hungry and no one fed him, he would climb in a tree and wait for crows to shit in his mouth. Once, some rascals put feces and not rice into his mouth. He ate it up, with no sign of disgust. He then blessed them. The next day his horrified Ashram devotees and sannyasi found the Lord sitting in a public toilet and not only was he covered in shit, he was eating it happily and measuring it out with a scale calling out "Bombay Halvah! The sweetest in all India! Come let me measure you some out!"

He had to be physically fought to get him even bathed.

This man is still worshipped all over the world for his extreme piety, Supreme Mastery of all Limbs of Yoga, holiness, total kindness and his countless miraculous displays. He entered Mahasamhadi in a most holy fashion in 1963. He announced he was done with his body, and he assumed a yoga posture, and stopped his breathing voluntarily. He was a wandering ascetic from the age of 9, leaving his mother's home and walking to Tibet on foot. He got there by age 11 and was welcomed by the Tibetan Lamas as the highest of Saints.

posted in nonduality - 0 replies