All concepts are dualistic

Therefore in order to transcend dualism (the opposites and complementaries) we must transcend concepts. That is known as direct cognition.

-We Wu Wei, Fingers Pointing to the Moon
http://web.ionsys.com/~remedy/WEI%20WU%20WEI.htm

Making positive effort to stop thinking

as a spiritual practice is an exercise in futility,
 and so is any other kind of effort. The only 
effective effort is instant apperception of 
truth, which is in fact effortless.



- Ramesh S. Balker, "A Net of Jewels"

Along The Way, May 30th 2008


Living Truth

What we are looking for is our nearest. The question is the answer, because the answer was before the question. Otherwise there could never be a question. Any other answer would be only an object. We are the ultimate subject. What we profoundly are can never be an object. Understanding this immediately produces a reorchestration of energy. Looking for something, achieving something, grasping for something, living in end-gaining, becoming-all this eccentric energy comes to a stop. It is not a process of will; it is a natural giving up. In the stillness which follows, we are completely available.
 
Allow whatever desires to come, to come, because you can never go to it, it can only come to you. We can never go to it because there is no way to go to it and nobody to go there. It is the instantaneous awakening of our totality which is neither outside nor inside, neither introversion nor extroversion.
 
It is not a state because in a state you go in and you come out. It is the light, permanent light, eternal light, which is behind all perception. This openness is our real nature where there is nobody open and nothing is open. There is only openness. It can never be named, because it is without any quality. That is why it is the ultimate negative state.
 
We are so accustomed in our life to functioning in subject-object relationship on the level of the mind. it is mainly the personal entity which we believe we are which hinders us from being available. Speaking simply, one should be free from being somebody. In the state of openness there is no place for somebody, for an I-concept. The question "Who am I?' is the answer. There is no other answer. It is the living answer.

Jean Klien, 'Living Truth'
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Enlightenment

is the sudden recognition that non-duality is, has always been, and will always be the reality of our experience. Duality is an illusion. Consciousness is not private and personal, but impersonal, universal, and eternal. There is no limited personal entity, no conscious ego. The ego is a perceived object, not the all perceiving awareness.

-Francis Lucille
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Confused by thoughts

we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality.

-Hui  Neng
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To Call It One is

One too many, 
To call it nothing, 
Minimizes its importance, 
To say it is in me, 
Implies it is not outside, 
To say it comes from somewhere, 
Says it is not here, 
To say it has a beginning, 
Makes it appear to have an ending, 
To think it will come, 
Implies it has not arrived, 
To search for it, 
Implies it is hidden, 
To wait for it, 
Implies it exists in time. 

To try to describe it is futile, 
It has no edges, 
You cannot catch it, 
You cannot find it, 
You cannot see it, 
You can only 
Be It.

- 

Larry Epston
www.epston.com
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Reality

is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. It will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method.

There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding our reality and that something must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now.

- Ramana Maharsh, from The Essence of Wisdom
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Drop out, tune in, turn on: Tony vs Tim

"Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Did Timothy Leary have it backwards?

The following is from the Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out'

“Turn on, tune in, drop out” is a counterculture phrase coined by Timothy Leary in the 1960s. The phrase came to him in the shower one day after Marshall McLuhan suggested to Leary that he come up with “something snappy” to promote the benefits of LSD. It is an excerpt from a prepared speech he delivered at the opening of a press conference in New York City on September 19, 1966. This phrase urged people to initiate cultural changes through the use of psychedelics and by detaching themselves from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society. The phrase was derided by more conservative critics.

“The phrase is derived from this part of Leary’s speech: ‘Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present — turn on, tune in, drop out.’”

Now consider what nondualist Tony Parson invites. The following was posted to the Nonduality Highlights:
“Drop asking ‘why’ and simply become totally involved in the absolutely wonderful miracle of life just as it is, right here, right now. Can you not see that whatever has just happened for you at this moment has never happened before and will never happen again? It is totally unique and fresh and innocent, and it is here and then it isn’t. Isn’t that just great?”
Seems like Tony is saying first to drop out: “Drop asking why…”

Then he’s suggesting you “see” the moment for what it is, or tune in. "Can you not see...?"

Finally he asks you to value the moment to be turned on to the moment. "Isn't that just great?"

Using Leary’s terms, those three invitations might be re-phrased as, “Drop out, tune in, turn on,” the reverse of what Leary declared.

Dropping out is the main step. It means to stand free of the thousands of trances that compete for your mental space.
Then you will be able to tune in or “see.” See what? God, creation, the structure of reality.

Finally, when you value this seeing, you will turn on, which means to naturally express it (perhaps silently, perhaps through some creative effort), send it forth, cast the light of it in all directions, emit the perfume, turn-on the world, whichever metaphor you prefer.

To walk on Nonduality Street, rather than Psychedelic Boulevard, discriminate. If a practice or a person makes you feel high or blissful, you are turning on. If in the presence of a person or practice you see the futility of everything, that “all is vanity,” then you are dropping out.

Dropping out is only the beginning. Often fear sets in and one settles for a glimpse of the freed mind, which is better than not having had a glimpse.

Remember the chant of the nonduality generation: Drop out, tune in, turn on. Or does hearing it put you in a feel good trance? Well, no one ever said there’s a winner in the nonduality game.

-Jerry Katz
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If a man considers that he is born

he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body that is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find from where thoughts emerge. Then you will be able to abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.

- Ramana Maharshi
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Separate

If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels

Drop asking "why"

and simply become totally involved in the absolutely wonderful miracle of life just as it is, right here, right now. Can you not see that whatever has just happened for you at this moment has never happened before and will never happen again? It is totally unique and fresh and innocent, and it is here and then it isn't. Isn't that just great?

- Tony Parsons, from As It Is - The Open Secret of Spiritual Awakening
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Nature

does not know or care about the world or man-made opposites. Nature is perfectly satisfied and happy to produce a world of infinite, rapturous variety that knows nothing about pretty or ugly, ethical or unethical. Nature never apologizes for anything, nor does it see or acknowledge anything of man's misconceived errors of opposition.

-Ramesh Balker
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