The Seer

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Once upon a time, two friends were having coffee together, looking out the window at the trees. One remarked that a certain tree was called a slippery elm, and that he could identify it without fail. Suddenly, a look of sadness crossed his face. “I can’t look at that tree without seeing it as a ’slippery elm’.” He had realized that words and thinking were his only view, that something important within him had been lost.

The other had quite a different expression. He saw the trap his friend was caught in, and had a glimpse of the way out. As he gazed at the tree, he noticed he could switch back and forth between two radically different views. One, the paradigm of words, thoughts, and feelings, laid a thick veil over the tree, declaring it was a concept based on experience. This was the view in which his friend was trapped. It was nearly solid, and kept the actual perception of the ‘tree’ hidden beneath a cloud of thought and memory.

The other view, the one he realized he had almost forgotten, was one of wonder and clearness. There was no ‘tree’ or anything else, but there was. Everything was as new, but not differentiated. He knew not what he was looking at, but this in itself was all that was needed to know enough. The view was simple, obvious, and without description. It left room for possibility, being infinite in scope. There was no memory or experience to rob him of the moment.

He never forgot the gift of honesty his friend had given him. By admitting his dilemma of mind, the trap of ego and conditioning, the friend had shown him the trap of experience, and the freedom of the listening attention.

Author unknown

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Any man can spoil himself for himself. He can allow himself to grow so sensitive that he lives in constant pain. He can nurse his grudges until they are an intolerable burden. He can think himself insulted until he is apt to be. He can believe the world’s against him until it is. He can imagine troubles until they are real. He can hold so many under suspicion that no one believes in him.

He can insult his friends until they are no longer friends. He can think himself so important that no one else does. He can have such a good opinion of himself that he becomes very small. The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality. Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply the teachings of spirituality for its own benefit.

Chogyam Trungpa

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Being critical of Buddhism isn’t easy. Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhists are the perennial good guys of modern spirituality. Beautiful traditions, lovely architecture, inspiring statuary, ancient history, the Dalai Lama — what’s not to like?

Everything about Buddhsim is just so — nice. No fatwahs or jihads, no inquisitions or crusades, no terrorists or pederasts, just nice people being nice. In fact, Buddhism means niceness. Nice-ism.

At least, it should.

Buddha means Awakened One, so Buddhism can be taken to mean Awake-ism. Awakism. It would therefore be natural to think that if you were looking to wake up, then Buddhism, i.e., Awakism, would be the place to look.

To read the rest of this article by the writer calling himself Jed McKenna, >Click Here.

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Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

Emily Dickinson (Poem 1129)

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Customer to optician: At first I was an agnostic, then I saw the light! I became a seeker, then I saw the light! I became a devotee, then I saw the light and became a mystic. Then I saw the light and merged with The Infinite .… I’d like to buy some sun-glasses please.

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Inquirer: My question for you is about weight. I get stuck though I now understand that my non-physical being is creating the physical being but I can only identify with my physical being even though I know better. A part of me has a real big problem with this. Does it mean I accept myself as 60lbs heavier? Then how do I do what I need to do to let go of the weight? Needless to say, I feel like I have been working with this problem for so many years, and each year my problem expands by 10lbs! Frustration, anger, and depression inevitably come along with the story about my weight.

Jim Dreaver: You must ask yourself: what is more important to me, finding the freedom, peace, and love inside me that comes with awakening to my true nature… or losing this excess weight that I’ve been struggling to lose for so many years? The more you find freedom within, the more the more you will perceive yourself as a contented and happy person, genuinely so. The “problem” of your weight will then fade from your consciousness. It simply won’t be a problem anymore. Then, maybe, the weight will also fade away. Or maybe it won’t! Whatever happens, you will be at peace.

How to find the freedom within? First, every time you find yourself suffering over your weight, welcome it. Welcome your experience, because it is showing you where you are not yet free. Then look for the story you are telling yourself (I’m angry, I’m depressed, I feel awful because I’m so fat!). Lastly, do the practice. Step back out of the story between your ears, but be very present, very aware. Affirm to yourself the one story that is always true: “I am not my story. I am the pure awareness that is present right now…” Then breathe and relax into the feeling of being aware, of being alertly present in this moment.

You will probably have to do this three-step transformational process many, many times a day to begin with, but I promise you, if you do it faithfully, it will work. You will become a freer, happier, and more fulfilled person. You will be vastly lighter in spirit… and maybe in terms of your weight, too!

by Jim Dreaver

Go to Jim’s secure site now to purchase his 165 page eBook, End Your Story Begin Your Life. You can download the eBook edition in a few minutes and then read it on your computer or print it out. First >Click Here.

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It seems that once again, Consciousness has moved American TV talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, the most influential book reviewer in the world, to bestow her awesome marketing power on Vancouver-based spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle.

In revealing her 61st choice of reading material for her 700,000-member book club and countless other fans, Oprah recently told her TV audience she was selecting Eckhart’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

Oprah, who in 2001 helped catapult Eckhart’s The Power of
Now into a million-copy bestseller, also announced she will soon join Eckhart in hosting an online workshop on his latest book, A New Earth.

Oprah hopes her Web course with Eckhart will become “the world’s largest classroom.”

Being a Web course or Webcast means you will be able to see and hear it on your own computer. The course is free, but you have to register on-line to access it. You can register quickly and easily >Here

The 10-program course begins March 3, 2008 at 9.00pm Eastern time in the USA and runs each week till May 5.

For Australian viewers, 9.00pm Monday March 3, in US/Eastern (9/8c) converts to 11.00am Tuesday March 4, in Perth — 1.00pm Tuesday March 4, in Sydney/Melbourne.

Eckhart’s earlier work, The Power of Now, is already a best-seller and one of Oprah’s Favourite Books on her Web site.

The Power of Now, which forms the foundation of A New Earth, shows readers how to find freedom form mind-made suffering and total identification with the ego. This can lead to the discovery of our true nature which many refer to as an Awakening.

Don’t miss this great opportunity. For further details, >Click Here.

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While the identification of Consciousness with the individual is strong the ‘progressive path’ is the path of choice because time and ‘me’ are the foundation of the experience of such aspirants. Aspirants involved with the progressive path often experience moments of presence but fail to understand Presence’s impersonal quality. They invariably refer to those high states as ‘mine’ and they say ‘they are not permanent yet’.

This lack of understanding then manifests as seeking a future attainment and an investment in methods and practices, that is, in mind activity that supplants other types of mind activity which are defined as undesirable. This is the path that says: ‘if you do this long enough you will get that’. It is the path designed to keep you on the path ad infinitum.

What could be called the ‘direct path’ is the path of a single pointer to the timeless and ever present reality of our Being. This pointer can come in any of a number of unexpected ways. It may come through written words, it may come through the silent presence of a sage, it may eventually be realized as coming from the Consciousness that we are Itself — and here the path ends. This is the path that says: ‘you already are what you are seeking — all there is is Consciousness’.

The truth is that there is no path at all. It is all conceptual — a dream made of the same substance, and put in effect by the same power, as the dreams in sleep. All there is is pure Being or Consciousness appearing as everything including the individual seeking the resolution to the question of existence.

From the site of the Brazilian teacher,
Felipe Oliveira

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The sky has never won a prize.
The clouds have no careers.
The rainbow doesn’t say ‘my work’,
thank goodness.

The rock in the creek’s not so productive.
The mud on the bank’s not too pragmatic.
There’s nothing useful in the noise
the wind makes in the leaves.

Buck up now, my fellow superfluity,
and let’s both be of that worthless ilk,
self-indulgent as shooting stars,
self-absorbed as sunsets.

Who cares if we’re inconsequential?
At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings,
in our irrelevance; at least come and make
no difference with me.

Stephen Cushman

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A light summer soup, Mung is cooked smooth, sweet and spiced.
Asian Influences — Vietnam, Thailand, China, Philippines. Serves 4.

The Stock
1 cup split mung beans
5 cups water
4 tbsp palm sugar
a sprinkle of earth or sea saltl
a sprinkle of asafoetida (see below)

The Seasonings
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
½ tbsp fresh Thai basil
4 thin citrus rounds

Preparation
1. Inspect beans to remove stones, inferior ones, etc. and rinse.
2. In a medium saucepan combine mung and enough water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer, covered, 5 minutes.
3. In a separate kettle bring to boil the 5 cups water.
4. Drain and rinse the mung beans and restore liquid with the boiling water. Bring up to boil and skim off any foam that arises. Cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the sugar, salt and asafoetida and simmer another 20 minutes. During this time use a potato masher to help disintegrate the mung. Replenish water if becoming too thick.
6. Warm the ghee in a small skillet over medium low heat and sauté the fennel seeds until the aroma is fragrant. Add to the soup.
7. Let cool. Chop the fresh mint and Thai basil and use as garnish with the citrus.

Split mung beans are available at specialty grocers and Prime Products. Supermarkets may have them in the packaged dried bean section with the soup mixes etc. Health food shops may also have split mung beans.

Asafoetida is also called Hing, It’s the dried sap of a plant in the fennel family and helps digest pulses/beans and so can prevent wind. This product is packaged in a small yellow container and is available from Prime Products etc.

Reproduced with permission from Sattwa Cafe: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Enhance your Health and Well-Being based on the Traditional Healing Science of Ayurveda, by Meta B. Doherty, Lotus Press, a division of Lotus
Brands, Inc., PO Box 325, Twin Lakes, WI 53181, USA, ©2007