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Click here for tips to avoid spam filters. Question: I am very much a learner (even though 73 years old!).
I have always sought to follow the Christian Way and wonder whether some of the words of Jesus refer to this awakening/Oneness. For example "you must become as a little child", "you must lose your life to find it", or "repent (turn around) and believe the good news".
Any comments on this?
Still hoping to "let go".
Answer: Many words attributed to Jesus can be read as non-dual pointers; especially those found in the gospel of Thomas.
For example:

"I am the Light
Which illumines all men.
I am the All.
The All came forth from me
And the All ended up in me.
Split some wood, I am there.
Lift a stone, you will find me there."

Also, we can see how the following quotes are related to their Indian counterparts:

"I am the light of the world" ('Aham Asmi Brahman' or 'I am Brahman')
"You are the light of the world" ('Tat Tvam Asi' or 'Thou art that')
"I and the Father are one" ('Ayam Ãtmà Brahma' or 'Atman is Brahman')

The 'I' and the 'Father' both are the same One. That, what expresses as "I AM", is not exclusive to the Jesus character; it is the same One that says "I AM" right here. IT is the only One.
"Hoping to let go." is -in a way- holding on. It seems to confirm that there is a separate character that could choose to either let go or hold on, but there is none. The 'you' that 'must lose his life to find it' is a fiction. When this is seen 'you' and 'your life' are both lost. Or rather, it is seen that there never was a 'you' with a life to lose or own and that there is just Life appearing AS you.
To stay with biblical terms 'God/Brahman' is "omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient." Clearly, in omnipresence, there can be no room for an other, and in omnipotence and omniscience all that appears and all that is known can only be 'the will of God'. "They will be done."
If what appears presently is "Hoping to let go." Then that's the way it is. If it is seen that there is no one to see this and no one let go, then that's the way it is.
No amount of learning will get 'you' closer to this. And here is the good news: No learning is required to be what you are.
No matter how far it seems to travel, or how high it seems to rise, a wave will never get closer to -or further away from- the ocean. It already and always IS the one ocean 'waving'. You are that One. Tat Tvam Asi.

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Q:If you could tell me what I shall become, it may help me to watch over my development.
M: How can anybody tell you what you shall become when there is no becoming? You merely discover what you are. All moulding oneself to a pattern is a grievous waste of time. Think neither of the past nor of the future, just be.
Q: How can I just be? Changes are inevitable.
M: Changes are inevitable in the changeful, but you are not subject to them. You are the changeless background, against which changes are perceived.
Q: Everything changes, the background also changes. There is no need of a changeless background to notice changes. The self is momentary -- it is merely the point where the past meets the future.
M: Of course the self based on memory is momentary. But such self demands unbroken continuity behind it. You know from experience that there are gaps when your self is forgotten. What brings it back to life? What wakes you up in the morning? There must be some constant factor bridging the gaps in consciousness. If you watch carefully you will find that even your daily consciousness is in flashes, with gaps intervening all the time. What is in the gaps? What can there be but your real being, that is timeless; mind and mindlessness are one to it.
Q: Is there any particular place you would advise me to go to for spiritual attainment?
M: The only proper place is within. The outer world neither can help nor hinder. No system, no pattern of action will take you to your goal. Give up all working for a future, concentrate totally on the now, be concerned only with your response to every movement of life as it happens.
Q: What is the cause of the urge to roam about?
M: There is no cause. You merely dream that you roam about. In a few years your stay in India will appear as a dream to you. You will dream some other dream at that time. Do realise that it is not you who moves from dream to dream, but the dreams flow before you and you are the immutable witness. No happening affects your real being -- this is the absolute truth.

---

What Is There Beyond Knowing?
What is there beyond knowing
that keeps calling to me?
I can't turn in any direction
but it's there.
I don't mean the leaves' grip and shine
or even the thrush's silk song,
but the far-off fires,
for example, of the stars,
heaven's slowly turning theater of light,
or the wind playful with its breath;
or time that's always rushing forward,
or standing still
in the same -- what shall I say -- moment.

What I know
I could put into a pack
as if it were bread and cheese,
and carry it
on one shoulder,
important and honorable, but so small!

While everything else continues,
unexplained
and unexplainable.

How wonderful it is
to follow a thought quietly
to its logical end.

I have done this a few times.

But mostly I just stand in the dark field,
in the middle of the world,
Breathing in and out.

Life so far doesn't have any other name
but breath and light, wind and rain.
If there's a temple,
I haven't found it yet.
I simply go on drifting,
in the heaven
of the grass and the weeds.

---

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment;
Cleverness is mere opinion,
bewilderment intuition.

---

~ Rumi ~
Art by: Mauro Saviola Title: 'Intuition'
Found at: http://www.maurosaviola.com/DefaultEng.asp
Fair Use Notice



THE LONELY (W)HOLE IN ONE
A retired rabbi loved golf more than just about anything. Daily he was drawn to the green, addicted to his game, so much so that come Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, he feigned sickness, sent his family off to services without him, and snuck out to the empty green. It was a glorious day, and the vast green was his alone; he set aside his guilt and teed up.
A host of reproving angels gathered to gape at the sacrilegious rite. God came to join them, and with a slight smile playing on his lips, said, "Watch this!"
The rabbi swung, his form was superb, the ball flew, and with exquisite aim, it fell, divinely, into the hole.
The angels were in a rage. "What are you doing, O Lord, giving this heretic a hole in one!" they cried.
God winked. "Just wait."
Grumbling, the angels looked on as the rabbi's face lighted up with ecstasy. He turned to his right to exclaim, but only trees met his gaze. He turned to his left, but there were only trees there too. Behind him lay nothing but trees. A shadow passed over the man's face, as he realized the awful truth: there was no living soul he could tell.
Imagine that you've won the lottery, the great jackpot. What is the first thing you would do? You would run to the telephone, to call someone you love and tell her that you've won. It doesn?t take much imagination to picture the overwhelming pathos of realizing that you have no one to tell, no one to call, no one with whom to share a stupendous moment.

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Thanks to Maple for sharing this story from the book "Soul Prints" by Marc Gafni.

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