NondualityLiving.com Exploring Aware Living
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[ spiritual ego builds walls; love is the door, dept. ] There's plenty of 'spiritual'- perhaps 'nondual' - folks who speak maybe articulately, with charisma, AB...OUT the nondual, but perhaps do not directly KNOW that about which they speak. (Here, I invoke my two major advisements to myself: 'Don't get stuck in knowing' and 'In truth, you never know.') Indeed, those who 'know' the truth do not claim it as their own, nor use it in personal ways. Love makes no requirements, has no exceptions, knows no 'other's and always, unfailingly, acts (not reacts) compassionately. Bottom line here is: know your Self. In directly, intimately, knowing the Self, there's a deep recognition of the nature of love as Self, (not as a thought or feeling) and there's the insight - when viewing various 'nondual' expressions - that total love is perhaps not fully realized, (there's no degrees in love, in awareness, in beauty, joy, peace) . This seeing is a nonjudgmental discernment that arises from loving observation, not discrimination. LOOKING WITH THE EYES OF LOVE Love is not about spiritual ideals that the 'spiritual ego' commonly conjures out of itself, with it's ambitions. If there's any hint of achieving, of becoming, of gaining, then perhaps that 'love' hasn't moved from the head (ideals) to the heart (truth) to the gut (facts)...yet. I had a teacher who looked and talked beautifully about love, but, in hindsight, never really authentically knew himself or love. What is love and what's the door to it? In quietude, in gently resting in awareness, we may deepen a direct Self knowing, and the clarity and charity of love simply arises. Then, and only then, we know what love is. And that it's only act is always loving. :) ** The picture is of a zoo structure in which the country's solo elephant was confined for three decades - it's a fine visual metaphor for how we become imprisoned by beliefs in conditioned mind, and live there in that limited darkened place...kinda, for decades...until we don't :)

VISITING VOICES: JC Tefft There is a very Simple Secret to being happy. Just let go of your 'demand' on this moment. Any time you have a demand on the moment to give you something or remove something, there is suffering. You're Arguing with 'What Is' - Your demands keep you chained to the 'dream-state' of the conditioned mind. The desire to 'control'... is, ultimately, our unwillingness to just be awake. ~Adyashanti~

[ finding peace living in a conflict zone, dept. ] HOW CAN WE BEGIN TO FIND PEACE WHILE LIVING IN A CONFLICT ZONE..IN OUR MIND? WHEN WE SINCERELY LOOK INSIDE A...ND NON-JUDGEMENTALLY, LOVINGLY, SIMPLY WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE MINDS HABITUAL EXPLODING ARTILERY, THE FEARFUL FIGHTING, THE CUNNING COMBAT, THE RATIONALIZED HATING DISGUISED WITH CONDITIONED, SELF-CENTERED BELIEFS OF 'FREEDOM' AND 'RIGHT AND WRONG'..IN THAT LOVING WATCHING, WE SEE AND BRING PEACE HOME, WHERE WE LIVE, IN OUR MIND AND HEART. THAT PEACE ALONE POWERFULLY RADIATES AND TRANSFORMS IMMEDIATE RELATIONSHIPS AND HEALS AND REGENERATES. WE DIRECTLY, TRULY - WITH NO SHAME OR BLAME - SEE THE REAL SOURCE OF CONFLICT, AND ARE MOVED BY LOVE AND A GREATER SELF-KNOWING AND COMPASSION. THEN ALL OUR ACTS CEASE TO BE REACTIONS, AND OUR RESPONSE IN ALL THINGS LARGE AND SMALL, IS CLEAR, APPROPRIATE, RELEVANT AND LOVING :) We are each living in our own soap opera. We do not see things as they really are. We see only our interpretations. This is because our minds are always so busy...But when the mind calms down, it becomes clear. This mental clarity enables us to see things as they really are, instead of projecting our commentary on everything. ~ Tenzin Palmo

[ joy in small things is fully living, dept. ] Despite what we were told and led to believe and powerfully urged to really really need - that endlessly better a...nd better life full of new pleasures - some of us are learning that those pleasures are indeed, fleeting. We're discovering or more likely uncovering, that our natural joy does not fade like pleasure; that joy is a constant presence in simply being here. At heart and root, we can and are, daily delighted with the small things - the dancing squirrels that make us smile; the smell of coffee freshly poured, the touch of a passing friendly companion - even if it's the dogs or the cat's tail; the taste of Christmas turkey with gravy that makes the heart happy. There's great beauty in quietly, simply watching, humming, singing, playing a little here and squeezing a little there. Indeed, there's real joy in life only now, when we tickle this living moment. Look with love and you'll see the beauty of it all :) See more