Archive for May, 2008

Learning public speaking

May 19, 2008

If you want to gain or improve your public speaking skills, there are many educational opportunities. I want to mention only two: Toastmasters and Speaking Circles.

There’s not a Speaking Circles group in Nova Scotia, so I have no experience with it, but I still want to talk about it because I like what I’ve come across. I read founder Lee Glickstein’s book Be Heard Now, and from reading it I think I’d be more inclined toward Speaking Circles than Toastmasters. Speaking Circles has more of spiritual sensibility to it. Toastmasters was founded in the 1920s in order to help advance men — and I do mean men — in business. However, there are some Toastmasters groups that have a spiritual bent and women make up at least half the membership, if not more, of all clubs.

In a sense it doesn’t matter which organization you join. I’ve belonged to a local Toastmasters club for about four years, and have attended meetings at other local Toastmasters clubs. Each club has its own vibe, its own personality. One club may cater to young aggressive professionals. Another may be established within a seniors center and be more genteel and non-controversial. Still another may emphasis success in speaking competitions, so that speakers who are not naturally gifted may feel ignored or left behind. Still others are middle of the road, appealing to most of the population.

There are many ways in which Toastmasters clubs could vary and the diversity is welcome. What it means is that if you are interested in joining a Toastmasters club, you will probably have to visit three or four before deciding which one you will join. You are more than welcome to attend meetings several times for free as a guest.

The cost of joining Toastmasters is very nominal, about $50 every six months.

I don’t know the cost of joining Speaking Circles. They have different levels of study which can be expensive compared to Toastmasters. Some Speaking Circles invite love offerings. What’s a love offering these days? Ten bucks? Fifteen? I don’t know. With Toastmasters there’s no love offering.

I imagine, but I don’t know for sure, that each Speaking Circles groups is different, too. They don’t all have love offerings. However, there are far less SC groups.

While I think I’d be more inclined to join Speaking Circles than Toastmasters, it depends on the personality of the group. In either organization you will learn public speaking. That’s the main thing.

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The Big Duality

May 17, 2008

The big duality of nonduality is the two kinds of teachers or communicators.

One kind of teacher is the guide. He or she functions to guide you to toward a full understanding of the way things are.

The other kind of nonduality teacher is the confessor. He or she confesses or simply states the way things are.

Many nondual teachers function in both capacities.

The guide

Most people are comfortable with the guide. The guide makes a promise that you’ll gain a better psychological condition. The guide has a plan, a program, a practice. The guide is extremely useful and helpful. By all means, allow a guide to guide you!

The confessor

The confessor is different. Either you get what the confessor is saying or you don’t. The confessor says that this is … it, perfect knowledge.

What is this? You could say it is the moment. However, it is finer than the moment. Since this is so refined and small, it is incredibly vast, just as subatomic particles are associated with a vastness of knowing.

The moment vs this

The moment is not the same as this. You can be in the moment, perceive the moment, recall a time when you were in the moment, do a meditation to put you in the moment. You can Kodachrome the moment.

None of that is true for this. You can’t be one with this. You can’t perceive this. You can’t photograph this.

The moment is the Now. People are convinced about the value of living in the Now, in the moment. That’s not true for this. This is only confessed. The confession is the Kodachrome.

But let’s be honest

There’s nothing unusual about this duality. In any field, whether it’s spirituality, organized crime, or anything, experienced people within those fields will teach in one or both of the ways described.

Teaching as a guide, many people will be reached.

Teaching as a confessor of the truth that you personally know — through your actions, the way you live, through a few simple words — you’ll impart that personal knowledge to very few people. But you’ll become a mentor or guru to those people.

Presence

The confessor not only teaches through confession of his or her truth, but also silently. The silent teaching is called presence. Again, it’s not only the spiritual person who has presence. Anyone in any field of endeavor could have presence and teach through their presence. Presence is silent confession.

Two in One

As I said earlier, many teachers function both as guide and confessor. They express themselves through clear instructional guidance and through verbal and silent confession. Guiding and confessing are not necessarily separately occurring functions. While the teacher is guiding you in the steps for proper meditation, she or he is also being the confessor, silently, as presence.

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Some Awesome Nondual Perspectives

May 15, 2008

I’ve always been interested in nondual perspectives, or how the spirit of nonduality, or even the explicit teaching, is found in different fields of knowledge, endeavors, activities.

I’ve been updating a web page on nonduality.com for nondual perspectives, and here are the headings so far. There are links under each one, but they are not included. The page has not yet been uploaded to nonduality.com.

I have already edited one book which basically is a look at nondual perspectives, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality. You can get it on Amazon. Right now it is on the shelves of most large Borders Stores across the U.S., and in Puerto Rico, too.

I don’t know if I’m going to edit another book on nondual perspectives. There are problems. I’ll talk about them in an upcoming blog entry.

Meanwhile here are the nondual perspectives for which links exist. Some of these categories can hold tons of links, others not so many. The project is ongoing!

Nonduality and Activism

Nonduality and Ahimsa

Nonduality and Art or Esthetics

Nonduality and Astrology

Nonduality and Athletics

Nonduality and Communal Living

Nondualty and Copyright

Nonduality and Dance

Nonduality and Depression

Nonduality and Diet

Nonduality and Dolphins

Nonduality and Dreams

Nonduality and Ecofeminism

Nonduality and Ecology

Nonduality and Education

Nonduality and Eucharist

Nonduality and Farming

Nonduality and Flying

Nonduality and Free Will

Nonduality and Incense

Nonduality and Karma

Nonduality and Kundalini

Nonduality and Literature

Nonduality and Love

Nonduality and Marginalized Society

Nonduality and Martial Arts

Nonduality and Mathematics

Nonduality and Mediation

Nonduality and Meditation

Nonduality and Memes

Nonduality and Movies/Anime

Nonduality and Music

Nonduality and Native Americans

Nonduality and Organizational Learning

Nonduality and Physics or Quantum Theory

Nonduality and Psychology or Psychotherapy

Nonduality and Religion, Scriptural, Scriptural-like, Classical Texts

Nonduality and Robots or AI

Nonduality and Sex

Nonduality and Schizophrenia

Nonduality and Solitude

Nonduality and Spiritual Apathy

Nonduality and Tarot Cards

Nonduality and Trance

Nonduality and Western Philosophy

Nonduality and The Workplace

Nonduality and Yoga

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Drop out, tune in, turn on: Tony vs Tim

May 12, 2008


Timothy Leary. “The eye with which I see God…”


Tony Parsons. …is the same eye with which God sees me.” –Meister Eckhart”

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

The following is from the Wikipedia:

“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 today:

“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?” It follows that you will “turn on” others to become inclined to drop out.

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 or despair sets in and the process stops 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 that put you in a feel good trance? Well, no one ever said there’s a winner in the nonduality game.

Posted in Gurus/Teachers/Sages, Popular Culture | 4 Comments »
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God Is an Atheist

May 11, 2008

God Is an Atheist: A Novella for Those Who Have Run Out of Time, is going to be published in June. You can pre-order now. I categorize it alongside Richard Beymer’s Imposter.

Even if you’re not sure about the literary handling of nondualism, but you support the nonduality genre, then please consider reading this work.

The review

This book is a gavotte of literary styles and daydreams. It compels you to become a partner and leads you to an understanding of God that is beyond belief.

One moment the writing reminds me of the wild-eyed Richard Beymer caught in the fantastic world knot of “contrived identity” in his psychological confession, Impostor.

Next moment a sensible philosophical warrior steps up.

That dynamic between the wild-eyed and the sensible, the wearing of one joker’s shoe and one wingtip, drives the story.

The foam of humor spills over the edges and down the sides.

In parts the author is freely catching images:

“I had a dream last night (I think it was a dream in any case) and in it I was reading the TMZ.com website where there was an account of Richard Dawkins and the Pope as secret lovers revealed, with photos of the two grinning in bed with their morning cappuccino, apparently listening to Puccini.”

Then there are stories. One of my favorites is the one about Eddie Buddha, the cousin of Gautama Buddha. Eddie was never remembered because he did not leave his wife and kid and renounce the world. He hung around. He went to delis at night with his best buddy. The following paragraph I found warm to the touch. This might reveal something about the writer:

“I wanted a life like Eddie Buddha’s that was clear, straightforward, regular and unfettered by the dogma of belief. I wanted a life that was compelling, which is an interesting word, meaning undeniable, gripping, but I wanted it compelled by truth. Compelling is the force exerted from the future into the past as organized by our mind. There is nothing compelling other than what you actually express, nothing before, nothing after.”

You’ll recognize much of your own foolishness or confabulations, hopefully with humor and peace. Listen:

“There remains this nagging question about the universe as it is, which is something like: ‘Why?’ In the immortal words of the blues queen Jenn Cleary, ‘Why, oh why, can’t there be peace in our world?’

“Why is there suffering? Why old age? Why pain? Why Barry Manilow? Why is it set up like this? I turned to God for an answer.

“God would have none of it. He was hustling me towards a Quick Stop where He was intent on acquiring some Slim Jim Beef Jerky.”

This is a work of true madness and mad truth. Reading it might put an end to the endless chewing on beef jerky and bring the reader face to face with Eddie Buddha’s unfettered life, God’s “none of it,” or the Pope’s cappuccino. (Actually don’t look for anything meaningful in the cappuccino, it just sounds good.)

God Is an Atheist: A Novella for Those Who Have Run Out of Time

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Is the Show Me state becoming the No Me state?

May 9, 2008

Missouri is a hotbed of nonduality. Here are a couple very recent articles mentioning nonduality in Missouri’s mainstream media.

From the Kansas City Star:

Eighth-century mystic has teachings for today (excerpts)

Shankara’s key insight was that reality is “non-dual,” ultimately undivided. The Sankskrit term for this school of thought is Advaita.

For Shankara, there is no real difference between the individual person and the “conscious principle underlying and sustaining the universe” called Brahman — God, Nishpapananda said.

“This means that in the highest mystical experience, the world disappears completely. There is no subject or object in this experience; only the divine reality is. In the West mystics like … (the Christian) Meister Eckhart, among others, had this experience,” Nishpapananda explained.

The perception of divine reality within the mystical experience can be compared to awakening from the illusion of a dream.

I asked how one can achieve liberation from the illusion that things are separate from the divine.

Nishpapananda replied: “Christ put it most succinctly: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ A pure heart is without desire or enmity. Purity comes from sustaining a moral course while pursuing secular goals. The Sanskrit term is dharma.

Read the entire article (not very long) at www.kansascity.com/255/v-print/story/607546.html

Columbia (Missouri) residents learn to relax through yoga nidra

No downward dog or tree pose here. In a Columbia yoga nidra class, it’s even perfectly acceptable to doze off.

In Columbia, yoga nidra is gaining popularity among students and hip professionals, and it has also been used to help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

…

Richard Miller, director of a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of yoga nidra, has repackaged it as iRest for U.S. soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

His Center of Timeless Being in Petaluma, Calif., conducted several studies to measure the impact of iRest on the mental health of these soldiers, as well as on the homeless.

The center’s first study at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in West Virginia in 2006 showed that practicing iRest dramatically lowered levels of stress, depression and anxiety in the soldiers.

After the study was complete, Miller said, the hospital invited a teacher from the center to create an ongoing program for soldiers there.

Miller also worked on two studies in Petaluma that measured the effects of iRest on the homeless and came to the same conclusion.

In Columbia, registered nurse Terry Wilson has been conducting pilot studies to investigate the effects of iRest on college students. The studies have yielded positive results.

Even individuals facing the daily grind of work and family find yoga nidra a successful way to unwind, relax and learn something about themselves.

“We all have had these experiences where people curse us to believe that we are a certain way,” McRae said. “But with yoga nidra, you realize you are something more.”

Beyond the actual practice of yoga nidra is an underlying convention known as non-dual philosophy that enables individuals to see themselves as part of the bigger picture, not as a single entity, McRae said.

“Non-dual philosophy means that we are not separate, we are the same,” he said. “If you and I really are the same thing, whatever I do to you, I am doing to myself.”

Read the full article.

Richard Miller’s website is nondual.com .

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Alternatives to Eckhart Tolle That Meg Ryan Might Not Have Mentioned to Oprah … Yet

May 8, 2008

I read that actress Meg Ryan introduced Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now, to Oprah. Tolle is only one of the excellent communicators of nondual teachings. There are many others. The huge majority is very little known in the world.

As this blog unfolds there will often be the mention of one or another teacher of nonduality, as there already has been such mention.

For now, I want to give you access to listings of hundreds of teachers, sages, and gurus. Many are living and accessible to you. Some are living and not so accessible. Some are reclusive. Many are dead, some are legendary or mythical, but their works and the works about them are tremendously valuable.

By giving you access to hundreds of alternatives to Eckhart Tolle, do I want to overwhelm you? Yes, sort of. I want to convey abundance.

I want you to realize that an intimacy with the teaching of nonduality is not rare. I want to show that the universe, or at least the bookstore, is offering you almost endless ways of “getting” the teaching of nonduality. I want nonduality, nondual, nondualism, to be your new household words.

Here are the links that will introduce you to scores, perhaps hundreds, of nondual teachers. I need to emphasize that each teacher speaks in a different way, emphasizes different aspects of the teaching of nonduality. Some of the following links will try to clarify those aspects for each teacher.

Sarlo’s Guru Rating Service – Rich with teacher listings, ratings, opinions, and supported by a very active email forum.

Some Teachers of Advaita – Dennis Waite’s fine, carefully constructed list of teachers with brief commentary, photos, quotations. An important Advaita/nonduality site.

Ramana and Other Advaita – The original list of teachers.
Some excellent writings.

Teachers, Gurus, Realizers, Confessors – Valuable list that formed the foundation of most other lists of gurus, however no longer kept up to date.

Builders of Culture – Eric Paroissien’s commendable list with photos and links.

Divine Inspirators – Many Indian sages that few have heard of. Video clips too.

Strictly Spiritual – Includes ratings of gurus and teachers; actively kept up. Good message board. Informative articles.

Satsang Worldwide – Access living teachers by clicking on a map of the world. Very well done site.

I highly recommend devoting as much of your life as possible to the teaching of nonduality in the way that is right for you, regardless of what teacher or books you are drawn to.

I have no single individual to recommend for everyone. You must discover the right teacher, readings, and approach for yourself.

To stay in touch with the teaching of nonduality, three doorways will lead you into the big world of nonduality:

– read this blog often.
– subscribe to the daily free letter, Nonduality Highlights.
– explore the links at Nonduality.com

Additionally, my book, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality, brings a selection of diverse writings. I designed the anthology to give you practical guidance in realizing your nondual nature, and to demonstrate how various scriptural works and self-realized people describe nondual reality. You can also buy the book off the shelf at most large Borders Stores.

And write me if you have questions.

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Branding Nonduality: Part Two

May 6, 2008

Since I posted the first part of this article on January 9, 2008, Eckhart Tolle and his particular teaching of nonduality have been raised in public consciousness.

In the earlier article I asked whether Eckhart Tolle was as strong a brand as Deepak Chopra. At this point it is clear that the name Eckhart Tolle is a very strong brand. A few months ago I might have thought that “The Now” was a stronger brand, but I no longer think that. Although the Deepak Chopra brand goes back decades, in current times Eckhart Tolle is as strong or stronger a brand name.

Also in the earlier article I felt that the Ken Wilber name was a stronger brand than the Peter Fenner name. I don’t think that’s as true any longer. Fenner’s Radiant Mind — the book and course — is becoming more well known. And I feel it is easier to find one’s way from Tolle to Fenner, while not so easy to find a bend in the Tolle road that leads straight to Wilber.

The other update is about the 9choirs.com site. It has improved its look and name and thereby strengthened its branding. Now the site is called SoulsCode: Everyone’s a guru. I like the site and branding much better, although I still don’t easily grasp its focus or niche.

There are hundreds of other examples in the nonduality field that could be discussed in terms of branding. I’m only giving my impressions and have no hard evidence to back them. My main purpose is to get you to think about the business of nonduality in terms of branding. The question you might ask is whether you are optimally branding your work in nonduality.

Nonduality needs to be run as a business in order to communicate it worldwide. Take the most low-profile nondual people in the nonduality racket, for example a guy like david carse who doesn’t teach, doesn’t encourage personal contact, doesn’t even copyright his popular book, Perfect Brilliant Stillness: beyond the individual self: he still has to run a business, ship books, advertise, deal with publishers, printers, distributors, banks, etc.

And I have to say, if david has a brand it is david carse himself, the reclusive Vermont carpenter who writes brilliantly about the nondual state and claims no ownership of his writing. What a job of branding!

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Meeting Dhyan Dewyea

May 4, 2008

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Dhyan Dewyea, author of Beyond the ‘I’: Notes on Waking Up to Oneness.

What’s left is always an impression, not so much the conversation or what was said, but the impress of ease, the smile that sparkles, the making of things simple, the direct gaze undirected.

There’s only a very limited meeting with anyone by email or phone. Much time can be saved by meeting a person one-to-one. With email, a few letters are exchanged, weeks or months go by, another email is exchanged. By sitting silently with someone, those gaps of weeks or months might be filled in a second or two, as the binds which shape themselves into questions unravel and dissolve.

If you read Dhyan’s book, feel free to email her. If you like the email exchange, arrange a phone interaction. If you like talking to her on the phone, try to meet Dhyan in person. I don’t see where she is identified with the nondual trends or groups of current times, which I liked about her. Here is an excerpt from Dhyan’s book:

The End of Longing

This self realization is not just another nice, powerful, or intriguing state like some of the ones which can happen on the inner journey. It does not go away. This is why it is not a state, because a state can change into some other state. Being at source is the precondition for all states. States belong to the manifest person. The source precedes all manifestation and is the same undivided One that underlies everyone and everything, whether it is known or not.

All this amounts to a qualitative and distinct leap in perception; as if the perception is moved from the head to the feet for the first time. But the body and its operating systems, its personality features, may not change — awakening is not about change.

There are people who might say ‘you had a spiritual experience, good for you.’ No, this is not another experience in a long succession of life experiences. An experience implies that there is an experiencer and something that is experienced — it belongs to the level of duality. There is no experiencer and nothing experienced in this. The experiencing, the observing, the watching subject, all fall back into pure subjectivity (another term for source). There is no one there anymore to have an experience.

Beyond the ‘I’: Notes on Waking Up to Oneness.

Also visit Dhyan’s personal website: beyond-the-i.com

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Nondualism & Educational Drama and Theatre: A Perspective for Transformative Training

May 2, 2008

Dr. Kriben Pillay has published a new book: Nondualism & Educational Drama and Theatre: A Perspective for Transformative Training.

Dr. Pillay lives and works in education in South Africa. He is an activist opening the door and leading people into the room of nondualism. It’s never easy. I hope that if you have an interest in both education and nondualism, as well as human freedom and creativity, that you will investigate this work.

Very brief excerpt:

The scope of this study is encapsulated in the following three questions:

1. In what way does nondualism as critical theory bring about greater theoretical precision to the practice of educational drama and theatre?

2. Can the experiential dimension of nondualism radically extend the practice of educational drama and theatre?

3. Can educational drama and theatre be used as a tool in effecting the traditional, ontological concerns of the experiential dimension of nondualism?

Here’s another excerpt that gives some perspective to the treatment of nondualism itself.

“Nondualism will be explored within the concept of multivalence, in contrast to much of Western thinking that is built up on binary oppositions or bivalence. Much of our education, even in the arts, is bound to a mind-set that sees the world in terms of this or that, black or white. Nondualism is concerned with a world as a continuum where the finality of binary opposites makes way for the relativity of multivalent perspective.”

Dr. Pillay notes that the field of educational drama and theatre has come under threat, especially in Britain. Underlying this is the sense of comfort and security people feel when they view the world as black and white, rather than in grey, even if such a view is, in a creative and freely human sense, crippling.

Read more from Nondualism & Educational Drama and Theatre: A Perspective for Transformative Training, and order it at www.lulu.com/content/1994623

Keywords:

* Theory U
* Transformative Training
* Educational Theatre
* educational drama
* nondualism

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