By opening your mind to nonduality you might live a more effective life
An audio excerpt from Tarun Sardana’s book Dissolved, read by Mandee Moon and Jerry Katz on YogaHeart Radio, can be heard at www.knowi.org/.
It is a dialogue between a seeker and a guru on the topics of nirmana and nirvana.
Listen to Mandee and Jerry on YogaHeart Radio on Wednesdays between 1:30-3:30PM EST. You can listen via any of these links:
http://ckdu.dal.ca/ckdu-hi.pls
a parade of nondual perspectives
from
www.theawakenedeye.com/nonduality.htm
nonduality
Most of the excerpts are taken from One: Essential Writings on Nonduality.
Nonduality means ‘not two’, nonseparateness.
When we speak, we speak from a disposition.
There are two basic dispositions: one from the place of oneness or “I Am” or Truth, Consciousness, God, Reality, whatever you want to call.
The second is the disposition from the Absolute, which is where the direct experience people come from. People like Tony Parsons or U.G. Krishnamurti. They say there is no God, consciousness or whatever you claim to be. They’re coming from nothingness, the Absolute. From that point of view there isn’t even nonseparateness. There’s nothing and no one. That’s the ‘real’ nonduality. That’s true Advaita. But no one can get it. You can’t do anything to get it. There’s no getting and no one to do the getting.
But we can get the nonduality that pertains to God, consciousness, truth, reality. We can get it through intention, inquiry, surrender, and different means. We can taste it and know it as our true nature, as the truth of who we are.
nonduality and art:
A mature creative life, which has discovered its source, finds it is linked to everything. When we are able to tap this source and link the illumined threads, we no longer want to live our creative lives separate from it. A creation that does not have the residual glow of its source can, at best, only sound a deathly rattle – however impressive that rattle may be.
Jerry Wennstrom
nonduality and education:
Awareness doesn’t need more information. It needs only enough information. This intelligence, the quality that mediates information into wisdom, is seldom referenced in school. If we do not include awareness in what we convey to our children, then aren’t we teaching them to be unconscious and to be consumers of an endless stream of pointless information and products?
Steven Harrison
nonduality and aikido:
The Art of Peace, begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all that you encounter.
Morihei Ueshiba
nonduality and cinema:
“Who were you that I lived with, walked with? The brother, the friend? Strife and love, darkness and light – are they the workings of one mind, features of the same face? Oh my soul. Let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes. Look out at the things you made. All things shining.”
The Thin Red Line
nonduality and haiku:
These intimate haiku-pauses ground us in the mystery of being as we open ourselves, time and time again, to new vistas and to keener insights into the living, changing universe we inhabit. They allow us to be attuned to the rhythm, colour, sound, scent, movement and stillness of life, from season to season, whoever, whatever or wherever we are.
Gabriel Rosenstock
nonduality and western philosophy:
Proving the nondual nature of reality is not an overall goal for Western philosophy. A few philosophers have created nondual metaphysical theories; and others have argued against metaphysics altogether. But most philosophers who dissolve or dismiss dualities are not nondualists. The dualities left in the dust by these writers are merely casualties of their other work. In fact, the cleverest and most persuasive arguments tend to come from the works focused on narrower issues. These arguments can be very helpful in the course of one’s nondual inquiry. As the old-time news editors used to say, “We can use it!”
Greg Goode
nonduality and psychotherapy:
Are awakening psychotherapists in the same lineage as the Buddha or India’s other illustrious sages? It seems obvious that any awakening or awakened beings will transmit their understanding according to their capacities and limitations in any moment. This holds true for psychotherapists and nonpsychotherapists alike. In some ways being a psychotherapist may make awakening more difficult, especially if there are strong attachments to theories about the mind. On the other hand, psychotherapists are in a unique position in modern society to offer a sanctuary for individuals to sort out their lives and more intimately explore their direct experience.
John J. Prendergast
nonduality and religion:
With the perspectives of religion, particularly Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism, and Christianity, you’ll see expression from the disposition of the Absolute. It’s important to recognize the difference between the two dispositions.
advaita vedanta:
“The essence and the whole of Vedanta is this Knowledge, this supreme Knowledge: that I am by nature the formless, all-pervasive Self.”
buddhism:
“If anyone listens to this discourse and is neither filled with alarm nor awe nor dread, be it known that such a one is of remarkable achievement.”
sufism:
“… if you know yourself without being, not trying to become nothing, you will know your Lord. If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding yourself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him – the only unforgivable sin – because you are claiming that there is another existence besides Him, the All-Existent: that there is a you and a He.”
judaism:
“Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be solely God. If you suppose that Ein Sof emanates until a certain point, and that from that point on is outside of it, you have dualized. God forbid! Realize, rather, that Ein Sof exists in each existent. Do not say, ‘This is a stone and not God.’ God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.”
christianity:
“The truth of the body, then, is the revelation that Christ is all that is manifest of God or all that is manifest of the unmanifest Father. Self or consciousness does not reveal this and cannot know it. In the ‘smile’ there was no knower or one who smiles, nor was there anyone or anything to smile at or to know; there was just the smile, the ‘knowing’ that is beyond knower and known.”
native american tradition:
“We believe profoundly in silence – the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. Those who can preserve their selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence – not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the shining pool – those, in the mind of the person of nature, possess the ideal attitude and conduct of life.”
taoism:
Evince the plainness of undyed silk,
Embrace the simplicity of the unhewn log;
Lessen selfishness,
Diminish desires;
Abolish learning
An Extraordinary Absence:
Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life
by Jeff Foster
Review by Jerry Katz
Jeff Foster is a young and gifted confessor or sharer of what is. Jeff’s words are full of space. This book is incredibly effective in getting “you” to see there has never been a “you.” There’s only this.
I like the writing styles: Question and answer; confessions of what is; some writing structured as poems; and a fourth kind of writing that is set off by its own font, a courier typewriter style font, that gives a sense of “happening now.” This fourth kind of writing appears throughout the book under the heading “this”; here’s an example:
“Silence. I have no answer for her. This is empty of questions and answers. I am a child, I know nothing about nonduality. All I know is car horns, the whiff of aftershaves, the blowing of noses and aching of feet. This is where I live. Right here, not in some other dimension. The mouth opens to speak, even though I have no idea what to say.”
An Extraordinary Absence is a book of beauty but it’s not pretty. Jeff talks about pain, including his own extreme physical and emotional pain. He writes about the spectrum of humanity from “A little red-faced toddler in blue dungarees” to a man with terminal cancer:
“He is losing control of his bowels … I don’t tell him there’s no suffering, I don’t say `I’m enlightened and you’re not,’ I don’t even mention nonduality, I just wash his testicles.”
The Foreword by Kriben Pillay and the Introduction by Philip Pegler are themselves worthwhile documents on nonduality. Especially Kriben, a writer, observer, researcher, and publisher of nondualia since the mid-90s, makes strong statements:
“Much of the current nondual scene is … engaged in layered deceptions…”
It is essential that nonduality constantly check and undo itself. If the worldly construction of nonduality — as it is known in books, websites, forums, gatherings, conferences, satsangs, all media — if it can’t stand up to its decimation, what good is it?
Something else I like about this book is the quotations. They balance the book.
By around page 90 came the insight that I was reading a classic, even a potential screenplay with Jeff starring and doing the voiceover.
I also like how Jeff brings in Zen, Advaita, and Christianity. The emphasis on Christianity and crucifixion convey that Jeff knows Jesus the man, and resonates with the pain and the utter humanity exposed in this book, and yields this confession:
“Waking up from the dream of separation, there is a death, and that death, as Jesus said, is the only salvation. You have to lose your life to save it. And so when there is no-one, there isn’t an empty void, a lonely and joyless black space devoid of all qualities, no, no, no. That void is full, it is bursting with life. … And in that, all the concepts in the world dissolve.”
Read An Extraordinary Absence and watch how you become comfortable with wonder.
~ ~ ~
An Extraordinary Absence:
Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life
by Jeff Foster
Order from Amazon.com or Non-Duality Press, publisher in the U.K.
Read extracts from “An Extraordinary Absence: Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life”
Nonduality Satsang
November 14, 2009 at 1313 Hollis St., Halifax, Nova Scotia
A Summary
The gathering was scheduled from 1-4pm. About 37 were in attendance, with a few people leaving early and a few arriving later, and several staying until around 5:30pm, hanging around and getting to know each other.
Here are the contibutors in the order (pretty much) in which they came forth, and summaries of what they did.
However, these summaries fall far short of recreating the wordless atmosphere of Nonduality Satsang, which transcends and rests prior to — and is not separate from! — any of these amazing arisings.
Jerry Katz
I invited people to just be in the silence, to just be. I sent the reminder that this is exactly all there is to nonduality satsang, this glasslike harbour at sunrise. As the sun continues to rise, ripples play on the water. They are not separate from the harbour or the ocean. In the satsang, as contributors appear to speak, play instruments, do what they do, they are like the ripples. None of it, nothing in the satsang or outside it, no thought is separate from the harbour or the ocean. That nonseparation is nonduality. I invited people to remember the harbour or the ocean as it is and to come from the place of the great ocean, whether they are known as beautiful ripples or not; to “be” in the midst of everything, of whatever is happening. It is all welcome, as Mandee might have said.
Mandee Labelle, one of the co-organizers and the one who was intended to set the tone of the satsang, could not attend and was missed! Mandee requested the reading of Walt Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, which Jerry read:
When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Dustin LindenSmith, another co-organizer, was in Italy and was also missed!
James Traverse: Constipation in Consciousness
The three key points of my presentation are: 1) Attention is the factor of Awareness that facilitates a qualitative shift in whatever is attended to, 2) if you have formed any idea of who/what you are via the thinking mind then you have a dis-ease that is a Constipation in Consciousness, and 3) you are unthinkable yet you are.
The process of experientially communicating these three points was facilitated by asking folks to attend to breathing while I was speaking and I had an accomplice in the audience who sounded a chime when I stated ‘whenever you hear this sound… attend to breathing… and explore the question, “Does attention to breathing facilitate a qualitative shift in breathing?”‘ [it is experientially self-evident that this is the case and my conspirator sounded the chime every 3 minutes or so to direct attention to breathing while I continued speaking].
Once this ‘principle of attention’ was established as the factor that facilitates a qualitative shift, I asked folks to direct attention to Constipation, Consciousness and the relationship of Content and Context. At this point I simply asked folks to help me attend to and define these things and with their help we discovered that Constipation is a blockage to the ‘river of life’ yet the river of life does not stop which results in many other disorders; we also discovered that there are distinct degrees or states of Consciousness as: waking consciousness, sleep consciousness, dream consciousness while waking or sleeping, and, deep sleep or a medically induced sleep where the ‘sleeper’ in not conscious yet it is clear that there is no discontinuity to being while deep dreamless sleep is unfolding; Context is the setting and Content is what’s inside [in other words Consciousness is the setting or context and the content is that we were breathing, I was speaking, folks were attending, etc).
I then offered some parallel findings from medical science that says that over 80% of all health disorders are linked to constipation and because the flow of life does not stop when there is a blockage there is a build up of pressure/stress, and, medical scientists have also determined that over 90% of visits to health professionals is linked to elevated levels of stress in a person's life [these are facts that are provided by highly acclaimed medical schools like Harvard Medical].
I finished my presentation by asking folks to use this ‘principle of attention’ to see that: 1) the stress and constipation factors generally associated with physical dis-ease are not limited to the physical realm, 2) the irrefutable fact that the ‘sleeper’ is not consciously present while deep sleep or medically induced sleep is unfolding does not mean that there is a discontinuity in consciousness in this situation, 3) the ongoing reminders via the ‘chiming’ of my accomplice means that an aspect of the content as what is happening is breathing that is unfolding within the context of and as life/consciousness and that these are together like a wave and the ocean, 4) if you have made any intellectual conclusion of who or what you are, then that idea is the ‘content’ that is the constipation/blockage in consciousness, 5) the remedy for this blockage is to see the blockage [and no longer feed it energy such that it dies of starvation], and 6) attention reveals that you are unthinkable yet you are.
Susan Johnstone shared some favourite highlights from “The Practice of the Presence of God”, a book by Brother Lawrence who was a Christian mystic in the 1600′s in France. He shows clearly that there is, in fact, a deep and ancient tradition of non-duality that runs within Christianity, even today.
Brother Lawrence’s core practice was to simply do everything he would normally do for himself, for the Love of the Divine Presence instead. In practicing that simple thing throughout his life, he achieved a state where he was in constant awareness of the Divine Ground of Being, whether he was in the kitchen, at mass or in his cell.
He also had a wonderful way of not getting caught up in self-pity or judgement over his faults. He would simply say to God “You know me. And I will always be like this unless you correct me.” And then he would simply surrender his fault or weakness to the Divine to correct and resolve to do what he could to improve.
Teacher of Yoga and Buddhist meditation, and host of The Path of Yoga TV show. The following description from The Path of Yoga website captures his message:
Sean is a simple forest yogin. Sean is a certified yoga teacher as well. Sean’s approach in teaching Yoga and Meditation can be described as Self-Liberation Yoga (Rangdrol Yoga). Most of us have an awareness of Yoga as postures (asanas), and breath (pranayam). Yoga actually has six other aspects or limbs. Sean aspires to use the physical practice as a universally potent vehicle toward the realization of one’s true nature. As you calm the lake of your mind, you begin to understand the subtler layers of a posture (asana). Clarity can then dawn on your mind’s real nature. Suffering can then be reduced. In time, equanimity and happiness can stabilize. Yoga is a practice. The fluctuations are inseparable from the practice. It is like polishing a gem, give it time and it will shine brilliantly.
An interview with Sean by Mandee Moon may be heard until around mid-February 2010, at the following link:
http://ckdu.dal.ca/32/20091118.13.30-15.30.mp3
Sastry Vankamamidi
A Hindu priest and professor of engineering, Sastry shared the principles of Advaita Vedanta of Aadi Shankara, and performed a rendition from “Vivekachoodamani” by Aadi Shankara. Sastry writes:
Aadi Shankara, the founder of Advaita Vedanta has given a nice description of the undescribable SELF. There are 10 verses to indicate the SELF which is beyond word and thought. I will chant two of them and give the meaning. They go like this:
Jaati neeti kula gotra dooragam naama roopa guna dosha varjitam!
Desha kaala vishayaativarti yad Brahma tatwamasi bhaavayaatmani!!
jaati= Species, neeti = profession, kula = caste, gotra = lineage, dooragam = beyond naama = name, roopa = form, guna = quality, dosha = defects, varjitam = without desha = place, kaala = time, vishayaati = properties, varti = beyond, yad = that which brahma tatwam = essence of brahma, asi = is, bhava = contemplate, aatmani = in yourself.
Meaning: The Self is beyond species, profession, caste, lineage. It is without the defects of name form and quality. It is unchanging with time, place and situation. Contemplate thus in your mind as the essence of Brahman.
Yad vibhaati sad anekadaa brahmaat naama roopa guna vikriyaatmani!
Hemavat swayam avikriyam sadaa Brahma tatwamasi bhavayaatmani!!
yad = That which, vibhaati = shines, sad = truely, anekadaa = as many, bhramaat = due to delusion ( Maya), Naama = name, roopa = form, guna = quality, vikriyaatmani = changes in one’s mind, Hemavat = like gold, swayam = itself, avikriyam = unchanging, sadaa= always, Brahma….. =… in yourself.( see the first hymn).
Meaning: Self is like the essence in all golden ornaments having different names, forms and functions. The differences between the ornaments are seen due to delusion by an ignorant person while the truth is realized as the Gold by a SEER . See the SELF/Brahman, in all beings as the essence of yourself.
Allie Kane
Singer/songwriter
This song was written when I was trying to remember a certain magic that comes in spring time. A certain awakening I was longing for. Wake up. I tell myself… remembering a time of awaken I spent one summer living and working at a camp for the blind and deaf blind. What beauty life is when seen from a different perspective.
I heard the whisper of your reincarnation
but I don’t believe my eyes
I have waited for so long to hear the closure in our relation
but now I believe Ive gone blind
To know you again I would have to be your sister
for love is not based on our pride
I remember when
we felt like little children
we climbed and danced in the wild
But I have gone blind to the waves hitting the shores
deaf to the sounds of the trees
And my fingers no longer feel
the warm waters anymore
to be free
to be free
to bee free
For who am I to intellectualize
comprehend existence as the past
I will fill my pockets with your dirt
until my eyes grow wise
mother earth’s warmth will come to last
SO open your eyes to the waves hitting the shores
ears to the sounds of the trees
and our fingers touch warm waters as they sink to the sea floors
to be
to be
to be.
Phil Cousins
Didgideroo player. Accompanying drumming by Struan Ford and Phil’s son Avalon.
[Nonduality Satsang ] was a very interesting melting pot of souls and the other presenters had some great jewels of wisdom to share. I’m into that kind of collaboration between different spiritual communities that I think has a unique quality here in Nova Scotia. Buddhists, pagans, mystical Christians, yogis, poets, musicians and shamen all are barking up the same tree – finding the connection points between the traditions and enjoying their differences is a delicious adventure.
Australian aboriginal legends and art are full of descriptions of the Wandjina, who were the creators of the land and who at one time, lived here on earth with them in what we in the West might call a “Golden Age”. When it came time for the Wandjina to leave the earth, the aboriginal people were very sad, because they knew things would be different and they couldn’t bear to be without their friends. The Wandjina showed them how to make and play the didgeridoo from eucalyptus wood that had been hollowed out by termites. They said that using the instrument, the people could communicate with the Wandjina whenever they wanted.
The didgeridoo is an instrument that expresses the essence of non-duality. The instrument primarily emits a single tone or note, however through subtle movement of the lips and mouth of the player, a whole host of harmonics and overtones can be produced. This expresses the rainbow of infinite possibilities that is present when we recognize and immerse ourselves in our true, non-dual nature.
Pierre & Maryse offered an Earth based chant accompanied by the drone flute and the native drum. “Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath and fire my spirit…” were the words pronounced over and over again; a reminder of our intimate connection with nature.
Kasandra Earl
After a 12 year absents from storytelling. Kasandra Earl had an opportunity to get back in to the storytelling chair at Nonduality Satsang. Her story “Consignment Boots” told the story about a woman named Cathy who was given a pair of consignment boots that fit like a glove. The boots turned out to have a mind of their own and took Cathy on an adventure that helped to reunite four generations of the same family. Kasandra is planning to continue her love of storytelling and is currently writing her first book.
Maureen Nowlan
Using yoga asana and pranayama I write poetry from the unconscious: a place of non-duality. This poem was inspired by a dragon fly’s multi-faceted eye: a gem cut on which reflected light from a multitude of images is captured. I wondered how the world might look with an eye of that structure and what I might see. This is what came up:
A Kaleidoscope Eye
Each chamber reveals a segment of the view
Choosing one, the green spear expands
Rolling mounds of lush grass fields continue forever
Strands of grass, mass of green
Coming back, a window of brown enlarged to a branch
Limb, trunk, forest garden
Twigs crossed defining tiny sacred spaces between
Roots and branches intertwine
A yellow madness broadens to reveal stamens
Waving in the breeze of a bird’s flight
Freeing yet more yellow puffs
Wings of gold dusted feathers
The red chamber widens to a shiny wet droplet
Of saliva in a seething gaping jaw
Then sliding into a scarlet cavern to endless
Blood red pulsing glistening
A side view, a shape becomes a peripheral movement
The profile a freckle, an ear, blush of skin
The place of kaleidoscope eye
Black, wide open
A glimpse of shame hanging heavy
Overripe, begging to be caught in full view
The fruit of dredged up, critiqued, crumbled arrogance
Devoured, digested, interred
A recognition: the face of the cliff of untapped potential
Goals set high on mountains of desire cling to the edge
Aspirations sent over the skyridge
Unrealized dreams fossilized
The glimpse stagnant, halted, marginalized
The kaleidoscope shifts as the muses signal
Three dots, three dashes, three dots
As the glance pops open in immediacy
Another chamber: a window of gold dust fragments
Scattered and silhouetted glints of a mosaic tile floor
The ruins of a grand hall
The messenger kneels, pressing his forehead into gold
His voice fuels flames of unrest
Chastising, lamenting lost ideas, rebirthing dead deeds
Reviving young fervor on old runways long dormant
The gold dust fragment now an irritant in the black eye of defeat
~ ~ ~
Want to attend a future Nonduality Satsang in Halifax, Nova Scotia, or wish to be a contributor? Our next gathering will be in April 2010. Write Jerry Katz and you’ll be placed on the mailing list.
from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/23/man-trapped-coma-23-years
Trapped in his own body for 23 years – the coma victim who screamed unheard
• Misdiagnosed man’s tale of rebirth thanks to doctor
• Total paralysis masked fully functioning brain
* Kate Connolly in Berlin
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 November 2009 13.13 GMT
For 23 years Rom Houben was imprisoned in his own body. He saw his doctors and nurses as they visited him during their daily rounds; he listened to the conversations of his carers; he heard his mother deliver the news to him that his father had died. But he could do nothing. He was unable to communicate with his doctors or family. He could not move his head or weep, he could only listen.
Doctors presumed he was in a vegetative state following a near-fatal car crash in 1983. They believed he could feel nothing and hear nothing. For 23 years.
Then a neurologist, Steven Laureys, who decided to take a radical look at the state of diagnosed coma patients, released him from his torture. Using a state-of-the-art scanning system, Laureys found to his amazement that his brain was functioning almost normally.
“I had dreamed myself away,” said Houben, now 46, whose real “state” was discovered three years ago, according to a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel this week.
Laureys, a neurologist at the University of Liege in Belgium, published a study in BMC Neurology earlier this year saying Houben could be one of many cases of falsely diagnosed comas around the world. He discovered that although Houben was completely paralysed, he was also completely conscious — it was just that he was unable to communicate the fact.
Houben now communicates with one finger and a special touchscreen on his wheelchair – he has developed some movement with the help of intense physiotherapy over the last three years.
He realised when he came round after his accident, which had caused his heart to stop and his brain to be starved of oxygen for several minutes, that his body was paralysed. Although he could hear every word his doctors spoke, he could not communicate with them.
“I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,” he said, via his keyboard.
The Belgian former engineering student, who speaks four languages, said he coped with being effectively trapped in his own body by meditating. He told doctors he had “travelled with my thoughts into the past, or into another existence altogether”. Sometimes, he said, “I was only my consciousness and nothing else”.
The moment it was discovered he was not in a vegetative state, said Houben, was like being born again. “I’ll never forget the day that they discovered me,” he said. “It was my second birth”.
Experts say Laureys’ findings are likely to reopen the debate over when the decision should be made to terminate the lives of those in comas who appear to be unconscious but may have almost fully-functioning brains.
Belgian doctors used an internationally-accepted scale to monitor Houben’s state over the years. Known as the Glasgow Coma Scale, it requires assessment of the eyes, verbal and motor responses. But they failed to assess him correctly and missed signs that his brain was still functioning.
Last night his mother, Fina, said in an interview with Belgian RTBF that they had taken him to the US five times for reexamination. The breakthrough came when it became clear that Houben could indicate yes and no with his foot.
“Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it,” he tapped out on to the screen during an interview with the Belgian network last night, AP reported.
Laureys, who is head of the Coma Science Group and department of neurology at Liege University hospital, has advised on several prominent coma cases, such as the American Terri Schiavo, whose life support was withdrawn in 2005 after 15 years in a coma.
Laureys concluded that coma patients are misdiagnosed “on a disturbingly regular basis”. He examined 44 patients believed to be in a vegetative state, and found that 18 of them responded to communication.
“Once someone is labelled as being without consciousness, it is very hard to get rid of that,” he told Der Spiegel.
He said patients suspected of being in a non-reversible coma should be “tested 10 times” and that comas, like sleep, have different stages and need to be monitored.
Houben hopes to write a book detailing his trauma and his “rebirth”.
Excerpt from
Dissolved
by Tarun Sardana
The journey to the Self is a little complicated:
The more one walks towards it, the farther it goes;
The moment one stops, one finds oneself there.
About the Book
Dissolved—a state where two become one. Just as a river dissolves in the ocean, a raindrop in the water, a fragrance in the air, and a seeker in the Self, realizing that they were never separate.
This book is about the journey of a seeker, Vivek, who goes within to seek the truth and in the process becomes one with it. This is a parable of the dissolving of the ego-self in the ocean of blissful, all-pervading Self – the only Truth.
Chapter 1
What is Nirmana and Nirvana
Vivek: Guru Ji, What is Nirmana? Oh, I am sorry, What is Nirvana?
Guru Ji: (Laughs) Son, you picked two beautiful words. The difference between these two words is the journey that every soul has to take and is, in fact, the only purpose of this birth.
Vivek: I don’t get it. Please be kind and explain it to me in detail.
Guru Ji: Sure, Son. Before I proceed, I would like to know your understanding about Nirmana.
Vivek: Nirmana is construction or the act of building. Like, I am doing my Nirmana here. I am seeking the knowledge that will build my intellect and character, help me judge right and wrong, provide me with sufficient knowledge to live my life in a rightful manner. Am I correct, Guru Ji?
Guru Ji: You are absolutely correct. That is what Nirmana is. Now tell me, how many times did you use the word ‘ME’, while defining Nirmana?
Vivek: I guess a lot of times; as it was all about me.
GuruJi: Good. You are absolutely right. Nirmana is all about you. If you look at the word closely; NirMana has a sound of “M”, which is “Mein” in Sanskrit i.e. Me.
Vivek: What is Nirvana then?
GuruJi: Hmmm. Nirvana is just the opposite of Nirmana. In Nirvana, there is no ME. NirVana has a sound of “Va”, which is “Veh” in Sanskrit, which signifies “HE” or “THAT”
Vivek: And who is this “HE” now, or who is “THAT”?
Guru Ji: (Smiles) “You” are “THAT”.
Vivek: Apologies Guru Ji, but I am really confused. I am “ME”. I mean, how can I be “THAT”?
Guru Ji: (Laughs) This is the mystery that every soul needs to solve.
Vivek: Guru Ji, Please be kind enough and help me understand.
Guru Ji: Sure. To understand this, you will have to keep all your past learning aside and become a clean slate. Will you be able to do that?
Vivek: Meaning?
Guru Ji: What I will share with you is the highest wisdom. With a lot of knowledge already in, there will be no space for this wisdom. For wisdom to seep in, your mind should be empty.
Vivek: I promise Guru Ji. I offer all my learning till now at your Lotus feet and I will start this new learning with nothing in there.
Guru Ji: You surely are the perfect seeker for this knowledge, Vivek
(Vivek smiles and bows down to Guru Ji)
Chapter 2
Vivek in Search of Vivek
Guru Ji: Listen Vivek. Now I will share with you the highest of all wisdom. I would like you to close your eyes and tell me, what do you see?
Vivek: (Bows down to Guru Ji and closes his eyes. After a while, he speaks up) I see nothing Guru Ji. It is all blank. Nothing in there.
(Vivek opens his eyes)
Guru Ji: We are not done yet, Son. Keep your eyes closed.
(Vivek apologizes, bows down to Guru Ji and closes his eyes again)
Guru Ji: So what do you see?
Vivek: There is nothing in there Guru Ji. It’s all dark. It’s all empty.
Guru Ji: If your eyes are closed, who is the one, who sees this darkness?
(Long silence. Vivek breaks the silence and speaks up)
Vivek: I don’t know Guru Ji. I mean, it is me but I can’t see myself.
Guru Ji: Don’t worry, Vivek. Just take some more time and see who is this “ME”, who sees this darkness.
(Long silence. No movement. Complete, perfect silence. Vivek
has lost track of time. Everything has come to a standstill.
Vivek again breaks the silence and speaks up)
Vivek: Please help me Guru Ji. I am not able to see myself. I have been doing everything for me up till now but I am not able to see myself. Please be kind and tell me: Who am I?
Guru Ji: I can understand your dilemma Vivek, but it is very important that you find it on your own. My grace is with you, so don’t be scared. Go deep within. Your true Self is already waiting to uncover itself. It has been waiting for years. So don’t get hassled. Dive deep within and you’ll find it.
This time the Silence is much longer. There is no movement. It appears as if Vivek has left his body. Hours pass … Days
pass … Still no movement … Outside, there is complete silence. Inside, whatever was happening only Guru Ji knew or Vivek, if there was still any Vivek left.
Scriptures say, to realize the ultimate truth one has to die. Is
this the death, they talk about? Vivek was dead for the outside
world. Rain, storms, days, nights, hunger … had no effect on him. His breath had stopped.
After a long interval, Vivek opened his eyes, looked at Guru
Ji, smiled and bowed before him. This time, he had no
questions. His eyes were steady and calm. His face
reflected peace. He had nothing but silence to share with Guru Ji.
Purchase Dissolved at Amazon.com
You may also purchase Dissolved through these online bookstores based in India:
http://www.parimalpublication.com/Bookdesc.aspx?id=449
http://rnrbooks.com/details.aspx?id=24971
http://www.a1books.co.in/itemdetail/8184651120/DISSOLVED
Visit Tarun Sardana’s website for more about Dissolved: www.knowi.org
An Assortment of Unforgettable Teachers
A review of Pass the Jelly: Tales of Ordinary Enlighenment, by Gary Crowley
by Jerry Katz
A long chain of cause and effect had led to my being where I was, and while this is true for everyone all the time, I knew it wasn’t personal. It never is. And knowing this allowed me to soak in the entire spectacle.
Those opening lines lead the reader to meetings with an assortment of lovable, laughable, absurd, and wise characters from Gary Crowley’s life. Gary finds a spiritual teaching with each person he introduces. Each story is injected with and wrapped in humor.
This book is character driven. Who is the main character? Perhaps whoever you fall in love with the most. It might be Little Joe, a little person whose teaching I won’t reveal but involves a stick:
All the kids loved Little Joe. He would walk down the street, and the moms would call out to their kids, “Little Joe is walking by.” … There are some memories in life that seem to summarize the best of times; my memories of sprinting out of the house to say “Hi, Little Joe!” are just those. … I got the gist of what [Little Joe] was saying. “The stick” might have been my very first esoteric teaching on life.
Maybe it will be Not Jim, the taciturn tow truck driver, “a modern-day wrangler out rescuing humanity’s strays on their daily cattle drive to and from work”
Or Raw Boy, the health food store employee engaged by Gary in conversation:
“Oh, I’m completely addicted. I’m a self-confessed Javacrucian. Every morning when I take my first sip of coffee, I say out loud, ‘God, that’s good.’ ”
“Coffee is the most anti-spiritual drink on the planet,” [Raw Boy] challenged.
Shady Grady is one of several adults met by Gary as a lone boy or teen. As a lost five year old on a densely crowded beach, Shady Grady shows up in Gary’s life as another version of Not Jim. Once the lost five year old is re-united with his parents, Shady Grady becomes the teacher:
“Do you want to see how G.I. Joe would find his blanket at the beach?” he asked.
I gave an affirmative nod.
“Come with me,” he said as we headed down to the water’s edge.
We arrived on the wet sand and turned to face all the beach goers on their blankets.
“Can you see how all the life guard chairs look alike?” Shady asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, you can’t use only the lifeguard chairs to find your parents when you get lost, because they all look the same. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“But if you stand right in front of your lifeguard chair,” he instructed, “you can see that big flag in the parking lot right over the lifeguard’s head. Now let’s walk to the next one.”
When we were directly in front of the next lifeguard chair, Shady’s voice got a bit more serious.
You’ll have to read the book to see how these characters develop, what they teach, and how their teaching fits into the flow of the work.
My favorite might be the taxidermist, Mr. Gooch, whose heart and wisdom go deep. Eight year old Gary goes to Mr. Gooch’s house:
Mr. Gooch picked up that I had come all the way to his home for a reason and seemed to take me quite seriously. He listened very carefully to what I had witnessed with the fox at the reservoir. (I left out the information about Big Foot. That was strictly on a need-to-know basis.) Ben was busy examining the stuffed pheasant in the window and a large-mouth bass hanging on the wall. Mr. Gooch listened patiently to all the details of my story and allowed a long pause to make sure I had finished the telling of my tale.
The driving character of the book is Gary’s Dad. Well before you’ve come to the end of this book, the two words “Gary’s dad” will bring you to laughter and affection, and maybe tears, at once. Gary’s dad is the source of substantive moments:
Each morning when my dad read the newspaper, I would hear him exclaim, “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” or “How could someone do that?” A simple groan of “What?” was also common, but my personal favorite was the occasional, “Unbelievable.” “Unbelievable” was usually blurted out in regard to some politician going back on a campaign promise, a union boss caught getting kickbacks, or some similarly outrageous claim like “gravity will be present again today.”
My dad kept most of his distress about the world between himself and the newspaper. When it was time to go to work, he declared a temporary truce with reality and went on with his day. I, however, had witnessed Dad’s morning routine far too often by the time I was twelve for it to be ignored any longer. It was then that I decided to begin my lifelong journey as a master of the obvious.
Gary and his unforgettable characters say a lot about the way things are and about how to live life effectively. You never feel you are being lectured, however. The characters, not the teachings, take the front seat. That makes Pass the Jelly an important contribution to the spirituality genre. Profound spiritual teachings are rarely this easy and this much fun to get, understand, remember, and apply.
The one topic Gary never talks about is the one thing this book is all about: love. You feel it on every page, in every paragraph. I loved this book.
Pass the Jelly: Tales of Ordinary Enlighenment, by Gary Crowley
Greg Goode writes:
A Common Stumbling Block to Nondual Realization (video only – no audio)
http://heartofnow.com/files/images/greg_conf_talk2.avi
if that doesn’t play, try the Flash version:
http://heartofnow.com/files/images/greg_conf_talk.swf
This is the presentation I gave at the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Rafael on October 24.
It tells of what I call a common “stumbling block” to nondual realization – a barrier that stands in the way of the discovery that the self and world are the same undivided awareness. The stumbling block I’m talking about in this case boils down to this: the sense that awareness must somehow be personalized or localized. We grow up in modern scientific cultures taught to believe this. But as long as we do, the sense of separation will continue. Direct experience, however, can establish that awareness is not personalized, and that localization is never experienced at any time. Our experience is always open, limitless, undivided and free.
P.S.The video consists mostly of with a few illustrations and animations. So if it goes by too quickly, just use the Pause button and the other video controls in your media player window.
-Greg
Along with James Traverse, I am a guest on Mandee Moon Labelle’s YogaHeart radio show. Listen live on the Internet from 12:30-2:30 pm EST, Wednesday, November 11.
It’ll be like sitting at the kitchen table and talking about nonduality. We will be promoting our upcoming gathering, but any topic could come up in that context.
Listen to a recording of the show. The first minute is from the previous radio show.
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