If you think you’re doing something, you’ll never be happy. If you don’t do something, you’ll never be happy.
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August 20, 2010Interview with Jerry Katz in Non-Duality Magazine
July 15, 2010Interview with Jerry Katz by Non-Duality Magazine
Read the entire interview here.
NDM: What do you teach by the way. Do you have a method of teaching. Do you do satsangs or anything like that?
Jerry Katz: I don’t teach or give satsang. My work is to bring nonduality to mass consciousness in a variety of ways: Through websites, email forums, a blog, twitter, radio appearances, conference development, public speaking, organizing local gatherings, interviews, publishing e-books, individual correspondences, encouraging and supporting various people in the field of nonduality, writing book reviews. Of course a lot of teachers do those activities, and more, too. If I did teach there wouldn’t be any method. I would look at what each person requires and offer direction and guidance that is right for that person.
NDM: How long have you been doing this work of bringing non duality awareness to mass consciousness?
Can you please elaborate a little more on your work and the impact this has had?
Jerry Katz: I first went onto the Internet in November, 1997. My intent was to bring nonduality “to the streets,” to the spirituality mainstream. At the time, nonduality was a topic and a word largely reserved for discussion within ashrams, the circles of certain teachers, and university departments of philosophy and religious studies, and as well as part of the lesser known teachings of the world’s religions.
The best known nonduality teaching is Zen, which belongs to Buddhist tradition. I wanted to introduce nonduality as a broader Zen. To do that, I introduced the word “nonduality” itself and colored it according to a vision. Just as the word “Zen” has a certain magic and power to it, it is my opinion that the word “nonduality” has its own significant meaning or “color.” I have tried to keep nonduality wide open and all-embracing.
Many people are involved in bringing nonduality to the mainstream. I have provided online spaces for people to gather and talk about nonduality in whatever way they wished and have welcomed and encouraged a number of people. Over the years the broad teaching of nonduality and the word “nonduality” itself have entered the spirituality mainstream and even the general mainstream.
Lives are impacted in different ways. There’s a peaceful, holistic, harmonious, Yogic side to nonduality which benefits a person’s life. It is more about coherence and oneness. Then there is the jarring and harsh side of nonduality — the bottom line nonduality — in which our ego strategies are seen through or split wide open. Knowing who you are requires a cutting away of who you think you are. Practically no one is exempt from that harshness since layers of ego strategy are constantly re-constituting. For living life effectively, I highly recommend the holistic, Yogic type of path. Seeing who your really are, which is the atmosphere in which this effective life is lived (and which it actually is) requires that one question the effective life even while living it. It’s tricky business and only those who have no other choice will engage in it.
Science and Nonduality Conference 2010
July 13, 2010
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death … body … nothing
June 14, 2010Nothing, including the death of your body, is going to change who you are.
Lady Gaga Praises Deepak Chopra
May 11, 2010
The Lost Satsang with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
May 6, 2010
The Lost Satsang – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
http://netinetifilms.com/films-satsang.shtml
Excerpts from Nisargadatta’s Lost Satsang:
The whole manifestation of this world is an expression of the same Consciousness that you are.
You should not love anything other than your true nature, Consciousness. Deep desires, deep expectations: How can that be love?
Your body identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding yourself should be your only priority.
Your body desires will lead you nowhere.
~ ~ ~
If you don’t understand the “I Am” how can you understand the rest?
~ ~ ~
To abide in consciousness is the true religion. The human brain creates religions.
~ ~ ~
Consciousness has to appear in this form, so this form can recognize Consciousness.
~ ~ ~
How can words explain that from which words originate?
~ ~ ~
Everything depends upon your form, but you are formless.
~ ~ ~
Don’t ask me practical questions. I cannot relate to them. I never talk to the body identity level. Stay in the “I am”. That’s all there is to do.
~ ~ ~
Without food there is death and the idea “I am” vanishes. Consciousness is beyond any idea.
You can only watch events happen. You can’t use Consciousness to do or undo anything.
~ ~ ~
Your body identity is like a very tight screw. Your idea of being an individual, is a screw. You must loosen it up. Let go of your personal identity and the screw will open as much as needed.
You are full of concepts. Just do as I say.
~ ~ ~
If you wish to use your intellect dwell on your nine months in the womb. What is in the womb is not different from what is happening now.
~ ~ ~
Anything that can show you what you are is actually pointing out what you are not.
~ ~ ~
Questions only exist as long as you think you are the body and the individual.
~ ~ ~
What I am saying is very simple.
You listen to me or you can go.
~ ~ ~
Grasp the knowingness principle and move ahead in life. Like a swimmer caught in a vortex has to dive to the bottom of the river, then has to swim to the surface, outside of the vortex, and only then he is free.
~ ~ ~
We live like worms in hot sand, always needing help, but I am not a worm. I am the manifested and the unmanifested.
~ ~ ~
Before death comes it is necessary to follow a Sage or a Guru.
~ ~ ~
My Guru’s Guru clapped while his vital breath was leaving his body. Will you?
The Lost Satsang – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Watch the trailer:
Greg Goode and Direct Path. Interviews by Scott Kiloby.
April 10, 2010Greg Goode is the author of Standing As Awareness
Scott Kiloby is a teacher himself whose unfettered, full seeing approach is widely recognized. Scott’s newest book is Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
Scott Kiloby talks to Greg Goode about the Direct Path. A four part series with Greg Goode, where Scott Kiloby becomes Greg’s student (along with being the interviewer) so that Greg can explain the direct path. This is a rich path that leaves no stone unturned!
Listen to these step by step directions from Greg on standing as awareness itself: http://kiloby.com/kilologues.php
What is Sufism?
March 30, 2010What is Sufism?
By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
& David Paquoit
Traveler: When friends ask me what I study, and I try to explain, I find it hard to put into words, what is Sufism? Help me understand so I can give a clearer answer?
Master: One of the great teachers offered, ‘long before there was a name (Sufism) there was a reality. Now there is a name without a reality.’ What is meant by this is that there has always been a way to connect with and experience ultimate Truth; this spiritual path of learning existed long before travelers, in the late 1800′s, gave this way of learning its present name- Sufism. At the time, local ascetics wore a distinctive woolen (Soof) robe and became known for this. Now this name, or spiritual form, for many followers exists without a corresponding inner reality. Often today, what you see in the world represented as Sufism is an empty shell of its former self.
Fools gold exists because there is real gold.
Rumi 1
This ancient Path of spiritual development is based upon connection with and experience of the Divine. It involves study with a teacher and the awakening, through direct contact with Truth of latent spiritual capacity; this is done so the traveler can help others. This Truth or universal essence, the spiritual traveler seeks and experiences, is the underlying energy or fabric of created forms.
If I had known of any science greater than Sufism
I would have gone to it, even on my hands and knees.
Junaid 2
The Sufi’s task is to recognize the end at the Beginning.
He has gone beyond. He has rolled up the cosmos
In its turn and obliterated it.
He has reduced and then eliminated the marks
Of selfhood to allow a clear view of Cosmic Reality.
Junaid 3
This Path, existed long before there were religions; this way of learning is at the heart of the great religions; it is the underlying spiritual energy that gives everything in the universe its form and substance. Inside each of us is an aspect of this wondrous element. Through preparation, practice developing our inner spiritual awareness, and Grace we unite with and serve Ultimate Reality every day.
For so long did the Beloved
Face my open heart
That except for His Attributes and Nature
Nothing remained of that heart.
Maghribi 4
My teacher called this Path – the Superhighway to God. For those who wish to connect with Truth and use their inner spiritual capacity to help others; this form of learning is available in every town and city.
Worshiping God is not done with
Rosary beads, prayer carpet, or robe.
Worshiping God is serving others.
Saadi 5
Sufism is not something talked about or described in written words; it is a universal essence that is experienced and known through inner spiritual contact. Much like love; no matter how many words you use- the description is not the same as the actual experience. And like love which ebbs and flows, Sufism changes to fit the learner, time and place.
Sufism is a school of spiritual state, not discourse, and a Sufi is something to become, not something to merely read about. Since spiritual states cannot be expressed in words, Sufi sheikhs have declared, “Whatever can be expressed in words isn’t Sufism.” As Rumi has stated, “When I came to love, I was ashamed of all I have ever said about love.”
Whatever great Sufis have said in explanation of Sufism was the result of and appropriate to their particular situation and states. Such explanation, therefore do not constitute general definitions of Sufism. Rather they refer to some of its characteristics.
Javad Nurbakhsh 6
Traveler: This helps a little. Sufism is difficult to put into words because it is a spiritual experience and changes with each person. Yet, I have been in love and know there are different forms of love with many peaks and valleys that are impossible to describe; and no matter how pretty a poem or love song, I know it is not the experience of love itself.
Master: Remember, everyone is a spiritual traveler and in their long journey through this universe, experiences many wondrous things. Countless experiences go beyond words and cannot be written down- changing with each moment and person. This dimension is one of the elements that make life multi-level and beautiful. If this is too difficult for those who ask about us to grasp, ask them to define love or even life itself. As they ponder all the possibilities, then, they will begin to understand.
Although Sufis live outwardly among people, inwardly they are constantly occupied with God. Their bodies and mind exist with others, whereas their hearts are far from them. Externally, they are congenial with everyone. Inwardly, however, they themselves are strangers to all. They are at peace with all people, yet within them selves tranquility is to be found only in Divine Love. Though they live among people they are truly alone.
Javad Nurbakhsh 7
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Thanks to David Paquoit for supplying the different quotes of the great Sufi Masters. To reach David go to www.caravanofdreams.wordpress.com.
Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide to Enlightenment (Llewellyn, 2008) and Journey of Light:Trilogy (Authorhouse, 2004); these books are available on Amazon.com or from the publisher. To contact author go to www.stewartbitkoff.com.
Footnotes
1 Rumi quote found in: Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way, Penguin Compass, 1978.
2 Junaid quote appears in: Fadhalla Haeri, The Elements of Sufism, Barnes and Noble, 1999.
3 Junaid quote appears in: Shaiykh A. Al-Murabit, The Hundred Steps, Madinah Press, 2nd edition, 1998.
4 Maghribi quote appears online: http://www/nimatullahi.org/sufism/path.
5 Saadi quote appears in Javad Nurbakhsh, The Path: Sufi Practices, Nimattullahi Publications, 2003.
6, 7 Both Nurbakhsh quotes appear in J. Nurbakhsh, The Path: Sufi Practices, cited above.
New Flyer Industries: My One Stock Recommendation
March 29, 2010On July 2, 2008, I recommended the purchase of a stock, New Flyer Industries, the largest builder of buses in North America. It made sense to me that with the increase in oil prices that more people would be taking public transportation.
How has the stock done? Take a look:
You can see from the chart at the top, the stock has had its ups and downs along with the rest of the market. The share price has decreased about 8% since July 2, 2008. However the dividend is over 10% per year. Your $10,000 investment would have been reduced to $9,200 through depreciation of the share price, but you would have made 10% per year through the dividend, giving you a net gain of about 10%. That’s a good return for a most difficult time in the history of the stock market. My figures are rough and do not include tax implications.
I rarely buy stocks. When you consider that a stock should never be bought out of fear, greed, hope, disappointment, boredom, desperation, or excitement, it reduces the opportunities tremendously and actually gives you a chance of making money. Of course, neither should you sell a stock out of fear, greed, boredom, desperation, or excitement. When you buy or sell on the basis of those emotions, you’re gambling. Next time you are ready to buy a stock, ask yourself, “Am I buying (or selling) this stock out of fear, greed, hope, disappointment, boredom, desperation, or excitement?”
You won’t execute your trade with perfect equanimity, no one does, but your chances of a successful trade will be improved if you can keep your head above the tide of emotion.
The Nonduality Movement: Part Four
March 20, 2010Hi Jerry,
I think with the advent of the internet, the overall scenario has indeed changed. If we think of it, some centuries ago, anyone interested in non-duality would have to search a living “teacher”, for most did not read or write. Till a few years ago, one had the option of reading books. But with internet, and mainly these forums, there is this opportunity to participate actively in a dynamic that was unavailable before. Where would I meet others to discuss these matters just a few years ago? Where would I be able to look more deeply into the hidden nature of the sense of ego that is revealed in these exchanges?
So…. this “new” environment certainly must make some difference. Or perhaps none, if it only leads to more entertainment to escape from the implosion.
-geo-
The Feminist (Women’s) Movement changed consciousness even though many influenced by it didn’t bother to study academic papers or to read the significant books or attend meetings. The message of the Feminist Movement about equal rights hit home on everyday fronts: voting, pregnancy, the workplace, relationships, lifestyles, politics, ecology. The Feminist Movement is a model for giving structure to the nonduality movement, as far as looking at it in waves and describing each wave and looking at the movement in terms of scope, social change, and effects on religion, science, and other disciplines.
I see the Feminist, Eco-Feminist, and Nonduality Movements as merging more fully. But it would be helpful to define the Nonduality Movement so that it can more easily fit into these other movements. Ken Wilber has somewhat of a movement going with the Integral Institute and the Integral way of looking at things.
A person could ride the Nonduality Movement on the backs of Intergral Theory, or quantum theory, or neo-advaita, or Sufism, or as a Catholic monk, or as a new ager, or as nothing. Primarily, the message of nonduality becomes known, accepted, debated, refined, altered, and then one lives life with a deep and serious valuing of that message which can be worded in different ways.
My objective is to declare that there is a Nonduality Movement and to begin to describe it. People can see it, especially those who have been on the internet for a few years.
If I were creating a panel discussion on the topic of the Nonduality Movement, who would people like to see on it?
The Nonduality Movement: Part One
The Nonduality Movement: Part Two
The Nonduality Movement: Part Three
