one thing, nothing, everything (new kindle)

the listening sutra sonnet

as usual, silence says it best.

the fact is nothing anyone can think or say is true;

truth is what you are and only what you are is telling the truth—

listen.

all precepts and instructions are there to help quiet the ambient sound so one can listen,

but too often these means become a righteous end.

do whatever you need to do to listen;

choose whatever noise-proofing works for you, if any;

most importantly, listen to what you are—period.

the great paradox in listening to what one is:

one needs to be what one is to listen to what one is;

hence, neti neti, not a person, rest—be.

the greatest non-paradox is one always is what one is;

so always listen...

the superfluous super sutra sonnet

precepts are for two, wisdom is one, truth none.

dedicate your birth to being unborn.

love until you are love; surrender until there is no one to surrender.

the paradox of precepts and commandments dividing the world into good and bad, helping to ensure continuing division, violence and suffering—

as long as one identifies with thought & its inherently divisional nature, one will inevitably be divisional in the world despite all effort.

the closer one delves into egoic self, the more divisional and violent it appears—not the heart of darkness but the tear of separation.

all world improvement begins and ends in the no mind nondoing effortless aspect of knowlovedge in action; to attempt otherwise is futile.

the secret is there is no secret; manifestation is "you" as one.

there is only one desire, that of division returning to unity, but it is sorely misdirected by its own division.

as beauty is truth and truth beauty, so gravity is love and love gravity.

ultimately life is a superfluous entanglement of that one desire to be something one already is.

relatively speaking, evolution is the process in which lapsed light desires & acquires the means from enduring light to know itself as light.

once you know you are, that's all there is—

don't forget it.

awarelovebe sonnet

sobjective—

egoetry—

happenchronicity.

knowlovedge—

onetuitive—

awarelovebe.

it's not simple because 'simple' is just another concept.

dreaming is in mind and of mind but mind is not the dream.

the way is all about getting out of the way.

love is playing at a theater in you.

see what you are and the ground will be your way.

impermanence on my mind; embodiment in my heart.

to knowledge that's mystery; to love that's grace.

awareloveness awarelovebliss awarelovesee awarelovebe

i gatha

   no

   yes

   X

   love

.............consciousness mantra.............

keep in mind

you're not

the bodymind,

intuitively feel

that all is one

i am...


that

unknown

is you

as love

in action

universal self sonnet

faith is not belief

but rather the trusting of

another one's experience

until confirmed by one's own experience—

not blind but seeing.

relax and repeat something to this effect:

consciousness is the way;

the person only gets in the way.

keep in mind you are not the mind.

the universe and you is thought;

universal self is intuition.

drop the whole universe

and breathe easy in what remains—

rest in the threshold of one's universal self.

thirteen lines from reality's sonnet

in unknown

reality

vibrates being

and everything known

is sung in being

and pure awareness

is

the silent echo

of utterly untold

reality

in being and truly

i am that

in which this is singing

dream avatar sutra sonnet

this is what may best be called a dream. and in this dream, i have divided myself into ten thousand patterns.

and with each pattern, i have identified, and thus think every other pattern happens to be not my self. this is what some call the original sin.

and this partial identification and resultant separation is the origin of all suffering, and what some call the human condition.

and so i have appeared to my partial "selves" as what some may call an avatar and in ten thousand ways have revealed one way: there is no separation.

i have revealed such so-called separation is just a concept. i have revealed that love is separation understanding there is no separation.

but my separate “selves” have misunderstood my revelation, and in turn created deeper levels of separation which are called religions and beliefs—

and watch the suffering inherent in this misunderstanding as if it was something separate from myself. but it is not.

there are no words to say what i am, but only words to say what i am not. and in this via negativa, one will stop and be that way unknown.

save oneself from that which one needs not be saved and in turn one saves all.

see what one is not and rest in what one is and that which what one is will be what one is not.

one who troubles with others will always be that which is separate from oneself.

one who loves the other is one who sees no other.

thus one love is no one.

and no one is one unknown.

five tweets in search of a poem

indian summer on the river. almost all boats and docks now gone. wilderness always here returning.

high tide returning to the sea. strong southwest wind is steady. noontime sun fills the southern expanse. three kayaks floating by.

a lobster boat motors loudly by heading upriver for the winter towing its inflatable dinghy in its wake.

old jet contrails mar an otherwise silent cloudless sky.

only seagulls on the water. there! maybe an eagle above the pines.

om and shunyakasha sonnet

as long as matter is seen as something objectively separate, one will appear to be subjectively separate, and love won't steer the stars—

this is the dawning of the age of that timelessness.

action originating from that unknown space of affectionate awareness is akin to creation's genesis from the void, that so-called big bang—

in other words, the big bang is not a moment in some light year past but always happening now.

there are many ways to say something that can't be said & not a single reason to say any of them, so why one says them is the only question—

one is everything and nothing, infinity and absolute zero, this and that, om... and shunyakasha.

no one dies; all is unborn; identifying with impermanence is the original sin; drop it—

after negating misunderstanding, one rests in the threshold of one's universal self.

just because one inhabits a frame doesn't mean one is the frame—

patterns are not individual; this space endorses no one—

listen absolutely; utter infinitely—

bare trees reveal the space of truth—

the birds are feeding like nobody's business—

now never goes anywhere; let the silence sing.

is sonnet

truth is not cool—

dropping off body and mind is not hip—

awakening is not the latest thing—

reality is not trendsetting—

emptiness is not experimental—

consciousness is not new wave—

enlightenment is not state-of-the-art—

being is not xtreme—

awareness is not informed—

embodiment is not abreast—

silence is not psychobabble—

self-inquiry is not self-improvement—

nondoing is never done—

that is not this.

Absolutely Ashtavakra

The Ashtavakra Gita is some pure stuff. And the commentary by Ramesh Balsekar in his translation called Duet of One is primo as well.

Let it be said no words can speak the truth. At best, all they can do is help deprogram one from all the words that cloud the truth. And the Ashtavakra is some of the best deconditioner out there. Just lather, rinse, and done.

In particular, I’d like to point to a single verse and Balsekar’s commentary. First, the student, Janaka, is responding to his teacher, Ashtavakra, who has spoken his truth in the previous 20 verses:

“As I Myself illumine this body, so also do I reveal this whole universe. Therefore, the entire universe is Mine alone, or else nothing is mine.” (22)

And Balsekar’s commentary is enlightening:

Janaka has suddenly realized his noumenality, but in the phenomenal sense; otherwise there would be no awareness of “I”. Noumenality can not know “I” because in noumenality there is no duality of the knower and the known.

For definition purposes, consider phenomenon as this which is perceived by the senses, and noumenon as that which is not, and therefore completely unknowable.

So in other words, Janaka has realized the Absolute, or God the Parent as Jesus the Guru called it, but in a relative sense. Otherwise, what is there to realize? The Absolute cannot know itself, be aware of itself, for all there is is itself. As such, deep sleep is the closest analogy to such absolute awareness. No object, just subject.

Balsekar continues:

Without the noumenon, the phenomena cannot appear because it is the noumenal light which illumines them. And unless the phenomena are seen, the noumenon cannot be known.

Here is the crux of the truth. Noumenon, God the Parent, the Absolute is one with Phenomena, God the Child, Universal Being. Again, in the relative sense, the universe appears to exist only when the light of the Absolute shines on it. Furthermore, the Absolute is only seen because the universe is shining.

Hence, a guru such as Nisargadatta Maharaj advises the student to relax and watch the "I Am" or Universal Being for "reality is just behind it. Keep quiet, keep silent; it will emerge, or, rather, it will take you in."

As Balsekar summarizes:

Indeed, what Janaka has experienced is that the noumenon and the phenomena are not two but one. The “me” in Janaka has experienced the “I”, and “he” has become liberated!

Absolutely.

Note on Illustration: Joy Elamkunnapuzha drew the original design in 1977, and V. Balan executed it in mosaic style on the facade of the Chapel at Dharmaram College in Bangalore, India. Christ is presented here as a yogi in meditation under the sacred peepal tree.

phenomenal sonnet

words words everywhere and not a breath of truth.

to sleep, conceivably to dream—eye, there's the world.

the cat in the hat and the scat on the mat and the rat in the vat and even this chat is all simply that.

to every time there is a space—

the good, the bad, and the tao.

the ten thousand ways of bare trees scratch the surface of the sky.

leaves fall & the tree remains; trees fall & earth remains; earths fall & the universe remains; universes fall & that remains. all is that.

was it meant to be? no. but it is what it is. so is it meant to be? yes.

the four preliminaries: one is always reality; one is always unborn; one is never a person; drop everything.

praise be.

one wakes to the world and cries, is this all there is? no; that is.

phenomena is absolutely phenomenal only because you are absolute.

light is always calling itself back home.

the true mystical experience is one of no experience.

A Meditation on the Four Preliminaries of the Yoga of Lojong or The Little Engine That Could

A spiritual friend of mine is taking classes in Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist mind-training practice which revolves around meditating on 59 slogans, the first of which is to train in the four preliminaries. As we discussed the preliminaries together, we realized it was a genius stroke to make this the first slogan, because in effect, this supplies the engine, the earnestness, as Nisargadatta Maharaj calls it, that is absolutely necessary for realization.

First, maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life. If one sees the universe as a holistic entity and the human being as an organ within that universal organism, then the human mind is its crown of creation, its way toward self-awareness and reality itself.

Second, realize this human life ends, and all is impermanent. In other words, there is only so much time for the human being to perform its precious responsibility. The universe is depending on you right here and right now.

Third, be aware of the suffering nature of samsara, the dream state. The human being attempts to make the impermanent into something of permanence, including itself, or to be more precise, what it assumes to be itself. It is an impossible task, and thus creates a world of suffering. And this suffering only increases the desire for something permanent. It’s a vicious cycle.

Fourth, understand there is a cause and result to all human action. In other words, if it is the human desire for permanence which creates samsara, then what was made can be unmade. In the simple act of understanding, the human mind “attains” its natural state of awareness, Buddhahood. And this simple so-called act is the saving grace of the Bodhisattva itself. For in pure awareness, all samsara is seen for what it is, nothing real.

Gita Yields: Arjuna and the Yoga of Surrender

I come here to praise Arjuna. Most translations I’ve read treat the poor man with mocking disrespect. Furthermore, most translations have an axe of belief to grind. And Arjuna is their whetstone.

Krishna begins his discourse on the many yogas in Chapter Two of the Bhagavad Gita. The truth spoken is indeed godlike. Here, Krishna begins to speak of the eternal Atman as well as Karma Yoga, working with no end in mind. This was Gandhi’s way and the source of his famous quote: “They say, 'means are, after all, means'. I would say, 'means are, after all, everything'. As the means so the end...”

But none of this truth is heard without an all-important “act” of Arjuna’s early in the chapter. In fact, the first words in the chapter are Krishna’s admonishment to an egoic Arjuna. Yet Arjuna once again speaks in despair. But this time the emphasis is on an unwillingness to slay his previous teachers and gurus.

And then comes the all-important “act.” Here are three translations of his words to Krishna (2:7 and I would have loved to use Christopher Isherwood’s translation, but he skips this section of the chapter!):

“Hence I ask thee—tell me, I pray thee—in no uncertain language—wherein lies my good? I am thy disciple. Guide me. I seek refuge in thee.” ~Mohandas Gandhi

“I ask thee which may be the better—that tell me decisively. I take refuge as a disciple with thee; enlighten me.” ~Sri Aurobindo

“I beg of you to say for sure what is right for me to do. I am your disciple. Please teach me, for I have taken refuge in you” ~Sri Swami Satchinanda

Yes, Arjuna surrenders! Not to fear or loathing, but to Krishna Himself!

This is the one prerequisite for all real spirituality. In Zen, it’s called dropping off body and mind. In Advaita, it’s the essence of non-doing. In true Christianity, it’s thy will be done. Nisargadatta Maharaj says to “relax and watch the 'I am'.”

Arjuna rests in Krishna Consciousness and listens.