Pointing To The Moon

Byron Katie: "it was all pulsing with life and delight, and it was all one unbroken experience."

"I fell in love with myself one morning in February of 1986. I had checked myself into a halfway house in Los Angeles after years of suicidal depression. A week or so later, as I lay on the floor of my attic room (I felt too unworthy to sleep in a bed), a cockroach crawled over my foot, and I opened my eyes. For the first time in my life, I was seeing without concepts, without thoughts or an internal story. All my rage, all the thoughts that had been troubling me, my whole world, the whole world, was gone. There was no me. It was if something else had woken up. It opened its eyes. It was looking through Katie's eyes. And it was crisp, it was bright, it was new, it had never been here before. Everything was unrecognizable. And it was so delighted! Laughter welled up from the depths and just poured out. It breathed and was ecstasy. It was intoxicated with joy: totally greedy for everything. There was nothing separate, nothing unacceptable to it. Everything was its very own self. For the first time I -- it -- experienced the love of its own life. I -- it -- was amazed!

Satori: "It Was Just Obvious,"- Elizabeth Gilbert

An account of satori by Elizabeth Gilbert, in Eat, Pray, Love: "As a reader and a seeker, I always get frustrated at this moment in somebody else's spiritual memoirs -- that moment in which the soul excuses itself from time and space and merges with the infinite. From the Buddha to Saint Teresa to the Sufi mystics to my own Guru -- so many great souls over the centuries have tried to express in so many words what it feels like to become one with the divine [1], but I'm never quite satisfied by these descriptions. Often you will see the maddening adjective indescribable used to describe the event. [2] But even the most eloquent reporters of the devotional experience -- like Rumi, who wrote about having abandoned all effort and tied himself to God's sleeve, or Hafiz, who said that he and God had become like two fat men living in a small boat--"we keep bumping into each other and laughing" -- even those poets leave me behind. I don't want to read about it; I want to feel it, too. Sri Ramana Maharshi, a beloved Indian Guru, used to give long talks on the transcendental experience to his pupils and then always wrap it up with this instruction: "Now go find out."

So now I have found out. And I don't want to say that what I experienced that Thursday afternoon in India was indescribable, even though it was. I'll try to explain anyway. Simply put, I got pulled through the wormhole of the Absolute, and in that rush I suddenly understood the workings of the universe completely. I left my body, I left the room, I left the planet, I stepped through time and I entered the void. I was inside the void, but I also WAS the void and I was looking at the void, all at the same time. The void was a place of limitless peace and wisdom. The void was conscious and it was intelligent. The void was God, which means that I was inside God. But not in a gross, physical way -- not like I was Liz Gilbert stuck inside a chuck of God's thigh muscle. I just was part of God. In addition to being God. I was both a tiny piece of the universe and exactly the same size as the universe. ("All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop," wrote the sage Kabir -- and I can personally attest now that this is true.)

It wasn't hallucinogenic, what I was feeling. It was the most basic of events. It was heaven, yes. It was the deepest love I'd ever experienced, beyond anything I could have previously imagined, but it wasn't euphoric. It wasn't exciting. There wasn't enough ego or passion left in me to create euphoria or excitement. It was just obvious. Like when you've been looking at an optical illusion for a long time, straining your eyes to decode the trick, and suddenly your cognizance shifts and there -- now you can clearly see it! -- the two vases are actually two faces. And once you've seen through the optical illusion, you can never not see it again.

"So this is God," I thought. "Congratulations to meet you." [My note: As author was traveling in India, many people would greet her in English this way.]

The place in which I was standing can't be described like an earthly location. It was neither dark nor light, neither big nor small. Nor was it a place, nor was I technically standing there, nor was I exactly "I" anymore. I still had my thoughts, but they were so modest, quiet and observatory. Not only did I feel unhesitating compassion and unity with everything and everybody, it was vaguely and amusingly strange for me to wonder how anybody could feel anything but that. I also felt mildly charmed by all my old ideas about who I am and what I'm like. I'm a woman, I come from America, I'm talkative, I'm a writer -- all this felt so cute and obsolete. Imagine cramming yourself into such a puny box of identity when you could experience your infinitude instead.

I wondered, "Why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?" 

Awareness, like love, is totally stripped of time

Student's comment: "I find it impossible to be aware all the time."

J. Krishnamurti's reply: "Don't be aware all the time. Just be aware in little bits.

Please, there is no being aware all the time -- that is a dreadful idea. It is a nightmare, this terrible desire for continuity. Just be aware for one minute, for one second, and in that one second of awareness you can see the whole universe. That is not a poetic phrase. We see things in a flash, in a single moment; but having seen something, we want to capture, to hold it, give it continuity. That is not being aware at all. When you say, "I must be aware all the time," you have made a problem of it, and then you should really find out why you want to be aware all the time -- see the greed it implies, the desire to acquire. And to say, "Well, I am aware all the time," means nothing.

Is love, like marriage, for ever and ever? Are marriages for ever and ever? You know better than I do. Is love for ever and ever, or is it something totally stripped of time?"

the direct recognition of your true nature is available in every instant, on or off the cushion, whether you meditate or not

"When Zen Master Nan-chuan saw his student Ma-tsu diligently practicing meditation hour after hour, he sensed a certain effort and ambition in the young monk’s demeanor, so he sneaked up behind him and asked, “What are you doing?” “I’m trying to become a Buddha,” Ma-tsu replied proudly. Nan-chuan then picked up a stone and began rubbing it against a spare tile from the monastery floor. Hearing the sound, Ma-tsu asked, “What are you doing?” Said Nan-chuan: “I’m trying to make a mirror.” Ma-tsu had an awakening.

Everything is just as it is! Ma-tsu is Ma-tsu, the tile is the tile, and you are you, just as you are. There’s no Buddha apart from this fundamental truth, and any attempt to achieve some special state of mind just leads you away from who and what you already are. In the direct approach to truth ..., the direct recognition of your true nature is available in every instant, on or off the cushion, whether you meditate or not. You merely need to “take the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate the Self,” as Dogen Zenji said." - Stephan Bodian

choosing from your heart is in harmony with the world

"Discernment is the clarity of choosing from your heart. All choices that flow with clarity from the heart are in harmony with not only your personal unfolding, but also the unfolding of the world. The mind tells us that this is not possible, that we as individuals must at times want things that the world does not. This is logic, and is founded on the idea that we are separate from each other. A unified diversity is the realization of the intimate fusion of the unity of the whole with its expression of diversity. It is the realization into being of each individual choice fitting perfectly with the whole." - Story Waters

the moment of awakening...an outburst of laughter

"The moment of awakening may be marked
by an outburst of laughter,
but this is not the laughter of someone
who has won the lottery or some kind of victory.
It is the laughter of one who,
after searching for something for a long time,
suddenly finds it in the pocket of his coat."
-Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys

direct experience

I don't normally include astrology here. This isn't about astrology per se:

"Sag is an inspiring fire sign, giving you the enthusiasm to convert others to your side or to take on the Great Books. Just be aware that any conventional course of study or travel plan will be upset by the planet of surprises and left turns. If you attempt to spread the Word, your message may come across as shocking or jarring ... or maybe you'll try to proselytize a familiar message, only to be disrupted by someone who challenges your belief system.

After all, Uranus is in Pisces. Sagittarius governs world religions, major schools of philosophy, higher education ... the Big Ideas. Sag[ittarius] trades in theories and opinions and belief systems, whereas Pisces chucks it all out the window and goes for direct experience of the Divine. What good are ideas, if they hold you back from connecting directly with the Source? You can talk and write about God, or you can just surrender to Him or Her.

Which would you choose?" - Jeffrey Kishner

there's only one. and that's the last story. - Bryon Katie

"Everything is equal. There is no this soul or that soul. There's only one. And that's the last story. There's only one. And not even that. It doesn't matter how you attempt to be disconnected, it's not a possibility. Any thought you believe that opposes this truth is an attempt to break the connection. But it's only an attempt; it can't be done. That's why it feels so uncomfortable." - Byron Katie

Lecture on Zen, by Alan Watts

"But if you really understand that Zen, that buddhist idea of enlightenment is not comprehended in the idea of the transcendental, neither is it comprehended in the idea of the ordinary. Not in terms with the infinite, not in terms with the finite. Not in terms of the eternal, not in terms of the temporal, because they're all concepts. So, let me say again, I am not talking about the ordering of ordinary everyday life in a reasonable and methodical way as being schoolteacherish, and saying 'if you were NICE people, that's what you would do.' For heaven's sake, don't be nice people. But the thing is, that unless you do have that basic framework of a certain kind of order, and a certain kind of discipline, the force of liberation will blow the world to pieces. It's too strong a current for the wire. So then, it's terribly important to see beyond ecstasy. Ecstasy here is the soft and lovable flesh, huggable and kissable, and that's very good. But beyond ecstasy are bones, what we call hard facts. Hard facts of everyday life, and incidentally, we shouldn't forget to mention the soft facts; there are many of them. But then the hard fact, it is what we mean, the world as seen in an ordinary, everyday state of consciousness. To find out that that is really no different from the world of supreme ecstasy, well, it's rather like this:

Let's suppose, as so often happens, you think of ecstasy as insight, as seeing light. There's a Zen poem which says

A sudden crash of thunder. The mind doors burst open,
and there sits the ordinary old man.

See? There's a sudden vision. Satori! Breaking! Wowee! And the doors of the mind are blown apart, and there sits the ordinary old man. It's just little you, you know? Lightning flashes, sparks shower. In one blink of your eyes, you've missed seeing. Why? Because here is the light. The light, the light, the light, every mystic in the world has 'seen the light.' That brilliant, blazing energy, brighter than a thousand suns, it is locked up in everything. Now imagine this. Imagine you're seeing it. Like you see aureoles around buddhas. Like you see the beatific vision at the end of Dante's 'Paradiso.' Vivid, vivid light, so bright that it is like the clear light of the void in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It's beyond light, it's so bright. And you watch it receeding from you. And on the edges, like a great star, there becomes a rim of red. And beyond that, a rim of orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. You see this great mandela appearing this great sun, and beyond the violet, there's black. Black, like obsidian, not flat black, but transparent black, like lacquer. And again, blazing out of the black, as the _yang_ comes from the _yin_, more light. Going, going, going. And along with this light, there comes sound. There is a sound so tremendous with the white light that you can't hear it, so piercing that it seems to annihilate the ears. But then along with the colors, the sound goes down the scale in harmonic intervals, down, down, down, down, until it gets to a deep thundering base which is so vibrant that it turns into something solid, and you begin to get the similar spectrum of textures. Now all this time, you've been watching a kind of thing radiating out. 'But,' it says, 'you know, this isn't all I can do,' and the rays start dancing like this, and the sound starts waving, too, as it comes out, and the textures start varying themselves, and they say, well, you've been looking at this this as I've been describing it so far in a flat dimension. Let's add a third dimension; it's going to come right at you now. And meanwhile, it says, we're not going to just do like this, we're going to do little curlicues. And it says, 'well, that's just the beginning!' Making squares and turns, and then suddenly you see in all the little details that become so intense, that all kinds of little subfigures are contained in what you originally thought were the main figures, and the sound starts going all different, amazing complexities if sound all over the place, and this thing's going, going, going, and you think you're going to go out of your mind, when suddenly it turns into... Why, us, sitting around here." - a snippet from Lecture on Zen, by Alan Watts

i believe that the universe is one being - robinson jeffers

"I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole.  (This is physics, I believe, as well as religion.)  The parts change and pass, or die, people and races and rocks and stars; none of them seems to me important it itself, but only the whole.  The whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it, and to think of it as divine.  It seems to me that this whole alone is worthy of the deeper sort of love; and that there is peace, freedom, I might say a kind of salvation, in turning one's affections outward toward this one God, rather than inwards on one's self, or on humanity, or on human imaginations and abstractions ... the world of the spirits." - Robinson Jeffers

[except I'd say the outward is the inward too - the boundaries are arbitrary constructs if we immerse in whole]

only the Divine creating and expressing itself through life

"Everything is the Divine expressing itself as tree, as dog, as person, as thought, as emotion, as light, as sound. No boundaries. No one. Only One. Only the Divine creating and expressing itself through life." - Gina Lake, Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence (book free online)

Ralph Waldo Emerson on the oversoul: whole, eternal, ONE, soul

"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul." - The Over-Soul, from Essays: First Series, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

end the argument against your Holy Self

"I know, the psychotherapists say you must process and process and process. I say, “Enough!” The time for processing is over. It is time to give up the  struggle and end the argument against your Holy Self. You know what to do.  The answers are within you. I am here to remind you of that fact and I will  not back down and let you forget anymore. It is my job to help you awaken.  I am fulfilling my promise to you. I am here to show you the mirror of perfection.  I am perfect and so are you. There is nothing in God’s Kingdom but perfection.  Are you willing to finally see that, and only that? Am I really asking too  much of you, or are you asking too little of yourself? In the course I said,  “Accept your grandeur and let go of grandiosity.” You no longer need to puff  yourself up or try to convince yourself of your greatness. That is grandiosity.  Who you are is beyond such silly games. Turn over the king and walk away from the chessboard. You lost the ego game. Admit it and move on. You are an eternal winner at the Spirit game. You cannot lose the only game that has any meaning. You will now awaken from the game of life and start LIVING." - Lord Sananda (oversoul of Jesus the Christ)

brightness among innumerable islands of light

"Creation sometimes pours into the spiritual eye the radiance of Heaven: the green mountains that glimmer in a summer gloaming from the dusky yet bloomy east; the moon opening her golden eye, or walking in brightness among innumerable islands of light, not only thrill the optic nerve, but shed a mild, a grateful, an unearthly luster into the inmost spirits, and seem the interchanging twilight of that peaceful country, where there is no sorrow and no night." - Samuel Palmer

apollonious tyaneus: there is no death of anything except in appearance

"In his youth he [Apollonious Tyaneus, born 4 B.C.] was a marvel of mental power and personal beauty, and found his greatest  happiness in conversations with the disciples of Plato, Chrysippus and Aristotle. He ate nothing that had life, lived on fruits and the products of the earth; was an enthusiastic             admirer and follower of Pythagoras, and as such maintained  silence for five years. Wherever he went he reformed religious worship and performed wonderful acts. At feasts he astonished the guests by causing bread, fruits, vegetables and various dainties to appear at his bidding. Statues became animated with life, and bronze figures ' from their pedestals, took the position and performed the labors of servants. By the exercise of the same power dematerializaton occurred; gold and silver vessels, with their contents, disappeared; even the attendants vanished in an instant from sight.                    

"At Rome, Apollonius was accused of treason. Brought to examination, the accuser came forward, unfolded his roll on which the accusation had been written, and was astounded to find it a perfect blank.

"Meeting a funeral procession he said to the attendants, 'Set down the bier, and I will dry up the tears you are shedding for the maid.' He touched the young woman, uttered a few words, and the dead came to life. Being at Smyrna, a plague raged at Ephesus, and he was called thither. 'The journey must not be delayed,' he said, and had no sooner spoken the words than he was at Ephesus.                    

"When nearly one hundred years old, he was brought before the Emperor at Rome, accused of being an enchanter. He was taken to prison. While there he was asked when he would be at liberty? 'To-morrow, if it depends on the judge; this instant, if it depends on myself.' Saying this, he drew his leg out of the fetters, and said, 'You see the liberty I enjoy.' He then replaced it in the fetters.                    

"At the tribunal he was asked: 'Why do men call you a god?'                    

" 'Because,' said he, 'every man that is good is entitled to the appellation.'                    

" 'How could you foretell the plague at Ephesus?'                    

"He replied: 'By living on a lighter diet than other men.'                    

"His answers to these and other questions by his accusers exhibited such strength that the Emperor was much affected, and declared him acquitted of crime; but said he should detain him in order to hold a private conversation. He replied: You can detain my body, but not my soul; and, I will add,                    not even my body. Having uttered these words he vanished from the tribunal, and that same day met his friends at Puteoli, three days' journey from Rome.                    

"The writings of Apollonius show him to have been a man of learning, with a consummate knowledge of human nature, imbued with noble sentiments and the principles of a profound philosophy. In an epistle to Valerius he says:                    

"'There is no death of anything except in appearance; and so, also, there is no birth of anything except in appearance. That which passes over from essence into nature seems to be birth, and that which passes over from nature into essence seems, in like manner, to be death; though nothing really is originated, and nothing ever perishes; but only now comes into sight, and now vanishes. It appears by reason of the density of matter, and disappears by reason of the tenuity of essence; but is always the same, differing only in motion and condition.'                    

"The highest tribute paid to Apollonius was by the Emperor Titus. The philosopher having written to him, soon after his accession, counselling moderation in his government, Titus replied:                    

"'In my own name and in the name of my country I give you thanks, and will be mindful of those things. I have,  indeed, taken Jerusalem, but you have captured me.'" - via Blavatsky via Saints of Christo-Paganism, Esoteric Christianity

sunyata is dynamic Movement, an outpouring spiral dance of Love

ah, so many believe that enlightenment would be some sort of lobotomy, that our mind stills into a passive blank sterile state of no-thing. And that the peace that surpasses all understanding would yield a tedious dimension stripped of diversity and contrast, yet that is the furthest from the truth of this Edenic dance and hum of all Life coming to its essential awareness of its full aliveness...

"Bede draws on a quote from a great Zen teacher, Suzuki, in which he said that "Sunyata is not static but dynamic." So even in Buddhism, even in the great emptiness of sunyata, notes Bede, there is a movement, a tendency towards outpouring. "In the void there is a constant urge to differentiate itself. And the whole creation is the differentiation of the void...At the very moment of the differentiation it returns to itself. It is always coming out and returning." The void flows out in differentiation and simultaneously returns to the void. "That is why the Buddhists say that Nirvana and Samsara are the same," says Fr. Bede. "Ultimately they are one."" - Father Bede Griffiths, "Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith", as recounted by Brian J. Pierce in Trinity, Creation and the Energy of Love

every moment is Fresh

Remember that every new second is a fresh start, for you are never chained by the past of ten seconds or ten years ago. - Vernon Howard

cut away all that binds you

"There is no failure in being human.  It does not matter if you waste your life, or you use your life appropriately, Whatever you are choosing to do is just fine.  There are no mistakes, there are no failures.  There is nothing you can do wrong.  The essences of wrong was given to you as a limitation; as was the frequency of death to limit you and bind you in fear. In the Orient they bind the feet. In some cultures they bind the head, in others they bind the heart. Cut away all things that bind you and  no longer serve you." - Gillian MacBeth-Louthan

awake! something is being given Freely, with no strings attached

Published in 2002, this quote feels truer every moment. My two cents: Two days before my awakening, I invoked Kuan Yin and asked the bodhisatva of compassion and mercy before I lay down to go to sleep to "give me whatever it took" (I was thinking in terms of 'wake up' situations or some cataclysm or "whatever it took") to awaken. The totality and earnestness (my teacher Adyashanti's favored word forr it) of that 'yes' was all that's really required in a free will universe.

"Until now only those seekers who had stepped away from the collective and traveled their own solitary path have had access to the consciousness of unity. The door to this quality of consciousness was only opened to individuals who had passed certain trials, who had faced the darkness of their shadow and purified their lower nature. The wonder of the present transition is that the collective is being given access to this next step in consciousness without having to make this laborious and painful inner journey. Now the doorway to unity stands open to the whole of humanity.

The work of the mystic is to make human beings aware of this possibility, to stand within the doorway of unity and welcome the collective inside. Most people do not even know that a consciousness beyond self-oriented individuality exists. They do not see the light that is streaming through, the wholeness that is beckoning them. The patterns of our collective conditioning have created a veil which blocks our awareness of what is being given. If we do not know what is being offered, we will not be able to fully participate in its magic, in its new way of being. We will not step through the doorway.

Even many spiritual seekers still think in terms of effort, of trials and tests. But there is no longer any key needed to open the door. It cannot now be closed.

This change is so simple and fundamental it is easy to overlook. It is not a problem to be solved. There is nothing to be learned, no steps to success. Something is being given freely, with no strings attached. All that is required is for each of us to say "yes."" - Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, Working with Oneness

"Reality is that which..." - philip k. dick

Doesn't get more nutshell than this...

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” - Philip K. Dick, VALIS