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I AM THAT >>> Ron > 09/17/2023
Posted by Holger:
Sunday, September 17, 2023 3:45 pm (California Time)
We are a small group of friends;
together we read some paragraphs in
Nisargadatta‘s I AM THAT
and then talk about it.
Feel warmly welcome
Please RSVP to Ron@Nondual.Community
and you will receive a free Zoom link ā¤ļø
Here is a remarkable youtube for reflection.
I encourage you to listen to it (more than once)
when you are in a quiet and receptive mood.
Enjoy!
See you next Sunday (09-17-2023).
PeaceĀ Ā Ā PeaceĀ Ā Ā Peace
Chapter 41 Ā
Develop the Witness Attitude
Q: You seem to be so very indifferent to everything!
NM: I am not indifferent. I am impartial.
I give no preference to the me and the mine.
A basket of earth and a basket of jewels are both unwanted.
Life and death are the same to me. Ā
185
Q: Impartially makes you indifferent.
NM: On the contrary,
compassion and love are my very core.
Void of all predilections,
I am free to love. Ā
185
Q: If you would talk like this in the West,
people would take you for mad.
NM: Of course they would!
To the ignorant all that they cannot understand
is madness. What of it? Let them be as they are.
I am as I am, for no merit of mine
and they are as they are, for no fault of theirs.
The Supreme Reality manifests itself in innumerable ways.
Infinite in number are its names and shapes.
All arise, all merge in the same ocean,
the source of all is one.
Looking for causes and results is but the pastime of the mind.
What is, is lovable. Love is not a result,
it is the very ground of being.
Wherever you go, you will find being, consciousness and love.
Why and what for make preferences?Ā Ā
185-186
Q: How can anything be without cause?
NM: In every event the entire universe is reflected.
The ultimate cause is untraceable.
The very idea of causation is only
a way of thinking and speaking.
We cannot imagine uncaused emergence.
This, however, does not prove
the existence of causation. Ā
186
Q: Man has a mind. Why is it so perverse?
NM: The causes of perversity are also natural
– heredity, environment and so on.
You are too quick to condemn.
Do not worry about others.
Deal with your own mind first.Ā
When you realize that your mind too
is a part of nature, the duality will cease. Ā
186
Q: There is some mystery in it which I cannot fathomā¦
Forces beyond my control determine my behavior.
NM: Develop the witness attitude
and you will find in your own experience
that detachment brings control.
The state of witnessing is full of power,
there is nothing passive about it. Ā
186
Chapter 42
Reality Can Not Be Expressed
Q: I have noticed a new self emerging in me,
independent of the old self.
They somehow co-exist.
The old self goes on its habitual ways;
the new lets the old be,
but does not identify itself with it.
NM: The new is the total denial of the old.
The permissive new is not really new.
It is but a new attitude to the old.
The really new obliterates the old completely.
The two cannot be together. Ā
187
Q: One [the old] is a slave to habitsā¦
the new just looks at the old.
It just accepts the old self along with everything else.
It does not deny its being,
but does not accept its value and validity.
NM: Why two selves?
Between the bound and the free
there can be no relationship.
The very fact of co-existence proves their basic unity.
There is but one Self – it is always now.
What you call the other self – old or new – is but
a modality, another aspect of the one Self.
The Self is single.
You are that Self and you have ideas
of what you have been or will be.
But an idea is not the Self. Ā
188
Q: The two are in conflict.
NM: How can there be conflict
between what is and what is not?
Conflict is the characteristic of the old.
When the new emerges, the old is no longer.
You cannot speak of the new and the conflict
in the same breath.
Even the effort of striving for the new self
is of the old.
Wherever there is conflict, effort, struggle,
striving, longing for a change, the new is not. Ā
188
Q: What is the new like?
NM: The state which sprouts suddenly
and without cause, carries no stain of self;
you may call it āgodā.
What is seedless and rootless,
what does not sprout and grow,
flower and fruit,
what comes into being suddenly and in full glory,
mysteriously and marvelously,
you may call that āgodā.Ā
It is entirely unexpected yet inevitable,
infinitely familiar yet most surprising,
beyond all hope yet absolutely certain.
Because it is without cause,
it is without hindrance.
It obeys one law only; the law of freedom.
Anything that implies a continuity,
a sequence, a passing from stage to stage
cannot be the real.
There is no progress in reality,
it is final, perfect, unrelated. Ā
188
Q: How can I bring it about?
NM: You can do nothing to bring it about,
but you can avoid creating obstacles.
Watch your mind, how it comes into being,
how it operates.
As you watch your mind,
you discover yourself as the watcher [witness].
When you stand motionless, only watching,
you discover your self as the light behind the watcher.
The source of light is dark,
unknown is the source of knowledge.
That source alone is.
Go back to that source and abide there. Ā
188
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Created: September 16, 2023
Last modified: September 16, 2023
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