The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man does not weave the web of life; he is but a strand within it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

– from a speech attributed to Chief Seattle, 1854

-dennis landi 2009

42nd Avenue at Rush Hour courses with bundles of energy, rushing down the street in patent leather shoes (energy) or sneakers (converse energy) or sandals (alternative energy).

My penus is energy and so is your vagina … is energy. Sensation is energy. Light is energy and heat is energy. Orgasm is energy.

Sleep is energy.

My enemies are energy. And those who agree with me, or salute me or support me or cherish me are energy.

Love is energy. Hate is energy.

Color is energy. You are energy. I see you as an a solid being but illusions, too, are energy.

We are energy.

The universe is energy. And so is existence … is energy.

Let’s mingle.

-dennis landi © 2010

Interview with Nisargadatta Maharaj

One on One ~ On The Pathless Path:

Only Being IS ~ Thou Art THAT

Q: It’s been interesting to see the changes [Nisargadatta] experimented with, especially in the way to express his philosophy. And he’s the reason for this message. Just a simple and small question: What do you think about Nisargadatta’s radical point of view about consciousness, the one he expresses in “Consciousness and the Absolute” or “Prior to Consciousness”?

C: That is Absolute Truth. Ponder this:

To know your true nature is utterly simple. Being IS and You are That. There is no “future enlightenment”; nor are there any enlightened OR unenlightened persons. All is One Being appearing everywhere as what IS. Know yourself as this Truth that sets “you” free from the delusion of being a separate, incomplete, and sometimes suffering little pocket Being was never bound, never limited, ever-free, and never could suffer: The ‘one who suffers’ is merely imagination. Being Thy Self, you are and have always been free, empty, and silent. Know thy self as This Peace of Eternal Being. THIS is the end of all becoming: Simply BEING and only That. Home.

Q: I understand he has alienated many “spiritual searchers” because he points out that after the death of the body-mind mechanism there’s not a single drop of self- consciousness. He, as you know, says consciousness depends on a physical body, and no consciousness remains after its death. He considers consciousness is like a drop that tells the Absolute It (the Absolute) exists.

C: That is, as always, only a pointer. There is NO “separate absolute” to “see itself or know itself”. Often pointers will arise in a particular setting for a particular appearance of a questioner; this is why books and such can never show what is REAL. The One Being has no “parts” to be born or die. Birth and death never happened to The Being You Are!

Q: Like a signal for the Absolute to know Its own existence, a light in a dark room that will vanish soon. He does not despise the concept of eternal Awareness, in fact that’s what he thinks we really are, but he seems to be brutally honest regarding the hopes of the average seeker to remain self-conscious somehow.

C: That is the Ruthless Compassion of The One destroying its own delusions of separateness. But all of this never-ending storytelling is of course utter bullshit! There is ONLY BEING and YOU are THAT. There was NEVER and change or separateness in Being. “Time”, “birth”, “death” … all these are just words, concepts that appear in the Timeless Spacelike Being that IS and prior to consciousness yet never ever apart from that consciousness. Being-Consciousness-Peace are all “apparent aspects” of the One Life, the One Being. One-Not Two; One-without-a-second; Pure Presence-Awareness: That Thou Art! Full Stop. Now DO NOT take these words to be representative or descriptive. The word points to NO THING. You are that Eternal No Thong.

Q: I think this point is a clear distinction point if we compare his teachings and any other master. All I’ve read remark the fact that self-consciousness is a basic characteristic of Reality. That’s what “chit” means, isn’t it?

C: No, that is a misinterpretation of what Maharaj pointed to. CHIT is a Sanskrit word that translates as “consciousness” but that consciousness is NOT a thing the mind can grasp. Moreover Reality HAS NO characteristics in Truth; all appears as the self-shining Being, which is analogous to Pure Light, only SEEMING to be like a dream-scape; there is no substance to the appearance and to take appearance as Reality is a big mistake (yet one that no one makes; there is no doer anywhere, just illusions!) All appearance s Maya, illusion, a play of light and shadow with no independent existence apart from Absolute Being, the ONE.

ALL IS That ONE.

That’s IT, my friend.

Q: The other distinction I’ve found is the absolute pessimism on the worldly events. He’s very insistent regarding the illusory nature of reality, like many other masters say, but he completely despises it.

C: You assign a notion of authoring some judgment to Maharaj and that “author” simply does not exist. All is appearance and authorless! There was NO “person called Maharaj” to make such judgment. That is a projection of delusion, the ignorant mind-arrogance that “thinks it knows” what Maharaj “meant”. To point out the illusory nature of what in ignorance is taken to be real, there IS NO mental judging of ANYTHING appearing in the infinite space of awareness (BEING) to be good or bad, or right or wrong. To believe so is also illusion. You as a judging entity are illusion. ALL IS ONE. One Being, One Livingness, One Essence that appears as all that seems to be. Yet ONLY Being is Real. That is all. This, what IS, is all there is. Time is a mere concept. Location, identity, knowledge are all ignorance, ignoring the Isness f Being and assuming thoughts to be what we are … all the while YOU as BEING silently watch and love all the storms and sunshine, all the play as the Expression of No Thing seeming Real until The One points out the folly of taking a mirage to be real.

Being IS and You are That. Full Stop. Nothing else exists and never did. Being, Birthless, Deathless, the One Absolute Subject-Awareness: That, Thou Art. Home.

Q:Thank you very much, Charlie, for taking me back to the basics. Sometimes is too easy to get trapped by the concepts.

C: No one is ever trapped by concepts. That is yet another concept! Being IS. THAT expresses through the brain as I AM. Stop at I AM, give NO credence to any identity; ultimately not even “I AM”. You are the L:ight shining through those concpets. Be that. As Nisargadatta said, “have the courage to be no thing”. And stop pretending to be what you are nOT. All identification is inauthentic. Love ya, my friend. Be. That is all.

Warm Regards,
Charlie
http://theeternalstate.org

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

i am an infant’s birth
and i am the shadow night

i am love itself
and i am spite

i am the glint of spring
and i am winter’s bite

i am all that is wrong
and i am all that is right

i am a tender kiss
and lust without requite

i am the leaping stag
and i am the tiger bright

i am the mirror with no reflection
i am your eyes and you are my sight

i am the darkness
and i am the light

i see inward and outward, too
i am left and i am right

embrace me and embrace yourself
feel beyond golden sorrow and dark delight

———————————-

- dennis landi © 2008

Well, imagine this…

What if you and your enemy were the last two living beings on the planet?

What is your enemy, then?

———————————-

- dennis landi © 2008

From the point of view of time, we say “impermanence”, and from the point of view of space we say, “non-self”. Things cannot remain themselves for two consecutive moments, therefore there is nothing that can be called a permanent “self”.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, from The Heart Of Buddha’s Teaching, Chapter: The Three Dharma Seals, page 132.

Crawford’s operative words are “As if”, meaning that if we conducted ourselves as if the world were a more peaceful place, we would move in the direction of creating such a world.

She advocates Civil Society taking an independent role, where individuals through contact with others develop a greater empathy and respect for others. So, for example, If we act as if it is possible to engage in dialog; and, if we act as if others deserve our respect, we will in fact gain the respect of others, and hopefully they will engage in greater dialog with us.

I’ve excerpted Neta’s ten minute interview, downloadable as an MP3.

To act as if…

To act as if we lived in a world where there are others who are concerned with Global Ecology, perhaps we can invoke the latent cooperation and participation necessary to bring about a new social paradigm in the 21st century.

To act as if we will be lifted up when we stumble by the hands of thousands of like-minded beings who want us to succeed on the path to a peaceful and balanced world society, perhaps we can invoke that cooperation and participation.

To act as if we live in a nondual reality, perhaps we can trigger selfless behavior in those we touch with our hearts and minds.

To act as if…

Food for thought.

——————————-

Neta Crawford’s book, Argument and Change in World Politics: Ethics, Decolonization, and Humanitarian Intervention takes on Change from another perspective – the power of argument to influence culture. Here is a link to a chapter excerpt of the book: Argument, belief and culture

And finally I also want to point out a remarkable “editorial” that Crawford wrote just days after 9/11 warning of a knee-jerk military retaliation against “the terrorists”. She asks the question “Why doesn’t retaliation work?”. She then offers an answer. Worth a read.

It is not about getting or not getting anything. What is, is undeniable present awareness. Everything appears within that. It is all an expression within that. You are what you are. All ideas about what we are, are only more ideas. To attempt to pin anything down in the mind is futile. Your natural being is not contained or even known by the mind. Seeing this, you stop looking for the answer where it will not be found. You are present and aware. Pause thought and simply be. Notice there is nothing wrong. There are no problems or suffering unless you are thinking about them. So the mind is creating all problems. They are all imaginary.

- John Wheeler

You Were Never Born
Non-Duality Press, p.114

And…

Image of the Buddha

For 300 years after the Buddha’s death there were no Buddha images. The people’s practice was an image of the Budha, there was no need to externalize it. But in time, as the practice was lost, people began to place the Buddha outside of their own minds, back in time and space. As the concept was externalized and images were made, great teachers started to reemphasize the other meaning of Buddha. There is a saying, “If you see the Buddha, kill him.” Very shocking to people who offer incense and worship before an image. If you have a concept in the mind of a Buddha outside of yourself, kill it, let it go. . . . Gotama Buddha repeatedly reminded people that the experience of truth comes from one’s own mind.

–Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight