Buddha’s awakening becomes a tourist attraction.  Washington slept here!  I met Sean Penn!   Theoretical lives  Red Rocks forming naturally through slow relentless interplay of elements get reduced to helicopter tours and t- shirts, vortex peddlers and sweaty Europeans checking another attraction off their bucket list.  Everyone and every thing reduced to marketplace value Sitting here, rocks as my mirror.  Why add a chant or prayer? Redundant.    Yogis lug cameras up here to capture themselves in side crow over the ridge …… capture image and market it What they can’t show and what can’t be captured is how this feels. No one can. You have to sit and listen. Just like Buddha.  Gods landscape Dive buzzzzzzzing hummingbirdsBees Gone Wild.Cactus waving their thorny mitts at me in greeting:  ”Here, come here …..  no here …… come here I’m happy and nothing’s happening. Solitary joy. Is that Mary Oliver behind that pine? Ugh a plane. Rocks rising like pieces on gods chessboard. Time to Leave? What internal clock says that? To go where?To get in a car? Back to packaged life?Why? Happy here Why go? E go.Ego Saying it’s time, enough of this already. Wanna come Mr. LiZard?  Didn’t think so.  I’m going out of habit Leaving joy for obligation out of habit. We Learn to like Attributes not Essence, confuse qualities with people. Great sadness of human life: Attributes are momentary if they even exist at all. Making an attribute solid is like building a house of soap bubbles. Natures’ only attribute is truth. Because experienced beauty/truth isn’t enough they invent helicopter tours and boast about safety records. There is no safety in nature ……..  only wild truth of creation

Quoted from oshoworld.com/onlinemag/o…m/health.aspVegetarianism is not about morality or religiousness. It is a question of aesthetics: one’s sensitivity, one’s respect, one’s reverence for life. Osho says, “Vegetarianism has nothing to do with religion: it is something basically scientific. It has nothing to do with morality, but it has much to do with aesthetics.” Osho shares, “Vegetarianism is nothing but a by-product of deep meditation. If a person goes on meditating, by and by he will see that it has become impossible to eat meat.” “Vegetarianism is a conscious effort, a deliberate effort, to get out of the heaviness that keeps you tethered to the earth so that you can fly — so that the flight from the alone to the alone becomes possible.” Read on as Osho share His insight on vegetarianism. “I do not believe in vegetarianism, because I do not believe in anything. My disciples are vegetarian not as a cult, not as a creed. They are vegetarians because their meditations make them more human, more of the heart, and they can see the whole stupidity of people killing living beings for their food. It is their sensitivity, their aesthetic awareness that makes them vegetarians. I don’t teach vegetarianism; it is a by-product of meditation. Wherever meditation has happened, people have become vegetarian, always, for thousands of years. The oldest religion in the world is Jainism. It is a small religion, that’s why not much is known to the outside world; it exists only in India. Jainism has no God; hence, there is no possibility of prayer. When God and prayer are discarded, then what is left for a religion? God is somewhere outside, your prayer is addressed to someone outside. Discarding God and prayer you are really saying, “I would like now to go inward.” And meditation is a way of going inward. For thousands of years Jainas have been vegetarians. You have to know this fact, that all their twenty-four teachers — they call them tirthankaras, their messiahs — came from the warrior caste. They were all meat-eaters. They were professional warriors. What happened to these people? Meditation transformed their whole vision. Not only did their swords fall from their hands, their warriorhood disappeared, but a new phenomenon started happening: a tremendous feeling of love towards existence. They became absolutely one with the whole. Vegetarianism is just a small part of that great revolution. The same happened in Buddhism. Buddha did not believe in God, did not believe in prayer. I want you to understand it: the moment God and prayer are discarded, the only thing that is left is to go in. Buddha also was from the warrior caste, son of a king, trained to kill. He was not a vegetarian. But when meditation started blossoming in him, just as a by-product the vegetarian idea came into his being: you cannot kill animals for eating, you cannot destroy life. While every kind of delicious food is available, what is the need to kill living beings? This is nothing to do with religion. This is simply to do with your sensitiveness, your aesthetic understanding. Jainism and Buddhism are the only religions without God and without prayer, and both automatically became vegetarian. The same is happening to sannyasins. Christianity is not vegetarian, Mohammedanism is not vegetarian, Judaism is not vegetarian — for the simple reason that these religions never came across the revolution that meditation brings. They never became aware of meditation. They went on praying to a fictitious God — which brings no transformation in life, because he does not exist. Your prayers are just addressed to the empty sky. They never reach anywhere, they are never heard by anyone, they are never going to be answered. There is nobody to answer them. All the religions that have remained hooked with the idea of God have remained meat-eaters. So this is a simple phenomenon to understand. Why are my sannyasins vegetarians? We don’t enforce vegetarianism, we are not concerned with it. My sannyasins are not like George Bernard Shaw and his Fabian Society, where vegetarianism was a religion. Neither George Bernard Shaw knows anything about meditation, nor does his Fabian Society. They are just eccentric people who want to do something different from everybody else so they look better, they look higher, they look holier. Vegetarianism is their philosophy. It is not my philosophy, it is simply a by-product. I don’t insist upon it. I insist upon meditation. Be more alert, more silent, more joyful, more ecstatic, and find your innermost center. Many things will follow of their own accord; and when they come of their own accord, there is no repression, there is no fight, no hardship, no torture. But if you live vegetarianism as a religion or a philosophy, you will be continually hankering for meat, continually thinking, dreaming of meat, and your vegetarianism will be just a decoration for your ego. With me, meditation is the only essential religion. And everything that follows it is virtue, because it comes of its own accord. You don’t have to drag it, you don’t have to discipline yourself for it. I have nothing to do with vegetarianism, but I know that if you meditate you are going to grow new perceptivity, new sensitivity, and you cannot kill animals. Have you observed one fact? — that the vegetarian societies have the most delicious kinds of foods. The Buddhists, the Jainas — they have the best dishes in the world, for the simple reason that through their meditations they had to drop meat-eating. They became more inquiring into delicious food so they didn’t miss meat, on which they had been brought up from their childhood — it had become almost their second nature. There are millions of people who have never thought of vegetarianism. From the very childhood they have been killing living animals. It is not different from cannibalism. And since Charles Darwin it is absolutely a scientific fact that man has come, evolved, from the animals — so you are killing your own forefathers and eating them joyously. Don’t do such a nasty thing! And the earth is capable, man is capable of creating enough vegetarian food — vegetables, fruits, new fruits which have never existed before. Just crossbreeding is needed, and we can have the best kind of food available for everybody. Your sensitivity and perceptivity, your aesthetic understanding is immediately understood by the animals. Here you can find so many deer — they have come because this is the only place in the whole of America where they are absolutely safe. Nobody is going to hunt them. In Oregon, for ten days per year, the government allows people to hunt deer. The deer are such beautiful animals, so agile, so lovely…. We stopped hunting on our own ground, so from other ranches deer have moved to our place. And now they must be the best-fed deer in the whole world, because we are taking care of them. We are growing grass that they like, specially for them. They would never have thought that people would be so considerate. They like a certain grass called alfalfa, and I have told my people, “Grow as much alfalfa as possible, so all the deer of the whole of Oregon by and by start moving to our commune. And they will be respected as members of the commune.” And they already understand it. They stand on the road — you go on honking your horn, they don’t care; they are meditating in the middle of the road. And they understand one thing: that you are not going to do harm, so there is no need to be in a hurry. In my garden I have three hundred peacocks. The moment they see my car, they all start moving in front of it. They know that they cannot be hurt, that nobody is going to run over them. They will not move; sometimes Vivek has to get out and push them. They are enjoying! There are a few really crazy ones — the moment they see my car they come running from far away, just to stand in front of my car. I will move slowly, and they will move slowly backwards, but they will not move away from the road. They understand something, their hearts have felt something, that “these people are not enemies; these people are part of us, friends.” And the whole animal kingdom is part of us, even the trees. Now the scientists have come to an established conclusion that trees are living beings. Not only that, they have a very fine sensitivity, far more sensitive than you have. They have placed machines around trees, plugged wires into the trees — machines like a cardiograph which shows your heartbeat. It shows the heartbeat of the tree, and if somebody is coming to chop the tree, immediately the graph on the cardiogram goes crazy. The tree is feeling really afraid and trembling. Not only that, other trees around also go crazy, although they are not going to be cut. But someone, some friend is going to be cut and they have a great feeling for it. And the most strange thing that has come to the knowledge of the scientists is that if the person who is coming with an axe is just pretending — he is not really going to cut the tree — the graph remains harmonious. This is something unbelievable, that the tree knows whether the man intends to cut it or is just pretending. They are more sensitive than you. You will not be able to figure it out: if somebody comes with a sword at you, you will not be able to figure out whether he is really going to hit you or is just pretending, acting. You will not be able to find out through your sensitivity. The reason is, man has lived for millions of years so insensitively that he has lost one of the greatest qualities of his being. Meditation slowly slowly gives you back your sensitivity; and a man who has reached to the ultimate ecstasy of meditation is as sensitive as any tree, any animal, anything in the whole existence. This sensitivity makes my people vegetarians. And it is a gain, not a loss. It will make you simultaneously more loving, more compassionate, more feeling, more understanding of beauty. It will make you aware of great music, even the music that happens when the wind blows through the pine trees, or the sound of the running water-even the music that happens, that is happening, in this gap, in this silence. Silence is the highest music. It is soundless, but it can be felt. Can’t you feel the silence here? Can’t you feel that the people who are here are all one, pulsating in the same rhythm, their hearts beating in the same rhythm? Vegetarianism is a small thing. We have to create a world of really sensitive people, who can understand music, poetry, paintings, who can understand nature, who can understand human beauty, who can understand the world that surrounds them: the stars, the moon, the sun. Just a bird on the wing can fill you with immense rejoicing. The freedom of the small bird, the song of the small bird, may make you dance, sing. Humanity has lost its heart, and we have to give it back to everyone who is willing.” 

Hi Everyone, It is with great joy that I welcome Howard Wills to Yoga Soup. I’d like to share the circumstances of our first meeting — I will try to stick to just the facts, but when the topics are inner peace, cosmic light, ultimate truth, etc., the facts get pretty hard to fact check.  Here goes: Nine years ago I received a phone call from my friend and teacher Steve Ross. His message was simple: “Meet me tonight at eight o’clock in Carpenteria. There’s a guy you have to meet.”I had enough faith in Steve to just say yes. He had proven over the years to be a realiable canary in the spiritual coal mine, having personally navigated me through some powerful experiences and introduced me to so many valuable yogic resources I’d lost count. Steve’s own excitement is what made the evening even more tantalizing. “This guy is the real thing,” Steve added, and left me the address.I taught that evening and shared news of the event with the class, inviting anyone who was up for an adventure to join me. Two people said yes and after class we formed a small caravan down the freeway. I remember feeling slightly disappointed that only two people decided to come. If this experience was as big as I expected I wanted more people to not only experience it themselves, but I wanted to get my spirtual “commission” for brokering the deal. If it sounds petty and self-centered don’t blame me;  that’s just how the ego works.By the time we arrived a fairly large crowd was already seated and the teacher, Howard Wills, had begun speaking. My two students went off to the side and sat down. I remained standing in the back, watching as Howard “the real thing, the guy I had to meet” Wills  … paced back and forth in a big white leisure suit sounding like Elvis — if Elvis had become a backwoods preacher with a bad caffeine habit.I watched as Howard approached a woman in the audience, looked her straight in the eye with a face-wide grin and asked her: “Are you rehdeh? Are you rehdeh for the light?”The woman said yes, yes she was ready.Howard asked again. “Are ya showre yore rehdeh? We can only do this if yore rehdeh.”The woman confirmed yes, yes, yes! she was ready …. then Howard snapped his fingers ….. once, twice, three times …. and pointed straight at her heart, third eye, throat, the ceiling — it was hard to tell — zapping her, presumably, with whatever invisible energy had been harvested by his vigorous finger snapping.I thought: this must be the warm-up act. The comedian before the main event. But then the woman took in a big breathless breath ….. let out a great sigh, and started sobbing.“Thank you Howard. Thank you Howard. Thank you, thank you.”Sweet Jesus of Carpenteria! Steve had conned me into a tent revival! This wasn’t Ramana Maharshi asking “Who Am I?”, or Ammachi giving me a nice hug.  This had three a.m. Televangelist written all over it, right down to the strange hair and smug grin plastered on good ol’ Howard’s never-not-smiling face. I looked over at my students - thank God only two of them had come - and gave them my best “what the hell?” look.The encounters continued like this over the next hour. Some people in obvious distress - in wheelchairs, walkers, crutches - and some sharing tales of great emotional torment — and each and every story was met by the same response from Howard: The question: “are ya rehdeh?” followed by some finger snapping, finger pointing and light-saber energy zapping.Everyone seemed very satisfied by their encounter but to me it all seemed like a sad sideshow in a small town carnival. I saw Steve sitting at the foot of the stage, surrounded by the people who had traveled with him from Los Angeles.  He had on his face the rapt expression of a true believer. I thought, sadly, that this must be the moment prophesied by many spiritual texts, the moment when the student must leave his teacher and make his own way through the world. The only question was whether to rush the stage and hustle Steve the hell out of there to the nearest de-programmer, or just get the hell out of there myself.No sooner did I have that thought than Steve turned around and saw me - I had been hiding behind a pillar, out of his sight line - and he started waving his arms for me to join them. I shook my head to indicate no, I’m good, I’m fine back here, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He stood up, motioned me to come over.Even though the walk through the crowd was awkwardly self-conscious — “I’m not one of you losers!” I wanted to scream — I couldn’t  deny the importance I felt at having been summoned to the front. There I was, walking toward the stage, into the inner circle surrounded by my teacher and other important looking people I did not know, in the front row, close to the action. If it sounds painfully contradictory to be drawn toward something you condemn because it casts you in a good light don’t blame me, that’s just how ego works (think high heels). Flaubert once said that proximity to talent isn’t talent … but in the yoga world proximity to grace does rub off. We’re encouraged to keep elevated company because it’s through the inner light of the already awakened that our own inner light is re-discovered.  But this wasn’t that, I thought, even as I walked into it’s belly. This smells like a pyramid scheme and I feel like a rube.   I sat down by Steve. Howard walked over to us and Steve introduced me.”This is a friend of mine, Eddie,”Howard fixed me his mega watt smile and said, of course: “Ehdy! Are ya redhy Ehdy?”I looked at the people around me, smiling with desperate, sheep-like encouragement. I looked at Steve, who’s own bright smile I wanted to rip off of his face for bringing me here. But there was no turning back.”I’m ready Howard,” I said. “Eddie’s ready.” ”Are ya showre?” ”I’m showre.”Howard had me lay down on the stage face up. He looked out at the audience and said, “We’re gonna do a little heavy work here.”My eyes were closed.  I heard fingers snapping. I could sense fingers pointing. I heard the invocation of the light. And then …. Nothing.Nothing. Nothing. Nothing squared.I was gone. I had vanished. Disappeared. Eddie was out of business.No room, no audience, no Howard, no Steve.. No Eddie. And, best of all, no more of Eddie’s relentless opinions about ….. everything.Silence.For a period of time impossible to determine there was no “I” there. There was a body still on stage and a breath still animating it, but there was no sense of an “Eddie.” When “I” returned, when I became again cognizant of my surroundings I realized I was laughing. Not laughing politely, not haha laughing, but deep teeth-baring, belly-rolling from-the-bottom-of-my heart laughing ….  …  I was laughing a laugh that doesn’t come from hearing a good joke or from seeing someone slip on a banana peel … it wasn’t a laugh at anyone’s expense, or at the absurdity of the circumstances …….. it was a laughter rooted unshakably in love, in love of being, in love with existence, in love with love. It was known in that second that this was the truth …. Howard calls it the light ….. light, truth, love ….. interchangeable ways to describe the same indescribable thing — that which I knew beyond doubt forms the core of who we are. I was laughing because every concern about every imaginery problem I had ever/never had was gone. When the “I” disappears, when who you believe yourself to be vanishes, than all the dramas that support and bodyguard that identity also disappear. What remains is the simple and obvious joy of who you are. You are not anything that can be described. You just are.I looked up at Howard, beaming. What happened I wanted to ask, but the question had no momentum. Who cares? I looked into his eyes. He hadn’t changed one bit since I walked in but the way I experienced him sure had. I fell in love. Fell in truth. Fell in peace. Whatever. Just fell.I looked over at Steve, his own eyes ablaze in light.  I saw in those eyes the joy of recognition. The joy of sharing this with his friends. Of my own recently cynical thoughts I thought: Oh ye of little faith, once again you’ve forgotten how it works. How does “it” work? When you stop looking for it, there it is. Searching implies a lack of faith that “it” is present. You wouldn’t look for something you already have. I used to think this was a lot of new age slight of hand, this kind of language, but there, in the middle of the laugh, I knew what they were talking about it. When you stop re-arranging thoughts the way one might rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, you rest in the obvious.  Judgements are ego’s attempts to remain separate and in charge, to keep out the recognition of the light of this laughter. But why? Why would you want to keep something this wonderful at bay? Good question.Because with the light, with the truth, comes the end of the story the ego loves to tell about itself, its plight, it’s life. I can understand that. I know the stories I tell over and over in an attempt to know myself and have others know me. They’re soft and comfortable, even the bad ones — especially the bad ones, as they provide a familiar reference point for me and others to know myself. One small problem: none of them are real. I recognized at once all the mean and petty ways that ego tries to remain separate by judging, diminishing, elevating, resisting, accusing, needing, fearing …..  all the ways ego attempts to stay in control, to not lose face …. never realizing the face it has to lose isn’t real to begin with.Absurd, right? Well hell, don’t blame ego, that’s just the way it’s built. I wasn’t laughing because I was crazy and I no longer cared what anyone thought.I was laughing because I felt what it was like to be alive without having a mean-spirited, cynical, and terrified software program running life. And though I’ve misplaced that laugh and that recognition frequently over these past nine years I’ve never lost it. What a gift! Thank you Howard. Thank you Howard. Thank you, thank you.Over time, with practice, the more willing one is to loosen around the tightly held version of themselves and surrender to the light — not Howard’s light, just the light that Howard delightfully plays in and with — the more truth/peace/love is effortlessly experienced. Not subdued, lethargic just-took-a-sedative peace: the opposite of that. An active, energetic peace that allows you to be in the world, as the bearded carpenter once said, but not of it. Fully in, fully feeling, but no longer fully identified with the petty control mechanisms and narcissistic fears of the ego. Will this be your experience tonight? I sure hope so, especially if you’re forking over twenty five bucks. I hope Howard snaps his fingers at you — I don’t even know if he’s still doing that — and that you start laughing the laugh of truth. But even if you can’t make it tonight know that this is your birthright — the birthright of every human being is to experience the truth of oneself. It’s the  endgame of the inevitable journey we all undertake, whether we realize we’re taking it or not.To place yourself in proximity to those who can reflect the gift of recognition, this is a wonderful way to spend time. with love,Eddie check howard out at: www.howardwills.com  www

 

never know what those sneaky french have up their robes  ……

 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness.html

It’s one thing to have the president’s ear, it’s quite another to fathom that there’s someone in the White House who will not only listen but fully understand a letter like this one from Alice Walker. Great advice for us all:

 For the full letter: http://www.theroot.com/id/48726 

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

The collective consciousness did a helluva job creating Barack Obama. A man who says frankly and firmly to a world listening at the edge of their seats: in order for change to occur we ourselves must change, each of us.  Thank you Mr. President. No one wants separation …. we’ve been trained into seeing the world that way, seeing an us and and seeing a them ….. to have someone at the top of the pyramid to remind us of who we are and what we are capable of, this is a good day in America. 

That’s what the day feels like, at least for us older guys. A long slow build-up to something exciting and short-lived. Than it’s over and you’re exhausted. There’s much momentum for an Obama Victory Party at the studio, for a gathering where we can all join together for one big erection throw down. Folks want to dance for Obama, practice yoga for Obama, om for Obama, bleed for Obama …  I don’t blame them …. a guy like Obama deserves a big party ….. To the Obama-ites not throwing a party is the act of a Grinch  … he’s got the potential to be on the Mt. Rushmore of Really Important People: Gandhi, King, Mandela, your single parent friend who works full time and has time to visit the dying at Hospice …..  no one wants the party to stop to be reminded that human history is filled with Obamas and Bushes, heroes and villains, saviors and devils and the needle on the human condition has not shifted one half-centimeter since the beginning of time … the playing field still motivated by fear, dominated by superstition and peopled by petty, terrified, violent and vain human beings. Maybe an Obama victory would signal a real shift in the human condition. Electing a black man president of the United States …. let’s hope it’s not our way of evading our own responsibilities, the hard work each of us need to do: swadyaya, self-reflection, asking the hard questions: who am I, how am I living, what am I doing? Whether the world heals and Mother Gaia eliminates hurricanes in gratitude or the whole planet blows up …. as long as there is a belief in a separate self, than the “other” will be perceived as enemy and the same fight that has characterized human history will continue, pausing every now and again for an erection party.  The ignorance of believing in a separate self is not the kind of ignorance where something isn’t known and must be discovered, or where something needs to be worked out between two warring factions. The war is inside, always, between the truth of who one is and the veil of appearance one tries to sustain and support.  This kind of ignorance is where something is believed to be known that isn’t at all true: the belief that I’m me and I’m right and you’re you and you’re wrong. Until one’s own beliefs are investigated and seen through, than most erections we experience won’t be natural and loving but the artificial product of chemicals, pornography and fear.    

http://www.theflexbelt.com/abs/?b=7421&mcp=3411

(click here to realize the world can’t come to an end fast enough).

 Ab Man

with apologies to Ray Davies 

 think I’m sophisticated
‘cos Im living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybodys multiplying
Till they’re walking round like flies man
So Im no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
‘cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ab man
I think Im so educated and Im so civilized
‘cos I’m a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I dont feel safe in this world no more
I dont want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ab manI’m an ab man, I’m an ab ab man I’m an ab man
I’m a king kong man I’m ab ab man
I’m an ab man‘cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ab man
In mans evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle
‘cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree
Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ab manI’m an ab, I’m an ab ab man, I’m an ab man
I’m a king kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
I’m an ab man

I look out my window, but I cant see the sky
‘cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an ab man
Come and love me, be my ab man girl
And we will be so happy in my ab man world

I’m an ab man, Im an ab ab man, Im an ab man
I’m a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man
I’m an ab man

I’ll be your tarzan, you’ll be my jane
I’ll keep you warm and you’ll keep me sane
And well sit in the trees and eat bananas all day
Just like an ab man

I’m an ab man, I’m an ab ab man, I’m an ab man
I’m a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man
I’m an ab man.

I dont feel safe in this world no more
I dont want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an ab man.

The Need To have a Teacher ….. The need to Kill Your Teacher (metaphorically).

 And how both statements are true.   

  Human beings need teachers. On the Buddhist path to enlightenment, the teacher shows how to look at our selves properly. This idea may seem simple: Look at your mind, see what you are doing with your mind, and change it. But in practice it is difficult to do. To see mind clearly, we must look without ego involvement. The teacher is especially important in this process, because the teacher point out things we can’t clearly see.

In order for the teacher to serve as a mirror, we have to be willing to look in that mirror. Otherwise we’ll never find the dirt and blemishes, no mater how many mirrors we have around us. We may be afraid, but when a mirror is held up, we must be willing to look. This requires a very simple shift of mind. Even after many years of practice, it may not occur on its own. We need the teacher. Unless the teachings penetrate us deeply, there is not much point in intellectual understanding. It only increases ego. We must always ensure that the teachings are aimed at reducing self importance.

When we practice self-reflection in a gentle, joyful way, with great appreciation for our own wisdom as well as the wisdom of the lineage, the mind of our teacher is established within us. The teacher can feel secure about our path, because we’ve become self-reliant. We know that looking leads to liberation, and therefore we have the courage to practice self -reflection. Then everything we experience becomes our mirror, and every experience offers an opportunity to go beyond fixed mind. There is no level of “seniority” where we get a break from self-reflection, not even after many practices and retreats. Such an expectation shows that we are on the wrong track. We may be tired and not wish to go any further, or we may think that we’ve already arrived. But the passion to look should never cease. It should deepen and increase.    

                                                                                            –Dzigar Kongtrul, It’s Up To You

 
       “Please do not be angry with me, Exalted One”, the youth said. It was not to contend with you, not to fight with you over words that I spoke the way I did. You are indeed right; opinions are worth little. But allow me to say one thing more: Not for a moment have I doubted you. I have never doubted for a moment that your are a buddha, that you attained the goal, the supreme goal, toward which so many thousands of brahmins and brahmins’ sons strive. You have found liberation from death. This came to you as a result of your own seeking on your own path, through thought, through meditation, through realization, through enlightenment. It did not come to you through a teaching! And that is my idea, O Exalted One — nobody attains enlightenment through a teaching. O Venerable One, you will not be able to express to
anyone through words and doctrine what happened to you in the moment of your enlightenment! Much is contained in the doctirne of the enlightened Buddha, much is taught in it — to live in an honest and upright way, to avoid evil.
But there is one thing that this so clear and so venrerable teaching does not contain; it does not contain the mystery of what the Exalted One himself experienced, he alone among hundreds of thousands. This is what I understand
and realized when I listened to the teaching. This is the reason I am going to continue my wandering — not to find another or a better teaching, for I know that one does not exist, but in order to leave behind all teachings and
all teachers and to attain my goal on my own or die. But many a time will I recall this day, O Exalted One, and this moment when my eyes have beheld a holy man.                                                                                     –                                                                           –  Siddhartha, Herman Hesse      The difficulty in the spiritual path is always what comes from ourselves.  A person does not like to be a pupil, he likes to be a teacher.  If one only knew that the greatness and perfection of the great ones who have come from time to time to this world was in their being pupils and not in teaching!  The greater the teacher, the better pupil he was.  He learned from everyone, the great and the
lowly, the wise and the foolish, the old and the young. He learned from their lives, and studied human nature in all its aspects.                                                                             - Hazrat Inayat Khan

The timeless non-state cannot be achieved because the mind cannot evolve towards it. The mind can only bring you to the threshold. Awakening comes unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you live in not-knowing. Only then are you available.     — Jean Klein

Discard all you are not and go ever deeper. Just as a man digging a well discards what is not water, until he reaches the water-bearing strata, so must you discard what is not your own, till nothing is left which you can disown. You will find that what is left is nothing which the mind can hook on to. You are not even a human being. You just are - a point of awareness, co-extensive with time and space and beyond both, the ultimate cause, itself uncaused. If you ask me “Who are you?”, my answer would be: “Nothing in particular. Yet, I am.    — Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That

Tenderly, now I touch all things, knowing one day we will part.  – St. John of the Cross