Avadhuts and their chums

[Guest guest]

Renounce, renounce the world of appearance;

Then renounce renunciation as well.

But, whether you renounce or do not renounce,

Enjoy the nectar of your natural state.

 

~from "the Song of the Avadhut"

Chapter 3 Verse 46

 

 

 

D: Is it helpful in the enquiry to sit in siddhasana, keeping

the spine erect, sitting on deerskin, kushasana, etc.

during the meditation, or are they not quite necessary?

Will they expedite the progress?

Maharshi:

The real asana is being established in the Self-Reality or

the Source. Sit in your Self. Where can the Self go and sit?

Everything sits in the Self. Find out the source of I and sit

there. Do not have the idea that the Self cannot be realized

without the help of asanas, etc. They are not at all necessary.

The chief thing is to enquire and reach the source of the ego.

These details such as posture, etc., may distract the mind

towards them or to the body.

Q: Should I look for the source within the body?

Maharshi :

The ego arises within the body. Hence, in the first instance

you may look within the body for its source. When you reach

the source there will be no inside or outside, because the source

or the Self is all-pervading. After realization everything will be

inside the Self.

 

 

~Sri Ramana

 

 

 

"Does this mean that if I am lying in bed with a fever and

hallucinating that the police are coming to kill me that for all

intents and purposes it is true and not paranoia?"

 

"Can you see what you have just done? You have created a hypothetical

example of what reality is and then gone on to create the groundwork

for distinguishing between two or more "states" of reality. So now

you have three states: the "real" world of not being in a fever,

the "unreal" world of feverish hallucinations, and a third state that

arbitrates between the other two! But all three of those are just

creations of your Self-Image, creations of your mind! You can only be

where you find yourself. Constancy will help you see through the

quagmire of mental creations. What you experience is real! But to

answer the drift of your question, at the end of the day what is real

is what you feel, not what you think. Thinking is endless and

removed. Feelings are always now. With Constancy you will not need to

choose between different states that might, or might not be real.

That....is what Constancy offers."

 

~Dave Mason

 

 

 

'The waters arise up from the sea like clouds, then fall as rain and

run back to the sea in streams; nothing can keep them from returning

to their source. Likewise the soul rising up from Thee cannot be kept

from joining Thee again, although it turns in many eddies on its way.'

 

(from Sri Arunachala Ashtakam; trans. 'Faith')

 

 

 

What We Want, What We Really, ReallyWant

 

Things like pomegranates,

orangey-flash flared,

that crepe-de-chine,

frilled-out friend

that blossoms everyday for Rumi.

Blossoms out in our world's Everyday.

 

We mystic lovers often talk about

the pearled, nacred Luminata Light regatta.

Coming through the tips of the pine trees,

the ancients seem to be a giant kelp bed,

and the earth is the seabed,

and the moon is a floating pearl

that's looking for the Beloved

in the face of every gathered lover.

And I am a California sea otter

cracking the sky-abalone's rippled shell

between my Soul-Teeth.

My mind has not ripple in this God-Tide.

 

Long into the night the sufi's spin,

not just around the Sheik, but they spin

the web of laughter into every glad heart.

They make it ever gladder.

A hand dipping in the heart for poems,

a foot, a Love-Midas golden toetip

turning the universe into the Elsewhere,

into the Splendor of the Dawn,

into the Full-Fledged Majesty!

 

We get a hand out

from the Hand of the Friend.

He's very handy and very helpful.

 

We get a foot up

on the friendship with the Friend,

He's very footloose and free

with teaching perfect dance steps.

 

We get a Heartfelt how do you do,

for doing nothing.

Especially for Being, just BEING,

something about an Abundance,

an Abundance of All That Nothing.

 

Sounds like there's something to it to me.

 

We sufi's like to gather late at night,

we like to gather up the hearts of one another.

We like to run around and bang on doors to Nowhere,

and climb ladders to roofs that aren't there,

and drink the SweetWine poured from Tcha!

Oh Pshaw! That last line was just for fun!

 

We Yogi's like to lie in our own ashes,

and light the seven lanterns in the spine.

We like to come on to Hari Krishna,

Hari, Hari, Hari Rama! Rama-lama-ding-dong!

We like to walk along the Ganges in our minds,

and steal the skulls off Mother Kali.

And then drink our own blood in them!

We slip along the sushumna like a serpent.

 

We Buddhist's like to clear away our thoughts.

We like to whack the back of one another,

with a bamboo forest growing in our minds.

We chant and banter 'bout the Dalai Lama,

about the time when Buddha bounced our Dharma check.

We like to carry redwood trees and haul tidepools.

We simply slay the very notion of any other, Other.

Is there any other way to do this dying?

 

We mad Advaitists like to act as if,

we act a lot like we aren't even saying anything.

We try to never be appearing to have a name or home.

We even say we do not have a dog,

or particularly like anything in particular.

You know, we really have no preferences

for one thing or another.

We just want to insist to everyone,

to everyone who'll listen that is,

that we aren't even here,

while spouting out so loudly,

"I AM, I AM, I AM, I really, really Am!"

And right NOW, too!

 

This idea of mine to say a thing to something,

it's just a ploy, an act, a front.

What I really want to do,

what I really want to say,

is that God isn't interested in our rituals.

 

He simply does not give a fuck what we do to get to Know Him.

 

So let's just shimmy up to God,

let's just jimmy open His Heart.

Let's just get down and do this LOVE thing.

Nothing else to do,

 

SO, let's all just stick to Rumi's "new rule,"

and break the Wineglass,

and fall

 

i n t o

 

The Glassblower's Breath.

 

Oh You Huuuuu, over here!

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

Mazie