One Year Ago

[Guest guest]

>From very long post, yet well worth reading it all and relevant as ever..

Will label the Jerry and Gene parts for ease of reading.__There were total

of 9 posts that day. Glo_____

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Message: 6

Wed, 30 Sep 1998 08:49:55 -0800

magus

Re: ND/FAQ question-9

> Tue, 29 Sep 1998 19:21:22 -0300

> Jerry <umbada

> Nondualism FAQ: Question 9 (Degrees of Relationship)

 

snip

>

> WHAT ARE THE DEGREES OF RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE NONDUAL PERSPECTIVE?

>

snip

J:> The first degree of relationship is Intuition. One intuits that his or

>her real nature is one with all that is.

>

> The second degree of relationship is Recognition. One has "seen" nondual

>reality.

>

> The third degree of relationship is Stability. One "walks in" nondual

reality.

>

> These three degrees: Intuition, Recognition, and Stability exist in

>relation to each of the three nondual perspectives considered in the first

>question. One can intuit, recognize, gain stability with nondual reality,

>whether via Word Nondualism, Process Nondualism, or Ultimate

>Nondualism. In the following discussion I am using the I AM as the name

>for the reality the nondual perspective would know.

 

GP:That is an acceptable practice...convenient and efficient, but it has to

be

noted as such, as an expedient to getting the job of communication 'done'.

 

J:> Some people approach the nondual perspective from the disposition of

>Intuition. They have a real feeling for what the I AM is. They know a part

>of them is pure spirit, unchanging, perhaps that it is a portion of God.

>The intuition would be strong enough to bring the person to a spiritual

>path, to help guide a person. Part of having that intuition is that one's

>values are directed toward enjoying silence and quiet being. They are

>different from many other people's values.

 

-- >>It is possible that the one who intuits I AM, still has to live as

though 'other people's values' are their own<<--.

 

GP:Yes...this is a challenge, a major challenge. For me, it has been

somewhat

like trying to succeed at working one of those puzzles, a flat box with two

little balls, which has to be tilted in such a way, that each ball rolls to

opposite sides of the box at the same time. It seems impossible, when I am

trying to do it. I know that this personal/social integration is a boggling

proposition for a great many. One may succeed in bringing I Am to the

forefront, where it fills and shines, and cleanses and heals, but then when

social reality dawns once again, it may seem that I Am becomes a flat,

rusty remanant of something once-glorious. The tendency to quickly assume

that 'others' have caused this regression is something to be aware of, and

to overcome. Patience...and abiding, are called for. A history of hurt

feelings and residual grief are like a foul monkey upon one's back,

spoiling the party. Blame follows resentment, and blame hammers boundaries

into existence, defining one as different from those other jerks.

>

J:> The one who intuits, knows the I AM from a distance. As something to be

>strived for. As a retreat to visit from time to time. One's life may be

>colored by that intuition, but that coloring hasn't penetrated life as

>yet. It hasn't seeped through.

 

GP:In my life, this intuition occurs (has occured) like the sudden awareness

of a powerful presence, which was unseen until just now, and then

recognized immediately as always having been 'there' or 'here'. Immediately

intuited also, is the realization that I was too distracted by my personal

dramas ("hey...nobody has showed up to change my diapers!"), too busy doing

important 'problem-solving' activities, to pay attention to _Simply What

Is_.

 

GP:For me (and this seems unusual...I mean, it seems rare), the contrast

between the 'realized' state and the simultaneous realization of my own

self-distraction, is very clear. In fact, it is shocking, jarring. I have

tried (naively) to abolish the distracted/distracting state, to disqualify

the power of the noise and drama, for the purpose of having ONLY the

'realized' state, 'purely that'. But I have learned a better way. As long

as the 'distracted state' is available, also available is the _contrast_.

Now I need merely "look for" the contrast to also find the powerful

presence of I Am. I now know that I am a native of this

place/state/experience. This may seem (to certain purists) like a

confession of weakness, but it is what works for me. I have also taught it

to others. The momentary jarring is a bit like passing through the 'sound

barrier'...a 'boom' of silence and then a 'bloom' of sweetness and sweet

irony, and laughter. It tickles. There is more.

 

J:> A second relationship is Recognition. This is an intimate awareness of I

>AM or nondual reality. Not merely an intuition, the stage of Recognition

>allows one to see existence as the I AM. It may come as a full-blown

>mystical experience or a flash of insight, a vision flash. It is a time

>when the colors of Intuition saturate and drip off all that is, all

>existence.

 

GP:Well stated! I love this poetic vision. And it is here, that I seem to

diverge from the 'majority' of those who write/talk about this stuff. I

don't really know, though. Feedback is welcomed.

 

For me, the 'recognition' phase that you point out, is an opening to a

richness which I cannot describe in practical terms. It is "like" having

the doors thrown open to a huge, infinite 'feast-hall'. If I look, what I

see multiplies in richness and delightful complexity, and it is like

feeling the most beautiful music. Each 'thing' which occurs, upon even the

lightest examination, 'morphs' into such beautiful complexity, that I can

barely stand it, in its intensity of revealed beauty and...meaning. There

is no static state of Being here in this place, and I realize that I am

That. It just keeps expanding, until the sun itself sings an unbearably

beautiful song of Being. Words do not suffice. Rumi resonates here.

Finally, it comes back upon itself, and explodes into a statement of I Am,

which is "like" the entire Universe in Orgasm, glory Being. It is when this

occurs, that my vision of 'others' with their heads held low, in fear and

suspicion, elicits such compassion, that only my heart remains.

 

J:> Whereas one can live a stable existence from the perspective of

>Intuition, the one who has recognized, who has looked into the eyes of

>God, so to speak, will have a hard time forgetting that. A person has to

>deal with it. For the nature of Recognition is instability. It is an

>insight and then a distancing from insight. A failure to stably retain

>insight. So it is by nature unstable.

 

GP:You speak truely. I abide this instability. It is the source of Holy

Contrast which is the difference which leads to No Difference. It is good.

I feel fortunate to have found this instability. I am joyed when another

finds (recognizes) this precious instability.

 

J:> The one whose relationship with nondual reality is one of Recognition

can

>speak very knowingly of the nature of nondual reality, because he or she

>has seen. The one who still only Intuits, may feel distant from such

>reports.

 

GP:This may be true, but even so, it does not stop one from describing

experience. "Is this it?" is frequently asked, in hope, still searching for

an imagined stability. Stability is imagined to be realization, itself,

which it is not. If it were, any fundamentalist idealist would be totally

realized, in accord with their total certainty and (static) stability.

 

J:> Yet the one who but Intuits, may be better favored by Grace. The

>relationship that Recognition offers can be difficult and frustrating. A

>person firmly stabilized within the relationship of Intuition and who is

>taught to value that, will return to it after Recognition.

 

GP:Yes. It is 'getting one's sea-legs', yes? The pitch and yaw of the ship

is

a constant occurance, although unpredictable in detail. Each circumstance

of movement can induce unbalance, yet there is a 'way of Being' which

automatically takes all movement into account. Being able to give attention

during both calm and storm is 'stability', if I understand what you are

saying here. And the gaining of the 'sealegs' is the habituation to the

constant of change, and also the giving-up of the assumption that the ship

will ever dock in a 'better place' and discharge its passengers onto stable

land...an imagined state of always-the-sameness. (Although the

'possibility' of a noncontrast state of Being is defined by some as

'Nirvanna'. This is the "infinite regress" of the "realization of no

realizer" and the paradox that it brings, like a wad of gum that one has to

finally spit out. Or swallow, as the case may be.)

 

J:> The relationship of Stability is desired. It is the stage where one is

in

>unceasing Recognition of the nondual reality, the I AM. For example, one

>would progress from Intuition, to Recognition, back to Intuition, and then

>to Stability, with other journeys to Recognition along the way.

 

GP:Yes, although my personal take on this is that stability is dynamic

rather

than static.

 

J:> The one whose relationship is Recognition and who is overcome by

>arrogance to return to mere Intuition, is bound to suffer and wonder why

>he or she has not been favored by Grace to win Stability. Often these

>people negotiate that seeming unfairness in positive ways through creative

>works, or in negative ways through unacceptable escapes, or in both

>positive and negative ways. The key, though, is to return to Intuition. In

>this case, you can go back. A person just needs to be told they can go

>back.

 

GP:Absolutely!!! Well said. After all, it is only One Day. We have all the

time we need .

 

J:> When the relationship with nondual reality is one of stability, then one

>is "walking in" a reality that is nondual.The one who has achieved

>stability can recognize the relationships of Intuition and Recognition.

>The one who knows stability acts as anyone else does. They may or may not

>reveal the relationship they know. They may pretend it is just Intuition,

>or just Recognition. It just depends on whom they are communicating with.

 

GP:Yes. This is revealed most excellently by you, O CyberGuru. I mean this

quite sincerely. You are breaking new ground, in the linguistic approach to

Nondualism. Your approach reveals your excellent sea-legs, your resiliant

dynamic balance. It reveals one who has tired of the sound of rigid

structure cracking, and who has found the bending of Grace far preferable.

 

Grace in movement...moves grace in others. Amazing, is it not, that

'textfile' can speak so?

>

J:> Spiritual life is the attentional work that it takes to win that

>stability and then to grow within and beyond it.

 

GP:Yes. One the 'habit' is acquired, it attends to reprocess all experience

to

the essence of emptiness. It is a miracle watching that happen.

 

Thank you Jerry, and thanks to listers who tolerate my idiosyncratic

presence here...

 

==Gene Poole==

 

 

 

 

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