Toe-crunch Hello!

Last night, walking barefoot in my dark living room,
My right foot kicked the sharp corner of our coffee table.
Instant crunch-pain.
Unexpected immediate recognition:
Nothing personal,
Simple cause & effect,
No emotional reaction,
No suffering.

One moment ends,
A completely fresh new moment begins,
The great river of causes & effects flowing on.

Simple spontaneous experiencing -
Causes & effects flowing.
Impersonal - no reason or benefit for emotional reactions.
How foolish to want reality to be different?

Conditioned mind-body fascinating -
but not really 'me' or 'mine'.
Craving, aversion, delusion, suffering,
Fizzling, fizzling, fizzling ...

Gaspe Laundry

Show me your original face before your parents were born!

     “Just keep exploring what you truly are. Am I a separate limited awareness? Or is the awareness that I know myself to be totally open, unlimited, and ever-present? 
     Because the belief and the feeling that what I am, comes and goes, and is limited, and therefore lacking, that is at the heart – that belief and feeling, that single belief and feeling is at the heart of all your suffering. That’s the only thing in suffering that needs to be explored – not the whole paraphernalia of whatever seems to be causing the suffering, because if you explore each of the causes in turn, it’s just endless. Money, work, relationships, - it goes on forever. But all these different colors, different facets of suffering, it all hinges on one thing – the belief that what I am, the I that is knowing my thoughts and hearing these words right now, the awareness I know myself to be, shares the limits and the destiny of the body-mind. 
     That’s it. That is with that belief we seem to shrink into a separate self. All our suffering is dependent upon that belief and feeling alone. 
     So once that’s clear you become naturally one-pointed. You see that all your suffering is just based on one thing. So all your disparate energies are now gathered together in that one direction. What am I truly? 
     You even forget about suffering because you’re dealing with what’s at the heart of it. You forget about the paraphernalia of suffering. Who is this one, this self that is suffering? Who is this one on whose behalf I spent my life thinking and feeling, acting and relating, I spent my life serving? This self – who is it? I’ve never seen it. Where are you? Come out. I want to make your acquaintance. Show me what you’re made of.”            

Rupert Spira, 4th video, on Suffering                  http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/introduction

Essence Of Pearl by Pennie Gibson   http://goo.gl/LOdrBZ

Koan of Everyday Life

     "Human life itself, the mystery of being thrust into the world by birth and swept out of it by death, is an imponderable puzzle, one that we can try to ignore but cannot escape. So much of what passes for 'ordinary' life is, when seen through different eyes, not ordinary at all, but full of potential for spiritual learning. To practice the koan of everyday life means to confront every situation as though it were a profound spiritual question."
 
       Lewis Richmond: Work as a Spiritual Practice. A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job. Broadway Books, NY, 1999.

     Also see: http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=spirituality

rok urankar    www.dpreview.com

An Open Question - a Koan

     "Any action that harms others is necessarily caused & accompanied by craving, aversion, & ignorance."                         S.N. Goenka

       Larkin G. Stumbling toward enlightenment. Celestial Arts, Berkeley CA, 1997.

Steve McCurry   http://stevemccurry.com/

Open Question - Koan

     To "rediscover the unity concealed in contradictions" ....


       Durckheim KG. “Hara – The vital center of man.” Inner Traditions, Rochester VT, 1975 

Paulah   www.dpreview.com

 

Poem

life


inbreath
outbreath

Only Keep the Heart Open Continuously

     When the heart is open, it's not closed. A powerful object of meditation is steadily monitoring the feel of the heart area: is it open, relaxed, warm? If not, it has closed due to self-centered fear. Let go - each microsecond - a fresh opportunity to exercise the heart-re-opening muscles - endlessly tirelessly gently keep returning to open-heartedly embrace whatever the present moment holds.

     “each moment of interpersonal contact is infused with both selfish and altruistic desire – with hunger and with love. … whenever my hungers diminished, love and compassion appeared. … love and hunger are intermingled … Since both are usually present, whenever one is attenuated, the other becomes more prominent. Imagine a jar of muddy water – if you let it settle and then remove the silt, what remains is clear. It is that simple: when hungers diminish, love remains.”     Kramer G. “Insight dialogue. The interpersonal path to freedom.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007.

     One word to remember - "OPEN"

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/10/choose-now-fresh-or-stale.html 

"We are so lightly here" - Leonard Cohen