Thoughts From A Mystic

Here's a teaching that is often not understood, or misunderstood...DON'T RESIST EVIL. Here's one of Jesus' teachings- Mt 5.38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’(No more than that!) Mt 5.39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. Mt 5.40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. And a great story about Buddha that teaches THE SAME MESSAGE (credit for this story to Tara Brach, from her book- "Radical Acceptance", pp. 75,6.) When Mara (the Buddhist name for 'The Evil One') fled, after Siddhartha's awakening as 'Buddha', it was only temporary. Mara kept coming back; and when he did Buddha would calmly acknowledge his presence, saying, "I see you, Mara." He would then invite him for tea, as an honored guest. Offering Mara a cushion, so he could ...

Reality takes no particular shape. It's plastic and can take any form. It doesn't distinguish between 'Right' and 'Wrong'. 'Right' and 'Wrong' are interpretations. There is no suffering in Reality...that's created by alienated selves, who are in conflict with Reality. These selves select parts of Reality and call it the whole, or the 'Good' and exclude other parts. In so doing they've just emprisoned themselves in their concepts. If you want to eliminate suffering you couldn't do it by changing your interpretations, since that's just another prison. You've got to be FREED from those concepts and this is what Buddhism and Christianity are about at their core. The great traditions teach, not a set of beliefs, but A WAY of transformation OUT OF the sickness of the alienated self. At-one-ment, as many like to say. In Buddhism it's realizing our Buddha-nature and in Christianity it's about being one with...

As lost, ignorant creatures, sleep-walking man makes patterns based on desire and fear. Reality is fluid. 'It' isn't fixed in one specific 'objective' form, but flows throught 'forms', or 'incarnations', if you will. This is why varying viewpoints exist about what is. My favorite analogy to describe Reality, is as water in an ocean. Waves form on the surface (deeper realms have currents), and these waves change from moment to moment. None of the 'waves' exist on their own, in an 'objective' way. The surface 'waves' are water swelling into the atmosphere. Man desires to 'objectify' the wave shapes; to compare, contrast and categorize them; what better way to have control over them than to name them! But take a closer look...the waves are ocean water. They are not the patterns or names we conventionally attach to them. With 'eyes to see', look at the world. Notice the 'waves' of Reality (Be...

No. The path of 'no-self' is no secret. It's part of what it means to be human; in fact it IS the path that leads to true humanity. Jesus was correct is stating there is 'only one way', but people don't want to hear that message. It's the 'addicts curse', meaning- no addict wants to be without his/her drug(s); therefore has no 'eyes or ears' for the truth. Anyone who practices 'attraction' will find they are still stuck in their mental world-view, or 'Samsara' in Buddhist terms. As long as what they want (take note of the taint of desire) comes to them, they will remain stuck in that mental world-view. What one thinks is not WHAT IS; and suffering comes from being disconnected from WHAT IS. Buddhism gets immediately to the solution- 'Life is suffering and there is a cure' (The 4 Noble Truths.) That cure is RELEASE from the limiting mental world-view. "The law of attraction" doesn't care if you are an ...

'There is nothing required of me to do; and nothing to be done that I haven't already accomplished.' This line from the Bagavad Gita speaks about the 'perfection' of what is. The way things are is the way they've always been and always will be...the only difference is how we see, or recognize what is. It's popular of people to think in terms of 'Teleology'- The word "teleology" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning end or purpose. Teleology is the supposition that there is purpose or directive principle in the works and processes of nature (or in a person's suppositions about their life or their culture's path.) Getting back to the original quote, we discover that Reality continues in it's plasicity; always flowing from this form to that. There's no 'End', just an endless process. Everything that can be done, already has been done; and will be again, and again...and again! Here, from Jewish tradition- Ecc...

People often think they're awake when they are up and about, perhaps thinking about this or that. What people normally consider consciousness is actually 'daydreaming'; biased involvement with thoughts about what might be, and less about what IS. They rarely become conscious, in the truist sense; which is the great gift of being human. 'Self-concious' people rarely experience 'what's going on'. 'What is' is always flavored by self; distorted by desires. This false consciousness fails in its awareness of 'others'; and finds itself tripping over speculation and inaccurate predictions. Jesus spoke of 'normal conciousness' as; "The blind leading the blind." How elegantly and succinctly stated! What humans COULD realize is 'awareness of awareness'. This is Consciousness in it's purest form. This might be the best explanation, or reason (if you are determined to find one) of why man exists- to become AWARE...

Each of us creates our own problems- what Buddhists call 'suffering'. Our problems arise from our sense of alienation from the universe, or more broadly reality. Western thought supports the concept of self, which has been used as a means of control over individuals and society as a whole. Each person's self-concept is fluid; having no long term stability. You are not 'self', but 'awareness'. Descartes was close, when he stated; "I think, therefore I am." Substituting 'feel' for 'think' would be equally accurate. But both are still secondary to what 'I' is. "I'm aware, therefore I am." would be more accurate (but concepts and words fail to give us an exact understanding.) Existing as awareness, without letting it be stained from thoughts or feelings, which come from desires and biases, is the path taught by Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity- "The goal of the Buddhist contemplative is to develop f...