Illusion
On more than one occasion I’ve heard the Advaita (non-duality) teacher Francis Lucille (or his wife Laura also) say “There is no such thing as human love.” What on Earth are they talking about? This would seem to go against our “normal” way of thinking, and may provoke a reaction amongst listeners. After all, isn’t…
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Humans are sensitive to language like dogs are sensitive to smells. We take these funny sounds we make or think or read, seriously, like a big deal sometimes. Nations are built or destroyed on them. And new relationships formed. And jokes told, and stories made up… Most of what I write below is obvious to…
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I recently had a brief exchange with a friend via text, while I was busy working in my garden. I realize I didn’t express myself clearly at the time about “the virus.” So this is an attempt to make that more clear, and “set the record straight” as they say (though it will never be…
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Is the world real? Why is it said by non-dualist teachers and sages of Advaita vedanta that the fact that the world of phenomena, of the senses and perception, is constantly changing, shows that it is illusory, whereas reality is unchanging, permanent? I asked this of Francis Lucille once. I said, “A candle flame is…
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Just by getting your (little) self out of the way you become a blessing to the world – you don’t have to do anything. But if your self is still in the way, then there is something to do – some form of “working on yourself”, such as observing one’s thoughts and reactions. I’m reluctant…
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I got a question from a friend, an artist from Athens, Greece: Question: All humans are geniuses? This is the solution. We [only] think we are geniuses. Answer: Humans aren’t geniuses, humans are just very clever apes. With weapons. Our genius does not come from us being human bodies or human animals, but from a…
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Last night I watched an old Star Trek original series episode that had come to mind: “This Side of Paradise“. The story in it always intrigued me: artificial happiness and the cult-like dramatic conflict when the agricultural lifestyle colonists encounter the Star Trek crew, as well as the entertainment value of what happens with the…
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Listening to a popular “animal communicator”, I realized the core issue with what she was saying. While I appreciate what they do with specific animals and species, and it touches my heart deeply (I love animals, and plants, and minerals…), there is an assumptions and an attitude about humans and the planet and Life and…
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How to be more loving and happy and at peace? Be more present. To what is real. How to be present? Quiet down the thinking, the mind, without introducing the doer. Don’t try and stop thinking. Just observe benevolently (with curiosity if it’s there). The doer can’t squelch (forcefully silence or suppress) the doer –…
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The picture we are seeing here—knowing it’s just a picture (a map)—is of two sides of existence: one, the appearance, the phenomenal, the apparent material world, the mortal dream, Body, Mind, and World (BMW) which arise simultaneously to play Maya, or spacetime and matter; and two, “outside” of this world as it were, the spiritual,…
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