Advaita Post #13-02 ---When it really turns inside-out...

Volume 13 No. 2 (January 17, 2012)

--- When it really turns inside-out, when you truly love phenomenon, others, your neighbor, as yourself it means that you completely coincide with them ---

Every duality between movement and stillness can disappear - every duality can disappear

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Do you see

why it's necessary

to know your origin and stay aware of it?

Why should you

keep holding on to your blind spot,

limiting your identity and

causing suffering?

So stay

awake in your origin and

don't get distracted.

As long as life goes on,

it lives itself.

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Message from Douwe

In this period of stillness and slow recovery, it's lovely to see how much and how many people sympathize. That compassion has the character of goodness which arises from unseparated-being. That goodness comes by letting light and love flow, in whatever way possible - the almost countless number of wonderful cards and messages with good wishes, the flowers (including the beautiful collective bouquet with gift certificates for future occasions), the lights, meditations, prayers, thoughts, everything. Many, many thanks to all of you! Letting the universal light and love flow in non-duality is the most beautiful thing there is.

Douwe

Douwe's health

Douwe's recovery continues to go slowly. Indeed, it takes some time for all the bruises and wounds to heal. He feels quite weak, because he is still somewhat affected. The pain slowly lessens. Eating is still quite difficult, but that will simply take some time to normalize. Also, he rests allot and feels that this is necessary. But he makes his daily rounds outside and has even done a bit of bicycling. All in all, the body slowly adapts itself to the new conditions. And, Douwe continues to radiate.

Pia

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Text Satsang

From a talk with Douwe Tiemersma, Gouda, September 28, 2011

What am I still doing here?

Sometimes it's clear to me that every effort is totally meaningless. There is such a complete void that I get the feeling: what am I doing here, what am I trying to do?

Is that a problem?

Yes, certainly, sometimes. Then I look at my children. They are beautiful children, but I'm not there and that's still there.

Life certainly seems to go on.

Yes.

When you are clearly present in that sphere, where the fullness of meanings which are normally given to daily life are absent, there is an infinite space. You are that infinite space. As long as life goes on all aspects of that life are present. The big difference with your old situation is that you're no longer struggling with life as a person. You're primarily present as the totally open space. Life is included in that great openness which itself is not dependent on time. When time arises in it you see that it's something very limited. But also you are present there too. It's not something that stands separate from you. You are that self too, in all its limitations. But you see that it's a very limited area.

Then there's nothing left over?

Principally you see the nothingness of it. And there's no longer an I-person who's positioned there and wants to maintain himself. But it is still a certain creation with a wealth of forms. Phenomenon too, have that nothingness aspect or emptiness in them and still there is a richness, a miracle. That's also true for the individual body. Everything proceeds normally according to the usual laws of life. That total openness which in itself is independent of time and space, in which there is no striving, there is no judgement and within which the whole world of ordinary life proceeds, that comes along with it. And that is something which completely has no ground in it. It is a groundless non-duality. Non-duality means that it is not different from yourself. Therefore you can simply let go and then you notice that everything - even the ordinary things - continue naturally. The openness which penetrates everywhere remains primary. Whether there are forms or not, it doesn't matter.

And if you say: I am everything. Do you mean by that, I am the space and everything that appears within it?

If you say it like that there is a duality. Then you get the kind of problems you are bringing up now. When you withdraw in a more exclusive sense then you experience yourself as a consciousness space in which phenomenon come and go. That can be. You can take on this attitude and that's what you experience. But then there is a certain position of the observer who says: those are just phenomenon and what do I have to do with them? They're actually not worth anything. That in itself already indicates that you are located on a level somewhere with elements of a person who wants to assess the value of something. There remains a contradiction between timeless being and phenomenon appearing within time. Because your own being is infinitely great, everything that is present within it is accepted, whatever appears there. Also, you literally are whatever you experience externally. Internally you are the self of the things and of the others. Only when you have literally accepted that other as yourself do you notice that there is a true non-duality. That self-being as observer has totally exploded and has its center everywhere. That is what is meant by universal consciousness. That doesn't mean that you remain sitting in a safe place and say: now I am myself. Then you're still holding on to a center somewhere and a residue of the I in a relative sense remains, the ego. When it really turns inside-out, when you truly love others, phenomenon, your neighbor, as yourself it means that you completely coincide with them

Then are there completely no experiences anymore?

Then there are an infinite number of experiences. But they're no longer experiences of an I who relates everything to himself. It is one whole. What appears, appears. Nothing more can be said about it.

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