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The Selected Sayings of Robert P. Meizer

being the best of bobby

(in almost alphabetical order)




bobby
The Obligatory "Story"

My childhood was mostly a paradisiacal idyll in the arms of loving parents, though not without the usual quota of sibling rivalry and cruel playgrounds. My adolescence was mostly a hell realm of despairing thoughts and suicidal behaviors, though not without the usual quota of best friends and hysterical bellylaughs; I hit bottom around 20 and have been getting better ever since. Does "seeking" have anything to do with this biographical data? I would guess not. I've known people who had it all, but were still dissatisfied and took up the "search". I've known people with next to nothing who were far too busy trying to survive to waste any energy on thoughts of "enlightenment". And I've known opposite people as well. I don't think there's any typical biography of a seeker, though some sociologists may not agree. I had my first "religious experience" at 24, went through years of confusion with occasional clearings in the mist. I benefited from the influences of many friends and a few teachers. I outgrew many of my delusions, but still I was seeking some kind of experience (though intellectually I knew that any experience could only be transient). If you want to know how I stopped seeking, here is the Obligatory "Story". 		meizer


PREFATORY NOTE


Everything you read here was written in response. In response to who or what specifically is not important. What is important, in this context, is that a response may act as a stimulus to further responses. That is where you, the reader, come in. To respond as you please. Sometimes, the best response is silence, and sometimes it's not. You can write me at (substituting @ and .) bobbymeizer[at]yahoo[dot]com, and I'll write back if I do.









The Absolute doesn't "need" anything; it's already complete.



   ***O***



Basho knows the value
Of nothing
Money can't buy it



   ***O***



Can a nonexistent being exist? Can nonexistence exist? Is there a difference between a statement of fact and a statement of fiction?



   ***O***



A definite concept of enlightenment has got to be wrong.



   ***O***



The ego believes it is fighting for its very existence here so it tries its best to be stubborn, but in the end it must lose. It's finite, limited by definition. The Absolute. No contest.



   ***O***



Facts are as partial and transitory as personalities. Truth is the eternal unchanging source of this partial and transitory 'existence'.



   ***O***



Give me a tolerant hypocrite over a true-believer megalomaniac any day.



   ***O***



Happiness and 'enlightenment' do not equate; the happy are not necessarily 'enlightened' and vice versa.



   ***O***



I agree with this. I disagree with this. I both agree and disagree with this. I neither agree nor disagree with this. Actually, I'm doing all four.



   ***O***



Just because the sun is behind a cloud doesn't mean it no longer exists.



   ***O***



Koan is to ponder as fish is to hook.



   ***O***



Lack of belief requires belief, otherwise there'd be nothing to lack.



   ***O***



Many of the people who've been recognized as saints in various religions have been far from nice people and done far from nice things.



   ***O***



The nature of mind is game. Its functioning is play. To seriously expect the mind to reveal truth is to set oneself up for disillusionment. That is a good thing, threatening only to the mind that takes itself too seriously.



   ***O***



Oedipus' dad, Laius, was an arrogant child-abusing roadhog, but somehow it's all Oed's fault. How about using the term "Laius complex" to describe fathers who neglect and abandon their sons out of jealousy and fear?



   ***O***



People with glass dictionaries shouldn't use words.



   ***O***



A quiet mind has nothing to do with a noisy world.



   ***O***



Ranjit Maharaj once said that you can commit any crime with impunity as long as you can go laughing to the executioner. It's ironic that the individual becomes totally free only by recognizing that individuality doesn't exist.



   ***O***



Said the ocean to the wave, "Spray it, don't say it!"



   ***O***



Talking, either in absolute terms about the relative or in relative terms about the absolute, is bound to be misleading. The snake you see may indeed be just a rope, but neither does that mean there are no snakes.



   ***O***



"Ultimate guru" needs no "conventional guru", but the reverse does not hold true.



   ***O***



A very wise woman once said "To feel whole, feel hole."



   ***O***



Watches do run fast or slow at times, and an occasional check-in with the "Time Lady" is advisable.



   ***O***



The Xanadu of Coleridge's dream today looms larger than any palace of Kubla Khan's.



   ***O***



You can certainly compare the taste, smell, texture, color of a mango to the taste, smell, texture, color of other things, thereby giving your audience some ideas of a mango. However, the mango of 'apperception' has neither these nor any other qualities. Anything you say about it is exactly not it. But to say that it's not something is also not it. Apperception just is (though you can't even truthfully say that, or truthfully say that you can't say that, or truthfully say that you can't say that you can't say that till the end of the universe, of time and beyond).



   ***O***



Zoroaster died the year that Confucius was born. Buddha, Lao-tze, Mahavira, and Pythagoras were all alive in that year, 551 B.C.E. Can you imagine them all meeting astrally at Zoroaster's deathbed, to plot the future of humanity?



   ***O***



Absolutely true, but relatively impossible!



   ***O***



"Because I say so" didn't impress me when my father ended discussions with it, and it still doesn't impress me.



   ***O***



Can one respond from a mindset of "now"? Or is mental response always of "the past"?



   ***O***



Dividing people into Sages and the suffering rest is just dividing people. No human mind exists without ego and delusion; it is the degree of attachment to and identification with ego and delusion that varies from individual to individual. The pretense of delusion-free egolessness may be quite deeply rooted in consciousness, but unconsciously the pretenders will still seek out challenges to and denials of their pretense in hope that they may achieve a resolution of what is truly an unresolvable conundrum.



   ***O***



The ego is perfect, the search is perfect. Delusion and suffering are also perfect. Even imperfection is perfect. The belief that one thing is perfect while another thing is imperfect is quite deluded, yet nonetheless perfect also.



   ***O***



The first pretense to drop is the pretense of having no pretenses. There is nothing behind the mask but another mask.



   ***O***



The greatest sages are extremely inconsistent because their words are always suited to the unique moment, where they are and who they are with.



   ***O***



Has anyone, excluding perhaps yourself, ever "known" the Absolute as the result of your efforts? This kind of "knowing" can't be forced on someone; I believe also that no one can be kept from acquiring it. All the effort in the world doesn't change things either way. I'm all for effort anyway, it occupies the time.



   ***O***



I am often asked by my interlocutors at the end of a long conversation, "How did we get on this subject?" It may seem disconnected to the original subject, but if it's traced back they can see how it all evolved out of our well-connected responses to each other. To me, the real question is why people so often want to proceed in a way which pretends that everything is not connected.



   ***O***



Just by opening our mouths we imply "Shut up!".



   ***O***



Loving friendship is more important than who your guru is.



   ***O***



Many years ago a dear friend of mine was trying to get me to join him in following Guru Maharaj Ji. When I mentioned some criticisms I had heard of Maharaj Ji as being basically a money-seeking con artist, he quoted his Guru, "When a thief looks at a holy man, the first thing he sees are his pockets." This was what decided me to steer clear of GMJ; he was in effect saying, "If you think I'm a crook then you must be one yourself." It seemed like evasive nonsense to me then and it still does. But apparently it works because GMJ is living in a palatial mansion in Malibu and my friend is still in love with him.



   ***O***



Neither given nor taken
Neither free nor bound
Either, neither, or both



   ***O***



Of motes and beams: When the disciple is disrespectful it is called rudeness and envy. When the guru is disrespectful it is called teaching and compassion. When the disciple is disillusioned with the guru it is called weakness and egotism. When the guru is disillusioned with the disciple it is called wisdom and enlightened perspective. When the disciple becomes a guru it is called either heirship or presumption. When the guru becomes a disciple it is called either apostasy or discernment. When the mote is removed from the teacher's eye, lo! the beam disappears in the student's.



   ***O***



The perceiver noticing the perceiver's involvement in the construction of perception is just another perception in which the perceiver notices the perceiver's constructive involvement.



   ***O***



Real life story: this morning we noticed a triangle of three little red dots on our daughter's forehead/bridge of nose, and since then a few more have appeared on her cheeks and forehead. We find no "mother" pock, nor anything on back or belly, and she has no fever, but she has been somewhat crankier than usual. Chickenpox? Measles? (though she's been vaccinated for that) Topical allergic reaction? We've no idea. It's a great reminder of the uncertainty of this unbelievable existence, about which I don't pretend not to care.



   ***O***



Searching for "who you are" could be more than difficult. What if "who you are" is the searcher?



   ***O***



The tao that can be named. The tao that cannot be named. The tao that can be named and the tao that cannot be named. Neither the tao that can be named nor the tao that cannot be named. Not.



   ***O***



The "ultimate state of your Being" is not about using the proper semantic formulae; it can be expressed in numberless ways yet it is ultimately inexpressible. God is dead. Long live the God!



   ***O***



We all experience our present awareness as the foundation of all existence; it couldn't be any other way, whether we talk that talk or not.



   ***O***



You can't be dissatisfied without an idea of satisfaction. And if you have an idea of satisfaction you must have an idea of dissatisfaction. Inquiry is constantly ongoing whether or not it's labeled 'inquiry'.



   ***O***



Aha! Now we're getting nowhere. The "I" that hears and the sound that is heard are both aspects of "hearing". The "I" that sees and the sight that is seen are both aspects of "seeing". The "I" that knows and the experience that is known are both aspects of "consciousness". Hearing, seeing, consciousness, now playing at a theater near you!



   ***O***



Being serious about enlightenment is a matter of willingness; the willingness to go wherever one's footsteps lead, whatever the fear, confusion, or despair one encounters.



   ***O***



Can one truly know oneself, much less another? When I look inside I am often surprised by what I discover. Can I ever really know that I've discovered it all?



   ***O***



The dog has no reason to bark unless it does. Bones of contention are, by definition, contended over.



   ***O***



Egotism is like alcoholism, the first step to healing is admitting that the problem's there.



   ***O***



First the glass is in its place somewhere on the table. Then it is in its place elsewhere on the table. If its movement was appropriate or not depends upon the circumstances and whomever is making the judgment.



   ***O***



Have you ever read a novel? The fiction can be quite profound, frightening, moving, etc. The joke comes in when it's taken for an objective reality instead of the fictional 'reality' that it is. And then the joke's on whoever makes it.



   ***O***



I bet you have found freedom, peace, and enlightenment many times. Only the recurring thought that you haven't found it yet blocks it out of consciousness.



   ***O***



Meaning is a curious thing. Words are defined by other words which are defined by other words. Eventually the tautological nature of dictionaries becomes apparent, and the realization dawns that meaning is an intuitional, as well as definitional, quality.



   ***O***



No one is more in need of instruction than the one who thinks he no longer needs any instruction.



   ***O***



On issues related to effective teaching and the search for an appropriate teacher the best advice I ever received was, "Stick with it as long as it works for you. If it stops working, try something else."



   ***O***



Perhaps we're playing "blind men and the elephant" here. After all, no expression is independent of point of view, so different people may experience the same truth yet express it in words quite differently. Thought is always dualist. The nondualist "stateless state" is not expressible in thoughts. As some so aptly put it, thoughts are pointers at best. Perhaps some pointers are less likely to mislead than others. Perhaps not.



   ***O***



Reality check: Jim Jones had testimonials before the Jonestown horror. Scientology has testimonials to fill big buildings. Pat Robertson will show you plenty of utterly sincere testimonials. They prove nothing.



   ***O***



A sense of continuity isn't required to be. A "memory of coming into existence" isn't required to exist.



   ***O***



Taste doesn't disappear just because you do.



   ***O***



We are predestined to live as if we have free will. We are not responsible for the fact that we bear responsibility for our thoughts and actions.



   ***O***



You won't see 'anger management' counseling work with someone who won't drop their "you make me mad" defense and assume responsibility for their own feelings. They don't have to condone the behavior they've been reacting to with anger, they just have to recognize that the anger is theirs and therefore potentially under their own control rather than an inexorable reaction to what someone else has done.



   ***O***



All thoughts and beliefs about the Absolute, whether sense or nonsense, are deluding as long as they keep awakening at bay, while no thought or belief, no matter how nonsensical, is deluding if it does not keep awakening at bay. It is attachment to the thought or belief as something of significance that is deluding, not the thought or belief itself.



   ***O***



Belief in "balanced views" is a pretty imbalanced view.



   ***O***



Can truth be perceived? Or is it perception itself?



   ***O***



Dualistic nothingness; that's what I see in the infinity symbol, two zeros, side by side, intimately connected, ultimately adding up to nothing. All the pairs of opposites, even unto existence/nonexistence in its infinite regress, are cancelling out completely.



   ***O***



Either everything pertains to the Absolute, or nothing does.



   ***O***



For concepts, I'll take the Totality/Nullity Dichotomy In Its Infinite Egress/Regress.



   ***O***



Hmmm. I know I'm just babbling, but I would say that every 'thing' is indeed an illusion. It's 'nothing' that is the only reality (though of course when expressed in this illusory fashion by this illusory entity it's just illusory babble).



   ***O***



I certainly don't think all gurus are just out for money. Not as long as there are power and sex. Do I doubt all the gurus? I have doubts about everything; that's what a mind does best. But there are plenty of gurus I do find enlightening. I prefer dead ones because they don't take anything personally; Lao-tzu, Jnaneshwar, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ranjit Maharaj, Vyaktananda are a few faves. It's all just taste anyway. A guru has nothing to do with Guru.



   ***O***



Merry rapids to all, and to all a good raft.



   ***O***



Nothing exists absolutely, and nothing that exists relatively is ever out of place; wherever it is, that's its place.



   ***O***



Once identification with the body dies, whether or not the body dies is no longer the issue.



   ***O***



Physical properties are entirely dependent on the human mind, without which one cannot know they exist. The human mind is entirely dependent on physical properties manifesting as a brain capable of consciousness. Around and around.



   ***O***



'Realized' or not, life is to do. I'm of the you-don't-need-to-do-anything-specific-to-be-'realized' school; everyone already is 'realized'. But does the 'entity' that lives notice the fact or not? Maybe something gets done about that.



   ***O***



The separations and divisions which appear to occur are rainbows on the skin of the bubble of timelessness, a play of light as evanescent as it is beautiful.



   ***O***



Tautologies are tautologies.



   ***O***



We read words as if something is being read, debate them as if something is being debated, reflect on them as if something is being reflected upon, and finally get past them as if something is finally being gotten past.



   ***O***



Your original condition is not therein, nor is it anywhere at all, neither is it unlocated. It cannot be found or lost, nor can it be said to exist or not exist, just like the least of its reflections in this shattered mirror we call home.



   ***O***



Analogies are bound to be imperfect. It's a mistake to put too much stock in them; there's no substitute for direct experience.



   ***O***



The belief that one is facing one's own entanglements and identifications may in fact be a whole new set of entanglements and identifications.



   ***O***



Capitalization is no substitute for a point.



   ***O***



Either I don't exist or I'm everything, and I don't know which is the case.



   ***O***



For individuals, the struggle (or at least its appearance) never ends as long as the individual exists. Even the "realized" one, as a one, participates in the day-to-day struggle. It's just that the struggle for that one is play-acting, so it doesn't burden her/him with guilt, worry, etc. Humbly and compassionately aid your fellows, by all means, not because it will "save the world", but because it's your true nature.



   ***O***



How can anything ever be over? We still see the light of stars that burnt out millions of years ago. Existence echoes.



   ***O***



I don't believe in the survival of individual identities across different lifetimes, which is to say that I don't believe in what most people mean by reincarnation. An individual may have a 'vision', 'intuition', 'intimation', etc. from the life of some other individual now deceased. The origin of these experiences can be variously postulated. I like the idea that, everything being one, any experience is available, if not usually consciously accessible, to each individual consciousness.



   ***O***



A mirror can reflect the entire world, but it needs another mirror to reflect itself.



   ***O***



Nothing partial can be true; at best, it is only a half-truth.



   ***O***



Once realized, however, it is everyone's (or perhaps it would be better to say, no one's) truth, because as has been pointed out (at least it seemed that way to me) the truth of words resides in the hearer just as much as in the speaker (unless I misheard).



   ***O***



The problem with focus is that it has to focus on something (even if it's the unoccupied spot in front of your nose) while what is truly within the moment is not something that can be focused on.



   ***O***



A retarded blind deaf mute can work with others as a Guru if that's the way it is. For that matter a piece of rock or an old shoe can do the same. Total trust is the key.



   ***O***



Simply surrender wanting, the rest happens.



   ***O***



Theory does suggest that there's a difference between theory and practice, which is then ignored in practice. So, in practice, there is no difference between theory and practice, except in theory.



   ***O***



Well, I don't actually know the answers to these questions, but just to say that is an answer of sorts. I don't think one can "have" a non- experience, but perhaps one can "be" a non-experience.



   ***O***



And where is this present you keep talking about? You can't say a word about it, can you? That's because human beings not only live in the past, they live in the past as present or future. One can't consciously 'live' in the present, and the future doesn't exist anywhere but in the past.



   ***O***



Beloved philosopher Jose Ortega Y Gasset wrote: "I am I, and my circumstances." Someone else once said, "Not it! Not it! Tag! You're it!"



   ***O***



Challenging belief systems doesn't require any discussion. In fact, discussion usually just rigidifies the belief systems of all involved.



   ***O***



Empathy requires the ability to project, but projection is not the same as empathy, in fact may be anti-empathetic. And the difference is openness. Not openness as a positive quality to strive for, but openness experienced as the falling away of the obstructions that close us in. Spaciousness already exists. It needn't be created. Whence this agoraphobia that keeps people behind walls?



   ***O***



For myself, I want to play with thoughts, string them like pearls until the necklace breaks, scattering them like peas on the floor.



   ***O***



How can you think your way to what can't be thought? Pay attention to what thinks instead. Tom Waits said it well, "It was a train that took me away from here, but a train can't bring me home".



   ***O***



I don't bother thinking about whether or not someone else is 'enlightened'. One can't know for sure unless one is 'enlightened' oneself, and in that case, does the question of "someone else" even arise?



   ***O***



A mirror reflecting the entire world remains empty.



   ***O***



Notice what is noticing.



   ***O***



One cannot think without 'mind', but 'mind' is not thoughts, it's their context.



   ***O***



Pure position, that dimensionless point of space, annihilates distance; there is no point that does not have infinities of infinities of points right next to it.



   ***O***



Sitting at the grand piano on the stage of the empty concert hall, you strike a chord and the entire room resonates with it. Strike the same chord in the same hall during the climax of the 1812 Overture, and, even though neither you nor anyone else consciously hears it, the entire room still resonates with it.



   ***O***



There are issues of emotional maturity and there are issues of 'enlightenment'. Why should they necessarily be related?



   ***O***



Well, I'm not doing what I was doing when I wrote this, nor am I doing what I will be doing when you read this. This relative time thing sure is confusing. Which now are we talking about?



   ***O***



Anxiety during meditation is not at all uncommon. Meditation isn't a state of no thought, it's a state unattached to thought. If thoughts arise in meditation they are let go of instead of followed. Perhaps one could say that meditation is a state of no "trains of thought". Anxious thoughts may arise. Don't follow them.



   ***O***



The best gurus tell you how to find your own way, and then they stay out of it.



   ***O***



The concept of conceptlessness is so highly conceptual that most people are unable to even conceive of it.



   ***O***



An evasion is as good as no answer from a clueless guru.



   ***O***



For what it's worth, I don't believe that any teaching method can "scrupulously stick to the truth". As the truth is not a word, a thought, or a method the best one can do is to refrain from consciously attempting to mislead. Silence is therefore probably the wisest course (though it too may be used to mislead), but fools like me will chatter regardless.



   ***O***



How could 'enlightenment' be separate from any experience?



   ***O***



I don't have a mind. Mind has me.



   ***O***



Most everyone would agree that "dark" is the absence of light, but hardly anyone would say that "light" is the absence of dark even though it could be rephrased as "light is the absence of the absence of light" (useless truism though that is). Is absence of belief possible without belief? I don't see how it could be, any more than you can have absence without positing presence.



   ***O***



A number of years ago researchers at UCLA found that if you kept rats on a starvation diet they would live about twice as long as normally fed rats. So some people with the discipline and the desire for longevity started living on a diet of the minimum number of calories necessary for survival. I wonder how they feel now that new research shows that rats starved and then allowed to pig out on alternate days live just as long as the starvation diet ones?



   ***O***



One can't speak or even think "Absolutely", one can only speak or think relatively about the Absolute -- for lack of any absolutely appropriate term -- and unfortunately it doesn't work the other way around either, one can't even speak absolutely about the relative.



   ***O***



A pursuit is only as trivial as the pursuer.



   ***O***



So many of us have difficulty with this. We think that if we let the negativity arise it will take us over, "make" us do things, but in fact, letting these feelings emerge into consciousness is the way to really let go of them. Thoroughly scrutinizing our emotions actually makes ill-considered actions less likely.



   ***O***



There are more ways to establish a connection than just by sharing biographical details. Some connections require no words at all.



   ***O***



What a sick society, where giving yourself sexual pleasure is looked on with shame and disdain while dropping a bomb on unarmed civilians gets a medal.



   ***O***



Any disciple of mine has a fool for a guru and don't you forget it!



   ***O***



A blind man can tell a sighted man that his description of the sunrise entirely fails to adequately convey the experience of seeing the sunrise (and how could it be otherwise?). Endless prating about silence doesn't convey 'realization' any better than shutting up would do. Yet many continue to prate. And there are obviously reasons for them to do so, but those reasons have to do with them as relative beings, not with any necessity on the part of the 'absolute'. Realization has nothing to do with a body, or three bodies, or a thousand bodies. Nor has it anything to do with kundalini or shaktipat or any other experience of the body. Realization occurs without kundalini experiences. Kundalini experiences may occur without realization. To think that they are related is delusional. Every guru teaches what 'worked' for them, usually identifying it as the "best way" or even the "only way". In fact, there isn't any way. Realization is. The rest is as you will it.



   ***O***



The concept of enlightenment is a concept, yes. Enlightenment itself is inconceivable.



   ***O***



Even a very 'beatific' experience will usually be ignored or forgotten by someone whose "conditioning" doesn't allow them to incorporate the experience into the life they are already living. To be transformed by such experiences, positive or negative, one must be willing to let go of prior conditioning, a scary thing for most of us.



   ***O***



Freedom is not, as many seem to think, a matter of all the personality's whims being fulfilled, nor is it a matter of the personality's whimlessness. Freedom doesn't pay any attention to personality or its whims.



   ***O***



How could the indescribable be related to its description?



   ***O***



I don't say that a person can't or shouldn't make money by marketing 'enlightenment'. It's not something I find appealing or necessary, and if it's just a cynical fraud to separate suckers from their hard-earned paychecks then I would also go so far as to disapprove of it. Nonetheless, I believe that even a murderer may be an 'enlightened' being in spite of the fact that I very strongly disapprove of murder.



   ***O***



The most impressive things I've ever seen I found because I was lost.



   ***O***



One good indicator of 'social worth' is that people respect you even when they disagree with you.



   ***O***



Some balloons never pop, yet the air goes out of them anyway.



   ***O***



There are truths, and there are facts. A wise friend of mine once told me, "The opposite of a fact is a fiction, the opposite of a truth is another truth."



   ***O***



What business is it of yours what I believe and vice versa? Ships pass on the eternally changing sea of truth, and whatever can be found must eventually be lost.



   ***O***



Any idiot can be the center of the universe, but it takes a special kind of fool to be the circumference.



   ***O***



Body identification has to have something to stand on even when it's floating on air. For that body to conceive of noplace/everyplace can only be a game with words, and only words exist for what doesn't exist.



   ***O***



The concept of illusion, like any concept (including this one), is an illusion.



   ***O***



Even the greatest huggers should only hug those who want to be hugged by them.



   ***O***



From a relative perspective, there is a problem inherent in the attachment to the idea that one is not attached. I am immensely suspicious of all claims to have "finished" the job, to have "attained" the "ultimate" state, etc. How would one ever know that for sure? You might not care if there's more to the job, or if there's some state beyond your statelessness, but you can never be truly certain it doesn't exist.



   ***O***



How could thoughts be anything but thoughts? Awareness is masquerading as all this.



   ***O***



I don't think you are any more or less enlightened than other humans. I think we are all enlightened, in the sense that we are all the truth made manifest, and none of us are enlightened, in the sense that we are all limited manifestations.



   ***O***



Motives are always suspect. Unmotivated actions don't fail or succeed. They just echo with the clatter of a distant loom.



   ***O***



One may have the impression of a process made up of impressions, but it's still an impression not a process.



   ***O***



Some day I'll finish my L. Bob Meizerd website where you'll be invited into the Church of Taughtology, to be "sloganeered" until you're a "vacuum". If you can pay for it, of course (and I've trademarked the whole thing in case you have any ideas).



   ***O***



There is also a third side to the coin. It is the edge that runs around and around between the other two sides, not partaking of limitation or freedom.



   ***O***



What can knowing your beginning tell you about beginninglessness?



   ***O***



Anyone who thinks they can rule out change occurring in another is incredibly deluded. I'm all for consequences; murderers should be deprived of their freedom of movement, perhaps for the rest of their lives, but I oppose the death penalty just because even the most degraded human being can change for the better, and who am I or society to foreclose the mysterious workings of "God"?



   ***O***



Boredom causes far more questioning of life than adversity.



   ***O***



The concept of that which is not a concept, but in which all concepts arise.
Memories of experiences in which individual consciousness is blotted out-samadhis.
Love.
Everything else is beside the point.



   ***O***



Even when people recognize truth as truth, their intellectual opinions expressed about it are still just someone's intellectual opinions and not truth.



   ***O***



How to become 'enlightened'? Seek states or things only as a game without winners or losers, and stop seeking 'enlightenment' entirely.



   ***O***



I grew up as the tallest kid in class. When I was in the second grade there was this short kid who used to razz me, calling me the Jolly Green Giant (I responded with "I'll crush you like a pea!"). One day he asked me "How's the weather up there?", to which I replied "It's raining!" and spat on him. That was almost 43 years ago and he's still a close friend.



   ***O***



My bedrock belief is that beliefs are not where it's at.



   ***O***



Only an appearance, yet still, the appearance appears to have rules.



   ***O***



Some distinctions are based on nonidentity (e.g., fruit vs. vegetable, apple vs.orange, Pippin vs. Jonathan) while other distinctions, like joy vs. sorrow, denote an actual continuum which can only be created by a pair of opposites.



   ***O***



There is no seeing irrespective of viewpoint. To view, there must be a point from which the viewing is done. To think otherwise is to fool oneself.



   ***O***



What does it matter if it matters? What does it matter if it matters if it matters? What does it matter if it matters if it matters if it matters? (and so on endlessly)



   ***O***



The "appearance of realization" is not realization. Heck, even 'realization' isn't realization!



   ***O***



Bound to keep barking in this boneless night.



   ***O***



Concepts come and go, like water molecules in the rain-river-ocean-evaporation cycle, but "What Is" doesn't even do that.



   ***O***



Even when we are truly expressing our experiences, it still comes across as just our opinions of our experiences.



   ***O***



How to rate a Guru: If you're there, she's there. If you're gone, she's gone.



   ***O***



I guess I'm always suspicious of 'gurus' who tell me that 'Enlightenment' will make me more prosperous and successful. Mansur al-Hallaj's words seem quite 'Enlightened' to me, though composed more than a thousand years ago, but he was a poor man who was executed by the powers-that-be. I'm not with Jesus (another poor man who got executed) in believing that wealth is an actual impediment to 'Enlightenment'. I just don't think the two are related in any way.



   ***O***



My experience tells me that the less one cares about precision of expression the more likely it is that one will be misunderstood. If one doesn't mind being misunderstood then one may certainly dispense with attempts to express oneself precisely.



   ***O***



Only limiting oneself can keep one from realizing the limitless.



   ***O***



Some pretend to understand in order to look "wise".



   ***O***



There is no there here.



   ***O***



What good is it to want something that can't be "gotten"?



   ***O***



Are we paying musicians for all the hard work they did practicing, or for the entertainment value of listening to them perform?



   ***O***



"The buck never stops."



   ***O***



Consider the idea of place. From the 'normal' human point of view it's about position in three dimensions, a very 'definite' thing. But from another point of view it's infinite because every exact point is without any dimension, too precise a position to ever be measured. And of course from yet another point of view there is only one place and everything is (t)here.



   ***O***



Even worse than the deliberate deceivers, in my opinion, are the self-deceived. They can even pass lie detector tests with their falsehoods because they sincerely believe in them. Their sincerity fools many earnest seekers, perhaps more than are fooled by those who know themselves as liars. And unlike those who are knowingly out for money and power, etc., they can appear quite "selfless" when they are actually desperately needy, addicts to the validation of others, and touchy overreactors to anyone who questions their sacred cows.



   ***O***



How to surrender to no one? The unknowable mystery takes no prisoners, obeys no Geneva conventions, accepts no Red Cross packages. Surrender your attempts to surrender.



   ***O***



I have long had the unfulfilled intention to edit a collection of pairs of proverbs, to illustrate the point that the opposite of a true statement is a false statement while the opposite of a Truth is another Truth; you know, like "He who hesitates is lost" paired with "Look before you leap", or "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" paired with "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", etc.



   ***O***



My holding up a mirror to you does not in any way preclude you from holding up a mirror to me. Life IS a hall of mirrors, isn't it?



   ***O***



Opportunity is always knocking whether there's a door or not.



   ***O***



Some theorists believe it is the ability of humans to 'project' that is the basis of the empathy which allows us to see other people as humans who are "just like us" which in turn allows for society and 'civilization' to come into existence.



   ***O***



There may not even be an 'absolute'. I suppose it's all relative.



   ***O***



What is not the Self?



   ***O***



As if there were anywhere but here.



   ***O***



Constantly seek everything from everybody. Just don't be overly concerned about what you actually get from anyone.



   ***O***



Every path, no matter how winding, convoluted, doubling back, or directionless, is a single path. The greatest mountaineers find entirely new and quicker routes to the summit.



   ***O***



However you see it is fine and dandy. I just sometimes see the reality/unreality distinction as really unreal.



   ***O***



I have never implied that I am especially enlightened, just that I'm curious. For the record, Robert P. Meizer is NOT enlightened, awakened, realized, a guru, or a devotee. Nor is he God, Jesus, the Archangel Michael, Satan, or a tangerine. He's just a figment of your imagination. So please don't blame him for your projections.



   ***O***



My twaddle on this subject talks about gurus and Guru, saying that gurus are the concept and Guru is the nonconcept conceiving itself in these concepts. That is, humans need Teaching to realize, but they don't need a specific individual designated "teacher".



   ***O***



The opportunity is always there, just not the opportunity to be other than what you are.



   ***O***



Something that I like about you is that you take responsibility for yourself. If you steer your boat on to some rocks, you don't blame the boat, or pretend that you wanted to hit the rocks, or say that the rocks are not really there and if they were there it would all be the will of the One and not a matter of poor steering at all. No, you say I steered on to these rocks and now I'm going to patch myself up and steer off them when the chance offers itself. I don't know whether or not that is due to realization, but it sure is real.



   ***O***



There's a perhaps subtle distinction between 'sincerity' and 'earnestness' . Though they are synonyms, 'earnestness' is primarily seriousness of commitment, of intent, singleness of purpose; while 'sincerity' relates more to genuineness, honesty, lack of deception and hypocrisy. They are both valuable qualities to possess, but only earnestness is essential to achieve 'enlightenment'.



   ***O***



What is the difference between "knowing" and "thinking one knows"? The "knowing" in this case being not the retention in memory of a group of thoughts but rather what we so inadequately refer to as "realization", "nirvana", "nirvikalpa samadhi", or whatever. I suppose I might say that the man who thinks he knows either may or may not know, but the man who knows thinks whatever arises in consciousness without attaching any "reality" to it. Or not!



   ***O***



As long as one is "taken in" by oneself one is liable to be taken in by whatever one identifies with, guru, politician, ideology, or nation. Only one who identifies with nothing cannot be "taken in" by a thing.



   ***O***



Construction relates strongly to its root word 'construe'; it's what piles up the meanings in our experience, it's the making sense of experience. I imagine that by adult human standards a newborn baby could be having a pretty much unconstructed experience.



   ***O***



Everyone's deluded, but the most deluded are those who believe themselves undeluded.



   ***O***



A human being without an ego would be a vegetable. The idea of egolessness is a delusion of the ego. The most egotistical person I've ever known spends much of his time trumpeting about his egolessness, and if called on it will merely shift it back to you, "You're just seeing your own ego", that is, the only way to prove your own egolessness is to not notice his. I think the best you can hope for is to see past your own ego to its source, enabling you to take its demands less seriously.



   ***O***



I have never lacked for words, but what's that worth? Words aren't even worth the paper they're printed on.



   ***O***



Our friends are often our friends exactly because they share the same perspectives and blind spots. Far better to ruminate over our enemies' critique (or at least an outsider's perspective) than our friends' approbation.



   ***O***



Sometimes a contradiction is a paradox, and sometimes it's just dumb.



   ***O***



There's a story told by Attar about a student who goes with his teacher to visit another teacher. One look from the big guy and the student cries out in ecstasy and falls dead. The teacher exclaims, "He studies with me for five years without any visible progress and one look from you and he vanishes into God!", and the other teacher replies, "When the weed is entirely dry one spark will consume it completely."



   ***O***



What kind of poet shrinks from the impossible?



   ***O***



As the "marks" get cleverer so do the "carnies". I think that "pay-to-play" gurus should be evaluated just like any other entertainer; if you enjoy the show enough to pay for the ticket, then go ahead. Personally, I prefer the Sufi tradition. The real Shaykh never charges for initiation or instruction; it's a matter of honor for him to support himself just like anyone else does. al-Hallaj carded wool. Attar was a druggist. If some gurus justify their profession as if it was their gift to the world instead of vice versa I suggest asking them if something offered for sale can really be called a "gift".



   ***O***



Curious concept, the One. It only has meaning in relation to another, thus the One and the Many require each other. But the "Totality", the "One without another" is not oneness so much as the phenomenon of duality resolving itself into nothing. Does this make sense? I hope not.



   ***O***



Everything causes everything. There's no need to identify some self outside myself. Being cannot be defined, it just is.



   ***O***



The human capacity to see around the beam in one's own eye in order to point out the mote in another's seems unbounded.



   ***O***



I have no problem with eating dead animals. My problem is with the cruel treatment of animals. I'm quite willing to pay more for meat that is raised free-range and slaughtered fear-free.



   ***O***



Owls are indeed great teachers, they can look in any direction, and hunt well in the dark.



   ***O***



Sometimes the existence of creation is invoked as proof of the existence of a creator. But then who or what created the creator? Can existence be uncreated? A lot of scientists think so. Perhaps preordination just is. Maybe it's just another masquerade of the absolute.



   ***O***



There's no need to be ashamed of setting limits. It's impossible to live as a human being without continually limiting. Every choice one makes creates limitations on what future choices will be possible. To be anything at any time is to forestall the possibility of being anything else at that time. Limits are the essence of individual consciousness. Reality is not limited, but every thing it encompasses is.



   ***O***



What resonates inside the hollow log is not emptiness, but air in motion.



   ***O***



As usual, the truth is more complicated than people would like. In fact, reality is perfect as it is, including the reality that we can remake the world by our actions/perspectives. The world "as it is" is not of our making, but the world "as it is" includes whatever we make of it. So, to think that we can make of the world whatever we please is incorrect, but so is thinking that we bear no responsibility for what we've made of our world.



   ***O***



Everything matters to me, especially what doesn't matter.



   ***O***



I know I think, or do I think I know?



   ***O***



The state of mind which good writers of fiction and/or poetry must achieve in order to produce useful first drafts is a trance without judgements. The censoring, reediting, preparing for presentation may be well done by a critical mind, but good raw material almost never emerges from that source.



   ***O***



There's quite a difference between gurus like Ramana Maharshi, who realize and then find that ashrams spring up around them unbidden, and gurus like , who are on the Guru Career Path, basically just marketing execs who've discovered that inventory management is much easier when you're selling nothing.



   ***O***



When a thief pretends to be a saint, he'll say "when a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are the pockets" to anyone who looks at the cash filling his pockets.



   ***O***



Awareness that isn't aware of awareness isn't self-awareness, is it?



   ***O***



Experience changes from moment to moment; the 'Absolute' is not about change or about moments. My directions are impossible to follow since they don't lead anywhere. When Ram Das titled that book "Be Here Now" he wasn't making a suggestion, he was stating a fact.



   ***O***



I like Swedenborg's take on the afterlife. The only real differences between this world and the world after death is that there you don't die and you can't be a hypocrite. All of the typical pious upholders of the establishment head straight for Heaven when they die, where the proximity to God, light, choir and all, is too much for them, and they eventually end up some place where they really belong, be it a dungeon in Hell or a coffehouse in suburbia.



   ***O***



Stillness is not a result of suppression. Suppression causes the opposite of stillness; it increases the pressure, gets the molecules banging ever harder against each other. Still air is not absence of air; still water is not absence of water. Thoughts are no problem once one notices the space between them.



   ***O***



There's this concept of "open games", where the object is just to keep playing. As long as the game continues, everyone playing wins.



   ***O***



When I say that "realization" has personality effects I don't mean that it necessarily makes one any nicer or more moral or anything like that, but I do believe that it allows a personality to detach from appearances and to be imperturbable. A personality may choose whatever behavior it desires as preferable. It is therefore impossible to assess whether or not another is "realized", but I know (at least sometimes) when I myself am being attached or perturbed, thus I do think it possible to assess myself, if not others.



   ***O***



Experiences of 'realization' are so easily misconstrued as happening to someone when in fact 'realization' is not an experience at all even when it most appears to be.



   ***O***



I never worry about representing the unrepresentable.



   ***O***



Strictly speaking, there is no way to answer a concept except with another concept, which no matter how clever, logical, profound, poetic, etc., would still be an illusion about what is not illusion. So I'll just call it "not illusion" and let it go at that.



   ***O***



They once asked a man of peace why he killed so many people. "There's nothing so peaceful as a corpse!", he replied as he demonstrated the fact upon his interrogators.



   ***O***



When I was in my early twenties and unhappy with life I tried a variety of counseling professionals. Some were good people, some were messed up head cases, but the only one who ever did me any good was a man who was an M.D. who did pro bono work as a counselor as part of paying for his education in psychology. He used a method called "bioenergetics" based on the work of a guy named Alexander Lowen; we did very little talking about my "issues", instead he just taught me to pay attention to my body and breath, and use some simple techniques to relieve tension. After about six months I felt much better and my life has been improving ever since. This was the right method for me, but I would advise others to find what works for them rather than take my word for anything.



   ***O***



I once had a teacher who said, "Everyone is doing the best they can, if they could do any better they would." On the other hand, I don't think there is anyone doing the best of which they're capable. Is it not so?



   ***O***



The students' despair and angst is preordained, but then so would be their dropping of same in favor of bliss. Recognizing that one has no choice can be the initiation of liberation's wisdom or it can be the rationalization of ego's folly. Which one it is, I suppose, is preordained.



   ***O***



Think and let think, eh? Play the part, write the role, witness the performance. We all do it till we don't. The fictional entity determines what's convenient for the fictional entity. It's self-evident. And who else is there to know the rules? Every fictional entity I've encountered operates by its own rules. Do you know yours?



   ***O***



When I was young I used to think that I knew things. I went to great pains to demonstrate this knowledge to others. Now I just aim to be authentic and don't worry about whether I'm right or not. I'm much happier, and the people around me seem to be happier, too.



   ***O***



I once heard a very sweet and charming old man, Ranjit Maharaj, giggle with glee as he told us, "You can do anything! You can murder, anything! As long as you can go laughing to the executioner, too." He thought it was so funny! The point being, I suppose, that "everything is permitted" as long as one is unaffected by the consequences. Me personally, I don't want to be executed or have a guilty conscience, so I try to abstain from violence and murder.



   ***O***



The sun never goes down, but we do find the earth's shadow cast over us quite regularly.



   ***O***



Thinking about being beyond thought just means that you aren't beyond it.



   ***O***



When is an opinion not an opinion? When it's "my" opinion.



   ***O***



I see it as all mysterious AND all ordinary.



   ***O***



Thinking that what's true for your individual life is necessarily true for all individual lives is one of those delusions you'll have to drop along the way if you are ever to see clearly.



   ***O***



When people attack you for your personal characteristics rather than responding to your ideas it's a pretty good sign that they have no effective intellectual response.



   ***O***



I speak from this viewpoint. You can disagree if it appears differently to you, but to tell me that that's not my viewpoint is just silly. Not that there's anything wrong with silly; I wouldn't want to insult anyone's prevalent mode of expression.



   ***O***



Thirty thousand years ago the average individual was far freer, had far more leisure time, and was likely far happier than today, but s/he was also likely far younger at death, far more restricted geographically, and perhaps far more frightened of the new and the different. In our time we have technological wonders and industrial pollution, and more people with more media who are more lonely. Human history, in fact, can be thought of as "It just keeps getting better and worse." And some day things will probably get so good we'll go extinct.



   ***O***



When people say that "there is no such thing as honesty" they are rationalizing dishonesty.



   ***O***



I think this "knowing that beliefs aren't real" is just as unreal as any other belief. Whether a belief is based on my own perceptions or the perceptions of others it is still a belief on which I am relying. Even the statement "I am", as a statement, is a belief. It is only the experience "I am" which may be relied upon, though to state that is also just a statement of belief (as is that statement as well, and so on into the infinite...)



   ***O***



This and that, arising and subsiding. Continual striving, finally at rest. The smile on the void. I recognize your face in the mirror. Not because you express me (though you do). It's just there to see.



   ***O***



When someone thinks they no longer have anything to learn, or that they can't learn anything from "lesser" beings, it only shows just how far they have to go.



   ***O***



I try to make all my opinions provisional; that makes them much easier to reconsider when new evidence comes along.



   ***O***



This concept is not the Absolute, it just plays the Absolute on television.



   ***O***



When you look into a mirror you think you're seeing something beneath or beyond the surface, but you're not. The appearance of depth is an illusion.



   ***O***



I try to not believe anything, but if that includes not believing I'm not believing anything then it's a belief like any other, and I may as well forget all about it (or not -- a muddy mirror's still a mirror). I mean, who's more involved in the action? The characters in the dream, or the dreamer?



   ***O***



This could be true, or it could be a clever imitation of the truth. It's impossible for me to tell which is the case, but it might be a fruitful enquiry for you to make. Occasional reexamination of our most entrenched opinions is valuable.



   ***O***



While I would contend that whether we hold on to hurt or not is up to us, I don't think there is any unworthiness in reacting to being hurt by feeling pain. If one tries to suppress the feeling it will just impact somewhere else (perhaps as an inappropriate reaction to something that reminds us of it).



   ***O***



I used to call myself a follower of all religions and an adherent of none, but it wasn't pretentious enough so now I just call myself TRUTH.



   ***O***



This is a question that interests me. Is the behavior of persons related to realization? Certainly people attribute all sorts of behavior by themselves and others to realization or the "lack" thereof. But a better question could be "Is realization related to persons at all?". I don't do my personal guru rating on the basis of whether I think they are realized or not. I base it on the chord they strike in me, nothing else. In that respect I would agree with Ken Wilber that realization doesn't have anything to do with whether or not someone is a "meglomaniac nutter". Megalomania's just not my personal taste in music.



   ***O***



While some teach that total absorption in physicality, sense-impressions, etc., leads to "waking up", others teach that such absorption only leads one deeper into delusion.



   ***O***



I used to have a friend who had survived a fundamentalist Christian upbringing only to become a fundmentalist anti-Christian. Whenever someone said "Jesus loves you" to him he went into a raging rant against Christianity. He knew quite well that I was not a Christian and that I was very critical of mainstream "televangelist" Christianity, and yet when I said "Jesus loves you" to him he went into one of his customary rants. It turned out he had a button. I kept saying "Jesus loves you" to him whenever we met. I figured that once he realized that I always automatically greeted him with "Jesus loves you" he would stop responding to it automatically, that the button would soon wear out. But I was wrong. It went on for years and he never stop reacting. Finally I explained it all to him, just as I've explained it to you. The next time I saw him I said "Jesus loves you" to him. He went into a rant. That's what a fundamentalist upbringing will do to some people, I guess.



   ***O***



This is not about reality. This is about philosophy. Specifically, whether Nondualism and Monism are just two names for the same concept. Some Western philosophers have thought so, classifying Shankara as a Monist. But is to say that there are not two the same as saying there is but one? If all is One, how can a distinct Oneness be maintained? It can't. There must be two for Oneness to be distinguished. When these two are fully identified they are not a One, they are nothing. Some have correctly pointed out that the word 'None' is just as much a concept as the word 'One'. Of course. Is 'None' a more or less misleading concept when used as a pointer to that in which all concept appears? Ask the one who is misled.



   ***O***



Why am I always hearing "Never say never", but I never hear "Always say always"?



   ***O***



I was fortunate enough to have been born without any wisdom teeth.



   ***O***



This is the sort of nonsense that makes sense.



   ***O***



Why can't a nonexistent entity pose a nonexistent question even if answers don't exist?



   ***O***



I was once operated on by a paradox, but under anesthesia I didn't take much notice.



   ***O***



This is true of all words: the map is not the territory. However, some words are not only not the thing they refer to, they don't even refer to anything at all.



   ***O***



Why do people have such a need to convince themselves they're for real when only the changeless, eternal, ineffable is?



   ***O***



The idea that there are true ideas is a false idea.



   ***O***



This? No, that. No, this. No ... ah hell! It's neither this nor that.



   ***O***



Why do people need fables so much that when they become disillusioned with their own culture's fables they usually turn around and adopt some other culture's fables?



   ***O***



If all assumptions are baseless then so is the assumption that all assumptions are baseless. And around and around.



   ***O***



Though I often appear to make definitive statements they are certainly not to be believed.



   ***O***



Why does the absolute manifest as the relative (or nirvana as samsara, etc.)? Good question. Of course it can only be asked by the relative, because the absolute always shoots and never asks questions. Like Sri Vyaktananda wrote: "The unmanifest contains the manifest, but the manifest does not contain the unmanifest." He called that his 'containment policy'.



   ***O***



If everything is God's will then of what possible importance is it to say that some particular thing is God's will?



   ***O***



Though nothing can be said or not said about the source of all saying (i.e., the tao that can be spoken ain't the Tao), there are effects on an individual consciousness when it becomes aware of its source.



   ***O***



Why say nothing when you can say something clever instead?



   ***O***



If gurus are selling "enlightenment" as their product, people must be convinced that they possess it. In contrast, Guru offers "enlightenment" freely, possessed by that alone.



   ***O***



The thought of realization held by the thinking entity is just so much conditioning/brainwashing firmly rooted in a belief system. It ends with the entity's death just like any other personally-rooted phenomenon. 'Realization', 'Liberation", 'Armageddon', they're all just phantasms of the human mind.



   ***O***



Why would you need anything to realize no thing?



   ***O***



If it hurts too much to be seen through, become more opaque.



   ***O***



Time does not exist; it's an illusion which is part of present moments. My now includes my memories of previous nows, but there is really no causal connection, no arrow of time, it just appears that way now.



   ***O***



Without denigrating the great value and usefulness of a "conventional guru", I must say that I think insistence on the absolute and universal necessity to have a "conventional guru" in order to find the "ultimate guru" is nonsense. Otherwise it is impossible to explain how the first "conventional guru" ever came along. It also would mean that should a generation of "conventional gurus" fail to find worthy heirs then the "ultimate guru" would never again be known by humanity. I would counter this insistence on having a "conventional guru" by saying that by the 'supreme grace' of the "ultimate guru" it can be unnecessary to have a "conventional guru". If the "ultimate guru" is our true nature how can it ever be unavailable to us? To say that almost no one realizes their true nature without some human spiritual guidance is not the same as saying that no one realizes their true nature without some human spiritual guidance. I would also add that anyone with the opportunity to find a "conventional guru" who disdains seeking out that relationship in expectation of being granted the 'supreme grace' of the "ultimate guru" is extremely unlikely to find their expectations fulfilled.



   ***O***



If oneness is all, how can duality exist? Let's call it like Cole Porter: "Night and day you are the one".



   ***O***



To a mirror, the world is just an image in its self.



   ***O***



Without mind nothing can be known to exist.



   ***O***



If someone comes to me and says "I'm enlightened!" why do I need to check if it's true? I might be curious enough to engage them in dialogue about it, I might even wonder why they think I need to know that they are enlightened, but I would only actually 'need' to know if the question had originated with me, not just because they had made the claim.



   ***O***



To examine all of one's assumptions would leave no time for anything else.



   ***O***



Words can't adequately convey experience. Experiences can't adequately convey 'realization'. 'realization' conveys nothing.



   ***O***



If the mind cannot annihilate itself how could it be annihilated by another's mind? Perhaps it is annihilated by that which creates it in the first place.



   ***O***



To me, if you want to 'realize', you don't need a guru; all you have to do is go to sleep. But if you want to realize that you 'realize' then spiritual guidance seems essential for most of us. That guidance may not take the form of a specific individual you call your guru (or teacher, master, etc.), but it will usually involve receiving spiritual guidance from a person who's there. Some people have one "guru", and stick like glue; others have a succession of "teachers" bouncing them around. Both approaches can work, and they both can be messed up. The "no guru" approach, though theoretically possible, is far far less practiced than preached.



   ***O***



The world is not a caravan, there are no camels, no merchandise, no merchants. This is a courtroom, filled with eccentric testimonies, and you are the only judge, the only defendant, and the only executioner.



   ***O***



If we're talking, it must be the past. There is no talking now.



   ***O***



To most "seekers" it seems to be all about lifestyle. In a neighborhood where I lived some years ago there was a homeless old drunk who often hung out up and down the street. He would spew all sorts of delusional ravings at the passersby, some of it quite hateful, but one day I watched him being squirted with a "supersoaker" by some obnoxious teenaged boys, and he just lay there on the sidewalk paying them no mind whatsoever. I saw in his complete detachment a pointer to what is behind all the concepts we bandy about in our discussions of "enlightenment".



   ***O***



Wouldn't you agree that grasping reality and living authentically are more important than judging others?



   ***O***



If you learned something the teacher was real.



   ***O***



To my mind the Western (especially American) need to professionalize and institutionalize everything, including the 'spiritual', is often quite distasteful and deleterious. I prefer an ideal, inspired by Sufism, of teachers who have some other profession to support themselves and do "satsang" as volunteers. This personal taste is not a judgment on others' tastes, and I am perfectly willing to admit that a professional religious teacher, 501(c)(3) in hand or not, can be a tremendous help and inspiration to others. It's just not my cuppa tea.



   ***O***



Writing poetry or fiction only works for me if I let go of my control and give the text an opportunity to surprise me with what it is.



   ***O***



If you're not part of the problem, you're not part of the solution.



   ***O***



To see through the illusion of all this is to accept everything. To accept that a babbling brook brings peace to heart and mind, to accept that a bombed Iraq is an outrage that must be resisted by compassionate action, to accept that our most cherished conceptions of "reality" are still not real. Try it, you'll like it.



   ***O***



The illusion's not really there? Then what is this illusion interacting with?



   ***O***



Truly, to "the enlightened ones" everyone they encounter is enlightened.



   ***O***



I'm bold and arrogant enough to say that everyone, including myself, is qualified to offer whatever they can offer, but no one is qualified to offer that which one must offer oneself.



   ***O***



Trust it all. Trust the mistakes to teach you something; trust the successes to fade away. Trust for the sake of trusting. It's good practice for being dead.



   ***O***



I'm not impressed by 'insights' like "a good teacher constantly contradicts himself". A bad teacher constantly contradicts himself, too. We all constantly contradict ourselves even if we are the most consistent people alive. Maybe if it were phrased, a good teacher constantly draws attention to contradictions, I might be more persuaded.



   ***O***



Truth cannot be revealed or experienced, only embodied or lived.



   ***O***



I'm not saying that surrender is easy (or difficult), just that "wanting" to surrender is a block to actual surrender (which neither partakes nor abstains from partaking).



   ***O***



I'm not talking about the Absolute here. I'm talking about the entirely relative phenomenon of individuals that other individuals perceive as 'awakened ones'. What, if any, are the relative implications of this phenomenon? Does it follow any "laws"?



   ***O***



I'm not too certain that morality and realization are linked in any way except that realized persons seem less likely to be involuntarily cowed by society's moral codes and will find their guide to behavior "inside".



   ***O***



I'm not trying to avoid others seeing me or my actions as the cause of their suffering. That's impossible on the face of it. I'm trying to avoid consciously making a decision to cause another to suffer. This is not on any moral grounds, but just as a result of experiment; I've found it's more convenient for the "fictional entity" I play. It's true I don't control you. I could try to make you suffer and whether you do or not isn't my decision. But it might have implications for me that not trying to make you suffer wouldn't have. Just thoughts. Subject to revision or forgetting at any time.



   ***O***



I'm sorry that pain is sometimes part of the self-knowledge process, but it is. One can either get to the root and remove the rot, or anesthetize with denial and ignore it as best one can. The choice is up to each individual.



   ***O***



I'm sure I'm unsure.



   ***O***



I'm sure you're realized, you just don't seem to realize it.



   ***O***



I'm this dualistic being in this dualistic world and I find myself trying to make what I think and feel are the right moves in playing the game. I've come to recognize the absolute dependence of this finite being, but still the game seems to go on.



   ***O***



In "everyday" terms the idea is a sequence of electrochemical reactions in a biophysical organ, the brain. But of course all that is an idea itself, so in a logical sense you can't be sure at all. However, logic tells us that inductive reasoning can only be justified by inductive reasoning so we must deduce that it is irrational to believe in inductive reasoning, yet every sane person believes that the sun is highly likely to rise tomorrow which is a conclusion arrived at by induction. Thus, irrationality is not necessarily incompatible with sanity. At least that's the idea in this brain.



   ***O***



In my opinion, we're all better off if we write books as well as read them.



   ***O***



In 'ordinary' human consciousness the individual's volition (or will) does not inevitably get its way. King Cnut wanted to stop the tide, but he couldn't. Of course if one is identified with the totality I suppose one could say one's will is always done, but in that context does the word 'will' actually mean anything? Can there be will without choice?



   ***O***



Instead of blaming others, or even ourselves, for how we feel, we stop assigning blame entirely. We see our feelings arise and fall, and for some reason (nature of things?) their power to perturb us lessens. The hurricane still rages, but life in the eye is at peace.



   ***O***



Irony freaks will note that only a disillusioned quitter who has given up entirely on seeking can be said to have 'realized'.



   ***O***



I's are the eyes with which the mirror of totality looks at itself.



   ***O***



Is it wise to fight fire with fire before you've tried water? Replacing one concept (including this one) with another, no matter how 'clarity-engendering', isn't clarity.



   ***O***



Is that a groove or a rut?



   ***O***



Is there a back-and-forth? Is there a square two? Guess it all depends on the rules of the particular game.



   ***O***



Is there an "awakened" ethic? Nisargadatta Maharaj used to say that anything you do is all right as long as the consequences are also all right with you (i.e., you can murder as long as you don't mind being caught and punished for it), and since everything is all right with an "awakened" one, that one may do anything they please.



   ***O***



Is there some Platonic world where ideas exist outside of the brains that possess them? I don't think so. Ideas no more exist without a thinker than the image on the screen exists without the projector.



   ***O***



Isn't faith an obstacle to realization? Isn't realization about being, not faith?



   ***O***



Isn't it something the way that nothing manages to be both the biggest and the smallest thing of all at the same time?



   ***O***



It makes no sense, yet explains everything perfectly. How can that be? I guess that ignorance and knowledge are inseparable.



   ***O***



It makes you want to laugh and cry, don't it?



   ***O***



It may not help someone to point out their delusion to them, but it certainly won't help them to avoid pointing it out because of a mistaken assumption about what constitutes loving behavior.



   ***O***



It seems equally foolish to think you can get 'it' without paying your dues as to think you can somehow buy 'it' if you're willing to pay a high enough price. We never lost 'it'. We can never find 'it'. We are 'it'. Or are we? Words are quite useful in pointing out the uselessness of words. "Truth is ineffable" says something that can't be said. Silence implies consent, ok?



   ***O***



It seems like it's the clinging that's the problem, either to the words of those who are gone, or the words of those who are here (or our own words). That's what I find so funny about my own many years of thinking about nondualism; not a single thought in all that time has ever brought me any closer to where I already am.



   ***O***



It takes all the words there are to say nothing.



   ***O***



It's almost always best to go with what seems right to you. Even if you make a mistake it's likelier to be a mistake you'll remember and learn from.



   ***O***



It's an illusion to think that the illusion is gone, just as it's an illusion to think that it has come back. Whatever comes and goes is an illusion. Thinking, for instance.



   ***O***



It's been known to rain while the sun's out.



   ***O***



It's clear that a shadow is a shaded surface. What needs pointing out is that that is all it is. It's not like in the cartoons where Mickey's shadow can run away from him. Where is a shadow, after all? It's not in the surface; when you shine a light there to look at it it's gone. It's not in the object that casts it; put that object in the dark and its shadow disappears. It's not in the light; if you look there you won't see it. The shadow seems to be in the relationship between the light, the object, and the surface; it resides in all of those places at once, if you think about it.



   ***O***



It's dangerous to run without looking where you're going.



   ***O***



It's either, neither, or both.



   ***O***



It's enough that an outpouring of love occurs. Expecting realization to "make sense" is asking too much; expecting it to be communicable is a setup for disappointment.



   ***O***



It's generally counterproductive to "try" to fall asleep. The same holds for 'realization'.



   ***O***



It's impossible for you, as you, (or me, as me) to know 'reality' first-hand.



   ***O***



It's impossible not to accept 'what is'. It's 'what was' and 'what will be' that give people problems.



   ***O***



It's not like it even is, or isn't, an it.



   ***O***



It's not necessarily a goal-driven, 'pointed' thing. It's not something that can be 'finished'; the impetus, the process, and the goal all blend into something which is like none of them and yet like all three. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make anything. That's the point.



   ***O***



It's not the thoughts in the books that are challenging, it's where those thoughts take you. Actually, sometimes all it takes is a look, a touch, a distant, half-unheard sound.



   ***O***



It's possible for someone to deliver a message that they themselves don't understand.



   ***O***



It's rather simple. To be understood use words in the senses in which they are understood by others. Of course you may be writing about something which cannot be understood. This is understandably quite difficult. In such cases silence seems perhaps best.



   ***O***



It's there at the beginning. It's there in the process. It's there at the end. It's just there.



   ***O***



It's true that unlearned lessons have to be repeated, but even learned lessons will still have to be repeated. It's called an 'exam'.



   ***O***



It's useful to remember that bullshit can fertilize some quite tasty veggies and some very beautiful flowers.



   ***O***



I've had lucid dreams in which I still react to stimuli that I know aren't "real". I don't think what's happening on the movie screen is real, but I still react to it. If I decide to play a game I can still play to win even if losing doesn't bother me. Your true state neither reacts nor refrains from reacting. For that matter it neither acts nor refrains from acting. Your true state is.



   ***O***



I've learned a lot from dreams.



   ***O***




If you enjoyed reading this you'll also enjoy reading these people:


Terry Barnes

Ranjit Maharaj

"Sailor" Bob Adamson

John Wheeler

John Greven



You can also access these and many other precious pearls of wisdom in the form of an online oracle at:


the bobbymeizer machine





(Last Updated: 10 Nov 05)