Spirituality
Although what we call spirituality may have something to do with nonduality, it is obvious that nonduality has nothing to do with spirituality. It’s not even an experience, and cannot be an experience, nor item of experience. Nothing can be known about it. And yet, people go to spiritual teachers, as if something can be…
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All Teachings are Dodos, and Tightening up what this Site is About I let my personal feelings cloud my discernment, and published a guest essay that I realized was of more of a religious or spiritual-y nature or attitude or tone than I really wanted in the site’s philosophical mosaic. This chalkboard here is…
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“Pathological” – Francis Lucille, quoting his teacher Jean Klein, regarding U. G. Krishnamurti “The teaching mainly concerns the dying of the “I”, the “me”; then you are free from the psychological memory. Can this shift happen without crisis, or is crisis an element of it? In principle, there are no crises. But practically speaking there…
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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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“We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything. That is to understand Zen.” ~ D.T. Suzuki Summary for the impatient For valid teachings: 1. Definitions vary from teaching to teaching. Ex: “Mind” in…
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The following are some notes regarding how one must “go the final mile” oneself, and no teacher or guru can hand you liberation on a platter. Enjoy. “A Master is a fully-realized Being. A Guru (or Sat Guru) is a Master who has chosen to help others find their Freedom. God, Guru and Self are…
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“To ask the mind to kill itself is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see where the mind rises from, and then it will cease to exist.” ~ Ramana Maharshi, ‘Who Am…
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This post is a record of first, a written question-and-answer dialogue between the Advaita (non-duality) teacher Francis Lucille (Rupert Spira’s teacher) and a student that was posted online a number of years ago (no longer available, so it is posted here as a service). Second, it follows with an email dialogue I had with Francis. I…
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From a recording: “If you’re listening to this in your car and you find yourself in a beautiful feeling, roll down your window, pop the tape out of the tape player, and throw it out the window. Stay with the feeling, and it will teach you everything you need to know.” ~ Sydney Banks…
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I once heard the spiritual teacher (of Advaita, Non-duality) tell his students (who he would rather refer to as “friends”): “Would you rather be enlightened, or happy? Would you rather be enlightened and unhappy, or unenlightened and happy?”. While I laughed and thought this very insightful, part of me also was taken aback: it sounded…
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