[First a follow-up on the proselytizing series. One, at least, begins to awaken:
From K.E.: Ouch! You are totally correct on the subject of proselytizing. I do it all the time and always always get burned. I read about all the great ideas in the world and totally get them wrong when I try to explain them to others. I am utterly totally trapped in my ego and cannot get out. I do not have the money or the resources to buy any books or tapes or travel to anyplace. Any suggestions? K.E.
F.: So, K.E., you've taken "Step A," which precedes "Step One" of the seven-step journey to Reality: admitting that you're trapped in ego, that what you are currently doing in not working, and that (in your case) you're proselytizing without having even learned the Teachings yourself/YourSelf. That places you in the ranks of "the rare ones" who are able to see and to admit that much. You mentioned before that you have a job. If you can't afford the price of a book such as FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, then save up and buy THE FINANCIAL SET from the website in order to restore financial sanity first. It seems that creating a budget and living within your means might be a more immediate priority than Realization, though all of that is linked, relatively speaking. Regards on "the journey."] Now, on to observations by Jerry Katz.
F.: Those who study Advaita for any time at all typically come across the name of Jerry M. Katz. Jerry maintains a highly popular non-duality website and authored the book ONE: Essential Writings on Nonduality. Recently, a regular visitor to this Advaita blog found and forwarded some words that Jerry wrote regarding the novel which happens to be the featured sale item on this site this week. Though his comments were not solicited, they are appreciated on a relative level. The complete posting he made will be repeated here, including the excerpt from the novel that he chose to share with visitors to his site:
Jerry Katz: “I think we may be seeing the emergence of the first literary nonduality novel. Not of all times, but the first one fed by the teaching of nonduality as set forth in the last ten years. That kind of fiction is going to be different from any other kind of nonduality fiction. Here are a couple of tastes. Excerpt from a nonduality novel: The Board of Directors of Wars, by Floyd Henderson.”
From K.E.: Ouch! You are totally correct on the subject of proselytizing. I do it all the time and always always get burned. I read about all the great ideas in the world and totally get them wrong when I try to explain them to others. I am utterly totally trapped in my ego and cannot get out. I do not have the money or the resources to buy any books or tapes or travel to anyplace. Any suggestions? K.E.
F.: So, K.E., you've taken "Step A," which precedes "Step One" of the seven-step journey to Reality: admitting that you're trapped in ego, that what you are currently doing in not working, and that (in your case) you're proselytizing without having even learned the Teachings yourself/YourSelf. That places you in the ranks of "the rare ones" who are able to see and to admit that much. You mentioned before that you have a job. If you can't afford the price of a book such as FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE, then save up and buy THE FINANCIAL SET from the website in order to restore financial sanity first. It seems that creating a budget and living within your means might be a more immediate priority than Realization, though all of that is linked, relatively speaking. Regards on "the journey."] Now, on to observations by Jerry Katz.
F.: Those who study Advaita for any time at all typically come across the name of Jerry M. Katz. Jerry maintains a highly popular non-duality website and authored the book ONE: Essential Writings on Nonduality. Recently, a regular visitor to this Advaita blog found and forwarded some words that Jerry wrote regarding the novel which happens to be the featured sale item on this site this week. Though his comments were not solicited, they are appreciated on a relative level. The complete posting he made will be repeated here, including the excerpt from the novel that he chose to share with visitors to his site:
Jerry Katz: “I think we may be seeing the emergence of the first literary nonduality novel. Not of all times, but the first one fed by the teaching of nonduality as set forth in the last ten years. That kind of fiction is going to be different from any other kind of nonduality fiction. Here are a couple of tastes. Excerpt from a nonduality novel: The Board of Directors of Wars, by Floyd Henderson.”
[NOTE: Dustin LindenSmith included the same excerpt on his site and offered these comments to his readers in regards to the same passage in another unsolicited review:
Dustin LindenSmith: “My old friend Jerry (Katz) has never been a fan of fiction that tries to be nondual. Too often, it's written by people who may have nondual insight, but who are terrible writers of fiction. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, but anyone whom he'd read that had tried to meld the two had been unsuccessful. Until now, maybe. In "Issue #2800" of "The Nondual Highlights," Jerry provides an excerpt from a novel by Floyd Henderson called The Board of Directors of Wars. It's a passage of dialogue, but the portion I'm including just has one character making a little speech to another. When taken out of context like I've just done, the passage sounds a bit like the proverbial discourse between a spiritual teacher and a student. I think this speech is quite good.]
Thanks are extended to Jerry for the words in his review and to Dustin for his take on the passage. Here's the excerpt from THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS which Jerry and Dustin shared with their site visitors:
“You seem at peace in the middle of this chaos. I want that peace,” Brett almost demanded.
“Brett, you’ve been shown the answer all your life. It was there for you to see in every play, in every movie, in every mystery you’ve ever read. Shakespeare borrowed the dramatic technique from the Greeks,” Kirk began. “Today, it’s the basis of all mystery and suspense stories, and it’s also the basis of realization.”
“I’m lost,” Brett confessed.
“Well look at every drama you’ve ever seen. The main character, who represents you and me and everyone, runs around like a chicken with its head cut off. He is confused and in the dark. Those who are in a position to sit back and witness the drama objectively can see that he’s just an actor on the stage and that none of the drama is real. But for entertainment’s sake, he and the witnesses can pretend it’s real. Both, in fact, can get so absorbed in the role that they take it to be the real for a time.
“But even amidst all of the drama, a time comes, that moment in the play when even the actor finds out the truth. It is called the peripetia in drama—that moment in the play or the movie when the lead actor finds out that everything he thought to be true is really false; when he sees that he was being misled at every turn; when those he thought he could trust the most, and who thought they were telling him the truth, were also wrong.
“It’s the moment of freedom that comes when one finds out that everything he ever thought or believed or held sacred (or thought worth fighting for) was a lie. The freedom comes when he gives up all of the concepts he bought into, drops his head in relief and amazement, shakes his head back and forth, wonders for a moment at how he had bought into all their crap, smiles at how easily he was duped, watches how all of the rest of the play unfolds automatically until its end, and leaves the stage after saying to himself, ‘Well, sonofabitch. I’ll be damned.’ And then he laughs. He laughs at it all. And then he’s done with it, once and for all.”
Now, you are invited to consider the pointers in the passage from that book that Jerry and Dustin quoted. Next, if time allows, pick up pen and paper and go back to the beginning of the excerpt and write a note about every point offered that you can relate to if you study objectively the way each pointer can be applied to your relative experiences. List what applies to you. Then, list what applies to You. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS A NOVEL FEATURING A REALIZED COUPLE AND A NON-DUALITY MESSAGE: THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS. The pro-peace thesis of this 480-page book uncovers the sources of separation and conflict in relationships on all levels, from couples to countries, all wrapped in a fast-moving mystery/adventure that covers many decades and many continents. A Realized couple is at the center of an intrigue that will expose the ways that institutionalized duality has impacted the citizens of the world for decades. It also shows how Realization can impact the relative existence in a way that can generate peace on a planet where businesses, governments and religions have historically generated separation and conflict because their non-Realized leaders are driven by self and have no clue at all about the unicity...the Oneness.
FOR INFORMATION ON THE GUIDE FOR TAKING THE SEVEN-STEP JOURNEY TO REALITY (or to see: How to Guide Seekers through the Process)
