Erik Emanuel Fenz (Bodhi Shivashaktipat)

A DIVINE COMEDY

You Have Been Invited To The Divine Banquet

From ancient times... a time when I was living in a pre-christian (pagan) medieval church, high atop a mountain in Northern Italy... surrounded by castles in the sky...the vision for this website began appearing in my minds eye... Beginning with Botticelli’s painting of Venus the Goddess of Love and Beauty... a dreamtime collage began unfolding... reflecting images of life, gems of wisdom medicine realized from my life journey, a journey of the Heart, revealing the primal transcendental mystery and ultimate simplicity of the “art” and yoga of living & loving. Understanding comes from the “manure” of life experience and with awareness comes the realization that familiar habitual life patterns repeat themselves, again and again, at times there seems to be no end to them, unless we stop, look and listen and begin doing something different.

      

   
Click any image to enlarge.

Knowledge of Freedom

When the Student is Ready the Teaching Appears

Knowledge of Freedom is the removal of ignorance revealing what you are, prior to experience; the Self. Self Knowledge is Self revealing. If you think it is delicate, vulnerable, or that it needs protection, then that is not it. You are still dwelling in the realm of "experience". When the Self is understood and assimilated, it forever puts an end to existential suffering. My Journeys to the East, in particular India the land of Shiva, gave me valuable insight into mystical experience & spiritual materialism. These journeys and others I took with friends and family became a means of coming into relationship with the Self that was far removed from my 'conditioned' , sheltered, upper middle-class upbringing. It brought me into communion with my true Self and gave me an Awakened awareness of the world that has given me the ability to relate to a wide range of people and bring a rich sense of humanity to my bodywork practice. Many years of seeking experience and knowledge, either through skydiving, travel, money, food & sex, or Guru's and spiritual disciplines, revealed to me, the illusory nature of my neurotic, hungry, fear-driven MIND. The Realization that "I" AM, "nobody." Radiant, all-pervading & un-Knowable. A 'state' of sublime surrender that transcends ignorance, experience and knowledge. Unborn, timeless, formless and spacelike, with no requirements, ZERO.

Who AM I BEFORE "I" Was BORN?

"In the womb the unborn doesn't know what the mother is like. It knows the mother only in the sustenance. In our quest in this world for all our questions about the source of creation, we live in the second womb, where the only proof of the creator is in the sustenance that we receive and experience through our bodily senses. My questions about God have reconciled to this in the sense that you, and I in my lifetime, will know about the creator only as much as the fetus knows about the mother". ~ Mahua Sen (Artist)

YOU HAVE A MIND YOU HAVE A BODY
IT IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE

YOU ARE LIMITLESS
AWARENESS

CRACKING THE CODE

Identity is not who you are, it is a form of "marketing" that appeals to a particular "target audience". A rose is a rose is a rose by any other name smells just as sweet.

Since you don't recognize your own I AM-ness, the Self beyond words, you refer to various books, ideas, Gurus, relationships, social status, educational and professional background, experiences, race, gender, age and a variety of cultural concepts to get an "I" D -- entity.

Identification with experience is identification with the body. You think that you Are your experience and that Happiness can be achieved through some form of pleasure in the body. Money, sex, power, drugs, love, adrenaline, exercise, yoga, religion. meditation, Guru transmission, or any thing that brings pleasure to the body. Longing for the past or anticipation of the future is felt as sensation in the body, a perpetual state of seeking that never gets fulfilled. You are not the body. You Have a body. It is NOT what you are.
( Bodhi Shivashaktipat )

What is the Nature of Mind?

True Happiness is not a thought, object or experience. It is freedom From experience -- Not the freedom To experience.

The seeker and what is being sought, through spiritual experience, or money, food & sex, are not different.

Meditation on an idealized object, image or breath can lead to identification with an ecstatic state, but is not finally liberating. It ultimately creates dependency and fails to Awaken your prior to mind real Self, your true Nature.

I AM the Great Happiness. I walk on Clouds and have an Ego as Big as God. I am a Shape Shifter, Trickster, a Cosmic Clown. You can not Know me. I Live in the Cave of Infinite Mystery. I AM infinite, un-born & never die. Deny Me and live in sorrow. Turn to Me and be Consumed by the Fire of Limitless-Love-Bliss-Happiness Itself. Who am I? I am Not an Other. I AM the Great One. Your Very Being. The One through whose Eyes you are Now Seeing!

Words expressed on this website are not an answer, they are pointers. They may raise questions, but they are certainly no answer. My life journey is the same as yours a mystery, ongoing and unfolding. A Divine Comedy. I have gone through whatever consideration it took to find freedom from the shackles of consolation and conformity to any idea, practice, belief, experience, Guru "I"-Doll, Relationship, or whatever. All appears as transitory illusory awareness. I have simply recognized who I AM. The Self beyond words. The mystery that IS Love for Real. No dilemma, nothing missing, "I AM THAT."

Until man can free himself from false identifications, from pretensions and delusions of various kinds, he cannot come face to face with the eternal verity that is latent within his own self. What the mind invents, the mind destroys. But the real is not invented and cannot be destroyed. When you are very quiet, you have arrived at the basis of everything. That is the deep, dark blue state in which there are millions of stars and planets. When you are in that state, you have no awareness of your existence. There is no separate identity. There is no more involvement with the play of consciousness, you are in the state of no return, the eternal state. This is the eternal dwelling place, where you swallow the entire Universe. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Attitude of Gratitude

Noteworthy human influences in my life include; my father Emanuel and my mother Karin. My eccentric Austrian Grandmother Julie. Bodhidharma, Adi Shankara, Ida Rolf, Norman Fischer, Paul Holden, Bruce Burger, Skratch, John and Anna Chitty,  Robert Schleip, Suzuki Roshi, Daido Loori, Osho, Bubba, U G, Mooji. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi.

I don’t know why I’m so Zen I make the Power of Now look like the Power of Then!

Transcending Spiritual Experience

"If you are going to tell people the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you." ~ Oscar Wilde

Further down this page are quotes that capture the core essence of our human experience ~ eloquent and cutting, poetic descriptions of liberating truths. Take a journey and drift into a deeper land of unconventional spiritual wisdom. Feel into the words like a lover, savoring each word and phrase with the tongue of your heart.

CARPE DIEM

TRIAL BY FIRE

Along with LIVING these words in "trial by fire" the biggest influence in my life has been the healing touch of Structural Integration in union with Craniosacral Energy Clearing. Working with the densest aspect of my being to the most subtle, this way of touch got me out of my head and into my body. The integration and union of body consciousness and life-force energy, balanced my nervous system and changed my psycho/physical patterning at the root. I learned how to 'stand straight' intuitively feel what is real and discover who I really am, my true Self. Beyond 'social face' and endless repetitive fear driven thoughts, patterns, ideas and identities that kept me in a state of contracted separation and fear based isolation. In me and you exists a natural 'state' of sublime, non-separate surrender, prior to Body-mind, beyond words. A 'state' of pure Being that transcends the karmic conditional realm of divisive, repetitive, reflexive ego patterning. In you exists a Radiant Whole Body Relationship to earth, spirit, self and other, recognized as One.

Living from the Heart, I have learned the incredible power of focusing on love and the all-pervading connectedness of the HEART. The "Breath of Life," rather than the fear and isolation location of the intellect. My joy and life purpose is to share this Heart Waking Journey with you.

Without a teacher, who has insight into a persons strengths and weaknesses, there is the ever-present danger of over-estimating true realization. Western students in particular, who tend to be impatient, easily fall prey to this form of self-delusion. They become convinced that they have attained realization when in truth their attainment is entirely mental. ~ Bodhi Shivashaktipat

No doubt association with a sage is conducive to realization, nevertheless it must be followed up by questions and answers. There are always some doubts arising from the mind, so until all traces of mind are removed you must clear them out by words. You have a mountain of concepts and words. To get rid of these you use other concepts. When you throw out all the concepts, including your primary concept, then whatever is, is. The true guru will never humiliate you, nor will he estrange you from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your inherent perfection and encourage you to seek within. He knows you need nothing, not even him, and is never tired of reminding you. But the self-appointed guru is more concerned with himself than with his disciples. External gurus are just dream figures telling you to wake up from the dream. Seeker & Guru are both concepts. ~ Nisargadatta

Transcend the Ego with Love

Self-realization is not knowing anything or becoming anything.
There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts.  That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, except exactly who you’re being right now. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

What is false never lasts, it falls away of its own accord;
while what is true remains, because truth does not come and go-
it is always there. ~ Bernadette Roberts

Truth surrounds you. It is in the air, it is in the fragrance of the flowers, it is in the flow of the river, it is in the green leaves, it is in the dust, it is in you.
~ Osho

The power of our devotion to teachers and teachings is not a reflection
of their value, but of ego’s will to survive. It’s the ego – the false self –
that exalts the guru and declares the teaching sacred, but nothing is
exalted or sacred, only true or not true.

Anyone familiar with the process of deprogramming someone who has been brainwashed by a cult will be able to appreciate what’s really involved in breaking free of this kind of allegiance, but there is only one real cult – the Cult of False Self – and everyone is a fanatically devoted member.

Awakening is the process of deprogramming.

Enlightenment is the unprogrammed state.

You could labor ten years under a master trying to discern whether the teachings are true. But all you must learn is this; One must live one’s own life. ~ Deng Ming-Dao

Would you rather be happy because of something or because of nothing?
~Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

The Eastern approach to happiness is motivated to avoid or escape
and dissociate from the entire cycle of desiring, getting, having, and
enjoying--the Eastern approach is obsessed with the desire to desire not,
and to avoid pain, and not to suffer. The Western approach to happiness
is bound to a struggle with the inevitable realities of conditional
(or psycho-physical) pain and suffering--because the Western approach
is obsessed with desiring, getting, having and enjoying.

Enlightenment is the Ecstatic Realization of literal and prior Identification with the Radiant Transcendental Consciousness in which the body-mind is floating. Enlightenment is not an experience, not a state of the personal body-mind in itself, but the Transcendental Condition of Existence, in which there is no difference, no other, no self, no mind, no body, and no world. Therefore, paradoxically, the conventions of experience-of difference, other, self, mind, body, and world-are known only in that Consciousness. They are arising only in that Radiant Life. They are communicating only that Personality of Love.

There is no method or any means to God, Truth or Reality. …. Since God, Truth or Reality is what is always already Present, free from the illusions of past effects and future attainments. There is no “mind” and no way “out” of anywhere. Therefore, stand straight now and directly, in every moment, allow what is to simply be what It always was and could only be, without the desire for It be other than Itself.

Reality is Always Already the Case.

Reality is All the God there Is
Reality is Living you Now

In this moment I am not having an experience. I am consoled by nothing. Nothing. And I am happy. I am zero in the midst of experience. That is the only difference.

Every time people achieve a state of exaggerated enjoyment – through sex, drugs, alcohol, some million dollar fortune in life, whatever – that enjoyment tends to abberate them, to make them wild and wide-eyed and wanting to have the same experience all the time. Thus people tend to feel diseased and to view happiness as an experience that occurs only in moments of exaggerated pleasure, and not at any other time.
(Bubba Free John)

Fly in the open Sky

The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness, all the burden on your heart disappears. All the fear of death, of life, of love - everything disappears. One starts living with a very light weight or almost no weight. So weightless one becomes, one can fly in the open sky. ~ Osho

Just surrender, and love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; never doubt His wisdom. Then miracles will happen not only in your physical body but in your life and in your work. ~ White Eagle

Without desire, resolve, or effort, the sun rises; in its mere presence, the sun-stone emits fire, the lotus blooms, water evaporates, people perform their various functions and then rest. Just as in the presence of the magnet the needle moves, it is by virtue of the mere presence of God that the souls governed by the three (cosmic) functions of the fivefold divine activity perform their actions and then rest, in accordance with their respective karmas. God has no resolve; no karma attaches itself to Him. That is like worldly actions not affecting the sun, or like the merits and demerits of the other four elements not affecting all-pervading space. ~ Ramana Maharshi

When we surrender, we allow the universe to work its magic; we say yes to infinite possibilities; we trust that things will work out as they are meant to; and we give our self permission to let go of the outcome. This can be liberating, intimidating, blissful, scary, and a swirl of so many other emotions. But in the end, if we are true to our heart, life unfolds with magnificence...and we get to celebrate. Make a decision of what you want, give your attention there, find the feeling place of it—and you're there instantly. There is no reason for you to suffer or struggle your way to or through anything.
~ Abraham-Hicks

If the Universe manifests abundance at a mere thought, why is there so
much poverty, starvation, and death?

Renounce your fear, give up the luxury of it and presume surrender as your attitude under all conditions.

Trust the process of your own life, whether it is to go mad, to become ill, to work, to succeed, or to die. Be free of fear.

Allow Life to be the Theatre of God

Live as Grace, not as a passive person in the world but as one who is not concerned in the world.

That which is Infinite, Eternal and unchanging is also Perfect Consciousness, the True Self. The Ocean of Experience is ended there. All Seeking is satisfied only in that. Only this is the very Happiness of the world. The True Self is Awake in your Heart.

You become what you meditate on.

Everything transmits: the stones transmit, the sky does, the TV does. Since everything and everyone transmits states of ‘existence’, since life, or ‘existence’ itself, is participation in transmissions of all kinds, the best thing you can do is to associate with the greatest possible Transmission. Will you enter into complete Fullness of Feeling relative to that Condition in which you are arising?

The best thing that could possibly happen to you is for you to become a raw nerve-end, a broken heart, inconsolable, with sorrow on your face and ecstasy as well, no longer a conventional man or woman, no longer able to put on a social face — incapable of it, with no argument, no anger, no feeling rejected, you responsible and you dying, and no absolutes coming to you through the bodies of others.

You spend your entire life within the dream, within this vast adventure, to find the princess in the crystal palace and save her from the dragon, or to wait in the crystal palace to be rescued by the prince. You live an endless, endless adventure, millions and millions of ages, year after year after year in numberless complications. But at some point along the way you become serious enough to examine your motivation to seek, to examine the cause, the root, for which this goal is only the symbol. At last one realizes that one cannot find one's symbolic satisfaction. And this falling into one's dilemma, then falling through it, is the unqualified Intuition of one's Ultimate Nature and Real Condition...

When you no longer have any more options, when you've worn yourself out playing your game, and you've tried all the techniques & methods, paths & lifestyles, strategies & places to go, all the forms of concentration, whatever they are, then all of that begins to break down. You discover that you just do not have the jazz left to really carry it on anymore..That's really the most hopeful sign. Your Ego is
beginning to rot.

There is nothing that you can do to save yourself, to become Enlightened,
to become Realized. Nothing whatsoever. If there were something, I would
tell you, but there is nothing. This is because one always approaches the
Truth from the point of view of the search. Human beings seek the Truth.
But the search is (itself) a reaction to the dilemma, an expression of this
separation, this avoidance of relationship. So none of this seeking —
nothing you can do — becomes or attains the Truth.

If you do not want to suffer, you must stop DOING suffering. Do not merely egoically "self"-identify with the flow of suffering. Do not casually "go with the flow"--and then expect some "magical" help to get you out of your "self" -made ego-destiny.

All that arises conditionally and apparently (as “experience” and “knowledge”) is an illusory fabrication of the brain-mind-complex.

The Realization of Truth restores the heart to love and even humor, without irony. But love must also weep.

The realization of Truth is not a matter of heavy, self-involved, constricted, willful effort. It is as natural as a simple response to sunlight. When you become less concerned for your particular search, for your inwardness, for your adventure, you have simply become more sensitive to your Real Condition. You have felt the sunlight falling on your sleeping eyes. When your eyes have opened in the morning light, everything will be obvious to you. And you will know that you have never slept, that you have never dreamed, that you have never been limited to any thing that has appeared. You have never been in any condition that you have assumed. There was always only reality itself, your True Nature – Which is Love-Bliss, Consciousness, the Unqualified Intensity.
(Bubba Free John)

All the darkness in the world can't extinguish the light from a single candle
~ Francis of Assisi

When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment I was no stranger in this world that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me into its arms in the form of my own mother. ~ Ranindranath Tagore

You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. ~ Khalil Gibran

Grace itself is that true self. What we need to know is, to experience that it is there. The Sun is just a form of light only. There is no darkness to that Sun. But When Sunrises in the morning, we conclude that the darkness is gone with the Sunlight. It is not Sunrise that removed the darkness; it is the rotation of earth from darkness to sunlight. Similarly a disciple will conclude that, due to Guru’s Grace only, his veils of ignorance are removed. But it is not Guru who has removed your ignorance it is You who turned from darkness to sunlight. Even though your surroundings are filled with sunlight, for experiencing that you need to turn towards it by going in the right direction. It means you need to turn towards that true self. A Guru will guide you in reaching out to that true self. What is existing is only ONE. That is the true self only. As you don’t know that, you are feeling that there is a physical world around you. You will also imagine that there is some other spiritual world is in existence. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi.

The only way to become egoless is to physically die.  If you are here and have a pulse, then you have an ego.  Do not fool yourself or allow yourself to be fooled by others. ~ Christopher Calder

Ego is not a thing. Ego is an action wanting a result. Ego is an action (experience) attached to an outcome. Ignorance is the belief that the outcome will produce Happiness. Considering the inordinate time and effort spent in the search for Happiness one might expect the world to be overflowing with Happy people? Why isn't it? What is THAT which you are searching for? There is NOTHING there, only the process of seeking. ~ Bodhi Shivashaktipat

Surrender and Transcend the Ego with Love

All-Pervading Current of Life, Consciousness where I appear and disappear, hear my breathing heart. Awaken me, to feel the heart of Light and Love, where this Life and mind and body may dissolve. I hold up my hands.

Be dissolved in the Radiance and Consciousness that is beyond all knowledge. Surrender into the Transcendental Current of Life.
( Bubba Free John  )

You are the action-less and formless thought-free mere witness of attention itself, and of every apparent "object" of attention and of any and every state of "experience" and of the entirety of whatever and all that arises. Without belief, without a prior conditioned "point of view". Prior conclusions make believers not scientists when there are no conclusions your eyes are "clear". Whatever is the "problem" whether jealousy, anger, sexuality, greed, ego, you don't need to drop it. It will drop on its own. What you are "watching" will become transparent and drop of it's own accord. Non judge-mental (non-mental) observation, like watching a rose flower. Look "into" it and you will begin discovering the Love within you.

I say to you: I am fulfilled and contented. Not by any relationship of the world, not by any love affair of the world, but having a love affair with the whole existence is utterly fulfilling.

Whatsoever the society has done to you has to be undone so that you can be your natural self again, as you were before you were born. Zen people call it the original face -- and that is your song, that is your bliss, that is your truth.

Personality is given by the society to you. Individuality is your intrinsic nature. Personality is fake. Individuality is your innermost Buddha, your innermost enlightenment your innermost door to the divine.

The mind questions the whole life long and never receives any answer, and the heart never asks but receives the answer.

Whatsoever you choose – singing, educating children, dancing, plumbing, or whatsoever – it has to be your love. Then it gives growth, inspiration, impetus, and it creates a nucleus in your being around which, by and by, you start crystallizing.
( Osho )

If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT. ~ Frank Zappa

Truth is a pathless land and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. My only concern is to set humanity absolutely, unconditionally Free. ~ Jiddu Krishnamuti

If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!

Here's all you need to know to become enlightened: Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what's true until you know. ~ Jed McKenna

Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.
- Ramana Maharshi

The pleasure of God communion must exceed the pleasure of sex.

All doubt, despair, and fear become insignificant once the intention of life becomes love, rather then the childish dependency on love. Childish dependency on the love and attention given to us by others is disabling because it cannot love or grant attention until it has already been granted a high degree of love and attention. The childish individual is always on the verge of feeling rejected and unloved, and he is bright and lively only when he is the primary object of love, attention and good fortune from without. But the mature individual is active AS love, under all conditions. Such a one always primarily grants love and attention, rather then seeking it or watching for whether or not he is being given love and attention. Those who love Are love and others Inevitably love them. Those who only Seek for love are not themselves love, and so they do not find It. (Even If they are loved, they do not get the knowledge of it.) Only the lover Is Lovable. Therefore, every Heart should become As True Love Is.

Love is the Only goddamned God there is!

The true man or woman yields to the process of experience as to a lover. Such a one does not enter into the realms of experience in a defensive manner-cranky, rigid, full of self and knowledge. Rather, such a one enters into the present moment
of experience as an act of love.
( Bubba Free John)

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens. ~ Carl Gustav Jung

Falling in love you remain a child; rising in love you mature. By and by love becomes not a relationship, it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in love - now you are love.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Olav

You are so hungry to experience that illusion of connection that you are willing to throw away everything else of value in your life. You are also willing to completely blind yourself to what is really going on.

WHAT IS THIS LONGING IN ME THAT NO RELATIONSHIP CAN SATISFY, THAT NO TEARS RELIEVE, THAT IS NOT CHANGED BY MANY AND BEAUTIFUL DREAMS AND ADVENTURES?

It is so, not only with you but with everybody who has a little intelligence. It is not detected by the stupid people, but the intelligent person is bound to stumble upon the fact sooner or later -- and the more intelligent you are, the sooner it will be -- that no relationship can satisfy. ~ Osho

The reason we do not see truth is that we don’t have enough courage.

Most people have not enough courage to see or accept the truth. They want something that will make them happy. Truth is sometimes frightening. Being disillusioned is scary. There is nothing you can hold on to – a set of ideals; a method; a community; a sect; an order; anything they can identify with.

Until we can accept that we are alone and until we can stand on our own two feet, we cannot have a healthy, meaningful relationship with another. Dependent, exploitive, and manipulative relationships are not meaningful.

We are part angel and part demon. If we deny the demon it will haunt us from the dark; let the demon out into the daylight.  

Being motivated by fear or pain will only create more fear and pain.
When you are in total acceptance of what is, your connection to
your authentic self & the universe will be clear & strong, in this place of
clarity true inspiration can come to you.

Most people have grown an invisible, impenetrable shell around themselves to protect them from being hurt, and they’re looking for satisfaction in money, status, sense pleasures, drugs, alcohol, and sex mainly because they don’t have somebody who loves them and understands them more deeply. It’s too scary to be open and vulnerable.
( Sayadaw U Jotika )

We live in great darkness ignorant of who we are and how powerful we are. We live as though we are animals.... We're not really animals. Waking out of the state of darkness is what we have to look forward to. ~ Dr. Ida Rolf

Only with your Heart can you touch the Sky

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

Most people find hidden corners where they drink.
Not me. I drink openly, in front of everyone.

Love is the cure … Love is the cure, for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain until your eyes constantly exhale love as effortlessly as your body yields its scent. ( Rumi )

If you want to be Happy, you have to change your way of Life.

There is no path to God. God is only obvious.

Become Spirit-Possessed rather then Self-Possessed
Feel the Spirit-Presence that is making everything happen;
that is responsible for what is arising.

Feel the Mystery

Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable.
But there it sits neverthelesscalmly licking its chops. ~ H.L. Mencken

We can manipulate our future within life happening,
but the happening itself is a mystery.

When whatever is arising is nothing but the vision of God for you then you are free.

The heart is the source and substance of discrimination. Love not reason, should make decisions. Decisions based on reason and not love, are karmic. Therefore, let the heart be your intelligence. The heart is unreasonable. The heart is mad. And the heart is the ground I call you to walk on.

When you become profoundly sensitized to the actuality of the human state, then it becomes possible for you to function on the basis of compassion, instead of functioning on the basis of desire.

True compassion is what true love is. The word "love" is often used to mean something in the realm of desire--but desire is a "self"-referring, egoic disposition, animated for various purposes that are regarded to be fulfilling.

When it becomes perfectly clear to you that no absolute fulfillment is possible then your disposition toward others is transformed.
(Da Free John)

Money, Food & Sex

People believe that they will find satisfaction in good food, expensive clothes, lively music and exciting sex. But when they have all this they are still not satisfied. Having understood that happiness is not just about having ones material needs met, they desire prestige, fame, and recognition. Pulled by these glittery prizes and pushed by cultural pressure, people waste their lives in pursuit of such goals. Their achievements may give them the illusion that they have gained something in their lives, but in reality they have lost a lot. They can no longer see, hear, feel, think, and act from their hearts. Social pressures from without dictate everything they do. They end up living the life others tell them to, not their own lives. Is this any different then being a slave or prisoner?

( Sayadaw U Jotika )

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~ Howard Thurman

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
~ Bob Dylan

An awakened person turns the common sense values of society on their heads, rejecting wealth, fame and prestige as worthless nonsense, and instead value simplicity, humility, and natural instincts. Intensely individualistic, often confronting, and sometimes plain rude, they say what they want to say regardless of social niceties. They exude a feeling of limitless freedom, great depths of compassion and an irrepressible sense of fun. Outwardly the enlightened seem the same as everybody else. Inwardly however, their distinctive trait is that they have no goals, but simply allow life to un-fold, unconcerned about where it is going. For them, effort, cunning and purpose are the results of having forgotten ones true nature.
( Ancient Chinese Wisdom )

When the child was a child, it didn’t know that it was a child, everything was soulful, and all souls were one. ~ Peter Handke

To seek Nothing is Bliss

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
( Lewis Carroll )

At last I know the freedom of madness.

SOMEWHERE OUT BEYOND OUR SENSE OF RIGHT DOING AND WRONG DOING THERE IS A FIELD...I’LL MEET YOU THERE.
( RUMI )

Entering the City with Bliss-bestowing Hands

Barechested, barefooted, he appears in the market place. Even though covered with the dust of the world, he resides in perfect happiness. Not needing miraculous powers, his very presence heals those around him. Erik has over 18 years experience as a body worker. He is a Certified Advanced Rolfer, Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist and master energy healer. He trained at the Heartwood Institute, Esalen Institute, Rolf Institute and completed the 3 year Franklyn Sills Biodynamic Craniosacral training in Boulder, Colorado. Erik is a former monk and former long-time practitioner of Zen Meditation, Advaita Vedanta, Yoga and Jingui Chi Gong. He has been jumping out of airplanes for over 30 years, offering a unique perspective on “heightened states of calm awareness” and the phenomenon of fear.

Song of the AVADHOOT

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