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Chat #1: No Method, No Rejection, No Edges
The arising of dissatisfaction and desire
Witnessing and Contentment
Reminders and methods
Effortless Awareness
The sufficiency of Reality
Seeking demands a path
"The Four Faults" (Kalu Rinpoche)
Evoking Recognition
The Openness of Recognition
"Lovers of Reality" (Byron Katie)
"The Clear Bead...." (Rumi)
Metta: If you have something specific you would like to
share or ask, Nil, we can begin there. Otherwise, I can
start with a question, myself. Which would you prefer?
Nil: I would prefer you to lead....
Metta: Fine. I usually start by simply asking: what is it
that you are seeking or looking for?....What is it that you
feel may be missing from your life?
Nil: There isn't any ongoing quest now. There are momentary
dissatisfactions, but they, too, pass.
Metta: Good...Then, the question simply is: why are you here,
in this chat space, with me now?
Nil: I wanted to interact with you. I didn't really have
an agenda. I apologize if I didn't make that clear in my
request.
Metta: No, that's fine, Nil! You did make it clear. I'm
just following through to confirm. A lot can happen between
the initial request for a chat session, and the time that
we actually meet online.
Is there any particular point of focus or attention
that is of special interest to you, or that you'd care to
explore? I'm very willing to "interact" and explore with
you....Perhaps it would be good for you to set a course
for us, since I do not have a specific agenda, either?!
Nil: You just clarified something for me: it should be
obvious that "something," a question or want [desire]
could come up during any moment.
Metta: Yes, it could. Sometimes it does; sometimes it
doesn't....And, in those moments when it seems that "nothing"
is coming up, there is just Witnessing....Witnessing and
contentment -- a larger sense of Satisfaction....
Nil: I did want to mention that the AIA Ezine has served as
a "reminder" (as many things can be) of the present....
Metta: I'm glad if it has served that function for you.
That's my goal and intention....It seems to me that the
most we can ever really do is provide these reminders
for one another, from time to time....
Nil: My most recent "quest" involved seeking such
reminders...as though they could not exist in my
ordinary experience.
Metta (smiling): Yes, as though your ordinary experience
was not the most significant reminder of all!
Nil: I can see that now, sometimes....Your work has
helped me.
Metta: "Helped" you in what way?
Nil: "Reminded" me; not "helped" in the sense of adding
new knowledge.
Metta: Good! As I see it, this reminding is the most
valuable and satisfying thing we could ever do. Nothing
else seems to me to be as important. (And, I might add,
you are quite right: this certainly is not about the
acquisition of "new" knowledge.)
Nil: In my experience, if a teacher consents to "publish"
a general method for everyone's use, it only serves to
provide an excuse for me to keep channeling my energy
into becoming something else....
Metta: Yes, exactly! In this context, how do you see and
experience this work? Is it any different?
Nil: You seem to refuse to provide a general method...
Metta: Yes, indeed! You got it!
Nil: (You are...)...always/only pointing to the here and now.
Metta: Yes. I'm so pleased you See this! Our immediate
experience of Reality really is sufficient. THIS, exactly
as it is showing up within this moment, is all the "teaching"
we could ever want or need.
Nil: One thing that has changed for me after encountering
your work: there are more times when I experience the
effortlessness of awareness.
Metta: I am so glad. Thank you for sharing this gift.
It is precious, indeed, and I want to acknowledge this
shared Recognition....
Nil: I don't blame other teachers for encouraging effort
indirectly...
Metta: Neither do I....
Nil: It was always my own seeking that demanded some path.
Metta: Fascinating insight, Nil! You see how accommodating
the world can be? It often gives us exactly what we want
and are looking for. Not always, but often...
Nil: It's so much easier than I ever believed.
Metta: Yes! The delightful simplicity of This is far more
amazing and marvelous than I had ever imagined....One of
my favorite reminders is from a Tibetan Buddhist teacher
who points out that there are 4 reasons we do not Recognize
and directly experience this "One Taste" as it is showing
up in the present moment:
· The first is that it is so close, so immediate.
· The second, that it is so profound.
· The third, that it is so (delightfully) simple.
· Fourth, that it is so excellent....
[See "The Four Faults," pp. 117-118 The Dharma, by
Kalu Rinpoche, The State University of New York Press,
1986.]
Nil: Yes. Thank you for passing along this reminder.
Metta: I am curious now: can you point to any events and/or
experiences in your life that have helped to stimulate and
deepen your own Recognition?
Nil: I can recall moments of a feeling of union...and deep
reverence for beauty....Reading the poetry of Persian mystic,
Rumi, has often been an occasion for That. [See links to
Rumi sites on AIA's Links page.]
Metta: Yes, his work is also a gift. In some of my earliest
recollections, as a child, I (like you) associated This with
experiences of beauty...and with hearing music....
Nil: Yes. Music, beautiful friends and places.
Metta: Yes....and, then there eventually comes a place and
time in our lives when there is nothing that is not a
reminder of This....
Nil: Thank you.
Metta: Thank you, Nil. I feel honored to have shared this
time with you, and I have enjoyed the gentle spaciousness
of your presence. (We do not need to close yet; please feel
free to remain here a while longer....)
Nil: That is one thing that attracted me to an interaction
with you...the openness.
Metta (smiling): Didn't you mention this in your initial
correspondence with me?
Nil: Yes. It was the strongest impression, more so even
than clarity...(not to say that clarity was absent, or that
the two aren't intertwined.)
Metta (smiling): Yes....I am so intrigued that you've felt
and sensed this openness because it is, for me, one of the
hallmarks of this Recognition. How does this "openness"
show up for you in and through what you have "seen" of me
so far?
Nil: I'm not sure. It's an intuitive thing, drawn overall
from all the personal writings, and your selection of wisdom
sayings -- from the whole picture of what I'm able to know
from a website and zine. I get a feeling that nothing is
rejected from your experience....
Metta: Absolutely. In the end, how can anything be rejected?
Whatever is here and now must be part of, and included
within, whatever is ultimately Real -- no matter how much
the personality may rail against and reject it. In the end,
Reality, God or Truth, whatever you call it, must be large
enough to include All That Is....
In this, I love the words of Byron Katie. She says
she is simply a "lover of Reality,...a lover of what is."
Nil: Beautiful....2 lines from Rumi:
"The clear bead at the center changes everything.
There are no edges to my loving now."
Metta (smiling, again): Ah, yes. The edges are all gone!
Thank you, Nil, for sharing this exquisite expression of
Insight....
©1999, Metta Zetty
All Rights Reserved.
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