1998/04/24 04:43
kundalini-l-d Digest V98 #326
kundalini-l-d Digest Volume 98 : Issue 326
Today's Topics:
some K--symptoms [ Briony123 <Briony123ATnospamaol.com> ]
Re: small big thing [ "Rick Puravs" <ric51ATnospamgeorge.lhi.net ]
more tests for enlightenment (was Re [ Rik <rik_wATnospamrocketmail.com> ]
RE: S.O.S. (Slightly Off Subject) [ "Jan Barendrecht" <janbarenATnospamcorreo. ]
Submissions Wanted (Was Re: Truth an [ Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca> ]
Re: Jerry and Glo sittin' in a tree. [ Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca> ]
Re: small big thing [ Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca> ]
Re: No traits for n-lit-n-mint exist [ "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net> ]
Re: kundalini arising (Sharon Ligler [ "Sharon Ligler" <sliglerATnospamhotmail.co ]
Re: The Nature of Self-Realization [ "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net> ]
Re: more tests for enlightenment (wa [ "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net> ]
Re: curious [ "Sen Ashanka"<sashankaATnospamaismi.ais.it ]
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 21:39:22 EDT
From: Briony123 <Briony123ATnospamaol.com>
To: kundalini-lATnospamlists.execpc.com
Subject: some K--symptoms
Message-ID: <568e6792.353fed4cATnospamaol.com>
Hi!
Just wondering if anyone else has shared these experiences during their own
Kundalini awakenings:
Some of the physical stuff associated with my K experiences over the years:
Throbbing, warming, "glowing feeling" coming from the center of my
forehead....
top of my head feels like its floating, unscrewing, heating up...glowing
nearly overpowering feelings of sexual desire...usually at the start of a
rough time---before awareness traveled upward to other chakras
all the sudden all the people in the room start glowing different colors,
especially around their head and shoulders
during the rough times: electrical systems around me have shorted out
alot....especially car batteries, alternators, appliances, computers, and home
heating systems
also during the rough times: visions, spirit teachers, a sense of being
tested, rapid weight loss, experiencing the flow of time as if it were a flow
of water, experiencing time and events themselves as if they were moving
backwards and forwards
also, during the rough/transition times: slipping into fear, paranoia,
tempororily losing one's ground....having to find it again in order to keep
living....feeling like one has to regain mastery or literally die
psychic foresight
enhanced intuition
periods of strange physical symptoms for which doctors can find no causes:
like, problems with vision in the left eye, strange flushes, hot flashes, heat
waves, fever, fear of eating and drinking except for certain things at certain
times....
the ability to survive severe electrocution without serious injury
the ability to heal oneself quickly and well
the ability to relax and manipulate ones' own muscles and joints without the
help of a chiropractor
a steady increase in creativity, imagination, humor, empathy, and compassion
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 21:48:50 -0400
From: "Rick Puravs" <ric51ATnospamgeorge.lhi.net>
To: <trexisATnospamjuno.com>
Cc: <kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com>
Subject: Re: small big thing
Message-ID: <01bd6f23$214a5520$3621afcfATnospamhp-customer>
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
---Original Message-----
From: trexisATnospamjuno.com
Date: Thursday, April 23, 1998 8:47 PM
Subject: small big thing
Edward wrote....
> What is that small big thing? The feeling I
>got from that dream was more terrifying than the
>complete destruction of all existence
<snip>
>and I would be absolutely terrified crying and
>screaming.
>I guess it could be classified like sleepwalking because only a small
>fraction of my
>awareness was in the livingroom,
(Rick).......
It is the needle in the haystack.....and you must find it. The feeling of being out of your limits, beyond your boundaries, expanding seemingly forever......you are not
only out of your body, you have no body, you are infinite or becoming infinite as there is nothing to hold you and all the directions go on forever and so do you......
easy to panic, especially being asleep (on LSD i could more or less handle this
state).......how to ever become finite again, how to find yourself and get back inside yourself, how to find the needle in the haystack......that identity that you relate to........
and it can be difficult to remember when you are back in "yourself" as "yourself"
does not relate to being inconceivable.
Edward wrote......
>People tell of spiritual revelations that I have few
>of. People tell of "supernatural"
>experiences of which I have almost none
(Rick)......
I think the very real echoing fear from such an experience can create a barrier to
supernatural experiences......
Anyway, that's what the small big thing makes me think of......
Rick
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 18:48:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rik <rik_wATnospamrocketmail.com>
To: lobATnospamlineone.net
Cc: kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com, rik_wATnospamrocketmail.com
Subject: more tests for enlightenment (was Re: curious)
Message-ID: <19980424014801.7529.rocketmailATnospamweb1.rocketmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
---Ed Jason <lobATnospamlineone.net> replied:
>
> > 1) To be enlightened is just to be "better" (calmer,
> > freer, self-awarer, etc.) than those who aren't
>
> ?
> Better at making distinctions and judgements as well perhaps?
> I think not. (I think not therefore I am not?)
Rik:
Nor I. Quite an obnoxious and unflattering way of referring
to oneself or others, no?
> > 2) You are enlightened when I recognize you as such
>
> As someone has pointed out (Harsha) many dangerous and ineffectual
people diagnose themself or others as enlightened. Who does the
recognising is important.
Yes, exactly. *To whom* seems to me to be the essential issue
here. Enlightened according to whom? By what evolution of
"attainment"? If I've had some 'realization' and recognize
that you've had a similar realization, then if I were to choose
to call my realizations "enlightened", then I may choose
to recognize you as enlightened as well. But that is a conditional -
I don't personally find the term particularly useful, and
chose this "test" perhaps more as a provocation. "Who are you
to judge anyway?!" THAT is a good question.
> > 3) When you are enlightened, (please don't laugh!)
> > other enlightened people will laugh at your jokes
>
> If this was a joke
> I did not laugh
> If you are enlightened
> I am not
> Either way the distinction
> is mostly imagination
Yes. My point exactly. You wisely took my advice not
to take it as a joke. I chose this sloppy "test" as an
example of confusing (and confused) thinking that creates
such unenlightened concepts as enlightenment.
> > Don't fret Lobster. You've passed your own test #3,
> > and I hereby dub thee enlightened. You may not refuse
> > your honorary adjective.
>
> Of course I refuse it. I may be arrogant but I am not stupid enough
to > believe this word has any importance or significance - except to
those > with vested interests to promote status instead of wisdom.
> If you go over your post, you will see that you are conferring >
enlightenment on yourself and not me.
And you are wisely pointing out the absurdity in the implications
of the above "tests", which were distilled from the unsaid
and less tasteful implications of common usage.
"The enlightened" boils down to a concept created by
people who feel they are lacking some attainment
which they don't understand, and therefore don't know
what they're talking about. To call oneself or anyone
enlightened is to pander to a myth of incompleteness.
Enlightenment may be acknowledged as a valid concept from a
certain set of worldviews - as you have done with your
test - but it could be said that 'enlightenment' is not
the attainment to be sought, but rather Freedom from
the limiting belief in Enlightenment.
> Be Well (and good)
> Lobster
I'll do my best. Thanks. -rik
_________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free ATnospamyahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 03:22:12 +0100
From: "Jan Barendrecht" <janbarenATnospamcorreo.infase.es>
To: <kundalini-lATnospamlists.execpc.com>
Subject: RE: S.O.S. (Slightly Off Subject)
Message-ID: <000201bd6f27$ca8a2260$53f14dc3ATnospamjb>
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Michelle,
Something interests me: Why doesn't your neighbor use headphones to listen
to music (there exist cordless ones)? A good headphone delivers a far better
quality of sound-reproduction than any loudspeaker set. As there are even
devices like pillows with vibrator to mimic the effect of the body
undergoing the mechanical effects of loud music, there are no more arguments
not to use a headphone. The effect of unwanted sound is far more damaging
than many think, even at low levels so it seems better to undertake some
action. Having a bad relationship with a neighbor isn't good either.
Negotiating a kind of "deal", allowing him a big, noisy party once a month
or so at the trade-off of using headphones for daily listening probably is
the best compromise to make. Also, advances are made in "anti-sound"
technology, a few devices being marketed that can deal with simple,
repetitive sounds.
Jan
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:05:17 -0700
From: Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
To: Harsha1MTMATnospamaol.com, amckeonATnospamhsmail.nfld.k12.mn.us
CC: kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com
Subject: Submissions Wanted (Was Re: Truth and Love-Self-Realization)
Message-ID: <35402B9D.10E6ATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
amckeonATnospamhsmail.nfld.k12.mn.us wrote:
>
> Harsha cautions:
>
> >Live the ordinary life and don't get anyone pregnant that you are not married
> >to (From the wild disco dance of enlightenment, chapter 5, page 272)
>
> "Live an apparently ordinary life (while secretly doing weird things in
> your backyard with pom poms and a water weasel)."
>
> >From the beauteous butt dance of Amckeon-Ah-Standing-in-the-Rain, quatrain 287.
Please allow me to remind you that The Wild Song of Standing Free is a
serious book. However, I am hereby announcing that I will be accepting
submissions for my new text, borrowing Harsha's title: "The Wild Disco
Dance of Enlightenment," as well as Amckeon's and any other titles
submitted. Everything will be used.
I'll accept just about anything submitted and once I get a bunch, I'll
put it on my website, giving credit to the authors. If you don't want
credit, let me know.
So start submitting and I will even give out a prize (randomly chosen)
which will be a bound copy of The Wild Song (by that I mean pages
photocopied and spiral bound or velo bound at a print shop). And for
just $39.99 I will autograph it for you! (For $49.99 I won't.)
The prize will only be given if there are at least 15 different people
submitting and if the submissions are pretty good. Employees of
Nondualism, their family, friends and water weasels are not eligible.
Not valid in Ohio, Illinois, parts of Rhode Island (oh, just make it
Rhode Island), Connecticut, India, UK, Mexico and them countries except
for Venezuela, Tuxedo Rental Stores, Croatia, and any other places that
aren't normal.
Thank you,
...jerry
_________
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:10:47 -0700
From: Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
To: amckeonATnospamhsmail.nfld.k12.mn.us
CC: kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com
Subject: Re: Jerry and Glo sittin' in a tree...
Message-ID: <35402CE7.79DCATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
amckeonATnospamhsmail.nfld.k12.mn.us wrote:
>
> I'd tell you two to get a room or take it on the road, but I am enjoying it
> too much. Carry on!
>
> voyeuristically,
> amckeon
You like us. You really like us.
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 00:43:02 -0700
From: Jerry Katz <umbadaATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
To: trexisATnospamjuno.com, ambroadATnospamacs.ucalgary.ca
CC: kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com
Subject: Re: small big thing
Message-ID: <35404286.558FATnospamns.sympatico.ca>
trexisATnospamjuno.com wrote:
(Deleted much)
I had a recurring nightmare when I
> was about three
> or four. I would get up and run into the living room where my parents
> were watching
> Carson or something and I would be absolutely terrified crying and
> screaming.
> I guess it could be classified like sleepwalking because only a small
> fraction of my
> awareness was in the livingroom, (deletion) At this point I could remember NOTHING of
> the dream.
> I know that there were no "people" and nothing like "earth" . The
> distinguishing factor
> other than my behavior allowing me to know that it was the same nightmare
> was
> the feeling of the small big thing. I had the dream recurr for a week
> once in sixth grade and a couple times in the year following but
> essentially never since. What is that small big thing? The feeling I
> got from that dream was more terrifying than the
> complete destruction of all existence yet resultant from some
> insignificantly minor
> fumble. but for the
> life of me,
> I can't remember that dream, nor what that small big thing is.
> What is it!
> What is it!?!
> Can anyone with deeper eyes or memories give me a clue?
Hi!
You've said what it is. That which is beyond destruction of existence.
Your Self. It comes to children as a gift to be opened years later. It
arrives in a variety of forms, often more than once and is capable of
being accepted by children. It is Grace. In that way we should all be
like children, open to reception of that gift.
It is the thunder of the mantra, which is always frightening, which
always and utterly destroys. For the mantra is The Self. That is the
small big thing. A child should be very frightened of That. That fear
embeds the gift in memory where spiritual work is done as an incubation.
What you fumbled was the world.
An adult spiritually maturing should know the small big thing as the I
AM mantra, The Self. And most fear it all their lives. But it is humor.
The final celebrity. The smile on the Mona Lisa...AUM...
...Jerry
_________
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 23:15:11 -0700
From: "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net>
To: <kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com>, "Solar Lion" <gtaATnospamlanset.com>
Subject: Re: No traits for n-lit-n-mint exist
Message-Id: <199804240503.GAA18265ATnospamboober.lineone.net>
> wordiness is not a characteristic of enlightenment.
> nor is the constant drawing attention to the person's
> personality.
How true in an untrue sort of way. Many enlightened people have talked for days and written numerous books. So wordiness is no judge of anything.
Personality (as in drawing attention to) is a side effect of being human. The refined individual harmonises with the divine personality or characteristics. They may then constantly refer to these aspects as examples of the behaviour that others require. This may take the form of offering themselves for worship as divine incarnations.
People in early training negate and deflect the attention away from the personality in order to starve it of stimulation. Later on the personality may be the key means of expressing enlightenment and may be constantly pointed out as an example of perfection.
So your rules and traits express the certainty that is non-existent. The enlightened do not follow or equate to known manners of behaviour.
Personality: Lobster
Enlightened: No chance
Wordiness: High
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:00:35 PDT
From: "Sharon Ligler" <sliglerATnospamhotmail.com>
To: kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com, amckeonATnospamhsmail.nfld.k12.mn.us
Subject: Re: kundalini arising (Sharon Ligler)
Message-ID: <19980424060035.15807.qmailATnospamhotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Dear Sharon:
Please tell us more about this lodge deal. My
dad was a Mason. I've
sometimes wondered....
amckeon
(wondering....)
My grandfather was born and raised in Austria and belonged to the old
European Mason-type lodge. The practice to bring forth enlightenment is
from ancient Egyptian texts, according to my grandfather. I don't have
a great deal of info other than the fact that what went on seemed to be
(from my memories) very occult in nature. Rituals, and such were
practiced on full moons and holidays. There are some memories that are
rather gruesome, but they are the memories of a child and may not be
true and of course time has a way of altering perceptions. My
grandmother refused to discuss the lodge after my grandfathers death
when I was 6. She was not a member, she had her heritage, she was a
fifth generation healer, or midwife/witch. She said her ancestors
escaped from Bamberg Germany and hid in the mountains in Krakow Poland,
where they were highly reguared as gifted healers. This is where I come
from and what makes me who I am. "amckeon" If you would like to
discuss the lodge practices off line Email me at
sliglerATnospambellatlantic.net
Following the light
Sharon
______________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 07:31:49 -0700
From: "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net>
To: "Harsha1MTM" <Harsha1MTMATnospamaol.com>, <kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com>
Subject: Re: The Nature of Self-Realization
Message-Id: <199804241039.LAA21916ATnospamboober.lineone.net>
The Self is not attained through discourses, nor through intellectuality, nor
through much learning. It is gained only by him who longs for It with his
whole heart. To such a one the Self reveals Its own nature.
—Mundakoponishad
Harsha: I was overwhelmed by the Beauty of this statement. That is my experience. It is the plain and the simple Truth. I bow to the Realized Sages whose lives of immaculate purity, devotion, selfless service and love reveal the flame of the Divine hidden in the Heart.
How easy it is to sing
now that gone is my voice
How easy it is to see
now that there is no choice
>From the love poetry of Harsha
Hard it is to Sing
With others voice
To see
others choice
(from the harsher poetry of Love)
easy bowing to the wise
hard to stand for ignorance
easy to flame the Heart
hard to extinguish
Lobster
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 06:52:27 -0700
From: "Ed Jason" <lobATnospamlineone.net>
To: "Rik" <rik_wATnospamrocketmail.com>
Cc: <kundalini-lATnospamexecpc.com>, <rik_wATnospamrocketmail.com>
Subject: Re: more tests for enlightenment (was Re: curious)
Message-Id: <199804241039.LAA19496ATnospamboober.lineone.net>
> > > 1) To be enlightened is just to be "better" (calmer,
> > > freer, self-awarer, etc.) than those who aren't
> >
> > ?
> > Better at making distinctions and judgements as well perhaps?
> > I think not. (I think not therefore I am not?)
>
> Rik:
> Nor I. Quite an obnoxious and unflattering way of referring
> to oneself or others, no?
Exactly so. To place ones status above others (instead of in humility below) is obviously demeaning those people the 'enlightened' serve. This is why wisdom is a far more important quality. However to display ones knowledge and expertise without reminding oneself and others of ones innate stupidity and ignorance in comparison with others developed qualities is all ego.
It is because of my lack of ego that I am superior. Say again? What I meant is because I am so advanced it sometimes seems that everyone else is unenlightened? YOU WHAT?
Dear Friends I am a hopeless case please help me to understand - ah now we understand you . . .
> > > 2) You are enlightened when I recognize you as such
> >
> > As someone has pointed out (Harsha) many dangerous and ineffectual
> people diagnose themself or others as enlightened. Who does the
> recognising is important.
>
> Yes, exactly. *To whom* seems to me to be the essential issue
> here. Enlightened according to whom? By what evolution of
> "attainment"? If I've had some 'realization' and recognize
> that you've had a similar realization, then if I were to choose
> to call my realizations "enlightened", then I may choose
> to recognize you as enlightened as well. But that is a conditional -
> I don't personally find the term particularly useful, and
> chose this "test" perhaps more as a provocation. "Who are you
> to judge anyway?!" THAT is a good question.
Somebody once asked me this and all I could say was "Who indeed". The term is indeed of little consequence. Kick a Zen Master in the 'Nuts' and he will soon bow to you - but don't hang around too long.
> > > 3) When you are enlightened, (please don't laugh!)
> > > other enlightened people will laugh at your jokes
> >
> > If this was a joke
> > I did not laugh
> > If you are enlightened
> > I am not
> > Either way the distinction
> > is mostly imagination
>
> Yes. My point exactly. You wisely took my advice not
> to take it as a joke. I chose this sloppy "test" as an
> example of confusing (and confused) thinking that creates
> such unenlightened concepts as enlightenment.
Well when I ask who are you to be dishing out 'sloppy tests' I expect a better answer than 'who indeed?"
Tests are for rats not lobsters. With apologies to all rats. :-) However you are quite right about the inapplicability of this term. This is why we have to look at the application of the meaningless. In other words as the status of Guru, realised or whatever is meaningless without application that has perceivable results. People look at a 'teacher', I look at what the students have learnt. Clowns always follow a circus.
> "The enlightened" boils down to a concept created by
> people who feel they are lacking some attainment
> which they don't understand, and therefore don't know
> what they're talking about. To call oneself or anyone
> enlightened is to pander to a myth of incompleteness.
> Enlightenment may be acknowledged as a valid concept from a
> certain set of worldviews - as you have done with your
> test - but it could be said that 'enlightenment' is not
> the attainment to be sought, but rather Freedom from
> the limiting belief in Enlightenment.
Most Kind Regards
Lobster (juggling)
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 13:04:06 +0200
From: "Sen Ashanka"<sashankaATnospamaismi.ais.it>
To: kundalini-lATnospamlists.execpc.com
Subject: Re: curious
Message-Id: <C12565F0.003C9E7E.00ATnospamais.it>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Paul wrote : ----
>I might be wrong but I believe I have an eye for illusion. It might be
>that I am sensitive but the real spiritual people don't hurt me in any
> .. .. .. .. .. ..
>Just too much pressure. That surely cannot be spiritual.
>
>--
>Paul.
Dear Paul,
Thank you for the wonderful letter you wrote, took some time to read,
but was wonderful going through it. Read it several times. Just like
what I myself have felt some time back. However, coming from India,
where spirituality and sensitivity is in abundance, there is no issue
for a sensitive person to live in company of persons who are also
sensitive and understand one another and not make a big deal of it.
Yes, spirituality does tend to make us a little sensitive and caring
towards other persons. In America, (that is where I believe you are
soming from), and other "affluent" countries, the situation is
entirely different. To put it in a bit of perspective, the kind of
spirits prevailing there seem to be entirely dark and tending towards
violence, in the physical, mental and interpersonal levels.
At the expense of sounding a little long-drawn, let me put some of
the history in perpsctive. Ancient man, when fulfilled his food and
security needs, began to think. The first thoughts were regarding
fear and security, fear of n atural disasters, fear of animals, etc.
These fears were conquered by suppressing animals, and understanding
nature's laws and evolving science and technology.
The next stage was to look at happiness. Here, the Greeks looked
outwards with the idea that the outer world and nature is the answer
of man's happiness. The ancient Indian thinkers, on the other hand,
saw through the falacy of this and began looking inwards. The idea
here was that no outside factor can truely make you happy. The only
thing that can make you happy is your own self. So go in search of
this self.....
The two philosophies developed into two different schemes of man, two
different schemes of society and governing. Whereas the Greek system
evolved excellent social norms, and technologies, and beautiful cities
and parks and buildings and cars etc, Indian system created intellectual
giants, and men who where happy, truely happy. These men were so happy
that they transcended the need for acquiring, accumulating anything.
They were free men, no house, no money, no clothes, just a constant
deep inner happiness that perculated through to anyone who came in
contact with them.
Now, the idea that acquiring and property is the ideal of happiness
in the Western world makes everyone strive towards it. But, everyone
cannot become the richest man. So, we have a situation of one happy
person and 99 unhappy persons. Whereas in the Indian society, the
persons truely respected are the educated soft persons, who are not
too interested in acquiring. In fact such persons only gather around
them flatterers, and no friends or admirers or respect. They grab and
scrounge and earn and buy things that show off their wealth....
The two contrasting societies thus produce contrasting results.
The social freedom in the West resulted in a good development of the
social standards. Social freedom is not a strong point in the Indian
society, and so there has been social stagnation and mild attempts
to break out of such blocking systems.
This was a bit off-topic, but a perspective.
Further, on to the kind of society you are facing. True, a sensitive
person will find it difficult to stay in company of shallow loud-voiced
malicious individuals, whose influence is felt even in children. The
children these days are losing their childhood so fast, that they would
never enjoy the happiness of a quite evening besides a small stream.
They would never feel the beauty of trying to chase a butterfly, watch
a bug wriggle on the ground, admire the symmetry of a flower.....
I am very very childish in my behaviour myself, and find that the
best company I can get are children and my women friends. However, in
my friend circle, all the guys are also sensitive, child-like and simple
in their demands. Once these basic needs are satisfied they do not have
the urge to grab more and more, or to prove anything to anyone else.
Another thing to discuss with you is the fact that, fine, we are
sensitive etc., but can we develop into a mind-set where we can be
what we are like, and not be hurt by what the world does to us ?
This involves developing a kind of buffer with the world, because the
world is like this and cannot change. Nothing will ever change. Saints
and sinners have been born in this world since time immorial and will
continue to do so. This is the nature of the world. So, to prevent
ourselves from getting hurt we should develop a buffer to prevent our-
selves from getting hurt.
Let me relate a story :
****************
Lord Buddha was giving sermons on Universal Love and Non-violence. A
snake heard this sermon and wanted to get more knowledge from the great
Master. Very soon the snake developed a will not to strike and kill
anyone, only to use them for food when hungry, and never at any other
time.
Some time later, this snake was passing through a field and some young
boys sat it. They were scared at first, but since the snake did nothing
they got bold. They started throwing stones and sticks at the snake.
By this time the snake had developed enough self-control not to retaliate
and so the boys got even more bold and picked up the snake and swing it
around dashing the body against stones and tree trunks. After some time,
satisfied with their play they went off.
A few weeks later, Lord Buddha came to the village again to give sermons.
On seeing the snake He was amazed and inquired as to what happened. After
much coaxing the snake related the story, and also stated that it had
forgiven the boys because of what they did.
Then Lord Buddha told the snake "See, I did tell you not to hurt anyone
unnecesarily, but I did not tell you not to protect yourself. You should
have just scared them away !".
This made sense to the snake. The next time the boys saw the snake, it
raised its hood and made a menacing hiss. Following this the boys soon
fled in terror and left the peaceful snake alone.
****************
So, we, in India, have a saying, that if you do not hurt anyone, fine,
but you can show your fangs to prevent someone else from hurting you
unnecessarily.
So, dear Paul, it is true that this world is far from being spiritual.
But we have to live in this world, and our minds should be on God. Like
staying in a rented house, we use the furniture and pots and pans, but
always know in the back of our mind that these are not our's. Similarly
live in this world, but do not let the interactions hurt us. Always
remember that the one Ultimate Truth is that we have one day to leave
all this and go back to where we come from, i.e. God. So why worry on
such trivialities as the world and people and society and money etc. ?
Cheers and love
Ashanka
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