Best Of

"I've met many winners in history whose faces looked disgusting. Because I read you hatred and loneliness. Because they were nothing but winners and to become one they had to kill and subdue. But there is another race of men that helps us to breathe, who has always placed their existence and freedom only in the freedom and happiness of everyone, who finds the reasons to live and to love even in defeats. They, even if they win, will never be alone. "

— Albert Camus, "The Duty of Freedom"

“Having to be right has to do with faith - with, again, beliefs that we don't even know we have. Beliefs make the mind fragile and vulnerable. But when you get everything right in examining your mind it gradually becomes milder and malleable like moist clay. Asking yourself questions is the moisture that softens that hardness, that makes that rigidity relax.”

— Jon Bernie

I’ve been exploring the non dual book pile a little more, and have settled upon a book called Ordinary Freedom, by Jon Bernie. Judging from a little paging through it, it’s going to make a worthwhile read. They are all short excerpts from spoken teachings during satsangs and at retreats, collected in a book of 200 pages or so.

I just wanted to touch on the first excerpt, where Jon defines enlightenment as ‘being here’. I thought it was a beautiful phrasing and very true. He goes on to say, just be here and observe, you don’t need to analyse or make right or examine or explain, enlightenment is what remains when all those drop away.

He says, becoming conscious means letting go of all control. That's why meditation practice can be useful for our physical body that is conditioned to control, defend and hold. Meditation can let you see where the holding happens. You sit, and stop, and note what is physically, emotionally, energetically going on. The physical body is a great mirror.

Off to a good start.