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A silent monks first words

This last part... Adyashanti, from 54:00 until the end, sort of explains what I've been struggling with for the past couple years. Hell, he even says that a lot more people these days are right where I am: at some sort of impasse between 'living life for material' vs 'living to celebrate the spirit'; the limbo zone (59:30).

Same here, the limbo zone he describes actually reminds me a lot of 'The Dark Night of the Soul' by Saint John of the Cross, a phase during an individuals spiritual journey whereby all desires slowly disappear, all personal will, all identification.. with a sense of feeling abandoned by spirit.

Your not here, and your not there.. but i suppose that's the idea, to bring you into being.
 
I was just listening to one of my favorites, Terence Mckenna, and he was telling a story about a monk who took a vow of silence for several years. When the village found out that the monk was going to say something, they all gathered around to see what he had to say. The monk spoke and he said something like so: "We are all luminous beings. Why is it then, we don't appear radiant before one another in our illumination?"

I think this a great question and would lead for an interesting topic for a discussion. What are some of your Answers or takes on this?

I believe its because the way we feel inside is the way we perceive things; the outer world always reflects the inner world and if we havnt recognized the divinity within our own selves, we will never be able to see it in one another. It is said that a sage sees all sentient beings as the same. He sees the brahman, the cow, the dog, and the dog eater(out caste) as all the same, for he sees the same oneness in them all. He sees his own self in all creatures, and all creatures in his own self.
forces of division in society separate us. the germans kill the jews and the jews kill the arabs and the arabs kill the hostages, and that is the news.

most forms of division are simply habit, and part of everyday life.

the reason these forms of division emerged (naturally, during our social and physical evolution) is due the power hierarchy of our species. we're all humans, but some of us want to control more at the expense of others; when enough people feel (act) this way, those social forces of division emerge naturally socially, on both a macro and micro scale (intertwined).

this is my quick thesis before going to bed, may revise later. but that's my answer to the monk's question ;)
 
ahh im sad he didnt just say something deliciously normal like "im gonna make some tea"
 
"We are all luminous beings. Why is it then, we don't appear radiant before one another in our illumination?"
Some people want to be the most luminous being, and cast shadows upon others in order to appear more luminous.
 
BE the BEST you CAN be.. what else is there to say?

if you dont know what that means then you might like reading stuff that isnt so simple..
 
Taking us back to square one. The natural human tendency to overpower, unless we train our minds to work in harmony with everything around us. Most of our kind do not deal with such "pointless" activity.

Thats our animalistic side- to dominate.
Survival of the fittest.
Once spiritual awareness comes into play, we realize the error of this way.
Let us all work together for the common good.
That common good is to heal.
Any situation you have 2options, harm or heal.
We all know which one is right n which one is wrong.
 
I think it's our materialistic nature that keeps us from appreciating the goodness in life
 
we aren't materialistic until Western culture teaches us to be.
 
we aren't materialistic until Western culture teaches us to be.

I believe this is true to an extent. Almost every region of the world has a sort of materialism. Materialism is attachments to the material world and to worship that instead of spirituality(the true foundation of existence). Everyone everywhere has a sort of attachment to the material and this isnt only in the west. Sure the west may have more attachments than others, but this is in our human nature. We take gold for example. Even the Egyptians were attached to gold and thus being materialistic in some way. I believe it is in our human nature to place labels and values on things in order to either control or to help trade, possibly even for other reasons.
 
it would be the nature of our ego to take more importance towards the materialistic i believe.
but once you actually become a materialistic person, your ego has grown too much, overshadowing your true being like a large tree.

Now you get what you want... do you want more?- bob

LOL
 
forces of division in society separate us. the germans kill the jews and the jews kill the arabs and the arabs kill the hostages, and that is the news.

most forms of division are simply habit, and part of everyday life.

the reason these forms of division emerged (naturally, during our social and physical evolution) is due the power hierarchy of our species. we're all humans, but some of us want to control more at the expense of others; when enough people feel (act) this way, those social forces of division emerge naturally socially, on both a macro and micro scale (intertwined).

this is my quick thesis before going to bed, may revise later. but that's my answer to the monk's question ;)

Yes you are completely right. We all truly are luminous beings, but we dont appear radiant before one another because of our own ignorance. We have too much darkness in our own eyes, we build up too many barriers and these barriers dont allow the other persons natural light to shine through. Even when a person is truly shining, an ignorant fool can never see it. We all have so many different barriers that divide us and regulate us, but the truth and beauty is in our unity through variety. Instead of embracing one another, we look down upon them. We do this because everyone else seems to be doing it and thats just the way it is. This is how we are being programmed. We are not being taught to love our neighbors, god no, we are taught that our neighbors are some sick demented freaks who are out to kill us. We think this way because this is all we hear about in the news, this is all we see on the TV and movies and music. Horrible things. We see so much terror that its become normal. What we need to do is fight back. And we fight back with art and creativity. They exploit and destruct, we embrace and create. Art is what needs to be changed, and TV, Music, and the MEDIA are all forms of art. This is our problem because these are things that are consciously being fed back into us. If we keep feeding ourselves garbage, than that is what our society is going to become.

We must create positive works of art in every sense of the way, so that we can feed positivity back into ourselves and into one another and keep us going in a positive direction! A picture is worth a thousand words, lets each other up!
 
We all truly are luminous beings
If the existence of a truly luminous being were possible would there not be a anti-luminous being. Like a black hole for luminosity? If we can be good, we can therefore also be evil. If some are good, others will be evil.

Life is a struggle and everyone gets the choice as to what side they want to be one.
 
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