Friday, March 22, 2013

Teaching The Truth And Nothing But The AbsoluteTruth


Teaching The Truth And Nothing But The Absolute Truth

There is neither dissolution nor creation, none in bondage and 
none practicing disciplines. 
There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated. 
This is the absolute truth.  
– Gaudapada Acharya (7th Century C.E.)


"A Taste of Death - Thirty Days with UG in Gstaad,Switzerland"   was the title of a small book that Mr. Mahesh Bhatt, a popular Movie Director in India wrote almost a couple of decades ago. It described his experience of spending a month with the anti-Guru Guru, Mr. U. G. Krishnamurti. [UG left his body six years ago on this day (22 March).]

Actually no one can experience 'death.'  For death is a non-entity. A pure imagination of another imagination.  This another imagination is what "I", "you" and every one is.  

This imagination thinks that there is a "me" in here, it has some definite  well-defined describable and identifiable attributes – a name, a form, a qualification, a set of likes and dislikes, a 'will' to do things, a birth, an age and life (in one word a ‘personality’).  It is happy wallowing in the imagination of its possessions, ownership and doership. It is scared all the time that this imagination may “end.”

But “end” it must, because all imagination is nothing but a “thought.”
No thought is permanent.  Thought is like a vibration. It comes and goes. 
It is always on the move. It is itself the movement. It has only a limited time (life) span.

The “ending” of the thought in a way that it does not come back is called as “death.”
“Death” is the end of the ‘personality.’

So the ‘person’ is dead scared of death. And the 'person' in the personality has developed all sorts of ‘tricks’ to avoid his/her end, the inevitable death. One of those tricks is a continuity by believing in after life, rebirth, ‘spirituality.’

It is said about UG that he “scarcely offers hope, his candid statements seem to show many the mirror. He has therefore been referred to as 'the anti guru', the 'un-guru', the 'seer with no solutions', 'the thinker who shuns thought'.”

UG once said :  “People throw questions at me like they would stones at dogs. Like the dog, my response is also to bark. I am merely barking, which you translate into meaningful language.”

*****

Imagine that you have, instead, the words of a loving tall fatherly figure and not the scary ‘bark of a dog.’ Imagine that he is tenderly holding your hand and taking you on a long walk explaining to you how your very questioning, your very anxiety to continue yourself as a ‘separate entity’, a person,  creates a world out there separate from you.

Peter Dziuban in Plano TX, Aug 2011
(Pic. Credit: Bart)
Then you would have got an idea of Peter Dziuban, a truly tall towering personality amongst Non-dual Teachers, both metaphorically and literally.

And do you know  the word ‘peter’ shares the same root as ‘pitr’ in Sanskrit meaning father!


[Past Posts on Peter's Teachings:  See here,  here and here .]

Peter is preparing a series of short self-help Manuals that can guide the seeker in understanding the Non-dual Oneness that "you already are" through "Gedanken experiments" one can perform for oneself.  The first one titled "Simply Notice" is expected to be out soon.

*****

Hilde is my friend I am proud of. She had a taste of her ‘death’ when Peter conducted recently one of his very rare six-day long retreats.  No wonder, she finds it very difficult to describe her experience. On my insistence she has this to say:        

Hilde at Peter's Intensive
"Not sure why it is so difficult for me to put the Non-dual topics into words, maybe because it doesn't feel adequate.  However, I have been putting down some thoughts on my impressions of the Intensive. 
This was the first time to attend a retreat like this - 6 days!  It was an "intensive" where the topics all flowed back to the major theme of "This is Life's Life".  Peter went through many different descriptive terms and ideas to dissolve separation and duality:  Historylessness, Timelessness, and Distancelessness,  We did a good amount of “undoing” the illusions that are taken as reality.

The discussions truly centered around Life itself  -- How can it be stopped?!  It cannot be!  Thought cannot keep Life from Being itself totally and fully.  This point was expanded upon in a number of ways, for example, with distancelessness , there is nothing between Life and Itself.  Although Life extends everywhere, it is still Right Here.  That is so powerful!  

Also, the historylessness of Life was pointed to.  Because Life is NOW, aliving as this aware presence.  And with timelessness, there is no past, even as what appears to have been  centuries ago in time, does not exist . 
And this one….What a relief!  There is no separate person that needs to "get it', or who is separate from this Life.  There is only this Life Living Itself unstoppably and inescapably. 

What has really stuck with me since returning home is the point that nothing can or needs to be done by the individual to either get more Presence or become more Present.  The tendency to believe that thoughts can push away Presence or that searching for Presence needs to happen just does not hold any water!  How can Present Aliveness be blocked by thoughts, feelings, circumstances?  It cannot.  Any kind of duality/separation cannot impede Life.  Something that keeps coming up since the retreat is to continue practicing the suggestion of reversing the perspective of “me” observing from the vantage point of the body to looking from outside toward the body and environment.

Every one of the participants was very clear and added a lot with their comments and insights, so it really was a group get-together.
There is a lot more to talk about for a six day intensive.  Would highly recommend listening to some of the recordings that are available!”

*****

Peter  has been so kind and benevolent to share freely links to some of the tapes of the recorded conversations that happened during the retreat. (Please see the Note below re: the links).

Peter gesticulating  All That Is is the "Now"
(Pic. Credit:  Bart)

Please Note: 

Peter regrets to inform that effective 29 Apr 2013 the links to the audio tapes are not anymore available owing to some technical problems.

We are fortunate that his Talk (32 min) on "Softness of Life" at Science and Non-duality Conference 2012 is available here from May 2, 2013:
http://fora.tv/2012/10/27/Peter_Dziuban_Softness_of_Life_Science__Nonduality

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