From Nitya Tripta's Notes on Spiritual Discourses with Shri Atmananda: Thoughts on Spontaneity and Contemplation.

Click here to contemplate the spontaneous nature of perception, a key to a "feeling understanding" of nonduality. Extracted from Nitya Tripta's Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda, a sage of 20th century India, along with Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma, and Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Scott Kiloby on Relationships

Scott Kiloby recently wrote a very interesting exercise to investigate our sense of separation and relationships with apparent others. Here is his captivating analysis:

I’ve been looking into more innovative ways of helping people see through separation. I’ve since developed something I call the Boomerang Inquiry, which works with respect to relationships (i.e., seeing through the sense of separation in relationships).

Robert imagines a dialogue with a seeker on the strange search for that which is everywhere and always present...

X. My life feels meaningless, repetitious and full of conflict, even after all the years of spiritual search. 

Y. Perhaps it’s because of the years of spiritual search.

X. What do you mean? 

Francis Lucille raises the question: What are Nondual teachers referring to when they speak of "enlightenment"? Are they even talking about the same thing?

This confusion about what is meant by enlightenment and other basic definitional issues regarding nondual teaching is the purpose of our new 4 DVD set.

In October of 2009, StillnessSpeaks.com travelled to San Rafael, California, to introduce 15 Western masters and teachers of nonduality to our audience.

We prepared a list of questions for each of them to answer. The same material was covered by each teacher. In this way, we hoped to share each teacher's perspective on these important subjects.

This process raised as many questions as it answered. One thing is for certain, there is profound disagreement amongst teachers.

In this series, the fundamental question of each teacher's view on whether there is "enlightenment" and, if so, what they mean when referring to it, is specificlly explored.

Click here for more discussion on nondual teachers, and to see brief video clips of questions answered by Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira, and Greg Goode, plus new videos of James Swartz, Joel Morewood, and Jeff Foster, from the release our new DVD, Western Masters of Nonduality.

The Tree as Archetypal Image

In his book, Eternity Now, Francis Lucille shares the remarkable story of awakening to his Eternity. In it, he refers to the symbol of a tree and its roots:

"As a result of this abandon, the intense terror which had been holding me instantaneously released its grip and changed into a flow of bodily sensations and thoughts which rapidly converged towards a single thought, the ‘I’ thought, just as the roots and branches of a tree converge towards its single trunk. In an almost simultaneous apperception, the personal entity I was identifying with revealed itself in its totality. I saw its superstructure, the thoughts originating from the ‘I’ concept and its infrastructure, the traces of my fears and desires at the physical level. Now, the entire tree was contemplated by an impersonal eye, and both the superstructure of thoughts and the infrastructure of bodily sensations rapidly vanished, leaving the ‘I‘ thought alone in a field of consciousness."

Throughout culture and literature, the universal metaphor of the tree occurs as a mystical archetype. In traditional Vedanta, throughout the Upanishads, the Mahabarata, and Bhagavad Gita, the metaphor of the Tree of Samasara is used to unfold the mysteries of life. In the Kabbalist text, Sefer-ha-Zohar, in Islamic tradition, in the works of Dante and Plato, the symbol of the tree appears.

What does the universal symbol of the tree point to?  Click here to read the rest of Francis Lucille's story of awakening, to discover what the Bhagavad Gita says about the Asvattha Tree, and to learn what Rene Guenon, held in regard by Jean Klein, said of the tree symbol.

Like so many of us, I thought for so long that I longed for Divine Ecstasy. But in the end...

"When Love, Causeless and Conditionless,
Filled the Serene Emptiness
Left when "I" vanished,
All was Fulfilled."

Click here to share Chuck's expression of what is, for so many of us, our true Heart's Desire.

Traditional Vedanta refers to the gross, subtle and causal bodies. Although most are familiar with the gross and subtle bodies, many are not familair with the "seed state of samara" or "infinite potentiality", sometimes referred to as the indestructible, the eternal, akshara.

Recently, Francis wrote to me regarding my request to explore the causal body, Later, the discussion continued in satsang. For those who may not have heard Francis' response, click here to read his description of the causal body and to enjoy our new video clip with him from the SAND conference.

This is the first of what we all hope will be many entries by Scott Kiloby, a contemporary nonduality teacher, whom many of you are familiar with.

Scott Kiloby is the author of Love's Quiet Revolution:  The End of the Spiritual Search and Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment. He is also the creator of an addiction/recovery method called Natural Rest.  His book, Natural Rest: Finding Recovery Through Presence, is scheduled for release in early 2011. 

Click "more" to enjoy a chapter of Scott's latest e-book entitled Living Realization and see yet another video from our new StillnessSpeaks DVD with him.