Old Squirrel Basking in the Sun

There is a luminous book by the title

Old Man Basking in the Sun.

It is Longchen Rabjampa's Treasury of Natural Perfection.

Please find below an amazing excerpt from

the translator's introduction.

I could not resist inserting the word "squirrel" in the title, since the squirrel has

definitely mastered the art of relaxation!

"In Dzogchen, there is no fall from grace and there never has been a fall from grace...

...the golden age lies just beneath an insubstantial, fragile surface of dualistic belief!"

So stay here, you lucky people,

Let go and be happy in the natural state.
Let your complicated life and everyday confusion alone
And out of quietude, doing nothing, watch the nature of mind.
This piece of advice is from the bottom of my heart:
Fully engage in contemplation and understanding is born;
Cherish non-attachment and delusion dissolves;
And forming no agenda at all reality dawns.
Whatever occurs, whatever it may be, that itself is the key,
And without stopping it or nourishing it, in an even flow,
Freely resting, surrendering to ultimate contemplation,
In naked pristine purity we reach consummation. (p. xxvii)

http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/old_man_basking_in_the_sun.htm

Free Flow of Wisdom

Wherever there is awareness... there are squirrels.

Wherever there are squirrels... there is awareness.

If this is not seen, only one squirrel at a time is viewed...

Seeing awareness as different from squirrels.

Seeing one squirrel at a time is the habit until...

Squirreluminosity is reached.

Then everysquirrel all at once is the ubiquitous display of wisdom.

Forever Empty Flawless Awareness

The source of all knowing is found

in the simplicity of what's looking.

What is looking is entirely restful...

no matter what goes on within it.

All appearances are comprised of

forever empty space and nothing else.

Therefore, if we try to change the appearances in some way,

by making them into something better,

then we move farther away from realizing

our own flawless nature.

This flawless nature is what's looking.

And that is TOTAL LOVE.

Phenomena arise and dissolve like the images in a dream;

They have no reality in their own right.

Phenomena are like appearances in a crystal ball.

True wisdom is to know that awareness is

the basis of all phenomena.

To identify with the basis rather than the appearances

is to really rest!

Rely on the unexperiencable!

Awareness is the root of all experience.

Listen to this enlightening satsang

with Candice O'Denver:

Flawless Awareness - 2.06.09 from Balanced View Candice on Vimeo.

Uncontrived Openness

Just like the uncontrived frolicking of a little squirrel,

the benefit of open intelligence, the Tao, is

the impromptu and spontaneous utterance of Cosmic Love.

By resting in the warmth of this basic state of luminous wisdom,

we are free of suffering.

We observe that all phenomena arise and self-release,

leaving us to enjoy the bliss of this

ever present and all pervading reality.

No matter what is appearing,

all is well!

Freedom to enjoy all states

is available by taking a squirrel moment...

Byron Katie calls this 'loving what is'. Eckhart Tolle calls it 'NOW'.

Candice O'Denver has called it "a shimmering pool of pleasantness"!

She says, "Why Worry? Be Happy!"

Empty and Pure

I love how everything is empty of substance

and full of space.

Just like a squirrel prior to birth,

there is only pure luminosity!

Are you aware of the purity of

undifferentiated spaciousness?

What could be more full of goodness!

Try to hold on to the flavor

of your favorite food,

or to make a beautiful sunset last one minute longer.

Can you do it?

And why put forth so much effort towards

getting rid of anything?

You know every little thing will simply float away

in it's own time!

Little squirrels know the secret;

that the nuts you bury are not for you.

Everything is meant to be given

That's how love grows!

Squirrelopulence

To own nothing, but to have everything is true opulence.

This totally describes the life of a little squirrel!

Have you ever witnessed the ease with which squirrels live? Everything they do is play! Whether they are burying nuts, frolicking in the grass, or chasing each other in the tree tops... it's all bliss. They want for nothing!

The buddha said that craving is the source of suffering... Byron Katie has said that whatever you have IS what you want... you just might not have realized this yet! This is where our squirrel relations are such great teachers. Everything is a gift. This moment is totally FULL of everything you need... and if you don't believe it, look around! The ground is holding you. The chair you are sitting in is supporting you. You are being breathed! And you did nothing for all of this! WOW!

I feed the little squirrels at the trail almost every day and have been doing this for many years. Squirrels will eat until they are full and then if you give them another nut, they will bury it. They are not burying it for themselves! They don't consider it "their nut"... they are burying it for the whole squirrel community! Whoever sniffs it out gets it! And everyone has enough.

Squirrels don't worry about anything. They are part of nature and nature provides everything!

Most humans have lost their connection to nature and have bought into the belief in scarcity! We worry so much about having enough money to do this or that and completely miss the abundance that we do have! Can we just be grateful for this day? for this air? for this life?

"This place where you are right now,

God circled on a map for you."

~ Hafiz

Easy is Right, Right is Easy

One of the things I really appreciate about the Great Freedom Teachings of Candice O'Denver is the repeated direction to "Just rest for a moment!" . For many of us who have been on a spiritual path of seeking for many years, these words are like the sweetest music we could possibly hear! Human beings are so used to changing, fixing, replacing, and running away from aspects of ourselves or our circumstances. And this response has only brought more unease and more war to our planet. So, to be told to relax and to let everything be as it is, is not what we are used to! There are many free downloads on www.greatfreedom.org and all of them are amazingly simple and phenomenally profound. After finishing the basic four-day training with two excellent trainers from Balanced View, I can say that it is such a relief to be a part of this lovely movement working for peace on the planet. Listen to Netti Raysz, a trainer for Great Freedom as she talks about "Complete Comfort"

http://www.greatfreedom.org/Downloads/Free%20cc%20audio%20downloads/GFTeachers/RSS%20Netti/03_03_11%20Netti%20-%20Complete%20Comfort.mp3

"Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but is already

present in open relaxation and letting go. Don't strain yourself ~ there is nothing to do or undo. Whatever arises momentarily in the body-mind has no real importance at all, has little reality whatsoever. Why identify with it and become attached to it, passing judgement upon it and ourselves?

Far better to simply let the entire game happen on its own, springing up and falling back like waves ~ without changing or manipulating anything ~ and notice how everything vanishes and reappears magically again and again, time without end. Only our searching for happiness prevents us from seeing it. It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching, or a dog chasing its own tail.

Althought peace and happiness do not exist as an actual thing or place, it is always available and accompanies you every instant. Don't believe in the reality of good and bad experiences;

they are like today's ephemeral weather, like rainbows in the sky. Wanting to grasp the ungraspable, you exhaust yourself in vain. As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping, infinite space is here ~ open, inviting and comfortable.

Make use of the spaciousness, this freedom and natural ease. Don't search any further. Don't go into the tangled jungle looking for the great awakened elephant who is already resting quietly at home in front of your own hearth.

Nothing to do or undo,

Nothing to force,

Nothing to want, and

Nothing missing.

Emaho! Marvelous!

Everything happens by itself.

the words of Lama Gendun Rinpoche

found on:

http://livinginpeace-thenaturalstate.com/

(see issue # 20)

The Luminous Quality of Love

Phenomena Arising

Egrets driven by mirth and the innocence of the heart;

Free-wheeling in the greatness of the solar fireball.

Look inside your third eye and taste the color!

Wow! Ceremoniously purple.

Why can't you hear the fragrance of the cypress?

The blind take their canoes out upon the streams of luminescent raspberry.

Cattails ascend through the fog, creating a new realm.

Knowing the juicy effervescent sunset peach opens the door to dissolution.

Oscillating waves of color collapse into spheres of glowing indigo;

Just before the blades of grass erupt through the fertile soil,

They arrange themselves in the form of a Mayan blueprint.

And what is their transmission?

Bathing in the crystal aqua silkiness,

Immersed in a blanket of gardenia blossoms;

Sparkling cosmic rays of sunlight pierce the liquid dream,

And impart ancient knowledge of a civilization of star people.

Surreal cloudbursts are suspended in the typical skyscape and go unnoticed;

Except by the eccentric dreamweavers!

Inscriptions of an ancient galactic language inform the sun runners

Of the latest developments in the Divine plan for Cosmic Harmony.

For those earthlings unaware of what transpires above them,

Harmonic crystalline frequencies still radiate gentle benefit upon them;

Bequeathing all with blessings of Grace.

Sometimes it feels as if the layers of consciousness

Are weaving haphazardly through the dimensions,

Causing unrecognizable feelings and emotions.

And yet, all is saturated with squirreluminous delight!

If the baby squirrels could speak,

They would explain everything that's going on in the most precise and eloquent manner;

Alas... the One made their voices inaudible to our external ears.

Only by listening with our hearts, could we perceive their message.

They say:

"Everything you do, do with love...

Enjoy now, play now, love now...

There is no time for anything but enjoyment."

Brilliant furry squirrels bursting forth

With great incandescent lanterns of shining love...

Lighting the way to cosmic unity!

We wander through this life wholly unsuspecting of the great animal boddhisattvas

Of pure and innocent heart wisdom!

“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe Me.’
Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the Whole Sky” — Hafiz

Awareness IS Love

There is nothing NOT saturated with LOVE!

There's nothing to search for! Love is always here right now in what is!!!

I love these amazing words of Candice O'Denver... listen and feel the love!

And For No Reason

And

For no reason

I start skipping like a child.

And

For no reason

I turn into a leaf

That is carried so high

I kiss the Sun's mouth

And dissolve.

And

For no reason

A thousand birds

Choose my head for a conference table,

Start passing their

Cups of wine

And their wild songbooks all around.

And

For every reason in existence

I begin to eternally,

To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf

And start dancing,

I run to kiss our beautiful Friend

And I dissolve in the Truth

That I Am.

Hafiz, a beautiful, mystic, Sufi poet from Persia

The One Thing

From The Emerald Tablet by Dennis William Hauck:

"The Above is the abode of the One Mind and the Below is the abode of the One Thing. You need know nothing more because nothing more is knowable; you cannot label the ineffable. Work instead with the tiny spark of consciousness of which you are possessed; that spark can be fanned into a blazing gnosis that burns away the falsity of your tragic self-deception. Thereafter can you verify for yourself that of which I speak. You can behold the One Mind; you can touch the One Thing."

"You should not fear the One Thing, for you have dominion over it. It is the nothing that is something, the same substance of which your dreams are made. But your fear has turned it into your nightmare, and only through its dissolution can you reclaim your power and dream anew. For just as your dreams are fashioned by your hidden mind, so is the world dreamt by the hidden mind of God. Therefore, the thoughts of the One Mind are your reality, and the presence of the One Thing is your dream. And the dreamer and his dream are always One."

..."Mind and matter appear as two in the mirror of existence, but they flow into one another as One. Like the Fountain of Fountains feeding on itself, so does one continually pass into the other. The One Mind becomes the One Thing, and out of the One Thing comes the One Mind. They are and always were both One."

What is the One Thing? I am compelled to believe that what Hermes called "The One Thing" in the Emerald Tablet is in fact what Candice O'Denver names the Basic State or Clarity or Open Intelligence. In fact, once this One Thing is realized as that which YOU ARE, then and only then are you totally free!