A common space for harmonic peacemakers

II: 45

Chapter 2, Verse 45

"The scriptures dwell in duality.

Be beyond all opposites, Arjuna.

Poise your mind in tranquility,

Anchored in the real,

And free from all thoughts

Of wealth and comfort."

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:

"Arjuna's dilemma is how to reconcile love of kinsmen with the necessity to root out evil. On the plane of relative life, dilemmas like this can be irreconcilable. Krishna, however, shows him the field where righteousness and love merge in eternal harmony, the eternal life of Being. The relative field of life is full of conflicting elements: heat and cold, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, and all the other pairs of opposites which constitute life. Under their influence, a life gets tossed about like a ship on rough seas. To be freed from duality is to rest in the field of non-duality, the state of Being. It is like an anchor for the ship of life amidst a sea of change. Steadiness is gained."

Stephen King (from The Shining):

"'Daddy's worried about us,' said Danny [the five year-old son who is gifted telepathically] to his mother. 'He thinks maybe we'll be lonely. And then he thinks that he likes it here and it's a good place for us. He loves us and doesn't want us to be lonely...or sad...but he thinks even if we are, it might be okay in the long run.' It was hard to explain, he understood so little of it himself. Grownups were always in a turmoil, every possible action muddied over by thoughts of the consequences, by self-doubt, by self-image [italics his], by feelings of love and responsibility. Every possible choice seemed to have drawbacks."

[Those who rest in Being and are “anchored in the real” are free from the muddying quality of a thought process preoccupied by past and future…]

From “Grist: Environmental News and Commentary”

Mark Hertsgaard
10 May 2005

How long could you survive without your car? For the many Americans who think nothing of driving 10 blocks to buy a gallon of milk, the answer is obvious. But before any of you dedicated pedestrians and die-hard cyclists start feeling smug, try this question: How long could you survive without talking? Chances are, nowhere near as long as John Francis did. After a massive oil spill polluted San Francisco Bay in 1971, Francis gave up all motorized transportation. For 22 years, he walked everywhere he went -- including treks across the entire United States and much of South America -- hoping to inspire others to drop out of the petroleum economy. Soon after he stopped riding in cars, Francis, the son of working-class, African-American parents in Philadelphia, also stopped speaking. For 17 years, he communicated only through improvised sign language, notes, and his ever-present banjo.

John Francis: “Silence is not just not talking. It's a place where all things come from. All voices, all creation comes out of this silence.”

Eckhart Tolle:

“When anything arises out of Presence, it means that this moment is not a means to an end. The doing becomes fulfilling in itself every moment. You are no longer reducing the Now to a means to an end, which is egoic consciousness.”

Sri Aurobindo:

“What gettings and havings has the free soul? Once we are possessed of the Self, we are in possession of all things. And yet we do not cease from work and action. Here lies the originality and power of Krishna’s teaching, that having affirmed for the liberated soul this emptiness of all that ordinarily constitutes the action of nature, there still remains the injunction to follow through with action, thus avoiding the defect of the exclusive, quietistic and ascetic philosophies.”