God-Intoxicated

Masts in Kashmir

In Sufi philosophy, a mast is a person who is overcome with love for God, with concomitant external disorientation resembling intoxication. The word originates from the Sufi term Mast-Allah meaning "intoxicated with God." from Persian mast, lit. "intoxicated."

Divine

to cease "i'm" is divine.
— telicity (@sjojungfruu) November 14, 2012

Be Dead

Abba (father, or wise old man) Macarius was a Christian monk and hermit, living in 4th century Egypt. One of the founders of Christian monasticism, Abba Macarius spent most of his life in the Scetic and Nitrian deserts, along with other famous desert fathers such as Abba Anthony the Great and John the Dwarf.

Below is one of the sayings (apophthegm) attributed to him.

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A brother paid a visit to Abba Macarius and said to him, “Tell me a word: how can I be saved?”

The old man said to him, “Go to the tombs. Curse the dead. Throw rocks at them.”

The brother left. He cursed the dead and threw rocks at them, and when he returned to the old man, the old man said to him, “They didn’t say anything to you did they?”

The brother said to him, “No father.”

The old man said to him, “Go tomorrow and glorify them, saying, ‘you are apostles, you are saints and righteous.’”

He returned to the old man and said to him, “I glorified them.”

The old man said to him, “They didn’t say anything to you did they?”

He said, “No.”

The old man said to him, “You have seen how you cursed them and they did not say anything to you, and how you glorified them and they did not respond at all. It should be the same with you too: if you wish to be saved, go, be dead, having no regard for people’s contempt nor their honors, like the dead, and you can be saved.”

The Worst Spiritual Teacher?

The other day on Twitter we asked:

Who is the worst spiritual teacher alive?
— Integral Monastery (@I_Monastery) October 26, 2012

Here are some of the answers:

@i_monastery Whoever claims to be "the best spiritual teacher alive".
— Rick (@puddlemonk) October 26, 2012

@i_monastery I'm pretty fucking bad myself, I can say without pride.Never transformed anyone's life, as far as I know. Not one.
— Plotinus Plinlimmon (@TuningFork2) October 26, 2012

"@i_monastery: Who is the worst spiritual teacher alive?" Me.
— Matt Williamson ॐ (@vajramatt) October 26, 2012

@i_monastery The one that sees you as a student.
— Mojo 1000 (@MOJO1000) October 27, 2012

The only name of an active spiritual teacher that came up was Yehuda Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Center, who someone thought was a "blabbering fool."

in·ef·fa·ble

Complete

When you want nothing, you always get what you want.

~ Scott Kiloby

Saints

The absolute bliss of non-attachment.

Diamond Sutra

"Subhuti, any person who awakens faith upon hearing the words or phrases of this Sutra will accumulate countless blessings and merit.

How do I know this? Because this person must have discarded all arbitrary notions of the existence of a personal self, of other people, or of a universal self. Otherwise their minds would still grasp after such relative conceptions. 

Furthermore, these people must have already discarded all arbitrary notions of the non-existence of a personal self, other people, or a universal self. Otherwise, their minds would still be grasping at such notions. Therefore anyone who seeks total Enlightenment should discard not only all conceptions of their own selfhood, of other selves, or of a universal self, but they should also discard all notions of the non-existence of such concepts."

~ Diamond Sutra, Chapter 6.

Twilight Walk

Integral Monastery twilight walk.

Jesus Manifestation

In secular Sweden, this certainly doesn't happen every day. As I was going about my business, large groups of people in a seemingly endless procession all of the sudden came marching down the street. I asked a girl walking by what was going on:

"This is the Jesus Manifestation," she said, smiling. "Jesus loves you!"

'JESUS SAID: 'FOLLOW ME"'

"Jesus said: 'I am the light of the world.'"

"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved."

Small signs, saying:
"Jesus remains the same. Yesterday, today, and forever."
"Jesus can help you."
"Whatever the sickness, Jesus can heal it."

"Jesus said: believe in God and believe in me."

A Benedictine monk in front of a kick ass Jesus flag.

"One who possesses the Son, possesses life."

Action

The dress code for tonight's party will be dissolved flesh, vast night skies, and echoes from the stainless vortex of conditioned genesis.

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Photograph: Johan Sandberg

Pinterest

Integral Monastery is now also on the relatively new social network Pinterest. Carefully chosen visuals on boards like Spirituality, Religious Imagery, The Ascended, and more.

http://pinterest.com/monastery/

Some of the boards.

Peace

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” 

~ Jesus. (John 14:27)

Rainbow

Looking at a rainbow, colours never begin nor end. Yet we speak of colours as if they were independent phenomena, existing by themselves. 

Maybe we are like the colours of a rainbow, neither existing nor not existing. If so, what selves can we cling to? And there being no clinging, how could suffering take root? 

May all beings be liberated.

Bodhisattva

the ultimate bodhisattva thought: liberating all beings in realizing there are no beings

— Aumshantidatta (@AumDada) February 12, 2012

The Sincere

Don’t be some ‘orator of freedom.’ 

Just be quiet, disappear, and the whole world will follow you. 

Into that place that nobody can speak about.

~ Mooji

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Photograph: Elif Sanem Karakoç

A New Website on Emptiness Teachings

Our friend and nondual teacher Greg Goode just launched a new website, which will be devoted to the teachings of emptiness – a profound spiritual practice dating back over two thousand years. The Integral Monastery has written a guest article for the site’s blog called A Night in Emptiness.

"Emptiness teachings are widely held to be liberating. The purpose of this site is to present the great variety of these teachings in a way that will help make them accessible and relevant. We will feature scholarly, experiential and popular approaches to the emptiness teachings, and we will honor the diversity of traditions from which they flow. Our goal is to highlight the power and appeal of these teachings so that they may do their work."

www.emptiness.co