Hello-ing A New Friend

Hello, RS!

Just today I discovered your very interesting website via
a posting of a quote from you on the NonDuality Salon (via
ND Highlights) that I immediately saved. It begins:
"For me mystical ecstasy is a feeling and a realization."

It's wonderful to read someone who is not afraid to talk
about 'mystical ecstasy'! And also about what I usually
refer to as 'zero-ing out...' In fact recently I tried to
describe is as a formula:although my math-inclined friends say it’s nonsense.
I describe its meaning as ‘zero-ing out through any number
of the levels that present themselves equals Foreverland.’
Foreverland is a poetic term for Nirvana – I’m constantly
trying to find modern English equivalents for foreign
phrases.

My main interest these days is summed up on this page of my website:

Some might consider me as hopelessly hedonistic,
but I would perhaps change that to ‘hopefully’...
because the only hope I see for our poor planet is
to find easily accessible methods for a larger percentage
of beings to increase their bliss tolerance than the reported
1% that Buddhism ‘enlightens’.

Also, I think the time for ‘secret’ or ‘whispered teachings’
is long past, and all and every possible method should be
shared as widely as possible, including the shaman’s
paths and all the most esoterically held exercises. Frankly,
I think I may have stumbled in my own back-assed
way onto a number of them (tracheal resonance,
blinking to swat thought streams, etc.) but also try to keep
a sense of humor about it all (smile).

Thank you for introducing me to the term ‘apophatic.’
Do you consider it related to the so-called Christian
‘Via Negativa’ and in Hindu, ‘Neti neti?’ I’m somewhat
familiar with these ‘dark night’ experiences, and perhaps
my essay on ‘Light’ you might find of interest:

I don’t consider myself to be part of any particular lineage
or ‘path,’ although I have met many mostly unknown enlightened
teachers, perhaps summed up in this essay.
http://www.raysender.com/volsimp.html

I’m interested to read that you live in the Bay Area. My wife
Judith and I have been happily settled in San Francisco’s Noe
Valley for 24 years. We run a free-admission speakers’ series
at the Noe Valley Ministry on odd-calendar-numbered Mondays.
The series is six years old, and the seventh season will start
this September.

My personal experiences tell me that matter and spirit are
intrinsically one Holon and that our star the Sun is a conscious
entity we might as well refer to as Our Mother Goddess Self. Of
the current crop of teachers, I especially admire Adyashanti,
Master Aziz Kristof in Poone (currently in seclusion), the
Christian contemplative Bernadette Roberts, and my spiritual
friend David Spero. For a sampling of his talks and videos, see www.davidspero.com

Also, I’m continually amazed by Ken Wilber’s ability to inhale
all East and West traditions and map them in marvelous ways. If
I were a 20-yr-old, I’d intern in Boulder for as long as I --
or they -- could stand it. Interesting gathering of folks.

On top of all that, I realize I might just as well continue to
throw all this silly nonsense out the window and just remain
seated, fat and sassy, on Mother’s lap where upwelling gratitude
means downpouring Grace. Go gettum, Sri Sri Ma!

Quote from jax on the DzogchenPractices list:

Dzogchen is the sound your hear that is part of your
world of sensory experience... all sound is the mantra
of Rigpa as it is. The samaya of Dzogchen is simply "to
remain undistracted"...but even that notion is too
dualistic as it implies there is "someone" who should
avoid being "distracted". Rigpa never is distracted
from the state of Rigpa... the "self" does not exist,
as it is only a concept or thought of "me" that arises
from and within Rigpa, and therefore has no volition of
its own to be distracted or not. There does not exist
an entity that get's distracted, who by practicing "non-
distraction" can realize Rigpa. There is "no one" that
realizes Rigpa or Enlightened Awareness. Buddha's main
teaching was "anatman" or absence of self. He said there
is no personal self or individual... that was the whole
liberating realization of the Enlightenment! He also
realized at that same moment that "no one" else exists
either. Hence he states in the Diamond Sutra that there
are no sentient beings to save or liberate. To think so,
he said, would be still suffering from the root delusion,
that there is some "self" entity.

That's the key premise of Dzogchen: there is "no one"
to liberate, and "no one" to attain enlightenment. "Being"
is all there is and Being is who you always are. That
perfection cannot be added to nor diminished. That's why
there is nothing to "practice"! Who would do the practices?
Explain that...