» Chaque individu est un masque que porte Dieu pour s’exprimer. Les masques sont cruciaux, sans eux il ne pourrait y avoir de représentation. Comme il n’y aurait aucune manière de différencier les acteurs de la pièce. Mais occasionnellement Dieu porte un masque presque transparent et le spectateur avisé saisit un aperçu de l’infini. » Wayne…
« Vision », le texte fondateur de la Vision du Soi selon Douglas Harding est présent sur volte-espace, dans ses versions originales (anglais & français), depuis le 12 novembre 2012. Et depuis ce jour-là, de très nombreux billets renvoient à ce … chef d’œuvre. Même si le véritable chef d’œuvre est moins ce texte que…
« … It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face – my utter facelessness. In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and…
« … Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse : it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, an end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was…
« … It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of « me », unstained by any…
« … It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything – room for grass, trees,…
« … And what I found was khaki trouserlegs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in – absolutely nothing whatever ! Certainly not in a head. … » « … Je découvris deux jambes de pantalon camouflé conduisant à une…
« … For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animalhood, all that could be called mine. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and…
« … What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular : I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. … » « … Il se passa quelque chose d’absurdement simple et non spectaculaire : la pensée cessa. Un calme…
« … The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it ; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood,…