Two Birds On A Tree
This is one statement Jill Bolte Taylor made at the TED conference that struck a note with me.
It brings to mind some verses in the Upanishads and the Gita, where the observer appears to become dualized with the person looking at herself, not as in an OOBE, but as an observer of the observed's observing experience.
Here are some of the verses.
Katha Upanishad III 1 -2
Seated by life's fountain. The separate ego
Drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff,
Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter,
While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter
Neither liking this nor disliking that.
The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self
Lives in light. So declare the illumined sages
And the householders who worship
The sacred fire in the name of the Lord.
May we light the fire of Nachiketa
That burns out the ego and enables us
To pass from from fearful fragmentation
To fearless fullness in the changeless whole.
Mundaka Upanishad III I 1 - 3
Intimate friends, the ego and the Self
Dwell in the same body. The former eats
The sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life
While the latter looks on detachment
As long as we think we are the ego,
We feel attached and fall into sorrow.
But realize that you are the Self, the Lord
Of life, and you will be freed from sorrow.
When you realize that you are the Self,
Supreme source of light, supreme source of love,
You transcend the duality of life
And enter into the unitive state.
Shvetashvatara Upanishad IV 6 - 3
Inseparable, live on the selfsame tree.
One bird eats the fruit of pleasure and pain;
The other looks on without eating.
Forgetting our divine origin,
We become ensnared in the world of change
And bewail our helplessness. But when
We see the Lord of Love in all his glory,
Adored by all, we go beyond sorrow.
What use are the scriptures to anyone
Who knows not the one source from whom they come,
In whom all gods and worlds abide?
Only those who realize him as ever present
Within the heart attain abiding joy.
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