The following is an email exchange from a reader.

To the sender of the question: I am sorry I was not able to respond to you privately via email, but the comment you left was anonymous. I hope this at least begins to address your question.

(Matthew): Nice post, Vince, but let me challenge you a bit. You say there’s no problem without thought. Obvious enough — but let’s say I have a son with leukemia who is going through painful and sickening chemotherapy. Am I not going to think about his suffering, and therefore see no “problem”? So what is your point? Saying that there’s no problem without thought strikes me as saying that there’s no pain in the leg if you don’t have a leg.

(Vince): Hi Matthew – thank you for your note. Let’s see what comes regarding your question.

I know that when members of my family (and friends) have been very ill, I have certainly thought about them. There is a kind of thinking that is very functional and helps us deal with the present moment (and bake cakes, clean kitchen counters, organize the garage, create spreadsheets, etc.). This thinking simply arises, serves its purpose, and evaporates. “I” don’t collapse around it.

My dad died from a degenerative neurological disorder that caused significant deterioration in nearly all areas of functioning for him. I certainly thought about it and thought about him. He died. I miss him every day. So, what is the point? The point, is bringing an end to psychological suffering. The point, in my experience, is that as long as I mistake myself (or my father) for this limited physical experience rather than this beyond-infinite beingness in which every thought, experience, dad, vince, son, etc. arises, problems continue to arise. Suffering is created and perpetuated by the collapse of a seeming “me” around a story – a story constructed completely of thought, completely conceptually. I see in my direct experience that there is never a problem now. Never. However, substitute this very life in this very instant with the pseudo-life of thought, then problems materialize in every direction.

So, if my son was living with leukemia and painful, sickening chemotherapy, I would do everything in my power to help rid him of the disease and the pain. I would think about him. I would probably feel sad and desperate and angry. I would feel like my heart was breaking. I would probably have the thought that this shouldn’t be happening. All of this, is the livingness that we are. Where is the problem in this?

Where is the problem in going to the hospital, remembering to bring the clean pajamas, calling the pediatric oncologist, holding my son’s hand while he cries or moans, wiping his forehead, giving him a sip of water, crying when I see him, holding my wife, and on and on? There is no problem in any of these moments – there is simply the direct experiencing of what is. This IS livingness. If we remain only with what is, there is a richness and depth and kind-heartedness that permeates all of existence – even pain, and tragedy, and death. We cannot point to “a problem.” We can point to a boy, a hospital bed, a catheter, a nurse, wet hair – but “a problem” only exists in the realm of concept.

I hope this clarifies what I wrote and helps in some way. Please feel free to write again if I have only confused the matter or if you have other questions.

Love,

Vince

The point is Love.

As long as we remain caught in the fiction of separation, there is fear and defending and attacking to maintain the form – and there are countless forms: people and dogs and nations and ideals and philosophies and theories and property and mine and yours and certainty and right and wrong and Christians and Jews and us and them and Democrats and Republicans and conservatives and liberals and educated and uneducated and rich and poor and beautiful and ugly and man and woman and terrorist and freedom-fighter and war and peace and on and on and on – the history of humanity.

The point is Love.

As soon as we SEE, as soon as we SEE that there is no one to awaken, then we SEE that there is no “we.” There is only just THIS. The Great Empty Knowingness that is looking through the eyes of the ‘One’ typing this is the same Knowingness looking through the eyes of the ‘One’ reading this. There really is just this One. There has never been anything else. There has just been an ongoing story. It is the belief in the story, the fiction, the movie of separation, that allows us to hurt and kill “the other.”

There is no ‘other.’ Seeing that directly eliminates the fear that drives the need to protect the fictional ‘me’ from the fictional ‘you.’ We, you, I am not two. There is no multiplicity. There is just the complete Allness. You are It and I am It and she is It and he is It and they are It and we are It and this is It and that is All.

And the point of All of It is Love.

I frequently get email questions from people who read the blog. I really appreciate the questions; they are a great help in clarifying what is written.

I also hear in many of the emails a great deal of frustration and efforting and pushing to “figure it out.” What I came to see, thanks to so many who graciously gave of their time and insight, is that there is no way to “figure it out.” That came as a great disappointment to me. It was tremendously frustrating and I thought that people were just hiding something from me because they didn’t think I was “ready” or maybe I was just asking questions in the wrong way.

The attempt to “figure it out” is at the heart of what the Zen tradition refers to as the ‘gateless gate’ that keeps us locked out of the garden (our true nature). Of course, the joke on all of us is that we have never left the garden; it is impossible for us to not be our true nature. However, we frequently remain mesmerized by the pictures and sounds that play in the fully-equipped theatre of thought. It was certainly no different in my experience.

Allow me to suggest something that is somewhat difficult to explain, but if you “listen softly” – as William Samuel used to say – I hope might be helpful in bringing the search and suffering to an end.

Notice that space surrounds and interpenetrates everything. In fact, it is accurate to say that everything is composed of space, a great emptiness. As the Heart Sutra says, “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” Both interdependently co-arise. All form exists within space and all space exists within form, and while there appears to be a separation, that, too is an arising of space-form.

Why am I pointing this out? Because all suffering (confusion, struggle, efforting, pushing, grasping, aversion, attachment, etc.) involves awareness “collapsing” around an object. We mistake ourselves and the Open Knowingness that we are for impermanent, object-arisings. It is as if awareness is ‘shrink wrapped’ around a particular arising and space is ‘lost’. Of course, in absolute terms, this is not at all the case; everything takes shape within infinitely clear, open space – even the experience of losing infinitely clear, open space! Nonetheless, our experience is frequently that of collapsing around some emotion-thought and being squeezed into some uncomfortable shape (like being stuffed into your school locker by seniors when you were a freshman!). Our most common reaction is to fight against the capture. This struggle against the experience tires and frustrates us, encouraging further collapse and more suffering.

Try this antidote: simply ‘give space to’ whatever is arising. Do nothing other than allow. A driver cuts you off in traffic and anger arises? Give it space. Frustration arises because you tell yourself the story that you shouldn’t be angry? Give it space. Your hands grip the steering wheel with a vengence and your jaw clenches? Give it space. You forget to give it space? Give that space, too. Just keep allowing, 100,000 times a day. You will never run out of space to give.

Keep giving space to whatever arises – anger, irritation, frustration, worry, sadness, judgment, love, passion, excitement, confusion, criticism, forgetfulness, discouragement, laughter, attraction, focus, memories, uncertainty, numbness, tension, pain, sounds, odors, sights, sensations, thought, emotion. All of it, including uncertainty about how to do it and worry about whether or not you are doing it right. Give space to the search. Give space to the concern that you will never ‘get it’. Give space to other people who are not doing it (whatever it is) ‘right’. Give space to your unreasonableness.

Giving space to these seeming objects/events will come naturally (go ahead now and give space to the thought that you don’t think it will and that you really don’t get it). Giving everything more and more space will come naturally because you ARE space, too, not just form. Allowing space is simply a recognition of the full emptiness of your true nature.

You don’t get it. Neither do I. You are a lost cause. So am I. Let’s give that space, too.

Nothing needs to be done to simply rest as the awareness that You are.

No practices are needed. No special breathing. No need to sit in the lotus posture. No more books to read. No more talks to attend. No more weekend workshops and trainings are necessary. No particular geographical location is more auspicious than another. No special clothes need to be worn. No need to wear Birkenstocks. No need to become a vegetarian or a vegan. No need to join the Green Party. No need to stop smoking cigars. No need to only wear natural fabrics. No need to Wabi Sabi or Feng Shui your home. No need take a month long retreat. No need to stop listening to jazz and start listening to Indian ragas. No need to look for a blessing from a spiritual teacher. No particular type of thinking is necessary. No particular order of thinking is necessary. No need to have a flexible body. No need to be in good health. No need to sit zazen. No need to watch Nisargadatta on YouTube. Understand, you may do any or all or none of these things – nothing wrong with any of them – but none of them can take you anywhere or make what You already are more available than it is in this very moment.

You absolutely, unequivocally, already are the vast, open, clear, unstained, unnamable, unknowable, inexperiencable (is that a word?), beyond-intelligent, unendingly creative emptiness. Everything else, absolutely everything else is a seeming-object/form arising within You…even the seeming-you.

Whenever doubt or worry or urgency or straining or efforting or hopelessness or certainty or ease or, well, anything arises, do nothing. Rest. Notice that it arises, has its moment, and dissolves again into…what? You. In fact, even the objects/forms are Awareness – are You. Even the sense of separation is Awareness/You. You can’t get away from You. Everything arises within and is dependent upon You. Give up. There is no escape. Another way of saying this is…aaaaahhhhhhh…rest. No matter what thoughts or books or self-improvement programs tell you, You are already fine the way you are.

You are already what you are looking for – but only right now.

There is nothing to do that can take you any closer to where you already are.

What if everything is already alright? What if you are exactly where you need to be? What if life is living you perfectly? What if it is seen that the ‘you’ is just another thought arising in…?

You are already whole, already complete. There isn’t anything you need to change or improve or understand in order to rest as this vast Natural Intelligence that you are. It is only a thought that says there is a ‘you’ who is ‘alive’. The Knowingness that you are recognizes that ‘you’ are really being lived.

You can relax. It is already done. You are already a Buddha, already an expression of the Body of Christ. There is nothing more that can be done to improve upon it. Notice this now and simply rest as this Natural Great Perfection. Attempting to improve upon it is like trying to increase the height of Mount Everest by dropping a grain of sand at its base.

This is good news. You have arrived. You never really went anywhere to begin with. It is only the character in the story that has traveled. We are all dreaming until realization. Then, the dream continues as before, but there is a knowing that the dream is happening. Nothing changes and everything changes. This can all be seen from the very spot on which you now stand. You are already on Holy Ground.

If you really want to be done with the search, don’t read this as an intellectual exercise. Don’t read this as just another step on your way to “finally getting it.”

Instead, right now, look directly at this very moment. Take your time and really look.

Listen to sounds.

See color, shape, and movement.

Sense pressure, texture, and temperature.

Notice that absolutely no effort is required for any of this to happen.

Sensing, seeing, hearing are all happening, right now, effortlessly.

Notice, in this moment – right now – reading is happening. Squiggles are seen on the screen and thoughts take shape.

Notice thought in this moment…picture, word, sound.

The content of some thought refers to activities that have already occurred – the past.

The content of some thought refers to activities that may occur – the future.

Notice that regardless of the content of the thought, the thought itself is arising in this moment – right now.

Notice that there is probably an assumption that ‘I observe the thought…I hear…I see…I sense…’

Notice that these assumptions are also thoughts arising in this moment – right now. They are seen by…?

Notice that any answer given is another thought arising right now and seen by…?

It takes no effort whatsoever to simply see, simply listen, simply sense. If efforting arises, that is simply seen, too. It takes no effort to notice effort.

This is Awareness. This is Beingness. This is Isness. This is It. This is what you are. No effort is needed to see this. No effort is needed to get here. No effort is needed to be.

Attempt to not be aware. What happens? Try to not be here. What happens? Try to not be. What happens?

Let effort be the reminder that no effort is necessary to be what you already are.

Rest.

This pathless path is not one of perfection. As has been written by countless others, there is nothing that you need to do to recognize who/what you really are. Nonetheless, many of us are addicted to the idea of spiritual progress or spiritual perfection. We have been taught to look at everything we do – eating, sleeping, exercising, raising children, cleaning the porch, washing the dishes, making love, maintaining a relationship, dressing, earning money, decorating a house, driving the car, being a ‘seeker’ – through the eyes of achievement.

Achievement suggests that there is something that we must do in order to obtain some desired result in the future. We assume (read here, ‘believe the thought-story’) that there is some ‘secret way’ that will result in some kind of special and life-altering attainment. It is this very movement away from what is towards what we believe should be that creates the (seeming) barrier to our (seeming) ‘attainment’.

The only thing that ever needs to be ‘done’ (and it really isn’t a ‘doing’ so much as an ‘allowing’) is to open the door wider. This means to simply allow whatever is arising in this very experience to be as it is. Is there disappointment? Good. Open the door. Is there fear? Good. Open the door. Is there the story that ‘you’ will never ‘get it’? Good. Open the door. Is there disinterest in all of this seeking? Good. Open the door. Is there pain in the body? Good. Open the door. Is there joy? Good. Open the door. Is there frustration and disagreement in reading this? Good. Open the door. Is there a complete lack of understanding of what is being pointed to here? Good. Open the door. Is there recognition that weeds need to be pulled from the tomatoes? Good. Open the door. Is there boredom? Good. Open the door. Is there a desire to practice? Good. Open the door. Is there a desire to pray? Good. Open the door.

Just keep opening the door wider. Allow and welcome all of the ‘guests’. Especially, open the door to, and welcome, your own beautiful and bumbling humanity – the struggle, the worry, the pain, the upset, the miserable, the magnificent, the fearful, the loving, the transcendent, the daily grind, the conflict, the despair, the hope, the vindictiveness, the greed,the loss, the joy, the contentment. Seeing who You are doesn’t erase this life,this very moment. That is another belief,another idea – open the door wide to it, too.

If Beingness-Awareness is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, then IT is HERE NOW in this very experience! ‘You’ are ‘It’ NOW. No achievement or attainment can bring It to ‘you’ – It is you-ing you! There isn’t a ‘better’ experience to ‘work towards.’ This is it!

Open the door wide! Better yet, take it off its hinges and throw it in the fire. By the way, the belief in a separate ‘I’ is the material from which the door is made and is completely combustible – let it burn.

Right now, in this moment, aren’t ‘you’ being?

Right now, in this moment, look directly and answer this question: does it take any effort to be right now?

Right. Absolutely everything else is a dead-end direction.

There isn’t any more to IT than This.

Rest.

Raj: I can feel or let me say, I know I am ‘aware’ only when I see things around (visible world). Without them I do not even know whether I am ‘present’ or ‘aware’ (like in deep sleep). So is it correct to say: my Awareness = the things around when I am in my wakeful state?

VF: Raj, you write “without [objects] I do not even know whether I am present or aware. So is it correct to say my awareness equals the things around me when I am in a wakeful state?” Who possesses this awareness referred to? What is this “I” that is or is not in a “wakeful state?”

Please look clearly at your question and see the misunderstanding at its core. Seeing that, the question dissolves. So, let me add a little solvent to see if we can hasten the process!

Is there an ‘I’ who is ‘aware’? That is, on direct investigation, can a separate entity be found who is aware? Or, is there just IT/Awareness in and as which ALL objects – physical, mental, emotional, visible, aural, textured, and odorous – appear? There is never a ‘you’ present whether in deep sleep or waking or any other expression of consciousness. There is no separation between objects seemingly arising ‘within’ Awareness and Awareness. They are one and the same.

Everything is an expression of formlessness. Everything is an expression of IT. There is not a reciprocal relationship between objects and Awareness – for this to be so would require separation between the seeming object and a seeming witness. Even this seeming reciprocity is part of IT. THIS/IT is causeless. IT arises immediately-spontaneously-completely-at once!

Raj: The so called end of seeking is: this body-mind exists with all the sensations sort of smeared somewhere in the visible world without my consciously feeling “I-ness” and it feels like an effort to call the “I-ness” into attention?

VF: It is much simpler. The end of seeking is simply the recognition that the seeker is the sought. The end of seeking comes when the fiction of a separate someone who is looking for a special something is seen for what it is – a phantom, a shadow, a vanishing echo, a dream.

Is there seeking right now? Or, is there just looking at squiggles on the screen and thoughts arising? What is seeking other than more thinking, more story about something to be found? Drop it now! Finish this! What is sought will NEVER be uncovered with more thought – only more deeply buried.

Raj: Even in that non-existent “I-ness”, this body is still separate and distinct sitting in this space (India) and Vince is another body sitting in another space (USA).

VF: Interesting story!

Find something that is not IT. Separate something from IT and send it to me. Is there anything not IT, including the story of a separate body here and a separate body sitting there? Raj, I-IT is looking through your eyes right now and you-IT are looking through mine. Where is the separation? Remember, the role of thought is to divide. The ability to divide has its uses, but a thought cannot know IT even though thought is an expression of IT.

Better yet, drop all of this, including my response, and take a walk. Listen to the birds, to the wind, smell the air, look at the open sky, feel the earth beneath your feet. Leave these considerations alone and rest. IT is Raj-ing, Raj. Just rest as IT (there really is no choice anyway) and then see if there are any questions or if there is just relief!

Be well.

Love,

Vince

Raj: I can feel or let me say, I know I am ‘aware’ only when I see things around (visible world). Without them I do not even know whether I am ‘present’ or ‘aware’ (like in deep sleep). So is it correct to say: my Awareness = the things around when I am in my wakeful state?

VF: Raj, you write “without [objects] I do not even know whether I am present or aware. So is it correct to say my awareness equals the things around me when I am in a wakeful state?” Who possesses this awareness referred to? What is this “I” that is or is not in a “wakeful state?”

Please look clearly at your question and see the misunderstanding at its core. Seeing that, the question dissolves. So, let me add a little solvent to see if we can hasten the process!

Is there an ‘I’ who is ‘aware’? That is, on direct investigation, can a separate entity be found who is aware? Or, is there just IT/Awareness in and as which ALL objects – physical, mental, emotional, visible, aural, textured, and odorous – appear? There is never a ‘you’ present whether in deep sleep or waking or any other expression of consciousness. There is no separation between objects seemingly arising ‘within’ Awareness and Awareness. They are one and the same.

Everything is an expression of formlessness. Everything is an expression of IT. There is not a reciprocal relationship between objects and Awareness – for this to be so would require separation between the seeming object and a seeming witness. Even this seeming reciprocity is part of IT. THIS/IT is causeless. IT arises immediately-spontaneously-completely-at once!

Raj: The so called end of seeking is: this body-mind exists with all the sensations sort of smeared somewhere in the visible world without my consciously feeling “I-ness” and it feels like an effort to call the “I-ness” into attention?

VF: It is much simpler. The end of seeking is simply the recognition that the seeker is the sought. The end of seeking comes when the fiction of a separate someone who is looking for a special something is seen for what it is – a phantom, a shadow, a vanishing echo, a dream.

Is there seeking right now? Or, is there just looking at squiggles on the screen and thoughts arising? What is seeking other than more thinking, more story about something to be found? Drop it now! Finish this! What is sought will NEVER be uncovered with more thought – only more deeply buried.

Raj: Even in that non-existent “I-ness”, this body is still separate and distinct sitting in this space (India) and Vince is another body sitting in another space (USA).

VF: Interesting story!

Find something that is not IT. Separate something from IT and send it to me. Is there anything not IT, including the story of a separate body here and a separate body sitting there? Raj, I-IT is looking through your eyes right now and you-IT are looking through mine. Where is the separation? Remember, the role of thought is to divide. The ability to divide has its uses, but a thought cannot know IT even though thought is an expression of IT.

Better yet, drop all of this, including my response, and take a walk. Listen to the birds, to the wind, smell the air, look at the open sky, feel the earth beneath your feet. Leave these considerations alone and rest. IT is Raj-ing, Raj. Just rest as IT (there really is no choice anyway) and then see if there are any questions or if there is just relief!

Be well.

Love,

Vince