Trust It

What we who have been ‘seekers’ have sought is the very thing that watches the seeking, that watches the stopping of seeking, that watches the frustration, the resignation, the eggs cooking, the Monday Night Football game, the dog sleeping, the stomach gurgling, the cold feet, the uncertainty, the bad money management, the opinions, the beliefs, the arguments, the peacefulness and violence, that watches the watching. 

What we really are – what everything really is – is this simple, uncontrived, undivided, unbreakable, unknowable knowing. I am not trying to be obtuse or poetic or philosophical. I really want to help you bring the searching to an end, if that is what you want to do. Right now, you are reading this and you are AWARE of reading it and you are aware of thinking, sights, sounds, and sensations right now. That simple awareness, which has always been here, is what we ALL are. 

Please see that there is nothing you can ‘do’ other than to just see that there is awareness here right now.  In fact, it is the awareness itself that is seeing the awareness!  

Resting in awareness is resting in God, Allah, Buddha nature, the Tao, Awareness, Mind, Knowing, Emptiness, the Great Spirit, Wisdom. No matter what name – or no name – just rest right now. This simple non-action of leaving everything alone just for a moment, is everything that all of the wisest people and most sublime scriptures have attempted to point out to us. We can relax. We are already home. We can trust It.

Nothing Needs to Change

Nothing needs to change in the circumstances or particulars of our lives to rest as peace. In fact, the more we attempt to manipulate and alter the particulars of our lives in order to experience peace, the further we will (seem to) move from what we want.

What to do? Nothing. Relax. Give up. Release the grip. Resign ourselves to leaving everything alone, letting everything be as it is. We will find that we have always been standing knee-deep in the very peace we have been looking for. What a relief.

Our Bed of Nails

Our opinions, our beliefs, our certainties, our stories, our memories, our worries and projections – all of these make up the bed of nails on which we lie. Give them space – it is the solvent that dissolves them along with any idea of ‘me’.

No Escape

Seeing this – whatever ‘this’ is – isn’t about finding a way to never experience anything uncomfortable or painful. It is about seeing that the discomfort or pain forms in and is composed of a sea of spacious awareness – just like a stream or a whirlpool is formed in and of the water that composes it. Just that enables us to sit squarely in the middle of it until we see clearly that no one is sitting in the middle of anything.

After the Fact

We only know what we are doing after-the-fact. The ‘decision’ to do whatever it is we’re doing is ‘made’, that is, comes to us fully-formed. Then, we say ‘I decided.’ Thought is always after-the-fact. What we think of as our ‘life’ is only known in retrospect. Now is completely unknown.

Mom

Awareness, Cognizing Emptiness, Knowing, Seeing, Space, Presence, It – whatever name we use – is an absolutely loving mother. She opens her arms and completely allows all that arises – welcomes it, in fact. We can rest in her arms and follow her example of loving allowance or we can fight. In the end, it doesn’t really matter because we’ve never really left ‘mom’ anyway. But, in the meantime, one way makes for suffering and the other ease and grace. 

My Mom

Danger – sort of

Any instruction other than to leave everything alone, to relax, to just rest as you are, is dangerous. It is dangerous because it points us back into the shadow realm of thought, technique, manipulation, alteration, effort, and theory.

The good news is that the very shining awareness that we are is the source and substance of thought and shadow, too. No matter what, we cannot be separated from Isness – we can only ‘think’ we have been separated. 

Isness is you-ing you. What a relief! There is nothing to do but rest as we are.

It’s All Your Fault – and That’s the Good News

All of your suffering is your fault. All of my suffering is my fault. It isn’t our mother’s fault or the fault of our teacher or boss or spouse or partner or dog or genes or the president or the economy or the weather. 

Our suffering has nothing to do with our income, our education, our weight, our life management skills, our time management skills, our bald spot, our less-than-stellar athletic abilities, our tendency to sweat too much, our questionable choice of friends, or…or…or…

You get the idea.

As long as I believe the THOUGHT that MY suffering comes from or because of YOU (or IT or THEM), then I have reinforced This Conceptual World. Which conceptual world? The one that is telling you at this very moment whether this essay (or the guy writing it) is “right on target” or “he must be full of sh#@!” It is the BELIEF in the THOUGHT (pretty much any thought referring to a “me,” by the way) that creates this tense little knot of worry, uncertainty, and insecurity commonly referred to as “me.”

Anytime we complain about anything – our coffee, the heat, the car, the kids – it is US creating our suffering in that moment. It is this believed THOUGHT/IDEA of “I” – and all of the requirements it has of life attached to it – that creates psychological pain.

Take the blame. EXPERIENCE the discomfort in the body without attempting to THINK your way out of it. Remember, it was thinking that created it. Don’t try to think your way out of anything – especially thinking!

Be quiet. 

Ask, “what experiences this now?” If an answer comes to mind, it’s wrong. Whatever you think, whatever answer comes, throw it away. Keep coming back to the question, “what experiences this now?” Devour the question and let the question devour you.

Then, blame disappears. Fault disappears. Suffering disappears. You disappear…and Life appears, just as it is – blame, fault, and suffering included.  And, that turns out to be more than enough. Weird, huh?

Awareness Is Worthless

Awareness cannot be taught. 

Awareness cannot be learned. 

Awareness cannot be investigated.

Awareness cannot be sold.

Awareness cannot be marketed.

Awareness cannot be spun.

Awareness cannot be caught.

Awareness cannot be found or lost.

Awareness cannot be created.

Awareness cannot be conceptualized. 

Awareness cannot be analyzed. 

Awareness cannot be deconstructed. 

Awareness cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled.

Awareness cannot be known.

Awareness cannot be burned.

Awareness cannot be wet.

Awareness cannot be cut.

Awareness cannot be wounded.

Awareness cannot be lost.

Awareness cannot be increased or decreased.

Awareness cannot be practiced.

Awareness cannot bring you peace.

Awareness cannot bring you ease.

Awareness cannot increase your bank balance.

Awareness cannot offer anything at all other than your dissolution…

making room for the hum of the refrigerator; the rumble of the UPS truck; the smell of smoke; the feeling of a tight neck; the light’s reflection on the salt shaker; gas pains; a wrinkled paper napkin; the thought of the dog and cancer; the click of the cat’s claws on the linoleum floor; the lime-green buds on the tree; the cardinal on the black iron feeder. 

Disappointment is a good beginning – it gives Life a tiny crack through which to enter.