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.

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. 

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.

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.

Sanskrit Lesson

If our sense of happiness and peace is dependent upon getting everything in our life 'lined up' just the way we want it, we're screwed - that's a Sanskrit term.

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'.

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.