I love this photo because that sums up being present.
Keep quiet, no inner dialogue. Don't think...stay out of your mind. Don't make any effort...just breath and be as you are. So many try to complicate it or make it new, like who you are is all new and they can sell it to you in a myriad of forms. It is simple and does not need to be re-marketed into something flashy and appealing to our minds. Presence, God, Life Force, Omnipresence, what ever your preferred language is non negotiable. It is who you are. It is what everything is. Keep it simple for yourself. Sure, sometimes you may need a little guidance, a helping hand to remember but that is all it is, you remembering, not discovering something new. You are returning to your natural state, not seeking anything outside of yourself. As I say, it is not magical or mystical or a new age sensation, it is simple, timeless and true. Over complicating it keeps you in the mind's story of yourself and the mind's story of God and what it is, should be, shouldn't be, how to do it, etc. Getting lost in the seeking is a common trap for many people. Some have ecstatic expanded experiences, blissful or peaceful encounters and then continue to seek to replicate that state. This causes much suffering. Be with what is. Even the term "spiritual" is a trap. The more you become present, the more everything just is and spiritual becomes a falsehood. It is not something you put on or do, or try out or a ritual you perform. You are the ever present life force, in all of its incredible forms. All that is required is for us to release our obsession with the mind's concepts of who we are and to notice the subtle current of life that is always there. Pay attention to it and things will start to return to a natural equilibrium. Without the attachment to thought, it becomes clear that beyond the mind is a place of peace, an aliveness, a pulsating field of presence that just is. Next time you seek to "learn something spiritual", try tuning out of your mind. Take a deep breath. Take a few. Focus on your breathing. Allow a space to open. Melt into Being. Dwell there. Spiritual seeking. Nisargadatta chapter 51 - I Am That You want something like a round-the-clock ecstasy. Ecstasies come and go, necessarily, for the human brain cannot stand the tension for a long time. A prolonged ecstasy will burn out your brain, unless it is extremely pure and subtle. In nature nothing is at stand-still, everything pulsates, appears and disappears. Heart, breath, digestion, sleep and waking -- birth and death everything comes and goes in waves. Rhythm, periodicity, harmonious alternation of extremes is the rule. No use rebelling against the very pattern of life. If you seek the Immutable, go beyond experience. When I say: remember 'I am' all the time, I mean: 'come back to it repeatedly'. No particular thought can be mind's natural state, only silence. Not the idea of silence, but silence itself. When the mind is in its natural state, it reverts to silence spontaneously after every experience or, rather, every experience happens against the background of silence. Now, what you have learnt here becomes the seed. You may forget it -- apparently. But it will live and in due season sprout and grow and bring forth flowers and fruits. All will happen by itself. You need not do anything, only don't prevent it. Nisargadatta chapter 51 - I Am That |
AuthorArticles on living with awareness, delving deeper into who you really are and how to be still, whilst in the world of form. Archives
November 2019
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