In a dream I walked with God through the deep places of creation; past walls that receded and gates that opened, through hall after hall of silence, darkness and refreshment—the dwelling place of souls acquainted with light and warmth—until, around me, was an infinity into which we all flowed together and lived anew, like the rings made by raindrops falling upon wide expanses of calm dark waters.
--Dag Hammarskjold, Markings
When we are ready, not a readiness that the mind would recognize but a readiness that arises from the heart, from the place of deep feeling. When we are ready we may find our self following a path that suddenly becomes less travelled. We are guided less by our thoughts and more by this knowing that our thoughts are manifestations of all that has occurred. Not expressions of this moment. This moment need not be described but felt. Feeling is unmanifest, pure and formless. Feeling our way is life lived clearly. We truly feel when there are no thoughts that interrupt the Silence. Yes, there are thoughts. And if those thoughts are sticky notes plastered all over a wall we are free to ignore them. We are not the sticky notes but the wall. We are not the individual.Being ready means that we have found that adding stuff to our life is not the answer; that subtracting stuff, simplifying is where freedom begins. Nothing is peace. Something can result in suffering. Robert Wolfe, nondual teacher abiding in Ojai clearly states that, ‘if you choose this path (of awakening) you must be prepared to jettison your cargo.’
Consciousness never thinks, it’s impossible for it to think, therefore it can never identify.It cannot therefore be individual in the sense of this or that; it has to be universal.
~Russel Williams,Not I, Not Other than I
Being ready means that we have found that adding stuff to our life is not the answer; that subtracting stuff, simplifying is where freedom begins. Nothing is peace. Something can result in suffering. Robert Wolfe, nondual teacher abiding in Ojai clearly states that, ‘if you choose this path (of awakening) you must be prepared to jettison your cargo.’When we are free of identification, standing empty, all things may pass into and through us, momentarily captured by the senses as everything continues along its way. Nothing stays. The universal highway of Being, available to all and free of suffering.
When these boundaries fall apart, this becomes a glorious world!
~Swami Atmananda Udasin
Boundaries are created by habitual patterns that cling tenaciously to the human being. There are numerous stories behind the repetition of thought and behaviour. Fear based and therefore at times challenging to identify as the mind has intelligent ways of disguising fear and complicating the simplest of situations. We are not free to live life while standing guard against this or that. And we have all heard it dozens of times, the only way to the other side is to go through.What is required to ultimately be free? Focus upon what I am, not what I am not. And what is it that I AM? That which remains always, when there are no words left to describe that, which I AM.If nothing is named that lies between here and this, Earth’s hem, even remove here and Earth’s hem…there is a breeze that gently pushes everything, pursued by a silence that says it all!It takes a little determination and persistence to realize Self and a dedication to watching ones thoughts. As Ramana Maharshi advised, self inquiry. To constantly observe what we have believed to be ‘me’. Under scrutiny it is apparent that, that which we believe to be real are manifestations of the thinking that has been a way of operating for a long time. The separateness that we think we are is a tough thing to give up as we are so conditioned to believe the mind and not what we feel. By feeling we release our selves from a very old way of Being.We ask our hands to perform for us and bypass the mind. Everything we allow the hands to touch is a gentle experience because we are feeling our way rather than thinking our way. Thinking our way is something we are so familiar with that we ‘think’ we already know before we actually feel. When we feel there is a deep abiding awareness, an intimate sensing that occurs on the level of oneness. There is no thought of I or other, just what is. Feeling deeply is our True nature. Whether full or empty our hands hold Truth. This brings to mind, the pictures of hands together and open releasing the dove of peace. ‘Peace’ lies in our hands.
A hand turned upward holds only a single, transparent question. Unanswerable, humming like bees, it rises, swarms, departs.
~Jane Hirshfield
What we hold in our hands is unquestionable. It is an offering. It is something we have received. It is totality and absence. It is the silent beckoning that draws us deeper into acceptance and knowing whence all questions arise. Fewer questions allow us to be focused on the moment and to be fully present in whatever it is that has our attention in that moment. This moment is ‘I’. ‘I’ is the undefinable, immeasurable, absolute essence and that is all.
