Simply See

 

See the one you’re with. Do this today if loving them is a challenge for you right now. You know, what isn’t lovable is not that one before you, it’s your image of them that obstructs the truth and beauty of what’s right in front of us.

This “seeing” is not done by the eyes but the eyes can help. If you breathe in, relax and drop back in to the chest where breathing starts and ends, there you’ll find a secret seeing. It’s always there but not always noticed. When we drop back into this, our whole body begins to “see”, not just the eyes but every cell in our being becomes an “eye”.

Sit in this by being here and simply breathe … Now let this be a felt experience. Encounter what is happening from here … you’ll quickly notice the perfection that surrounds you and fills you. As you look around, begin with the sounds you hear … this is the pulsation of Presence, reverberating in you and around you … feel into it with this “seeing”.

Rumi reminds us to “listen with the ear of the Heart” … this is the “seeing” we are experiencing here. Sit in this and let the atoms caress your ears. You’ll notice with the felt sensation that the stillness that begins to establish itself emanates a sweet inner sound … a soft almost imperceptible whoosh or hum … let this inner sound sweep through you as you look and listen.

Notice how the atmosphere shifts … every little sound and sight feels so right and so perfect. This is pure Heart Song. 

Now, take note of this Beingness you are immersed in.

This never really leaves you. This is always here, it’s simply a matter of taking the time to “see” this.

The next step is an important and powerful one. When the one you are with comes near you now, drop back into this and “see” them. Try it, simply “see” them, and see what happens in this seeing.

Try it today and watch your life transform.

The Only Thing we Need to Do

“The only thing we need to do is be.”

-Lao Tzu

 

Do … do … do … driven by doing. Not just outer doing, but inner doing too. The mind is constantly in overdrive to do, looking for the next thing to do now, or to put on our “To Do” list for later.

This constant scurry of activity or “movement of the mind” is the driving force in most people’s lives, and creates all our suffering.

Making time for “being” can be challenging as we try to carve space out of this constant drive to do. Yet, in truth, it’s the only real necessity. The only thing we really need to do is to be, as Lao Tzu said all those hundreds of years ago.

If we stop for a moment, most of us find it difficult to stay in the “not-doing” placeless place of being for very long. As soon as the next thought arises, usually about something that needs doing or we desire to do, we immediately get caught in its stickiness and mindlessly, unquestioningly go forward to do its bidding.

How often do you find yourself in that place that could be a relaxing into emptiness, into simply being, and fill it with the seeking out what to do next, or what to do now. How about just being? For most, easier said than done. There’s that word again … it’s a slave driver, constantly demanding our attention: Do … do … do …

Try doing this: Sit down for 10 minutes. Not 30, not 20 … just 10 minutes. And with the intention to sit for the full 10 minutes.
As you sit in silence, you can “do” this: Watch your breath.

On the in breath think the thought “Let it happen”. On the out breath, think the thought “Let it go”. That’s it … that’s all you need to do in these 10 minutes. And, you may find it won’t be easy, but stay with it and keep bringing yourself back to the exercise.

As thoughts arise, your addiction to them will tempt you to follow them and drop the exercise. Watch carefully yet gently. Notice the desire to stop practicing … really see it, then simply continue, back into observing and “doing” the technique: On the in breath, “Let it happen” and on the out breath, “Let it go”.  You may come to the point of wanting to stop the practice once, twice, three times or more in the 10 minutes … simply take note, but keep going.

These 10 minutes may well be the most important 10 minutes in your life. By simply taking note of what is, watching carefully all our caught-upedness and addiction to thought, and simply “Let it happen” and “Let it go”. In fact, this exercise doesn’t need to stop after the 10 minutes. Take it out into your day and see what happens.

Breathe In … Let it happen
Breathe out … and let it go

Breathe In … Let it happen

Breathe out … and let it go

 

The only thing you need to do is be.

Freedom Is

The need to be free is really the ego feeling its own self-made entrapment. In truth, Freedom is.

Freedom is our own true nature … as Unconditioned Awareness, there is no movement into or away from This, this that we always are and always will be. The only movement “towards” or “away” from This, takes place in our minds. Our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our sensations … all simply happen, yet the pull “for” or “against” them is what creates and perpetuates the semblance of separation, the split that is the need to go towards or away from something else, something other than what is, ultimately the movement away from This … and that’s why we suffer.

Freedom is. These two words speak volumes about truth, reality and suffering. As soon as our attention falls into identification with our thoughts, we lose ourselves yet again in the egoic trance that holds 99% of humanity captive.

It’s subtle … yet, it’s also very simple: Freedom is.

It’s not a constructed or created form of freedom but the actual Free Beingness that allows for all of life to continue to live and evolve.

This innate freedom is the very fabric of life itself, it’s the backdrop of life and it’s also the foreground. It’s all this very same one Freedom, breathing Itself into each moment, being each moment … allowing all of creation to pulsate, expand, contract and express and be.

Yet, something so constant, so present and so readily available is so very easily overlooked. Why and how?
Our inability to recognise what’s actually happening  keeps us captive and spellbound in our heads.

The truth is, free we are … vast, eternal, pure, clear, loving and so very real ... just as we are.

This … This … This … This one 4 letter word points to This that is.

If we let go, stop trying to hold It, stop trying to find It, stop trying to know It … This reveals Itself.

Freedom is … simply drop back in … not in movement, but in that simple allowing that calls us back to the Heart.

Here, all is clear. The Heart is the Infinite Eternal Spacious Beingness that simply is and simply allows … see This … Know This … Be This ...

Freedom is in This.

HeartDrop

HeartDrop. I stumbled into this word the other day, can't remember where.
HeartDrop ... I love the sound of it ... but what does it mean?
For me it describes the precious moments we allow ourselves to drop back into the Heart ... those moments of non-separation ... yes, the unconditioned awareness that is our natural state.
Each moment is in truth always already a HeartDrop whether we are aware of it or not ... becoming aware of it brings in the Joy that is already here, awaiting Its recognition.
The Heart sees ... the Heart feels ... the Heart tastes ... the Heart knows, but not in the same way as the mind.
The Heart is the ground of Being that holds all of life. It's the spaciousness that is vast and eternal, it's what is before thought lays claim to it, yet, mysteriously it's also the very essence of what thought is too.
This moment, just as it is, is always a HeartDrop.
HeartDrop is also the delicate droplet of bliss, of joy, of insight that gently flows out into our lives. These droplets are the pure essence of Being. These HeartDrops are the Love tears of the Divine ... both tears of joy and tears of sorrow that emanate from the very same source of stillness that sits right here, right where we are right now ... You are a HeartDrop.
One drop of purity that is equal to the Infinite ocean of Eternal Love that is Source ... God Itself. You are That. And there's no separating This from That ... no separation between This that you are from That.
When we drop back into our hearts a profound mystery instantly reveals itself. The little contracted, thought-constructed sense of self that inhabits our minds vanishes and the Vast, Infinite and Eternal Beingness that we truly are reveals Itself as the everpresent ground of constancy that we are. No questions ... no answers ... all is resolved in this HeartDrop.
The way back in to the Heart is not a long road, it's not complicated or difficult really ...but it does take courage and a willingness to consciously cease identifying ourselves in our memories.
When we stop believing the thoughts that construct the "little me" of separation, we give ourselves the space to drop back in ... to drop back down  ... to fall into grace, back into our Hearts.
How? Stop believing in the thoughts about "me" and "you" ... stop giving over our unconscious attention to the mind, and allow the miracle of This, just as It is to reveal Itself.
Do the HeartDrop and set youself free.
...

This Moment Is You

This Moment is you. In this moment, you are, you exist. But it’s more than just the “you” you believe yourself to be, so much more.

The “you” you believe yourself to be is one small wave of Presence in the great Ocean of Infinite and Eternal Beingness.

And this vast Expanse knows no bounds. This vast Expanse contains all things, allows all things, is all things. This you are. And in this moment all and everything is accessible and available to you.

See It

Drop back in and let your heart see This ….

It doesn’t take much, no effort at all really. Simply a gentle and very natural fall back in to This … In to what? This?

Yes This. This is what all of life emanates from and what all of life is. Emptiness is form … form is emptiness. See This …

The Heart naturally and effortlessly “sees” … all it takes is that last step …. That final “one last drop” … where the wave is seen as part of the Ocean and the Ocean lovingly allows for the wave to simply be as it is. To simply be. See It …

Know It

Yes know It, but not in the way we normally know things, with our thoughts and imaginings about what we see. No, know It directly by becoming intimate with It. How? By simply acknowledging Its constancy. This is always here. This is always available. This is It.

Allow for the unspoken silent and ever-present gift of in-sight to reveal Its mystery to you … to reveal Its magnificence and Its self-evident “not knowing knowingness”.

This can’t be known with the mind yet it’s always already known by the Heart.

Simply listen … look … and allow. And with the profound presence, this ageless vast and pure beingness reveals Itself to you. This can be known … intimately known as the All and Everything … this that you are. Know It.

Be It

What else can you be when all things are in truth This anyway? All things come from This and all things go back to This. Be This that you are. Not become … there’s no real becoming, all that becomes, in truth already is. Be It.

In allowing yourself to drop back into a  sweet relaxed  “nothing to do” surrender to This … it becomes evident and obvious that this you always are …. Always have been, always will be. This you are … Now, create no gap around what is and what   you see, know and be/are.

Allow the Being to simply be … no effort to be, no waiting to be, no changing to be … simply Be.

See, know and Be This and …
You are free.

The Gap is Always Here

Wait a second.

Stop just a moment.

Nothing you do, or don’t do will get you any closer to This.

Every time a thought ends … there’s a gap. This gap is vast beyond measure and allows for all form to manifest and exist. But there’s a natural ending ... a natural death to all form. Watch each thought … no, maybe that’s a little hard because it’s so difficult to extricate our beingness from thought, as it’s the very thing that gives thought the liberty to be.

No, an easier way is to catch the natural death of a thought. One thought … any thought. Try it with the thought you are entertaining right now … as soon as you become aware that you are thinking, take note of the space and emptiness that happens as  the thought dissipates …   Here you will find a gap. Call it what you will, I like “This Blessed Isle”, a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh … the gap will reveal itself naturally, effortlessly. Sit in the gap, contemplate the gap …

Now, you’ll feel a very natural pull to another thought. In attention goes again. One second … ten … thirty. But it will end and you will inevitably find yourself back on the shores of “This Blessed Isle”. Whenever you get back to the gap, the tendency is to judge the pull into thought as a miss-step, as a problem, as another failed attempt to be present. That’s the next thought! Watch it … and you’re back on the shores again. Keep watching and eventually what will begin to happen is that the gap will become the resting place, the Home of your reality which it is anyway. And things will begin to reverse themselves as you’ll find a natural pull back to shore … without judgment and without effort. You’ll see that in truth you’ve never been anywhere else … it’s only thought that has been riding the currents of your own beingness.

So, every moment offers another precious opportunity to see things as they are. With thought and without thought. And things as they are doesn’t mean that the gap is better.It simply means that you are no longer seeking yourself out in your thinking … you are no longer trying to find joy, peace or happiness with thoughts. All thoughts die! What you will see is that the ultimate freedom, peace,  joy and happiness lies in the realization that what’s been holding you captive is your identification with  your own thinking.

This is where it all turns around. This is where “This Blessed Isle” becomes the Ocean of Awakened Beingness… your own Presence. This is where you and That are no longer at odds. You no longer seek yourself. You see that there really is only This … only That.

Now the great work begins.

This Is It

The water calls me ... draws me out ... gingerly, gently, tenderly ... slowly tantalizing my ear … then my heart … then I’m gone.

It doesn’t take much you know. We are all sitting at the water’s edge, the waves come and go, the wind blows sand in our face … and there’s that constant call.

Yet, we lie distracted. Mesmerized by our own thinking … lulled asleep by the incessant sound of the words in our heads. But, these too are made from the water … this great spread of infinite, fathomless deep and dark …

Calling us in, even the thoughts that chime into words and pictures, these too are the froth and tumble of the ocean’s edge.

But we fail to recognise this. It’s all made out of nothing … we know it in thought, in words: emptiness is form … form is emptiness.

We do know this now, yet, mysteriously the form still smothers the emptiness and the emptiness empties out the form.

As water splashes at my ear … and the constancy of the sound wends its way through my heart … my eyes suddenly come to a stop and my ears actually hear … and the splashing sound of the words finally peak into stillness.

“This is it!”… The sand blows into my face, stinging my eyes as my lips taste the brine that’s lingering here; right here … “This is it…”

The words ring true. The words feel wet and taste salty as they splash through the sound barrier right to my very soul.

“This is it…” Can my heart bear it? Can these two existences finally merge or do I forever draw that line in the sand?

But wait … Nothing whispers louder than ever now. Bouncing round my head, this echo of emptiness storms the gates … without even a whisper, “This is it…” … breathes deeply inside my chest.

I stop …

I listen … I look … and, I allow. And the cold wet splashing against my ankles feel just right, just so … “This is it …” Just right … just so. This is it.