Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.
In the beginning, we must develop a confidence in our understanding, clearing out all preconceptions. Nihilism, eternalism, all beliefs have to be cut through, transcended. When the basic, absolute, ultimate hypocrisy has been unmasked, then one really begins to see the jewel shining in its brightness: the energetic, living quality of openness, the living quality of surrender, the living quality of renunciation.
In the garden of gentle sanity,
May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.
May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.
A true warrior is never at war with the world. And it takes this understanding to begin a revolution with one self. There are no shortcuts in the human journey. As much as we dislike it, the mud in which we all swim is necessary to bloom. Many times we get confused and think we are the mud. We are not. In Eastern traditions the Lotus flower symbolizes perfection because the flower raises unstained above muddy waters. I choose to be the Lotus.
We must allow ourselves to be disappointed, which means the surrendering of me-ness, my achievement. We would like to watch ourselves attain enlightenment, watch our disciples celebrating, worshipping, throwing flowers at us, with miracles and earthquakes occuring and gods and angels singing and so forth. This never happens. The attainment of enlightenment from ego’s point of view is extreme death, the death of self, the death of me and mine, the death of the watcher. It is the ultimate and final disappointment. Treading the spiritual path is painful. It is a constant unmasking, peeling off of layer after layer of masks. It involves insult after insult.
In Tibetan, effortless presence is wangthang, which literally means, ‘field of power’. The cause that brings about effortless presence is emptying out and letting go. You have to be without clinging.
When you eat with awareness, you find that there is more space, more beauty. You begin to watch yourself, to see yourself, and you notice how clumsy you are or how accurate you are. … So when you make an effort to eat mindfully…, you find that life is worth much more than you had expected.
Beings
Follow us on Facebook