When we let go of striving and goal seeking as we realize that there is nowhere to go, and nothing to do, we can relax into the cosmic simultaneity of it all. Here a person can just embrace existence, let go and be one with all. Here one sees that there is nobody higher or lower: all of existence the minerals and rocks, the trees and flowers, the animals and people are all part of this vast existence. Comparison is not needed; all is embraced.
And with the relaxation of goals and desires, a person simply slows down, for there is no place to go. Life is now here. And in this place of now here, a new world reveals itself, one of infinite friendship and kinship with all of existence from the trees to the ocean to the all of the animals, and all of people in humankind. As a person relaxes in this place of letting go of all ego ideals and simply enjoying the what is of existence, the vast sublime stillness of existence reveals itself. The perfect sublime stillness of existence, Sat-Chit-Anand, truth consciousness bliss is embraced.
Sat-Chit-Anand does not come in parts. It is one unitive cosmic orgasmic experience. It is a subjective radiance of the utter blissful joy of existence. There is no concern with the other as all is embraced as one. It is just an utter enjoyment of the sublime blissful stillness of existence. This is not the stillness of effort, discipline, or technique; this is the stillness that reveals itself when personal goals and desires are let go of. A person is no longer grinding away towards the future, and existence is embraced now so that the beautiful stillness can reveal itself. The old Zen expressions says “the grass grows by itself” and we see, with stillness, that certainly is the case, for we do not have to do anything but just get out of the way and stillness comes as a gift of existence as it is already here.
People try to be still. Effort and the array of different meditation techniques they force upon themselves all end up in total failurehood because they are trying to get to stillness through effort which implies desire. As long as there are desires at play in the mind, the mind can never be still, for the mind is obsessed with realizing its goal in the future. The mind is spinning away with strategies to achieve its goal, and making a goal out of stillness is simply another desire for the mind to pursue. Stillness forced upon by the mind will truly only be forced quietness and does not have the radiant vastness of true surrender and stillness.
Stillness arises out of understanding not out of some sort of technique. As long as there are desires to be obtained in the future, the mind will be tense and unable to be at rest, for the mind is preoccupied with whether it can obtain its goal or not. When one looks at the nature of desire, one sees it always a horizon in the future, trying to obtain some goal in the future. The problem is that this moment is rejected as not being good enough, and the desire is pursued for the future. But one can see how crazy this is, for this moment is all you actually have. So, in desire one is rejecting this moment, for some future moment which never comes—when it comes, it once again will be in this moment. When one sees the madness of this—how one could keep on rejecting this moment for some future moment on and on forever—the pattern drops. Now it becomes essential to celebrate this moment as that is all there is. One does not become desireless as the opposite of desire, as that would be a product of desiring desirelessness. Instead the whole pattern of grabbing onto desire drops away.
It can be shocking to look around. Everybody is chasing dreams of one kind or another. Some are chasing money, others prestige, higher education, excitement, sex, power, relationships, on and on it goes. Everybody is chasing. Some are even chasing awakening, freedom and enlightenment.
The idea that there is some place to get to has to be dropped. It needs to be seen that nothing has to be done—stillness arises not through effort but through understanding. You can’t follow another to stillness. If seeking and desire are dismantled, a person realizes that there is nothing to be realized, nothing to be known, nothing to do, and nowhere to go. This moment is enough, this moment is eternity. A person can simply relax into this.
With relaxing into “this,” into the “what is” of existence, the brilliant ecstatic stillness of existence reveals itself. The bedazzling mystery opens up. All of this arises through no effort, just a relaxing into existence. In the eternity of this moment, stillness reveals itself. The luminous magical sublime quality of existence dances and shimmers in the moment. From here, one sees the birth of so many Zen haikus that capture the dazzling poignant beauty of
the play of form in stillness in this moment. Ordinary experiences become intensely captivating such as coming upon a very still deer on a coulee running trail, looking into a friendly dog’s brown eyes, a purple and red sunset, a dark rich morning coffee.
The whole process of awakening has been one of a change of occupancy. We have become one with existence, and in stillness, the ecstasy and beauty of existence reveals itself to the nobody that is now here.
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Gary Tzu, PhD is a non-dual psychologist and the director of the Addictions Counselling Program as University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Initially trained as a lawyer, Gary’s world collapsed into existential crisis at the age of twenty-three, and he felt a call to make the transformational journey into non-dual awakening. He made this calling his career path, completing a master’s degree and doctorate in psychology with t focus on the integration of Western transpersonal psychology and Eastern contemplative traditions. www.garytzu.com
From Awakening in the Paradox of Darkness, by Gary Tzu, PhD. Copyright © 2014 by Gary Tzu. Reprinted by arrangement with FriesenPress, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. www.friesenpress.com
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