Just Be It

It's difficult to verbalize thoughts in this arena without misleading. Terminology needs to vary depending on the audience and perspective in question. On one level we're dealing with an imperfectly programmed self, but more importantly, we're dealing with a false identification with whatever self appears to be present. So, thinking that "I am being adversely affected by this situation and need to improve my reactions" or "There's something wrong with me that I need to fix" isn't as helpful as nurturing a realization or feeling that "I" am not that false self. I've mentioned the value of the question "Who am I?" before. Although a good way to explore what you're not, it can actually be problematic, if taken too literally. It's a question that has no answer. The "real you" can't be defined, it can only be experienced. That quiet presence is always there. We just need to stop obscuring it. It's not something we create or find, it's something we allow.

We practice to experience just being. Not being this or that. Not being a certain way. Just being. It's a state we all know. We were born a mere breath away from it, and most brush it, occasionally, when in a particular activity or situation. It's just that we've lost sight of it amid the cacophony that swirls and reverberates within our minds. We've learned to process everything we experience through our conscious minds. We can be aware of cognition, but we can't be cognizant of pure awareness. The practice is simply finding comfort and stability in that unadorned presence. As we reacquaint ourselves, ever more fully, with that natural state of being, we gain a perspective that's more attuned with everything, without self centered and judgmental interpretations. Simply put, life is much more pleasing when viewed as being what it is, rather than, as what it is in relation to us.