Even after all this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
'You owe me.'
Look what happens
with a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.
Fear is the cheapest room in the house.
I would like to see you living in better conditions.
The words you speak
become the house you live in.
I felt in need of a great pilgrimage,
so I sat still for three days.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes,
the way sun gazes warmly on earth.
The heart is a thousand stringed instrument
that can only be tuned with love.
We have come into this exquisite world
to experience ever and ever
more deeply our divine courage, freedom and light.
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything,
it is open to everything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the experts mind there are few.
Preparing food is not just about yourself and others.
It is about everything!
There is also the real secret of the arts:
always be a beginner.
The world is its own magic.
You cannot stop your life.
You are always changing into something else.
Always, incessantly.
Wherever you go you will find your teacher,
as long as you have the eyes to see and ears to hear.
Nothing we see or hear is perfect.
But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
The true practice of meditation is to sit as if
you were drinking water when you are thirsty.
Treat every moment as your last.
It is not preparation for something else.
Our way is not to sit to acquire something;
it is to express our true nature.
That is our practice.
For the beginner,
practice without effort is not true practice.
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.
To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
We have to study with our warm heart,
not just with our brain.
Hell is not punishment, it's training.
All descriptions of reality are limited expressions
of the world of emptiness.
Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are
reality. That is a mistake.
An enlightened person does not ignore things
and does not stick to things,
not even to the truth.
Zen practice is to open up our small mind.
Everything is perfect
and there is always room for improvement.
Instead of criticizing
find out how to help.
When you bow, you should just bow;
when you sit, you should just sit;
when you eat, you should just eat.
People who know the state of emptiness
will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Wherever you are, you are one with clouds
and one with sun and the stars you see.
You are one with everything.
This is more true than I can say,
and more true than you can hear.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself up completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Understand yourself and then
you will understand everything.
Everything changes.
There is nothing to stick to.
That is the Buddha's most important teaching.
As long as you seek for something,
you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
It is easy to have calmness in inactivity,
it is hard to have calmness in activity,
but calmness in activity is true calmness.
Let your ears hear without trying to hear.
Let the mind think without trying to think
and without trying to stop it.
That is practice.
Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: “What is the First Principle?” Bodhidharma said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know” is the First Principle.
So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.
Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.
The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.
The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
When something dies is the greatest teaching.
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
When you sit, everything sits with you.
When you are sad, you should be completely involved in sadness without care for something happy. When you are happy, you should just enjoy the happiness.
For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
With this attitude, whatever you do,
life becomes an art.
If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control.
Strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
Try not to see something in particular;
try not to achieve anything special.
You already have everything in your own pure quality.
There should be no traces in our activity.
We should not attach to some fancy ideas or to some beautiful things.
We should not seek for something good.
The truth is always near at hand, within your reach.
But if your effort is in the right direction,
then there is no fear of losing anything.
Even if it is in the wrong direction,
if you are aware of that, you will not be deluded.
There is nothing to lose.
There is only the constant pure quality of right practice.
You are living in this world as one individual,
but before you take the form of a human being,
you are already there, always there. We are always here.
You think before you were born you were not here.
But how is it possible for you to appear in this world,
when there is no you?
Because you are already there, you can appear in the world.
Also, it is not possible for something to vanish which does not exist. Because something is there, something can vanish.
You may think that when you die, you disappear, you no longer exist.
But even though you vanish, something which is existent cannot be non-existent. That is the magic.
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world.
The world is its own magic.
The usual translation of the Japanese word nin is "patience,"
but perhaps "constancy" is a better word.
You must force yourself to be patient,
but in constancy there is no particular effort involved—
there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are.
For people who have no idea of emptiness,
this ability may appear to be patience,
but patience can actually be non-acceptance.
People who know, even if only intuitively, the state of emptiness
always have open the possibility of accepting things as they are.
They can appreciate everything. In everything they do,
even though it may be very difficult,
they will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Nin is the way we cultivate our own spirit.
Dogen-zenji said, "Although everything has Buddha nature, we love flowers,
and we do not care for weeds." This is true of human nature.
But that we are attached to some beauty is itself Buddha's activity.
That we do not care for weeds is also Buddha's activity.
We should know that. If you know that, it is all right to attach to something.
If it is Buddha's attachment, that is non-attachment.
So in love there should be hate, or non-attachment.
And in hate there should be love, or acceptance.
Love and hate are one thing.
We should not attach to love alone. We should accept hate.
Everything as it is - is the way Buddha is.
It means everything is taking Buddha's activity each thing in its own way.
Whatever we do is Buddha's activity.
If you want to understand it, you cannot understand it.
When you give up trying to understand it,
true understanding is always there.
To be a human being is to be a Buddha.
Buddha nature is just another name for human nature,
our true human nature.
Thus even though you do not do anything,
you are actually doing something.
You are expressing yourself.
You are expressing your true nature.
Your eyes will express; your voice will express;
your demeanor will express.
The most important thing is to express your true nature
in the simplest, most adequate way and
to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
By bowing we
are giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give
up our dualistic ideas.
To speak of waves apart from water
or water apart from waves is a delusion.
Water and waves are one.
Big mind and small mind are one.
When you understand your mind in this way,
you have some security in your feeling.
As your mind does not expect anything from outside,
it is always filled.
A mind with waves in it is not a disturbed mind,
but actually an amplified one.
Whatever you experience is an expression of big mind.
Love is a flame that burns everything
other than itself.
It is the destruction of all that is false and
the fulfillment of all that is true.
Grace is all aroudn us, if we only have the eyes to see it.
We're always held in the divine presence always.
Real meditation is not about mastering a technique;
it's about letting go of control.
Do not seek after what you yearn for,
seek after the source of the yearning itself.
There is no outside of you.
It's all an inside game.
As soon as you believe that a label
you've put on yourself is true,
you've limited something that is literally limitless,
you've limited who you are into nothing but a thought.
It is one thing to realize the Self
it is something else altogether to embody that realization
to the extent that there is no gap between inner revelation and its outer expression.
Make no mistake about it -
enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier.
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.
It’s seeing through the facade of pretense.
It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.
The real void is not the one you're looking at
It's the one you'are looking from.
Instead of striving towards some distant goal that
you will never reach,
I invite you to stop and ask:
How am I avoiding the enlightenment that is already present in each moment?
How am I seeing separation where it doesn’t exist?”
Eternity knows no history. Eternity is the eternal presence.
The mind may accept or deny that you are awareness,
but either way it can’t really understand.
It cannot comprehend.
Thought cannot comprehend what is beyond thought.
This awake silence is available to anyone in this moment.
All you have to do is stop using your mind to look for it. It doesn't know where to find it.
When we start to suffer,
it tells us something very valuable.
It means that we are not seeing the truth,
and we are not relating from the truth.
It's a beautiful pointer. It never fails.
Many Sages have said,
“Your world is a dream. You’re living in an illusion.”
They’re referring to this world of the mind and
the way we believe our thoughts about reality.
When we see the world through our thoughts,
we stop experiencing life as it really is
and others as they really are.
When someone says, “I love you,”
he is telling you about himself, not you.
When someone says, “I hate you,”
she is telling you about herself, not you.
World views are self views—literally.
True sincerity reveals a powerful form of clarity
and discernment that is necessary
in order to perceive yourself honestly
without flinching or being held
captive by your conditioned mind's judgments and defensiveness.
Suffering is how Life tells you that
you are resisting or misperceiving
what is real and true.
It is the way Life suggests that
you are not in harmony with what is.
Thoughts in your head are really no different than
the sound of a bird outside.
It is just that you decide that they are more or less relevant.
Enlightenment is the unaltered state of consciousness.
Until the whole world is free to agree with you or disagree with you, until you have given the freedom to everyone to like you or not like you, to love you or hate you, to see things as you see them, or to see things differently - until you have given the whole world its freedom - you'll never have your freedom.
In this moment, there is always freedom and
there is always peace.
This moment in which you experience
stillness is every moment.
Don't let the mind seduce you into the past or future.
Stay in the moment, and dare to consider that you can be free now.
The truth is that you already are what you are seeking.
Truth is not over there, wherever over there is.
Truth is neither housed in religious rituals
nor secret doctrines, nor in a guru's touch or
beatific smile, nor in exotic locations
or ancient temples.
Truth is quite literally the only thing that does exist.
It is not hidden but in plain view,
not lacking but abundantly present.
When you inquire 'Who am I?' if you are honest,
you'll notice that it takes you right back to silence instantly.
The brain doesn't have an answer,
so all of a sudden there is silence.
Enlightenment is the natural state of consciousness,
the innocent state of consciousness,
that state which is uncontaminated
by the movement of thought,
uncontaminated by control or manipulation of mind.
All is always well
All is always well even when
it seems unbelievably unwell
The Truth is the only thing
you'll ever run into that has no agenda.
Question your thoughts.
Question your stories.
Question your assumptions. .
Question your opinions.
Question your conclusions.
Question them all into utter emptiness, stillness and joy.
The keys to freedom are in your hands. Use them.
Actually, all paths lead away from the truth...
how's that? All paths.
There's no such thing as a path to the truth.
The truth's already here, where are you going?
Awareness isn't something we own;
awareness isn't something we possess.
Awareness is actually what we are.
Our yearning for truth
actually comes from truth.
Whatever you resist you become.
If you resist anger, you are always angry.
If you resist sadness, you are always sad.
If you resist suffering, you are always suffering.
If you resist confusion,you are always confused.
We think that we resist certain states because
they are there, but actually they are there
because we resist them.
The biggest embrace of love you’ll ever make
is to embrace yourself completely.
Then you’ll realize you’ve just embraced the whole universe,
and everything and everybody in it.
The paradox is that when resistance is fully accepted,
the resistance disappears.
The true heart of all human beings
is the lover of what is.
This awake silence is available
to anyone in this moment.
All you have to do is stop using your mind to look for it.
It doesn't know where to find it.
What if you let go of every bit of control
and every urge that you have,
right down to the most infinitesimal urge to control anything, anywhere, including anything that may be happening with you at this moment?
Imagine that you were able to completely and absolutely give up control on every level.
If you were able to give up control absolutely, totally, and completely, then you would be a spiritually free being.
When you let go of the egoic self
what you're getting in exchange is
the whole universe.
The Truth doesn't answer anything.
The Truth is everything.
Now don't think that awakening is the end.
Awakening is the end of seeking, the end of the seeker,
but it is the beginning of a life lived from your true nature.
When you realize what you are now,
the issue of death will sovle itself.
Be still.
Question every thought.
Contemplate the source of Reality.
and keep your eyes open. You never know when something that seems entirely insignificant will split your whole world wide open into eternal delight.
To be lost in not knowing
is a wonderful place to be.
When you're lost in not knowing,
you come to know,
but not in the way that you knew before.
You come to know
as a moment-to-moment experience of being.
That's your knowing.
And you know that That is who you really are.
You are that ever-unfolding mystery beyond the mind.
Life itself is often our greatest teacher. Life is full of grace.
Each experience we have is the divine invitation.
It may be a beautifully engraved invitation,
or it may be a very fierce invitation, but each moment is the invitation.
Our illusions—the beliefs we hold on to—
are the very doorways to our freedom.
we see that our emotional life is a portal.
It offers an invitation to look deeply, to look from the awakened state—
a state that is not trying to change or alter anything,
but is itself a lover of truth.
Each moment is the moment that needs to be happening.
The texture and flow of our lives, from moment to moment,
is itself what reveals freedom.
Life itself shows us what we need to see through in order to be free.
The journey of awakening is not just the journey of waking up,
being free of self, and realizing that life as we knew it was a dream.
It is also a reentering, coming back down from the summit
of the mountain, as it were. Quite surprisingly, upon reentry,
life becomes very simple and ordinary.
We no longer feel driven to have extraordinary moments,
to have transcendent experiences.
Sitting at the table in the morning and drinking a cup of tea is experienced as a full expression of ultimate reality.
The cup itself is a full expression of everything we have realized.
Walking down the hallway,
each step is a complete expression of the deepest realization.
Raising a family, dealing with children, going to work, going on vacation
- all of it is a true expression of that which is inexpressible.
True meditation has no direction or goal.
It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer.
We let go into this grace. It’s something we fall into, like when we fall into the arms of another, or we put our head on the pillow to go to sleep. It’s a willingness to relax, even in the midst of tension. It’s a willingness to stop for just a moment, to breathe, to notice that there’s something else going on other than the story our mind is telling us. In this moment of grace, we see that whatever might be there in our experience, from the most difficult emotional challenges to the most causeless joy, occurs within a vast space of peace, of stillness, of ultimate well-being.
We begin to awaken from this dream of separateness and struggle, and we realize that the grace we were always seeking is actually right there at the center of our own existence. This is the heart of spiritual awakening: to realize that what we have always yearned for is the very thing, in our deepest source, that we have always been. Freedom is always available to us. In those very moments when we know we don’t know, when we take the backward step, heart wide open, we fall into grace.
When we begin to look at our experience clearly,
we’ll see that there are at least two phenomena going on:
one is the movement of mind,
including all of the descriptions,
self-images, ideas, beliefs, and opinions
that arise moment to moment.
The other phenomenon is the awareness of mind.
Very rarely do we take into account the awareness of mind,
the space in which mind arises and subsides.
You can have the thought of a glass of water, but if you're thirsty,
you can't drink the thought. You can think about a glass of water
until you die, but to actually pick up a physical glass and
drink the water is a totally different experience.
A thought has no truthfulness to it.
As we awaken on the level of mind, we begin to perceive from
beyond the mind. We realize that the mind itself is empty of reality.
It‟s radical to see that
our whole sense of self and the world is created in the mind.
When we see that the structure of tho
ught holds no intrinsic reality,
we come to see that
the world as we perceive it, through the mind, can‟t have any reality. This is earthshaking;
the self that we perceive ourselves to be has no reality.
One Zen master said,
The whole universe is my true personality.
This is a very wonderful saying...
If you want to see what you truly are,
open the window, and everything you see is in fact the expression
of you inner reality. Can you embrace all of it?
An event becomes
An experience through
Personal involvement.
Collecting experiences can be
Helpful with the daily aspects of life,
But it is not
The road to happiness.
Regardless of how fast one runs
There is no escape
From oneself.
The impetus of this escape is
This state which is
Believed to be unsatisfactory.
To succeed, one must relinquish
The smaller for
The greater.
Only the fool
Seeks to stop
The shaking of
The moon’s reflection on the water.
The acceptance of what
Cannot be changed
Paves the way to
The changeless.
The trance of separateness is
The jail.
The imagination is
The jailer.
When one no longer believes
What one imagines oneself to be,
The cell door opens and
The realization dawns that
A life filled up with being somebody is
An empty existence.
Do not divide
Do not label or categorize.
Rather than seeing the many
Within the One,
See the One
Inherent in the many.
Real contact is made when
There are no persons,
No personalities,
No individuals to meet.
Life is experienced
As a series of events
Happening to an individual.
Wu Hsin says:
Life is happening.
The individual is merely
One of the series
Of events.
Do not mistake birth
For beginning.
Likewise, Death is not
An ending.
Prior to birth is Existence without limit.
This is the quality
That is masked By incarnation.
Remove the mask and
Remove the bindings.
Each being is a moment in time
With a name and
A form and
A script
To be performed
In this play called
Life.
None chose the name
Nor the form
Nor the script
Yet each believes himself to be
The master of his destiny.
Once their sight clears,
They, too, will laugh.
In seeing,
Both the seer and the seen are experienced.
Identification with the seer is
An error of the mind.
All conflict
Between friends, lovers,
Family or states
Begins as conflict inside yourself.
Freeing yourself from conflict
Frees the world of conflict.
The present stands outside of time;
Lacking in duration,
It cannot be measured.
To be timeless is
To be present.
Once the mountain peaks have been viewed,
Even from far away,
There is an implicit invitation to
Go there.
Wu Hsin extends his invitation:
Stop limiting yourself to yourself,
Stop identifying yourself with what is thought.
A thought arises and it is perceived.
What makes it my thought?
The bird sings and it is perceived.
Does one make it my song?
The mind does not see.
Nor does it hear, taste, or smell.
It labels and interprets.
It discriminates,
Setting this against that.
What sees, hears, tastes, and smells?
All words are inadequate.
A thought arises…..
I know not where it came from
I only know what it came through.
There is a response to this thought
Because I am
What I am
And then an action occurs.
At what point in this process
Was the notion of my action born?
Embracing change is
Embracing What-is
In every moment.
It is saying “yes”
To Life,
Not Life as one would have it
But life as it is.
It is understanding that
There is no one
Doing anything
Other than
The Doer
And that each is an actor
On the stage.
The script is written
The sets arranged.
Watch the play,
Enjoy it.
Laugh, cry,
But never make the story
Your own.
Understanding is not necessary.
The end to misunderstanding is sufficient.
Every day, become, at the least
One gram lighter.
It is understood that
Sleep is the desire for
A period of rest
For the body.
It is less understood that
Sleep is the desire for
A period of rest
Away from the body.
How many eyes are required to
See the appearance of Being?
To change the world
One need only change
The color of the glass
One looks through.
Weren't you a small baby, some years ago? Where is the baby now?
It is gone forever and it is impossible to bring it back.
It, in a sense, died while you continued on to become a child,
unaffected by its passing. The child too is gone
and you continued to become a teenager, then a young adult and
now a full adult. Each died to give way to the next.
Soon the adult will give way to the aged.
All these deaths keep succeeding one another.
It is the natural course of the form's journey through the world.
Therefore, why fear this impending death?
It is no different from the previous deaths.
You have known them but you are not them.
Only the name and form die.
That which knows the name and form continues.
Fight with all your strength against the idea
that you are describable and death cannot touch you.
The two great delusions are that life is controllable and
that there is an entity, me, who can exercise said control.
You cannot experience yourself because what you are
is so subtle that it cannot be experienced.
Witnessing is the registration of the presence or
absence of experience.
Presence is Being, not being here now.
No effort is required to be.
You say "I am speaking", "I am working".
Is it not illusion to believe that the actions occurring
via the functioning of the Conscious Life Energy are yours?
Are they anything more than the music
that emerges from the instrument?
Make the "I" and the "am" a single word and
follow each instance with "is".
We now have I-am is speaking, I-am is working.
This is the true state of affairs.
Q: Master, how can you assert that I am eternal?
A: Did you not exist prior to this birth,
dormant in the seed of your father
in the same way that the
sunflower lies dormant in the sunflower seed? And
was your father not dormant in the seed of his father?
This regression leads back to the so-called beginning.
As such, you have always been, in potential,
awaiting the right time and place for your arrival.
Both the mind and the body are discontinuous.
During a single day,
they come and they go.
Yet, there must be something
that is continuous
to register the discontinuity.
Q: Master, am I to be totally alone
and unsupported in this quest?
A: Not at all.
That which you are accompanies you to the goal
because It is the goal.
You are conscious of your individual existence
and therefore must be something prior to it.
No-mind is when mind has nothing to say.
Not wanting is not indifference.
Not wanting is having no preferences.
It is welcoming whatever arrives.
It is only by theatre of the mind
and its transient displays that the world shines.
Thus, the Knower of the mind
holds true knowledge of the world.
The screen does not see what appears on it.
When we are unwilling to accept life on its terms,
when we want things to be different from what they are,
when we define ourselves by our preferences,
all of these sow the seeds of conflict.
What one is conscious of is "of consciousness" only.
That is to say that in order to know itself,
consciousness objectifies itself.
Thus duality births experience.
Every thing is consciousness.
It is that which underlies and unifies all.
Be this and be still.
It needs to be acknowledged that there is a
dysfunctional relationship with the body.
That which you are has become enmeshed with it.
To use the term "your body" means that there is a relationship
between an as-yet-to-be-defined you,
and the object it possesses, body.
They are not one and the same.
Your quill is an instrument for writing; it is not you.
This body is an instrument for perception and action; it is not you.
It is only because you believe that you reside inside the body that
you refer to a sapling as outside the body.
If your viewpoint shifted so that you, too, were outside the body,
the sapling would no longer be outside the body
because the body is no longer the central reference point.
Everything contributes to everything else. No effect has a single cause.
Assume that Y causes Z. If X causes Y, then is X not also a cause of Z?
Can you see how the regression is endless?
When one considers all the conditions that must be satisfied for a single
action to occur, the notion of a single cause is revealed as flawed.
If you concede that everything is connected,
then it becomes obvious that everything has numerous causes. Yet,
if everything causes everything, the notion of cause seems without point.
We only believe we understand causes, but it's self-deception.
We conclude that the leaves falling from the trees are the cause of winter, that lightning causes thunder ............. and we're self satisfied.
The interconnectedness of everything is such that
discerning a single cause for an event is impossible.
We tell ourselves we understand and
it is this very misunderstanding that keeps us ensnared.
Consciousness turned outward is mind;
mind turned inward is consciousness.
The preoccupation with the objective must be
replaced with a preoccupation with the Subject.
Instantly, everything clarifies.
Heaven is this moment.
Hell is the burning desire for this moment to be different.
It's that simple.
You are never 'in' and 'out' of now. You are the now.
There are no conditions to love.
And no end to its depths.
Leave everything undefined, including yourself.
Befriend uncertainty.
Fall in love with mystery.
Kneel at the altar of not knowing.
Give your questions time to breathe.
And the answers will find you.
All your problems are just thoughts.
And thoughts are not a problem.
Are you 'the one in pain',
'the hurt one',
the victim of this moment,
trapped in the story of time.
Wholeness is not something that 'happens' one day,
it is that which is already present.
Life itself - what you really are,
beyond your image of yourself - is already whole.
Do not search for the answer.
It will find you in the perfect moment,
when your defences are down.
It knows where you live.
You don't have to feel 'okay' all the time.
You don't have to be free from all resistance all the time.
You are bigger than that, unlimited in fact...
You don't need to be the peaceful one,
the awakened one, the strong one,
the highly evolved one, the one immune to suffering.
All are false limitations on your limitless nature.
Simply be what you are, not 'this' one or 'that' one,
but The One, the space for all of it.
Let life kick you off your pedestal time and time again,
until you lose all interest in being on pedestals.
Don't mistake the weather of your mind
for the sky of your being.
Knowing who you are
the unconditional embrace of this moment's content
is true contentment.
We could say that what you are, as the ocean,
accepts every wave, simply because it is every wave.
It has no choice but to accept!
The ocean does not accept some waves and reject others;
this is an unconditional acceptance that is way beyond
our conditioned ideas about acceptance.
The ocean’s acceptance of its waves is beyond
the conceptual opposites of acceptance and nonacceptance.
The acceptance is the inseparability of the ocean and the waves,
and as such, it has no opposite.
Every wave is already accepted by the ocean,
and it is this already-accepted nature of the waves it is all about.
This is the deepest acceptance of life,
which you as an individual cannot achieve.
We talk about finding our “true identity,”
but our true identity does not lie in the story of our lives.
I am not the story of my achievements or my failures.
I am not the story of my social status.
I am not the story of my wealth or poverty.
I am not the story of my successful or failed relationships.
I am not the story of my illness or disability.
I am not the story of my childhood or my past or future lives.
I am not the story of my race, my color, my religion.
I am not the story of my beliefs.
I am not the story of my search for enlightenment or my success or failure to find it.
I am simply what’s happening in this moment.
That is where my identity truly lies—
in the here and now, not in the time-bound story of me.
I am identical with this moment.
That is the true meaning of the word identity: “to be identical with.”
What I am is identical with life as it appears now,
just as the ocean is always identical with its waves
Some people report that they feel attacked or plagued by negative thoughts. Remember, though, that what we are
cannot be attacked—only an image can.
So any time you experience a thought as being negative,
any time you feel personally attacked,
it is a sign that you are defending an image of yourself.
When no image of yourself is being defended,
all thoughts are allowed to arise and fall away.
Then you see that all thoughts are true—in other words,
all thoughts have truth in them.
If you are honest you can find everything in yourself—
and then thought cannot be your enemy.
Every thought you call “negative” is actually a dear friend, trying
to show you the false image of yourself that you are still defending.
It’s almost as if life, in its infinite compassion,
attempts to destroy any false image you have of yourself.
Suffering is always an invitation to discover,
in the moment,
what we are not deeply accepting
and to see that what we are not accepting
is already accepted.
The way out of suffering is the way in.
Discovering yourself to be the wide-open space
in which pain appears and
not the story of someone who is being attacked by pain, that is true healing—
the healing of identity—
and it goes far beyond physical healing.
What I am embraces all, allows all, admits all. And herein lies the peace that passes all understanding
even in the midst of pain and illness.
