Blessings to you all, dear friends. Today the sun seems to be hanging brilliantly in the empty blue sky, so I raise the question: in what does the empty blue sky hang?

In honor of this seemingly bizarre query, today’s blog is going to deal with the simplest of all simplicities, so simple that it can be confounding-letting go into the Witness. Suzuki Roshi, the beloved Zen master, once said in his inimitable and compassionate way, “You are all perfect, and you all need lots of work.” Let that sentiment wash over you and sink in, that you are perfect already, illuminated, completed, enlightened, and then take three or four deep breaths before beginning the next paragraph.

Aren’t all beings seeking the same thing? A deep and lasting joy and comfort within themselves and in relation to the world around them? Call it Nirvana, Ananda, Moksha, Forgiveness, Grace or Peace, it doesn’t matter-we seem to deeply want an end to our suffering and discontentment. Yet we’re seeking it outside ourselves and outside the present moment, day in and day out. The yogi thinks, “If I keep practicing, one day soon I will become enlightened.” The businessman thinks, “If I get that job, my life will be so much better.” Are either of these sentiments a guarantee? What if liberation already exists as the ground of our being? What if it’s here right now, hiding inside you as you read this blog?

And what if it’s not hidden at all?

Let’s try an experiment. Sit up straight and look away from the screen (after reading the next two paragraphs), perhaps at the ground a few feet in front of you, with the eyes relaxed and without trying to focus on anything in particular. Release the thinking mind as much as possible and relax into the sense impressions that are constantly manifesting, the way the breath feels in the body, the cool or warm sensations on the skin, the sounds around you, and then the thoughts that arise, but try to simply let them exist, without wanting them to stay or go.

This is like relaxing into the witnessing state, a way of letting go into something so obvious that it’s become almost invisible. It’s an action of the mind, but in a sense it’s more of a non-action. Try to practice this letting go for a few minutes, noticing that each time a thought arises, the mind will identify with it, and the attention will move away from the other sense organs. As soon as this happens, try to release the thought and relax back into witnessing again, again, again. Then notice how sounds return along with feelings in the body, along with awareness of the breath and heartbeat.

Could it be that simple? Could it be that this is enlightenment? Maybe all the practices we undertake are aimed at creating the ability to maintain that witnessing state?

So give in to it. But don’t give up giving in. That’s the secret, constant practice in letting go. It takes a certain effort to constantly relax into this state of simple witnessing, especially thought-witnessing, since we have for decades and decades become completely identified with our thinking patterns. But I raise this question, as many have before me: if you think a thought and perceive that thought as it forms inside your head, then who is it that is perceiving it? How can you think (create) a thought and hear it simultaneously? Is it then possible that underneath the thinking mind, the fluctuations and projections and wishes and criticisms, there is this perfect enlightened presence that simply witnesses everything? Can this awareness, which rests in silence, be the true self, found in all beings?

It dawned on me the other day (like the sun breaking the rim of the earth and sky at sunrise) that at all times, no matter what state of mind or body I am in, there is a constant, silent and perfect witnessing of that state taking place. If I’m happy, the Witness is aware that I’m happy. If I’m stressed out, then it is aware of that too. This awareness remains exactly the same all the time and completely independent of any actions, circumstances or sensations and what’s even more amazing is that it perfectly comprehends what is taking place in the present moment. So many before me who are far wiser have called it the Witness, and spent their lives trying to learn to live in that relaxed state. Try reading Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching, you’ll find it expressed beautifully there. This is also the heart of the Dzogchen teachings, the in-born state of simply being aware. It is described as empty of form, luminously aware and limitless in capacity. I think that captures it pretty well.

I’d even go on to say that it exists outside of us, and is the ground in which the empty blue sky hangs. As they say in the East, it is the “suchness” of things. The wetness of the water, the hotness of the fire.

So here’s the catch-this state is so basic and intrinsic to our lives that we constantly forget it. Don’t we want a big Satori experience, if we’re seeking liberation? A gate-crashing border-smashing release into the cosmic awareness? Many of us do, and we shouldn’t ignore that desire-but that experience comes unannounced, un-looked for, as an act of Grace, so we can’t know when, if ever, it will come. To paraphrase Ajahn Chan, the Thai Buddhist meditation master, “Enlightenment comes as an accident. But by sitting and meditating a lot, we make ourselves more accident-prone.”

So there’s another side of the enlightenment coin which says that maybe we don’t need that experience in order to be truly happy; maybe all we need is to release into this simple ground of being, over and over throughout the day, into this still, peaceful witnessing. This in and of itself is one of the most powerful (and oldest) meditation practices, and I highly recommend it. That way you can just relax, again, again again throughout the day, and become more present and aware of life as it happens in the moment. Eventually one enters into the dimension of Silence, and realizes that the heart of silence is love. But you’ll have to take my word for it (and many others’) until you experience it.

There are of course many meditation practitioners who after years of practice have a deep and blissful awakening, and most of them describe a similar experience (in fact I’d wager that almost all of them experience the same thing but after the fact have to filter it through their own persona, so it seems to vary a bit from case to case, since we are all unique): they become one with the cosmos and enter into a deep sense of peace that is absolutely still, and within which an infinite number of things manifest and then disappear. They realize that their bodies and actions are just the same as everything else, in flux, growing and then disappearing, and this gives them a sense of release beyond anything they could have imagined. Just to be rid of all the trying. This experience may last a few moments or a few weeks, and then they return to the ordinary mind, but are changed forever.

So I say this: don’t wait endlessly for that day to come. Keep doing your practices, but as often as possible just give in to the witnessing state whenever you remember to-it is always perfect, empty and understands you fully. In fact it has witnessed every thought, word and deed that you have ever experienced, without any judgment, without any wish for anything to be other than it is. This is a judgment-free zone that knows the very depths of your mind and it’s always present with you, knowing and peaceful and absolutely accepting of whatever takes place.

Personally, the more I release into the Witness (in either meditation or throughout the day) the more I become aware of the mind itself as an empty and constantly changing thing. Which means that nothing is set in stone, and that anything is possible. As the awareness grows, then we may find we want to start to change mental habits, that perhaps our minds are not as clean and nice as we’d like them to be. That maybe we want to be more compassionate. Either way, it all begins with this simple awareness, so give it a shot! After all, it is there whether you focus on it or not and knows your heart better than any other.

Love and limitless good wishes to everyone, success in your practices and peace in your hearts,

Barbu

Advertisement