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Advaita Vedanta is quite challenge to hold on to, the path of non-duality, 'Tat tvam asi' - That Thou Art! To behold that I am the ultimate consciousness, the All Being, the Tatagarbha, God, Allah. I heard it and understood it and how do I keep it? Meditating on it I have been doing as much as I could from way back when practicing it in its various forms but in holding it with determination and acceptance challenges my whole spiritual being. I am still hung up on my doubts and shortcomings perhaps products of long conditioning and habitual tendencies. I am still wearing my personality like a mask to hide my true unborn Buddha Nature, my Divinity, Birth Right: masks of anger and fear, jealousy and greed, masks of always being, needy, wanting, grasping, I wear the masks of pride and preservation, Love and Devotion, I wear the mask of being a father and perhaps not such a great one at that, but I wear a mask all the same; a mask of make believe. Behind this masks there me watching and analyzing, judging and discriminating, making amends and giving tips, this is my mind; this is not who I am, I know this for a fact.
I meditate, I prayed, I rebelled and I transgressed just to make a point, to find the truth, to understand how and why it is all like this. I am weary of coming to the ultimate conclusion of this lifelong experiment about who I am; I fear I do not merit the status of an enlightened being or and awakened mind, but I realize deep within me that I am; being enlightened or awakened is not big deal, it is just like waking up from a deep sleep into a nightmare and waking up from the nightmare into being fully awake to what constitutes my reality. I am afraid to take that leap of faith from being stuck in a rut or a cage into the light of liberation. I cling on with fear to my mentally conditioned perception of who I am for self preservation, for security. I am attached to doctrines and religion, to thoughts and philosophy, I am nailed to the floor not able to move from my present state to a much higher state of consciousness to become a Buddha. I am sitting on my ox while out looking for my ox.I cannot se myself as the mirror reflecting all that is or the clear blue sky where clouds comes and goes, I am the ocean that waves rise and fall when there is wind: I am That, I Am.
“Be aware of yourself without thinking or looking in the mirror”
― Bert McCoy
“Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part forget that he is a man? Similarly, we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts.”
― Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
I am on the verge of giving up this blogging in the name of self discovery trip, it is becoming a tedious thing that really is not getting e any closer to the Truth of the matter, whatever that may be. I have looked deep and wide so far anyone can go and i have spent hours of my time and dug my brain as deep as i possibly can for any new insight that might still be laying dormant in my subconscious to pop out and give me a boost, an inspiration, anything worth taking note of as to the why or what of this whole trip. I don't even know if I am doing it for myself or for those who have been taking the trouble to read this What exactly am I trying to prove to myself, I have no idea anymore and I am as lost spiritually as i have ever been, still lost and groping in the dark. No doubt that i must have felt this way numerous times in the past as this lengthy Blog would testify.
And this too shall pass, I keep saying to myself, and this too shall pass for nothing last forever and all is impermanence. Not understanding this leads to Samsara, one of the causes, the Buddha said of suffering. Ignorance of which i am most acquainted with throughout my life is the major cause of suffering and most of us are even the smartest among us as we cling to our success and fame in the course of our life. Craving, clinging on to holding on to and not being able to let go, is yet another cause of suffering. All these i thought I have understood, perhaps i do intellectually but not in practice. In practice I am still the weak minded, frightened and often naive child lost in time and space; a seventy year old behaving and thinking like a seven year old. Where is the wisdom in that. "Frightened by shadows at night and exposed in the light,..Shine on you crazy diamond!" as Pink Floyd sang in one of their albums. " You reach for the secret too soon, and now you cry for the moon...Shine on you crazy diamond!" These words from the album "Wish you were Here," was etched into my mind ever since i was in college and first heard of Pink Floyd.
Music acts as a stimulant in me and sounds a vibrations helps my mind to either stay calm and focused or helps to raise my state of consciousness to an intense level of excitement or agitation depending on the type of vibrations. I never paid much attention to this in the past and perhaps was ignorant of what the effect of sound and vibrations had on a mental state. However now having looked into more closely of the studies made by various sciences on this matter I am beginning to have a better understanding of how effective sounds and vibrations are on my consciousness and how lasting some thoughts and ideas remain in my mind through listening to them in the form of music, well arranged, well written and well presented live on stage; thank you Guys! (Pink Floyd).
"AH Soh! How should I address you? My Lord? " I asked Him, "and what's with the trishaw puller gig? It is not easy to address someone with a mouth full of rotten teeth and raggedy wardrobe as my 'Lord', if i might add."
" You can dispense with the formality, just call me Mamu, like everyone else, easier that way to communicate, being eternally older than you,calling me uncle will not raise too many eyebrows."
He replied as He mounted the cycle seat making ready to leave.
"As for the trishaw, well I think it is perfect for us to move around while we chat. I like to check out this old city before they tear it all down for development's sake. Come on, hop on, lets take a ride to the esplanade and the water front Weld Quay area."
I climbed into the passenger's seat and settled myself for ride in the trishaw pedaled by none other than the Good Lord Himself! He wore a straw hat and had a pair of sunshades making him looked like urban cowboy. A Black T-shirt with a worn out design of a Maori death mask, he had a pair of cutoffs and sandals for his lower body. He seemed fully at home with himself as he pedaled the trishaw in and out of traffic while always keeping the silly grin on his face.
" The Hungry Ghosts are all over town!" He yelled from behind me as we passed a pile of ashes on the roadside where a huge stage had been erected for the event. Smoke still rises from the burning incense logs, these cannot be called sticks as they were way too large. Straining my neck I looked over my shoulder at Him ans said." You know i don't mind the Hungry Ghosts hanging around and even the loud blaring music that happens every night on stage, what i cannot stand is the disregard for the environment, all that burning, not to mention the smoke, the amount of paper being used to burn at these ceremonies is phenomenal! Do You approve of such rituals, I mean as God?"
"It beats the hell out of watching them kill man women and children all in My name at the very least. Ancestral worship has been going on for thousand of years and it has evolved like all else into what it is today, a business, a means for some to earn a living. The paper money maker, the incense stick maker, the musicians and the rest of it that keeps the celebration going, they all make a living out of this one ritual. As for if it is right or wrong, well it is a matter of faith and belief and that will take a whole lot of explanation to begin with, it is all relative as Einstein's theory."
Einstein's theory? What has that got to do with the Hungry Ghosts, i thought to myself, but i said nothing about it as i know it would be a futile question to ask at the moment. As we arrived at the Esplanade ground He parked under an ancient rain tree and set about rolling his 'rokok daun' while i lit up my John cigarette and stretched my legs while laying my head back on the seat so I can see him. The trishaw puller who was God incarnate lighting up his smoke.
"So! Why all the suffering?" I shot the ultimate question at Him.
" Am I responsible for all the suffering in the world, you are asking," He muttered to himself without looking at me.
" I created man in my image in the Garden of Eden and all that. I am the Creator, why did I create evil along with it all, why? you ask."
" Yes, why?" I asked, "it really makes no sense, does it?"
" No it does not, at least n not to an ignorant mind and i did give man the mind to think with as a gift that he can figure it all out for his own understanding, a mind that no other creature on this earth possess and that which place him above all other creatures, I gave him free will, the will to choose from right and wrong and so forth.What has he done with it?"
" Ya, but you also created the bad guys like Satan and Jinn and evil spirits to throw us off in making our decisions."
" I also created angels and prophets, saints and sages, wise men and teachers to come to your aid if you know how to ask or take refuge in them. I did not create light without darkness, right without its opposite, wrong."
"Ya, but how does a blind man tell the difference if all he sees is darkness?"
"You who sees through your pair of eyes are blinded by what you see, often mistaking the rope for a snake, you become attached to what you see and often tempted by what you see. Whereas the blind sees with his mind's eyes or his heart and less tempted by the external visions, he trusts his own heart and his choices comes from within, not like yours that is conditioned from without. You trust your sight while he puts his trust in his heart."
"So, you think you know it all", he asked me.
" No I don't," I replied,"and I don't think i want to either, not everything is worth knowing and some are best left not known."
"So, why do you keep on asking the same bloody questions if you think you already know the answers?" He went on.
" Cause i wish to understand better that which I already know, I don't trust my own mind, it is worse than the coyote or the trickster, making me think I know who I am, for one thing.Do you know who you are?" I fired back a question at him.
"I am God!" He answered without any hesitation. His spontaneity threw me off balance, I was stumped.
"NO! Really?!" I looked at Him with a disappointment, wondering to myself that this guy has flipped, too much of that 'rokok daun', perhaps even even laced with the ganja., or maybe too much of the local brew of 'biak' or ketum.
" I am the omnipotent and all pervading one consciousness, the Lord of the Universe, the Atma Brahman, the All Mighty Allah, the God of Abraham and Isaac, I am the great Spirit Waka Tanka, I am whatever that you see me to be, Tat Tvam Asi, I Am That."
"So if you are God, what are you doing here. now?" The only thing that came to my mind.
"Having a chat with you, if it is okay, if you are not too busy. These days it is not easy to find someone with time on their hand or their mind quiet enough to chat with." He started to roll his rokok as we sat there pondering the ramifications of this moment in time and space and me meeting my Maker. After an eternity of silence, or so it seemed i asked Him.
"What really brought you here?"
"Talking brought me here." He replied almost to himself.
"What brought you here? " I asked again to make sure that i understood what I had heard.
"Talking brought me here." He answered a little louder this time with a silly grin on his face revealing his missing teeth and the black remains of what was once there.
" I do not follow you, please explain."
"You should." He looked at me with the same silly grin and with a twinkle in his worn out eyes,
" I do not mean it that way.."
"I know what you mean, just playing with you," and He continued after lighting up his smoke, " Let me tell of a story of a hunter whose life was undone, as he set out into the forest at the break of dawn. I think this line is from a song I once heard a long time ago. Anyway, as he set about sniffing around in the bushes looking for a possible prey he stumbled upon a human skull that must have been there for quite sometime as it was all bleached out almost white to the bone as the say."
"Well, well, well! What have we here?" The hunter asked out loud, "What brought you here?" he went on, all excited in finding a human skull in the middle of nowhere."
"Talking brought me here." a reply came out of nowhere loud and clear. The hunter took a step back and fell on his behind shocked with bewilderment.
"What brought you Here?!" The hunter eyes wide and spear ready pointed at the skull before him just in case it could do more than just speak, asked again"What brought you hear?!"
"Talking brought me here, you fool! What kind of a hunter are you who is hard at hearing!"
The hunter beside himself with excitement jumped back and spun around yelling and screaming towards the village, yelling his story at every woodsmen he met along the way and the women who carried the water on their heads headed for the village on their way back from the river. As he approached the village the children ran after him yelling and screaming about finding a talking skull in the forest. Soon the whole village was in an uproar and there was a gathering that gradually build into a frenzy of wanting to know what in heaven's name was going on. The mass of excitement finally woke up the old chief, the village head who had had a busy night entertaining his latest wife, a new addition to his already loaded harem of beautiful ladies.
"Guards! The old Bull yelled out. When two of his bodyguards laid prostrated before him he demanded, "What in the devil's name is going on out there?!" The Chief yelled ad the frightened men shaking his fist full of anger like a lion woken from its nap.
"Someone found a human skull in th forest, O Great Mamba!" one of the guards answered shivering with fear.
"So!" The old Bull yelled, "what's special about a human skull found the forest?"
" This skull speaks, O Great One!"
" A skull that speaks! This I got to see and it better not be some funny joke that has cost me my beauty sleep and not to mention upsetting my fifteen wives from their sleep! Gather my warriors,we leave at once."
Outside an excited crowd had gathered and at the head of the gathering stood the hunter foaming at his mouth, jostled around by those demanding more answers from him. All fell silent as the Old Bull stood before them at the entrance to his domain. His eyes blazed with anger, his hands firmly resting on his broad hips, he stared at his people one by one as though he was about to pick out his breakfast for that morning.
"Who found this talking skull that is in the forest?!" He asked with a controlled and soft voice like that of a black mamba.
" It, it is I,O Great and August One!" The hunter crawled on his hands and knees towards the Chief, "It is out there and it speaks! This I swear upon my ancestor's graves, may they rest in peace."
" If what you claim is true, take me to see this skull for myself!" The Chief signaled his warriors to lead the way towards the forest with the hunter ahead of them and the whole village behind them. After sometime the whole village came to a halt before a human skull resting in the bushes where the hunter had found it. The bleached bone laid there looking at the crowd through its empty sockets where eyes were once used to be.
"Well?!" Roared the Chief, "Make it speak! I want hear what it has to say!"
The hunter timidly approached the skull and yelled,
"What brought you here?!" and there was no answer from the skull. It just sat there staring back at the crowd through two large holes that used to be where the eye balls were. "What brought you here?!" the hunter repeated himself again and again, louder and louder and more desperate each time as he notice the Chief was getting restless and stomping his feet and shaking his fist. The skull laid there on the ground with its silly grin staring at the hunter, the Chief and the whole village like it was enjoying a private joke inside its empty skull.
" Enough!" The Chief roared at last, "I have been pulled out of my bed and made a fool of in the forest! Off with his head!" And with tis he returned to the village leaving behind him the hunter's headless form. Where once there was one, now there are two skulls that laid in the forest.
All that has transpired in my life has thus far been simply grist for the mill, as the saying goes.I am presently sitting and witnessing my past experiences good and bad like thy are karmic displays of things that could have been, should have been and led to become. I am like a cork bouncing on and off the surface of the waves with directions unknown. This has been, or so it seems,how my life is playing itself out, I have become a witness to my own mini series; it is becoming a tedium. The repetition and irrelevancies of each episode as they replay has become like a broken record with its
needle that is stuck in it's groove and beginning to wear out into a deep rut, and how often have i moaned and groaned like this in the past? The question is how to wrench myself free from this clutch of stagnation and decadence, how do i get out of this cage I have allowed myself in.
I keep justifying myself that I am here for my daughter's sake, that she can feel safe and supported while she is going through her career changes and the uncertainties of her future. It is partly the truth as I have promised her and myself that I would be behind her all the way, to be present on hand for her in her times of need as much as in mine. I have always fancied living in an apartment in this country wondering what it would be like and now for the past year and a half I am doing just that I am living in a Penthouse with a cat, half wild and with a mind of her own. It is not too bad if i can keep myself occupied creative and productively and if i can learn to take on being in the present moment without going ga ga. This is part of growing old I suppose, relinquishing my youthful thirst for more and better. Making sense out of what is not and giving up what cannot be, I am witnessing life with closer details of what is right and what is not; my karmic consequences.
"We straggle behind our years, hugging our childhood as if we could not tear ourselves away. We stop the hands of the clock and imagine that time will stand still. When after some delay we finally reach the summit, there again, psychologically we settle down to rest, and although we can see ourselves sliding down the other side, we cling, if only with backward glances, to the peak once attained."- C.Jung.
Serves him right! I can hear many of my relatives and friends whispering behind my back and rightfully so as i have squandered my youth along a path that had caused much sorrow and pain to others. Throughout my adult life I have been carrying on my back the feeling of guilt and despondent often leading me into depression and hopelessness. Yet I know it is all my own mind laying it's negative vibes sometimes very subtly upon my consciousness putting me to sleep mentally and physically and to be haunted by nightmares and delusions that are not really there. My mind is my own enemy and often times I am its victim making me feel vulnerable towards self delusion, paranoid, low self esteem and various other inequities. It is my own ignorance that has led me down this path and to overcome this deficiency in character I have tried every form of remedy, some work and most don't.
I have more than often kept telling myself that i would like to grow old like and elegant beggar and perhaps my wish is being fulfilled and I just do not know how to handle it well. I still cling to my past and keep feeding the hungry ghosts that keeps my mind occupied with the garbage I had accumulated over the years. The realization of having to let go is not enough, I just have to do it, I have become more serious about what my intentions are and keep to the discipline of purifying my thoughts and consciousness no matter how tedious it may be. All my study and practices of self discipline would amount to nothing if I do not put them into action in my daily life. I owe it to myself to become the perfect human being before I meet my Maker, otherwise life has been a waste of time. It may seem like i moan and groan allot, but it is not for nothing, it is my way of letting go, my way of reflection, my way of conciliation. In writing down my thoughts I am healing my self while also sharing the process with other who takes the trouble to read.
I am a student of Vedanta with Swami Sarvapriyananda for the last few weeks or so but i have read of Vedanta philosophy way back in my college days. I was and has always been fascinated by the Vedanta teachings and one of the two books that accompanied me to Alaska in the early eighties was a book by Swami Vivekananda if I am not mistaken on Raja Yoga, the other was a book about G.I.Gurdjieff called the Death of Gurdjieff on the foothills of Georgia. I always had interpreted Vedanta to be. The end of Knowledge, where i got that from I cannot recall, but it seemed to me tha Vedanta was aid to be the wrap up of all there is to know about the 'self' with the understanding that, "Tat tvam Asi," Thou Art That.
Tat Tvam Asi (Devanagari: तत्त्वमसि), a Sanskrit phrase, translated variously as "Thou art that," (That thou art, That art thou, You are that, or That you are, or You're it) is one of the Mahāvākyas (Grand Pronouncements) in Vedantic Sanatana Dharma.
I realized then that all my spiritual search had been the connecting of the dots of religions and philosophies of humanity throughout the ages and it had led to many a blind alley and superhighways. If i were to clock my time and mileage, by now i would have reached heaven or joined Shakyamuni as a Buddha. In actuality I have gotten nowhere but still hanging in limbo as to being awakened or enlightened, at least this is how i often felt of late. This is to be expected as i have time and again found out throughout my self discovering years, it is never permanent, whatever it is; it is as elusive as illusion itself. Admitting myself to be Brahman or God is not a problem in itself, it is the act of being a God that eludes me. My consciousness as i have come to understand it does not allow for me to become all embracing and encompassing especially when i find myself in the midst of a chaotic situation; called life. My human nature takes ahold on me like a boa constrictor choking my ver life the more i struggle to be free the worse it gets. Anger, greed, envy and pride to name a few is still festering my mind and emotional state, often arising at the slightest trigger; someone or something presses the wrong button and Boom! I am back to square one.
As each day passes by I feel less and less energetic, fulfilling or productive and it is beginning to become a bother. Although i fill up my time with a routine more or less, like waking up and sitting in meditation and reflection on what i had dreamed, if I had any dreams worth remembering and seeing if i could make any sense as to the significance of these dreams. Most lucid of my dreams just before i woke up was seeing a figure standing at the end of a tunnel before me, his or her silhouette, but i could not tell who it was. I dreamed about being on a sort of house boat where a couple was living with their children. The details are fuzzy now but it was a very entertaining dream of something i had never experienced before in reality or in dreams. There was no negative take to the dream but just mysterious and out of this world phenomena which I felt intrigued by. Yes, what is my mind or subconscious trying to tell me as i drift along in this physical realm not knowing where or what to do with myself.
Perhaps being here itself is where i need to be as i have again and again been reminded of by the great teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Mooji Baba. Nothing to do and nowhere to go, just sit and watch the grass grow, be at home in the heart and in the mind; knowing and this too will pass. Nothing last forever, not this time or space, not this feeling or perceptions, it will all pass on to the next and to the next and it is in the now that i can experience the permanent nature of time and space and the true nature of who i am; it may last a moment of a flash of lightning, but it is worth a thousand lifetimes. As much as I am attached to this physical realm of existence, I strongly believe that I am more attached to the realm of the metaphysical and the mystical where nothing is set in concrete and the mind is dealt with wild cards to play with, Perhaps it has to do with being older now and there is a lesser hold of external over my interest and choices of being. I am procrastinating myself from making the major leap of faith towards the ultimate cessation of all attachments towards this physical and mental realm of existence once and for all.
How to die without committing suicide. How to consciously will this body to die and become liberated from this realm of physical existence? How to step out of this form and become free in the emptiness of the void? Perhaps no one can tell me how as those who could are no more around to do so, on this I have to find my own way. Just as I had been seeking my way towards self discovery most of my young and adult life, now I have to seek the way towards coming to an end from this phenomenal realm without too much distractions in the physical or mental forms of decay and disease. I can never know when my life will come to an end but i surely can prepare myself to make it the best of my physical experience before my final breath; I aim to die with full consciousness of the process of death and dying.
" Natural life is the nourishing soil of the soul. Anyone who fails to go along with life remains suspended, stiff and rigid in mid air. That is why so many people get wooden in old age; they look back and cling to the past with a secret fear of death in their hearts. They withdraw from the life process at least psychologically, and consequently remain fixed like nostalgic pillars of salt, with vivid reflections of youth but no living relation to the present. From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life." C.G. Jung.
In my younger days i looked to the future with great expectations and a whole lot of trepidations, now as I am descending towards my final resting place, at least in the physical sense i look more and more into my past with nostalgic longing and a whole lot of regrets. However with this realization the lessons of being in the here and now has become more and more crucial and makes more and more sense. Where i have failed and what i have achieved thus far is of no consequences except that i have a good handle on what it was all about and why or how it had affected my as a person for through my mind and mental formations I have laid the path for my life upto where I am at, like it or not. I like it. I have enjoyed my life tough at times but mostly it has been a challenge and often an accomplishment that most of my peers has not and will never experience in this lifetime.
Financially I am a failure but I have a wealth of experience having taken more than my share of paths and roads less traveled most of which were considered foolish and fraught with risks. In these there were lessons to be learned and unlearned, I allowed for my imagination and my stubborness to persist despite warnings and advices from the more wise among my friends and family. but I am satisfied that i had made my own choices in facing my destiny in the past and now as i head further into the future. In the past it was more of a physical and mental challenges that i had for faced often with no looking back and disregard for the outcome, but now as i move towards the end I am looking more and more within, my spiritual inner being. As much as i having failed in my financial state how bad or how better off am I spiritually? From the perspective of a 'good Muslim', I am most assuredly off the target towards reaching heaven as i had committed many a cardinal sin in my past that by ant Muslim standard is tantamount to, future the hell realm. However even in Islam, God is all forgiving and merciful and in this I have to take refuge and faith.
What is of greater importance is what am i up to now, in this present moment. Time and space is revolving and evolving within and without and impermanence nature of existence is slowly taking it toll upon my consciousness as i watch my peers and even those much younger than me drop into oblivion. I have witnessed the suffering in others throughout my life and i have had my share of it sometimes too painful to bear and often swept away buried under the carpet of denial. I have and still am watching the decadence of societies and the planet itself and often felt hopeless not being able to make any difference towards alleviating this sorrow in myself and in the world. What a waste! How have humanity come to so much discord and chaos in the course of time, as in less than a century we are on the verge of wiping ourselves out of existence itself and for what?
Will I ever awaken from this sleep of ignorant that I am in? Will humanity come to its realization of the futility of its course of actions towards gaining the the world and loosing its soul. Mother Nature is already shaking her finger and flexing her muscles telling us to watch out and be mindful in what we are doing that is detriment to our coexistence and more and more insane violence is being perpetrated all over the world resulting in human suffering of unprecedented horror; if God is Merciful He would have ended it all before it gets any worse. But i believe there is hope yet for us and for the Planet and all the other creatures around us. I believe that for so long as there are those who believe in themselves and makes it their journey towards self understanding and self discovery, there is still a chance that we as the human specie will continue to exist into the future preserving whatever will be left to preserve if not our dignity and pride as a specie among other species. Sadly enough when the preservative has lost its quality of preserving, what is there that can be depended on; we are the salt of the earth or so we are supposed to be. We are the guardians, the protectors and preservers but we have lost our sense of priorities and we have become self serving entities that are no better than parasites living off the host we are supposed to care for.
It is way past the time for awakening, individually or collectively we as humans have to get back on track towards being involved in making this a better world to live in if not for us, for those we have brought into this life; our future generation. Your children and mine, teach them to not make the same errors we have been making. To look within more so than to expect from without the things that can make the changes needed to heal this planet and ourselves in the long run. The transformation can only happen from within each and everyone of us and collectively we can make the necessary shifts needed to avoid future consequences that has already been set in motion by us and our predecessors. I can look to the past and learn and to the future with hope but i can make the difference in this present moment and it begins from within me.
And so, without sounding like a broken record i keep asking myself the same question, how do I keep my mind still or at the very least quiet from all its ramblings? The answer is off course to 'just do it' as the Nike Logo suggests. making it happen is not as simple as it may sound I have realized after all these years and it does take great and special efforts including meditation, prayers, chants or zikr, being absorbed in what is being done as in work or any form of creative endeavor or being conscious of its rising and falling at any given moment. The more one is involve in mind observation the more it seems to exert itself upon you with more out of context thoughts that floats in from out of the blue especially thoughts of the past and the future. Perseverance and persistence will bear fruit in the long and tedious run as we allow ourselves to become more and more in accord with what we are doing and not letting go of our practice, whatever form it may take.
Quietly sitting and watching the rise and fall of one's breath is to me the most potent form of slowing down the thinking process or the mind. Without any attachment o what arises, good or bad, one simply sit and become absorbed in silence allowing for the mind and body to come to a stand still and resting thus for as long , as it is possible, this is the Way of Zazen, this is the method developed by the ancient Yogis, the Sufi Masters, Native American Shaman and so forth. Allow for the original nature to enter and express itself through this silence. The universe or higher consciousness is allowed to express itself through this opening of the silence that you have achieved and this is your true nature, the Divine you. become as close and often you can towards achieving this level of consciousness in your daily practice, for that which you seek is within you. Become at peace within and the peace out there will be manifested for you like a mirror. To realize this, is the goal of all humanity, we bring peace into the world from within not from the external.
