Dave's Dog Pee'd On The Carpet

Mystic Meandering commented:

"I have not withdrawn from the world to intensely follow a 'path' so there is no in or out, and yet 'the world' with its requirements keeps pulling me back into its vortex and 'that Being' - that awareness of Being - keeps disappearing back into the smoke and mirrors... Very disconcerting..."

This is, i think, one of the hardest things i ever learned, or, maybe more accurately, the one that took me the longest — Getting over the disconcertedness of the path.

Why is anything disconcerting? Because it is playing with our emotions. Because something isn't working out the way we had planned or hoped it would. Because what we are experiencing isn't what we had expected when we first set out on our 'path.' Because our path is taking us in directions and/or to places we never, ever expected.

Two points here.
1) The thing to keep in mind is that 'that Being' never, ever, ever disappears. In your most beautifully sublime moments, during your worst case of vomiting and diarrhea, and everything in-between, Being is there. Always there. Being is all you are, all that is.

Nothing's disappearing, it's simply that we mindlessly allow the clouds of illusion to settle back over our minds keeping it just out of sight. And this is easy to fight, even in the most hectic life it's easy to notice when this awareness has slipped behind the clouds again.

I remember many decades ago when i heard Thich Nhat Hanh point out that, instead of getting frustrated when we get stuck at a red light when driving somewhere, tell the light thank you and take that one minute to turn the mind off and follow your breath, or just notice your breath, or whatever else you want to practice. That is one free minute of awareness training you wouldn't have given yourself otherwise, so say thank you to the stop light.

I fell in love with that practice immediately. Then took it into the grocery store. Instead of reading magazines while waiting in the checkout line, i would focus on simply Being. You don't have to think, when the person moves in front of you you move. If they don't, you don't. It's sort of like grocery store kinhin. Another great place to practice.

Then take it into any elevators you happen to ride on. Any lines at the coffee shop. Every time you hang up the phone, take two breaths and notice that you are.

Next time you look at your kids, or husband/wife/significant other, or the person in the car next to you, or the woman at the cash register at the store,..... remind yourself that that is you. Remind yourself that what you really are is manifesting as both you and that other person. Remind yourself as you look out the window and see a tree. And on and on. Every so often take no more than 5 seconds to say "will you look at that, i look different in that body than this one."

Training yourself to be aware more often throughout the day isn't all that hard. It just takes a little effort.

2) Expectations. Get over them.

I would guess that the hardest part of 'the path' for most people is that they go into it with expectations of some wonderful experience. Some lightbulb going off and changing the way they view their lives. They way they view Life. Some wonderful thing happening where the 'truth' is suddenly showed to them. Nonsense.

The 'truth' isn't some experience. It isn't any knowledge that you can explain to other people. It's not an aha moment where you suddenly 'know' something you didn't before.

The 'truth,' if we want to call it that, is nothing other than what is, is, and as soon as you apply thoughts, words, and concepts to it you've changed it and it's no longer the truth. When you sit at that stop light and just breath, silently, not thinking about anything, the truth is. When you play grocery store kinhin, just being for those few minutes, with no thoughts, but fully aware, truth is.

The truth is not an experience. The truth has no experiences, no experiencing, and nothing experienced. The truth is Being. Awarefully Being. Period.

Accept that, and accept that 24/7/365 you can be nothing other than Being, no matter what is happening in and with the life of the person whose body you happen to be manifesting in, and there is no reason to be disconcerted. Shit's happening? Well, look at that. Smashed that finger with a hammer? Well, look at that. My dog just pee'd on the carpet? Well, look at that. That person they call me just got a pay raise? Well, look at that.

We can train ourselves to see that we are not this body we inhabit. We are not this personality everyone blames us for. We are not the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that psychologist say we are.

We are. Period.