We have to be alert that we don’t have a subtle definition of Awareness that colors its nakedness. That means we make Awareness into a state of experience. That would be like: “Awareness is a clear openness that is spacious and serene”. We then have defined Awareness and by doing so we have made it possible to lose the “state of Awareness”. When we aren’t feeling that “clear openness that is spacious and serene” we feel we have lost Awareness.
But Awareness has no definition, all experience is the experience of Awareness. Awareness has no form or state of its own. That then allows Awareness to be every state, every feeling,every emotion,every thought, every perception.
That being so, what is there left to achieve? Every experience, happy, sad or neutral is the appearance of Awareness. We give up completely the notion that Awareness has to have some particular flavor or color. Oh my god, we can finally really relax! Its over!
Every experience is equal in Awareness! What could you possibly practice? You are already aware, so you don’t need to become aware. Everything is already happening however its happening, so there is nothing special to do. No special “state” to attain! If you experience a special state, that’s fine, but it will never become stable. The only stability is your unchanging perceiving of whatever is experienced. That unchanging perceivingness is Awareness, the heart of the Dharmakaya (Pure Being).
~ Jackson Peterson
Posted to Way of Light
Tag Archives: spiritual practice
memo to exhausted spiritual practitioners
Here’s a little heresy for the Sabbath: Nothing you can ever do, even if you do it a hundred thousand times in the most sacred spot on Earth, can bring you closer to the brilliant Light of Being that you are.
That you are! Already.
Practice. Path. Method. Journey. Quest. (Usually preceded by ‘my’ and ‘spiritual’.) All are equally guaranteed to propel you away from what you seek.
Krishnamurti used to say, “Truth is a pathless land.” We loved his “pathless path” the way Zenners love their “gateless gate”. But both these cultified terms still leave one with the notion of a ‘way’ and a destination, even though they strive for the very opposite.
Nowadays we hear a great deal about the “direct path” to awakening or enlightenment, but I reject this term too, on the same grounds. Truth is indeed a pathless land – but for some reason we find it impossible to accept that this land cannot be reached by paths or practices. We are time and motion junkies. Until exhaustion sets in.
So here’s my memo:
Please just rest.
Rest with this, right here, now.
Relax and enjoy the View
for the View is you,
naked and sacred.
this unlit light 