Emptinessis the deep space of silence and Being. It is the potential for everything. It is subtle.
The parade is outside. The ego is the parade. It needs affirming and creates distraction from the unassuming suchness of the Subtle. The necessity to create duality and separateness engenders a crib for the illegitimate child called ego. Emptiness has vastness beyond imagination but cannot give space to the artifice (the ego) except in the unreality of the distorted mind.
Ego/mind will always resist notions of profound space and emptiness. Ego throws up ‘doing’/‘striving’ activities that occlude our inner vision in order to continue to survive. It is all unreal, especially when we finally see and stop reacting. Clear unobstructed vision is the terminator for the ‘concept’, the ‘little idea’ of ego.
Formlessnessis non-binding. The temporariness of forms is the nature of form. Forms change. Formlessness Is. Identity can be a form but it is not the Formless. Formlessness can be attributed an identity, but it is not ‘a’ form per se. Formlessness Is, and there is a permanence and stable quality to it. To name it is to lose it.
Identifying with our form or other forms, is of a temporary nature since form is temporary. Attachment to form (the temporary) is ill-advised and a fickle pursuit. Alignment with Formlessness is alignment with the permanence of Being.
Striving is like trying to nail a spike in the sky to claim the sky. We think the sky can be nailed down with our traditional tools albeit, inappropriate tools, e.g. the ‘doing’ mind. It doesn’t make sense and cannot be done. However, do we ever stop the nailing of it all?
Contentment allows the possibility of gathering all of one’s resources and pulling it all together in the Moment to get to where we already are now. Striving and grasping are counterproductive. Pining for goals in the future reveals a contempt for the Present and a lack of understanding of where It all Is. Reliving the past undermines the authenticity of the Moment. The past no longer exists and distracts us from seeing clearly. Contentment is naturally stable in the Present.
We are quite stuck in the belief that we must ‘do’ something for something to happen, when in fact It Is constantly happening. Despite the constancy of it happening ad infinitum, we continue to miss It. How many more moments, years, decades, lives, do we need, to have to come to this realization? Do we really believe we Are the ineffable ‘It’; this stupendous fullness of energy and consciousness, now?!
The realization will not come because of the guarding, holding, and hoarding of this distorted belief of the doing/striving process. The bondage is illustrated by the intense clinging to the notion of “not good enough”, ‘did not deserve it yet”, and/or “I’m working on it but not there yet”.
We are actors on the virtual stage of life. In playing a role, which we do constantly in this ‘life’, we do not ‘practice’ playing the role when in fact we in the process of acting on the stage. If we start to think too much about ‘playing’ the role when we are on stage, we cannot fully be present on stage because of all the distractions of goal, concern for applause, performance anxiety, etc. Distractions degenerate into fear, anxiety, and restlessness. Can we just ‘Be’? Can we see how we unconsciously pollute the purity of “Being”? Rather, can we just rest there, fully awake and content? Can we stop molesting ourselves, just for a few seconds? Contentment makes our performance all the more powerful. When we abide in the contentment, neediness and distraction abate.
The opening of any of the three doors can be a portal to reach ourselves. Emptiness, Formlessness, and Contentment occur coincidently with each other. IT is really the same place we reach upon our entry no matter which door we go through.
Letting go of the presumed need to become when we are already full of emptiness and infinite potential, is a starting point. Allowing the potential of being not only one but an infinite number of characters on stage, is another starting point to consider. Feeling the contentment and reality of the fullness at any and all moments, beckons us to Know. These portals go to the same place. Being there allows the fracturing of the falseness of ego-driven life.
The parade is the show. The show is the endpoint of temporary phenomena. It is always informed from the beginning potential. The empty, the formless, the contentment of fullness, are the doors we keep wide open to inform us on acting out our characters in life.
edward. . .Being effortlessly Now 