7/11/2017
Surprise. One of the benefits of being Awake is that things surprise me from time to time. With no particular expectations, almost everything is a surprise. The weather is different than what was predicted (surprise!?!). The news stories we were told were true, aren’t true. (Surprise?!?) The diet that was sold to you ten years ago as healthy (remember, the one high in polyunsaturates like margarine?) is now NOT good for you. (Surprise?!?) The world didn’t end today. (Surprise?!?) Everybody’s ideas are hokey…since they’re only distorted representations of reality, not Reality Itself. Even who appears as the ‘me’ today can be a surprise.
Do you think the same person shows up every day as ‘you?’ Only in thoughts, and only if you try really hard to have the same exact thoughts that you had yesterday. Have you noticed that ‘you’ learned something yesterday? That means there’s a different ‘you’ today. A simple example….I made coffee in the Chemex yesterday, and today, having learned something from yesterday’s coffee experience, I waited until the water boiled before I ground the beans. Yummy. Was ‘I’ the same person as yesterday? Not entirely. Do I have any real idea of who I am today? No. And, since I’m on vacation, I have no clear idea of what will happen today!
If you want an experience of being ‘awake’ without a ‘me,’ just walk down the street or the trail listening to the birds sing, or the cars go by….without thinking about your ‘problems.’ If you stop thinking about your ‘problems’ they disappear into the last thought you had about them. Your physical sensations arise and disappear, over and over again. Your emotions arise and disappear. Your ideas about who you are arise and disappear. If you just let them fall away…what’s left? “I Am.” If you let the tension in your eyes and body fall away, can you tell where ‘you’ start and the ‘world’ ends, or where the boundary is between ‘you’ and ‘the world?’ Your thoughts will tell you but, without them what’s Reality?
Surprise…another blog post today when this was going to be a ‘weekly’ blog. Never know what Reality will show up with.