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#3944 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The Myth of ‘Doing Nothing’
Colin Drake
I recently was talking to
a friend who was complaining of existential anxiety; which was
dispelled by reading a good book on nonduality or attending an
inspiring satsang, but which always returned. So I asked him what
he ‘did’ on a daily basis to establish himself in
nondual awareness, whereupon he grinned sheepishly indicating
that he did nothing. Which made me ponder the teachings of many
modern teachers of nondualism who say there is nothing to ‘do’
and everything just ‘happens by itself’. Indeed even in
my book Beyond the Separate Self there is
a chapter entitled ‘Nothing to Achieve, Find or Get’
which could give the impression that there is nothing that one
needs to do … However I can assure you that if one continues
to live in the same headspace without ‘doing anything’
then there will no change in one’s outlook and anxiety
levels. For as I say in the book:
At a deeper level than
this flow of fleeting objects (thoughts and sensations) we are
this constant subject, awareness itself; this is already the case
and as such cannot be achieved. All that is required is to
realize this!
So awareness is central
to our being, whilst thoughts and sensations are peripheral. This
is self-evident for without awareness our thoughts and sensations
would pass unnoticed. Thus we cannot lose this awareness; we just
need to stop overlooking it.
It is impossible to get
that awareness which you already are, and thus have in full
abundance. All that is required is to recognize this. In this
respect you do need to ‘get’ this, but this is in fact
nothing as it is not a thing but the ‘ground’ from
which all things arise, in which they exist and back into which
they subside. So there is in fact ‘no thing to get’ and
you do need to ‘get’ nothing(ness)!
So although there is:
‘nothing to achieve,’
we do need to realise the deeper level of pure awareness, for
this to be the case.
‘nothing to find’,
we do need to stop overlooking the awareness that is always
present.
‘nothing to get’,
we do need to recognize that we already have this
awareness.
This realization, or
recognition, of the deeper level of pure awareness is easily
accomplished by directly investigating our own moment-to-moment
experience. My book aims to provide a simple straightforward
framework in which this investigation can take place. However
even after the recognition of this deeper level we do need to
cultivate, and establish, this by further
investigation/contemplation for as it says in The Tibetan Book of
the Dead:
All those of all
[differing] potential, regardless of their acumen or
dullness,
May realise [this
intrinsic awareness].
However, for example,
even though sesame is the source of oil and milk of butter,
But there will be no
extract if these are unpressed or unchurned,
Similarly, even though
all beings actually possess the seed of buddhahood,
Sentient beings will not
attain buddhahood without experiential cultivation.
Nonetheless, even a
cowherd will attain liberation if he engages in experiential
cultivation.
For, even though one may
not know how to elucidate [this state] intellectually,
One will [through
experiential cultivation] become manifestly established in
it.
One whose mouth has
actually tasted molasses,
Does not need others to
explain its taste.
Even after one has ‘tasted
molasses’ this taste will dissipate after a time, requiring
further ingesting for the taste to reappear. In the same way the
effect of ‘awakening’ to the reality of the deeper
level of pure awareness will dissipate if one ‘nods off’
again and re-identifies with the mind/body. So one needs to
continually inquire into/investigate/contemplate the nature of
Self and Reality for this ‘awakening’ to become
established. It is only in this established awakening that all
existential anxiety is banished.
Beyond the
Separate Self, by Colin Drake is available at http://nonduality.com/btss.htm