On The Path

 First the Work, then the Relationship

When you let go the thinking process, or something in you starts functioning somewhere else in you other than your mind, then you become afraid that the things you use your thinking for, things you feel you have to use your thinking for, will stop functioning in your life. And it’s true that when that first happens, not only does thought stop or become less central, but often many of the things we do with thought also stop. And when you are on the spiritual path this is an important thing to happen.

One of the things that Buddha said is the simple statement: “Buddha has cried, ‘Halt!’” The energy of our being is always drawn into the way we live, according to the way we see our lives, according to our habits, and as long as the energy is being drawn into patterns and structures and repetitions, then the energy is used up in that way and then the reservoir of energy is constantly emptied out. But when that use of energy starts to slow down, then the reservoir starts to fill up, and we become still and silent, as we have all done in these days together. And that’s a beautiful thing to happen. You feel that you are returning to something fundamental inside you. You begin to taste yourself again.

Normally, we don’t taste ourselves. We taste our actions and our functioning, but not our essence. But when we fall back into our reservoir of energy then we begin to taste what we are, and that’s a very beautiful experience, a very rich experience. When that happens, not only are you reunited with your essential energy but that energy then starts to connect with all the energy all around it, and you find that you’re not only again with your essence energy, you are with all in essence. Suddenly the wave realises it is not only in its essence the ocean, but that essence in it that is the ocean connects with the ocean everywhere. But then the ocean is capable, of course, of becoming a wave anytime, too.

In the same way, when you drop out of the mind you start to feel silence in your being, and then when you’ve really been able to accept that and to relax into that, then you find that your thinking mind is a tool that you have, and that you can use it without being lost in it. Then it becomes a stream you can flow along for a while, and then when that functioning has achieved its result, you return to the reservoir.

That movement away from the mind and the thinking that we are so accustomed to, and the falling into that space where thinking somehow starts and stops, starts and stops, and doesn’t take us off, can be very frightening. But clearly your basic survival, your livingness, is not dependent upon thoughts, so there is nothing really terrible to be afraid of. So some trust is important - trust that it will all work out okay and that you will in the end be a much fuller and more essential person than you were before.

It’s a big step, letting go of the mind. But unless you do you will never return to the essence. Never. It is a big step, and it is an essential step, and it is a necessary step. Only in that way can your centre of gravity, the place that you live your life from, switch from the centre of your view of the world and your opinions about the world to your participation in actual reality.

When you function from the mind, you function from the midst of a set of views and opinions. And all around us, everybody else is functioning from a different set of views and opinions. But that which is true must be true for all. So no set of opinions, however brilliant, however intelligent, however wise it may be, can possibly be true. And yet we refer to our bundle of opinions to run a life that we want to be true. That you can never do.

We’re playing with something extremely revolutionary here. Many of you have experienced much in these energy dimensions we go into, and many of you have supplemented or amplified your realities with new possibilities in your lives - new spaces to be in, new inner homes you’ve found for yourselves from which you can see life in a new way. But this also leads to a life lived as a flow of energy, as a play of energy, connecting with others and with all things around you - not first through the mind, or thought, or categories, or opinions, or views, or Yes and No, preferences; no more relating through preferences, but relating according to what runs between you on an energy level, and all around you. And one of the things that results from that is that you are not cut off or separated from anybody or anything.

In our minds we are cut off, or we cut ourselves off. We say, “I’m not interested in that,” or, “I’m not attracted to that,” or, “I don’t want to connect with that. I don’t want to connect with him or her.” All the time there is a selection process going on according to our idea of what fits with who we are and what we want and what we need. But when we start centering ourselves on an energy level, there is always a connection, there is always a meeting with everyone and everything. So there is no No involved at all, not on that level. And that’s revolutionary.

From “With It”, 2003