Why do you delay what is most important to you?

Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else shall be added onto you- Jesus Since death is inevitable, why not do as the sages say and see if what they say works - Nisargadatta Maharaj

In every moment there is a choice: We are either turning towards or turning away from peace.

Why do you constantly delay your peace? Do you realise that you do?

So many people postpone. First of all, there is a basic equation that we believe works: “When I have x I shall be y.” When I have my new job I can be peaceful. When I find my soul mate I shall be content. When I lose a few more pounds I will be happy.

Humanity believes there is a middle man to peace. We believe happiness lies in things. Find the right person, possession, pet etc. etc. and all will be well.

The second thing is that we say peace is the most important thing in our life, but it is the first thing out the window. It’s a priority, but how much time do you spend in your day making sure you have peace? Not relative, “I’m okay, I got through that day” kind of peace, but nothing but absolute seamless perfect peace?

Even when you have a simple, effortless meditation technique such as the Ishayas' Ascension that makes peace a direct, continuous and unconditional lived experience, you still delay.

Many don’t use it. Many don't practice like the teachers tell them to. They treat it like an aspirin, taking it off the shelf when times are tough. Or when times are tough it’s the first thing to get dropped.

I don’t want this to be an excuse to beat yourself up, but a chance to see what your priorities are. You don't have to give anything up, just realise what is the most important thing to you. When you do, keep it constantly as the first thing and the last thing in your life.

My teacher once said that for anyone to experience all the wonders of the world that the sages have talked about for millennia is “never a case of can you, but will you”.

What if everything the sages say is true? And if not now, when?

Innocence - part 2

When someone seeks, then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. - Hermann Hesse

Innocence is having no fixed expectations. It is being fresh, being free, being open. Innocence is the cornerstone of a full life.

Meditation shows you how to regain innocence. Meditation, just like life, gives you what you need, not necessarily what you want, and definitely not what you expect or demand.

In this regard, the path and the goal are the same thing. Innocence and meditation go hand in hand.

So when you sit to meditate, or you simply stop and rest your attention in the essence of this moment, don’t do it for a reason. Don’t do it to get anything. Don’t do it to get rid of your thoughts, to rest. Don’t even do it for peace. Just see what stillness has for you, right in this moment of time.

You’ll find meditation, and life, becomes simple. You’ll become open, receptive to whatever needs to happen. You’ll find contentment because you have let go of expectation.

Innocence means you meet life as it is, pure, without expectation, judgement, or filters.

Some confuse innocence with naivety. I say an innocent life is an authentic life. You are you, without masks or roles or old reactive patterns of behaviour. You are able to meet the need of the moment. You are untouched by change. Each interaction is fresh, new, alive.

Innocence has no agenda. There is no effort in innocence. There is no grasping there either.

Put down your expectations and demands. Rest innocently in the heart of stillness and in all moments all is well.

Awareness

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware - Henry Miller

It’s all about awareness.

In awareness, in awake-ness, there is aliveness. We spend living our lives in a tiny part of the universe - largely in the space between our ears - and even there in that small tunnel of perspective we’re not really aware or awake to what we are telling ourselves, to how we construct our life.

We have taken on beliefs, judgements, customs, ways and means and they have become Truths: The Way Things Are Done and The Way I Am and The Way You Should Be. These patterns of thought and these habits of doing are not Truth, not even close.

It’s not natural that we do these things, it’s just an agreed way of seeing and being in the world - sometimes as individuals, sometimes as societies. Some of these things serve us, many do not.

Unconscious rigidity in these ways doesn’t serve. It leaves one humourless, serious, static, unyielding and unbending. When life changes - and it does because life is change - it will inevitably meet up against the combined total of our assumed truths, that being that This Should Not Be Happening To Me. People’s unaware rigid expectations means they suffer, simply because they are sleep walking through life.

Awareness gives you the flexibility to make free choice. If you can be aware of what you are telling yourself, of the patterns of how you construct your life, then you can choose differently. Life doesn’t become an inevitable reaction, you don’t keep recreating the same situations time in, time out, you don’t keep giving energy to the same useless circle of thoughts: Awareness means life becomes Life.

It takes zero effort to be aware. Awareness just is. Open, watching, receptive. Awareness isn’t about stopping thought, that’s where the effort comes in.  It just is seeing, attentive to all things, avoiding nothing. You can’t make your life aware. You can only be aware now. It matters not a doddle how awake you have been, only in this moment can you see clearly.

The beauty of awareness is opening your perception beyond the narrow tunnel of thought. There you discover much more about yourself and the world. Awareness has so little to do with thought and patterns of behaviour - awareness allows you to discover the still silent presence within. There you can discover unchanging permanent Truth. There you can live through anything with peace in your heart. There is absolute aliveness, it is the source of Life itself.

Life is but a game

In this game of life one of the critical realizations is that you, as an individual, get to define what winning is. You set the goal posts.

There is a dominant definition of success in our culture, for sure. A successful life, the theory goes, meets certain criteria and includes certain experiences. If you have this job or status or amount of money in the bank or live in that neighbourhood then you are a success.

But what about how much you enjoy the game? What about how fulfilled you feel?

The beauty of the game of life is that you can agree or disagree with any idea of success. What winning is for you personally is totally and only up to you. How can you play if you don’t like what the goal of the game is? Exactly. So, you decide.

Anthony de Mello once wrote something I think is just superb. He said:

Nothing surpasses the holiness of those who have learned perfect acceptance of everything that is.  In the game of life one plays the hand one is dealt to the best of one’s ability.  Those who insist on playing not the hand they were given, but the one they insist they should have been dealt – these are life’s failures.  We are not asked if we will play.  That is not an option.  Play we must.  The option is how.

How you play needs to be everything to success.

Sometimes you just don’t have control over the external ‘bits’ of life: where you find yourself or what is happening. Just like a rollercoaster there will be ups and downs. If the basis of your personal definition of winning is in the internal aspect - how at peace or content or happy you are - the possibility of success in the game of life will be available to you in each and every moment.

You are in charge of how at peace you are with what is. How you respond to the ups and downs of life is up to you. You can enjoy it, or not, but this enjoyment isn’t based on anything but your response. Treat life just as if it was a game where winning isn’t so much about what you have but what you are.

So play, and play well, but keep your eye on your big picture. What’s the most important thing to you? Is it having something or being happy? Respond accordingly.

Don’t be afraid, you can’t get it wrong. You define the game, and can change that definition at any time. The only thing you could do ‘wrong’ is hold yourself back from fully playing your game. There aren't any real winners or losers, only those who had an amazing ride, finding complete enjoyment, or those that didn’t.

It’s totally up to you. Play, be full on, have fun.

Innocence - How a fresh attitude changes everything

We do not see things as they are; we see them as we are. We do not hear things as they are; we hear them as we are - The Talmud

You see what you expect to see. The world is created by your expectations. If you wish to engage with the world fully, as it is, you need to drop these filters to reality.

Life is so much easier without expectations.

The Bright Path Ishayas refer to this as being innocent. I like that.

Innocence = having no expectations = no preconceived ideas = no prejudice

There is no better way of instantly experiencing more peace and joy. Having no preconceived ideas about any person or situation means that you can experience things exactly as they are. Instant freedom.

We only experience suffering in life when our experience of it does not meet our expectations. The stronger our expectation the greater the trouble for us. Recognise this?

Innocence has a sense of play about it too. If you're really being innocent and fresh, you cannot possibly be taking anything seriously. Taking things seriously is always the end of enjoyment. Also - If there is such a thing as an omnipresent cosmic intelligence taking an interest in my life, I've found it goes out of its way to poke me when I am being serious. How about you?

Innocence does not mean naivety. It means being open to life changing in unexpected ways. It means having the flexibility to accept this change, thus being in a position to cope, to react creatively, to enjoy the ride. It is an easy, fun, peaceful way to live.

Innocence and Meditation:

We all want something from the practice of meditation. However, what I've found is that meditation will give you what you need and not necessarily what you want. It definitely doesn't give you what you expect.

You are not in control of the experience when you close your eyes. A great deal of healing is taking place. Your meditations will be so much easier and fulfilling if you let go of control and allow whatever happens happen.

Take an attitude of innocence with what is happening. It just doesn't help to fight or insist on a certain experience, so you might as well sit back and relax. If you are using an effective meditation technique it will guide you to the best possible experience. It will give you what you need.

You be innocent and let go of any idea of what should be happening and all your meditations will be easy and restful and enjoyable. Anything else and they get harder and less fun. If you're just beginning, judge progress not just by what happens during your practice time but also in your wider life.

You may find that even though you might have a lot of thoughts when you close your eyes, when you open them you are at rest, you don't react so much, you are more calm and centred.

Give it a try.