We (humans) seem to be so busy wondering, speculating, pontificating why things are happening and what the takeaways relative to those happenings should be, that we miss what’s happening. Do you see?
Life is not conscious of what you think, what you dream, or believe. It quietly moves through myriad forms and vistas, offering its infinite abundance to those who “quietly” move with it. Somewhere, amidst all the noise of what isn’t YOU are happening. That is, YOU are life’s unfoldment. Nothing is more precious, sweet, infinite than YOU, NOW! Go happen!
Bozebits
You cannot think or learn your way to stillness, quiet, peace, and awareness; they are not formulaic. Instead, they are states independent of mind-based activity. Do you see? Even thinking that you must quiet your mind creates the noise of process, discipline, and often, the judgment of self.
There are vast spaces between this thought and the next one, this word followed by another, etc., and those spaces contain a field, so still that awareness, simply, surrounds you. You’re there more than you think, and that’s the rub. You can’t quantify how often because that requires thinking. So what to do?
I can’t tell you; that would be formulaic. Anything I suggest will take you from it. YOU, however, already know.
Bozebits
Ego loves the spectacular, the awe-inspiring, mind-jolting “burning bush,” calls it a miracle, and is quick to place profound meaning in it relative to current circumstances, missing the real miracles, which are infinite in number and everywhere. A dewdrop sparkling on a blade of grass, a flower or tree swaying in the wind, snow, smiles, winks, a kiss, the smell of rain newly fallen, a breath, the whisper “I love you,” in tender moments, sunsets, sunrises, a child skipping to school, crying, laughter, etc., etc., etc.
The big and bold is the chase of ego, and in that chase, real miracles go unrecognized, and life itself is reconciled to the mundane. Close your mind, and, in so doing, you open awareness. That is, nothing is missed, and all that you experience is one great big miracle. Wherever YOU are, whatever you are doing, they are there and for no other reason than to enrich your life with wonders.
Bozebits
Own what you think without the implication that what you think matters in any way to anyone else. You know it matters when you grow angry, frustrated, or excited by those who do not “think” as you do, and often even when they do. Have you ever observed when two or more are discussing an agreed-upon viewpoint, and the tenor of the discussion turns competitive between those who have the better reason for it? Humans jettison energy and do so for the most inane reasons, e.g., to prove a point that doesn’t matter. All other earthly life forms conserve energy, and nearly all humans credit them with greater awareness and sensitivity to what is going on in and around them. How do you think they do it? They live, not for others or because of others. They give nothing to the unimportant and, in so doing, have the energy to see what we (humans) rarely, if ever, see.
The fewer things you have to think about that you believe matter, the less you have to “think” at all. You’ll love what you see when you do!
Bozebits
Humans routinely believe that awareness comes through focus, but it doesn’t. The concentrated mind is busy and far too bound to the “focused on” to be aware. Without a thought or even the thought of a thought, expansiveness creeps into your field of view. Definition ceases, and all that is permeates the essence of YOU that has no mind. The baseline of infinity is nothing out of which is everything. In other words, “awareness” has no foundation, definition, or description, e.g., nothing to “focus” on. It is YOU, clear and unfettered by you. “Lose yourself to find YOUR-self.”
Bozebits
“Aha’s” or what some refer to as “defining moments” almost always integrate with what was before it appeared. That is, the experience is neatly stored in memory, but the safety of the known is too compelling to alter present-moment living entirely. Oddly, such moments happen free of any known constraints, e.g., religion, beliefs, faith, hopes, philosophy, whatever, and are free and clear of any previous thought or recollection. Even the mind’s constant banter is silent, but, in its incessant way, it fires back up and drags the pristine into the muddy waters of “how it has always been,” and the “moment” gives way to the safety of the known. If your “aha” comes in the context of what you think you know or believe, it’s not an aha. It’s a confirmation to your mind that, while out of control, it thinks it is in control. In other words, don’t let what you know or think integrate with the mystery presented in the still, clean waters of silence. “Defining moments” have no definition. Neither should you.
Bozebits
If life is an illusion (it is), then trying to fix yourself is an illusion too. In other words, that which assesses the need to fix, by whatever means, is also the fixer, and it is the fixer who creates the illusion it seeks to fix. You do see the folly of this, right? It’s like the primary rule of “wing walking. That is, never let go with one hand until you are holding on to something else with the other. However, in so doing, you are still “walking the wing” of the same airplane. To see the real, you must void yourself, altogether, of the unreal, and the unreal is everything your mind holds on to, e.g., literally, everything that passes through it.
Letting go is not a leap of faith, as that would just be affixing yourself to another illusion. It is a leap into the abyss where safety and security give way to mystery and breathless wonder. It is anyone’s guess how you fall or where you land if you land at all, but oh, what a thrill you’ll have. And that is as it should be!
Bozebits
“If your lips are movin’, your ego is groovin’.” Everything you say, regardless of eloquence, beauty, or intent, is ego. What you write, think, or dream is ego. What you do that is kind, unkind, charitable, uncharitable, etc., is ego. Do you see? Human exchange of any kind is ego, and when you get that, once and for all, you will see the miracle of life as opposed to the narrow interpretation of it, e.g., egoic interpretation. There simply is no path to awareness through your mind; it just talks too much (mine too). Still, this is the human experience, so it can never be turned off, but it can be turned down. Focus more of your “seeing” the world on what you hear rather than what comes through your eyes. While it will not rid you of ego, it will undoubtedly have it talking less. That is always a superior, less egoic, “groove.”
Bozebits
There is nothing more or less unique about your human experience than that of a dung beetle having its own. The importance of your politics, religion, ideology, education, affiliation, wealth, etc., is no greater than the routine activity of said beetle, making little round dung balls out of big ones. In other words, self-importance based on routines and gathering more and more is nothing more than a synonym for separation, and dung beetles feast on separation, if you get my drift. Life is living and far too abundant to consider what else it could or should be – you should be too. Living, that is!
Bozebits
A better life can only happen now, at this moment, which you frustrate with thoughts of improvement. “What is” drowns in dreams and fantasy and you, thrashing about on mind-made improvement, miss the only place and time where “better” is actually better. You have it ALL. The “house special” is only served up when you are seated at the table now, and it is a feast like no other. Experience it, and who knows? You might enjoy it, too!