March 2010 Newsletter
As we continue on our path of cultivating inner peace we come to Depth. Depth is the movement from the mind to the heart, from knowing to Being. Our usual way of approaching life is to collect more information, knowledge, things, experiences, beliefs, ideas, and thereby thinking if I know more, believe this or that, experience the next thing then "I'll be ____" (happy, somebody, secure, free from suffering, at peace, etc.). But this just gets us more of the same things that we have always gotten. True peace is beyond this movement of mind and accumulation. Adyashanti, a wonderfully delightful enlightened teacher shares:
“There is an invitation beyond the wall of knowledge, which is not to some regressive state before the mind can operate, but a transcendent state that’s beyond where the mind can go. That’s what spirituality is. It’s going where the mind can’t go. The mind can’t fathom that there can be a true intelligence, a transcendent intelligence, that isn’t the product and outcome of thought and conceptual understanding. It can’t fathom that there could be wisdom that’s not going to come at you in the form of thoughts, in the form of acquired and accumulated knowledge. The true spiritual urge or yearning is always an invitation beyond the mind. That’s why it’s always been said that if you go to God, you go naked or you don’t go at all. You go in free of your accumulated knowledge, or you are forever unable to enter.”
When we are willing to get quiet and let go of (move beyond) our accumulated knowledge, concepts and ideas we come to the Great Unknown, the Divine Mystery. One way to do this is through inner inquiry, asking the question Who Am I? and truly looking within. Not looking for the minds ideas of who we are but, at the direct experience of our being. That which is beyond thoughts, stories, emotions and beliefs, to the direct experience and realization of the answer to this question.
It is looking at each thought and story to see that we are not our thoughts and we are not the stories we tell ourselves (thank goodness for that!). It requires questioning everything we identify ourselves with (what we get a sense of identity from). Some people may get a sense of identity from how they look, who they know or what they own (like their car). Do these things define you, the reality of you or just the personality?
In looking at the thoughts, and stories have you noticed that they come and go but there is a constant witnessing of this coming and going. You are eternal, you are that which is watching all the stories, thoughts and beliefs. We notice present within our body/mind is awareness, consciousness itself, expressing as a woman or a man. Our true nature has been there all along yet covered by our attachment to our beliefs about who we think we are.
When we dive deeply beyond the mind-made concepts and beliefs our True Essence is revealed and we realize the stillness and peace of our Being. As we rest in the stillness of Being and open to this Truth we find we move in the world from a more peace-filled place. We use our mind and knowledge from a place of Being that contains deep wisdom. The mind becomes the servant as we embrace and express our Beingness.
May we all let go into the depth of our Being.