Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment
Once you recognize that all desires and intentions are ultimately rooted in the desire for bliss; once you recognize that all desires and intentions lead you away from bliss, your resistance to reality, to that which is, begins to lift. You have carried this resistance with you since you were a child. Since the very first moment that you were not given what you desired. Since the first time you went crying and yelling to the parent to let you have what you wanted.
As children, we do not learn how to allow what is. Life is rationed out to us by teachers and parents. Life is handed to us in portions, in unnatural ways, and we are taught to begin life kicking and screaming. A child is taught “no”. A child is not taught to allow that which is. To allow the flow of existence. Because the child is raised by others who are in a state of resistance. The child is forced against their nature to endure schooling. To wake early, to study late. Their desire for peace and playfulness is penalized. Therefore we have come into adulthood fully conditioned to be in resistance to life. It’s a normality in our society to be unhappy with the nature of life, to be against it.
All of your life you have been in frustration, in vain, against the nature of existence. The feeling of trying to move underwater, the feeling of trying to scream and fight while you are in a dream. It is a battle that cannot be won because it is an illusory battle. To battle, two must engage. However, reality does not fight against you. It is like trying to fight your shadow. You cannot because your shadow moves with you. Even your fighting is a part of reality. When you stop fighting it will also be part of reality. It will be what is. It will the be nature of reality, of existence.
ο»ΏThe Buddha calls the nature of reality dhamma, Lao Tsu calls it tao. They have created words for the nature of existence because of its extreme importance for the happiness of a person. They create words for this out of reverence.
You believe that reality itself causes you pain. You believe that reality is what causes you disappointment. That reality is something you must fight against. However it is not reality, it is not tao, not dhamma that has caused you pain. It is your resistance to it. It is the frustration that stems from your desire for something other than reality that causes suffering. Let me repeat this. It is the frustration that stems from your desire for something other than reality that causes your suffering. It is not reality itself that causes suffering. In reality, there is bliss. To be in agreement, in acceptance with, and to trust the nature of existance there is a feeling of pure relaxation, pure let-go. It is fighting that causes you frustration, because it is a battle you will never win.
A person will ask, how can I simply accept fate and let go? How can this feel good, to allow life to happen to me at the will of life itself? The feeling is a phenomenon that has never been able to put into words. It is the same to explain love to someone who has never experienced it. To use logic to explain that your heart will choose one specific person that will give you ecstasy. The idea that you will sacrifice and endure any hardship for the feeling of love will be lost on the person who has never loved. Lao Tsu says “the Tao that can be told of is not the absolute Tao”. The immense feeling of relief and oneness cannot be put into words. It must be experienced. However, it must be told, eluded to or else you will never drop your resistance.
At this time you are always rushing. Always angry with what comes between you and your intentions. You have many desires because you are lacking bliss. The mind says, there is no bliss here, we will find it in this or in that. Frustration arises whenever the realization of the desire is in jeopardy. You are in a perpetual state of feeling that in this moment there is not bliss. However, with awareness, you will see that only in this moment is there bliss. You have just been missing it. You have missed it because you are always against dhamma, against tao, against life. You are always fighting with that which is. It is only when the world fits into your perfect idea of what is satisfactory that you find happiness. However, it quickly disappears because the mind is not quiet enough for you to enjoy it.
In you, there is distrust in nature. A lack of adoration and reverence. A constant feeling that more is required for you to be satisfied. A feeling that more is required of you in order to be satisfied with yourself. However, nothing more is needed. You are a part of the natural world. Intertwined with nature. The air that you breathe in is made livable by the plants in nature. The air that you exhale in turn gives life to the plants. Everything is in order, perfectly. That is all that is needed. The force of nature can be yielded to. It has far greater intelligence than a mind could ever have. It has created worlds, skies, galaxies, everything. It has created you. Yet you fight with this great force in every moment. You give no adoration to it, no credit.
What would it be like to feel that everything is perfect, just as it is? What bliss would be in the idea that everything is perfect, even in its imperfection. I assure you that it is. Everything that is, is all that it should be because it is all that it can be. It is reality. If you come to adore and admire the nature of existence for all of its wonder then you will feel this way. In the same way that you accept a person in all of their imperfections when you are in love.
There is only useless and draining frustration in fighting with life, and, there is only pleasure in accepting it.
You can misunderstand me of course. This is why words are a dangerous tool for communication. However, they must be used. To accept the nature of existence does not mean that you have no free will. It does not mean that you cannot move towards a life preference. However, once you give way to the stream of reality, you will relax. You will find enjoyment in each action. The actions that you make will not be a fight against nature, they will be a part of nature. A tree in the forest grows not out of strife and the need to become. It does not rush. It grows at the exact pace of nature, at the will of nature, because of nature.
Once resistance has dissolved and you allow the flow of reality, you may find that you have fewer preferences than before. In your contentedness, you might find that you would prefer to do much less. Your desire to amass power and success may be no longer. You might find that you are no longer willing to sacrifice so much time and energy because you have already found peace. Or, you may find that without frustration draining you of all your energy, you are inspired to do much more. In either case, there will be bliss.
The ability to be in a state of allowing as opposed to resisting will depend on how deeply involved you are with the illusion that your desires will bring you happiness. If you have come to realize on some level that they have never brought you bliss, then it will be easier for you to drop your resistance. If you have come to realize that there has only been futility and frustration in resistance, then it will be easier for you to be in a state of allowance. It will become easier to slow your constant forward momentum and embrace the present reality that surrounds you, and that you are part of.
However, if you are still very convinced that your resistance is what moves you forward, then it will be impossible to let go of it. When you have become lost into the illusions of the mind it is needed that you become closer to nature. Surrounded by walls, screens, and concrete, we are removed from pure nature. It becomes more difficult to recognize that there is a force greater than the mind. Although even in this state, these walls and screens are part of nature, they are a step removed. They do not demonstrate the interconnectedness that can be seen at the source. Go into nature, be silent, and you will be able to feel the shift. To see how nature does not rush, does not intend, but only enjoys. However, you will only sense this if you are able to be silent enough. Otherwise, you will be blind and deaf to nature. This is the problem of the mind. It is never quiet enough to hear nature. It is always reacting to the outside and making noise for you on the inside.
The mind is aggressive. Constantly interrupting and forcing its will. The mind does not want to submit, and submission to the flow of reality is needed in order to receive its gift of bliss. You must be in a state of receiving. This is difficult for a person who has spent their entire existence exerting their will onto reality. The ego, the sense of self that is identified with the mind, feels that it must not yield to any force. That it has the greatest interests of the person in mind, and that it will succeed in creating the best reality for the person. However, this is false. The intention is pure however it is naive of the mind.
The mind will never submit to nature. However as you become aware that you are not the mind, the mind will begin to fade away from you. You will begin to recognize the pure consciousness that you are. That consciousness will easily submit to the nature that it is part of.
Bliss is part of your nature. This is why reuniting with nature will help you find your own. It is simply what happens when the mind drops, reactions cease, and your inner awareness becomes reunited with the present reality,
Bliss is your nature in the same way that health is your nature. When you come into this world, it is not needed that you create health. It is already there. All that is needed for most people, is that you not get in its way. The same is for bliss. The mind and all of its illusions have gotten in the way. All that is needed is for the mind to fade away from you. For you to realize all the ways in which the mind has formed, and then put them into reverse. The mind, and the attachment to the mind have been formed out of unawareness. Therefore to reverse the mind, it is only needed for you to become aware of how it came to be. To become aware of all the ways in which it has deceived you.
