Someone wrote saying that when looking within, the so-called ‘no-thingness’ inside seemed to be something dead. We sent the letter to someone we know, (who prefers to remain anonymous), and received this reply:

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Yes - when trying to ‘look within’ we are going to see the mind - what else can thoughts see? And so we see death, as thoughts are dead, dead, dead!

No-thingness, ahh, what a phrase. Somebody somewhere tried to tell her friends about ‘truth’, and for some horrible reason accidently said ‘It’s emptiness’. Or to use the Buddha’s term, ‘nothing’. Ha! To me, (just my opinion of course), there seems to be not so much an ‘emptiness’ as a fullness - sort of a bubbling, an overflowing. You must have felt this? Like when you sit content watching a sunrise, just seeing the beauty. An overflowing. Then ‘here’ and ‘now’ really lose meaning, don’t they? You are just there watching the sunrise, and nothing else is needed.

So later, when a few thoughts come tumbling in and take over, and we have to go to work or deal with the in-laws, we have a choice. To think that thoughts are important, or to continue to rest in the ease we found watching the sunset. Yes, I know that sounds new-agey and simplistic. But complexity is not necessary here. Nor is mental understanding. Rather, it seems to me, that all that is necessary is a small, gentle shift in attention from thinking you are something, to seeing what is. Or said another way, from the need to be someone to just being.

How? For you, who can say? I like the expression that ‘a lion makes his own path’. People can say ‘look, walk there and you will be a lion’ but, gee wiz, that’s never worked, has it? Billions of folks following others. Ha! For me, playing with pets in the grass under a tree was of value. For you… who can say? But I feel that trying to figure it out is impossible, and that progress too, is impossible. Like trying to see your own face without a mirror. No matter what you do, it’s unlikely to happen . And then one day, just walking along, not doing anything in particular, boo! there’s your face reflected back at you in a stream. Easy. All those years of effort, sort of a waste. It just, sort of, happens…

Now I know people do not much like to hear this. When a dear friend said something similar to me years ago, it sounded pretty flakey. People want an action plan - like ‘look into the emptiness’ or ‘meditate’ or ‘read this book’ or ‘understand this’ or ‘delve into your true self’ or whatever. Ho ho! If you are drawn to action or inaction, great. But ultimately, something in you will stop and never start up again. When, or how… who knows. It will be unique. In the meantime, it seems that most folks are searching for what they already are; so sometimes just relaxing and calling off the search may make that, well, obvious.

> Then what is here, now? Thought would
> say nothing is here. But; there is something.

Well… I could say something like ‘where were you before you awoke this morning’, but that to me just sends folks off into more mental play with words and ideas. Which, in my opinion, is the formost method for folks to delay things. This is not, I feel, about ideas, concepts, thoughts, or insights. There is nothing you need do or understand. God will just pop up one day as you amble along, jumping out when you least expect Her with a BOO loud enough to stop your mind and your heart forever