Between two thoughts try to be alert; look into the interval, the space in between. You will see no mind; that is your nature. For thoughts come and go-they are accidental-but the inner space always remains. Clouds gather and go, disappear-they are accidental-but the sky remains. You are the sky.
Rajneesh
(I had some reservation using this quote because of the author . Rajneesh is OSHO...you may have watched Wild Country on Netflix about his movement. I made a strong personal judgement about him and his movement after watching that series and doing my own research. Whether it is wholesome and skillful or not, that judgement is inside me. My gut actually gets activated at the sound of his name. I react. But...in my quest for wisdom, when I hear something wise that resonates inside me, I separate message from messenger. As a human being he may have been deeply flawed; as a messenger he was dangerous and very unconscious in his desire to use wisdom and the devotion from others to gain wealth and power but this part of his message [which never did belong to him-coming from ancient teachings he just happened to use] is not contaminated by that unconsciousness. So I use this quote.)
Anyway....
Well zero readers again today, according to the stats and truly it is all good. I will just keep going as I am called to do.
I want to talk just a bit about the space between our thoughts, "The Gap" as Wayne Dyer referred to it in his book with the same name. As we are doing our mindfulness checks, especially as we become more advanced in our observing ability, we want to be able to observe that spacious but alert stillness that occurs in the mind between thoughts. We can practice this by listening to someone speak with our eyes closed and just really listen . If we are really listening from a place of presence our own thoughts will be at a minimum as we absorb the words of the speaker. Even more cool is when we can actually feel and be aware of their pauses in speech, making that our true mindfulness focus.
I notice ,as I do this exercise, I often hear a resonance or an echo in my psyche after the last word is spoken and before the next word is uttered. It is like my mind is repeating what was just said. That's okay, I tell myself, this thought is not mine, it is not here and now...what I am hearing is just a trailing reverberation of what was said. It is like the wake of a boat that has nothing to do with the movement of the boat forward, so I couldn't follow it if I wanted to. I can observe it knowing the insignificance of it. I know that it too will pass and it does before there is silence again. There is a beautiful silent pause before the next word is uttered and another thought is heard.
You can try this listening-to-the-gap-exercise with this little meditation from Eckhart Tolle if you want to. He has a lot of pauses in his speech and it is a great practice. Not only do you gain the gems of conceptual wisdom from paying attention to what is said, you gain an even deeper wisdom from observing the pauses in the speech. In these pause you observe the unconditioned dimension of consciousness. . . you observe the cloudless sky.
Pretty powerful stuff.
All is well in my world.
Eckhart Tolle ( June 4, 2022) Discovering the Unconditioned: A 20 Minute Meditation with Eckhart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg4zjh6bhCQ
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