Dwelling in the present moment,you'll find that you become very interested in investigating all of life, and you discover many wonderful things, many ways to practice. This doesn't mean you get lost in your thinking; it means you observe reality as it is and discover its true nature.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear, page148
An Unconditional and Open Way of Approaching Life?
Imagine living a life where no matter what is happening outside of you or inside of you...you remain open, happy, full of joy and absent of fear. Hmm! Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? The mind definitely tells us it is too good to be true and psychology ( which is the study of and the treatment/therapy which attempts to appease the mind) will tell you that isn't possible. We are conditioned to go about our lives, then, grasping for things out there/ desiring, preferring, judging and clinging in order to make the not okay insides reasonably okay. We are conditioned to determine what is "bad or wrong" for us on the basis of how it triggers all the stuff we have stored inside and to do what we can to resist it ( avoidance, denial, supression, repression etc). We are taught by the mind and our conditioning that getting this or that, achieving this or that, finding this or that in a "special relationship" will make us happy and therefore should be our "goals". We are also taught that avoidng that which makes our stored stuff rattle a bit inside is the thing to do. Therefore we live lives of conditional happiness and our motivation for living becomes seeking that which will make us happy and pushing away that which makes us unhappy. We are not okay unless life unfolds in front of us exactly as we believe it should. We resist everything else big time! It becomes a very small and "conditional" existence!
Another Approach
But spirituality offers another approach. It doesn't ask, "How should life be; what can I do; and what can I avoid in order to be temporarily okay inside? It asks, why am I needing these things to be okay inside? Why am I not okay inside? What do I have to do to be permanently okay inside?
This brings me to the Four Noble Truths again. First Noble Truth: There is suffering; Second Noble Truth: There is a cause for suffering which is desire, craving, or preference. The Third Noble Truth: There is a way through suffering to freedom; and the Forth Noble Truth: The Eight Fold Path is the way to freedom from suffering.
Hmm! What the heck does that mean crazy lady?
We suffer because we desire and crave for things outside and inside to be a certain way. We suffer because our prefering has led to the creation of a psyche ( the sum total of all our stored experiences). Our psyches want only pleasure and for the outside world to not touch it or our stuff in an unpleasant way. (Buddhist might refer to this craving and deluded psyche as the Manas, Hanh, page 146). We suffer because we are putting conditional demands on happiness and joy, erronously believing that the outside world determines our happiness and joy, and therefore our suffering. We neglect to see our responsibility in that and therefore our power to transform suffering into freedom.
There was a word from Hanh's book that kept rolling around in my head since yesterday. And of course, Singer brought up that word in his podcast today. The word was "Nirvana". Nirvana is basically the extinction (the "putting out of flames" of all notions and afflictions including craving). It isn't something we go to or attain. It is something we already are but just don't realize it because our wrong perceptions are in the way.
Nirvana is the true nature of reality. Things as they are. Nirvana is available in the here and now. You are already in Nirvana; you are Nirvana, just as the wave is already the water. page 147
What would we expereince if we extinguished all our wrong ideas, all our stuffed samskaras, all our conditions, and all of our fear? Life would be amazing wouldn't it be? We need to clean out our minds and our hearts to experience the open spaciousness of Nirvana, to experience what we already are. We need to choose to live unconditionally rather than conditionally if we want to be free.
Breathing in, I observe the disappearance of desire. Breathing out, I observe the disappearance of desire.
Breathing in, I observe cessation. Breathing out, I observe cessation.
Breathing in, I observe letting go. Breathing out, I observe letting go.
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe (March 4, 2024) Living a Life of Unconditional Openness. https://tou.org/talks/
Thich Nhat Hanh ( 2012) Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm. New York: Harper One.
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