A Portrait Of Our Awakening Mind
Cover Photo By w-dog.net.
By Bruce Davis, Ph.D.
Our awakening mind is a process. There is no finish line, although we can rest along the way. There are few signposts of progress and fewer real guides to let us know we have reached a place worthy to be called awakening, no less awakened.
Freedom from our judgmental mind about ourselves and others. It’s great to be liberated from the jail of our judgments and be free to enjoy the unique beauty in each of us. We can end the habit of separating ourselves, putting others in categories with one label or another. Beyond our differences in appearance and personality, we all share the same fears and dreams, each having a brilliance of life energy, a soul.
Naturally forgiving of our stuff and the stuff of others. Everyone has a story. I have never met anyone holy or ordinary who did not have something complicating their lives. It is so much easier to be forgiving of our personal baggage and the baggage of others instead of trying to change everyone, making ourselves right, others wrong. I have learned a secret to a healthy, long lasting relationship is giving up trying to change someone and be willing instead to carry the baggage of the other. Are not relationships about helping one another along the way?
Not much need for entertainment, life is entertaining just as it is. What a relief, I don’t need a television, smart phone, or in general be busy, productive, and important. I don’t need to be anything but me in this moment. Drop me off at a park or visit with a friend and I am perfectly happy. Life is not something to hold onto or manage but to be available for.
Being rich, famous, liked or disliked is really not that interesting.There are too many simple joys of the moment to be concerned with what others are doing, saying, and all the oughts, shoulds, and supposed-tos. Life is best with as few plans and meetings as possible. When I am busy with the future it is more often than not, planning my next meal. My wife reminds me there is a difference between an awakened appetite and an awakened mind. I remember the story of a woman who died in an accident, awakened in heaven, and when she found out there was no chocolate, she declared she wanted to return to earthly life. It is said the angels are jealous of the earthly joys which we take for granted.
No worry or at least much less worry. How much energy do we spend with thought, planning, and drama around the theme that there is not enough? The truth we learn over and over again is in this moment there is so much. My simple human heart cannot possibly receive all the presence right here, now, within, and all around me.
No thought, good thoughts, no mind, only heart. There is lots to be said or unsaid about all of this. Generally I find most everyone thinking way too much and enjoying way too little. For me the best thoughts are no thoughts at all, just a vastness of being. Life is drinking the heart essence within and everywhere I find it.
Silence is one of life’s least explored treasures.. There is the step of unplugging to become present for silence. Then there is the second step of receiving the profound peace in the great quiet. Many people are anxious about the first step because they do not know the second step and the steps that follow. Silence is the nervous system of God. As silence moves through us so much is unveiled. Emptiness becomes our good friend, mentor, and guide. There is a great sculpture in the silence carving the world out of our awareness leaving only goldenness. This goldenness is our ground of being.
Let’s heal the final separation. The barrier or perhaps it is just a filter between us and Heaven is the final separation to heal. There seems no reason to wait to die before entering this realm of complete acceptance, incredible love. The silence in each of us dissolves the details of daily life that cast a shadow over the true light of our awareness. In other words, the stillness we find in meditation takes us far beneath the waves of daily life into a perfect ocean of being. Of course we all get caught up in the waves of life but the presence of the ocean is growing in our awareness.
There is the heart inside our heart. It holds a light so great and pure I cannot look directly into it. Surely heaven is closer then we think, feel, or understand. Meditation is the path to being present in the heart inside our heart. Maybe when love is more then our subtle body but is all pervasive and strong, we are awakening.
Bruce is retreat leader at Silent Stay Retreats near Napa welcoming people of all traditions in to the wisdom of the quiet heart retreats.
