Resting In The Nothing-ness

A friend and I were chatting the other day of our personal experiences about the realization of the nothing-ness, or the eternal. Just like in the movie The Matrix, the mind can have little moments or blips in time where it pauses long enough for us to clearly see the comings and goings of life are merely that… they’re coming and going from our awareness.

During these pauses something opens up that allows us to notice the obvious – what is blatantly there when we see through the busy mind and how it clouds over the eternal. Our mind gets fixated on whatever is temporarily happening, and it rarely notices the backdrop or container that remains the same or constant amidst the change.

Satsang is a Sanskrit word that breaks down to Sat, which means ‘talking about the truth of my being,’ or the recognition that ‘I am the truth,’ and Sangha, meaning ‘with my community.’

Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course ~ Chuang Tzu

My teacher, Adyashanti, had a remarkable gift of being able to point others to this truth, to the nothing-ness, that was full, complete, and felt like an everything-ness, with virtually no effort on his part.

I sat in deep study with Adya for six years in San Jose, California. I lived down the street from him, so I had the opportunity to see him during his off-work hours, and saw that he really did live what he taught others and that he walked his talk. Through the practice of Zen, Adya woke up out of the Zen tradition to a profound sense of experiencing everything as One.

He was able to see the world of maya or illusion – our illusive stories that we play in our head. Whenever I’d sit with him in Satang, it became so apparent that the stories in my life, when viewed closely enough and with a quiet mind, seemed absurd to me and like I was viewing them through a microscopic lens.

When we shift our focus to the backdrop, or rest in what is commonly overlooked, the nothing-ness, it would seem that which never changes, the background or the space in between the thoughts becomes much bigger and more palpable.

Why would anyone care about this? You might even say, “This is boring and holds no appeal or interest to me.”  Bear with me for a moment while we try a little experiment. When you ask yourself, “Who is reading this right now?” Who answers? You may say, “I do.”  Well, where is the ‘I’ that is asking this? You could point to yourself and say, “Right here.” However, with deeper inquiry you may find that the ‘I’ is not easy to locate.  When you reference yourself, you are thinking back on a myriad of thoughts you were raised to believe and conditioning that shaped the way you view the world. But upon closer examination you may see that you are not who you think you are.

Heaven and earth and I are of the same root, The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance ~ Seng-Chao

What we turn our attention back onto what it is that is observing these thoughts and feelings, there is only awareness itself, noticing everything just like watching a movie, or the scenes playing on the screen of life. What is it that is watching this? Looking through the eyes of awareness, everything is just happening, and the comings and goings are all here and then gone. Developing the practice of taking time out to simply witness what is happening around you, with no commentary begins to build a muscle. The muscle of awareness and what seems to happen to most of us by doing this is a deep sense of peacefulness moves in, but not only that, all of life becomes very precious and beautiful.

What about the painful times? How can those be good? When we spend time getting acquainted with becoming a witness to life or to the nothing-ness that is here, a greater love or reverence begins to appear for all moments. We laugh, we cry, we still feel all of the same emotions, but with more of a vastness, an okay-ness with things.

Spiritual Teacher, Tara Brach refers to this in her book, Radical Acceptance. Another spiritual teacher, Byron Katie, and author of the book, Loving What Is, talks about this and what happens when we become aware of awareness itself. This concept may seem outlandish, but might it hold a gift for you to see something bigger, possibly something you’ve searched for and yearned for your entire life? Might it hold the lost key that opens the door to your eternal self and the truth of your being? That, I will leave for you to explore.