Closing the Book, Taking Away the Name

Received in mid-2022  Listen to the complete audio on SoundCloud

So let's all breathe: breathing this fresh air, breathing this breath of life. 

We don’t know where it comes from or how it arrived here, but somehow we are receiving it, somehow we are alive. We should always be very curious about that, about what that means, where it comes from, where it goes, how it is arriving here, what it means to breathe, what it means to be here.

I was remembering just now that when I was young, there was a period when I assumed that somebody knew what was going on, that somebody had the answers. We usually look to our parents or the people who hold various points of authority in our life. And then, at some age, we realise that they're also just doing their best. And they don't really know. When I found this out about my own parents, I felt so betrayed, that they didn't have all the answers. And it left me floating in the world, realising that everybody's doing their best, some could do better, and nobody really has any idea what's going on. Watch out for this because anybody that tells you that they know what is going on, they're usually trying to sell you something. Don’t be convinced.

And so, it's good to have a little bit of scepticism, a little bit of discernment on all of the paths that we walk, with all of the things that we hear. Because all of our assumptions, all of our ideas, all of our beliefs, they're just hearsay; they aren't founded on anything. Most of what we agree to be true in the world for us, for people, is built on concepts and conditions, not something that we can hold, just ideas.

For example, if I look at the floor, I see the word floor. I see an idea, I see a name, I see a word, I see a memory. If however, I take away the word, I take away the name, I take away my concepts and ideas and I look at this (pointing to the floor), then what is it? When we look up at the night sky, we think we are looking at the Milky Way, but we are inside of the Milky Way are we not? When we look up at the sky, we think we are looking at the universe, but isn’t where we are looking from also the universe? Isn’t what is looking the same fabric? If I look at the ground and I take away the word ground or floor, there it is in its entirety! Like this, I do not have to look up to see the milky way or perceive the universe, I can look right here at the ground and too, i can close my eyes and see it there inside. To ask the question—Where do I end and the universe begin?—should not be a trivial task. It is what we could call a direct teaching. 

Ask the same thing of yourself: Where do you end and where does the universe begin? There is not a separation. There cannot be a separation. But the thing that keeps us separate, the thing that keeps us in separation, is our concepts, it is the story we hold, it is the identity and the beliefs that we have learned over time. We adopt them in order to fit in, so that we can have an identity, so that we can be a part–a part is paradoxically apart from the whole at the same time it is inextricably a part of the whole. If we take away that identity, the separate sense of me, then what is there left, then who are you? If you take away all of your stories—your name, the place you come from, your parents, everything you've ever told yourself—if you put that aside, then you can ask yourself sincerely: What is there and who is there? What is that? Because at the end of the day, the answer to those questions is really all we have to hold.

At the end of the day, the book will close on the stories. At the end of the day, we won't take any of our belongings with us. And so, while most of the world looks outside for their happiness, for their salvation, for their peace, these questions turn us around to say that there's only one place that we can look and that is in the direction of where the looking is coming from. To find out firsthand, what is there before the story was written? What is there when the whole book is closed? When I take the words away, what is this that I'm sitting on? What is this that I'm living and breathing in? If I take all of the words away, then what is that? It might last only a moment before you try to define it, but do not overlook the importance of that moment.

Hopefully, what we find on any path of wisdom is perspective, the ability to see clearer or to see farther or wider. And with that expanded view, there is nothing separate, there is no independent entity and there is nowhere really to get to. And so we relax, we slow down, we revel in the wonder and absurdity that any of this is happening at all. While the ordinary person sees a table and a floor, if we look, as the mystic does, at the space between, if we take those names away, we see just one thing, just the universe in motion, just this timeless silence.

One way to picture this is to zoom out on our life, to see the book, to see that when it closes, there is still something still there. There is something still there. It is to enter into that stillness. When we are still we settle the heart. A settled heart can open, can find reverence for the ways of life and compassion for the pangs of life. Stillness is a little death and to me, it's not such a morbid thing to contemplate death. Because what it points to directly is life. And until we point in that direction, we look the other way. And we take this life for granted. You do not want to be breathing your last breath realising that you spent your time looking the other way.

And so my younger self, feeling betrayed by learning that nobody has all the answers, told me to ask good questions, questions that direct me closer to peace, tranquillity, happiness, and love. Because at the end of the day, the things that we are really looking for are actually very, very simple; they're right in front of us. It's just this quality of peace, which is the absence of disturbance, the absence of restlessness. But most of our day, we feel agitated with disturbance and distraction. And it feels like peace is far away.

At the end of some people's day, when they are taking their last breath, it's the one thing they wish they did more of: to simply relax, to turn around and just be who they are. So, why not stop the acting, stop the judging, stop the running around in circles. And just receive the peace that is already here in your heart. This peace is already here in your heart.

What we are looking for is very simple but simple is not always easy. Sometimes simplicity is difficult. But all it really needs, all it really takes, is to realise yourself, who and what you are. That is the next turn around. If the ordinary person sees objects and the mystic sees the space between objects, the awakened one turns to look directly at the subject, directly at the one who is looking, the very source of what knows the objective world, the very essence that cannot be objective. Which at once moves apart from the objective and then a part and then non-different.

It is what is there if we take away the name of the ground and we say, what is that? This reality doesn't depend on names, labels, or even forms. This realisation might seem like an open field of space that we fall through, but it's actually the ground. It might seem frightening, but this limitlessness is actually our safe house, our sanctuary, our freedom.

The same way we take away all of our ideas. We say, what is there? Who am I? And there we are just left with this peace, this spacious quality, this radiance, this stillness, this silence.

Wherever you are at, take some of this peace and place it in your heart. 

Place it in your mind. 

Let what is gone go.

Let what is here remain.