Seeing what is, in fact.
We do not deal much in fact when we are contemplating ourselves.
~ Mark Twain
That’s me on the right having a touching moment with Mark Twain. We met I can’t remember where or when; it was a lovely occasion I’m sure, but there’s a lot of bridge under the waters of Time, yes? And anyway, what inspired this writing this morning is the above quote I happened upon in poking around a 2004 print edition of Parabola magazine. btw, a ‘parabola’ is a graceful looping arch; they appear theoretically in physics and mathematics and in real life in the paths of projectiles like thrown balls, the curves of suspension bridges, the shape of a dish, and water from a fountain. (I didn’t know that either! ;)) A fresh and ‘graceful looping that’s non-looping’ seems to describe aware life and living. More paradox, yes. 🙂
So, if indeed we don’t see facts in inner contemplation, what do we see? Well, without going into this technically, which I’m not able or inclined to do, let’s just pop the hood, switch on a non-judgemental light, and peer inside. Let’s go fast past all the ego/brain’s bundled naming of a ‘me’ that’s called ‘James’ or ________ who..(fill in the blank with words about pretensions about being someone doing something.) That’s a deep and daily deepening dive for some of us, but let’s just go straight to and past ‘what we are not’, to what we are, in fact.
At bottom, one may – indeed, does – discover there is no Mark or James or ‘me’ – just a totally unknown presence; a subtle, alert, and globally common beingness that’s evidently, truly, alive and well. Indeed, awareness IS, and “You are the world, the world is you” as J Krishnamurti says. All humanity is aware. With and without knowing that fact, there is just One sharing of sentient, body/mind consciousness. Looking a little closer, noting in passing that in truth, ‘I am not the body‘ and ‘I am not the mind,’ there may be a gracefully shocking uncovering that, in fact, what I really am is that non-personal, non-describable, non-knowable, which is ultimately aware of sensual, vibrational consciousness.
There’s a fresh-tasting, gently curious, and variously intense experiencing of what IS, of what’s happening here, now. All else is…irrelevant, unless and until it’s happening, of course.
In fact, in aware living, there’s a constant discovering – one never knows! And there’s a deepening gratitude, beauty, peace, and joy in simply being, in hanging out in contemplation and celebration, perhaps with Mark & Co.
That which ‘we are not’ aside, that which we are – Love, loving – is all that’s really happening here in fact, yes.
Love, and be well. 🙂
