There are times when I would get up out of bed and feel a deep sense of Spirit. One day, in sharing my euphoria with my husband, he half-jokingly said, “Don’t worry. It won’t last.” I wished he had supportive words for me or, at the very least, keep quiet. Although his timing was awkward, there was truth in what he said: no feeling, sensation or perception is permanent, no matter how hard we may try to make it so.
Life seems like a challenge because, when experienced as a personal self, life is unreliable. One can never be certain that others will keep their promises. We too may not keep our promises, not even to ourselves. A high school sweetheart may have promised to love you forever. And you believed this because you probably felt the same. It is our nature to strive for predictability.
When we mistake our true self to be the person we were socialized to become, we are left unfulfilled, fraught with anxiety. Our happiness is staked to what comes and goes. We walk on shaky ground.
More companies are promoting anti-aging creams than we can count, yet the aging process continues. Everything that exists in the physical world is impermanent. The same is true for our thoughts and feelings. Yet, one continues to hope that the pot of gold will be found at the end of the rainbow. And then, we will find inner peace and love forever.
What is it that doesn’t come and go?
Let’s take a look. Go into memory and find a pleasant scene from childhood. Remember it vividly. Pause. Now, find a pleasant scene from your teenage years. Pause. Next, imagine a desirous experience at some future time, for instance, your dream vacation.
Ask yourself, “What came and what went across those scenes?” What remained constant throughout? Contemplate this and you will see there was a witnessing that took place. I’m calling it, Aware Presence. It was there no matter what was going on. It didn’t come and go. Like breathing, you did nothing to make it happen. Take another pause and experience witnessing Presence.
Aware Presence is our true nature. It is formless, ever present and fully accepting of all that comes and goes. It is the unmanifest that watches the manifest. It doesn’t argue with reality. Our hearts become touched seeing a baby. She is pure innocence reflecting our innocence long forgotten.
We are here to rediscover the unchanging truth of our Being, the Aware Presence that is beyond the coming and goings of thoughts, beliefs and emotions. We are this timeless, formless source of all life. We are that abiding love. To live as this abiding love is to live from our divine heart rather than our conditioned mind.
To realize that our essential nature is Aware Presence is to wake up from the false idea that we are a person. Aware Presence is the happiness we have yearned for. It is the source of all life.
I am always here for you with an open heart,
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