With all of the talk of the person falling away,
It may appear that the person falling away,
Seeing that personhood isn't really a thing,
Is the goal,
Is the purpose of seeking.
So there can become this focus on this resistance and friction felt when it's still seen or felt as if there is a person here.
And that in many ways creates its own element of confusion because there might be this notion that I haven't arrived,
I haven't gotten to this gateless gate until I see clearly and permanently that there isn't a person here.
That it's all one thing.
It's talked about and so it's understandable why that becomes then the goal of the seeker.
And the mind wants to be convinced that it's not the case.
This isn't an invitation to realize the truth of non-personhood and non-doership.
If anything it's an invitation to acceptance of all aspects of life,
Of everything.
That includes all of it.
This isn't a freedom from the character.
It's not a freedom from personhood.
It's not an escape from suffering.
It's a calling to seeing all the aspects of this play of life,
Of this arising in full acceptance of whatever that is.
Joy,
Sorrow,
Pain,
Suffering,
Sadness,
Happiness,
Anger,
Frustration,
All of it.
This illusion exists.
Some say so that consciousness can know itself,
It forgets itself.
It creates these energetic contractions in that pursuit,
In a dance,
In a play as that experience.
So don't deny that experience.
Don't deny this humanity and the human experience as it arises.
I know this may seem counter to other talks even here.
It's always said here,
Don't trust me,
Look for yourself.
But for the sake of this talk and this conversation,
Trust me.
Trust me,
Just know,
Okay,
Cool,
I don't exist,
Now what?
Even if there might be a belief system or some convincing that needs otherwise.
When this truth is known,
There isn't freedom from things.
There isn't an escape from things that are happening.
There's a full acceptance of all of them.
And that's what makes it beautiful.
That's what makes it in some ways just so ordinary because it's all of it.
The good,
The bad,
The ugly,
Warts and all,
As is said,
And true gratitude for all of it,
For all of it arising.
That's the invitation,
That's the pointer.
See it for what it is.
See it as it's arising.
Close your eyes to one thing and open them to another.
Eyes open to all of it,
To all of those experiences.
I went to a memorial this past weekend for a young man and the mother was obviously devastated.
One thing that she said that I thought was so beautiful is she said,
I never thought that death could bring so much love.
I never thought death could bring so much love.
What a beautiful statement and what a beautiful expression in what's arguably one of the most devastating times for a parent is losing a child.
That's what was there.
Love was there.
Love was everywhere.
It is everywhere.
In life,
In death,
In all of it.
This is one giant expression of non-conditional,
Unconditional love.
It just is.
Unconditional love is,
No words ever do it,
But it really is one of the best pointers to describe what is.
That means in the sadness of death,
In the pain of suffering,
But also in the joy rising and happiness as it happens,
As it appears.
This is an invitation.
It's an invitation to life.
It's an invitation to all arisings,
All apparent arisings as they are happening.
Don't get stuck in the search for confirmation.
Don't get stuck in the search for confirmation for non-personhood because that feeling may still be there and that's okay.
That's allowed.
It's perfectly allowed to get lost in personhood in the same way that has been said here before that one might get lost in a movie or a TV show or a book or an activity.
In fact,
It's beautiful.
The recognition of that,
Whoa,
Wow,
Really got into that.
In many ways,
That's its own joy.
It's not a correction.
It's not an expectation of,
Well,
Now that I am awake,
Now that I've had these experiences,
Now I shouldn't get X,
Y,
And Z.
Now I shouldn't be any of these other ways.
Those are just expectations created by the mind that create resistance.
There's no expectation of how anything should be.
That includes what things are like post awakening.
No expectations.
And sometimes people will say,
You know,
I don't have expectations.
I have intentions.
Well,
That's just a trickier way to say effectively the same thing.
It's like saying I don't have needs.
I have wants.
And living with no expectations sounds to the mind,
It wants to control everything,
Extremely scary.
But it really is the most freedom because then that's full acceptance of things as they're coming,
Of things as they're arising.
And the mind may jump in and say,
Well,
You know,
What about bad stuff?
What about if a car's coming at you or someone is running at you with a knife?
Well then the reaction happens or it doesn't all the time.
But that doesn't mean that it needs to be pondered and worked over and tried,
You know,
And attempts made to avoid it at all costs.
Of course,
There's freedom to do that as well.
If you're not seeing the theme here,
Hopefully you are.
This is an invitation to this dance,
To this cosmic dance,
This play of life and all of it in acceptance and allowing of all of it arising no matter what.
The goal isn't the true discovery and the knowing of this,
The falsehood of personhood,
The falseness of personhood.
This acceptance of all and witnessing this,
This miracle,
The beauty of everything happening.
