experiencing being

All spiritual teachings are aiming at one basic truth. It's really the only basic truth. That's why we call it a basic truth. Because it's the only one. Everything else is another way of saying it. The way I am going to say it now is another way of saying it. Another way of saying it is the only way it can be said because the basic truth is beyond words. It's before them actually.

The basic truth is you are nothing other than Being. I use a capital "B" in this instance because I want to communicate weight for a moment. By Being I mean the experience of existing. You are having it right now. Or rather, the experience of it is there for you to have right now, and always, but you may not be tuned into it very much. Your attention may be elsewhere.

That's how we tend to live our lives. We tend to take the experience of Being for granted while we go about other business, such as pursuing our goals, meeting the requirements of our bodies, and generally thinking our lives away. There's nothing wrong with those things in the abstract, I suppose, but on the whole they tend to eclipse our sense of experiencing Being.

That's a high price to pay for them. Worthwhile spiritual teaching reminds us that price is too high. It reminds us what we already know, but can't remember very easily, not yet anyway: that we are not primarily the busy person in pursuit of goals and fulfillment, but rather something personless that is prior to that perspective, animating and supporting it. We are its Being.

Can you forget all the words for a moment and tune into the experience of it with me? That's what counts. That's why you're reading this passage in the first place, whether you know it or not. That's why you're here, and on Earth. Even if you got here by serendipity instead of conscious intention, the fact is you got here for exactly this moment when the teaching changes from words into.....

Did you let it? Did you recline into the void at the end of the last paragraph, a place outside your mind and the chatter of words, a silent blank space? That's the experience of Being. Did you have it? Go ahead and let yourself. If you are, great. Keep at it. Never stop. If you're not, not a problem. Start from now. Whenever you lose the experience of Being or realize you don't have it, give up your reluctance and return to it now. It is always open for business.

Here's one way in: letting go. Try it now. Don't worry about any of your regular concerns. Temporarily suspend the demands of your mind and move its noise to the background. Now take a deep breath and release it. The outgoing breath carries away everything you no longer need. You no longer need any of it. It is sufficient just to be here, breathing. It is deeply satisfying. Enjoy it.

Keep at it for a while. Keep doing it as you go about other things. Don't trade it for other things. Try not to take it for granted to the point of forgetting its primary importance. Nothing else matters without it. Notice how unhappy you get when you let other things matter more than it does. Notice how lost and disconnected you feel, how fragmented and unhappy. See whenever you've become too solid and lost your vital sense of experiencing Being.

I'm not making these things up. Connect the dots for yourself. The picture always comes out the same, and here's how it looks. All your problems and unhappiness, and all the suffering that ever was, is, or shall be, in your life and everyone else's, is the result of one thing. There's only one basic truth. Don't overlook, neglect, or murder the experience of Being, not if you want to be happy and fulfilled. You won't find those things apart from it. You can't.