You Are IT

If we speak with the language of Christianity then mindfulness, concentration, and insight are the energy of God. With that energy we are able to stop, to be with the Kingdom right here, right now.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

Through consistent practice we develop the skill of mindfulness, which allows us to detect with great precision the often subtle self-referential ideas and body sensations as they arise in each act of perception.

We also develop equanimity so that we can allow these ideas and body sensations to expand and contract without suppression, interference, or clinging.

Eventually, contact with the sense of self becomes so continuous that there is no time left to congeal or fixate it.

The self then becomes clarified in the sense that it is no longer experienced as an opaque, rigid, ever-present entity, but rather as a transparent, elastic, vibratory activity.

It loses “thingness.” We realize that it is a verb, not a noun; a wave, not a particle. According to this paradigm, what is let go of is the unconsciousness and “holding” associated with those ideas and body sensations which produce a sense of self. The sense of self becomes a home rather than a prison. You can come and go freely.

– Shinzen Young, “What Does Being a Buddhist Mean to You?”

Life passes like a flash of lightning
Whose blaze lasts barely long enough to see,
While earth and sky stand still forever.
How swiftly changing time flies across our face.
You who sit over your full cup and do not drink,
For what are you waiting?

– Li Po