What’s Not Next

“Do you not say, It is still four months until harvest time comes? Look! I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see how they are already white for harvesting.” – Jesus (John 4:35)

History reports that Socrates, at his trial for impiety and corruption of youth, for which he was sentenced to death, declared “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He so assiduously adhered to the practice of investigating one’s life that it became his prime directive, his raison d'etre. This is the path of wisdom, where one commits to truth above all else. I feel I am moving in this direction as ever more increasingly I am mindfully engaged in reflection, contemplating the nature of consciousness and the milieu of pure being. This seems to be a non-negotiable requisite to spiritual insight and awakening to one’s true nature.

For the longest time, as I’ve reported in prior posts, I had “assiduously adhered to the practice” of studying truth principles and becoming ever more conceptually familiar with spiritual ideas and ideals. I could recall these ideas, speak about them, and write about them. I had even become familiar and articulate with the nuances of such ideas, able to report on the texture, the various layers, and the nutritional value and the promise of ingesting such notions. All this without actually biting into the “peach” and tasting its living reality. I’ve shared the discomfort of that incongruence previously and its effects on my capacity to keep up appearances of awakening. Today, I consider it a blessing in disguise, disguised as a limitation.

When something bothers us persistently, it's a signal to examine the source of discomfort instead of giving in to egoic impulses of distraction, overlooking or numbing ourselves. For me, it heightened my resolve to reconcile the sense of disconnection and take a deeper dive into who and what I truly am versus the conditioned identity that masked such recognition.

Such self-examination requires a level of radical seeing rarely applied by the surface mind. I discovered that to truly know myself, I would have to give up what is perhaps our most persistent illusion. Time! Psychological time, that is. Most vitally, I had to stop projecting the notion of my spiritual awakening as an event that would happen at some point in time…. a hoped-for happening in the future once I had gained enough understanding. This is another example where our mind creates an obscuration to awakening since it only has a notion of something with objective qualities that exists in time or as an expectation for some other moment than the present one. This is antithetical to the Truth, and if we (as I did) continue to hold this view of how and when awakening will occur for us, we negate even the most powerful meditations or contemplations aimed at realization. I can’t emphasize this too strongly! It was my nemesis. It's such a persistent default perspective that even though I would quote Eckhart Tolle like a gospel, I still somehow fell into time’s mesmeric influence and would be back to looking ahead for the day when I would fully awaken.

Despite how illogical it sounds to the mind, there is no future in the Truth of being. It’s now or not at all. That is why many spiritual teachers assert that you are awake now----you just don’t know it. That is the absolute truth, and why Jesus said when you know the truth you will be free. It may help to recognize that this journey of awakening is not about who you were, or who you will become, it's only and ever about who you are! Here and now! Where is there any notion of time in here and now? So, when you practice self-examination or self-inquiry you are looking for that of you that is persistent, ever-present, and unchanging. Such a focus filters out anything that is altered by time, thereby excluding body, mind, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions ---all of which shift and change over time. What’s left? That’s what you are looking for. When you see through all the objective qualities of who you’ve taken yourself to be, what’s left is the ever-present sense of simply being itself. An awake awareness of being itself. That’s it. That’s everything. In this simple recognition, seeking comes to an end, striving ceases, and there is an abiding sense of peace and well-being. It’s quite empty and yet a feeling of completeness prevails.

I recommend you try this simple practice of catching yourself when you are “nexting” and bringing your attention back to the present. Only now can you feel the Presence. What’s not next? The truth of you. God’s infinite being. Keep your appointments in time for practical purposes, but keep your appointment with your true self in this present moment. In so doing, happiness won’t be even a moment away.

Namaste, Rev. Larry