A Taste of the Other Shore

 When Life Is A Shining

The mind is a monkey. Up there in heaven, where all the souls are waiting to be born, there are exactly the same number of monkeys. So as soon as someone is born, a monkey is dispatched to jump on him or her. And because the mind is a monkey, the life is a monkey’s life. First this way, then that way, then up, then down, then round and round and round and round, and up and down, and that way and this way. That’s how the mind works, that’s how the life goes.

Now, I ask you all - so find your answer - is it possible that at each moment of your life there is really just one thing that is true for you? No confusion, no conflict, no planning what to do, no clever games to succeed or win. None of those monkey games. Is it possible that there is one state that is true for us each instant, which may or may not be an action? That the connection with that truth is deeper than the duality between action and non-action? That you just happen? Is that possible? Is it possible to be in the same source of nature that the rest of nature is in? Not in an expression of that truth - because we’re much more variable than any other creature in nature, a great diversity of possibility, so that one thing that is true for us can express itself in a myriad of different ways, a vast number. Is it possible that whatever that movement is, however diverse the movements may be - in a moment, in an hour, in a day - each movement feels as if it’s coming from a true source?

If it can be contacted, that source, and united with, even for a little while, then since all living beings come from that source, you are connected to a vast sea. And as long as you are there with it, it will sweep away the monkey and the way that that monkey runs the life.

There is a beautiful Zen statement that says: Don’t add anything to life. This is saying the same thing - that there is a natural way of being that is already part of us, is built in to us, is ready to respond and live in a totally ordinary and natural way according to the particular aspects it possesses, and it will do this anyway, without you adding anything on. It will do it if you dare to allow it.

But it is not trusted that that can be. The general view is, “If I don’t add anything to life, then I do not have one.” And so we stay busy our whole lives, until the dying time comes. Lying in bed, as many people are at that time, often it is discovered that what I say has been true all along. And then it’s too late to live it.

Another Zen saying about this is: You are putting a head on top of a head. If you saw a person in the street with one head on top of another, you’d be in a state of total shock. But if you could really see now, you would see that everybody has already two heads.

This saying is clear. It is saying that you already have intelligence, sensitivity, a natural connection with life, you are part of a whole process of living and that process of living is already built into you and will live itself, so there is no need to work out who you are, what you should do, where you should be, with whom you should be.

So as I go on with my Work, I get less and less interested in teaching you new monkey tricks. I’m more interested in bringing you to that place where your life will become simple and normal, normal and natural, and where that energy that comes to you when you reach that place can turn into you and wash out all that is artificial and all that has been constructed in you according to the way that you felt you had to live. And then you just let your life happen.

It is often said that you then allow yourself to be lived, but I prefer to say that you let your life happen. When you say ‘let yourself be lived’, then it feels a bit too passive for me, and it’s not passive. In a way it’s passive, because the monkey has to be quietened down and the monkey has to become passive. But as soon as the true movement comes, you are personally - whatever you are - involved in tremendous activity.

That activity may or may not be expressed in the world, or even be seen by others, but it will be there. When the sap is running up the tree, nothing can experience it but the tree. Trees are tremendously alive, but they don’t show much. When spring comes, we see the effect of that in the trees, with the leaves and the blossoms, but that is very minimal compared to the experience of the tree as it becomes born again in a thousand different places. So that tremendous aliveness that comes to you may not be noticed by anybody. Unless they are familiar with the energy realms - then they can feel it.

When we sit together like we did just this morning for a little while, I look around and I see a tremendous aliveness in many people. And they shine, these people.

Life is a shining. And if you’re not shining, then you’re not in your life. When you are a shining, then you can communicate that and even transport it to others around you. Then you don’t have to worry about persuading them with words to a new point of view, you need not be concerned with changing their hearts and the way that they experience life. You contribute to the awakening in them of their source, and once that has happened then nobody needs to have any influence on that person ever again. Then they are so deeply rooted in themselves, and in life and in truth, that nothing will disturb them.

There is a phrase from the Bible, from Jesus, which has always haunted me since I was young. The statement is: First find the kingdom of God, and then all else will be added to you. First find that truth, that source in you, that place where you are one with everything, that place that knows perfectly well how to live your life. And then it will live your life from there, and that is the ‘all else’ that will be added.

It is like taking a good shit without straining and pushing - when you just sit there, and it happens all by itself. I can only talk about my own experience, but when that happens, it isn’t just that it happens effortlessly, which is beautiful, but the experiencing of it happening effortlessly is exquisite. So if you’ve had that, well, the next time you have it, just remember, “My whole life could be like this.” (laughter)

That’s why I said it is not passive. In a way it is passive, but you are involved very much with this oneness with the natural action.

From “By the Way”, 2004.