One Infinite Undivided Whole
Nothing to Grasp, Nothing to Attain, Nothing to Vanquish
The desire to write something new is still in abeyance. Nothing is yet wanting to be expressed. And, of course, when something finally does emerge, it will no doubt be the same essential message that I offer again and again, but hopefully each time is fresh in some way. And we seem to need to hear these things again and again. For now, I’ll share words from three of my top favorite nondual writer/speakers whose expression resonates with my own, along with the latest incarnation of my website home page, and then finally a recommendation. So, here goes:
People desperately want to describe existence and, historically, they speak of matter, energy, consciousness, spirit, oneness, and mystery. But descriptions are merely limited interpretations. All of them. They can never tell us what life actually is…
Even the sense of existing disappears every night, only to reappear. It’s like a light blinking off and on.
When it’s on, our so-called life appears in its flow. Bodies, needs, interests, concerns, urges, and actions—family situations, national events, international events—all of these arise and fade as passing appearances in a formless event…
These forms don’t actually exist; they’re like ripples in flowing water…
Our appearance, direction, and actions simply happen. This realization is freedom…
At some point, the heart may open to the totally indefinable, unpredictable, and often unwanted movement that life is. Love is that openness of heart.
Contrary to popular spiritual terminology, it is not about waking up but rather noticing that this reality dreams eternally...
Our experiences and perceptions result from consciousness projecting meaning onto neutral patterns of energy, creating an illusion of personal significance and narrative. In reality, everything is a dynamic, unresolvable play of consciousness that doesn't need to be solved–only recognized for what it truly is…
The actuality of this is not some ongoing condition of anything in particular… It’s intrinsically flirtatious, intrinsically dynamic. It’s like the ocean. It never stops moving: all these currents and modes and huge storms and gorgeous clear peacefulness, everything... This, right here, is the breaking wave of this astounding radiance. It is not inert.
Feel the unstoppable, pouring forth of life that is each instant, each experience, each momentary perception. In every moment, reality assumes a different shape and form, a different flavor, a different texture, a different quality. But all of it is reality, all of it life's emanation, life's effulgence.
From my (slightly revised) Home page:
We can't say what or why this is, only that it is. No conceptual formulation can capture this living reality. We habitually search for certainty and something to grasp. But in holding on to nothing at all, there is immense openness and freedom.
Life is effortlessly happening—ever-changing while never departing from this one bottomless moment right here, right now. This presence that we are is seamless and boundless, infinitely diverse in appearance, yet with no actual separation.
Thought conceptually divides, labels, categorizes, interprets and seemingly concretizes the flow of experience, creating the illusory sense of apparently separate, independent, persisting things, including bodies, minds, the world, and a self that is supposedly authoring our thoughts and making our choices.
But if we give open attention to direct experiencing, we may discover that all apparently formed things, including people, are like waves in the ocean—ever-changing and inseparable movements of the whole. There is no substantial boundary between inside and outside, nor any findable center to experience.
Our urges, desires, impulses, interests, preferences, abilities, thoughts, emotions and actions are all a movement of the whole. Nothing could be other than exactly how it is in this moment. Realizing this is the freedom to be as we are and for everything to be as it is, including our apparent abilities or inabilities to change, heal or correct things.
What is offered here invites firsthand exploration and direct discovery, not belief or dogma. It points to the simplicity of being what we cannot not be, this luminous presence, this one infinite undivided whole, right here, right now, just as it is. There is no finish-line, no formula, no method, nowhere to go, only this ever-fresh aliveness.
—from the latest incarnation of my website Home page (I periodically tweak it, sometimes changing the title, as I recently did).
And then, one more from Darryl Bailey, from an article on his website:
There are many who will read these statements and feel they point to life as it actually is. They will get excited about these ideas and will want to spend hours, days, weeks, and months, reading, thinking and talking about them.
But, ironically, the more one focuses on ideas and explanations, in reading, thinking, and talking, the less clear it becomes that everything is unexplainable movement, moving on its own.
It only becomes clear when we sit down, or lie down, making no effort to do anything, and simply feel this unexplainable happening, happening.
I can already hear some people shouting “But we have to think. Don’t tell us to stop thinking!” Which, of course, is not what I’m saying. I’ve already pointed out that our thinking is an unexplainable movement that is moving on its own. And you’ll discover that fact, if you simply rest and feel it happening on its own.
In simply feeling the unexplainable happening of this moment occurring, feeling the happening that we are, happening on its own, perhaps the focus can come off the tangled, angst-ridden, confusion of our thoughts and storylines, and the simple miracle, and wonder, of a formless functioning can be realised and enjoyed.
—Darryl Bailey
A Recommendation:
A friend recently mentioned a teacher (or whatever word he uses) named Simon Brown who, my friend said, was just starting a Substack, having apparently grown tired of posting videos on YouTube. I was curious, so I watched a few of his videos on YouTube and very much resonated. Then I checked out his newly emerging substack: Awake! Here & Now, and liked what I saw and heard. So, I want to recommend him to you. Subscriptions to his Substack are free.
Love to all…
I've always respected Darryl Bailey's work. He's got his talking points and he's sticking to them. : )
Last night I watched an interview you did with Tony Packer. It infused me. This morning I watched one of her retreat sessions on attention and again she took me by the hand. Nature has been my greatest teacher, an early childhood memory is sitting under a tree, in complete harmony with my surroundings...effortless. I wanted to express my gratitude and write you an e-mail, opening the mail-box, I found your answer :-). Feel like giving you a Big Hug