Whenever I see Jean Klein’s name I think of his comment that we need to find the meditation that is not meditation because we are already there. The guy who wrote Mindfulness in Plain English recommends that we meditate on impermanence. It’s amazing to see how you can wake up in a new world with every breath. My Oklahoma home has little to recommend it as a destination but it has an insect symphony that is a wonder. I sit on my porch and listen for a spell every night, enough to hear the constant changes. That there is nothing fixed to hold onto is a constant source of wonderful insecurity
thank you for sharing as always! some passages that really resonated for me:
"Words are quite magical actually, how spoken sounds or little shapes on a page can unfold in the listening mind into whole worlds of meaning, and how they can evoke and invite the silence behind the sounds."
"Letting go of the scaffolding of words and ideas can feel scary, and it's easy to keep grabbing on."
"So-called awakening is a recognition of this. It’s a falling away of certainty and belief, an opening and dissolving into the vastness and immediacy of this one bottomless moment."
"Is it possible, if only for one moment right now, to forget what all the great spiritual authorities have said? To forget all the second-hand information that has been learned and absorbed, all the models of reality, all the words and descriptions? Is it possible, right now, to simply be, without trying to understand what this is, or pin it down, or make sense of it?"
"And for that matter, is it actually possible not to simply be? Is there really anything other than this indivisible, unpindownable, utterly alive presence that we naturally and effortlessly always already are?"
To let go of secondhand information/concepts, ideas, and just be in the primacy of my immediate experience feels natural. It seems to take courage to let go and just be myself though because my spiritual teachings tell me that I shouldn’t forget about them. Hope this makes sense.
Hi Bob, You don't have to forget about them permanently or always. In fact, that's probably impossible. But it might be possible NOW (and NOW, and NOW), whenever it invites you to simply let it all go for just this moment.
Years ago I owned an old house with rotten wood, especially around the windows. I learned to cut away the rot until I reached solid wood, and from that I could rebuild. When I began spiritual practice (Zen) many years ago, that's what I imagined I was doing. I could see lots of dissatisfaction in my experience of life, and I set about digging it out. Rotten wood went flying! But more rot just kept coming, and some started to resemble the 'spiritual practice' I was following. After many, many years, it finally dawned on me that there no solidity was ever to be found in life; it was only and forever change, and this reality was the 'firm' foundation for life. Joan points to this, in my view, in a very healthy way. And if Joan says this isn't what she's pointing to, listen to her. She's trustworthy.
Your words are flowing and freely expressing my fleeting feelings of appreciation and celebration of the wordless wonder I enjoy… thanks Joan! From Facebook … Kenzen: Satori Art Studio ☺️👍🙏👨🎨🎨🎼🥰
I appreciate the appreciation of words as magic. I think too often this gets skipped over in non-dual circles—people wanting to get beyond all words and concepts, a kind of linguistic bypassing. But words *are* magical and recognising this doesn't deny the unresolvable unity that they leap and dissolve from. I think we have to get intimate with their magic before we're able to see their divine trickster nature more clearly.
I'd love a podcast with you and Saltzman. It'd be called "Good Cop, Bad Cop", as I hear essentially the same message, but expressed a little more, ahh, gently here. :)
Such a beautifully profound and illuminating post. Your gift for using words to convey the Wordless is truly an inspiration.
She has The Gift, for sure!💥✍️
If these words aren’t balm and medicine
for the chaos and uncertainty we’re living through, I don’t know what is.
Thank you, Joan, for writing them!🙏📕
Thanks!
Whenever I see Jean Klein’s name I think of his comment that we need to find the meditation that is not meditation because we are already there. The guy who wrote Mindfulness in Plain English recommends that we meditate on impermanence. It’s amazing to see how you can wake up in a new world with every breath. My Oklahoma home has little to recommend it as a destination but it has an insect symphony that is a wonder. I sit on my porch and listen for a spell every night, enough to hear the constant changes. That there is nothing fixed to hold onto is a constant source of wonderful insecurity
I love insect and frog symphonies on summer nights.
dear joan,
thank you for sharing as always! some passages that really resonated for me:
"Words are quite magical actually, how spoken sounds or little shapes on a page can unfold in the listening mind into whole worlds of meaning, and how they can evoke and invite the silence behind the sounds."
"Letting go of the scaffolding of words and ideas can feel scary, and it's easy to keep grabbing on."
"So-called awakening is a recognition of this. It’s a falling away of certainty and belief, an opening and dissolving into the vastness and immediacy of this one bottomless moment."
"Is it possible, if only for one moment right now, to forget what all the great spiritual authorities have said? To forget all the second-hand information that has been learned and absorbed, all the models of reality, all the words and descriptions? Is it possible, right now, to simply be, without trying to understand what this is, or pin it down, or make sense of it?"
"And for that matter, is it actually possible not to simply be? Is there really anything other than this indivisible, unpindownable, utterly alive presence that we naturally and effortlessly always already are?"
thank you for sharing!
much love
myq
To let go of secondhand information/concepts, ideas, and just be in the primacy of my immediate experience feels natural. It seems to take courage to let go and just be myself though because my spiritual teachings tell me that I shouldn’t forget about them. Hope this makes sense.
Hi Bob, You don't have to forget about them permanently or always. In fact, that's probably impossible. But it might be possible NOW (and NOW, and NOW), whenever it invites you to simply let it all go for just this moment.
Love that brilliant expression by Tejitsu, the Zen nun!
Beautifully expressed as ever.
Thanks Joan 🙏
I read (and commented) on this exquisite article just hours BEFORE Biden announced he would not run for POTUS.
Now this post means even more to me!💥
Years ago I owned an old house with rotten wood, especially around the windows. I learned to cut away the rot until I reached solid wood, and from that I could rebuild. When I began spiritual practice (Zen) many years ago, that's what I imagined I was doing. I could see lots of dissatisfaction in my experience of life, and I set about digging it out. Rotten wood went flying! But more rot just kept coming, and some started to resemble the 'spiritual practice' I was following. After many, many years, it finally dawned on me that there no solidity was ever to be found in life; it was only and forever change, and this reality was the 'firm' foundation for life. Joan points to this, in my view, in a very healthy way. And if Joan says this isn't what she's pointing to, listen to her. She's trustworthy.
Thanks again Joan. You have a gift of that I am forever grateful to have found. Much Love to all.
Your words are flowing and freely expressing my fleeting feelings of appreciation and celebration of the wordless wonder I enjoy… thanks Joan! From Facebook … Kenzen: Satori Art Studio ☺️👍🙏👨🎨🎨🎼🥰
“moment to moment sensitivity to what’s happening now, not what worked yesterday or what worked for someone else” ✨💛✨
I appreciate the appreciation of words as magic. I think too often this gets skipped over in non-dual circles—people wanting to get beyond all words and concepts, a kind of linguistic bypassing. But words *are* magical and recognising this doesn't deny the unresolvable unity that they leap and dissolve from. I think we have to get intimate with their magic before we're able to see their divine trickster nature more clearly.
I'd love a podcast with you and Saltzman. It'd be called "Good Cop, Bad Cop", as I hear essentially the same message, but expressed a little more, ahh, gently here. :)
Robert recorded the two of us in conversation back in 2018:
https://youtu.be/dW5_u4SPhTo
Beautiful, Joan.❤️