Poking at Reality

Yesterday, I wrote of a moment of emptiness–egolessness really. What little order I imposed pushed the moment out of the realm of reverie and into a gathering of words, insufficient but all I had.

To describe emptiness or egolessness is my lifetime practice; to practice egolessness or emptiness is to challenge my perception of the world, to poke at reality. It is to embrace the world, freeing myself from “I.”

“Enlightenment for a wave in the ocean is the moment the wave realizes that it is water” (Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ).

I am not my body, I am not my mind is my mantra; I do not yet realize I am a “pure center of awareness” (Ken Wilbur). There are glimpses of Buddha nature—moments of reverie—waves come and go.

Recreating moments of awareness is akin to finding words to describe emptiness. There is no holding awareness. There is only being aware of the connection with everything, of having a role in the universe.

We experience life “as something separate from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of [our] consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty” (Einstein).

In seeing ourselves as part of the whole, we are empty of fear and full of everything else. We are no longer threatened by what we do not have. Rather, we are empty of it. We are full of what binds us to one another–love–the door of equanimity swings wide-open.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Einstein

Aim for Even posts offer equanimity in daily doses. No day or dose is ever the same, even if the aim is. You may read about the origins of Aim for Even here or on this site’s About page.