Good morning! Welcome to the DKos Sangha weekly open thread.
This is an open thread for members of the DKos Sangha and interested visitors who happen by. Each of us has our own path; we come here by way of many different traditions, and of no particular tradition. While the language we use may differ depending on the traditions, teachers, practices, and teachings that have shaped our journeys, we find in common, generally, a search for who we truly are, our true nature, and to bring the peace and compassion born of that search into the greater world of which we are a part. If you wish to share, or if you seek support, or if you simply want to say hello, please do; this space is for you.
Resting in the stillness of awareness.
A drop of rainwater falls from a leaf. The leaf bounces up with the sudden reduction in weight. And then all is still again.
A thought appears within mind. Other thoughts appear as mind develops a story springing from the original thought. The story finished, all is then still once again.
The stillness of awareness is always here. It is the ground of our being within which everything that happens during our day appears; every thought, every activity, every meeting, every movement; the taste of coffee, the smell of oregano, the feel of stretched muscles.
No identification with any of these appearances as “me”; no separation of appearances as “me” and “other”. All appearances, all perceived phenomena, arise together, as one, in this moment, within awareness, within our ground of being.
This is our direct experience when not filtered by the conditioned patterns of identification and separation; not filtered through the story of “me”, which gloms itself onto and into everything, making itself the center around which everything resolves.
Just movement within awareness. The play of a gentle rain upon the glass surface of the patio table. The washing of dishes. The balancing of a checkbook. All of these are the unfolding of the universe, the vibrating energy of the universe arising within the stillness; the cosmic dance.
When perceived phenomena are filtered through the conditioned patterns of identification and separation, then we frequently find that we are not in harmony with the dance. There is conflict, discord, dis-ease, dissatisfaction, depression.
When identification and separation have fallen away, when we abide in and as awareness, then we are in harmony with the unfolding of the universe; with the unfolding of the day; with things as they are in this moment.
The process of awakening, the dissipation of egoic conditioning, is different for each of us; the path by which we undertake this journey is, for each of us, our own. The teachings that guide us along the way are but pointers indicating the general direction. It is through the inquiry within, through our willingness to let go of everything we think we know, it is through our unfiltered direct experience, that we come to “know” who we really are.
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The rain, though still gentle, has picked up enough to where its sound is now heard throughout the forest.
Resting here in the stillness of being.
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Just this
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Namaste