Everything is there, waiting. Of course we’re usually oblivious, doing what humans do so well, creating layer after layer of thought that occludes the real and ever present world right in front of us. But sometimes you come to your senses and then, just like that, you are gobsmacked by the incredible beauty that is right there. It is almost as though you are present at the creation, with the dew on the leaves glistening in the autumn light.
We cherish such moments and grieve that they are so infrequent. What is it about these impressions that are so indelible? Pretending to know, we speak about presence. But layering on knowledge causes the experience to change; no longer alive, it devolves into a memory, though only a moment has passed. Or even a split second of inattention will cause the impression to change and disappear. The fragility of our attention ensures that these moments of transcendence are fleeting.
When an electron loses energy it descends to a lower electron shell. It happens instantly, there is no journey taking place, simply the electron was in one place, with a certain amount of energy, then it disappears and reappears at that same instant in another place, with a lesser amount of energy. These moments of experience are like that.
There is something else. There is the person looking and there are the leaves. But there is also the space in which they exist. Sometimes the space between the watcher and the watched is also seen to participate, it is a third player. The space between oneself and the leaves is not empty. It is luminous. Even, could it be, lucid? Just as the leaves are not inert objects, the space where the transmission takes place is not just inert space. It also is participating.
Seer, seen, and interval between, all containing the same mind stuff, awareness without thought, the very ground of being. It is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity manifest. No doctrine or dogma is needed, no belief or teaching, only to witness. Everything is there waiting for you.
Comments are welcome
Dear Dennis,
Reading “Stop, Look and Repeat” and then listening to the music on your site Kurd Shepherd Melody, Sacred Hymn In C Minor, transported me away from my angst over the US and the world news and into a better place. Thank you.
Good to hear from you, Susan, always a pleasure, and yes I do agree with your sentiments. Be well.
YES! Have you heard of David Whyte’s poem of the same name?
Everything is Waiting for You
Written and read by David Whyte
Listen
After Derek Mahon
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
Hi, Patti, you are the second person that mentioned David Whyte’s wonderful poem and that my last sentence and his are the same. I was unaware, but given that I love his work, I’m sure his words were rattling around somewhere in my brain! And it is a great piece of work, as well. Love to you, Dennis