Already Given
Already Given: Mystery Beyond the Map
December 13, 2023
meditation

Already Given

Ya Dado

An invitation to stop striving and notice that what you most deeply seek is already here, intimate and mysterious, needing no effort.

Already Given

You can keep your eyes open if you wish, or close them.

The sensation of "mine"

Notice the sensation of familiarity,
something that seems or feels familiar.

Sensations in your hands, in your breath, in the body,
and something that happens,
which is the experience of "my hand,"
"my breath."

Notice this activity,
the restlessness.

"My thoughts,
my discomfort,
my worry.
My body."

Be curious about what this is.

And to notice this, no effort is needed.

Forget about doing

Forget about doing.
Forget about focusing.
Forget about being present.

All of that is more "mine, mine."

Something is already here.
Something is already present.
You cannot make it more present.

Any effort, any doing is distraction.

The most intimate, the most mysterious

You are tasting it all the time.
It is the most intimate and the most mysterious,
never familiar.

It is closer to home than anything else,
and yet so frustrating.

They want to get there,
to achieve it,
to earn it,
but it's already given.

There's nothing to do.

At every instance, every moment,
we are free to choose
the exquisite mystery of life,
which already is, right now,

or to fight it,
make it known,
familiar.

Creating from mystery

As this mystery we can create from love, passion, vitality.

When we decide that something is fundamentally missing,
we make the mystery known.
We use the ability to create.

What is a hand?

Feel a sensation in your hands.
Do you really know what they are?
Is that sensation really yours?

You see an image of a hand that is yours.
Isn't that just thought?

What we call a hand, skin, bottom:
a movement of tingling waves, warmness.

Mysterious.
Can you really feel where your hand ends and the space begins?

Sinking into this moment

Let yourself sink deeper into this moment,
effortlessly sinking into sensations,
into sounds, colors, and lights.

Let our thoughts be thoughts,
images, textures.
No meaning or truth to them,
just movement, reflections.

Sink into everything.
Let the following be infinite, bottomless.

Kissing every experience

As if gently kissing every experience,
kissing sounds gently, lovingly.

Just seeing all sensations,
even if uncomfortable ones,
they are just textures, flavors.

Thoughts, memories, stories:
welcome them and kiss them intimately,
gently sinking into the mystery,

this aliveness,
this beingness,
which is spacious, infinite, and dense.

Don't hold on to anything.