The Beauty of What Flickering Appears
La belleza de lo que aparece parpadeando
A meditation exploring how everything in experience is flickering and impermanent, and how freedom lives in recognizing its beauty without needing anything to change.
The Beauty of What Flickering Appears
The sounds of voices and words aren't in any way obstructing that silence.
The sounds of imagined voices and inner dialogue and thoughts in those images are also in no way affecting or obscuring that silence.
But it does help to have a moment of silence and invite the silence of moments without speaking.
We're so used to talking to people when we are with people,
to always engage in dialogue, conversation, thoughts, sharing,
and that's a beautiful thing,
but we can also explore a relating that is without that form of relating, in silence.
And that can invite our minds to either become more active,
or temporarily become active and then settle down a little bit.
A silence that can't be pointed to
There is a silence that I'm referring to that can't be actually pointed to.
It cannot be named,
and silence is just one word.
It's very mysterious. It's incomprehensible, but it's known,
it's knowable,
and it's always part of reality.
So if we're trying to calm our minds,
or change thoughts,
think about something positive,
or stop thinking about something else,
that's in a sense missing the mark.
Thoughts have nothing to do with it.
Nothing needs to change.
It's all changing already.
Every thought that comes will go.
Every sensation that comes will go.
Every sound that is heard will go.
Everything that is experienced will come and will go.
The experience of something staying or repeating is an illusion.
You do not enter the same river twice.
Bring your attention to your hands
Bring your attention to your hands.
Something seems stable, remaining, or permanent.
The illusion begins with a thought:
hands, hands, hands,
the naming of it,
the naming of the form, the sensation.
To go into the sensation,
the direct contact with the sensation,
to remove the image of the hand and know the hand directly.
It's a field, texture, tingling, moving, shifting,
absolutely and completely impermanent.
The concept "hand" makes it seem static.
This is all sensation.
All of the knowing of the body is this:
impermanent, shifting, moving, changing, vibrating, pulsing, lightness,
completely and fully glowing, radiating.
The texture of each sense
The same goes with sounds.
It's just a different texture.
The flavor of sensation,
the flavor of sound,
the texture of light, images, sight.
And we can look deeper.
Look at thoughts.
Try to find a thought that comes and stays.
It may appear this way,
but if you look closely,
it's flickering, constantly changing.
The sense of I
Look at the space and the world of feelings and emotions.
We get closer to that sense of I.
I, this person with this story, this history, past, future.
What is this, this person?
Flickering, shifting constellation of images, narratives.
You might notice some aversions or attractions when you look at this.
We start to see through an illusion,
and a part of us wants to remain in the illusion, loves the illusion.
The beauty of the impermanent nature
It's tragic and untouched.
The freedom is in the recognition of the beauty of all this,
the beauty of the impermanent nature,
the preciousness of everything that is appearing,
which will immediately disappear and shift and change.
We're able to see this more and more closely,
recognize deeper and deeper this,
the knowing of this experience.
That which knows sensation.
That which knows thoughts.
That which knows time.
That which knows the appearance of space.
It's this sentience.
It's open, receptive, all-embracing, loving nature.
Welcoming everything.
What if nothing needs to change
Recognize if there is any stress or anxiety, contraction, unease.
Notice any desire for something to be different,
something you would change about yourself.
Fully know your experience.
Total inner integrity, total inner honesty.
Don't hide anything from yourself.
Notice what you might be struggling with.
And what if nothing needs to change?
What if what you're really looking for doesn't need or require for any of this to change?
It doesn't need for the crazy mind to stop,
your contractions or emotions or feelings to change,
anything in your life to change, necessarily.
It's right here.
Just keep an openness to this possibility.
No life improvement will get you closer.
No personal improvement will get you closer.
No change in your mind or emotional body will get you closer.
All of that is a distraction.
The infinite wheels, the turnings of samsara.
What is it?
It's right here.