Nowhere to Go
Ningún lugar adonde ir
A gentle invitation to stop pulling away from discomfort and discover that the silence and peace you long for are already here.
Nowhere to Go
There is nowhere to go
If you see it,
sometimes words are metaphorical and poetic.
And sometimes they are attempts at being extremely literal and direct,
even though that's not possible.
In meditation, you may hear: there is nowhere to go.
And that is as literal as possible.
We are often torn, pulled,
and you might be feeling that right now,
by mind activity, emotional activity,
a desire, a longing, a dissatisfaction.
Some subtle but deep sense of this just not being right,
something's missing.
Looking at what feels wrong
Don't shy away from that.
Be extremely curious.
At the heart of that there may be a sense of: it's me, something is not right with me.
And it's so fundamental, so deep, that it's very painful to look at.
We want to distract,
or find escapes or strategies to soothe and fix.
Fix life, fix myself, fix the situation.
And so the notion that there is nowhere to go and nothing to do
can seem disheartening.
Some form of bad news, no hope.
Trust
And the key, what's needed, is trust.
Trust that right here, right now, never anywhere else,
you may discover nothing is wrong.
At the deepest level,
that hurt, that core of dissatisfaction and pain, comes from an illusion.
An illusion we are attached to.
The direction for seeing, for freeing,
is now, always now.
This.
Every question has one answer.
It's this.
It is not this moment.
It is not presence.
It's this.
Whatever this is.
Already here
We can stop resisting.
The silence and the peace you crave is already here.
The love we seek is here.
To recognize that is wisdom.
And with wisdom you will recognize.
Trust that what you feel is okay,
all of it.
Everything the mind does is okay.
All the seas are the seas of God.
If the mind is stormy, doubtful, confusing, difficult,
in the middle of that there is silence.
The mind is a mirage,
purely made of reflections,
unreal, unimportant.
Tasting the silence
The sensations and feelings are distracting and challenging right now,
the breath and the body sensations.
There's an empty, quiet spaciousness.
Without thinking, can you taste the silence?
You cannot find it.
Too close.
Here is the silence.
Follow your deepest longing into this moment.
Trust that it is available for you.
That is the leap.
It is here and it is available to you, always.
Now.
Turning toward discomfort
As everything moves, everything changes.
The instant something unpleasant appears,
a thought, space, or emotions, sensations, discomfort,
the instant that appears, notice the habitual reaction to pull away, to push.
Turn that around.
Go right into it.
Taste it fully.
Drink from it.
Savor the contraction, the discomfort,
as if it were a magical fruit, bitter.
Let it, over and over and over again.
The magic will reveal itself.
Fearlessly.
Leap into it.
Abandon all avoidance.
Always this. Now.