the make up of prison bars

My wife and I went to see Shakespeare's play Hamlet this weekend. If you are wondering what life looks like to the awakened then read Shakespeare and see. Here's a snippet from a conversation between Hamlet and two of his friends from college (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) about Hamlet's depressive state ... meditate on this: it's all you ever need to know about the real prison.

HAMLET

Denmark's a prison.

ROSENCRANTZ

Then is the world one.

HAMLET

oodly one; in which there are many confines,

wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

ROSENCRANTZ

We think not so, my lord.

HAMLET

Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing

either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me

it is a prison.

ROSENCRANTZ

Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too

narrow for your mind.

HAMLET

O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count

myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I

have bad dreams.

GUILDENSTERN

Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very

substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

HAMLET

A dream itself is but a shadow.

see ... bob

Meditation is essentially the practice of living in truth ... the ever present truth that is here now without 'story' and without you.

Daily practice points the way ...

bob

getting it

Meditation is fundamentally about surrender. When we truly surrender we are "not trying to get something" or "hoping for some outcome". We are only empty to what will happen next. So when meditating just let go ... sit in silence and see what happens without expectation. You will soon notice that what is presently arising has nothing whatsoever to do with you.

Sit daily and notice the truth of your absence. There is nothing to get as there is no one to get it.

notice!

bob

meditation

There are so many meditation techniques and spiritual practices. All are good in that they point in some way to the impersonal Truth that is here right now..

As the goal of spiritual practice is to see without a doubt that Life is already free of the idea of 'you', then complicated techniques can slow down realization.

So ... when meditating just sit in silence and "take what you get". In other words, just be still without expectations and notice what presents itself.

You will come to see that all that presents itself is not you. You have always been free.

Ahhhhh,

bob

self concern

Occasionally I run across some words that say it all. This one is from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

"Learn to live without self concern. For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless, ever victorious. Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts, and ideas, and live by truth alone".

So when we sit in meditation just notice that nothing that arises is you ... not me, not me, not me.

bob

dreaming

Eternal truth cannot be lost or found ... it is here right now. But, the ego does not want to see that; it wants to search, and search, and search some more thus ensuring it's seeming survival in separation.

One of the best pointers to Truth can be found in the children's round: "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream".

During meditation practice just let go and remember that you are dreaming ... all will become clear.

ok?

bob

What is here?

Absolute mystery is what is here. We try through concepts to arrive at some conclusions about life, to make it seem tame, or to find some sort of fixed truth about ourselves or the world. We do this habitually to cover our fundamental insecurity and the fact that we have so very little control. But defending ourselves with ideas never works, does it?

But when we notice, through our direct experience, what presents itself right here right now, we are flung into That which cannot be described in any way whatsoever. We are smack in the middle of the Mystery that is beyond thought but is effortlessly experienced.

Meditation is just noticing what is here right now without expectations. In that sense meditation is identical to enlightenment.

see?

bob