Enjoy the bliss of this
Without question or need
Just falling ever into it
Into this

No questions asked
No seeking found
Heavenly peace

Who knows where this freefall will lead?
Or what we’ll encounter
On this endless drop

But who cares?
Enjoy the ride
The forever slide

Helter-skelter
Roller-coaster

When we freefall
We needn’t fear anything
It’s all part of the ride
Whatever shows up
Is part of the magic fall
Take it in our stride

There are no sides to touch
No friction to slow the flow
It’s all one deep drop
Into the expanse
It never bottoms-out
There’s always more to go

Falling, falling
Open, open
Wow

No more teachings
Let the freefall show you
Everything you need to know

Or do whatever you like
It’s all for the good

Yield to the groundlessness
The groundless IS the ground

Find stability in instability

This strange notion
Of freefall
Is freeing
Beyond measure

This deep drop
Swallows us up
We’re plummeting through space
At high speed
On a forever journey
To nowhere

I’ll show you the Way 
But will you follow?

The Way is no way
The Way is silence and surrender
The Way is no effort
The Way is ‘stop!’
The Way is just this
The Way is no more seeking

Can you see the Way?
Can you accept the Way?
Or will you reject it?

Wherever you plant your foot is the Way
Wherever your eye lands is the Way
And the foot and the eye

The Way is unmissable
Because it’s everywhere
And everything

All beings everywhere follow the Way
There are none that fall from the Way
Because whatever occurs is the Way

Even the thrashing and tantrums
And refusals and resisting
The obstinate willful ignoring
The wailing and self-pity

There’s nothing 
That does not show the Way

Suffering is the Way
Joy is the way
What is not the Way?

The Way embraces and upholds all
Includes all 
Nourishes all

Be at peace 
The Way has you
Always

.

The impulse to spiritual practice
is the impulse to awaken
so even if practice is wrong
or poor
or difficult
or ineffectual
it’s never misguided,

and in the worst cases
it can be redirected
or transformed
to better express
the core impulse.

All the prayers
and mantras
and chants
are well and good
but the urge
to practice
goes beyond
the limits
and constraints
of any particular method.

So don’t constrain yourself
to one particular
mode
or method
or time
or place.

Less doing
more noticing.

Always return to presence;
this is powerful and profound
yet simple.

Be aware(ness)
always here and now.

This is the final practice;

beyond this
is abiding simplicity itself
the passing away
of all efforts
of all practice.

Simple Self-recognition
nothing to do.

ॐ

True humility comes when you run out of strategies and realise that you’re powerless
Surrender comes as a result of this
It’s something that happens not something ‘you’ do

This is the difference between prescription and description in spiritual teachings
The seeker hears prescription
Because it can only understand what it hears in terms of itself
It’s personal
It’s something it must ‘do’

But when I say “you need to surrender”
I’m really saying that surrender needs to happen
That humility needs to dawn in your experience
There is no-one to do it

And if this kind of talk is frustrating
Then good
It needs to be
Learning that you’re powerless can be deeply frustrating
Even annoying

Then what’s left is to ‘admit it’ as the 12 Steps say
Pay attention
Be earnest and sincere
And honest about what you discover
And it’s inevitable that you’ll find the truth
Reality

Learn humility
And surrender
Then Grace can come

But it’s not an exchange
Surrender for grace
You’re not bargaining for power
This for that

Surrender is giving it all up
Even if there’s nothing to replace it
It’s just stopping
All the strategies
Because they don’t work
And so you surrender them all
Not as a deal with God
But just because they’re all fake and useless
You effectively create a vacuum
Grace fills it

Die before you die
Sacrifice what you are for what you could be

In your heart
Gather all that you think you are
All that you think you possess
All that you think you know
Gather it all up
And throw it on the fire
Today
Now

It’s time to wake up

ॐ

The dichotomy dissolves
Of subject and object

Spiritual knowledge goes
Spiritual persona goes

Just this
Whatever is happening
Is it

Doubt
Is it
Mental discussions
About how this can’t be it
Is it

You can’t turn anywhere
Touch anything
Hear anything
Feel, taste
Without it being it

There’s nothing that isn’t it
And there’s nothing that can happen
That can make it not it
And nothing can happen that means
That you’re not it

Everything that happens
Is it
So keep quiet
(So far as one can take instructions)
Remain in ‘only don’t know’

Dive in
Or sit back
Think it through
Or not

Whatever occurs
Is it
This is it
Always

The sheer truth of it
The absolute is-ness
Will assert itself
More and more

But always
This is it

ॐ

 

we are natural forms

organic creatures

more like trees

and thickets

than the straight, chiselled lines

we’ve come to measure ourselves

against

it’s easy to forget

and to distance + seclude

ourselves, inside

our toy boxes

and tool sheds

and coffins

stone + wood

from the earth

but sawn + measured

built to contain

our spirit

aah

the perfect interaction

of wind + sun

and blossom petals

the gracious, free flight

and immeasurable

landing

the light by which to see it

does the coal tit watch too?

is the squirrel inclined

to admire

the tulips?

does the stone ground

register the breeze

and the fall of flowers?

and what of inspiration?

are we –

once wild + simple –

alone in our reverie

and poetry?

are we

alone?

ॐ

I don’t really notice much
Outside
Because everything that happens
Happens in me
Of me

The flowers bloom
In me
The wind blows
In me
The hills roll and rise
In me

Like my bones
And my blood
And my breath

All in me

As if my body
Were the universe itself
And my breath
The wind

And the stars
Rejoice in my body –
The world

I am
Where I look
I am
Where I feel and touch
I am
Where the Sun shines

And the blaze of heat and light
Is me

I confess
That I am bigger
Than I imagined
And more capacious

In fact
I cannot find anything
That I am not

How reassuring
To be so complete
How helpful
To be so undivided
And so full

I am free to be
Myself

ॐ

The process (of awakening) requires us to face the most profound fear of our own annihilation or destitution

To face that fear and continue is the challenge of awakening

In the end there’s nothing we can do

We either come to the edge and let go or we don’t

Rather, it will happen or it won’t

There is an inevitability about it

Ultimately all beings wake up

(Maybe)

And it’s not a choice

But the unfoldment of the story of ‘you’

One day the belief in yourself as a person just isn’t there

And it becomes obvious that the person you thought you were was and is a character in a dream

And you’re the dreamer, consciousness

.

There’s no-one doing any of this

It’s just happening

And if I say ‘you’ need to see this

It’s not the person I’m talking to

It’s You

If you want to wake up because you think you’ll get more of anything

Then that’s ‘false view’

If you think that awakening will prevent your utter destitution

Then that’s ‘false view’ also

I’m not trying to scare you

Or discourage you

I just want to name the fears and expectations directly

Drop your expectations and face your fear

Because expectations are a distraction

And fear is a threshold you must pass

To be free

ॐ