In a short tour of some local shops my eye caught this little gem of a statement on a garden plaque: ‘You are Here.’ It seems like such an obvious statement doesn’t it? Where else would you be? But then why do we need to keep being reminded of this?
Most often we are not ‘here.’ It’s said that we have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. It would be safe to say that the good majority of those thoughts are caught in “Where have I been?” and “Where am I going?” In other words, they are focused on anywhere but here. We have an insidious ego program that keeps us outside of the realm of now. We believe that ‘now’ is too simple. We search for comfort and security. We seek peace. We want love. And in that searching, seeking and wanting we simply keep ourselves in searching, seeking and wanting. What we most desire is always held just outside of our reach.
Unfortunately, the spiritual journey, in some aspects, also keeps us in the convoluted path of wanting more, better and deeper peace. Yet all the workshops, courses, readings, and paths cannot, alone, bring us to our peace. As long as we look outside of ourselves for answers we blind ourselves to our truth. The more we resist the relationship with our core Self, we only create an exhausting loop of dissatisfaction, pursuit and more discontent.
“Stop complicating yourself. Be quiet.”
Sri H.W.L. Poonjaji
Spiritual teacher Gangaji tells of her personal, endless quest for peace and its abrupt end. Like many, she studied various forms of meditation, practiced the spiritual rituals, spent years cleansing her limiting emotions and thoughts, and travelled far to find fulfillment. Despite her abundant and successful life, and her commitment to her spirituality, she had not arrived at her imagined destination and felt something lacking. Not knowing what else to do she simply prayed for a wise teacher. 6 months later she met Sri Poonjaji, and within a few minutes of their first conversation he uttered a word that would change Gangaji forever – “stop”. What he conveyed to her was to cease the search and all the mental frenzy that was supporting the idea that there was something ‘out there’ that would release her struggle. What he gave her was pause to realize that she had been looking far too far and trying far too hard.
The peace you seek is in the knowing that you have been IT all along. You are pure consciousness. There is no need to search. As long as you are looking, you are overlooking you. You are the peace. Consciousness isn’t fleeting, temporary or inconsistent. You have never been separated from it. It has always been here and will be here – free and unlimited. It is omnipresent. You are this.
“You can play as if you are not who you are.
You can play as if you almost are, but still not quite.
You can play any number of variations and permutations of
choosing or denying who you are….
You have played like this for aeons.
Eventually a weariness arises in the play because the play is limited.”
Gangaji
To ‘stop’ is to surrender the identification of yourself through your thoughts, emotions, your name, your body, your doing, your job, and your circumstances. These are only the forms through which you express but they are not you. Your mind may vehemently disagree. Further, it may thrash about with this suggestion of your exquisite availability to peace and ask, “But what about all the energy I’ve invested in my search?” It may protest with a myriad of excuses to not be still. Your thoughts may not be able to reconcile a life completely free of suffering. In defense, your ego may fight to insist that Gangaji’s experience was easy for her but hard for you. Your fear of what may become of you if you accepted your simple truth may overshadow all your emotions; “How would I survive without all my doing, my caretaking of others, my plans, my accomplishments, my possessions, my spiritual practices?” You may even be gripped by the false possibility that you will never know this self-realization, or worse, that you will get it and lose it. You may find yourself reeling with uncertainty; “If I am truth then who or what is this God that I’ve been trying to please or that I have feared?” Your physical self may even contract in defiance of the surrender. And still, despite all this angst, peace is unwavering as your nature. Your thoughts are conditioned and fleeting. Your emotions are ever-changing vibrations. Your body is a temporary shelter. But your essence remains whole. It is always ‘here’.
THE Peace Practice:
If you are ‘here’ there is nowhere to go. And you cannot know your Divine nature through your mind. All you have to do is meet yourself. Open the door and welcome yourself. Draw back the shades and see yourself in the light. Be still in your own company. Drop into your body. Do not try to suppress the self-assessment, the judgment, any disappointment, or the thought that you wish you were different or more. This is more struggle. Do not try to swallow the fear or sadness or despair. This is more pain. Whatever arises be willing to tell the truth about it. Don’t move away from it. Be with it. Just breathe with it. Witness it. Only your resistance will keep the illusion alive. Breathe. Allow yourself to be with it long enough to move beyond the threshold. Surrender will allow the veil to fall. And what you will realize in this opening to yourself is that only one thing ever existed, exists, or will exist – the peace that is you.
“You are here! You are home!
Come in. Be at home.”
Gangaji
The peace practice described above is foundational in my work with clients to help them move past their human challenges and live from their Spirit. If this is what you want for yourself and are prepared to meet yourself, please book a healing session.