A hawk attacked a serpent who was sunning on a rock. Repeatedly the hawk
aimed its beak at the serpent and dived down. Each time the hawk
attacked, the serpent languidly and effortlessly rolled its body, and
the hawk missed its mark. Over and over again the hawk attacked
with intense concentration, while the serpent merely followed
its nature, lounging
in the sunlight, rolling ever so slightly, this way and that. Finally, the hawk broke its neck against the naked stone. The serpent continued to luxuriate in a pool of afternoon
sunlight.
Non-resistance would seem to be the opposite of discipline. But
non-resistance is the final discipline, the most radical form of
activism.
Awareness
is contracted and over-shadowed by whatever it resists. This
contraction of awareness is ego. Ego is nothing but the
naturally-expanded, already-liberated, sparkling clarity of awareness
contracted and self-limited by resisting some form that arises within
it.
In meditation, non-resistance is the purest practice: not resisting any unpleasant form that arises, and not clinging to any pleasant form that arises. For clinging is also a form of resistance, resistance to the loss of passing pleasure.
Whatever arises, let it go. This conscious act of non-clinging returns to the subject all the energy that was invested in the object.
The act of non-resistance solidifies the observer in diamond-like freedom. The way is an open hand, not a clenched fist.
This action-less act of non-resistance also makes renunciation effortless. When we "give up" something or someone to whom we have formed a painful bondage, we are really not giving up any thing at all, because what binds us is not the object but our identification with it. We have projected the excitement of our own consciousness onto the object to give it an aura of glamor. We do not need to reject the object, but simply to rest in the Self, allow our own projected glamor to return and settle as pure consciousness. This requires no effort, only understanding. In fact, this act of effortless renunciation actually increases our energy, because it restores to the Self what we gave away to another. And bringing the energy home to our own center is not hard, since the experience of pure consciousness is more blissful than the experience of any external object.
Therefor, the act of non-resistance is ten thousand times more energizing than any act of control, concentration, or self-denial. The instant I stop resisting, I am liberated: awareness returns to its natural clarity, self-luminosity, and ceaseless expansion.
Is there a practice of non-resistance outside of meditation, in our activity? Here too, dynamic non-resistance is the mother of all practices. Action performed when the mind is in the space of non-resistance is ten thousand times more powerful than any act of resistance.
Action in non-resistance gains the power of the void. It is infused with the infinite silence of the vacuum, where all quantum particles of the universe arise. Such action is a wave that incorporates the ocean of consciousness.
On the other hand, an action performed by the clenched fist of resistance is only a contracted droplet of the ocean, empowered by ego alone. Such weak action receives no cosmic support.
When we resist our so-called enemy, we only feed the enemy's energy. By taking sides in conflict, we increase the polarizing energy. Jesus called us to love our enemy and practice non-resistance. Why? Not to save the enemy, but to save our own awareness from resistance, contraction, and egotism. Jesus calls us to be serpents, not hawks.
"Be ye therefor wise as serpents and gentle as doves." ~Matthew 10:16
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