Uradiance: Rest

Rest as Self-radiant awareness. Whenever you feel stressed, divided, weary, off-center, just rest as You.

Rest is not passive. Rest is dynamic return. Rest is empowerment. Rest is healing action. This is the real meaning of the Sabbath.

True rest is that act which re-establishes the wholeness of matter, energy and spirit as one continuum. Matter, energy and spirit are just different densities of a single essence, which is your own awareness. This means that your awareness runs through the seer and the seen. All that is around you, from the nearest flower to the most distant star, is the intimate extension of You. You are the cosmic continuum.

In order to find true rest, we must know where to rest. If we think we must go somewhere "else" to rest, that very "going" will make us restless. If we seek rest in a temple or an ashram, in the image of a God, or in a chakra of our subtle body, we will be restless. If we seek rest in a faith or belief, we will be disappointed. Rest can only happen in the present moment, right where we already are, before a single thought arises, before any seeking begins. Let us rest as awareness in awareness.

Through awareness at rest in itself, we rediscover the primordial continuity of consciousness and the material world. You are not a separate observer of the world. You are the world. The world arises in the observer, taking on the observer's quality and energy.

This primal unity was broken by our own mind. Resting heals our wound. What is the wound? The ontological gap that severs subject from object.

The gap between subject and object is the "original sin," the first fracture that caused every other mis-perceived duality: separation of man and woman, separation of man and nature, separation of "good" and "evil," separation of races, nations, parties, religions...

But resting as awareness, we re-cognize the wholeness, and perceive the world as the effulgence of the Self. No longer divided from the cosmos by an abyss of "me" and "mine," we can taste the sweet nectar pervading both subject and object, spirit and matter. That nectar is our own consciousness.

Go nowhere. Rest here! You will become so awake, so whole and clear. Earth will float in your clarity like a playful mirage, and your presence will bring levity to the material creation. You will lighten the burden of multitudes. For as you dissolve your separateness, you dissolve the separateness of others.

The other is not other than the Self. It is You who flows through a blade of grass, a speck of dirt. It is You who flows through the moon, the sun and stars. It is You who flows through the eyes and tears of the homeless, the refugee. "Love your neighbor as yourself for the simple reason that your neighbor is yourself.

Mountains, rivers, clouds and supernovae spill out of your eyes. Their music overflows your ears. Your senses enchant creation. The big bang silently explodes from the core of your heart. Empty of all concepts, the luminous ocean of your awareness is the energy that solidifies into material forms. Forms arise and disappear continuously, the effervescent poignancy of the world, where loss is the very pregnancy of abundance. As you let things go, they come. You are wealthy beyond all measure, for you grasp nothing. What is there to grasp? It is all You.

Earth and myriad other worlds are marvelous bubbles of sparkling foam. They are filled with your breath and consist of nothing but the light of your awareness.