Self is What Flowers in the Sunlight of Grace

Even if we only transcend the clouds of mind and taste the blue sky of pure awareness for an instant, this momentary impression of Eternity will free us from lifetimes of anxiety, endless loops of mind-chatter.

From that moment on there is an inexplicable lightness at the core of our heart, a tranquility, a luminous and causeless joy. Hard times still come, with grief and anger and pain, but now we simply honor them as they arise, embrace them as they break over us, then let them pass. We used to call it "suffering." Now it is only passing clouds, that weigh nothing, and do not touch the sky.

Transcending the mind is a direct experience of Being, not a belief or philosophy. Awareness is not an idea. Established in That, we can use the mind as a useful tool, but the mind will not use us.

How far above the clouds of everyday mind is the sky? The absurdity of this question is obvious. The Self is not above. The Self has no higher or lower ground. Self is what flowers in the sunlight of grace, when Being simply stops doing.

Self is the dissolution of all planes, levels of attainment, hierarchies of better or worse, and efforts to achieve any "state." Self is the realization that you do not need to obtain peace, because in your core you Are peace. You Are joy. You Are the sky.

The meditation "practices" that really "work" are those that are no work at all, because they are rooted in Grace. In their very praxis, effort and doing dissolve. Of course the ego does not want to hear this; because the little mind of "me" wants valiantly to labor, to resist, to achieve, and especially wants us to acknowledge the importance of its suffering.

Please do not confuse this pure awareness with passivity, for the Self is dynamic. In the stillness of the Self creative action arises, a fresh spontaneous dance without the paralyzing burden of the past.