Are you waiting for better thoughts?

Argggh. Isn’t this plane going to take off soon?

Late, late. This sucks. I’m so tired. That’s all I needed was another hour added to this already-long flight. So annoying.

What kinds of thoughts enter your mind if you’re waiting?

Yes, ANY kind of waiting. Waiting for a phone call. Waiting to hear about the job. Waiting in line. Waiting for morning. Waiting for the holiday. Waiting for the results of the test. Waiting to eat. Waiting to become enlightened.

What does it feel like to wait?

Irritating. Worrisome. Infuriating. Heart-wrenching. Sad. Frightening. Uncomfortable. Boring.

Who would you be without this story of waiting?

What an astonishing question!

Who would I be without the belief that I am actually waiting?

What is waiting anyway? A feeling like we’re not there yet, or don’t have something yet, or right now is unfinished or not quite all of it.

Who would I be without that belief, in this moment while sitting on an airplane noticing we are not moving, hearing the anxious voice of a passenger many rows behind me ask when we’re taking off?

Peaceful. Noticing slow and fast, anticipating and willing to also be here, no demand something change now, for my personal benefit.

Ready to see where this goes (this day, this moment, this empty space).

Maybe even very excited. Full of wonder about this mysterious unknown moment, with unknown things in it, and an unknown future.

Turning it around: I am not waiting. In this moment, there is nothing missing, nothing anticipated, nothing impending, nothing to worry about.

No lack of knowledge, no such thing as “late”, no lack of bliss or absent enlightenment or awareness. Nothing happening before it’s time, or too soon.

Could this be just as true?

What’s OK, or even wonderful, about this moment sitting in a quiet plane that isn’t moving?

I relax with eyes closed. I feel the chair beneath me. I hear sounds. I picture needing to spend the night in an airport somewhere because of a missed connecting flight, and realize it doesn’t matter if I do–that would be an interesting adventure.

I hear the voices in my head that call for inquiry, and notice I have nothing else more interesting to do right now than The Work. I get out my laptop and begin to write. No need to turn my phone back on.

My four major projects I hope to work on during this trip seem suddenly possible, fun, and not so overwhelming. I have time. I love time.

Who am I without my belief that the plane should be moving, when it isn’t…that I’m waiting right now (as the plane begins to move) or that the flight itself is a waiting zone?

Without the belief in waiting, I’m very clear, just doing what’s next, one thing at a time. Feeling love for anything that flashes in my inner vision. Watching the backs of peoples’ adorable heads when I look up, all the glorious shapes and sizes and colors and hair.

Resting.

Even with that old outdated repetitive thought about enlightenment being somewhere else, or in other people who aren’t me….

….I’m simply being. Here.

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?

How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened 

sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry

wherever you go right now?

Are you waiting

for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this

new glimpse that you found; carry into evening

all that you want from this day.

This interval you spent

reading or hearing this, keep it for life–

What can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here, right in this room,

when you turn around?

~ William Stafford

 

Without the stressful story of waiting, I’m here.

I may not have chosen it, I can’t say I prefer it to something else….

….but this is all a mystery, I’m not in charge.

I respect what’s appeared.

Seeing, smelling, hearing, being this one that I apparently am right now, connected to the world, breathing this gift.

Much love,

Grace

Tasting the freedom of NO liking, wanting, hoping for Something Else

happy is over there, not over here
happy is over there, not over here

Not long ago I was working with an inquirer who heard about a friend’s new job, and felt jealous.

A month before, I worked with an inquirer who was jealous of her husband’s career success (they were in the same line of work).

Sometimes, people feel jealous around love relationships….my partner, or my love-interest, is drawn or attracted to someone else (not me) and I feel threatened.

it feels so true that this other person has it made and we haven’t made it. They’re set. They’re safe. They’re loved. They’ve arrived.

People even feel this way about other people who have “awakened” or “woken up” spiritually.

They’ve gotten “there”.

Not me.

I’m left out here in the dust without security, stability, love, peace, intimacy, popularity or success.

Wow. It’s a rough place to be.

The first thing I always notice about this kind of comparison, is that whomever we’re looking at, who has “more” of something desirable….

….we feel absolutely positive they’re having a better time than we are. They are happier, more fulfilled, doing it right, proud, satisfied, peaceful, relaxed.

Those people with all that money, fame, beauty, even those “spiritually enlightened” people are enjoying themselves.

Not me.

So I better keep trying to get over there. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll spend money, I’ll travel, I’ll go on trainings or retreats, I’ll fix myself, I’ll plan. I won’t truly rest until I get what I want.

What I want is not right here. I have to go get it.

But who would you be without thinking that happiness is achieved by getting “x” or doing “y”? Who would you be without comparing in any way?

Who would you be without believing other people are happier than you if they have “more” of something? Who would you be without the story that achieving “x” means you’re now at peace forevermore, or at least closer to it than if you didn’t achieve “x”?

Huh.

It’s weird.

Who WOULD I be?

No idea.

You mean….I can stop trying?

But. What if I lay down in the street and just let cars run over me? What if, when I stop, I die? What if I dissolve into a puddle and stop caring? Won’t that be depressing? Or sad? What if I never make a bunch of money, then, or find the perfect partner, or do that thing?

Nooooooooooooooooo!

Except.

If I don’t need that other thing in order to be happy, like I really don’t need the same job as my friend just got, what would that be like?

What if I didn’t need something called “awakening” or “to become enlightened” right NOW in order to be happy?

What would it be like to let go of all of it? No more expectations. No more plans, hopes, wishes.

No more waiting.

No. Waiting.

Ha ha.

Wheeeee!!

“That’s how powerful LIKE and DISLIKE are. They steal your entire life. They own you. They possess you. They destroy your life and they keep you from God. But if you watch this process of “like” and “dislike”….and you stop participating in this process anymore, it’s like the ants step off the treadmill. ‘I don’t care who’s ahead. I’m done with the entire process of liking and disliking’. You no longer have to stay there to monitor or participate. When you no longer play in that process, your state of being is released. At that point you are a gift to all of humanity.” ~ Michael Singer in a talk on Preferences

Much love,

Grace