Behind everything you experience there is the simple fact of being.
The simple fact of being is your innermost experience. It is your essential self, if we can call it a ‘self’. It is what you are before any experience has arisen, before any thought, feeling, memory, sensation, perception and so on has appeared.
Prior to experience, there is just your self, the simple fact of being or being aware, all alone. Not being anyone or anything, just pure being.
You are, in fact, always aware of your being, but most of the time your being is mixed up with the content of experience, with your thoughts, feelings, memories and so on. So whilst you always know your being, you do not know your being clearly.
The essence of all the great contemplative traditions is simply to know yourself clearly, to know yourself as you essentially are.
What is referred to in the great contemplative traditions as enlightenment or awakening is not an exotic experience. It is the recognition of the nature of your being as it essentially is, that is, before it is coloured or qualified by experience.
If the layers of your experience – your thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, activities and relationships – were likened to the different clothing that you wear, then your essential self or being would be your naked body, always present underneath the clothing and not conditioned in any way by it.
It does not matter whether the clothes are old or new, colourful or dull. Your naked body, within the limits of the metaphor, is always the same, always present underneath, unaffected by what you are wearing.
It is exactly the same with your being. The recognition of your naked being is not some extraordinary new enlightened experience. In fact, it is not really an experience at all. It is the recognition of what you are underneath or behind all the layers of your experience. It is already perfectly peaceful, whole, complete.
I do not mean to imply that the content of your experience is not important. All I mean to suggest is that the content of your experience has no relevance to the recognition of your true nature.
Your true nature is your true nature irrespective of the content of your experience, just as your naked body is your naked body irrespective of whatever you are wearing.
This return to your being can be a little frustrating for the mind that is accustomed to seeking happiness in objects, substances, activities and relationships, but also to the mind that is accustomed to seeking God or enlightenment.
The search perpetuates the mind and keeps it in a state of becoming, and it is this constant becoming that prevents you from recognising your being and abiding as that.
In this return to your being, this abidance in being or abidance as being, this self-remembrance, there is really nothing for the mind either to do or to cease doing. As a result of this, the mind may feel a little rebellious because it feels left out, neglected, unvalued. It will find various ways of getting you involved with it again.
Just let the mind do its thing. Remain in being, as being.
It is like when you take your dog for a walk on a country lane. If you know your dog well and the lanes well and the countryside well, your dog runs off, but you do not worry. You keep on walking. You know sooner or later your dog will come back to you. You let it go. You do not worry about it.
It is the same. Just let your mind do whatever it has been conditioned to do. You remain with your being, in your being, as your being. Sooner or later the mind will settle down.
