' One present play '...

Life is one present play of appearances: sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, feelings, experiences, states, and other things. Mentally labeling these as separate things solidifies the false assumption that there actually are separate things happening at different times and in different places.

See that there are not two here. There is only one present play of life. To the mind, there is a “you,” sitting in a chair, listening to a bird chirping outside. With that seemingly harmless interpretation, the mind has created a false appearance of separate things happening in different places. It has divided this one present play into parts: a separate “you,” a chair, listening, a bird, chirping, and outside. This is what the mind does. It filters the present experience dualistically. This reflection is not about getting rid of the mind. It is pointing to simple, clear, empty non-dual awareness prior to the mind’s dualistic interpretation of the present experience.

The separate “you” is an idea happening in awareness. The notion that there is a chair is also an idea. The notion that there is something here called listening that is separate from what is being heard is also an idea. The notion that there is a bird “outside” is an idea. Ideas are not aware. Only awareness is aware. In looking only with present, spacious, non-conceptual awareness, what seemed to be separate things happening in different places is seen to be one present play. Just ‘This.’



-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment (