' Chasing states '...

In these reflections, the natural state is sometimes referred to as “the opening.” Who you really are is the opening through which everything happens including thoughts, emotions, reactions, pain, frustration, states of calm awareness and states of total confusion.

You’ve been told that you must reach some state called “enlightenment” in which you are totally calm, peaceful, and loving. This tends to send the mind on a chase into future. Emotionally painful states are labeled bad. Calm or pleasurable states are labeled good. The chase involves seeking the good and avoiding the bad.

When the mind is chasing some ideal “good” state, it avoids what is actually occurring when pain, frustration, or confusion is occurring. This fuels the chase towards the ideal state and keeps the search going.

Pointing to your true nature as the “opening” allows a seeing that anything is possible in this opening. A state of pure, calm awareness or a state of great fear may happen in the opening. Whatever is happening is allowed by ‘no one.’ There is no one there deciding which state is good and which is bad. Without the labeling of good v. bad, the chasing tends to stop on its own.

If the mind renews the chase again towards something other than what is happening, notice that the chase is happening in that opening. As this is seen, there is nothing left to chase. There is only ‘what is.’





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