Finding yourself in open presence. 2017

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Finding yourself in open presence
  1. Come to know that this might be possible.
  2. Develop faith and trust.
  3. Sit and see the busy flow of experience. Release the misleading discrimination of outside and inside.
  4. Subject and object are both within this flow of experience. Awareness is not in the flow, yet it is not held apart from the flow. The ego self is in the flow and is unaware of its origin and actual status.
  5. Gain instruction in a method to free yourself:
    1. If this is renunciation, avoid stimulation so that there are fewer clouds in the sky and develop trust in the protective simplicity of mindful attention illuminating the world like the rays of the sun.
    2. If this is analysis and compassionate intention, come to understand the emptiness of all phenomena and your unbreakable connection to all sentient beings. Take responsibility for their awakening and vow to clear all empty clouds when you enter the unborn sun.
    3. If this is transformation, through initiation enter the mandala, and abide in that vision in all circumstances in the confidence that clouds shine within the mandala of sun-like illumination.
    4. If this is direct, through having pristine purity and instant presence indicated to you, awaken to your sun-like presence forever free of clouds which are merely the play of the ground.
  6. However, as long as the sun is not your living presence you are in the domain of clouds and duality, therefore relax in the openness of the unchanging ground.
  7. If, with humility, you imagine that the sun is far away then you are your own jailer.
  8. If you believe that you are a cloud, you are imprisoned by your own imagination and identification. Subject and object are nothing more than modes of imagination and identification. Who is the one who identifies and imagines?
  9. The ludic complexity of the display of the ground frees the playful and enchains the serious. Therefore it is vital to see the limitations of striving. Relax and release and take your ease.

James Low. November 2017

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