We are all walking this path of waking up to a deeper connection to the ease and flow that is always already present, just “below” the nattering mind. This is us in our essential nature—spacious presence or beingness; relaxing into that silent presence changes everything, as Eckhart Tolle explains in The Power of Now.
Here are a series of questions gathered from my teachers to promote the shift from mind to presence:
Am I feeling ease, lightness and joy? Our essential nature is flowing, light and joyful. Identification with thought promotes contraction and resistance. Use this question to check in with the body and its experience right now. The lighter we feel the less mental energy and more flow.
Can I let go? This question can be asked when attention is ‘wrapping around’ a judgment or point of view or any thought in the thought stream. This simple question may be enough to invite a relaxing and letting go into being the spacious awareness that we already are in our essential nature.
Who am I? This is the preeminent, essential question of the spiritual path. Asking this question is a way of directing our attention away from thought into the powerful silence and intelligence of ‘no thought’. As we continue to ask this question we are reminding ourselves that we are relaxing into our fundamental identity—formlessness. Only in formlessness can we find liberation from the world of “stories” (our narrative of the mind that focuses on life as a drama) and all the seeming problems that arise in our stories.
And speaking of problems….
What is the problem in this moment right now?The intention in this question is to let go into quiet spacious awareness. There is no problem in the Now; only life situations, as Tolle explains. Acceptance of ‘what is’ allows us to see what is as it is; resistance and judgment makes us feel the same situation as a problem.
Why am I choosing suffering? This question reminds us that there is no need to suffer. Suffering is the result of identifying with the mind. As we know, we are not the mind, but until we are stabilized as “spacious awareness” (which can only be experienced and will never be understood by the mind,) we will cause suffering for ourselves and those around us.
Can I be the space for this?This powerful question invites us to look at accepting whatever is happening. We can choose to breathe, relax and let go instead of contracting and resisting. Whatever life presents, can I be the space for it? If and when I can, I am free.
I bless you with these simple, gentle and wise questions in support of waking up to the ease, flow and joy that we are already.