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'Winter on the Border'
Openness is not a state of being or mind, it is a non-state. Openness is natural Being. Openness cannot be attained, only enjoyed by the melting of contraction back into natural Being.
My friend complimented a writing I published. I reread it. There was a sense of celebration of the work as creation. This sense is impersonal. Later, during a walk, arose a musing on the sense. Recognition befell that the writing is not my writing. When I write, there is no sense of ownership. Even to say, "I write," misleads. The writing and I are in a co-creative union, arising together fresh from nowhere - a shared adventure. This always marks openness - one has no sense of ownership. Ownership is ego closing down on something, grasping it for itself - this is contraction. With openness, you and life create each other, are in a partnership, and harmonious. Writing means I have to leave open a sense of not-knowing; I do not know what is being created - it has a life of its own, and I must respect the writing in that way. I may have a general idea of direction, that is all. It is like taking a trip, having some sense of destination but not knowing how and when you will get there.
to live openness to openness is
to be openness
when one realizes "I" is Being being-openness
she does not strategize a how or plan to be this
certain spiritual practices,
environmental nurturing, and natural predisposition
can aid in openness coming forth
but when openness shines forth, openness simply happens
for openness already is
before the realization of it
moments passing will arise of openness
when causes and conditions arise
this allows the veils to part
an example, a person has a time of joyous opening
first seeing the newborn in the arms of his beloved wife
many persons have moments of openness in nature
others in religious worship or meditation practice
this is like a door opening apparently of its own
yet a wind moving was the energy to swing the door
while pleasure is of the body, openness
opens to joy not from the body
from the misunderstanding, in quiet desperation
one moves pleasure to pleasure, momentarily content
actually, what happens is fleeting contentment arises
from the release of the stress of moving toward pleasure
the object or conclusion one sought
itself did not cause the contentment
one mistakes, thereby, joy as manifesting
from the object or conclusion attained
we say "that brought joy"
but nothing brings joy
joy is that you are
you are the openness in which joy is and becomes
joyfulness, as well as all Qualities, arise
not from an object, but openness
- in pursuing object upon object, outer or inner,
one is not entering but escaping life -
a leaf springs forth on a limb
from the spaciousness inherent to the tree
* * *
to recount - often when an object is attained, a brief time of
undiluted bliss arises, then dissolves
trying to prolong this blissfulness is futile
adding to the frustration and futility of the chase -
this is why the pursuit of happiness leads to misery
while the brief passages of blissfulness tell us
of what is always present, only hidden by ego's strategies -
so stop strategizing, let the ego relax its effortfulness
to get somewhere and something
joy is never in the objects giving rise to joy
but in openness-receptivity wherein Presence is shining forth
when the man sees the baby in the mother's embrace
joy is sensed after the seeing that parts the veils
this same person can experience the return of the veils
and recall this moment with fondness -
yet, why not live in that moment, rather
than attribute it to what is experienced as a past event?
* * *
Presence of joy seeks objects
objects becoming means of Presence celebrating Itself
the bliss that arises as a manifestation of celebration is
one with the joy that is Presence Itself
openness then is open to "within" and "without"
being the means beyond the veils that distract from Life
one, over time, learns discernment of that which encourages openness
until actualizing, as experienced-knowing, she is openness
then objects are not pursued for temporary moments of joy
the world is engaged as one celebration of Life-is-Joy
the bliss of seeing a newborn or celebrating an accomplishment
this is the same gladness, through the same openness -
only degrees of intensity differ
the key is to learn to be joyful, contented, thankful
without any cause to be
* * *
as one is engaged in openness, openness stabilizes,
she grows into familiarity with quiet, subtle bliss
this quiet-within-without manifests as a lack of need for pleasure
one, in this process, is drawn to stillness and withdrawal,
inner contentment rather than excitations
joyful excitation will arise at times
quickly dissolving back into subtle bliss
the body, over-stimulated in modern cultures,
needs time to adjust to this quiet
at first, the loss of emotive states of pleasure will feel like a loss,
like something is wrong, something needs to be regained
remain in this sense of loss
do not return to feeding the body
the past habitual diet of sensory stimulations
* * *
all I have intimated here is possible for -
you are open, the expression of One
being the openness of One being open
this is our natural Being
this is not a state of Being to be attained
it is a return to what you are
when ceasing the pleasure-chase
the body naturally returns to openness
and then it is felt within the spaciousness
then, moving from object to object,
experience to experience
becomes a celebration within your natural being-free
where is the tree born from and dies into?
nowhere - nowhere is pure spaciousness
* * *
openness is welcoming - open-hearted we say -
allowance of space for all to live and die, come and go freely -
including yourself
this is
the Natural Way
One could summarize a spiritual Path as opening again and again and again ..., until one is aligned with natural openness. So, any teaching that encourages us not to be open fully, including to others who appear unlike us, is a betrayal of our natural Being. This includes groups of racial, religious, cultural, and nationalistic superiority that partition off from others in deprecating what appears different. Hence, all forms of fundamentalism - including fundamentalist liberalism and fundamentalist conservatism - is a contraction. All teaching of "us" against "them," and a God who will eternally judge "them," is of this stripe of close-mindedness, close-heartedness. Openness leads to a fearless embrace, even a celebration of that unlike me, unlike my group; openness moves to see the oneness in the disguises of diversity, both of other human beings and other life forms. Openness is purely open, meaning not selective in whom or what it receives as part of the Good, the True, the Beautiful. This receptivity is not a moral position; openness is spontaneous welcome. Love is pure welcome.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
*To contact Brian, write to LotusoftheHeart@gmx.com .
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