Stories are sophisticated patterns and we have evolved to create patterns out of chaos to survive. What we haven’t learned to do, yet, is recognise how this behaviour confines and limits us.

We are constantly told that we love stories. I would amend that to; we are addicted to stories. Stories create meaning but meaning is comforting and comfort imprisons us. If we were truly free we would see (through) stories for the ephemera they are.

Nihilism is just another story. Open awareness is that which is prior to, and allows for, all stories to appear and disappear as they inevitably will.

The fewer stories and narratives we have running in our minds the freer we become.

As open awareness, walking along a deserted beach or a tranquil field is no different than being in the midst of the teeming cacophony of a busy city.

Whatever this is, cannot be pulled apart, divided or separated.

Liberation is the aliveness and immediacy beyond belief. Liberation is when all the answers, explanations and positions disappear, and what remains is the open mind of not knowing.

Joan Tollifson

Since our first breath thoughts, feelings, concepts, ideas and experiences have come and gone over and and over and over. The open space of awareness which allows for all of that has not changed in the slightest. The awareness we have in this moment is identical to that when we were born - everything else is what has changed.

This is always it.

Suffering is feedback, showing us that we’re attached to ideas and thoughts that appear true, but aren’t…

Attachment to Ideas is Supposed to Hurt

If we persist in looking to get or obtain something, anything from ourselves, others and the world then we miss that everything that happens is an invitation to receive and accept all things rather than an opportunity to gain only what we prefer.

What stories are we going to believe and invest in about ourselves and the world today? What forms and patterns will we think are real and permanent?
What ephemera will we mistake for essential? What will we hang onto for dear life without recognising there’s nothing there?

Thoughts, ideas, theories, concepts, and stories are all for nought without the rigorous practice of bare attention to this moment.

What is fear of death but a complicated tangle of images and stories about everything except the present moment of actual aliveness.

Dissolving or seeing through the fabricated ego self automatically frees us from craving and addiction as there is no one to do any wanting. The conditioned question ‘what do I want?’ evaporates leaving only the inquiry ‘what is here now?’

Allow everything without holding onto anything.

Egos meet and remain separate but open, aware minds share presence.

As Beckett was exquisitely aware, all language fails attempting to capture the formless absolute.

Enlightenment, awakening, recognition, realisation, whatever, is not an answer, has no answers because it precedes all questions making the very notion of question/ answer redundant.