Only the Sky

If you watch the sky, you’ll notice everything within it is always changing. At night, the sky appears dark and the stars are shining and the moon is glowing. During the day, the sky is brighter. Some days are brighter than others. Sometimes, the sun is totally blotted out of the sky by dark clouds and it is as if the sun doesn’t even exist. The sky seems so dark, close and limited. And other days, there are no clouds and the sky is so vast, blue, bright and beautiful. The sun is shining and all is well in the world.

When a person sincerely enters the spiritual process, it is because something essential appears to be missing in their life. And so the spiritual search begins. “I must find something to fill this emptiness within me.”

In the past, the goals of life have always been achieved by the focused effort of attaining something we do not have or holding on to something we don’t want to lose. When the spiritual process begins, it seems natural that we continue to do what we have always done—strive to achieve our goals and cling to them once we have attained them.

Back to the sky.

The sky is Consciousness Itself. The sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the birds and whatever else shows up in the sky are the objects of consciousness such as our thoughts, feelings, sense of self, behavior, beliefs, concepts, body, experiences, memories, others, etc. Throughout our entire life, we have fixated on the objects of consciousness and have attempted to control and manipulate them in hopes that if we get them all lined up in the right order, we’ll finally be happy and fulfilled. And those of us who are truly gifted may actually succeed for a while…and then we get cancer, or 9/11 happens, or we get hit by a bus, or whatever, and it is all over. If we are lucky, we realize that all phenomena are transitory. You don’t have to believe this. Just watch.

In the spiritual process, we are trained by our roshis, swamis, gurus, murshids, priests, rabbis, shamans, peaceful warriors, what-have-yous, to do much the same thing we have always done to achieve our goal—that is, to fixate on and manipulate the objects of consciousness. And those of us who are spiritually gifted will succeed! Suddenly, the clouds will part, the sun will shine, the Kundalini will shoot up the Sushumna to the Sahasrara and There Is Only God! I am now Enlightened! I have achieved my goal! I AM GOD! How cool!

And in a month or three, the dark clouds come back, the sun is gone, and it is all GOD can do to just get out of bed in the morning to go to work. Bummer. What happened? It is all transitory. Don’t believe this. Just pay attention.

And so it goes.

True Awakening is the simple, direct, and obvious recognition that you are the sky, not any object or experience that may appear within the sky, no matter how frightening, fascinating or seductive it may be. You are the sky. You are the Awareness that holds everything and allows everything to be. Including who you think you are. Including the bright sunny days of enlightenment and the dark gloomy days of despair and depression. It all arises, exists and disappears within the Infinite Sky of your Awareness. All of It. It is you. Welcome, love and accept it all.

So simple. So obvious.

Everything appears and then disappears within you.

You Are The Sky.

Relax.

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