See God        (face to face)

     There are more songs, stories, pictures, videos, facts, internet sites, and people than there are seconds in a human life. Even if we were to fill every moment from birth to death, most of what is out there would not be experienced. If all of the people presently on earth were lined up on a conveyor that brought each of them past you at the rate of one person per second, and the extra hundred million born in excess of the number that die each year was left out, and this continued twenty-four hours a day for seventy years, you would still only get a third of the way to the end of the line. You might as well face it. You are going to miss out on most of the things that you could have experienced in this life. The question is, if you can only experience part of it all, what should be your highest priority? The perfect adventure, the perfect family, the greatest success, a remarkable invention or discovery, the perfect meal, the perfect love-making, the perfect game or performance, the maximum amount of comfort or security? What will you do with this ever-so-limited lifetime of yours?

     You might decide that you would like to have the most profound experience that is possible. But what if this kind of experiencing is only possible when you are alone, empty of self, perfectly still, and acutely aware? Would you give up all of the stimulation, comfort, and pleasure? Would you set aside your identity, desires, problems, interests, and relationships? Would you choose to spend the available moments of your life in solitude, in perfect silence, intensely aware, and doing so without reason, purpose, or preference?

     Fortunately, you do not have to choose between this kind of life and the one you are currently living. But if you wish to have the most profound experience that is possible, you do have to learn how to make spaces within your life that are not immediately filled by the self and self-interest. This change between your everyday life and a radically different kind of being involves a unique skill that could be described as not-doing: not thinking, not feeling, not caring, not needing, not remembering, not wanting, not dreading, not hoping ,and not being inattentive or numb. As you locate spaces within your life that are currently filled with things that are lower priorities, you can discover how to be perfectly still and intensely aware within them. After all, if you are necessarily going to miss out on most of the experiences that are available, you should at least make sure you don’t miss the most important ones.