The situation in which you must live now is not more burdened with conventions, prejudices and errors than any other–and even if some occupation appears to offer greater freedom, it is a rare person who is able to stay open to the great matters that shape authentic living. Only the person who accepts solitude can place himself under the deep laws of the universe. When he steps into the fresh morning or out into the event-filled evening, all that is not him falls away, as if he had died, although he stands in the teeming midst of life.
Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Rome, December 23, 1903 as translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy in A Year with Rilke
How do we “stay open to the great matters that shape authentic living”?
How do we let “all that is not [me fall] away, as if [I have] died”?
Natural happiness and ease appear when we get out of our own way. This requires a clarity of mind that comes not only from solitude, but from seeing clearly within the space of solitude. Clarity expands as we open to things as they are. What is the mind wanting to avoid seeing? What do we keep pushing down? What do we use to try to fill, to avoid the empty space, the disappearance of I?
The mind or personality has several strategies for escaping its own best interest (seeing clearly). We don’t have to go into battle with these strategies, in fact battling is just another interfering strategy. Rather we simply recognize what is present, for in recognition there is clarity. And with clarity what does not work gradually falls away.
How does the mind try to escape itself?
- By filling itself up with experiences, with thoughts, with entertainment, with work, with anything .
- By rejecting experience, pushing away awareness, or ignoring of what is true in this moment.
- By becoming sluggish, by zoning out, by being still without being alert.
- By restlessness, unwillingness to choose opportunity for stillness and accept what is – including the restlessness.
- By an assumption that one’s mind cannot impact itself, by doubt in even the possibility of freedom.
You can select any one of these at any time and look for is presence or absence. When you are aware of the absence of any particular strategy, appreciate those moments. Expand awareness and appreciate the fact that you do have moments and even long periods of freedom from one or all of these ways of interfering with your own unfolding. When you do notice the presence of clarity, of absence of interference, let the knowing register in you consciousness.
Whatever is happening, be willing to stay with the experience to investigate. Perhaps write about the way presence or absence of these qualities of mind works in your life.
The first four can be arranged into pairs.
- The first two, grasping and pushing, away are opposites, extremes of reaction rather than wise awareness and acceptance of things as they are.
- The second pair, sluggishness and restlessness, are also opposites. Either extreme can keep the mind off balance. Can you find an appropriate balance for current circumstances? For any given situation?
This sounds so easy to do. In fact, the basic skills of being awake are simple. But choosing them is not so easy. Being awake and free from our own limitations requires self-kindness and courage. So, take heart. Do not be discouraged. Every moment of clarity increases further likelihood of increasing clarity and freedom. And these are the foundation for the manifestation of other positive qualities – satisfaction, contentment, intelligent thinking, and innovative processes.