Unapproachable Approach
A disciple came to the master and asked for his blessing. The master said to him, “I will bless you when you write down all you understand about the religious life and what has brought you to it.”
The disciple went away and began to write. A year later, he came back to the master and said, “It has been a challenging year trying to understand the religious life and my own struggle to live it.”
The master read many thousands of words and said, “I can see your point and your reasons. You are very eloquent and clear in explaining your way, but it is too long. Go and try to shorten it a little.”
The disciple went away and after three years came back to the master with a shortened version of his understanding.
The master read it and said, “I can see your clarity, your perception, and your openness, but it is still a little long. Go and try to condense it.”
After seven years the disciple came back to the master. Bowing down, he offered him one page, explaining, “This is the essence of my life, and I ask your blessings for having brought me to it.”
The master read it and he said, “This is so simple and beautiful, but it is not yet perfect. Go and try to reach a final conclusion.”
So many years passed and the master started to prepare for his end. The disciple returned to him, kneeled before him, and handed him a single sheet of paper on which was written nothing.
The master placed his hand on his forehead and said, “Now you have arrived at understanding.”
This is the “unapproachable approach,” which I call the Middle Point. It’s the approach of the One-Self at the heart of everything. By taking this approach, you look at the world from the “beyond.” You find yourself in the process, the movement of “beyondness,” unfolding your ultimate truth in this moment, this point of now.
What is “beyondness”? It’s nothingness, with the properties of spacelessness, timelessness, and changelessness. Beyondness is awareness as conscious nothing, for only conscious nothing can contain conscious everything.
Beyondness is being that is infinite in extension and its all-pervading awareness of everything and all-quality of nothing. In infinite being there is no distance, because this being is not only everywhere, but equally every-where and in the same manner no-where.
All things in this reality have their function. It isn’t a matter of understanding, but a matter of a sudden happening. Beyondness is happening. Nothingness is happening. The universe just happened and is still happening.
It all about recognition, recognizing your real One-Self as happening, and being aware of it as nothing, as the point of now. This is the middle point. You actually achieve nothing, because you are it. If you realize this with awareness, you have attained the very point of now.
When you think you understand something, ask yourself: “Is there more? Is there something I haven’t fully resolved? Is there a higher meaning yet to come?” The ultimate understanding is inner understanding that there’s nothing to understand. That is the happening.
Life is meaningless if there’s no point in it. The point is awareness. This is the happening, the moment of beyondness in infinite being.
How can I describe the way of infinite being? How can I express it? What words will move your life in the direction of beyondness? What will turn you in the direction of being for others?
Don’t hang onto my words about being. There’s the possibility that my own words can be yours. But if you hang onto them, you may limit your own capacity to find out what is real for yourself.
I have to say something for nothing to appear. I have to say something in order for the energy to go inward. If I say nothing, you might stick to your habitual ways of non-being.
Infinite being is nothing special. Enlightenment is a very ordinary happening, a simple and innocent expression of nothingness, a humble and unpretentious experience of simply being joyful, radiant, and overflowing with love for life. Infinite being is ultimate awareness as ultimate love for everything—whether that is something or nothing.
Dismiss the idea of aiming for any special experience. There’s nothing in this world that will change your life forever. If you still have expectations, desires, and goals, realize right now that they are mistaken—errors of perception—and instead become receptive to the moment. Forget this moment and be receptive to the next. The next moment is already now. Can you recognize the point?
Don’t Cling to the Words: Go Beyond Them
Every word can point to the truth, but the words aren’t the truth. Be receptive to the words, and be willing to dive beyond them into your being, into the moment of beyondness, without interpretation or judgment on the part of your mind.
Words in any language are inadequate to distill the truth, though they can point to it. Language through the history of human collective unconsciousness has evolved to express the ego, or a social consensus concerning a projected reality. Used consciously, words can guide others toward the real, the unexplainable. It’s up to the seeker to be attuned, receptive, and open enough to welcome the truth to shine from beyondness.
I will use words to go beyond words, to go beyond thoughts, beyond the mind and its ego. I will use the mind as the tool to show you the Middle Point. I will try to explain the unexplainable. I know I’m going to fail because I’m not able to give you the truth. I can only do the pointing—at you.
Truth is you, and you are truth—individually and existentially. Celebrate this ultimate fact and jump with me into the infinite. The way you experience this mystery depends on your degree of consciousness. When you are conscious, the whole of existence is conscious. When you are unconscious, the whole of existence is unconscious. When you are aware, there is nothingness.
It must be understood that meditation isn’t enough for us to actualize the truth that we are. One has to go beyond the practice of meditation and be the meditation. Then meditation transforms your unconsciousness into consciousness. Once the fullness of your consciousness is present, there’s no need for meditation anymore. When you remove the meditation, you transcend the consciousness, and what is left, only fullness of you. You are aware, but you are not, only awareness is. In the fullness of awareness, the ordinary stone becomes a diamond, and every diamond is just a stone transformed.
Consciousness is a process of creativity. If you aren’t creative, you are repetitive. Every repetition us unconsciousness. Many professional meditators end up in the pitfall of repetition. Don’t be an expert on meditation, because experts never go beyond the limits of their expertise. Add something new in your life and delete something old. That is the point, the middle point, the creative way. Let awareness lead you.
Be patient. The middle point will happen. When you are in the midst of this moment now happening in your life, choose to bring more awareness into it. You should see that any mind involvement is going to be useless. You will see It—this moment now. If you are able to see It consciously, then there is nothing you need to do. The now just is.