In Emptiness Dancing, Adyashanti states that “Openness has no location. It seems to be everywhere. It has room for anything. There can be thought or no thought. There can be feeling or no feeling. There can be sounds. There can be silence. Nothing disturbs openness.” Openness here is the boundlessly spacious nature of our true identity as awareness itself.
As we continue to deeply question, “Who am I?”, we begin to cultivate the awareness that it’s impossible to confine the awareness of this ‘I am’ to a this or a that. We begin to be able to relax into this vast spaciousness of our true nature, and to no longer identify as strongly with the ceaseless activity of our mind. The mind constantly attempts to confine identity to an imaginary self. If we’re willing to just look at what our thinking actually is, it begins to be experienced as just another movement of energy, like our feelings, our hearing, our seeing, etc.
Not only is our thinking gradually realized to be an endless succession of impulses of energy—it is also realized to be arising as the expression of awareness itself. It doesn’t belong anywhere locatable in space or time, it doesn’t belong to anything, any person, self, or entity. It’s just a ceaseless flow of mind waves on the ocean of consciousness. All manifestation arises as the expression of the aliveness of this vast openness. We actually are God expressing his/her nature in an endless succession of different manifestations.
None of these manifestations are inherently opposed to one another, they arise and cause each other, everything is causing everything. The openness itself, which has no way of being identified, is the causeless cause of it all. As identity shifts to openness itself, away from an imaginary entity called self, a gradual process of the embodiment of openness begins to live through us. Openness itself is realized as our true body. We all can have the sense of openness that is always here right now, we only need to stop for a moment and just observe what’s arising as our awareness. There’s no identifiable thing limiting anything, or in opposition to anything else.
Even if we are in pain, the pain is just freely manifesting as the expression of this basic openness. You can notice that openness is totally accepting of your pain; the wind in the trees, as a peaceful expression of this openness, is just expressing its nature whether our pain is there or not. The sun shines in its tranquility on all of our activities, no matter what they are. To be able to identify with nature itself as our body, while still dwelling in our human body, develops into the ability to see our true identity as that of openness itself, the true dharma body of the Buddhas. You can actually feel the essence of this human body, and the essence of the world to be 100% identical.
The amazing thing is, you don’t have to open at all to identify yourself as this openness. As an expression of this openness, you’re already as open as you’re ever going to get. The awareness of this is clouded over by our clinging to the structure of the mind, with its attendant fears and desires. Sitting still in meditation is learning to cultivate a peaceful acceptance of the aliveness of this openness. Ask for it continually. It’s there in your longing, it’s there in your joy, and in your pain. You may need to verbally express your request at first. Gradually your awareness of your being, just as it is, becomes your asking, and it becomes God’s answer, the answer of openness itself.
The Sufi poet Rumi wrote a beautiful poem expressing the devotional spirit that will dissolve all imaginary barriers to our realization of our true identity as awareness itself.
“Love Dogs”
by Rumi
One night a man was crying,
“Allah, Allah!”
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
“So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?”
The man had no answer for that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage,
“Why did you stop praising?”
“Because I’ve never heard anything back.”
“This longing you express
is the return message.”
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.
By Roger Shikan Hawkins
Source: sweepingzen.com
