Oneness

Joseph P. Kauffman
The mind clings to concepts and labels for a sense of
understanding; a sense of control. But this tendency to
cling to life will only cut you off from life. It is like holding
your breath while refusing to exhale. Eventually you will
suffocate, unless you are willing to let go.
Let go of the need to know, the need to define life and
categorize it in your mind. Simply let life be, and let
yourself be. Realize the limitations of the mind, and
understand that you are not the mind, and that your
existence can never be understood by the mind. It has to
be felt to be known. You have to detach from your mind
so that it no longer controls your experience.
The primary thing to understand here is that you are
the witness, you are awareness; you are not your thoughts.
So if you can practice observing your thoughts, especially
while in the midst of thoughts that seem to take away your
peace, you have already taken the most important step.
You have made the unconscious conscious; you have
replaced thought with awareness.
You will never come to know yourself by thinking
about your existence—by clinging to conceptual or
material forms—for awareness is formless, and no amount
of form will ever be able to describe your formless nature.
At best, forms can only point you in the direction to
discover the truth within yourself.
You cannot understand this by thinking, but by
being—by feeling, existing, and living. Thoughts only
separate us from the present moment, and consequently
from life, since the dimension of life and the present
moment are one and the same. Once you understand the
futility of thought, then you can move beyond it. Then you
can enter the realm of no-thought, of being without
thinking. This is where the essence of life is understood.
Can you simply be? That is, can you simply sit and exist,
without trying to label or define your experience? Try it.
You may be able to get a glimpse of what it is like to simply
be, but the experience is unlikely to last for more than a
36