Upcoming Events
• March 15th (3-5 pm) - In-person talk, sponsored by the Open Circle Center (Berkeley, CA). Click here for further details or to register for the event.
• March 28/29 - Weekend retreat (w/ Dena Evans) in Austin, TX (for details - john@johnastin.com)
• May 17th (4-6pm) - Concert in North San Juan, CA (tickets available here)
• June 13/14 - Weekend retreat in London (for details, john@johnastin.com)
NOTHING REQUIRED
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably imagined (or maybe at times still imagine) that it takes some sort of work or effort to realize what you’re aspiring to realize.
But what’s amazing to see, and I just invite you to see this right now, is that you don’t have to lift a single finger to make reality present. Before we take one step towards it, before we engage in any activity to somehow bring it forward into consciousness, to make it more known, more recognized, it’s here.
The presence of the moment is already here. Just see that. Let it be that simple.
It’s the simplest thing, but it’s the most profound thing because it’s the miracle of miracles, the fact that anything is even here. Call it life. Call it reality. Call it the mystery. Call it what you will. But whatever this is, it’s clearly here.
See that no special focus of attention is required to make this miracle of reality appear. There’s no activity that’s required to make it present. No doing on our part, no coming up with some strategy to get ourselves into it. Again, simply see that this inexplicable flow of experiencing is already here.
We have it all backwards. We think we have to do something in order to see this. And yet, we are already seeing it, already perceiving the one thing because the one thing is the only thing we can perceive! We’re not doing something to turn the light of reality on. It’s simply on, shining forth as everything.
And while it can seem as if we are somehow standing apart from and noticing this ever-present reality, discovering its effortlessly present nature, we are that presence, the presence of life itself, this miracle appearing as us and everything.
The miracle that’s already here, shining brightly, doesn’t require a certain type of experience or special way of perceiving in order for it to be. It’s simply here, flowing forth, regardless of what we may be doing or not doing. Whatever it looks like, right there is the creative force of the universe, showing up as that. It’s nothing special, but the most special thing, because it’s the only thing.
So, as you’re sitting here right now, reading these words, rather than trying to arrive somewhere else, locate some other place or state you imagine is somehow more special than what’s presently appearing, just feel how everything is it, everything that’s showing up, an expression of this wholeness. No matter what the moment looks like. No matter what seems to be happening, all of it, the absolute, inexplicable miracle of what is.
No rituals are required. I mean, we’re free to engage in different rituals if we’re so inclined. We’re free to engage in whatever activities we’re inspired to engage in. There’s nothing wrong with that, because all of it is the movement of this.
But the key thing to realize is that no matter what’s happening—rituals, no rituals, practices, no practices—reality is here. It’s not conditioned by what it looks like because it looks like everything! To discover this is the greatest freedom, the freedom from the moment needing to be other than it is.
This that’s already here is what we’re searching for. Those qualities that we aspire to realize and imagine can only be brought about through some sort of effort—presence, wakefulness, openness, ease—these are woven into the very fabric of life itself, this life that we are and everything is.
