The Ground That Is Everything

Zoom Interview this Sunday

• This Sunday, I will not be hosting my regular Zoom meeting as I will be having a conversation with James Waite on the Nonduality Living Cafe, 10 am Pacific time. Anyone is welcome to join the call. Here is the link (and needed passcode):

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82650315906
Meeting ID: 826 5031 5906; Passcode: 672622

THE GROUND THAT IS EVERYTHING

I often emphasize how unstable experience is owing to its ever-changing nature. However, even though what’s appearing keeps disappearing, there is this sense of something always being here. The presence of what is, while constantly changing, never goes away. It’s like the ocean, always moving, always changing and yet forever remaining the sea.  

So yes, experiences are transient, without question. They have zero stability. And yet, the flow of experiencing is constant, and in its constancy, absolutely stable. Reality may be forever slipping through our fingers but paradoxically, it never goes away! After all, where could it possibly go when it is everything? And because of this, no experience can take us away or bring us closer to this stable ground, this wide-open presence that is inclusive of every moment.

We are not a wave that's been plucked out of the sea of life, standing apart from and noticing it. No, we are life’s ever-present flow. Everything about us is an expression of this flow—body, mind, thought, emotion. And because of this, we don't have to alter any of our experiences in order to realize this stable presence because it is found in each and every experience, no matter its flavor. This perception that you're having right now? That’s it!

Every moment is this presence, the presence of life. There is only presence, appearing as each instant. Everything that occurs, even the grittier moments that can sometimes visit us are it. No wave of experience ever departs from the sea of life.

While this sense of something always being here is undeniable, at the same time, we can’t quite put our finger on exactly what it is. It’s a ground that is fundamentally groundless in the sense of our not being able to pin it down or define it. The truth is that we can't ultimately resolve what anything is. The determination of everything ultimately eludes us. What’s here is pure mystery.

The knowledge of what things are is like an ever-receding horizon. Try to determine what anything is—a thought, a feeling, a sensation, an event—and you will forever come up empty-handed. Why? Because as I’m often pointing out, phenomena are here for no time at all owing to their dynamic, ever-dissolving nature. The flow of experiencing… unfindable and yet always here…

These words I’m sharing are not designed to bring you closer to this ever-present, stable ground but are simply pointing you to the fact that the ground can never be lost. Even when what’s appearing is not to our liking and we feel as if something has been lost, it is still the ground for there is only ever the ground, the presence of what is.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with trying to alter our experiences. That project is obviously part of what we humans do. But we don't have to have a different perception or experience in order to find the ever-present ground because each experience is that stable ground, each moment, pure presence. We don't need to correct our experiences because every experience is the miracle we’ve been searching for, the miracle of life itself. There are not some things that are more the miracle than other things for everything is fundamentally equal in its miraculous, inexplicable, astonishing presence.

That makes it easy, right? You can't miss this ever-present presence. It’s exactly what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're tasting and touching and feeling and sensing in every moment. It's so relieving, isn't it, so freeing to realize that we don't have to have a different experience than the one we’re presently having because the experience happening right now is the very ground and stability we’ve been searching for, the ever-present flow and vibrancy of life.