Essay on Human Things
This is an essay on human things.
Fear
The movement to get rid of it only solidifies it. By treating it as a ‘thing,’ we give it a power it does not have. We label it, talk about it, tell stories about it, and reach into the mind and into books and self-help techniques to find ways to get rid of it. All of this is a movement to turn away from what is really happening in our bodies. What is happening is energy arising. When we observe that energy, without labeling it, and allow it to be as it is, it naturally dissolves away.
Anger
The movement to get rid of it only solidifies it. By treating it as a ‘thing,’ we give it a power it does not have. We label it, talk about it, tell stories about it, and reach into the mind and into books and self-help techniques to find ways to get rid of it. All of this is a movement to turn away from what is really happening in our bodies. What is happening is energy arising. When we observe that energy, without labeling it, and allow it to be as it is, it naturally dissolves away.
Sadness
The movement to get rid of it only solidifies it. By treating it as a ‘thing,’ we give it a power it does not have. We label it, talk about it, tell stories about it, and reach into the mind and into books and self-help techniques to find ways to get rid of it. All of this is a movement to turn away from what is really happening in our bodies. What is happening is energy arising. When we observe that energy, without labeling it, and allow it to be as it is, it naturally dissolves away.
I could go on but the above is accurate with regard to all human emotions, states, and experiences. All human things are impermanent arisings.
It’s even accurate with respect to thoughts.
The movement to get rid of thought solidifies it. By treating thought as its own “thing,” we give it a power it does not have. We label it as “thought.” We talk about it. Tell stories about how it is the reason we suffer. We reach into books that tell us how to change it, rearrange it, or just plain get rid of it. All of this is a movement to turn away from what is really happening. What is happening is pure energy arising. Thought is energy. When we feed that energy, it multiplies. We give it power. When we observe that energy, without labeling it “thought,” or “good” or “bad,” or even "energy" and allow it to be as it is, it naturally dissolves away. In that dissolving, there is a space that is already at rest. A space that you can trust completely as what you are. In that recognition, we find emotional and mental stability.
It's accurate with respect to objects and experiences too. Everything. Everything is impermanent, having no fixed, separate nature.
Rest as what you are—the awakeness that sees and allows these things to come and go. In that relaxing, the movement to change experience relaxes. When you see a thought that says, "Something is wrong" or a thought that brings up a need to improve, spot it as a forgery. "Forgery spotting" is the capacity to see these movements as like the same thing an addict experiences when she listens to the voice, "A drug will make you feel better." If you can see that 95% or more of what you are doing is some attempt to get somewhere else or improve and change uncomfortable feelings and circumstances, then you are spotting the forgeries that tell you that you are not complete right now as awareness itself. These forgeries come from treating labels as real and separate things, that have the power to harm you. But they are not true and real things. They are temporary arisings of thought, emotion, and sensation all appearing to that which sees them--YOU.
When you stand as the awakeness that sees all arisings as coming and going, a perfection starts to show up in your experience. Everything is seen to be as it is, perfectly. That’s completeness, acceptance, peace, freedom, love, compassion, and wisdom. Isn’t that what you are really seeking?
If you say you are seeking the end of anger, sadness, fear and other human things, start from the beginning of this writing again.
When you are no longer trying to improve your experience, and your present experience is allowed to be just as it is, even the descriptions are seen as perfect within the flow of life. The descriptions are a source of suffering only when they are held onto for dear life, as if they are pointing to true, fixed things. In seeing the emptiness of all of our labels, they can still arise, painting a world with many colors, experiences, feelings, and stories. But we see the inseparability of it all. We see that we cannot stand apart as a separate people, nor can anything truly stand apart as something fixed and separate.
And in that, in the deliciousness of seeing that, one's heart feels as big as the universe. It allows everything because that awakeness is appearing as everything--the hurt, the anger, the fear, the joy, the compassion.... Nothing is seen as a forgery anymore. The labels result in suffering only when you don't see them as forgeries, when you believe they are real, true, fixed things. As each label dances like an empty hologram or a reflection on water, the labels and the awakeness are seen to be inseparable. Two aspects of your present experience, allowed to be just as it is.