I’m back in my natural state again today. It occurred during the middle of having a Skype-message chat with Andrea.
For the third time, I was already in it before I realized I was. So first the state and then the recognition of it.
What that means is that the student of awareness has an edge here. Those who are not aware of awareness would not be consciously aware of being in this state. They would be cheerful people but have no idea why they were. (Definitely good enough for Ascension).
But I wanted to use my time in this space to look at a financial topic. I’d like to imagine how a Zen adept might approach business – if he or she did approach business at all. May I play with the notion?
By its very nature the Zen moment, satori, enlightenment is independent of all worldly circumstances. For “worldly,” you might substitute Third-Dimensional, ordinary, mundane, pleasure-seeking, whatever makes the distinction for you.
I’m certain that the Zen practitioner would not make the distinction between business and something else but would address the question put to him from an encompassing, enlightened (i.e., higher-dimensional) space.
The Zen practitioner of my imagination would approach everything with a still and balanced mind, one that had nothing added to it and nothing taken away, a heart that was open and flowing with love, and a will that was freed from attachment to the physical and bent to the service of the One and All.
The Zen warrior would be a warrior of love, cutting the ties that bind others to the patterns of the mind by hearing them with open-mindedness, compassion and equanimity.
The Zen text would be wordless. It’d be conveyed in a smile. It’d be confirmed in a touch. And then it would be let go of.
Bring that into business and you’d have the demise of the profit motive, the eat-or-be-eaten mentality, the pattern of self-flattering images speaking to each other, serving their own ambition and greed.
All of that is something added and the Zen practitioner in my mind would refuse to add to his original self. Such an act would obscure it again, for how long nobody knows.
On the contrary he’d drop whatever he saw as something added. And he wouldn’t respond either by demeaning, reducing or in some other way taking away from himself.
I’m in my original self as I write this and all that I’ve said shows up for me as self-evident. Of course a lot of it is being channeled, I’m sure. Not saying it isn’t.
But the truth of it seems self-evident to me. I don’t need to ask someone about it. I say it, or pass it along, as the case may be, on my own recognition and authority.
Does that allow me to strut and pose in front of you? To squeeze in a little self-serving praise from other people? To feature photographs of myself with famous people, to name-drop, or tell stories designed to impress you?
No, it doesn’t. If I did that, besides losing your respect, I’d lose this wonderful, natural space. It won’t tolerate self-aggrandizement and pretense. It’s a jealous, jealous lover. More jealous than … anyone we know.
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, the holy book says. Love someone or something else and the Lord disappears in an instant. Love follows. Bliss evaporates. That’s the other Zen moment – the loss of the space. It’s met with as much equanimity as entering the space brings. And a commitment to do better the next time the space appears.
I cannot conceive of living anywhere else than in this Zen moment or natural space. Whether I can maintain it in business will be a challenge. But then the real test is not to see business as business. Business is no different than anything else. The same rules apply there as anywhere else. (1)
It’s a beautiful, sunny day, with a clear blue sky from one end of the horizon to the other. I think I’ll go for a walk and blend into the landscape. What could ambition add to the day as I see it before me?
Thanks to Greg who said that he too was going into strong vasanas and then into the natural state. Knowing there’s one other person this is happening to, I don’t feel quite so crazy.
Footnotes
(1) The universal laws, based on the divine qualities.