Kirk’s Question
Kirk: “what kind of chips do you recommend?” (See above)
Pete: I recommend your favorite kind … and as you enjoy them, be very present with what is happening. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. Usually, when we are eating etc. we are not fully savoring the chips but thinking of something else … like somebody’s ideas about enlightenment, or what was said or done in the past, or, what might or might not happen in the future.
If you can be deeply present with the chip-eating experience (or any other experience for that matter) it can be a portal into your conscious oneness with the alive awareness that is your essential, infinite and eternal nature/beingness (sorry, words are inadequate here.)
First, you focus on (notice, be aware of etc.) the taste and texture of the chips, the movement of your hand etc. between bag and mouth etc. and even the thoughts that come into your head at this time and any feelings they inspire.
Then, turn your attention back to what is aware of all these sensations, thoughts and feelings. Notice that this silent witness to your interior and exterior world is not a ‘thing’, that it has no form, no age, no limitations etc. This still silent ‘field’ or ‘background’ is the real You … the eternally awake and aware You … it has always been so. To actually see this, as all the sages attest, is ‘enlightenment’.
This aware Self is pure and wholly innocent no matter what you have done as a form nor what has been done to your form by other forms.
Once this is seen, it is realized that it is not the finite, temporary ‘Kirk’ person who sees ’something’ but rather it is the alive awareness that recognizes ItSelf, as though it had been asleep and was waking from a (bad) dream.
Then One is aware that you are just playing the role of a person sitting in a chair eating chips, or not doing so, and you can go on playing the game and not get taken in by it as before. You also realize that everyone else is also an expression of the One, as you are, and that they are part of the game too.
So, become aware of the self-shining awareness within, Kirk, and if you stay with it, it will become a Light that reveals many rare treasures.
