“What Is” is Nothing

Q: Looking at my behavior and feelings, one might conclude that "what is" is an unacceptable state of being.

A: Quite literally, nothing is. So what you perceive as “what is” is only a bunch of crap that you think up, and then you think it doesn’t suit you. Nothing is happening. Nothing is, at all. So “what is” is actually a total null, void, zip, nada. You are the one who is filling it with your own inventions of “behavior and feelings” and then you say they are unacceptable. It’s all an invention of you.

There are no problems and no solutions. This nothing is it. You make up a problem called “This ‘what is’ is unacceptable” or “I must not be able to handle it,” and then you set about to solve those problems. Do you see? You invented those problems! In “what is,” there is nothing at all. Nothing! If you sense or feel or think anything at all – any “movement” – it is false, it is not real, it is about “you.”

If anything is happening, it’s imaginary.

If there “is” anything, it’s just about “me.”

If it moves, it’s not real.

You can literally not MOVE without venturing into your false painful stories. This is why we keep saying, there is nowhere to go! Here, where nothing is, is where everything is. This is the freedom, this is the joy. Blankness. Nothing. No movement.

None of this benefits you. None of this improves your life. None of this makes you happy. But somehow seeing that there is no one to be concerned with lifts all the suffering of the human condition completely. It is the absence of everything – even the absence of concern about your freedom – that is freedom. But it’s not “I will be unconcerned with my freedom” – it’s that freedom doesn’t matter. You have no idea what freedom is!

I was just cutting up an apple a minute ago, and I realized, I have no idea what I’m doing. We never have any idea what we’re doing. But then we say “I’m cutting up an apple,” or “I’m resisting this understanding,” or “I’m scared.” We have no idea! We know nothing at all about what’s going on! Just let it all be, not as particular states that you have named – as in "I'll let this frustration be" – but just as one big nebulous activity of life living itself with no separate parts or states at all. No names. Just let it be as one big nothing, one big riddle. You don’t know the answer and you never will. Let it be nothing at all. Not even a feeling. It’s not a feeling. There is nothing.

The “what is” that you refer to is full of stuff you are putting there right now. The “what is” I’m talking about is empty. I stopped putting stuff in there. Right now, “what is” is empty. Nothing. Peace. You right away want to say, “But I am experiencing frustration right now, and that is ‘what is’.” No. “What is” is nothing. You’re inventing the frustration all by yourself, and then you want to resolve it all by yourself. Fine, if that’s a fun hobby for you. You actually want the frustration, because it gives you something to be up against. But it’s all unnecessary. There is nothing. No problem, no solution. If that moves to “But…”, now it is your imagination, and it is all about you, creating a problem to solve. 

It continues because you think these “I’m scared” thoughts are real problems that need to be resolved so that “What is” can be empty. How dumb is that? “What is” is already totally nothing! How can it need anything in it to be resolved? The thoughts and problems and obstacles can all be dropped. They are seen right now as never having existed at all!

“What is” is the great leveler. Put anything at all in it, and it’s blown to smithereens. Just vaporized. Any thought, whoosh! Gone! Any feeling, whoosh! Gone! Any idea of who you are, any idea of what your life is about, vaporized! Nothing ever existed, nothing ever was. This is the freedom. “What is” makes no thing special, makes no thing have value. Nothing has value, nothing is different from anything else. It’s all equally valueless.

So, now, is there anything to do? Any more problems to solve?