Is Everything Okay?

Q: All too often, the mind comes in and fear about my life situation arises.  Intellectually, I know there is no-one there, but can you go over how this truth is lived in regards to decisions that have to be made on a daily basis? I know I'm not in control and not making the decisions, but I can't help feeling "guilt" over the decisions.

For years now I have wanted to pursue a writing career, but when I turn down work to work on my writing, a feel a huge sense of guilt because I have a family to feed. I know that I am not really making these decisions but it sure feels that way. When you are awake do you have a trust that "everything" will be okay?

A: There are a couple of ways of looking at the idea of everything being okay. One way is in the sense of what goes on in the world, in the story, in the interactions between you and the world, in the world of you and the people you love. In that world, nothing is ever okay! I have ceased completely looking for things to be okay there, because in a world where there is nothing but polarity, how can things ever be okay?

Luckily, this world is not real! It is brought into existence right now in the mind, as a dream image you create. It’s only bits and pieces of memories that you string together and say, “This is the world.” In a few moments, you will create a different image, and that will be your world. It is never one thing. You can’t ever really find this “world” in which these things are happening, except in your imagination. And because our imagination works in polarities – what we have and what we don’t have – we can never feel good and safe and “okay” in it. Even when we are happy, fear of losing that happiness is part and parcel of the happiness!

So what is the second way of looking at “everything will be okay”?

When it is clear that you are not the person you think you are, and that the world created in the mind is imaginary, then everything is okay, just as is. Always. Already. Eternally, in the spontaneous moment unfolding right now, before the thought of Betsy, before the thought of family and career, nothing is wrong. Nothing has been created yet to be wrong. Wrong is a product of your mind only. It does not exist in reality. So any action you take in your life is just what it is, without value accorded to it. Nothing in reality is wrong or right.  Wrong and right only exist in your imagination.

You can completely relax about what you do or have done, and guilt is wiped away. You can’t do anything right, and you can’t do anything wrong. Value is non-existent. You are just doing, and then you are assigning value to it yourself. How do you know what value to put on it? It all comes from your memories of the past, and your projections into the future. Right now, in the spontaneous unborn moment of awareness, is any action right or wrong? Compared to what? Nothing else exists except in memory. Your action right now emerges and is gone, and there is no reference point for it to mean anything, or for it to be good or bad.

So this is where “everything is okay” in the second sense resolves everything. Nothing can ever have value, because it would need the reference point of a person to have value, to be considered good or bad. There is just this simple noticing, or cognizing, of all that unfolds in the life, and in the lives of “others.” The noticing that you are currently aware of – the noticing that some thoughts are arising about guilt and fear – that noticing is all that you know is real. You do not need to know this “intellectually” – in fact, you cannot know it intellectually. It is only known right now, without thinking, without drawing on what you’ve learned, but by simply noticing that you are aware – that noticing is going on.

Don’t make anything more of this. Stay with this alone. You are aware. Nothing else matters, nothing else is going on. Every question that arises about this noticing – this awareness – is also noticed. Notice the noticing, and forget about what’s noticed. Turn the camera around towards what is taking the picture. This is who you are. The noticing is taking the picture. It has no judgment, and feels no fear or guilt about what is being noticed. Do you sense this right now? Is there any point of view, from the standpoint of pure noticing? Is there anything that is not okay?

Fear or guilt will arise, and they are noticed. This noticing is before all emotional states, before all actions, before all thought. So how can any action within it have a negative or positive effect? Everything levels out; all action is the same. Notice right now that any action can happen – Betsy can do anything – and nothing about the noticing has been affected. Good or bad – nothing changes the noticing. 

So keep looking at this idea that “there is no-one there,” and see that it is useless as an idea. As an idea, this won’t help. Know it from your own experience, not your intellect. How? Simply look right now. What do you know? You know you are aware. You know there is noticing going on. Nothing escapes this notice! You can’t turn it off, you can’t deny it, you can’t get away from it. And in this noticing which does not judge, but simply sees what is here, there is peace. Is there anything else you need? Would you ever need a self, in order to be aware? A self is just problems, and all imaginary, at that. You don’t need any of that. You are aware.

This is the simplicity, the ordinariness, that is pointed to. Just keep looking here, towards what is noticing, as this is what you really are. The objects, people, actions, and emotions that are noticed are just weather passing through. As awareness, you are already eternal, already peaceful, and “everything is okay”!