Simpler Than That

Q: Is it correct to say that life happens, and the roles we play also happen without separate persons doing them?

A: Well, I guess you could say that, but even that is way too complicated. You don’t have to think that much. Just stick with what you know, and that is that you are aware.

And so you can just stop right in the middle of all of it – the questioning of what your roles are, the anxiety, the going round and round of self-doubt – and see: all of that is the content of awareness. And yet, you are aware. And this does not change, does not fret. This is wordless, this is empty of content. There is not even a feeling to be had.

So that’s the simplicity of it. Right in the middle of all the involvement with the drama – the content of awareness – you experience that there is something noticing. You notice that the role you are assuming right this moment is being noticed in awareness, but the role does not change the awareness.

And the role is constantly being reinvented, reworked. Am I this? Do they think I am this? Would it be better to be this? And so who are you, really? An answer of “Who cares?” might be a reasonable one, since your “role”  never seems like a settled issue. The experience of awareness certainly doesn’t “care.”

Right in the middle of everything, notice that you are still just aware. And you can think of another question to ask, but you are just aware. This is the still point. That’s all you need to know, and it’s always eminently knowable in your experience, right now.