Follow-up to “No Questions Exist”

Q: What is present doesn't look or feel empty.  It is full of “stuff.”  Even without labels, there are colors and light and texture and movement and solidity and sounds. It isn't empty – it's full and constantly changing.  And yes, what perceives it is always completely elusive and it isn't anything at all.

I suppose I know that what you and many, many others are saying is so completely simple and authentic that I can't let it go. Until I do. I'll just let the questions be there and see what happens instead of looking to have them answered. I know they can't be. And this seems like such a big joke and so obvious at times, and then....?

A: You said, “I'll just let the questions be there and see what happens instead of looking to have them answered.” 

You’re already doing that, and you know darn well what happens – the mind returns to the questions over and over again, no matter how firm your intentions are. Luckily, those aren’t the only two options. I’m pointing out that this can be looked into and uprooted. The mind will never let those questions drop. It will not “let the questions be there,” without endlessly returning to them again and again, because the mind thinks they can be answered, and cannot be convinced otherwise. So the only way out is to see that you are not the mind, and that is what is being pointed to.

Look at the world you think is full. Doesn’t a dream have the same qualities? Isn’t a nighttime dream full of colors and movement and solidity? And yet when you wake up, you know immediately that none of that stuff exists.

Consider the possibility that the same is true for the “waking” sensations you think of as your life. It appears real as long as you are involved in it, believing that dream character is really you. It all has urgency and importance, as long as you are asleep. But was it ever really important? Has anything that happened in your dreams ever affected anything in reality?

You say that what is present is full of stuff. What knows this to be the case? Knowing knows this to be the case. Is this knowing present? Is the knowing full of stuff as well, or is it just seeing that there is stuff being sensed and felt?

The knowing is always primary, always before what you sense and perceive. And yet it neither senses nor perceives. It is by this that it is known that sensing and perception are taking place.

If you presently perceive stuff, back up another step and see that “something” knows this to be the case. What is the something? This is who you are. Who you are is always “before” the stuff.

Before the appearance, before the dream, before the sensations and perceptions, this knowing is, presently. You can’t deny that it is, right now! It is what you know as your ordinary awareness.

This is who you are; as this, what happens to the questions about stuff appearing? Why would there be any question asked about a dream world? Questions about the dream world no longer arise. It’s not a matter of allowing the questions to be and see what happens – that’s all the concern of the imaginary person. As this primary, spontaneous knowing that is you, the concerns of the imaginary person are seen to be as in a nighttime dream. And there is no longer a concern about any of it.

This knowing is present. This knowing is you. It is empty, because it is before any stuff appears. If there is stuff appearing, simply notice that the fact of sensing all the sights and sounds and activity is being noticed – by what? By your ordinary awareness. Awareness is always empty, untouched by what appears.

You – empty – untouched – the totality – undivided – peace.