Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are

by J. Jennifer Matthews

The fact that we feel disturbed or bothered is actually the litmus test for this feeling, because it demonstrates the presence of a pre-existing, peaceful poignancy. If we did not have this peaceful and open state as our default, compared to what would we feel troubled or distressed?

We can understand philosophically that present-moment experience is all there is.

The fact is, we can't improve and improve, and finally get to ourselves. It won’t work and it’s not necessary. We are already ourselves.

If we want to appreciate the mystery of life, it is essential to evade the compulsion of our desires by understanding that there does not need to be anything else in our current situations. There is no greater feeling, state, or condition that we have to achieve. There is no lesser or more limited feeling, state, or condition that we have to be liberated from. This is it. And this poignancy is always here. We can give ourselves permission to experience it; to be right here with it. To be available to it. To be available to the mystery of life is to be free.

The fact is, we don’t experience the mystery of life by ‘working through’ our perturbation. We just experience it. We simply decide to experience life, without judgment or expectation. A moment’s lapse is a moment’s lapse. The reason our occasional, alienating thoughts and feelings bother us is because we think we should be bothered by them.

Wakefulness or enlightenment can be reasonably defined as appreciating the mystery of life in the present moment, while knowing it is the only 'thing' there is. Wakefulness’ opposite – the dissatisfaction brought about by reactive emotions and alienating desire – can be reasonably defined as the futile attempt to ‘get something out of life.’

Our sense of being a self-enclosed self is the fundamental illusion, the magic trick which allows the story of our lives to unfold.

When we realize our true self is nothing other than present-moment experience, we are free to love whatever is happening, regardless of whether we like it!

Do we really want our desires to “come true?” Or is it just desire for desire; the desire to remain in desire, and separate from the object of our desire?

our perception is not governed by the objects we perceive. Rather, objects are perceived according to our perception.