No Self, No Problem: Awakening to Our True Nature

by Anam Thubten

If we feel angry or disappointed, simply ask, “Who is the one being angry or disappointed?” In such inquiry, inner serenity can effortlessly manifest.

True prayer is the surrender of all of our concepts, including the idea of a higher power that will either reject or accept the prayer.

First there are going to be all kinds of reactions to sitting. Ego is going to try to convince us that just sitting is not good enough. Ego is going to create lots of resistance. Ego will tell us that we are too busy, that we don’t have enough time. We may have difficulty getting up early in the morning. We may experience procrastination.

We have lost the realization of who we are and that is the greatest failure there is. Nothing else is really a tragedy or a real serious failure in comparison with the failure of losing our unity with our true nature. This has already happened to all of us from the very beginning and that is why it is impossible to really fail again. Any subsequent failure is just an idea. “Oh, I am losing my job. I failed. I didn’t pass my test. I failed again. My relationship is falling apart. I failed again. My meditation is filled with turbulence. I failed. I wasn’t able to live the life that I fantasized. I am not able to live according to my ideal standards. I failed.” These are all concepts. The true failure is that we have lost our unity with our true nature. Beyond that there is no failure. Everything else is simply a perception, an idea. Of course we can live in that illusion of failure forever and torment ourselves day after day. Sometimes our mind is the greatest challenge we face, more challenging than anything we face from the outside. Our mind can be very destructive, very dangerous. Our mind can be our greatest adversary, especially when our mind chooses to live in unenlightened perceptions of reality.

There is a stage in meditation practice where strong attachment to hope and fear disappears completely. They are replaced by a sense of certainty in ourselves and also in the journey we are on. From that moment on, even when we encounter emergencies, moments of fear, terror, loneliness, or desperation, we will not completely lose our sense of inner serenity.

In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Nicolas says he didn’t trust God less even with all his doubts, and from that point he felt better

The fundamental premise of all mystical teachings is that there is a divine nature in all of us. In Buddhism we call this Buddha Nature. When we no longer identify with external conditions we are in the realm of equanimity. We are one with our true nature, which is completely indestructible, perfect and sublime as it is, forever. Buddha Nature can never be injured by what is going on right now in our life.

In Buddhist terminology, truth is called “emptiness” because truth is empty of all illusions. Do not mistake this emptiness for a nihilistic nothingness. Emptiness is the source of all things. Emptiness is the infinite realm of love and compassion. Emptiness is the divine fire that burns all concepts and the holy water that washes away all misery. Yet from the vantage point of ego, emptiness seems to be the darkness of the unknown, something that threatens the very foundation of our being. But if you simply surrender all of your resistance, you will find that emptiness, or the truth, is your best friend. This friend has never left you and will never abandon you in the future. Once you fall in love with the truth you will have a never-ending affair and all of your longing will be fulfilled.

One of the trickiest things, something that often prevents us from realizing the truth, is the tempting offers and numerous methods for attaining the truth. Most of these are unnecessary, just a way to postpone the final meeting with the truth. For example, we don’t need a telescope to see what is in the palm of our hand.

the essence of all spiritual paths is about dissolving everything here and now without waiting. And again, how do we dissolve that self ecstatically? We are just present, paying attention to the breath, and then the self begins to dissolve. This sounds so simple.

outside. The peaceful warrior is the spiritual hero who conquers inner adversaries by the force of pure consciousness.

sometimes it seems that the world becomes even more challenging when we are on the path because the spiritual path wakes us up. It requires losing all of our investment in illusion. Growth can be painful.

When we accept the way things are we are able to love everything and everybody. When we are not able to accept even one thing in this world right now, then how could we ever develop boundless love? Lack of acceptance is conflict. Conflict is pain. It is psychological pain. It is a spiritual illness. As long as our hearts are tormented by that pain, we do not have the strength to give our heart to anything and because of that it is impossible to bring about inner awakening. Enlightenment, you see, is just another name for boundless love. It is almost impossible to practice loving-kindness toward all living beings without addressing, in a meaningful way, the innumerable problems arising in our own lives. It is a contradiction, you see. It does not work. If our heart is tormented because we are not able to accept things the way they are, then it is impossible to open our heart. It is impossible to let go of all of our defenses and embrace others. Therefore we have to constantly practice and deepen our awareness. We have to remind ourselves to accept things as they are. This is pretty much what the teachings called Mind Training are all about. Mind Training in Buddhism is about carrying those perspectives and even reciting slogans, phrases like “I shall accept the way things are.”

True meditation is nothing but the art of abiding, without effort, where you don’t try to get rid of anything.

According to the path of effortlessness, don’t attach to any of the positive thoughts and don’t try to remove or transform the negative thoughts. Observe and watch them without being changed, just like you watch the waves rising and going back into the water. They all dissolve. Negativity dissolves and suffering dissolves if you can do that. This is also a more subtle form of acceptance. This is called the way of abiding.

Through true inquiry we directly see that this cherished self is just a mirage and is not a permanent platform to live and thrive on forever. Through true inquiry we can also see that what lies beyond this mirage is something that is amazingly beautiful and exalted. Once we realize this, we won’t need anything ultimately. That is the end of all searches. When we realize this, we know how to live our life fully because nothing is lacking and all is perfect.

Pray to the highest entity. That is the truth.

We have to be innocent in order to know how to pray. If our mind is completely loaded with knowledge, ideas, concepts, and pride, then often we do not know how to pray. But we know how to pray when our mind is completely innocent, pure, and not loaded with concepts and ideas. Sometimes we offer true prayer when we don’t have any more ideas, any more solutions, when we are at the end of our rope.

If we want to realize the truth, the first thing to remember is that we don’t have to do anything. No sacred dances. No secret mantras. No religious conversion. We just sit quietly wherever we find ourselves and simply don’t do anything. This is most important. Don’t do anything. We look directly and see what is true in that moment without labeling or judging anything. Now we see the truth which is beyond our fantasies. We also see that our mind is a conglomeration of mental events, fleeting and insubstantial. At that moment it’s impossible to become attached to any personal story line. This is a perfect moment. It lacks nothing. That recognition brings about a sense of inexhaustible joy.

So we have to remember eventually that there is a hidden, enchanted paradise, our heart. That is the land of bliss, this pure consciousness that is very loving and forgiving, that does not know how to judge us or anybody else. It is always ready to bless us. Actually it is already granting a shower of blessings.

Samsara is nothing more than our identification with thoughts. That’s all there is. There is nothing there except thoughts.

Don’t treat your life like you treat your car. When something is wrong with the car we get out, open the hood, see what’s wrong with the engine, and fix it. But life is not like a car. Life is consciousness. Life is not something outside of us. Therefore whenever we feel that we are suffering, tormented, or challenged we should always look into our consciousness. Immediately we discover that we are having a very evil affair with an evil thought. That’s all there is. Just that thought.

Do not believe in your mind. Do not believe in your thoughts. When we no longer believe in this mind we experience ultimate freedom within.

there are no twelve-step programs in transcendent wisdom. There is only the onestep program and that is to not associate with the ego.

Therefore Buddha sometimes used this word “suchness” to describe this highest truth. To love the truth is to love suchness, to love what is. Suchness, or emptiness, goes beyond mental images and therefore you have to be a little bit or sometimes very crazy to love suchness. You have to be crazy to love emptiness because it is totally irrational according to ego’s plan. It is totally irrational to love emptiness because it doesn’t give us anything. Emptiness doesn’t give us anything. It is just suchness. It is just what is.