Living with no-mind does not mean living as a zombie, or drifting through life in a daze. It means being totally alive with your senses, body, feelings and awareness wide open and awake to this moment’s pulse. It means allowing life to happen through you rather than interfering with that flow with your mind and your thoughts. When you are trying to live life through a philosophy or system, then the formula, ritual, or concept, comes between you and the direct living experience of the moment. Life comes second; your first allegiance is to your system.
With no-mind each moment has meaning because it has supreme value. It is the total presence of the mystery right here in whatever is happening. And this includes everything. You feel no need to select which experiences are special and which are not. Being whole and awake does not mean having to be always in some particular state of mind.
It is joy and sorrow; laughter and tears; success and failure; love and fear; birth and death; pleasure and pain. We see so many on the so-called spiritual path who are using all their meditating and spiritual practices as desperate attempts to avoid the pain of life. Because they cannot accept and embrace their own pain they cling to philosophies that emphasise that their purpose is to live in permanent bliss in some never never land.
That is not wholeness. It is contraction from the living, breathing reality of life that is right before them getting up their nose. If you can let life get up your nose and not be personally affected by that, then that is really something!! There’s a remark made by a guru. He said:
“Before I was enlightened I was depressed. Now that I am enlightened I am still depressed, but now it doesn't matter.”
When you are bound by second-hand meanings and philosophies you are always looking for something special to change your life and give you ready-made happiness. And the specialness usually lies outside your self. It maybe something material, or a particular lifestyle you dream of, or a special uplifting experience that will prove that you are well on the way to enlightenment. Whatever it is it will keep you trapped, dependent and miserable. If it has to be that way for you to be happy, then what happens to you when it is not that way? So many people wear themselves out trying to live an externally extraordinary life, when all life is asking is that they live each moment in an extraordinary way.
This is powerfully expressed in the famous Zen saying: “Before enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water; after enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water.”
Nothing has changed, yet everything has changed, because now chopping wood and carrying water is the most important sacred act that could be performed in that moment. Spirit is being birthed, and meaning is awakened through the simplest most ordinary activity done in an extraordinary way.
Living in this way you are not attached to any other moment than the one you are in. The mind becomes settled, clear and peaceful. You are totally present. There is no other place to be; no other way to be. It also transcends the usual demand to be perfect. Struggling to be perfect keeps you permanently split and fragmented. It is based on the unhealed childhood wound of believing you are not good enough, and that you need to be perfect to win the love and acceptance you are still craving.
Fulfilling your potential and gaining freedom does not mean becoming perfect; it means becoming whole. It is wholeness that is open-ended, evolving, exploring, and forever transcending itself. It is wide open to the future, yet present and available now. It is always ready to let go, to forgive, to reach out, to be insecure, to live in faith, to touch, to feel, to be moved, to start again, to create........... It is you and I.
Blessings
Clement McGrath brings 32 years of coaching and mentoring experience and a wealth of knowledge to his work. Clement has worked in a variety of roles that have all involved supporting people to reach their full potential and live the life of their dreams.
He has conducted his own private practice for 32 years, has facilitated youth work in a non-profit organisation, has been a contracted provider to a major government department, and director of Life Coach Associates since 2001.
After facilitating Life Coach Associates coach training program for 10 years, he recently stepped aside from that position to focus on creating a variety of programmes that are more accessible to a wider audience.
These include, “Relationship Rescue,” “How to Harness Your Yes Power,” “How to Increase Your Energy and Achieve More,” “Find Your voice: How to Communicate Confidently and Effectively,” and “Awakening to Infinity: A Course in Self Realisation.”
He is available for private consultations and public speaking, and can create customised programmes to address the specific needs of groups and organisations.
Clement is a qualified Breath Therapist, and has studied extensively in the areas of ‘Effective Communication,’ ‘Human Creativity,’ ‘Principles of Peak Performance and Success,’ and ‘Mythology and its Modern Applications.’
He has co-authored the book, “The Way to Freedom,” and is currently completing a book on relationships that he intends to have published in 2015.
Clement lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, with his partner Heather Fletcher.
Contacts for Clement are:
http://www.lifecoachassociates.co.nz
http://www.facebook.com/lifecoachassociates
clem@lifecoachassociates.co.nz
0064 3 355 2297
0064 272 033 694