Michael James

 



The state of just being is one in which our mind does not rise to
do, think or know anything, yet it is a state of full consciousness –
consciousness not of anything else but only of being. The skill that is
to be learnt in this art is not simply the skill to be – because we
always are and therefore require no special skill or effort to be –, nor
is it merely the skill to be without doing or thinking anything –
because we are able to be so each day in deep dreamless sleep. The
skill to be cultivated is the skill to remain calmly and peacefully
without doing or thinking anything, but nevertheless retaining a
perfectly clear consciousness of being – that is, consciousness of our
own being or essential ‘am’-ness. Only in this pristine state of clear
non-dual self-conscious being, unclouded by the distracting agitation
of thought and action, will the true nature of being become perfectly
clear, obvious, self-evident and free from even the least scope for
doubt or confusion.