I love to enter a world where thinking ends. It is like going into a world of sensory deprivation, except it is my thinking sense that is left outside. “Wait here”. “Be still.” “I’ll be right back.”
My thinking sense is impatient and jealous of its usual role in my world. It is not always so willing to be left on the shore while I wade into the depth of no-thinking. It calls out, reminds me it is there, wants me to return. I simply smile and wade in deeper into my mindless world.
My other senses, however, are thrilled to be in this place. For them it is a time to accompany me into a timeless world without space. My body expands with excitement and energy as my other senses swim unrestrained through this mysterious place of nothingness.
This is a place where the darkness has a captivating brilliance. It is truly a place I can see beyond the glow of the flickering candle just beyond my eyelids. My sight comes alive without seeing.
This is a place where the rapturous melody of no-sound fills my head and descends through my whole body. It is the no-sound that waited for me when my bell summoned me to this place where my hearing could come fully alive and alert.
This is a place where all that I feel in my skin is the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of my breath. All my skin is alive and alert, but feels nothing. I am warm and relaxed beneath the fleece cloak wrapped around me, but I am not sure that the cloak is really there. My mind would figure that out, and it is not here.
This is a place where I love to be. I look forward to the times that I can enter it and leave all else behind. Strangely, it is a world that gives me a better understanding of what I left behind. I am better prepared to see all that is beautiful and awe-inspiring. I better understand and become more aware of everything I put aside to enter it. It is a world that helps me know better what it is that needs to be done.
As much as I love it, it is still a bit of an alien world for me. My exit from it is often abrupt and rushed as I re-engage my mind and return to the familiar.
I long for the days when the boundary between the two worlds fades away, when the two worlds combine. I want my mind to be trained to be helpful and not a distraction from true awareness. Then my every-day world will be awash with the awareness that is native to my true home.