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A lot is happening in our lives, there is always something that demands our attention. We are not used to just looking out of the window without a reason, when there is nothing of our interest passing by. And who sits outside with no purpose but to look at the open sky? That open, empty space quickly bores us when no special objects appear in it. That one, formless, silent, open Immeasurability that gives  space to the whole universe isn't particularly interesting to the thinking mind which itself is always moving. It has better things to do than to just sit around.

'Doing nothing' has become strange.

With my grandchildren, I see that the youngest of five can still sit still and do nothing for a while. Her eyes are wide open, but she doesn't look at something, she is absorbed by her 'being present'. But usually they get bored when they have nothing to do and they get annoyed with each other or they beg for attention. Then they are quickly encouraged by their parents to play with something.
Thus, doing nothing has become strange and we can do nothing but entertain ourselves or be entertained.

Time steadily ticks away the autobiography's thinker

It is therefore not so strange that if we hear that we are essentially that Emptiness - which threatens to come closer by self-investigation - the whole ego structure, every thought and every cell in our body will resist that Emptiness. Because the ego has just originated to protect our organism from that nothingness, which seems like dying. It thinks if it does not think, does, strives, desires, resists, suppresses, divides, imagines that the 'you' who it represents does not exist anymore, so it prefers to not think about stopping with thinking.

It can not be anything else: thinking thinks; That's its nature and in that sense it can not be a mistake, because every person is equipped with it. That thinking movement is a 'practical unreality' to navigate through this apparent life situation. A thought is not yet the thinker; That's the other thought we call 'I'. Then we have laid hold on the in itself neutral and volatile thought. It has become a picture; the free energy solidifies and all those pictures are bundled into a long story.

A heavy book that we always look back in again because we think that is what we are. We would prefer to delete some chapters, rewrite others and want to know how it continues, because the story is not finished yet. Meanwhile, we come closer to the end of the story every second when we believe that we are that thinking movement. Time steadily ticks away the autobiography's thinker, but sometimes the story ends abruptly, just in the middle of an exciting chapter or somewhere between an unfinished line. Thus, every story, however beautiful, has the same plot - death - the only certainty that the imagined life offers.

When Emptiness feels like a barren and bare desert landscape

However, this is only the case if we look with the eyes of the imaginary person, who has not yet understood the illusion of his unrealism. If this illusion is seen through at every level of body and mind, then the only thing that dies is death.

But that is not always clear to everyone all at once. In certain areas, the transience of the objects and also the volatility of the ego structure become visible. We cling less to our beliefs and feel through moods. That creates space and we are becoming increasingly empty and transparent. But on the other hand, however, we risk losing our familiar self-image, losing our grip. Then that Emptiness, that is still experienced by part of the personality, can feel like a frightening 'nothing', a barren, detached, lonely and bare desert landscape. The meaning of life seems to have disappeared and indifference is lurking.

The Reality is a Creative Space

If the emptiness is experienced this way, it is still a state of mind of the ego-structure and the resistance to it - the fear that is underneath it - actually sustains that state of mind. But you, as the always present, conscious, formless Emptiness, who is conscious of that, are neither full or empty. Total objectless, this empty Openness does not exist in time or space, it has no contradictions, but is overflowing of Itself. If you can embrace your own bare physical emptiness, created by thinking, you fall through it as it were. The reality is a creative Emptiness, it is a conscious, formless Presence that rests in Itself - unspoilt and unlimited - as long as nothing has yet been conceived.

The Nature of all things is Emptiness

There is no seclusion possible, because the Emptiness is intimate with all Its creations and while the Emptiness remains completely unmoved by it, it never loses Its Originality. Because all the contradictions are conceived, they contain nothing more than a mirage and only exist on the base of ignorance. Once the Emptiness has been realised, we can never experience the phenomena as absolute. Even when numerous things, bodies, worlds, thoughts or feelings arise there; the self-radiant, clear Emptiness is no longer obscured by it. For the nature of all things is that Emptiness. The Emptiness is not only the absence of the imaginary self-image, but a substantial, all-encompassing, absolute, conscious Presence.

In the availability of the Holy Moment, past and future come together

Enjoy the Presence and realize that every moment is open, pure and clear.

Let the creative Writer - the life you are Yourself - fill in those blank pages of your Presence.

And that only happens Here, Now.

In the availability of the Holy moment, past and future come together.

Your entire 'future' story is written in this Moment.

Here you are in contact with this timeless Eternity. No matter how beautiful, terrifying or exceptional the 'future' story unfolds: it is rooted in the unchanging, imperturbable, timeless and spaceless Now, your true Nature.

In that Loving Emptiness connected,

Sharlih

(From: Sharlih's Newsletter (in Dutch), June 2017)

Lovingly translated into English by Marieke Trompert

EMPTINESS

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Groningen, The Netherlands, ‘Het Hogeland’  -  Photo: Paul