AYP Lesson 423 - Why So Much Fuss about What is So Simple?

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Lesson 423 - Why So Much Fuss about What is So Simple? (Audio)

From: Yogani
Date: July 19, 2010

New Visitors: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"

Q: There is so much perfection in every moment. Life is lived moment by moment. No trying to live in the moment, just living, not an effort, no other way to do it. Nothing to make it happen. Making anything happen needs effort, and there is no effort. I am where I am and there is nowhere else to be or want to be. Ideas, creativity, loving, just flowing without any intention, without any effort. Emotions are experienced at the moment without judgment, then gone like a dream. If it is not happening now, it is not happening.

It's been two months like this. My mind still jumps in and says there is going to be a falling out, but it does not matter what the mind says. I have pondered a lot about bringing attention back to the now and being present. But when this started happening without trying it was like: Wow! What's this? I did not say much to anyone around me, but there is so much uncalled for joy, so much unknown happiness. Even being upset and angry is just momentary, like something the body is doing, but then it is back to the joy. I also see how things are so ingrained in us. The stronger the mind story we had, the stronger the attachment to the block. Letting go of a block is just untangling the story from every cell in awareness (inner silence), and watching it drop away. Again, no effort. With practice and slight intention (like samyama), it just happens.

Learning samyama was huge. It is the best tool ever. Asking for something is just ask and let it go. The more you can let go, the easier it gets for it to happen. This is siddhi. All siddhis are just that ... how much you can let it go. The more you can let go in stillness, the more it has a chance of manifesting. Hence I can make things happen that don't mean much to my deepest longing. But things that are close to heart, the letting go is harder, there is that little bit of pull and story that keeps a slight desire in place, not allowing a complete letting go. But when I can really let go, things happen.

It feels like I am gliding/floating instead of walking. And it feels like I am constantly dancing in the stillness. Even when people around me are grumpy, I am still in joy and it sort of rubs off on them. They are still grumpy but they cannot be mean. It's like the joy is infectious, and although people don't want to become ungrumpy, they just cannot be mean any more. They go back to showing their disapproval but the pure happiness that flows cannot be ignored.. It is like being in presence of a baby, the baby is happy for no reason, and others around may be mad, but when they see the smile on the child's face and feel the innocent happiness, there isn't much they can do but smile. They can go back to being grumpy after that, but for a few moments they enjoy the unadulterated happiness. It feels just like that. I could go on and on about how life has changed for the better here.

Anyway, it is all true, all I had heard and read ... all of it is true. And I am just amazed at the simplicity and beauty of this, as I watch in awe at the power of letting go.

Still, what makes me really wonder is all the talk that the old gurus have given of enlightenment. There is so much fanfare about it. It is so simple. Nothing huge about it. Why then was it made to sound so huge? All about losing the body and rainbow body, and a million definitions. It's all so confusing to people. Why? Why not just meditate, learn samyama and the other simple methods, do them every day, and get on with it. Why is the simplest of all things made so complex? Or am I not getting this?

A: I'm very happy to hear about your life in the here and now. It reminds me of a Rumi poem:

"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language - even the phrase 'each other' - do not make any sense..."

It is simple when we know, but there is a journey to undertake to get to that field.

Like the proverbial trip through the forest to Grandmas house, once we know the way, it is easy and effortless. Once we have arrived there, we are there in every moment. But the first time we go, we will be dependent on a path, hopefully a well-marked one. Even with a good path, we may become distracted and go off on other paths. They say all paths lead to Grandmas house. No doubt they do, eventually. But there are a few wolves in the forest too, so random wandering may not be the speediest or safest course.

The "fanfare" is for both marking and marketing a path, because treading a path is necessary to get from "here to here." What is so easy to see once it is seen is not so easy to see before that. Hence, all the buzz. A certain amount of inner house-cleaning must occur before much of anything can be seen. This is what daily practices are for.

Oddly, once seen, the very ease of seeing and doing in stillness can lead others into confusion, because stated as that (nothing to do), it encourages those who can't see to imagine seeing instead of actually doing what is necessary to see. In this, the simple (seeing) becomes complicated, and the complicated (practice) becomes simple. That's why we always say, favor the practice over the scenery.

Again and again, we see people arriving in the AYP community, continuing to explore 100 different strategies, even when they happen to be standing in the middle of a super highway, where all they have to do is step on the gas and go. The journey can be convoluted like that because human karma is convoluted. But the path does not have to be convoluted. A path can be straight-forward and clearly marked. As long as a path is there in plain sight, people will find it. That is the simple premise in AYP, flowing through an engineer's mentality: Build it and they will find it.

Or any other well-conceived and tested path will do. But better to stay on one well-marked path than to run in circles in the forest.

Yes, very simple, especially once we are at Grandmas house. The paths to Grandmas house are many, and have been lit up with neon (and fanfare) for centuries for good reason. But no neon lights are needed at Grandmas. Everything there is quietly glowing from within, for no reason at all. Home is home, and needs no fanfare. Enjoy!

The guru is in you.