The Perfect Response

the perfect response Q Andrew, Ihave asimple question: How do we get there? Is the path to enlightenment just amatter of daily spiritual practice? A Well, if enlightened consciousness is what one is aspir¬ ing to, then “daily spiritual practice” alone will never be enough. If we want to be truly free, only total surrender, unconditional surrender, is the way, the path, and the goal. In the end there is literally nothing else to do but give up. Give up completely. Surrender your personal will to the always unknown, ever-inconceivable will of that which has created this universe and everything in it, and then just see what happens... Just see what happens? Yes. But never forget, true surrender takes guts, love, and incredible devotion. More guts, love, and devotion than most of us are ready to give just yet. But when we no longer have any choice, when we are compelled to submit to our own heart’s deepest yearning for emancipation, then the real the perfect response 13 meaning of spiritual practice will become clear to us. Indeed, when surrender has become the foundation of our relationship to all of our experience, the very ground we walk on, then meditation and contemplation will sponta¬ neously emerge as our closest friends and our most trusted allies. How would you define meditation and contemplation? Meditation is that state of consciousness that reveals itself when we take no position in relationship to thought. When we take no position in relationship to thought, the whole world and everything in it, including our own mind, falls away from us. Our experience is one of ecstatic freedom from boundaries, of finding ourselves blissfully alone, happily lost deep in the unknown. And if we can continue to resist the temptation to take any position in relationship to the arising of thought, we will find ourselves in aplace that is impossible to describe in words. Aplace that is completely free. It is a place empty of mind and memory, aplace of perfect full¬ ness and perfect stillness. It is aplace where nothing ever happened. Contemplation is the deliberate and focused use of the mind in the service of the inspired passion of awakened con¬ sciousness. It is the movement of amind that has been grounded in profound surrender. Amind that now naturally aspires to know the true and right relationship of all things, that ever strives to make sense out of the insecurity of the human experience in light of the ongoing revelation of 14 living enlightenment perfect fullness. Ultimately, the movement of contemplation is aspontaneous effort, aconsistently evolutionary response to life in the present moment. Which practice is more important—meditation or contem¬ plation? Iput great emphasis on the necessity of pursuing both medi¬ tation and contemplation simultaneously. But the way this works is very delicate. For aperfect result, we have to learn how to practice meditation and contemplation in such away that one informs the other. Ideally, what that means is that the deeper our experience of meditation, of no relationship to thought, the more room there will be inside us for the unfold¬ ing of liberating insight when we begin to contemplate the nature of things. But always remember, spiritual practice that is not grounded in astrong foundation of profound surrender will be virtually impotent in its capacity to enlighten us. Surren¬ der and surrender alone is the key to the kingdom. And how do Isurrender? Focus all of your attention upon the painful truth of your own psychological, emotional, and spiritual predicament. Face it with an unwavering intensity until the hard shell that protects your heart begins to break wide open. Then find the courage to let go of your mind completely—just let it go and let it go and let it go until there is nothing left. the perfect response 15 And then? If you're lucky, that will be the end of the story. And when the story ends, does that mean that all my questions are answered? Yes and no. Yes, on the most fundamental, existential level, your questions will be answered because when your heart breaks, you experience an inconceivable, mind-transcending love that reveals abreathtaking mystery that abides beyond time. That experience is the answer that sets all of us free from the funda¬ mental belief that there’s aquestion that needs to be answered, aproblem that needs to be solved. But you see, at the same time—and this is the exciting part—the incredible freedom found in that mystery actually enables us to begin to inquire into the meaning of existence in acompletely different way than we ever could have before. 'Why? Because now the start¬ ing point of our inquiry is one of deep conviction rather than debilitating doubt. And that changes absolutely everything. So from that place of deep conviction, what’s the most important question to inquire into? Okay, it’s abig one... It’s the one ongoing question that my entire teaching revolves around: “What is the relationship between nothing and something?” What is the relationship between the unchanging, unmanifest, primordial Self and the ever-changing manifest world of time and space? 16 living enlightenment And do you know the answer? Well, ideally, for ahuman being who is fully enlightened, the relationship between nothing and something would be a perfect response. Aperfect response? Yes. Aperfect response to life. You see, that’s what enlighten¬ ment is. Aperfect response. That’s when there is no longer any distinction between the inherent perfection of the Self Absolute and that response that is its expression in the world of time and space. The question, “What is the relationship between nothing and something?” instantly points us to that same place of inherent perfection inside us all—and calls for aresponse. Even though most of us aren’t aware of it, every¬ thing that we do and the way that we do it reveals how profound our knowledge of that place actually is and how deeply we abide there. So, in the end, “What is the relation¬ ship between nothing and something?” is the most important question because it not only points us to that perfection beyond duality but it also dares us to express that perfection as our¬ selves, so that the inner and the outer can truly become one. the perfect response 1 7 b