Posted 20 February 2017 by Sal

Seeing Now as One Experience

When you look at a painting,
with its countless colors, shapes, and textures,
unless your mind separates it all,
you don’t see the countless things,
you see one painting.
 
When you listen to a symphony,
with its countless melodies, chords, and rhythms,
unless your mind separates it all,
you don’t hear the countless things,
you hear one symphony.
 
When you look at this present moment,
with its countless sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations,
unless your mind separates it all,
you are not actually experiencing the countless things,
you are experiencing this one present moment.
 
Just like a painting.
Just like a symphony.
Now is one experience.
 
If you see it this way, you may ask,
“Who knows this one experience, here and now?”
 
If you see that this entire
 one experience is in constant flux,  you may ask,
“What is it that is not in constant flux
 and knows this changing experience?”
 
If you recognize that you have been here
as long as you can remember, and have known 
all of the constantly changing, experiential moments, 
you may ask, “Who am I then?”
 
What knows, and what stays the same
throughout the ever-changing experiential landscape?
 
What has been here and has known this changing,
 experiential landscape as far back as you can remember?
 
Clearly, you can say that YOU have been here
as long as you can remember.
 
And clearly, you can see that no experiential moment
has calcified or been substantial.

In fact,
 experience has been in non-stop, 
constant change throughout your knowing of it.
 
So then,
 why place an inordinate value on that which is
ephemeral, insubstantial, here then gone, finer than mist,
while completely overlooking the essential unchanging aspect of it all?
 
Peace is found here.
 
Sat Chit Ananda
Being Knowing Bliss
 
YOU
 

 

Painting image borrowed from Alex Grey. Thank you!