Let what comes come;
Let what goes go.
Find out what remains

~Ramana Maharshi

 Allow the next thought or the next feeling arise…then watch it fall away…add nothing to what is left in that quiet space. That subtle nothingness, the stillness and silence that follows the falling away of thought is a very powerful place to be. Linger there awhile.

It is so obvious when seen, but so subtle that we simply overlook it. Feelings and thoughts trump what is present without fanfare in an almost unconscious instantaneous dismissal. That? That’s nothing. Nothing is happening there. Look again. What is that? Can you stay there, in love and curiosity, long enough to find out?

It is only “nothing” to the mind. Experience that, rather than try to think about it, name it, or describe it. It is intimately familiar, yet totally foreign in the land of my thoughts and my feelings.

If we overlook this experience in favor of intense feelings and juicy thoughts, we spend a lifetime in bondage to those feelings and thoughts, believing they tell us who we really are. That expansive bliss; that gut-wrenching grief–that is mine. That is me.

Is it? Do not those experiences come and go? What remains between thoughts and feelings? Our identity is firmly maintained by memories (images), thoughts (words), and feelings (sensations). The point of these inquiries is to deconstruct those three elements, and ultimately see that they don’t hold together; they really don’t add up to a “me.”

We are literally addicted to our thoughts and our feelings. Are you willing to let go of the need to think about your experience? Thoughts come up. Must they be believed? Are you willing to rest for a moment without the next emotional fix? Feelings arise. Must we attempt to dwell in the “good” ones, or avoid, and even revel, in the “bad” ones? There is an untapped gold mine in that place (wherever “that place” is, whatever you want to call it), revealing a richness far beyond the gem of a thought that must be believed, or the feeling that thrills for a moment.

Give attention to that subtle instant like you would to a shy child in a noisy world. It is a doorway to an immensity that takes you far beyond the need for emotional or mental fireworks of any kind. Feels like…Home.