Post by sufilight on Mar 10, 2013 23:51:09 GMT -8
I like this. It's from Jeff Foster's introduction to his website. What caught my attention is when he says that our life stories are being written by themselves as we go along.
Imagine your entire life as a book.
On every page of this book, no matter what is going on in the story, no matter what the words are describing, behind the words there is the white paper.
The paper is so rarely noticed, and even more rarely appreciated, but it is absolutely essential. Without it, the words would not exist.
You are very much like the paper behind the words of life. You are not the story of your life – your failures, your successes, your regrets and hopes, your memories and expectations, your great achievements and terrible losses - you are life itself, the wide open, all-embracing expanse of consciousness in which the story of your life plays itself out.
The paper of a book is never affected by the story that is being told in that book. The paper is only there to hold the words, to embrace them, to allow them to be, without condition. Words appear and disappear on the paper, happy words and sad words, sacred words and profane words; great battles are fought, incredible adventures are had, the cycle of life and death and rebirth plays out, but the paper always remains, ever-present, always complete in itself.
A love story, a comedy, a horror story, a war epic, a long and frustrating search for success or enlightenment – the paper itself doesn’t mind.
Whatever the story, the paper never needs to know how it all ends. And on the final pages of the book, the paper does not fear the end of the words, nor does it long for an earlier time in the story. And if the main character dies, the paper does not mourn. Even death is allowed by the paper. The paper doesn’t know that the story is ‘over’. The paper is beyond the cycle of birth and death of its characters.
You don’t know how many pages are left in the autobiography of your life. (In fact, your book has not been written yet – it is writing itself as it goes along!) From the perspective of the words – that is, from the perspective of the human mind – your story is not yet complete. We spend much of our lives trying to work out how to end our story. How to solve things neatly, how to resolve our unresolved problems, how to ‘fix’ and complete ourselves, how to control an uncontrollable future.
But from the perspective of the paper, from the perspective of consciousness itself, there is no story to resolve. Things are okay just as they are, right now. In this moment, everything is accepted just as it is.
This is the most peaceful book in existence, and it is what you are.
~ Jeff Foster
www.lifewithoutacentre.com/read/what-is-life-without-a-centre/
Imagine your entire life as a book.
On every page of this book, no matter what is going on in the story, no matter what the words are describing, behind the words there is the white paper.
The paper is so rarely noticed, and even more rarely appreciated, but it is absolutely essential. Without it, the words would not exist.
You are very much like the paper behind the words of life. You are not the story of your life – your failures, your successes, your regrets and hopes, your memories and expectations, your great achievements and terrible losses - you are life itself, the wide open, all-embracing expanse of consciousness in which the story of your life plays itself out.
The paper of a book is never affected by the story that is being told in that book. The paper is only there to hold the words, to embrace them, to allow them to be, without condition. Words appear and disappear on the paper, happy words and sad words, sacred words and profane words; great battles are fought, incredible adventures are had, the cycle of life and death and rebirth plays out, but the paper always remains, ever-present, always complete in itself.
A love story, a comedy, a horror story, a war epic, a long and frustrating search for success or enlightenment – the paper itself doesn’t mind.
Whatever the story, the paper never needs to know how it all ends. And on the final pages of the book, the paper does not fear the end of the words, nor does it long for an earlier time in the story. And if the main character dies, the paper does not mourn. Even death is allowed by the paper. The paper doesn’t know that the story is ‘over’. The paper is beyond the cycle of birth and death of its characters.
You don’t know how many pages are left in the autobiography of your life. (In fact, your book has not been written yet – it is writing itself as it goes along!) From the perspective of the words – that is, from the perspective of the human mind – your story is not yet complete. We spend much of our lives trying to work out how to end our story. How to solve things neatly, how to resolve our unresolved problems, how to ‘fix’ and complete ourselves, how to control an uncontrollable future.
But from the perspective of the paper, from the perspective of consciousness itself, there is no story to resolve. Things are okay just as they are, right now. In this moment, everything is accepted just as it is.
This is the most peaceful book in existence, and it is what you are.
~ Jeff Foster
www.lifewithoutacentre.com/read/what-is-life-without-a-centre/