Epilogue

Deconstructing and Deepening

In your absence is your presence.

—Jean Klein

In the end, your homeground of awakened awareness is a groundless ground; there’s no there there, no location, no substance, nothing to grasp or attain, no place to land. By its very nature, unconditional openness is not limited by any conditions; it’s pure potential, boundless, unfurnished space without center or edge. Even this space is not separate from what it contains; awareness and the objects of awareness are one and inseparable. There is only this indivisible, nondual reality. Just This!

Although we use a phrase to describe it, awakened awareness is not some separate state or thing. As soon as you think you’ve found something you can hold onto and name, you’ve lost your way and become entangled in concepts and experiences. You can never grasp it as you would a thought or emotion or any other object of awareness—you can only be it knowingly and allow it to live you, in a way the mind can’t comprehend.

As you read these words, you may find them abstract, or even unintelligible to your rational mind. Yet a deeper place inside already knows the truth of what’s being said and resonates with it as a tuning fork resonates with a bell that’s struck at the same frequency.

Paradoxically, the only way to deepen awakened awareness is to let go of it completely. You can never deliberately elaborate or improve it because as soon as you try, it eludes your grasp. From an absolute perspective, of course, awakened awareness can’t deepen because it’s already boundless; what deepens is your ability to rest in it. As my teacher Jean Klein used to say, in your absence is your presence—the more you let go and let be, the deeper is the abiding as awareness without anyone abiding or trying to be aware.

The mark of resting and abiding in awakened awareness is that you no longer feel any lack or insufficiency, no longer feel the need to change, adjust, add to, or subtract from the present moment. You’re not looking for some better, more fulfilling, more comfortable state—you’re complete and content with everything just as it is. Not that you wouldn’t make changes in your environment or situation as a natural movement toward balance and ease—anything from putting on a sweater or going for a walk to buying a new car or changing jobs—it’s just that you don’t require anything to be different, and you’re at peace whether things change or not. Though circumstances are constantly shifting and unfolding and you may like or not like what’s arising now, there’s a deeper knowing that there’s always and only This, just as it is. The recognition that This is what you are, fundamentally and essentially, marks the realization of awakened awareness.

As your realization ripens, awakened awareness permeates your life, and all traces of a separate someone drop away. Ultimately, you can’t even say, “I am awakened awareness” because there’s no I left to identify or not. Only awakened awareness remains—the nondual, indivisible continuum, the One without a second, expressing itself in a myriad of forms. Just This!

Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the non-dual wisdom tradition of Zen and Advaita a pioneer in the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western psychology, and an internationally recognized expert on meditation and mindfulness. His books include Wake Up Now and the guidebook Meditation for Dummies. A licensed psychotherapist, he leads classes, workshops, and retreats in the direct approach to spiritual realization and offers counseling and mentoring to people worldwide. www.stephanbodian.org

Foreword writer John J. Prendergast, PhD, is author of In Touch, senior editor of The Sacred Mirror and Listening from the Heart of Silence, and retired adjunct professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is a spiritual teacher and also a psychotherapist in private practice. www.listeningfromsilence.com