The Invitation

By Oriah Mountain Dreamer 

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living

I want to know what you ache for

And if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

 

It doesn’t interest me how old you are

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,

for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

 

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon

I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow

If you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have been shriveled and closed

From fear of further pain

 

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,

without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

 

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,

If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

 

It does not interest me if the story you are telling me is true

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul,

if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

 

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty, every day,

and if you can source your own life from its presence.

 

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,

And still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon ‘Yes!’.

 

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have,

I want to know if you can get up, after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone

And do what needs to be done to feed the children.

 

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here

I want to know if you stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back

 

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied

I want to know what sustains you, from the inside when all else falls away

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself

And if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

                    

By being clear about confusion, you become clear of confusion. You cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you should know yourself. To know yourself, means you come to know all that you are not.

By knowing what you are not, you are free of it. You remain in your natural state. It happens spontaneously and Effortlessly.

You discover that there is nothing to discover. You are what you are and that is all.

Liberation is of the self from the self – from its self-imposed false ideas.

The Self sustains itself in thinking that it is the doer and the experiencer. Drop the Illusion.

Even Witnessing is not your real nature – because there must be something or nothing to witness for the meditator. The duality still exists.

The Concept of Fullness and Emptiness are just Concepts. Every definition is a concept. One must be careful before starting a journey  to attain bliss
Or any other definitions. All definitions are limited.

The False self is still false whether it is Full or Empty or in expansion or contraction mode.

The falsity of taking a journey has to be seen. Journey involves desire, a goal. It needs time. It needs a discipline to reach a goal. There is a hidden belief that after the journey one will be improved, more perfect. The seekers attention is on the goal, not on himself, without knowing himself.

Before we understand Meditation – let us see what it is not.

It is not a self-centered activity, one does to find peace, relax his tensions, try to improve oneself, seek a profound experience, want powers, search a way to end his turmoil.

Various methods to quit the cycle of birth and death, seek to become immortal, blissful, secured, liberated and much more is not meditation.

Any more definitions a person can find  about meditation – it is not that.

Whatever we know about meditation – it is not.

No journey is possible – No activity of the mind is possible.

All activity  in the name of Meditation is a self-centered activity. It strengthens the False Self. Drop it.

Silence which has not been invited, induced, sought after. It has come about naturally by understanding what one is not. In this there is no motive which has brought Silence. If there is any shadow or suspicion of motive then that silence is directed and deliberate, so it is no silence at all. It is Innocent, not put together by effort.

Silence has been usually understood as absence of Sound, actually it is the absence of the false self.

In this state there is a possibility that ones true self reveals itself. It is this truth that liberates, not our effort to be free.