The End Of All Suffering

I’ve noticed that whenever suffering or confusion appears, it means that consciousness is lost in thought, entranced in a kind of hypnotic dream-world. It has forgotten that it is the whole ocean, and it is identifying itself as a particular wave and then trying desperately to survive as that wave, trying to be a successful wave. It is even seeking the ocean! When there is a recognition that no wave exists apart from the ocean, when there is no imaginary separation between “me” and this present happening, suffering ends. The problem vanishes, and I vanish as that imaginary somebody who seemingly needs to make something of myself and save the world and figure everything out and shift into some higher state of consciousness. There is simply this present moment, just as it is.

This waking up from the dream of separation can only happen now, not forever-after or in the future, and it isn’t so much something that happens as it is the utter simplicity of Here / Now, just as it is. This simple, bare being is incredibly obvious and actually unavoidable. It seems elusive only because it is so close at hand, so all-inclusive.

Joan Tollifson