Allowing the Gap to Close

Excerpt from Emptiness Dancing by Adyashanti:

Commitment to being fully present through all levels of being will close the gap between you and what is happening, the gap between you and experience...Close the gap between what is and what you want it to be, between what is presenting itself and what you want to present itself. This gap of judgment is the separation you feel. You need to totally choose what is and lean into it with your whole being.

Now, it's very important to realize you cannot close the gap by your own will, only by willingness. If you try to close it, it becomes wider and wider. But it can close itself when you are willing to surrender to what is. When the gap between "me" and the truth of the moment is closed, the Truth reveals itself as fully present, fully your very Self.

That is what I mean when I say lean into life, into the moment, and into the richness of what is. This is not a transcendental disassociation. It can be if you want, but that's not what I am talking about right now. Go forward into vulnerability and innocence. It's like when you are having a conversation with someone, and it starts to hit that magic moment when both of you sort of lean in and are vulnerable with each other. That is where the magic happens.

There are so many ways that the gap can get closed. One way to help the gap close and find stillness is when you are sitting in meditation, just sit. If the body moves in response to the mind, it obscures the stillness. But when the body stays relaxed and still, the mind will start to follow the body, and the gap can close. Then the stillness in the moment can begin to shine. Be conscious of what is causing movement. This is just mind manifesting as body. Be slightly at risk, always slightly vulnerable. Be vulnerable enough to stay awake, to feel the cool breeze fanning the fire of the heart.

The real power is the power of love passionately expressing something very deep inside. It comes from the heart, from overabundance, not from trying to fill a lack. You can feel this spark of life and love through everything in existence. You feel it in the air, in the shape of the flower, the shape of the leaf, the shape of your own body. You can't put your finger on it. It's life, and life transcends being alive. Thoughts die, bodies die, beliefs die, life remains. Life, God, love, manifests in so many ways — as wisdom, clarity, and life a fire burning you to get you moving, to get you to let go and wake up to reality...

You are life. The flower and the tree are nothing but life. And life is never caught just in its expression. Life will always offer its expressions. So all this comes, comes, comes, comes. It comes out of nothing, just like the flower that's not even there one day and shows up the next. Life expresses itself as a flower, a human, an insight, and losing the insight. But life is not limited to its expression. If the whole world blew up, there would be no less life, just fewer manifestations. Life would still be there. You would still be there. We make such a conceptual deal out of it, but when the earth blows away, life is still there...

The flower will die, but life is just fine, thank you. Expression goes, insights go, personalities change, beliefs change. You remain.