Let everything be just as it is

Here's part of what Sam Harris said yesterday in a guided meditation on his Waking Up app that I listen to most mornings, along with a guided meditation by Tamara Levitt on my Calm iPhone app.

What would this moment be like if there truly was nothing missing, and nothing to do? Nothing to improve. Nothing to wait for.

What if this is it? Is there any sign that it is insufficient? Is there any sign of its imperfection?

Is there something you’re trying to accomplish? Simply relinquish all effort to try to improve experience in this moment.

Let everything be just as it is. 

Give up all effort. Simply notice whatever appears, grasping at nothing, pushing nothing away. 

Just realize everything is in its own place. And everything is all there is in each moment. 

Isn’t everything enough?

There’s always just consciousness and its contents as a matter of experience. 

See if you can recognize this. 

Now, one thing that came to mind is that seemingly there's a considerably difference between (1) letting everything be just as it is while I'm sitting peacefully in a chair, headphones on, listening to a guided meditation, and (2) letting everything be just as it is while, say, I'm sitting in a dentist's chair having a tooth drilled into. 

Or having some other painful, unpleasant, or disagreeable experience. 

It's unclear whether Harris meant for his words to apply to all sorts of moments, rather than just peaceful moments. I have a feeling that he did mean just that, since later in the guided meditation I recall him saying that it is important to blur the distinction between formal meditation and activities of everyday life.

And it would indeed be strange if the advice above about pushing nothing away only was relevant to pleasurable experiences where there would be no inclination to push something away.

So I believe that Harris is pointing toward something universally applicable, as difficult as it may be to envision simply noticing whatever appears without trying to grasp at something or push something away. If we've got a painful headache, doesn't it make sense to push it away with an aspirin, or whatever?

Sure it does. I don't think Harris is espousing an extreme fatalism where no effort is made to improve our condition or that of others. Rather, he seems to be talking about a view of life that, as his app puts it, involves waking up. 

The question is, waking up to what? Having listened to a lot of what Harris has to say, and having read each of his books, here's some ideas about what he's asking us to wake up to.

-- The present moment, which by definition, can't be changed. It simply is what it is.
-- The interdependence of everything in existence. Emptiness, to use a Buddhist term.
-- The passing nature of reality, notably including our own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
-- Our lack of free will, even though most of us consider that we possess it.
-- Our incessant habit of dividing realty into good and bad, based on our own subjectivity.
-- Our constant desire to find something new and better.
-- The lack of evidence for an enduring self. A "me" separate and distinct from experience.

I'm not saying that what I just wrote actually reflects what Harris is getting at. This is just how I look upon his words that I shared at the beginning of this post.

If you have different ideas about Harris' meaning here, leave a comment with your own viewpoint. The screenshot below is from the Waking Up web site.

Comments

[Jojo]

Is it possible for humans to love in the moment when every moment passes quicker than the second hand of the clock? There are no “static” moments in time/space. But there are enough moments of wonder to make one think their just might be a higher force working behind the scenes. And perhaps we are already a part of that whole—not apart but a part of.

[Georginus]

I've been using Waking Up app for about a year and the content is great. All practice lessons, theory, conversations aiming to help us understand the reality of consciousness and use our attention wisely in order to live without regret.

[Spence Tepper]

If we practice letting go of our desires, emotions, fears, passions and anxieties, we have more room to enjoy just being.

And then, actually, we have a practice to withdraw from the experience in the dental chair as well.

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

Back when I was searching for a particular meditation I ran into a guy who told me that the specific meditation I was searching for 'Sehaj Yoga' had "no longer existed" and that his meditation was one of the rarest.

So I went under his tutelage. With his technique, I was supposed to reach a point where my mind over matter could grant me all the money I needed from his technique.

Long story short, somebody removed the liar and eventually I found a good teacher of the "non-existent" sehaj yoga, and now too can just keep quoting teachers like Baba Ji.

[Jen]

Don't know if I've posted this before, one of my favourite videos...

Living in the Moment - Jason Mraz

13,773,512 views•Oct 15, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUFs_1vKYlY

[Todd]

Dzogchen

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"The purpose of meditation isn't just to reduce stress or to make you feel better in the moment —it's to make fundamental discoveries in the laboratory of your own mind." -Sam Harris (quoted above)

To me, this doesn't make the tall claims that I encountered while I searched for the meditation I focus more on now.

And what is the claim of the sehaj or surat-shabd yoga? Its goal is self-realization, and then God-realization.

Mind that other meditations may grant abilities such as super-human strength, and or the faculty to make it rain. These are given merit in the RSSB version of Sant Mat as siddhis powers, which main purposes are to ultimately take one away from God-realization.

Making such meditators powerful, yet at the end missing the All Powerful. In Sant Mat such a life spent is wasted. So, any attainments in meditation should be reinvested into the method as outlined by Hazur to bring back the best return, the Harvest, or what we muslims refer to as Jannah, imo.

[manjit]

Waking up? We have an App for that!! :)

This is most delightful, I surely hope these pointers are providing moments of clarity, presence, joy, love and compassion to the listeners. Y'all so deserve it!

I however would like to return to a previous discussion involving Sam Harris from July 2018, in the comments section to this blog post: https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2018/07/existence-is-entirely-futile-a-brave-essay-on-the-human-condition.html

Therein JB wrote in response to me: "Manjit said: "which atheist or materialist reductionist will take 5-7 grams dried magic mushrooms, and see if their materialism and atheism stands the test?"

It is inaccurate to assert that one's materialism/atheism cannot be maintained after profound psychedelic experiences. Some prominent names off the top of my head that disprove this theory are Susan Blackmore, Sam Harris, Oliver Sacks, et al."

To which I responded, in part: "Sam Harris - has he taken, precisely, 7g+ of dried mushrooms in a dark room, by himself? If he has (which I doubt), what were his views in the immediate aftermath? Did he note them down somewhere? Remember, my challenge is to reacquaint you with a sense of awe, mystery, enchantment with the universe......"

Well, it has been brought to my recent attention that Sam Harris is indeed working his way up to my challenge, as he himself shares in this audioclip from December 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJqez0pqhE

Sam Harris reveals several things in this clip which relate perfectly to that discussion from 2018. First of all, it should be noted that Sam had only taken "recreational" doses in the outdoors (ie., very small and inconsequential really) of psilocybin mushrooms before, and even with that he had "difficult" and "bad" trips, which imo is a real indicator of the level "inner progression" beyond the bullshit masks and authority by position that masquerade as truth in society.

Secondly, it should also be noted that this report by Sam is about a 5g dose of psilocybe mushrooms.....whereas my challenge would be a little more, errrm, challenging; 7g+ minimum, and then we can talk about atheism, materialism and reductionist philosophies.

Regardless, listening to Sam Harris it is clear that even with just one 5g experience (I would venture he has plenty of "work" to be done to penetrate into deeper serotonergic gnosis :), he has had a significant experience which he is struggling to assimilate and integrate intellectually, linguistically and ontologically, and clearly leaves him with a sense of beauty & wonder.

Anyway, I'll let you all get back to the app, don't mind me.....:)

But do listen to the audio.......

"resistance is futile"
~ Sam Harris on Huzur Maharaj Sant Baba Bhagwan Psilocybin Ji

[Tim Rimmer]

Manjit - another set of cool posts mate. I enjoyed the Sam Harris talk. I’d say it’s one of the best descriptions of experiences that are very hard to describe and clearly pretty much on the same page as what the mystics go on about. This sort of stuff needs to find it’s way into teachings such as Sant Mat. I’ve reproduced a couple of quotes (after hearing twice):
“What follows is a vision so blinding in its beauty and intensity that it shatters your mind, it just unmakes you”
“We have a word for love for instance but what’s the word for all the love you can possibly feel and all the love you recognised have failed to feel every moment in your life up until this moment?”
“It’s not merely consciousness without the feeling of self, its the utter erasure of anything recognisably human about your mind”

Awesome, beautiful and totally challenging descriptions imo. Such states can ensue in the presence of awakened people, in deep nature and of course in deep meditation - but the shrooms clearly can facilitate such realisations. I get the impression Sam Harris’s view of consciousness has been altered, possibly more towards it’s existence as ‘fundamental’ and not just a product of the brain’s workings. That’s my take on it.
“Where could One go? Where is consciousness not? It is a state of pure madness. Ecstatic, joyous, astonishing, overflowing with love - but awe-full madness, too.
This is not a state of consciousness your mother is accustomed to” —- Ha Ha!
For some strange reason the ‘Mother in law’ comes to mind :-)
And of course you still can’t just go to the local shop and grab a bunch of said mushrooms - they’re an illegal substance!
Perhaps it’s because there is a connection between the disintegration of atoms and large atmospheric mushroom clouds!