Dear Rupert,
Could you tell me something about courage and timidity? Awarenessis recognised: going through the day, work, activities, etc., there is often the sense of the background on which all comes and goes, presence or awareness. However, whenever people are there, relating starts happening, and then automatically, through habit, the person comes back, assuming the role expected in order not to stand out, not to confront. There is some vague memory that this is what I did as a kid, and now it starts to feel like I’m copping out.
Sometimes authors such as Nisargadatta and Francis Lucille state that one has to have the courage to live it, to put it into action. Is there something I have to do about it? Is that at all possible? Is writing this to you already part of breaking away from this ‘chickening out’ habit, or am I spinning stories in the mind?
Still monsoon rains are here, a cyclone is expected, but for now it is very quiet as evening falls. Thank you so much for being so ready and available to answer questions.
Loveand gratitude,
Anamika
Dear Ana,
True courage comes from the knowledge that what we are cannot disappear or die, that is, that it is not in danger. This allows us to act in response to a given situation without the obscuring concerns of an apparently separate entity.
This does not imply that our response will disregard the concerns of our own body. It means that the concerns of our body will be considered as part of the totality of the situation, no more and no less.
A courageous response is one that comes from love and intelligence. It is a response of the totality to the totality. Timidity is a response that comes from the entity and is directed towards an entity.
This does not mean that if a tiger appears in your bedroom you will not run for help. On the contrary, you will probably run very fast. But due to your presence of mind, you might remember to close the door behind you!
Ana:Awarenessis recognised: going through the day, work, activities, etc., there is often the sense of the background on which all comes and goes, presence or awareness. However, whenever people are there, relating starts happening, and then automatically, through habit, the person comes back, assuming the role expected in order not to stand out, not to confront.
Rupert:It is quite possible to respond to people, situations and events without there being any sense of being a separate person. The situation is seen, the response is seen, the action takes place and then– and this is the important part – instead of recreating the apparent entity, the one that supposedly witnessed the event, that supposedly had the thought, that supposedly initiated the action and that supposedly remains over when the action is complete, we simply abide as our self, presence, ready to take the shape of any possible appearance of thinking, imagining, sensing or perceiving.
In other words, the separate entity, which is a sort of ‘filler thought’ in between thinking, acting, sensing, and so on, is created by mind after an event and claims the event as its own.
* * *
Sometimes authors such as Nisargadatta and Francis Lucille state that one has to have the courage to live it, to put it into action.
Yes, have the courage to remain knowingly this presence that you intimately know yourself to be. Do the best you can in every situation to live from this point of view. When you speak to someone, speak to this one, that is, to your self. When you stroke your cat, know that whatever it is that feels in the cat is the one that feels in you. This will keep all your actions safe.
If in any situation you do not know what response is the true, impersonal response, just do your best. This ‘doing your best’ is already the signature of your impersonality.
Is there something I have to do about it?
If we think we are a separate entity, there is something to be done. What needs to be done? Investigate the belief and explore the feeling of separation.
If it is clear that what we are is awareness, live as that, even if it seems to require an effort. In due time it will become more and more effortless, and likewise it will be seen more and more clearly that it was presence all along that was taking the shape of both the apparent veiling and the apparent revealing.
With love,
Rupert
