Читать книгу The Book of Rest - James Reeves - Страница 16

Rest is the most natural state of simply ‘being’. It happens to us when we stop and it reminds us that there is more to us than our thinking, doing and feeling experiences – rest allows us to uncover our awareness. The self-enquiries in this book are intended to help you slip into your own awareness, without effort. For this reason, they should be approached with a degree of lightness. There is no right or wrong way to undertake them.

You can think of them as experiments, without any expected outcome. You will likely face challenges, such as meeting incessant chatter of your mind or a particularly eccentric or nagging self-narrative, and while we understand this might be disconcerting we will, throughout the course of this journey, illustrate how to ‘do nothing’ about such apparent obstacles to your rest. (We are aware there is a contradiction here, in that we are going to show you how to do something so that you can ultimately do nothing. . .)

The enquiries might be useful in helping you to understand rest in the context of your body, mind and that which lies beyond, but we want you to know these are experiments in showing you what you already have; they are not methods to be mastered or skills to be sharpened. They can be employed by anyone and there is no reason why their ‘results’ shouldn’t be as profound as techniques practised by experienced yogi or meditators (or witches, wizards, Munchkins, etc.).

They are exercises in observation, but they might just enable you to allow rest to come when you start feeling that tension between wanting to make rest happen and knowing that the more you try to rest, the further away you are from actually resting (if you’ve ever grappled with insomnia then you will be familiar with this challenge). Ultimately, our advice is that as you set about an enquiry, you let everything unfold just as it wishes. This is your new mantra. . . to let go of immediately.

Our purpose in this book is to demonstrate, time and again, that you already know how to find rest. You just have to trust that it is there and that any apparent obstacles to you being able to connect with it are completely normal.

A busy mind does not mean you are less able to connect with your innate peace, a period of turmoil does not diminish its presence, and nor does a week of pasta and Chianti in Tuscany or a best-forgotten experience in Vegas (definitely not).

We will constantly remind you that it is not us nor anyone nor anything else that is able to apply rest into your experience of life. There is no magic to this, no superpowers required. Rest is not something that can be transferred from one person to another, or from anything onto you.

We know, though, that no amount of us telling you that the very essence of your being is always at peace, always OK and completely shatterproof will convince you of this fact. In order for you to believe us you will have to experience it for yourself.

In order to take this journey with us you have to be prepared to let go of the urge to make anything happen. You have to trust that you do not need to understand, work out or work through anything. You do not need to change, because you already are everything you will ever be: beneath everything, you are complete and unconditionally contented.

— To go on this journey with us you must be willing to do only one thing: nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

And you must absolutely not try to rest.

Trying, is not resting. Resting is doing nothing. It is being.

So, let’s try this. Let’s stop, let everything go (including any attempt to let things go), and begin.

Enquiry 1:

What happens if you do nothing?

We all struggle to stop, and then we convince ourselves that ‘stopping’ is something we must learn to do – an art to master. Stopping is, however, more of an exercise in un-learning, of learning not to resist the happenings of our mind, body and everything in between that invariably unravels when we stop. A course in meditation does not so much allow you to develop any skills, more, it gives you the support framework you might need in order to be still and merely be with whatever happens to you when you stop trying to do anything.

However, when most people sit for meditation there’s often a desire for some kind of technique, some ‘tricks’ to help you stop and feel OK about stopping. One of the most confounding and at the same time liberating ‘activities’ that we do on our retreats is ask attendees to sit for half an hour and do nothing. We are often explicit with this and assert that under no circumstances should there be any meditating. This often creates a lot of confusion, particularly for those who have an established meditation practice or other formal route into the experiences that can come from meditation. There is a degree of discomfort when we suggest not that their techniques don’t have purpose or are in any way wrong, but that it is possible that doing nothing can be as ‘effective’ as doing something.

On a recent retreat, after one of these ‘do nothing’ sessions, a participant shared their experience with the group, bemoaning that they were too distracted to do nothing – they could hear noise outside, became aware of their response to that noise, and then preoccupied by the thoughts that came after that. At this point a re-orientation was necessary and we asked the group to consider the possibility that although our attention wanders from thoughts to sounds to feelings and sensations, perhaps it’s not that we are doing any of this but more that it’s just happening. Doing nothing doesn’t mean nothing will happen.

— That we are doing nothing doesn’t mean we should expect stillness or silence or comfort.

Doing nothing is an act of allowing; it is effortless, though perhaps not easy. That said, once we can grasp this concept – that we need not do anything – the experience is then very relaxing. (It’s not that we’re trying to relax, it just happens as a result of letting go of all control and reactivity to our experience.) Letting everything be just as it is involves layers of letting go, until you happen to be letting everything be as it is, including your distinct inability to let everything be as it is. . .

- Prepare yourself to do nothing. You might want to turn off your phone, close your computer, shut the curtains, or do whatever it takes to reduce the likelihood of you being disturbed (or disturbing yourself)

- Make yourself comfortable, either sitting or lying down – whatever feels best for you. Make sure it is in a position that can remain comfortable for the entire time you’ll be resting, so if this means an ‘easy’ posture (relaxed in the armchair) then this is better than some kind of formal ‘meditation’ posture

- Now, in the same way that you’ve taken a physical posture in preparation for doing nothing, take a similar posture in your mind (however this may come to you)

- Stay with this posture. This means really not doing anything. Do not edit or control your experience in any way. Don’t watch the breath or count or think about a special something or someone. If you’re used to using a technique to help calm the mind or focus your thoughts, then we invite you to try giving it up and see what happens

- Drop your expectations and see if you can let go of any need for an outcome

- Notice how your mind will want to do so many other things and think so many thoughts. Just let that happen. You don’t have to do a thing

- If you find this really hard, start with just a minute or two and then build up slowly. Most people report a noticeable shift in their experience around the 20-minute mark, and again at 30 minutes. The enquiry will likely feel restless and noisy on and off before then

- Don’t worry if you can’t reach the 20-or 30-minute mark. Build your tolerance for nothing slowly over time

- Whenever you feel it is time to end this enquiry, mentally or physically mark the moment however you wish (a little stretch, a deep breath)

- As you ‘resurface’, notice what your immediate thoughts are about the enquiry, and then remind yourself that whatever your experience, you cannot have done anything wrong

- Notice how this period of ‘nothing’ impacts the rest of your day. What does ‘nothing’ bring to your life?