Beyond happiness and unhappiness, there is a third place.
Beyond the duality, there is the beyond.
You can say this about any pair of polar opposites.
Good and bad.
Right and wrong.
Strong and weak.
The third place is the silent, equanimous witnessing of the unfolding of present moment experience. From this place, the frames of reference of happiness and unhappiness are no longer needed, nor are they valuable. What is, simply is. It doesn’t need evaluation beyond that.
This place is something precious to me.
It’s something I long for.
Something that I have an intense heart yearning for.
I have touched into it and experienced it, but not for long periods, always briefly and I always return to some form of more ordinary, everyday consciousness afterwards.
But it is beautiful and it is something that my spiritual practices are designed to take me to and dip my toes into or at least move closer to that place.
The evaluating mind is often busy with comparison.
This food or that food.
This television show or that one.
To go for a walk or to read a book.
The myriad ways in which we entertain ourselves with the mind and let it yabber on with its story.
This is the activity of the ego, the separate self, the small ‘I’.
This is what it’s designed to do, to keep us alive and aware of our environment. It’s a survival mechanism and it has worked well for humankind for millennia. Having the idea, concept or notion of a self that I have to protect means that the mind and body take action to protect it and keep it alive. But this ego is no longer necessary in the same way it was for our ancient ancestors. We know what we need to do to stay safe, regardless or whether the concept of the self is alive or not. And, yet, the activity goes on, seemingly unabated.
How to honour this third place?
How to hold is sacred in my heart?
How to remember its existence at all times even when it’s not in my immediate awareness?
How to have that place become all that there is?
If only.