can we simply be?

Can we simply be?

This is the challenge posed by the spiritual path. If we were to distill spirituality down into its simplest form, this is it: Can we simply be? It sounds simple. It is simple. But it’s very difficult because we have a great attachment to our human dramas. We live our life as if we are part of a soap opera, with a character to play, with moods and preferences, judgements, desires and fears, and so much more – all the stories of our life, of relationship, of career, of home building, of adventures. We live a life of stories and we love it.

And in fact, the stories themselves are not a problem. The problem is that we invest a sense of reality into this soap opera. We believe it to be real, to be true, when it is not. It is a dance, a play, with no fundamental reality to it. It is all smoke and mirrors in the mind. And for the most part this is how we live out our days. But this is not the way of the enlightened ones, of the buddhas. A buddha is someone who can simply be.

And what does this mean, to be? It means to be present, in the present moment, not caught up with the past and the future – which is the domain of our stories – to be present in the moment, with awareness of all that is around one; but without any motive, without any need to change something in order to bring about a particular result. Actions can arise but they are motiveless. They are spontaneous in the moment, coming from that being, without any desired outcome.

This is the way of the buddhas. Can you simply be?