How to speak of nothing?
That is the koan of the Master. Out of nothingness, He is sharing nothing. But what a sweet nothing. What a full emptiness. The mind is confused, but the heart rejoices. Sitting in silence, we allow the space to grow. Relaxing into ourselves, we leave the mind to chatter to itself and we rest in the heart. The heart which expands to fill this infinite space of us.
We become the breath. We are the breath and the breath is us. Can you see the breath? It is nothing and it is everything. Without it, our bodies would die, and yet we take it for granted. Breathing consciously, we wake up to the awareness that something so basic can be so mysterious. Something so close, can be missed so easily.
In the silent nothingness of breathing, we can catch a glimpse of what the buddhas have been saying for thousands of years. Sitting silently, doing nothing, we can allow the mystery to become us. We can hear the silent voice of nothingness calling us home. From a world filled with noise to a place which is filled with emptiness.
In emptiness there is freedom. Your ego, your mind, your desires always want more and more. It is always a becoming, not resting in the moment. And because you are so entangled in yourself, you stay away from the emptiness, the spaciousness of the whole. Now you have the opportunity to come back home, where everything is as it always has been. Nothing can ever change because it is as it is. Silence doesn’t change. It’s always there waiting for you to come back. And the only price to pay is to let go of all your noise, all your anger, all your conflict, all your worry, all your dreams. But it’s very difficult, you think, because you are so used to it. But it’s happening, and it’s happening here every day. So, embrace it, because it can transform your whole life.
Vasant Swaha
