You can be at ease with the uncertainty of the world when you realize the certainty of consciousness. Often people do just the opposite. They are certain about the world and uncertain about God. They rely on something that is not reliable and get upset. Uncertainty causes craving for stability, yet the most stable thing in the universe is our Self.
The world is of change; the Self is of non-change. You have to rely on the non-change and accept the change. If you are certain that everything is uncertain, then you are liberated. When you are uncertain in ignorance, then you become worried and tense. Uncertainty with awareness brings higher states of consciousness and a smile.
Other people think that certainty is freedom. If you feel freedom when you are not certain, that is real freedom. Often your certainty or uncertainty is based on the relative world. Being certain about the uncertainty of the relative makes you certain about the existence of the absolute and brings a certain faith in the absolute.
When the mind is happy, it expands; then time feels too short. When you feel time is too short, you are either restless or in expanded awareness. When the mind is unhappy, it contracts; then time feels too long. When you feel time is too long, you are miserable or keen-minded. When you are happy and love what you are doing, you simply do not feel the time. Similarly, in sleep you do not feel time. When you are ahead of time, it drags and is boring. When time is ahead of you, then you are surprised and shocked. You cannot digest events.
To escape from the two extremes, many resort to alcohol or sleep but when the mind is dull or unconscious, it is unable to experience itself. Samadhi – no-mindedness or timelessness – is peace, the real peace. That is the greatest healer. In deep mediation, you are time and everything is happening in you. Events are happening in you like the clouds that come and go in the sky. When you are with time, you are wise and at peace. When the mind is in equanimity, it transcends time.
Just as the mind experiences time, this moment has a mind of its own, a Big Mind with enormous and infinite organizing power. Thought is nothing but a ripple in the moment, and a few moments of samadhi infuse the mind with energy.
Before you fall into a slumber or as soon as you wake up from sleep, in the moment of twilight of consciousness, experience the timelessness.
Life is a combination of form and formless. Feelings have no form but their expressions have form. The Self has no form but its abode has form. Similarly, wisdom and grace have no form but are expressed through form. Discarding the formless, you become inert, materialistic and paranoid. Discarding the form, you become a dreamer, a lost ascetic, or emotionally unbalanced.
© The Art of Living Foundation
