The Big Deal Complex

Both in my own experience and that of others, I find what I call "the big deal complex." There is a recognition of a broader perspective. We may call it the source of thought. We may call it presence. We may call it the capacity to witness or oversee, the space between thoughts or breaths. We may call it by a thousand different names. It doesn't matter. What matters is that we recognize it and are not impressed. The response is "big deal."

This big deal complex comes about because, at the moment, there isn't a full stop that allows for a deeper look. At best, it is a pragmatic pause. It's as if you are traveling through a desert, and you come upon an oasis. Before you know that the oasis can quench your thirst, you have no interest. You respond, big deal. It's exactly like that. The role of a teacher is to bring you from a pragmatic pause to a full stop, so that you don't overlook or walk past the oasis. "Drink," he says, "lest you die of thirst." "Stop, lest you drive yourself crazy." To continue without water in a desert can cause you to see things that aren't there, to lose perspective. It's exactly like that.

Before you stumble upon this capacity to oversee and discard it with "big deal", see what it is. See if this capacity to oversee has the capacity to give you rest. See if it can quench your thirst. If you can get out of your pragmatic pause, you might just see that there is rest, that while investigating this capacity to oversee and what it really is, there is no chattering. While investigating the source of mind, there is absolute rest.

The Guru or teacher is only ever calling you back to that. That is what is meant by this moment. That is what is meant by the source of thought. That is what is meant by presence, silence, being, the unknown or your own self. To direct your attention to these is to take a deeper look at this capacity to oversee, rather than continually overlooking it, as one might overlook an oasis in the desert, as one might mistake a pearl for a stone and toss it back into the ocean.

In the Gospels, there is mention that the mustard seed, though one of the smallest seeds, it becomes one of the largest trees. Here again, the same invitation is given, Don't skip over the space between breaths, the space between thoughts. Don't skip over the Seer. Don't skip over Presence, Stillness. Don't skip over the gentle breeze that made Elijah stand at attention. God was not in the earthquake, the terrible storm, but the gentle breeze.

The message is not that the earthquake isn't godly, not that the terrible storm isn't an awesome expression of Divinity. The message is that there is something more fundamental. It is the source of all. It is the origin of all. That can be known directly, Truth can be met directly, but we miss this opportunity when we dismiss the reality that is the most subtle, the most quiet. yet without it, nothing would be.

Everything has an origin except that. The origin of the body is the source of the body, the origin of the mind is the source of the mind. The origin of you is the source of "I". At a basic level, the origin of the tree is a seed. Were it not for the seed, it would not be.

That is what wisdom is. It is to lover the giver, without whom the gifts would not be. It is to love the source, without whom, nothing would be. Everything is here because Being is. Without Being, nothing is. That is all awakened teachers are saying. The world is real, but so is the source of the world, and if you like the artwork, why not meet the artist face to face.

Prejudice, sometimes called ignorance consists in believing that what is visible is more important than what is invisible, that what is seen is more important than what is unseen. The belief that if I cannot see it, touch it, taste it, smell it or hear it, it is not worthwhile, is our collective ignorance. In a very real sense, we pass up the oasis in the desert, every moment. We are like fish in the ocean crying, "were thirsty." It is exactly like that.

The teacher's hope is just one, that you meet the artist face to face.