Naturalness

Everything you think is an idea. Without thinking, you are natural. Natural means that you have not added anything mental to the utter simplicity of Presence. Complexity is not natural to you. Confusion, likewise, is not natural. It is an addition. Even knowledge is not natural to you. It is accumulated. It is acquired. Acquired knowledge is what is known as conditioning. Conditioning is the past arising in the present. It is what forms the personal experience. Without it, there is no personal point of view, just Naturalness.

Naturalness is the only Truth. Everything else is just what arises at the time. In the asleep state, whatever arises is projected onto Truth. This is the story, "it is true because it corresponds with my personal point of view." Inevitably, this clashes with the personal point of view of another, and differences result. Which point of view is correct? The answer is neither. One is what arises for you. The other is what arises for the other.

If you are attached to a personal point of view, you are said to have strong beliefs, convictions, even values. This attachment or identification with what arises, this attachment with the personal "me" is what characterizes the asleep state.

Being natural is like being an infant. Not even a child is so natural, so pristine as an infant. Even a child is complex. The "I" the "me,' the "mine." already are begining to form. Naturalness is compromised. No longer are you "That" perfectly embodied. Instead, a center begins to develop. The "I am me" idea gets established.

With the addition of knowledge, with the addition of "I," confusion enters. This confusion we call mind. Mind exists when there is an identification with conditioning. From here, it is easy to see where inferiority and superiority come in. and when they do, Naturalness is missed.

The invitation that comes to us through spiritual masters and my invitation to you is just this: stay in your Naturalness. It wasn't long after birth that separateness became your world view. The body was the first conditioning. This idea called "I" or mind was the second. As a result, a wrong association developed. The invitation, therefore, is to stay natural.

So simple. Why all the confusion? The confusion comes because of the belief in a personal self. The Truth, what is called "original nature" is prior to all such disturbance, distinction and differentiation. It is sameness. Sameness is Naturalness, and Naturalness is sameness.

Hence, returning to Naturalness is returning to sameness. It is returning to the ground of being, to primordial peace, to rest. It is not an achievement or an advancement, but a retreat. It is a retreat to the peace, purity and perfection which existed prior to striving, prior to becoming, prior to thought or the arising of any wave. The seeing of "That" as the real truth of you, instead of looking to the pretense, is what is known as awakening. Being that, which is "original," is what is meant by being natural, by being simple, by being one.

In reality, there is not even being "one with." This is an idea. There is no "one" who is separate. There is just undivided Naturalness. This is the Truth, and you are That. Everything, whether awake or unawake, whether aware or unaware, is the same Naturalness that you are.