In black space we are aware of the absence of the sense of self; however, we experience it not as a deficiency but rather as freedom and release. There is a sense of newness and coolness, of lightness and lightheartedness, of the absence of burden and suffering, and the presence of purity and peace. It is a nothingness, but it is a nothingness that is rich, that is satisfying precisely because of its emptiness. It is a direct sense of endless stillness, of pure peacefulness, of an infinity of blackness that is so black that it is luminous. It is a transparent blackness that is radiant because of its purity. This is not the experience of a self, an observer beholding the endlessness of space; rather, it is the experience of the self experiencing itself as the infinity of peaceful space. It is an infinite field of a conscious medium, aware at all points of it. The medium is totally at rest, with a stillness that is the same thing as the awareness of stillness.

These divisive strategies of the ego make us callous—they actually move us further from Being. But once we see that they are attempts to do something that the ego is not capable of, then we have the chance to recognize what Being can do. We are able to realize the power True Nature has that can reveal clearly what is occurring, that gives us the precise understanding of the impediment—what it does and why it is there. And if we recognize the impediment for what it is—with the complete immediacy of presence and the precise clarity of awareness—that awareness itself will appear as a quality that is pure stillness, that is pure peacefulness, that is the presence of peace. The presence of peace alone dissolves all agitation. Peace doesn’t have to do anything; its mere manifestation melts all strife, and impediments simply dissolve through the understanding that is inseparable from that stillness. That is why this teaching keeps emphasizing just being there, not doing anything, and simply being vulnerable to and present with immediacy of feeling. If we are being there with immediacy of feeling and not doing anything, at some point that not doing reveals its power. This power is not just that we refrain from taking action, but that we experience the presence of total stillness. This is the essence of nondoing, which is peace. Just the fact of stillness, the presence of peace, annihilates ignorance. But this annihilation is the action of appreciation and love in pure nondoing and stillness.

As we continue our study, we will learn more about the various ways that we interfere with our experience. But however we interfere, it is always true that because we don’t have the infinite wisdom, intelligence, and awareness that True Nature has, we don’t know what should happen next in our inner experience. Doing anything to make our moment-to-moment experience different from what it is means we believe we are God; we believe we know how things should be. So you might think, “Now I am going to meditate so I can experience pure peace.” But who said that pure peace should be the next thing you experience? “And later I will get into primordial awareness.” Who said that is what is supposed to happen to you? Do you see the arrogance in this kind of thinking? Who is saying these things anyway? This is why in our work, we say, “I don’t know what should come next in my experience; it is not in my hands.” This is the humility needed for True Nature to move our experience to whatever condition it wants to bring about, which is usually the condition we specifically, personally, need at that moment. It might be primordial awareness, it might be peace—but it might be jealousy, or hunger, or even death. We don’t know. So whether we are meditating or doing inquiry exercises or having a meal or talking with a friend or doing our job, we can always practice by being present, by being aware of what is happening in our experience and not doing anything to it.

So we see that true understanding is not a matter of searching; to seek understanding is the same thing as trying to seek wealth or love or anything external. It is just a different arena, a different place. The attitude that you are deficient, that you need to get something in order to have peace and fulfillment, reveals that you are not seeing yourself. You are not seeing that who you are is not someone who needs to get something. Your very nature, by itself, is pure pleasure, pure bliss, pure peace. Only the activity of searching cuts you off from this peace. If you look within your mind or at your life, you notice that you are so busy I don’t mean busy doing physical things, but mentally and emotionally busy. Your mind never stops, never rests, except perhaps in deep sleep. There is always something going on; the mind keeps busy with whether this is the right thing or the wrong thing, whether I’m bad or I’m good, or it worries about what’s going to happen, plans for the future, tells stories about the past, and so on. You do not let yourself simply rest. You do not stop arguing with yourself or entertaining yourself. Then you ask why you are not happy. This fuels a new flurry of mental activity: “Maybe I should do therapy, maybe join a group.” You get involved with some new external activity that seems promising. When it does not work the way you had hoped, the activity or group or person seems wrong or bad. When things are frustrating, you might say: “They didn’t love me or like me.” Then you look elsewhere for someone or some group that loves you the right way. Always you seek more and more activity, never stopping and settling into your present experience without having judgments about it. The simplest thing is just to relax and be there, to live without ideas about it, to drop the judgments, the ambitions, the seeking. That is what most people do not do.