The Quiet Fact of Being

The quiet knowledge ‘I am’ shines steadily, whatever the circumstances. When stripped of the qualities it temporarily seems to acquire from thoughts, feelings and sensations, being reveals itself as open, undivided, ever-present and deeply peaceful. It is not something you possess; it is what you are.

And just as changing the movie has no effect on the nature of the screen, so the changing content of experience has no effect on your essential being. Being remains in its own peaceful, luminous, unchanging condition. You cannot even say it is ‘your’ being. Being does not belong to you as a person. You, as a person, belong to being.

Being shines in the midst of all experience. In fact, you could say that all experience is a colouring of being, just as the movie is a colouring of the screen. Countless colours, yet always the same colourless screen; countless experiences, yet always the same transparent, silent, peaceful being.

When you say, ‘I am lonely’ or ‘I am anxious’, the ‘I am’ is present. When you say, ‘I am depressed’ or ‘I am upset’, the ‘I am’ is present. When you say, ‘I am married’ or ‘I am single’, ‘I am’ is still there. When you say, ‘I am healthy’ or ‘I am sick’, the same ‘I am’ remains.

And just as you don’t need to look away from the movie to notice the screen, you don’t need to turn away from experience to remain in touch with being. It takes only the smallest shift in attention, but that subtle shift is the difference between sorrow and peace.

If you’re entirely absorbed in the drama of experience, you suffer or enjoy accordingly. But if you remain in touch with being throughout experience, you are always at peace.

The one caught up in the movie suffers or enjoys depending on how the story unfolds. The one who sees the screen is at peace, whatever the story contains.

It’s like two people watching a movie: one is absorbed in the story, the other notices the screen. They’re both looking at the same thing, but each is emphasising a different aspect of the experience. One allows the movie to veil the screen; the other allows the screen to shine through the movie.

In meditation or prayer, you simply bring being into the foreground. Rather than focussing only on what’s happening – your thoughts, feelings, sensations or surroundings – and overlooking the quiet sense of being itself, you allow your attention to relax away from all that content and rest instead in the simple experience of being.