There is something that is always there. It is always there whether we are feeling good or bad, it is always there whether we are aware of it or not, it is always there whether or not we believe in it.
It is not a state of mind because it is behind all states of mind. States of mind come and go like clouds in the sky, like the rising and falling of waves. We can feel glorious one moment and terrible the next. We can go from despair to happiness, from boredom to jealousy, from calmness to excitement, from victory to defeat, from defeat to victory, but that never wavers.
States of mind rise and fall, but that never rises and falls because it never changes. It is the one unchanging thing in this ever-changing universe, and yet it never calls attention to itself. It simply remains.
It (almost) goes without saying that that is not an image of any kind, it is not a name of any kind, it is not a sound of any kind, it is not an idea or thought or belief of any kind, no matter how glorious or exalted or sublime. It has no storyline. It has no sense qualities, no mental qualities, no emotional qualities of any kind.
It is aware of everything and partakes of nothing, or to say the same thing in a slightly different way, it partakes of everything without in any way losing its undefiled, pristine essence, just as the sky is not defiled by throwing paint into it.
No matter how many times we have "sinned", no matter how many times we have been thoughtless, no matter how many times we have lost our way, it does not judge us. It is simply always there, always with us, always the very essence of who we are.
Find that. Find that and we enter another dimension, which is exactly this dimension, right here, though truly seen for the first time.
—jim sloman, 10.2.06
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