carousel

One day happy, next day sad. One day relaxed, next day stressed. One day grateful, next day worried. On and on it goes.

The way off this carousel is detachment. Noticing the thoughts, the feelings, the endless fluctuations, and letting them be as they are until the next, and the next, and the next.

Here we go again. Up and down, in and out, attached then detached, identified then aware then identified again. Round and round and round it goes.

Attachment is bondage, detachment is liberation. Identification-with is suffering, awareness-of is freedom.

Experience is unavoidable. Feelings are inevitable. And so are attachment and identification with them. As long as I'm embodied, these can't be escaped. Escape is granted in the arising of acceptance, total acceptance of whatever is. Whatever is happening, seeing and letting it be as it is. Gain and loss, happiness and sadness, success and failure, pleasure and pain. Being in the experience and apart from it at once, experiencing and observing together. Denying nothing, embracing all the fluctuations as they pass through on the way. Both immersed and beyond.

This is the way to the peace that permeates all phenomenal experiencing. This is transcendence of form and feeling. The internal stepping back amidst the external absorption. The return of awareness to the formless stillness that precedes/contains/follows the rising and falling of phenomena. Dwelling in that place while watching it all, feeling it all, being it all as it comes and goes.