Seeing

Seeing is not an activity of the conceptual mind. Thought may label, interpret and explain, yet every label and every explanation appears within the same immediate knowing it tries to describe. Mind does not stand outside seeing. There is no position apart from it. Thought, sensation, perception and emotion are expressions of one indivisible appearing.

So begin here: notice that whatever appears is already known in its appearing. A sound is known. A thought is known. The commentary about the thought is known. Even distraction, once recognised, is seen to have been another movement within experience, not a departure from knowing. Nothing that appears can be found outside knowing. Look for a single exception.

Stay watchful, then, but watch what happens to the watching. When the watcher is sought, only sensations, images and thoughts are found, each already known. No owner of seeing appears. Nothing needs to hold on to seeing, because even the sense of losing it is already seen.

This seeing is not limited to sight. It is the knowing of sound, sensation, thought, emotion, memory, silence and every other content of experience. To call it God’s seeing is simply to say that it belongs to no one. The appearing and the knowing of it cannot be pulled apart, however closely you look. Yet even “God,” “seeing” and “knowing” are names arising within the mystery they attempt to name.

The deepest watchfulness is the disappearance of the need to remain watchful. When it is clear that nothing appearing can stand outside knowing, vigilance dissolves and openness is discovered to have never been closed. No one guards presence from thought. Thought comes and goes in the presence that never arrived and never leaves.

Arriving here first?

The Awakening is the doorway [Start here]