TRY HARDER

Life appears to be the never-ending quest for something or someone or to feel a certain way, usually better or happier or more peaceful. The relentless striving for betterment, for more, for the answer, for the success, for the money for the love, for the house, for the peace, for the acceptance, for the recognition, for the fame, for the contentment, for the enlightenment.....

It seems there is never enough. That no matter what is done there is a sense of more, more, more. Higher. Better. Up, up, up. Reaching, climbing, attaining, wanting, desiring, stretching for, working for, pushing for, manipulating for, looking for, seeking..... and on and on it goes. Seemingly.

If 'I' just get this one next thing 'I 'will be different.... improved, better, more than 'I' was before. 'I' will be happy or satisfied or 'I' will be 'there' finally!

No wonder there is a sense of lack of 'time' and exhaustion in the human existence. All this running and proving and striving and getting is all about the 'me'. 'I' did this or that. 

This does not mean that the natural apparent arising of things in the miracle of life need not happen. In fact life happens without 'your' controlling any outcome. Life happens without 'YOU'.

Children are rewarded when seen to be trying hard or harder than 'another'. Plunging deeper into the illusion of separation is the need for trying harder in order to do 'your' best and preferably something even better than someone 'else'. 

Competition. How much do human beings love the competitive edge. If not personally then certainly within sports, exam scores, scholastic achievement, beauty pageants, games, competitions of all sorts. Television is filled with a plethora of programming pitting one person against 'another' for gain and glory of the winner.

Winners, heroes, gods of glory and celebration.

The teaching of separation and the struggle to succeed begins with toddlers. Who has not seen parents encouraging their children to jump higher, to do more, to push further, to run faster, to speak earlier, to be smarter than, to grow taller than, to get a concept faster than, to know good behaviour faster than, to be more artistic.... ad infinitum.

Does the sky try harder to present cloud formations? Do blades of grass try harder to emerge from the earth? Do frogs try harder to jump? Does rain try harder to lash the trees? Do trees try harder to rustle in the wind? Is there trying in nature?

One might say a lion stalking his prey is trying.... but this is really simply apparent natural action taking place in the dream of form.

Might the' trying' fly in the face of being and the natural allowing of what is happening to arise? Perhaps 'trying' equals resistance. Perhaps 'trying' is just an action that happens within the dream.

Ultimately the 'trying' implies a person doing the 'trying'.

The mind/ego will of course argue that without 'trying' nothing would get done. Why would anything need to be done if the action is apparently happening anyway naturally and without anyone controlling it. Or seeming to control it within the dream.

There is a seeing that perhaps the 'trying' takes the seeker away from that which is already there and happening without force or effort or cause and effect at all. Or so it seems to be.

Mind/ego loves the chase, the fight, the challenge, the goals, the proof, the knowing, the result, the game, the problem solving, the honour, the valour, the achieving, the glory, the judging, the criticising, the reminding, the conceptualising, the 'getting it'. Mind loves the busy, ever moving, ever continuing loop of trying with result. Controlling so that things turn out with all the familiar outcomes. Even the so called 'bad' outcomes are at least familiars and allow for a whole lot of effort and trying.

This seems to be why often the seeker will get to the point where they are spent. They feel they can no longer try anymore. They have tried everything. They have tried meditating. They have tried stillness. They have tried manifesting. They have tried loving. They have tried compassionate seeing. They have tried higher vibrational work. They have tried chakra balancing. They have tried a million workshops. They have tried a million books. They have tried a million cds. They have tried a million courses. They have tried a million ways. They have tried a million paths. They have tried a million teachers. They have tried a million therapies. They have tried a million modalities. They have tried a million practitioners. They have tried a million processes. They have tried a million types of yoga. They have tried a million spiritual methods. They have tried a million spiritual advisors. They have tried a million spiritual substances.

They have tried and tried and tried. Along the way they have experienced perhaps some amazing experiences or some incredible states of being or some phenomena or some sensations of expansion.

All held the promise that 'THIS TIME' the answer will be there. 'THIS TIME' I will be more happy or more spiritual or more awake or more enlightened or more high vibrational or more 'myself'. The very word 'MORE' implies being somewhere other than this. Somewhere greater, higher. Somewhere over 'there'. Beyond this. Away from this. Better than this. Higher than this. More important than this. More spiritual than this. There must be something more than THIS.

All of this is mind. Apparently. The dream. Apparently.

THIS IS ALL THERE IS.

Absolute energy.... life itself requires no other. No more. No better. No-thing other than what appears to be happening.

Just this and no more. There is no 'trying' in this. Nowhere to go or to be or to find or to experience or to grow into or to get to or to move towards or to discover.

Each moment of life existent is a discovery. Totally new as arising energy apparently takes form within the apparent dream to apparently reveal itself.

Right now there may be an attempt to try to find meaning within these apparent words.

Stop TRYING. No really.... STOP TRYING. Not that there is anyone trying anything but within the dream there seems to be some trying happening. So don't stop it. Don't allow it. Don't appear to be doing anything at all. 

SOMETHING will happen and NOTHING will also happen.... or so it seems.

Dissolving into nothing is not an action. No amount of 'you' trying will produce anything at all.

Do you try to breathe? Or does it happen without 'you'?

Notice this but don't try to notice.

As the Beatles once said... let it be.

(but no need to 'try' the letting it be)

None of this is personal at all.