Naked Awareness

Naked Awareness

For about a year, while between permanent homes some years ago, I lived at a nudist resort near San Diego. Folks, that I talked to there, seemed convinced that the population of nudists was steadily increasing. I reflected on the soaring increase in sheer human numbers, and it occurred to me that any increase in the nudist population probably only reflected a general population increase. Acquaintances sometimes remark to me that the attraction to the nondual teachings appears to be increasing at a surprising rate. Earlier on, this seemed to me to be a corollary to the increase in the nudist population. But, more recently, I’ve considered it differently. In one-on-one discussions with scores of people each of the past few years, I’ve noticed that virtually all of these “seekers” have much in common. Most all have acquainted themselves with a wide variety of spiritual teachings and disciplines. Most all have been involved in some sort of “practice”-oriented tradition, various schools of meditation primarily among them. Partly due to such books as Alan Watts’ Way of Zen, there was a notable enthusiastic interest in Buddhism beginning in the Sixties. Many Zen roshis were invited over from Japan to establish zendos in the various parts of the U.S., such as Suzuki Roshi who headed the San Francisco Zen Center.

The so-called sudden enlightenment school of Soto Zen seems to have been more attractive than Rinzai Zen with its koan stepping-stones. Soto Zen masters stressed Zazen, sitting meditation.

One prominent nonduality teacher today, Adyashanti (Steve Gray) has had experience with Zazen (as have I). If Buddhism was purely in the business of enlightenment, he has observed, it would be bankrupt by now. There are men and women who’ve been diligently pursuing their meditation (or other) practice for twenty, thirty, even fifty years to date, who will tell you that they are still not Self-realized. An all-too-common email lies next to me on my desk: “I have practiced (Buddhist) meditation, and studied in many traditions. However, I have not been able to realize my essential nature. What is the practice that allowed you to realize your nondual state, in a permanent way?” A recent issue of a Theravada quarterly provoked despairing letters-to-the-editor concerning this very matter. What I have described in the preceding paragraph is to me the answer to why there is a burgeoning interest in Advaita. The fundament of this teaching is that what you are seeking is actually inescapable, and you need merely recognize that fact. Your “essential nature” must be here, now. Any, and every, practice can only focus your attention on a desired future event, piping your awareness away from the Presence that is always everywhere—whether you are sitting thoughtless on a cushion, or not.