Sometimes I’ve been asked why I talk about courage, because apparently it sounds very ‘dual’ to suggest that there is someone who could have courage. And of course this is one of those very annoying (for the thinking) paradoxes.
It’s true that there is no actual separate individual who is separate from the rest of life. Life itself has no need for courage, or for anything else for that matter. It is already everything that we ever try to become, and never lacks or misses anything that we may imagine is missing. Recognising this is freedom.
However, the play ‘as if’ goes on. The play of the person living a life with personal issues, patterns and conditioning continues. Life itself plays as if I am located in this body with my own desires, fears and longings. And if I am most honest, despite any fears, my deepest longing is always to know, and live as, my true self – Life itself. In this play ‘as if’ there are the fears and believed-in challenges or limitations, that seem to restrict my knowing and living of this. But when I acknowledge my deepest longing, this is always the courage and inspiration to question and step free of any believed-in restrictions.
The kind of courage that I am talking about is not for the thinking to take over. It is not something that I need to try to do. And by the same token, hearing the non-dual message that there is no separate individual, is not an excuse to have an attitude of passivity. This kind of courage is nothing to do with any particular effort or attitude. It is the courage that bursts forth when I align with my deepest longing.
Courage comes naturally when I align with my deepest longing to know, and live as, Life itself. The thinking will always offer excuses or pretences, and it takes courage to shift allegiance from identifying with thinking to my true identity as Life itself. This shift doesn’t happen in one miraculous Grace-delivered moment. It takes courage to question ‘normal’ assumptions again and again, or to keep risking feeling what is really here. It is an ongoing ever-unraveling moment to moment, thought by thought, feeling by feeling, effortless process that happens by itself. Each moment is an opportunity to step free of any believed-in restrictions. And paradoxically, in courageously stepping free of these believed-in restrictions, it becomes obvious that they were never real restrictions, and there was never anyone who was restricted or who needed to courageously step free. I am, and have always been, Life itself playing hide-and-seek with myself.
Unmani
1st September, 2013
