Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
WIZARD: The Buddha was looking and searching, and had
completely exhausted every remedy imaginable, and he sat under
a tree in Benares. And he sat under the tree and he let it all go,
when he gave up the search he was answered.
NIRMALA: There's also a place in between, there is a kind of
doing which is the simple noticing of how expanded or contracted
you are. The simple noticing of the experience of awareness you're
having right now. That noticing is in between doing and not
doing. And it doesn't actually cause any shift or awakening. But
what noticing does mean is that you're there when it happens. You
actually notice it. I use the metaphor that going down and sitting
at the beach does not cause a tsunami, but it does mean that it's a
lot more likely that you're going to be swept away by any tsunami
that happens to come [Laughs]. So a common misunderstanding
is that people expect or think somehow that doing a spiritual
practice is going to cause an awakening, but the Truth is that
spiritual practice just means that you're home when awakening or
a big surrender comes.
TRIP: Oh, Nirmala, we've run out of time, man. I could hang here
with you for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for joining us
today.
WIZARD: Right on. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
NIRMALA: My pleasure.
TRIP: [Laughs] All right, well thank you so much.
NIRMALA: All right, you two take care.
WIZARD: Namaste.
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