Chapter 5: Sending Off

Sending Off

“Allow yourself to be, 

in a quiet and loving meditation, 

without trying to know what you will or should write about, 

and from within that wondrous silence, 

let the final chapter flow forth, 

emerging from you, 

from your meditation, 

and see what is revealed.    

And if this happens and it seems right, 

send it to me without trying to edit it first. 

I’m curious to see what emerges. 

I see this “Sending Off” as being similar 

in both its essence and its frequency 

to the “Opening Words” 

exactly as you wrote them – 

something that in its pace reminds the soul 

of the gentle, soft strokes of a paintbrush, 

something that on the one hand wraps you up and hugs you to it, 

and on the other hand stands on its own, 

the beginning of something completely new, 

of the next moment. 

They are one – 

concluding, revitalizing, opening.” 

 

 Ayala 

Intention. 

Cyprus. The last day. 

 

Beauty is found in everything. It will strum us like an instrument, creating melodies that are familiar and strange, clear and understood, mysterious and sweeping – if we allow it to; so long as we don’t intervene and insist that it must have a specific form or structure. 

It shows itself in infinite shapes and presentations – providing that we don’t look for it only in specific places, that we don’t believe in falsity, and that we allow ourselves to die-to-self in order to discover ourselves anew. 

 

Wholeness. 

The recognition that in every moment what is precise is taking place and that what is happening is exactly what I came to experience in this life. 

 

Wholeness. 

Absolutely no resistance to what is happening right now or what is found right here. 

 

Wholeness. 

No desire to be anywhere but here and now. 

 

Wholeness. 

A full motion of everything that is yes; of becoming merged, absorbed, consumed; the dissolution of boundaries. 

 

Wholeness. 

The recognition of our completeness; no thought as to what is “lacking” or “no” or “not yet” or “not enough”. 

 

Wholeness. 

The recognition that another’s presence in our lives neither adds nor detracts from the wonder and the love that is us but rather allows us, and reminds us, to celebrate it; to grow and awaken through it. 

 

Wholeness. 

The true and inherent motion of life and prayer; repeated, remembered and nourished by the self, and not a constant attempt to reach, prevent, achieve or resist. 

 

Wholeness. 

The quiet anticipation that we will discover what was always there. 

 

Wholeness. 

It is precision. 

We just know. 

 

What is whole is quiet. It appears passive, as if it is nothing, when in reality it is an elaborate testimony to the nature of things and the fact that we are eternal. When we exist within it, within the whole, when we are nourished by it and focus our attention on it, there is prosperity, beauty, freedom and happiness – things that we did not cause but that have always been here. 

 

This is how it is now. 

It is a simplicity 

That is not looking to push for one thing

Or achieve something else. 

It is a simple motion. 

Self-discovery. 

Being in itself.

Learning and distinguishing 

Between that which is eternal 

And that which is temporary. 

Between that which creates suffering 

And the celebration of the nature of existence. 

Simply 

Learning ourselves 

Our true nature 

And sharing it with others.