REALISATION 47: GO WITH THE FLOW - STEPPING OUT OF THE GAME OF DUALITY

Only because there is practice can there be attainment.
Only because there is a Buddha can there be the Dharma.
Only because there is birth can there be death.
Only because there is a cause can there be an effect.
Only because there is this can there be that.

That is the natural law by which all things move.
Everything is relative; everything leans on something else to exist.
Practice and attainment, Buddha and Dharma, birth and death, cause and effect-these are simply two sides of the same coin, travelling together in the endless current of dependent arising.

Yet the moment we see that as long as we are 'practising', there is still somewhere we believe we have not reached, we begin to understand:
so long as there is practice, there is searching;
so long as there is searching, there is a sense of lack;
and so long as there is lack, we are still running within the game of duality-
where what is born must also die;
where every beginning implies an ending;
where the mind still clings to ideas of 'arrived' and 'not yet', 'gained' and 'lost'.

The one who truly understands the Way does not need to strain to practise-nor do they indulge in carelessness.
They move with conditions (thuận duyên), move with nature.
They do what needs doing, walk the path that is theirs to walk-
but they do not cling to practice or attainment,
they do not hold on to Buddha or Dharma.

For when there is no longer practice, there is no longer a 'practitioner'.
When there is no longer attainment, there is nothing left to attain.
When this side is gone, the other side disappears with it.
All things return to their quiet essence-beyond comparison, beyond separation.

That is absolute freedom:
living in accord with nature,
letting everything come and go by the law of conditions-
not grasping, not resisting,
and not turning it into a new identity of 'I have awakened'.

Such a person has stepped out of the dualistic game.
No longer stuck to either shore, they become the river-
not fighting the current, simply flowing with it.

They are one with nature.
Their eyes, their ears, and their mouth now belong to nature.
It is no longer 'them' speaking;
it is nature itself speaking through them.

It is simple:

Move with conditions, move with nature-because when we stop resisting the flow,
we are the flow.

And remember:

Go with the flow is not surrender.
It is living in wakefulness-
allowing nature to move through us,
rather than trying to make nature move for us.

Hoàng Nhật Minh
Excerpt from the book: Spiritual Science - A Journey Back To Your True Self

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Part X - Practical Methods (Hoàng Nhật Minh)