RELAXED BUT VIGILANT LUCIDITY
Every time we engage in a session of practice we become more and more stable in a knowing attentiveness. What is it that we know? What do we realize? We discover the ultimate truth of nonduality. Subject and object are not two; they are two different names for the same one thing and its functions: consciousness. With each practice session the impressions of physical, emotional, and mental experience are put into a better order, an order related to the clear vision of reality, and then habitual reactivity starts becoming more and more dis-integrated; ignorance, nescience, and delusion wither away bit-by-bit, slowly, slowly, so that the mechanical arisings of the mind have less and less power. The mind becomes more and more free to serve as a friend than as an enemy. The automated and habitual mechanics of passive mentation is thus brought more and more into full view and distractive hindrances progressively fade away. The power of relaxed but vigilant lucidity is all that is required for approaching the goal-less goal of sustained and stable presence in the gap between thoughts. No matter what kind of thought or image arises we should just be aware of it as what it really is and just dismiss it, just let go of it. Continue with diligence and persistence until attentive presence is the state of awareness at all times.
Attentive presence is not an escape from anything, but a quality of awareness, of re-cognition back into a spontaneous understanding of things as-they-really-are without actually thinking in conceptual terms. Attentive presence is that state of awareness, of receptivity, like a calm and placid body of water able to perfectly reflect everything – without any attachment to anything and everything. This is sharp and steady awareness, like a mirror. Attention doesn’t stray and doesn’t get caught up in acceptance or rejection, love and hate, or in any binding bias. Attention stays vigilant but relaxed and free, not focused on anything in particular. Whatever happens is allowed to happen and there is no mental comment forthcoming because there is a relaxed alertness to arising potentialities of mind. So, we just relax, but remaining vigilant and on guard for attention to drift, we get more and more non-distracted and our attention gets set free. This is the secret of lucidity.
