Q: You were speaking the other night about being yes, and the experiences I’ve had of that have been very very brief. And I’d like if you could talk to me not just about being yes, but also address the aspects of me that are more interested in living in the patterns.

John: What you’re being in is your thinking. It is your thinking that is being in this life, and there’s no nourishment in thinking. Enjoy being in your body without any focus. What stops you being in your body is all of your concerns with your life. You cannot enjoy being in your body unless you first let go of your life. Your body is the most simple of what is. It’s you being in what is, as is. Your life you have to interact with. Your body you don’t have to interact with.

While you are just enjoying being in it, it is taking care of itself. Enjoying being in your body takes you out of all of your thought. Your body is the first space for you to be in. The way to be in anything is from the space of being in your body. Your body matches you, so your body really is like a home. It suits you perfectly.

Everything that you are around, everything that is closest to you is permeated with what you are as a being. It has your energy in it.

Q: It’s a long while since I’ve had a home.

John: If you notice what happens when you put your coat on, there is a very tiny little exchange of being. It has nothing to do with your thinking. If you let your awareness be there when you put your coat on or when you put your clothes on, there is a very delicate exchange that’s happening. It is that very delicate exchange that is a taste of how to be in your body; letting your awareness go to see what it is like to put your coat on or your clothes, to walk into your house or to be in your body. It’s easy to miss because it’s easy to look away from.

Let your awareness notice what it is like. It is very subtle because you’re not used to seeing it. What you’re used to is being in your body for many reasons: being in your body so that you can get things done, being in your body so that you can do something with your body. It’s easy to take your body for granted. You can take care of your body and you can listen to your body, and in that way you’re not taking your body for granted, but you may still be taking your body for granted by not simply enjoying being in it without there being any focus on anything about your body.

It is first nothing about your body, not how you can use it to do something, not even how you would take care of it. It is first being in it without any focus, without any reason in mind; just simply what is it like for you to be in your body without thinking about your body, without thinking about life? What is it like to be in your body without any concern, without any issues in mind, without anything being important?

Q: Here and now there’s more of a sense of warmth and of being home. The mind still wants to know how to fix my life.

John: Being first has nothing to do with living. What you’re here for is first to be. Your first encounter with that is being in a body, being in your body without that having anything to do with your life. It is only from that space that you are to then come forward into life. As you’re separated from that space, then your experience of living becomes all-important and you no longer have your feet inside of what you are as a being.

What is so delightful with seeing a baby is that it is really in its body. That gives the baby a shine of being. It hasn’t really recognized a life with which to be concerned about. For a baby to be, to be in its body is easy and simple. It also has yet to integrate the mind, to integrate the mind in context of this life, where everything can appear as being so important, so big, that it then steps out of standing out of what it is as a being, having its feet in what it is as a being, and it leaves that and then it is stuck in its mind, which is stuck in this life.

It is letting go of your whole life, letting go of the whole relationship between your mind and what appears to be your life, letting go of absolutely everything. Being released of all concern, being released of anything to do with the past or the future until all that’s left over is that you are simply being in your body without there being any thought about your body. No thought or concern about your body or about your life. Then you’re being. It is from there that you are re-immersed in your mind and in your life, but being connected first to what you are as a being and not being connected first to your life.

It’s going back to your roots. Your roots are what you are as a being. When you’ve disconnected from your roots, then to find them you have to disconnect from the tree. It’s not cutting the tree down; it’s letting your awareness very gently disconnect from the tree and the tree’s experience of being here. That allows your awareness to drop out of what you are as a tree and into the roots. Then you’re knowing your self.

When you know your self, then you’re free to experience your self. Where you experience your self is when your awareness returns to being in the tree, when your awareness returns to being in this life. But the feet of your awareness have to remain in what you are as a being, so your feet remain in your roots and it is from there that you think and move and live.

As soon as something appears to be too big in this life and you’re feeling disconnected from what you are as a being, then instead of trying to fix something in your life so that you can be back in what you are as a being, just leave your life alone. Within your self, let it go and let your self return to just simply being in your body, enjoying being in your body. Then let that live this life.

Q: So when something in the life seems too big, for instance I owe money and stuff like that, that doesn’t necessarily mean turning away from the responsibility of that, it’s just connecting back to the being and then letting what needs to come, come from that place.

John: It is turning away from all responsibility, all concern, all need. It is very gently turning away from your whole life. It’s not walking out of your life. It is exiting your life and just dropping within your body. That connects you to what you are, and it is letting that resume all responsibility instead of you taking on all responsibility.

When you’re being thought and concern, responsibility and want and need, then you’re not being what you really are. Then you’re being what you are caught in. Reconnecting and continuing but it’s letting the reconnection continue. No longer continuing without being connected.

Q: So if I forget what you’re showing me now, in general is it helpful instead of letting the attention free range in the mind, to drop down towards the heart, even if the heart seems a little closed?

John: That is already good. It’s being in your heart, not in context of this life. When you experience your heart, it is usually in context of this life. Let your self be in your heart of hearts in context of your body, not your life. That connects you more deeply to your life. That connects you to the innermost of everything in your life. When you’re being in your heart of hearts, not in context of this life but in context of your body, then you’re being connected to your innermost. It is that that knows the innermost of everything in this life, the innermost of every relationship, which is its bond. Recognizing your bond with everything.

When you recognize your bond with everything in this life, instead of recognizing things for what they appear to be, then you as a being have a bond with living, which has nothing to do with anything on the surface of this life. It has to do with where you’re coming from. It has to do with what your feet are in.

When you have your feet in what you are as a being, then you’ll be connected to beingness in everything outside of you. Then in everything in your life you can see beingness instead of concern: a being-filled life instead of having a concern, hope and dread-filled life. It’s letting your awareness return to simplicity whereas your awareness has become attached to complexity. The more that you are attached as awareness to complexity, the more you are separated from what you are as a being. When you let what you are as awareness return to simplicity, then your concern-filled life completely dissolves. This life doesn’t dissolve – only your perspective on it, the perspective that personal concern has.

Q: When I see whatever is going on in my mind and there’s remembering tenderness, it’s not intended to be an idea of tenderness and I just make it more complex.

John: That is you trying to solve your dilemma with being by using your mind in your life.

Q: Instead of indulging in that habit, it would be better just to let it go, forget about observing what’s there, and just leave it alone completely and just drop down?

John: Dropping in so deeply that within that space your life doesn’t even exist. Your life does exist – just not there. Your life doesn’t exist in the roots; it exists in the tree. It’s letting the two be connected, but from the roots. If you cannot be just in the roots, first, then you’ll never be able to cope in the tree. Then everything in the tree is too much for you. When you’re in the roots, then nothing in the tree is too much. Go within to where your life doesn’t even exist, and it is only that that is able to be in this life and at the same time be free. Returning to that space.

Once your feet sink deeply into that space, while your feet remain there, your awareness being in your feet and that part of you being in the deep, being where your life doesn’t exist, being where there is only being, then let the rest of your body of awareness return to being here in this life, living your whole life with your feet deeply inside of what you are as a being.

You cannot have your life and be what you are as a being. You can be what you are as a being with that being in this life. It’s a very simple flip that appears to cost you everything. It is being in this life, coming from where you did come from.