“Many speak of the mind without ever investigating it for themselves. It’s easy to spend years studying spiritual concepts and eventually, one might feel they’re getting somewhere when they can speak freely about a topic, such as mind, without actually knowing what is true about it. If you wish, stop whatever you are doing, and close your eyes. Look within this head of yours, and before you speak about mind, see if you can find it. Without assuming it’s here, or imagining what it looks like, close your eyes and simply see if mind is something that exists without speaking or thinking about it.

By grace or good fortune, you’ll experience a level of insight that requires no more than two seconds of your time. You may, in fact, see there is no such thing called a mind, but only a sense of spaciousness within yourself whenever you dare to look within. If there is no mind outside of ideas describing mind, then mind is just an idea. It is a wonderful idea that acts as miraculous or as dysfunctional as your ideas about it suggest. If you wish to be clear and know the truth for yourself, relinquish all needs and necessities to speak about mind, blame mind, or even correct others who mention the idea of mind. Allow this moment to be simple and direct: if mind cannot be found directly when looking within, then it is no longer spoken of, nor is it even considered.

You may see right now how there is no mind, while wrestling with the experiences of mind. Such experiences of mind merely reflect how often you believed and identified with this idea called mind. When you no longer speak about mind, or blame it for anything, including thoughts, the experience of mind begins to subside without your constant effort of reinforcing it. Why speak about an idea, as if it’s something more than an idea, when you cannot find it beyond ideas? This is an essential step.

Without a mind here to be found, there is essentially nothing to blame for any of this. Without blame, something to overcome, or anything else to deny, there is simply an open-ended opportunity to face life directly. This delivers you directly into the heart of clarity. Just like many speak of a mind that cannot be found, there is a drastic misunderstanding that confuses true clarity with ideas imagined about it.

True clarity is the absence of understanding. Many unknowingly avoid this realization by pursuing some form of understanding, or maintaining a previously imagined level of understanding by repeating it, either to themselves or others. Any form of understanding offers you a fixed position of observation, which then becomes the perspective through which a world is viewed only to confirm whatever understanding is being assumed. True freedom and true clarity are one in the same.

It is freedom from the need to understand, or believe something needs to be further understood, that invites you to explore the miracle of life directly. Nothing is in the way of anything, but ideas about a mind that cannot be found, or a need to understand what will only be further misunderstood in the process.

Your need to understand may have led to some aha moments in the past and offered you support whenever you needed it most, but the big aha is revealed the moment you’re free from seeking it. When there is no mind to find, there is no understanding to seek. When there is no understanding to seek, there is nothing left to fear, avoid, define or deny. This may destroy all conventional ideas of spirituality. In doing so, it reveals the true essence of spirituality, which turns the compulsive burden of endless seeking into a celebration of a lifetime.

During this celebration, the real mind is revealed, and it’s not even a mind at all. It is the universe. The universe freely contemplates whatever is imagined — simply for the joy of considering the endless potential of infinite possibility. There is nothing to believe, nor is there anything to disbelieve. There is only the experience of whatever is being momentarily considered. Meanwhile, every idea being experienced blames ideas on other ideas, such as mind, ego, world, karma, etc…The universe has no problem with anything ideas suggest because every idea is a part of experiencing whatever possibility has somehow been imagined.

Ironically, you cannot experience the mind as the universe until you stop calling it the mind. What is essentially more important than holding your world of organized ideas together is letting it all drop away and noticing what remains. It is accepting the invitation to explore life on life’s unimaginable terms, simply by daring to experience this moment — without anything to prove or disprove about it.”

~Matt Kahn

“Before attempting to abide in consciousness, first investigate consciousness directly to see if there is anything else to abide in. After close examination, which might not take you more than a few seconds of inquiry, you may realize a few important things.

You may see for yourself how you cannot abide in thoughts. Thoughts appear in consciousness. You are the witness, abiding in consciousness, conscious of however thoughts momentarily appear.

You cannot abide in reactions. Reactions appear in consciousness. You are the witness, abiding in consciousness, conscious of however reactions momentarily appear.

You cannot abide in body. Body appears in consciousness. You are the witness, abiding in consciousness, conscious of however body momentarily appears.

You cannot abide in the world. The world appears in consciousness. You are the witness, abiding in consciousness, conscious of however the world momentarily appears.

When you realize there is nothing but consciousness to abide in, you’ll realize how consciousness is always effortlessly abiding in the vastness of itself. Inevitably, the teaching of abiding in consciousness is recognized, not as a formal instruction, or a repetitive practice, but a reminder of what is already so. As this insight dawns upon you, abiding in consciousness will be recognized as everyone’s reality and nobody’s spiritual practice.”

~Matt Kahn

“The true meaning of the word repent is to admit. Whenever a craving or a desire arises, simply admit to yourself what you are craving or desiring in as much graphic detail as necessary. As this occurs, you defuse the energy within such cravings and desires, purifying the energy field of life-long patterns of desperation. The actual meaning of repent your sins is admitting what choices or actions only lead to further desperation, to crave and desire what never frees you from endless desires and personal cravings. Simply by consciously admitting to yourself whatever arises, you are freed from the need to choose or act upon it. This allows you to use every want, need, or desire as a means of liberating yourself from all forms of desperation. In doing so, the kingdom of heaven reveals itself as the openness and purity of your own divine heart space.”

~Matt Kahn

“The more love that you offer, the more sincere your love shall feel. Offering love to others is a conscious act of embracing all aspects of self, that may come disguised as thoughts, feelings or the appearance of other people. If you are unaware of the love you are here to share, simply engage in this practice of loving all that you are; however it appears, in one and all. Whatever arises – Love that.”

~ Matt Kahn

A teacher walks a student toward the exit of a temple. The teacher says, “You are now fully prepared for the journey ahead, and I send you off to return to the world that has much to teach you at this time.”

“But what if I have a question or a concern I am unable to answer, how will I contact you?” asks the student.

The teacher replies, “There are already three important teachers for you to meet that will reveal themselves in time. They will offer you everything you may ever possibly need. Have faith in these teachers and they will surely appear.”
The student trusts the wise words of the teacher and leaves the temple.
Two years later, the student returns to the temple—confused and dismayed by what has been revealed. The student asks, “Did I miss something? I had faith in knowing three important teachers would appear, and all I’ve experienced is failure, heartbreak, and disappointment.”

“So, you met the three teachers that were sent your way,” the teacher responds.
“How are those teachers?” the student asks.

The teacher explains, “Failure ensures you will no longer make an enemy out of the inevitability of loss. It helps you realize your only success is how willing you are to embrace each moment—no matter what transpires. Heartbreak is the means in which the heart breaks completely open, freeing you of the struggle between wanting more of this, or wishing for less of that. Lastly, disappointment liberates you from the endless sea of expectation. It shows you, time and time again—you cannot believe what is true, you may only see what is true about it all, and know the truth as yourself.”

The student is speechless.

The teacher walks the student back toward the exit of the temple. The teacher says, “Now that you know the three teachers I sent your way, it is now time go back and continue to learn from them.”

“But that means I’m going home and returning to my everyday life,” says the student. The teacher smiles, “It’s the best school you can find. Rest assured, I’d only send you to the one I attended.”

“That’s how you learned?” the student asks. The teacher responds, “Yes. Much failure, heartbreak, and disappointment—as luck would have it.”

~Matt Kahn
(as posted on his facebook page)

Truth is a love affair with simplicity. It is life’s endless reminder that whatever happens never defines your true experience, it only decorates it momentarily. When your most intimate partnership is with the truth of your eternal being, life expands beyond the changing relationships between two things, and into a timeless love affair within one Self. In such a love affair, all is embraced and everything is included.

~Matt Kahn

“Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and assumptions are not wrong to imagine, and yet they’re never true in any respect. The only truth in any thought, idea, belief, or assumption is that they are only a thought, idea, belief, or assumption – with nothing else about it ever being true, beyond that one simple truth.”

~Matt Kahn

Fulfillment is not found in any goal you attain, any dream you actualize, or any purpose a clever mind has imagined and continues to chase. Fulfillment is how deeply and vividly you are experiencing whatever you appear to experience, and how freely you allow what comes and goes, to freely come and go.
~Matt Kahn

The entire article from which this snippet came can be read on Matt’s web site.
Love Be Thy Name.