I have owned many journals over the years however never more than one at a time. For mysterious reasons I would write in one for a while and then discard it. Possibly because Truth can only be discovered now. There is one journal that has survived for almost three decades and I suspect that it contains something that remains fresh and timelessly true. Here is something I wrote in that journal (the same one that contained the “First Friends Last” poem.
“If you are smart, you’ll realize that someday you will have everything you need to be happy. If you are wise, you’ll know that day is today.”
It’s clear to me now that when I wrote that I was at best smart as that realization took many more years to firmly take root.
Life offers us an opportunity NOW to discover that “causeless happiness”. Each of us has experienced causeless joy countless times over. However this is usually interrupted with doing (thinking/analyzing/judging). One cannot speak of Truth directly and there can be no formula or step-by-step method. Anything prescribed would become a doing and invoke the busy mind. A cessation of doing reveals being. This is why we have heard Great Beings say things like “stop” or “keep quiet”.
Long ago I copied the following poem into the only journal I still possess. No wonder that journal has stuck around…
“You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.“
Franz Kafka 1883-1924
“A cessation of doing reveals being.” I love that, Walter!
Yes! We are human beings, not human doings!