Friday, November 24, 2006


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"On my own with the vastness, I had encountered the very insight that did the work of exposing the fear and releasing its hold. I realized that the mind had been clinging tenaciously to the erroneous notion that the presence of fear meant something about the validity of the experience of no-self. Fear had tricked the mind into taking its presence to mean something that it did not. Fear was present, yes, but that was it! The presence of fear in no way invalidated the experience that no personal self existed. It only meant that fear was present.
"Fear didn't need to go anywhere for the personal self to be seen to be non-existent. After all, where could it possibly go? It had never existed. Nothing needed to change or be eradicated; nothing needed to do anything at all but to be. Everything occurs simultaneously--form and emptiness, pain and enlightenment, fear and awakening. Once seen, it seemed so incredibly simple.
"Fear's grip now broke, and joy arose at once. The experience of emptiness had given up its secret. The emptiness was seen to be nothing but the very substance of everything. I finally saw what had been in front of me the whole time but had been obscured by fear: There is not only no individual self, but also no other. No self, no other. Everything is made of the same substance of vastness."
Suzanne Segal
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2 Comments:

Blogger Kathleen said...

Wow... great to hear from Suzanne! I love how she exposes fear for what it is... Her story is such a great one...

Thanks Dannyji... for this!!!

LOVE.... :)

grpxvc!

1:11 PM  
Blogger Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

So VERY true, Dan. Thank you!

7:11 AM  

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