Catching a moment of pure being

[beherenow.space]

The experience of pure being can be very elusive. There is an inherent contradiction in having to make effort to change from our day to day consciousness of doing, striving and coping into a state of effortless-changeless being. Mindfulness meditation and relaxation is the process of undoing and letting go of this perpetual motion of becoming.

The best chance we have of catching a moment of pure being is after we have prepared ourselves to be open to receiving it – pure being is, I think, received and not created – but when we have stopped trying to experience it; such a moment is best found, not during, but at the end of a mindfulness meditation.

Our mindfulness meditation has prepared us by spending time grounding ourselves in the present, by opening ourselves up to the natural flow of change in each moment and by allowing ourselves to gradually let go of the mindset of becoming. But we cannot create a state of being through any mindfulness meditation practise, we are simply creating the conditions where it may be possible; we are clearing the room, opening the windows and then waiting for the cool fresh breeze to enter.

At the point we end a mindfulness meditation we stop trying to create a state of being, we stop making any effort at all, and this effort may have been the last subtle obstacle that prevents the experience of pure being. When all trying and effort has ceased after we have prepared ourselves as best we can, then that is when an experience of pure being may spontaneously emerge within us.

The most important part of a mindfulness meditation is then, not the beginning, it is not the middle, it is not the final moments; it is the moment after we have stopped meditating altogether and before we have moved back into our usual mode of becoming. Pause and wait at this time, be in no hurry to get up and move, and a moment of pure being may come visiting.