The mind is a hammer, and it’s constantly looking for something to fix. Just put down the hammer.

Angelo Dilullo

When undergoing the awakening process, we can invest so much of our mental energy in the process of self-inquiry.

Sometimes, so much so - that it can feel as if a veil is cast over experience - a subtle form of dissociation and dis-embodiment.

Amidst a social encounter, shopping or groceries, walking in the park - inquiries into the nature of self may rapid-fire in our mind.

• Who am I?
• Who is resisting experience right now?
• What would I have to be believing for this resistance to be here?
• Where did this pain come from?
• What does this emotion want to say, if it had a voice?

These are just some of the guests we might expect to visit.

The tradeoff of self-inquiry

Naturally, as the direction of this post is going… the question becomes: is there a tradeoff here?

Is this process of inquiry over-complicating things?

I believe it might be.

I believe that sometimes, the mind innocently overlooks the simple joy that can be found within the apparent misery… and uses inquiry to bypass the rich textures of pain in our experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to demean inquiry.

It’s still very much valid and plays a very important role in unraveling who and what we take ourselves to be.

But what if we could try another approach, just as an experiment?

What if we could find joy in “pain”?

What if, amidst the most cripping social angst, bubbling anger, blanketing sadness or debilitating shame, we could in fact discover a richness to each and every one of these experiences?

With this in mind, my invitation becomes the following:

Rather than enabling the mind to act as a constant hammer looking for problem after problem to solve, simply ask:

What is enjoyable about these sensations?

When asking this inquiry, drop right into the heart of the sensation causing discomfort.

Listen with curiosity, and then perhaps again ask with even deeper curiosity..

What is enjoyable about this?

REALLY look for it. Like you really want to know.

Feel the power of life coursing through your nervous system in awe.

Soften more deeply into the contraction.

REALLY. LOOK.

And there - humming in the background, snuffed out by the resistance from trying to inquire your way out of it - is a glimmer of beauty.

A pulsating warmth amidst the misery, despair, or angst.

Your ticket to deeper surrender.

This is life, this IS the human experience: and it’s coursing through your veins.

Not only that, it’s beautifully unavoidable, totally humbling, and completely consuming.

Like a celestial body sucking you into its majesty.

Let Surrender Take You

Feel this depth of surrender with every cell in your body.

Like a zen monk collapsing to the ground and prostrating in humility.. Relax into it even deeper.

Allow a total acceptance to permeate into what you thought was impossible to handle.. but what the body is capable of handling.

Resist the mind's temptation to do self-inquiry.

Feel. JUST. FEEL.

Absorb yourself into the rich texture of sensation, and then even more.

Breathe vitality into it…. Breathe love into it.

And collapse into the arms of pain, letting it teach you what it means to be alive in this raw human experience.

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Give that a try.