Overlooking Being: Source of All Sorrow

Primary experience is the experience of being – present before every other experience. Before retreat, dinner, emotions, thoughts, age, gender or personhood, there is simply being. This fundamental, essential experience is what we are, naturally and effortlessly, requiring no cultivation. When we say ‘I am’ without qualifiers, we refer to this pure experience – identical for everyone. Like the sun illuminating both itself and everything else, awareness has two aspects: its subjective experience of itself and its awareness of all objective experiences. We typically overlook our awareness of being in favour of our awareness of thoughts, sensations and perceptions. This overlooking is the source of all sorrow. The remedy lies in remembrance, in returning to being through meditation or prayer. Being is not merely our starting point but also our destiny. It is simultaneously the origin, the path and the goal. We can overlook ourselves or remember, but we never cease being ourselves.

Primary experience is the experience of being – present before every other experience. Before retreat, dinner, emotions, thoughts, age, gender or personhood, there is simply being. This fundamental, essential experience is what we are, naturally and effortlessly, requiring no cultivation. When we say ‘I am’ without qualifiers, we refer to this pure experience – identical for everyone. Like the sun illuminating both itself and everything else, awareness has two aspects: its subjective experience of itself and its awareness of all objective experiences. We typically overlook our awareness of being in favour of our awareness of thoughts, sensations and perceptions. This overlooking is the source of all sorrow. The remedy lies in remembrance, in returning to being through meditation or prayer. Being is not merely our starting point but also our destiny. It is simultaneously the origin, the path and the goal. We can overlook ourselves or remember, but we never cease being ourselves.