The Simple Feeling of Being

It's not quite right to describe One Taste as a

"consciousness" or an "awareness," because that's a little too
heady, too cognitive. It's more like the simple Feeling of
Being. You already feel this simple Feeling of Being: it is the
simple, present feeling of existence.

But it's quite different from all other feelings or

experiences, because this simple Feeling of Being does not
come or go. It is not in time at all, though time flows through
it, as one of the many textures of its own sensation. The
simple Feeling of Being is not an experienceit is a vast
Openness in which all experiences come and go, an infinite
Spaciousness in which all perceptions move, a great Spirit in
which the forms of its own play arise, remain a bit, and pass.
It is your own I-I as your little-I uncoils in the vast expanse
of All Space. The simple Feeling of Being, which is the simple
feeling of existence, is the simple Feeling of One Taste.

Is this not obvious? Aren't you already aware of existing?

Don't you already feel the simple Feeling of Being? Don't you
already possess this immediate gateway to ultimate Spirit,
which is nothing other than the simple Feeling of Being? You
have this simple Feeling now, don't you? And you have it now,
don't you? And now, yes?

And don't you already realize that this Feeling is Spirit

itself? Godhead itself? Emptiness itself? Spirit does not pop
into existence: it is the only thing that is constant in your
experienceand that is the simple Feeling of Being itself, a
subtle, constant, background awareness that, if you look very
closely, very carefully, you will realize you have had ever since
the Big Bang and beforenot because you existed way back
when, but because you truly exist prior to time, in this
timeless moment, whose feeling is the simple Feeling of Being:
now, and now, and always and forever now.

You feel the simple Feeling of Being? Who is not already

enlightened?

Ah, but we humans don't just want Spirit, we want agitation as

well. We don't just want the simple Feeling of Being, we want
to feel . . . something. Something special. We want to feel
rich, or we want to feel famous, or we want to feel important;
we want to stand out, make a mark, be a somebody. And so we
divide up the simple Feeling of Beingwe qualify it, categorize
it, name it, separate it. We do not want to impartially witness
the world as I-I and then be the world in the Feeling of One
Taste. And so, instead of being the world, we want to be
somebody. We want, that is, to suffer the lacerations of
finite limitation, and this we do, horribly, when we become a
somebody. Abandoning the simple Feeling of Beingwhere I-I

am the worldwe identify with a little body in a pitifully small

space, and we want this little body to rise up over all other
bodies and triumph: we will be somebody, by god.

But if I remain in the simple Feeling of Being, what does it

matter if a friend gets a new house and I do not? Her joy is
my joy, in the simple Feeling of One Taste. What does it
matter if a colleague receives accolades and I do not? His
happiness is my happiness, in the simple Feeling of One Taste.
When there is but one Self looking out through all eyes, do I
not rejoice in good fortune wherever it occurs, since it is the
good fortune of my own deepest Self? And when suffering
occurs anywhere in the universe, do I not also suffer, since it
is the suffering of my own deepest Self? When one young
child cries from hunger, do I not suffer?

"When one young husband delights in seeing his wife come

home, do I not rejoice?

Traherne got it exactly: "The streets were mine, the temple

was mine, the people were mine. The skies were mine, and so
were the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine,
and I the only Spectator [Witness] and enjoyer of it. I knew
no churlish proprieties, nor bounds, nor divisions; but all
proprieties and divisions were mine; all treasures and the
possessors of them. So that with much ado I was corrupted

and made to learn the dirty devices of the world, which I now
unlearn. . . ."

In the simple Feeling of Being, where I-I am the world,

jealousy and envy can find no purchase; all happiness is my
happiness, all sadness is my sadnessand therefore,
paradoxically, suffering ceases. Tears do not cease, nor do
smilesjust the insane notion that I am somebody in the face
of my own display. To cease being somebodywhen "bodymind
drops"when I-I rests in Emptiness and embraces the entire
world of Form: all of this is given in the simple Feeling of
Being, the simple Feeling of One Taste. I simply feel
Existence, pure Presence, nondual Isness, simple Suchness,
present Thusness. I simply feel Being, I do not feel being this
or being thatI am free of being this or being that, which are
merely forms of suffering. But as I rest in the simple,
present, effortless sensation of existence, all is given unto
me.

You already possess the simple Feeling of Being. And so, again,
please tell me: Who is not already enlightened?
-Ken Wilber, One Taste