H.W.L. Poonja, also known as Papaji, gave his student Gangaji a very simple yet profound teaching. Ganagji then, passed this teaching on to the world. The valuable and straightforward instruction was this: Stop.
At first glance this doesn’t seem like much, but the simple act of stopping has the power to thoroughly transform your reality.
To stop will bring stillness, openness, and calm. Stopping envelopes you in the grace of Awareness, which then allows you to see that you are not limited to the simple, single body, but are infinitely expansive and flowing through time and space. It allows you to see, viscerally feel, and know that the concept that you simply and only are a body was a lie perpetuated by our culture and society. Instead, you flow, exquisitely and boundlessly. You come to know that you are the vast sea of Awareness which animates the entire cosmos.
To simply heed the call to stop, for a moment: to stop searching, to stop looking, to stop striving to be perfect, to stop searching for the right spiritual practice that will finally perfect you enough to bring you to “enlightenment,” to stop looking for one more spiritual book to read, one more spiritual teacher to follow, will bring upon you a sublime benediction from Awareness, allowing you to see that you already are perfect, whole, complete, and awake. Or, even more simply and truly put, there is nothing here to be perfect, whole, complete, or awake. What is sought, is already here. Nothing needs to be done to find anything and, truly, ultimately, there is no one here to find anything. This whole idea of “Me” and “You” is a fiction created during childhood, perpetuated by our culture and countless story after story during our lifetime.
Therefore, I echo Papaji and Gangaji’s heed, and ask you to stop, just for few moments. Stop and know that you are enough. You are that for which you are searching. Stop and know you are all of this and nothing. Just simply stop and allow the grace and benediction of Beingness descend upon you. Stop.