But for me, the real beauty of the beach, is its nearly immediate effects of assisting one in recognizing the Self. Of course, the Self is always and immediately available, as it, too, is always already present. But what the beach has a tendency to do, is remove all the "stuff" that clouds pure awareness.
We 'identify' with all of the things that are in awareness. We have given them an infinitude of names, or as the Tao calls them, the "10,000 things". We glance around, and automatically, everything is named without saying a word. Our mind recognizes that this is my chair, and my table, and my window, and my vase and my bookshelf and my blah blah blah. And along with each identification are the secondary thoughts - This is a GOOD table, an UGLY chair, a crooked bookshelf, and endless other judgments that lie in the background.
BUT, if you're at the beach, and you're sitting just right, you have three things - the Sand, the Sea, and the Sky!! And they meld together into a perfect oneness, where you can't even quite tell where one begins and the other ends. The sand slips into the sea, and the sea gently merges with the sky. And then there's you. But you aren't visible. You are simply the Seer, the Self. And when you look at the Sand, behind it - I AM. And you gaze at the sea, and behind it - I AM. And your vision drifts to the sky, and behind it, again - I AM. There is only the I AM within and without. The so-called world is simply painted lightly on the Infinite Absolute, and that Absolute is the I AM.
Of course, you don't NEED to go to the beach to recognize this, but there, it's just glaringly obvious! Why, because it's spacious! We've often mentioned how when going the beach, or entering a giant cathedral, or any other such spacious location, where there are few things to obscure your awareness, that the very space itself prompts that sense of infinity.
BUT you can also simply let go of all names and the thoughts and judgments behind those names. You can simply BE Presence! In Presence, there are no 'things' to get in the way. There are no names or ideas or concepts. There's only I AM and all the stuff that is appearing within the I AM are also I AM. There is only the timeless infinite Absolute.
Even right now, as you are reading this, BE that Presence. I AM is here and now. Feel it! BE it! And all that you experience is this Presence of Pure Awareness.
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