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changing, sensations. Even though there was still a residue of sensations, it was no longer what I would normally identify as “discouragement” or “anxiety.”
    In this example, through the practice of experiencing, we could still feel some anxiety but not be anxious. We identify not so much with “me” or “my anxiety” but with the wider container of awareness that we are calling the witness. From this increased spaciousness, there is a stillness within which we can experience what’s going on. Our awareness is like the sky, and all the contents of awareness—thoughts, emotions, states of mind—are passing clouds. As we experience our emotions, we come to understand that they are not as dense and substantial as they appear. This thing we call an emotion is just a complex of thoughts and sensations, and like a cloud, it has no substantial reality. But the only way to make this understanding real is through the practice of experiencing itself,whereby we bring awareness to the physical reality of the moment.
    What about those occasions when we can, in fact, really settle down in meditation? What about those moments when we experience the pleasant sensations of feeling still, calm, and clear? Why don’t we stay there? Why do we leave this present moment when it seems positive? Sometimes the movement away from the present moment is very definite and rapid, as if the present moment were dangerous. What is the danger? As we reside in the present moment, less caught up in our thoughts, there is a loosening of “me-ness.” Being without the familiar ground of self-identity can indeed feel dangerous. The more we let loose, the stronger the sense of groundlessness. That we resist at this point, moving back into our thought-based world, is understandable. However, if our aspiration is to become free, we must practice returning to this groundless place.
    Why do we have to return? Why, in fact, is it so necessary to be in the present moment? We must return to the present moment because it alone can bring us into contact with what’s real. And only by connecting with what’s real can we experience the satisfaction in life that all of us are looking for. Even if in the present moment we are caught in fear, the key to freedom lies in experiencing the physical reality of the terror. It is here that our me-ness, our years of conditioning, our unhealed wounds, and the overlay we’ve constructed to protect them—all of which are rooted in our very cells—can be addressed. Experiencing transforms us because it permeates the seeming solidity of this cellular memory. From the wider awareness of the witness, this tightly knit sense of self, with all its painful and unwanted emotions, begins to unravel. We can then see it for what it is: a complex of deeply believed thoughts, unpleasant sensations, and ancient memories! We stop identifying with this narrow sense of “self” and start identifying with the wider and more spacious context of awareness itself.
    Experiencing brings us to the understanding that we are more than just this body, just this personal drama. Our willingness to return to the physical reality of the present moment allows us to connect with Life—unconditioned energy—as it flows through our conditioned body. I’m not talking about some mystical state of consciousness that requires years of meditation in the seclusion of a monastery. I’m talking about the soft effort of cultivating the willingness to just be in the experience of our life as it is. As we practice, we will naturally encounter resistance. We will make judgments like “This isn’t working” and “I’ll never get it right.” As always, the instruction is to persevere—acknowledging the resistance and the judgments for what they are—and to return to the state of residing in experience itself.

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    The Eighty-Fourth Problem
     
    O NCE A FARMER WENT TO TELL THE B UDDHA about his problems. He described his difficulties farming—how