The Xin-Xin Ming Ming VI: Be Serene

Scott Bradley

"Be serene and at one with things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves."

"When the mind rests undisturbed in the Way, there is no objection to anything in the world."

"When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature, you will walk freely and undisturbed."

After someone has seen through the ridiculous, made-up nature of the ideas that give them pain, Byron Katie often assures them that she is not asking them to "let them go". To attempt to do so would be to give them a measure of life they would not otherwise have. To confront and fight an idea is simply to give it greater substance. Instead, we can focus on the reality of which the idea is a negation.

And what is that reality? That all is well.

In some sense the Xin-Xin Ming, though wonderfully simple, seems impractical. Be serene and all will be well. More easily said than done. Yet, in another sense it is wonderfully practical; it speaks to us about that place where mind actually meets reality. It speaks to that place where the rubber truly meets the road. How do we relate to each and every event, every thing that happens? If it is an affirming and accepting of the world, our perceived world, just as it is, there is harmony, rest and serenity.

Circumstances need not determine our inner reality; it is our attitude that determines circumstances. As Shakespeare had Hamlet say, "There is neither good nor evil, but it is our mind that makes them so."

When we are in harmony, there is no objection to anything in the world. When there is no objection to anything in the world there is harmony. If we are at work on the cultivation of harmony, our focus is best placed here, on the moment to moment relation of the mind to perceived reality. How do we perceive it? It is only this — how we perceive it. There is no narrower focus and yet there is nothing left out.

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