The Buddha often spoke about working at the root. It took me a while to truly understand what this meant, but I came to see that the root lies beyond the mind’s fragile understanding.
It’s a deep recognition that arises from the core of the heart. A centre that exists, yet never claims its existence.
The ups and downs of life are inevitable. We know this not as a philosophy, but through lived experience. Life happens. We win and we lose. We feel joy and sorrow. This is the feeling nature of being alive.
The mind likes to grasp, to cling and to crave that which it believes will please it. It also likes to reject, avert and recoil from that which it considers displeasing.
For most of us, this is accepted as a natural way of life—seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. But something very subtle yet profound begins to happen when we start looking more closely at this way of living, beyond the familiar patterning of the personal self and the conditioned mind.
A deeper dimension of knowing
The mind offers a limited, temporal perception of reality. And yet, when we begin to explore what lies beyond habitual identification with thought, a deeper dimension of knowing becomes available.
With deeper seeing, we begin to notice that the mind itself is an object of appearance. Perhaps like a microchip inserted into a computer, running programs according to its conditioning, the mind functions exactly as it has been trained to do—reacting, evaluating, remembering, predicting.
Rooted in survival, it means no harm. Its function is simply to protect the familiar structures of self that have been formed over a lifetime.
When this is clearly seen, a subtle yet profound shift occurs. We no longer take the mind to be who we are, but rather, it becomes something we are aware of.
Attention naturally settles back, not into thought, but into the silent knowing that is already present. This knowing neither grasps nor resists. It doesn’t seek to secure pleasure or avoid discomfort. It simply allows life to unfold as it does.
It’s a neutral, observing presence. Aware of the outer world, aware of the mind’s activity—yet resting in peace, a quiet centre at the heart. Habitual reaction falls away, and clarity remains.
Resting in the heart of awareness
This is resting in the heart of awareness. Not a withdrawal from life, but an intimate presence with life. A resting that is spacious, steady and deeply compassionate.
To rest in awareness is not to do something new, but to stop interfering with what is already present. Nothing special is required, only a willingness to pause and notice. Here, the movements of joy and sorrow are no longer problems to be solved, but expressions arising within a vast, undisturbed field of awareness.
The heart of awareness is a spaciousness, a serenity, living beyond the appearances of duality and the ups and downs of life.
As this understanding matures, the heart stops trying to manage life through the mind.
Experiences are allowed to come and go, guided by causes and conditions, while awareness remains open and at ease.
Nothing needs to be pushed away. Nothing needs to be held onto. This is true acceptance and is the end of the struggle—not because life no longer moves, but because the heart has found its true refuge.
Resting here, within the heart of awareness, there is a natural dignity and peace, born of non-clinging and clear seeing.
This is a serenity that doesn’t belong to anyone, and yet is intimately lived—beyond the play of duality.
As it has been described, first in the Bible’s Philippians 4:7: “The peace that passeth all understanding.”
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