Formlessness

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

As I write this I’m sitting in a Goodyear Tires shop waiting for new tires to be put on my car. There is a waiting room with the TV blaring and people talking. There are background sounds of clicking and beeping, electronic dance music and mechanical hissing and popping sounds. Just outside is a busy road with motion, trucks rumbling, and the occasional motorcycle revving its engines.

And that’s just outside. Inside, the mind is agitated from emotional activations, the dogs escaping (again), and other perceived confusions. The mind races. The thoughts don’t seem to stop…

Is there anything to be done about the nonstop noise? Can the mind ever be silenced? Must I become an isolated Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond to free myself from the world and my own mind?

The answer lies in the truth of our existence, the world, and the mind. Regardless of form–which includes thoughts, feelings, sounds, images, and the world itself–there is a formlessness that is always present and always available. If you look just below the impermanent forms, you will notice an infinite and still backdrop of silence. It is only upon this backdrop of silence that the beeping and buzzing can even take place. The key is to “tune into” this backdrop, noticing that it is part of your very existence. The world becomes like a stage and gently fades into the background. The locus of your identity permeates all the forms of sounds, motion and activity without being altered by it. The inner peace that Thoreau discovered at Walden Pond is available now, even in the noisiest Goodyear Tires dealer.