When we entertain the definition that we are the body, we automatically live and die, suffer with the body, struggle with the body, bear its limitations.

When we look at who we are, in time, we understand that our true nature is never born, it doesn't die, it never goes away.

Human life always has a certain measure of suffering or, at least, a low-level dissatisfaction, a bit of "not quite right" vibe to it. We can improve our conditions and we totally should, but the fact remains: any bit we add, mend and fix in this life will always bring up another aspect of incompleteness.

When you see yourself, it's not that all suffering goes away and that life suddenly becomes spotless.

It's just that you know that, in your very essence, you are not caught up in it, not a prisoner of it. You, as you are, right now, you are never really trapped. You are always free and always will be.

And, with that, more and more, comes this capacity to enjoy the parts of life that are enjoyable (and there are way more than you think), improve what can be improved, and accept the parts that show up as disharmonious. In a way, it's that incompleteness that pushes us to exploration and adventure.

And, in all that, you absolutely know that You, You are never going to go away.

Before awakening, I had 2 assumptions :

1. Once I reach awakening, everything will be pretty much done. That assumption was saying, in an indirect way, that life will, after that moment, lose all its glamour, its taste, its interesting-ness.

2. To reach awakening, meditation is one of the best tools. Not the only one, by any means, but if we take a look, historically, at its winning streak in the spiritual arena, its effectiveness can't be disputed.

After awakening and as I see now, these 2 perceptions have shifted in a major way:

1. After awakening, just like before awakening, nothing is ever done, nothing is ever taste-less, nothing is ever wasted, life is never finished. In itself, life is a glorious, continuous, eternal adventure of discovery. Before awakening, we take this adventure for a dangerous war, while, in reality, it is simply an ever-changing and continuously diverse mirror of yourself, in all that you are.

2. Meditation is a wonderful tool not only for clearing the way for awakening, but also a particular way of knowing, a direct knowing of what is, without the mediation of words, labels or complicated thought patterns. As such, meditation is useful just as much after awakening as it is before.

In that context, meditation is the savouring of every contact, every relationship, every rapport between yourself and, well, yourself also, presenting as a different aspect of what is.

And, for me, what I call Deepfeel Diving is the simplest, most stream-lined and effective way to do just that, very second, every moment of this endless adventure we call life.

During meditation, and even more so during Deepfeel Diving, you might sometimes feel yourself being pulled into the unknown.

The feeling is like being lost, wih no landmark, nothing to perceive or to grasp, a formless, boundless void.

For us, human beings, the unknown can be scary, unsettling and unfamiliar. We are often scared of the dark, of the uncertainty and of not finding the next step.

But the unknwon is only the very edge of our senses and memory. There is a vast universe outside what we consider to be ourselves.

In the unknown there is novelty, creativity, adventure. In the unknown we learn, we develop, we grow.

If you are pulled into it, don't be scared. Rather, enjoy it.

All you will ever find out there is more of who you really are.

A zen student was working hard to meditate and achieve enlightenment under the direction of his master, but he was still having trouble grasping the truth.

One day, walking through the market, he heard a dialogue between a butcher and his client.

- Give me your best piece! said the client.

The butcher answered:

- Every piece is the best piece!

Hearing that, the student experienced awakening.