Most people come to these courses with some great hope, aspiration, expectation, demand, some goal in mind, hoping to achieve something, hoping to experience something new, something differ-ent, perhaps to experience bliss, mystical ecstasy, euphoria, release from their suffering, their pain, their conflicts.

And after days and days of continuous frustration we slowly begin to discover that all this conflict we experience is none other, the same as, one and the same as, all our hopes, aspirations, expectations, demands, desires, etc.

And we ask ourselves: "What can I do?”. But we know the answer to our problems yet we hesitate to accept it, for we still cling to the feeling that perhaps there is something else, which must be achieved.

We know that the answer is that there is no place to go, there is nothing to do, there is nothing to be gained, nothing to be achieved, nothing to understand.There is no bliss to be experienced. There is only emptiness, Nibbana.

Unfortunately, some of us have heard through the grapevine, through gossip, that there are certain states, or perhaps there is some vivid memory of a sexual experience or a drug induced experience, and you scream to yourself: “I must have this; I must experience this; perhaps meditation will pro-vide this for me. I will undergo any agony, but I must have this experience”.

Unfortunately this experience cannot be achieved; you cannot reach it by pursuing it. If you are meditating with such a goal in mind you are wasting your time. There is no goal to be achieved. There is only the emptiness if this moment here and now. Form, shape and structure are empty. Feelings are empty. Thoughts are empty. Perceptions are empty. Consciousness is empty.

Emptiness must be perceived along each step of the path for the emptiness of the goal to be revealed.

This silent, alert and uninterrupted experiencing of Anicca exposes the liberating release of Nibbana. If you continue with meditation with any goal short of Nibbana, you will only create more misery for yourself. Reaching the goal is arriving at the silence of the here and now, the reality of this present moment, as it is, in all its emptiness. There can be no clinging to a technique, a teaching, a teacher with any hope of achievement. To do so means disappointment.

When we reach this point of completely surrendering to the reality of the emptiness of this moment, with alert quiet minds, surrendering to what is, whatever it is, pain, pleasure, it does not matter, just as it is, we discover that there is no conflict with reality. The craving and aversion to pleasure and pain cease. There is integration, wholeness, completion-liberation. With this surrender-integration comes liberation and the ability to love, which is the ability to share, to share without hope of any-thing in return for our sharing. For we have learned that to hope, is conflict. To hope is suffer.

Within this unattached love and sharing comes the possibility for spiritual advancement. When we have no goal we begin our advance. Our lives become devoted to sharing the truth, to giving, giving, giving. With this love, our problems sort themselves out; we have discovered our impotence in being able to sort them out ourselves. The world becomes our oyster, but we don’t care, for our every action is giving, serving, loving and the truth pours out from our very being. With this comes great peace to you and all. There is no longer any separation between me and them. There is only emptiness. A peace which passes all understanding. Freedom for suffering, sorrows and conflicts. Nibbana.

Nibbana is a state of pure consciousness, of incomparable joy. Nibbana is the Natural State. The natural state of the mind. The natural state of the body.

With the realisation that nothing can be done about your suffering, that nobody can help you, and more significantly, there is nothing you can do to help yourself, out of this emptiness a flow begins with the energies of life into a state where all suffering comes to an end. Nibbana, Great Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity.

May all beings be fully enlightened

J.Coleman - translated by M.Bergamini -