Most of us cannot consciously bear naive `niceness' or arrogant righteousness, but these things are often subtle, creeping into our lives without our awareness. Niceness disembowels the fierce essence of loving-kindness. Righteousness mocks mercy and compassion. Through naked intent, the ruthless practice of presence and the contemplation of states of being companions avoid the sticky pallor of `niceness' and the hypocrisy of righteousness.

As humans we do little that is not self-seeking or offering us some sort of pleasure. Pleasure is a prime motivator of human beings. Even the most giving and generous act offers the giver the reward. If we were to examine ourselves we might find at such moments elevated self esteem, a sense of meaning and purpose, freedom from guilt or fear. This is the human condition. A cultivated awareness of our own motives leads us to humility and humor.

Tony DeMello, SJ, the Indian priest, mystic and psychologist, used to belly laugh as he told people he wanted to write a book in response to the title I'm Okay. You're Okay. DeMello's imagined book was I'm An Ass. You're An Ass. He would laugh wildly, “What a relief to finally be free of trying to prove you are not bad or good.” The root for the English words human, humility, humor is humus, the earth we are made of. The jokes we tell on ourselves are the best cures for niceness or arrogance.

States of being whether mental, emotional, physical or spiritual are not the truth about anything. They are passages in life's journey. Rooms in a castle. Boxcars in a long train riding a track from here to there and back. They may be waves of the sea, wild or calm, coming in or receding, but they are not the ocean. The Hindu saint, Kabir, says, “I laughed when I heard the fish in the sea was thirsty.” So it is with states of being. A mood, an attitude, a perception may block the reality of the precious present with its outrageous possibilities.

We define ourselves through occupations, education, relationships, religions, citizenship, roles, qualities, emotions, status, all of which are subject to change. Many of us experience identification with the crimes and sins of our past. Others are addicted to images of their accomplishments or goodness. Many of us find ourselves identifying who we are though the experience of a particular grief, pain or hurt as if we were that grief, pain or hurt. We say, “I am depressed”, identifying with the condition. We are not the state of being of depression. We are simply experiencing it. Who are we? Who is the mysterious one who witnesses the states of being?

Our differing cultures, religions, nation states, even our bioregions condition us to experience the world in particular states of being which are then called the truth. From these we derive what a man is and a woman is and how they both are supposed to feel and act. From these we understand our relationship to the earth and other creatures. The economic class we were born in gives us differing lenses of perception, which we call real. The terrorist and the antiterrorist each experience themselves as in service of the good and the true. Only through the open practice of presence to the great silence and to ourselves and others can we break the spells of our conditioning.

A companion in the practice of presence to self or others contemplates and recognizes the states of being for what they are. What is at stake is our freedom and our joy. States of being can hold us hostage. If we identify with them they tell us who and what we are. They tell us that joy is a blip on the screen of life, occurring only under certain inner and outer conditions. Remember the disciples at the transfiguration of Jesus. They wanted to remain in that ecstatic state. When we cease to identify ourselves with or be held hostage by states of being we attain our freedom to act spontaneously and experience joy as the great underground river, our natural state.

Does this mean we don't experience the full range of our feelings, or have opinions and attitudes about values, politics, a philosophy of life or act in a creative way to express these things? Certainly not! It simply means our identity does not rest in these things but in the great I AM of Jesus or the Suchness of Buddha or the Union with the Beloved of Rumi or the great yogic mantra, Hamsa, I AM THAT. As we are present to ourselves, witnessing with awareness the states of being through which we journey, we watch ourselves constantly changing. We may ask, “Who is doing this watching?” We might observe, “When I was a child I was totally myself. When I was a young adult I was totally myself. Now I am older and it

Our way requires a naked intent pressing on the heart of great silence within and about us. Most of us verbalize this desire but in actuality we prefer our own limited understandings, addicted to certain states of being, ideas, feelings, judgments. This is the human condition. We do not get to escape it by fighting it. We witness it and accept it, holding the paradox with awareness.

Witnessing and accepting are disciplines, yet the ability to enact them is a grace. Love and passion for the heart of life are motivators. We cannot create these. They are a grace. Any attempt to explain this is imagination. We do not know. But many experience that in powerlessness and in the acceptance of our situation actual naked intent may arise and surprise us. We find ourselves pressing upon a blessed cloud of unknowing. These words could go on forever and still fall short of their meaning. You must take it from here.