Andrew Harvey, Dzogchen, peace, apathy, and wonder

To see the futility and failure of society's goals and struggles, because we have seen 'more clearly' through the window of wonder, is to cease all action directed towards useless goals, and instead to bask in the harmonious, goal-less, worthless, remarkable unity of all and everything; for all striving is a function of the ego, and therefore leads only to the fulfillment of the ego, not to its evaporation and the soul's merging with the One.

In wordless, effortless, idealess attention, we see and become the wordless, effortless, idealess event.

This is when, as Andrew Harvey writes in A Journey in Ladakh, "There is nothing to do but slow down, relax, laze, to become one vast transparent eye."

This statement defines the realm of ambivalent witnessing, which brings about the effortless clarity born of intentionless attention.

That is, we no longer need to 'do' anything, for we have seen through the eyes of lucid, effortless ignorance. As such, Dzogchen declares, "Everything has already been accomplished, and so, having overcome the sickness of effort, One finds oneself in the self-perfected state." This, of course, is the ‘peace which passeth all understanding’, for the peace is beyond the mind.

This quintessential accomplishment- of apathetic innocence- however, has no value to the active, ego-driven world, for: "This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever, energetic person dumb, stupid, and lazy," corroborates the Astavakra Gita, "so it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment and praise."

To simply watch in amazement, without thought of responsibility, respectability, nor thought of 'what we will eat', or 'what we will wear', is to give ourselves unconditionally to the exuberance of being- just being! That's all we need to do. That's all we can do.

Apathy leads to wonder. Wonder leads to apathy.

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These excerpts on aimless wandering are taken from unpublished chapters from

THE WAY OF WONDER, by Jack Haas