This is a wonderful moment.

You might not have recognized it had someone not pointed it out to you. But since I’m pointing it out, go ahead and take a look.

Do you see it yet? Do you see how wonderful it is?

Most people don’t notice. They are so busy, occupied with all their worries, anxieties, resentments, and so forth. They genuinely believe that wonderful moments are quite rare. And most people aren’t noticing how wonderful this moment is.

But you are. Or at least you can.

So again, just notice how wonderful this moment is.

It takes some getting used to for most of us. Most of us catch a small glimpse at first and then quickly dismiss it. But then after we notice it again…and again…we start to realize that maybe we can notice it more often.

Whether you’re participating in the free online program, Bliss Techniques, or you’ve benefitted from one of my books or you’re a member of the online community The Circle or you’ve found benefit from one of my videos on my YouTube channel…however you’ve found your way here, you are someone who started to realize that you can notice more often.

You can notice how wonderful this moment is right now. Even if just a little bit, you can. You can soften. You can let go. You can at least catch a glimpse. And maybe you can even watch for the next arising thought and before you automatically resist or grasp it, you can soften and let go so that you continue to notice how wonderful this moment is.

Maybe you can even notice how wonderful this moment is even when intensity is happening. Even when the energy level is quite strong. Even when it seems as though everything inside (and maybe outside) is screaming and crying. If you can even notice that (just a little bit), you’re really doing well on the path.

Wherever you find yourself along that spectrum, you’re noticing shifts in your experience. More openness perhaps. Maybe not so quick to react. Maybe less catastrophizing.

I want to tell you that you can continue to experience those positive shifts in experience. So it is okay to relax. It’s okay to let your guard down. You can remain aware and awake without being uptight and anxious. So it’s okay and you’re doing well.

I know it doesn’t always seem like it’s okay. Sometimes things seem to be very much not okay. But that’s part of the path. It’s not bad or problematic. It’s part of how you get clearer. It’s how you get to know for sure what is really true. It’s how you know that peace is real because you can discover it even in what seems to be not okay. Okayness revealed in the appearance of not okayness.

Now, the reason that you have been able to discover these things is because others have given. This is true of all of us. We all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to what has made this essential discovery of peace possible.

First of all, we are all indebted to our ancestors. Despite whatever their shortcomings and flaws may have been. Even if they did horrible things, we could not be here without them. And if we start to think about things a little differently, we can actually realize that in some sense they did all those horrible things (which were actually deeply painful for them) all so that this moment could happen in which we could awaken to fundamental okayness.

Because who can even say how long we’ve been wandering in the darkness of unconsciousness? At least we can say that for most of this lifetime we’ve been in the dark, stumbling around, confused, angry, frustrated, despairing, fearful. And really, when you reflect back on it, how far back does it stretch? It seems to go infinitely back, doesn’t it? That darkness and confusion of unconsciousness – all the doubt and not knowing – goes back infinitely far. There really is no apparently beginning to it. So for all we know, in that ancient forgetfulness might be countless lifetimes of horror.

But by grace this moment has occurred in which we are awake. Blessedly, right now we can at least catch a faint glimpse of light. We aren’t so asleep. The nightmare is lifting. And without all the ancestors who made this possible – all those who slogged through the dark ages of worse suffering than we’ve ever known in this lifetime – we could not have come to this. So in a very important way, we should be grateful for the sacrifices of the ancestors. They did their very best, and they gave us this life.

We are also indebted to our teachers. For untold time teachers have maintained the teachings. They have done their best to preserve the purity of the highest teachings. They have sought to touch upon the clearest waters of truth and bring it to us in its purest state. Though always there is some distortion. Some speck of dirt gets into the water as it is brought to us. But they have done us an enormous service.

The teachers have journeyed deep into the interior and out into the vastness of the exterior, and they have done the leg work to be able to report to us truly. They say, “I know you’re afraid of the terrifying beasts out there in the darkness of the interior and the darkness of the far exterior. But I’ve taken a full turn on the Great Wheel and I remained awake so I could tell you of everything I encountered. And I can tell you such wonderful news! The interior and the exterior are one and they are now.”

Our teachers may be in human form or book form or screen form or cloud form or river form. But they connect us to the infinite unbroken reality. They are our guides. Without them and all that they have dared we would still be stuck, overwhelmed, numb. They woke us up and helped us take steps. Even though we often cursed them and beat them. They helped us anyway. They knew that we “know not what they do”.

Now you are at a threshold. It is a “gateless gate”. You have a choice. Will you step through? Or will you remain on the side of what is known?

At this threshold, we typically meet resistance. A hardness starts to form inside. We stiffen, steel ourselves, brace.

But when we notice this resistance, we are meeting our teachers yet again. For the resistance is the teacher, whispering to us, “Soften. Let go. Yield. Allow this goodness to enter you. Step gently, lightly, but boldly.”

Because now is your turn to give. Just as so many others have given so that you could arrive at this gateless gate. So many have given so that you could meet this moment with openness and honesty and gentleness.

That gentleness is so important. Before you were much more violent. You hurt yourself all the time inwardly with so much resistance, so much tension, so much gripping, so much squeezing. And now that you know more about gentleness, you are gentler.

By being gentle you know you can trust yourself. You won’t hurt yourself when you’re being gentle. You are present, aware, awake. You are in control in that sense. You may not be in control of what happens on the “outside”. But you can control whether you react violently or whether you choose gentleness.

When you choose gentleness, you choose to relax. You choose to breathe naturally. You choose to soften your face. You choose to loosen your grip on the thoughts and feelings. So everything is looser and can flow better. So you have more stability, more centeredness, and more energy to go to gentleness and awareness.

What moved you to arrive here is actually gratitude. In truth, you are grateful. And that gratitude is encouraging you to share that gratitude – to “pay it forward”.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the many beings who have contributed to this moment. Beings you may not have been aware of having helped you, but I know that they have helped you because they have made all the work that I’ve done possible.

My wife and children have contributed enormously to my work in ways that would be impossible to ever fully describe. But even in just very simple terms, they make time and space for all the work that I do from responding to emails to holding meetings to publishing content and everything else.

All of the people over the years who have had the courage to engage sincerely in the work have made and continue to make huge contributions to the value of the work for others through their questions, difficulties, feedback, and participation. They are the reason that most of what I have produced exists.

All my teachers – who are too numerous to be able to acknowledge all by name – have made this work possible.

Really, all of Life is responsible for this precious opportunity. Because in truth, the entirety of all that is has conspired through all eternity to give rise to this moment of choice. And it is urging you gently (but persistently) to put this gift into action.

The gift is self-knowledge. This glimpse of okayness is that self-knowledge. And the fact that you are here now reading this means that it has occurred to you that the truth of who you are cannot be contained or possessed. Neither does it need to be protected. Rather, it is to be expressed.

In other words, up to a point we are takers. And it can’t be otherwise. So it doesn’t mean anything bad. That’s just how it is. Just like the newborn infant has to drink at the mother’s breast. It’s natural and good and wholesome.

But then it happens that we discover giving. At first we think that giving must be too difficult or unpleasant or scary, so we don’t give. Or we try to give, but we experience setbacks or challenges and so we declare that proof that giving is not for us.

However, it keeps being there a bit like a pebble in the shoe. It rubs against us and we feel irritated until we stop and really look closely.

So look closely now. Do you notice perhaps a hint of joy and abundance at the possibility of giving? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to have such authentic knowledge of your truly abundant nature that you could give without fear or apprehension? What if you actually knew that giving was even more delightful than taking by itself ever was? And might giving start to transform taking into receiving? Then perhaps you’d find yourself living as a virtuous cycle of the flow of giving and receiving.

The fear and apprehension and resistance might still be present, of course. So it may not be easy to take the step. But just see what is actually true for you. Because it is not gentle to take the step if you’re not sure it is true. First you have to be clear. Is it true?

If it is true, then taking the step is natural. Yes it might have a lot of energy associated with it. But when you see that it is true, taking the step is natural.

Now the question is, what does that step look like in terms of the narrative of your life. In other words, what do you do to outwardly express taking that inner step?