The Practice of No Problem
The Practice of No Problem
The Practice of No Problem
Copyright © 2014
Emergence Education & Jeff Carreira
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored
in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Emergence Education
230 Stampers Street
Philadelphia, PA 01947
Introduction 1
Epilogue 97
The soul should always stand ajar, ready
to welcome the ecstatic experience.
—Emily Dickinson
INTRODUCTION
You are about to embark on a journey.
The first chapter introduces the foundational premise upon which the
remainder of the book rests—meditation can initiate a process of
Jeff Carreira
Before we begin this journey, I want you to consider the fact that this
book will take you as far as you are ready to go. What and how much
you experience as a result of reading it, will be largely dependent on how
much room you have in your heart for the miraculous.
No matter what your mind might tell you, you actually don’t know what
can happen during the reading of this book. It’s possible that you will
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have an opening that will dramatically impact your life for the better.
You might even have an insight that will alter the course of your destiny
and place you on a new and magnificent trajectory. I know this is
possible because it has happened to me and I have’ seen it happen for
others.
You don’t need to do anything with the answer. Just being aware of how
much space there is inside you is enough. Then read the book, give it all
of your attention, and see what happens.
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I’ve begun to realize that you can listen
to silence and learn from it. It has a
quality and a dimension all its own.
—Chaim Potok!!
CHAPTER ONE
Let me be clear that when I talk about meditation I am not referring only
to sitting with your eyes closed. I am talking about deep abidance in the
experience of who we are beyond the mind. The posture or form that
initiates that abidance doesn’t ultimately matter. All that matters is that
we move beyond the assumed limits of the mind.
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When meditation occurs it is like realizing that you can fly. You live your
whole life anchored to a narrow range of thoughts, feelings and
sensations, and suddenly you find yourself floating in midair. Nothing is
more exhilarating or mind altering than the freedom you find in true
meditation.
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We know that our eyes only perceive a narrow part of the electro-
magnetic spectrum, and our ears only hear a small range of sound
frequencies. In the same way our minds only experience a small part of
an immeasurable field of consciousness.
The next thing that we have to realize in order to fully appreciate the
relationship between meditation and transformation is that all of reality
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time that we have been trying to change we have also been holding on to
who we are. Pushing off of the past is just another way of holding on to
it. The experience of meditation is the experience of letting go of who
we are. And as soon as we let go of who we are, we enter a natural
process of growth and evolution.
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Give up the notion that ‘I am so and so.’
All that is required to realize the Self is
to be still. What can be easier than that?
—Ramana Maharshi
CHAPTER TWO
The meditation instructions that I will share cannot be done wrong. You
literally can’t miss. That is why I sometimes describe them as a magic
archery range.
The magic archery range has no targets. You just shoot in any direction
and wherever you aim a target appears and you hit a bull’s eye…every
time. It’s an archery range where you can’t miss. That’s the magic.
What we discover in the magic archery range, is that only when we find
ourselves in a situation where we can’t lose, do we have the opportunity
to see how difficult it can be to always win. That is because our mind is a
problem-solving machine, and they will create a problem out of
anything—even not being able to lose.
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As you approach this form of meditation you have to consider if you are
ready to live a life where you can’t miss, if you are truly ready to be
content, and if you are ready to give up the luxury of having a problem
to escape into.
The instruction for this mediation is simply to have no problem. You sit
still, up right and alert and no matter what you experience, you don’t
make a problem out of it. That’s it.
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No mater what you experience don’t make a problem out of it. Even if
your mind tells you that you have a problem, don’t have a problem with
that. If you feel like you have a problem, don’t have a problem with that.
If everything in you is saying you have a problem, don’t have a problem
with that either.
You can try it right now. Time yourself for five seconds while you sit still
and follow the instruction to have no problem.
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Having no problem is easy for five seconds because your mind doesn’t
have enough time to even start looking for a problem. As you extend the
time it gets more difficult.
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No matter what problem your mind creates, you will find that it always
comes in the form of an argument your mind is making to convince you
that there is a problem. In this case it might go like this: “What am I
supposed to focus on? He didn’t tell me what to focus on. I don’t know
what to focus on. This is not fair. It won’t work. I can’t do this. It can’t
be done because there is nothing to focus on.”
Have you ever had a friend that complains all the time? No matter what
happens, they always seem to find a problem to complain about. For a
while, you might talk to them about their problems. But eventually it gets
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Of course, sometimes your mind is your best friend. We all want to use
our mind for the thing it does best, but we don’t want to get involved
with all of its problems.
With your friend there are times when you just decide not to listen to
them. They may even keep talking to you. But you’re not really listening
anymore. The same thing can happen with your mind. It’ll keep saying,
“I don’t know what to focus on. I don’t know what to focus on. I don’t
know what to focus on.” And you just sit there.
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It’s like a radio playing in the next room. You hear the sound, but you’re
not listening.
Every problem you have will always be a conversation that your mind is
having with you. All you have to do is not listen to it, and then you’re
free. Eventually, your mind gets bored and stops talking, and that can be
wonderful, but it doesn’t matter. The point is that we don’t have to wait
for our mind to stop talking before we stop listening.
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stop. It keeps going. Just like your mind. You may decide to stop giving
it your attention, but that doesn’t make it stop.
It takes time for your mind to stop because it has a lot of momentum
behind it. But that is not a problem. You just let it go. It will coast to a
stop eventually, and if it doesn’t, who cares? It isn’t hurting anything. It
isn’t doing anything. It can’t touch you. So you’re free anyway.
One of the tricky things about the practice of no problem is that it has to
be done all at once. There is no gradual way to approach it. You have to
decide that from this moment forward you will not allow yourself to
relate to anything as a problem—at least during meditation. From that
point on you simply adopt the position that nothing is a problem—no
matter what. Simple.
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So what do you do when you realize that you have been lost in having a
problem? Nothing. Once you realize that you were lost, you aren’t lost
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Every problem is just another voice in your head telling you that you
have a problem. Those voices are often followed by other voices that tell
you not to listen to that voice. Then other voices might start having a
problem with all the voices. “You shouldn’t be thinking. You’re not
supposed to be thinking. You’re not really doing it. I knew you couldn’t
do it. You’ll never be able to do it.” Sound familiar?
Eventually, you realize that every problem is just another voice in your
head telling you that you have a problem. When you realize that those
voices are not you, that you are the one who hears the voices, something
completely different happens. At that point you stop caring about what
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any of the voices are saying. The voices may fall away, or they may not.
It doesn’t matter to you because you are free either way.
One day at the beginning of the second month, I was meditating and I
was very tired. It can be almost torturous to meditate when you’re very
tired. Your eyes burn, your head hurts, and you feel nervous tension
running through your body.
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Awareness is always on, and there is no dimmer switch. You can’t turn it
down. Sometimes what you are aware of is a very tired body, but no
matter what happens, I am always awake, even if what I am awake to is
being tired.
When I went to sleep that night, I felt my body fall asleep but I was still
there. Everything went black and I couldn’t feel my body. I was just
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floating in space. I thought, “This is cool. My body fell asleep and I’m
still awake.”
Then a dream happened. It was like someone turned the lights on and I
was in the middle of a dream. I thought, “I am dreaming and I am still
awake. This is so cool.” Then the dream went away as if the light had
been turned off again. There I was floating in space.
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The next night, the same thing happened. My body fell asleep and I was
still here. I thought, “Oh, this is cool.” And I spent the whole next day
marveling at the fact that I am always here. I am always awake. The next
night my body fell asleep and I remained awake again. Then I started to
worry that this might not be healthy and the very next night I fell asleep
and I lost consciousness. I didn’t stay awake that night. When I woke up
in the morning I was relieved first and then disappointed.
What I realized from that experience will stay with me forever. We are
always awake no matter how it seems. We were awake before we were
born, and we will continue to be awake after we die. Whether we are
aware of it or not in any given moment doesn’t matter. It is still true
even when we don’t realize it.
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If you learn to accept the way things are your energy is free, your
attention is free, and you are available to experience things that you
couldn’t imagine before. That is when you become profoundly available
to evolve. When we learn to stop struggling with the way things are, we
are available to be lifted into higher possibilities.
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I, I myself, am the center that exists only
because the geometry of the abyss
demands it.
—Fernando Pessoa
CHAPTER THREE
FIRST INSIGHT:
LIBERATION IS POSSIBLE
This first insight that I want to share tells us that spiritual awakening
depends on the fact that we know in our heart of hearts that liberation is
possible. We all come to the spiritual path called by a possibility. In some
way, we have felt limited and know that limitation is not real. Usually, we
discover this because of some experience, some recognition, or some
insight that revealed something else—an unlimited, unbounded
possibility.
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going to pay me the money?” and I say, “I will definitely pay you
tomorrow.” What I am also saying is, “I am not or cannot pay you now.”
The journey that we are on together here has to start completely in the
deep end because the beginning of this journey is knowing that liberation
exists right now for all of us. This is a journey that starts at the
destination.
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The only place that you can find freedom is right here. Right here in the
middle of the experience you’re having right now. This is where freedom
exists. It doesn’t exist anywhere else. It doesn’t exist in some future
moment. It doesn’t exist in some memory of the past.
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“No, this couldn’t be it. This can’t be liberation. Liberation can’t include
this feeling. Liberation can’t include this experience. Liberation can’t
include this thought.”
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Ultimately, the only thing that keeps us from recognizing our inherently
liberated state is our belief in some thought that is trying to convince us
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that freedom isn’t possible yet. If we believe that thought, we won’t feel
free and we won’t believe that freedom is here. Instead we will feel as
though we are stuck in a moment that isn’t the right moment, that we are
trapped in an experience that is not free.
If we don’t believe that part of our mind, if we realize that even the
thoughts that are trying to convince us that this is not the moment are
just thoughts that don’t in any way inhibit the possibility of freedom
now. We immediately realize that we do not know what is possible and
that means that anything is possible right now. And when we feel that
anything is possible right now, that’s as free as we can be.
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Mysticism is the art of union with
Reality. !
—Evelyn Underhill
CHAPTER 4
SECOND INSIGHT:
LIBERATION IS ALREADY YOURS
You can probably tell by the title of this chapter that we already began
the exploration of this insight in the last chapter. In this book I am
sharing with you the most powerful insights that my meditation practice
has blessed me with and as you can probably now see they are, in a
sense, more a set of different vantage points on one liberating insight
than they are four separate insights.
Jeff Carreira
The first insight is that spiritual awakening depends on the fact that we
know in our heart of hearts without doubt that liberation is possible now.
In the second session we will go further into this realization by exploring
the insight that tells us that liberation is already ours.
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When I say that liberation is already yours, I mean that there is already a
place in your being, a part of your current experience, that is completely
at peace with the way things are, completely at one with whatever arises
in the present moment, and already has no need for anything to be other
than what it is.
When we realize that there is a part of us that is always already free, and
that always already exists in this moment, as freedom, then we realize
that the only place that freedom can be found is here. The only place
that perfect contentment can be found is here.
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There is a part of you that will never feel perfectly content. No matter
what happens and no matter what your experience is, part of you will
experience whatever is happening as somehow wrong, deficient, or
simply “not it.” If your attention is on that deficient part of yourself,
then you will not experience perfect contentment.
And here is the whole point: The fact that you may have your attention
on a part of your experience that will never be contentment doesn’t
mean that some other place in your being, some other part of your
experience, is already perfectly content now.
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There is a part of you that has always been free, always been content,
and always been at peace with the way things are—even at peace with
the fact that your attention is often captivated on a part of your
experience that is not at peace.
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Freedom is literally already here. This is so hard to truly get that it will be
a theme that we return to over and over again throughout the rest of this
book. The liberation you seek, the freedom you seek, the contentment
you seek is already here no matter how it seems. There is no reason to
try to understand that. There is no reason to try to convince yourself of
the truth of it. Your mind will probably never accept it. It is true anyway.
You simply surrender to the reality of it and then see what happens. You
place no demands that your experience needs to shift. Your experience,
whatever you’re experiencing right now, whatever it is, does not need to
change one single bit. Freedom is just as available in the experience
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None of it will make freedom less available than it is right now because
a part of you is already free, already perfectly content. So, meditation is
an expansion into the totality of who you are.
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When you discover the freedom that exists outside of the bounds of
your conscious awareness you stop needing to manipulate your
conscious awareness. You know that freedom is already there and so you
don’t feel any need to locate it to be certain. It is like knowing that the
sun is still there on a cloudy day. You never fear that the sun is gone.
You know it is there and it will return to view when the clouds part. The
discovery of true freedom doesn’t mean that you will always feel free,
but you will never forget that you are.
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At that point, which is now, you are free from any need to have your
experience be anything other than what it is because you are already free
and content, totally awake and aware anyway. You realize that your
experience expands far beyond the illuminating light of your conscious
awareness. You relax into the totality of your being, needing to do
nothing, needing to go nowhere; then the miraculous reality of who you
are has the opportunity to unfold in whatever way it will.
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I firmly disbelieve, myself, that our
human experience is the highest form of
experience existent in the universe.
—William James
CHAPTER 5
THIRD INSIGHT:
LIBRATION IS MORE THAN A FEELING
The insight that we will explore now tells us that liberation is more than
a feeling. In order to fully accept that liberation is already ours we have
to find a way to embrace a freedom that exists outside of the sphere of
our conscious awareness.
If we say that freedom is the perfect peace and contentment with being
exactly here with no need or desire for things to be any way other than
they are, then the primary message of this book is that freedom already
exists as part of who you are—which is ultimately why there is no
problem.
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We all live under the spell of a pervasive assumption we are only free
when we feel free, but a moment’s reflection will confirm that if you are
only free when you feel free, you are not free. You are bound by the
need to feel free. To go back to our analogy of a darkened room, it is like
saying that a particular piece of furniture only exists if it is illuminated by
my beam of light. If I don’t see it, if ’lies in the darkness, it doesn’t exist.
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The first insight told us that our liberation depends on our knowing that
liberation is possible now. As we come back to that insight now we
realize that it requires us to give up any insistence that our experience
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Expanding more deeply into the totality of your being, whatever that is,
is the aim of meditation. Knowing that nothing is missing, nothing is
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The goal is to be free and being free is not the same as feeling free.
When we feel free, it means that we are having some form of conscious
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Being free means that even if we don’t have any particular conscious
experience of freedom, we still know that freedom is here somewhere
beyond the boundaries of our normal sphere of conscious awareness.
Knowing this allows us to relax into the reality of the way things are
without needing to feel free first. We can cease our pursuit of freedom in
spite of the fact that no feeling of it can be found in our current
conscious experience. This is when we are truly free because our
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Freedom means being available for life and this is only true when we no
longer need to feel free in order to be free. One of the most profound
insights I could possibly share with you is that we do not need to have
any feeling of freedom in order to be free because free is what we
already are.
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You road I enter upon and look around, I
believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
—Walt Whitman
CHAPTER 6
FOURTH INSIGHT:
INTENTION IS NOT WILLPOWER
The final insight that we will be exploring together in this chapter is one
that tells us that intention is not willpower. The contemplation of this
insight is the key to awakening.
Just allow yourself to embrace that, to embrace the fact that anything
that you might be doing, in the name of being free—that is, anything
besides already being free—is not the intention we are talking about.
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that everything of real value that can happen during meditation happens
only after we have already decided to be free.
Once we let go of the steering wheel, take our feet off the gas and the
brake pedal, then are we available and ready for something amazing to
happen. Only then is it possible for something that is more than what we
thought we were to take over the driving.
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But once we have surrendered to the way things are and have given up
on the struggle to make things different, made that instantaneous choice
to let thy will be done and not my will be done, then we become available
for a process that is directed by something, some intelligence, some
force, some reality that is bigger than us. At this point we allow our
entire being to become fully available for a process of transformation
that could never be enacted by any effort of our personal willpower.
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We have been taught that freedom means freedom of choice, but that
kind of freedom is the freedom of our will. The freedom that I am
talking about now is the freedom of availability. It is the freedom that
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When I have that experience, I simply allow it to be exactly the way it is.
I don’t try to control it in any way. I don’t try to make it diminish. I
don’t try to make it increase. I simply allow it to be what it is, not
knowing what it is, if it is anything at all.
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There is no active effort, and no amount of willpower that will ever help
you in making that choice. It’s an intention, and a choice that
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This work does not take a long time to
complete for it is the shortest work that
one can imagine…it is neither longer or
shorter than one impulse of your will,
which is the principle active faculty of
your soul.
—The Cloud of Unknowing
EPILOGUE
During long retreats I have had the opportunity to spend days, weeks,
and even months absorbed in meditative unfolding. Many of the
awakenings I experienced had the power to dislodge the source of my
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I am left with the firm conviction that reality will always be bigger than
we can imagine. We are not restricted by the limits and boundaries of
our minds and bodies. And as long as we continue to surrender, the
openings and awakenings of spirit will ceaselessly unfold to illuminate
the way forward.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff is the author of three books, The Miracle of Meditation, Philosophy Is Not
a Luxury, and Radical Inclusivity, and is co-author with Patricia Albere of
Mutual Awakening. For more information about Jeff visit:
www.philosophyisnotaluxury.com