Norio Kushi, 54, On the road

Thank you for your invitation to contribute something to your work. I will briefly describe the experiencing of oneness, although words are not adequate.

I drive a big truck (18-wheeler) and it wasn't long before I recognized that driving is a direct metaphor for life. Eventually when I saw myself as the stream of traffic and not a separate individual in my truck, I discovered I could observe my thoughts. Once I could be aware of the thinking as an outside observer, I noticed that thinking is not linear. Rather, a thought begins in silence, expands, then recedes back into the silence. Once I became aware of this, the space between each thought expanded, with the mind being empty of thought for hours at a time. Interestingly, I am able to perform 90% of my day to day function, including driving a truck, in silence. An important aspect of being aware of this is that I was not looking for it. I was not raised with any religious doctrines, never was interested in spirituality, or meditation. The "seeker" has to disappear before the awareness becomes present.

When the patterns of thought stop, the the experiencing of existence completely shifts. It is similar to waking up and realizing all of life had been a dream. Everything that I thought I was, disappears because it is only contained in thinking. The person who is doing the thinking, it turns out, is only contained within the thought itself. I now call this illusory person, the "phantom self."

When this phantom self disappears, what’s left is unconditional love and an overwhelming sense of peace and joy. There is absolutely nothing missing. One is whole and complete. What disappears along with this phantom self, is suffering, fear, time, separation from anyone or anything. All are contained only in thinking.

The cosmic joke is, we all can have all we could ever desire, right now in this moment......we only have to realize that the one who desires, does not exist.

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I have always loved wheels, fast cars and women. I still love wheels fast cars and women.

The effort of living has ceased. Now every moment is whole and complete. I still drive a truck and have to support my six children and their moms, but the effort is no longer there. When one recognizes one's true nature is timeless, no beginning, no end, no birth, no death, what else is there to do but enjoy each moment?

The ones who can truly answer this question are my children and ex wives.

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I now share the insights of how in our thinking we're languaging and how languaging creates the self. This languaging creates the map of the territory, and we mistake the map for the territory. It's a simple case of mistaken identity, thinking the self in the map, is who we really are. One of the places I had the opportunity to speak regularly was to inmates in a local Boston prison. One of the inmates, when thrown into solitary, recalling what I had shared, became aware of the patterns of thought, resulting in the stopping of thinking. He said it was a joke, that he was thrown into solitary as punishment and here he was having the time of his life.