From a talk by Toni Packer—
Here at Springwater there is no special practice assigned or suggested to people. You may wish to continue with a previously learned practice, or to try something new: simply attending without a known method or purpose. Attending to what is taking place from moment to moment isn’t a technique, it is what is and that is all!
Simple Listening
Right now can there be simple listening, being present to what appears as sound and feeling and thinking in the midst of open silence? A vast listening space of no preferences and no judgments, no one here to do the listening. It’s happening on its own.
In listening, we may become aware of what we call our conditioning, our habitually unconscious or semi-conscious reactions toward each other and the situations around us. We may discern the palpable difference between just being here as we are, openly attentive, and the state of entanglement in a web of fantasy.
Discovering the Wonder of Presence
And we may discover the wonder of coming upon that which is not conditioned, that which is beyond fantasy and remembrance. Sitting quietly, without desire and fear, beyond the sense of time, is vast, boundless being, not belonging to me or you. It is free and unattached, shedding light on conditioned being, beholding it and yet not meddling with it—revealing what is as it is, in the light of wisdom and compassion too marvelous to comprehend.