by Gangaji: My invitation is very simple. It is to stop your internal conversations long enough to directly experience the aliveness in the core of your being. If we are willing—for at least a moment—to stop believing that what we know is the whole truth, and to open our minds to what is unknown, then the answer is here, and it is always here. In that openness, you can inquire, is this enough? Is this fulfillment in itself? In your discovery a lifetime of deep inquiry is available to you.

The question I continually get is “How do I stop?” or “Well, yes, I can stop in your presence, or I can stop right now, but what about tomorrow when I go to work, or when the children are crying, or when I’m in a different setting, a different context.”

It is really all the same, and certainly my answer is always the same. The question is really, “How do I find the resolve to actually stop and be still?” Finally it is an issue of resolve, and resolve can only come from the question, “What do I want?” What do I really want?

If you are struggling, and what you want is to win an argument or to figure something out, or to know the answer, then it doesn’t even make sense to stop thinking because thinking helps you figure out the answer, or it helps you make points in an argument. But If what you really want is peace, or the truth that transcends the argument, or the truth of yourself, then resolve is there to actually take a moment and simply stop, stop what you are doing: stop the winning, stop the figuring, stop the knowing, and simply be aware of what is here.

I am never speaking against thought. I recognize the power of thought and the necessity of thought in particular circumstances. I respect that and I am in awe of it. But what gets so much overlooked, and where there is so much unnecessary suffering, is when we rely on thought to give us peace, or the truth of ourselves, or to give us the truth that transcends all arguments.

Peace is immediately discovered in this moment by simply stopping. The question, “What about the next moment?” is already leaving this moment. That question itself is trying to figure out what will happen; it is trying to know. If we are willing to stop figuring and to stop knowing, then the answer is here, and it is always here. It is very simple.

What is simple and what is complicated? Is the source of authenticity complex or simple? The result can be either complex or simple, but is the source of authenticity complex or simple? It is my discovery that it is utterly simple and immeasurably profound. So simple that even words like profound are too complicated. Simple beingness, aware of its being.