In an instant a sense of beauty arises, before the mind grasps it and propels it down the perpetual track toward identifying, cognizing, objectifying, and possessing, there is only a sensing, an inner response, a faint movement of feeling.

In that nanosecond, we can completely open up to beauty, just as it is.

That emergent sensing, that stirring of inner response, is the foundation that we can expand and build upon.

Similarly, we hear music, and we like it.

But instead of identifying the specifics and producing thoughts about it, let it be, just as it is, totally open.

Expand it further.

Whatever feeling you have, touch it, taste its flavor as if it were on the tip of your tongue or vibrating on the soft edge of your inner ear.

Before knowing comes in, before judgments such as “Isn’t this wonderful” come, simply see the shining light or the beauty, or hear the sound, without fixating on it.

Let the feeling open itself, merging with the senses, but not going further, not identifying, not even to the point of feeling yourself being aware. 

Joy of Being