Buddha-hood is the discovery of freedom. Not freedom from the outside but freedom from within. It is freedom from our own mind distorting reality. As long as we are looking for freedom from outside we are doing the wrong thing and the fundamental suffering of hope and fear will perpetuate.

Real freedom is freedom from our own conceptions, from the psychological veil that is distorting the way things are. When we are free from our own unenlightened mind, that internal veil, we see that even our problems are divine. Everything is a manifestation of great emptiness. That means that everything is divine. We have to love everything including the dark side of the world. We have to love whatever life presents to us. Are we ready to let go of all of our resistance and see all of life as divine, as a manifestation of Supreme Source? This is a practical discipline.

When we are encountering difficulties in life can we simply learn how to love what is? When things are falling apart, when we are having bad hair days, when life is mistreating us, can we find a way to love it? Some day we are all going to die. We may die alone or we may die surrounded by friends. No one knows how or when they will die. But we all have to find a way to love that we are dying.

What is happening to us right now? Are we dis-liking reality? We have a simple goal – to love all of reality. We have to love everything. We are always relating to reality based on preconceived notions rather than the way things are. Things are perfectly perfect the way they are. Confidence is knowing that everything is perfect. We all have moments of being completely melted, moments when we surrender our ego completely. There is the possibility of being in that place every moment. This requires work, the work of reflection and meditation practice.

Our greatest karmic tendency is that we feel we need to have control of everything. We need to control our reality. What is the opposite of this? It is to wait and do nothing.

Sometimes we feel that we are dancing in an ocean of ecstasy. But sometimes we lose our awareness and we get lost in confusion. We merely have to wait. We don't know how to wait. We have to do something. All of our habits of tension well up. We want to declare a national emergency in our own world.

All human beings hate waiting. I remember being in India and waiting in line for train tickets. People were pushing and shoving because they couldn't stand waiting. We have tremendous aversion to waiting. Ego is afraid of not knowing. Our idea of certainty is based on ego. Our mind has to be preoccupied by notions that there is security and certainty in every moment. Ego needs to hear, "Everything is secure." Ego is terrified of uncertainty. Ego can't accept reality.

It takes many years of meditation to realize that we have no conflict with reality. This absence of conflict, this acceptance of all conditions and events as a perfect display of Supreme Source is very simple and portable knowledge. We have never had a conflict with reality.

Whenever you feel conflict remember, "This is not my problem. I have no problem with reality. This is ego's problem." Ego is always insecure and falling apart. Reality is mighty. It rules the whole existence. When you are able to surrender to reality you will experience a great awakening. The act of surrendering to reality is enlightenment. It happens suddenly, spontaneously, at a very unexpected moment.

As long as the mind is veiled by misperceptions of who we are, we fight with reality. Surrendering to reality is the ultimate act of knowing who we are. When we are in harmony with reality there is nothing to surrender. But when something arises, surrender immediately. "I accept." Surrender comes naturally sometimes. Especially when we have been defeated many times. Suppose that someone tells you that the sky is falling apart and you must hold it up. You do that and become very tired. Then you decide that you are not going to try to hold up the sky any longer. This is very freeing. The act of surrender takes only a millisecond. In that moment you realize that samsara never existed.

The quintessential goal of our dharma practice is surrendering to reality in each and every moment and seeing and loving everything as divine. The problem that we usually find in our practice is that it is easy to love when we are in conditions where we are getting what we want. But it is difficult to love the conditions that we don't want. The truth is that there is no difference in what is to be loved and what is to be not loved. It is our obscured mind that is putting limits on everything. Being dead or alive is the same. Being sick or healthy is the same. Being hungry or full is the same. It is all divine.

Enlightenment is a state where all conflict has subsided. The way to actualize this consciousness is through loving everything. In Vajrayana we often apply visualization to transcend our obscured perception. Visualize this world as a perfect paradise and everyone in it as a perfect Bodhisattva.

If we go beyond duality what is our work? In duality at least there is a job. Beyond duality there is no work. There is only one moment. One moment in which there is complete integration with everything. In that moment ego dies.