"When you feel yourself closing down, hardening, and tightening against this precious world or your dear old self, you can use 'just as it is' as an antidote. It's a mantra that you can apply on the spot, whenever needed. Simply saying, 'This experience is complete just as it is,' or 'I am complete just as I am,' is a way of catching yourself as you begin to divide your experience in half — into this against that or me against you. It's a way of catching yourself just as you begin to harden into a dualistic way of perceiving, a view that inevitably brings struggle and dissatisfaction.
"Trungpa Rinpoche referred to basic goodness as 'unstoppable brilliance.' This means that sooner or later — no matter how stubborn or lazy or dubious we are — confidence in our basic goodness and the basic goodness of the world will dawn on us. We will develop complete trust in our experience 'just as it is.' It's inevitable.
"The wonderful irony about this spiritual journey is that we find it only leads us to become just as we are. The exalted state of enlightenment is nothing more than fully knowing ourselves and our world, just as we are. In other words, the ultimate fruition of this path is simply to be fully human. And the ultimate benefit we can bring to others is to help them also realize their full humanity, just as they are."
