The free, spacious, infinite, unencumbered lightness of our nature appears in the experience of the soul as an openness. The experience is literally a lightness, a spaciousness, a freedom, but psychologically it is an openness. Literally, phenomenologically, it is like space; psychologically, it is openness to possibilities. So openness means a receptivity to experience—whatever presents itself, whatever arises in our consciousness. – Spacecruiser Inquiry, ch. 2
That is why it is not easy to learn to really be ourselves. It is simple, but it is complicated by the fact that to be ourselves means being open. To be where we are without doing anything about it means that we don’t do anything to protect ourselves, we don’t put up walls, we don’t hide ourselves. It means that we are really out there. When I say “out there,” I don’t mean out there in the middle of the highway. “Out there” might be in your own bedroom, by yourself, without any defenses. Maybe you think somebody is going to jump out at you from the TV! So being out there by yourself might make you feel naked and you get scared. – The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, ch.5
The absolute openness of true nature means that you can never know it completely, can never close the book on inquiry into it. You can never conclude the inquiry, because to conclude the inquiry is to stop the unfoldment, to stop the dynamism—and the dynamism cannot be stopped. Why? Because true nature is infinite in its possibilities, and it is infinite in its possibilities because it is the absolute mystery. – Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey, Ch. 2
Being ourselves is a delight. It is an intimacy; it is a genuineness, a preciousness. It is indescribable how satisfying it feels to us. But what I want to point to here is the fact that being ourselves implies an openness, a kind of gentleness. When we are being ourselves, we feel intimate, we feel close to ourselves. Our heart is open, our mind is clear, our soul is settled; there is no sense of thickness or inner agitation or fighting within ourselves. We experience an inner unity that feels peaceful, relaxed, contented. And whether we are feeling one specific quality or aspect of our being or we are feeling True Nature in its transcendence or boundlessness, we enjoy a delightful freedom and satisfaction. – A. H. Almaas, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, pg. 46