Stillness Speaks Book Previews

Real Gift Of The Pathless Path? Nothing to Grasp Joan Tollifson

by Sanjiv Manifest | May 21, 2025

gift of the pathless path: “… The Holy Reality is already here, fully complete. And if you think otherwise, then simply stop, look and listen” …” ~ Joan Tollifson

Pathless Path … wave seeking the ocean … already That which we are seeking …

Us humans live with paradoxes, don’t we?

And that’s especially true when it comes to That which matters … the “topic” of “awakening” … or what Rumi calls “… the one thing you must do {in this life} …” …

As Ramana Maharshi exquisitely said : “… There is no greater mystery than this: being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality. …”

Part of the mystery seems to be that somehow we get too focused on the seeking? … and {not surprisingly} miss what’s already here? …

So … what are we to “do?”

Joan Tollifson invites us to pause all seeking … nothing more than a full stop, a simple listening … and simply notice what remains when there’s no effort to become, no need to fix, no future to arrive at.

What’s revealed is what she calls the Holy Reality—this moment, the ordinary, just as it is, already complete … just the spaciousness of what’s always been here … the still and silent presence that asks nothing of us but awareness.

So in today’s post – the concluding part 2 in this 2-part series – we explore the pathless path through the chapter – The Simplicity of What Is – from Joan’s recent book Nothing to Grasp (the 2nd edition was released by New Sarum Press on May 4th – originally published in 2012) …

In this chapter Joan gently dismantles the illusion that awakening lies elsewhere. What she reveals is refreshingly clear: The sacred is not hidden. It is the ordinary, seen without separation. It is life, met as it is. She brings us home to ungraspable simplicity and reminds us that liberation isn’t about escape or transcendence, but about discovering the sacredness embedded in everyday life, right where we are.

… in Part 2 of this series, Joan answers the question: Not Taking Your Life Personally: What Does That Mean? … which also addresses the question what is total intimacy and its gift?

… in Part 1, we offered an introductory glimpse of the book …

{All italicized text in this post is from Joan’s book and is published here with the publisher New Sarum Press’ generous permission. Scroll to the bottom for a free downloadable Table of Contents. And, you can purchase the book at Amazon.}

Our weekly post normally publishes on Wednesdays @10AM but … due to ongoing health issues there will be (have been) unpredictable impacts : no posts and/or delays. Please bear with us as we navigate this irregular period.

Real Gift Of The Pathless Path: The Simplicity of What Is

In any moment, there is simply this present happening. Sometimes there are thoughts and mental movies. Sometimes they seem believable and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the sky is clear and sometimes it is cloudy. Sometimes there is a sense of being a separate person, defending a position, fighting for survival. Sometimes there is only the open, undivided, boundlessness of awareness with no center and no need to defend or oppose anything.

Sometimes the rope looks like a snake. The movie of waking life seems real. We tremble in fear, lash out in rage, weep in despair and run after the mirage lake in the desert sands to quench our thirst. And then we wake up. The movie ends. Everything that apparently happened was imaginary.

The pathless path (otherwise known as life) can seem at times like a long, hard slog. In the movie, there are barren stretches, murky stretches, heartbreaking moments, times of darkness. In many respects, life is just plain hard much of the time. But the secret of awakening is that whenever we wake up, which only happens now, all of this vanishes into thin air like the landscape of a dream. All that remains is the sound of traffic, the sensations of breathing, the twittering of a bird, the exquisite no-thing-ness of this moment, brimming with life, utterly complete and perfect just as it is.

Here / Now is the Beloved that we long for. We are attracted to the Beloved, drawn to the Beloved, and this attraction, this longing actually comes from our own Heart, our own True Nature, but we don’t realize this at first. We search for the Beloved “out there” in many different forms—in an intimate relationship, a teacher, a guru, an enlightenment experience. And finally, in a moment of awakening, we pass through the gateless gate. We realize the Beloved is Here / Now, and in love, we find there is no separation, that the Beloved is all there is, the emptiness bursting forth as clouds and trees and pencil sharpeners and thunderstorms and light bulbs and concentration camps and meditation centers and words on a computer screen.

Here / Now is formless, and yet it is appearing as every form. It is invisible, and yet it is visible everywhere. It is as subtle as space, and yet it is more solid than the ground beneath your feet. No word can capture it, and yet, every word is only it. It’s not a particular experience or state of consciousness, it’s not an object or a substance that can be seen or grasped, it’s not a conceptual formulation, it’s not some mystical essence or transcendent reality apart from the messiness of ordinary everyday life. It is just this, exactly as it is.

When we are awake, our whole spiritual journey loses its seriousness. It melts away like a cloud formation. No one was actually running from a tiger, and no one was actually saved from this danger. The whole problem never really existed. It was only a dream.

To realize this is to be totally intimate with the world as it actually is (and not as we think it is), open to everything, holding on to nothing.

Whenever I feel discouraged or find myself overcome by a sense of despair and hopelessness, whenever I notice that I am boiling with self-righteous anger over some injustice or cruelty in the world or that I am running away from what scares me, scrambling around trying to fill the hole of emptiness and doubt with some comforting belief, it is an invitation to notice that thought has once again materialized the mirage-like “me” and overlaid the simplicity of Here / Now with some kind of story, some kind of imaginary problem. I’ve noticed that any attempt to resist what is happening or to seek something better only amplifies the sense of dissatisfaction. Any belief I pick up to provide meaning and comfort soon begins to seem doubtful. And yet, when everything that can be doubted falls away, all doubt vanishes. When resistance and seeking end, the problem vanishes. I vanish. There is simply this present moment, as it is.

Eventually, there is a growing trust in the simplicity of what is. We begin to see that whatever happens is simply another shape that life is taking, another cloud formation floating through the sky. And we realize that every moment is complete in itself, that this is enough, that nothing more or different is needed.

True freedom is the willingness for life to be as it is, no matter how it appears. This willingness is expressed in the Abrahamic religions as “Thy will be done.” Paradoxically, in completely accepting everything just as it is, there is space for something truly new and creative to enter the picture. And this space is never not here.

The wonder of life, that which is sacred, the love that is at the core of every lover and beloved, that is equally present in every form. What is it? We can call it pure awareness, emptiness, God, the Tao—but as soon as we name it, it tends to form in the mind as something. And that is the most basic form of idolatry. When you stop looking for something, you discover the openness and the immediacy of what is.

Being here now is a description of reality, not a prescription to follow in order to arrive somewhere else. The Holy Reality is already here, fully complete. And if you think otherwise, then simply stop, look and listen.

~ Joan Tollifson

Stay tuned for … more previews … from teachers like Jean Klein, Billy Doyle, Darryl Bailey … and others … via their New Sarum Press titles …

All italicized text in this post is from Joan’s book and is published here with the publisher New Sarum Press’ generous permission.

And click here for a FREE downloadable copy of the Table of Contents, also made available by the publisher New Sarum Press.

You can purchase the book at Amazon.