We arrive at a dead-end gravel road and begin our hike through the woods along a narrow trail made squishy from a summer of constant rain. We follow a path lined on both sides with bright green moss and shiny mushrooms until we arrive at the edge of a tidal inlet.
Clambering down an embankment at low tide, we take advantage of a friendly boulder and sit for a moment to take in the scene: the warm sunshine and blue sky, far-off views, and the delicious smell of saltwater and kelp.
There is a single gull perched on a distant rock. You watch the gull as it loses its seat to the rising tide. The gull takes off and flaps away, and as you follow its flight, there is a quiet, inward relaxation, and you realize, in surprise, there is no actual inside or outside of you. There is only You, All of this, the gull, the sky and clouds, the rocks and ever-moving ocean, moss, and mushrooms, all and everything, is You. You are the world, and the world is you. To realize this fact is to come to the end of the illusion of a separate self and enter the world of effortless being.