An Essential Exploration
We are familiar with what we are, in the simplicity of our being, because this is nothing else but what we are.
We are familiar with what we are, in the simplicity of our "being", because this is not elsewhere.
What we are, finally, in the simplicity of our being, does not match the idea we have of absolute happiness.
The quest begins with the ideas "of something else", "elsewhere" and "happiness". The end of the quest comes about by relinquishing these ideas and the mass of spiritual conceptions which revolve around it.
However, as you read these words, it's possible that a voice inside continues to say:
"OK, but I'm still suffering and I'm still not happy with what I am!".
If you are aware of this voice, you see how the quest for this "something else" has taken up all the room, since, in answer to the assertion: "You are already What you are seeking", the quest imperturbably replies: "I can't be happy with that!".
And yet, at the moment this realization occurs, we come up against a paradox.
The feeling of dissatisfaction must indeed be addressed. But not in accordance with the principles of the quest. This is impossible.
What keeps us remote from ourselves, the illusory gap we have created by expecting the advent of the "other" who does not exist, is FEAR. In this context, we can say "Fear of oneself".
"What we are" is therefore "What we are CONSCIOUSLY" and not "What I see of myself on the surface of my life, having hidden everything I didn't want to see beneath lids, everything of which I was afraid, everything that does not fit in with my idea of happiness ".
Through these words, we approach the need for a non-mental discernment (it's not through a thought process that we can achieve this), for a journey to the heart of what is, right here, right now (not elsewhere or tomorrow) and which even our spiritual efforts have been unable to do away with.
Thus we perceive the distance we create with ourselves and which makes us say "I'm still suffering".
The "encounter with oneself" which puts an end to the quest is like an exploration when we have become aware of the jungle of our complications. The idea of "spiritual quest" begins with this idea: going through the jungle. And yet, when we have "understood" how Really to go through the jungle (i.e. we are at one and the same time the tool, the one who wields it and what is done with it), there is no alternative but to put an end to the painful "search for the self" anywhere but in ourselves. But since we have to address the paradox, we also say that we must "lift the lids".
It is at this moment that the intimate discovery of "what we are" begins.
But "diving into the heart" is not for the "faint of heart", for we shall be face to face with fear and terror, and sometimes we shall step back, without even realizing it. To begin with, we must assume absolute responsibility for what we encounter, without seeking consolation or a soothing lotion. Encountering fear generally makes us look for a consolation, an excuse to flee from it.
A conscious encounter with fear is "being with", "seeing", even if there is shouting from the deepest corners of our being. It is sometimes useful to have others "rally round" for that, but it is often possible to make this encounter alone, for it when we are at the end of our tether, at the end of the race, that we meet up with ourselves.
Fraternally,
Thierry