Being with what is...

 Transcription of extracts from lectures given by Thierry in April 2004 in Cavaillon, Grenoble , Dijon and Paris (France).

 

At the root of the spiritual quest, there is a basic need to improve, maybe even become someone else, reach a state of grace or some other particular state. In order to achieve these aims, the spiritual seeker uses tools. We’re all familiar with those tools : meditation, rituals, as well as beliefs, certainties and practices which come in all shapes and sizes. All these things ended up in most cases in forming screens to the reality which spiritual seekers claim to be looking for. We could say that the practices and methods place the seeker outside of himself. In fact, it is less the methods in themselves that I denounce than what the spiritual seeker has  made of them. This eccentric quest - in the literal sense of the word, removed from the center - has finally stifled any real possibility of encountering oneself. The seeker’s spiritual ambition has quenched the simplicity of being, the true hope which lies at the root of all efforts.

What we shall be seeing is that, at the beginning of this flight from reality, there is a fundamental fear with which it is impossible to negotiate but that can be explored in order to experience its nature.

I’m aware that this may seem a little destructive to begin with, but I invite you to accept it because it will be salutary, despite the scaffolding that will collapse as a result.

Fear, therefore, is generally at the beginning of most spiritual quests. It’s now interesting to see how all the artful tricks created on this basis, and which we rarely question, have become solidified in a mass, to the extent that any meeting with what is, right here, right now, or what is aroused within us at any moment, has become unacceptable; how the ingenious devices of the spiritual quest have led the seeker to determine that some of the things that are aroused within him should be avoided and how, consequently, the goal of the spiritual quest has become removed from the living center that makes us what we are, and has been redirected towards a mythical outwards destination.

This is why we may note that today a good many spiritual seekers have the feeling of going round in circles. What they’re going round in fact is the intelligence of Life within and its Teaching.

 

When I speak of the self, here, I’m neither using a capital nor small "s", because these are only prefabricated terms of the reality of the self. The only reality at any given moment in time is what is aroused, right here, right now. And the necessity of its recognition, exploration and taking responsibility of it. The fundamental spiritual complication is to position screens and protections that hide this immediate reality. And so we’re going to be careful not to use spiritual commonplaces and all the formulas we know by heart and have adopted to the extent that we take them for spiritual accomplishments. Words, of course, are only words which can point in a certain direction but they are not the direction they show.

Certain spiritual schools are past-masters in presenting intellectual adherence as a spiritual accomplishment.

 

Now, a simple question will enable us to observe how remote we are from ourselves. The space which may be created between the moment the question is asked and that when an answer is given represents, more or less, how remote we are from ourselves. It’s a question I’m going to ask one of you, so as to determine our ability to be in direct relation with what is, right here, right now. The question is: "Do you know and can you tell me what you’re feeling (not thinking) at this moment in time?" (different answers in the audience)

 

See how the simple question I asked you can lead to detours. To the question "What are you feeling at this very moment in time?" more often than not I’m given an answer that has something to do with the body or a thought. It is more acceptable to speak of the body or indulge in philosophy than confide a more intimate, more vibrant yet hazier reality. The epiphenomena of thought or bodily movements do not correspond to what is felt, in the way I’m speaking of this evening in any case. I invite you to a look which focuses less on the body, which is not at all in the head with its hotchpotch of spiritual commonplaces, than what is intimately, plainly and soberly felt, at the heart of the here and now. It is a look which may seem demanding because it’s not one we’re used to. The question which directs the spiritual seeker to what is alive right here, right now, makes it possible for you to realize whether you are aware of what is being aroused within you and whether there is a possibility of tranquilly confiding it. And this also enables you to see the distance between the two. Here is a foundation stone on which to build the relationship with oneself and the other.

The essential discovery that the seeker places at the end of his prefabricated spiritual quest is that of self-discovery, a discovery which is neither realized in time or space. It doesn’t happen by crossing space towards a predefined destination, it isn’t achieved by accumulating experiences or knowledge over time. All these things may produce benefits on a certain horizontal plane, the plane on which the seeker likes to feel that he’s making progress. But, after 30 or 40 years of progress, the spiritual seeker is also led to the conclusion that any progress made is on the periphery of a reality that he has not yet explored, that’s to say the reality of what is flowing through at every moment.  The real encounter can only be made with the here and now. And this is true at all times, even outside this meeting. There is no better moment. At any moment, we can authorize ourselves to be or not to be.

This radical simplification brings us to something which we have always fled. We may, for example, encounter some deep sadness and, without really disappearing, this sadness can reveal itself to be more than just a personal sadness. Maybe the symbol of something wider, vaster. But we should not anticipate or manipulate the way the encounter develops. Everything that is aroused in the self contains the answer to all quests, provided the encounter is candid. In any case, it is the very basic start of a spiritual exploration that does not avoid anything.

 

Anger is one of those things that are aroused within and which we judge to be inappropriate. This judgment doubtless stems from the fact that we fear its consequences, or because we have classified it as non spiritual. So the possible encounter, the way I mean it, with this anger is impossible on such a base. In reality, something appears – a fairly powerful energy and a direction which we anticipate such as "I’m going to lose control" (the spiritual seeker doesn’t want to lose control, not for anything in the world. All his activity is aimed at keeping and heightening control. He wants to manage his life along its preconceived ideas and conditionning). Anger is indeed the antithesis of the prefabricated spiritual goal. I don’t want to convince you that it would be spiritual. That’s not the issue. But we thought we’d understood that if we wanted to be spiritual, and above all if we wanted to become a great master, anger was out of place, or at least it should not be visible to anyone. So there are all sorts of ways to control anger, from automatic strategies to the most sophisticated ploys, which, moreover, have given rise to many books and training courses. Something is aroused which, out of fear, we keep at arm’s length. So what role is anger going to play in our new vision ? Before becoming known as anger, this energy is something alive, vast and unique. But we have to encounter it in order to be able to say this. That’s it in a nutshell. At the very core of what we are fleeing from. Being with is the opposite to the mechanism of the spiritual seeker’s approach who, when he comes face to face with turmoil within him, tries to control it, by going into meditation, for example, just as he’d switch on the TV. The encounter reveals the nature, and the real texture of this energy and it can also show that this energy doesn’t always have to follow the same grooves of expression.

 

The most awesome judgment in human experience is the spiritual judgment. Spiritual seekers are among the more violent people, a violence which they direct against themselves. If we happen to experience a desire for some truth in our lives, there is a possibility to simplify and fulfill the process that we call "our spiritual quest".

 

 

 

© Thierry Vissac 2001-2011