09/06/2024
When there is nothing to understand and achieve...
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Throughout the various columns published on this page since last October, I have discussed awakening from different aspects. I have discussed Kundalini and energy, which thus refers to certain Eastern traditions from yoga. I have discussed Consciousness, thus referring to the way in which modern spirituality approaches things a lot now. I have talked about the importance of the body, which is a little less often discussed. I have also discussed the role of beliefs and the different traps into which we can be led by them. I have discussed the psyche, the different “layers” that compose us in terms of energy, emotions, thoughts, etc. I have also discussed the reality of the soul, in short, I have led you on all sorts of paths. These are all paths, direct or not, that will gradually bring about a purification of everything that masks the immutable and eternal reality that hides in each human being.
These paths are there for three main aspects. The first is to point a direction, to change the orientation of an ego which, when we embark on the spiritual path, is fundamentally hypnotized by all kinds of phenomena external to it. Phenomena from which it conditions what it calls "reality". A reality that is only an illusion, made of its beliefs, its wounds and its conditioning. The first goal is therefore to return to Oneself to see all these mechanisms. The second goal is to provide tools to the mind to understand the mind! And yes, because the mind is a crazy little animal trapped in its cage. Two visions take place in spirituality when the time comes to approach the beast. Some will provide you with tools to "tame" it and others will tell you that you only must understand it. Both are equal, you just must find what best suits your temperament. The third goal of all these spiritual approaches is to return to the body. This is the goal, the one that allows you to understand that life is not lived from the intellect but from the whole of the being. I like to say that it is the mind that is at the service of the body and not the other way around.
But this is not entirely accurate. It is only an image to help you understand that the ego always understands everything upside down. Because the ego is continually projecting itself, it always sees things in reverse. It therefore takes the body for granted and often only cares about it to give it the image that suits it and serves its needs. To use it for its personal ends. Ends oriented according to this illusion of life that it has built for itself. But he has no use for his intrinsic reality, his sensitivity, the fragility of his nervous system, the need for balance and a certain tranquility in his way of life. Which is normal, since the ego is our active part, the one that is turned towards action. It therefore needs the body to act. But in fact, what is needed is a balance between the aspects relating to the Spirit and those relating to the Body. The ego also needs vision, the ability to see the illusions that inhabit it. Therefore, all spiritual paths, all methods and disciplines that tend towards well-being, aim for a balance of these two aspects in us. No matter what symbols of duality are used by the path you take, they all aim to bring you back to a state of balance. Shiva and Shakti, sacred masculine and feminine, light and shadow, good and evil, Divine and human, life and death, this world in which we live expresses itself through duality, through what we perceive as opposites. And everything is just a kind of struggle, or rather a long apprenticeship to make us understand the meaning of this way that creation manifests and expresses itself. So, no matter what path you take, you will one day have to understand that there is no struggle. That duality is not a fight, that there is no "evil" or "sin", any more than there are dark forces that seek to dominate the light, ELSEWHERE THAN IN YOURSELF.
It is you who resist against yourself; it is you who choose to adhere to limiting beliefs, it is you and always you who continue to maintain conflicts within yourself.
Because accepting ourselves as we are difficult, because we were told at a very young age that we had to behave in a certain way to be loved, because we were rejected, because, because, because… Because we were not accepted as we were by parents who deep down, only wanted to do what had been done with them, by instilling in us a way of seeing life that they believed was the best. The best for them. They tried to take the best of what they had been taught by their parents, eliminating what had made them suffer. They tried to improve the recipe and that is what you have done or will do with your children as well. This is how the world improves, slowly but surely. By a method of trial and error that allows us to gradually do things a little better than 1000 or 2000 years ago.
We learn from our failures as much as from our successes. From our happiness but even more from our trials. Because there is no opposite, there is no good and evil. Only an interpretation of neutral phenomena that are present but also passing momentarily in our lives to allow us to evolve.
When this is seen and understood, balance and peace settle in. The mind stops agitating and calms down. We then understand that we have been telling ourselves nonsense for years. That we are lying to ourselves. We stop listening to all the nonsense that makes up 80% of our thoughts. Slowly but surely silence will come from this observation.
That is when we “realize”. That there is nothing to achieve! Nor anything to understand. No “awakening”, no spirituality, no path to follow, no God to find. All this is the ego that is still and always looking for its place in the sun, its place in this world. Everything is there, in each of us. Complete, perfect in its imperfection. At every moment. All the time. All these quests, these ideals, are, precisely, ideas. Ideas that we have taken for realities. Life is there, at every moment, asking to be welcomed and lived for what it is: A wonderful adventure!
The intellect disconnects. Finally…
We stop surviving and we start living. From another place of listening. A listening that no longer goes through what we hear but through what we feel. Of course, this is not the end. It is a new beginning. Because you will still have to learn to trust what is known and known in each of us. See that knowledge does not come from you. That it is lived and conveyed through you, carrying an experience that is more and more organic, less and less mental and more and more authentic. But already you will be free. Freed from the hold that the gaze of the other had on you, freed from all ideas and beliefs. Freed from yourself. Because there is only you. There is only Self. Everywhere.
Translation of a French text, posted on February 15, 2021.
Have a good weekend,
Amrit