A woman looked for her reading glasses and couldn’t find them. She looked everywhere to no avail. Then she found them in her pocket. She had been carrying them around all that time. This story is a great analogy for our spiritual quest. What we look for is already within, with one up on the reading glasses story. What we are looking for is also looking for us!
If we go into the desert for 40 days like Jesus did to find God, we are unlikely to find anything if our deep-seated motivation is to be better off than the fellow next door. Same if we do it in order to avoid suffering. This is because there is an entity reaching for a state which is characterized as the absence of self. It doesn’t work. We can’t jump over our own shadow!
What we can do is to be aware of our motivation to be a cut above the other, or the desire to escape from our pain. There is no need to go to the desert for 40 days like Jesus did or practice all kinds of self-disciplining practices like Buddha did for six years. The notion of self can be understood right here, right now, and then it makes room for a different energy entirely.
We said earlier that what we are looking for is looking for us. Life can be seen that way, a messenger of discomfort or false promises when the self is at work, and an expression of universal energies if the self-inflicted illusion is seen. Stay still for a moment and follow the easy Way.
After trying to lead the
hard way it is a relief to
follow the E A S Y W A Y.
(David Wellens, Relief)
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