A friend writes:
"I always read with pleasure and high interest in your blog to keep up the connection, the memory in the spiritual sense.
One article particularly occupies me at the moment, which is actually always topical and important, because Vedanta quintessence. Namely the one titled "A struggle is inevitable". One can really only say thank you for it here. .
When I now look at my life and especially my daily thought movements, habits, but also consumption addictions etc. and experience them partly painfully, then I really ask myself if it is at all possible for a western person to break through this whole jumble to finally merge into the divine self (a noble goal).
Moreover - as a seeker you often don't live in a quiet ashram or monastery, but you are often in the middle of life, like job, marriage, family, social dynamics, climate, wars and corona etc. etc..
My 1st question to you now would be frankly (if you like!):
Isn't it much, much more beneficial and healthier for a seeker to first get rid of the many external connections as well as possible or partially, physically?
I am seriously considering doing this, e.g. going back to the Findhorn spiritual community in Scotland to live a simple life (I lived there for some time as a young person but also in a Gnostic spiritual community).
Would be very very happy to get an answer :) "
My response:
Greetings.
The question of whether a seeker can merge into the divine self has two sides.
From the personal point of view, it is impossible! Discovering how much mental structures create a house of cards of zT contradictory tissues is an important, albeit painful, act of realization that makes a profound inner journey possible in the first place. Before that is the crowd of 'churchgoers' (in all traditions, of course) who just want to have something without really giving themselves.
Personality is a result of these tissues, and as long as we start from it, we want to reach an imagined goal, but at the same time exclude it, because we are occupied. Only when we are completely empty and start from this silent quality, we are receptive to be fulfilled instead of wanting to achieve something.
What is this emptiness? It is the PRESENCE, thoughtless being. When you are still, you can become aware of it, because IT is always present. That is why it cannot be attained, otherwise it would be as transient as all other mental states.
When Jesus responded to Peter's exasperated exclamation, 'But Lord, then it is impossible!' (after Jesus had declared that a rich man could not enter anything into the Kingdom of Heaven), he said, 'What is impossible with man, it is possible with God!'
We constantly have both qualities in our experience, BEING and thoughts. From the thoughts and the person, it is impossible (and this includes your second question, because you cannot plan your own path).
Sadhana then means to explore how your attention can dwell with the formless Presence, as frequently and continuously as possible.
Because only BEING can liberate, not any strategy, no matter how sophisticated!
Best regards!
Reinhard
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