There is a lot of talk about creating your own reality by means of thoughts, intentions sent into space, prayers, visualisations or affirmations. The thoughts, words and emotions that we generate are usually not the result of chance, but arise under the influence of a specific set of beliefs, encoded in our subconsciousness.
Observing the events, people, and life circumstances we attract is a way of recognizing the deeply hidden mental patterns stored within us that we might otherwise not notice. If we attract cyclically a specific type of disharmonious situations, it is for us information about a loveless program present in our personal space. Recognizing it and consciously working on change helps us lead a more fulfilling life.
Nowadays, we observe a very strong trend derived from esoteric knowledge, encouraging us to consciously shape our reality by implementing a positive mental-emotional approach. This trend is mainly related to the ability of attracting to ourselves what we would like to have: career, dream partner, money, friends, etc. All these values are related to our personality and material existence. Meeting our physical needs is important. However, it is also important what part of us governs our lives. Who or what governs our thinking, feeling, desires, and actions? Biological instincts, an egoic mind entangled in matter, or a spirit whose wisdom emerges from Silence?
In the society we live in, we are programmed and encouraged to achieve external success. We are motivated to make our dreams come true, achieve spectacular goals, thanks to which we are to achieve happiness, or prove our worth. Very often we do not confront these pressurized social expectations with our innermost being. We follow superficial ideas about what happiness is and still don’t feel fulfilled.
Can we find true happiness in what is outside? This world is organized according to the words of Heraclitus: “Everything flows”. Everything here is subject to constant changes, the laws of birth, growth, flowering, fading and death. Everything that appears on the material plane is impermanent, it is like a wave in the ocean. It is born, rises with a humming sound, descends with a roar and merges again with the great water. The noise it creates is impressive but does the wave have its own essence? Can you grab it in your hands, put it in a jar, keep it? One could say that we will not stop the wave itself, but in the mind of the observers the impression that the noise made on them will remain. This way of thinking is characteristic of our little ego, which feels unconnected, separate from the rest of existence and wants to maintain this separateness. Paradoxically, this makes us even more unhappy, because true bliss comes from feeling one with all existence.
Somewhere on a subconscious level we know that everything here is impermanent. Therefore, when we gain what we wanted, we are very afraid that we will lose it and we constantly fight to keep it. We can’t enjoy it for long. And then we think again that when we fulfill the next desire, we will be happy. Attachment is intertwined with the fear of loss, so there is no peace in us and we suffer.
In his book Freedom from the Known Jiddu Krishnamurti writes that “The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life”. This approach is a voluntary submission to someone else’s authority and tyranny, and this “twists our mind and our way of life. So if we completely reject, not intellectually but actually, all so-called spiritual authority, all ceremonies, rituals and dogmas, it means that we stand alone and are already in conflict with society; we cease to be respectable human beings”. He goes on to say that ”A respectable human being cannot possibly come near to that infinite, immeasurable, reality. A person who discards all ready-made recipes for happiness and fulfilment will initially create a great disturbance in and around him/herself but he/she will step out of the trap of respectability.”[1]
These words can be very liberating. They will be liberating when we understand that our value is not in our personality and its spectacular achievements. The latter require sacrifice and often only at the end of our lives we realize that our ambition and the will to win have obscured our love for the people around us. Our value is hidden in the Self, in the true Self, in which, as the mystics of the East say and as Gnosis teaches, we need to dissolve our mind, our personality, our ego.
A man, attuned to his inner being, sees only one path for himself to walk – the one that his heart, immersed in Silence, chooses for him. This is where the call comes from: “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me”. (Mk 10: 21)
This abandonment does not relate to external matters. Yet it often requires tremendous courage. It requires constant effort to observe yourself, to listen to the voice of the Spirit, and to give up selfish urges.
This does not mean that we are to become beggars, wanderers, monks, ascetics or hermits. These words refer deeply to our inner self. “Sell everything you have!” Do not identify with the body or with material things, do not make them “extensions of yourself”, be ready to give them up at any moment. Remember that all abilities, skills are not “yours”; they are properties of the Self. Of the Self which is present in every human being. When you find it in yourself, you will be able to see it in others and help them tune in to it. Let all your efforts be for the highest good of all beings.
“Give everything you have to the poor”… Want for others everything you want for yourself. Give up the desire to be someone special, better, different. Leave the pursuit of success, adoration, achievements, prestige, wealth, comfort and luxury, impressions, material things. They are all impermanent, constantly changing and fleeting things. Search for the Being. For what is still, Silence. It is there that hides the peace and harmony that your soul longs for.
There is no “me”. What I consider “I” is a set of illusions to which I have clung. My true essence is deeper. There is no name, no label, no concept for it. “The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao.” I cannot prove with words to others that this other Being lives within me. I can only sense its existence, and no words follow it. Just as I cannot catch waves in my hands, I cannot catch “my” True Being with my mind. I cannot include it within the concept. I can feel it with my heart that has a spark of true Self in it. I can hear the “voice of Silence” calling me. Jan van Rijckenborgh in his book The Coming New Man called this ability to sense God in oneself faith. Faith is born as a result of the spark of the true Self awakening in us. When we follow its call, it will become a great fire that will consume all the illusion.
The Holy Bible says: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Mt 6:33)
These words are very helpful and practical. They encourage us to stay in the present; to seek first the “kingdom” or state of sanctified Silence within ourselves. When we listen to the voice of the Self and remain grateful and trustful, then things turn out to be beneficial to all. Our work is guided by the Spirit. We tune into the field of all potentials, to God, for whom nothing is impossible. That is why Master Eckhart wrote: “People should not worry so much about what they have to do; they should consider rather what they are. If people and their ways were good, their deeds would shine brightly.”[2]
The self-realization we care so much about isn’t about developing and perfecting our personalities. It’s not about achieving amazing results and claiming to be the author of that success. Everything is surrounded by and immersed in God, in the infinite Self, the Source that gives us all that exists. So, our life is about finding God in ourselves, manifesting the true Self, dissolving the concept of one’s own individuality in it, freeing ourselves from selfishness and fear for the sake of Love and unity. Such people create a New Earth, free from pain, injustice and imperfections. This is what true Creativity is all about.
[1] Jiddu Krishnamurti, „Freedom from the Known”, 1969, pp. 4-5, https://www.theosophy.world/resource/ebooks/freedom-known-j-krishnamurti.
[2] Meister Eckhart, “The Talks of Instruction, Of the Value of Resignation: What to Do Inwardly and Outwardly” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2009, p. 489, https://philocyclevl.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/meister-eckhart-maurice-o-c-walshe-bernard-mcginn-the-complete-mystical-works-of-meister-eckhart-the-crossroad-publishing-company-2009.pdf.
