We need to search within ourselves, but not for ourselves.
Man look within. How often have we heard that? How long have we been searching – firstly outwardly but after much struggle and anguish, eventually within? What do we find when we seek within? Certainly not the peace and tranquility that we are looking for, although thankfully it touches us briefly from time to time, but initially an entangled mess of thoughts, anxieties, emotions, all vying for our attention. A jungle of inner aspects of our earthly personality which we have so carefully built up and protected throughout our life. Some of them very sublime, imitating what we are hoping to find, some very much the opposite, opposing our search, and many, many in between. Perhaps, very likely, we have built a nice image of what we are searching for, and that confronts us also with “eureka, I have found it”. We begin to talk about it, write about it, reflect endlessly on it with our “I”. We start to let go of the many hindrances that we see, that the world reflects within us, hoping to come closer and closer to our goal. We peel away layer after layer of inner baggage, untying bonds and occasionally experiencing a glimpse of peacefulness which eludes us as soon as we try to capture it. Capture it for our own. We ask ourselves why, after years and years of searching within am I still no closer? Am I a failure, should I give up? What am I searching for and with what am I searching?
We know we are searching within and jettisoning all that impedes our efforts, but the search is becoming exhausting and seems it will never end. And the still small inner voice seems to recede ever more. Perhaps we will never find what we are looking for – what then? Have we wasted all these years? Or perhaps our searching is being carried out in the wrong way? With what are we searching? What “tool” are we using, what are we using to dig with? And then the answer comes – we are digging frantically with our “I”, seeking to find a treasure that “we” can keep for ourselves!
But it is a treasure that can never belong to “us”, can never be recognised by our earthly consciousness because it is there for all of humanity and of a unique and different nature. All around us, encircling our planet, waiting for us all to wake up! Waiting for us to let go of our own search, let go of our “I” search, and begin to search on behalf of our world. Waiting for us to look deeply within for the treasure that is rightly hidden there because it, and only it, is indeed of the most value.
