True Inquiry!
As you are all finding out, the journey is absolutely unknowable and it requires a deep leap of faith to resist the urge to follow the cultural, familial, social (collective consciousness) evaluations and interpretations of the dissonance that support the images of a defective self. We have dragged those story lines around for so very long.
You may feel that you want to back away from a deeper investigation of an emotional wound, but, there is a much stronger impulse to stay present and relax into the emotional body and then into the energetic essence of the "damaged self". Then and only then, is there the possibility of discovering that what we have been avoiding is, ironically, the way into the full expression of our essential selves.
The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi had this to say about inquiry: "it is like a thorn used to pick out another thorn. Once the thorns are picked out, you can discard then all. And then, there is the unconditioned." RELAX – truly inquire inward and let emptiness reflect back onto itself!!
How does this quote apply to your every day living experience. I am not interested in theories about this quote – what is your direct experience
of what I am sharing!
I look forward to your insights!
Namaste,
Keshav