Ça y est, c'est fait—That's it, it's done.
Mon livre, « Untold Wonders », ainsi qu'un site web que j'ai créé pour lui et ma musique sont en ligne. Je vous laisse un lien vers Amazon pour le livre—bien qu'on puisse aussi se le procurer ailleurs en ligne, le commander en magasin ou l'obtenir directement de moi—et le lien vers mon site web. Je vous laisse aussi un lien vers Youtube, où dimanche soir—à 20h, heure de l'Est au Québec—je serai en diffusion directe (live stream) pour parler un peu du livre, possiblement lire quelques passages, jouer un peu de guitare... Au plaisir de vous y retrouver.
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My book, Untold Wonders, and a website I created for it and my music are live. I leave you a link to the book on Amazon—though it can also be ordered elsewhere online, ordered in stores, or obtained directly from me—and a link to my website. I’m also leaving you a link to YouTube, where on Sunday evening—at 8pm Eastern Time in Quebec—I’ll be doing a live stream to talk a bit about the book, possibly read a few passages, play a little guitar… I look forward to seeing you there.
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Le livre—the book: /dp/1069945706
Mon site web—my website:
Le direct de dimanche sur Youtube à 20h—Sunday's 8pm Youtube live stream:
/live/f0ACcnfWUhw?feature=share
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔—𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲...
“I am discerning that the mind has labeled my relaxing as giving up or being lazy.” Nice insight. There can be a lot in us, and outside us in the world given its obsession with productivity, that can judge us for leaving behind the frenetic ego-activity of our ego, who firmly believes that fulfillment can only come through its own activity. Not that there aren’t useful things to do. There are in my view. It's just that none of them can produce what need not be produced. Like the presence of Being, of our true nature, and all that comes with it. Yet it looks like it takes a lot for us to get the news. Which reminds me of something I wrote a long time ago:
Go, go
ego go
get that goal
god or gold
This is what our ego and ego-activity are good at, until further notice. And if doing nothing is a sin, then people like us are doomed. Yet we’re fine. “Thou shalt always work on thyself” is not one of the ten commandments. Or it depends on what we mean by work. If I were to make it into a commandment, it would mean that whatever happens I'm there for it and curious about it. And this can include not feeling like it and just wanting to space out, resist what’s happening if it’s the case. It’s interesting too, “Oh, look at that, I just want to space out. Isn't that something. I wonder what it’s about.”
You know, it's alright to put the “Closed Until Further Notice” sign up when it feels like we need a break from inner work. While it lasts. For it won’t. Reality will catch up with us sooner or later as it has a force of its own. We can escape from it, but only so much. Once it’s after us, there’s no way out.
It reminds me of mullah Nasruddin’s son who comes home with his school report, which is below average. He sneaks past his mother who’s waiting for him, goes up to his room and hides under his bed. Soon he hears voices downstairs and footsteps coming up the stairs. A moment later Nasruddin walks into the room, looks around, gets down on all fours, and as his son sees him appearing and peering at him under the bed, he asks him in a low voice, “She’s after you too, dad!?"
#untoldwonders
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
Throughout the book, at the end of each chapter, there are “weather reports.” It refers to notes kept through the years of experiences I had on my journey. More than for their content—since this kind of experience is so unique to each of us—I saw including some of them as a way to flesh out all else. To make it more palpable, tangible.
WEATHER REPORT IX
For a few days now, I go sit inside a church. It's a peaceful place, free of the tumult of city life, though right in the middle of it. I sit, close my eyes, and become aware of the presence of some ego-activity, mainly as passing thoughts. I let them be, they slowly die down, and the presence of Being becomes more substantial. I then become aware of a contraction around my solar plexus. Paying attention to it, I realize I’m waiting for something else to happen than what’s happening. As I stay with that, I see that it’s tied to a sense of incompleteness. Welcoming it, feeling into it, I come to see that the ego-activity and the contraction are tied to rejecting feeling incomplete and wanting to feel complete. As I see that connection, the contraction slowly dissipates.
I stay with the incompleteness, which is centered below the diaphragm as a sense of emptiness with a feeling of incompleteness. As I do, the presence of Being intensifies and becomes dense. It is now like a compacted fullness, a concentrated thereness.
I stay with that, and suddenly, though gently, my body straightens up and a sense of royalty and power centered around my belly start to fill it, bringing to the whole experience a sense of groundedness, rootedness. I feel grounded, whole, and complete.
✥
We are all of royal descent, queens and kings tricked in a way into thinking and feeling otherwise. Forgetful of our true nature, now wearing weather-beaten rags, we are like the prodigal child of the famous parable before it’s called, invited to return home.
When we can be home. When we are home. Where the most natural thing in the world is wearing crowns and necklaces made of the gold of truth, of the golden truth of our true nature.
#untoldwonders #innerwork
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
All spiritual teachings address the nature of the ego and its relation to our true nature, which is understandable as its presence is central to our experience. We all have one. By the time we become aware of ourselves, we actually do so through, and as, this sense of self. It becomes a given. “This is who I am.” And this is normal. It never occurs to us that there’s anything wrong with that. There’s more to being human and life than our ego’s experience of them? Yes, so much more. But to judge its experience the way a good part of spirituality has been doing doesn’t help anything. In fact, it does the opposite. It makes a lot of people who may have had an interest in spirituality lose interest in finding out whether there’s more to life than how they experience it.
Given their perspective on the true nature of reality, many spiritual teachings have been
dismissive of our ego-self. They discovered a great deal about the inner nature of reality, yet as far as our usual sense of self is concerned, there is a lot they didn’t know or overlooked and therefore didn’t take into account. They also often failed to communicate their findings in a way that makes sense to people from people’s point of view. This failure is crucial. It played and plays a part in a lot of people’s lack of interest in their inner life, as I said. When your take on things is that the best life has to offer lies beyond it, beyond our humanity, then don’t expect humanity to take you seriously.
We can repeat all the famous spiritual insights we want till the end of time. Sooner or later, we’re bound to come down to earth from the gods' realm. Our egoself is not concerned by those lofty truths and will remain unconcerned as long as we keep judging it, condemning it. On the other hand, once it feels understood, welcomed and appreciated for everything it does for us and included as a participating part in our journey, then as it gets impacted by it, a time comes when it finds itself laying its head on the lap of our true nature.
And rest there. Rest and melt away.
At long, long—longing—last.
#untoldwonders #innerwork
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐈’𝐦 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠…
What found its way into this book is material I kept over the years, ranging from journaling, short essays on various topics, to exchanges I had with people privately and online. Since so much is already published on spirituality—not to mention everything available just a click away—when the possibility of publishing came my way, I wondered if it would add something useful to the conversation. After careful consideration and the encouragement of people aware of part of it, I decided to go along with it.
This is an old conversation. Much has already been said and if much of it is still relevant, much may not be anymore since reality is alive, dynamic. It keeps evolving, keeping with the times.
Save for rare exceptions, spiritual teachings have been inviting us to go beyond human life in order to reach some ultimate state. Many contemporary teachings also have this orientation. There are few teachings offering a perspective that both recognizes the significance of ordinary life and invites us to dive into its depth and discover its secrets. Some of them hold the view that the greatest value of life lies in the opportunity it gives us to discover the true nature of reality, which has its own logic. But we can also say that it is the other way around, that human life is how the true nature of reality comes to be a human being and live a human life. That human life is an opportunity for the mystery beating at the heart of all things to discover itself and walk around as a human being living an ordinary life.
Speaking about a view that recognizes the significance of ordinary life while inviting us to explore its depth, I can only wish that the content of this book adds to this view. It is a view that embraces our humanity even as it invites us to explore its inner reality, to discover and embody in our lives the potential open to us, all the richness ready to reveal itself to those of us open to welcome it. To which I see no end.
As I bring up more than once in these pages, to me there is no end. It's always "and..."
#untoldwonders #innerwork
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
Given how inner work has been presented, there’s been a tendency to get involved in it at the expense of other dimensions of life. If we view our true nature as unrelated to what makes us human, why would we be concerned with that? We won’t, seeing it as irrelevant or too worldly. Conversely, if we view human life as unrelated to any deeper dimensions, we won’t bother about them, seeing them as irrelevant or too other-worldly.
I’m reminded of Rumi asking us, “How will you know the difficulties of being human if you’re always flying off to blue perfection?” He raises a basic point. It’s essential that we come to know ourselves as the blue perfection of our true nature, to follow his image, since it’s who we essentially are. While we’re human too—we’re not birds. The reality is we wouldn’t know anything if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re human beings given the chance to realize all sorts of things. We can talk about about universal love or consciousness and the mystery at the heart of it all. It’s wonderful, yet who’s talking? We can say it’s the true nature of reality, but it still needs someone to do it—last I heard, pure Being didn’t have a mouth.
Throughout history, flying off to blue perfection has been a popular spiritual sport. It’s understandable for who doesn’t want to have access to true peace and fulfillment? However, if all we want is to do that, then we leave behind everything this blue perfection is here to live as us, all it can realize as us—the experiences, realizations and wisdom that come from living a human life. But there’s no need. It’s possible to fly anywhere we want with both feet firmly planted on the ground.
We’re each a passageway for reality’s richness to reveal itself as it lives as us. This starts with wherever we happen to be, with what we happen to be experiencing. Then whatever takes place has a solid foundation. It unfolds from the ground up.
#untoldwonders #innerwork #rumi
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
I talked with people wondering why emptiness can be so terrifying. First, we need to appreciate its fundamental place and significance. Like the words vacuity, nothingness, nonbeing and the like, it’s a word that confuses a lot of people. So, to simplify things, let’s call it simply space. Space as in the space we're in, the space where everything happens.
Space is a foundational feature of reality. Essentially, it's an openness that allows all things to be. If there was anything at that level, then that would be it. Reality would be that thing or being or self. But it isn’t. Being nothing, it can be everything. Being no one, it can be everyone. Being silent, sing every song. Being clear, show up as all colors. You can complete the rather endless list.
If we pay attention, it’s obvious. Space or emptiness is a basic feature of reality. Without it, nothing would or could exist. Everything is that fundamental feature of reality patterning itself as such. Displaying, playing out its potential.
It reminds me of Lao Tzu who gives examples of its centrality in the Tao Te Ching, while countless ones can be easily found:
"We mold clay into a pot
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.
We fashion wood for a house
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable."
Another significant point concerning emptiness and our relationship to it are painful memories we may have associated with it. They also play their part in us resisting it when it arises—like times when we were left on our own when we needed someone or times of loss. These need to be addressed for us to be able to allow it without reacting. That absence of reaction then becomes a turning point that reveals that this negative kind of emptiness is essentially a peaceful, silent and still open space. For what is emptiness after all, as such? It’s peace. Pure peace. Perfect peace. When there’s nothing, there’s nothing, nobody to bother you. Plus, it is sheer delight. As Hafiz has it:
"Zero is where the real fun starts.
There's too much counting
everywhere else!"
#untoldwonders #innerwork #emptiness
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
Inquiry is a playful curiosity. Take this example: I play guitar. I could play the same thing over and over again, yet my love of it naturally translates into looking for things I never played, into an exploration of the guitar's neck and being open to unknown possibilities. There’s a humility in this, in the recognition that no matter how much we know, there’s always more. So we never land anywhere. There's an ongoing exploration and discovery of an apparently boundless potential.
If we replace playing guitar with living life, it’s the same. We have the tendency to try to nail things down, fixate them, while reality is free. It’s free and it dynamically and creatively unfolds in an open-ended way, not looking to land anywhere. This is part of its wisdom: the wisdom of non-landing.
Inquiry starts with allowing our experience to be just as it is, as it arises, including not allowing it, including any resistance or defense that happens to be present if it’s the case. We’re allowing and aware of what's happening, of whatever sensations, feelings and thoughts are there, including reactions we may have to them. Yet more of ourselves can be involved than just being aware of everything, which is what many teachings advocate. We can be not only aware of our experience, but also present to it. Being present to it means that we’re involved in it, that we’re all around it and inside it. This is what being involved means. That we’re not only watching or observing it from a distance. We’re actually getting into it, engaging it, which is a fuller manifestation of allowing.
Then it's like a love affair. You’re a lover of truth. What's that? It’s someone turned on by what's happening, who wants to know all about it. Love brings with it a natural curiosity and a joy in finding the truth. It’s significant that when we fall in love with someone, we naturally want to know everything about them. We can’t help it. And by the way, by truth, I don’t mean anything special. Truth to me is how things are. It's what is. Whatever is happening here and now, that's the truth.
#untoldwonders #innerwork #selfinquiry
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝—𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧...
𝑇𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔: 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒, 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒. (...) 𝐼𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒, 𝑠𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠. Gurdjieff.
We live in challenging times. It seems that in every direction we find increasing polarization, discord. We wish there was peace on Earth, it seems possible, and yet as Gurdjieff had it, “If people were different, everything would be different.”
We may grieve over the state of the world, feel helpless, angry or scared. But “the state of the world” is an abstract idea. The reality is the state each one of us is in, which one by one adds up to the state of the world. In that, “We are the world” as the famous song goes, and how we can affect its state is, first, by addressing our own.
I’m reminded of a passage in this book, “This starts with clarifying what needs clarification in us and our lives, so that the peace, the joy, the loving-kindness, the understanding—whatever we happen to have the good fortune of experiencing of the true values of life—can shine forth.”
One day, we find ourselves home, at home in our true nature, and our spiritual search ends. It doesn’t end in the sense that we’ve known or experienced everything that can be known or experienced— to me it’s always “and” as I often bring up in these pages. It ends in the sense that we see that everything is here, that all of reality is here. Available. And that it's us. That it’s everyone and everything.
This realization can only come from our own engagement with life and our inner life. While others are there to help, the realizations they came to answered their situation, their life. Which will answer our own?
To bring him one last time, as Rumi had it:
“We take long trips.
We puzzle over the meaning
of a painting or a book,
when what we’re wanting to see
and understand in this world,
we 𝒂𝒓𝒆 that."
#untoldwonders
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
What about inquiry? We’re not making anything up by emphasizing its significance. We’re clarifying something already operating, which makes it more potent, more effective. Human beings spontaneously inquire all the time, in all kinds of ways. It's a natural function of living, of loving and caring, and we can find countless examples of it in action. It's the natural curiosity that operates when we're asking a hurt child about the nature of its pain, or makes us wonder how this thing works or what's the best way to go about that other thing. Or talking about children, what makes them ask endless questions about all and everything. Smart.
It's life spontaneously engaging with itself.
Revelling in revealing itself.
Fond to find itself.
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Inquiring is simple, though not necessarily easy. It’s simple in essence or in principle, yet in practical terms it’s another story considering everything in us that can obstruct or constrict its movement, its dynamism. All the ways we can interfere with our experience—like manipulating it, defending against it, resisting it, judging it, rejecting it. And more. Like hating it. In a real sense, all these ways we interfere with it are forms of self-hatred, though we don’t usually recognize that. There's so much more going on within us than what we’re usually aware of. If that wouldn't be the case, things would arise freely and unfold smoothly, with ease, with each day bringing its share of untold wonders.
Untold wonders. That reminds me of mullah Nasruddin's neighbor who sees him, one day, kneeling by the side of a pond, spooning something into the water. He’s used to see Nasruddin behave strangely, but this is unusual, so he decides to investigate what he’s up to. As he gets closer, he sees that Nasruddin is spooning yogurt into the pond. “What are you doing?” he asks him. “It's starter,” Nasruddin explains. “I’m hoping to turn the whole pond into yogurt.” “But that's impossible!” exclaims his neighbor.” Yes, it's impossible,” admits Nasruddin. “But just imagine how wonderful it would be!”
#untoldwonders #innerwork #self-inquiry
Understanding the nature of the superego and learning how to deal with it when it shows up is a significant bit of information largely missing in spiritual work. It's unfortunate because it’s not only useful as far as daily life is concerned, it’s also part of what stands in the way of any inner realization.
Also known as the inner judge, it's a psychological part of us we internalized from our parents' superego consisting of the moral standards and values they held, which became a inner voice that blames and shames us for anything we do, think, feel or say—or don’t do, think, feel or say—that doesn’t match its standards.
I can share the way I first learned to deal with it. We couldn't stand up for ourselves when we were young? Now we can, and what it means is the moment we become aware of a superego’s attack, we can tell it, with all our energy, to go to hell or something like that. “Go to hell!” “Get lost!” “Buzz off!” An important point about this is that when we do it, we do just that. Meaning it’s essential not to argue with it, because if we do it already won. As kids we never won an argument with mom or dad, did we? So what’s needed is to act and act with strength. By doing that, we’re not only stopping the attack, we’re taking back the energy we were unconsciously giving it, which kept feeding it. We’re claiming, owning back our strength.
Part of the superego’s role is to keep our ego unconscious, to keep the unconscious material in us unconscious. With it in place, so much in us remains inaccessible and never gets to see the light of day. Given that, defending against it is crucial. It is also a compassionate act, a loving act. Would we allow a close relative's cruel abuse of their child if we saw it happening? An attack from our superego is the same thing. When it happens, our ego is like a child under the attack of an uncaring and cruel parent.
Learning to defend against it with strength is a good start. It stops it in it in its tracks and then we can welcome what's happening with us with kindness and understanding. Rather than being beaten for it, we can tell ourselves "OK love, what's going on?"
#UntoldWonders #InnerWork #Superego #strength
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔...
That there is a personal element to Being is not something easily found in most spiritual teachings. One place we can find it is among the Sufis, in the Sufi tradition. They mention it and even talk about a true ego. Other mentions of it appear elsewhere, but few emphasize its significance, so it’s overlooked. And it’s like this with anything. If we don't conceive of the existence of a thing, we’re likely not to perceive it, whether inside us or outside of us. As you see it, so it is? As it goes. As we conceive, so we perceive.
Various analogies have been used in the past for it, such as a pearl, which we find in Sufism, Taoism and Christianity. It’s a fitting analogy since pearls develop from a foreign particle finding its way inside a shell, which is similar to the development of the true person of Being from the personality’s sense of being a person. With this development, it becomes possible to participate in human life in a true personal way. Through it, while remaining impersonal, Being becomes personal. Or seen from our point of view, our whole personal life becomes in time integrated into Being. Which reminds me—how did it go again?
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant who, having found a pearl of great price, sold all that he had, and bought it.”
He certainly did.
*
This is an essential issue. The exclusion of a personal dimension inseparable from the true nature of reality has left people confused throughout history. But there’s no need. It’s not only possible to realize our true nature in all sorts of ways, it’s also possible to integrate them in a personal life. Spiritual people tend to react negatively to the issue of personalness because their only point of reference is the perception they and everyone else have of it. They can only tie it to the personality. They lack a framework to see, to recognize that Being can manifest as a person and function in a personal way. It’s that simple.
#untoldwonders #innerwork #essenceandpersonality
