It is sometimes helpful to notice that whatever I am doing, I am doing it for myself. It brings me back into my own business, as Byron Katie would say.
A simple way of exploring this is to follow the chain of what do I hope to get out of it? For me, this usually leads back to something very simple such as happiness, and avoiding suffering.
What are some of the benefits of following the chains back to their initial segments?
For myself, I notice that it helps me get more familiar with and befriend who I am, as a human being. It helps me discover what is going on at my human level.
Said another way, it helps me find and embrace my wholeness as a human being, to find peace with it, to work with rather than against what is there.
It helps me see that it is all pure innocence. No need to fight it, resist it, want it to go away. Just seeing it clearly is enough.
It helps me see what is already more true for me, in who and what I am.
I find that when there is a sense of being a separate I, there is fear behind just about any emotion, motivation, desire and action. I find that behind that fear is love, filtered through my circle of us. I find that behind the sense of a separate I, and everything that comes with it, is a belief in the story of a separate I, and stories that flesh this identity out.
It can be very helpful to explore the chains leading up to reactive emotions, rigid views, and desires.
One at a time, asking the question and waiting for an answer to come up.
When I do this, I find that whatever beliefs are there, whatever stories I am identified with, go back to the central belief, or sense of, a separate I, an I with an Other.
I find that whatever reactive emotions are there lead back to fear. Fear for the survival of this human self. Fear for pain and suffering.
I find that whatever surface desire is there leads back to a desire for happiness, and freedom from suffering.
And I find that all of this goes back to love. Love for this human self and whatever is within its circle of us.
And I see that all of this is pure innocence. An innocence in adopting beliefs from my surroundings. An innocence in the fear that is there naturally when there is a sense of a separate I. An innocence in the desire for happiness and freedom from suffering. An innocence in the love we already are, filtered through the boundary of us. And an innocence in where this boundary of us is placed, coming from culture and maturity.
The risk in writing this is that this too becomes another belief. Another place we go in our stories to create a sense of security, of having figured it all out.
And one remedy is in taking the time for the questions to sink in and the answers to surface. Going through one at a time, not knowing where it will lead. Trusting what comes up.
Sincerely exploring this for ourselves, inviting in curiosity and receptivity. Inviting in an open heart. Inviting in a bodily felt sense of the questions and the answers that surface. Allowing experience in a wholehearted way.
Seeing that any answer is really a question, even if the question mark initially seemed to be left out.
And also investigating our beliefs around all this, including the belief of I know, through The Work or another form of inquiry.
