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In reality, we employ all these strategies and more. We are constantly cooking the books to account for this thing. We are always shifting something around to cover this mysterious lack, and we hope nobody will notice, especially ourselves. For this thing seems like a kind of black hole at the center of our being, and if we looked at it, if we really acknowledged it as it is, it would swallow us up.
Maybe if we improved ourselves or our situation enough, that thing at the back of our minds would just go away, or reveal itself to be something other than a terrifying black hole. In some sense, we end up ignoring the very thing we are missing, because we don’t like the look of it from afar. We much prefer the apparent safety of our existing ideas and beliefs. And whatever kind of world we live in, so much of our activity in life comes by way of trying to keep up that world’s pretenses. We cling to our ideas, pursue our endeavors, and continue searching, so that we can put off gazing directly into the unknown. So what is this struggle that is going on behind the everyday struggles of life? Strangely, it is a struggle both to find what is missing … and to ignore it. What is missing is actually always present, but by ignoring it we continue searching, and through searching we continue ignoring. It’s a kind of feedback loop that is maintained by not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing. Seen in this light, it’s no wonder we’re confused, conflicted, and ill at ease. It’s no wonder we feel alienated, unfulfilled, and at odds with ourselves and the world. The highest form of this search and its ultimate manifestation, from the very beginning, is the search to see through our ignorance and gaze directly into the emptiness at the center of our being, to see beyond it, and thus put an end to the search altogether. This is nothing other than the quest for enlightenment. It is the search for the Self, for Truth, for God, and for liberation in this life. And so, in the end, all the struggles of one’s life, whatever name they go by, and whether they seem spiritual or not, can be seen as a part of this one great quest.
Spirit, then, is not some substance, nor some insubstantial force. Spirit is what’s real and true, beyond all our ideas, conceptions, and metaphors, whether we know it or not. While we are ignorant of it, spirit is the pure unknown. It’s like the variable in a complex algebraic equation. But while the equation may look good — impressive and intricate and beautiful — too often we mistake the equation itself for the solution.
AI Summary
When You Are Silent It Speaks by Matthew Lowes presents key insights from the Taoism tradition. The 3 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights above are particularly representative.
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