**Sunday IV of Ordinary Time**
February | 1st
Mt 5, 1-12
Ultimately, there are only two “places” where we can situate ourselves: in identification with the self – sustained by mental belief that identifies us with it – or in deep identity, which is one with the background of all that is, and which is born of experiential understanding.
In the first case, we will understand happiness or well-being as everything that sustains, nourishes, and strengthens the self. Therefore, we will consume our existence pursuing having, power, or appearing, ultimately revolving around the self, always unsatisfied and insatiable, in what could be called a “hedonistic carousel” that, despite its promises, only ensures frustration and, therefore, suffering. We are increasingly seeing that the pursuit of pleasure, as a priority objective, apart from any other reference, inevitably leads to suffering and essential emptiness.
Or we can live in connection with our deep identity. In the previous case, it was necessary to go in search of “something” that would complete our existence or fill it with meaning. From there, driven by anxiety, we were impelled to reach for that which we had projected our happiness. On the contrary, when living in understanding, it becomes clear to us that we do not have to seek anything, but simply *recognize the fullness that we already are* in our deep dimension.
Vista desde la mente -living in the self-, life always seems to need “something” to complete or fulfill it, to fill it with meaning because, otherwise, we have the feeling that it is lost in a void that we experience as unbearable. And that’s where our questioning and restlessness begin: what could I do to feel my life more “full”? However, when we rest in understanding, we discover that *life is already, at every moment, fullness of meaning and fullness of joy*, even though, in our psychological dimension, vulnerability reminds us at every step of the impermanence of forms.
And there we learn a decisive lesson: *don’t seek to “complete” your life with some addition*, because it doesn’t need it; rather, recognize that *the feeling of fullness only arises when you recognize yourself as life and flow with it*, when you become aware that life doesn’t need any addition or any reason to be full. Living -or perhaps, even better, *letting yourself be lived*- consciously is itself the longed-for fullness.
Enrique Martínez Lozano
(Weekly bulletin)
English version translated with AI