July 26th
Mt 13, 44-52
The gaze of the mind is myopic and reductive. Unable to penetrate beyond the level of forms, it absolutizes them, reducing us to ourselves in yet another form, by identifying with the self. From this original error, it is inevitable that the reading it makes will be self-referential and based on lack. Since it has identified us with the self, only what happens to the self matters. What supports it or threatens it will be good or bad, respectively. And since it also perceives the self as radically needy, it will believe that its fullness is found “outside”—where?—introducing us into a race as anxious as it is sterile.
Facing mental reading, wise people constantly remember that we are already what we seek. That we are the longed-for fullness and that the treasure is not only not far away but constitutes our very identity. We just need to realize it and recognize it. This is the proposal of the entire “spiritual path,” which takes the form of an invitation: “Know what you are,” discover your truth.
Certainly, this is not a path free from difficulties or traps. Because that affirmation can be assumed as just another belief, without having experienced it. And because, if previously the world of forms was absolutized as if it were the only one, now one can fall into the deception of absolutizing the common Ground, ignoring or despising the forms.
The spiritual path is a simple and subtle path: it arises from an experienced living, which results in a refined gaze. And it brings the understanding that contains the key and secret of all existence: we are the treasure we have always sought, trying to catch it. Even while experiencing ourselves in a needy, limited, fragile, and lacking form, we are overflowing fullness.