Regaining Your Essence

...any deep loss is an opportunity to grow, to understand more about yourself, to experience holes that you believe can only be filled by someone else....People don't know that the hole, the sense of deficiency, is a symptom of a loss of something deeper -- the loss of Essence, which can be regained.  They think the hole, the deficiency, is how they really are at the deepest level, and that there is nothing beyond it....People will do anything to not feel the hole.  But...when we stop defending against feeling a hole, the actual experience is not painful.  We simply experience empty space, the feeling that there is nothing there.  Not a threatening nothingness, but a spaciousness, an allowing.  This spaciousness allows Essence to emerge, and it is Essence and only Essence that can eliminate the hole, that deficiency, from the inside.  -- (Quotation from A.H. Almaas)

Contemplative Reading

According to Thomas Merton, "Reading becomes contemplative when, instead of reasoning, we abandon the sequence of the author's thoughts in order not only to follow our thoughts, but to rise above thought and penetrate into the mystery of truth which is experienced intuitively as present and actual."

Trusting Your Essence

Most of you still don’t trust your essence. Most of you don’t believe it will be enough to take care of you. You don’t believe it is what you really need. You don’t believe it is what really knows.... Jesus said, “Leave your parents and follow me.” That’s what he meant.... Jesus had nothing against mothers and fathers. Jesus meant you should listen to the teachings present in your essence rather than listening to your superego. - (Quotation from A.H. Almaas)