Fire Within

When we were children, we did not separate ourselves from the world around us. We first recognized our own reflection in the mirror at the age of one and a half years, and for some time talked about ourselves in the third person. At a certain point we have lost our binding with nature and felt our isolation. It was inevitably followed by the fear of survival, as we turned to a small vulnerable particle in a vast hostile desert. Since then, to keep our physical body functioning, we are constantly running in a squirrel wheel, trying to avoid something and achieve or hold on to something. These basic response systems of all living organisms create two kinds of stress. Scientifically they are called eustress and distress. The former is sometimes considered positive or motivational, but in the long run it is just as harmful as negative. In Buddhism, this process is inscribed in the center of the wheel of Samsara as three emotional obscurations (Kleshas). Ignorance, the first of these, is the forgetting of our true being, the illusion of our isolation and the root cause of all sufferings. It generates aversion and attachment, they are well known as desire to get something, keep or avoid something. It is not surprising that at all times humanity was longing to restore original unity through love, magic and rituals. Carl Jung believed that this is how religion came into being. The Latin word “religare” means "reunification", "restoration". We have already been there, which means we can come back!

Spiritual practice does not stop at calming down on a schedule and bringing oneself into a kind of stable state of normality. Our adapted personality will always generate discontent, no matter how well we comb it. The goal is to return to the state of unity with the universe, to become its continuation and embodiment. There is always a grain of higher intelligence present in each of us, ready to sprout as soon as we start watering it. Sometimes it is also called the "Higher" or "True" Self. Its presence becomes obvious when, following the relaxation of the body, the mind calms down and the flow of thoughts and emotions stops. All tensions and everything we used to call ourselves vanishes in its flame. This is an inner psychologist, the only one who can free us from all internal conflicts and emotional trauma at a convenient time and for absolutely free. Being in awareness, in contact with the original true self, turns everyday life into continuous meditation, a process of gradually letting go of stuck emotions and negative beliefs. Even the best therapist doesn't have enough life to do that. Meditation in Sanskrit and Tibetan has the same meaning - "getting used". Getting used to a certain state of consciousness in order to transfer it over time into everyday life. Otherwise, practice will remain just a short break from everyday worries and fuss.

When we open all the windows of our house, calm our mind at all levels of observation and release all tensions, there is a feeling of lightness and intense heat throughout the body. Gradually, its boundaries blur and we can literally feel its absence, dissolution in the world around us. This state is identical to deep sleep in the fullness of its awareness. Consciousness expands and all sensations that arise inside and outside are perceived from the same inner source. Now, if you carefully observe any phenomenon that arises in consciousness, you may find that it disintegrates into numerous small fragments and disappears. Everything that we relied on in everyday life and considered real, bursts in emptiness like soap bubbles. This is the best time to ask yourself, "Who am I"? And "What is left when everything disappears"? When the illusion of separateness becomes apparent, there is no longer a need for a faith. Its place is taken by knowledge, supported by personal experience. About the nature of our True Self, woven into a single fabric of life, breathing through us. And there are no others anymore.