We are completely unaware of our true nature because we identify ourselves with our body, our emotions and our thoughts, thus losing sight of our unchanging centre, which is pure consciousness. When we return to our true nature, our thoughts and perceptions no longer appear as modifications of a single substance, they come into being and subside like waves of the ocean.
Interpretation
We often lose sight of our true selves by identifying with our physical and mental states.
In this quote, Jean Klein suggests that human beings typically define themselves through their physical bodies, emotions, and thoughts. This identification clouds our understanding of our true essence, which he describes as pure consciousness. By recognizing and returning to our true nature, we can see our thoughts and emotions as temporary fluctuations, much like waves in the ocean, rather than as the essence of who we are.
In practice
In a mindfulness workshop, to illustrate the nature of consciousness.
We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets; that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same.
It seems that American patriotism measures itself against an outcast group. The right Americans are the right Americans because they're not like the wrong Americans, who are not really Americans.
I have always been full of lust - as I am now - but I have always been placing conceptual obstacles in my own path.
God is the one who satisfies the passion for justice, the longing for spirituality, the hunger for relationship, the yearning for beauty. And God, the true God, is the God we see in Jesus of Nazareth, Israel's Messiah, the world's true Lord.
The iron bolt...mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in a gloomy prison.
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.