“Wherever I go, wherever my body goes, wherever my speech goes, whatever my speech says, whatever my mind thinks, that is your nature, that is your divine Self. This is the reality of our philosophy.”
A search for wholeness can send us away from the life we are living. We may wait for a special state to arrive, or hope to lose the ordinary sense of being a person. Yet the search itself occurs within reality. It is one of the forms life takes.
Even the wish to escape deserves attention. Feelings do not have to disappear before we can understand them.
The whole in each experience
Trika, a tradition within Kashmir Shaivism, invites attention to the whole within ordinary life. Sarvam Śivamayam, ‘all is Śiva’, expresses its view that nothing lies outside that whole. Trika takes consciousness as fundamental. I see reality itself as fundamental, with consciousness as one expression of it. I value the invitation while keeping that difference clear.
Pain belongs to reality. Anger does too. These experiences have causes and effects. Anger might show where a boundary has been crossed. Belonging does not ask us to approve harm or to call suffering pleasant.
The label and the feeling
It is easy to say ‘I am anxious’ and let the sentence stand for an entire experience. If we pause, we may notice pressure in the chest. Perhaps a thought about tomorrow comes with it. The label remains useful, though it cannot tell us everything about what is happening.
De-reification means loosening our grip on a description so that it no longer seems to be the thing itself. Anxiety stays real. We can feel its changing texture and ask what it responds to. Sometimes that attention reveals an old expectation. Sometimes it shows us that something in the present needs action.
What acceptance can mean
A moment exists before I decide whether to accept it. In that limited sense, reality has already made room for it. Personal acceptance is different. It may take time, especially when someone has been hurt. No one has to welcome injury or remain in a harmful situation.
The ocean includes every wave. Each wave has a form of its own, and what happens to it matters. We can recognise its belonging while responding to the conditions that shape it.
Ordinary life is here too
Getting out of bed and dealing with bills are part of the same reality as any moment of clear insight. The phrase pūrṇam idam, ‘this is whole’, points towards that inclusion. I do not need a supernatural account to say that the finite world belongs.
At times there is a clear sense of being aware. At others, thought is crowded and attention scattered. Both occur within life. Awareness is real, yet I do not take it to be the foundation from which the physical world is made.
The person belongs
The wish for ‘ego death’ can turn the sense of self into an enemy. Personality has a history and a use. It can become rigid, but trying to destroy it may add another struggle.
A hand is part of a body without losing its form. Each person is likewise a distinct expression of the whole. We can examine protective habits while respecting what they once did for us.
Trust what you can examine
A teacher's words may help us pay attention, though no teacher can settle the inquiry for us. What happens in the body when an old fear appears? What changes in a relationship when that fear is understood? These questions bring the work back to life as it is lived.
Seeking may ease when we stop asking each moment to prove our worth. The ordinary world remains within the same reality as the search. We can meet it here.