The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment

by Adyashanti

Until the whole world is free to agree with you or disagree with you, until you have given the freedom to everyone to like you or not like you, to love you or hate you, to see things as you see them or to see things differently—until you have given the whole world its freedom—you’ll never have your freedom.

We see that the ego’s desire to find meaning in life is actually a substitute for the perception of being life itself. The search for meaning in life is a surrogate for the knowledge that we are life. Only someone who is disconnected from life itself will seek meaning. Only someone disconnected from life will look for purpose.

The seer and what is seen are the same. Unless that is realized, we can get stuck in the place of the witness. We can become stuck in a transcendent void, in emptiness.

Most of our emotions—especially so-called negative emotions—can be traced back to anger, fear, and judgment. These three are generated when we believe our thoughts.

This much is assured: if we argue with reality, for any reason, we will go into division. That is just the way it works. Reality is simply what is. As soon as we have anything in us that judges it, that condemns it, that says it shouldn’t be, we will feel division.