The problem is that behind both of these masks lies not another or better or more spiritual mask, but the direct experience of no mask. And the direct experience of no mask is something that most people avoid with great resolve, because the familiar and morbid comfort of a known identity is preferable to being stripped down to our unknown radiance.

As for knowing with certainty what category a given want or desire falls into—certainty is the ego-mind’s game. As the saying goes, “There is nothing certain in this world other than death and taxes.” Let go of the mind’s looking for certainty (because it’s just another way that the ego seeks to gain advantage) and you will become far more

Here is the direct answer to your question: Simply contemplate the question, What is the world? By contemplate, I mean to simply form the question in your mind. Don’t think about it. Just present the question and relax your awareness as much as possible. That’s the “how.”

As this is happening, you will experience not only the chaos of repressed material arising but also your resistance to it, which originally caused it to become trapped in your system in the first place. So resistance is also part of what is arising, and needs to be let go of.

As you know, each opening up of a new vista of our conscious being can bring up experiences of ever-deepening freedom and revelation, as well as experiences of fear and trepidation. All revelation opens new dimensions of the unconscious—dimensions of experience that themselves are seeking to be liberated from isolated separation and welcomed into

We meditate to realize the source of our being. And the quickest way to do that is to be still, with a curious mind and an open heart.

While each person will have their own personal spiritual motivations (at least for a while), the ultimate spiritual impulse belongs to the totality of life. The spiritual impulse is life’s, or the totality’s, drive to become fully self-aware. Life is seeking to know itself ever more fully, to experience itself more fully, to become self-aware. So

Contrary to our most basic human assumption, we are not human beings who possess consciousness—we are consciousness having a very human experience, with all the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies that this entails.

The egocentric orientation is forever dissatisfied and anticipating the next moment, hoping that it will bring something better. This is the vicious circular delusion that the egocentric mind is addicted to.