When you stand in your own authority, based in your own direct experience, you meet that ultimate mystery that you are. Even though it may be at first unsettling to look into your own no-thingness, you do it anyway. Why? Because you no longer want to suffer. Because you're willing to be disturbed. You're willing to be amazed. You're willing to be surprised. You're willing to realize that maybe everything you've ever thought about yourself really isn't true.
AdyashantiWhat would happen if you were to allow everything to be exactly as it is? If you gave up the need for control, and instead embraced the whole of your experience in each moment that arose?
AdyashantiFear is very often a part of the spiritual path. When people sit down and meditate it's not at all uncommon for fear to arise at some point.
AdyashantiWhen we see the world through our thoughts, we stop experiencing life as it really is and others as they really are. When I have a thought about you, thatโs something Iโve created. Iโve turned you into an idea. In a certain sense, if I have an idea about you that I believe, Iโve degraded you. Iโve made you into something very small. This is the way of human beings, this is what we do to each other.
AdyashantiThe important thing is allowing the whole world to wake up. Part of allowing the whole world to wake up is recognizing that the whole world is freeโeverybody is free to be as they are. 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 differentlyโuntil you have given the whole world its freedomโyouโll never have your freedom.
Adyashanti