Freedom from Emotions that are Derived from Division

     “It is surprising indeed to realize that none of our arguments with what is, or with what was, have any basis in truth. Our arguments are just part of the dream state. Now, to say they’re part of the dream state or to hear someone else say it is not enough. Each of us has to look for ourselves; each of us has to look into our own emotional life to bring into awareness anything that has the power to cause us to experience division. We need to look at our emotions and see them for what they are; we need to question their truthfulness, to meditate on them in silence, and to let the deeper truths reveal themselves. 
     As I said, this isn’t necessarily an analytical process. True inquiry is experiential. We aren’t seeking to stop something from happening, for true inquiry has no goal other than truth itself. It’s not trying to heal us or to stop us from feeling unpleasant feelings. Inquiry can’t be motivated solely by a desire not to suffer. The impulse not to suffer is understandable, but there is something else that must accompany genuine inquiry, which is the desire and the willingness to see what is true, to see how we ourselves are putting ourselves into conflict. 
     Once we realize that it is you and me who put ourselves into conflict – that nobody and no situation in our life has the power to do it – we see that our emotional life is a portal. It offers an invitation to look deeply, to look from the awakened state – a state that is not trying to change or alter anything, but is itself a lover of truth.
     It might be easy to misinterpret what I’m saying to mean that all negative emotions are indications of division. This is not what I mean to imply. One can be sad without feeling divided. One can feel grief without being divided. One can feel a certain amount of anger without being divided. … spirituality includes a vast array of human emotional experience. Thus one should not conclude that the presence of negative emotions – or what we call negative emotions – is an indication of illusion. The key is whether or not the emotion is being derived from divisiveness. If it is, then the emotion is based on illusion. If you inquire sincerely and discover that an emotion is not derived from divisiveness, then it is not based on illusion. Seeing this opens up to having a wide range of emotions. We open up, becoming a big space in which the winds of different emotions can travel through our system.”

       Adyashanti. “The End of Your World. Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment.” Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado, 2010. 

January in Halifax, Nova Scotia