The Witness and the Source of Your Emotions

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Eckhart Tolle used to say something like this "If you enjoy something, let's say a piece of music for example, it's fine. Enjoy it; but don't lose yourself in it. After listening, make the music off and see what's happening there, in your own being" In other words Eckhart Tolle and all spiritual teachers make the emphasis on your inner state. Every thing in this world should be a mirror of your inner, should reflect you to yourself. 
I didn't really understand the purpose of this "inner look" nor the meaning of "the mirror" which is the outer world. But this morning I got a new insight into this teaching and I would like to share it with you, with other things related to the same subject.

The rationale behind inner exploration

Yes, nothing of this world or any other world can make you really happy or sad for ever. Your emotion will subside after a while, for sure. If it is happiness, enjoy, but don't cling, since it will not last for long. Sure, this attitude is a wisdom. But there is another profound meaning and a great opportunity in this temporary emotion. If you consider any source of happiness/sadness of this world, you will find that it has nothing special in it. What will make you happy could not affect at all another person. Even, it can make him sad. In fact, the thing or the person that made you happy had just triggered something inside you. There is some "hidden button" this object of happiness pushed and made you joyful. So the source of happiness is not in the outer, but in the inner. The outer is just a trigger, a mirror.

Why mirror ? because something in it has its correspondence inside you and it resonates inside you. This is the opportunity, you found, in the outer world, something "similar" to something inside yourself. So you have to find what has resonated inside.

This is why all spiritual teachers insist that after every emotion, especially when it is strong, you should surf on this wave to explore your inner being. This emotion is a great opportunity to project light on your mind and emotions.  Once you have found the source of your emotion, this little corner of your being is no more in dark, you have made another step towards enlightenment. If you stay at the momentary happiness and you don't go further, you will miss a great occasion offered to grow spiritually. So it is good to sit, meditate and look peacefully in your inner. But be aware, your mind "expelled (by the meditation) by the door can return by the window ...

Some traps to avoid

The first trap your Mind can prepare for you is to start thinking about your emotions. Don't do any psycho-analysis of your being. For example, you can ask yourself "What is in my childhood made me happy and why this music is related to it ?"  No, it's a false route. The mind is not needed here. He can't understand. It's beyond mind. You don't have to think at all. Just close you eyes and look.  Not a big concentration. No, just a gentle, relaxed and joyful inner look. Without any expectation. Without any idea or explanation. Any idea, any expectation will be a barrier. Even if you "see" nothing, after a while, you will see. Your inner state will be revealed to you. It is bond to be. Just be patient. It could take weeks, months, years, who bother ? This very look is a joy. This pilgrimage is worth than any goal or achievement. So don't worry if you can't see.  Your inner eye should accommodate with your inner world, and it could take a while... Why be in hurry ? Just try a look with a relaxed body and mind, and enjoy the looking !

Another trap to avoid is to stop too early your inner investigation. Sometimes the reason why you are made happy or sad by something is not a single emotion or thought. It is usually a chain of thoughts and emotions, each layer leading to the another subsequent layer which is more subtle, hidden behind more and more curtains. So it is really an inner exploration. Be patient and not in hurry. And don't be satisfied with any finding. Always go further. There is always something more. Again, don't search any thing, don't expect anything. Just look. Your inner sight will be more attuned and you will see more details, more deeply. The same simple emotion, will reveal other hidden and more complex feelings. Just sit fully alert and look effortlessly.

The Ladder to Your Inner Being

But I should warn you : this search is an endless trip. All what you can grasp, you can understand, you can find  is not the source of your happiness or sadness. It couldn't be.  If you go on peeling the onion, you will find nothing. Ultimately, there is no source at all of any emotion !  Isn't that frustrating ?  you can't find the source of your emotion even if you go the deepest inside your being ?  

Since the beginning of this article I go on emphasising all the benefits of finding the very source of your emotions and now I am saying that the whole search is futile since you can't grasp the ultimate source ? 

Let's try to make some order in our understanding by classifying human relation to their emotions :

• Level 0 : at this consciousness level, the man is Mind-Robot. He don't pay any attention to his emotions or feelings. He considers them as useless and a weakness in a world of competition and money gathering. So this man is like a robot just calculating not living at all. This is perhaps the fate of the majority of human beings on this planet :-(
• Level 1 : more sophisticated, more alive the human being in this state of consciousness pays more attention to his feelings. He enjoys many things Life brings to him : a poetry, a piece of music, a dance, a good lunch, an hour spent with friends, a little walk in the garden, etc. But this human being doesn't pay any attention behind these emotions. What is going on inside his being  ? Why is he irritated by this or that ? why this music brings tears to his eyes ? etc. In this level, man is an Emotional-Robot, more sophisticated than Mind-Robot, but still a robot. 
• Level 2 : in this state, the human being becomes a spiritual seeker. Now he is more interested in the inner of his being. Like the previous level he enjoys all what Life brings to him, but unlike the previous one, he sees in the outer world  a mirror of his own being. Any time the mirror reflects something, aka resonates with him, he becomes interested. He closes his eyes and tries to see inside. The man is no more a Robot. He becomes aware of his emotions and didn't pay too much attention to the objects triggering these emotions. Objects are neutral but his being is not neutral, his being reacts, so he is trying to understand what in his inner resonates with outer cause of emotion. If someone makes him angry his is not interested to retaliate or defend his position or any thing related to the person provoking his anger. No, he sees inside, trying to understand the source of anger. The person provoking the anger is not important at all. What he said could not irritate another human being. Why ? So, in this Level, the man who got angered is grateful to the person provoking his anger and he starts exploring his inner being. The big consequence of this state of consciousness is that the human being becomes more still, more self centered. He is still subject of emotional reactions but he is learning from each occasion. 
• Level 3 : The explorer of the inner and the chains of emotions arrives to a state where there is nothing left. Every emotion, every thought when deeply investigated leads to nothing. There is simply a space, a consciousness where all emotions and thoughts are created, then they go on creating other feelings and thoughts, then they subside, disappear as they come. And the human being is there as an observer from the very beginning of the chain, where the first ripple is created in his consciousness until it disappears with all his subsequent ripples. And he realizes that he is not the content of his mind nor the emotions appearing in his being. His true being is the space or the Consciousness where all these thoughts and emotions appear. In this realization,  all his being becomes crystal clear, there is no more dark corner. He realizes his enlightenment.

We can see this classification as steps in human being evolution  :

• The majority of current human beings on Earth are a mix of Level 0 and Level 1
• The awakening human beings, still a minority on Earth, are in Level 2. But they can fall, momentarily,  to Level 1 and sometimes to Level 0. They are no yet crystallized, always changing.
• The enlightened persons, even rarer, are at Level 3. They can't fall back any more to a lower state.

The Ultimate Secret

When in Level 3 you realize that you are the Consciousness behind all what happens and there is nothing in your mind you identified with, you have disappeared. This is a total annihilation. Nothing is left from your previous "I". And in the same moment you disappear you realize also that :

• You are this Consciousness where all thoughts and emotions appear. 
• And this Consciousness is not separate from Life itself. 
• And this Consciousness is not only the same in all human beings, but it is also pervading the whole universe and all forms of Life in it
• And this Consciousness has no beginning, no end 
• And this Consciousness is timeless, there no past, no future, just an eternal present
• And this Consciousness is enjoying Life which is bubbling here and there in the entire Universe
• And  this Consciousness is also enjoying discovering itself by climbing the ladder of consciousness evolution from the very beginning as star dusts to the conscious human being realizing the level 3 above.

Personally I'm still in Level 2. So I'm not realizing the Ultimate Secret but I'm enjoying the pilgrimage. It is a true joy to explore your inner being, to see how the mind can befoul you. It's a joy to be free from the outer. It is a joy to take every challenge in Life as an opportunity to be more conscious. It's a beautiful game. Enjoy Life and every time you catch yourself drowned in the outer world you try to get out of this unconscious state and be again yourself : the witness.

I would like to terminate with a verse from Quran which I am feeling is talking exactly about the subject of this article :

 ( سنريهم آياتنا في الآفاق وفي أنفسهم حتى يتبين لهم أنه الحق أولم يكف بربك أنه على كل شيء شهيد (سورة فصلت آية 53 

Which can be translated as :

"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?"

Surat Fussilat, Verse 53.

All is here for human evolution : 

• first step : the man has to see the outer (آياتنا في الآفاق signs in the horizons)
• second step : the horizons will reflect him to the inner (في أنفسهم within themselves)
• third step : he will realize the truth (الحق the truth)
• and the ultimate is to realize than the Truth is the Witness (شهيد Witness)

Of course this is not an official interpretation of the verse from Muslim scholars but my own interpretation. You should have your own. Follow you own heart even if it says something else. Trust yourself. If you are true to yourself, you will arrive to the Ultimate even by a different route. There is no "The Path" leading to the Truth or to God or to the Ultimate. Each human being has his own and unique path but, sometimes, we can feel some similarities between different paths. 

So my dear fellow seeker, enjoy your pilgrimage on your own path !