This Mysterious Secret

This Mysterious Secret Q uestion How do you know if your actions are the right ones? Answer All anyone has to do if they want to see how appropriate their actions really are, is to look back. Any­body can do this. All you have to do is turn around and look behind you—at the last two weeks, the last two months, the last two years. Look and see for yourself how profound, how liberated is the expression of your own life. That is how you can know. Q Do you mean to say there is no way in the midst of acting to tell if your response is the right one? A Yes, exactly. You will be able to tell only by looking back. You see, we never have time to be completely sure in the present moment. Sometimes we think we know what we are doing. This can either turn out to be true or it can become clear that we were self- deceived. In the end, the only way to tell is through seeing what actually occurs. All we have in the moment that we act is that we feel sure, or intuitively that it feels right, or that it simply seems to make sense. Indeed, there are moments in life when we feel compelled to act because everything tells us that we’re doing the right thing. For example, you’re on the beach with a person who you feel attracted to. The moon is out. You hear the sound of the ocean and feel the wind in your face. There is a powerful feeling rising up from within that says, “YES.” You feel it, the other person feels it. Your heart is beating, your body is screaming. Suddenly it seems that the whole universe is saying, “YES, YES, YES!” There’s no doubt to be found anywhere. But the next morning you may say, “Oh my God. What have I done?” The way we feel in any given moment is not necessarily always a reliable indication of what the most appropriate response is. In that moment there is no way we can be completely sure. To be sure we need time. Time must pass in order to know what the most appropriate response would have been. The more time, the better. In the end, you can only tell by looking back. This is the frightening truth. If you are serious about your own Liberation, you will strive to come to that point where, when you look back, what you will see is on a fundamental level without error. Indeed, what you will see is the expression of something that is wholesome, profound, perfect and mysterious. Strive to get to the point where the trail you leave behind you is the expression of a rare consistency of pure motivation that continually has profound effects and wholesome consequences. Q But if one discovers that one’s perception of the present can’t be trusted, then how could one’s perception of what has happened in the past be trusted? A I didn’t say that one’s perception of the present can’t be trusted. I said that you can’t be completely sure. Q Then how could you be sure of what has happened in the past? A You can be sure when it becomes apparent in looking back that the consistency that I just described has been manifesting itself in an unbroken manner over a significant period of time. Then trust will arise naturally. Indeed, you will begin to trust yourself in a way that was previously unimaginable. Why? Because you will see that it is happening by itself over and over again—a consistency that is the expression of pure motivation. If when you look back that is what you see and it is also what many others see, then the trust that you asked about will be there. The fact is that in the present moment you never can be completely sure how to respond in the most perfect manner, but you have to respond anyway. If you want to live fully, you have to be able to respond to life right now. To freely respond in the present moment, the security of always being sure will not be available to you. Q But where is it that pure motivation comes from? A Pure motivation comes from precisely that place where it is not possible to be sure, a place beyond all pairs of opposites. Indeed, what results from going beyond all pairs of opposites, beyond good and bad, beyond right and wrong is goodness, perfect goodness. That’s the whole point. You see, from not being sure mysteriously arises the expression of a pure motivation and perfect consistency, the consequences of which are always profound. Very few people know about this mysterious secret. It’s because we experience so much insecurity that we so badly want to come to a point where we can say, “Now I’m sure, now I can relax.” But what is fascinating is that for that kind of relaxation and the confidence that comes from a deep trust in life to become manifest in a way that is ­pro­found, we have to find a way to be more and more comfortable with not being sure.