The Choice You Already Made

A student asks what stands in the way of realization if it is already right here. The teacher reframes the question as one of willingness rather than obstacle.

There are many ways to answer that, but it's not necessarily that important or helpful.

What matters is interest, not explanation

What matters is your interest to see and your curiosity. Trying to know why will, at best, produce a strategy for how to change something or fix something, and that's not the most helpful direction.

But I can say: you don't see it because you don't want to. So you can ask yourself, why don't you want to? Why do you want to pretend you don't?

Willing or unable

A teacher I studied with was always trying to figure out, at any given moment with a specific person, whether they didn't want to or whether they couldn't. Are you more in the place of "I can't, it's too much," or are you more in a place of "I don't want to"? Maybe that distinction helps you. But I actually think it's far more a case of not wanting to than anything else. I would say ninety-nine percent.

No, it's just a free choice. It's a different kind of way to live, and you have two options: illusion, or not.

Respecting the choice

I actually respect the choice of living an illusion. I'm interested to talk about the other alternative with those who are interested, but if there aren't any who are interested, then I'm not interested to talk about it. I'm happy to just live.

Don't look for negative reasons only.