A reflection on the impossibility of seeking what is already present, and how recognizing the illusory nature of the apparent self reveals what was never lost.
A reflection on the impossibility of seeking what is already present, and how recognizing the illusory nature of the apparent self reveals what was never lost.
What you are is already here, already this, already now. In a sense, you can't find it, because anything that goes looking for it will move away from it.
The reverse approach
But you can do the reverse. You can look at what you seem to be, at what it appears like you are, and notice the illusory nature of that. Notice, for example, that it is made of thoughts and sensations. The more you see this clearly, the more you recognize: these are just thoughts, just sensations. Thoughts could be images, complex images, sensations in the body. And if that is all you find there, then you can't be that.