|
"To understand the state of being without strife, that state of creative existence, surely one
must inquire into the whole problem of effort. We mean by effort the striving to fulfill oneself,
to become something, don't we? I am this, and I want to become that; I am not that, and I must become
that. In becoming 'that,' there is strife, there is battle, conflict, struggle. In this struggle
we are concerned inevitably with fulfillment through the gaining of an end; we seek self-fulfillment
in an object, in a person, in an idea, and that demands constant battle, struggle, the effort to become,
to fulfill.
So we have taken this effort as inevitable; and I wonder if it is inevitable - this struggle to become something?... Now why is there this desire to fulfill oneself? Obviously, the desire to fulfill, to become something, arises when there is awareness of being nothing. Because I am nothing, because I am insufficient, empty, inwardly poor, I struggle to become something; outwardly or inwardly I struggle to fulfill myself in a person, in a thing, in an idea. To fill that void is the whole process of our existence... I am aware of my insufficiency, my inward povery, and I struggle to run away from it or to fill it... Now if one does not make an effort to run away, what happens? One lives with that loneliness, that emptiness; and in accepting that emptiness one will find that there comes a creative state which has nothing to do with strife, with effort." The First and Last Freedom, p.69 |
|
"What is important is to see that the maker of effort and the object towards which he is making
effort are the same..."
The First and Last Freedom, p.110 |
|
"It is truth that frees, not your effort to be free."
Unknown source |
