Rumi, het zwaard van de barmhartigheid

Spirituality is not something you add to yourself, Jeff Foster

Spirituality is not something you add to yourself. Even when you become a “more spiritual person,” you’re still a person. And the “spiritual self” is the ego’s stickiest, trickiest, stinkiest manifestation of all.

Spirituality destroys the self; it doesn’t add to it. It deconstructs the false image, smashes everything unreal, everything second-hand, every object, every mind-made identity, everything that isn’t truly who you are. It leaves you naked, humbled, and unaware of any finish line.

True spirituality cannot be taught, and nobody owns life or holds privileged access to Truth, despite the ego’s protests against this basic fact. True spirituality must be lived. Lived with total commitment to the living moment. Lived to its fullest conclusion, until the living itself becomes an effortless teaching and a day-by-day learning. You’re like a baby again.

I have lost everything now, including the identity of the one who has lost everything, the false belief that there was anything to lose in the first place, and any shred of belief in myself as any kind of authority on life, and now there is only life, unfolding moment by moment… raw, pulsating, undeniable… rich, full, intimate… and the shock and awe of waking up each morning, and here, instead of oblivion, I find a new day, ready to be lived.

- Jeff Foster