We walk our own unique paths because no single pattern suits everyone. The path itself is the destination. Trying to follow my path and my teachings will lead to failure. This truth liberates you, because there's nothing you need to practice or achieve. Is this concept too abstract? Let go of all concepts; you don't need them. You only need to live your life and walk your path in the present moment. There is no fulfillment to seek.
The true self doesn't seek fulfillment; it doesn't seek, it doesn't expect. It is present and welcomes all things. Openness to all things increases your capacity to receive. Seeking a particular thing limits you; expecting one thing limits you. When you stop seeking fulfillment, you are fulfilled. Seeking fulfillment confines you to a single outcome.
You need to allow fulfillment to come to you. It comes naturally from an openness to receive. We need to allow ourselves to receive. This is the natural flow of life: giving and receiving. In the pursuit of fulfillment, something is added each day; in the practice of allowing oneself to receive, we let go. We must be empty to be filled.
Do your work, then let go. Clinging to your work creates nothing of lasting value. You're afraid to let go of your projects and goals because you fear losing yourself. You are attached to them because they are familiar and comfortable. You won't let them go, even if they no longer align with your state of consciousness. You've outgrown your projects, concepts, and ideas, but you cling to them. You don't want to let go of your old self. Once you finish your work, let go. Don't return to it; you're only returning to your old self. You cannot serve two masters. You must let go of the old to become the new.
Don't cling to concepts and ideas.
Returning to concepts and ideas makes you inferior; you are unsure of yourself. You do not believe in yourself; you believe you are still not whole.
What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job?
A good man teaches a bad man because he perceives himself as superior. A bad man allows himself to be taught by a good man because he perceives himself as inferior. Neither is following the Law of One.
Being "bad," as a student, is merely a role, a temporary identity, unrelated to our unchanging inner core. Similarly, being "good" might be mere pretense, also a role. "Good" and "bad" are simply labels. Beyond these labels lies God's essence.
When nothing is done
Express yourself fully, then be quiet. Do your work and let go. Speak when you have something to say; otherwise, remain silent. Work when you have something to do; otherwise, remain calm. When nothing needs to be done, nothing is left undone.
Rushing into action leads to failure because it prevents things from taking their natural course. Trying to grasp things too tightly causes you to lose them. Forcing a project to completion ruins what was almost perfect.
Therefore, act by letting things unfold naturally. Remain as calm at the end as at the beginning. True mastery is gained by allowing things to take their own course; it cannot be gained through interference.
When nothing is done, nothing needs to be undone. "Undone" here means integrated back into consciousness.
We have many desires and goals we want to fulfill. When we take action toward those goals, we create separation between ourselves and those goals. The more actions we take, the more separate we become.
We obtain a separate self consciousness.
We feel separate because the object of our desire is outside of ourselves, and we are attached to it. There is a separation between us and the object. When we take action toward the object, we create many more things that remain undone. We cannot force things through sheer effort.
When we force things to completion, we enter a certain state. We become possessive and nerve-wracking because things don’t go our way. Our state reflects our thoughts, and the more we resist our experience, the harder it becomes.
Paradoxically, thoughts weaken the mind. Thinking hurts. When we force ourselves to overthink, it's often because we're unhappy with our current situation and want to change it. Instead of forcing things, change your attitude and allow your thoughts, insights, and ideas to come to you. You don't need to force them; allow them to come to you from the higher aspect of yourself. Strive for a state of "no-mind"—highly present but not actively thinking. God doesn't think; God knows.
Integrating undone tasks into consciousness has consequences. Thoughts from your higher self will always reflect your current state of consciousness. Possessive behavior will similarly affect your thoughts. Paradoxically, desires can wither the heart because having desires has consequences. You will create undone desires and goals, which affect both your heart and subconscious because they prevent you from being true to yourself.
Unfinished tasks create problems in our lives. We are not whole, unified selves. We create internal divisions and resistance between our hearts and minds.
Imagine you have just started a new business. You worry about what needs to be done to be successful. You worry about marketing, sales, and getting new customers. By worrying about things outside of yourself, you are creating a separation. This separation between you and the outcome makes you take more action because you believe you are separate from your goal. As a result, you have many more things left undone in your consciousness. One action creates more unaccomplished tasks. Imagine you decide to create a website. As a result, you need to think about design, marketing, content, and social media channels, etc.
These undone things will bother you until you integrate them back into consciousness. You can integrate them either by aligning yourself with the outcome or by releasing them. If you resist any of these things, they will remain.
This belief in separation creates many attachments to things, people, and situations. These attachments need to be integrated back into consciousness. You don’t perceive yourself as the whole individual self that is one with everything. You are not following the Law of One.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. Let things take their own course.
The game of life
In the game we call life, there are two players. The first is a false player; he is not true to his essence, and therefore seeks fulfillment outside himself. By seeking outside, he is creating division within himself. The second is a true player; he is true to his essence and therefore seeks fulfillment within himself. This player recognizes that he is already whole and complete within, and therefore doesn't need to seek fulfillment externally. The first player, however, doesn't recognize his wholeness and therefore seeks fulfillment outside himself. When the first player seeks fulfillment externally, he creates many attachments to things, people, events, and situations. These attachments then need to be integrated back to consciousness.
A true player, when doing nothing, leaves nothing undone. When a true player does nothing, nothing needs reintegration into consciousness. There is nothing undone in their consciousness. A true player doesn't seek fulfillment because he is whole.
A false player, always doing things, leaves many things undone. When a false player starts doing things, many more things remain undone. These undone things remain present in his consciousness; the false player remains attached to them. These attachments must be released.
The false player needs to cut the connection to these attachments. The object must merge with the subject—consciousness. When they merge together, the object is aligned with the subject. They are one.
If a false player resists things, they remain attached. The false player resists them, but they seek integration back into consciousness. The false player can integrate them only by merging them with consciousness; the object merges with the subject. The false player perceives the world through the subject. It's a movement of the object toward the subject, not vice versa. The false player shouldn't exert effort toward the object, as this creates more undone things. This effort stems from the false player's ego-identification. The false player has stepped into his ego. Disliking current situations and the undone things in his consciousness, the false player seeks action and creates even more attachments.
Letting Go of Perfection: Finding Joy In the Imperfect
In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added each day; in the practice of letting go, something is discarded. Gradually, you need to force things less and less, until finally you arrive at non-action.
Our need for perfection fuels our restlessness. This restlessness signals a lack of alignment, a disharmony with the object of our striving. We strive for perfection until we feel oneness, fixing and changing things repeatedly until we're happy. This is our attempt to align ourselves with that object.
You can't force completion; doing so only creates more undone tasks. You must let go, release them. When conscious of these undone things, simply let them be. Don't react; don't take action.
Our striving to know stems from our need for perfection. This creates a consciousness of incompletion. We accumulate vast amounts of knowledge until we're satisfied—a moment that will never truly arrive. This need to know arises from a feeling of incompleteness. By striving for more knowledge, we create more separation within ourselves. This pursuit of knowledge traps us in a never-ending cycle, always seeking more. This accumulation of knowledge fosters a self-concept of "I AM knowledgeable," boosting our ego. We believe this makes us superior, but we're only protecting a vulnerable inner self, hiding our true nature from fear of rejection. Our inner self is already whole and complete; it needs no protection from a false identity.
The path is to shed layers of this false identity daily until we reach our true self. Thus, accumulating knowledge builds layers of this false identity. Let go of the need for knowledge and perfection. If you feel insufficiently knowledgeable, allow yourself to feel that way. Persist in this state. This will release the behavior pattern from your consciousness.
The Return
You've reached the end of this book. After telling you to let go of all concepts, ideas, and attachments, you might feel like something is missing. You might be asking yourself: Why do anything at all? What is the point of life? Is there any meaning to it all? Why bother striving for something different than the lives of others?
Being on the service to others path means that you no longer perceive other people as separate competition. You see them as the extension of yourself. You see yourself in them. Why not change your attitude toward yourself? Why not start helping yourself for a change?
Persisting in your attitude toward yourself means staying in your old self and repeating the same conditioned behavioral patterns. To let go of the old, you must realize the lesson and see it clearly for what it is. Our reality is the mirror, forever reflecting your inner state and your attitude toward yourself. Find purpose in helping others, because in this way, you are helping yourself. The same inner essence is in all of us, so why would you express a negative attitude toward yourself.
Before you give up, contemplate the return of beings. We know that after a cycle, beings return to their source. But what happens after that? What happens to beings once they are integrated?
The feeling of wholeness is no longer temporary. We feel whole and complete all the time. There are no challenges; it is a time to let go completely. Oneness is a state currently beyond full comprehension. But is it worth striving for?
Once we enter oneness and the new cycle, we enter the involution stage. We contemplate our nature to adjust to the new cycle and the state of oneness. We have returned to our source.
The return of beings is a mental process. The higher self forgets its own existence and becomes the character. We are dreamers unaware of our own existence. We identify with the character and believe it to be who we are. The return of beings is a continuous, cyclical process. Once you integrate your being back into consciousness, the opposite cycle of the return begins. Once you know that being is always returning, you can completely let go. Once you recognize yourself as the self, what do you have to lose? Your self cannot be harmed; your self never dies; it can only be reborn.