By Eric Baret
Translated from the French by Mary Mann from his book, De l’Abandon.
Fear, rage, love, sadness or any emotion with no apparent cause are bursting bubbles in a boiling magma pointing back to the heart of what is essential. Lacking in clarity, we link the emotion to a situation, and allow it to disturb our peace. In reality, emotion points to the heart. When we refuse an emotion we are simply postponing life. Emotion is inherently free of thought or knowledge. If we remain present to our emotions, the habit of attributing them to an external cause will, sooner or later, fall away.
Each time a desire is satisfied there is a moment free of desire, free of any dynamic. If you meet someone who is at peace, you can feel peace in his presence. The important thing is to realize that this peace you feel in his presence is your own emotion. Turn away, forget the so-called cause of the emotion and experience this openness that you experience in the so-called other.
If you perceive humility in someone, it is your own humility. Stay present to it, without claiming it. Nobody can be humble. There is no cause. What you feel intensely in the other is your experience. Very soon, you will no longer need this so-called other. Life speaks only of you, of this emotion.
So, you might occasionally go to listen to someone, but when you realize that what you hear to be true on his lips is your own truth, you will no longer feel any need to do this. You will see that life, in all its forms, speaks this same truth. Every daily event is a reminder of this profound emotion.
In many ways following a tradition, a spiritual teacher, is an escape. You must follow yourself when you feel a true emotion. You might be reading a text by Meister Eckhart and an emotion arises in you. Close the book; the text will fall away. The important thing is the tear sliding down your cheek. This is your treasure, your direction, your teaching. It is what you must follow, must listen to.
Eric Baret was a student of Jean Klein. On his website he claims no studies or culture, and no particular competence, though his words are informed by a deep knowledge of Eastern traditions of spirituality, especially Kashmir Shaivism. He is little known in the English-speaking world, though he has published several books in his native France and travels widely in Europe. English translations of his books are under way and should be available in 2018.
Eric’s own website, with meetings for the joy of being nothing, is at http://www.bhairava.ws/
