Doing the Work for yourself blocks your unfoldment. Doing the Work in order to become a clearer and clearer window for the universe is selfless; then you do the Work out of humility, out of love, and out of putting your self (your ego) aside. In this case, your unfoldment will happen more easily and spontaneously. It is not a matter of thinking that you, as a separate individual, are going to help God in this way; that is just a subtler way of expressing your sense of separateness. It is a matter of recognizing your true position relative to God, your true function as a human being, your true connection to the universe—which is being a cell in its body. Reorienting your approach to the Work does not mean you should try to control your motivation (which is impossible anyway), or judge yourself when you see that you are being self-centered. Rather, it means that every time you recognize yourself operating from selfish motivations, you try to identify the barrier that is interfering with seeing things objectively.

We need to acknowledge our humility, which is not just being good and spiritual. Humility means to objectively see that you do not know, not to think that something is wrong with you because you cannot know. Nobody can know. You cannot know the mystery. The only thing you can know about the mystery is that it is unknowable and untouchable. You see it, you perceive it, but you do not know what it is. The moment you try to penetrate it, you forget you are trying to penetrate it.

The more deeply we see our inner nature, the more we love it and the more we want to do nothing else but serve it. We begin to wish and pray to become a slave to the truth. In time, the soul recognizes that that’s what it wants in its own heart. Servitude is not imposed from above. Neither is it a decision we make. We have to go deeply into the heart of the soul and see what that heart wants. What makes that heart peaceful and happy? What is its highest aim? If we look at it that way, we see that the work on the passions is indispensable. We need to discover the realm of virtues: serenity, humility, truthfulness, detachment, equanimity, sobriety. We need to learn not to consume our experiences. That’s the attitude of the inner glutton, who doesn’t want to feel his empty stomach. With sobriety, we are awake with our experiences and not overtaken by our passions. We are not overrun by our unrefined nature. We are awake to ourselves and approach our experience with some kind of detachment, with some kind of humility and gratitude, with some kind of purity. And from the perspective of service, our motivation for purification is the pure love of the truth, manifested as our expression of it. We’re not developing the capacities so we can be stronger or more peaceful or more loving. We’re developing the capacities so we will be better able to serve the truth. At least that’s how I see it. You have to find out whether that is the case for you. So expressing the truth involves more than simply sitting there and radiating. Being an expression of the truth means going about our life, relating to people, doing things with authenticity and fullness of presence. We serve the truth when the purified soul is what is functioning in our life.

You don’t see boundlessness by trying to see it, by trying to eliminate your boundaries. You don’t see a boundary and then realize that it doesn’t exist. You only see the boundlessness when you see the boundaries and let yourself be—then you see there is no boundary. It’s not an act of rejecting boundaries, nor an act of dismantling them. It’s not even an act of perception. You see boundlessness by being boundlessness. You just are. That beingness itself is the experience of no boundaries. Being doesn’t have boundaries. When you feel the boundary, you are the boundary. When you are the love, you are your loving consciousness. Then there are no boundaries. It feels somewhat like humility. It’s a humility, a gentleness, a softness, a lightness, an acceptance, a compassion. Love is the breath of the boundless Being. It pervades all existence and melts all boundaries in sweetness and gentleness. Love is the caring arms of Being holding all beings, letting them rest, let go, and merge with the boundless.

So you might think, “Now I am going to meditate so I can experience pure peace.” But who said that pure peace should be the next thing you experience? “And later I will get into primordial awareness.” Who said that is what is supposed to happen to you? Do you see the arrogance in this kind of thinking? Who is saying these things anyway? This is why in our work, we say, “I don’t know what should come next in my experience; it is not in my hands.” This is the humility needed for True Nature to move our experience to whatever condition it wants to bring about, which is usually the condition we specifically, personally, need at that moment. It might be primordial awareness, it might be peace—but it might be jealousy, or hunger, or even death. We don’t know. So whether we are meditating or doing inquiry exercises or having a meal or talking with a friend or doing our job, we can always practice by being present, by being aware of what is happening in our experience and not doing anything to it.

This means that no part of ego is capable of accepting. The individuality of ego is incapable of Acceptance, because its very existence depends on a subtle attitude of rejection. Ego can only cease rejecting, but it cannot accept. The complete cessation of rejection is the absence of all defense and resistance. This precipitates the aspect of Acceptance. Thus Acceptance involves the cessation of ego, or of a segment of its structure. We see here the intimate relationship between the aspect of Acceptance and the process of absorption. Acceptance is really necessary for absorption to occur, for absorption cannot proceed if there is still resistance, which is rejection. The word acceptance is somewhat misleading, for the aspect is not an active attitude; there is no activity of acceptance. It is a presence of Being when there is no attitude of either “no” or “yes.” A “yes” could mean a prejudice, a certain point of view. But this aspect does not have any attitude. It is a pure, delicate and gentle presence, of utmost humility and exquisite refinement. It is like a gentle rain, that brings freshness and life. Most individuals, when they experience it, refer to it as blessings.