The Only Question is Who
The Only Question is 'Who?'
I would like to turn the attention today to the fundamentals of the teaching which boil down to two aspects: one is what we have talked about and this is the welcoming of every single thing, the recognition that every single moment is your opportunity, the opening of your heart and your being and your attention to what is, not to imagination of what could be or what should be. This is the path of surrender.
And then there is the path of wisdom: the use of mind as the tool that it can be as opposed to a distraction. If this is taken to heart the only question that is recognized to be worthwhile, the only question is who? It does not matter what the initial question may be, but if it is taken to heart every question is a distraction from the real question. I need to pay my mortgage. Who (does)? I feel distressed. Who (does)? I don’t like this. Who (doesn’t)? It does not matter what is brought up. It is actually quite simple, to take what is being offered to heart.
After you seriously look at this question then you can follow any other question. But what you notice is that all other questions fall away, because they are a distraction. They are an assumption that is built on a conditioned mind that is made of the familiar myth of someone.
The opportunity with every single mental activity that arises is to look and see to whom is it occurring. I can tell you very clearly the byproduct of this: the oscillations of what opens and closes for all of you eventually become stabilized. The recognition that there is no one in there becomes unchanging. It is inevitable. Then what happens to all the other questions? What happens to the problems, what happens to my life, what happens to my future? What happens to 'why'?
What becomes very clear is that other questions are driven almost exclusively by fear. If inquiry is driven by fear, it is not true inquiry. If there is fear, it is to open and receive. If there is the willingness to open and receive, the fear will dissolve. You wait with what is occurring patiently. Whatever appears disappears, ultimately discovered to touch nothing. And then there is the simple looking to see to who?
The simple question to cut at the root of what builds the entire fabrication is 'who?'.