To discover what this means, you must expand your attention beyond all objects in consciousness – beyond the body, beyond the mind, beyond the world, beyond this infinite universe. Even the universe can become an object in consciousness.
The most difficult thing to understand about enlightenment is that the object of our seeking is not an object. Most of us are stuck in a dualistic experience of subject and object, self and other, self and world, even self and enlightenment. And all too often, spiritual techniques for practicing consciousness inadvertently reinforce this fundamental duality.
My teacher once said to me:
“I’m glad you found a friend you’ll never see.”
It is not possible to be attentive or aware of this already free part of yourself in an ordinary way, but if you have the courage to let go, you will find that it can and will respond miraculously with great passion and incredible precision, seemingly without any premeditation.
The correct answer appears out of nowhere. And only after such a faster-than-thought reaction do you become aware of the fact that a part of yourself that you are normally unaware of is constantly paying attention. That part of you is always awake, even when it doesn’t seem like it. The expression of that alertness is the shocking spontaneity of an enlightened consciousness.
Many of us say we want to become enlightened, but how many of us are willing to spend our entire lives guided by a friend we will never be able to see? For most of us, it is even unbearable to imagine, because it indicates a kind of surrender that is unimaginable.
A surrender in which the ego is no longer in control. Finally, all weighing and measuring is given up because you have no doubt that what you are seeking is something you will never be able to grasp with your mind.
This is the beginning of humility: when you begin to discover a non-materialistic, unknowing relationship with the vast, elusive, unimaginable, all-consuming mystery that is your own innermost self. It is this that opens the door for that friend you will never see, who begins to speak through you and ultimately becomes who you are.