By: Eric Le Reste
Source: The Daily Guardian  https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/view/1624/the-daily-guardian/13
Dated: November 9, 2024

There are many times that we are involved in scenes and situations that we would rather not be in, and the feeling is to go beyond all the complications and be free. However, before we can go beyond it all, and still deal with everything efficiently, we first need to go within, and explore what is going on inside.

Going within is like exploring the different levels in a house. The ground floor level is where we are seen and where we are involved in the here and now. But, like many houses, there are further levels below that – basements – and to find the deepest parts of ourselves, we need to explore what lies beneath.

The first level, or basement, is where we hear the noise of the echoes of what has been experienced on the outside; all the ramifications of the scenarios we are wanting to go beyond. This is the level where we have questions such as ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’ and where we may be criticising or appreciating, but there is a lot of chatter because this level is occupied by a great many people. It is also where our memories are; pictures on the walls, all the good moments all the bad ones – it is pretty busy down there. However, while all of this is perfectly normal, it is not the very quiet place we want to be in when we meditate. It can happen that when we take time to meditate, we just get stuck there, with all the noise. Some people find meditation difficult because they do not like that noise at all and rather than go down to a deeper level, they want to go outside again, turn on the TV or the radio, surf the internet, because they do not know how to sort out all the stuff in the first basement. The problem with that is that we are then creating even more noise in the basement, so there is less likelihood of wanting to be there.

If we have patience and the elevated desire to ‘get to the bottom’ of things then we can access the second layer, the sub-basement. This is where I can connect with my purpose my spiritual objectives, the beliefs I hold dear, and can measure those against what is happening up on ground level. It is not busy on this level, but it requires a certain degree of light to see what is there, and this depends on the clarity we have about our objectives. For example, if one of my spiritual objectives is to be a master of the self, and free from defects then I can look at the echoes and how I want to deal with it all, and how I want to see myself in the long run. That space of thinking takes me deeper, to understand where I am going and in what manner I want to get to my destination. The deeper we go, the more light we need, and so we have to bring our own light of clarity about what is really important to us.

There is yet another layer, the deepest one, that is a very different state of awareness. This is the level beyond purpose, and is like hearing the call of the original self. It is not a self I can experience today, but it is the one that was recorded for eternity, the deepest part of the soul, the original, eternal state of the soul, the state of perfection. Perfection like the purest stream of water with no impurities. It contains the essence of all spiritual virtues. This state is not an easy level to remain in for long, because the slightest noise will take us back up to the surface again and we cannot go straight to that level without spending time in the other ones. 

The practice of going within is really understanding how to peel off layers of thinking. Accessing the deep levels of the self creates something a million times more beautiful than we could ever envisage, if we just try sorting out the mess in the basement.

Going within is so essential for our spiritual practice and no changes I make in my behaviour will be permanent without that, because the roots will not be deep enough to uphold what we I build on as I start to spiritually develop.

Eric Le Reste was a producer
for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for more than 35 years. 
He coordinates the Brahma Kumaris centres in Canada and is based in Montreal.