Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

the world dissolved into them; others a deep bliss and
nothing else. For each it was different.
Mostly Robert was imperturbable. He never
complained, never lacked a ready smile or humorous
comeback, and I never saw him angry. He took a
disarming lite, even wry, approach to the spiritual
search. "Some of the group asked me to speak about
suffering," he announced one evening. "I don't know if
they want me to tell them how to suffer, or how to get
rid of suffering," he laughed. "When you are suffering,
you look for someone to relieve you of your suffering.
But if you take this approach, when the one misery is
taken away, another ensues. There is no end to it."
"So what do we do? We leave the world alone. We
inquire within. To whom has this come?" That is what
you must do with every problem, with every tummy
ache, with every happiness, and with everything you
see in the world. Who is this ‘I’? Who gave it birth?
Who is its source?"
Another evening someone complained that self-
inquiry seemed "like a very intense activity."
"No," Robert replied. "Do it in a comical way. Make
a game out of it. Don't take it too seriously."
"Is inquiry, a form of seeking, indicative of ego?"
another student asked.