Q: Is our only purpose, here in this life, to be awakened to our true self?
John: No. That’s your purpose in life after you’ve left your innocence. Then your purpose is to awaken. Without awakening, you are without any real purpose in this life. But before you leave your innocence, your purpose in life is to manifest, as a being, in all of your self, all of your personality, all of your life, what you already are. There is no awakening to that.
Q: But if I’m not being that innocence?
John: Then it’s all about awakening, and when you awaken that awakening – the meaning of it – is completely dependent on you being that awakening. So awakening without being your awakening will make you worse.
Q: What do you mean?
John: Awakening means you know the truth again. You can see the truth again, but without you being what you know and what you can see from deeply within, you will separate even further.
When you awaken, if you don’t be your awakening, you will protect your self from your awakening. You’ll keep your self being the center of everything, despite how much you have awakened to. Your self will remain the center of you regardless of you having awakened. The real value of awakening is in you being that awakening. The value of coming to the knowledge of the truth within is in you being it.
Q: I’m trying to have more insights into who I really am so I can be that, but you’re saying that actually makes it farther.
John: Yes. You want to know really what the truth is within, just so that you can be it. You want to know the truth within not to make your self better, not to heal your self, not to make you a better person, not to make this world better, not to make anything better. You want to know the truth within just so you can be it. That’s authentic.
Q: So this search for awakening is from the self? It’s inauthentic?
John: If it’s genuine, it’s in the midst of your self but it isn’t really from your self. When you are genuinely in the search, you really are looking for the truth within; that anything that you awaken to, anything that you find that you directly know, you make that your home. You won’t be about what you know, you’ll be gone into what you know. You’ll let what you directly know the truth of within take you and have you. That’s your return, as awareness, to your being.
Q: Are you saying that I need to stop searching?
John: If your searching is authentic, it won’t last very long. Real searching is you being authentically open within to what it is you know you are looking for. That openness is already it. It’s just not realized yet. You being the authenticity of openness, given just a little bit of time of you being that, will produce its own form, which is your realization. If you are genuinely searching for the truth within, it won’t take very much time; you’ll find it quickly.
Q: Thank you.
John: If you knew that you would die tomorrow, it would be easy for you to not waste any time. In your openness, in your authentic openness, you would realize quickly. You would realize what deeply deeply matters more than living. You would come to rest in that. If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, and if you would be honest to that knowledge, you would fast, warmly let go of everything that won’t last for you after tomorrow. Your search for the truth would end before tomorrow. You’ll quickly find it.
With core honesty – honesty to what you most, most deeply know within that isn’t conditioned by your self, by your past, it isn’t conditioned by your body, it isn’t conditioned by this world – you would quickly see. And you would love what you awaken to. You would love what you know. You would love what you come to see. It would be your absolute everything, and there you are, returned to what you really are before you’ve died.
Q: Thank you.
548 – Right Side Up: No Longer Taking Your Stress to Heart
The responsibilities that come with working in the world can feel stressful. Is there a way of moving more lightly in it all? John explains how it’s all dependent on what we belong to, within.
547 – Profound Honesty: Being Okay When You Don’t Feel Okay
Shame, fear, anger … is it really possible to be okay in any circumstance, even when feeling attacked by others? There is transformative potential, and John explains.
546 – Less and Even Less: Why Weakness is Your Way Home, Within
Contrary to worldly conditioning, weakness isn’t something to conceal or avoid; it’s actually key to embodying a full spectrum of awareness. John describes the journey, and what it requires.
545 – From Fighting to Flourishing: A New Way Forward with Your Teenager
For this mother, who is struggling in relation to her teenage daughter, what begins as a hard lesson to learn becomes a beautiful crossroads that will deeply change them both.
544 – Evolving as Pure Awareness in War and Peace
An epic conversation that reveals what we’re here for, how to help people suffering the effects of war, what can change the planet, and why it’s up to us.
543 – Rebuilding Your Relationship For a Higher Purpose
Entering a sexual relationship too soon has created suffering for this couple. Is it possible to start over, and build the kind of commitment that will survive the inevitable difficulties?
“My sole purpose is to be, in life, what we are after we’ve died. Through openness and softness of heart and core-splitting honesty at any personal cost, I live as that while actualizing the same in others I meet. I am available as a resource for anyone who recognizes and values this way of being.”
– John de Ruiter
