It is not possible to live isolated

To be is to be in connection with something, and without such a connection there is no life.

What do we mean with the close connection?

It is a mutual active challenge and reaction between two humans, between an I and a Thou, the challenge which the Thou gives from itself, and which the “I” takes up, or whereon the “I” reacts, and also the challenge which the “I” gives from itself to the Thou, the challenge from the I to the Thou.

The challenge and the reaction give themselves expression in language as question and answer.

In this way life gets in language a dialogical character.

Habits are the most stagnating factor, because they hinder us in thinking in a creative way.

We hold the symbol in honour and attribute the word the greatest importance, and to do this is highly distorting. There namely happens that, that the word, the symbol, the image, becomes the most important. 

It is in this way, that temples, churches and the many different organized religions and ideologies, with their symbols, doctrines and dogmas, become factors, which hinder the mind in reaching forth, and discover truth.

The philosophical counselor must therefore all the time remind the guest about not letting him be catched by words, by symbols, which automatically create habits.

Habits are the most stagnating factor, because they hinder us in thinking in a creative way.

If your conscious mind is aware, the subconscious mind is much more receptive and can find an answer

We can reach to clarity over the underlying conscious and subconscious activity, if we give the subconscious mind a chance, because it is much faster in reacting than the conscious mind.

If your conscious mind is aware, and in silence is thinking and observing, the subconscious mind is much more actively awake and much more receptive; therefore it can find an answer.

The ability to see our problems - without in any way being distracted - is the only solution

How can the mind be completely empty?

The intellectual would probably claim, in order to defend his theories, that an empty mind is the same as being in a condition of apathy, idiocy, or what he might call it, and he would probably react instinctively by disclaiming this condition.

But a mind which is extraordinary silent, a mind which isn´t being distracted by its own thought, a mind which is open, can see the problems much more directly and simple.

It is in other words immensely reasonable.

And it is this ability to see our problems - without in any way letting yourself be distracted - which is the only solution for the Life Artist.

A silent mind, a mind in peace, is a requirement.

An idea is a manifestation of the past, which uses the present as a means to the future

Time is the displacement between idea and action, the disproportion, which is created by emptiness and loss.

The purpose with an idea is of course that you want to protect yourself; it is an idea about safety and secureness.

But the action is always immediately; it doesn't originate from the past or the future. You can only act in the Now, but the action is so dangerous, so insecure, that we arrange ourselves after an idea, which we hope will give us a certain secureness.

The idea is the manifestation of the past, which uses the present as a means to the future. You are therefore absent either in the past time or in the coming time. The past sucks life out of the present. Memories and hopes are transformed into reality, while reality becomes emptiness.

The unreality in this consists in, that you only really exist in the hope about a richer future, or in the dream about a lost past.

The will to power leads to, that the observer distances himself from the observed

The desire after experience produces the Ego, the observer, the one who experiences, the one who accumulates and remembers.

The will to power leads to, that the observer distances himself from the observed, and that the thinker places himself outside the thought.

And this is unreality, falsehood. You are absent from the surroundings, and absent from your thoughts, in the sense that you are on a distance from them, they have so to speak moved outside you, where you relate theorizing, timorous, or agonized to them.

The reason why we don´t understand human relationships is because we use them to achieve something

The relationship is in connection with identity the mirror, in which you can discover yourself. Without the relationship you are nothing. To be is to be in relationship, which is the actual life. You only live in relationship, otherwise you don´t live, then life is without meaning.

So it is not because you construct your identity that you live. You live, and have your identity, in the ability to be self-forgetful engaged in the relationship, and it is the lack of ability to understand this, which causes conflict.

The reason why, that there no understanding is of the relationship, is, that you use relationships to achieve something, become something, to be remoulded, to be something else than what you are.

The mind, which is passively aware, allows life and energy to flow into presence and reality

In order to be able to see the truth you must also be able to feel, you must be endowed by passion after discovering, and having a great energy.

When you observe a tree and the moonlight on this tree, then there is beauty. Beauty is passion. In order to, that you can see the beauty in a tree, or the beauty in the moonlight on a tree, there must be passion, there must be intensity. In this intensity - this passion - there is no sympathy or antipathy at all, and therefore not the feelings, which follow these. The intensity is not personal, not yours or mine.

When there is lust there is yours or mine. But the mind, which is passively aware, allows life and energy to flow back from the past and the future, into presence and reality. The energy and the life, which are invested in sorrows and bindings, plans and problems, are flowing in, filling the Now, increasing the intensity and the consciousness in the Now.

Only by being aware about what you are, you have a possibility for releasing yourself for conflicts

The thoughts and the feelings are limited by their own cause: the desire after becoming something, which is time-binding.

What creates a conflict in Man is the desire after becoming something: to have luck and progress here in the world and inwards: to achieve a result. But as long as our thinking is concerned with time, with what we will achieve with our position, there will inevitably be this conflict.

The mind is after all a product of time. The thought builds on yesterday, on the past, and as long as the thought works within the area of time and is concerned with the future, with becoming something else, with winning and with achieving, there will be opposites, and then we can´t see the real, the Now, the existential conditions.

Only by realizing, by understanding, by - without wanting to choose - being aware about what you are, you have a possibility for releasing yourself for the dissolvent factor, which a conflict is.

First when we can relate relatively to the relative, we can relate absolutely to the absolute

We are absolutely locked inside our self-centered becoming something, our images of life, our ideas and attitudes. Shortly said: language.

We must therefore begin with relating relatively to the relative. That is in Kierkegaard´s language: ”Die from the immediate.”

We must learn to relativize ourselves and our samsaric-temporal becoming something (the will to power). And it happens through self-knowledge and through relativizing of the Ego and the temporal life.

First when we existentially concrete can relate relatively to the relative, we can begin the next great work: to relate absolutely to the absolute.

The question then becomes whether the mind can be free from language?

If you the day through are yourself and the surrounding world present you will not dream at night

There are superficial dreams, and dreams that really have a meaning.

The superficial dreams are those, which are created by bodily reactions, indigestion, overfedness etc. These you don´t need to take into consideration.

The other dreams are signals from deeper layers of consciousness. Such signals have with the separation of the observer and the observed to do, the disproportion in relationship with the surrounding world, and the Now.

You don´t need to go through any process of dream interpretation in order to reach to the subconscious. If you the day through are yourself and the surrounding world present in passive listening, yes, then you will not at all dream.

Then there will be a presence of something, which not is hidden, because the mind is empty and creative.

If you deny the possibility of complete freedom, you deny that you at all can investigate, inquire or discover

Far most humans only know two answers to the question about whether the mind can be completely free. Either they say that it is impossible; they say, that the human mind under any circumstance must let ifself be limited historical. Or else they begin to dream from one or the other romantic image. In both cases it is the thought, which is the answer.

Philosophical counseling offers a third option, the art of life, the existential training of the mind and the heart, where Man as a Life Artist begins to experiment, to investigate, to discover his existence as a whole.

If you from the start claim that it is impossible, you have of course not any chance of breaking through.

That you claim this can be due to, that your experience is very small or very large, or it can just be a faith, which you are accepting. But when you claim this, then it means that you deny that you at all can seek anything, that you at all can investigate, inquire or discover anything.

You deny the actual possibility of philosophy.

Only when the mind not is overloaded, it can be in the middle of life, and the new can reveal itself

If you allow the thinking to come into power, it sucks life out of the present, and there will no longer be anything new in life, because you make the known, your perspective, into reality, and the reality into emptiness.

It is the eternal recurrence of the same.

If you therefore as a Life Artist want to discover something new, then the past must be passive, the mind must not be filled up with thoughts, fear, lust and all kind of other things.

Only when the mind not is overloaded, it can be in the middle of life, or the Now, and the new can reveal itself.

To be interested in something is not the same as self-assertion

We can add to the word ”self-assertion” multifold meanings. In art of life self-assertion is based on becoming something, and therefore anxiety.

But if a boy for instance is interested in becoming an engineer, because he is inclined towards raising beautiful buildings, to create wonderful bridges, to build excellent roads, then this is because he loves that act; and that is not self-assertion.

It is an expression of what he is, and therefore there is no anxiety.

In love there is no anxiety.

You can´t be afraid of death, the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is

Death is the unknown, which always threatens the known, the patterns you have created.

The paradox is, that you can´t be afraid of the unknown, because you don´t know what the unknown is, and therefore there is nothing to be afraid of.

Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, which creates anxiety. The word is a manifestation of your self-image and world-image.

For as long as the image exists -  the image from where the thought origins - the thought must constantly create anxiety.

Then you rationalize your mortal dread and build a defence against the inevitable, or you invent countless faith-conceptions, which can protect you against the anxiety of death.

Your world-image is inseparable connected with your self-image

The self-image manifests itself as a certain perspective, so that everything you are seeing, is your own perspective.

The world-image is a projection of yourself, only you divide yourself from it, in the formation of the Ego.

What Man identifies himself with, is always the self-projected, whether it is the highest, the state, or the family.

The identification is, regardless on what plane it takes place, a process of the Ego.

Identification with the greater is still a projection of the small, and reverse.

What you identify yourself with, when you identify yourself with the greater, is the idea. The idea is the Ego identified with for instance God or the state.

Such an identified action only creates more discord, larger confusion, distress and misery.

Your real interest will emerge by itself, when you are in a passive listening presence

You shall not seek your real interest; the real interest will emerge by itself, when you are in a passive listening presence.

If you consciously try to find out what your real interest is, there is a danger that you just choose one, weigh it up against another, calculate and judge.

This process is only a cultivation of resistance; you use your powers on speculations about whether you have chosen correctly etc.

But when there is passive listening, and not a positive effort to find, then the movement of the interest steps into this presence.

When we identify the description with the described we only see our own perspective

When we think that the description is the described, yes, then the thing we see is nothing else than our own perspective.

To cleanse the perspective consists in being aware of how the perspective is made dull, muddy, unclear.

And what makes it muddy is the lacking discrimination, the lack of ability to understand that the description not is the described, that language not is the reality, that the map not is the landscape.

It is the perspective, which is captured by words.

It is the perspective, which is the description, the language, the philosophical mapping.

But if you don´t understand this, then the only thing you see, is your own perspective, the eternal recurrence of the same and the known, and not the dawn of the new and unknown.

Is it possible not at all to dream while sleeping?

In order to be able to find out whether it is possible not at all to dream - so that the mind seriously is fresh when it awakes in the morning - you must, as a Life Artist, understand yourself as a communicative being, you must be your communicative life present in passive listening, be aware of hints and signals.

And these you can only discover in the relationship with the surrounding world, when you listen to your relationship with others without condemning, evaluating, when you merely are noticing how you behave and react, when you see without first having found an option, merely listen, so that the hidden, the subconscious, your perspective, your ideas, attitudes, conclusions, and their consequences for your way of living, actions, relationship with others – is exposed in the day-time.

You can only observe violence with an open mind, when you become aware of your justifications

As a Life Artist it is important to pay attention to, that when you for instance observe violence, then you often try to justify it, as you say that violence is a necessity if you shall live in this barbaric world, that violence is a part of nature.

Why do you do that?

You are used to observe in this way, to condemn, justify, or to make resistance.

But you can only observe violence with fresh eyes, and an open mind, when you become aware, that you tighten what you see, together with conceptions about what you already know, your own perspective, individual as cultural, and that you therefore not are observing it in a new way.

As long as we don´t solve our philosophical struggles - the structure of society must necessarily be crushed

Our striving is a combat, or a struggle, in order to transform what you are to something you wish to be.

I speak exclusively about the philosophical struggle, where you seek to produce yourself, the struggle of meaning, not about the struggle, which has to be led with a physical problem, as for instance an engineering project, or a discovery, or a change, which is of purely technical kind. I only talk about the philosophical struggle, which always overshadow the technical.

You can with the utmost care - as you draw advantage of the limitless knowledge which science has granted us - build a wonderful society. But as long as you don't understand those philosophical sticking points, the philosophical struggle which is going on - as long as these philosophical overtones and streams not are being solved - the structure of society must, how wonderful and solid it might be, necessarily be crushed, in the way it, through history, again and again has happened.

The total perception of life is within the mind, not within the brain

The brain can be aware, aware about itself as a part of the whole movement of the mind.

But love, for instance, has only importance in the total perception of life, which is in the mind´s area, and not in the brain´s area.

So the brain can´t see the wholeness of life; the brain is a part, regardless how educated it might be. It is not the wholeness.

Only the mind can see the wholeness, and within the area of the mind is the brain.

But the brain can´t contain the mind regardless what it does.

If it doesn´t do anything there can come an insight in the wholeness, and this insight can change the brain, but insight itself is beyond the brain.

Can we receive signals and hints through our dreams?

Do the dreams want to tell you something?

All kinds of signals and hints have with Man as a communicative being to do.

Signals and hints therefore only come to expression in the relationship with the surrounding world, or differently said: in the Now.

But the conscious mind is so occupied by its daily activities, annoyances, anxiety, that it is unable to receive signals and hints in the course of the day.

However in the sleep there is a resting state, which also is there even when you are dreaming.

When the superficial mind falls to peace, then this resting state makes it possible for the many layers of the mind to project themselves to this, and then you are dreaming.

It is in this state you can receive signals and hints.

The same is happening when the conscious mind is going into a meditative state.

Freedom from your perspective, the old, is truly an ethical life

Can you, as a Life Artist, without interpreting the present reality on the bases of the past´s conditions, observe the reaction in a new way, with an open mind?

Can something else than the old react?

Can there be a space between the old and the new reality?

Can the old be awaiting, and in this way make it possible for the new to occur?

This is the problem of the Life Artist.

Freedom from your perspective, the old, is in this way truly an ethical life. It means that you have discrimination, and don´t pull your perspective down over others.

But it doesn't mean, that the old is deleted, but that there is introduced a completely new dimension, where you are the old present in passive listening, where the old so to speak is made transparent in being and openness.

If the thinker is the thought present in passive listening, then this will be a presence of clarity

Far most people think that the thinker is separate from the thought – and it is precisely this, that all the images in time, all the theories, ideas, religious persuasions, political ideologies, etc., are based on.

But when the thinker places himself outside the thought, the problem will continue.

However if the thinker is the thought present in passive listening, then this will be a presence of something, which not is hidden.

It is a presence of something obviously, something you have a clear understanding of. 

It is a presence of something straightforward, a presence in naturalness.

And herein you will become released from the source of all problems.

Your problem isn´t that you should believe this or that, but how to disentangle from the desire for safety

If you as a Life Artist realizes - that is to say: if you are enough aware - that the process of the will to power forms you on the background of a belief - as an expression of the desire for inner safety - then your problem isn´t that you should believe this or that, but that you should disentangle yourself from the desire for safety.

Can the mind then disentangle from the wish for safety?

This is the problem, and not what you should believe, or how much you should believe. That would only be an expression of the urge for philosophical safety; that is: being convinced about something, when you don´t have any philosophical life-teaching and practice, and everything else in world is uncertain.

The will is opposing, requiring, wanting. Altogether a kind of resistance, and resistance is violence

The will has to do with the mind that says: ”I want to do this!” – ”I don´t want that!” – ”I will do this!”

The will has to do with that you are opposing, requiring, wanting. Altogether a kind of resistance, and resistance is violence.

The mind must be altogether aware, that it can´t escape this violence.

In that way there in art of life can´t be any unfolding of the will that says: ”I want to defeat violence!” because the will is essentially violence.

When there is used control there is always a will; that is: a compelling desire to control, form and lead. But this is destructive, and has nothing to do with creation.

To empty out the mind is to give life back to the present

In Taoism and Zen Buddhism you time after time hear the statement about emptying out the mind.

To empty out the mind means, that you are emptying it for its content.

The content of the mind is the known, your perspective of life, your historical limitation, the past which projects ifself into the future, the past and the future which sucks life out of the present and transforms memories and plans into reality, and reality into emptiness.

In this way the mind, or the Ego, makes ifself independent in relation to your reality, and the reason is lost.

To empty out the mind is the opposite movement. You give life back to the present, you are emptying the mind and are filling reality with vitality and urge to live.

In this way the mind becomes one with your reality, and the reason is won.

What we as Life Artists ask ourselves, is whether we can be free from the word with it´s illusions?

Hope is born from despair. They are two sides of the same coin. Where there not is hope, there is hell, and because we are afraid of hell, we seek the meaning, which is in the hope. Then the illusion begins.

The word has in that way led to an illusion, and not at all to God. God is the illusion, which we worship, and the non-believer creates the illusion about another God, which he worships – science, the state, utopia, or a book, which he thinks contains the whole of the truth.

So, what we as Life Artists ask ourselves, is whether we can be free from the word with it´s illusions?

Would that lead to despair?

The Ego is formed by an interaction between the activities of the mind (evaluations) – and the challenges of life

In the unreal existence the actions of Man come to rest on ignorance; that is to say: prejudices, inclinations and demands.

And it results in absence, and therefore suffering.

In this way the human existence becomes a friction, a conflict, and herein there is no reason.

The being of Man includes both the state of the mind and the conduct of life, logos and bios. But the Ego is formed by an interaction between the activities of the mind (demands, prejudices, inclinations) – and the hindrances, which the challenges of life create, and therewith you have the unreality.

In meditation you discover how the Now´s facts, seen from the thinking´s past and future, can become a problem

When you are sitting silent, but then suddenly are becoming absent in mind, you discover how the thinking sucks life and energy out of the present.

Past and future become reality, while reality becomes emptiness.

You discover how the thinking analyzes, separates and divides in order to evaluate, understand.

You discover how the thinking removes the mind from the Now, and creates the inner calculator, the experiencer or the thinker, who compares with earlier, or who hopes and desires something else; the thinker, who slides off from the Now´s facts.

And you discover how the Now´s facts, seen from the thinking´s past and future, can become a problem.

You have pure and simple discovered the cause of your problems.

That something is learned in philosophical sense presupposes a mind, which each time learns anew

The word philosophy means love of wisdom, or love of learning.

To learn in philosophical sense is a continual movement, a continual renewal. It is not ”to have learned”, and see on the bases of that.

Usually we see on the bases of a memory about what we have learned, and have experienced; memory is the starting point. This is therefore not to see, not to learn in philosophical sense.

That something is learned in philosophical sense presupposes a mind, which each time learns anew. There must be a creative emptiness. The mind must therefore always be new and ready to learn, just like a child.

For that reason it doesn´t interest the Life Artist to worship memory, but rather to observe, see and experience what really happens.

As a Life Artist you must try to be extremely aware, awake, so that the seen and learned don´t become a memory from which you see, and which in itself is a distortion.

You must see each time as if it was the first time!

When giving something a name it becomes permanent, and then we have the whole of the thoughtprocess

The feeling of the permanent consists in the condensed reactions; that is: the body, the feeling, the perception, the desires, and the consciousness.

The feeling arises as a result of a challenge, and then you give it a name, which will say that you identify yourself with it.

This, that we give it a name, restores the feeling in our images of life, the past pattern, which repeats itself again and again, which maintains the reactions and condenses them. Consequently an aspect of Man as a natural being.

If you don´t give the feeling a name - which will say, that you don't identify yourself with it and maintain it through evaluations - then the feeling is new, and it will disappear by itself.

If it gets a name, it will gain strength, it will become permanent, and then we have the whole of the thoughtprocess.

If you have the full understanding of one human problem, then you understand all human problems

The Life Artist seeks to enter a problem without waiting for a result, a definition of what is the right to do.

The right action will emerge, naturally and completely, as the problem becomes unveiled.

The discovery of the problems´ importance and consequences is the central, and not the final result.

Any answer will only be a new conclusion, a new opinion, another good advice, which not at all will solve the problem.

It is the problem itself, which must be understood, and not how you shall react to the problem, or what you shall do in order to solve it.

The right understanding of the problem is of importance, because the right action is lying in the problem itself.

If you see one movement completely - that is to say: where you are one with the movement, and there is no displacement or distortions between the realizer and the realized – then all other movements are included in this wholeness.

If you have the full understanding of one human problem, then you understand all human problems, because they are all mutual related.

Only when the many layers of consciousness are silent, in absolute peace, life can flow back to presence

There is first freedom when the whole of the human nature, the obvious as well as the hidden, becomes refined from the past.

The will is desire; and as long as there is an act of the will, any striving after becoming free, or after laying bare the Ego, there can never be freedom; then this complete refinement and emptying of the whole of the person can never take place.

Only when the many layers of consciousness are silent, in absolute peace, life can flow back to presence and self-forgetfulness, and then the immense is there, the happiness that not is of time, the renewal of creation.

A human being, who is searching truth, is not dependent on authority, neither in books, or in any person

The Life Artist doesn´t engage in faith. Faith has no meaning at all for a human being, who is searching truth. Faith is only a kind of secureness, an anchorage, a harbor.

A human being, who is searching truth, must navigate on unmapped oceans, like Odysseus. As a life Artist you have no harbors, no place of refuge, you must go out on the open sea in order to investigate.

A human being, who is searching truth, is not dependent on authority, neither in books, or in any person.

As a Life Artist you are searching for truth, not the authority of a person or of a thought-system.

Can you act without anxiety when thought-activity is required, and when it is not, be silent?

The thought must be active when you are doing something. The thought is a necessity so that we can do no matter what technological work.

In order to, that our actions can be clear, we must think clearly, objectively, without letting us be carried away by moods; without prejudices and preconceived opinions. It was this, the enligthenment philosophers understood by the reason.

But we also know, that the thought produces human problems, fear and anxiety, and that this anxiety will hinder us in acting effectively. The question is then, whether you as a Life Artist can act without anxiety when thought-activity is required, and when it is not, be silent? Can you act with afterthought when it is necessary, and when it is not, let the thought rest?

In fact it is rather simple. Can Man in that degree be so present in passive listening, that he in the awake condition will think and act when it is necessary, and remain awake whilst he acts, so that he neither falls asleep, or works pure mechanical?

We are satisfied with explanations, and to explain away everything we call knowledge

If we want to know, why there is wealth and poverty in the world, we can find an explanation. There is an explanation for everything, and explanations seem to satisfy most of us. The same is the case as regards religion. We are satisfied with explanations, and to explain away everything we call knowledge.

Is that what we understand about education? Do we learn to discover, or are we only coming to look for explanations, definitions, conclusions, in order to be able to dull the mind, and stop questioning?

In spiritual practice you must push aside the desire after identifying yourself with something

As a Life Artist you must push the desire aside, the desire after identifying yourself with a person or an idea or a thing. This doesn´t lead to harmony, unity or love.

The question then becomes: can you break out of this frame?

How this shall take place in philosophy as an art of life, can´t be answered with a method, the answer rather consists in a voyage of discovery, which perhaps can open the door; just like Faust, who unwraps himself from Mefistoteles´ word-web, by making a journey through it, without knowing where it brings him.

Authority leads to thoughtlessness, but because most of us find it painful to think we surrender to its control

The philosophical counselor doesn´t try to influence the guest to act, to think something particular, to do one thing or the other – that would be propaganda.

The only thing the counselor does, is, like Kierkegaard said, to encourage to awareness.

But awareness, or passive listening presence, is a troublesome task, and because most of us prefer the easy path, the illusion, we produce the authority, which gives our existence an image of life, a form and a pattern to follow.

This authority is perhaps the collective, the state or a group; it can also be the personal, the guru.

But authority of any kind makes blind, it leads to thoughtlessness, and because most of us find it painful to think, then we surrender to the control of the authority.

If you study a problem philosophical, explore it, you will see, that the answer is lying in the problem

When people ask questions, they are generally more engaged in finding the answer than understanding the problem.

But if you study the problem philosophical, explore it, investigate it very closely, understand it, you will see, that the answer is lying in the problem.

The Life Artist will therefore seek to understand what the problem is, and not seek an answer, neither in the books, or from one or the other professor or lecturer.

If you really can understand the problem, the answer will come by itself; because the answer is in the problem, it it is not divided from it.

Can the mind of Man - which in high degree is limited by its personal or collective images – change?

When all this is seen – the wars, the unreasonable dividings, which the religions have created, the division which exists between the individual person and the society, the family, which is opposed to the rest of the world, each individual person, who clings to some personal or collective images, and divide himself in ”me” and ”you”, ”us” and ”them” – when all this is seen, both in objectively and in philosophical sense, then only one question is remaining, one essential problem, and that is whether the mind of Man, which in high degree is limited by its historical background, its personal or collective images, can change.

Not in a future incarnation, not through political development, not when life ends, but radically change now, so that Man enters into a creative emptiness, where the mind become new, fresh, young, innocent, released from its images, so that it knows what love is, and what it is to live in peace.

It requires a philosophical revolution.

Meditation is to enter into the unknown

In accordance with the Taoists, the actual thing to be present in passive listening (wu-wei), is the same as to act spontaneous (tzu-jen).

Any spontaneous action is an expression of, that there is a passive listening presence, a space between the thoughts.

When for instance the Taoist is seeing, that there is fear, he observes it neutral as in a mirror, without saying yes and no, and feels it deeply and incisively, without seeking to achieve anything with it.

The actual experience in this passive listening presence, makes the experience free from fear; and that is to act spontaneous.

In all this the unknown is at stake; reality or truth.

Meditation is in other words to enter into the unknown.

If there was no reaction the challenge would be new - a state of creation, middle and fulfilment

The observer is a perspective, and the observed is his own perspective, otherwise he would not recognize the experience, and would not call it a certain type of experience.

The experience is already in him before he recognizes it.

The past, which is based on the self-image and the world-image, is in this way incessantly active, and it recognizes itself; the new is swallowed by the old.

Likewise it is the reaction, which determines the challenge. The challenge is the reaction, just like the observed is the perspective. The perspective is created by the reactions.

If there was no reaction the challenge would be new, or rather: there would not at all be any challenge and reaction, but only a state of creation, middle and fulfilment.