Whoever has succeeded in emptying the mind is a wise person. If we managed to empty ourselves completely, we would go back to the cradle of humanity. The wise person, moves in the world of things and events, but he dwells in the realm of serenity. He participates in external activities, but his intimacy resides in that immutable depth, the source of all his activity.
For one who is empty of self there is no ridicule; fear or sadness will never knock on his door. There are no shocks for one who is dispossessed; and does not care what others might think or say of his person. Nothing in the world would be able to shake his serenity. As a hurricane cannot damage a rockcliff, so too would vexations not alter a man who has renounced from the illusion of the I.
The presence of the self is normally disturbed by the deliriums of the I. But once they are eliminated, the I deprived of its possessions, gains self-presence and control of itself in all things.
Because of this detachment from self and its allies, one who is poor and dispossessed, freed from the appropriating attachments of the I, launches himself without impediments into the depths of freedom. In consequence, he succeeds in living free from all fears and acquires the stability of one who is far above all changes. Thus, feeling himself free from the ego, the poor and dispossessed gradually enters into the warm waters of serenity, humility, benignity, meekness, compassion, and peace.
Without power or properties, the dispossessed moves along life’s journey looking at everything with tenderness, treating everything with respect and veneration. His clothing is patience and his core is woven with meekness. He is defensive of nothing because he has nothing to defend.
The dispossessed are wise; in fact the only ones who are wise because they alone look at the world with clear eyes. Only a man empty of the ego can contemplate the world in its essential originality. As long as you are not poor, empty, pure …you will never see things as they are; you will instead look at them with the desire to possess or reject, and in any case, always in a deformed way.
Give no satisfaction to the illusions of the I. If they speak ill of you, offer no self-defense; if things do not end up well, offer no excuses and do not allow a foothold to self-pity; do not look for compliments, flee from applause … In this way, you are slowly withdrawing the oil and the lamp will die out; and then you will have won the battle for freedom. And freedom means giving a free reign to all the creative and benevolent forces that lie in the depths of your heart.
Extracted from the book The Art of Being Happy by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga
