A Thorn to Remove a Thorn by Julee Bergstrom

How can anyone convey to you that the journey you’re about to embark upon cannot be conceptualized? You have spent your entire adult life living in thought and concept, but are now called to a place entirely beyond this habitual frame of reference. How on earth will you reach it? How will you not look where you’ve always looked, especially on a journey of no distance?

Once the journey has been made, one stands aghast at the simplicity of it, and of how it never, ever could have been envisaged. And note—the journey never ends, but you will know when you have arrived at the right address; you will feel that profound shift in paradigm.

Don’t give up. Don’t give up the search. The aim is to keep searching until you realize that no concept is real and no thought is true. And only you can do this. No one can do it for you.

Every teacher who abides in truth will sit and point as best they can. They will show you markers and guide posts. They will describe this place as they perceive it. You may find yourself emulating their words or deeds, mistaking outward expression for inner grace.

Know that every teacher speaks from his or her own frame of reference. No teacher, no matter how seemingly elevated, has the perfect words to point you to here. You have to do the work.

Listen. Look. Test and try again. Stay in the conversation. This is the only way to do it. Continue to evaluate what is true and what you think it says or means about you. You will be using thought and concepts, but sometimes it takes a thorn to remove a thorn.

You don’t exist. You never did—not the you that you think is you. These are maddening words, more concepts, seemingly not helpful.

And yet…

Julee Bergstrom is enrolled in The Living Method Continuing Student Program. She lives in the UK.