Why You Will Sell Everything for This
There comes a moment in the work when you understand why the merchant in the parable sold all he had to buy the single pearl. Today, perhaps, is that moment.
The merchant is not foolish. He has been a careful trader for years. He knows the value of money, of inventory, of patience. But the pearl is different. It is worth more than all his other holdings combined. So he sells all of it without hesitation, and walks away with one thing in his hand, and he is rich beyond what he ever was.
Neville said the pearl is the awareness of who you are. The recognition that the I that has been doing all this imagining is itself the source from which everything appears. Once you have seen this, even briefly, you understand the merchant. You would trade every wished-for thing for the unshakable awareness behind the wishing.
The pearl is not a possession. It is a recognition. And once you recognize it, no other treasure is even worth bargaining for.
This is not a teaching to grasp. It is one to be visited by. It may come during a meditation. It may come walking through a park. It may come at the kitchen sink. But when it comes, the whole program changes shape. The things you have been working for become the natural overflow of who you have realized yourself to be.
Today, sit briefly with this question, and do not answer too quickly: what is the one thing in this life that, if I truly possessed it, I would never have to want for anything again?
The answer is not a thing. The answer is what is asking. With Love,
Dr. Athena ❤️