The Recognition of the Real: About the Reality of ‘Yourself’

By Philip Renard

Is it possible to discover an ultimate Reality that is valid for everyone?
Yes, this is possible indeed – thanks to something which cannot be called an instrument: our inborn capacity to recognize.

To recognize what? In this context we refer to recognizing that which makes your actual experiencing so real. In other words, to recognizing the real nature of yourself and your experiencing, the real nature of your mind. Your mind may be inclined to produce an abundance of imaginings and unreality, but nevertheless the real nature of your mind, which is pure Awareness, turns out to be utter Reality.

Recognition of your real nature means in fact the dawning of Reality as such. You recognize the Real.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Renard
• Release date: Jan 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9789393254160

Book preview

PROLOGUE

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Even though this is called a prologue, it is not really ‘something that precedes’. What precedes is rather the wordless.

Each word arises from the wordless, facilitated by the presence of the body. Should the breath of life cease to keep the body going, no word will ever arise again. So we have no time to lose. No foreword, but each word pointing to actual experiencing – referring to that which can be seen or recognized right now.

You can regard this existence as a special occasion, an opportunity to see through inherited and handed-down misconceptions. It has been said that being born as a human being can be compared to arriving at an island of jewels. One such jewel is the direct recognition of your real nature. In this life, final words that might remain are: ‘Recognize your own real nature right now.’

And if we use words after all, let us choose those which would remain to serve us should we only have a few minutes left. Our presence here is unique. Let us help each other be aware of the urgency and meaning of this presence, so that based upon this direct awareness we can entrust ourselves to That which gives life and takes life.

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THE INVITATION

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The invitation is always the same:

See who you are, within that which you

are experiencing right now.

There is no other invitation,

though the subject of a conversation or a story

can go whichever way.

Wherever you are and however you feel,

this is the invitation.

Recognize. Recognize your real nature,

within the form which manifests right now.

ONE

YOUR REAL NATURE

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That which is most deeply yours is your real nature

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What is meant by ‘your real nature’ here is not something special, something ‘yours’ in the specific or personal sense of the word. Recognizing it is not at all similar to discovering a certain inclination or a talent. It is not a path that necessarily leads to a profession or a calling. Such things are part of a sequence. They are the result of something else and often have an element of hope or expectation.

Recognizing your real nature is more of an easiness, an effortless noticing of something you already knew but have never before given priority to.

Is it ‘your own’? Yes, absolutely – the most ‘your own’ there is.

All your characteristics and talents may also be felt as being ‘your own’, but that kind of ‘ownership’ immediately implies a feeling of being different, or even exceptional. ‘Others aren’t like me.’ ‘Others haven’t got this.’ No matter whether this points to something with which you place yourself above or below others, it emphasizes your difference to others.

‘Your own’ points to something that is ‘yours’, not to something that is elsewhere or only for others. You can immediately feel this aspect of ‘your own’, even prior to the question of whether it also applies to others. That question does not even arise.

‘Your own’.

How close that is!

How could you ever search for it!

There is a lot you can search for or have to search for, but for that which is your own, should you ever have to search for that?

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2

Your real nature is ‘nowhere not’

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Within everything you experience – even within that which is most untrue – your real nature is always present. It is never gone, which implies that you do not constantly have to pay attention to your real nature. It cannot disappear.

Otherwise you could sit in the cinema and say: ‘Sorry, I can’t recognize my real nature right now for I am too fascinated by this movie.’ Your real nature shines continuously within the story you are experiencing. It enables movies to appear and us to become fascinated by stories. But within those stories exactly the same shining silence is always present. Radiant Awareness.

There is nothing which has to be removed first to be able to recognize that, for it is not two. Rather, there is the absence of an ‘other’ something that could be removed. Therefore you do not have to do anything – only to recognize.

If you start wondering where your real nature actually comes from, you are like an ant trying to comprehend the Mount Everest. It will never succeed. You are trying to comprehend something that is impossible to comprehend. Our mind is unable to do so. At some stage people might land on Mars or discover a new planet, yet these will remain minuscule explorations compared to the wonder of the fact that we actually experience.

Once you start recognizing that wonder, you can lay aside your intellect. You bow as it were. This bowing is your salvation. In this bowing you can see that the peacefulness of your real nature is more important than being able to comprehend something. Peace is what you come across, and true joy.

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3

Simplicity precedes multiplicity

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Thinking happens in little leaps. Those leaps themselves, and especially the gaps between the different thoughts, are made up of emptiness. Usually you do not notice these gaps because of the pace of things. Those gaps are always the same – one hundred percent identical. That is your real nature, not differentiated or specified yet – therefore the term ‘emptiness’. All things that come up, like thoughts, feelings and sensory perceptions, are differentiations.

Your real nature is generous and free. The differentiations can cause this freedom to be covered up by assumptions, projections and such like, but they do not alter freedom itself, nor your real nature. It is profound to recognize that the content of your mind does not say anything about your real nature. You notice that it has not got any influence on it whatsoever.

Any differentiation is actually nothing other than that same real nature. Everything is made of exactly the same ‘stuff’.

\It is thanks to your presence here that you are able to notice all this, that you are able to recognize the freedom and peace of your real nature. Even though you take your presence for granted perhaps and just put up with your existence, it pays to give attention to this for a moment.

Presence could also be called ‘touch’. Even though your body may not be feeling completely comfortable right now, you are able to notice inside that something feels very much alive, a touch of life, like a subtle vibration. That touch is free, not attached to anything. In the touch of life, thinking has not yet begun.

Notice the right order of things here. First there has to be this presence. Only then can there be thinking and feeling. Everything you can think of overlays this as it were. This simplicity never goes; that is impossible. That is why you cannot search for it.

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4

Relax in the most ordinary of things

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Once you see who you are, you can probably notice how ordinary it is. In some ways this is the most ordinary of things, which is why it is called ‘natural’.

This is what you have always been, this ordinary. Everything you experience you simply experience, whether you like it or not.

The present experience is just ‘the present form’. It is the form your nature apparently takes on right now, while remaining unchanged in itself. You can recognize this. Recognize that it is so very ordinary, in particular the fact that it is unchanged, and even unchangeable. This is the reason we so easily overlook it, because it is not special.

Everything else is special – this is ordinary.

If you still think it is special, look again! Look whether that might still be a little layer you put over it. The inalienable is precisely the most ordinary of things.

This is the invitation – to rest in this, in this most ordinary of things. Let Light shine on all specialness here, let all forms come up and dissolve again – it happens spontaneously.

Once you notice this ordinariness you will see that any searching for it only moves away from there. ‘Searching for’ wants something special,