1. AT THE SPRING OF ETERNITY**
In July 1976, I was browsing the *Tao Te Ching* (a treatise on Principle and its action), a book by Lao-Tseu written 25 centuries ago, which speaks about the Origin Principle and its creative power, *Te*, the mother of the world. This philosophy was so new to me that I lost all my inner bearings and felt cast, empty, upon the riverbank of the unknowable. I put the book down, and, through the window, watched the monotonous rain pouring over Saint-Mathew's church in Quimper, Brittany, when, suddenly, awakening engulfed me. Thought ceased. Inner stillness was total. In this silence, I had disappeared. Only a transparent flow of consciousness and love remained, permeating everything within view. There was no limit, no measure, no separation. A timeless, absolute instant. Fulfillment, bliss, freedom—nothing was lacking. A few minutes later, I wrote a letter to convey something of this ecstasy. Though the words are still tinged with duality, impersonality had already begun to breathe through them. Here it is:
“I cry with immense joy: the rock has been touched. Having thought I was swimming towards the rock of salvation, now I am this rock. The ocean of bliss has poured a drop of nectar into my consciousness, like a sunbeam illuminating a dark cave. In this search, I was running towards Being. Peace is found in Unbeing. Thus one is motionless, keeping stillness in movement; acting without acting, loving without loving—how true it is! The nightmare has gone. In the present, here, there, ugly or beautiful, rich or poor, all is the same. The way is too simple, too obvious to perceive. It springs forth in consciousness when it is fertile, when one is ready to let go. Here is rain. Sun and rain. It’s uncolored, a state without hue. Neither above nor below, without relation.
All is clear: each difficulty teaches the unnamable way, and everything draws us to it. It is independence. What a dream, this universe! God is so near, 'behind.' Yet not close, not far, not here, nor there. Oh, what joy! Your path is mine; there is only one. Go this way, go that way. I have been here since the dawn and before. This rain is like God's tears of joy, meeting His child who has returned after a long journey. All is here. All is complete. Time has stopped. Words are mere sprinkles before the sun of Reality. How could they describe it, even if all words were gathered? When a man falls, weary from his vanishing quest, he is close to Reality.
O my brothers, O my sisters! Fall! If it will enlighten your soul! All that I see is new. Like a little divine child gazing at his birth surroundings, enraptured! When you search for truth, you cannot find it. When you grasp the futility of intent, you are caught by God’s Mercy. Past behaviors must die in every field of life. May I remain in this state that is both new and ancient! A smile is drawn on Gael's lips, a smile of complicity with the Untouchable and His children.
My heart burns at this contact. Thank Thee, ‘my’ God, Thou art the most loving Father. Thou art The Father. Thank Thee, my God, Thou art the Mother that sustains everything and everyone. Blessed be the divine child that slumbers within each of us. Just one drop of nectar from the Spring awakens you, and you sleep no more. All is perfect. This drop of nectar in my heart will become the Ocean if I keep my balance in God. Love rains down on every heart, but how many see the lotus bloom?" Quimper, July 1976.
Here is a revised version of the text, with improved clarity, grammar, and flow: --- Here is the mercy I encountered fifty years ago. But actually, we don’t “know” the Principle; we feel it, we live it. Strolling through books, meditations, and illuminated dreams, I sought this path that had captivated me without revealing its name. The Tao Te Ching turned my gaze Eastward, so I looked for a teaching aligned with my experience in this direction. In Vedanta, in Yoga, in Buddhism—especially in Mahayana, which preaches immediate awakening—I found explanations for my experiences. In Zen, too, I recognized what I came to know as "nonduality." I felt elated when reading *The Revolution of Silence* by Krishnamurti.
Later, I discovered Arnaud Desjardins in France, whom I consider a true spiritual master, along with Jean Klein, who speaks so clearly of nonduality. Many people have seen their lives transformed by these teachings. But can one feel truly unconditioned by anything other than mercy? Is knowledge useful in this essential quest? I understood well that Truth doesn’t lie in the constructs that people build around divine experiences freely offered by Nature. Thus, I avoided following well-intentioned gurus or predefined paths. We cannot describe a wise person's consciousness, or what “right living” truly means, but we can offer guidance on behaviors that lead away from “nonduality”—like a finger pointing to “that.” So, who could truly lead us to the uncreated shore through their teaching, if we were not already there? ---
**IS THERE A WAY TO GOD?**
Religious organizations have lost their soul; they have become dead letters and cul-de-sacs for seekers of the Infinite. When they do not breed fundamentalist fervor, these organizations burden the spiritual path with tradition and meditation techniques instead of promoting the “substantial marrow,” the pure and simple essence. Some of them are little more than sects. It’s challenging to find an authentic spiritual path in the crowded streets of knowledge, where one can get lost before even glimpsing the numinous garment of the Creator. In the midst of this tangle, in this materialistic and commercial age, a flower has bloomed, rooted in the distant past, haloed in purity: nonduality. It is the essence of all living religions, particularly those of Asia. Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Ch’an, and Zen are the branches, with nonduality as the trunk. It’s not exactly a path; one does not “go” anywhere. It is rather an attitude—mental, emotional, and physical—that we bring to life. This inner stance could be described as a surpassing of duality pairs—not through will, but through understanding. It brings about abrupt awakening, the discovery of one’s supreme nature, and the end of the existential suffering of separation from the world and others.
Nonduality is not unknown to Western mystics. For instance, Saint John of the Cross spoke in veiled terms: “We must free the mind from worldly things, yes, but also from spiritual ‘things.’” He meant that many spiritual practitioners are more attached to spiritual matters than others are to material ones. Of course, attachment—whether spiritual or material—opposes nonduality. Seeking God externally, observing the universe and life, reveals the creative divine hand but doesn’t permit true contact. We remain in duality. On the other hand, looking within provides the answer: Self-evidence, Self-presence. But we cling to external perceptions, entangled in phenomena, and lose sight of Essence.
A profound change in how we view the world and ourselves can reconnect us with our source. Here’s how: instead of focusing on the object of consciousness, we must turn to the subject, the observer—who is no more real than the object. We act as if there were a stable observer, an "I" or ego, yet this is untrue. Search for the ego, and you’ll never find it! Instead, you become aware that the “subject” is itself another form of object—a mental or emotional construct of desires and aversions. Nowhere can one locate a personal ego, only an impersonal expanse. Personal opinions appear for what they are: objects. Fleeting objects, like clouds in the blue sky of the Impersonal Self, or Impersonal Being. Beyond even that: impersonal non-being. Impersonal Consciousness—our true nature.
EN