You know, it’s the very last thing, isn’t it: we feel so grateful for at having happened. You know, you needn’t to have happened! You needn’t’ve happened. But you did happen. You could even say you happened yourself. You’ve occurred. And I have to say, it’s pretty chicken-hearted—isn’t it?—pretty unenterprising, dare I say pretty un-Australian, to live and die with taking everybody’s word for what has happened where you are except the inhabitant of this place. Nobody is in a position to tell you what you are, who you are, but you.
I’ll be damned if I live and die without ever looking to see who is doing that.
Who you really, really, really are is not a product of the world, it is the origin of the world. The Upanishads say it, the Buddhists say it, the Taoists say it. Even Judaism says it. There’s a rabbi—Spanish medieval rabbi—who says, “God is the soul of my soul.” The soul of my soul. Even Judaism says it. All the really great Christian mystics say this. Islam says it: “Allah is nearer to a man than his own neck vein.” You know, don’t let our lives go by without checking this out! If it’s rubbish, let’s just junk it. If it’s true, let’s take it seriously and do something about it. Who you really, really, really are, they say, is not a product of the world, it’s the origin of the world. I think we have to be humble enough, enterprising enough, truthful enough to check up on this.
What are you looking out of? What are you at zero inches from yourself? And the great religions say that nearer to you than all else is the origin of the world.