Present in your Absence – Jean Klein

What we call mind does not exist. The mind is a number of functions, a number of qualities. When these functions come to a stop, because there are moments in life when we do not use the mind, then there is an absence of functions. But this absence of function is not the silence we mean here. The mind may be silent from time to time, but the nature of our mind is function. To concentrate on the stillness of the mind may give you a certain relaxation, but this in itself is a state, a blank state. We are not speaking of this emptiness. We are speaking of an emptiness without duration, without time.

It is very difficult for us to represent space without a center and without a periphery. When you look out of the window here, you first see trees, bushes, meadows, stars, the moon. You look at objects in relation to other objects. Your looking is a kind of comparison. You know yourself only in objects because you relate with your personality which is an object too. So what is important for you is to experience the absence of all objects, including your center, your personality. Your presence is in the absence of all objects. In other words, you are really present only in your absence. Do you see what I mean?

It is important that the mind sees this kind of geometrical representation. Your absence can never be represented. You cannot think it or feel it. That is why, in reality, metaphysically speaking, we can never name it, we can only express it negatively. We can only express our reality negatively, never positively. What we are fundamentally is our absence. And when you ask how can you experience your absence, you cannot experience it, because it is in the absence of the experiencer. Your absence is your wholeness. When obliged to give a description, one could say, “It is a feeling without feeling it.”

-Jean Klein

From Living Truth, page 48-49

You can read more from Jean Klein here.