Inquiry isn't a tool to feel better. The speaker argues that real practice means committing to courage and your deepest truth, not chasing emotional shifts. A story about medication that blocked feeling changes shows how integrity becomes your only guide when feelings won't move.
So, Robert, when. When I'm doing inquiry, I. There's part of me that's trying to use it in a way to. To feel better, to. If I'm feeling fearful, I want to inquire into a way so that I can feel secure and comfortable again. I'm wondering kind of what the motivation is behind inquiry. How do you stay with it and keep it moving and alive? The. The really key thing about inquiry is that it needs to be revered as a path in itself. And it can't be based on whether it changes your feelings. If it's based on changing your feelings. It's kind of like inquiries suddenly become a narcissistic demand. It's like suddenly, well, here I am asking the right questions. And I wanted to be more courageous. And I'm frightened, and I'm still frightened. It's not working versus I'm dedicated, like with a sword, to be as courageous as I can possibly be. And if that's zero at the starting point, if that's absolutely zero, I'm still dedicated because it's the best I can see to do. And I'm not going to measure myself based on my feeling. If I don't have a better option and my highest intelligence is guiding me to the way I can be courageous when I'm frightened, then I am going to dedicate myself to that for the rest of my life. Now, the biggest trap, as far as I'm concerned, in virtually our whole generation is being addicted to our feelings and feeling like our feelings are the center of the universe, when really what is closer to the center of the universe is our deepest truth. And our deepest truth is what we're inquiring to receive information from. Like, how can I most truly be courageous in this situation? And so the reverence needs to go into the inquiry, not to the feelings. Screw the feelings. Screw them. What matters. What really matters is the dedication to our truest voice. Now, you know me well enough. I went through five years where no matter what I did because of medication side effects, I. I couldn't feel better. And so all I had was my own integrity and the voice that kept saying, respond as kindly as you can, even though you feel lousy inside, even though you feel agitated or anxious, there's nothing you can do about that. So what you can do is be as present as possible, sincerely, be as kind as possible. And likewise, what you can do is start to become really dedicated to the inquiry as being your life source, because it is your life source. It's your healthy life source. And your feelings are all based on cultural beliefs and ancestral beliefs, and they aren't really going to guide you to your heart, whereas your inquiry is.
