One does not need to seek out one's demons in an endless pursuit of self-improvement. We simply need to face whatever arises with an honest, open, and inquiring mind and heart.
— Adyashanti
The word question is derived from the Latin quaerere (to seek) and has the same root as the word quest. This makes perfect sense. Questions are at the heart and soul of the spiritual journey.
Adyashanti is an American-born spiritual teacher who sees it as his mission to explore the mystery of existence and to probe the sacred dimensions of everyday life. He is profiled in S&P's Living Spiritual Teachers Project.
Over the years, Adyashanti has given many online courses and in-person retreats. In these gatherings, individuals were encouraged to ask questions via email. In this book he answers many of them. Sacred Inquiry contains a wealth of material on meditation, the illusion of ego and separation, the levels of awakening, relating from a new level of being, and regarding the world with compassion.
We were especially taken with the chapter on "The Enlightened Heart" in which he answers questions about the nature of redemptive love ("Redemptive love is both something that we receive and something that we are in our deepest nature."), unconditional love ("to already stretch out beyond the ego-mind"), and what love would do ("not your idea of love, which for most people is quite distorted, but the universal reality of love. This is not as complicated as people make it out to be.").
As we were reading this book, we imagined Adyashanti sitting quietly, open as the flower to the sun and like an artist awaiting her muse. What he receives and then shares is a treasure-trove of spiritual insights.
The spiritual practices of questing and openness are brother and sister; they are family!
