Robert Gonzales

There are three qualities that come to the forefront that are developed in this work.

The first is clarity: the kind of clarity which is an experiential clarity, also a cognitive clarity – that I’m able to distinguish that all of the thoughts that I have, all of the evaluations that I have, all of the judgments that I have are simply an emanation of my thinking mind and how it captures me experientially when I‘m lost into it. The more I can develop that clarity, the more I can distinguish and not get caught into it – and clearly observe observations and facts as they are and not as the story I tell myself. So this clarity is the foundation.

What that evolves into is the second quality, which is compassion. Until I have this clarity, I don’t have the inner spaciousness of heart to be able to feel into the compassionate space; the warmth, the depth, the love of compassion. So it is almost as though compassion is built on clarity because it requires the space that clarity provides. And then when I have the compassion, I am able to have the capacity to mourn. Compassion allows all of it. It allows the pain, it allows my heart to be broken open. It allows me to be in my open, vulnerable, tender place.

And, almost paradoxically to the rational mind, out of that rises strength. Out of my vulnerability there’s a real strength, which can be called empowerment. In that heart, in that vulnerability, is my authenticity. That is what empowers me to live in the way I want to live in this life; in the way that the inner life calls me to live.