Uncovering the Veiled

"The greatest difficulties we face also offer the greatest opportunities to practice unconditional presence.  What is especially helpful in this practice is recognizing again and again that our experience is not as solid as we think.  Indeed, nothing is what we think it to be.  Meditation helps us recognize this by letting us notice and relate to the gaps or open spaces in our experience, from which genuine clarity and wisdom arise.

If we take this approach, our old wounds from the past can reveal hidden treasure.  In the places where we have contracted and turned away from our experience we can begin to uncover genuine qualities of our being that have long been veiled.  In the most painful corners of our experience something alive is always waiting to emerge.  So whatever pain or problem we have, if it helps us find a quality of presence -- where we can open to it, see it, feel it, include it, and find the truth concealed in it -- that is our healing." 

                         ~ Toward a Psychology of Awakening~
                                               John Welwood