Stripped of himself

The man stripped of the ego is an essentially interior man. Since he is already convinced that the “I” is a lie, he does not care about what they may think or may say about his ego which he knows does not exist. Therefore, detached from artificial preoccupations he lives in joyful interiority. Despite living in the swirl of things and events, his dwelling place is in the kingdom of serenity.

He displays a number of external activities but his intimate world is settled in an unchanging depth. Without power or properties, the dispossessed moves along life’s journey looking at everything with tenderness, treating everything with respect and veneration. His clothing is patience and his core is woven with meekness. He is defensive of nothing because he has nothing to defend.

He threatens no one and is not threatened by anyone; that is why he is friendly with everybody. Weapons? What for? One who has nothing does not want anything. What can disturb him? That is why a man who is empty of self is invincible. There is nothing in the world, neither painful emergencies nor unforeseen eventualities that may wound, strike, or erode the stability and harmony of the man who has been set free from the illusion of the “I”.

Extracted from the book “The Art of Being happy” by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga