Self-Inquiry with Javier Gómez Rodríguez, October 23, 2025
The facilitator was asked to make an introduction about K and the teachings, as there were two new people, a young couple, in attendance. This brief introduction was much appreciated.
The facilitator then explained that normally such meetings would begin with a reading of one of the daily K quotes from The Book of Life, but that no such text had been selected this time, so it was up to the participants to come up with questions we could inquire into together.
One of the issues that came up was the question as to how we deal with pain, physical and psychological. It was said that physically pain is part of the body’s intelligence. It functions as an alarm signal that something is wrong. Psychologically pain functions differently. Psychological pain is produced by thought through the reproduction or projection of images of pain. K attributes psychological hurt to the self-image.
One of the participants happened to suffer from chronic pain caused by a dental condition. Ironically, this dental problem had been caused by a dentist, so she was now looking into what to do about it, as she hesitated to go back to the dentist. Such chronic pain is not easy to live with, and it can affect the brain. It was indicated that there are psychological techniques to handle such pain without having to resort to pharmaceutical solutions.
Psychological pain occurs mostly in relationship. We all want relationship and love, and we all experience heartbreak and loneliness. One participant shared that he felt that he had never had a real relationship. He did feel lonely and dreamed of having a relationship, but his past experiences made him wary of it. Besides, he was now old and very aware of his own weaknesses and shortcomings, so who could possibly be interested in a relationship with him?
It was pointed out that relationship is a mirror in which we can see ourselves. Relationship offers an external reflection of what we are. The question is whether we can be honest with each other and with ourselves regarding what the mirror reveals and whether we are willing to face it and go deeper into it. This is the way of self-knowledge.
It was then pointed out that relationship is not the only mirror, for consciousness is constantly revealing itself to itself. So self-knowledge implies the self-awareness of consciousness as it projects its own content inwardly. This is one aspect of what might be called ‘meditation’.
We all take love to be the essence of relationship. K approaches it negatively, namely by discarding its false aspects. For him the negation of the false is the birth of the true. He says that love is not attachment, desire, pleasure, dependence, possessiveness, jealousy or even thought, for thought is behind all these false aspects of love. The quintessence of this negative approach is the statement that love is when the self is not.
The self is the movement of becoming and in its ending there is being. This being is not yours or mine, so there is no separation, division and conflict, which deny love. Then the wheel of misfortune generated by our false assumptions of what love is stops spinning and we can relate differently with each other and bring about a new culture and a peaceful world.
Javier Gómez Rodríguez
