Inquiry with Javier Gomez Rodriguez, October 15, 2026

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We met at the Pavilion, where Javier introduced the dialogue theme, “What does it mean to know oneself?” He invited us to examine the nature of seeking. Before searching for truth, we must understand who is seeking and why. Are we looking for something genuinely unknown, or pursuing images of what we think we should become?

Truth is not fixed, but does it have any permanent attributes? Can we define truth without turning it into an idea or something we seek to hold onto?

The discussion explored how, while the body is constantly changing and inseparable from the natural world, we tend to experience ourselves as separate, enduring entities. Can we observe this sense of a separate self without interpreting it through memory and thought, seeing what is happening directly rather than projecting the past into the present or seeking certainty in the future?

The conversation then turned to desire and passion. Desire can arise from a sense of lack, leading us to pursue fulfilment, comfort, and security through imagined future outcomes. Passion, by contrast, was described as a quality of aliveness that does not depend on psychological fulfilment. Can we recognise these movements in ourselves without suppressing or indulging them?

Finally, we considered the transformative potential of awareness. Rather than trying to change ourselves through effort or analysis, can we observe fear, sorrow, shame, and habitual reactions without resistance? Perhaps self-knowledge is not the accumulation of information about ourselves, but an ongoing process of seeing clearly. Could understanding the movement of the self reveal a different relationship with life itself?

 

  • Anastasia Shtamina