Pointing to truth can take many forms – some of which may seem contradictory but are not at all.
Because we already are what we are and do not need to become what we are, we can say that realizing what we are is only a matter of how we now perceive.
When we perceive through conditioning then what we take ourself to be is the false, conditioned self. And when we perceive directly, consciously then what is sensed is the true, unconditioned Self.
Could it truly be as simple and direct as that?
What is often understood with the words to ‘look within’ is for the person to stop blaming others and to look within to see how they are flawed in order to try and fix him or herself.
But that looking within has a preconceived notion about the one who is looking so it isn’t pure looking. That looking within is completely within the confines of the belief that the one looking is flawed and needs fixing.
But when we 'look' freshly while empty of all notions this is a purer investigation then even the scientist’s which is done within the confines of their preconceived hypothesis.
If we investigate the truth of what we are with a belief in separation and lack than that is what we will seem to see.
Freedom not only means that we are free to realize we are free but also that we are free to seem bound.
What actually is seems so difficult to realize when we are enamored by what is believed to be.
But the moment all thoughts and feelings are allowed to flow naturally rather than grasped hold of, there is a sense of 'all is well' that can be trusted.
This sense of 'all is well' is what actually is prior to what is imagined to be within belief.
From a certain perspective it seems contradictory that it is arrogance, not humility, that keeps us in the belief that we are separate from God and that it is humility, not arrogance, that opens the understanding that we are not separate from God.
When we think we know who we are, who others are and what God is everything seems so separate, fragmented and disharmonious. And when we are open and empty of all conceptual knowledge there is a sense of knowing that is beyond our 'know it all' conditioned sense of self.
To consciously remain as that universal knowing requires a kind of humility and sticking with the conditioned sense of self does not.