Is Primordial Lack Inherent in Being a Person?

"Bernardo Kastrup said we experience a primordial lack always. You might not agree with that. Could it be that this primordial lack happens when we begin this existence as individuals? Rupert says: ‘The primordial sense of lack is one of the defining emotions of the apparently separate self. When the infinite seems to become a temporary, finite mind, it becomes a fragment. It’s no longer the whole. And as a fragment it is incomplete, and as an apparently incomplete self, it is always seeking to complete itself. Once consciousness seems to have contracted and become a finite mind, it is defined by this existential sense of lack and the seeking that accompanies it. As long as you feel that you’re a temporary, finite mind, a separate self, you experience this sense of lack and the other overriding emotion that defines the apparently separate self, the fear of death. These are the two existential emotions. But I would suggest that Bernardo didn’t really mean always. Everybody without exception experiences times in their life when they are relieved of the sense of lack and touch their true nature and experience its innate peace.’"

From event 05 - 12 October, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute, 5–12 October 2025

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