Searching After Truth
By Aja
Being More Spiritual
Often we hear from someone how they wish to be more
spiritual. It usually sounds something like, "I really want
to be more spiritual. I should meditate more, or chant more, or
read more, or do more service or worship more, or do more yoga,
or I should quit watching TV, or quit smoking, or quit drinking,
or...." There is always the idea that by adding something to
oneself it will make them more spiritual. Or it will make them
feel more spiritual. Or, it will make others see them as more
spiritual. And generally this is a very sincere desire. People
feel that there is something lacking in their lives. They know
that there is more to life than making a living, eating,
sleeping, and getting little temporary pleasures from this or
that. They want real substance, and they know that substance
comes from something greater than themselves - love, community,
God, spirituality, meaning. But how do you get this? How do you
become more spiritual?
The difficulty is in thinking that one can become more spiritual!
It is like a man saying I want to be more manly or a woman saying
I want to be more womanly, or a human saying they want to be more
human. Being a man is intrinsic to men. Being a woman is
intrinsic to women. Being a human is intrinsic to a human. Being
spiritual is intrinsic to everyone. Who and what you are is
spiritual. What are you going to add to yourself to be more a
man, more a woman, more a human, or more spiritual. Anything that
you add will simply make you less of, or detract from the
intrinsic nature. It is like adding red paint and artificial rose
perfume to a rose to make it more rose-like. These will only
cover what is already perfect. If you wish to fully appreciate
the beauty of a rose, donıt try to add to the rose. Remove that
which obscures the pure vision of the rose and keeps you from
experiencing it in its perfect roseness. Similarly, if you want
to purely experience your own spiritual nature, you must
subtract, not add. How can you add to what is already perfect? It
is simply a matter of recognition, of stopping the search for
something to add to make you more, better, greater.
But this, in itself, can be the most difficult task for it means
letting go in every way. Say you have an old chair you have
found, and it has layers of old and chipping paint. You can just
add something, paint over the old paint, in an effort to make it
perfect. But the real beauty comes from stripping away all the
old paint until you have only the pure wooden chair and you can
appreciate the perfect symmetry and simplicity of the wood. What
we see as imperfect in ourselves is not our intrinsic nature. It
is what we ourselves have added or layered on to our pure being.
By adding more beliefs in the name of religiosity or
spirituality, we are only furthering ourselves from the pure,
simple, symmetry of our inherent Being. So the key is not in
adding, but in subtracting. It is easy to add. It is also easy to
continue on exactly as we are. It is more difficult to subtract,
because for most people subtracting feels very much like dying.
We are maintained by our belief systems. They make up who and
what we are, or rather what we think we are. We have built our
own reality based on our principles of what is good and bad and
right and wrong, and have factored out our real spiritual nature
in the equation. The world then is made up of dualities a
whole universe created as a means to give one some standing in
what would otherwise be empty space. Because if you subtract all
your beliefs, all your ideas of good and bad, all of your
dualities, everything you hold on to as what you are and what the
world is, what are you left with? Nothing. You, as who you
thought you were, is dead. If you are no longer a man or a woman,
a spiritual person, a doctor, car mechanic, a loner, a people
person, an intellectual, or slower learner, a Canadian, a music
buff, a mother or father, a sister or brother, a human, an angel,
a child of the universe, a... any possible definition you can
apply, then what is left. Only "I", without definition,
without location, without any parameters, or limits. Suddenly
there is nothing to strive for, nothing to fear, nothing to be
joyful about and nothing to grieve. And then you recognize that
this is your True Self. This is your spiritual Self. This is
being more spiritual. It is beyond material, which means outside
of all concepts bound by time and space. There is no longer even
a past or a future, but only an eternal Now and an unlimited
Here.
Bliss of Non-Being
You are the Bliss of Non-Being You do not exist as you. This
is the truth. You have a conception of who and what you are that
is an imagination or dream. The truth of who you are is
infinitely more profound, yet is only accessed by letting go of
all ideas of who you are now - ALL of them. And the conceptions
and ideas themselves are nearly infinite in their number and
subtlety. This is what makes Awakening so difficult. As long as
you have any idea or mental conception of who you are, you are
yourself holding the pattern in the field of consciousness that
maintains that belief existence. And if you try to let go of the
beliefs one by one, you will first find that they are infinite,
and secondly that the very idea of someone letting go of their
beliefs becomes a very strong new identification that oversees
all of the other beliefs. You have superimposed layers of
personal beliefs over what is in fact consciousness alone. It has
nothing to do with a personal entity. And yet, we literally fight
to maintain the very individual existence which is the cause of
our bondage and suffering. But the truth is that we do not exist
as an individual any more than a mirage in the desert has water.
It is due to a combination of circumstances only. Apparently
objective experiences arise and we create a subjective entity to
whom they are arising. Then we build a whole set of ideologies
and conceptions around that apparent subjectivity, based on this
primordial misconception, create a universe of duality which is
especially attracted to the concepts of right and wrong, and our
suffering is confirmed and assured. We must be able to see that
the very root cause of suffering and pain are our insistence on
maintaining ideologies centered on an individuality that doesnıt
exist. We are exactly like a ball of twine. If you unravel the
twine to get to whatever is inside, you only end up with a pile
of twine and empty space. When you unravel the ideas and beliefs
that hold "you" together, all that remains is empty
space. There is no "you" in the way that you think. So
the preeminent question arises, "Who are you?" Until
you can seriously begin to ask this question of yourself and
delve into the depths of consciousness, honestly and courageously
abandoning all that is not you, there will continue to be an
apparent entity suffering the "slings and arrows of
outrageous misfortune".
You are the Bliss of Non-Being However, you immerse yourself in
your desires of selfishness. You identify with the river of
thoughts and desires that arise in the ocean of consciousness.
All desires are selfish. Your actions are based on desires that
you think will make You happy. They are selfish. Even if you are
trying to save the world, you do so out of selfishness. Even if
you are feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, or worshipping
God, you are doing it because you think that it is
"right" to do so and it makes you happy to think that
you are "right". Even those seeking enlightenment,
freedom, salvation, liberation, are doing so because it is
"right". They seek to end suffering, to attain eternal
bliss, to be free from death and bondage. Surely these are noble
causes, honorable beliefs, but they are still based on a person
desiring something. They are the apparent effect of an apparent
ego, struggling in an apparent world, attempting to gain apparent
happiness, to counteract apparent suffering. Guess What? Itıs
all an illusion - the ego, the world, the suffering, the
happiness. It is all a dream state, being dreamed in a cosmic
dream. When you abandon the body/mind, what is left? When you
give up all identification, what remains? It is only I Am,
without any identification. It is the I Am that becomes
identified. So first revert to the I Am without identification.
Dwell in that and see where it comes from. From what does I Am
arise. Even the I Am has no location. It is not located within
space and time. You cannot find itıs beginning or end. It is
only consciousness without objects. It is the infinite subjective
state without a sense of other. Remove all else and dwell in
that. Do not think about it, but simply reside in that absolute
consciousness. As one sinks deeper (surrenders) into that pure
awareness, even the sense of I Am begins to dissolve, for even it
is a part of the dream. There is only empty awareness of
non-being. It is pure existence, awareness and, yes, bliss. This
is the state which you actually are, always have been and always
will be.
You are the bliss of non-being. But if all of this is non-being,
from what does it arise? There is no answer in words to that
question for all questions and answers arise from duality. But
rest for a moment in non-duality and what occurs? There is a
spontaneous arising to experience. The bliss of non-being is the
spontaneous arising of "That" to experience
"Itself". In Sanskrit, the Absolute is termed
Sat-Chit-Ananda or Existence-Awareness-Bliss. These are non dual
expressions of a singularity. Just as heat and light are non dual
aspects of fire - you cannot separate heat and light from fire -
so existence, awareness and bliss cannot be separated from the
Absolute. They are three aspects of the same singularity. They
are not linear or causal in any way, but a simultaneous
expression. For the Absolute is existence eternal. It is
Being-ness or That which Is. And in its Beingness, awareness Is,
for awareness is a symptom of existence. But awareness alone is
pure subjectivity only and must by its nature be aware of an
object, so expresses Itself as multiplicity in order to
experience Ananda or Bliss. So what Is, all that is, for no other
reason than the necessity to Be and expand, is Bliss. It is what
Is. It is Awareness. It is Bliss. Every moment, every day, every
thing, from the most "Holy" to the most
"wretched" is the Bliss of the Absolute, expressing
Itself infinitely as you, me, the universe, and all of this one
thing. But when you create personhood when you make a someone
separate, create "a" being separate from the One
Beingness, conjure up a someone to try and experience that bliss,
you separate yourself from the very Bliss that you already are.
Like a spark leaving the fire to experience the heat of the
flames, you lose your innate bliss in a vain journey away from
your Self.
You are the Bliss of Non-Being And when you are ready to give up
your separateness, to abandon the vain and continuous searching
for happiness, to free yourself from the limitation of personhood
that appear to bind you, then you can again experience the bliss
of non-being.
All Is God
When one dives deep into consciousness, what do you
find? At first, all seems dark and empty. We are so used to
putting our attention on and faith in the mind, our thoughts, our
senses and the world, that we would not know what to do if they
no longer existed. And yet, how are we assured of the reality of
this world in which we put so much faith? What makes it real. How
do we know that it is the concrete, tangible thing that we make
it out to be?
The truth is that it may not be as certain as we think. Many
scientists and the new quantum physics are exploring realms that
were once only found in the mystical writings of the East. They
are considering the possibility that all this is but vibration.
They have recognized that atoms are vast universes of empty
space, and that the only tangible parts, the electrons, protons,
and neutrons, are really nothing but vibrational nodes, in an
ocean of similar material. And that these atoms, dancing around
the universe, are all sharing atomic particles with each other,
so that the boundaries of one to another, and thus with each
"individual" thing in the universe becomes extremely
blurred - blurred to the point of extinction. So what the
universe tells us through the scientists, and through the ancient
mystics, is that there is only One thing. That one thing is doing
it all. It is the background, foreground, and the dance itself.
So what is this one thing? I like to call it God.
Now the difficulty with names is that they are immediately
inaccurate. The moment you name something, you have taken away
any reality it had and put a label upon it which makes it a
concept. We allow ourselves to define the entire universe with
names, and thus lose our ability to directly experience it. This
is especially true with all of the experiences which we have
within ourselves. We have stopped feeling anything that arises,
and have instead replaced the initial signs of something with a
name that allows us to stop it in its tracks. Emotions are a
perfect example of this. Try to describe fear, what it really is,
and youıll get more labels like afraid, excited, goose bumps,
etc. The moment any particular energy arises within us, we have a
box that we put that feeling into that has a label - fear, anger,
guilt, sadness, happiness, hunger, and so on. Almost no one stops
to actually experience the physical feelings, the thought
patterns, energetic pulses, and other signs that arises
throughout the day. The moment they come up, they go into a box
called fear, happy, pain, and sorrow. In the end all we get is a
box called "Iım fine."
What has happened is that we have developed a duality based
judgement of good and bad. We assume, because of our belief
systems, most of which have been foisted upon us, that certain
things are good and others are bad. And we have this gigantic
spectrum which goes from really, really good, and includes things
like God, saints, heaven, bliss, love and enlightenment, to
really, really bad like Satan, demons, hell, agony, hate and
delusion. But all this is the knowledge of good and evil.
Remember the Bible story. What was it that forced Adam and Eve
from the Paradise of the Garden of Eden? It was that they tasted
from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was
not the tree of good and evil, but the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Prior to tasting that fruit, they had no concepts of
some things being good and others being evil. Everything was of
Paradise. Everything was of God. They had no reason to doubt the
serpent. He was also one of Godıs creatures. But they ate of
this fruit, and began to distinguish duality.
When you distinguish duality, you are forced to make judgements
that this is good, and this is bad. We do it every day,
practically every moment. Even now you may be evaluating what you
are reading as being good or bad. But when you stop
distinguishing any duality - when you see everything and
experience everything, including yourself as Divine, then their
ceases to be judgement. Life becomes a great dance. There is only
the Absolute. All is One. All is Truth. All is God.
But we must not think of God as that great white-bearded man
sitting on His throne in Heaven, judging your every action as
good and bad. This is our own projection of God. This is our own
judgement of ourselves creating a picture of God as a Being of
ultimate love and ultimate anger, rewarding us when we are good
and punishing us when we are bad. We must let go of our concepts
that hold us to our own ideal of what Reality is.
As long as we have concepts, ideas, belief systems, we are boxed
into our own existence. We have allowed our beliefs to create who
we are. We have allowed words and language to define us. You must
fully experience that you are not a man or woman. You are not a
human being. You are life itself. And life is God. You are the
awareness which sees all, and yet makes no judgement. The mind
makes judgements. The mind compartmentalizes everything, putting
it in boxes. The mind separates Reality into pieces, and then
decides which are right and wrong, good and bad. When the mind of
another seems to have developed different beliefs and concepts
than yours, they become wrong. They become the enemy. You see it
as your duty to correct them or punish them, or avoid them. If
you think you are liberal and open minded, then you decide you
will listen with an open mind. But still you are evaluating
according to your own beliefs. Or some people accept everything
that anyone says, immediately reforming their own beliefs to
whatever is the new fashion, the new trend, the new age fad. But
you should accept or reject nothing. It is the accepting and
rejecting of things which makes you unhappy. It is the accepting
and rejection of ideas that makes you bound. If you truly wish to
be free, you must stop this judgemental accepting and rejecting.
Just stop! You must do it right now, in the moment.
The truth is, if you are seeing some things as good and others as
bad, or accepting some while rejecting others, you are accepting,
and simultaneously, rejecting God, the Absolute. Because as we
have already said, there is only one thing. What is happening is
all the Absolute. It is all God. Even if you take a very
anthropomorphic view of God as an individual person, scriptures
say that in the beginning there was only God, and God created the
universes. So from what did He create them? From Himself. Some
say the universes are the energies of God, like the sunlight from
the sun. But that is also non-different. The energy and energetic
are one. They cannot be separated. You cannot take heat or light
from fire. Fire IS heat and light. All that arises from God IS
God. So abandon all conceptions, all that you hold, and recognize
the divinity that is all around you. Deeply experience that there
is nothing outside of God, including yourself. Whatever you see,
whatever you hear, whatever you smell, taste, or feel, whatever
thoughts arise, even the concepts themselves, are God. You are
God. Saturate yourself with that reality that there is absolutely
nothing except God (or Brahman, the Absolute, Beingness, Divine
Subjectivity, etc. etc.) and you will find that you yourself are
that Divine Ocean of Bliss!
Doorway to Heaven
What is our definition of Heaven, the Absolute, or
Enlightenment? What does that look like for you? What is it
according to the saints of the world who have realized Truth?
Everyone assumes that they know the truth that it
automatically corresponds to what they believe it to be, as if
the fact that they believe it makes it a certainty. Obviously,
this has been the cause of religious wars throughout the
centuries.
Now, of course, we are in a more enlightened state and we
recognize that all of the worlds religions hold some portion of
truth. It would be politically incorrect to suggest that one
belief system was more true than any other. And since we are
broad minded and open to all of them, certainly we are more fully
conversant with the ultimate truth. Now we are enlightened in the
great mysteries of spirit. We see that truth is like a great
diamond with many facets. We understand and accept that there is
one truth with many paths to reach it, and we honor each path and
the people who choose to accept it.
But the path is not the goal, and while there are many paths that
lead to that enlightened state, what does it look like once you
get there? And if we donıt know what it looks like when we get
there, how do we even know that the path we are on will
ultimately arrive at where we want to go? The difficulty is
compounded by the fact that the enlightened state has been
characterized as beyond definition, unspeakable, un-nameable,
unknowable and beyond thought, beyond concepts and beyond mind.
So any definition or name that we attribute to it is simply that
- a name, not "It". This leads the aspirant, almost by
necessity, to explore what is not "It" in hopes of
finding "It". Since we are, to a great extent,
motivated by, influenced by, and limited by our own conceptions
of the Absolute, we will study and aspire for those things which
match our conception of what "It" is, too often in a
vain search, waiting for an experience which will prove to us
that we have reached the "unknowable",
"indescribable" "It".
The situation is very much like an analogy that was recently
shared with me. If you had two doorways, a doorway to heaven and
a doorway to a lecture about heaven, you would find the vast
majority of people lined up before the doorway to the lecture
about heaven. Often we arenıt as interested in experiencing the
divine as we are in being able to Œknowı about it, talk
about it, and impress people with our astounding depth of
information about it. And what if you could actually open the
doors and look in? In the doorway to the lecture about heaven,
you would find a room full of beautiful people, drinking organic
tea, talking about Gods & Goddesses, doing energy work,
singing songs, meditating together, discussing the pros and cons
of various paths and spiritual techniques generally having a
great time. On the other hand, when you opened the door to
heaven, standing outside and peering in, you would see nothing.
It would appear empty, dark, unattractive - because through that
door there is nothing for the mind to know, nothing for the body
to experience, no concepts or beliefs to grasp and certainly
nothing that would "attract" our mind, unless
annihilation was attractive. For to enter into the absolute is to
be totally beyond the mind and ego.
But the good news is that there is nowhere to go, no doorway to
step through, in fact, no pathway to follow. You, who you really
are, is already That. For you are pure awareness, being-ness. You
are what precedes mind, beliefs, concepts, ideas, hopes,
struggles, body and ego. You do not need to find heaven. You are
heaven.
Seeking a Spiritual Path
Seeking a Path In this day and age, knowledge of
spiritual practices has become common, so much so that by simply
plugging into the internet, one can access some of the most
secret, ancient, and esoteric spiritual practices. Often these
are practices, mantras, and rituals that were handed from teacher
to disciple in strictest confidence, preceded by preparatory
rites and given only with understanding and agreement to never
reveal them. Now you can find them in about 2 minutes on the
world wide web.
This has been both a great boon, and a curse. It has been a boon,
because it reveals for the first time the depth of commonality
between the worldıs religions and philosophies. It allows us to
explore in greater detail the richness of spiritual teachings
that were unavailable to a world without airplanes or internet.
And in a time and culture when the village priest, guru or shaman
is not quite as readily available, we can still find the
teachings we seek. But there is a down side. One of the primary
things that has been taken from us with this wealth of knowledge
is the simplicity of knowingness. Our life has been turned topsy
turvy with choice. Where we once knew where our destiny lay, what
our path was, and what was required of us to gain the graces of
the divine and enter into our conceived heaven, now we flounder
in an ocean of choices. We painstakingly search through the
plethora of spiritual options, dabbling in a little of this,
trying a little of that. Our desperate hope being that we will
find the perfect path, a saving grace that will fulfill all our
material and spiritual desires, and conform with our own
conceptions of the Truth.
But this too reveals to us that there must be something wrong if
we need to choose one religion or path over another, assuming the
correctness of one and the imperfections of another. Perhaps all
of them fall short of the mark, the glory of God, the unnameable
absolute. Perhaps it is our very search for an answer outside of
ourselves that must be questioned. Perhaps not knowing is a
blessing after all. For what is it that we can fully rely on?
What can we know for certain? Any opinion that we maintain can
always be refuted by someone else. Any set of rules, ideas,
techniques, philosophies, theories, vows, ethics, will always
clash with that of another. Our existence in the world is always
accompanied by polarities of opposites, especially when it comes
to beliefs.
But again, what can we know for sure? Even the existence of
anything outside of ourselves can not be ascertained. God,
heaven, hell, truth - are not provable to oneself from an outside
source. In fact, the existence of the world itself, as a tangible
reality, is unprovable. For instance, you could be dreaming at
this moment. Few people are able to distinquish dream from
reality while in a dream. Or perhaps your whole worldly existence
is some kind of a projection as if a movie, like if you were
merely a brain in a bell jar somewhere. Even many scientists
suggest that this so-called reality may be much more spacial
illusion than hard fact, and that we may be more floating in an
ocean of nothingness, including our own bodies, than a concrete
realm.
But the world is filled with such ideas, many ancient and many
new, but the truth, such as it is, can only be found in one
place. It is the only thing that can be taken as a certainty. It
is the one thing that everyone shares in common. That is the fact
of their own existence as awareness. Each person knows that they
are. They have always known that they are. Each persons
experience of themselves as existing has remained constant for as
long as they can remember. Certainly the ideas they hold, the
goals they strive for, even the complexity of their thoughts has
changed, but the fact of their very existence is a constant that
is never questioned. It is the questioning of this existence that
must take place. It is the only thing that we can really be sure
of, and it must be investigated thoroughly and continuously.
What is the method for this inquiry? One must investigate as to
what is this "I". Prior to everything is the simple
sense of existing as "I". But what is it? Where is it?
When and where does it begin and end. Remember here, youıre not
seeking your ideas and thoughts, but that I-ness which witnesses
all thoughts. What some might call "I Am" the
simple, pure awareness which witnesses and perceives all. Delve
into this! Rest in this! And you will find the only true path
which means anything your Self!
Truth Beyond Belief
A Subjective Inquiry into Life
Belief. Everything we do is based on it. In fact, everything
we say, think, or feel is centered around our own belief system.
But what is belief? The first definition given in Websterıs is:
" a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is
placed in some person or thing." Okay, itıs a state of
mind, or worse yet, a habit of the mind. I believe itıs a nice
day. I believe in the inherent goodness of people. I believe in
God. I believe that people should be kind to each other. I
believe that chocolate is better than vanilla. I believe that
early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy, and
wise. I believe that hush puppies are ugly shoes. I believe that
the movie Gandhi is more spiritual than Ferris Beullerıs Day
Off. I believe that for every drop of rain that falls a flower
grows. Big deal. Every single one of these and the literally
millions of other beliefs I hold as a habit in my mind can be
directly refuted by someone, probably many people. Their logic,
reasoning or emotional appeal regarding their beliefs may or may
not be better than mine. However, their beliefs are also nothing
more than a state, or habit of mind.
Now what about religion? (You may substitute faith, philosophy,
ideal life-style, etc.) All great religions (etc.) are based in
Truth. However, they are practiced as a belief. Let me say that
again. All great religions are based in Truth but are practiced
from belief. Truth and belief are not the same thing. The Truth
is absolutely beyond beliefs. Even if the beliefs correspond to
the Truth, the belief is but a dim reflection of the Truth. For
instance, the Tao Te Ching says (more or less) "The Tao that
can be named is not the eternal Tao." The Bhagavad Gita
tells us that, "There is a banyan tree with its roots up and
branches down. The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in
this world." In other words, this is the world of
misperception, and as long as we exist within this world we are
bound to persist, as a habit of mind, in the realm of
misperceptions and concepts. The mind is like a lens through
which the light of Truth may shine. The more colored gels and
filters there are over that lens, the more tainted is the light
that shines through. Now what happens in the mind is similar. It
is filled with concept gels and belief filters that obstruct the
direct flow of light. Worse yet, the mind itself is an
obstruction to direct experience of Truth as it must perceive
Truth as an objective thing. Iım told God is in Heaven. Sounds
good to me, and I take it as a belief. However, each word is a
concept to me, not Truth. I have a concept about God. God is the
creator, therefore He must be real old. God is everywhere.
Everything is God. God is in your heart.. Even more concepts
about God. Now where is Heaven? Itıs up there. Itıs everywhere.
Itıs where you make it. Itıs where dreams come true. Heaven is
within. More concepts. Where is within? What is in? For that
matter, what is "is"? Every word is a concept. It is a
symbol or representation for what, in fact, is. There is a very
distinct differentiation between an object, its name, and our
mental image of that. And the mind, by nature, is objective. That
is, it sees and describes objects apart from itself and therefore
cannot in actuality, in Truth, experience that object as it is,
in a subjective way. An objective experience is indirect. A
subjective experience is direct. Letıs give an analogy. I can
describe to you what it is like to ride in a sports car. I can
describe it in such detail that you can practically feel the wind
in your hair, smell the upholstery, experience the vibration of
the tires against the road. All concept. Thought patterns in your
mind simulating Truth. Objective experience. Or I could put you
in a sports car, give you the keys and say, "have at
it," and let you directly experience those things.
Subjective experience. In Truth, that so called subjective
experience is also an objective experience, because it is taken
in through our senses and mind which are themselves barriers to
the direct experience, and thus we perceive ourselves driving the
car objectively. But this is just an analogy. How about another?
This is more along the lines of a direct experience. I can either
hand you an orange and say, "smell it, feel it, eat
it," which is an indirect experience, objective, or I can
say, "be this orange. Directly experience it." Now this
is a subjective experience, if you can do it. Actually, even the
word experience throws us off because it implies a subject/object
relationship. Someone or something is experiencing someone or
something else. So - be an orange.
Truth is the same way. I can tell you what I believe Truth is,
what God is, what the world is. I can quote from great
authorities and from scriptures around the world. I can present
evidence with startling logic and reasoning, until you too are
absolutely convinced and ready to give your life for my cause,
but it will only be a belief, a concept, an objective perception
or misperception of the Truth. I may or may not have experienced
the Truth, but no matter how many people I convince through non
direct means, they will be experiencing beliefs, not truths.
Now what has generally happened in the past is that someone has
experienced the Truth. The Truth, being outside of the confining
world of language, is self evident to that individual, however it
must be communicated, and for the most part is communicated in
words. Occasionally, someone will communicate in a different way,
such as Buddha holding up a flower or Jesus feeding the
multitude. But for the most part what we get is words. We grab
onto those words and hold on for dear life. Like trying to grab
the reflection of the moon in a pond, it "ainıt" the
real thing.
Truth, however, is available to us. It is as close to us as our
breath or our heart beat. It is the very fabric of life. But,
unless you directly experience this (be the orange) it is just
another concept, a belief. There are methods for directly
experiencing Truth, and many of the better religions and
philosophies have those methods built within them, although they
are often lost within the dogmas, concepts and personality
cultism. The problem is that many of these methods are themselves
indirect, unclear, and often very, very slow, taking maybe years,
decades or lifetimes to achieve the goal. There actually is a
method by which one can directly experience the Truth, Self,
Enlightenment, God, the Kingdom of Heaven within, the Christ
Consciousness, whatever you want to term it, in a very short
time, in fact, instantly, in this moment. Itıs called Self
Inquiry and is really no method at all, but really a stopping of
all methods, all techniques, all searching after Truth, and
inquirying into the source of "I", awareness itself
beyond concepts and misperceptions. It is a quantum shift in
consciousness to a direct, subjective experience of Truth. Truth
beyond belief!
