Sat Nam, and Welcome In!
My spiritual teacher is Steven Gray, also known as Adyashanti. Here's a photo of him with his wife, Mukti; they are both spiritual teachers. Click on the photo if you want to visit their site.
Adya is a waker-upper, a man keenly interested in self-inquiry and enlightenment with a bent toward how to live in the real world. He gave a retreat a few years back, on the "Five truths about truth," as he called it. I've immersed myself deeply into this teaching; 20 hours of material on CD. After a year of 6 listens,
I've decided to write about it.
The five truths about truth:
Truth is the Nothing, which is Everything
The Truth is self-luminous, aware, and conscious
Being the nature of everything, there is nothing outside of the truth
Truth doesn't explain anything; truth is everything
The only thing that realizes truth, is the truth, itself
These things do not need to be understood by your mind, my dear reader. The mind, even a well-trained one, is not the tool with which we understand these words. Do you know how it is when you are underneath a fireworks display? You don't need your thinking mind to appreciate the wonder of it. You take it in, you bask in the awareness of it, and you realize you are IT. It is happening to you and you are happening to it. You and the experience are one thing.
One. The truth, the absolute truth (not any one or anybody's relative truth--not that truth) is zero. And infinity. Is both off and on. Is both right and wrong. Is both up and down. Is this AND that. Is undefined and uninformed. And defined and informed. That. AND THAT, -- that NOTHING...IS EVERYTHING. The suchness that is the nothing is everything.
Physics has some things to say about how everything is nothing until something observes it. You've heard that we might be in a simulation--the whole universe contained in a hard drive somewhere...we may be all 0s and 1s. Just code. In effect, nothing. MAYBE.
Still is everything.
For you dear readers who never met a rabbit hole you could pass up...
The Holographic Universe Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n10ovuND0Q
Are we living in a simulation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wMhXxZ1zNM
Everything that is and was and will be is truth, as it is perceived by the consciousness that perceives it and the consciousness that gives rise to it, which is ONE THING appearing to be separate. Hologram, simulation, or base reality...still truth.
Two. What arises when consciousness sees clearly, is the truth--which is itself, seeing itself. When we sit in silence and allow the truth to arise, we understand truth. Not with our mind, but with our body. This is why yoga works. A trained body tells the truth to the self with less BS...belief systems, bullshit, but Shiva...we've been given a guidance system beyond our conditioned mind. Learning to listen to it is essential to seeing the Truth.
Three. Did something occur? That's the truth. Did you behave in a certain way? That's the truth. Is the past or the future happening right now? No. Thinking about it as if it is happening right now is anti-truth. Anxiety is fear of the future, which does not exist. Depression is dwelling on the past, which does not exist. Do we have an opinion about something? True for the mind, not the truth in reality. Are you having feelings? They are true, and also they are nothingness having a feeling. Are you here, right now, having an experience? That's the truth. Are you in resistance to your present moment? The resistance to the truth is your enemy. It is the anti-truth. All forms of escape from WHAT IS are forms of anti-truths. Which side will you be on right now? Do you even care about the truth? If not, that's the truth. The universe is constantly telling you the truth. How good are you at listening?
The nature of everything, being what it is, is true. Look at it, it won't hurt you. Do not push it away. Ask after it; what is this thing? Be curious. How did that happen? Why did that occur? Do I want to repeat that experience? Be honest by not backing away from what presents itself to you.
Become a Lover of What Is. Acknowledge how little your preferences have to do with the truth. The truth does not appear to care about your preferences. Accept that hoping, and wishing, and praying things are not as they are is egoic vanity, a fool's errand. It's what children do, and it's fine, for children. Are you a clear-eyed adult or an overgrown child? First, accept reality as all that there is. Then, if you wish to be an agent of change, be an agent of change. Become what you want to see happen. Do the thing you want to bring into reality. If it occurs, it becomes the truth. True for you, and for anybody witnessing it. You literally are making Truth.
Hello, God.
Sat nam, right.
Four. Don't think you KNOW the truth. Truth does not explain. The truth does not explain...anything.
Never complain, never explain.
Complaining has never done any good, nor made anything change, and explaining gives power to your enemy. Nature doesn't complain, it just adapts and carrys on. Nature doesn't apologize or give excuses for itself. It simply moves on.
The truth simply IS. Dwell in the nature of what is, what you are, what the outside world is. It's all one thing, you know. Clear-eyed, without opinion, without judgement, without sorrow, without joy, without MIND. Thinking will lead you out of the truth and right back into your story. The Story of ME is not the absolute truth, it is the relative truth, and so it is an illusion, changeable, fungible, destroyable, merely a blip.
Since our stories happen, they are part of everything, and are therefore the truth. But your story and my story are the exact same story, because they are the same thing, a story. Attaching to your story instead of mine is a thought puzzle. Leads nowhere except back into suffering. Attaching to your thoughts about your story is a recipe for suffering, as you step outside the Absolute Truth. Whoops, that's impossible...everything is the truth. You cannot step outside it, because you are creating it. You create your own reality with your experience. So it is the truth that human beings, of course, do not understand this. We don't understand it because it is not understandable to the mind. Like your favorite song, your feelings under a fireworks festival, the mind isn't necessary to love the truth of it.
If you bring your mind to the truth, it will unveil a thought which will make the truth look like a lie. That's the truth. The truth cannot and will not be contained in words. Or thoughts, which are just words unspoken. Let it go, man.
Five. The mind will absolutely lead you astray. It's why millions of us walk around ASLEEP to the truth. The only thing that recognizes the truth is the truth. The only thing that recognizes the dream is the dream.
The dreamer can't see it.
For more on this, please meditate, do yoga, and get plenty of good food, clean water, hugs, rest, and usefulness as part of your daily routine.
Sat nam and thanks for watching,
Andrea