Dr Ian Ellis-Jones ... Living Mindfully Now

NOTE. This blog is in recess. Nevertheless, you will find here over 500 of my posts exploring many aspects of spirituality, mindfulness, psychology, philosophy, literature and the performing arts. A member of the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association, I lectured at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry (now the mental health portfolio of HETI) for 14 years and at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) for 16 years. Mindfully yours, Ian Ellis-Jones PhD. 26 July 2021.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

THERE IS NO PATH---EXCEPT THAT THERE STILL IS ONE

There is no ‘path.’ There is nowhere to ‘go.’ There is nothing to ‘believe.’ There is no one to ‘follow.’ And there is nothing to 'transcend'---except, perhaps, your own limited thinking, and the misbelief that you need some teacher, mediator, messiah, savior or guru in order to 'find' truth, salvation or enlightenment.

‘Truth’---that is, reality or life---‘is a pathless land,’ said J. Krishnamurti [pictured left], ‘and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.’ Why is that? Well, each one of us is always in direct and immediate contact with reality, both internal and external. A ‘path’ presupposes a separation or distance between point A and point B.

For example, if you are in New York and you want to go to Chicago, whether by automobile, train or airplane, you must follow a certain path or route, the reason being that there is a separation between the two cities, and thus a distance to be travelled. However, when it comes to life itself, there is no separation or distance to be made the subject of a path or otherwise 'bridged' by some supposed mediator or savior.

The problem with most if not all organized religions is that they assume that there is such a separation or distance; hence, the need for some supposed mediator or savior. Each religion espouses a different path. For example, there is the ‘golden path’ of the Buddha. Then there’s Jesus who, so it is claimed, uttered those much misunderstood words, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jn 14:6). I could go on. Are these paths one and the same? Yes and no.

In a very profound sense, the paths taught by so-called experts---the priests, teachers, saviors and gurus---are not the true path. Did you hear that? They are not the true path. They represent other persons’ versions or ‘understanding’ of reality (that is, beliefs), and they are of little or no use to us. We don't need paths---at least not those sorts of path---and despite what some would have you believe, the various ‘paths’ of the world’s religions are not one and the same. There are great differences between them, and reason should tell us that they can’t all be right. Of course, it is quite possible that none of them, at least as conventionally understood, are right. Indeed, more and more people are coming to that understanding, which is one of the reasons why they are leaving the multifarious---or should I say nefarious---churches and temples in droves. A good thing, too, in my view. Once they're gone---the churches and temples, that is---a more enlightened and non-exploitative era of world spirituality will ensue---an era in which every person will be their own teacher and their own 'disciple' or pupil. After all, that's the way it ought to be, given the existence of that lack of separation and distance of which I've already spoken. Bring it on!

There is, however, a truth to be known---and lived---and it is this: you are forever one with all that is, all that happens, and all that presents itself as your consciousness and experience. You are life itself---well, at least a unique individualization or expression of life. Yes, you are part of life’s Self-expression, and life cannot other than be.

There is no path, yet there still is one. What path, you may ask? Listen to what Joy Mills, an eminent Theosophist and friend of mine, has to say about the matter: 'There is no way until our feet have trod it.' The path or way is whatever presents itself as your reality, that is, as your consciousness and experience. Your path or way to truth (reality, life) will always be different from mine, but in a very profound sense our paths are one and the same, for each of them is ... life unfolding itself from one moment to the next.

Let me quote Jiddu Krishnamurti once more: ‘Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.’ Now, by ‘meditation’ Krishnamurti means, not concentration, but choiceless awareness of life as it unfolds from one moment to the next. That, my friends, is both the means and the end, for the means and the end are one. It is the so-called ‘path,’ and it is also a non-path---for, at the risk of repeating myself, there is nowhere to go. Got that? There is nowhere to go. You are already 'there.' You are already on the 'other side.' It's a pathless way to a pathless land. Life, truth, reality, call it what you wish---it's all around us, under us, above us, beyond us (in more ways than one!), and in us as us.

Yes, there is only one way of being, and one order or level of reality. That is the plain and simple truth. Know that---and you will be free.