IN SEARCH OF TRUTH---THE HIDDEN SECRET

According to the New Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary the Hawaiian word huna means, among other things, ‘hidden secret,’ that which is ‘secret’ or ‘hidden,’ in other words that which is not obvious or readily discernible. And what of ultimate cosmic importance might that be? Well, as I see it, it is what we sometimes refer to as Truth. But what is Truth? Is it not reality? Life? I think so. It's certainly not some supposed supernatural principle, person, 'thing,' or being---other than the 'Be-ing-ness,' that is, livingness, of life itself.

Now, how can life or reality be said to be hidden or not obvious? Is not life in evidence all about us? Of course. However, when we fail to see it as it really is, which is more often the case than not, life is indeed concealed from us---or rather we conceal ourselves from the unfolding flow and influx of life. 

Here's another problem, which only aggravates the situation. We tend to look for Truth in the 'wrong' sorts of places---for example, in churches, synagogues, temples, mosques and self-help groups, and on psychiatrists' couches (although they all have their place). In one sense, Truth is everywhere, so it exists in the places just mentioned and elsewhere as well. The trouble is we think we need to believe this teaching or that teaching, or follow this guru or that guru, or accept this person or some other one as our personal savior. That’s when we go horribly astray, because Truth is not to be found in someone else---not even if that someone else be a supposed deity or messiah.

Here's another shocker. I have come to realize that our conscious, rational, thinking mind, important though it is for problem-solving and the like, cannot directly lead us to Truth. Why might that be the case? Well, when we are thinking, analyzing, and judging we are no longer in direct and immediate contact with life as it unfolds from one moment to the next. I have often spoken of that.

Now, I have problems with the notion of there being different levels of orders or reality. In fact, I am more than comfortably satisfied that there is only one order or level of reality, and all things exist on that one order or level of reality, and on the same plane of observability. However, even the ordinary, everyday things of life are not obvious or readily discernible when we are mindlessly unaware of them. Truth will remain a hidden secret for us until the person each one of us is learns---I am not talking about book-knowledge---to be mindfully aware of the action, both internal and external, of the present moment as it progressively unfolds from one moment to the next.

The author---off the coast of Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii, USA. 1987.

There is another Hawaiian word manawa which means time, turn, and season. It can also mean a space between two events---and that could even be the 'space' between one's inbreath and outbreath, or between one heartbeat and the next. That space is nothing other than the now, including that now which is known as the ‘Eternal Now.’ If we want to experience life, truth, reality in all its directness and immediacy---and uninterrupted and unmediated by any intermediaries---we must find it now, that is, in the context and flow of manawa. Why? Because everything---and I mean everything---is contained within ‘the Now.’ All duration---or time, as well as season---is total and complete in the Now. There is an enduring, even ‘eternal,’ quality about the Now. Why? Because it is forever new. The present moment has its unfolding in the Now. The only ‘time’---now, in a very profound sense what I am talking about is beyond time---we have is this ever-so-brief and ephemeral, and ever-changing and 'reincarnating,' present moment. We can only experience life from one moment to the next---in and through the portal of the Now.

Truth is indeed concealed from us until we learn to live and act mindfully. Truth can only be found, that is, experienced and known, 'in' the Eternal Now, that is, in the actual living of life, from one moment to the next, with choiceless awareness of what is. And that particular truth (that is, cosmic principle) is not a hidden secret even though it is not all that widely known. That’s why I am telling you about it. But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself. Experience it for yourself.