THE ONLY WAY IS FROM MOMENT TO MOMENT

‘Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become

that Path itself.’ H P Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence.

Most religions talk about a ‘path’ or a ‘way’. One religion even quotes its purported founder as allegedly saying, ‘I am the way …’ (Jn 14:6). Whether the man in question actually uttered those much-quoted words, and what the words actually mean—for they are certainly capable of more than one interpretation---is a matter of debate and conjecture.

I am here to tell you, as I’ve often done before, that there is no ‘path’ or ‘way’. So stop looking for one, or believing that you have found it in this person or that person, no matter how great that person may be.

‘Truth’---that is, reality or life---‘is a pathless land,’ said J. Krishnamurti [pictured right], ‘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. In truth, there is no such separation or distance.

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 who died last year, had to say about the matter: 'There is no way until our feet have trod it.' What wise words!

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. Each of us 'makes' our own path through life, dependent upon the steps we take and the choices we make--and it all happens moment by moment. 

However, in a very profound sense your path and my path are one and the same, for each of them is life unfolding itself from one moment to the next. That, after all, is what life is---livingness, be-ing-ness, unfolding and manifesting itself from one moment to next, ever changing shape and form but forever remaining essentially one and the same in essence and truth.

Bodhidharma [pictured left] was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. In the 13th century, Chan Buddhism spread to Japan, where it became known as Zen. He was a very wise man, and I have derived much benefit from reading about his spiritual teachings and practices. 

Listen to these wonderful words from Bodhidharma:

When mortals are alive, they worry about death.
When they're full, they worry about hunger.
Theirs is the Great Uncertainty.
But sages don't consider the past,
And they don't worry about the future,
Nor do they cling to the present.
And from moment to moment they follow the Way.

There you have it. The truly wise person does not fret about or regret the past nor worry about the future. Why? Because they are so immersed in the present—the eternal now—that they simply have no time to engage in such fruitless and harmful activities. And even though they are immersed in the present, they do not cling to the present. They live in the eternal now, from one moment to the next. In other words, they live mindfully. And in so living they come to know a peace that passes all understanding, and they come to experience a power that makes all things new. They are one with all that is, and they come to know and experience that oneness as their true be-ing (‘I am-ness’).

The only path or way is life renewing itself from one moment to the next. You ‘follow’ that path by living mindfully, that is, with choiceless, non-judgmental awareness of whatever unfolds as your life experience moment by moment.

When you come to live that way, you too can truly say, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.'

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BLOW OUT THAT CANDLE OF YOURS

‘A light to oneself! And this light cannot be given by another, nor can you light it at the candle of another. If you light it at the candle of another it is just a candle, it can be blown out. But whereas if we could find out what it means to be a light to oneself then that very investigation of it is partly meditation.’ – J. Krishnamurti.

Tokusan, a scholar of Buddhism of some renown, was studying Zen under the teacher Ryutan. One night he came to Ryutan and asked many questions. The teacher said: ‘The night is getting old. Why don't you retire?’

So Tokusan bowed and opened the screen to go out, observing: ‘It is very dark outside.’

Ryutan offered Tokusan a lighted candle to find his way. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew the candle out. At that exact moment the mind of Tokusan was opened. In other words, he experienced enlightenment. That is, he woke up, and for the very first time he saw things as they really are. He came to know truth.

Tokusan knew much. He had studied long and hard. Yet, in that ever-so-brief moment of enlightenment in the form of a direct, immediate and intuitive experience of truth, Tokusan came to see that everything that he had learned in books and by listening to others had done him no good at all. 

It is said that the next day Tokusan burned all his books, scholarly notes and commentaries. He declared, ‘In comparison to this awareness, all the most profound teachings are like a single hair in vast space. However deep the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water in the ocean.’

Tokusan realized his mistake. He had been seeking wisdom ‘without’ instead of ‘within.’

We need no candle or lamp to guide our path except that inner light that says to us, if we will but listen attentively and quietly, ‘This is the way … .’ 

The 'way' is the way things actually are, the way things unfold from one moment to the next. That is truth, also known as reality, also known as life. It is something to be perceived ... from moment to moment. It is not something to be attained or provided by some third person however meritorious he or she may be. Our task is simply to observe with choiceless, silent, and timeless awareness, that is, to 'stay awake' at all times. We rely far too much on the advice and supposed wisdom or knowledge of others, and on so-called ‘book knowledge.’ We buy self-help books and attend self-improvement courses, we consult gurus and priests, and we follow ‘holy ones’ or just plain others, but we fail to do the one thing---the only thing---that can lead us through and out of the darkness. Yes, we fail to … look within.

One of the many things I like about Buddhism is that its essential ‘message’ is that we must be our own teacher, saviour, and disciple. No one outside of us can save us from ourselves. No one can find truth for us. No one---no earthly person, god, or demi-god---can be truth for us. Truth just is, and our task is to see things as they really are as they unfold unceasingly from one moment to the next. That is why truth is dynamic and not static. It is forever new and fresh. There is no 'way' or 'path' to truth, because truth just is, and it's all around us and within us. 

That is why truth can never be set in concrete in the form of creeds, articles and confessions of faith, formulae, ideologies, and other such nonsense (although many have done just that). All such things are fabrications of fragmented thought, that is, conditioning, which is the past. At best, they are only purported representations of truth, and many aren't even that good. J. Krishnamurti [pictured right], who sought no disciples or followers, expressed it this way:

I cannot lead you to truth, nor can anyone else; you have to discover it every moment of the day as you are living. It is to be found when you are walking in the street or riding in a tramcar, when you are quarreling with your wife or husband, when you are sitting alone or looking at the stars. When you know what is right meditation, then you will find out what is true; but a mind that is prepared, so-called educated, that is conditioned to believe or not to believe … such a mind will never discover what is true, though it may search for a thousand years.

The timeless light of awareness shines from within, so let that light shine. Do not depend upon any light shining from without to guide you through life. As the Buddha said, 'Be a light unto yourself.'

So, blow out that candle of yours---now!

MINDFULNESS IS A PATHLESS LAND

For much of my life I have fought an inner – and at times also an outer – battle of sorts as regards my attitude to, and participation in, religious bodies and organizations. To some extent, the battle is an ongoing one. It is this – should I, or should I not, involve myself in institutional religion? Part of me sees value in participating in the activities of organized religion and part of me doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.

Regular readers of my blogs and some of my other writings (eg this address here) would be aware that the teachings of Krishnamurti (pictured left) have had, and continue to have, a great impact upon my life and my thinking, and it was Krishnamurti who, in an historic and oft-quoted speech delivered at Ommen, Holland on 3 August 1929 proclaimed that religious organizations cannot lead us to Truth.

This is just a small part of what Krishnamurti had to say on that day:

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.

The statement, ‘Truth is a pathless land,’ has always troubled me. What does it mean? If there is ‘land,’ it must surely be possible for there to be, or to create, one or more paths over that land. Of course, it always occurred to me that Krishnamurti was speaking metaphorically, but what did he actually mean? Well, it was only recently that I read what follows:

Truth is perfect and complete in itself. It is not something newly discovered; it has always existed.

Truth is not far away; it is ever present. It is not something to be attained since not one of your steps leads away from it.

The great Zen master Dōgen (pictured right) wrote those lines. Reading them was an epiphany for me. It is quite likely that I had read them before, but reading them recently was a real ‘awakening’ for me. Truth is ‘not far away’ but ‘ever present.’ Further, it is ‘not something to be attained’ because  ... yes, you are Truth in the sense that Life is Truth, and you are an integral part of Life’s Self-expression or Interbeing. Life cannot other than be. You cannot be less than life. Never.

That’s it. There is no path. There is no need for a path. There is nowhere to 'go.' You are already 'there.' That is why some Buddhists speak of the ‘ever-present Buddha Nature,' the ‘ever-present Buddha Mind,’ and the 'Ever-Present Buddha.' That is why some progressive and esoteric Christians speak of the 'Cosmic Christ,' the 'Mystic Christ,' and the 'Living [or Master] Christ' (as opposed to the historical Jesus). The words don’t matter a damn. What is being described, among other things, is a state of being in which there is an emptiness of what has been referred to as ‘self-nature.’ We move from a ‘sense of self’ to a ‘sense of Being’ ...and even to a sense of Non-Being, difficult though that may be to understand. Indeed, it is incapable of being understood or described in a rational sense ... but it can be experienced. How? Well, by the regular practice of mindfulness. That's one way.

Mindfulness involves the choiceless awareness of what is ... from one moment to the next. Mindfulness is a conscious participation in the livingness of life in the recognition that Life is manifesting itself at all times in you ... and as you.

Now, having said all that, is there any place at all for organized religion? In my view, yes. If Truth is everywhere present – and even Krishnamurti acknowledged that – then it must be capable of being ‘experienced’ (if that be the right word, and I suspect it isn’t) in religious organizations and the like. You cannot be less than Life or Truth ... wherever you are or go. Further, participating in the rites, ceremonies and rituals of organized religion can be quite transformative if one approaches it in the right frame of mind.

However, we need to be very careful here, because it seems inherent in the nature of organized religion – or perhaps in those who occupy positions of religious authority and power – for there to be a tendency to assert that Truth lies outside of us when, as I see it, we are the embodiment of Truth.

I know what I am now going to say is heresy to conservative Bible-believing Christians, but I don’t care. I am proud to be a heretic, and I don’t mind being called one. You see, the word ‘heretic’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘one who chooses.’ I choose to be different. I choose to affirm what, in good conscience, I see as the true position in relation to any matter. As I see it, Jesus was a heretic as well, which is one of the reasons people rose up against him. Now, Jesus’ purported utterance, ‘I and the Father are one’ (Jn 10:30) [TNIV], is not an expression of his being, or claiming to be, God or the Son of God in a unique or exclusive sense. No, that is not how I see it. To me, Jesus is saying, in effect, ‘I am one with life itself – the very ground of being. There is no separation between the person that I am and the source and fountainhead of life itself. Not one of my steps leads away from life, which is truth.’

The difference between Jesus and most of us is that he was fully and mindfully aware of his true spiritual identity – at all times and in all places. For the most part, we live and act mindlessly ... and are thus only half-alive at best.

Mindfulness is a state of ‘at-one-ment’ with Truth ... that is, with all that is. Mindfulness is a 'pathless land.'

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