The Essential Truth
What is proposed here today, is a quick, final insightful end to all of the search, all of the doubts, and an end to all the crawling to this system and that teacher.
We’ll go after misunderstanding at its very root, and free the reader in a single, ultimate insight that will erase internal conflict and the endless searching at their core. It will demonstrate the untruth of almost every system in existence.
Let’s begin with a fundamental truth, that is obvious but so often overlooked and it is this: spiritual teachers in the past have been dead wrong and have misled seekers through the millennia and they continue to do so today. Following them, merely because one “feels” that their teaching is correct for them is a recipe for disaster and an almost guaranteed assurance to miss Truth.
I know that is a strong statement – it is difficult for the average person to come to grips with the fact that so many sincere people in the field of religion can be so dead wrong – but so it is.
Why do I say that all the teachers have been and are wrong? It is simple. They say different things about what the Truth is. Truth cannot be this and that at the same time. It is only one way. Reality has specific attributes. It is not a mishmash of fact and non-fact. A table is not a chair, motion in one direction is not in the other direction. Reality is What It Is – Existence is What It Is (sometimes called the law of Identity) – and the only possible goal in the field of philosophy and religion is to see Reality as It Is.
Once apprehended clearly and completely, that is it – that is ALL there is to do. Having understood Fact, conflict in the deepest sense ends. Living within reality becomes much more seamless and effortless. True conviction, certainty, and peace fill the void once searching, doubt, and confusion cease.
Obviously, there is no place for belief in religion. Religion is an investigation into the Truth – seeing and understanding Reality exactly as it is. There is no belief regarding whether or not this a table is in front of you – observe it and understand it attributes. Belief is only a mental picture of reality not backed by observation and reason and then this picture is pasted onto reality. It is like putting on blindfolds and attempting to see accurately.
There is really no path to Truth, no way to approach it, and it does not exist in some mystical place or state. It is here, it is Now, it is This. It is all around, nothing is apart from it. Even the body and the present thoughts inquiring into this issue are part of the movement of this Now. One merely has to see it and rightly apprehend it.
Likewise, the classic guru-student relationship has no place. I repudiate such relationships. They are fundamentally corrupt – when they are built upon the idea that the guru has some special power to transmit supramundane knowledge. The guru concept of Hinduism is dangerous.
Why dangerous? They can lead to a parasitic, parent/child relationship that is wholly counterproductive to understanding and human growth. What one needs to discover Truth is internal fire, internal self-reliance, being a lamp unto yourself. There is no other way. The days of begging on one’s mental knees in from of some teacher who allegedly knows Truth must end. Stand up boldly, and open your eyes to Reality and see It for yourself. No one can see It for you, nor transmit it to you.
Yes, there are guides so to speak in one’s spiritual understanding, but the proper relationship is one similar to a respected professor in a university. An astronomy professor will gently point out the truths of the universe and its laws, carefully demonstrating the validity of the theories, and encourages the student to review them and understand them for himself. Eventually, when he assimilates all the professor has to reveal, the teacher has no real value to him other than a warm, caring friend.
One can see similarities between what I have to say and Theravada Buddhism. These similarities are arbitrary. The spiritual texts are useful for study, to examine what the authors apprehended correctly and incorrectly, but other than that they can be disposed of. Just like my words now. Don’t accept a thing I’m saying on authority. Examine every premise, follow all reasoning. Question everything boldly and see the truth or the falseness of it for yourself.
Man’s inner mess is created by thought and therein (and therein only) will be its solution. (This is similar to Buddha’s doctrine – stating that man is wholly comprised of the five aggregates, therefore the understanding of dukkha can come from dukkha only, e.g. thought).
So, what is the main fundamental reason for all of this dislocation in man? It is ignorance, false views, a wrong apprehension of Reality.
This is the main problem throughout religious and philosophic history. What is that? It is the search for Truth, this endless seeking, without first understanding the nature of the seeker.
Let’s state that again. One cannot understand Truth without first understanding the seeker. Why is that?
This is where it gets subtle, not difficult, just subtle. This is why so few people in human history have come upon this point. Please follow carefully.
Look at what is occurring when one “seeks” Truth, which is what almost all spiritual people do. It seems self evident. Now listen closely as we approximate where each spiritual seeker starts. This is critical. They say, “OK. I exist. I am separate from the rest of Existence. I must understand my relationship to it, and find my meaning within it.”
Note what is inherent in this feeling and question. “I exist. I am separate from the rest of existence”. THAT is wrong … dead wrong and we’ll see why.
Almost all religions, philosophies, and systems start off with this false assumption. When there are such enormous false assumptions in the building of theories, the rest of what one concludes has to continue to be an avalanche of errors. And this is exactly what we see in almost all of the spiritual systems in existence.
Not only must they be in error, but in their attempts to explain their consequent wrong theories, there have to be attempts to explain increasingly elaborate ideas to patch up these wrong theories – and what one ends up with are extremely complex philosophical systems that volumes sometimes have to be written to explain them.
Haven’t’ you ever looked at theories in physics? Physics boils down to a few elegant, simple theories. Nature is simple, philosophy should be simple.
There is the Principle of Parsimony or Occam’s Razor – the simplest theories should be examined first.
In doing so, we can, in a single swipe, eliminate the need to study 99.99% of all systems out there … and thereby end this endless doubt, this endless crawling of the average seeker … examining this system and that system … getting more and more deeply mired in the confusion.
Man’s inner workings can all be boiled down to mental processes. The deeper drives like the urges for air, water, food, and sex. Also, there are the emotions, and finally thought. All psychological phenomena inside us is one or a combination of these. Try as you might, you will find nothing else. (Even the high mystical states often purported and sought after have their source in these. This will come as a blow to many seekers, but this is observable.)
In particular, in this understanding first of the seeker, we will focus on the thought process. We will define thought (for purposes here) as the response of memory. The contact of objects with the senses create a mental impression in the brain, e.g. a memory. Later, the memory comes to consciousness – which we’ll define as thought.
Of course thought can become very complex with the combinations of memories. The field of thought is responsible for the simplex memory of an apple, to the lofty theories of physics.
Now, getting back to our inquiry at hand. If one observes closely, one will see that this inner I is only one more mental picture. Its substance is in memory. One is not aware of I until one thinks “I”. It is not like the table in front of you. Don’t think of it, it is still observable as an objective phenomenon. Don’t think of the “I”, and it is gone. It is like the unicorn. It has existence only in the fantasy of thought, and does not exist apart from the illusory thought of it.
What I am saying in a nutshell is this, and this is the whole of philosophy. Existence exists. There is no inner I … yes of course a body-brain complex, but no inner I. The inner mental process of thought, gives rise to the illusion of I. However, the thought process is only one more mechanical process exuding from the brain as lightning flashes from a cloud. There is no personal or ego process in it.
At first, this looks like a gloomy fact that man is reduced to biochemical processes alone. But no, my friend, that is not the case. Let’s examine more deeply.
Let’s use the analogy of the ocean. This great, solitary Universe (Existence itself) is restless and moving, and this (pointing to the body) is a wave on this ocean of Existence. At the beach, we see waves on the ocean, each one different from the other, each seemingly with its own life and existence apart from the vast ocean upon which it is riding. But are those waves separate from the ocean? Or … and here is the point … are they the OCEAN waving? And aren’t those waves actually activities of the ocean itself?
Likewise, in the absolute and most important sense, you are not a separate entity from Existence. In total fact, you are Existence “John-ing” or “Jane-ing”. Today this part of Existence is in the form of your body and brain. After your death, the body-brain will dissolve and become other things. This is the endless change of Existence … and use the capital “E” – moving in its endless dance. Go ahead and even use the word Absolute. Existence … this (pointing around), is the Absolute.
We must see the illusory belief in the “I” and we must also see the true relationship of the individual with the rest of existence. When all of this is seen accurately for what it is, the struggle is over, and a great peace overtakes you. All questions are solved. To understand the source of the problem is to be free of it.
Friend, it is like all your life believing in Santa Claus … and almost all religious / philosophic systems believe in the Santa Claus of the “I”. Look what happens when one accepts the premise of Santa. One is left with a myriad of things to explain. How can he visit all homes in a single night, why haven’t we seen his home at the North Pole, where did he come from, etc, etc. All absurd questions once one sees that there is no Santa. All the volumes of ideas of where he came from, is negated.
When one wrongly assumes “I exist” the avalanche of questions (that can’t be answered because the assumption is wrong) tumble forth. What is the real nature of I? Is there a personal god. Am I eternal? How did this illusion start? What am I to do to find meaning and oneness with existence? Why do I exist? And on and on and on. These are all nonsense questions. In one swipe … seeing the falseness of the I … the primal, original false assumption and all the corresponding agonizing search for meaning is gone.
Existence exists. There is nothing else. It just is. And that is it.
And incidentally, when one properly sees the truth of any matter, there cannot be one contradiction with observable facts. Not one. And testing this theory from every angle reveals no contradictions, and it is the simplest, most elegant theory explaining man’s relation to existence. It meets the protocol of Occam’s Razor.
Nondualist ideas are easy to parrot, and some teachers do in this day and age. It is easy to say, “All is One. You are the Absolute.” But that is all nonsense, until one sees the true arising of the “I” and cuts it at its core. Otherwise, obviously, it is one more activity of the I, pretending it to be the Absolute. It is dualistic thinking, and still the trap. It is no more significant that the worshipping, dualistically, of a personal god. When all of this is rightly apprehended, there is only great, sacred silence -- not the thought, “I am All”.
Once again, the fundamental point is to understand that the I is thought, and your very thought now about all of this -- as are all of your thoughts -- is just one more impersonal activity of the universe. Until one deeply understands this point, gets it deeply in the gut, this illusion will never be swept away … because the fundamental feeling of I will never be seen for what it is. One will continue to “feel” a difference between “me” and the rest of the universe.
There are various meditations to test and unravel the truth of this no-I-ness. It is vital to reflect upon these in the next weeks, and to deeply grasp their import. Let’s just briefly go over a few now.
If this No-I theory is correct -- and it is -- this destroys, negates, all dualistic systems. That was my promise to you in the beginning. Eliminating in a single blow, almost all religious systems that exist and have ever existed.
So how does one live after this realization. Interesting question, isn’t it? Logically, when thought sees that there is no I apart from Existence, there is nothing to do. Who is there to do anything? There is no reason to renounce, no reason to worship, no reason to search. There is just this stark fact of Existence, of What Is. The whole concept of meaning is negated, and one is left with this “Is-ness”, this Sacred Wholeness.
Since there is no inner governor, the only normal course of action is to let the body-brain do what it’s natural conditionings incline it to do. (Of course while not infringing upon the rights of others. That is in the realm of political philosophy – very important for all to understand, but beyond the scope of our discussion here now.) Again, thought understands it might as well follow its natural conditioning … of letting the “natural man” be. To eat when hungry, enjoy the outdoors, take pleasure in the company of friends, sleep when tired. To joyfully create, to find employment in something which gives a natural delight.
Now, with the first understanding of this concept of no-I, there is a natural aversion to it. A new listener might recoil at the thought of the I not even existing … like suddenly finding oneself obliviated and dead. This is a very curious thing to look into.
Most spiritual seekers, at least those interested in Eastern ideas, have the goal of eventually obtaining one-ness with the Absolute. At least this is what they genuinely think they want. They want there to be that final Absolute, Brahman, the Source, the Movement. And they want to be merge into, and be That. Do they really though?
The reason one recoils at the idea of no-I is because they in fact don’t want there to be all One-ness. This no-I outlook is really the only viable answer to the nondualist question. It is the only one in which there is not, and never was, a division between “me” and the rest of existence … and there never was any division. Yet, the average seeker is horrified. Why?
Because, if they observe deeply, their selves that they believe to be real do not wish to perish and be found out to be unreal. When they say they want to “merge in the Absolute”, what they really want is a mental state of beauty, grandeur, etc. in their imagined relationship to some grand, vast Absolute … which in their imagination is often personified. All of this is nonsense. It is raked in duality and is obviously more of the relative.
There should not be any regret for the loss of something which never existed. This point cannot be overstated.
IF thought wishes to play with this idea a bit, to objectify this Absolute a bit (which is always dangerous, but let’s pretend awhile), what is the logical outcome of all that we have together here discussed?
Let’s go back to the ocean analogy. The wave has all its existence thought itself to be separate from the ocean, struggling for its survival, feeling like the rest of the ocean is hostile. Then it eventually realizes that it is only the ocean waving. Suddenly it realizes it isn’t this puny little wave, but rather the ocean itself! And all the other waves are its own Substance and this whole game was only a misconception on its own behalf. That wave was never just a little wave, it was Everything that ever existed, or ever will. Eternal, Solitary, the Source of All, the Sacred.
Or, this realization of no-I is like one day, knocking down the walls of your own home. Do you find yourself homeless? No, not at all. You find, amazingly, that now with no walls, the whole world has suddenly become your home.
Friend, there never was a problem, there never was separation. All of that has been produced by wrong conclusions borne from within your own brains. By contemplating and meditating upon these issues, all of this can eventually become clear, and your days will be filled with peace. There is no other way to “enlightenment” or Nirvana. All else is part of the great trap.
There never was, nor can there ever be, anything but the Eternal Dance of this One Solitary System known as Existence.
We’ll go after misunderstanding at its very root, and free the reader in a single, ultimate insight that will erase internal conflict and the endless searching at their core. It will demonstrate the untruth of almost every system in existence.
Let’s begin with a fundamental truth, that is obvious but so often overlooked and it is this: spiritual teachers in the past have been dead wrong and have misled seekers through the millennia and they continue to do so today. Following them, merely because one “feels” that their teaching is correct for them is a recipe for disaster and an almost guaranteed assurance to miss Truth.
I know that is a strong statement – it is difficult for the average person to come to grips with the fact that so many sincere people in the field of religion can be so dead wrong – but so it is.
Why do I say that all the teachers have been and are wrong? It is simple. They say different things about what the Truth is. Truth cannot be this and that at the same time. It is only one way. Reality has specific attributes. It is not a mishmash of fact and non-fact. A table is not a chair, motion in one direction is not in the other direction. Reality is What It Is – Existence is What It Is (sometimes called the law of Identity) – and the only possible goal in the field of philosophy and religion is to see Reality as It Is.
Once apprehended clearly and completely, that is it – that is ALL there is to do. Having understood Fact, conflict in the deepest sense ends. Living within reality becomes much more seamless and effortless. True conviction, certainty, and peace fill the void once searching, doubt, and confusion cease.
Obviously, there is no place for belief in religion. Religion is an investigation into the Truth – seeing and understanding Reality exactly as it is. There is no belief regarding whether or not this a table is in front of you – observe it and understand it attributes. Belief is only a mental picture of reality not backed by observation and reason and then this picture is pasted onto reality. It is like putting on blindfolds and attempting to see accurately.
There is really no path to Truth, no way to approach it, and it does not exist in some mystical place or state. It is here, it is Now, it is This. It is all around, nothing is apart from it. Even the body and the present thoughts inquiring into this issue are part of the movement of this Now. One merely has to see it and rightly apprehend it.
Likewise, the classic guru-student relationship has no place. I repudiate such relationships. They are fundamentally corrupt – when they are built upon the idea that the guru has some special power to transmit supramundane knowledge. The guru concept of Hinduism is dangerous.
Why dangerous? They can lead to a parasitic, parent/child relationship that is wholly counterproductive to understanding and human growth. What one needs to discover Truth is internal fire, internal self-reliance, being a lamp unto yourself. There is no other way. The days of begging on one’s mental knees in from of some teacher who allegedly knows Truth must end. Stand up boldly, and open your eyes to Reality and see It for yourself. No one can see It for you, nor transmit it to you.
Yes, there are guides so to speak in one’s spiritual understanding, but the proper relationship is one similar to a respected professor in a university. An astronomy professor will gently point out the truths of the universe and its laws, carefully demonstrating the validity of the theories, and encourages the student to review them and understand them for himself. Eventually, when he assimilates all the professor has to reveal, the teacher has no real value to him other than a warm, caring friend.
One can see similarities between what I have to say and Theravada Buddhism. These similarities are arbitrary. The spiritual texts are useful for study, to examine what the authors apprehended correctly and incorrectly, but other than that they can be disposed of. Just like my words now. Don’t accept a thing I’m saying on authority. Examine every premise, follow all reasoning. Question everything boldly and see the truth or the falseness of it for yourself.
Man’s inner mess is created by thought and therein (and therein only) will be its solution. (This is similar to Buddha’s doctrine – stating that man is wholly comprised of the five aggregates, therefore the understanding of dukkha can come from dukkha only, e.g. thought).
So, what is the main fundamental reason for all of this dislocation in man? It is ignorance, false views, a wrong apprehension of Reality.
This is the main problem throughout religious and philosophic history. What is that? It is the search for Truth, this endless seeking, without first understanding the nature of the seeker.
Let’s state that again. One cannot understand Truth without first understanding the seeker. Why is that?
This is where it gets subtle, not difficult, just subtle. This is why so few people in human history have come upon this point. Please follow carefully.
Look at what is occurring when one “seeks” Truth, which is what almost all spiritual people do. It seems self evident. Now listen closely as we approximate where each spiritual seeker starts. This is critical. They say, “OK. I exist. I am separate from the rest of Existence. I must understand my relationship to it, and find my meaning within it.”
Note what is inherent in this feeling and question. “I exist. I am separate from the rest of existence”. THAT is wrong … dead wrong and we’ll see why.
Almost all religions, philosophies, and systems start off with this false assumption. When there are such enormous false assumptions in the building of theories, the rest of what one concludes has to continue to be an avalanche of errors. And this is exactly what we see in almost all of the spiritual systems in existence.
Not only must they be in error, but in their attempts to explain their consequent wrong theories, there have to be attempts to explain increasingly elaborate ideas to patch up these wrong theories – and what one ends up with are extremely complex philosophical systems that volumes sometimes have to be written to explain them.
Haven’t’ you ever looked at theories in physics? Physics boils down to a few elegant, simple theories. Nature is simple, philosophy should be simple.
There is the Principle of Parsimony or Occam’s Razor – the simplest theories should be examined first.
In doing so, we can, in a single swipe, eliminate the need to study 99.99% of all systems out there … and thereby end this endless doubt, this endless crawling of the average seeker … examining this system and that system … getting more and more deeply mired in the confusion.
Man’s inner workings can all be boiled down to mental processes. The deeper drives like the urges for air, water, food, and sex. Also, there are the emotions, and finally thought. All psychological phenomena inside us is one or a combination of these. Try as you might, you will find nothing else. (Even the high mystical states often purported and sought after have their source in these. This will come as a blow to many seekers, but this is observable.)
In particular, in this understanding first of the seeker, we will focus on the thought process. We will define thought (for purposes here) as the response of memory. The contact of objects with the senses create a mental impression in the brain, e.g. a memory. Later, the memory comes to consciousness – which we’ll define as thought.
Of course thought can become very complex with the combinations of memories. The field of thought is responsible for the simplex memory of an apple, to the lofty theories of physics.
Now, getting back to our inquiry at hand. If one observes closely, one will see that this inner I is only one more mental picture. Its substance is in memory. One is not aware of I until one thinks “I”. It is not like the table in front of you. Don’t think of it, it is still observable as an objective phenomenon. Don’t think of the “I”, and it is gone. It is like the unicorn. It has existence only in the fantasy of thought, and does not exist apart from the illusory thought of it.
What I am saying in a nutshell is this, and this is the whole of philosophy. Existence exists. There is no inner I … yes of course a body-brain complex, but no inner I. The inner mental process of thought, gives rise to the illusion of I. However, the thought process is only one more mechanical process exuding from the brain as lightning flashes from a cloud. There is no personal or ego process in it.
At first, this looks like a gloomy fact that man is reduced to biochemical processes alone. But no, my friend, that is not the case. Let’s examine more deeply.
Let’s use the analogy of the ocean. This great, solitary Universe (Existence itself) is restless and moving, and this (pointing to the body) is a wave on this ocean of Existence. At the beach, we see waves on the ocean, each one different from the other, each seemingly with its own life and existence apart from the vast ocean upon which it is riding. But are those waves separate from the ocean? Or … and here is the point … are they the OCEAN waving? And aren’t those waves actually activities of the ocean itself?
Likewise, in the absolute and most important sense, you are not a separate entity from Existence. In total fact, you are Existence “John-ing” or “Jane-ing”. Today this part of Existence is in the form of your body and brain. After your death, the body-brain will dissolve and become other things. This is the endless change of Existence … and use the capital “E” – moving in its endless dance. Go ahead and even use the word Absolute. Existence … this (pointing around), is the Absolute.
We must see the illusory belief in the “I” and we must also see the true relationship of the individual with the rest of existence. When all of this is seen accurately for what it is, the struggle is over, and a great peace overtakes you. All questions are solved. To understand the source of the problem is to be free of it.
Friend, it is like all your life believing in Santa Claus … and almost all religious / philosophic systems believe in the Santa Claus of the “I”. Look what happens when one accepts the premise of Santa. One is left with a myriad of things to explain. How can he visit all homes in a single night, why haven’t we seen his home at the North Pole, where did he come from, etc, etc. All absurd questions once one sees that there is no Santa. All the volumes of ideas of where he came from, is negated.
When one wrongly assumes “I exist” the avalanche of questions (that can’t be answered because the assumption is wrong) tumble forth. What is the real nature of I? Is there a personal god. Am I eternal? How did this illusion start? What am I to do to find meaning and oneness with existence? Why do I exist? And on and on and on. These are all nonsense questions. In one swipe … seeing the falseness of the I … the primal, original false assumption and all the corresponding agonizing search for meaning is gone.
Existence exists. There is nothing else. It just is. And that is it.
And incidentally, when one properly sees the truth of any matter, there cannot be one contradiction with observable facts. Not one. And testing this theory from every angle reveals no contradictions, and it is the simplest, most elegant theory explaining man’s relation to existence. It meets the protocol of Occam’s Razor.
Nondualist ideas are easy to parrot, and some teachers do in this day and age. It is easy to say, “All is One. You are the Absolute.” But that is all nonsense, until one sees the true arising of the “I” and cuts it at its core. Otherwise, obviously, it is one more activity of the I, pretending it to be the Absolute. It is dualistic thinking, and still the trap. It is no more significant that the worshipping, dualistically, of a personal god. When all of this is rightly apprehended, there is only great, sacred silence -- not the thought, “I am All”.
Once again, the fundamental point is to understand that the I is thought, and your very thought now about all of this -- as are all of your thoughts -- is just one more impersonal activity of the universe. Until one deeply understands this point, gets it deeply in the gut, this illusion will never be swept away … because the fundamental feeling of I will never be seen for what it is. One will continue to “feel” a difference between “me” and the rest of the universe.
There are various meditations to test and unravel the truth of this no-I-ness. It is vital to reflect upon these in the next weeks, and to deeply grasp their import. Let’s just briefly go over a few now.
- Imagine oneself if one got amnesia, totally. Would your I be there anymore? The answer is no. Hence, this image of the I is in memory only. Not a separate entity apart from thought and the thinking process.
- Does a baby or an animal have an ego, a self? No. Why not? Their cerebral cortex is not developed enough to begin conceptualizing its own processes, which is necessary for the creation of the illusion of the I. They don’t have an I because they cannot think that deeply to invent it (within the thought process). Another demonstration that the I does not exist apart from thought. It has been rightly stated by a few philosophers, that the Thinker is only another thought.
- The deeply mentally challenged, who are on the level of the animals, have no semblance of ego.
- Thousands of times a day, your I disappears. When? When you don’t think about it. Note that I only exists when you think “I”. When involved in work, or absorbed in play, the I is absent … SIMPLY because you aren’t conceptualizing “I”. As a matter of fact, if you never thought “I” again for the rest of your life, you’d never sense it again. I is an image, in memory. When not thought about, it isn’t “there”. It is not an objective reality. Your arm is an objective reality. Don’t think about it, and it is still observable by the senses.
If this No-I theory is correct -- and it is -- this destroys, negates, all dualistic systems. That was my promise to you in the beginning. Eliminating in a single blow, almost all religious systems that exist and have ever existed.
So how does one live after this realization. Interesting question, isn’t it? Logically, when thought sees that there is no I apart from Existence, there is nothing to do. Who is there to do anything? There is no reason to renounce, no reason to worship, no reason to search. There is just this stark fact of Existence, of What Is. The whole concept of meaning is negated, and one is left with this “Is-ness”, this Sacred Wholeness.
Since there is no inner governor, the only normal course of action is to let the body-brain do what it’s natural conditionings incline it to do. (Of course while not infringing upon the rights of others. That is in the realm of political philosophy – very important for all to understand, but beyond the scope of our discussion here now.) Again, thought understands it might as well follow its natural conditioning … of letting the “natural man” be. To eat when hungry, enjoy the outdoors, take pleasure in the company of friends, sleep when tired. To joyfully create, to find employment in something which gives a natural delight.
Now, with the first understanding of this concept of no-I, there is a natural aversion to it. A new listener might recoil at the thought of the I not even existing … like suddenly finding oneself obliviated and dead. This is a very curious thing to look into.
Most spiritual seekers, at least those interested in Eastern ideas, have the goal of eventually obtaining one-ness with the Absolute. At least this is what they genuinely think they want. They want there to be that final Absolute, Brahman, the Source, the Movement. And they want to be merge into, and be That. Do they really though?
The reason one recoils at the idea of no-I is because they in fact don’t want there to be all One-ness. This no-I outlook is really the only viable answer to the nondualist question. It is the only one in which there is not, and never was, a division between “me” and the rest of existence … and there never was any division. Yet, the average seeker is horrified. Why?
Because, if they observe deeply, their selves that they believe to be real do not wish to perish and be found out to be unreal. When they say they want to “merge in the Absolute”, what they really want is a mental state of beauty, grandeur, etc. in their imagined relationship to some grand, vast Absolute … which in their imagination is often personified. All of this is nonsense. It is raked in duality and is obviously more of the relative.
There should not be any regret for the loss of something which never existed. This point cannot be overstated.
IF thought wishes to play with this idea a bit, to objectify this Absolute a bit (which is always dangerous, but let’s pretend awhile), what is the logical outcome of all that we have together here discussed?
Let’s go back to the ocean analogy. The wave has all its existence thought itself to be separate from the ocean, struggling for its survival, feeling like the rest of the ocean is hostile. Then it eventually realizes that it is only the ocean waving. Suddenly it realizes it isn’t this puny little wave, but rather the ocean itself! And all the other waves are its own Substance and this whole game was only a misconception on its own behalf. That wave was never just a little wave, it was Everything that ever existed, or ever will. Eternal, Solitary, the Source of All, the Sacred.
Or, this realization of no-I is like one day, knocking down the walls of your own home. Do you find yourself homeless? No, not at all. You find, amazingly, that now with no walls, the whole world has suddenly become your home.
Friend, there never was a problem, there never was separation. All of that has been produced by wrong conclusions borne from within your own brains. By contemplating and meditating upon these issues, all of this can eventually become clear, and your days will be filled with peace. There is no other way to “enlightenment” or Nirvana. All else is part of the great trap.
There never was, nor can there ever be, anything but the Eternal Dance of this One Solitary System known as Existence.