SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION

Religion  was useful to me --
It reminded me of myself as Spirit,
And there is more......

Religion is a successful attempt
To limit and control
An experience of awakening and freeing.

Spirituality opens
And possibilizes;
Religion closes
And limits.

The love of Godness is not a limited resource
To be withheld at whim
Or doled out by some priest.
The love of godness
Is what we already are,
Thinking that we need some system to hang onto.

FAITH & CERTAINTY

Absolute certainty is not an expression of faith --
It is a symptom of a lack of faith.
My father lived his entire life projecting an aura of iron-willed certainty -- about everything.
A few days before I last saw him, he had a near-death experience.
It shattered him.
I watched him dying in utter bewilderment and fear,
Drowning in his hitherto unacknowledged doubts.
It was terrible to behold.

The dictum "You can't take it with you"
Applies to righteous certainty.
The mind cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

The ultimate certainty,
The portal to heaven,
Is the Certainty of Not-Knowing.

MY HOLY TRINITY

A young friend of mine was ruminating introspectively for a moment yesterday, when she sighed "Life is so complicated."
That stuck in my mental craw. She looked at me with a little surprise. "What?" she inquired.
Looking at it, I replied, "Only when we make it so. It's actually also stunningly simple, once a few basic truths are realised."

Since I've written a whole book on basic things about life that we were never taught, I wondered this morning as I was waiting for my dirty washing to go through the laundrette -- "Can I get the simple basics down to three?" Here's what I came up with.... at least for this morning........

1. The human mind is dual: the universe isn't.
2. Nothing matters
3. There's no free lunch

 THE HUMAN MIND IS DUAL: THE UNIVERSE ISN'T.


Everything gets classified into opposing polarities of good/bad, better/worse, right/wrong... and we try to disown what we think may be "bad" for us. That's  where the trouble starts. Every saint has a sinner-inner, and vice versa. If we could get comfy with that in our selves, and stayed aware of it in others, we would be far grander and less vulnerable to nasty surprises than our protective "rightness" would have us to believe.

Everything has its opposites, and the trick is to find the point of balance., moment to moment.

NOTHING MATTERS

That;s how this all got started. Nothing wondered about itself, frequencies got lowered,  matter showed up and started organising itself into all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff.

If we could get that, outside of mind, nothing matters any more than anything else, we'd be a lot happier.

THERE'S NO FREE LUNCH

The law of Consequences. Everything we say and do has consequences. Everything we DON"T say or do has consequences. And if we get to thinking that we can manipulate the consequences, we're in for a big surprise.

But we'll go to our graves blaming "others".

And then we'll wake up.

THIS -- AS A DREAM

This place is a dream

only a sleeper considers it real

then death comes like a dawn

and you wake up laughing

at what you thought 

was your grief.

Mevlana Jelaludin Rumi

(1207 - 1273)

Trans: Coleman Banks

Life is a dream.

When I woke up to this awesome reality a few years ago

And the laughter subsided enough,

I thought I'd made the most astounding discovery since breathing.

Then I find today that this guy (Rumi) knew it 8 centuries ago!

Obviously the word has been slow getting out:

Mankind could have saved himself a few wars

And a truckload of suffering about suffering.
I guess the problem is that,
We can't simply read that "Life is a dream"
And file it away with yesterday's news;
Each and every one of us has to get it for himself.
That requires a certain level of commitment and surrender to possibility
That puts us still in an uncomfortable minority.

The experience of "getting it" is very much akin to the experience of waking up.

It's the surprise of the thing that catches you unawares.

When it happened to me
Nothing around me changed;

Nothing within me changed,

And yet nothing has been the same since that moment.

I real-ised I'd been poking around

In a half-seeing, energy depleting, anxious trance.

Perhaps just as surprising was to discover --

Thanks to Papaji --

That part of my inner awareness

That had always been wakeful enough

To know

And wait

For me to "get it."

All I had to do was wake up

And get out of the way with all I think I know

And allow real Knowing
From that nonjudgmental Awareness
To get through to me.

That process of getting out of my own way

Continues........

The dreaming continues,

But
With awareness;

That's the difference.

I am the dreamer, not the dream.

I am not my Self....

I am the watcher 

And the experiencer

Of my Self in full flight.

What a blessed relief!

And joy, too,

Except when I forget
And get caught asleep in the dream
Again

Sometimes
Until I re-member........

WHAT WE BECOME

Thanks to Ivan M. Grainger

A sapling seeks sunlight,

Reaching out for that golden touch.

Over time

The tree takes the form

Of its own seeking.

And

We become what we've been looking for.

If you think otherwise,

I have a question for you --

"How has your "otherwise" been working for you?"

No?

Then you may be kidding yourself.....

We have become what we've been putting out (for).

Ouch?

IDENTITY

It has been said
(By whom, I don't know, but it's too good to let pass by -----)

Identity starts
With an Opinion
Opposed.

Isn't that good?

Who-we-think-we-are
Is the result of a negative reaction
("I'm NOT that!")
To a limited idea about our self.

Watch teenagers;
They develop an identity for themselves
Less out of what they're for,
And more as a reaction to what they're against.
And there's plenty of that buzzing around at the time!
We all did the same.

Our contrary ideas --
The ones we attach to --
The ones we I-dentify with --
Are just as false and limited
And limiting
As the phony perceptions from which they arose.
But do we replace our ideas about ourselves,
Even when they no longer work for us?

Nope.

We hang onto our Identities for dear life.
We fight for them,
And will even die for them,
Or because of them.

Here's a bottom line....

• We can only live up to our self-image;
• Our self-image is limited;
• We live limited lives.

If you want more in your life,
Give up glaring at life,
Life is abundant..........
Look, instead, at your self image.
I mean, don't just glance at it;
Really look.
And get honest in your looking.

(You'll need a mirror or two, or three.....
You know the mirrors I mean.
Yes, those people around you,
Especially the ones you don't feel comfortable
Spending a lot of time with).
Mirrors reflect back to you
Things about you
That you cannot otherwise see.

It's ironic, isn't it? --
We spend endless hours wishing others were more like "Me",
When they actually are!
It's our self image, the way we "see" our self,
Our "Me", our Identity
That is out of whack.
Thank God the remedy is close at hand.

HEAVEN

You don't get into Heaven by following rules,
Or by breaking them....
Heaven is nothing
Like that.

ON TRUTH

When Jesus was up before Pontius Pilate on charges of sedition -- capital charges, by the way -- the subject of Truth came up.
Pilate, a very well educated and intelligent man, was intrigued;
"What is truth?" he asked.
I think he really wanted to know.
Jesus just held his gaze and remained silent.

That always struck me as odd.
For a man who, for three years, had such a lot to say,
This was his big moment.......
The scribes were paused, quills raised in quivering anticipation
To catch every nuance of every quotable note;
This was the moment;
This was holy scripture in the making!

[Had it happened today, the cameras would have been rolling, and the TV stations would have been taking live feeds to a breathlessly watching world.]

Jesus said.....

[nothing].

Was the Christ being insolent?
Had he had a gutful?
After a night of pure emotional and physical hell,
Had he dropped the ball?

No.
He was answering The Question -- What is Truth?
In the most profound way possible.
Truth is not something that can be put into words.
The truth of anything can only be found
In pro-found silence.....
In whatever thoughts, feelings, a-hah's and whatever else comes up,
Shared or alone.
Whatever you are aware of over there in your space,
That is your truth.
What I'm aware of going on over here in my space
Is my truth.
All that is going on in and around both spaces
Is Part of The Truth.

Osho said
"If you can get it, get it.
If you can't get it, I'm sorry."

Be patient.
Be aware.
You will get it.
I cannot tell you when,
But you will get it
In experience,
Willingly or not.
Don't look for it  with language.
Language, like its parent, the thinking mind, is limited and limiting.
Anything definitive and finite
Cannot contain the indefinable and infinite.
There are things in heaven and earth
For which language and intellectual discourse simply will not suffice.
Love and Truth are one of them.

If you want to know the truth....
Shut up
And listen.
Be aware,
Be available.
Have your experience.
In the deeper silence
Truth speaks.

A HOUSE DIVIDED

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."  --  Matt: 12: 25.

Man and his Mind

Conspire

To divide.......

From

Against.

Man divided from his heart and soul,

Man divided from his spirit,

Man divided from Nature,

Man divided from other men,

Man divided from his godness,

Man divided from himself.

Only one more di-vision is required --

A Discrimination ---

Man divided from his mind.

Anything divided will destroy itself,

And anything that dwells within it.

Get out while you can.

We all need a mind,

(Like we need some kind of sewage disposal)

But we don't need to live there.

Out of mind

We are One.....

One with mind,

One with heart, soul and spirit,

One with the nature of all things,

One with our fellow man

One with god

One with self.

PEACE

Peace is what remains
After all striving for it
Has subsided.
Peace is What-Is.
Always.

The opposites of Peace
Are vain clutchings
For Survival,
Which should never have come into doubt.
But it did --
Just to make the trip more interesting.

Peace will not be won in conflict.
Striving for peace
Is like trying to quell the surf
With your bare knuckles:
Fighting for peace is like trying to clean off garbage
By throwing more crap at it.


Being at Peace
And being its opposites
Are habits.

Anything in-habited
Can be abandoned.
Anything learned
Can be un-learned.
Anything put into place
Can be re-placed.
Turmoil is optional.


Here's what-is.....
Even in turmoil
There is a place where
We are at peace with it
And Peace goes with us.
Under our cloaks of turmoil
We are the Awareness
That is experiencing the turmoil
And saying "Wow! Look at that!"
Become aware of the presence
Of that unconcerned Awareness.

From Peace we arose;
To Peace we return,
Enriched by the experience.
So,
Have your turmoils,
Enjoy your upsets.
You can return to Peace any time,
As often as you wish:
The Peace you seek
Is within.
Always.
It never left you.
You just got spooked
And forgot.

Peace be with you,
For Peace is with you;
Be at Peace.

JOY

If sadness is a big part of your life right now,
I want to share something with you
About Happiness and Joy.

Do you remember Happiness?
Of course you do.
We cannot miss something we don't remember;
We cannot grieve for something we don't know.

We showed up in Happiness and Equanimity
But we got shaken up coming through the upheavals and anxieties
Of being born
And adjusting to a bigger womb.
We ditched Happiness and Equanimity
In a misguided attempt to survive.
But they still exist.
They never left you.
You may even have experienced glimpses of them since in your life
As Joy -- Happiness re-discovered.
All you need do
Is go back to where you left them last,
Pick up on them,
Bring them into the present situation,
And apply them liberally, like a salve, to whatever is ailing you.
Maybe easier said than done,
But possible.
If I can do it, anyone can.

Know this --
Joy is as close
As the end of your nose;
It always has been.
Find a way to see.

The beauty of rediscovering Joy is --
This time
For the first time
You'll get to know it.

WHO ARE YOU?

Who are you?

Whenever someone asks me that,

I'm still tempted to hand them a business card,
Or tell him what I do for a living,

Or tell him about my kids and family

Or what it's like to be a husband, writer, musician, actor......

We think of ourselves in terms of the roles we play

As we meet and interact with the world we've created for ourselves.

But are we not much more than that?

Who are we?

Whenever we meet one another for the first time,

Or someone we know after a major crisis....

There is always an un-asked question –

Who are you?

And we start sorting through our files

Of things about this person that we recognise

From past experience.

The process is automatic;

We don't think about it much,

It just happens.

The truth is

That what we see in another person

Also exists in us.

If it didn't exist in us, we could not recognise it.

You see, there is so much more about ourselves

Than we often realise.

And other people often awaken us to the bits of us

That we may have forgotten about.

Some bits of ourselves – we like:

Other bits, we don't like so much.

Whatever we think we are,

There is a lot more to like about our selves

Than we realise.

But we don't look very often, do we?

We have an internal critic who's always very quick to point out our faults:

It's a habit we've got into.

And we counter that

By looking for others to do the job of liking us instead.

I think that's a bit unfair.

If I walked up to you and said –

“Hello. Look, I don't like ME at all,

But I expect you to at least pretend to like me,

So that I can feel better about myself.

And if you don't do that,

I will DISlike you until the cows come home.”

If I did that, you would do well

To walk away from me as fast as you can.

But aren't we actually doing a lot of that?

We just don't declare or admit that's what we're doing.

We can't get rid of what we think about ourself

And I have found

It is futile to try......

But we can expand our self-knowing,

And find more about ourselves to be comfortable with.

Then, maybe, we can start getting some balance into the picture,
And maybe even get a bit more comfortable

With bits of ourself that we're not so happy with.

Once the sport of kings, bishops and social satirists,
Disapproval has become something of a pandemic obsession --
We're all at it,
Practising it on anything and everything within sight.
And we've become better at it than noticing something to approve of.
Most people I ask "How are you?" 
Answer "Not bad," with a hint of surprise and relief!
How sad.

I have found

That I've never been very successful at changing anything

By disliking it..

In fact, things and people I dislike,

Seem to keep on coming back

Just to get up my nose.

The same is true of things we dislike about our self.

There is always something about what we dislike

That is worthwhile....

Always.

And it's up to each of us to find it.

Because .....
There is one inescapable truth

About what we think we are,

And it is this ----

Wherever we go.....

We always take Whover we are,

And Whatever we are

With us.

We don't have any choice about that.

Whether we go to the hairdressers

Or to Bali

We always take our Self with us.

All of it,

Lock, stock and barrel.

Paradoxically, the smaller our vision of ourself,

The heavier the baggage:

The larger our vision of What We Are,

The lighter we become
Because what we are is not exclusive;
It is something shared. 
We have a lot in common,
You and I,
Just seen from slightly different perspectives.

Whether our baggage is light or heavy

Is up to us.

[Listen to "You Always Take the Weather With You" – Crowded House]

"I AM" IS... WHO?

IN MY WORLD

I, Barrie Barkla, am 

That which is aware

Of whatever "I" is aware of

Right here and now.

In my world, 

You are a mirror....

Whatever I see in you,

I am.

It all comes back to "Me".

Then I become aware again

Of that which is aware 

Of all this.

IN YOUR WORLD

You, [Your name] are

That which is aware

Of whatever "you" is aware of --

Whatever you are thinking and feeling --

Right here and now.

I am a mirror....

Whatever you see in me,

You are.

It all comes back to you.

Remind yourself to look

At that which is aware

Of all this here now.

Look.

There is nothing there,

But there is..... [something].....

You do not know what It Is;

You know only that It Is.

Now sit in front of a mirror,

And read the above again,

Aloud to yourself;

But this time....

Read "In My World"

From YOUR perspective,

(Put you own name in place of mine).

Then think of someone close to you

And read "In Your World" about that person,

Aloud to yourself.

Then be with yourself.

THE NEW LAW OF THE JUNGLE

There is another Law of the Jungle...
"Survival of the Fittest"
Has become
"Survival of the Conscious".

ARE YOUDONE?

Life is like basking in the sun ......
You aren't done yet.

Let's turn you over
And try the other side.

ZORBA, THE BUDDHA

With grateful thanks to Osho....

Whatever experiences you are having,

Including the experiences of avoiding-experience, not-having-experience and wishing-I-could-have-experience.....

Have them.

Be present and fully available,

And go on having them 

Until there is no more hankering after them

Or wanting to withhold from them.

Get wholeheartedly into it.

Be a Zorba.

"The full catastrophe."

It will pass.

Anything that comes, will pass.

When it is finished

There will be
Silence

And space......

A Zorba becomes a Buddha.

CONDITIONING

We are conditioned,
And conditional.
It goeswith being human.

I often speak of conditioning
And being conditioned
As something that has us in its clutches,
A state of affairs to be escaped from.
It is also true that
Conditioning is a state of being that we often cling to.
Either way, we're in it up to our eyeballs.

But don't believe me;
Check for yourself.
Notice what is so for you.
Pick a single area of your life (eg. relationship, family, finances...)
And notice some of the values and assumptions
That condition your perceiving, thinking and feeling in that area.
It's surprising, isn't it?

Conditioning is a self-imposed exile,
From our Self,
A protective custody --
A prison with a picket fence and roses,
And no matter how ptretty we make it look,
We're trapped,
And we seem to have left the keys to open the prison
On the outside.
The walls begin to crumble, however,
Not when we rebel against everything that has conditioned us,
But when we get that --

1. We are conditioned - inside a prison (no matter how enlightened our egos tell us they are!)
2. There is an outside; and
3. We know it, because we're not always locked away. In certain contexts we sometimes let ourselves out on day release.

It might be useful to note
Under what circumstances we're relatively free and unconditional,
And under what circumstances our buttons get pushed;
Against whom and what do we protect ourselves
By shutting ourselves in
Behind a fence of Conditions ("oughts")?

The presence of Conditioning,
Both as a noun and a verb,
Is evidenced by any idea, thought, family or cultural value, concept or belief that we hold dear.
Conditioning organises both our perceptions and responses
To help us filter and "make sense" of our world.
Conditioning stands between us and raw experience:
It is not our truth.
It is a pale, umpteenth-generation carbon-copy
Of someone else's conclusions
About one-time-long-forgotten experiences;
The conditioning lasts long after the experience that tripped it has expired.

Conditioning prevents us from fully living here and now.
Instead of experiencing what is happening in our faces,
We're experiencing our own conditioning.
Watch any public debate about any sensitive issue,
Whether it be "racism" on Q. and A., or any dispute over a neighbour's fence,
What we see is less an exchange of real experiences of the subject,
And more of an exchange of conditioning,
Combatants hurling hangups at each other.
That's a very dysfunctional way of living and doing.

We didn't get a lot of say about how this sorry state of affairs came to be.
We've been conditioned by others for our entire lives,
From our parents onwards --
The Un-experienced being led by the In-experienced.
But we're invited to acknowledge that, at some point,
Our conditioning has our own tacit approval and support;
We give it energy,
And the conditioning perseveres,
Day after day, year after year, generation after generation....

We don't have our conditioning:
It has us.

We reluct to let go of anything we hold dear
And venture, naked, out into the sunlight, the fresh air, the freedom and the thrill of discovering what is so
In this moment
For ourselves

The first step is not difficult:
When faced with a moment of either certainty or indecision,
Just look at it and ask yourself --
"Is this my experience?
Or is it possible that my vision at the moment is being impaired
By prior conditioning?
Is there something I believe here that I want to hang onto?
If I take a different tack here, how will that feel?
Am I stuck in conditioned comfort?
Am I willing to open up and embrace
Another possibility?

COMMUNICATING TRUTH -- A MASTER CLASS

NB. The following may be dangerous to your level of social acceptance, and may require you to re-define what you mean by "friends".
Your mind may fizz and hiss and fart upon reading this -- this is natural. Pay no attention.

• Remind your self of the Ruthless Rules of Communication, especially the one about -- People may not always get what you say, but they will always get where you're coming from when you say it, and how they feel when you say it.
• Before you open your mouth, own the reflection. Whatever you see in the situation is your stuff. Find it in yourself (empathy), then draw in resources from the rest of your self. Truth will encompass everything and its opposite.
• Mind your own business. When you're asked for your opinion, or for your agreement with someone else's opinion, gracefully decline. Opinion is the lowest form of non-truth.
• When you are asked for your perspective, speak only your own truth (c.f. my blog on "Truth")
• Remember, your truth is yours, and will not be identical to the truths of others. Nor is your truth any more valid or "right" than any others. Yours is just another truth. Anything you feel arrogant about is not truth; it has become a dogma or an opinion. I suggest you test the importance of your beliefs and opinions by simply going into the nearest park on a starry night and venting your opinions with all the passion you can muster, then watch carefully how much the universe moves as a result.
• There is something about Truth, however, that the universe will move for -- when you learn how to ask, and how to notice.
• Be sensitive, gentle and kind. Even when the other person needs to be slapped sensible, do it with love. 
• If "considering" anothers' feelings prevents you from speaking your truth when it is called for, warn the others that you are going to treat them as grown-up enough to handle the truth, and give them the option of whether they are yet ready to hear you. Respect their decision. Ask if they would like to change the subject.
• Any time you feel like you're treading on eggshells around someone, that person is successfully manipulating you. You need to decide whether that situation is of their making, or yours. If you're undecided, ask -- e.g. I get the feeling at the moment that there are just some things I cannot talk about freely with you. Is that just me, or is there something here you're touchy about?"  If you are not the source of the withhold, call him/her on it, firmly and gently. If they still insist upon you withholding truth, walk away from the subject. Be with that person -- he/she is scared, and you know what that feels like. But fear is never justification for enslaving others. Polite-icians consider everything before they speak. They are obsessed with what you may like or dislike, and with avoiding being held accountable for what emerges from their mouths. They are terrified of being disliked for their truths, even when they justify them by being "right". Poilte-icians would rather lie than be disliked. They'll lie about their lying, even unto themselves.
• Make authenticity your prime consideration. Talk heart to heart, not just head to head. Be human, raw and alive, rather than rehearsed  and polished. 
• What you say may hurt, but if it is authentic to your heartfelt human experience, it will be recognised and will also heal. I would rather be hurt by a truth (temporary) than succoured (suckered) by a lie (permanent).
• Any situation where something is withheld is a lie. Nothing good can ever come from a lie -- not in the longer run.
• Don't get angry. Why should you suffer for other people? Have your own suffering, and let them learn to deal with theirs. By all means be available if they're in strife. Identify and remind them of their strengths, but don't bullshit them without their express permission.
• In a dual universe, your truth, especially if you are positional about it, will encounter opposition. You will make enemies. Don't get bent out of shape by that. What other people think of you is none of your business. 
• Understand that most people unconsciously define a "friend" as "someone who'll go along with your lies if you'll go along with theirs." Become, instead, the "best friend" who, if asked, will tell someone what even their best friends won't tell them.
• Commune-icate your understandings and what you see of choices and options. Then let them take what you've said on board and support them in doing whatever they want to do (we all do what we WANT to do, regardless of our protestations to the contrary). There should be no question of anyone following you, but of finding and obeying their own intelligence. Help them do that. Remember that we are all being drawn towards what we are becoming, and you do not even know what that is for yourself, let alone what it might be for anyone else. Be free with suggestions when they're asked for, but keep your advice to yourself.
• Appeal to their own knowing, intelligence and past experience. Ask them what they want, and how they think you can help them get what they want. Share your experiences and perspective as clearly as possible, making it clear that they are entitled to draw differing conclusions. Then leave it to them. Outline possible choices and decision options, but put everyone's freedom and responsibility to make choices and decisions firmly in their court. Be as forthright and theatrical as your personality dictates in your delineation of their dilemma, but resist every temptation or inducement to advise or direct them.(I'm doing that right now, aren't I? Good. It's your decision; I leave it up to you).
• Get them to articulate what they've decided -- whatever that is. Even a decision to do nothing, or stay undecided is still a decision and should be appreciated as such. 
• Whatever the other has decided, be happy that a decision has been made, and encourage the other to celebrate it -- immediately (even if it's just a cup of coffee, a prayer, or anything else that is meaningful to them, and immediately do-able). Mark the moment with an experience. Rituals are important. Help the other emotionally give a "Yes" to their "yesses", and an equally expansive "Yes" to their "no's".
• Once you have put something out there, seek feedback on what the other has heard.

I am not interested in obedient followers:
I hanker. though, for intelligent fellow-travellers.
How do you feel about that?

I am as ordinary as you are,
With just a little difference.. .....
I am half awake, and you are half asleep.
But that is not much of a difference
Because I nod off from time to time,
And you can open your eyes at any moment.

Shall we dance?

TOTAL SELF-ACCEPTANCE

Who am I?

What will I become?

What you will be

Already is

And always has been.

But it is not yet known.

It is in the process of be-coming

And being real-ised
In linear experience.

Since our conception

What we are has been in a constant process of evolving.

The universe has organised itself

For us to happen
Just as we are.

Look back along the timeline of your life

And notice all the events and people who conspired with you

For You to happen and become

What you are.

Stop fighting it.

Ride a horse in the direction it's going -- it's easier.

What you will become

Is drawing you

And all you have created yourslf to be

Towards it.

Everything is on track.

There is nothing wrong.

Surrender

And engage with the journey.

I am.

You are.

It is.

Be in it.

Get to know it.

A servant was walking one morning in the marketplace

When he saw Death walking towards him.

Terrified, he ducked down a side alley

And ran home to his master.
"Help me!" pleaded the servant.

"I have just seen Death in the marketplace.

Please loan me one of your horses that I might flee to Samarkand."

The master took pity on the poor wretch and gave him  a horse.

The servant fled the city for Samarkand at full gallop.

Later that afternoon the master, too, was walking in the marketplace

Where he encountered Death.

"Why are you here?" he demanded of Death. "Why did you so terrify my servant this morning here in the market place?"

"I was surprised," replied Death.

"Surprised to see him here,

When I have an appointment with him tonight

In Samarkand."

TRUTH

Truth can only be realised anew;
Truth cannot be borrowed.
Truth is what you consciously realise
From your own, personal experience.
Borrowed knowledge is not Knowing.
Knowing comes from personal experience,
Which is always unique.

Like a costume,
Borrowed truth can be tried on to see how it fits
And I encourage everyone to do that,
As many times a day as you can.
But only so that you can have your own experience
From within that perspective,
And Know what you discover for yourself.


Truth cannot be spoken;
It is beyond language.
I can only speak ABOUT the truths I've experienced --
Including this one --
And hope to evoke the unspeakable blossoming of a truth
Realising inside of you.

Truth is permanent -- forever,
And it is ephemeral -- transient.
Both.
Which places it well outside the capabilities of the limited Mind.
Truth cannot be understood;
It is either known, or not known.

Because Truth is so highly individual,
It cannot be decided by consensus or referendum.
No Truth is validated or invalidated by a majority....
It is not a question of voting.
It does not matter if the whole world says something is so,
If it is not your experience
Then it is not your Truth.
When Pilate, hoping to trap Jesus, said to him "They tell me you're the King of the Jews",
Jesus replied "What is your experience of me?"
Pilate hadn't thought of that.

Most people don't know the Truth
Even when it hits them over the head;
Most of us are so full of umpteenth-hand ideas about supposed truths
That they haven't had room or time to experience a real, live, juicy truth
Since they were knee-high to a grasshopper.
All your integrity can do with someone else's assumed "truth"
Is incorporate it as a possibility into your "Maybe" File
And then see what shows up in your experience.
Whatever shows up will be your truth -- for now.

Even when the whole world says something is so
("Everybody knows......"),
If it is not yet in your experience,
Then it is not your Truth.
Conversely, if something is in your deeply held, conscious experience,
Then it is your Truth --for now
And it really doesn't matter a twopenny damn
What anyone else thinks, says, or believes:
Does it?

How do we tell the difference between a Truth and a belief?
If you feel "right" about it -- that's a belief.
A belief excludes alternate possibilities;
A Truth seeks and includes other truths.
A Truth is something you feel neither right nor wrong about;
You just "know" it in your innermost feeling
And your heart quietly signs on
For as long as this Truth lasts.