When I first heard of things like ‘the fundamental essence‘ and the ‘real’ nature of who we are, I was quite puzzled.
How can there be something so mysterious going on, in a world that looks so familiar?
So, for many months, I was going round in circles – trying to come up with something that could qualify as a ‘fundamental essence’ and ‘who we really are’.
To make matters worse, the world wasn’t standing still while I searched:
– there were new discoveries and theories in science all the time, claiming new knowledge of the world around us
– there were new cults sprouting up, each led by someone claiming to be the perfect Guru
– there were so many branches of analysis, that it would have taken me a lifetime to just try each one of them
– there was relentless marketing of modern-day economy as the cure– shop, wine, dine, travel, buy a house, make new friends, make more money etc and you’ll do ok
– of course there was my day job! and that was never still!
Along the way, I found several candidates proposed to be the ‘fundamental essence’ and our ‘real nature’. I will just list a few of them here
– it’s a subatomic particle
– it’s a wave
– its light
– its sound
– it’s a blank mind
– it’s a Guru’s blessing
– its energy
– its DNA
– it’s the elements (earth, water etc)
– its desire
– it’s the body
– it’s a system
– it’s a vibration
– its consciousness
…but all along, there was this nagging question “can it be so difficult, when others before me have cracked it, without access to any of these theories?”
What if there is a poor soul who is deaf, dumb, blind and illiterate? Can he/she never taste freedom then?
I kept going back and forth the 8 chambers, asking myself…where is the damn essence hidden?
Take a look at it again and see if you can spot it.
And then one day, it struck me!
Idiot!!!
When you look at the question as if you are solving a mystery, guess what you will find?
A mystery, of course
Then you start thinking – I can’t do this by myself.
“I need to go somewhere else, do something else, become someone else, depend on the wisdom of someone else, wait to find something else, in order to solve the mystery”.
That is what most people still try to do.
Don’t make the same mistake I did! (Make new ones :-))
It’s the starting assumption that is an error!
There is no mystery!
If there is something called ‘fundamental’ and ‘real’, it cannot be something that is only outside or inside us
But that is precisely the mistake we make when we start.
We assume there is a line in between.
Over time, even as we grow and experience more of the world, the line stays.
It is worth repeating.
We assume there is a line in between.
Then, it becomes a search for a mysterious ‘thing’.
We search for the ‘real’ thing – outside and inside – so that we can be free.
The people who look ‘outside’ – search for holy objects, visit ashrams, read scientific journals, chase objects of pleasure, examine objects through microscopes and telescopes, wait for miraculous phenomenon to happen etc
The people who look ‘inside’ – meditate, enroll in self development courses, develop superhuman powers, read books like ‘the secret’, pray, destroy their body with severe ascetic practices, wait for a burst of energy from a ‘Guru’ etc
No issues. Have fun.
You will keep learning something new and interesting all the time.
But it won’t set you free.
…because the answer is neither inside or outside.
The reality is simply that…
There is no red line.
I am it. You are it. We are it. This is it. Forever.
But what is it?
When the line is gone, even for a second, you will re-cognize you are it. That’s the only way to find out.
Dissolve the imaginary barrier between I and World.
You will taste freedom on the spot.
Because it is reality! What is real is the truth. And it is the taste of freedom.
You don’t need someone else, or become someone else, or do something else, or go somewhere else, or believe something else or consume something else….to dissolve the red line
They can’t do it for you. Why?
…because the red line is an imagination that you cling to!
Hey! But it’s just a map!!
So it can drop – right in the heart of the city! Right here! Right now!
Aha!
The Urban Monk diaries 