Start Making Sense

The scriptures of the East tell us that this human birth is a rare and fortunate event. There are a myriad expressions of the one Consciousness and to take birth in this human form, is to have the opportunity for Self-Awareness, the return path to knowing our true nature. Looking at our world today, it is hard to start making sense of this teaching when everywhere we see such ignorance and darkness. Perhaps we have come to a critical mass of delusion, that the time has come for the tipping of the scales in favor of our awakening.

A student approached his master despairing of ever attaining enlightenment. He had caused a lot of harm to himself and to people around him, in his glut for power and economic gain in his earlier life. His master compassionately guided him in understanding the truth. He told him that there is the absolute truth and then there is relative truth. If the student identified with his limited self, thinking that he would never be worthy of knowing his true nature, then this perspective from the aspect of the relative truth would be self-fulfilling. In the absolute truth, all beings are the expression of the one Consciousness, perfect and joyful in nature. This one Consciousness looks out upon a drama, an apparition of a world- appearance for its own sport. A dream, our relative truth. All the sages say that everything one does, whether good or bad, is in reaction to the dynamics within this dream. They accentuate the difficulty in awakening in this world of illusion, if we attach ourselves to a false identification of our limited selves. They caution us to wake up and free ourselves from  this dream, that our true existence lies beyond the boundaries of this imaginary dream.

How does one start making sense, to wake up? While we are engaging in this dream, how do we interface  the aspects of this relative truth and the truth of our absolute existence? We cannot say to the person who has been severely abused in childhood , ” It is all the one Consciousness, what is there to forgive, who is there to forgive?” That would be abusive in itself. I believe that the compassionate way of helping one to heal from such a trauma is to acknowledge the pain that person is experiencing, to help them to find ways to overcome the suffering, to let go of the past and to begin living from a perspective of the absolute truth. Within this dream of our human existence, the suffering of hunger and strife is real. As long as we are living this dream, we have to be compassionate to the plight of others and assist those who are in need of food, shelter and other basic needs.

How do we begin to make sense of the relative and absolute realities when we are mostly conscious of the relative? The Buddhist Heart Sutra tells us that all is emptiness, meaning that there is no solid reality to any phenomenon because everything changes, nothing stays the same, everything is interdependent, nothing has a reality of its own accord. The sages  teach that the cause of all human suffering is grasping on to the emotions or material things which are all empty, all illusions, and the way out of suffering is through mindfulness. The Heart Sutra says, “…Therefore, in emptiness there is neither form, nor feeling, nor perception,…no suffering, no extinction of suffering, no path; no understanding, no attainment..Because ther is no attainment, the bodhisattvas supported by the Perfection of Understanding, find no obstacles for their minds. Having no obstacles, they overcome fear, liberating themselves forever from illusion and realizing perfect Nirvana…”

In the Yoga Vasistha, a Hindu text on how to live in the absolute truth, it says, “… The contemplation of the self which is  infinite consciousness banishes sorrow, terminates the long-dream vision of the world-appearance, purifies the mind and the heart, and dispels worries and misfortunes.” It goes on to say that different forms of meditation also lead to self-knowledge and the direct experience of the absolute truth. In this very human body we can know our true nature or pure Consciousness.

In this journey to knowing the absolute truth, all that is asked of us is to accept ourselves as we are, at whatever level of awareness we have. When we relax our minds and let go of our grasping at illusions, we allow the unfolding of the absolute truth to take place. This inevitably happens when we let go of our attachment to the relative truth. Simple? Perhaps. In my dream last night, I was watching people go on a long journey, carrying lots of empty water bottles, some of them so huge that even if they were full, they would be useless because of the weight. We only need what we can use, and carrying lots of  empty containers is not going to be useful on the journey. Carrying around spiritual teachings without practicing is not skillful if we do not  use the wisdom teachings. We would be carrying around empty containers. To start making sense, we have to drop all our unnecessary baggage and just become immersed in the absolute truth which is already with us, waiting to unfold.