Knowing… Truth… What is it and how can we know?
It’s simple right… In this Information Age where data and info are paramount, all we need to do is ‘google’ it… in less than 2 tenths of a second, ‘truth’ gets about 2 Million hits to read about truth… and in less than 3 tenths of a second, searching the word ‘know’ produces more than 1.3 BILLION opportunities to learn about ‘know’ and ‘knowing’…
We can spend the rest of our lives reading all these articles and information results of a search engine on the internet… and we can also read about all the teachings of spiritual guides and teachers from throughout the ages…
I would like to save us some time… having spent many hours reading, contemplating, practicing this and that, exploring dreams and consciousness, taking formal and informal classes, workshops, and seminars…and trying to convey something of what I’ve learned through both speaking and writing…
So the short answer is… each one of us has to find our Return Ticket Home for ourselves.
This doesn’t mean we are alone… I suggest we are never alone…we only feel that way… until we find that Return Ticket Home … The Return Ticket Home leads us to the Now-Gate that transports us to the Realm of Consciousness that is Eternally Now… As we go through the Now-Gate, we find ourselves right where we are… the only thing that has changed is that it is now more like heaven than earth… we have stepped from the limitations of time and space and form… to that which is eternally Now… The Great Source of the Present Moment of Life… Returning Home to Essence of our True Being…
So, back to ‘knowing’ and ‘truth’… As you read these words or any words, simply take what seems right and true from your experience or to your heart, and leave the rest behind… Each person finds their Return Ticket Home in their perfect time…
Knowing comes to you and through you…from the inside out… we tend to look under the lights others have provided… but guess what… they may say some things that ring true in your experience, but they are not you… Truth is not about finding a written document or dogmatic creed… it is about finding Life…
Remember how it is reported how much intense time Jesus spent with his followers… They certainly liked what they saw… but there is little evidence that they got it while he taught them and walked with them… They could see the authority of his words because they saw him living his ‘talk’…it seemed, from the reports, to be only later as they were gathered together in one place that an ‘knowing’ in the moment entered their experience and it was beyond understandable words and language …
We have language that becomes a kind of mind game and we think we know because we read or hear something… the key word is ‘think’… Humanity has tried to communicate something for as long as ‘who knows’… symbols and words…languages are removed from experience… If I write that “soft ‘Soundscapes’ gently fill the air from the gadget downstairs,” you may get a sense of my experience…. And you also have to project your own experience onto my words… so now we are at least 2 steps removed from the “real” experience that I have had and tried to convey… we have my translation of my experience into symbols and then your interpretation of my translation based upon your own experience…. So you have to project your own meaning onto what you think I meant… Suppose you wanted to write about my experience… anyone reading your words is now at least 5 processing steps removed from the event… granted there may be some general idea of the original experience…but never 100%...
I may have an deep experience which we might call “spiritual” or “mystical” and I have had a deep sense of ‘knowing’ the ‘truth’ of the experience of ‘Being’…of “I am”-ness… of connection with the “Totality of Life”… “Source”… “G-o-d” … “All That Is”…”Mystery” … “Great Spirit” … so each of these symbols, words, and phrases conveys something… and what it conveys is always processed through thought… the mental processing in our brain that is conditional upon our own mindset which is developed through our experience…
Unless the reader has experienced the formless essence of Being, and associates that experience with symbols I choose, there is only the mental gymnastics of understanding symbols without real essential meaning… without knowing… If the reader has experienced the ‘Numinous’… the Light of Being’… they will have that experience to project onto my chosen words… if not, he or she may be intrigued and curious about the ‘unknown’ or they may make an ego judgment that I am simply ‘crazy’… as evidently the family of Jesus made about him at one point…
Let’s look at another example how mental gymnastics can get in the way from direct experience … I have often enjoyed music that is played without words to it… I suspect this is because the sound vibrations have a better chance of reaching my being and resonating than when I am trying to process words and meaning at a mental level… If a song is sung in a language I do not understand, I can more deeply appreciate the real experience of the vibrations and harmonics… I can better ‘know’ the music in my being…
It is both ironic and necessary that I write using the cognitive and creative thinking function we possess… This function of our humanness is or can be quite useful in learning about the world and functioning in life. So, when does mental gymnastics become a hindrance or a simple tool of the ego to keep us disconnected from the ‘Real’… from the present moment of Eternity?
It is ‘normal for us to observe and to see how things works in the world…to observe connections… to see that lightning creates a spark or flame… that sun focused through a curved glass can intensify heat to flame… It is good to remember that a flame is hot and can cause damage to our skin… there is a good quality about putting things together and remembering… it is how we function in the world…
The same cognitive processing can became detached from reality when we hold rigidly to any thought-form, concept, or belief that removes us from seeing the reality of the present moment.
By always interpreting what we see according to labels and old mindsets, we do maintain a certain status quo… balance… and security… And at the same time may be losing consciousness of the ‘Reality’ in the moment.
Our mental structure, sometimes referred to as ego, is part of our humanity… reactions of the ego structures or cognitive processing is also a product of our experiences… the psychological structures seem to want to maintain their boundaries and what is known which can and does provide a sense of identity, even though incomplete or ‘false’ ….some talk of this as the ‘false self’… which also provides a sense of individuality and security of sorts… the problem then becomes one of separateness… We start to believe this is who we are….”I am separate from the world, an individual, and this just is the way the world is”… and this goes on within each of us and at the collective levels as well…
As a side note…the mind… or consciousness is much more than our egoic mental processing… and by contrast opens and expands beyond form and labels. We are reminded that we are… and are beings of pure consciousness… present awareness and response… Being and Doing… At times as we open, we receive intuitions and illuminations that seem outside the realm of the egoic rational processing… as if they come out of ‘nowhere’…
We often remain lost in the egoic mental processing and focus on past and future until a new thought breaks through… one label that has been given to this is paradigm shift. I am reminded of the often used examples of how the earth was believed to be flat, and how the earth was the center of the universe…until actual observation and experience broke theses trances of long held beliefs… More recently we have seen the concept of a precise single cause and effect relationship be exploded by quantum physics and unified field system theory to include an infinite number of causes leading to an infinite number of results and all things being interconnected far beyond what our ego mind can grasp…
Now, we can observe the life in front of us and within us right now… and it will largely be interpreted from what we have learned or experienced in the past… As we enter the present moment, letting go as much as possible of the interpretations, we begin to see and experience what is…
We can spend time ruminating about the past… Often, for many this is replaying negative experiences and memory traces that tend to influence our mood and experience in the present… This dynamic can be one way the ego mind keeps us separated from our true Self… the Being we are… and the true experience of what is in this moment… The mental trips to the past and the thought-forms and beliefs from the past remove us from the present… and usually end up supporting a state of suffering, regret, shame, quilt… all types of psychological pain… all illusions that we create in the present with the ego mind…
Equally, we can visit past pleasure and happy moments that, while perhaps giving us a momentary sense of pleasure, also remove us from the present moment … ego-escaping to fantasyland. We hear those who wish for the ‘good old days’ or happiness in the future… Can you see how, while this feels real to us, it is actually not real? It is the ego keeping us cut off and resisting life right in this very moment… It is the ego putting us back into the slumber of its unconscious trances which cuts us off from actually experiencing Life-Now and Living and responding within our ‘real’ Life situation…
In a similar way, due to the many ways fear is used to try to get us to behave in one way or another, we may spend an inordinate amount of time focused away from the reality of life and looking into the future…If we recall that the future holds an infinite number of possibilities outside the realm of our control, how could possibly prepare for them all… Fear makes us a slave to the unknown… fearing, planning, hoping, trying to make sure the future is secure, certain, and better than today is impossible… Marketing schemes, politicians, parents, employers, military supervisors, and all of us have used fear as a motivating and manipulating tool… The future, of course, can never be guaranteed… We can spend so much time working today to insure tomorrow that we fail to live today…. We can become so lost in trances of fear of the future…or trances of failures or regrets from the past … that we are actually ‘dead’ to this day and to LIFE! …
How do we ‘restart’…? How do wake up from the trances of yesterday and tomorrow?
There has always been one way… “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is the way Christian scriptures expresses it… Ram Dass, a former Harvard professor, said it a bit differently… “Be Here Now” … Spiritual teachers and individuals like you and I have learned that there is but one time and one place… it is the eternal now…the present moment… This is not a reminder to believe a certain church doctrine or set of religious teachings… it is the altar call to return to the sacredness of Life in this present moment.
The sacredness of you and me… and all of life…the Us-ness of Being…
The “Kingdom of God is at hand” and the ‘hand’ is always attached… is always a part of us… that’s how close the realm of Source is… the gateway is open… the altar flame is always burning… enter the temple within… in this moment…enter the Now of life, forgiving and letting go of the past… let go of tomorrow’s fantasies and enter the present moment … Open to this moment of togetherness in the ‘kingdom of heaven’ on earth… be the love and rock of eternity in your present situation this day… this moment… embrace the power to let go of the ego trance…
Let us end our ego’s resistance to Life… and trust the real Source… even as many have done who have gone before us as teachers, guides, brothers, and sisters…
What is ‘Truth’ and how can we ‘Know’…?? We can only know the truth from within… through our real life experience… sometimes Life joggles us to break our old trances and ego resistances to Life… to the Source and Being within…
Forgive, love, and deeply accept others right now, so that you may let go of the past and trust anew in Life.
Forgive, love, and deeply accept yourself right now, so that you may enter this moment, letting go into the Now…
Be here Now in the Truth of your Being... and let real Freedom ring!
John Hutchinson
Sundance Center
February 20, 2010
