"Seek the path, do not seek attainment, seek for the path within yourself. Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, nor to read it in books. Look for the truth within yourself, not without yourself." P. D. Ouspensky
I look for truth everywhere I can, I have read a lot and watched a lot. I have a "to read" section in my head I may never finish. I read many years ago about the Buddha and Buddhism along the way. When I read about Gautama Buddha (if you don't know the story of his transition from a crown prince to a spiritual warrior it is worth a look), I was struck most by his sentiment that anyone who was seeking should not simply follow him because he was enlightened. He spoke of his not therefore having the answer for someone else automatically. He spoke about letting his words ignite a recognition of truth. He suggested the truth of his words was within the person seeking.
In an attempt to understand ourselves, our own suffering and escape from it we can get caught up in the ideas. The concepts we read or someone has said can become a form of stagnation. It is not enough to understand a theory of things that might free us from our past. We have to ground that idea down into our lives. We have to turn that notion into action and effort through doing the work to heal.
My path is not anyone else's path. Your path isn't either. I believe our purpose for extricating ourselves from pain is our own freedom. We need our freedom so that we do not add to the suffering in the world either through how we feel or what we do to others because of it. The other side of it is we are all in this together. Think of the experience of life like a vast field and each person's walk through life (while they all lead to the same place) leaves a trail all their own. Have you ever walked through tall grass and seen how your foot falls leave a little path to show where you have been? It is an image like that I get in my mind. While we are walking this life we can't see very far in front of us, the grass is too tall. There is too much pain and we can feel we have no clarity, too much confusion. No one has gone before us in exactly the circumstances we have so we have to look for inspiration but go our own way. But we do the work of just taking the next step forward, that next moment into the unknown and away from our own sorrow. We look for truths and then we apply those truths to our life. So for example, we feel sad or angry. Usually we try to get away from that feeling. But instead of running to a drink, or food, or sex (whatever it is we use) we decide to sit with that emotion and begin to find our truth. Why we are feeling it? Where is this coming from? And how do I heal it instead of running from it? Doing this makes us able to see a bit further and take the next step. eaxh step compounds until we get to where we are going. in this proverbial field we walk, we leave our path. Eventually, with each of us walking our own way back to a place of freedom (to be who we are and dropping our pain along the way) those trails and paths start to criss cross and parallel. One day the whole field is one path. The tall grass has been pressed down, there are no hidden pitfalls any more for anyone. The way is clear.
So I suppose today I am reflecting on how we can not seek just the understanding of ideas. We must practice the knowledge we have gained. We can not seek our way by emulating someone else's. We can not fail to see that what we do for ourselves we do for everyone. I am getting a little esoteric here I know on one level but on the other I am trying to settle the comprehensions of these things out of the mind and back into actual experience. We have to be like an artist and just begin the painting and see what happy accidents happen along the way. Doing this allows us to bring the masterpiece together. But it is OUR masterpiece and there will not be another one like it again.
I look for truth everywhere I can, I have read a lot and watched a lot. I have a "to read" section in my head I may never finish. I read many years ago about the Buddha and Buddhism along the way. When I read about Gautama Buddha (if you don't know the story of his transition from a crown prince to a spiritual warrior it is worth a look), I was struck most by his sentiment that anyone who was seeking should not simply follow him because he was enlightened. He spoke of his not therefore having the answer for someone else automatically. He spoke about letting his words ignite a recognition of truth. He suggested the truth of his words was within the person seeking.
In an attempt to understand ourselves, our own suffering and escape from it we can get caught up in the ideas. The concepts we read or someone has said can become a form of stagnation. It is not enough to understand a theory of things that might free us from our past. We have to ground that idea down into our lives. We have to turn that notion into action and effort through doing the work to heal.
My path is not anyone else's path. Your path isn't either. I believe our purpose for extricating ourselves from pain is our own freedom. We need our freedom so that we do not add to the suffering in the world either through how we feel or what we do to others because of it. The other side of it is we are all in this together. Think of the experience of life like a vast field and each person's walk through life (while they all lead to the same place) leaves a trail all their own. Have you ever walked through tall grass and seen how your foot falls leave a little path to show where you have been? It is an image like that I get in my mind. While we are walking this life we can't see very far in front of us, the grass is too tall. There is too much pain and we can feel we have no clarity, too much confusion. No one has gone before us in exactly the circumstances we have so we have to look for inspiration but go our own way. But we do the work of just taking the next step forward, that next moment into the unknown and away from our own sorrow. We look for truths and then we apply those truths to our life. So for example, we feel sad or angry. Usually we try to get away from that feeling. But instead of running to a drink, or food, or sex (whatever it is we use) we decide to sit with that emotion and begin to find our truth. Why we are feeling it? Where is this coming from? And how do I heal it instead of running from it? Doing this makes us able to see a bit further and take the next step. eaxh step compounds until we get to where we are going. in this proverbial field we walk, we leave our path. Eventually, with each of us walking our own way back to a place of freedom (to be who we are and dropping our pain along the way) those trails and paths start to criss cross and parallel. One day the whole field is one path. The tall grass has been pressed down, there are no hidden pitfalls any more for anyone. The way is clear.
So I suppose today I am reflecting on how we can not seek just the understanding of ideas. We must practice the knowledge we have gained. We can not seek our way by emulating someone else's. We can not fail to see that what we do for ourselves we do for everyone. I am getting a little esoteric here I know on one level but on the other I am trying to settle the comprehensions of these things out of the mind and back into actual experience. We have to be like an artist and just begin the painting and see what happy accidents happen along the way. Doing this allows us to bring the masterpiece together. But it is OUR masterpiece and there will not be another one like it again.
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