Your Path.

 This is a tricky subject.

It is said that, in absolute terms, the path does not exist, and nor does meditation or a meditator. However, we are not enlightened yet and so, relatively, they do exist.

 Once we achieve a degree of calmness and are able to focus, concentrate and be mindful, we arrive at awareness. From there, we rest in the awareness of awareness…and emptiness. No path, no meditation, no meditator.

 Until then, we need to recognise the path; our path. Much will depend on our previous associations, education, temperament and capacity. Anyone we talk to about meditation and spirituality will have their own bias. And here, we get involved in the use of language, which can either clarify or confuse.

 Much will depend on synchronicity – what comes up in your life – karma!

 It could be based on the Vedanta, Buddhism, Theism, non-Theism etc. It could be a word, a name an image that attracts you, that leads you onto a path – a system, according to your karmic tendencies. Even then, within those paths, there are divisions or levels. One may call oneself one thing but display tendencies of another. Even when meeting people who are following the same system, after the exchange of a few words, there is a realisation that you are not on the same path.

One may hear people talking about high falluting principles, but they are still actually talking about themselves.

 OK…here’s the tricky part, and I’ll take myself as an example. Whatever system I’ve entered, I’ve experienced aversion to people – “Bonkers, the lot of ’em!” So, my path is aversion. It’s an illusion, but still my path…which exists only in my reactions. The antidote to this is, of course, compassion.

 This is where we go deeper. Applying compassion is only a temporary solution, as I will have to keep re-applying it whenever I meet ‘People’. Better to use the reaction itself!

 Here I am revealing my own bias to Tibetan Dzogchen training. The very moment a reaction of aversion arises in the mind, the mind lights up, creating a luminous space – empty essence! The negative emotion reveals wisdom. If not recognised then – in the second milli-moment – the “I” takes over, creating dislike or even hatred. In the following moment, there is a reaction to that dislike or hatred, and aggression arises. The same principle applies to all the emotions.

 And this is why the basic meditation of clarity is so important, and should not be dismissed: it is this that stops the mental, karmic looping.

 All our illusory emotions are our path: it is said there are 84.000 of them stemming from the main three: desire, aversion and ignorance (which, in turn, stem from not recognising one’s true nature). Even though we can repeat words, will still have work to do…everyone – and every alien – knows this!

 To illustrate (and here I’m using words that are translated from Tibetan and Sanskrit): there is Ground, Path and Fruition.

Ground is our true nature.
Path is our confusion about our true nature.
Fruition is recognising that the Path never existed, and that we were the ground all along.

We have to walk before we can run
but we don’t have keep walking
when we can run!

 Between you and me,
I spent twenty five years walking
when I should have been running

According to my teacher,
I was stuck in idiot meditation.

 I was extremely angry.
Then everything changed!