No God, No Enlightened Beings?

What if there was no God? No Enlightened beings? After all, they are only characters in books. The books talk about miracles, but has anyone seen them happen? Our problem is that we want to believe. So how do we know anything? Can we know what truth is on our own?

Have we been led by the nose for so long that we are unable to reason for ourselves? There is only one thing that I’ve ever read that shook me; “Do not take my word for truth; test it for yourself.” The Buddha (if he existed) is saying, we should see for ourselves. Whether he said this or not, it’s excellent advice. How else will we know?

But can I even trust myself? This creates an important question; what do we mean by ‘my’ ‘self’? Is this just an expression, or are we talking about two things – something looking at something else ? We cannot be what we see, can we?

I used to believe people because I didn’t know any better. Believing others confused my mind, but it was comforting to just believe – to accept that they were right – but their antics and behaviour were dogmatic, sentimental and unappealing.

Can we start afresh at the beginning now? Certainly. It’s just a matter of trusting seeing. ‘Seeing’ in this context means awareness. But what is it that is aware? We say, “I am”. What is ‘I’ or ‘we’? It’s the observer. Ah, but before we are aware of ‘I’, there is just awareness, just observation, just knowingness without knowing anything. It is that which is observing the ‘self’ in the mind. The mind is a construct (the same as self) and, all the while, awareness is present. Now, that is interesting.

Is awareness a tool for some entity we call ‘me’, or are we that very awareness? It is here that we become confused. Do we need other words? Is there esoteric understanding for the few, and exoteric understanding for the many? Esoteric is actual experience, while exoteric is belief without experience.

When considering awareness, is there anything more than this? Or is awareness a clear sheet with no writing on it? There is awareness staring at these words, and the same awareness is staring at the blank sheet. Awareness doesn’t change; only whatever it looks at changes.

To even think of God or Enlightened beings, there has to be awareness present first to consider this. In this state of awareness first, it has to be pure awareness.

I’ll leave it there.
You have to come to your own conclusions.

There are signs giving directions:
you just have to know which to take, and why.