Let’s Start From The Beginning … Again

It’s the place to be!

We want to be happy, but we aren’t. We seek something better, but we can’t find it. We know there is more to us, but we can’t verbalise this. We are dissatisfied with inappropriate rationalisations.

We’re doing exactly what the Buddha did – asking what is happening. But maybe we shouldn’t jump in too quickly for an answer.

There is a reason why we seek something better as there’s so much that disturbs the mind. It is easy to say that the cause of suffering is an identification with a self, but first we have to recognise what this self is, what holds it together and why it causes suffering.

The idea of self
is a programme running in the mind
that consciousness – our true being – clings to.

It is this idea of self that makes us feel vulnerable. We join a tradition or group and immediately we feel like crap – the dregs of beer. 🙂 This feeling of inferiority makes us desperate to appear as if we’re in the know – maybe even over-enthusiastic, zealots!

The start of our investigation is not about joining others; this only leads to conformity. The problem with jumping into a spiritual tradition is we have to lump it or leave it. We can’t question it, and we have to accept everything it says (which is very fishy). A tradition is something set; change isn’t welcome, and why should it be? We have to test the integrity of the atmosphere.

When people think of spirituality, what do they imagine? A beautiful building, rituals, robes, special words, all of which have nothing to do with their daily life? The work is to realise that enlightenment is in everyday action and reaction, and not in chanting or wishful projections.

When speech is limited or there are things we cannot say, we lose the faculty to express how it is for us. We can no longer can think for ourselves, so we borrow from others – and that turns spirituality into spiritual materialism. Unfortunately, this twist puts us in a conundrum.

Our beginning is pure consciousness,
the moment before we believe others.

To recognise evil’s distraction at work in the world,
we merely have to meditate
to see what consciousness clings to.