Mystery and Materialism

Nothing has been explained. We know that matter is congealed energy, but of the ultimate nature of energy we know nothing but shadows. That Awareness should emerge from stacks of otherwise ordinary matter is a mystery of which not even the surface has been scratched.

The Times

2,500 years is a long time in human terms, and much has change since the days of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, and Plato. Oddly enough though, when thought of in terms of humanity awakening to the true nature of individual existence, all the changes are superficial. The industrial revolution, the advances in medical knowledge, the broad scope of physical science: all of these things are superficial and unnecessary to the fact of coming of age as a child of the Universe.

All the progress we have made in understanding and manipulating the world around us tells us nothing about "what is the who".  The behavioral sciences are making excellent progress in elucidating the genetic imperatives of our humanity, but the fact that there exists the possibility of an evolutionary leap to a higher plane of existence is generally considered exotic nonsense. The Enlightenment which is transformation of being has been around for a long time, and some of those enlightened beings have given their lives to the attempt give others a hand up (with varying degrees of success). More often than not the teachings of these beings get turned into a belief system when what they were trying to do is build a tool kit to enable genuine transformation of being. Belief is a powerful attenuator of truth, leading to a situation where the message is obscured by worship of the envelope.

The fact is so simple, and so mind bogglingly self evident, that it is invisible. Or perhaps like cave fish the hardware necessary to sight just isn't there. In any case, there is nothing about the times in which we find ourselves that would interfere with answering this simple question.


What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Secrets in Plain Sight

It is said that the Buddha when first enlightened was reticent to go public because he knew that the subtlety of his revelation was all but impossible for an ordinary being to grasp. Chuang Tzu (who lived about the same time as the Buddha) also goes on about the problem of subtlety for a complex mind, contrasting the Way of Heaven and the Way of Man. Plato had his Cave. What all were referring to was the fact that Transcendental Awareness is always first encountered completely identified with its host. When housed in a lion it serves the lion's purpose. When housed in a lamb it knows only lamb-ness.

One of the high purposes of the practice of austerities and of meditation is that resistance to the flow of our humanity reveals our humanity. Humanity is a conditioned state of Transcendental Awareness. Humanity is a condition of being made inevitable as the Awareness which is the substance of the universe makes its way to self recognition through the vehicle of living organisms.

The mind wants it's individuality, self expression, and so-on; well it can have them. But as long as Transcendental Awareness is a slave to its host where is the individuality in that? It is the self expression of an automaton. For the Enlightened being the body is the magic carpet and the mind is the wish-fulfilling gem.

The tree of life is a wondrous occurrence in the fabric of the universe. Transcendental Awareness is the sap of that tree, and Enlightenment is its finest flower.