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Manifesting the Truth |
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The most important thing we must do in this life is to experience our essence. When everything is gone—the youth, the wealth, the friends, and even our health—only the essence will matter; nothing else will matter. Even now, it is only the essence that makes life worth living. Remove the essence from life and all you have is a plastic flower. Remove the essence from love and all you have is a meaningless relationship. It is only the essence that gives meaning to life, to love, and to everything. Without the essence everything is meaningless. So, what is the essence? The essence is the Truth. To many, the essence is a mystery. But in fact, the Truth is no secret. The Truth is known by every soul: the Truth is the very core of our being, it is the center of our consciousness. But unless the Truth is in our heart (mind) we will not know it. To know the Truth we must fill our mind with Wisdom. Wisdom reveals our essence, and when the mind is established in wisdom, we experience our essence. We are human beings. Our ultimate purpose is to experience our essence (to know the Truth). We cannot rest until we have realized our Supreme Nature. This inner drive to attain excellence is a unique feature of our humanness. As human beings, we are compelled by our own nature to go beyond ourselves. Whatever great strides we make in the field of material progress, we will always remain unfulfilled until we have attained Self-Realization. This phrase, ‘Self-Realization’, is not an empty buzzword. Self-realization means to realize our essence. We could just as easily say ‘Essence-Realization’, or even better: ‘Truth-Realization.’ When we realize the Truth we have realized our own essence, and when that happens the mind is silenced (it rests in the Truth). If we are busy pursuing the goals of our mind we will never attain the goal of our soul. The soul has only one goal: the Essence. The essence is the goal and the mind is the goalkeeper. The mind is actually blocking us from experiencing our essence because the mind has so many goals of its own that it has no time for Self-Realization. We need to focus on what is real and not get caught up with the duality of our mind. Duality is a fiction that we create in our mind. When we make our mind one-pointed it becomes balanced and we see the truth. But when the mind is imbalanced we get caught up in our ego; we cling to our images and are unable to grasp the Truth. In fact, the untrained mind is not a goalkeeper at all, it is really just an image-keeper, and that is our problem. When the mind is trained to guard our character and noble nature (instead of protecting our self-image), then we can readily direct our energies to attain our Supreme Nature. ‘Training the mind’ means disciplining the mind with wisdom. When we discipline the mind with wisdom we make the mind both strong and humble. Disciplining the mind is not an intellectual exercise. Disciplining the mind involves regular daily practice: introspection, self-monitoring, adjusting, self-correcting, meditation, objectivity, discernment and intense effort. When we take control of our mind we are no longer ruled by our ego. It is that simple. If we succumb to the weaknesses of our mind then we are not free—instead, we are just slaves of our ego. We all know what the weaknesses of the mind are—to name just a few: annoyance, impatience, greed, laziness, harshness, lustfulness, overindulgence in entertainment, overeating, over-reacting, arrogance, stubbornness, etc., etc., etc. Let’s face it—we all have a lot of work to do! And we can only do this work while we are living, breathing, thinking, active, human beings—this is why it is so important that we maintain our health and prolong our life for as long as we can. It is very important that we do not lose sight of our real goal, our real purpose in life. We are not here just to enjoy petty pleasures and build a network of shallow relationships. If we do, we will definitely get caught in our own web of self-delusion. We need to become sensitive to our higher nature: we do not have to be sensitive to anything that is contrary to the truth. People who live in self-contradiction, whose thoughts and habits are contrary to their higher nature, can never be satisfied. One day this endless drama of life will come to a temporary close and it will be time for the intermission (death). At that time, the costume (of the body) will be removed and we will step off the stage and leave this life. When the curtain goes up again, the props will be changed and we will be playing yet another part, in another place and time. But if we have realized our essence, we will not get caught up in this drama of birth, life, and death. We will remain established in the core of our being, in the center of consciousness, and we will express our Real Nature. We will manifest the Truth. Om Tat Sat (So be it.) |