TRUTH is Here and Now

[Guest guest]

74 TRUTH IS HERE AND NOW PG364

 

M: Where is the dwelling place of truth where you could go in search

of it? And how will you know that you have found it? What touchstone

do you bring with you to test it? You are back at your initial

question: What is the proof of truth? There must be something wrong

with the question itself, for you tend to repeat it again and again.

Why do you ask what are the proofs of truth? Is it not because you do

not know truth first hand, and you are afraid that you may be

deceived? You imagine that truth is a thing which carries the

name `truth' and that it is advantageous to have it, provided it is

genuine. Hence your fear of being cheated. You are shopping for

truth, but you do not trust the merchants. You are afraid of

forgeries and imitations. 369

 

Q: I am not afraid of being cheated, I am afraid of cheating myself.

M: But you are cheating yourself in your ignorance of your true

motives. You are asking for truth, but in fact you merely seek

comfort, which you want to last for ever. Now, nothing, no state of

mind, can last for ever. In time and space there is always a limit,

because time and space themselves are limited. And in the timeless

the words `forever' have no meaning. The same with `the proof of

truth'. In the realm of non-duality everything is complete, its own

proof, meaning and purpose. Where all is one, no supports are needed.

You imagine that permanence is the proof of truth, that want last

longer is somehow more true. Time becomes the measure of truth. And

since time is the mind, the mind becomes the arbiter and searches

within itself the proof of truth – a task altogether impossible and

hopeless! 369

 

M: You are holding on to the need for a proof, a testimony, an

authority. You still imagine that truth needs pointing at and telling

you: `look, here is truth'. It is not so. Truth is not the result of

an effort, the end of a road. It is here and now, in the very longing

and the search for it. It is nearer than the mind and the body,

nearer than the sense `I am'. You do not see it because you look too

far away from yourself, outside your innermost being. You have

objectify truth and insist on your standard proofs and tests, which

apply only to things and thoughts. 370

 

M: You are not only qualified, but you are truth itself. Only you

mistake the false for the true.

 

M: The discovery of truth is in the discernment of the false. You can

know what is not. What is – you can only be. Knowledge is relative to

the known. In a way it is the counterpart of ignorance. Where

ignorance is not, where is the need of knowledge? By themselves

neither ignorance nor knowledge have being. They are only states of

mind, which again is but an appearance of movement in consciousness

which is in its essence immutable. 370

 

M: It is true that it often covers sheer ignorance. The mind can

operate with terms of its own making, it just can not go beyond

itself. That which is neither sensory nor mental, and yet without

which neither sensory nor the mental can exist, cannot be contained

in them. Do understand that the mind has its limits; to go beyond,

you must consent to silence. 370

 

M: Truth cannot be described, but it can be experienced. 370

 

M: Truth can be experienced, but it is not mere experience. I know it

and I can convey it, but only if you are open to it. To be open means

nothing else. 371

 

M: Truth is not a reward for good behavior, nor a prize for passing

some tests. It cannot be brought about. It is the primary, the

unborn, the ancient source of all that is. You are eligible because

you are. You need not merit truth. It is your own. Just stop running

away by running after. Stand still, be quiet. 371

 

M: You are quite right, but you need not stop there. Go beyond.

Neither consciousness, nor the `I am' at the center of it are you.

Your true being is entirely un-self-conscious, completely free from

all self-identification with whatever it may be, gross, subtle or

transcendental. 371

 

M: It is the other way round. To be, you must be nobody. To think

yourself to be something, or somebody, is death and hell. 371

 

M: The body is made of food, as the mind is made of thoughts. See

them as they are. Non-identification, when natural and spontaneous,

is liberation. You need not know what you are. Enough to know what

you are not. What you are you will never know, for ever discovery

reveals new dimensions to conquer. The unknown has no limits. 372

 

M: It means that ignorance never was. Truth is the discovery, not in

the discovered. And to discovery there is no beginning and no end.

Question the limits, go beyond, set yourself tasks apparently

impossible – that is the way. 372