Speaking from Stillness is a fun series transcribing unscripted thoughts while on morning dog walks in my jungle valley. I walk in stillness, then allow whatever arises to get recorded and transcribed. I try to keep them short. The transcript is lightly edited for clarity.
At our Pathfinder discussion last night, there was a question about ‘What is reality?’
Oh, I should mention that I’m sitting at the high altar, high above my little town, but it is Ferria today…well, this week. But the festivities really kicked up early this morning. And that below me is marching bands and marimba bands, and I think another one. And it’s 10 in the morning. It’s quite remarkable.
Now, I mention that because we are here, the pups and I, away from town, experiencing. Feels like we’re in the middle of it, but we’re far away.
But in the Pathfinder circle, the question was, ‘What is reality? And how do you know what reality is?’
And we got on the topic of Neti-Neti, which is an ancient approach. I believe it’s part of the self-inquiry approach…sure feels like it, if it isn’t.
But Neti-Neti is ‘Not this, not (that).’
And the simplest way to explain it is you identify ‘Who Am I?’ Or you ask the question, Who am I? And you identify by saying Neti-Neti. And you say Neti to everything which is not permanent. Everything which is transient. Everything that will, at some point, go away.
I am this body…it will physically go away. I am this mind…it will go away.
I am a brother, father, son, parent, family member, part of a community, an astronaut, an accountant.
And all of those things will go away, at some point. As your life will end, so will the lives of all the other people. At some point, you won’t be an astronaut anymore.
The question becomes, what is Real? What is Permanent? What is Truth?
My thoughts? No. If you stay still and don’t attach to a thought, it goes away.
My emotions? Same thing.
The music down below? The bombas which will explode at some point?
Nah. They are real in this moment. But they are Not permanent.
What remains the same?
And in this direct-path of self-inquiry, you get to…I Am.
In that…I Exist.
Now, you may say, but when your body goes away, you don’t exist anymore. But what is real? Existence Itself.
And with some significant time of Stillness and introspection and playing Neti-Neti, an answer becomes that ‘My Awareness of Existing has been the same’.
It has been un-changing throughout my entire existence. It does not get older. It is not influenced by outside actions. It is merely observing what occurs.
It’s that voice in your head observing, or that thought…‘that back there’...is Awareness.
And that is Existence.
And in the non-dual understanding, Awareness, Existence, Consciousness, the Tao, the Brahman…that is what Exists.
That is not-two. That is the fabric, the Infinite-field that is ‘Experiencing the Experience’.
Neti-Neti…Not this, not that.
But at the point of Stillness,
The point of Existence itself,
The Infinite-field,
That’s when the answer becomes…Yes.
