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.
One of the great conundrums of the spiritual-path, of the Awakening Path, is how do you speak of Truth, of the journey, when in the reality…well, even the word reality…let’s just allow that this discussion will have to make concessions, or we won’t get anywhere.
The Truth is the reality isn’t path-walking. It makes it sound like you’re in a linear journey going somewhere, achieving something, getting to some place.
With the reality being…all of the journey can happen without ever moving your feet…as it’s a journey to Know Yourself.
Path-talking is also interesting. What are the right words to say? What are the right concepts? What are the right analogies?
And as each of us…I speaking, you listening to this…are in our Relative World…finite-beings existing as finite-beings, trying to describe The Infinite…our words can never be True. Our words can never be 100% accurate.
That’s why Paradox and analogy and metaphor are the bastions of all the mystics and sages through time, because it’s (only) possible to Know some things…intrinsically.
It’s also True that the more you Know, the more you realize that it’s so far beyond comprehension, for this little brain.
The same is for the great teachers and sages. They can but ‘Point at the Moon’. Sometimes they can point kind of directly at the Moon, other times it’s just pointing at the sky, and you have to make your way over to where the Moon might be. But they can never express in words the Moon itself.
The words, the stories, the paradoxes, the metaphors, can sometimes eliminate what is not the Moon…but it can never be the Moon.
I was reminded yesterday of the great Zen statement, ‘If I speak, I am a fool. If I remain silent, I am a coward.’
So path-talking is for those who wish to share about path-walking, and path-talking is non-specific at best, because words and finite senses can never capture Truth fully.
And path-walking is not literally a journey…especially when you realize where you arrive is right where you are…Now.
Ah, it’s hard to know when to talk and when to speak while walking on this path.
I think what’s best to know is there is no wrong way to speak. There is no wrong approach.
Anything that happens plays some need…or meets some need, and plays some role in Nature, whether we understand it or not. There’s no need or possibility for anything to be perfect.
I’m surrounded by trees with branches and limbs shooting off in weird and distorted and craggy knotted up directions. But taken as a whole, it’s perfect.
So accept that there is no perfectly expressed Truth,
Accept that there is no end-destination,
But it’s still a lovely way to live…is path-talking and path-walking.
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I am a Pathfinder, and help guide Truth-seekers on their Awakening Path. If this resonates and you’d like to investigate this approach, my website link is below. I’m happy to book a free introductory conversation to share a bit more!
