CHAPTER TWO
July 15th, 2024. The only truth that is True is beyond Existence. It is Life.
Beginning
Because Life is beyond mind and language, to increase its presence in Existence we have to make openings within the mind and reduce language chatter.
The first way to go about this is by literally making space in our Existence – simplifying. The second way is to cultivate stillness, stop running and slow down the treadmill. And the third way is silence. No, that does not mean you have to give up everything, quit what you’re doing, or shave-your-head-sit-and-meditate for the rest of your Existence. [Though you might think about it!].
Why simplify? Stuff is Existence not existence. It’s the habit of inflating essential needs into greed, a grasping driven by the fear of inadequacy that has become a habit of over accumulation. And having much takes much of our attention, when our Intention is to
Give attention to Life
More space makes room to cultivate inner stillness. To aid that, it is good to practice being still. Simplifying and stillness begin to dismantle the habits [prison bars] of Existence. But like a creature that has only known imprisonment, facing the open gates to freedom is scary, one draws back uncertain of giving up the absolute security of a life-sentence. So, we continue to hang on to stuff and stay on the treadmill.
But, if we at least hold to and remind ourselves that this is only Existence, and there is a greater truth subtending it we may just consolidate our Intention toward Life. In so doing we begin to slow down our accumulations a little, slow down the treadmill each day and
Give ourselves some breathing time.
Most people have the greatest difficulty with silence. That is, the absence of the pendulum swinging between past and future, memories and desires. Silence insists on the moment. And the moment is the opening to Life. If Simplicity and stillness open the prison gates, silence of the moment totally dismantles the prison.
Simplify as best you can, slowdown as best you can, and hold an Intention to Life as best you can. I shall return to this with further encouragement and practices next time.
Humanity
Humanity has a serious problem with self-identity. We have become obsessed with ourselves, overriding the natural process of the symbiotic relationship with what we take to be the superiority of our individual and collective ego. Because we can, we do, giving little thought to how what we do affects others or the natural world we inhabit.
Thus, by degrees of ignorance we have constructed an Existence that holds us prisoner to our fears.
We have dislocated ourselves from the only certainty, Life.
IF
we humans and our sentient cousins are going to survive into the future years and generations, there will have to be a great change. There will be an upheaval in the way we exist on this planet. What will be needed to shoulder the challenge of this change will be a sustaining of our inner fortitude.
How may we do that
The first thing we need to do is be searingly truthful. We all, almost without exception, have become entangled in lies, half-truths, beliefs and opinions based on nothing but what we want. Untangling anything is a slow process. We need patience in opposition to the speed and greed that we have so far lived.
To begin unravelling this dilemma, I’ll take you back to what turned out to be my starting point: The death of my son Malcolm. He had been in this world just over three months when he died. Like all shocked young parents, I wanted answers. More than anything I wanted the why answered, because it made no sense, and we live an existence of senses. Things, we think, should make sense, have reasons, be reasonable. Such expectations are the product of a controlling mind; an ego desire for absolute security of body, mind, desires, and the future.
We look for and grasp to patterns: birth and growth of a child is like this; growing and maturing is like this, it has markers we come to rely on; old age has its predictable signs.
Having noticed how plants grow we started to harvest their seeds and take over where and when to plant. We have laid our mind and hand to every aspect of nature. The history of our species is of such actions, we sought to leave nothing to chance.
We took control, burying that complex symbiotic relationship between Life and its expression, in Existence-Arrogance.
Then out of nowhere the anarchy of the natural world; the hurricane generator, the tsunami maker, the earthquake earth-breaker, throws a curved ball. A baby dies (when it shouldn’t!). And we are brought to think much harder than we ever wanted to about what we have buried.
Because the reasonable answers from our controlled Existence don’t come anywhere near satisfying us. We somehow realize they are not Truth.
Truth?
If we pursue our search for what is true along any conventional lines of thought; philosophy, psychology, theology, we soon realize we don’t know what we’re looking for.
Truth cannot be framed with the thoughts and language of Existence.
The best we can manage is ‘relative’ statements; ‘this apple is red’. We agree on the terms but can have no idea what those word-indicators produce in the perception of anyone – what actual color, hue, shade, is seen, and how that perception affects a given individual. In the case of the color of an apple it's enough that our ‘accepted’ truth serves its purpose.
But our perception is forced beyond acceptance of circumstance when such a circumstance slices Existence in half. When what is greater than Existence, breaks the comfortable imprisonment we have secured ourselves in.
It turns out that Truth, like Life, is far more than the existence condition we inhabit, it is more than the limited idea we have in our minds.
The words we use framing that idea, ‘the truth’, like the words ‘life’ and ‘death’ are only useful to existence. When we talk of being truthful, we mean being honest in describing existence, hence the scientist, dealing with the material world can search for the truth of the world. But s/he cannot know Truth as that which subtends and is woven into the world of existence.
Relying solely on ‘scientific’ truth we have over many centuries advanced Existence over existence. We have constructed our politics, philosophies and theologies, in the same way we have built and accumulated the fabric of Existence. (f) This is why humanity has arrived at such a critical point.
Truth
Two fundamental questions sit in our minds, either consciously or unconsciously.
What is the Truth of our being here, and where do we go when we die?
The first question arises from the vitality of our being, it’s a search open to that which lays outside of the confines and temporariness of existence. The second reveals our fear in the absence of a True answer to the first question.
One cannot search for Truth. Even to use the word Truth is pointlessly inaccurate, for what it is when present has no thought-form, therefore no linguistic signifier. I use the word here solely to place a marker at the exit from existence.
For it is only when existence is in release that Truth shows its presence.
These two word markers ‘Life’ and ‘Truth’ are synonymous, they are of the one releasing effect.
That release can only be experienced with an open heart that is stronger than the controlling mind.
It occurs when one’s Intention rests continuously in the heart, and the mind is silenced. The starting point for change lay in one’s Intention being strong yet free of control or expectation of outcome.
It is not easy to let go and trust Life to take over our existence, and even if we manage for a moment the experience of absolute Truth is so outside of our sense realm that we initially draw back and re-seize control. Because of course we equate ‘losing one’s senses’ with going mad. So, we must make time and take time to transition from the prison of Existence to the freedom of Life.
After making some effort to simplify, slow and quieten, here are the first stages one can follow to set a gradual path toward opening to Life.
First stage: Fully accepting this (new) relationship between existence and Life, such that we have let go of the old false life / death duality. [NB language affects perception].
Second stage: Maintaining Intention to give our attention to Life until (heart) trust grows beyond the ego (mind). [An easing acceptance reducing mind tension].
Third stage: Establishing timed breaks from Existence to turn exclusively to Life, using meditation. [By meditation I mean simply keeping a gentle focus on Life. Remember it’s just a word – loosen any hold on it, give the idea space in the heart, and be silent].
The fourth stage is a deep functioning of the Life-existence interaction, when one experiences signs, and movements engendered directly by Life, beyond the ego’s control. This is when Life happens to us, and we may falter and want to take back control.
I will offer notes on this complex symbiotic functioning further along in these teachings.
The incremental diminishment of ego control, fear, greed, desires etc., is accompanied by a corresponding growth and absolute confidence in Life’s impulse to carry one toward the true reality that is existence-Life.
In these offerings I shall return many times to the topics and practices with further explanations and meanings to help with understanding. Real clarity comes with a strong Intention and application to practice. Try to establish the first two stages – that much will be transformative, a beginning to the dissolution of Existence over existence.
May you be well, may your days and nights be filled with Life.
Comments and questions - sucinno@hotmail.com Subject: Nearlife.
(f) FOOTNOTES
We have constructed our politics, philosophies and theologies in the same way we have built and accumulated the fabric of Existence.
This statement refers to our thinking being generated within, and confined to existence, developing into Existence thinking. An example is the projection of self-formulated anthropomorphic gods that have become consolidated into a super-god that determines fate according to our submission to him. It denies the symbiotic equal exchange between actuals and potentials in the Life field.
In a similar manner our philosophies, and politics begin and end with our concerns with ‘what is self’, what do I / we want – to be happy, when it is clear that ‘happiness’ is a temporary state not a goal. Our whole intention is thus corrupted by the confines of our Existence imprisonment and has no ultimate meaning.
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