the way we see....

Is what we see always what we see?

A man or a dog running through the snow

(& little pups in the trees)

A SHINING SILVER STREAM

The Stream of Life

If a shining silver stream had a mind like a human being it might lament, “Am I running in the right direction? Will I make it to the ocean? Why was I born a stream anyway? Why not a river? If only it would rain and rain, perhaps I could swell up and become a river. Then maybe my life would have meaning.” 

Meanwhile, the stream is just shining, just flowing towards the ocean. Meanwhile, life just goes on. 

The angels lovingly suggest that you jump wholeheartedly into the stream of your life. Trust that the stream knows the way, even when your mind does not. The stream of your life is intuitive, magical, intelligent, a bright and beautiful genius. Yes! It is a sparkling singing stream of light and wisdom carrying you where you need to be.

Doubt, fear, and self-criticism are blocks that keep us from flowing intelligently and enthusiastically with the stream of life. It pays to ask ourselves intelligent questions about the direction we are going. It pays to use the mind as a tool - not as a compass. The only accurate compass is the heart. 

When we let the mind take over, as though only it has sight and we are blind, we become prisoners of the mind. We get lost in the dark forest of ego. We forget we are a stream of light flowing through the dark forest to Light. We forget we can trust the heart. Instead of going within to find out what is true for us, we attach to and believe the vagrancies of the mind.

No matter. This is just what human beings do. Even getting lost in the dark forest of ego is not so dire. The heart knows the way. The heart lives in confidence because the heart is always connected to God. Into the heart flows a steady stream of intelligent intuition. 

You can always tap into this intuition. Ask God for help when you need it. Eventually, you will find yourself back in the flow. Maybe then you will realize you were never out of the flow - that every experience is just part of the stream of life. Maybe then you will be the ocean.

A Story of love and learning

Here is a story, created this moment, just for you. It happens to be about a little girl. She could have been anyone’s child. She could have been you.

A BOUQUET OF LOVE

One bright sunny day, this little girl was picking wild flowers in a meadow. Feeling like she was the warmth of the sun, she gathered her bouquet of purple and gold brightness and ran to her father, offering him this bundle of spontaneous love. Her father saw only miserable weeds that set off his miserable hay fever. He shouted at her to get them out of the house, asking how could she be such a stupid little girl, and where was her consideration?

The little girl did not know what consideration was, so she had no idea where hers could be, and she was afraid to ask. She was sure that if she had any, she would not be stupid. She ran outside, no longer feeling like she was the warm yellow sun. Her brightness faded, she sat under a tree with her flowers, consoling them, assuring them they were in no way stupid, or else how could they be so beautiful? Then she planted each one in the earth again, telling them she was sorry she had taken them from their homes, and promised never to do so again. 

The little girl pondered this event as the years passed and somewhere in the angels’ singing, since angels are always singing to little girls and big girls and people of all ages, she heard a song of wisdom: You are not the doer. The fruits of your actions belong not to you, but to God. And the little girl, who by now lived in a bigger body, hugged that song to her, and it comforted her way back to the time when her father had shouted at her and into the future when her own and other people's songs would be shouts.

As the years passed, she learned from these shouts. Sometimes people shouted loudly, sometimes silently. Deep within the angels’ whispers, she discovered that all shouts came from fear and ignorance. People were afraid to feel, so they shouted. People were afraid to tell the truth, so they shouted. People were afraid to love and be loved, so they shouted. People were afraid, so they hid behind shouts that were loud and shouts that were silent, wearing the disguises that pass for love, life, and intimacy. 

Time passed, as time has a way of doing, teaching what it teaches to those able to listen with their hearts. Time taught her to sing gentle songs, giving them away like candy. Once they were gone from her, she never looked back, knowing that gifts with strings attached were no gifts at all. 

One day, when the little girl lived in a body with skin that showed the passage of many lessons learned, she found she had become the bouquet of flowers. And people came from everywhere to catch the scent of her love. 

The angels will leave you to gather your own bouquet from this story, the way the little girl did. The joy of stories comes from listening with your heart. In this way, the story awakens the truth that lives inside you and that truth becomes your own. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essential Spiritual Writings

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882)

"The soul’s communication of truth is the highest event in nature … and this communication is an influx of the Divine Mind into our mind …. Every moment when the individual feels invaded by it is memorable.

It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.”

Gutenberg Press

Have you heard of the Gutenberg Press? The name comes from Johannes Gutenberg, a German scholar who invented the Gutenberg printing press in 1448. That’s quite a contribution to the world of writing and reading.

 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg). 

He was born in Mainz, a city I have often visited when in Germany. I once visited the Gutenberg Press in Mainz, which I liked so much, since I love books and writing. 

The reason I bring it up is because I want to tell you about Project Gutenberg—an online library which offers over 70,000 free eBooks. I download a book I want to read, then copy and paste it into my apple pages and change it to a font that is easy for me to read. They even have books in languages besides English, for example, Siddartha in German: 

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2499/pg2499.html.

You may find something you'd like to read on the site. It's a gift to have so many free books at your fingertips.

https://www.gutenberg.org/

YOU DO NOT EXIST

YOU DO NOT EXIST

You are either of the Kingdom of Heaven or you are not. Sickness is not a part of wholeness.

Don’t believe in people. No human being exists at all! I don’t, you don’t. Labels exist, but no people exist.

You have a name, a body, the tone of your voice. You have education or none. You are American or British. All these are attributes but your attributes are not you. It is because you believe they are that you have every grief you have.

And I know you don’t understand this at all.

I know right now while I am talking to you that you are not you. You still think you are “you,” a distinct, separate person. You are not.

When you understand that all you are is a temporary vehicle for the expression of life, then things become clear to you. And you cease to ask wrong questions because you already have the answer.

Life, God, the Whole expresses itself for a certain period of time through a physical body. Then, after a while, when God ceases to express Himself, to send energy through that temporary time-body, it ceases to walk around. But at no time did God say that you are you, distinct and opposite from the people in the next house.

Wholeness, Oneness, is life without names. Please don’t believe names are anything but a temporary convenience. To have a body is only a temporary convenience which is animated by cosmic energy. When this is withdrawn, “you” don’t die because “you” were never born!

A body came into the world, but it wasn’t you. Because you were unenlightened, you thought it was you. And everybody else said it was, so you swallowed it. Cosmic energy came into the world, but it wasn’t you.

You swear you were born, so therefore you think you are going to die; you fear that “you” are not going to continue. The purpose of this class is to withdraw such false information that you have about yourself, which causes fear.

You fear for the extinction of this temporary house you walk around in. You thought that your house was real, that when your physical body was no longer animated and walking around, you died. “You” didn’t die. “You” were never born, except in imagination which you wrongly think is Reality.

You thought your name and experiences were real. Upon the extinction of the energetic animation of your physical body, all that you called yourself disappears. But it was never anything more than a collection of beliefs that your body housed for awhile; you don’t take it into eternity.

There’s no way you can die because you were never born. “You” don’t die because there’s nothing to go into eternity. Eternity has no birth or death. 

The only reason you are afraid is because you’re identified with your name and experiences and want them to continue. But you know they won’t. 

You’re sure that you are you. You are not.

The fear of death will vanish—and can only vanish—when you know that you were never born! Understand this. You will then know who you really are.

 — Vernon Howard

The Guardian Angel

The angel had been bound to earth for hundreds of years, yet the angel lived in patience where time did not exist. For eons the angel had been speaking to humans, whispering words of love and encouragement into their ears. Most of the time, no one heard, although now and then the angel saw in someone's eyes a glimmer of understanding.

This angel was presently guarding a small child whose skin was white as snow, though it was no fairy tale, for the child had been sick with some earthly disease for a long time. The child lay in a bed, blending into white sheets, surrounded by family members who were trying not to cry. And the child, who knew what courage was, whispered, “It's okay to cry because I am going away.”

And the angel smiled and wrapped its love around the boy and touched the hearts of his parents, grandparents, and little brothers. As the angel touched their hearts, it knew the anguish in those hearts. The angel could have moved away, spared itself this pain, but it only moved closer, giving off its strength. 

The child's father forgot not to cry. Tears fell down his unshaven face. The little boy wanted to reach up and touch that face one last time, but he had no strength. Sensing this, the unseen angel helped the boy raise his arm. As the child touched his father's scratchy wet face one last time, father and son felt a great peace, for the truth of tears is better than the pretense of smiles.

Then the mother cradled her child in her arms. The grandparents cradled their own children, this mother and father. And the angel of God bound them all together with its love and spoke to the child, saying, “It is time.” The child heard a voice like bells and looked upon the face of the angel for the first time. The family could not see the angel, but they saw the years of pain and fighting the disease fade away as the child's face began to glow.

“I will show you,” smiled the angel, forgetting everything now except the child. “Look!” The angel pointed to the Light. Seeing the Light, the boy breathed a last sigh and closed his eyes in peace. 

The angel departed with the soul essence of the child, guiding him to the Light. And the family was not alone. The room was alive with angels, embracing the family, whispering words of love, holding their sorrow, taking what pain they could unto themselves.

As the angel guided the child to the Light, the angel felt the power of the Light, and longed to return to the Light, but its task was upon earth. The angel did not linger in pain or longing. It lovingly watched the boy merge into the Light, then turned and made its way back to earth.

The angel did not stop to ask why, did not hesitate, did not question the way of the world or of God. It simply went on to its next task. It was just in time to catch a young teenager as she fell from a speeding car whose door had become unlatched. The girl would later tell a wondrous story of a Being of Light that caught her in its arms, saving her from the hard pavement of the road. And the angel was already gone, onto its next task, fully present in the moment.

THAT SINKING FEELING...

We all know that sinking feeling, don't we? You know — that feeling in the pit of your stomach — or pain in your heart — 

which happens when you get that piece of mail from some bureaucratic  authority, or the government, or maybe a credit card ...

or that email that says your google account has been suspended (that just happened to me ... it was their mistake, but I still had to spend time fixing it)

the stock market is crashing (if you happen to have invested in it) ...

you are rejected for a job, abandoned by a partner, you miss your train

you lose your mobile phone ... you spill your coffee ...

YOU are not that feeling. NOT that fear. NOT that despair. NOT that anxiety. NOT that reaction. NOT that ego Neti! Neti!

Dearest One, 

Lovely Light of God, 

Do NOT give the outer world permission to control you.

meditation on taking yourself as lightly as angels do

Is there anyone in your life who says “mean” things to you, “pushes your buttons,”? If so, you are invited to visualize that person standing before you right now, saying the things that usually upset you.

Where does that person’s power over you—the power to make you feel bad—come from? Can you see that you are the one who gives power to that person’s words? You are the one who gives that person power over your state of being.

Observe your breathing. Observe your thoughts and your emotions. Do you really see the person—or do you see your thoughts about the person?

Imagine yourself fully involved in the drama, the way you sometimes are with this person. Give yourself the starring role. Put yourself at center stage—and watch the drama unfold . . . 

The person slings arrows at you in the form of words. You glare and open your mouth to shoot an arrow back—when suddenly—you hear laughter emanating from somewhere. You stop, mouth still open, and look around you.  

You gaze in amazement! You are surrounded by angels. An audience of angels. Laughing angels. Why not? Angels know you are not the drama you take yourself to be.

You look back at your friend/enemy and realize that he (or she) cannot see the angels. He hurls another insult at you. It hits you square in the solar plexus and instantly you feel heavy and serious again. You glance sideways at the angels. They are still laughing! You scowl indignantly. How can anyone laugh at a time like this?

You feel stress and tension building in your shoulders and in the room. You scowl harder. The harder you scowl, the harder the angels laugh. Soon the angels are rolling on the floor, bubbling over with angelic laughter. You gaze with wonder at the laughing angels. You see love beaming from their eyes. You see endless patience. You see light. 

You turn to the person you have been arguing with. You are astonished to see that he looks just like you! You move your hand and he moves his. You scowl and he scowls. As you gaze at this person who looks like you, he begins to metamorphose right before your eyes... 

He is turning green—lime-green! He is turning into jello. Before your astonished eyes, he turns into lime-green jello, talking, gesturing, and scowling—a quivering sparkling blob of lime-green jello, translucent, that the light shines through—like a halo!

You look down at your own body. It has also become a blob of lime-green jello, translucent, that the light shines through—like a halo!

You peek at the angels. They are standing still and serene. They encompass you in a circle of light. Smiles quiver on their faces. Suddenly you understand their laughter. You turn your attention back to the blob of jello wobbling before you, talking very seriously, unaware of the angels. All you see is light shining like a halo through sparkling lime-green jello.

You can breathe again! You can take a deep breath of fresh air and let it go. You see what the angels have always seen—you are free! You have always been free. The light shines, radiates, and sparkles around you. The light shines, radiates, and sparkles around the other person.

 Words continue to come out of his mouth, only now everything is moving in slow motion. You can see each word. You can grasp each word and hold onto it, if you like. Or you can let the words go, let them flow into the atmosphere, and dissolve somewhere in space. You are that free!

You smile upon the person. You breathe deeply. You are that free! You always have been. You turn toward the angels. You wink at these heavenly messengers. The angels dissolve into laughter. Or maybe jello—jello of all colors—strawberry, lime, grape, and cherry, translucent, that the light shines through, like a halo!

With love, light, and laughter,

your teacher & the angels

The Great Way

Hsin Hsin Ming

Verses on the Faith Mind
by Chien-chih Seng-ts'an 
Third Zen Patriarch [606AD] 

Translated by Richard B. Clarke

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.

Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.
To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment,
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.

Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend, 
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

Things are objects because there is a subject or mind;
and the mind is a subject because there are objects.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

To live in the Great Way
is neither easy nor difficult.
But those with limited views
are fearful and irresolute;
the faster they hurry, the slower they go.

Clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.

Obey the nature of things
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear.
The burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the One Way
do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.

The wise man strives to no goals
but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams of flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong;
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.

To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.
Consider motion in stillness
and stillness in motion;
both movement and stillness disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.

For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind's power.
Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say when doubt arises, "Not two."
In this "not two" nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small;
no difference, for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.
Waste no time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.

One thing, all things;
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.
To live in this faith is the road to nonduality,
because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.

Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is

no yesterday

no tomorrow.

A Grandmother Story

This event, which is now a story, really happened. You can decide for yourself if it is true. There are only two characters in this story. One of them happens to be a Wise Woman, although no one ever thought of her in this way when she was alive. 

There was this very old grandmother who was on her deathbed. Before she died, she called one of her granddaughters to her. She had thirteen grandchildren but she only called this one. The grandmother had been an ordinary grandmother, or so the granddaughter thought. The grandmother looked into her granddaughter’s cool green eyes with her own eyes which burned like fire in her shriveled face and whispered to her, “Little girl, I want to tell you three things.” 

The granddaughter, who was around twenty at the time, nodded respectfully, and leaned forward to listen. This is what the grandmother told her, “All there is IS. The will of God is all there is. You do not exist.”

The angels will leave you these words to ponder, the way the wise grandmother left them for her granddaughter to ponder through the years when the grandmother would no longer be walking upon the face of the earth.

The Secret of Life

Life is just a bowl of cherries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9kAd8Mygpw

This guy was looking for the secret of life. He had been looking for the secret of life for fifteen or twenty years. His search finally led him to India. He traveled all around India, asking everyone he met for the secret of life. 

Finally, he was directed to the Himalayas where he spent another year or so, climbing and searching and asking his question. Everywhere he went, no one knew the answer. Then he began to hear rumblings about an ancient teacher, who was rumored to know the secret of life.

One day, after a grueling climb, he reached the mouth of a small cave and—lo and behold! There sat the very man he had heard about!  

The old sage fixed him with a piercing gaze, and said, “Ah, you have come at last, my son. What can I do for you?”  

The guy felt so elated! He knew he had found the guru who was going to give him the answer he had been seeking for so long. So he asked him the question he had been asking everyone, “What is the secret of life?” 

The wise all-knowing guru squinted his eyes, and the guy was sure he saw a spark of light emanate from them. He waited with bated breath—at last the secret would be his!

The guru stretched, gave a big yawn, and then relaxed with a long sigh. A serene smile danced across his face and his eyes twinkled as he replied, “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” 

The seeker gasped, “What! I’ve been traveling for twenty-five years all over the world, seeking the meaning of life. I climbed all the way up this mountain just to find you, and you tell me life is just a bowl of cherries!” 

The ancient sage blinked his eyes, “You mean, it isn’t?”

A safe haven

The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. —Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Good Morning Nearest & Dearest,

You really are nearest & dearest to my heart and soul—because we can commune Together with One Heart—at the Soul level. In speaking to those who live only at the level of the world, have you noticed that at times it is as if you are speaking another language? 

You may remember this from the angels: Although angels speak another language from humans, they understand the language of the heart, so they can converse with anyone. The only language that really matters is the only language angels care about: The Language of the Heart. The language of the heart is the universal language of peace.

Some of you may know or remember that in January 2021, a Tuxedo Cat found me in a parking lot one icy cold night as I stepped out of the woods, where I had been walking (yes, I sometimes walk alone at night in the dark woods). I heard a cat crying and there he was, huddled in a ball of cold, as if he was waiting for me. He moved away each time I came near, and I gently followed him, pausing each time he did, around the entire parking lot, till we ended at my car and I was able to pick him up.

I stopped at a store to buy him food. He was nervous and slept somewhere in the living room when I went to bed. I was very aware of another presence in my house. And determined that I did not want a cat.

I tried very hard to find his home, but no one answered my posts, and I could not find him in any lost posts. And I fell in love with him. He had found a home where he would be loved and cared for—my home, which became his home.

He was very shy and would run and hide when anyone else came to my house. But he always trusted me. It was as if we were two souls who had reunited. I named him Emerson Charm. He was about 1 year or so old.

When dear sweet Emerson Charm came to me, he was at first afraid. He didn’t know how to respond to loving touch. His claws automatically came out and my hands suffered many scratches. I made a conscious determination to never be harsh with him. I continued to be soft and gentle and he transformed—or rather, he melted into his true being.

I wanted to give him a chance to be as he was, not confine him in a box of my definitions. I did it imperfectly because I am imperfect, but I did it. We had a close and loving relationship. He had the freedom to come and go and roam the woods and he always had a safe haven to return to. His home held no hostility or anger. I never spoke harshly to him. He died only a year and half later, from a fatal disease, though I tried hard to save his life.

I miss him greatly. He was so young, and so wise and true.

Can we create this same gentle loving home within ourselves, which I created for Emerson? Even when the world outside is not so loving? Even when people speak harshly to us? Even when it seems the world is speaking another language from us? Then you always have a safe haven to return to, no matter how harsh the world is. 

Much love, as always,

CHRISTMAS 2022

For those of you who take a moment to visit, here is a Christmas Angel I made.

This Christmas season in the states has been very cold ... something called a cyclone bomb. Blowing frigid air and snow. 

Where I live, we didn't get so much snow, but the temperatures have been as much as 30 below zero. I have never experienced such cold before.

It makes me more grateful for a warm home and enough food. My power did go out for a while, which means no heat. And I thought of people in Ukraine who are going through winter with no heat, no water, not enough food. I wish them well from afar. War is a horrible thing.

We must widen our circle of acceptance to include all the suffering there is ... and so allow it to be transformed into love. In this way, we serve as angels serve, by being positive transformers. 

We can only accept our limitations, our inability to change what is beyond our control ... especially in a country far away where insanity has taken over. The cruelty and greed of one man ... only one man ... is enough to send human beings to be killed and kill other human beings in a terrible useless war.

There has always been war, for as long as human memory can remember. While we cannot stop the wars outside of us ... we can see the wars we fight within. What we See ... become aware of ... can be changed. Something Higher than our small will can enter into us and transform darkness into light.

So be of good cheer. It is of no use to become depressed over things you cannot control. As the angels always say ... Be of Good Cheer. Goodness and Cheerfulness have a power to help heal and transform ... while depression and hopelessness can only duplicate themselves over and over. 

With love on this Christmas Day.

Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti 

11/20/2019

Question: Why do you decry religion, which obviously contains grains of truth? Why throw out the baby with the bath water? Need not truth be recognized wherever it is found?

Krishnamurti: Sirs, what do you mean by religion?  Organized dogma, belief, rituals, worshipping any person however great, reciting prayers, repeating Shastras, quoting the Bible — is that religion?  

Or is religion the search for truth or God?  

Can you find God through organized belief? By your calling yourself a Hindu and following all the rituals of Hinduism or of any other "ism", will you find God or truth? Surely, what I decry is not religion, not the search for reality, but organized belief with its dogmas and separative forces and influences.  

We are not seeking reality, but are caught in the net of organized beliefs, repetitive rituals — you know the whole business of it — which I call nonsense, because they are drugs that distract the mind from seeking. They offer escapes, and thereby make the mind dull, ineffective.

So, as our minds are caught in the net of organized beliefs with their whole system of authorities, priests and gurus, all of which are engendered through fear and the desire for certainty — as we are caught in that net, obviously, we cannot merely accept, we must enquire, we must look directly, experience directly, and see what it is we are caught in and why we are caught.  

Because my great grandfather did some ritual, or my mother is going to cry if I do not do it, therefore I must do it?  

Surely, such a man, who is psychologically dependent on others, and hence fearful, is incapable of finding out what truth is. He may talk about it, he may repeat the name of God umpteen times, but he is nowhere, he has no reality. Reality will shun him, because he is encased in his own prejudices and fears.  

And you are responsible for this organized religion, whether of the East or of the West, whether of the left or of the right, which, being based on authority, has separated man from man. Why do you want authority, either of the past or of the present?  

You want authority because you are confused, you are in pain, in anxiety, there is loneliness and you are suffering. Therefore, you want help from outside; so you create authority, whether political or religious, and having created that authority, you follow its directions, hoping that the confusion, the anxiety, the pain in your heart, will be removed. Can another remove your pains, your sorrows? Others may help you to escape from sorrow, but it is always there.

So, it is you who create authority and having created the authority, you become its slaves. Belief is a product of authority and because you want to escape from confusion, you are caught in belief and therefore continue in confusion.  

Your leaders are the outcome of your confusion, therefore they must be confused. You would never follow anyone if you were clear, unconfused and directly experiencing. It is because you are confused that there is no direct experience. Out of your confusion you create the leader, organized religion, separative worship, which brings about the strife that is going on in the world at the present time.  

In India it is taking the form of communal conflicts between the Mussalmans and the Hindus, in Europe it is the communists against the rightists, and so on and on. If you look into it carefully, analyze it, you will see that it is all based on authority, one person says this and another person says that. And authority is created by you and me because we are confused. This may sound oversimplified verbally, but if you go into it, it is not simple, it is extremely complex.  

Being confused, you want to be led out — which means you are not understanding the problem of confusion, you are only seeking an escape. To understand confusion, you must understand the person who is making the confusion, which is yourself, and without understanding yourself what is the good of following somebody?  

Being confused, do you think you will find truth in any practice or organized religion? Though you may study the Upanishads, the Gita, the Bible, or any other book, do you think that you are capable of reading the truth of it when you yourself are confused? You will translate what you read according to your confusion, your likes and dislikes, your prejudices, your conditioning.  

Your approach, surely, is not to reality. To find truth, Sir, is to understand yourself. Then truth comes to you, you do not have to go to truth — and that is the beauty of it. If you go to truth, that which you approach is projected out of yourself, and therefore it is not truth. Then it becomes merely a process of self-hypnosis, which is organized religion.  

To find truth, for truth to come to you, you must see very clearly your own prejudices, opinions, ideas, and conclusions — and that clarity comes through the freedom which is virtue. For the virtuous mind, there is truth everywhere. Then you do not belong to any organized religion, then you are free.

So truth comes into being when the mind is capable of receiving it, when the heart is empty of the things of the mind. At present our hearts are full of the things of the mind; and when the heart frees itself of the mind, then it is receptive, sensitive to reality.