Once a Zen master announced it was time for him to step down and one of his disciples was to succeed him. He decided that the disciple who best summarised their learning in a sentence would be his successor. The learning had to be original was his only condition.
One of his very bright disciples wrote, "The human mind is like a mirror on which, over time, the dust of experience and knowledge accumulates; clear the dust and then the free mind is settled in truth."
All the disciples thought that this could be the best answer there was, but were surprised when the master rejected it outright. In the monastery was a young boy who had come into the monastery for learning, but had been asked by his master to go away. The boy stayed at the monastery working in the granary grinding rice 12 hours a day every day for the past 12 years waiting for his master to call him.
When the rice grinder boy heard about the quote, that the master had discarded, he agreed with the master stating that this is not the supreme truth. The disciples mocked him and said if he knew better, he should come up with a better quote.
The rice grinder boy wrote - "what mirror and which dust, there is no mirror and no dust. The one who knows this is always stationed in truth."
The master saw the quote and immediately anointed the boy as his true heir.
The boy had realised the truth and the master recognised it as soon as he saw the writing. As it is in the story, the boy recognised that all that appears is changing and hence not the truth. What then remains unchanged is the truth.
The truth is the existence is appearing to itself as illusionary experiences. The essence of existence is emptiness, it is devoid of concepts, ideas and substance, just empty. When a seeker is in the state of experiencing, presence or being, the seeker realises this and then becomes one with existence.
However for purposes of survival, all of us have established what we call as relative truths and the criteria used can be as strict as the one used by the boy in which case only the true self that is changeless, ageless, birth less, deathless and eternal is the truth, everything else is an illusion. If on the other hand a more relaxed criteria is used for measuring truth such as that which my direct experience tells me as truth is the truth or that which logic says is the truth is true, you arrive at relative truths, based on individual direct experiences.
Does that mean that we can't trust what others are saying if everything that changes is false or an illusion ?
For the purposes of day to day living or survival we have to accept untruths into our decision making process as otherwise we will not be able to make decisions that help us survive. For instance one can argue that the body itself is an illusion as it is changing, as is death, so believing this one can jump from a hill thinking that they will not die because death is an illusion. This type of reasoning is foolish as it ignores the basic laws of survival and the need to take necessary precautions to preserve the body in order for the being to survive. Similarly for the purposes of survival the body needs food, clothing and shelter to a certain level, beyond which it is unnecessary.
What is the purpose of knowing the greater truth, when I still have to make decisions using relative truths ?
Once the universal truth is known, then the being can easily discard the unnecessary. For example once it is known that all that appears is an illusion, then running after experiences stops, whether it be physical objects, concepts or relationships or other experiences. Everything is then seen from the perspective of the truth and all entanglements with false hood drop, till one only does that which is necessary for survival and the rest is discarded. Most people are slaves of their minds, which continually keep them in their past or the future, expending energy. Once the truth is known, all this unnecessary wastage of energy stops and one then only deals with relative truths that are necessary.
Does that mean that even the knowledge I have gathered is unnecessary and if so what knowledge is necessary ?
There is some knowledge that is required for survival and hence it is necessary, everything else is unnecessary. It is worth noting that knowledge is just information gathered about all that appears, which once understood to be illusory is really the knowledge of the illusion. What purpose can this knowledge serve if it does not help survival. Once a person looks at knowledge from this perspective, it is observed that most of the information that has been collected is of no use.
Other than the knowledge required for survival, the only other knowledge that is necessary is the knowledge of the self, the knowledge of the illusion and oneness. Once this knowledge is gained, everything else becomes unnecessary.
What about all the spiritual knowledge that is in various scriptures, which eventually provides various techniques to find the truth ?
If we establish a very strict criteria that, all that changes is not the truth, then using this criteria all the below sources are not reliable as sources of knowledge -
- Spoken word - as it continually changes and is based on the speaker and their interpretations.
- Written word - is written based on the perceptions of the writer.
- Any object, concept or experience that can be perceived.
The above immediately discounts, scriptures, books, media, teachers, even the gurus, everything.
If that is the case then how can I find the truth ?
To find the absolute truth the traditional method of gaining knowledge, which is cumulative or additive is not appropriate. From childhood we are taught the alphabet, the numbers and these are then used as building blocks to construct sentences, communicate and understand all aspects of the illusion. We have been taught to build layer upon layer of information, mostly from unverified sources, some on beliefs, some on conditionings and these we call knowledge. This knowledge is flawed as it is based on the errors of perception and unreliable sources. Hence this type of knowledge is very unreliable for arriving at the truth and to a large extent in decision making for survival.
There is another way of arriving at the truth called negative knowledge, which examines all that appears and discards it one by one based on the strict criteria of truth, that if it changes, it is not the truth and using this criteria what then remains is the truth. This method is very effective at especially identifying truths of concepts that are unknowable. Not only is this approach useful in arriving at the truth, but it also assists in discerning between reliable unreliable sources of knowledge. This method is ideal for removal of ignorance and living a life free from indoctrinations and false beliefs.
In summary all that changes is not the truth, however to navigate through this illusion we need to make decisions based on what we call as relative truths all of which are based on sources of information and knowledge that are illusory. The only truth that exists is all that is, is the existence, which in essence is empty and is appearing to itself as illusionary experiences. When the seeker abides in the state of presence, the seeker becomes one with the existence and the truth.