two ways of knowing

There are two ways of knowing something. One way is through learning, through listening and reading, learning from other people’s experience. Such knowledge is secondhand, indirect. Whilst there is nothing wrong with such knowledge, it will never be felt as our own truth. Deep down we will feel it is borrowed or inherited. It will remain somehow on the surface of our mind and never quite touch the depths of our being.

There is another way of knowing and that is through one’s own direct experience. This direct experience has a completely different flavour, different quality to it. It cannot be doubted. It cannot be argued against. It cannot be questioned even. For it is the simple direct experience of life.

It is this direct experience that the spiritual path relies upon. Yes, there is a role to play for study, for listening to teachers, for learning what we can from others, but the more significant part of the journey, of the work, is one’s own experience of life, looking into it, feeling it for oneself. From this direct experience can come insights. These insights or realisations come from deep within one’s own being, exploding within one and changing one, energetically, in some mysterious way.

These insights are coming from our innermost being and spreading out, reaching eventually to the surface levels of the mind. By this means we can become total in the realisation, not half-hearted, not partial, not merely intellectual. We will feel it with our whole being. So these insights, these realisations, mark significant steps along the way. But even these should not be clung to too much. For ultimately life is to be lived moment to moment, day to day, not relying on yesterday’s experiences, not depending on what has gone before. Eventually we feel everything, every moment, in its freshness, its uniqueness, directly, not filtered through our memories and our understandings derived of yesterday.

So, whilst these insights and realisations have a significant role to play in our spiritual path, do not become too attached to them. They are only part of the story and eventually even they are not where truth is found. The ultimate truth is what is in the present moment, undistorted by thoughts and understandings, completely fresh, never felt before, never to be felt again, the unique moment that is now. Ultimately this is where truth is found. But along the way welcome these realisations as they arise, learn from them, allow them to change you, and then drop them and let them go. Allow them to blow away in the wind and feel each day anew, as if you are newborn every morning.