contradiction

Do not pay much attention to any teaching, however wise,
for all teachings are relative and what you seek is the absolute

Have you noticed how much the great masters contradict themselves, saying one thing one day, and the opposite the next? This is a sign of a deep understanding, because all these understandings are relative. They are seeing life in a dualistic way, referring to it dualistically. There is this and that, and one day we should move towards this, and the next day we should move towards that. This is the nature of the mind and of words. It is like being in a bouncy castle, jumping around, falling this way and that. There is no right direction or wrong direction. We are just ping pong balls being pushed around, blown around, thrown around, jumping around, bouncing off each other, going this way and that chaotically. There’s no harm in it, but it is not what we are looking for with the spiritual journey. We are concerned here with the absolute, but one way of coming to the absolute is to realise, deeply, the relativity of all that is not the absolute, of all this manifestation, especially of thoughts and words, of ideas, hopes, desires. These are relative things. There is no truth in them. They are not the absolute. And our actions, anything we do, these actions are also relative, born of the relative mind. We move in a dualistic world and what we are seeking is the unmoving. What we are seeking is stillness: that point within us which is our very essence, unchanging, unmoving.

If you listen to a teacher and he or she seems to be very consistent, giving just one argument, pushing you in one direction, be wary. You are only seeing half a picture and it is not what you are looking for. Pay more attention to those teachers who are forever contradicting themselves, saying one thing and immediately the exact opposite. This will be disturbing to your mind but that is the whole point, because your mind cannot know truth, your mind cannot embrace infinity, the absolute. Your being is that and you can come to dwell in your being once more. You can come to abide there in the absolute, but for that you have to distance yourself somewhat from all this relative chit-chat, the noise of life. Do not take seriously things of the relative world. They can be enjoyed too but they do not carry the truth. You will not find your essence in words or in teachings.