Don’t Eat the Menu|Savoring the Indescribable and the Unavoidable.

My friend Charlie Hayes like to say:

“The bad news is you will never get this, the good news is you will never get this”

Sounds a bit confusing, doesn’t it? And even in my feeble attempt to explain it results in more the confusion. The mind is incapable of getting this. The you that you think you are is simply a product of the mind. A collection of past and future thoughts occurring right now. Outside of thought, do you even exist?

The mind will try desperately to figure all of this “nobody”, “self-realization”, “enlightenment” stuff out. But it never will. And that is the frustrating part, the bad news. . Ultimately, it will give up, the good news. And in that giving up, that exhausting of the mind, there is only liberation.

Don’t read this blog to get something, to learn something.

I have nothing to  give you that you don’t already have.

I’m just reminding you to look and see.

If you are already home and you must take a journey to get somewhere, then you must leave the house. This makes complete sense to all, except perhaps those on the journey to enlightenment or liberation or self-realization.

Time and again, you, the journeyer have been told that you are already home. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to get. Very frustrating when you look about the “house” and it’s in a absolute mess, to you at least.

It’s the same old humdrum place you’ve always lived in and you’ve heard about this amazing permanent resort vacation called “enlightenment”.

This is all mindstuff. The mind has created this vision of enlightenment. It has collected and archived all the knowledge of enlightenment and has crafted a beautiful travel brochure. “This is where you are heading. Once you get there you will be home.” Very sneaky, the mind. Suggesting you have to leave home to arrive home.

This is a futile enterprise: Trying to get home from inside the house.

You’d have to ignore the reality of the house in order to even entertain the idea. And by house, I mean the subtle yet always present awareness.

You are that. You are already home.

You gotta love the mind. It is the ultimate story teller. And no story is more intriguing, more captivating than the story of enlightenment. Especially, for the spiritual seeker.

“Enlightenment”. The word has so many connotations, but many agree that it’s this blissful state where suffering ends and love flows endlessly and freely. The “enlightened one”, clad in flowing robes, effuses the attitude of serenity, is tolerant of all and usually doesn’t eat meat. The “enlightened one” is special and has something you don’t.

Wow. What a load of crap. Or rather, what a load of a story the mind has cooked up from various sources: books, encounters at retreats, the popular culture of movies and head shops.

If what is being pointed to through out the “ages” from myriad “sages” is non-conceptual, then how can any of the above be it. You see, those are all concepts of what “enlightenment” is like. And the word “enlightenment” has as much meaning as the word “turnip” or “friggatriskaidekaphobia”.

The mind is a wonderful tool and it does it’s job quite well, taking past knowledge or experiences projecting them into the future, such as “last time I touched fire, I got burned, now I know what happens if I do it again.” But when it takes acquired knowledge of “enlightenment” and projects that into some future goal to be obtained, then the proverbial tail chasing begins.

As stated before: what is being pointed to is non-conceptual. Words cannot describe it, knowledge cannot secure it. Can it be seen how it is useless to depend on either of them and how they clearly will keep you mucking about instead of investigating by simply looking for yourself?

The mind is the wrong tool for the job when it comes to revealing your true nature. What you are cannot be conceived in the mind, for the mind arises in what you are. YOU ARE before the mind. YOU ARE before any thought. Even “mind” is an idea, a thought. Has anyone ever extracted the mind for all to see and dissect?

Your idea of “enlightenment” is nothing more than an accumulation of knowledge expressing through thought. In fact, the “you” you take youself to be, the one with a name, a job, a personality, that is simply a collection of thoughts as well. Arising now.

Simply put: The search for enlightenment is merely thought chasing thought. A story and nothing more.