Truth Is All That Matters

In ancient times, humanity — that is we — dealt with the horror of inexplicable existence in a harsh and unforgiving world by first creating and then worshiping with unconditional fear and devotion, gods and spirits; we bowed down to them as the source of all things, good and evil, that befell us. We sought ways to placate and protect ourselves from these dark and incomprehensible forces and their inscrutable movements in the world by sacrifice; by the intervention of shamans, rituals, superstitious rites and so forth; and by abject submission to what we imagined to be their will. Continue Reading »

Spiritual teachers must answer to a higher standard of behavior and accountability than their students; we can not be excused for abusive, cruel behavior on the basis of any idea that we are inherently immune from criticism by virtue of our advanced state of realization.

We are, after all, those to whom people come for help resolving the most profound and disturbing aspects of all human existence; we are those to whom they come seeking final release from the universal suffering that seems to be the natural lot of human life. And as such, like it or not, we are looked upon as being outside and above the norm, different from them, and answering to a higher call than service to ourselves and to our own happiness and gratification.  Continue Reading »

My dear friends,

In the seven years or so that I’ve been the servant of Ramana’s simple, perfect teaching of self-inquiry, I’ve come to see very clearly that no matter what we might think we want, or have been told that we should want, certainty about one’s actual nature is all that’s ever really wanted by anyone.

And I’ve come to see from my own experience in this life, and from the reports of the experience of many who have been in satsang with us, that the simple act of turning attention toward the actual, naked experience of being whenever possible resolves all problems and will in time erase all inclination to project on others my misery, to take from others what seems to be needed for myself, and to destroy others in the belief that others are the cause of my suffering.

The reason for this, according to all the great ones who have tried to bring us to this water of life, is that all problems are false; rooted in the false belief that I am the story about me; the history of my life, my attainments, my failures, my friends, my lovers, my enemies, my needs and desires. Continue Reading »