Interview with a mystic/gnostic...is it true what they say? Does the path to Truth lie within you?

Sunman you did it. The only answers that are useful are the ones we answer for ourselves. You ask the question many are on the verge of asking of themselves. Most people search for the right questions to ask. Socrates discovered this way of helping people understand before people were ready so he had to drink hemlock you get to drink tea. *sip*

My doctor told me to seek spiritual comfort, which lead to a discussion where he revealed he didn’t believe in God because the world is so fowl. I let him see that he was right about a world building consolidated external God. Within minutes he comprehended the internal distributed God concept. I believe many who reject the hypocrisy of religion seek the hope of a spiritual world that they think has to go out with the external holy misconceptions. This is the biggest secret and it has been told over and over for some millenniums now but people keep worshiping the guys trying to tell them.

Excellent Job Sunman you amaze me with your compassion!

So many great responses, I don’t have the strength to comment on all of them but I must take time for my long time and beloved friend Raji.

Raji you are correct about making your own path because there are no other paths. But since reality is a reflection of us, people strain to see their own path. There’s no harm in prompting them to see their path, in fact some don’t even know to seek their path. If there is a danger it is in them deciding that the path revealed to them is the path that everyone must follow. With true misplaced love for others these misguided individuals can put themselves and others through hell. The GREAT hope of the Pagan reawakening isn’t in it’s accuracy so much as the freedom and liberty to discover ourselves, or spirit, or divinity within ourselves. Rigid ritual and monolithic mythologies aren’t the answer as we can see from history.

I’m sorry it took so long to answer this important question but my condition is mercifully aggressive making clear answers more difficult.

Love one another, please, for your own personal benefit if nothing else.

Assalamu 'Alaikum

The path within, is also the path without.

One path!

Like a two lane highway, traffic in both directions.

This is called the "art of the moon" and the "art of the sun".

This is an inappropriate place to go into detail, but I will give a short explanation.

A vessel is filled with dirty water.

A person spots the dirt, and wants to clean the water.

A person starts pouring clear water into the vessel until it starts overflowing. As time passes the water in the vessel starts to get clearer, and the dirt is slowly removed. The clear water is forcing the dirt out and replacing the dirty water. In time the water in the vessel is pure.

In man the same principle applies, only it is accomplished with the breath. In the Sufi tradition this is called Zikr.

Taking in only that which is clear and eliminating that which is full of unnecessary trash. Over time the trash is removed and then there is clarity. It has been said that when clarity arrives it is like setting in the middle of a glass cube, and awareness is observed 360 degrees in all directions. This is the "Point" where the created and the Creator meet!

This is a foolish Sufi's small understanding concerning a thing called a "path". The path from what I understand is very narrow, and needs a caretaker to pull the weeds.

It is said that the inner will become the outer, and the outer will become the inner. I'm not qualified to comment!

**((No two snowflakes are identical, yet they are part of the whole. No two humans are identical yet they are part of the whole. The paths may indeed be different, but the transportation is the same. The breath within man is the transportation that is needed for man to merge with the Creator of all things. This has been passed down through all the Prophets, beginning with Prophet Adam (PBUH).))

"Peace be with you"

Salaams,

What is Truth?

Depending upon who you ask today, the question "What is Truth" will get you very different answers and, perhaps, lead to even more questions. Here are some current thoughts on truth:

There is No Absolute Truth.

But wait a minute! This statement is making an absolute claim to truth. It defeats its own claim.

Truth is Relative.

Does that include the statement that truth is relative? It would have to, making this statement invalid since no claim to truth can be made by this statement, including the claim that truth is relative.

You have Your Truth and I have My Truth.

And if your truth and my truth are in conflict, what do we have? Can there be conflicting truths? If so, then how do you determine what is valid? If my truth is that there is no God, and your truth is that there is a God, does that really effect whether there is a God or not? Saying that we each have our own truth may make us comfortable but we would have to not care about truth to say this, because no matter what my experience or your experience tells us, the truth exists as it is.

Truth is within You.

Seek truth within yourself and you are back to what your experience tells you or to what you want to be the truth. Your perception may affect you and be true to what you want to believe, but it does not affect what the truth really is. Your experience and belief could be telling you that something false is true.

So what is Truth?

If you're tired of wondering or of playing these mind games, consider that maybe truth is not all that complex. Maybe it is something a child can grasp. Maybe truth is a person. The God-Man Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Will you be like Pilate, who asked "What is truth?" (John 18:38) right after Jesus said to him, "And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true," (John 18:37b)?

Or will you be like the Roman officer who saw Jesus die on the cross and said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39)

As Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, " (John 11:25) and "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved; and shall go in and out, and find pasture," (John 10:9).

Yes, the path to truth does lie within each and every one of us. Increasing ones knowledge of philosophy and the many different belief systems that exist helps to focus inward. The Holy Spirit leads us into the light of truth. It is a quest for knowledge that is outwardly gained, but spiritually internalized through gnosis. When one walks in the light, mysteries become realizations and the inward path sheds a beacon on the outward path of our lives.

Yes.

However, we are all walking that 'Path' whether we are focusing on it or not. That is the greatest 'Truth' of all.

Relax, go with the flow. There isn't anything you need to 'Do', just know thyself, and 'Be' thyself, and to thyself 'be' true.

All the rest follows.

All our 'Doingness', including the many, and very worthy, forms of spiritual 'practise' are just ways of allowing our physical manifestations indulge our desire to be 'Doing'. So there isn't anything that anyone 'has' to do. That one should choose to follow any particular 'discipline' is an entirely personal choice.

In this, as in all things, there is nothing more 'pressing' than the sacred formula of following one's heart, a 'Path' that will all-ways lead you 'home'.

As Proust said, the real journey ( read Path ) is not in visiting new lands , but rather to 'see' with new 'eyes'. The Inner is the Outer, the Outer is the Inner, all are inextricably bound together infinite layer upon infinite layer,and all we need to do is to expand our awareness here, in this dense, heavy place, to 'See' 'All That Is', and that each of us, together, is what 'All That Is' ... Is.

{{{{{{{Cosmic Being}}}}}}}

<Slluuuurrrrppp !>

I was spinning on the whirly-gig of life, and everything around me was a blur. My head became heavy and all I could sense was the spinning, spinning, and the noisy chatter beyond the blur. Then I jumped off, and at first I couldn't stand. The world kept spinning. In time, I regained my balance, saw what had once been a blur, and walked away from all the noise. In the silence I heard myself and all selves. I was home all the time.

Edit: sometimes there is a question posed on Y!A where I feel so in tune with all those answering; it is a miraculous feeling. This is one such question. Thank you Sunman for bringing unity to such a diverse forum.

There are many ways of achieving enlightenment. Some involve just meditation, some add material to study, some combine the two. You can research Buddhism, yoga, and other spiritual groups and see which ones appeal to you. You can make a retreat at a Buddhist monastery or an ashram to teach you more and help you get started. Christ even speaks of it in the orthodox New Testament when he says, "Be still and know that I am God." He wasn't saying that he was God. "I am" is an adjective applied to the word God. He wanted us to know the God that is within us.

Some say "But small is the gate and narrow the road ... and only a few find it." But I do not agree.

It seems to me that the path is as wide as the World itself. In fact it is the World and we do not walk it, we are the path.

How do we learn? A quest is a start; to experience the journey and the anticipation. Or metaphor. "We are but drops in the ocean that is all" (*giggle*).

And games. Games are always good. I like the one where you pretend that 'you' exist just within the confines of your skin. A universe in a balloon.

Although there is always a temptation to go *pop* I find.

.

To reveal the illusion of mind will help clear much dross, repetition and Heart.

This is a discipline.

There is a spiral to life, and it can feel you have been there before, when it truth you are re-visiting aspects of self of unlove.

There is love.

And there is the many aspects of fear, sorrow, anger, guilt, despair, death.

Each aspect of the whole is that, unique.

One cannot try to be anything other than they are, if the whole is to transform.

As above so below

When that that is within is reflected in that which is the outer, then and only then will one be living truly.

Great question

Great answers

What's with all the PATH questions? Why not make your OWN path? You won't have to wonder about WHERE it is because it is ALWAYS wherever YOU are. To follow a "path" is to walk in the footsteps of others. Make your OWN footsteps and simply follow your nose and see where that takes you. In other words, EXPLORE your universe, EXPLORE your OWN Spirituality and ignore the spirituality of others. As spiritual beings we are ONLYresponsible for ourselves and accordingly we EACH have to make our OWN paths towards that spirituality. Some are able to do it from within, others need to do it from the perspective of a group setting, others seek the wisdom of gurus and sages, others seek to just wander around aimlessly until they stumble across it. Just DO what ever works for YOU and ignore the "paths".

BB,

Raji the Green Witch