So… I don’t know this for sure, but my experience is leading me to start to believe that the only thing the human Spirit cannot really handle is an existential lie. A basic lie about who you are.
That’s why, in all Buddhist teachings, and all non-dual teachings, the number one thing you’re trying to do is figure out who you are. The secret of this is that you are really nothing. There is not a single bit of you, or me, or them, that’s separate from everything else. We are completely intertwined with everything. The best way you can understand that is to see yourself as nothing.
The LIE is that you’re something. Something separate. That’s the lie. So that lie then turns into all sorts of Dogma trying to explain exactly how you’re this, and exactly how you’re that. How your brain works is that it turns it into stories: what this word means, what that Saint said… no end. It turns into this crazy-crazy thinking-thinking thinking with no end and no conclusion.
But when you bring it all down to zero, see ing that you’re nothing, you’re just this nothingness, a nothingness that is intrinsically connected. Not even connected, because connected implies that there’s a you and there’s something to be connected to. Instead every is completely entwined with everything. You’re entwined with me. I’m entwined with you, and when you can see this it’s a transformation.
There are no words that can explain it. There are no words that need to explain it. It’s a completely wordless knowing.
When you see this for yourself it’s obvious. It never goes away. Then you can start piecing together all the stories we’ve told. Stories about Buddha, stories about Jesus, stories about Enlightenment, stories about non-duality, stories about you, your national identity… all these things. They then become nothing more than stories. They don’t become a lie.
The purpose of a lie is if someone believes it. The lie is this belief system that you’ve been given, more than likely accidentally, telling you that who you are is something separate from everything else. The human Spirit can’t deal with that because then everything else doesn’t make sense.
We need to know that we are part of everything.
But when when we have this fundamental lie, at at the core of our being, you can’t ever piece together the world in a way that makes sense. So when you know that you are nothing then you’re able to start piecing together the world. The the stories of who you are, who your parents were, where you came from, what you’re doing… then you’re able to start piecing that together in a way that makes sense in life.
If you have this lie that you’re separate nothing will ever make sense, and everything will always be a wound that cannot heal. The only thing the human Spirit can’t handle is a fundamental lie.
Fortunately, for the vast majority of human history, human beings have been able to live lives without this lie, without this illusion that we are separate. Ee’ve been able to live that way for thousands of years hundreds, so we can get back there.
All my talking and talking and talking is about is trying to get you back out of that lie into who you are. Then at that point every single thing about life is doable. Every single thing about you is doable. It doesn’t matter if somebody lies to you, somebody cheats on you, you get hurt, you get sick… it doesn’t matter because even though it hurts it makes sense.
This is why Enlightenment teachers always say that Enlightenment is freedom from suffering. It’s more that enlightenment is freedom from this lie. That’s where we want to get.