All is Consciousness. You are Consciousness. I am Consciousness. Everything arising is Consciousness and everything not arising is equally Consciousness. There are no gradations and no contrast, no relation, and no comparison. It simply IS.

To seek Truth... which is a synonym, synonymous with God, the Divine, Great Wisdom, Enlightenment itself, Consciousness, Reality, and so forth... to see Truth you must not look anywhere. You must not retreat inward, neither be distracted outward. Both, you see... are seeking. Both are seeking and seeking is not being with Truth as it is.. Truth is here... Truth is now... Truth is eternal. There is nowhere that Truth can hide or be concealed. In every small place, big place, everywhere and nowhere, Truth is arising, present and eternal.

To dissociate from Truth we have learned to withdraw, to become inward, to meditate, contemplate. But really it is closing your eyes with all the meaning attached to that. People closed their eyes to the rise of Nazism, to the catastrophic effects of the invention of the Hydrogen bomb, to the psychological damage inflicted by pedophilia. People close their eyes to great beauty, to visions of joy, to unbearable longing. Closing your eyes is all this and more; it is your dissociation from Truth.

It is no better than the associative disorder of beguilement and fascination in the outside world, identifying, projecting, transferring, colluding, and all the dynamics of confusion and ill effect of distraction in the outer world.

Your natural state is neither in nor out. Your natural state is everywhere... and nowhere.

Progressive, accruing, cumulative practices are relevant to the process of psychological uncovering, to the revelation of your true nature. To engage in your natural blossoming as an individual human being in this world at this time, practice in the therapeutic-healing modalities you choose to convey yourself from psychological remedial conditions into the present challenges of the stage of maturity you find yourself in.

Spiritual practice or sadhana however is not and is never progressive, accruing, or cumulative. There is no road to Truth. No cunning ploy to achieve the present state. No distance between here and there, between you and yourself.

What is the value of Truth and how can we learn to prize it and arrive at Truth? Let us end this discussion with the words of the master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, uttered when he is unable to relinquish truth, his means to realization, even to the Divine Mother:

It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth. After my vision of the Divine Mother, I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: "Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness and here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love." I mentioned all these, but I could not say: "Mother, here is Thy truth and here is Thy falsehood. Take them both." I gave up everything at Her feet but could not bring myself to give up truth.¹

1 The Gospel Of Ramakrishna, p312     

Richard Harvey is a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and author. He is the founder of The Center for Human Awakening and has developed a form of depth-psychotherapy called Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) that proposes a 3-stage model of human awakening. Richard can be reached at [email protected].

Blog entry #184