Trail Markers

Language is brilliant, but it often falls short. Police know full well that a crowd witnessing the same event will all have their own interpretations and descriptions of it. A sketch artist would wind up with as many faces as there were witnesses. And that's talking about a very tangible and shared experience. What does that say about worldly words describing personal ethereal experiences, when there's no basis for common comparison? “The color was crasple. It felt quite inglie, and was highly hraskish.” No? OK then, well use old words that label other things to describe the unknown. Will that work better for you? Right.

The teachings of the masters are not intended to be the lessons, in and of themselves. They're more like trail markers to let us know that we're on the right track. The words attempt to paint unknowns and indescribables, with an inadequate vocabulary in the wrong language. It's just not possible to understand some things through another's words, no matter how eloquent and inspiring they may be. Beyond the inherent short comings of words, some things simply can't be grappled with by the contemplative mind, at all. They can only be experienced.

If you've never been in a hot tub, I could try to explain what it's like to you. That would create a mental image for the thinker's appeasement - perhaps acurate-ish, perhaps not. If you'd never taken a warm bath or had someone massage you, the challenge would be even greater. But no matter how detailed the descriptions and how refined your images, they'd be no substitute for the actual experience, itself. A no brainer, eh? Of course. No one would seek to learn about hot tubbing through spending years studying other's recalling their hot tubbing experiences. They'd slip into one and have their own. Yet, people spend their entire lives reading about spiritual experiences and talking to others about how they might be, what it means, if it's real, whose version is right, … without ever settling into stillness, themselves.

This is partly due to the fact that others' recountings often sound like old seafarers tales, with gargantuan serpents, bottomless whirlpools and tidal wave tossing deities. Something that would require epic commitment and decades to undertake. It's also impossible to adequately communicate the full value of inner silence. And the inner dialog presents as many distractions as times square, in order to retain its illusion of superiority.

Face the fact. The cognitive mind is incapable of knowing true nature. Not to dismiss it or disregard its understanding. Just to acknowledge its limitations. To be open to other possibilities. To allow yourself to be greater than your thoughts would. To receive and understand in new ways. To be your Self. Not your preferred character, but your undefined and open ended authentic nature.

Let go of the words. Stop labeling and defining and explaining and judging and categorizing and speculating and calculating and regretting and worrying and fantasizing and all of it. Just let it be what it is. You may even spy a trail marker or three. The world is really quite capable of maintaining its integrity without your thoughts holding it together - as are you. ~~~ Shhhhh.

No. I said Shhhh. Don't do, don't try, just let go and allow.

Shhhh. It's right here.