See God (face to face)

The Truth is Never What You Think

You cannot think or believe your way to the truth. All thought and all belief will act as a barrier to the discovery of truth. This includes all religion, science, art, music, and language. These things are part of truth, but none of them can lead to it. As much as they enrich our lives and experiences, any emotional or intellectual activity will prevent the direct experiencing of truth.

Identifications and the meanings we attribute to them are the tools we use to navigate through our lives. They continuously inform our choices and reactions, but they also negate our opportunity to discover truth. Truth must be seen firsthand and face to face. When we are thinking, our awareness is experiencing our thoughts. When we are feeling something, our awareness is experiencing our emotions. Only when we are perfectly still and perfectly calm can our awareness become filled with what lies beyond our selves.

Here is something I recently wrote: I am none of the components of my identity–nor am I their sum. I am alive, they are not; I am real, they are illusions formed of sensation and thought. While they are the creations of mental activity, I can only be recognized when the mind is quiet and still–but fully alert and aware as well. When it is so, free of noise and distraction, its clarity allows me an unimpeded view of what truly lies beyond as well as within the world of identity and meaning.

josephpagen@yahoo.com