The Journey

I wrote this poem a few months back. Its title is 'The Journey'.

Become comfortable
in not knowing
and continue seeking...

you are dark
so is your path;

But the light at the end of your tunnel
is you

it is marked;


At the end
the giant mirror unfolds
and you meet yourself;


Ego waxes
ego wanes
nothing's lost
nothing's gained
and in the end
nothing remains;

You are
just a dreamer
a void in the grip of a lie
obsessed with a conceptual 'I';

You are
hollow without a core
filled with darkness and gore;

But
your true nature shines brighter than gold
so lighten up, let the light in
learn to swim
and you will meet yourself at the distant shore...


Before I start the explanation, I request the reader to ASSUME, for the sake of this discussion, that eternal life is real. Assuming this is VERY important. If the reader is not convinced about the usefulness of building an argument based on assumptions, he is advised to read the end note of this blog entry, before reading further.

(Discussion on why I feel that eternal life is real will be covered by me in one of my forthcoming posts on 'Eternal Life'. I, however, will offer no proof of eternal life, only pointers.)
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Now let us move forward, on the assumption we have made.

The reader is advised to pause and reflect, after each paragraph.

Become comfortable in not knowing...
This poem is about acceptance of life as it is, without complaints, or bitterness, or sorrow. A state of total acceptance of the past, the present, and freedom from anxiety about the future. I mean strive towards such a state. I have covered this topic in detail, in my post 'The Mental Lens.'

...and continue seeking...
Once total acceptance of life as it is has set in, one becomes free and the magical beauty and wonder of life starts showing itself. The person can now be called a mystic, that is, a person who lives in a state of awe and wonder, much like a little baby. But this is possible only when one finds complete release from the past & future, and stops seeing the present through the eyes of the past or the imagined future.

○We need to stop dwelling on the past, stop worrying about the future, and live in the now.○

...the light at the end of your tunnel is you...it is marked...
Over here I am saying that 'self realisation' or 'enlightenment' is a real phenomenon.
I feel everyone is destined for enlightenment and self-realisation. •Everyone.•

...at the end...the giant mirror unfolds...
I feel we all face our karma(works/deeds) when death comes...A bad person will meet a bad fate in death, and a good person will meet a good fate in death. What I mean here is that the person will re-incarnate, and the quality of his next life will depend upon his deeds in this life. A person who is both good and bad, will find a mixed fate in the next life.

...ego waxes, ego vanes...nothing's lost, nothing's gained...and in the end nothing remains...
Over here I am talking about ego and ego-death. I am talking about problems of the human ego. Nothing is lost, nothing is gained in ego wars...apart from temporary and ultimately inconsequential things; real beauty, joy, peace, companionship, friendship and love - things that ultimately matter, cannot be gained through ego wars of course.

It is the ego that has created the human realm, the realm of decay, and the illusion of death. In a realm where people do not have 'egos' , there would be no death, and life would be eternal. 'In the end nothing remains' is a reference to 'death of the ego', not death of the person.

Note: When I use the word 'ego' I do not have the Freudian perspective in mind.

When I use the word 'ego', I mean it in a spiritual way. From the spiritual point of view, the ego is an aberration, a flaw. It is a flavour of 'I'ness that is selfish and loveless.

The ego in you has only two modes of existence. An over-inflated sense of self-worth, and a deflated sense of self-worth.

The ego is that part of your 'I'ness that indulges in merciless mind games with others and yourself. That part of you that revels in controlling and being controlled.

...obsessed with a conceptual 'I'...hollow without a core...filled with darkness and gore... ---Statement (A)

Over here I am talking about the ego once again. Just explained the concept. But let us discuss the nature of the ego a little more, this time. What I am saying in statement (A) is that the ego is a mental concept, an imaginary creation of the deluded part of your intellect (refer my post 'Killing the Descartes thinker' for more details).

The ego is violent, self-absorbed, cannot love. Words like ego and megalomania are blood brothers.

...your true nature shines brighter than gold...
Over here I am talking about 'self realisation'(or ego-death) again. I am saying that self-realised humans and people on the verge of self-realisation, are very beautiful people, full of love and compassion for living creatures. This is the 'true nature'. Love and compassion.

"The ultimate truth lies in the realm of feelings, and not in the realm of the intellect..." Eckhart Tolle.

...lighten up, let the light in...
Over here I am saying that a person should develop a sense of humour about life. Most people dwell on bitterness and do not have the ability to forgive, do not have acceptance of life's strange twists and turns. This bitterness & negativity strengthens the ego. Acceptance of life as it is, with minimum complaints, dissolves the ego. Makes the person emotionally healthy.

...and you will meet yourself at the distant shore...
Over here I am talking about self realisation, and subsequent life in a realm where people live forever, happy, young and content.

End Note:
All this discussion is based on the ASSUMPTION that eternal life & re-incarnation are real. Building an argument on assumptions is not invalid. This is 'inductive reasoning'. Inductive reasoning runs on established data yes, but it can run on assumptions also.

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Beliefs

Someone I came across said, "without a personal experience of a given thing, just HOW can you say that it exists.."

This statement takes us into the realm of 'beliefs and testimony'-a realm that must be stepped into VERY carefully.

Beliefs can be looked upon in different ways. Everyone would know what the popular definitions of 'belief' are..'irrational' and all that.

But a belief is no longer irrational if one knows how to dance with uncertainty.

Rational 'Belief' can be looked upon as the result of inductive reasoning applied to personal experiences AND/OR pointers provided by credible sources.

Inductive reasoning allows for uncertainty in the conclusion.

Wikipedia: Inductive Reasoning:
Inductive reasoning, also known as induction or inductive logic, is a kind of reasoning that allows for the possibility that the conclusion is false even where all of the premises are true. The premises of an inductive logical argument indicate some degree of support (inductive probability) for the conclusion but do not entail it; i.e. they do not ensure its truth.

The following is a perspective on 'inductive reasoning applied to PERSONAL experiences'.

Everyone has had experiences that are odd. One can start from there.

A 'belief/hypothesis' does not necessarily have the same degree of certainty as the initial premise---that is the nature of conclusions arrived at through inductive reasoning--- but induction is 100% ok, as long as the uncertainty involved is understood.

Sometimes it is necessary to construct beliefs, but constructing too many such 'beliefs' should be avoided unless one has developed some kind of tools that are well equipped to deal with the uncertainty that will increase exponentially as beliefs increase--dealing with such complex uncertainties is a very difficult task, it is more or less impossible.

But once induction has been applied properly and the uncertainty understood, your beliefs become a pointer to reality--You can then look around and see if there are other people around who have reached more or less the same point-----if yes, great! If induction has been applied properly, convergence WILL happen. And once you experience convergence, your beliefs turn into something more solid--you have extrapolated successfully--you now have strong pointers to the existence of 'it' without having experienced 'it' directly.

Life experiences=>apply induction=>beliefs are generated=>if convergence with another happens=>pointers to reality.

Note: Convergence with another should be looked at carefully. This 'other', with whom convergence is happening should be analysed thoroughly. This 'other' could be a person or a group.

There is no substitute for a direct experience with reality of course. All of us have direct experiences but most of us dismiss them as vague feelings or temporary mental dysfunction.....but there are some who don't, and then there are some who display the ability to understand even other people's experiences---such people are remarkable and very rare.

What I am saying is not all 'alleged hallucinations' are mental dysfunction. Some may be visions. Satori.

All said and done, total convergence with another will most probably never occur, and constructing beliefs is best avoided unless absolutely necessary---pointers to reality are not reality.

What I am talking about is different from what religion does---religion generally builds down from accepted general principles using deduction...like building down from the principle of spiritual penalty for example.