It is said that the true enlightened master teaches in silence. Why is that? Are words so unfit for the truth, so they have to be avoided? Partially yes. The human mind is prone to interpretations, and words are vehicles of the mind. You can be quite sure that the word from the mouth of the enlightened one will carry a different meaning for the one who is not.
But still, if you are the master, why not make a combination of words and meanings that will reveal the truth to the eager listener? Yeah, I am pursuing that idea myself. Again and again, I am creating a new combination of meanings in the hope that, if someone is listening, those meanings will somehow create a wide enough space in his or her mind for the truth to be seen. Obviously, I am trying to that right now, in spite of full awareness that my efforts are futile.
Master or not, your words will never transfer the truth to the one who does not know it himself. That sad fact created an institution of a muni – a silent enlightened master. Obviously again, I am not a muni. It is a boring state, although I can appreciate its advantages. For example, there is no chance to be misinterpreted or wrongly understood. Furthermore, anyone can make anything from your silence and appreciate your wisdom, although you might have none. Silence saves you from contradictions, disagreements, conflicts, confrontations, and all kinds of other unpleasant situations. Nice, but boring, as I said.
Life wants me to speak (and write) so I am doing it. Unfortunately, the topic I found by far most interesting is the Truth. An impossible situation, don’t you think? Yes, it is. But, well, what can a man do, but do what makes him a man?
I want to tell you the Truth.
But I can’t.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t. The Truth is not to be told.
Let me explain to you why.
First, we are not talking about the definition of the truth, right? Because you know what the truth means. You knew it from your childhood, from the moment someone lied to you for the first time. Right then you pulled up the understanding of the truth from the deepest realm of your mind. You don’t remember that moment, of course, but it surely happened. Nobody thaught you what the truth is. You knew it because you were a conscious being. A child, but nevertheless, a conscious being.
So, what is that secret of the truth you knew then, as you know it now?
No secret, actually. It is as simple as simple gets. The truth is that what is, and not that what isn’t; because that what isn’t, is a lie. The truth is how it is, and not how it seems it is; because how it seems it is, is a lie.
Simple. The meaning of the truth is simple. And you know what it is. You knew it always.
So, when you ask me to tell you the truth, you have something else in mind, not the explanation of what the truth is. Although you know what the truth is, you are not sure how to apply that knowledge to the world around you. You see things but are they real? Can you rely on your perception? You hear words, but should you believe their meaning? Who is lying to you? What is, and what is not?
It’s not the truth you are having problem with; it’s the ability to discern the false from the true. That is what you are lacking. And since you lack that ability, you are asking the one who, you believe, have it.
Me. You are asking me. Since I am talking (and writing) about the illusion, true reality, and freedom from lies and false ideas, I have to know, right? So, tell me Adrian, is karma an illusion? What about love? Is love an illusion, too? The world we live in, is it just a mist, a cloud of thoughts, a hologram? Who is the true ruler of our life? Financial conspiracy, a spiritual mafia, a demonic hierarchy? A flower, a bird, a child, an emotion… are all that just nothing; a flickering of a dreamy consciousness not really ours?
You have a right to ask, of course, and I can answer you anything that comes to my mind (that’s my right), but here comes the tricky part. Since you don’t know it by yourself, you will have to decide about the truth of whatever it is you have heard from me (or from anyone else). Right? You will hear my answer (any answer), and you will have to decide if it is the truth or a lie.
How to the hell you will do that? You don’t have an ability to discern the truth from a lie, remember? That is why you were asking about it in the first place. If you had that ability, you would look and see it for yourself. There would be no need for asking anyone else (including me).
So, what is your position now? You have a choice to a) believe my answer and b) don’t believe my answer. Believing and not believing are the same thing. Believing is NOT KNOWING.
You may believe (or disbelieve) my answer because you (don’t) like the way I look, or talk, or scratch my ear, or something. You may believe (or disbelieve) my answer because it contradicts everything you believed (or disbelieved) your entire life. In short, your believing is completely irrelevant to the truth. Worst, it is in any case, a lie. English word BELIEVING is very peculiar and informative by structure: BE LIE. If you just believe you are in a lie.
From that point on, things get even trickier. When you believe (in whatever), you are creating a lie. The human mind has a strange ability to project a reality it wishes to live in or a reality it thinks (believes) is right. Due to that ability (it is called maya in advaita philosophy) we can convince ourselves in anything, and that anything will become our reality. When we believe, we become a lie, and our life turns into illusion.
A muni does not want you to live in an illusion. That’s why s/he is silent. S/he knows that whatever s/he says, you will either believe or disbelieve. In both cases, you will create a lie. No thank you, thinks a muni. Silence is better. In silence, there is at least a chance that you will not mess up things terribly, but only a little.
I can do that. Be silent, I mean. In many cases, I am. When you ask me about the truthfulness of any particular idea, fact, or a thing, I will be silent. What’s the point in feeding your need for creating an illusion you can believe in? Silence is so much better.
But if you ever ask me HOW to develop the ability to see the truth for yourself, to discern between the illusion and the reality… Well, then we can break our silence and start talking.
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