There’s only one problem on Earth, and it is that you are not who you think you are. Your mind is the problem, and Universal Mind is the solution.
“You may try hard, but if you try to solve single individual problems, you are bound to be a failure — that is absolutely certain — because in fact no individual problem exists: mind is the problem. If you solve this problem or that, it won’t help because the root remains untouched. — Osho
You are the Universal Mind, that consciousness that transcends all concepts, such as existence and non-existence. Universal Mind is one name for It, but It has no name.
The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao. - Lao Tzu
One Mind is ineffable, but something must be said about it because turning in to realize it is the end of suffering.
That has been the problem for all the mystics. They reach to the ultimate, but they cannot relate it to those who are following. They cannot relate it to others who would like to have an intellectual understanding. They have become one with it. Their whole being relates it but no intellectual communication is possible.”
— Osho
The sense of a self that is separate from everything else naturally leads to insatiable desire and persistent fear. The small self feels incomplete, because it doesn’t realize its true identity, its inherent wholeness. The self tries to fill this hole with many things that will never satisfy.
These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying to render it graspable and manageable. But that which is beyond form is ungraspable and that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable. There is, however, this consolation: She who let’s go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.”
- Hua Hu Ching
Imagine wanting something that you don’t have right now. Imagine not wanting something that you do have right now. Desire and aversion seem quite ordinary and reasonable. But they’re not reasonable. The moment can’t be other than how it is right now. You can’t have something that you don’t have right now.
The separate self finds itself in a trap, wanting the moment to be different than how it is, pining for a non-existent past or yearning for a non-existent future, when it had the object of desire, or was free from the source of fear.
Even if you get the thing you want, or get rid of the thing you don’t want, you won’t fully enjoy it because you’ve set up the pattern of resistance to the Present. As soon as you have what you want, you’ll fear losing it. As soon as you rid yourself of what you don’t want, you will fear it’s return.
Even once you understand the problem and the solution conceptually, there’s no clear path to becoming Whole. It’s quite the conundrum, but it’s one that you chose, whether you acknowledge that or not. Properly understood, it’s not a problem, but a game, the only interesting game the Universe could come up with.
In unity there is little to behold;
So She, the mother of abundance,
Brought forth the world as play.-Jnaneshwar
We tend to assume that Enlightenment is a higher state of consciousness, something to attain or achieve. We tend to assume that it’s very difficult and requires living away from society in a monastery or a cave.
None of these things are true, unless you believe them, and they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Enlightenment is easy because you’re already enlightened, even though you probably don’t realize it, and all of the benefits of Enlightenment come from realizing it.
"What I teach in these talks of mine is the Unborn Buddha-mind of illuminative wisdom, nothing else. Everyone is endowed with this Buddha-mind, only they don't know it." - Bankei
In the following weeks I will be writing a series of short posts which succinctly describe a variety of ways of liberation that have helped many different individuals across many different cultures. I will be focusing on ways of liberation that require the least amount of time and effort, methods that have traditionally been used by lay people that lead busy lives, with jobs and families.
Once you understand conceptually that you’re already enlightened, it’s easy to let the Universe gently carry you to Liberation as described in this short Alan Watts video: