truth is a pathless land
Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
In 1930 a young man destined to become a world teacher said, “Truth is a pathless land.” This little idea has been the source of much contemplation and confusion since he uttered these words nearly a hundred years ago. Krishnamurti’s statement is not a koan or a mystery; it’s a simple expression of the way things are.
Truth is always present, right here and now, and therefore there is no path to it. You don’t need to take a path to your own self. Is it possible to get closer to your heart or your brain? Can you get closer to your thoughts? Despite what we’ve heard from so many public speakers, enlightenment isn’t “over there” where it needs to be reached or attained. There is no journey to get to it. It is the conditioned mind that creates a separation between the truth and the self. The self finds it necessary to create, or believe in, a path, but ironically, the path leads back to the self.
The “path to enlightenment” represents a paradox if there ever was one.
hero’s journey
Each of our lives is a hero’s journey. Though the prize at the end of the journey may be superficial, we can nevertheless look deeper to find something richer, something without the strings of materialism, something lying for us just beneath the surface. What we find, if we are astute enough and can find quiet, is our own selves — not the self of the ego, but the Self of boundless consciousness. While the hero’s journey is a path, the path leads us right back to our selves. The path may deliver us to the gate of truth, but we must abandon the path to uncover what lies beyond, within us and as us. Even Joseph Campbell, best known for bring the world the concept of the hero’s journey, realized that the journey ends where it began: with the Self.
too many experts making a lot of noise
Society is beset by ideas and teachers who lack the understanding and depth necessary to explain things as they really are, devoid of New Age ideas, tropes of spirituality, religious overtones, clever talk, and intellectual understanding. The internet, conferences, and talk circuits have brought us a never-ending stream of experts, including so many with little worldly experience or wisdom. These teachers easily distract and derail us as we try to figure out who we really are. They seem to make so much sense to those who have never actually enquired into the depths of the self. And so people are seeing reality through the interpretations of others instead of seeing for themselves. In the words of Douglas Harding, “No one but you can tell you who you really are.”
Other people’s ideas, interpretations, and teachings are not your own realizations; they are therefore not Truth.
“Truth is a pathless land”, said Krishnamurti. No amount of traveling, thinking, praying, ritual, studying, or analysis can create or reveal it. The mind is burdened with, and stymied by, thinking. When truth is organized, categorized, verbalized, or even thought of, it is no longer the pristine essence that can only be known through silence.
stop the movement
Thought is movement; but that which is to be found at the core of what we are is without thought; it is stillness. The movement must come to an end, which means that there can be no path. When the weary traveler stops and the world is in abeyance, something mystical occurs: One realizes he is the silence that has always been present, even during his long and tortuous journey to discover this simple realization. One realizes that Truth contains all that exists, including the body and mind, and therefore the idea of working to get to the truth becomes an obvious absurdty.
Truth is not something that you get, that you have, that you possess. It is a pathless land; nobody can lead you to it. You have to be a light to yourself from the very beginning so that you stand alone, purified from all the absurdities of man’s endeavour, search and explanations. But most of us like to depend on somebody, and so the gurus are here to exploit us.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
Public Talk 4 in Santa Monica, California, 24 March 1974
