What will flip the switch for you in terms of finding your true nature?

by Vic Shayne
author
The Self is a Belief

One of the major criticisms about religion and cults is that they tell their followers that theirs is the only way to God, Truth, enlightenment, or whatever the word du jour happens to be. I’ve read countless books and articles in which a writer explains how this attitude of being “the only way” is what turned him/her away from organized belief systems.

Claiming that there is only one Truth, yet different paths to it is rather confusing and frustrating for people. What I’d rather say, from my perspective, is that there is one perception for everyone, and there are many paths that can point you to realizing your own. But the path is not a “how to;” rather, it is just a guide to help you look back at yourself.

Searching for the meaning of life and yearning to attain enlightenment is a bit of a craze right now. Lots of people are chasing around an idea of what they think this means, and most of the information is coming from other people who are just as much in the dark. Plus, we have very popular teachers with very big followings spouting their wisdom at every turn. But it turns out to one who has done his or her own work that they are not so wise and knowing after all.

Truth is a Pathless Land
Jiddu Krishnamuri, one of the most astounding sages in history, once said that “Truth is a Pathless Land.” It’s a profound thing to say, and it means that Truth is ever-present, so you don’t need to “get to it,” but rather just see it right here and now. Using effort to try to find it is like bobbing up and down in the midst of the ocean and searching for the water.

So the path to Truth is a paradox. You can’t get to it, and yet you find yourself working at it. From my own experience, the words of many of the sages are confusing and mystifying. I am not sure if a lot of their teachings are lost in the translation or whether they were just not good at explaining things in a way I could understand, so despite spending years studying the words of Ramana, Nisargadatta, Papaji, Krishnamurti, and others, I had to keep going.

Douglas Harding the Sage
Eventually I realized something spectacular when I read a quote from Douglas Harding. He said, and I may be paraphrasing, that the problem is that we are looking at all the objects in the field of our vision, in our consciousness, while instead we should be looking back at the one who is looking. Now, this is hardly any different than what some of the other sages (mentioned above) have said, but the way Harding phrased it in particular hit me in just the right way to do the trick and send me over the edge from this egoic mind to the great expanse.

The real issue is not “how to find your true nature,” but rather what will it take that flips the switch for you. “How” refers to a way or a system. If there was a way to your Self, then that would mean you are not already your Self.

Stereogram analogy
Consider the stereogram. Maybe you have seen these as part of a fad in the 80s (or maybe that’s when you were born). No matter. The idea is that there is an image embedded in the stereogram that, if you look at it the right way, you can see what has always been there. Similarly, your true nature is always right here; it doesn’t take getting “to” it or “finding” it. It just takes something that allows you to see the obvious.