May the peace and blessings of God be with you, now and always. Opinions are interesting—they are the things other people have although we have absolute truths, something which creates serious problems in the world. We notice exchanging opinions with other people, as soon as we come to some subject close to their heart we are no longer dealing with opinions, we are talking about truth. Even when we are unable to be objective about someone else’s opinion, we fail to grasp that what we accept is grounded in the same kind of reasoning. We consider our point of view valid and theirs ephemeral, we think they are floating on air, their opinion will change when they understand and rise to a higher level of consciousness.
We should understand there is more than one way of seeing things, we should be more tolerant of other perspectives. We are not required to agree with them, but we are required to be tolerant, a difficult thing. In certain situations we frequently see the opposite, we see people repeating what they have in their mind again and again, as if repetition makes it valid, so convincing it cannot be denied. Some people shout, thinking perhaps if they speak louder than anyone else they make it valid. People have different techniques in their conversational approach to validating their opinions, to establishing them as more important. How dearly we hold onto them, how important it is to us that they prevail in our circle of friends, acquaintances or family.
Different cultures have opinions about certain things, opinions which become the truth within that culture. If we apply that truth to another culture it might not have relevance. In our culture, wealth and status go together, fame and status go together. In a Tibetan culture the collection of things does not give us status, different things give us status there. When a Tibetan comes to a culture like ours where amassing things gives status, it seems very odd. For us to adjust to a perspective without fame or the collection of things takes work, it requires a change in our sense of who we are.
Power in our society is a measure of status. In other societies power is avoided, power is a burden people do not care for, but here we do not see it as a burden, we see it as grace, as something given to us because of our greatness. This is our way of looking at power. Now all these things have a place, every opinion has its place. Some of our opinions actually change during our life, and this should persuade us to understand more than one point of view.
People on this path live in a state of paradox; if we cannot live in paradox we cannot understand the mystery of creation or the mystery of existence. If we truly believe in God, we believe in what we cannot see, we believe in the truth revealed to us, we believe in things that are inexplicable, yet we believe them while allowing others to believe what they believe. We do not have to agree with them and we do not have to change them either. The ability to walk through life as a vibratory example of the truth, instead of as a sword cutting away whatever is not the same as itself, is rare in this world.
We need to be that rarity, that jewel of creation, something which does not impose itself, an example we are drawn to because of what it represents, not because of what it can do to us, what it can impose on us or intimidate us with. Some of us have encountered this kind of teaching, we have brushed up against this kind of being, we have been given the privilege of living in the presence of a vibratory being who was transmitting reality. Within this vast illusion we were in the presence of something that touched reality. Can we touch that reality, can we let go of everything we hold onto, all the opinions we have, be free to be touched by what is real? Are we open enough to be touched by it and not resist, are we brave enough to accept what is different from what we understand without running away, hiding or denying it?
The truth is so serene, so beyond the mind’s comprehension it frightens the mind. Unless we are stable beings, secure in our roots and without attachment to the egocentric guidelines we have established to define ourself, we are going to have trouble. If we have defined ourself too specifically, if we think we already know who we are, when we are shown who we really are we are going to run, we cannot accept anything beyond our own definition. All these things we call opinions define us, they define us not only for our associates, more importantly they define us for ourself. When the opinions we hold dear are exploded, it means we have exploded, we are exposed to ourself.
When we are exposed to ourself, when we see what we have gone through, the things we have done, different things happen. There might be pain, shame, embarrassment, anger, resentment, all these things can well up because everything was already so well organized, completely in order, why does anything need to be changed? I already know how things are, why do you have to show me something else, aren’t I in charge here? No, I am not in charge here, we are not in charge here, and when the explosion comes which is the test of who we are, when that explosion comes, it is the test of what we will become. The question we have to ask ourself is, are we ready? When the time comes, are we ready for all we have held dear, all that we know, all that we imagined, all that we think is real to disappear, to explode before us with nothing left to hold onto, no mileposts to tell us how far we have gone down the road, not even a road?
The open space is just that, it is the open space, free of this world. Can we be free of this world? We become what we have attached ourself to. Be careful of what you attach yourself to. As we attach ourself to certain things, we start to resemble them. Did you ever notice that some people eventually look like their dogs, they look like their wives or husbands? All this can be positive or negative. If we attach ourself to the right things it can be positive; if we attach ourself to the physical form of our wife that is one thing, but if we attach ourself to the godliness in our wife, that is another thing, another look. And if she attaches herself to the godliness in us, that is also another look. As we grow older we begin to look like each other or like the light in each other. These are the choices we have to be inwardly free enough to make from day to day. This entails not being weighed down by opinion, not being concerned with what other people think, not needing to convince other people we are right, because we are not. Right or wrong, we just are not.
We have to understand that in reality, God alone exists. God exists, not our constructs, our thoughts or any of the things we have assembled. We have to enter the joy which none of these things we worry about have, we have to enter the joy of this immense freedom we have been allowed to glimpse, which has been given to us in our lifetime. There is great freedom within if we let ourself live it. To live it we have to stop holding onto the things which prevent us from living it, and we know what these things are, things which are different for each of us.
Some of us have the thought that a certain person is wrong and keep telling us why he is wrong. As long as we keep thinking this way, as long as we keep explaining why that person is wrong, we are forgetting what is right, what can be right with ourself. We make that wrong person an idol—we spend our time with an idol, even if we think he is our enemy. We need to let go of everything including enemies, we need to find friends who have nothing to give us but God, friends who want nothing from us but God, friends who have no use for anything but the God within us, friends who bring us closer to that point. We need to look for such people, we need to find these people and stay with them. A group of people like this can be found anywhere in the world, a group like this can be found right around the corner. We have to understand their sweetness and let it bubble up, we have to let the sweetness bubble up in ourself too, because we have that sweetness as well.
We need to be skilled in our understanding of what holds us back, we need to be skilled at stopping whatever it is, skilled at sitting still and praising Him, saying all praise is Yours, O God. It is not more complicated than that. We are on the right path, we are the path, the mystery, the universe is here within each of us. We are mirror images of each other, there are no differences. All we have to do is praise each other and once we do, everything else becomes incidental. We should understand what comes first, what comes second, third and fourth, understand our priorities in this life. We cannot let society set our priorities, we cannot let pop culture set our priorities, and we cannot let anything driven by self, by money or power set our priorities. We cannot let the standards of the world be our criteria of right and wrong. That would be a sin against our soul, a sin against ourself, a sin against the lives of friends and companions, those we love, our children and family. Pray that God will allow us the understanding to avoid this.
May God help each of us enter that clear space, that space without restriction where we are not held down, a space where we are not driven by opinion, where self-evident truth does not have to be imposed on others, where we no longer need them agree with us. When the time comes agreement will come, when the time comes everyone will know. Our only job is ourself, to be His friend, then we can be true friends.
