Pointers

True renunciation is not depriving yourself of the earth's splendors or living in abject poverty. It is the clear recognition that you are truth itself.


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A genuine teacher, in question-and-answer sessions, aims at taking you beyond your questions, rather than simply answering them. And he or she certainly has no interest in arguing or debating with you about anything. Some teachers, however, have strong personalities, as did Nisargadatta and U.G. Krishnamurti. They often enjoyed a little give-and-take. But however rancorous such exchanges may get, the teacher is continually pointing to that abiding stillness within us all.


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Just pause a moment and discern the fact that there are thoughts, sounds, and sensations present, as well as a subtle, unchanging presence of awareness. Stay with that presence for a moment, and you will see that there was never a time when it was not there.


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One of the great spiritual pointers of all time was said not by an acclaimed saint or sage, but by the early 20th-century Polish-American semanticist Alfred Korzybski, who uttered, "The map is not the territory." No matter how moving the chants, mantras, experiences, or even silence maybe, they are not the thing itself. Truth can only be directly cognitized. See that this living reality exists as you at this very moment, as you read these words. You are the space in which this comprehension is happening. There is no mystery here. Only wonder.