Poison for the Heart

by Kevin Solway - Contents -

FOREWORD

I have not been able to inspire much interest among publishers with this book. I am no salesman. However, I have written this book for interested people to read, and not for personal profit, so I offer it to you here at no cost other than the toll it will extract from your false heart.

If you are interested in finding out more about the ideas presented in this book I would be glad to hear from you. I would also be glad to hear from any publishers who would like to make this book more convenient to read by printing and binding it for me.

INTRODUCTION

In these few marks on paper, I offer you everything that I have, and everything that I am. Thus I exist in this work both physically and spiritually. If you read me as you read the works of others, I will appear empty. Project your own understanding onto me, to make me meaningful, and you will destroy me. Dismemberment does not appeal to me, so I will warn and warn again in an attempt to confound. And even if my warnings touch only a single one of you, the effort will have been worth the trouble.

These writings will not be welcomed by the run of humanity, nor are they intended for such animals - the herd, obsessed with happiness and the preserving of the life. My wisdom is not for the public life and the organizations within it, neither for mass movements nor break-away sects. Groups appeal to the herd mentality, but the wisdom I speak of in these writings cannot exist in such an environment and in such minds. Rather, I preserve this work for the mere handful of worthies, the true individuals, few though they be and far between. You will know yourself to be one of these precious ones when the externals of authority and tradition fill you with disgust, and when you at last delve into your own intelligence in search of your own wisdom.

Any search for a wise teacher is mistaken, for the truly wise are as rare as the stars at midday. You could comb the world without discovering a single one. Much less would you find an organization full of them! Hence, if these writings fall into the hands of "groups", be they adherents of mysticism, devotees of meditation, or scientists, you can be sure my heart is not with them.

In time, many will hold up these words for their own devious purposes. Not least among them will be the philosophers - those foul creatures. They will strip this work bare as soon as they get their greedy hands on it. My truth is infinitely remote from professional thinkers. Their delight is to slam me into a category, aligning me with this or that religion or school of thought, much as they might throw a criminal into jail. They say my thought coincides with so and so, while it differs with such and such. They conveniently miss the whole point, and lose everything. How do such ignorant fools hope to judge men of the Infinite? My ideas will always appear contradictory and paradoxical to them. In their hurry to get on with their job they judge brothers and sisters to be of different species!

We barely deserve spiritual writings. Wise words need a special reader. Such a reader must have an irrepressible intellect, a courageous heart, and the stride of a giant. Yet who among us is not too feeble to bear scrutiny? Who among us has left the animal behind and become human?

There will always be those who find happiness elusive within the mainstream, rejecting it in favour of the uncommon. Such people think that the fewer who share a belief, and the more unlikely that belief is, then the more true the belief must be! The ideas I present in these writings may well attract such defeated and desperate minds which seek an unusual stone. More than likely these people will form an organization to "preserve the truth". And if it also provides moral support and gives people something "constructive" to do with their time, then well and good, but I will have nothing to do with them. Such shells of men will have been attracted for the wrong reasons, and will therefore only flesh-out their own despicable ideas. I do not and will not breathe the same air as they!

But if you have thrown your happiness to the wind, with the joy of becoming free of the greatest of burdens. And if you have chosen to trust your fate to reason alone, then I am the air for your lungs.

You should regard these writings not so much as dogmatic scriptural injunctions, but as a children's class in the use of the brain. It is all about making the brain a teacher, in order to distinguish between the true and the false, the wise and the foolish.

These words are to awaken you to the highest wisdom. But what is wisdom? If there is wisdom, then where are the wise men? . . . It is ever true that the wise are few, because nothing is hated quite so much as truth, and few can accept such hatred - too many of us need love.

Despite the rarity of the sage, I would like to paint a rough picture of him, just to give you an idea of how inhuman he really is, or perhaps to alter your conception of what it means to be human. He is a solitary being, though he is also at home in a crowd. Altogether he has a complete lack of human values. He loves nothing, therefore he hates nothing. Happiness is repugnant to him, so he never suffers. He depends on nothing, and questions all human motivation.

But don't take my word for it. Only a sage can recognize a sage, just as a specialist in a field of work knows his subject. So the first step in the search for wisdom is to cultivate your own. Nor will you find it anywhere outside your own mind. If you try to find wise men, you will create your own, and your mind will rot with their false wisdom. For where would you find a man of true wisdom? Even if you did meet one, how would you recognize him? Having disregarded your own mind in favour of your search, you will be penniless. No doubt you would judge the genuine sage to be destructive of human morals, cynical, negative, and quite mad. Moreover, how would you possibly be able to benefit from his teachings?

Thus you must discover the guru within your own mind. In the end you will find there is no other way. You stand alone with your own brain tucked securely away inside your skull. There is just you and your thought.

These notes are designed to be a stimulant, or a catalyst, or perhaps even a guide - a guide for a trek across a vast and unfamiliar desert on the expectation of finding an oasis. You must do all the walking. And no less must you also consider the reliability of the guide! You may do well to listen to his advice, but in the end the decision is yours alone. Ultimately you must rely on your own desert skills, accumulated over many years, to test his judgement. Use his aid to awaken and amplify your own skills. Learn from him where his knowledge is greater than your own - and take a different direction where perhaps his judgement is faulty.

Long desert years can teach many things, but bad habits and biases become ingrained. A guide's advice may seem sound enough, but is he mistaken? The guide may be correct in nine of his directions, but what about that tenth one? This last is the most crucial, determining whether you make it to water or die of thirst. In spiritual matters, a single wayward direction signifies bankruptcy, for once true wisdom is awakened there is never any mistake as to its direction.

Let no one ever say that what I present in these writings is a new religion, or that it reveals profound truths that have been hidden from all who have gone before. The truths I speak of are not new. Many have been aware of them before me, and experienced them more deeply. All the essential truths I point to can be found in the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. And in some respects the teachings of these religions far outweigh the power and effectiveness of what I offer here.

The appalling thing is of course, that these religions have become corrupted and their meaning lost. Their teachings have been misinterpreted and have spread through society in a highly damaging form. The physical words of the teachings may have remained relatively unchanged through time, but the interpretation and thus the truth of them has changed radically. Truth is certainly present within some religions, but is absent from them as they exist in all their diverse forms today. The truth can indeed be found within many religious scriptures, but only when you understand them correctly.

I have little to add to the teachings of the Buddha. His teachings are essentially complete - when rightly understood, and when the chaff is separated from the seed. My aim is to help in that separation process, to help weed out the mass of unwanted cultural rubbish that has gathered over centuries. I say again, I do not expound a new truth, or even improve on an old one. I seek to clarify the very same Truth that has been known for many ages; the very same Truth that has been forgotten for many ages.

I am not one for originality. If I invent new names for God, it may well help you to overcome any preconceptions you have about the old ones, but I will not do this, as new names only create more confusion. There are already enough words, so I will use the words we already have, and try to awaken your minds to their real and intended meaning.

I seek to present the characteristics of Truth in such a way as to distinguish it from all those mystical truths and philosophies that are common barter these days, and which present themselves as the ultimate. I will set reality into sharp relief against the backdrop of worldliness, thus allowing it to be seen in all its glory - and terrifying power.

I have tried to present these thoughts in as efficient a way as possible. I do not make an effort at writing beautifully. Writing and reading must not become mere entertainment - they can be powerful attachments as damaging as any. Effectiveness is my sole consideration, so forgive me if I have strayed from the traditions of style and content. I have not written to speak to you, but to trigger your own mind into speaking with itself. I aim to challenge your most deeply cherished of thoughts. I want to invoke you to think with your whole being, rather than allow you to hold ideas at the safe distance of your intellect. It is all about the discovery of courage.

Now read, and as you read, know that you read my blood - no light matter!

Kevin Solway, 1990

AGEING



Ageing

When you're seventeen you know everything. When you're twenty-seven, if you still know everything you're still seventeen.

Unfortunately, most of us don't begin to think until the ripe age of thirty - when things are a little more quiet. The problem is, at this age it is too late to begin doubting one's basic assumptions in life. Pride is a factor - it is too distressing to admit failure and have to start all over again.

As we age we nearly always undergo a hardening of the attitudes, or a hardening of the heart - not unlike hardening of the arteries. All our efforts become directed towards extinguishing the idea that something new may be possible. Up until now we have had some ideals, some faith in reason, but age beats all the hope out of us. Now we need security, and security requires certainty. If our categories are not concrete and beyond doubt we will surely be crucified by them. Therefore, once we reach thirty we know everything - even if it is the cowardly certainty that we can never know absolute truth! From this time on we are the slaves of abstraction and unable to ask the noble questions of youth.

For young children it is primarily experience that determines character. For the adult it is character that determines experience. That is, the ego is initially built on experience, and later builds experience. Thus the elderly fear change because they have something to lose; while the young are still building, and have everything to gain. Children are therefore curious and open; they are not afraid to ask questions precisely because they do not fear ignorance.

But children become adults, and soon the feelers of abstract thought grow and reach out, bringing a new knowledge, a great knowledge, and great fears also. Soon, everything becomes fearful, and they too will be heard barking, even when the wind rustles through the grasses.

What is it to be a child? A child is one who sees adults as mad. Thus, when you find the people of this world acceptable, you have grown up. It is better to have more of the adolescent in you than the "mature". Strictly speaking, maturity indicates the end of growth, both physically and mentally. If you're green you're growing; if you're ripe, you're rotting.



Zeal

As a young child I used to beat-up my parents till they told me the truth; such was my passion for the absolute. By the grace of God that zeal is still with me! These days I beat-up God till he gives me what I want.



Maturity

"Maturity" is the balanced, stable and content ego-mind of later life. It precipitates once the many worldly skills have been learnt and integrated so as to operate automatically. The mature can be said to "have their act together" - an apt expression, as it is truly only an act which they have perfected. They are actors, who after long years of practice have perfected a certain role. And they are ever comfortable with that role, provided the stage is set for them.

The more composed, or balanced a person is, the more secure is their ego, and the less likely they are to partake of any real thought. They will not risk everything they have built up during their life, not now. They believe suffering is behind them. "Suffering and anxiety are for youth" they think in their deepest thoughts. "We need hardship to mature" they reflect. Oh Great Wisdom!

The mature man is one who has lost the strength and desire for perfection, and now proclaims such striving to be folly. Here begins compassion . . .



Children

The textbooks say that children display "egocentrism" - as if this were different from the plain old egotism of adults! The fact is, we cowards refrain from saying children are egotistical because it doesn't seem right to condemn normal behaviour.

"Egocentrism" says that it is acceptable to be egotistical about helping others, as opposed to serving only oneself. It is designed to do away with the more nasty and inconsiderate word "egotistic".



The Youngest Child

How so very important it is, whether one is the first child born, or the last. So much rests upon this. The oldest child is more exposed, and becomes independent and hard, whereas the youngest is more sheltered, and correspondingly softer.

I have heard it said that the youngest child matures sooner than his elder brothers and sisters. It is more accurate to say that he grows-up sooner - at the expense of maturity. This is because the company of elder siblings is stimulating, and the younger child can rapidly learn the many tricks and deceptions of life. However, he never faces the hard knocks of those who go before him, and doesn't become seasoned.

The oldest child is like a wise old weather-beaten man who shows his years; while the youngest is a bright socialite of the city.



Old age

If you begin by sacrificing yourself to those you love, you will end by hating those very people. This follows as surely as night follows day. A house built on sand, no matter how devotedly, is doomed to be washed away with the rain. All things are temporary: belief in them is sure to end in disappointment.

The old-aged are often bitter about life. They feel cheated that all they had been given has now been taken away. Gone is the strength and beauty of youth, gone are the children, friends are dead, dreams of the future are no longer possible, and past achievements seem empty. There is nothing to savour from the past, nor anything in the future or the present. Time will strip all things bare - do not doubt it for a moment!

We must learn that this life is not ours to lose. Not even temporary rights are ours.



Too late for spiritual life?

Age: I'm fifty-four years old I'll have you know! Its too late for me to be embarking on a brand new way of life.

Youth: Perhaps you are right. There's no denying you have become set in your ways. But it's not too late to consider your "future lives". So, you may have made the mistake of ceasing to grow, but you can still use the time you have left to tell others of your mistake, and help prevent them from making the same blunder.



When does old begin?

We are truly old only when death is near - and at whatever age this may be. The idea that it is possible to die young is ludicrous. We die at the end of our lifespan and not before. Life always runs its full term: how can it be otherwise?



Too old

The pure mind must have its foundation in the early years of life. The elderly man whose mind turns toward the philosophic and religious spheres can at best only become the shadow of the spiritual man. He may have all the form, but lacks the substance.



Age

When you're eighteen, the world's your oyster. If you don't find a pearl in it, you just open-up another one.

Yet the time will come when you run out of oysters to open, and the pearls you have turn red-hot.

ATTACHMENT



Drugs

Heroin, cocaine, and alcohol can indeed open up the mind to altered states of consciousness, as can music, poetry, and meditation. However, do not think these experiences give you new insights into reality, or that they are even remotely spiritual. Drugs like these can serve only to help the ego forget its problems, and only for a short time. They dangerously suppress the symptoms, but do not cure the disease. You may well experience a rare heavenly bliss and warm sense of fulfillment, though I bid you think again! Soft drugs invariably lead to hard-drugs. Small superstitions give birth to gross miscarriages of reason.

Far from bringing us closer to reality, such practices distance us from it by making us content with a dream. At least at other times reality is close enough to foil our plans.

This is not to say altered states of consciousness are without their use. With intelligence, they can help to make us aware of the many faces of reality, and thus that reality exists purely within the mind. Unfortunately, the herd look no further than their present comfort, and cannot learn from experience. Implications and consequences are alien concepts to such animals, who are fully occupied just keeping from drowning in the stormy seas of their lives. They have no time for investigating the nature of life and death: they have no time to live.



Entertainment

Entertainment: a way of avoiding boredom.

Boredom: when you don't want to think about life and can't find entertainment.

Loneliness: what people who are attached to the company of others call boredom.

Depression: when you are forced to think about life, and don't like what you see.



The Strength of Attachment

So, you wish to know the strength of your attachment for a particular thing? Look no further than your need for it, because need is attachment.

If you wish to know the character a person, then look where their love alights: no one can hide.



Attachment to the future

The girl says: "Some day my prince will come, and take me away from all this."

We all live with the hope that our daily toil is leading towards perfection. We believe the reward for all our suffering is just around the corner, and that soon, everything will be different. Indeed, it is commonly said that hope is the only thing that makes life worth living.

That which is commonly said is always wrong. Hope does not make life worth living, because it is in vain. Perfection never comes to the foolish, no matter how long and deep their faith. It is not surprising the elderly feel bitter and cheated.

If a cart is not moving, do you hit the cart, or the horse that pulls it? If we do not attain perfection are we to blame, or the method we use to attain it? The method is the horse, and we are the cart. Foolish hopes cannot carry us to our destination.



Work

A job is not merely a tranquillizing drug forced upon the ego, but is a dangerously addictive and destructive poison.

Work destroys the mind more effectively than anything else, which is precisely why it is enforced. After all, we are all equal, and therefore nobody must be permitted to have a mind. Work saps you of your thought by a process of taking your mind prisoner, monopolizing it, absorbing it, preventing you from thinking about anything other than work. It becomes your life. You become it. What is left?

You may not enjoy your work at first, but you soon change to accommodate it. In time, work comes to possess you so thoroughly that every moment away from work is spent recovering . . . in preparation for work. We come to accept work as a necessary sacrificial ritual, in which we sacrifice ourselves.

"Everybody needs love" and "everybody works" become uttered in the same breath - two dogmas that represent the cornerstones of our entire existence. Together, they successfully banish freedom of thought from society. Yet is this not what we really want?



Strength

You must be strong to live freely in this world, where all people are "drug addicts" who try to force their drugs upon you with every possible threat and manipulation - in the name of "morality".

To preserve yourself, you must know fully: this is not mine; this am I not; this is no soul of mine.



Running Away

We prefer to run away from problems than face them squarely. We are not clever enough to dissolve problems when they are small, so we let them grow into monsters, and then try to live with them.

Travel is one such monster, and it claims far too many of us. We require continuous change in order to forget ourselves, our past, and all the suffering it supports. But how can you run from yourself? No matter how far you run, your thoughts will accompany you.



Your good friends

An individual cannot have friends - by definition. So let your good friends be your thoughts of the Infinite, and have no friend besides; for what kind of friend could that be? Confide in God alone. Live with eternity.

The last thing you should ever do is offer your hand to a person in need. Look into their eyes; how deep is their delusion! How could you give further poison to one already dying from it?



Spiritual friends

A spiritual friendship is no ordinary friendship. Your best spiritual friend must also be your best enemy, for they will challenge you, and pinch and poke you into action. Spiritual friends do not wish to flatter you, and make you stronger, but to undermine your false prides and make you weaker; because only the weak are strong enough, and sensitive enough for God. Only the weak can have doubts, a chink in the armour through which God can enter. Only the weak can transcend goodness, for the strong are content to do their good, but good always turns bad within samsara.



Television

Television represents one thousand more ways to avoid thought. Could there be a more lazy way to live? At least before television we would have to occupy our own minds, which would require some power of will. But now, with the pressing of a button, you can have your mind flooded with the thoughts of another.

Some of you cry "But what about the educational programs?". All I can say is that if those programs are educational then education is dead. Your "education" is merely a self-righteous form of entertainment. The horrifying thing is, that you have been taught to regard education in this distorted way by television!

Research has found that even though we watch television for relaxation, we are less relaxed after watching television than beforehand. I am sure this is because we feel degraded by the way we are treated by this imposing machine. Television is aimed at the lowest common denominator in society - so we the viewers are treated as fools. Nor do we have any direct control over the content or timing of what flashes on the screen before us. Our self-esteem suffers even more when we realize that we are so wretchedly weak that we still love the drug of television despite the utterly disrespectful way it treats us.

Television watching is like smoking, in that the psychological harm it does to a person in terms of guilt, degradation, and demoralization, probably outweighs any other harm.

Simply looking at the night sky and the infinity of space can be enough to awaken us to our true nature. Perhaps this is the very reason we invented television - to keep us indoors, to glue our eyes to, and prevent them from straying.

And perhaps this is also why so many of us live in cities, where atmospheric pollution and bright lights render the stars invisible. We huddle together in these, which we call the great cultural centres, as though digging ourselves a hole to hide in - while all around us the magnificence and glory of Nature go unnoticed.



Groups

"Which side are you on?" . . . evocative words indeed. They could be the entire lyrics for a protest song. And what are these words saying? Which group are you with! Which club do you belong to! Are you a somebody! The implication being that if you do not immediately join a group then you are an indecisive person of no character.

These days it is all the rage to have an opinion; whether that opinion is justified is irrelevant . . . as long as you have an opinion!



Lust

Note: in this, and rest of the dialogues in this book, the person "Q" represents the seeker of truth, or at least the opponent of it, while person "A" represents truth.

Q: What is the difference between lust and desire, and what is wrong with them?

A: Lust is like the root of a tree and desire is the branches. Lust is the root desire, the basic hunger for permanence and power. Desire is a modification of lust; it is directed and controlled lust. Lust is also foolishness, for nothing is lacking in reality. In Nature everything is perfect from the very beginning.

However, if you are not enlightened, then lust is a part of your being and you cannot realistically hope to be instantly free of it. In this case it is good to lust for Truth and for God. Only a ravenous hunger for God can quash lust and desire. If a child cries loudly enough for its mother, she soon comes running. The fire grows until the fire brigade are called into action; then it is rapidly quenched. If you love the Truth enough, it will not be able to evade you.

Likewise, if you wish to possess anything at all, whether it be man, woman, or money, then make sure you always occupy your mind with it, and desire it with all your heart. You will gradually come to identify yourself so closely with the object, that you will feel inseparable from it. The foolish find much pleasure in such loss of identity. They say they "lose themselves" in the things they love. The wise weep over their plight.



Filling the mind

Q: How do you fill your days?

A: How can they be emptied? A day is a full day no matter what you do with it. When you abandon concepts of "full" and "empty" then your days will be truly full. Think of Reality, of God, and your days will become full of God.

Whatever you think, you become. Have you noticed how male actors who always play the role of a woman become more effeminate? If you always think of women, you are bound to become like them. If you continually think of yourself as a successful businessman, then you will gradually acquire the qualities of a successful businessman. In the same way, if you continually fill your mind with the Infinite, then your mind will gradually become Infinite.

Chuang-tzu once said: "The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not."

Thus we should concentrate on what we really are, rather than on what we are not.



Mind your own business

Q: I choose the ups and downs of egotistic life, what right have you to try and change me?

A: Choose all you like, you will not stop the man of Truth from managing his own affairs. He regards you as his own self and will try to stop you from destroying yourself along with all humankind.

Q: But you cannot change the way I think!

A: This conversation is changing the way you think whether you like it or not. Do you really think you are independent from me? You breathe in the air I breathe out! All things in this Universe are interconnected, and our minds too are physically connected. How can I not change the way you think?

Q: I can see that your mind has an effect on mine, as does mine on yours, but you have yet to change my mind in the way you want to. Many of your ideas bother me deeply. You are against all attachments, yet clearly not all attachments are bad: it is a surely a noble thing to cultivate good attachments.

A: There is no such thing as a "good attachment". An attachment may not cause immediate harm, in your eyes, but all attachments hold within them the seeds of destruction that even you may learn to recognize. Parents may bring a child up to love sport, music, and reading - yet the child becomes a mass murderer - why? Of course it is because of upbringing. All things have causes, and there are no causes other than upbringing, whether they be genetic or environmental.

The child was reared to be an egotist, that is, without wisdom, so the child became an egotist. Once you have an ego you are no longer in control of your own life. Your precious life becomes a struggle for survival, to avoid pain. And you don't have the luxury of being able to choose just how to avoid that pain, but will make full use of whatever opportunity presents itself. Nor is there time to consider the consequences of your actions. From the perspective of every ego, living is a case of "kill or be killed".

Q: You speak many strange words, are you Enlightened?

A: Can you discover whether a person is Enlightened simply by asking them? Can you believe what people say? If you take people at their word, you are resting your life on shaky foundations indeed! How do you know whether another is telling you what they really think? Or what if they are genuinely mistaken in what they say? Even if they do tell you the truth - how do you know you are correctly interpreting their words?

You must become Enlightened yourself. Only then are you able to consider the meaning of Enlightenment, and the words of those who have achieved it.

Q: I have one more question. You say we should not be so materialistic. But if everyone gave up their material attachments the whole economic structure of our society would collapse!

A: Truth cannot be altered to accommodate the world. The moment Truth is compromised it ceases to exist. Therefore the world must bow to Truth.



City and Country

Country living is dangerous; it is far too easy to stagnate. If the reality of change is not forced upon us there is little to threaten our cherished beliefs. The ego will be sheltered, never knocked off balance and forced into change. Where there is no change, there is no hope. While the countryside can be a good place to assimilate and digest one's life experiences, the wretchedness of our lives is not so evident in the country as it is in the city.

The city has the whole of life within it. A thousand different and contrasting world views rubbing shoulders with one another, prodding the ego from every direction. This variety helps to prevent the blindness of familiarity, and provides much needed intellectual stimulation. Here we can see egotism in all its forms, and importantly, the causes and consequences of this egotism can be examined side by side. In the city, it is much more difficult to rest content.

An intensely strong motivation, deep disgust, and a yearning desire is required to transcend this world, which can be difficult to generate in the sleepy dales of the countryside. This is why the city is so useful: it reminds one of the Devil, and therefore of God also. And even though distractions in the city are many, it may be easier to find God here than in the mountains. For here at least there is more chance we will exhaust all avenues of enjoyment and pain, and finally turn to reason, which, after all, we wretches will only do as a last resort.

So, be warned, while the countryside proffers one peace and quiet and freedom from disgust, tranquillity can be fatal!



Worn Paths

Imagine a wilderness, with paths scattered throughout. A traveller naturally falls into these paths, as they offer an easier passage through the punishing country. His passage wears the paths even more, making them even better defined. Gradually these paths become major thoroughfares.

This is a model for the human mind, with the paths being our habitual deluded patterns of thinking. As forestry students our dictum was: "Off the road and into the bush!" We didn't want to be "led down the garden path". Spiritual growth too, demands that we abandon false brain-pathways, and start out anew, striving headlong into the wild and untamed country. After many years of effort, a new way will take shape - the highway to Enlightenment.

So, after much work, you may have at last found the highway to God - then congratulations - but this is only the beginning! Sticking to the main road is easy, but we love to be sidetracked. The old, familiar routes take time to grow-over, and until they do, the tendency is to fall into them again. And each time you re-tread an old way, it is refreshed, and becomes all the more attractive to travellers like yourself.



Attached or unattached

The supported man and the standing man look the same, but move quite differently. A puppet does not have the freedom of a human being. A fool does not have the freedom of a sage.



Money in the bank

Money is the root of all evil, and comes in many forms: there is experience in life, formal qualifications, and experience with suffering; all are easily experienced as money in the bank, which is a form of attachment to the future.



Comic

The dying man says "I am not afraid of dying, it is leaving my wife that terrifies me." Hah! Has he really lived all these years only to think he will be going somewhere at death! And when he is dead, the widow, drowning in grief, says "I know my husband is dead, I just don't know where he is, that's what upsets me so."



Observations on marriage

- You should really make the most of marriage, because you're only going to get married two or three times in a lifetime.

- Marriage is a great institution - if you don't mind living in an institution.

- Marriage is an attempt to complete childhood. Thus in marriage we never fully become adults, for childhood must be grown out of, not completed.

- If you are single and attached to the opposite sex, then three quarters of your mind is taken-up with them. This leaves only one quarter available to reason. With so little reason available to you, marriage is sure to follow. Now the whole of your mind is taken up with family - eliminating reason completely!

- An unhappy husband once said to a psychologist "Marriage doesn't work, the only thing that works is divorce." "Divorce is only a temporary happiness" replied the psychologist.

- Does a wife truly wish for her husband to become a Buddha? Does a husband truly wish for his wife to become a Buddha? Thus, if you wish to become a Buddha, do not marry.

- In contrast to a loose-jointed framework egotism, the union of marriage is a stone-wall egotism. This is precisely why we are told marriage is the truly ennobling life.



Polygamy

One thing to be said for polygamy is that it gives a man more freedom - yes, freedom. A lone wife will feel she is entitled to the entirety of her husband's attention. His very closeness gives her a purchase on him. It is as though he presents her with a large surface area to which she can apply her glue - which bonds deathly tight. However, one wife among many will feel no such exclusivity. She will feel no ownership and will make few, if any demands on her husband.



Love

It can move one's heart to see a young couple romantically enthralled with each other. But the heart becomes deeply sad just a few months later - to see their paralyzing dependence on one another.

It is not sex that keeps one from God, but love, its attendant emotions, and the lifestyle that supports it.



So much effort

I wish I never heard of your "time management" and your "quality time". I wish instead you would go beyond time. Then you will have all the time in the world! In such a timeless state it is impossible to do anything that is not perfect, and waste is never a concern.

And then I hear you talk of the importance of concentration. If only you would concentrate on not concentrating! With all your efforts you only concoct for yourself a deadly concentrate. Let it go to the winds! Let it evaporate harmlessly away on the strong and fresh ocean breezes. Be rid of your burden!



Thoughts about war

- We do not fear war, because it provides less suffering than does peace. Why is this? Simply because peace inevitably becomes tiresome and boring, and makes us feel insufficient and vulnerable. War, on the other hand, arouses feelings of confidence and power - it reinvigorates.

- It is said that teenagers can readily adapt to war because they are too young to comprehend their own death. More accurately, they cannot comprehend their own life. They have not yet developed hopes and goals for the future, and therefore have nothing to lose.

- Some say war memorials are a glorification of war. Well, they are certainly a means for emotional gratification, precisely the value of war itself!



The traveller

Travel broadens the mind, but often dilutes it in the process. There is more of a stretching than a broadening, with depth being sacrificed for more extensive shallows.

The classic traveller is like a salesman in that he has to compromise and bend to suit others, being dependent on their good will. The wise, however, do not compromise, and thus are not strangers to cold and hunger.

Therefore, if you haven't the strength to travel as do the wise, then settle yourself until you are. If you travel too soon your mind will become overrun with plans and concerns for food, shelter, and how to please others. Such a mind has no room for real thought. So, be careful how you run, for you may leave something valuable behind!



Country/City

- In the outback: the outback is constant, while we change.

- In the city: the city changes, while we are constant.



Romantic love

With our romantic love we are like a dog chasing a car. There is much thrill in the chase, but what to do with the car when you catch it? We are more animal than we give ourselves credit for.



Masturbation and drugs

All worldly joys are wholly selfish, whether they arise from compassion, love, or greed: thus all worldly happiness is masturbatory in nature.

Similarly, all attachments are drugs: thus we are all drug addicts.



Talk

The reason people talk so much, is because if they didn't, their brains might start to work.



The power of food

A man will put down his poetry to listen to music. Even this he forgets upon the sight of a beautiful woman. Yet even a woman cannot hold his attention when he smells food!



The approval of others

We poor fools seem to find our identity in how others perceive us. We need their approval before we can do anything! Men especially need the approval of women. Perhaps this is a legacy from childhood, and the wish to please the mother.

The wise are altogether different. They know themselves as individuals; that is, separate from the world, where praise or hatred cannot touch them. They are mere robots, and God is the programmer; and robots do not seek approval as they go about their business. The sun needs approval from no-one, and it shines. The wind needs approval from no-one, and it blows.

Not that it would ever occur to the wise man to seek approval, for who could judge him anyway? And what of it if they could? Who, when faced with the terrifying rawness of true thought, would approve? If the wise man ever meets with the approval of a woman, it is because she has not confronted his thought.

The sagely mind is free and perfect. It has no capacity, and therefore no room for praise or blame. This is no human mind.



I read it!

To the people of today, if something is written in a book then it means that a significant number of people share the same view. This alone qualifies it in their mind as a valid, viable consensual reality. Reality is thus created by numbers, and numbers become God.

If you question their assumptions they will argue "do you seriously think so many good and intelligent people can be wrong?".

This is exactly the case in religion, where, rather than seeking truth through reason, people place their faith in what is popular and "viable". Or rather, they consider it reasonable to place their faith in numbers.



Cannot escape God

You might cover your ears with your hands and blindfold your eyes, but you can't escape the sun sailing in the sky, the leaves of trees swaying in the breeze, the waves crashing against the shore, and the vast depths of space.



The rich

A sticker seen on the rear bumper of a porsche said "He who dies with the most toys wins."

The poor get poorer. The rich get porsche.



The child

Can you become a little child? Unblinking and unaffected by externals, wandering aimlessly, resting where put, following the current of things, ignorant of the distinctions of sex. After all, what does a dead man know of desire?: for a child is yet dead.

A child can cry all day without its throat becoming hoarse. Can you too speak from the source? Can you speak as yourself, rather than as your voice? Can you lay your mind open to the Universe, fearless of the consequences?



Attachment

One day of joy is too much. One thousand days is never enough.



Renunciation

Truth appears cold - to one attached to warmth. One cannot throw away attachments - they must be outgrown.

Sometimes it is better to give-in to an attachment - to get it out of the system. The ego must be convinced beyond doubt of the wretchedness of life. Stubbornly, the ego seems only to be able to learn the hard way.

It is not enough to dislike attachments; there must be disgust. Yet nothing conquers quite like love! To actually love being free of attachment, free of life, wild and unrestrained as the wind: that's what I call vicious!

BUDDHISM



Miracles

The Buddha said: "The greatest miracle is to know the Truth, and to make it known to others." This utterance was probably the greatest miracle of all time.



One thing at a time

It is said the essence of Zen is to do one thing at a time; but I say to you, the essence of Zen is to do all things at one time.



Zen

Q: I wish you wouldn't use all those Zen techniques. Can't you just talk to me in plain language?

A: What on earth are Zen techniques? - I know nothing of them. I use whatever means I see fit to make you see the Truth. That is all.

Q: But who are you anyway to be making all the authoritative statements you do? I think it is highly presumptuous of you.

A: Who are you to be saying "who are you?"



Nice Zen

You must have the ability to drive off the plowman's ox and to snatch away the hungry man's food before you will see how Zen helps people.



The death of Buddhism

In ancient times the title "Zen Master" was highly regarded by the wise. In ancient times there were still one or two genuine teachers worthy of the title. Today however, Buddhism is dead, and calling someone a Zen Master is no different to calling them a dog or a pig.

A thousand years ago, a Dharma Dragon like Hakuin may have seduced me into accepting the title of a Zen Master. Today, however, I would sooner shoot myself in the foot. A thousand years ago I may well have dedicated my efforts towards cleaning the vile muck out of the temple. But it has gone too far. The temple has become a heap of dung.



The Ten Innermost Jewels



Four entrustments: Entrusting one's mind and thoughts to the attainment of enlightenment. Entrusting one's life to life as a beggar. - Accepting poverty. Entrusting one's life to life as a beggar to death - Not holding any hopes and dreams of success. Entrusting one's life to a barren cave. - Accepting that society regards you as an enemy, and will make no place for you.



Three diamond-like convictions: To be stalwart towards hindrances caused by friends and relatives. To disregard the opinion of worldly people. - No matter whether they call you a madman or a saint. To firmly guard one's practice.



Three changes in one's living status: Expulsion from the ranks of men. Finding oneself among the ranks of dogs. Attaining divine ranks.



CAUSE AND EFFECT



Did we begin ?

A scientist said recently that the soul comes into existence when the mother accepts the child. A Tibetan lama has said that the life essence passes from the father into the mother, before conception. Personally, I believe it all begins with the sparkle in someone's eye.

So when does life begin? Who is right and who is wrong?

The whole question of a woman's right to abort a pregnancy, and whether it constitutes murder, revolves around the problem of when life actually begins: that is, the definition of life. Does it begin at conception, or at birth, or at some time between conception and birth, or even before conception? Is it possible that some of us never actually meet the criteria for "life"? Then again, are we assuming too much in supposing that life can come into existence at all!

Most of us believe in our self-existence and therefore that our life must have begun at some point in time; and this point in time is the whole point! For despite our frantic efforts to ascertain the exact moment of our grand coming into existence, we are doomed to failure as is the cat who tries to catch his own tail.

To believe one's life began at birth is satisfying enough for a child, but as our knowledge grows it fails to satisfy. Many a scientist finds the moment of conception a satisfying place to make a beginning. They say that conception represents the "complete genetic complement," and a new existence. But upon analysis we find that conception is not an event, but a process - a process in which nothing whatsoever can ever come into existence. And what is more, nothing becomes "complete" as nothing was lacking in the first place. Conception results in a genetic code inside a cell, a set of instructions, nothing more - which is no more "life" than a blueprint for a house is the actual house.

If anything at all comes into existence at conception it is our labels, or words we use as tools to provide us with handles for grappling with an elusive reality.

What does this leave us? A world without beginnings! The extinction of the spark of life! This seems a heartless prospect. This knowledge of beginnings is not spiritual, and may leave your heart ashen; but mark my words: it is the highest of all! I beg you consider that Nature is not entirely undeserving of respect.

Yes, respect for Nature is something we know little of. And it saddens me to have to say that we people . . . are believers in magic! The demon of superstition abounds within our hearts and minds. We have presupposed that a "self", some abstract phenomena we have never satisfactorily defined, does exist and has come into existence. Then we clever people amuse ourselves conjuring up events of "creation" to explain it all, wrongly and unnecessarily piling rubbish on top of what already exists in all its perfection.

The belief that life is created at conception, or at any point in time for that matter, is just as deluded and as wretched as the Christian belief in creation. It is a belief that something can be created out of nothing. Such thinking is positively hateful of reason and is typical of the scoundrels we humans are. We are not slow to disparage others when they throw reason to the winds. And we heap scorn upon those unfortunate fundamentalist religionists, when all the time, we, hypocrites to the core, harbour the deepest evil - blind faith in self-existence.

Life can never come into existence. There is just change here, and no matter how much you might like to have been "born", it is simply not a real possibility. No matter your love of life, reality remains.

Know that any boundary line you draw to designate a "beginning" will by necessity be totally arbitrary. Nonetheless such boundaries must be made-up for practical purposes, there being no demarcations in reality. The crucial thing to remember while we go about our business is that all boundaries are drawn by the imagination, and are therefore illusory. I bid you never forget this truth!

Can we avoid these illusions? No, for we have evolved within Nature in such a way that our senses and concepts provide us with boundaries, with illusions, which we must accept if we are to survive. However, we must not be ruled by these marvelous appearances, but put them firmly under our control. If we concretely defined life as existing at conception, then to halt the growth of the resultant chemical grouping would literally be murder! If we let words control our lives in this way we will be perpetually faced with such ludicrous and perplexing problems.

We ourselves define what is to be "life" and "death". They do not exist of their own account, so we must devise them for communicating and living. Such concepts should be used as tools to make life easy. It is madness to let them dictate to us, and to let them confound our spirits with unending confusion. We ourselves must choose definitions of life in line with the requirements of the survival of our species, and the advancement of wisdom. We could choose "life" to mean any number of things. In an underpopulated world life could begin at conception, making abortion illegal, while in an overpopulated world life might begin at birth.

The essential thing is that there are no ultimate values given to us. We alone are the creators of values. Do not shirk your responsibility! Learn to be a creator! To fail here is to personally condemn humankind to death.

Can religion help us live up to such a responsibility, and to live more harmoniously with reality? Hardly! The religions of today are symptomatic of the anti-thought pervasive through all society. They are the perfect crystallization of all I deplore. They express a pitiful fear of personal responsibility, a fear of freedom, and are kept alive through a psychology of self-grasping and the desire for permanence and predictability. Religion is the most active of movements to fight against the terrifying chaos of Nature. Its method is to package everything into neat little bundles, suitable for displaying on a mantlepiece. Religion is a sorry statement that we humans prefer to find happiness in belief rather than through reason.

So I implore you to use your brains, and have faith in your own ability to reason. Yes, I hear your doubts all too clearly: you regard reason a dubious master. But hear me out! If you use reason without fear or concession, how can it possibly lead you astray? So I say, respect your mind, love reason, be an example!



Birthday

Ramana Maharishee said: "You who wish to celebrate the birthday, seek first whence was your birth. Your true birthday is when you enter that which transcends birth and death - the eternal being. On your birthday you should mourn your entry into life. To glory in it, and celebrate it, is like decorating a corpse."

To celebrate the birthday is to celebrate the ego, and is to fight against destiny. Only when life and death have been transcended can destiny play its joyful games unrestricted.



Causation

All things find their beginning in their causes. This is not a difficult notion to grasp. However, causes are infinite and therefore impossible to grasp, so the ultimate cause is beyond comprehension.

It is then said to me:

"What is the use of knowing that all things are caused if we can never know what those causes are? Causation may well be the Way of Nature, as you declare, and all things accordingly natural; but such knowledge is worthless! If you are correct in saying all things are natural, then nothing is unnatural and the word "natural" ceases to have any useful meaning. It seems you would have us do away with all our words."

Does it not help to know the Truth? Ask this of yourselves. I tell you, it is only the ego that cannot make use of Truth. Truth alone has the strength to free the mind of emotion and its distorting force. Being free of delusion, you will experience true freedom. Why worry about possibly having your words stripped from you? Even if you do lose your precious words, which I do not accept, is the Truth not good enough compensation?

It seems to me you cannot function without your precious distorting force. You seem to have no life beyond your fiction. Any authentic truth would sap the life blood out of you. You haven't the strength to see that your whole life from beginning to end has been a hopeless mistake. And even less have you the strength to confront others with such a truth. In the end you always conclude "It is useless to think in such a dangerous manner, that type of thinking never got anybody anywhere."



Motivation and karma

Action is the body of karma and continues the flow of karma. All actions have causes, and all actions have effects.

I have often said that it is a person's motivation alone that creates karma, rather than their physical actions; thus good intentions are rewarded, even if they sometimes fail to produce the desired result. Yet this is not strictly true, for all actions have an effect in accordance with their causes, regardless of whether those causes are mental or physical.

Even so, it is by far the motivation that brings about the greater consequence. Take the case of an ordinary thoughtless person giving a thousand dollars of their own hard earned money to help a poor man. No doubt there will be an effect here, perhaps even a beneficial effect, but the greatest consequence by far issues from the (impure) motivation behind the action of giving. Ego-based motivations always result in further egotism and destruction, whereas a pure motivation is an eternal well-spring of glorious wisdom. Nothing but good can arise from a pure motivation.

Actions may indeed appear helpful, and the poor may become healthy. However, healthy bodies and happy minds are not reliable indicators of healthy spirits. The poor man's new found wealth may give him the financial space to develop his mind - then well and good - but it is no thanks to the person who gave him money. For it was their intention only to be rid of their guilt, and to experience their warm glow of satisfaction. Any benefit that should come out of such a situation is purely by chance, and is far outweighed by the deleterious effects of a selfish motivation.



To judge another

There is no greater virtue than judgement, and it is so easy to judge truly. You can judge a tree by the fruit that it bears: how can it deceive? How can you be misled or mistaken if you trace the pathways of cause and effect?

Judge a man's character by his actions, look at his friends, and you too will learn to see through walls.



Fault

When someone, wallowing in self-pity, blames their own failure on themselves, you must explain to them how they are blameless. After all, they and everything they do have their causes which stem from beginningless time. No-one can change destiny.

However, when they blame others, then explain how the fault is their own. It is at least their responsibility to get others to take responsibility.



Karma

Never say "I am too deluded for there to be any chance of my becoming wise." For the smallest of seeds can grow into the largest of trees. Once a cause is created it is never lost, even though it may take a million years to grow and reach fruition.

Use reason, then have faith: this is always the process. You must come to understand cause and effect fully, or you will fail to break through the Barrier and will therefore believe your efforts are in vain. Break the chain of karma, or you will remain a fool who believes in death.



The pay-back

Oh how you pay for your past joy: how women haunt!



Failure to learn from past lives

Christianity is an enormous wealth: it has provided us with thousands of years of mistakes from which to learn. So what have you learned?

War is eternally followed by peace, and peace by war. After all, is not every war fought - for peace? Yes, happiness is followed by suffering, and suffering by happiness. Has a relation between the two ever occurred to you? And has it occurred to you that the relation is causal?

Because the ignorant do not understand cause and effect they are perplexed by so many things in life. They do not know why they suffer. They are like a dog being beaten for what it did yesterday.



Fate

The shadow falls in such a direction as the sun wills: we do not have free will about having free will. Those who believe in free will save themselves - but lose the world.

Things are predetermined, though we can never know for sure in what way they are determined. Thus we have fate and destiny, yet also mystery.

Ultimately, however, there can be no predetermination as things necessarily pre-exist in their causes. If a thing already exists, it cannot be determined or destined. Creation too, is impossible.



Causation

The fool asks "Why did this happen?" and "What is the purpose?"

This is like saying "Why does a plant come from a seed?" The whole world is caught up with the delusion of reward and punishment. The reward for the seeker of true knowledge is no reward.



What is history?

Is history a purely academic study of the dead past? Or is it rather a study of human behaviour, and therefore a biological science? I put it to you that history is a living material out of which we are made, and is therefore a study of our "past lives".



What you are

Open yourself up to who you are, to what you are. Look to your causes, look to the past, look to what makes you. You are what makes you. True eyes do not see things themselves, but their causes, their totality.

You are what you do, what is within you, which is what you have been, and what you will become.



Childhood memories

As a child my father said to me "It was I who brought you into this world." This got me thinking. Was I going to owe my life to another for evermore? My intuition suggested my father was in error. So where did I really come from? This question occupied my mind for years.

To begin with, my mother was certainly as responsible for my existence as my father was, so he wasn't my sole creator. Yet did my parents make me at all? Were they instead merely vehicles for my genes? The latter is surely true. So, I was made by genes then, which come from beginningless time, and are not made by parents. Then is my body simply made by genetic material? Not at all, it is made out of transformed food, and my parents did not create the food either!

Then I knew where my body came from, but was I my body anyway? Is not the essential "me" my personality? Then where did this personality come from? Certainly, my parents had some input, but there were millions of other inputs. And even the input from my parents was not theirs to give, but was channelled through them.

My conclusion then: parents do not make a child, neither body nor mind - we are truly Children of God.



Planning

Nothing of worth is achieved without planning. And both short and long-term plans have their place. It is all very well to plan to have a University degree at the end of a three year course, but you must pass your exam today! Likewise, if you want to spend future years in the presence of God, you must pass the required daily tests.

If you don't drive carefully today, you may not be alive tomorrow.



Complexity/simplicity

Humans are held to be the most complex lifeform on this planet. What does this mean I wonder? If you break something down into smaller and smaller pieces it becomes more and more simple, and human beings are no exception. As understanding grows, complexity dwindles.

Nature, which knows nothing other than cause and effect, finds complexity and simplicity meaningless.



Original mass

Q: Where did the original mass of the universe come from?

A: What is this "mass" you speak of? Where is the boundary between mass and not-mass? Both are manifestations of Mind. Mind is that which is without beginning.



Causation

Q: Your whole philosophy is based on assumptions about cause and effect. You say that all things have causes, and thus lack inherent existence because all things are dependent on their causes. But how do you know all things must have causes? If you are wrong, then things can exist inherently, and your entire philosophy falls to the ground!

A: "Existence" is a human concept. If you perceive or conceive of a thing, then you cause its existence. Thus there is no way a thing can be without causes. Also, a thing cannot exist without having parts, and these parts constitute causes. In nuclear physics there are some particles which arguably have no parts. However, they do have characteristics, or attributes, and these too constitute causes. Again, things must have causes.

In addition, we live in a world where time is a demonstrable reality. The passage of time necessitates change, and change is made of cause and effect. Thus, where there is time there is causation. When our minds created time, they created causation too. The one cannot exist without the other.

Q: Your argument defeats itself: if nothing truly exists, then cause and effect doesn't truly exist. Yet you use it to support your philosophy! Similarly, why do you think time is real?

A: It is incorrect to say that cause and effect doesn't exist, for while things lack inherent existence, they also lack inherent non-existence. Because cause and effect is a useful concept it is a valid and useful tool. Without tools, we can do no work.

As for time, it is real if we make it real. If we made time not real, through conceiving of it in a different philosophical manner, then, once again it would be impossible for an inherently existing self to exist.

Q: Why?

A: Because a self can only exist in relation to other selves. Relations are causes, which are not possible when there is no time.

Q: Why so?

A: Because relations are human concepts and concepts require time. No time means no concepts which means no relations which in turn means no existence.

Q: Given the existence of time, why does the passage of time necessitate change?

A: Because time is measured by change. If there were no change, there would be no time.

Q: You have given me a circular argument! You say that change is a reality because time exists; and then you say time is measured by change!

A: Yes, the argument is circular, but this does not make it false. You see, we are speaking from the aspect of relative truth. In the end, all dealings in the relative world turn out to be self-referential, and circular. This is because all things exist only in relation to each other.

If you want ultimate truths you will have to look behind and beyond all these words.



Life

Q: Human life obviously begins at conception because the fertilized egg (the conceptus) will develop into a human being.

A: Will it? How do you know this? What if the mother is run over by a truck? Clearly, the fertilized cell will only develop into a human being if and only if it gets the right conditions. A male spermatozoan or a female ovum will also develop into a human being given the right conditions; does this mean life begins with the formation of the gametes?

Q: But the gametes cannot develop into a human being on their own, they are incomplete, whereas the conceptus is complete.

A: Can the conceptus develop into a human being on its own? Is it really complete? If we placed a conceptus on the palm of your hand and left it there, would it develop into a human being on its own?

Q: Hmmmph! Then look at it from another angle. You would have to agree that conception is the cause of a beginning, and is thus the beginning of life.

A: Make up your mind. Is conception a beginning, or the cause of a beginning? If conception is the cause of a beginning, then what about the cause of the beginning of conception - is that not also a beginning? If you ask me, your "conception" is merely a conception of your brain.



Beginnings

Q: The whole world is evidence of a Superior Creative Intelligence.

A: How so?

Q: Well, all things must have had a beginning, and that beginning can only be God.

A: That's puzzling. It is my experience that nothing has a beginning; for all beginnings have beginnings and so on ad infinitum.

Q: Yes, but where did the whole of Nature come from? It must have had an original beginning.

A: You agree that all things have beginnings. So this "original" beginning of Nature, according to your reasoning, must also have a beginning. If a beginning has a beginning it cannot be a beginning. Thus I say that all is beginningless. And consider this too: how can that which is without beginning have an end?

Q: If nothing has a beginning, then why do scientists say the big bang was the beginning of the Universe?

A: God knows! They also say time began at the big bang; but how can something begin when time doesn't exist? All talk of beginnings and ends is futile. It is as rational to say there are beginnings as to say there are no beginnings: both have their use, and their correct place.



Buddhism

It seems to me that the religion which most espouses cause and effect believes in it the least.

The Buddhists of today believe that the individual is alone responsible for all that befalls him. Consequently they do not consider it possible to cause another to suffer. Nor do they believe it possible to change others for the better. Thus, in a single blow they avoid any responsibility for others.

I will throw down what has already fallen! An understanding of rebirth will yet be reborn.



The vow

Many children vow never to become like their parents; but how many vow to avoid the causes of becoming like their parents?

If you wish to be rid of a weed, you must pull it out by the roots.



Man/Woman





To the women in my audience: cause and effect is most definitely real.

To the men in my audience: cause and effect is most definitely not real.

CHRISTIANITY



The Other Side of the Coin

Love, I am told, is the basis of Christianity.

Then what is love? Does the word not describe the good feeling we get from something? Have you noticed how we only love that which lifts our spirits? Do we ever love those things that bring us unending pain? It should be clear from this point alone that love is entirely selfish, even if it is in the name of some God.

There is another side of the coin to love - hatred and violence. And just as one side of a coin is inseparable from the other, love is inseparable from hatred. Wherever there is love there is also hatred - hatred of the loss of love. And wherever there is hatred there is also violence, for hatred is violence.

It should not surprise us that Jesus himself despised all nice sounding things. He said that he detested all things valued by men (Luke 16:15), and I ask you, what do men value more than love? To be sure, the more popular or appealing a thing is, the more false it is bound to be. Jesus said "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matt 10:34). The true love of Nature is such a sword; I bid you forget your petty love. Don't be fooled by sugar-coated words; seek only men's bread, bitter bread.



The Creation of God

From where does inner spiritual strength come?: from God or from a belief in God? The question doesn't bear thinking about; the God of Christianity is so obviously a creation of the imagination. To discover why we people feel the need to create such Gods, we must examine the operation of the ego.

Most of us regard egotism as consisting almost entirely of dominant behavior, as seen mainly in men. Yet submissiveness is equally egotistical, and is most common in women. Indeed, dominance and submission are the two primary means by which the ego finds security.

Submission is most satisfying when the object one submits to is super-dominant. Therefore, Christians have seen fit to create for themselves an all-powerful, all-knowing God - in their own image - to submit themselves to. Another cunning reason for the creation of such a God is so we might all be equal before him. This savage blow adequately disposes of the great individuals, and conveniently protects the Christian from standards. For now they can refuse to believe that truly wise men can and do exist, we being all equal before God.

There is nothing more repulsive to me than the effeminate submissiveness found in Christianity, nothing worse than their "love", "kindness", "peace", and "equality", which are all part of their plot designed to turn everything into a childrens' fairy-tale.

What Jesus said to the Pharisees all those years ago applies equally well to Christians today: "Woe to you! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are!" (Matt 23:15).



Tombs for the Prophets

"Woe to you, because you build the tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them! So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did. They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed since the beginning of the world." (Luke 11:47)

Jesus spoke these words to the "interpreters of the law," the Pharisees. Yet the Christians of today fall into this very same group - for wrongly interpreting the Bible. They protest, ever so earnestly "we would not kill Jesus" - but their words cannot hide their hearts. They build a grand tomb for Jesus, called the Church, and thereby testify against themselves that they agree with what their forefathers did. Their forefathers did the killing, and now they do their best to keep Jesus dead by burying him beneath their false remembrances.



The non-existence of God

By far the greatest proof against the existence of God (their God at least) is the calibre and personality of the people he is supposed to support.

What deity in his right mind would cast his personal aura around such a motley bunch of smug, self-centred, hypocrites? Their only claim to such signal honour is the cosmic breadth of their own egos!

Furthermore, for a God who is supposed to be compassionate, his incredible meanness is ample proof that such a God cannot exist. Some of us may live our lives earnestly seeking the truth and wanting to live honestly. Consequently, we will not believe in a God. What is more, we only do this because of our upbringing - we are innocent! God, in his almighty wisdom, judges us to be evil, and despite our suffering in this life (for wanting to live honestly) we are condemned to eternal punishment in the flames of hell!

The fact that people of different religions worship entirely different Gods is also telling. And just because a person is born in a particular country, and into a particular creed, he is convinced that his God is the only true one. This does not mean in itself that all religions are wrong, but it does mean there are an awful lot of false Gods out there, with a lot of pathetic people in tow.

On top of this, the incredibly irrational arguments Christians offer as proof of their God's existence are alone enough to convince any thinking person that such a God cannot exist! A wise God would not empower idiots.

Has it ever occurred to you there might just be some truth in religious scriptures, but that misguided souls have misinterpreted them? Might I suggest that instead of God being Truth (as Christians proclaim), Truth is God - and that the Truth has many names.

What is this "Truth" I hear you ask me. Look around you, Truth is not apart from the physical world.



Was Jesus a woman?

Many of you regard compassion the highest virtue. Forgive me if I cannot oblige you, for I do not believe in it. You do not have to think terribly deeply to realize that the so-called virtues of compassion, sympathy, and love, are all 100% selfish.

We pleasure ourselves in three ways with the drug of compassion. Firstly, our ego gets a boost by its good conscience. Secondly, the ego feels secure in the thought that compassion is an investment which will be returned (Christians believe they will go to heaven). And thirdly, if one should try to help others, there is the sympathetic (similar-feeling) response of feeling in oneself the benefit one imagines the other person to feel.

What filthy wretchedness is compassion! And all the more so when it is done in the name of some God, and with the excuse of possessing ultimate authority. By submitting to an imaginary God, we thereby avoid taking responsibility for our actions, and are then oblivious to the disastrous consequences.

"Compassion" is one of those sweet, sugar-coated words, along with "love", "devotion" and "peace", which pander to the pleasant dreams of Christians. But each one of these words is a time bomb, capable of destroying humankind! Each bears within it the seeds of hatred, violence, greed, and war, which will inevitable come to fruit. Yet Christians do not concern themselves with consequences or responsibility; they see only the "peace", and not the war that lies within its thin shell.

Was Jesus a woman? Christians certainly paint him as such - submissive, meek, mild, compassionate, and loving. They have projected their own petty values and weaknesses onto him, turning him into a woman! For a person to need a father figure for support is bad enough, but this is not nearly so bad as needing a mother figure!

I challenge you to examine the character of Jesus. Do not think for a minute that he had any of our crude worldly virtues. Jesus was definitely not a Christian, and it is a crime to suggest he has anything to do with such a farce. Jesus was more of a man than the most manly of men, for he had gone beyond both the masculine and the feminine, beyond fear, love, and compassion.



The most comical of all beings





Jesus says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Mediocrity (Christianity) takes him at his word and sets up a man-fishery for profit. And this man-fishery is a godly enterprise, the stock-holders in this company can appeal to words of scripture for backing. They can go tranquilly to meet the judgement, saying "We have accomplished thy word, we have fished for men." - Kierkegaard

Such is the mentality of Christians, who treat men as dead fish. O what a fool they make of their God! Do they really believe that an all-powerful God would have to stoop so low as to depend on a few words on paper to make people believe in him? Such a pathetic attempt! And do they really think such a God would have invested so much in a single man, Jesus?

Now what is this Christian God but the most comical being that ever lived! He sets the earth in motion, then threatens it with a hell! Eternal punishment! He says "unless you make your life as profitable and enjoyable as you possibly can, I'll seize upon your person, and torture you to death in the most dreadful manner."

This is comical. One does not need to force people to be happy under threat of a loaded pistol!



Of Dreamers and Believers

Faith and belief are important concepts in Christianity. Christianity is the most depraved vision of life imaginable. What does this say about faith and belief?

I put it to you that faith and belief are the highest qualities of mankind - but only when it is faith in truth and belief in truth - not faith and belief in illusions.

Sadly, precious few can be said to be true believers, and men of faith. This is because our society is based on the herd mentality. Mediocrity and compromise have sway over the individual, and over reason.

A magician performs a trick on stage, an illusion. Many of the audience are emotionally rapt. They fool themselves into believing that illusion is in fact reality in order to enjoy the show. Similarly do we lose ourselves in things such as television, whose picture is just a picture, and not reality. And then a fellow imagines that his lover is something immensely valuable - when all she is in reality is just a bag full of blood, mucous, bones, and fat. Again, our dreams at night can be disturbingly real, but they are no more real than all our other experiences.

Religionists and their ilk are expert dreamers, and expert believers. To justify themselves they plead "but people need a God," and they desperately implore "you need to believe in something." Indeed they do need their beliefs - in the same way that a drug addict needs his drug. They justify in the same way that a drug addict justifies, and ignore consequences just as skillfully.

No, our world has too many dreamers, and too many believers in dreams. It is time to wake up!

I urge you to first seek the truth; penetrate through the illusions of the everyday - then have faith in what you discover. This is the most excruciatingly demanding task a person can ever take on. Be warned, it is no folly!



Spiders of the Cross

Christians are like spiders, who spin their sticky and tangled webs upon the cross, using it as a convenient support. Within a few years, the webs build up, until the cross is no longer visible - a dark and dirty shadow. Here the spiders lay in wait - to trap unsuspecting passers-by.

"Woe to you, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52)

Just as a spider has no chance of ever fathoming the profound philosophic meaning of the cross, nor does a Christian have the slightest hope. Such creatures are not even fit to be taught about spirituality, let alone practice it! They take every priceless gem of religious teaching and totally distort it to suit their own egos.

Christians claim to worship an infinite God, but they instead worship a finite one, and of their own making (either Jesus himself as God, or a grandfather figure, or some other necessarily limited conceptual form). To worship the finite in the name of the infinite is the worst kind of idolatry, and is truly using God's name in vain.

Are not Christians also like cannibals? - for they live by eating the man who died for them.

Christians not only use the teachings of Jesus as a crutch (or a stretcher) for their egos; they actually live off it. They make cunning and protracted plans to make the teachings their primary source of sustenance for the rest of their lives. At least ordinary cannibals get the job over with quickly!

By masticating and macerating the valuable teachings of Jesus with their egos, they are in fact eating the body of Christ. Little did Jesus realize he was going to be cannibalized when he said to his apostles "this is my body given for you." Jesus also said: "Where there is a corpse, there the vultures will gather."

Christianity, which came into the world as the truth men die for, has become the truth upon which they live.



Evolution or Evolution

Of all the evils perpetrated by Christians, arguably the worst is their disbelief in the law of cause and effect. Their belief in the existence of a God who created Nature, and who himself is causeless, is the most criminally wrong and unfounded of all delusions.

The fundamental characteristic of Nature is change, which is the only thing that doesn't change. All things, which are changing, have causes and also effects.

There is no room in Nature for the likes of "chance". Take the rolling of a dice for example. The number that turns up when we throw a dice is caused by such factors as the way we throw the dice, the shape of the dice, the table surface and so on. However, no matter how many causes we know, we can never predict anything with 100% certainty - not even that the sun will rise tomorrow morning - because the causes involved are too many and complex. Even so, this certainly doesn't mean things are without cause.

Our limited minds cannot trace the infinite complexity of causes and conditions in Nature, so there will always be unknowns. It is because our egos are uncomfortable with the threat of the unknown that we try to fill the gaps in our knowledge by manufacturing explanations. In such a way do we arrive at the notion of a God who created us, or even aliens who are breeding us. Hardly a solution! We must instead learn to accept the infinite complexity of Nature, for She works in mysterious ways, and we cannot follow Her. There is no disgrace in not knowing something that cannot be known; all disgrace lies in knowing something mistakenly.

If the current models for the mechanism of evolution contain small gaps - what matter! Christians say that scientists cling to the idea of evolution to avoid facing the reality of God. I believe the opposite is closer to the truth. To believe we were specially created by an all-powerful God is very satisfying to the ego. But Science contends with the infinity of Nature, of cause and effect, our Creator; the True all-powerful God. The power that is feared by all who cling to life.



The Christian faith

Christians profess: "Some things are not meant to be thought about, but should be taken on faith." Their God does not want them to suffer reason.

Yet does their God exist? They say yes, but he is unknowable, hence faith is required. These wretched Christians make their God "unknowable" for the express purpose of making him easy to know. He is easy to know because they have but to imagine him, and he is there. This is in stark contrast to the True God who is knowable, yet extremely difficult to know.

Similarly, they make Jesus superhuman, elevating him to the plane of God, at which distance he cannot make demands. For now he is not human, so cannot expect us to be like him, or even to want to be like him. You see, we are only human and he, after all, is God. Such a Jesus can at most only expect our worship and praise.

I tell you, the only thing the "Christian" Jesus has in common with the real one is a name. No one can deny the colossal effect the "Christian" Jesus has had on this world: it is just so horrible to contemplate!

Imagine this: An immortal called Jesus takes a short excursion from his paradise in the heavens to visit earth. To the inhabitants he says: "I am God, and you are merely human and mortal. I am the Almighty, and you - are not. You can never be as I. Nevertheless, I see fit to bless you with my presence, which is a great inconvenience to me as I much prefer the comforts of heaven. I come to this earth to show you my incredible power, and to give warning that you had better do my bidding - or else!"



Marriage

Christianity has strayed so far from the truth that marriage is now regarded as the highest excellence. The priest says "If you are too weak to marry you should remain single." Agh! It is hard to believe the teachings of the New Testament could be twisted so completely into their exact opposite.

Marriage is mutual selfishness, a team effort to defeat reality. Yet the priest calls it "mutual fulfillment".



The pope

The pope is the all-round "no-man"; who could take him seriously? Even his own followers regard him as somewhat of a fictional character. He is an entertainer: Mr. Pope and his pope-mobile - like Santa Claus and his sleigh.

Whether or not Santa Claus really exists is irrelevant to us: what matters to us is the fantasy.



The clergy

It is fitting that the Christian priest wear a dog-collar; for he is led on a lead.

Today's furor in the Church is over the question of a woman's right to ordination. This is quite foolish because there is no clergyman who is not in reality a woman. There is not a man among them. In any case, the whole debate is quite laughable, and people are worrying themselves unnecessarily about nothing, for Christianity simply does not exist! Who could drag it into the twentieth century? Who could reform it?



The shortness of vision

Christians are often heard to argue that it is not they as a group who are responsible for all the divorce, abortions, drug abuse, and violence in society, but that such problems are primarily due to the non-Christian element.

For all their talk, the real cause of all these problems is the selfishness and egotism that comes of petty mindedness. In this regard, Christians are the very worst culprits. Whereas most people will quite honestly admit to their egotism, Christians never cease in their efforts to conceal it. The shopkeeper is an honest man, who openly says "I am a shopkeeper." The priest, in his solemn sanctity would not admit to this at any price.

Christians may not be directly, physically responsible (in the immediate sense) for many of the rapes and murders, but they are definitely a major cause. And why? Because every single Christian perpetuates the self-righteous and self-centred lifestyle that is guaranteed to blossom in violence and suffering. Christians set the trend of self-gratification, and others naturally follow - and in their own way - choosing different drugs to that of the Christian, to suit their own individual tastes. If you bring your child up on heroin, you cannot blame them if they one day experiment with LSD. Religion is just one of many "drugs", just one "opium of the people."

The worst of it, is that young children are inducted into this shameful drug taking while they are too young to question what is being done to them.



Cults

When a religion is small and newly formed we call it a madcap cult; though when it becomes established it qualifies as a bona fide religion. What then are religions if not large and dangerous cults?

Christianity is a monster madcap cult, made up of desperately selfish people. Their "compassion" is a crudely disguised form of self-love, and their "peace" involves an intense hatred of whatever threatens it.



The Christian defense

Christians, in their defense, plead "Jesus really did exist two thousand years ago." So what! And he may also have been wise. But what has all that got to do with Christianity? If you can judge a tree by the fruit it bears, and if by any chance Christianity is an indication of the personality of Jesus, then he was the most ignorant and self-centred hypocrite who ever lived!



A Personal God

The problem with Christianity and communism is that nobody has tried either of them. The so-called Christians of today say they believe in a personal God; but how more impersonal could a God be that exists who knows where, ruthlessly ordering his creation around?

The wretches of today who call themselves men cannot bear the weight of having a personal God, so they expelled him into infinity.

How many are there that venture to become God-men? Only for them does God become truly personal. For them, His loved ones, He sees fit to preserve the finite, in which God-men have been seen to dance and play.



Despicable ease

The Christianity of today - despicable ease - holds God to have abandoned one if things do not go according one's will. It would never occur to such fools that it is impossible for God to abandon a part of Himself. If you politely suggest to them that perhaps they had instead abandoned God, they would accuse you of the most treacherous blasphemy.

"We have both love and happiness" they smirk unto me "and the God who is Love brings all happiness. Thus do we relate to our Father." Do they really think the Devil is such a fool he is unable to make a person happy! Oh well, as in the movies, I suppose the good guy has to win.

"Jesus said 'Ask and you shall receive,' therefore we ask" they explain. But I tell you, there must always be giving before there can be taking. How conveniently they ignore the struggles of Jesus's life! They concentrate only on his birth and death, Christmas and Easter, condemning his life to oblivion.



The paid

How wretched scholars are - accepting money to enlighten others, while themselves are in darkness. On the other hand, at least they are not as bad as the priest, who cheats people out of their hard-earned money in the name of God.

A priest's life is not an easy one: each day he has to lie increasingly, to keep pace with the rate that science is uncovering the truth.



Anarchy

The anarchist doesn't want to be ruled. Christianity is a form of anarchy, because the Christian doesn't want to be ruled by reason.



A Statement of Belief

I am a Christian, though I do not believe in a personal God. Nor do I believe in a physical heaven or hell, or life after death. I do not believe Nature was created. I do not necessarily believe Jesus was crucified on a cross, and I certainly do not believe he physically rose from the dead. I do not necessarily believe Jesus ever existed, or that if he did, that he possessed wisdom. I do not believe one has to read the Bible to be a Christian, nor for that matter does one need any respect for the Bible.

My doctrine is: the Truth is God. Say yes! to the Living Reality.



Today

The Christians of today speak of themselves as "vehicles for God," a selfless sacrifice . . . and then I speak of myself as a vehicle for my genes and thoughts. How disappointed they are in me!



Lenience

We cannot be lenient on a priest just because his words are correct. Words are only scratches on paper, or noises of the throat. What is important is the meaning of the words, for they are the true words. If you speak, but with incorrect meaning, then your words are wrong.

You may hold the key to the door of knowledge - you may have words - but if you don't go through the door you will only hinder others from doing so.



Necessary Being

The "necessary being" argument states that as all things are caused then Nature itself must have been caused, and that it can only have been caused by something without causes - God.

Firstly, it may be true that all things have causes. But Nature Herself is not a "thing" and therefore cannot be said to have causes. "Things" can only exist for observers, and as we are manifestations of Nature, we cannot stand apart from Her to observe.

Secondly, no law says that all things must have causes. Show me a single cause! Show me where that cause begins and ends - it cannot be done, so why all this talk of "causes".

Thirdly, why create the notion of a "necessary being" at all? Such a being is actually an unnecessary being. Why must things have an ultimate cause? Why can't causes stem back endlessly?

Whoever formulated the "necessary being" argument must have really tried hard, as I have never heard an argument more shallow, blatantly dishonest, and hateful of reason. Instead of going to all the trouble of creating this "unnecessary being", why not save a step and accept the Reality of Nature? Do you really hate Nature so much as to wish to step beyond and apart from Her? The "necessary being" argument is necessary only for the ego in its unending battle against reality.

Christians say that a "creative agency" is necessary to explain why this particular Universe came about instead of any one of infinite possible Universes. Yes, a creative agency is indeed required, and that creative agency is their own foolish brains! Contingency ensures there is no such thing as chance. Only one thing is ever possible - that which happens. "Coincidences" are therefore impossible, though there can be ignorance about the possible.



Religion

Truth hurts, so it is not popular. It follows that nor is a truthful man popular. He is hated as much as death itself.

Religion, knowing this, has understandably made itself attractive and reassuring. Yet should religion be sold as sex is sold? Should it dress-up seductively, smile, and do everything to please the client? Is religion really something for the masses, like the latest thing in contraception? - so you can indulge in the pleasures of life without having to face the consequences.

This must be said, so let it now be said: that which has come to be known as "Christianity" is precisely what Christ came to abolish. Christians have conveniently turned everything around to suit themselves. They create a God in their own image, then promptly set him to work as a servant. Rather than believe in what Jesus believed, and in Truth, they prefer to believe in the historical man of Jesus, and that historically, he believed in a God. But they neither understand Jesus, nor the "God" he professed to have faith in. Christians have made themselves safe, by putting Christianity at a distance. They have made it into something historical, which becomes more diluted with each generation.

Truth, or understanding Nature, does not interest the Christian in the slightest degree. Interest in truth makes one vulnerable to change, and change is painful. "But I am too weak" says the Christian, with relief, and recoils into the safety of belief. If these so-called Christians would only be honest, and say "Yes, I do it purely for my own well-being," then I would think there is at least some hope for them. Instead they say "I do it for others, out of my love of God." Nothing could be more loathsome. It is one thing to get fat merely from over-eating; but to get pallid-fat, on cakes and confections - this is horrible.

The priest is a total abomination. He does his utmost to make sure that nobody has the gall to venture out, and try to understand. He does all in his power to make of us content with mere belief. He shakes with terror at the thought that a person may be so presumptuous as to wish to know the Truth for themselves. He would much prefer us to remain content and harmless, like a herd of cows. And just as a physician bungles a case to make himself indispensable, so does the priest demoralize men, to make himself indispensable. At his very best he dispenses advice that is superficially empowering, but is crippling in the long-run.



The sermon

It is said that the purpose of the Christian sermon is to convince the Christian that he does in fact believe in Christianity. That is, to give the Christian faith that he has faith; to remind the Christian what he believes in. And why does the Christian need to be reminded? - because it is so easy to forget you believe something, especially when what you believe in isn't true.

Personally, I think that to ask someone to believe in the doctrines of Christianity is to ask too much. Thus I hold that the sermon is designed to help the Christian forget his belief that he doesn't really believe in Christianity . . .



Equal and opposite

Wherever Christianity exists there will also be Satanism. Any power creates its equal and opposite.

When you mint a new coin, that coin will have two sides. Money is the root of all evil, so it is better not to create any currency: when there is no currency, there is no poverty.



An honest Christian

Is there such a thing as an honest Christian? Surely there must be one or two; perhaps the odd monk or theologian? What about the Pope?

An "honest Christian" is a contradiction in terms. It is impossible to be a Christian and honest at the same time. Let no priest sympathize with my truths! Let him renounce his Christianity before he seeks my companionship.



Divine/Human

Christians confidently tell me that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine (well, perhaps not quite so confidently). Yet they manage to completely ignore his human aspect, and totally obscure the light of his divine aspect with their own darkness. They end up with a Jesus creature of their own making - a kind of fairy.



Religious people

Ask a Christian how they know the Bible was indeed inspired by God, and not the Devil. Or ask them how they know their "experiences" are of God, rather than of something else. Then you will see how much faith they have in reason. They will of course abandon reason immediately, as though they had inadvertently picked up a burning ember. Feelings are their so-called life.

They are like the boy who pretends to own his father's car, yet when the police pull him over he pleads innocence. Christians get the benefit of believing they possess the highest, but they do not take responsibility for it. They do not hesitate to preach their wisdom, but when pressed on a telling point they reply: "The Bible says so."



Christianity/Buddhism

Because Christianity is so philosophically shallow, there is ample scope for debate within its walls. In fact, there is so much scope for debate it is a necessity. The Christian needs a careful measure of debate and questioning to create the illusion for himself that he is not a complete animal: this is the purpose of theology.

The eastern religions, like Buddhism, have greater philosophical depth. Consequently, Buddhists are more secure and sure of themselves, and feel no need for rigorous questioning, or re-evaluation and re-interpretation.

For this reason, the Christians may have a dubious edge on the Buddhists, for as long as there is dissatisfaction there is hope. The Buddhists know a thing or two more than the Christians, but have stagnated in their complacency and self-righteousness.

CONCENTRATION



One-pointed concentration

Take care how you try to take control of your mind. You seek one-pointed concentration, but I tell you concentration is always one-pointed. Only one thought can occupy awareness at any one time. Do not try to force the mind to do anything unnatural. It is the nature of mind to jump hither and thither, so any effort to concentrate and confine it is doomed to end in frustration and disappointment.

While you cannot contain the mind, you can certainly work towards stilling it. A turmoiled mind chops and changes, thoughts race from one attachment and from one anxiety to another, unmanageable. In a peaceful mind thoughts move smoothly and without agitation; one can give each thought all the attention it needs before passing on to the next, undistracted by fears and anxieties.

Thought within a concentrated mind is like lightning, but without the thunder. Only with this mind will your thought have the power necessary to attain knowledge of the infinite, and further, to act on it! Remember, the concentrated mind is a tool only for use in greater things - do not rest in its bliss.

It is said to be important to train the mind in concentration. Yet I say to you, train yourself to love the truth with all your heart! Then you will have no need of concentration, for the mind sticks inseparably and quite naturally to whatever it truly loves. If you find joy in a lover, then nothing can distract you from thinking about your lover. Likewise, if you love God, then you will not allow God to leave. It is not enough to love concentration, for then you will be forever focused on concentration, and will forget God.

You see, concentration by itself brings happiness, but not Truth; whereas love of Truth brings both concentration and Truth without effort. Love is warm, while concentration is cold by comparison. Concentration must become effortless, as it only can with love. So be wary of training, for you do not need to train yourself to eat lovely chocolate!

You think concentration will give you the strength to see the ultimate; but only a sincere desire to put reason into practice will help you.