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There’s a dangerous cultural belief that you were probably surrounded by from the moment you were born: the belief that blind faith is the way to heaven.
In the West, this sounds like ‘take Jesus—a man you cannot see or hear or touch—as your saviour, and all will be well.’
Of course, there’s no shortage of people who will tell you they’ve seen, heard, and/or felt Jesus. As a child, hearing this, I considered two possibilities:
- I’m missing something very important
- They’re making it up
Perhaps if I’d had a more vivid imagination I, too, could’ve seen, heard, and/or felt Jesus. Or perhaps some of us just aren’t worthy of his presence—but wait, wouldn’t that go against everything he taught?
I couldn’t have articulated that reasoning as a child, but I knew something was off.
Cut to 1998, my first high school lesson in ‘Religious Education’. All the religions of the world were on the menu, along with something else that would turn out to be of great significance to me later: Buddhism.
Cut now to 2016, my first dharma teacher—a senior Theravada monk named Dhammarato—told me that Buddhism is not a religion and that the Buddha was not himself religious.
‘Imagine the Buddhist religion with all its trappings as a fancy-looking box,’ my teacher said. ‘Inside this box is the Buddha’s teaching. But if you reach inside the box and take out the teaching, you can throw the box away.’
As I learned more about the tradition I learned that the Buddha’s teaching is, in fact, entirely opposite to religion.
Typically, the religions of the world demand that blind faith; that unquestioning adherence to authority. But the Buddha taught us to open our eyes, not close them; the Buddha taught us to be sceptical, not to fall in line.
And, most importantly, he taught us that heaven—nirvana—is right here, right now; is not a location found elsewhere; and is the birthright of everyone, not just those who join his special club and follow his special rules.
I can confirm this by my own direct experience, by the experience of dozens of my students, and by that of millions of sincere practitioners throughout time.
Get this: the Buddha taught that ‘adherence to rites, rules and rituals’ is the first thing to be renounced where freedom is one’s goal!
And contrary to the authoritarian orders and vague, future-bound promises found in religious doctrine, the Buddha gave clear, specific practical instructions and told students not to simply trust his word, but to test those instructions in their own direct experience.
The religious preacher is the car salesman who attempts to convince you to buy with words. The Buddha is the one who hands you the keys and says ‘let’s take her for a spin’.
Let’s cut to the core problem with religion: belief. Belief is a fabricated mental state: it depends upon conceptual frameworks, assumptions and, usually, simple repetition. If you ask someone to explain one of their beliefs, they must always use abstraction; intellectual speculation.
In other words, a belief is not something that can be demonstrated and confirmed right here, right now. If it could be, it would not be a belief, it would be a fact.
Where many people subscribe to the same belief; the same fabricated mental state, cultural movements like religions, ideologies and philosophies are born.
But the Buddha was interested in truth. Not conceptual truth; not fabricated truth; not ‘his’ truth. Rather, he was interested in truth that would be equally true on an alien planet, among an alien species who knew nothing of human languages, ideas, cultures or religions.
And that’s the kind of truth I’ve been interested in ever since I was a little boy who knew, intuitively, that something was wrong as I stood awkwardly in church—frowning as I tried to understand why all those rules were necessary. And it’s probably the kind of truth you’re interested in, too, if you’ve made it this far into this teaching.
So what, exactly, would be equally true on that alien planet, among an alien species?
Well, no matter what it’s like there—even if the laws of physics as we know them are so warped that your experience is like an acid trip—the only way you’ll be having that experience is because you’re aware.
If the truth you’re seeking is one that is true everywhere and at all times; that isn’t subject to interpretation; an inarguable, irreducible truth—then you’d better look to what is inarguable; what is irreducible.
Tap any human who’s able to communicate on the shoulder and ask them, ‘are you aware?’ They’ll have two options:
- Lie
- Say ‘yes’
And if you were able to communicate in the language of any alien race you were visiting and ask the same question, they would have the same two options.
Awareness is the fundamental, indestructible ground of existence. Every experience you’ve ever had, whether you call it ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ is known in, as, by, and through awareness. But awareness is not a ‘thing’, so don’t look for it. Rather, recognize it to be like space: inclusive of everything but not separate from it, not caused by anything, and utterly beyond harm.
Imagine I ask you, ‘how much space do you have in your living room?’ There are two ways you might answer. One way is considering how much space remains after your current furniture is counted. But another way is to consider the total space in the room as if it were empty. Your furniture does not actually diminish the space in your room. It merely occupies it temporarily., but it leaves no mark once it is gone. Awareness operates in the same way regarding its contents.
The fact that awareness is beyond harm is why it is so important to recognize it as your true nature. When you do, you realize that you have never suffered, cannot suffer, and never will suffer. For suffering is like furniture that comes and goes within the space of awareness.
The key point in this particular teaching is that none of this depends upon belief. It can be confirmed by everyone in their direct experience. Beliefs are just more furniture. That people take them to be better than other furniture is only a matter of opinion. Some people take Jesus as their saviour; others take tennis. Seeing this, all beliefs look absurd, and you drop them at once. Finally, decisively, you see what is—as it is—without distorting interpretations and intellectual speculations… And you are free; content; at peace. What else could heaven be?
With love from my desk,
dg💙
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