Searching After Truth

Searching After Truth
~~By Aja

Being More Spiritual



Often we hear from someone how they wish to be more spiritual. It usually sounds something like, "I really want to be more spiritual. I should meditate more, or chant more, or read more, or do more service or worship more, or do more yoga, or I should quit watching TV, or quit smoking, or quit drinking, or...." There is always the idea that by adding something to oneself it will make them more spiritual. Or it will make them feel more spiritual. Or, it will make others see them as more spiritual. And generally this is a very sincere desire. People feel that there is something lacking in their lives. They know that there is more to life than making a living, eating, sleeping, and getting little temporary pleasures from this or that. They want real substance, and they know that substance comes from something greater than themselves - love, community, God, spirituality, meaning. But how do you get this? How do you become more spiritual?
The difficulty is in thinking that one can become more spiritual! It is like a man saying I want to be more manly or a woman saying I want to be more womanly, or a human saying they want to be more human. Being a man is intrinsic to men. Being a woman is intrinsic to women. Being a human is intrinsic to a human. Being spiritual is intrinsic to everyone. Who and what you are is spiritual. What are you going to add to yourself to be more a man, more a woman, more a human, or more spiritual. Anything that you add will simply make you less of, or detract from the intrinsic nature. It is like adding red paint and artificial rose perfume to a rose to make it more rose-like. These will only cover what is already perfect. If you wish to fully appreciate the beauty of a rose, don¹t try to add to the rose. Remove that which obscures the pure vision of the rose and keeps you from experiencing it in its perfect roseness. Similarly, if you want to purely experience your own spiritual nature, you must subtract, not add. How can you add to what is already perfect? It is simply a matter of recognition, of stopping the search for something to add to make you more, better, greater.
But this, in itself, can be the most difficult task for it means letting go in every way. Say you have an old chair you have found, and it has layers of old and chipping paint. You can just add something, paint over the old paint, in an effort to make it perfect. But the real beauty comes from stripping away all the old paint until you have only the pure wooden chair and you can appreciate the perfect symmetry and simplicity of the wood. What we see as imperfect in ourselves is not our intrinsic nature. It is what we ourselves have added or layered on to our pure being. By adding more beliefs in the name of religiosity or spirituality, we are only furthering ourselves from the pure, simple, symmetry of our inherent Being. So the key is not in adding, but in subtracting. It is easy to add. It is also easy to continue on exactly as we are. It is more difficult to subtract, because for most people subtracting feels very much like dying. We are maintained by our belief systems. They make up who and what we are, or rather what we think we are. We have built our own reality based on our principles of what is good and bad and right and wrong, and have factored out our real spiritual nature in the equation. The world then is made up of dualities a whole universe created as a means to give one some standing in what would otherwise be empty space. Because if you subtract all your beliefs, all your ideas of good and bad, all of your dualities, everything you hold on to as what you are and what the world is, what are you left with? Nothing. You, as who you thought you were, is dead. If you are no longer a man or a woman, a spiritual person, a doctor, car mechanic, a loner, a people person, an intellectual, or slower learner, a Canadian, a music buff, a mother or father, a sister or brother, a human, an angel, a child of the universe, a... any possible definition you can apply, then what is left. Only "I", without definition, without location, without any parameters, or limits. Suddenly there is nothing to strive for, nothing to fear, nothing to be joyful about and nothing to grieve. And then you recognize that this is your True Self. This is your spiritual Self. This is being more spiritual. It is beyond material, which means outside of all concepts bound by time and space. There is no longer even a past or a future, but only an eternal Now and an unlimited Here.

Bliss of Non-Being


You are the Bliss of Non-Being You do not exist as you. This is the truth. You have a conception of who and what you are that is an imagination or dream. The truth of who you are is infinitely more profound, yet is only accessed by letting go of all ideas of who you are now - ALL of them. And the conceptions and ideas themselves are nearly infinite in their number and subtlety. This is what makes Awakening so difficult. As long as you have any idea or mental conception of who you are, you are yourself holding the pattern in the field of consciousness that maintains that belief existence. And if you try to let go of the beliefs one by one, you will first find that they are infinite, and secondly that the very idea of someone letting go of their beliefs becomes a very strong new identification that oversees all of the other beliefs. You have superimposed layers of personal beliefs over what is in fact consciousness alone. It has nothing to do with a personal entity. And yet, we literally fight to maintain the very individual existence which is the cause of our bondage and suffering. But the truth is that we do not exist as an individual any more than a mirage in the desert has water. It is due to a combination of circumstances only. Apparently objective experiences arise and we create a subjective entity to whom they are arising. Then we build a whole set of ideologies and conceptions around that apparent subjectivity, based on this primordial misconception, create a universe of duality which is especially attracted to the concepts of right and wrong, and our suffering is confirmed and assured. We must be able to see that the very root cause of suffering and pain are our insistence on maintaining ideologies centered on an individuality that doesn¹t exist. We are exactly like a ball of twine. If you unravel the twine to get to whatever is inside, you only end up with a pile of twine and empty space. When you unravel the ideas and beliefs that hold "you" together, all that remains is empty space. There is no "you" in the way that you think. So the preeminent question arises, "Who are you?" Until you can seriously begin to ask this question of yourself and delve into the depths of consciousness, honestly and courageously abandoning all that is not you, there will continue to be an apparent entity suffering the "slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune".
You are the Bliss of Non-Being However, you immerse yourself in your desires of selfishness. You identify with the river of thoughts and desires that arise in the ocean of consciousness. All desires are selfish. Your actions are based on desires that you think will make You happy. They are selfish. Even if you are trying to save the world, you do so out of selfishness. Even if you are feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, or worshipping God, you are doing it because you think that it is "right" to do so and it makes you happy to think that you are "right". Even those seeking enlightenment, freedom, salvation, liberation, are doing so because it is "right". They seek to end suffering, to attain eternal bliss, to be free from death and bondage. Surely these are noble causes, honorable beliefs, but they are still based on a person desiring something. They are the apparent effect of an apparent ego, struggling in an apparent world, attempting to gain apparent happiness, to counteract apparent suffering. Guess What? It¹s all an illusion - the ego, the world, the suffering, the happiness. It is all a dream state, being dreamed in a cosmic dream. When you abandon the body/mind, what is left? When you give up all identification, what remains? It is only I Am, without any identification. It is the I Am that becomes identified. So first revert to the I Am without identification. Dwell in that and see where it comes from. From what does I Am arise. Even the I Am has no location. It is not located within space and time. You cannot find it¹s beginning or end. It is only consciousness without objects. It is the infinite subjective state without a sense of other. Remove all else and dwell in that. Do not think about it, but simply reside in that absolute consciousness. As one sinks deeper (surrenders) into that pure awareness, even the sense of I Am begins to dissolve, for even it is a part of the dream. There is only empty awareness of non-being. It is pure existence, awareness and, yes, bliss. This is the state which you actually are, always have been and always will be.
You are the bliss of non-being. But if all of this is non-being, from what does it arise? There is no answer in words to that question for all questions and answers arise from duality. But rest for a moment in non-duality and what occurs? There is a spontaneous arising to experience. The bliss of non-being is the spontaneous arising of "That" to experience "Itself". In Sanskrit, the Absolute is termed Sat-Chit-Ananda or Existence-Awareness-Bliss. These are non dual expressions of a singularity. Just as heat and light are non dual aspects of fire - you cannot separate heat and light from fire - so existence, awareness and bliss cannot be separated from the Absolute. They are three aspects of the same singularity. They are not linear or causal in any way, but a simultaneous expression. For the Absolute is existence eternal. It is Being-ness or That which Is. And in its Beingness, awareness Is, for awareness is a symptom of existence. But awareness alone is pure subjectivity only and must by its nature be aware of an object, so expresses Itself as multiplicity in order to experience Ananda or Bliss. So what Is, all that is, for no other reason than the necessity to Be and expand, is Bliss. It is what Is. It is Awareness. It is Bliss. Every moment, every day, every thing, from the most "Holy" to the most "wretched" is the Bliss of the Absolute, expressing Itself infinitely as you, me, the universe, and all of this one thing. But when you create personhood when you make a someone separate, create "a" being separate from the One Beingness, conjure up a someone to try and experience that bliss, you separate yourself from the very Bliss that you already are. Like a spark leaving the fire to experience the heat of the flames, you lose your innate bliss in a vain journey away from your Self.
You are the Bliss of Non-Being And when you are ready to give up your separateness, to abandon the vain and continuous searching for happiness, to free yourself from the limitation of personhood that appear to bind you, then you can again experience the bliss of non-being.

All Is God



When one dives deep into consciousness, what do you find? At first, all seems dark and empty. We are so used to putting our attention on and faith in the mind, our thoughts, our senses and the world, that we would not know what to do if they no longer existed. And yet, how are we assured of the reality of this world in which we put so much faith? What makes it real. How do we know that it is the concrete, tangible thing that we make it out to be?
The truth is that it may not be as certain as we think. Many scientists and the new quantum physics are exploring realms that were once only found in the mystical writings of the East. They are considering the possibility that all this is but vibration. They have recognized that atoms are vast universes of empty space, and that the only tangible parts, the electrons, protons, and neutrons, are really nothing but vibrational nodes, in an ocean of similar material. And that these atoms, dancing around the universe, are all sharing atomic particles with each other, so that the boundaries of one to another, and thus with each "individual" thing in the universe becomes extremely blurred - blurred to the point of extinction. So what the universe tells us through the scientists, and through the ancient mystics, is that there is only One thing. That one thing is doing it all. It is the background, foreground, and the dance itself. So what is this one thing? I like to call it God.
Now the difficulty with names is that they are immediately inaccurate. The moment you name something, you have taken away any reality it had and put a label upon it which makes it a concept. We allow ourselves to define the entire universe with names, and thus lose our ability to directly experience it. This is especially true with all of the experiences which we have within ourselves. We have stopped feeling anything that arises, and have instead replaced the initial signs of something with a name that allows us to stop it in its tracks. Emotions are a perfect example of this. Try to describe fear, what it really is, and you¹ll get more labels like afraid, excited, goose bumps, etc. The moment any particular energy arises within us, we have a box that we put that feeling into that has a label - fear, anger, guilt, sadness, happiness, hunger, and so on. Almost no one stops to actually experience the physical feelings, the thought patterns, energetic pulses, and other signs that arises throughout the day. The moment they come up, they go into a box called fear, happy, pain, and sorrow. In the end all we get is a box called "I¹m fine."
What has happened is that we have developed a duality based judgement of good and bad. We assume, because of our belief systems, most of which have been foisted upon us, that certain things are good and others are bad. And we have this gigantic spectrum which goes from really, really good, and includes things like God, saints, heaven, bliss, love and enlightenment, to really, really bad like Satan, demons, hell, agony, hate and delusion. But all this is the knowledge of good and evil.
Remember the Bible story. What was it that forced Adam and Eve from the Paradise of the Garden of Eden? It was that they tasted from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was not the tree of good and evil, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Prior to tasting that fruit, they had no concepts of some things being good and others being evil. Everything was of Paradise. Everything was of God. They had no reason to doubt the serpent. He was also one of God¹s creatures. But they ate of this fruit, and began to distinguish duality.
When you distinguish duality, you are forced to make judgements that this is good, and this is bad. We do it every day, practically every moment. Even now you may be evaluating what you are reading as being good or bad. But when you stop distinguishing any duality - when you see everything and experience everything, including yourself as Divine, then their ceases to be judgement. Life becomes a great dance. There is only the Absolute. All is One. All is Truth. All is God.
But we must not think of God as that great white-bearded man sitting on His throne in Heaven, judging your every action as good and bad. This is our own projection of God. This is our own judgement of ourselves creating a picture of God as a Being of ultimate love and ultimate anger, rewarding us when we are good and punishing us when we are bad. We must let go of our concepts that hold us to our own ideal of what Reality is.
As long as we have concepts, ideas, belief systems, we are boxed into our own existence. We have allowed our beliefs to create who we are. We have allowed words and language to define us. You must fully experience that you are not a man or woman. You are not a human being. You are life itself. And life is God. You are the awareness which sees all, and yet makes no judgement. The mind makes judgements. The mind compartmentalizes everything, putting it in boxes. The mind separates Reality into pieces, and then decides which are right and wrong, good and bad. When the mind of another seems to have developed different beliefs and concepts than yours, they become wrong. They become the enemy. You see it as your duty to correct them or punish them, or avoid them. If you think you are liberal and open minded, then you decide you will listen with an open mind. But still you are evaluating according to your own beliefs. Or some people accept everything that anyone says, immediately reforming their own beliefs to whatever is the new fashion, the new trend, the new age fad. But you should accept or reject nothing. It is the accepting and rejecting of things which makes you unhappy. It is the accepting and rejection of ideas that makes you bound. If you truly wish to be free, you must stop this judgemental accepting and rejecting. Just stop! You must do it right now, in the moment.
The truth is, if you are seeing some things as good and others as bad, or accepting some while rejecting others, you are accepting, and simultaneously, rejecting God, the Absolute. Because as we have already said, there is only one thing. What is happening is all the Absolute. It is all God. Even if you take a very anthropomorphic view of God as an individual person, scriptures say that in the beginning there was only God, and God created the universes. So from what did He create them? From Himself. Some say the universes are the energies of God, like the sunlight from the sun. But that is also non-different. The energy and energetic are one. They cannot be separated. You cannot take heat or light from fire. Fire IS heat and light. All that arises from God IS God. So abandon all conceptions, all that you hold, and recognize the divinity that is all around you. Deeply experience that there is nothing outside of God, including yourself. Whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever you smell, taste, or feel, whatever thoughts arise, even the concepts themselves, are God. You are God. Saturate yourself with that reality that there is absolutely nothing except God (or Brahman, the Absolute, Beingness, Divine Subjectivity, etc. etc.) and you will find that you yourself are that Divine Ocean of Bliss!

Doorway to Heaven


What is our definition of Heaven, the Absolute, or Enlightenment? What does that look like for you? What is it according to the saints of the world who have realized Truth? Everyone assumes that they know the truth that it automatically corresponds to what they believe it to be, as if the fact that they believe it makes it a certainty. Obviously, this has been the cause of religious wars throughout the centuries.
Now, of course, we are in a more enlightened state and we recognize that all of the worlds religions hold some portion of truth. It would be politically incorrect to suggest that one belief system was more true than any other. And since we are broad minded and open to all of them, certainly we are more fully conversant with the ultimate truth. Now we are enlightened in the great mysteries of spirit. We see that truth is like a great diamond with many facets. We understand and accept that there is one truth with many paths to reach it, and we honor each path and the people who choose to accept it.
But the path is not the goal, and while there are many paths that lead to that enlightened state, what does it look like once you get there? And if we don¹t know what it looks like when we get there, how do we even know that the path we are on will ultimately arrive at where we want to go? The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the enlightened state has been characterized as beyond definition, unspeakable, un-nameable, unknowable and beyond thought, beyond concepts and beyond mind. So any definition or name that we attribute to it is simply that - a name, not "It". This leads the aspirant, almost by necessity, to explore what is not "It" in hopes of finding "It". Since we are, to a great extent, motivated by, influenced by, and limited by our own conceptions of the Absolute, we will study and aspire for those things which match our conception of what "It" is, too often in a vain search, waiting for an experience which will prove to us that we have reached the "unknowable", "indescribable" "It".
The situation is very much like an analogy that was recently shared with me. If you had two doorways, a doorway to heaven and a doorway to a lecture about heaven, you would find the vast majority of people lined up before the doorway to the lecture about heaven. Often we aren¹t as interested in experiencing the divine as we are in being able to Œknow¹ about it, talk about it, and impress people with our astounding depth of information about it. And what if you could actually open the doors and look in? In the doorway to the lecture about heaven, you would find a room full of beautiful people, drinking organic tea, talking about Gods & Goddesses, doing energy work, singing songs, meditating together, discussing the pros and cons of various paths and spiritual techniques generally having a great time. On the other hand, when you opened the door to heaven, standing outside and peering in, you would see nothing. It would appear empty, dark, unattractive - because through that door there is nothing for the mind to know, nothing for the body to experience, no concepts or beliefs to grasp and certainly nothing that would "attract" our mind, unless annihilation was attractive. For to enter into the absolute is to be totally beyond the mind and ego.
But the good news is that there is nowhere to go, no doorway to step through, in fact, no pathway to follow. You, who you really are, is already That. For you are pure awareness, being-ness. You are what precedes mind, beliefs, concepts, ideas, hopes, struggles, body and ego. You do not need to find heaven. You are heaven.

Seeking a Spiritual Path



Seeking a Path In this day and age, knowledge of spiritual practices has become common, so much so that by simply plugging into the internet, one can access some of the most secret, ancient, and esoteric spiritual practices. Often these are practices, mantras, and rituals that were handed from teacher to disciple in strictest confidence, preceded by preparatory rites and given only with understanding and agreement to never reveal them. Now you can find them in about 2 minutes on the world wide web.
This has been both a great boon, and a curse. It has been a boon, because it reveals for the first time the depth of commonality between the world¹s religions and philosophies. It allows us to explore in greater detail the richness of spiritual teachings that were unavailable to a world without airplanes or internet. And in a time and culture when the village priest, guru or shaman is not quite as readily available, we can still find the teachings we seek. But there is a down side. One of the primary things that has been taken from us with this wealth of knowledge is the simplicity of knowingness. Our life has been turned topsy turvy with choice. Where we once knew where our destiny lay, what our path was, and what was required of us to gain the graces of the divine and enter into our conceived heaven, now we flounder in an ocean of choices. We painstakingly search through the plethora of spiritual options, dabbling in a little of this, trying a little of that. Our desperate hope being that we will find the perfect path, a saving grace that will fulfill all our material and spiritual desires, and conform with our own conceptions of the Truth.
But this too reveals to us that there must be something wrong if we need to choose one religion or path over another, assuming the correctness of one and the imperfections of another. Perhaps all of them fall short of the mark, the glory of God, the unnameable absolute. Perhaps it is our very search for an answer outside of ourselves that must be questioned. Perhaps not knowing is a blessing after all. For what is it that we can fully rely on? What can we know for certain? Any opinion that we maintain can always be refuted by someone else. Any set of rules, ideas, techniques, philosophies, theories, vows, ethics, will always clash with that of another. Our existence in the world is always accompanied by polarities of opposites, especially when it comes to beliefs.
But again, what can we know for sure? Even the existence of anything outside of ourselves can not be ascertained. God, heaven, hell, truth - are not provable to oneself from an outside source. In fact, the existence of the world itself, as a tangible reality, is unprovable. For instance, you could be dreaming at this moment. Few people are able to distinquish dream from reality while in a dream. Or perhaps your whole worldly existence is some kind of a projection as if a movie, like if you were merely a brain in a bell jar somewhere. Even many scientists suggest that this so-called reality may be much more spacial illusion than hard fact, and that we may be more floating in an ocean of nothingness, including our own bodies, than a concrete realm.
But the world is filled with such ideas, many ancient and many new, but the truth, such as it is, can only be found in one place. It is the only thing that can be taken as a certainty. It is the one thing that everyone shares in common. That is the fact of their own existence as awareness. Each person knows that they are. They have always known that they are. Each persons experience of themselves as existing has remained constant for as long as they can remember. Certainly the ideas they hold, the goals they strive for, even the complexity of their thoughts has changed, but the fact of their very existence is a constant that is never questioned. It is the questioning of this existence that must take place. It is the only thing that we can really be sure of, and it must be investigated thoroughly and continuously.
What is the method for this inquiry? One must investigate as to what is this "I". Prior to everything is the simple sense of existing as "I". But what is it? Where is it? When and where does it begin and end. Remember here, you¹re not seeking your ideas and thoughts, but that I-ness which witnesses all thoughts. What some might call "I Am" the simple, pure awareness which witnesses and perceives all. Delve into this! Rest in this! And you will find the only true path which means anything your Self!

Truth Beyond Belief
A Subjective Inquiry into Life


Belief. Everything we do is based on it. In fact, everything we say, think, or feel is centered around our own belief system. But what is belief? The first definition given in Webster¹s is: " a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing." Okay, it¹s a state of mind, or worse yet, a habit of the mind. I believe it¹s a nice day. I believe in the inherent goodness of people. I believe in God. I believe that people should be kind to each other. I believe that chocolate is better than vanilla. I believe that early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. I believe that hush puppies are ugly shoes. I believe that the movie Gandhi is more spiritual than Ferris Beuller¹s Day Off. I believe that for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows. Big deal. Every single one of these and the literally millions of other beliefs I hold as a habit in my mind can be directly refuted by someone, probably many people. Their logic, reasoning or emotional appeal regarding their beliefs may or may not be better than mine. However, their beliefs are also nothing more than a state, or habit of mind.
Now what about religion? (You may substitute faith, philosophy, ideal life-style, etc.) All great religions (etc.) are based in Truth. However, they are practiced as a belief. Let me say that again. All great religions are based in Truth but are practiced from belief. Truth and belief are not the same thing. The Truth is absolutely beyond beliefs. Even if the beliefs correspond to the Truth, the belief is but a dim reflection of the Truth. For instance, the Tao Te Ching says (more or less) "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao." The Bhagavad Gita tells us that, "There is a banyan tree with its roots up and branches down. The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world." In other words, this is the world of misperception, and as long as we exist within this world we are bound to persist, as a habit of mind, in the realm of misperceptions and concepts. The mind is like a lens through which the light of Truth may shine. The more colored gels and filters there are over that lens, the more tainted is the light that shines through. Now what happens in the mind is similar. It is filled with concept gels and belief filters that obstruct the direct flow of light. Worse yet, the mind itself is an obstruction to direct experience of Truth as it must perceive Truth as an objective thing. I¹m told God is in Heaven. Sounds good to me, and I take it as a belief. However, each word is a concept to me, not Truth. I have a concept about God. God is the creator, therefore He must be real old. God is everywhere. Everything is God. God is in your heart.. Even more concepts about God. Now where is Heaven? It¹s up there. It¹s everywhere. It¹s where you make it. It¹s where dreams come true. Heaven is within. More concepts. Where is within? What is in? For that matter, what is "is"? Every word is a concept. It is a symbol or representation for what, in fact, is. There is a very distinct differentiation between an object, its name, and our mental image of that. And the mind, by nature, is objective. That is, it sees and describes objects apart from itself and therefore cannot in actuality, in Truth, experience that object as it is, in a subjective way. An objective experience is indirect. A subjective experience is direct. Let¹s give an analogy. I can describe to you what it is like to ride in a sports car. I can describe it in such detail that you can practically feel the wind in your hair, smell the upholstery, experience the vibration of the tires against the road. All concept. Thought patterns in your mind simulating Truth. Objective experience. Or I could put you in a sports car, give you the keys and say, "have at it," and let you directly experience those things. Subjective experience. In Truth, that so called subjective experience is also an objective experience, because it is taken in through our senses and mind which are themselves barriers to the direct experience, and thus we perceive ourselves driving the car objectively. But this is just an analogy. How about another? This is more along the lines of a direct experience. I can either hand you an orange and say, "smell it, feel it, eat it," which is an indirect experience, objective, or I can say, "be this orange. Directly experience it." Now this is a subjective experience, if you can do it. Actually, even the word experience throws us off because it implies a subject/object relationship. Someone or something is experiencing someone or something else. So - be an orange.
Truth is the same way. I can tell you what I believe Truth is, what God is, what the world is. I can quote from great authorities and from scriptures around the world. I can present evidence with startling logic and reasoning, until you too are absolutely convinced and ready to give your life for my cause, but it will only be a belief, a concept, an objective perception or misperception of the Truth. I may or may not have experienced the Truth, but no matter how many people I convince through non direct means, they will be experiencing beliefs, not truths.
Now what has generally happened in the past is that someone has experienced the Truth. The Truth, being outside of the confining world of language, is self evident to that individual, however it must be communicated, and for the most part is communicated in words. Occasionally, someone will communicate in a different way, such as Buddha holding up a flower or Jesus feeding the multitude. But for the most part what we get is words. We grab onto those words and hold on for dear life. Like trying to grab the reflection of the moon in a pond, it "ain¹t" the real thing.
Truth, however, is available to us. It is as close to us as our breath or our heart beat. It is the very fabric of life. But, unless you directly experience this (be the orange) it is just another concept, a belief. There are methods for directly experiencing Truth, and many of the better religions and philosophies have those methods built within them, although they are often lost within the dogmas, concepts and personality cultism. The problem is that many of these methods are themselves indirect, unclear, and often very, very slow, taking maybe years, decades or lifetimes to achieve the goal. There actually is a method by which one can directly experience the Truth, Self, Enlightenment, God, the Kingdom of Heaven within, the Christ Consciousness, whatever you want to term it, in a very short time, in fact, instantly, in this moment. It¹s called Self Inquiry and is really no method at all, but really a stopping of all methods, all techniques, all searching after Truth, and inquirying into the source of "I", awareness itself beyond concepts and misperceptions. It is a quantum shift in consciousness to a direct, subjective experience of Truth. Truth beyond belief!
http://www.atmainstitute.org/searching.htm