Many Paths, One Mountain

Beautiful Day © Marc Adamus

There are so many paths back home.. which is a funny idea given that you’re already home. There’s just a lot of mental activity that can cover up the truth, just a web of imagination that’s telling you something other than what’s real.

“When we wake up out of the dream of ego, the only thing that gets resolved is an idea that thinks something needs resolving.”

-Matt Kahn

Have you ever made up a story in your mind that you believed to be true… and later you found out it had NOTHING to do with reality? That’s what being asleep, in a spiritual sense, is like. You totally believe a thought to be true, only to later (maybe) find out that it was totally false. Yet the interesting is that, despite the fact that it had no basis in reality, you can experience it to be just as real as if it actually was true, so real in fact that it basically makes no difference whether or not what you’re experiencing is the reality or an illusion. Either way, the experience is effectively just as real and so it makes no difference. That’s how powerful the illusion is. It’s the next best thing to the real thing, and experientially it can be just as effective.

All these paths to awakening involve stepping beyond the mental stories of the mind one way or another and back into pure beingness, here and now.

The path taken by this so-called individual (this Ariel character) involves resting as pure awareness, allowing the mind to relax, the Self to return back into conscious awareness, and awakening to progressively deepen on its own accord the more the mind relaxes its insistence upon the existence of a separate self, both mentally and emotionally. (I think. I feel. etc.)

Every time awareness starts getting caught in the web of the mind (being stuck in the mind), awareness simply takes a backwards step and notices that it is aware of the mind, and aware of awareness itself. Instant exit. It because an almost automatic thing now, and even this movement is seen to be yet something else that arises within awareness.

Many Paths…

There are so many paths to awakening… resting as awareness (Adyashanti), being still, chanting mantras, selfless service (Karma Yoga), self-inquiry (Ramana), focusing the mind upon the “I Am” (Nisargadatta), surrendering to a guru, surrendering one’s will at length to God (David Hawkins), the Eightfold Path (Buddhism), just stopping (Gangaji), being Present (Eckhart Tolle), and so on. Each path gives you different sights and sounds along the way, sure. Each path gives you different experiences along the way, of course. Each path may take a different amount of time, no doubt about it.

People have woken up following all of these paths. People have woken up following no specific path at all.

What may be appropriate for one person and their energy may be inappropriate for another. And that’s totally fine. It’s not about finding “the one true path,” for such a thing does not exist. It’s a matter of finding the path that resonates with your being, and aligning yourself with that.

Even within a single religion there may be many different focuses depending upon which church you go to: forgiveness, appreciation, prayer, service, grace, surrender, meditation… each of these focuses are appropriate for some people more than others. It’s truly a matter of finding the path that is appropriate for each individual.

One Mountain…

Many paths, one mountain.

Some paths may be shorter than another. Some paths may climb a steeper and more intense face of the mountain. Yes. There are differences. Some may loop around the base of the mountain seemingly forever before turning upwards… or they may head in another direction entirely, away from the mountain.  Of course. But again, it’s simply a matter of finding the path that is most appropriate for each individual. The wonderful thing is that so long as we keep our sights aimed upon God (or Truth, Love, Light, or whatever pointer you wish to use), God is so big that you can’t miss!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me..”

-Jesus, John 14:6

Statements like the above can be confusing. This statement points not to one path, but to the one mountain, and ultimately we all ARE this same one mountain, of which Jesus was but one conscious manifestation of. It’s about recognizing your true nature AS the Way (Tao), the Truth, the Life itself, and no one can own that or the path to that for everyone already IS that. As discussed previously, enlightenment is about awakening to your true nature beyond any limited mortal sense of identity. This non-dual identity-less identity can be called Brahman, the Self, Christ Consciousness, Being, and so on. Different traditions use different words to attempt to point to the same one unnameable Presence.

Yet ultimately, the I Am that I Am, is the same I Am that You Are, which is the same I Am that Everything Is. There is only one “I Am,” and you are it. Everyone who truly awakens comes to this same realization. There is only one of us arising as everyone and everything. There is only One. I Am That and so are You.