The Self is Beyond All Traditions

Sunrise Show by Marc Adamus

There’s so many -isms out there, Buddhism, Taoism, Nondualism… so many traditions, Christianity, Advaita, Zen…

Yet NONE of these are the ultimate Truth. Some may be very clear pointers, yes, but that is the extent of their reach. The words “rich chocolate” pale in comparison to the richness and flavor of chocolate itself. The word “God” and the sound the vocal chords project are nothing in the face of the infinite presence of that to which the word points.

Looking around in this world, what are we looking at!? What is all this? What we look at in this world, in its very essence, is not of this world. It is nameless, formless, indescribable, and everpresent. Some call it Spirit or Essence or Consciousness or Presence or Beingness. It’s truly nameless. It resides in a domain beyond the mind.

Who is the one looking? Same thing. The awareness that is looking out through your eyes is the very eyes of God. It has been said that “God sees everything that you do. God is always watching.” Sure. God sees everything that you do because God is the one looking out through your eyes! You are that! God and this I/eye of consciousness are one and the same.

The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.

-Meister Eckhart

When we wake up to the reality of what we are, no longer do we need our teachings of the past in the same way we once did.

To be enlightened is to be free of all points of view.

-Adyashanti

Upon awakening, our previous teachings and points of view are seen to be very much like a bridge designed to assist us in getting across the water, and we eventually leave them behind as we rest in the unshakable reality of what we are. The bridge was a very helpful and often times necessary part of one’s personal journey, so whether we come home through the pathway of Advaita, Buddhism, spending time in nature, or whatever else, thank goodness for these paths. If we come home without following any traditional pathway, awesome. There are many “paths” back to where you already are. No path is necessary to be THIS. You are what you seek.

The experience of This, although powerful and beyond words, is secondary to the very presence of This. It’s easy to confuse This with the experience of This, yet neither perception nor experience are what you are. Our perception and experience of ice cream is not ice cream. The unchanging, everpresent, eternal, Isness that you already are. This is it. You are This.

…and for a fun little paradox, no tradition is the reality of what you are, and nevertheless the reality of what you are that appears as all things also appears as every tradition. No tradition is IT. Every tradition is IT.