The word truth conjures up many ideas and images including honesty, integrity and authenticity. Truth is usually discussed in the context of our relationships with others in which honesty of communication is usually valued above all else. However, truth is about more than our relationship to others.

The word truth points us to the essence of who we are. What do I mean by this? Most people spend their lives identified with superficial aspects of who they are. These include their physical bodies, their thoughts, no matter how dysfunctional, their emotions and their life stories.

However, none of these are the truth of who we are. They are just superficial aspects which help us navigate the practical aspects of our daily lives. But what happens when we strip all this way. Who are you without your physical body, your thoughts, your emotions and your life story?

You may feel that there is nothing left but this is far from the truth. The truth is that who you are is the deeper underlying consciousness, being or awareness which underlies all the superficial aspects of who you think you are.

Our bodies are temporarily and will eventually die and decay. Thoughts are transient and come and go and are never permanent. Emotions are how we experience life on the physical plane and how we relate to the world we live in. Emotions need to be experienced but are also transient. Our life stories are simply tales that we accumulate in order to explain and make sense of various stages in our lives.

If you scrutinize all these superficial aspects of our lives and see right through them you will notice that something remains. It is undeniable when you sit in stillness and silence. You may feel it as your heartbeat, the wind blowing through the leaves, the flight of a bird, the waves on an ocean or the countless stars in the night sky.

You see the truth of who you are cannot be defined. It is beyond words and description. It is a mystery and it is in the beauty of this mystery that our greatness is revealed. The truth is that the depth of our inner space is as profound as outer space. This is something that the mind cannot comprehend which is why the mystery of who we are cannot be understood at the level of the mind.

It can only be experienced. The way it is experienced is through silence, stillness and awareness. It is these practices that take us beyond the superficial aspects of who we are to experience the mystery of the depths of our being. When we get immersed in the depths of who we are we start to realize that anything is possible and the journey of life is to unveil to us more of this mystery.

It is in this mystery that truth is revealed. So feel the rhythm of your heartbeat. Contemplate the wind blowing through the leaves. Delight in witnessing a bird in flight. Dance with the waves on the ocean surface. Ponder the stars in the night sky.

Seek the beauty of mystery in every moment of your life because it is there, waiting for you to notice it. It wants nothing more than to reveal to you that you are more than right and wrong, victory and defeat, joy and grief, compassion and hate. It is your gateway to the secrets of the universe and the path to higher evolution.

This is our greater collective destiny and, if embraced on a larger scale, has the potential to completely transform our experience of life on this earth. However, it should not be sought out with a specific end in mind.

The seeker realizes that there is no final destination called enlightenment. The seeker’s path is its own reward and this is the greatest paradox of life. For there is nothing to fear, nothing to lose and nothing to gain. This is the beauty of being which is the gateway to the mystery of who we are.

I will meet you there.

 

Nauman Naeem MD