Seeing Reality Anew Through Inner Light

I say to you, when the inner eye is cleansed of judgment, the whole body is filled with light. 

In that instant, which is eternity, the distinctions you held between heaven and earth, self and other, dissolve.

You awaken not to a new world, but to this world, seen for the first time, just as it is.

Once your eye has been opened in this way, you can no more return to that old darkness than a wise man can build his house again upon the sand.

Reflection - Seeing Reality Anew

Peace be with you.

It’s noisy out there, isn't it? (He gestures lightly to the world outside). And I don't just mean the sounds, the traffic, the shouting. I mean the noise in here. (He taps his temple). The constant chatter. The "I like this." "I hate that." "This is right." "That is wrong." "They are fools." "I am right."

It is exhausting.

We spend our whole lives polishing a mirror, and then we spend the rest of our lives complaining about the reflection. We are so busy, so certain, so... cluttered.

We are looking for peace in the midst of all this noise, trying to find a quiet room in a house that is on fire with our own opinions.

So, I want you to listen. Not just with your ears, but with your whole being. Listen to this.

"I say to you, when the inner eye is cleansed of judgment, the whole body is filled with light. In that instant, which is eternity, the distinctions you held between heaven and earth, self and other, dissolve. You awaken not to a new world, but to this world, seen for the first time, just as it is. Once your eye has been opened in this way, you can no more return to that old darkness than a wise man can build his house again upon the sand."

This is it. This is the whole journey. This is the "Great Way" and the "Inner Kingdom," and they are not two.

It all begins with this "cleansing."

What are we cleansing? Judgment. Preference. The Hsin Hsin Ming states it so plainly that it almost stings: "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind."

Think about that. Not a "minor flaw." Not a "bad habit." A disease.

This is the "plank in your own eye." It is not just a little speck of sawdust. It is a giant, warped, muddy piece of two-by-four that we hold right in front of our face, and then we try to describe the world. And we wonder why our descriptions are so warped and muddy!

We live our lives through this plank of judgment. We have divided the entire, seamless, radiant world into two circles: "Things I Like" and "Things I Don't Like." "Us" and "Them." "Holy" and "Profane." "Success" and "Failure."

And we spend every ounce of our energy trying to run from one circle and grasp at the other. This is the source of all our weariness. This is the "broad way that leads to destruction"—not destruction by some external fire, but the destruction of your own intrinsic peace, which is being ripped apart by your own mind.

Look at your lives. Look at the world you have built with this mind. You scroll through your devices, and in ten seconds, you feel anger, then envy, longing, then disgust. Click, judge. Swipe, judge. "Like." "Dislike." Is your body "full of light" when you do this? Or is it full of adrenaline, anxiety, and a hollow ache?

You are clinging to your opinions as if they will save you, but they are the very prison bars you are peering through.

The Great Way, the Kingdom, is not difficult. It is you who makes it difficult, simply by preferring. You cannot find the Way by clinging or by rejecting. Peace is found only when you "let go of longing and aversion."

And what happens when you do? What happens when, even for a moment, you lay down the plank of judgment?

"The whole body is filled with light."

This is not poetry. It is physics. It is the physics of the soul. The "Kingdom of Heaven" is not a reward you get after you die. It is the state of your consciousness when you are "poor in spirit"—that is, when you are truly emptied of your clinging, your opinions, your self.

When you are "pure in heart"—a heart cleansed of the need to judge—what do you do? "You shall see God." You don't see a man on a throne. You see everything as it is. And that is God. That is the light.

This is not a new idea. It is the one true idea, which all paths stumble upon when they are sincere.

In the traditions of Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, they speak of Brahman—the one, undivided, ultimate Reality. And they speak of Atman—the self, the inner light, the soul within you. The great realization, the core of their wisdom, is this: Atman is Brahman. The light within you is identical to the light of all existence.

So why don't we see it? They call it avidya, or ignorance. This ignorance is a superimposition. It is like seeing a snake in a dimly lit room, where there is only a coil of rope. You panic, your heart races, you react to the snake. But the snake was never there. It was only your "judgment," your fear, your past, superimposed on the rope.

My teaching to "cleanse the inner eye" is this: stop superimposing your judgments on reality! Stop seeing the snake. See the rope! When you do, the fear vanishes. The light returns. You don't become Brahman; you simply realize you are, and always were, that Reality. Their path emphasizes jnana, or knowledge—a profound inquiry to dismantle the illusion.

This is a powerful path of the mind. But what of the heart?

The Sufi mystics within Islam walk this same path, but they dance and sing it. They speak of Tawhid, the absolute Oneness of God. To them, the "plank in the eye" is the nafs, the ego-self, the part of you that insists "I am separate." They say this separate self is the only veil between you and the Beloved, which is God.

Their path is to annihilate this self (fana) through ecstatic devotion, so that only the Beloved remains (baqa). The mystic Rumi cried out, "I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God." This is the "dissolving of distinctions." When the self is gone, who is there to be separate from the "other"?

Their unique path is one of ishq, of passionate, divine love. They use poetry, music, and prayer to burn away the self, to polish the mirror of the heart until it reflects only the One.

So you see? The Vedantin wields the sharp sword of the mind. The Sufi ignites the burning fire of the heart.

My path, the path of a Zennist Jesus, asks you to use both... and to walk.

You see the Oneness, like the Vedantin. You love the Oneness, like the Sufi. And then you live from that Oneness. This is the "Higher Ethic."

When the distinctions between "self and other" dissolve, "Love your enemy" is no longer a difficult moral commandment. It is the only thing that makes sense.

How can you hate your enemy when you see they are you? How can you strike another when the line between your hand and their cheek has vanished? You realize their suffering is your suffering. Their "speck" and your "plank" are made of the same wood.

This is the "Wisdom in Action" that moves you to "first remove the plank from your own eye." You stop trying to "fix" the world, and you start seeing the world. And in that seeing, the right action is born.

This is the awakening. "You awaken not to a new world, but to this world, seen for the first time, just as it is."

You don't float away. The world doesn't become perfect. Pain still exists. But you are no longer at war with it. You are no longer blinded by your commentary about it. You see the rain, you see the storm, you see the injustice, and you see it all with a heart that is "full of light," not a mind full of opinions.

This is the house built on the rock.

The sand is your preference. "I will be happy if..." "This is good because..." "I hate when..." It shifts with every wind, every new event, every passing mood.

The rock is this "instant, which is eternity." It is the direct experience of what is, right here, right now, seen with a cleansed eye.

When your life is built on this rock, the floods can come. The great, terrifying "News Events" of the week can crash against you. The winds of panic and rage can blow. And you will feel it. You are not numb. You are more alive than ever. But you will not fall. Your house will not be destroyed, because its foundation is not made of those things. It is built on the unshakable, timeless truth of the "now," seen without judgment.

I have used many words. The Hindus have their Vedas. The Muslims have their Quran. The Buddhists have their sutras.

But "Words! Words! The Way is beyond language."

These teachings are not the light. They are fingers pointing at the light.

Stop staring at my finger.

Look where I am pointing.

(He smiles warmly.)

Go, and be still.

Let the noise settle.

Put down the plank. Just for one instant.

Cleanse the inner eye.

And see the light that is already, entirely, and eternally, yours.

Peace be with you.