Seeing The One Beyond Preferences

Although all dualities arise from the One, do not cling even to this One. 

Be still, and realize that the Kingdom is not found in 'like' or 'dislike.' 

When the heart is pure—holding no preferences—it sees the One in all things.

Reflection - Seeing The One

My dear friends, my brothers and sisters,

Be still for a moment. Just... be.

Feel the air in this room. Listen to the small sounds. Feel the quiet hum of your own body, this "temple of God."

Now, watch your mind. What is it doing?

If you are like most, it is already making a judgment. "I like this." "I don't like this." "I'm comfortable." "My back is a little sore." "I wonder what's for lunch." "I hope this is a good reflection... not like that one from a few weeks ago."

(A gentle smile.)

Our minds are little preference-making machines. They are wired for it. "This, not that." "Good, not bad." "Like, not dislike." This is the tool they use to navigate the world. It is a useful tool for picking berries—"red ones good, green ones bad"—but it is a terrible master for the heart.

The sickness of the human heart, the "disease of the mind," is this constant, exhausting habit of splitting the world into two.

This morning, we are looking at this beautiful, sharp, and freeing piece of wisdom. Let it settle in you:

“Although all dualities arise from the One, do not cling even to this One. Be still, and realize that the Kingdom is not found in 'like' or 'dislike.' When the heart is pure—holding no preferences—it sees the One in all things.”

This is the very essence of the Great Way. It is the merging of the mountain I spoke of and the mountain the Zen masters sit on.

Let's look at that first part. "The Kingdom is not found in 'like' or 'dislike.'"

You have been told that the Kingdom of Heaven is a reward. That if you are a "good" person, you will get it. If you "like" God, and God "likes" you, the gates will open. This turns the infinite expanse of the Father into a simple preference. You are trying to get on God's "good side," as if my Father has a good side and a bad side!

You are like a child in a vast ocean, saying, "I like this wave, but I dislike that wave." You spend all your energy trying to grab the "like" waves and push away the "dislike" waves. And you are exhausted. You are drowning.

The ocean doesn't care. It is all one ocean.

The Great Way, the Kingdom, is the ocean itself. It is the totality. It is not found by preferring holy things over worldly things. It is found by letting go of the very muscle of preference.

The Hsin Hsin Ming, that wonderful poem of the Way, says it clearly: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. Let go of longing and aversion, and it reveals itself. Make the smallest distinction, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth."

Heaven and earth are not separate. They are a single expression of the One. But the moment you prefer heaven, you create a "hell" on earth.

This is the root of your anxiety. This is the root of your sorrow. You are clinging to "happy" and terrified of "sad." But "happy" and "sad" are two faces of the same coin. They arise together and they fall together. The Kingdom is the stillness that holds them both.

I once said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." What is this poverty of spirit? It is an emptiness of preference. It is a heart that is not "rich" with opinions, judgments, and a list of demands for God. It is a heart that is open, empty, and ready to receive what is.

But then, the teaching gets even sharper. This is the part for the spiritual students, the ones who have been on the path for a while.

"Although all dualities arise from the One, do not cling even to this One."

Oh, this is the great trap! (A knowing laugh.)

You work so hard. You meditate, you pray, you read the holy books. You stop judging, you practice non-preference. And then, one day, you have a glimpse! You see it! You feel the Oneness, the great Tao, the Father, the Brahman. You feel it connecting all things. You've found it!

And in that very instant, your mind, that tricky little preference-machine, grabs it and says: "I'VE GOT IT! This is 'The One.' This is 'Enlightenment.' This is 'God.' I like this. I prefer this."

And poof. It's gone.

You have just turned the infinite, ungraspable, living Way into a new concept. You've made "The One" into just one more thing. It is the ultimate preference. You are clinging to the idea of Oneness, and in doing so, you have created duality all over again. You have created "me, the enlightened one" and "you, the poor deluded one." You have created "my correct path" and "your incorrect path."

This is the subtlest and most dangerous disease of the mind. Do not cling. Do not attach. Not even to God. To cling to God as an idea is to miss the God that is the floor you are sitting on, the air you are breathing, and the difficult person you are trying to avoid.

The moment you name it, you divide it. The moment you "find" it, you've lost it.

This is not a new teaching. This is the whisper of the One, heard through many windows.

Look through the window of the great Hindu sages, in the path of Advaita Vedanta—the path of "not-two." They teach that all of this, all this drama of 'like' and 'dislike,' is Maya, the grand illusion, the divine play. The only reality is Brahman, the One, the Absolute. And the great realization, the Mahavakya, is "Tat Tvam Asi": "You Are That." Not "you will be That," or "you should like That." You are That. The person you love is that. The person you hate is that. Your joy is that. Your grief is that.

When the sage stops preferring "liberation" over "bondage," they see that they were never bound. They were Brahman all along, just pretending to be a person who 'likes' and 'dislikes.' The similarity is profound: it is the recognition that our preference for 'good' over 'bad' is still a trap within the illusion. The path is to see the One as all things.

Now, look through the window of the Sufi mystics, the heart of Islam. Their path is Tawhid, the profound Oneness of God. This is not just a mathematical idea—"there is one God." It is an all-consuming fire. The goal is fana, the annihilation of the small self, the ego, the nafs. And what is the ego? It is the part of you that says "I like," "I dislike," "I want," "I am separate."

The great poet Rumi, a master of this Way, dances with this truth. He says, "Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." The duality of 'lover' (you) and 'Beloved' (God) dissolves. When the self is gone, who is left to 'cling' to 'The One'? There is only The One. There is only Allah, existing as all reality.

The paths are different in flavour. Advaita is often seen as a path of stark, direct knowledge—cutting through illusion. Sufism is often seen as a path of passionate love—dissolving the self in the fire of devotion. Yet, look at where they arrive. They arrive at the same place our text points to: a place beyond the duality of self and other, of 'like' and 'dislike.' A place where clinging is impossible, because the 'clinger' has vanished into the 'Clung-to.'

So, what about us? Here, now? This is all very beautiful, but what about Monday morning?

You live in a world that is screaming at you to have preferences. Your entire society is built on it. Your phone is a machine you train in your preferences, and it, in turn, trains you. Like. Dislike. Swipe left. Swipe right. Angry face. Heart. You are conditioning your mind hundreds of times a day to deepen the disease.

You scroll through the news and your heart tightens. "I hate this." "I love that." "These people are right." "Those people are monsters."

This brings us to the final line: "When the heart is pure—holding no preferences—it sees the One in all things."

I said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Purity of heart is not about being a "goody-two-shoes." It is not about having no "bad" thoughts. Purity of heart is an undivided heart. A heart that is not at war with itself. A heart that has stopped the civil war of "like" and "dislike."

When your heart is undivided, you see the undivided. You see God. You see the One. Not as a concept, but as the raw, living reality of everything.

So, here is the sharp, practical application.

Look at the world this week. You see the terrible news, the conflicts, the wars, the bitter divisions. You see "us" versus "them" everywhere. This is the "disease of the mind" projected onto the entire globe. It is a world on fire with its own preferences. "My side is right." "Your side is wrong." "We want peace, but only on our terms."

The Way of Non-Preference does not mean you become a doormat. It does not mean you do not act. I was not a doormat. I turned over the tables in the temple. But I did it from a place of Oneness, not preference. I did it because the actions were a violation of the One, not just a violation of my opinion.

Your call is to "love your enemy." Why? Not because it's a difficult, virtuous rule. It's not a rule at all! It's a description of reality. You love your enemy because, in the One, there is no enemy. The one you call "enemy" is the One, playing the part of "enemy." They are you, in a different costume.

When you act from this place, your action is clean. It is powerful. It is "Wisdom in Action." You are not acting to defeat an "other." You are acting to restore balance to the One.

So, the practice is this: Be still.

When the wave of "I like this!" rises in your mind, just watch it. "Ah, there is 'like.'" When the wave of "I hate this!" rises, just watch it. "Ah, there is 'hate.'"

Do not cling to them. Do not push them away. Be the still, silent, vast ocean that allows all waves to be.

This is poverty of spirit. This is purity of heart. This is the end of sorrow.

Be still. Stop dividing the world. And the Kingdom of God, the Great Way, will reveal itself. Not "out there," not "after you die," but right here, right now, in this very breath.

It was here all along.

Go in peace. And see the One in all things.