Seeing the Spiritual in Everything

You have heard it said, "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind," and "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

I say to you: The Way is not found by dividing the world into "spiritual" and "not spiritual." That is the first preference, the first judgment.

The Kingdom is not found in the clouds, but is spread out upon the earth, and you do not see it. You do not see it because the eye is full of darkness—the darkness of "like" and "dislike," of "holy" and "profane."

It is unrealized only because you are looking for it. Cease searching, cease judging, and let go of opinions. When the plank is removed from your own eye, you will see clearly that the smallest speck of dust and the highest heaven are One. There is nothing outside the Way.

Reflection - The Kingdom in the Speck of Dust

Friends, you have heard it said by the sages of old, “Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind.” And you have heard me say, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

So what have you done with these words?

You hear them, and you immediately begin to work. You try to cure the disease. You try to stop liking and disliking. (Good luck with that.) You try to become pure. You take out a cloth and you begin polishing your heart, scrubbing away at the “bad” thoughts, the “impure” feelings, the “worldly” desires, hoping that if you just polish hard enough, you will finally see God.

(A small chuckle)

I say to you: This very effort is the disease. This very polishing is the plank in your eye.

You have just created the most dangerous preference of all: the preference for “purity” over “impurity,” the preference for “non-preference” over “preference.” You have split the world in two. You are now as far from the Way as heaven is from earth.

My teaching is not a new task for you to accomplish. It is an invitation to stop.

The Way is not found by dividing the world. The Kingdom is not found in the clouds or in some future reward.

I say to you: “The Kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and you do not see it.”

Why? Why don't we see this Kingdom that is right here, right now, in this very room, in this very breath?

Because our eye is full of darkness. And that darkness has a name: Judgment.

We are masters of drawing lines. We are architects of the two circles.

In this circle, we place everything we call “spiritual” or “holy”: the meditation cushion, the church, the synagogue, the mosque, the sacred text, the quiet retreat, the “good” person. This is where we think God lives.

And in that circle, we place everything we call “profane” or “worldly”: the stack of unpaid bills, the argument with our teenager, the political scandal on the news, the traffic jam, the dirty laundry. This is “real life,” we say, the messy stuff we have to endure while we try to get back to the “holy” circle.

Our entire life becomes a frantic, exhausting game of jumping from the “profane” circle into the “holy” one. We live in a state of constant, low-grade anxiety, believing we are exiled from the sacred, believing we must do something to earn our way back.

This belief, this division, this preference for "holy" over "profane," is the plank. It is the one and only thing that blinds us.

This sickness of the divided mind is the engine of your world. Look at your phones. Your entire society is built on it. Like. Dislike. Upvote. Downvote. Swipe left. Swipe right. This person is “in my tribe.” That person is “the enemy.” This idea is “right.” That idea is “wrong.”

This is the disease of the mind, broadcast at the speed of light. It is a mind lost in confusion. And it is why you are so very tired. You are trying to hold up a heaven that you yourselves have separated from the earth.

But you are not the first to see this. The longing for Oneness is the oldest ache in the human heart.

The sages of the Upanishads, in the forests of India, looked at this same division. They saw the individual soul, the Atman—this little, flickering, anxious “me” that feels separate and small. And they saw the Great All, the source of the cosmos, the breath behind the breath, which they called Brahman.

And after generations of looking, not with their eyes but with their whole being, they declared the most radical truth: Tat Tvam Asi.

“That Thou Art.”

You are That.

Not “you will become That if you are good.” Not “you are a small part of That.” But that your essential, innermost nature, right now, in all your messy, anxious, bill-paying glory, is the One.

The Hindu path of Advaita Vedanta is a path of radical wisdom (jnana). Its unique message is one of recognition. It teaches that the separation was never real. The “profane” circle was a dream, a mirage, a rope mistaken for a snake. The work is not to create unity, but to realize the unity that has always been. Aham Brahmasmi—I am Brahman. The division was simply a mistake of the mind.

Now, look at a different heart, one from the deserts of the Near East. The Sufi mystic, dizzy with love, looks at the world. He is not a philosopher trying to cut through illusion; he is a lover, and he sees the Face of the Beloved everywhere.

The Qur’an says that God is “closer than the jugular vein.” The Sufi masters, like Rumi and Ibn Arabi, took this and dissolved in it. They spoke of Wahdat al-Wujud—the Oneness of Being.

They taught that there is nothing but God. There is no "other." The lover and the Beloved are one.

When Rumi cries out, “I looked for God and found only myself. I looked for myself and found only God,” he is dissolving the line.

For this heart, the supermarket is the Beloved. The traffic jam is the Beloved. The person who cuts you off is the Beloved in a very distressing disguise.

The Sufi path is one of passionate love (bhakti). Its unique message is one of intimate annihilation. The goal is fana, the death of the separate self, drowning in the ocean of the One.

Do you see? The paths have different tastes, different music. The Hindu sage says, “You are That.” The Sufi lover says, “All is That.”

Both are beautiful. Both are true. Both are pointing to the moon.

But I say to you: Do not get lost in arguments about the pointers.

The truth is beyond words. My path, the path of the Zennist, simply looks at the situation as it is.

I say to you: “The Kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and you do not see it.”

And it is unrealized only because you are searching for it.

The search creates the division. The searcher is the one who is hiding. The searcher is the plank in your eye.

So what does it mean? “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

What is this plank? It is the judge.

It is the little voice in your head that never, ever stops. (A knowing smile) It’s the voice that, even as you are listening to me right now, is thinking, “This is interesting.” Or, “This is confusing.” Or, “I wonder if he’s right.” Or, “I really hope no one heard my stomach growl.”

That’s him! That’s the plank!

You cannot fight the plank. You cannot judge the judge—that’s just the plank judging itself, and it finds that game very entertaining. You cannot polish the plank.

You can only see it.

The path is not “A Higher Ethic” that you must achieve. The path is “Wisdom in Action.”

Here is the action: You are stuck in traffic. You are late. You feel the anger, the familiar tension in your shoulders. “This is terrible. I hate this.”

In that moment, see the plank. See the judge who just labeled the moment “terrible.” See the preference that just declared, “I prefer to be moving.”

You don't have to change the feeling. You don't have to stop the thought. You just see it.

And in that moment of pure seeing, without judgment, a little space opens up. The anger is just anger. The traffic is just traffic. And you are just aware.

In that instant, the “profane” moment of the traffic jam just became a “holy” moment. Not because the traffic vanished, but because the judge vanished.

That is what it means to be “pure in heart.”

The pure heart is not a heart that has no “bad” thoughts. That is a dead heart. The pure in heart is a heart that is empty of a judge—a heart that does not split the world into “good” and “bad.” It is a simple, clear mirror. It reflects what is, just as it is.

And what does this have to do with your broken world? Everything.

Look at your news feeds this week. Whatever the crisis is—a war, a climate disaster, a political scandal. The world is screaming at you to get sick with the disease.

“Pick a side! Be outraged! This is right! That is wrong! Hate them!”

And you do. You are filled with righteous anger, with fear, with judgment. And you feel justified.

And I say to you, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, love your enemies…”

How? How can you possibly do this? By trying harder?

No. You can only do it when you remove the plank. When you see that the one you call “enemy” is also the Way. When you see that the “destruction” and the “creation” both arise from the One, and both are held in the One.

Here is the most practical application I can give you:

The next time you read that news story that makes your blood boil, that makes you know you are right… just for one second, before you share it, before you condemn… stop.

Watch the judge in your own mind. Watch the “like” and “dislike.” Watch the righteousness. Don't act. Don't resist. Just see it.

This is the beginning of true peacemaking. It is loving your enemy at the root—the root of your own mind. This is Wisdom in Action. It is the hardest, and simplest, work there is.

The Way is not difficult. It just has no preferences.

This doesn't mean you become a passive doormat. It doesn't mean you don't fight for justice, or feed the poor, or comfort those who mourn. You must! You are called to be salt and light.

But you are called to act from a place of Oneness, not from a place of “us” versus “them.” You will act with more power, more wisdom, and more love when you are no longer blinded by the plank of your own preferences.

So I leave you with this.

Stop searching. The one who is searching is the Kingdom. Stop dividing. The line you draw is the plank. Stop polishing. Your heart is already pure beneath the dust of opinion.

Let it be.

The Kingdom is not in the clouds. It is here. It is this breath. It is the sound of the person coughing behind you. It is the silence after I stop speaking.

Look.

The smallest speck of dust, dancing in the light… and the highest heaven.

They are One.

There is nothing outside the Way.