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Sigvaldi Hjalmarsson
The Simple Truth |
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I must have the prologue to these words, that what follows is a rather
short and special talk, in my view neither good nor bad, and what
matters here are not the words that are uttered, but rather our common
state of mind, that of the listeners and of the speaker.
I am not going to tell you a bit of anything you don't already know, and
there is no use listening to the talk as though there will be an
admeasure of facts. The best way is to take it as a monologue of a
single soul, not to listen to it as if someone is talking. In a
harmonious group of people the walls tend to fall down. There is such a
nearness between people when nothing separates, and then the one that
talks can as well be a voice in the mind of anyone. If this talk bears
any significance, it is the significance of the small and the natural,
which we don't always notice. Perhaps it is this small and natural,
which becomes the greatest mystery in life, if noticed.
I want to start with a strange statement by the Chinese Chan-Master
Huang Po. When he was asked about the nature of Buddha, which by them
denotes the enlightened mind, a title used for the enlightened ones, he
gave the simple answer; "Buddha is the ordinary mind". It may seem
strange to most of us that the enlightened mind is this ordinary mind of
man, which he constantly enjoys. But this is what the great Chan-Master,
Huang-Po said, about eleven centuries ago.
An enlightened mind, a state of mind which is beyond war and strive, a
state which is no particular state, but simply to be, not only oneself
but maybe first and foremost everything and nothing, is perhaps that
which one can best approach with the word truth.
In this contemplation - for this is contemplation - let's first look at
what is truth, or rather how we can approach that which is contained in
the word truth. Truth cannot be put in words. This is one of the
greatest misunderstanding in human life. It cannot be put in words, any
more than the wind can be caught in a net. Truth is only in life. Truth
cannot be told, one can't even speak truthfully. When we say that we are
telling the truth, we are speaking as little lie as can be done with
words. The truth is also not of the nature that it can be discovered
once and for all. It's not possible to discover the truth at eight in
the morning, for that day and ever after. It has to remain a steady
ongoing discovery, a continuos experience, not only that day, but the
coming days and every days to come. You have to live it, to be it, to
have clear awareness of it moment by moment, so that there is never a
break. It is not complicated but always simple, usually, or perhaps
always, too simple for us to notice, who are so accustomed to
sophisticated thinking. It is not a doctrine, it is an ever ongoing
discovery. Or as the Nobel price winner Halldor Laxness said better than
anyone else that I know, about the truth, many years ago in a book; "You
won't find truth in books, not even in good books, but only in people
with a righteous heart."
Why then this talk about truth over and again, if it does not fit into
words? Words are wonderful phenomenon, but we sometimes claim a
different role from them than they are meant to do. We can talk of
everything between heaven and earth to a great help. In fact a
conversation - to be able to talk together - is often the only way out
of the difficulties of life. Often the only thing to do is to talk about
the problems, and then there are no problems any more. Such
communication is needed for good results because of the psychological
constitution of the humanity today.
We have to recognize both the significance and the limitations of words,
the limitations of talking together. Speech is for example a certain
kind of conversation. The limitations are that talk never refers
directly to that which it is actually about. We are here investigating
the possibility of communicating through words. This is a second order
meditation, where the potentialities of human consciousness are under
consideration. You can for example say red, and then there is a
reference to investigating something that is red. The flower is red, and
there is a red color when I point to it, but there is nothing red in
saying red. Words are never anything but pointing to an experience. The
experience itself is never anything but direct living awareness. The
significance of words, on the other hand, is very simple,
straightforward and important. They are a bridge of communication
between souls, and not only so because of their concrete meaning alone.
Words need to contain strict meaning and limited content, but they also
need to have rich emotional undertone. They should contain both mental
purport and an emotional flow, and thirdly they should elicit
presentiment, something always beyond words, some fragrance which
doesn't fit into any boundaries and can in no way be collected. It must
be only what it is, and manifest itself according to its nature. You
can't describe the sunset for a man born blind, but you can make him
feel the warmth of the sun on his cheek. Thus can we, which are
spiritually half blinded, because we have been accustomed to view all
experience trough words and concepts, also get a hint of the simple
truth contained in being aware, this truth which is so simple, clear and
natural that it cannot be explained in words, but is never the less here
and now, because Buddha, the very enlightenment, is nothing but the
ordinary mind of man.
When we speak of truth we mean of course that which indisputably is, and
is not imagined in any way. And we don't need to reflect on it or
theorize about it, because it can't be displayed in any way whatsoever,
except in the naked experience alone. Because the truth is that which
is, and nothing but that which is, it is always here and now and cannot
be approached apart from the present moment, this hairbreadth of now
which always is, if we care to notice. There will be no truth if we mean
to seek for it tomorrow. Moreover there will be no truth at all if we
only mean to seek for it, although we use that expression, for to mean
to do something is not the same as being something.
There must be an unconditional relationship between you and the truth,
totally unconditional here and now, not even a word or an idea between
you and it. But because our working mode of mind is bewildered and
twisted by incessant use of words and concepts, a certain adroitness is
needed to find the truth. And then this discovery of the truth is
neither easy nor difficult. It is only a natural thing, something so
natural, that some start laughing, some start crying, some are filled up
with an ecstasy and some wonder how they could overlook this simplest
and most natural of all things, which never had abandoned them from the
day they first remembered themselves.
The simple truth must cover everything, but it is meaningless to exclaim
that it is everything. That may well be a great truth, but to say that
something is everything has no meaning. In such circumstances one may as
well drop the words and take up the way of the Buddha, which showed
forth a flower when asked about the truth. That is why we have to take a
little sideway to find it. The sideway is not made for the truth, it
never needs any sideways. The sideway is for you. Everything we call a
way to the inner, higher experience is always a sideway, and this tiny
sideway, which should be minimal, but which is necessary and natural, is
unavoidable, because we have to loose sight for a moment of what we look
at, in order to see what it is. Probably you don't notice something that
has been before your eyes all your life, something which never has
changed and always has been the same. At least you don't see its value
unless you loose sight of it for a moment. When it again reappears in
the field of your vision you probably discover, all of a sudden, what it
is.
Let's therefore join hands together, each one in his own conscious
activity, and trace out what we are. I don't speak of each ones
awareness, for the awareness is one. This is not so difficult. If there
is something preventing you in this observation it is because you find
it so unimportant and straightforward that you need not take notice.
When we analyze ourselves, we find that we are such a strangely simple
and uncomplicated thing. We can analyze the body and find a number of
elements, but we will never get to the man by that. But each individual
can analyze his own conscious activity and find actually how few the
actors are. Let's begin with the senses and go really slowly about it.
You must not think that I am going to tell some wisdom, because wisdom
prevents us from getting to it. You should not even have the idea that I
am talking, rather pretend that you are thinking.
The senses, what are they? Now I will use the infinitive, to see, f.ex.
a glass, to hear, f.ex. the voice of the speaker, to touch, and also if
there is something to smell or to taste, but that is insignificant in
this context. From these three main attributes, three main modes of
cognition or modes of experiencing, the whole of our outer existence is
made. And I am almost convinced that the mystery of the life is the same
in them all and that it can emerge everywhere. Besides this, there is an
inner activity, also utterly simple, which we can analyze in order to
know what we are. What is meant by the Chan doctrine when talking about
the Buddha being the ordinary mind? We have f. ex. thoughts and emotions
which can be very varied, just as what is heard and seen can be
extremely varied. But the act, to see, to hear, to feel, that which we
are when we are aware, is by itself very simple phenomenon. And now I
want you to pay attention to this difference between the thing that you
see and the act to see, and transfer it to all the other sensations and
inner activity. If we now look at all these faculties separately and all
together, we see before us almost all the actors of the human life. The
various components, the senses and the inner faculties, thoughts,
feelings, desires etc. can have various names, but in reality it is
always the same thing. And it is possible to be aware of it all at the
same time. If you practiced certain forms of yoga, Mahamudra in
particular, you would be taught to be aware of it all at once, so that
all the actors and components of the human life would be in the light of
the awareness at the same time.
And now I would like to ask one question, for you and for me. Is it
possible to analyze these faculties of consciousness still further,
without theorizing, just look at them momentarily while they work in us,
for that is what matters? Yes, it is possible, and in fact very easy.
And as I am the one that is speaking and you are listening, I can't but
mention what you probably have noticed yourself, if you have looked at
these faculties one by one and then all together. You simply notice that
there is only one nature in all these sense functions. It is like the
same liquid in different containers or the same water flowing in
different courses. In it all there is the mysterious phenomenon of being
aware. To see, to hear, to feel, to think, in it all there is the same
awareness. We have to name it because we have to use words for
conversations. It is the same awareness in all our sense-perceptions.
You can play with listening to the sound of a brook and at the same time
to awaken thought or emotion in the mind and you will see that exactly
the same awareness is in them all. Only the form that the awareness
takes is different.
And now we are going into such simple and natural things, that we
usually don't look at them, take no notice of them, and give them none
of our attention. Not that we don't know them, we do perfectly, but we
overlook their importance. If we now take the awareness once again -
this act to be aware, which is included in all thinkable acts of the
consciousness - and analyze it a little further, we notice that also it
has some characteristics, which can be somewhat described, although the
description is not that which matters, but that which we are trying to
describe.
In awareness there is something which can be described with two
concepts. The awareness of existence, and the awareness of being aware.
Now, let's take a glass of water and look at it. By seeing the glass
there is certainly an awareness of existing, to be, and also an
awareness of being aware of this. This is one and the same thing,
although I have to describe the same phenomenon in two ways. We are only
describing the same thing from two sides. And this is where we can go
with concepts. The awareness of existence and the awareness of being
aware.
It is not certain that we see at once the significance of keeping solely
to this experience, in stead of thinking about what we see, but not the
act to see, what we love, but not the feeling of love, that which we
think about, and not the act of thinking. And when you have finally
found the awareness and realized its existence, it is not certain that
you recognize the importance of only being aware and keeping to it by
itself. But exactly this, to be able to be this awareness alone, perhaps
constantly, or at least for some periods at time, which is always
already on the surface of our consciousness, contains in itself an
endless and immense importance. Try to be only that to be, and be aware
of being aware for one hour each day, and after the first hour being
this only, if you can do it, you will be totally changed human beings.
No elixir of life is more powerful than this. No Lapis Philosophorum is
mightier than this, because by this way the change is brought about once
and for all.
This is the simplest of the simplest, and most natural of all in the
human life, for this is the truth itself, the simple truth of life,
which everyone contains in his consciousness from birth to death, and
which no one can escape to be aware of, but which only very few heed or
give significance to. This feeling has never abandoned you, because if
it did, you would cease to exist. It is that which makes you exist
instead of not exist, and it is unchanged and untouched from birth to
death, for it is life itself. It is this simple feeling that never
leaves you and you can't get rid of, even if you wanted. And if you can
endure to be only this be-ness, moment by moment, in your daily life -
to repeat with slightly different words what I said before - then you
are always at the door of enlightenment.
All Yoga, all mystical training, is nothing but a tiny little sideway to
find this most natural thing, which you noticed first of all when you
woke up, whenever that was, or however you want to imagine such things.
Moreover it is this, which you take with you into the moment of death in
the end. Actually it is so powerful, that even in the moment of death
you can't get rid of it. You are still it, as before. An old Zen-master
in Japan sent to his dying friend the following message - there are many
versions, but one is like this: "My friend, the center of the
consciousness in neither born, nor can it die. Take refuge in it, and
there will be no death."
We can use many words about that which we are talking about here. But
the error that we have always done, which changes the heaven of
existence - for that is what the existence really is - into a place of
torment - needlessly - is to attach the attention first and foremost to
the things, the objects of the perception, not to trace oneself back
from the sense objects, through the senses, into the awareness, and from
there to the simple feeling of being. For this feeling of being, which
is everywhere, and you have not been able to get rid of, even if you
have wanted to, is the very enlightenment itself. It is not changed in
the enlightenment. What changes is only that this to be and to be aware
- or whatever we must call it to be able to describe that which can't be
put into words - acquires a significance which it did not have before.
I have not told you a single thing that you didn't already know. I have
only helped you a little to think about something, to observe and pay
attention to something which you always knew. But when the Zen-Buddhist
says; "let go", he means that you should drop everything but this, and
when Krishnamurti says; "surrender to what is", then you should
surrender to this very feeling. When the Indo-Tibetan master Tilopa
says; "keep your mind in a natural state", he means exactly this, and
when Patanjali speaks about man being aware of what he really is, it
also is this he is talking about. And when our late president, N. Sri
Ram speaks about man being nothing in himself, this is also what he
means.
For the tiny little sideway is nothing but this, to untie the knots and
attachments of the consciousness, which we have been entangling and
tying all our life, and let that which we really always are, and which
we always feel the most of all, to emerge freely.
Thank you.
PS.
This is a talk by late Sigvaldi Hjalmarsson, written down almost exactly
from a tape which was recorded in Akureyri sometimes back in 1974 or
'75. It has not been printed until now, but will be published in the
autumn issue of Gangleri this year (1993).
The talk is one of the best in a series of what may be called the
mystical era of S.H. Later on he went further into the esoteric and
tantric way of yoga, but always keeping the mystical element intact in
his expositions of the Way.
This talk can and should be used as a meditation text in a group of
dedicated students. Reading it loud for the group several times at some
intervals will only deepen the mystical influence each time, if notice
is taken of the way to listen, indicated in the talk itself.
S.H. came into the T.S. in Iceland at a young age and put his life to it
until the passing away on the 17th. of April 1985. He was the General
Secretary of the Icelandic section for more than two decades, in which
time the membership rose to over 600 from a total population of less
than a quarter of a million. He was considered an exceptional lecturer
and a great mystic by those who knew him.
Translated from Icelandic in February 1993, by Einar Adalsteinsson.
Copyright: The Theosophical Society in Iceland.
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