It All Depends on Who You Listen To

One of the fundamental problems we all run into is where we get our information from; who we follow, who we believe, what we consider credible. Often we make the decision of who to listen to based on what we ‘think’ we want. You don’t need me to tell you that you often find you did not want what you got, even when it was precisely the thing wanted. Often we find that the need we had, that the thing was supposed to fill, still remained. It’s apparent that we were either confused or badly informed.

All of us have occasionally experienced the desire for something we couldn’t define. “I want something but I don’t know what it is.” I remember telling my wife that just the other night. In fact both of us have alluded to this mysterious pull on several occasions. I’m not suggesting there is anything spiritual going on here. What I intend to point out is that this vague unrest is present in all of us and we fill it with different things, temporarily distracting but not satisfying the impulse.

There is a ‘you’ that you recognize as the person who goes about each day and thinks and acts in a fashion familiar to you. That is not you, that is the personality. Behind, or within that you is another you. This ‘you’ keeps the personality like a house dog. Often the personality is unaware of this other you. Your personality can hope for nothing more in the way of satisfaction that temporary respite on its own terms. The personality cannot be happy unless it is in concert with the other you. Achieving this hook-up should be the chief goal of all. But it depends on who you listen to.

The world lies to us all the time and we find that fascinating. We hear about weight loss programs and beauty creams. We hear about how many different areas of our life will improve if we get that particular new car; certainly we are supposed to get laid if we buy that car; that scotch, that outfit, that scent, that whatever. Chances of you getting laid as a direct result of that purpose are scant. It’s a lie. And if it turns out that you did it likely won’t end well. We watch movies that show us the benefits of certain behavior. The good guys win. The right guy gets the girl. You know what I’m talking about. Life’s not like that. I’m not saying the good guys don’t win. I’m not saying it doesn’t all work out in the end. Yes they do and of course it does. But...

You’re told if you work hard and practice certain virtues that success is inevitable. What’s success? Success is getting the outer you to interface with the inner you, that is success. What kind of success can you have here when you are just passing through? If you are just passing through then everything you are passing by and all of the things you collect upon the way must really only have meaning in terms of where you are headed. They can’t mean a whole lot if you’re going to forget about and lose them all upon leaving. Worse; if these things compromise the positive conclusion of your departure then you might be worse off then when you arrived. You don’t’ want to become a hungry ghost do you?

Every nation teaches its residents to be patriotic. Every religion dispenses polemics on right behavior. Most nations behave badly. Most religions mislead. They lie. And the result of this is that you may wind up lying to yourself. It all depends on who you listen to. If you are listening to the ever changing statements of the world and if you are constantly adjusting to the conditions of the world based on methodologies given to you by the world, well then; sometimes I suppose things will be alright and sometimes they won’t.

If you are getting your information from sources external to you and accepting that this world external to you is the only world- the real world, then that is what you have. You live and die according to the whims of that world militated against by the degree of your grasp of circumstance and eye for opportunity. Some wit once said if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him. I’m not overly fond of statements like that because they can be needlessly distracting from a more simple understanding of things. There’s a quote in the Bible which reads, “Greater is that which is in you than that which is in the world.” I take that to mean that no matter how powerful appearances seem, you possess a power greater than all of them. But most of us do not know from where things come and where they go. Most people do not realize they are here only to wake up from the dream of being here in terms of the flawed understandings that keep them here.

Now there are a lot of ways a person can go about the same thing. And there are extremes as well. One can exhaust themselves within the sensory delights of the physical realm and one can also run to a monastery or live in a private distaste and rejection of all the world has to offer. Results are what counts. What are you looking for? I don’t see this world as bad and I don’t take all the lies as a personal offense. I know that the ‘you’ behind the ‘you’ is putting all of us through all of this for a purpose. I just think that it’s more useful to be able to grow at a faster rate. I think it’s more fulfilling and more joyous to connect with the primary ‘you’ sooner.

There are many mechanisms available. At the base of all of them is the practice of remembering. It’s not about coming to something new, it’s about recovering something that has been lost, or obscured. Yoga has many vehicles; western mysticism, prayer and meditation all work toward the process of re-unification. But who are you listening to?

Quite a number of the people who teach these things know just enough to teach enough to leave you confused about why you aren’t getting anywhere. Hey, I’m not saying I know anything. I do have a facility that tells me when others don’t however.

Inside you, surprisingly enough is the master of all masters. Inside you is the very teacher that taught every great teacher. What is inside you understands you and your needs better than you ever will. Of course, because you lack the vast overview of this intelligence you find yourself objecting to the directions that it gives. This is how you got disenfranchised from it and lost in the first place. Now the farther you go away from it in the pursuit of whatever you are seeking- and being guided by the limitations of your understanding, the greater the pain of separation and the greater the general pain of life you will encounter. It’s a guarantee.

Think of Karma, or that which defines your tendencies toward impulse and reaction as being like a ball thrown against the wall. Mayhap you cannot stop the ball from hitting the wall but you can run forward and catch it, instead of waiting for it to bounce all the way back to you. It’s also possible to be changed in such a way that the Karma coming becomes redefined as a result of your transformations. You could hear all this and get all of this happening from this ‘you’ I’ve been talking about but it depends on who you are listening to.

Interior hearing doesn’t suddenly manifest because you took a seminar on esoteric bodywork. It comes about in the same way that one would prime a pump. It increases the same way muscle tissue does when you lift weights or work out. It’s seemingly non-existent in the beginning and intermittent after but by degrees like practicing the guitar you will hear the melody. If I could point out the single most valuable thing anyone could do and the single most valuable thing anyone could have (besides loving and Love and really, you don’t want to go anywhere without Love as the primary focus) they would be two aspects of the same thing. Practice listening interiorly. Really... Give it a month. Why be cheap with your time when you waste so much of it already? Having a working intuition is priceless. If you don’t have it then I can safely say you have NO idea. A garden gate will open into a wonderland of possibilities and you will find that your ordinary life events suddenly become as smooth as moonlight sliding over a frozen lake.

Everything in your life and the way it happens and resolves itself all depends on who you are listening to.

Visible sings: ♫ I Need More Light ♫
'I Need More Light' is track no. 4 of 11 on Visible's 2001 album 'God in Country'
Lyrics (pops up)