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If you’re born blind, totally blind, you need to be told about light. That’s the only way you’ll come to believe something like light exists. But if you aren’t blind, belief isn’t necessary – you simply see and know light.
It’s odd then – with respect to ‘awakening’ – the way beliefs seem to cause blindness in those with eyes to see. Beliefs are just like cataracts.
To see for yourself that wideawake brilliant awareness is all there is, is simple. It’s probably the most obvious of all observations. So why do we resist? Why do we look for the Real everywhere but here?
Conditioned from tiny-hood to believe ourselves blind (unenlightened) we unquestioningly accept the beliefs of those who appear to have vision (authority): parents, priests, teachers, gurus, scriptures.
What happens when that conditioning is questioned? What happens when all authority is abandoned? What happens when we use our own eyes and trust our own vision?
Clear brilliant awareness is inescapably present. Clarity flowers. And clarity instantly removes cataracts.
~
echoes from emptiness 
Beliefs are just like cataracts. That has one nice ring to it, I enjoyed this.
Gladness @1left! Thanks for your feedback, and for introducing me to your wonderful blog. I love the way you express – both verbally and visually – your passionate relationship with the natural world.
~ ml
Great post… I was reminded of a beautiful thing I read about clarity of mind and clarity of expression… something that Osho had once said:
“Maharshi Ramana′s book is not much of a book, just a small pamphlet titled ‘Who am I?’
Ramana was neither a scholar nor was he educated very much. He left home when he was only seventeen, and never returned. Who returns to the ordinary home when one has found the real home? His method is a simple enquiry into your innermost core by asking “Who am I?” He is really the founder of the enlightenment intensive, not some American fellow, or fella, who pretends to be the inventor of it.
I have said it is not a great book, but the man is great. Sometimes I mention books which are great, written by a little man, very mediocre. Now I am mentioning a really great man who wrote a very small book, just a few pages, a pamphlet. Otherwise he was always silent. He spoke very little, just once in a while.
Kahlil Gibran would have been immensely benefited if he had gone to Maharshi Ramana. Then he would have heard The Voice of the Master. Maharshi Ramana would also have been benefited by Kahlil Gibran, because he could write like nobody else. Ramana was a poor writer; Kahlil Gibran was a poor man, but a great writer. Both together would have been a blessing to the world.”
Osho – Books I Have Loved.
@possibilitymagazine – many thanks for your generous feedback, and for the contribution from Osho.
Together or ‘separately’ Kahlil Gibran and Maharshi Ramana have been great blessings to the world. Osho too. So many wondrous expressions of the inexpressible!
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I am an avid proponent of questioning everything… I decided to write a Manifesto with which to live my life that was forged out of the desire for curiousity and questioning our deepest assumptions:
http://possibilitymagazine.me/about/