Session 2: Experiencing Truth (4th February 1965)
How can we experience our Beingness, and how does it feel like?
All we need to do is to Let Go of our concepts of limitation, and what's left over is the natural, infinite, unlimited being. Sometimes this subject is called Truth, sometimes God, Metaphysics, but actually it's a subject that every human being, whether he's aware of it or not, is trying to learn, and that's why I like the word Happiness instead of God, Infinity, Truth.
Lester, please explain to us your Naming or Definition on the subject…
Therefore, I sometimes call the subject ‘Happiness’ — that the goal is to attain a continuous happiness with absolutely no sorrow whatsoever.
When I define the word ‘Truth’, I say “Truth is that which never changes.” This constant state of happiness never changes, and as I said before, I like to make this practical.
What is it that never changes? Beingness just be, it doesn't change. Existence just exists, it doesn't change. So Truth is Beingness, but it's Beingness, Being, All Beingness.
It's the very beingness that you are when you use the word ‘I’, with nothing added to it. Just the word ‘I’, that feeling of ‘I’. That's your Beingness. That's Infinite, that's Unlimited, until you put concepts of limitation over it and hide it.
So the top goal is ‘beingness being all beingness’ [Oneness]. When we recognize [Oneness] that ‘you are me’, or that ‘I am you’, ‘I am all beings’, as you let go of the concepts of limitation, this thing comes about naturally.
Another thing that doesn't change is Awareness, that is, aware of all awareness. That's the Ultimate, can't change anymore. Consciousness, conscious of all consciousness.
See, this Infinite Being, which some people call God, we are experiencing all the time, every moment, by just experiencing our Beingness. But we limit it to this Body and this Mind.
But that beingness is actually infinite. That awareness is infinite. And all we need to do is let go of the concepts that limit it.
As a Beingness, how can we become so limited?
Now, the first major wrong step we make is to say, “I am an individual separate from all beingness.” Then we have to create an instrument to be separate with — and that's the Mind.
The Mind reflects back to us as much as this infinite beingness as we want it to. That reflection is cut more and more, the more we take on concepts of limitation. We cannot grow into this infinite being because we are that here and now, but we can let go of all concepts to the contrary.
Now, the reason why some of you have been so happy for a short period of time and then all of a sudden it seems as though the sky fell in is only because you were able to perceive this infinite being that you are, but you weren't able to keep out all the accumulated concepts of limitation from the past that pop up every now and then.
Every time a concept of limitation comes up, you're not infinite anymore and you're miserable. Unhappiness is a restriction upon being totally free, unlimited.
So these patterns of thought from the past, their tendencies, predispositions now, they prop up even after we've seen very deeply this inner being that we are.
Knowing these limitations are created by the Mind, what can we do in order to return to our Beingness?
So what we need to do is to keep throwing off these limitations as they prop up until there are no more. Then what's left is the infinite being that we are. But the thing to do is to keep throwing them out until there are no more.
Now, some of us have been accumulating these things for tens of thousands of years. So they die hard. They don't go very easily.
However, being unlimited, infinite beings, by sheer power of will, a few people can, just like that, throw them all out. It happens occasionally.
Oh, maybe a few dozen people each generation do it in the entire world. They are the so-called masters. They recognize that they are not limited by the body-mind. They consciously exit their body when they die, which allows them to come back in a body or not to come back in a body as they choose.
The great leaders, the great spiritual leaders, are those who have chosen to come back in a body. They didn't have to come back. The rest of us must come back by force of habit.
Why is it that most of us got to come back into this limited body?
We have a Desire for Things Here, and so we come back here. Desire is the only thing that keeps us coming back to this state of life.
Why did you say that having this limited body also provides the greatest opportunity to return to our beingness?
[This state, as a physical body on earth] is the most difficult possible state to any being, is the state we're in now. But as I've said, because of that, it affords the greatest of growth. It's the post-graduate course.
We pass this course, we get our wings, our degrees. So even though it's extremely difficult, it's a tremendous advantage to be here, although it doesn't look that way until you understand this. It looks more like a hell than a heaven.
That's because of limitations self-imposed in the past that have now been relegated to the unconscious part of us. We've put it in the back of the mind where we don't see it for the moment. But all those concepts of limitation are there and are effective and keep us confined, pressed down, bottled, and consciously we want to be free, freer than a bird.
And so there's a conflict between this conscious desire to be free and the unconscious concepts of limitation. And you feel unhappy. You don't see it because it's unconscious.
What is the best practice that can help us to get totally realized and get back to our beingness?
There's two ways of licking that:
One is make the unconscious conscious. And when you see it, throw it out. [Such as Release Technique, Letting Go Technique, etc...]
There's an easier, faster, better way by getting quiet, by turning your mind within yourself. Asking, “Who am I? What am I? What's this world? What's my relationship to it?” If you will stick with those questions, you will see this infinite being that you are.
It's not easy because of the habit that's been going on for millenniums. It takes a tremendous desire for this truth or whatever we're seeking to accomplish it.
Most of us get the desire from being beaten so hard by the world we finally get up enough gumption to want this. And then when it begins to make your life happier, then you want it because you know this is it.
There's no top limit to happiness, to joy. And when you experience some of this joy gotten from going within, you will always want to re-establish that very happy state, which is the natural state. No matter how much you'll get away from it, sooner or later, you'll be back on a path trying to establish the constancy of this happiness.
The basic law in this universe is harmony. God is absolute harmony. When we are in tune with the universe, our life is completely harmonious.
[In the state of Beingness] No effort is required to do anything. Everything falls perfectly into line. When we see God as all, and we know God is harmony, everything is in harmony right now. And to the degree we accept that is the quickness thereof.
Another way of putting that, I guess, is to see God in everything, in everyone, everywhere. God is beauty, harmony, rightness, everything good. And accept that. And then allow this God principle to arrange things for you. We have to get our little selves out of the way.
Let Go and Let God
This sense of egoity — “I am an individual, separate, and I've got to do things.” is what makes all problems.
The moment we Let Go of that sense of egoism, let it be God's work. Let God do it. God knows how. When we do that, everything falls into line.
It can be a court trial. It can be anything. It can be a sick body. The moment we accept that principle, everything harmonizes. Radical reliance upon God will do it. Let go and let God.
Lester, how did you get realized in three months without any prior knowledge on spirituality?
I moved unusually fast because either I got the answers or I was finished [die from sickness — referring to his own three months experience ].
But the method I used happened to be the very highest possible method. “Who am I?” That was the driving question. “Who am I?” “What am I?” I was so determined my mind was concentrated.
And when your mind is concentrated, the answers are there. A concentrated mind is a mind that keeps out extraneous thoughts, holds only the thing you're interested in. And when you do that, the answer comes.
Lester, how did you handle any interrupting thoughts during that process?
Thoughts will come in. When a thought comes in, say, “To whom is this thought? Well, the thought's to me. Well, who am I?” — And you're back on the track again.
In this manner, you can keep knocking out these thoughts. If you'll continue that, you'll reach a place where the thoughts don't come in anymore and you're free of thoughts.
Lester, how would you feel when you first start to attend the state of Beingness?
Many of us have experienced it for a certain length of time. — It's a feeling of complete at-Oneness with everything. It's a feeling of no otherness. It's a feeling of very profound peace.
Even though there's activity, you see no action. Everything just is. The very top state is one of very profound peace.
See, first it's an exciting joy. Then it's a very exuberant joy. — You can't contain it. It begins to hurt because it just swells up and wells up all the time. It can get to be annoying and yet it isn't, because it's tremendous amounts of joy coming up. Then it moves to a higher state of peace.
That's why the Bible says “It's the peace that passeth all understanding.” It's a very deep, wonderful, profound peace. It's the most delicious thing there is, but you can't describe it. Peace is the word that comes closest to it.
You see, because these states are not ordinarily experienced, there are no words for them.
First it's feelingness. It is feelingness. Then when it goes on, it turns to beingness. When you first get interested in this path, everything is thought, thought. It's all mind thinking. Then thoughts take on a certain feeling. It's like a thought and a feeling at the same time.
It's a thought feelingness. And as you move, you get into the realm of feelingness. And then the step above that is the realm of beingness.
So it depends on where you are as to whether it's feelingness or beingness. Actually, everyone in his every act is seeking his real Self. We will never ever be satisfied until we reach that state of knowing our Self completely.
[Updated on 17 May 2024 - assisted with TurboScribe.ai (free version)]
Bless You
KH Tang
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