“Begin at the beginning,” said the King in Wonderland. Our
western materialist paradigm and its method of scientific inquiry looks to what
it fiercely calls the Big Bang as the point where everything begins,
investigating its aftermath and reporting its discoveries as foundational
truth. And although there are many benefits from this method, it’s obvious
science doesn't really heed the King’s dictate. Even the White Rabbit could
tell you that.
Science turns away from that which is before (or rather, beyond) the Big
Bang; there’s nothing there for its kind of inquiry. Bodhidharma, though, gazes
directly at that wall. Nisargadatta Maharaj vigilantly watches the “I Am.”
Ramana Maharshi inquires “Who am I?” This is the wisdom of true discovery.
The Heart Sutra says “form is emptiness and emptiness is
form.” So the wall upon which one gazes is revealed to be no wall at all, and
vice versa. The Big Bang is no bang. Like the proverbial Maineiac says: “ayuh, you
can’t get there from here.” Relying on the tools of the mind will take you
further down the rabbit hole.
Thus, Nisargadatta Maharaj says to take it down to the
primary level of one’s obvious self-existence, I Am. In this energetic,
impersonal, fully aware, unitary consciousness, rest and watch. Gaze in and at
Bodhidharma’s wall, or as it is transcribed in Tibetan, abide in brightness.
This is the Upanishadic meditation of the Kena: “meditating only yourself is
the way it’s understood.”
No words can take you there for you are already there; some
just don’t know it yet. No thought, theory, or belief can tell you something
that you are. Their domain is the world of the Big Bang. And although we are
here in thought, we are not of thought. There is only one way to discover
ultimate knowledge and that’s to rest in that ultimate knowledge you already
are.
