The Source

 By Vishvananda Ishaya

The Ishaya Monks hold that every religious or spiritual teaching begins with an experience of the Infinite Source that underlies everything.  Over time, this experience of the Source is traded for belief, reality is exchanged for concepts, and the Infinite is only remembered by a select few.

Although the Source is universal, when it is discussed in a particular context, it is usually given a unique name.  The names attributed to it are as varied as the traditions that created them, but some examples are: the One, the Infinite, Turiya, the Peace Which Passes Understanding, the Void, the Stillness, the Unbounded, the Self, the Eternal, God.

The Infinite is beyond all concepts, and a great deal of confusion arises when it is associated with an individual name.  People often get so caught by the words and ideas of their particular doctrine that they fail to see that other teachings refer to the same Source. Therefore, as I describe the Infinite, try to see through the particular words I have chosen.  Instead, see if you can relate my description to your own experience.

If you can, stretch your consciousness with me.  Picture, if only for a moment, the vastness that is contained within the word “infinity”.  Be aware as your consciousness fills the room.  There are no more ideas of “inner” and “outer”, for everything is contained in your awareness.  Outward you expand, filling the community in which you live.  Outward and outward, faster and faster, until the body you have long identified with is but a speck of dust on this huge rock we call Earth.

We have only begun—the planets of the solar system are quickly consumed in your ever-expanding consciousness.  Then the immensity of the sun is absorbed.  First one giant of plasma is taken, then another, and another, and another.  Hundreds of stars begin pouring into your growing being, then thousands, then thousands upon thousands, billions, with the unimaginable expanses of light years and matter that lie between them.

When this galaxy we call the Milky Way, with its hundreds of billions of stars, has become as a grain of sand on the beach beneath your feet, and the beach, with its billions and billions of galaxies, is within the grasp of your infinite awareness, stop for a moment.  Perhaps then, the expanse of infinity will be visible to you; perhaps then, you will realize that this whole journey has been as a gentle breeze stirring your consciousness, beckoning quietly that you recognize the space in which this whole drama occurs.  This microcosmic speck we call the universe is but the first blush of that infinite experience, for it doesn’t even begin to include the very real experience of what was, will be, might have been, and could be.

Based on this description, you can see how the Infinite becomes misunderstood.  A concept can never and will never contain it.  I might notice that in the Infinite there is no idea of “darkness” and refer to it as a “light” place.  Another person might notice the absence of “light” and interpret it as a “dark” place.  If someone listens to each of us without experiencing the Unbounded for himself, he would naturally assume that we are discussing different things.  It is a sad day when individual experience is traded for the words of another.  With only our descriptions to guide them, people would soon be fighting wars over whether God is “light” or “dark”.

The One will be forever beyond the words attributed to it.  All ideas and concepts fade in the Infinite nature of its Stillness.  Generally, on the basis of this experience, the realization arises that virtually everything that is believed about the world is incorrect.  This realization can be frightening, but it is also the greatest joy that a human can experience.

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not asking you to adopt a new belief system.  Trying to think in this way without experiencing it is pointless.  The wonderful news, though, is that everyone is continually provided with opportunities to experience the Truth for themselves.  It takes but a grain of acceptance and an ounce of trust to know it fully.

The vastness of the Unbounded may give the impression that it is somehow difficult to reach.  It doesn’t help that we have been trained to believe that all things good in life take a generous helping of hard work.  Many of us even believe that the value of an experience is proportional to the difficulty in achieving it.  Religious and spiritual teachings often strengthen this perceived difficulty; they commonly portray experience of the Boundless as something that is reserved for only the most dedicated, intelligent, and pious.

Fortunately, the prevalence of this belief in difficulty doesn’t make it true.  It is actually unbelievably easy to experience the Eternal, simply because it is the source of each individual’s consciousness.  All that is required is a means to turn the attention inward.  In fact, awareness of the Infinite is the natural state of the human.  It is simply ignored because we believe so strongly in the images in the mind.

The mind cannot know the Infinite because it is designed to experience objects.  The mind can experience objects in the environment: it perceives and names things around us.  It can experience objects in consciousness: it considers abstract concepts and ideas.  But the mind can not experience the subject: it can never comprehend that which is doing the perceiving and considering.

It is possible, however, to be aware of the Infinite, because the Source is not separate from the self.  It is only necessary to overcome the mind’s tendency to look for “things”.  Throughout history, this tendency has led many devoted seekers astray.  We read a book and it tells us that God is pure love, and we look for the concept of love.  We may find love, but we will fall short of discovering the Unbounded.

This addiction to object-seeking is also responsible for the discounting of the Infinite by virtually everyone.  It is common today to believe that if something cannot be described or intellectually understood that it must not exist.  On the basis of this belief, countless people have traded their own experience of the Limitless Source for some limited mental picture.

In order to recognize our true nature, it is necessary to see through the mirages in the mind. This can be difficult to accomplish without guidance, not because it is complicated or rigorous, but simply because the habit of paying attention to our thoughts is so strong.  True freedom requires that the experience of the Infinite is not exchanged for a concept of the Infinite.  Said another way, thinking about the Source is not the same as being immersed in it.

Vishvananda is a monk of the Ishaya order and has been lecturing and teaching meditation since 1996.  You can reach him by email at vishvananda@ishaya.org.  For more information about the Ishayas, please visit http://www.ishaya.org.