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[MUSIC - LEE COURINGTON, "THE BEGINNING"]

>> The world's greatestspiritual teachers from ancient

to modern times have sharedthe view that the deepest truth

of our being is not the propertyof one particular religion

or spiritual tradition butcan be found within the heart

of each person.

The poet Rumi said, "Where is that moon

that never rises or sets?

Where is that soul that isneither with nor without us?

Don't say it is here or there.

All creation is 'That' butfor the eyes that can see."

[music playing]

In the story of the Tower of Babel,

humanity fragmented intocountless languages, beliefs,

cultures, and interests.

Babel means literally "the gate of God."

The gate is our thinking mind,our conditioned structures.

For those who come torealize their true nature,

their essence beyond name and form,

they are initiated into the great mystery

of what lies beyond the gate.

An ancient parable, the elephant parable,

has been used to describe howvarious traditions are actually

all pointing to one great truth.

A group of blind people areeach touching a different part

of an elephant, getting a certain impression

of what an elephant is.

But the person standing at the elephant's leg

describes the elephant as being like a tree.

[MUSIC - DANIEL SCHMIDT AND VICKI HANSEN,

"THE GAYATRI MANTRA"]

The person at the tail saysthe elephant is like a rope.

The elephant is like a spear, says

the one standing at the tusk.

If one touches the ear, it seemsthe elephant is like a fan.

The person touching the side is adamant

that the elephant is like a wall.

The problem is we touchour piece of the elephant,

and we believe ourexperience is the only truth.

We don't acknowledge or appreciate

that each person's experienceis a different facet

of the same animal.

[singing sanskrit]

[music playing]

The perennial philosophy is an understanding

that all spiritual and religious traditions

share a single universal truth,a mystical or transcendent

reality upon which foundationall spiritual knowledge

and doctrine has grown.

Swami Vivekananda summedup the perennial teaching

when he said, "The end of all religions

is the realizing of God in the soul.

That is the one universal religion."

In this film, when we use the word "God,"

it is simply a metaphor for the transcendent,

pointing to the great mysterybeyond the limited egoic mind.

To realize one's true self or immanent self

is to realize one's divine nature.

Every soul has the potentialto manifest a new higher

level of consciousness, to awaken

from its slumber and itsidentification with form.

The writer and visionary Aldous Huxley,

known for his book "Brave New World,"

also wrote a book whichhe entitled "The Perennial

Philosophy," in which he writesabout the one teaching that

comes back over and over in history, taking

the form of the culture in which it is realized.

He writes, "The PerennialPhilosophy is expressed most

succinctly in the Sanskritformula 'tat tvam asi'--

'that Thou art'-- the Atman,or immanent eternal Self,

is one with Brahman, theabsolute principle of all

existence; and the lastend of every human being is

to discover the fact for himself,

to find out who he or she really is."

[MUSIC - DEVA PREMAL, "OM RAM RAMAYA"]

Each tradition is like afacet of a jewel reflecting

a unique perspective of the sametruth while at the same time

echoing and illuminating each other.

Whatever the language andconceptual framework used,

all religions that reflectthe perennial teaching

have some notion that there isa union with something greater,

something beyond us.

[singing sanskrit]

It is possible to learn fromand integrate the teachings

from one or many sources withoutidentifying a sense of self

with them.

It is said that all truespiritual teachings are simply

fingers pointing to the transcendent truth.

If we hold on to the dogma,the teaching, for comfort,

we will be stunted in our spiritual evolution.

To realize truth beyond any concept

is letting go of all clinging and attachment,

letting go of all religious concepts.

From the ego's perspective, thefinger pointing you to Samadhi

is pointing straight toward the abyss.

Saint John of the Cross said, "If one

wishes to be sure of the road they tread,

one must close their eyesand walk in the dark."

[singing sanskrit]

Samadhi begins with a leap into the unknown.

[throat singing]

In the ancient traditions,in order to realize Samadhi,

it was said that one mustultimately turn consciousness

away from all known objects,from all external phenomena,

conditioned thoughts, and sensations,

toward consciousness itself,toward the inner source,

the heart, or essence, of one's being.

In this film, when we use the word "Samadhi,"

we are pointing to the transcendent,

to the highest Samadhi, which has

been named Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

[non-english singing]

In Nirvikalpa Samadhi, there isa cessation of self activity,

of all seeking and doing.

We can only speak about whatfalls away as we approach it

and what reappears when we return from it.

There is neither perception nornon-perception, neither thing

nor no thing, neither consciousness

or unconsciousness.

It is absolute, unfathomable,and inscrutable to the mind.

[non-english singing]

When the self returns to activity,

there's a not knowing, a kind of rebirth,

and everything becomes new again.

We are left with theperfume of the divine, which

lingers longer as one evolves on the path.

[non-english singing]

There are numerous types of Samadhi described

in the ancient traditions,and language has created

much confusion over the years.

We are choosing to use the word "Samadhi"

to point to the transcendent union,

but we could have used aword from another tradition

just as easily.

Samadhi is an ancient Sanskritterm common to the Vedic,

Yogic, and Samkhya traditions of India

and has permeated manyother spiritual traditions.

Samadhi is the eighth limb ofPatanjali's eight limbs of yoga

and the eighth part of theBuddha's Noble Eightfold Path.

The Buddha used the word "nirvana,"

the cessation of vana, or thecessation of self activity.

Patanjali described yoga, or Samadhi,

as "chitta vritti nirodha," the Sanskrit

meaning "cessation of thewhirlpool, or spiral, of mind."

It is a disentangling of consciousness

from the entire matrix, or creatrix, of mind.

[music playing]

Samadhi does not signify any concept,

because to realize it requires a dropping

of the conceptual mind.

Different religions have used various words

to describe the divine union.

In fact, the word "religion"itself means something similar.

In Latin, "religare" meansto rebind or reconnect.

It's a similar meaning to theword yoga, which means to yoke,

to unite the worldly with the transcendent.

In Islam, it is reflected inthe ancient Arabic meaning

of the word "Islam" itself,which means submission

or supplication to God.

It signifies a total humbling or surrender

of the self structure.

Christian mystics such asSaint Francis of Assisi,

Saint Teresa of vila, andSaint John of the Cross describe

a divine union with God,the kingdom of God within.

In the Gospel of Thomas,Christ said, "The kingdom

is not here or there.

Rather, the kingdom of the Father

is spread out upon the Earth,and men do not see it."

The works of the Greekphilosophers Plato, Plotinus,

Parmenides, and Heraclitus, when seen

through the lens of the perennial teaching,

point towards the same wisdom.

Plotinus teaches that thegreatest human endeavor

is to guide the human soultowards the supreme state

of perfection and union with the One.

The Lakota medicine and holy man Black Elk

said, "The first peace,which is the most important,

is that which comes within the souls of men

when they realize theirrelationship, their oneness

with the universe and all its powers,

and when they realize thatat the center of the universe

dwells Great Spirit andthat this center is really

everywhere.

It is within each of us."

[non-english singing]

[music playing]

On the path to awakening,unless we are in Samadhi,

there are always two polarities,two doorways one can enter,

two dimensions--

one towards pure consciousness, the other

towards the phenomenal world--

the upward current toward the absolute

and the downward current toward maya

and all that is manifested,both seen and unseen.

The relationship between relative and absolute

could be summed up in the following quote

by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj--

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing.

Love is knowing I am everything.

And between the two, my life moves."

What is born of this union isa new divine consciousness.

Something is born out of the marriage, or union,

of these polarities or the collapse

of dualistic identification.

Yet, what is born is not athing, and it was never born.

Consciousness flowers, creating something new,

creating what you couldcall a perennial trinity.

God the Father, the transcendent,

unknowable, and changeless is united

with the Divine Feminine, whichis everything that changes.

This union brings about analchemical transformation,

a kind of death and birth.

In the Vedic teachings, the divine union

is represented by two fundamental forces--

Shiva and Shakti.

The names and faces of the various gods

change throughout history, buttheir fundamental attributes

remain.

What is born out of this unionis a new divine consciousness,

a new way of being inthe world, two polarities

inseparably one, a universal energy

that is without center, free of limitation.

It is pure love.

There is nothing to be gained or lost,

because it is utterlyempty but absolutely full.

[music playing]

Whether it is the mysteryschools of Mesopotamia,

the spiritual traditions ofthe Babylonians and Assyrians,

religions of ancient Egypt,Nubian and Kemetic cultures

of ancient Africa, theshamanic and native traditions

around the world, themysticism of ancient Greece,

the Gnostics, the nondualists,the Buddhists, the Taoists,

Jews, Zoroastrians, Jains, Muslims, or Christians,

one finds that their common link is

their highest spiritual insightshave allowed their adherence

to realize Samadhi.

The actual word Samadhi means something

like to realize the samenessor oneness in all things.

It means union.

It is uniting all aspects of yourself.

But do not mistakeintellectual understanding

for the actual realization of Samadhi.

It is your stillness, your emptiness

that unites all levels of the spiral of life.

[music playing]

It is through the ancientteaching of Samadhi

that humanity can begin to understand

the common source of all religions

and come into alignment onceagain with the spiral of life,

Great Spirit, Dhamma, or the Tao.

The spiral is the bridge thatextends from the microcosm

to the macrocosm.

From your DNA to the inner Lotus of energy

that extends through the chakrasto the spiral arms of galaxies,

every level of soul isexpressed through the spiral

as ever-evolving branches, living, exploring.

True Samadhi is realizing the emptiness

of all levels of self, all sheaths of the soul.

The spiral is the endless play of duality

and the cycle of life and death.

At times, we forget ourconnection to the source.

The lens we look through is very small.

And we identify with beinga limited creature creeping

upon the Earth only to onceagain complete the journey back

to the source, to thecenter that is everywhere.

Chuang Tzu said, "When thereis no more separation between

'this' and 'that,' it is calledthe still-point of the Tao.

At the still-point inthe center of the spiral,

one can see the infinite in all things."

The ancient mantra "om mani padme hum"

has a poetic meaning--

one awakens, or realizes,the jewel within the Lotus.

Your true nature awakens withinthe soul, within the world,

as the world.

[music playing]

Using the hermetic principle"as above, so below;

as below, so above," we can use analogies

to begin to understand therelationship between mind

and stillness, relative and absolute.

A way to begin to graspthe non-conceptual nature

of Samadhi is to use theanalogy of the black hole.

A black hole is traditionallydescribed as a region of space

with a massive gravitational field so powerful

that no light or matter can escape.

New theories postulate thatall objects, from the tiniest

microscopic particles to macrocosmic formations

like galaxies, have a blackhole or mysterious singularity

at their center.

In this analogy, we're going to use

this new definition of a black hole

as the center that is everywhere.

In Zen, there are many poems and koans

that bring us face to facewith the gateless gate.

One must pass the gatelessgate to realize Samadhi.

An event horizon is a boundaryin space-time beyond which

events cannot effect an outside observer,

which means that whatever ishappening beyond the event

horizon is unknowable to you.

You could say that the eventhorizon of a black hole

is analogous to the gateless gate.

It is the threshold betweenthe self and no self.

There is no "me" thatpasses the event horizon.

In the center of a black hole isthe one-dimensional singularity

containing the mass of billions of suns

in an unimaginably small space,effectively an infinite mass,

literally a universe insomething infinitesimally

smaller than a grain of sand.

The singularity is something unfathomable,

beyond time and space.

According to physics, movement is impossible.

The existence of things is impossible.

Whatever it is, it does not belong

to the world of perception.

Yet, it cannot be describedas merely stillness.

It is beyond stillness and movement.

When you realize the centerthat is everywhere and nowhere,

duality breaks down--

form and emptiness, time and the timeless.

One could call it a dynamic stillness

or a pregnant emptiness within the center

of absolute darkness.

The Taoist teacher Lao Tzusaid, "Darkness within darkness.

The gateway to all understanding."

The writer and comparativemythologist Joseph Campbell

describes a recurring symbol, part

of the perennial philosophywhich he calls the axis mundi,

the central point, or the highest mountain,

the pole around which all revolves,

the point where stillnessand movement are together.

From this center, a mighty flowering tree

is realized, a Bodhi treethat joins all worlds.

[music playing]

Just as a sun gets sucked intoa black hole, when you approach

the Great Reality, your lifestarts to revolve around it,

and you begin to disappear.

[throat singing]

As you approach the immanent self,

it can be terrifying to the ego structure.

The guardians of the gate are there

to test those on their journey.

One must be willing toface one's greatest fears

and at the same timeaccept one's inherent power

to bring light to the unconscious terrors

and the hidden beauty within.

If your mind is not moved,if there is no self reacting,

then all phenomenaproduced by the unconscious

arises and passes away.

This is the point in the spiritual journey

where faith is most needed.

What do we mean by faith?

Faith is not the same as belief.

Belief is accepting somethingon the level of mind

to bring comfort and assurance.

Belief is the mind's wayof labeling or controlling

experience.

Faith is actually the opposite.

Faith is staying in the place of complete

not knowing, accepting whateverarises from the unconscious.

Faith is surrendering tothe pull of the singularity,

to the dissolving, or dismantling, of the self

in order to pass the gateless gate.

The evolution and structure of a galaxy

is closely tied to the scale of its black hole,

just as your evolution is tied to the presence

of the immanent self, the singularity that

is your true nature.

We can't see the black hole,but we can know about it

by the way things move around it,

by how it interacts with physical reality.

In the same way, we cannotsee our true nature.

The immanent self is not a thing.

But we can observe enlightened action.

As the Zen master Suzuki said,"There are, strictly speaking,

no enlightened people.

There is only enlightened activity."

We can't see it, just asthe eye cannot see itself.

We can't see it because it is that

by which seeing is possible.

Like the black hole,Samadhi is not nothingness,

and neither is it a thing.

It is the collapse of theduality of thing and no thing.

There is no gate to enter the Great Reality.

But there are infinite paths.

The paths, the dharmas,are like an endless spiral

with no beginning and no end.

No one can pass the gateless gate.

No one's mind has ever figuredout how, and none ever will.

No one can pass the gateless gate.

So be no one.

Samadhi is the pathless path, the golden key.

It is the end of ouridentification with the self

structures that separateour inner and outer worlds.

[music playing]

There are many developmental models

which describe the layers,or levels, of self structure.

We will use an example which is very ancient.

In the "Upanishads," the sheathswhich cover the atman, or soul,

are called koshas.

Each kosha is like a mirror,a layer of the self structure,

a veil, or level, of maya which distracts us

from realizing our true nature,if we are identified with it.

Most people see the reflections and believe

that that is who they are.

One mirror reflects the animallayer, the physical body.

Another mirror reflects your mind--

your thoughts, yourinstincts and perceptions.

Another, your inner energy, or prana,

which you can observe when you turn inward.

Another mirror reflects on the level

of the imaginal, which is thehigher mind, or wisdom, layer.

And there are layers oftranscendental, or nondual,

bliss that are experiencedas one approaches Samadhi.

There are potentially countlessmirrors, or aspects of self,

that one can differentiate, andthey are constantly changing.

Most people have yet to discoverthe pranic, higher mind,

and nondual bliss layers.

They don't even know they exist.

These layers are informing yourlife, but you do not see them.

The hidden mirrorsactually inform our lives

more than the ones that are visible.

They are unseen,because, for most people,

they are not fullyilluminated by consciousness.

Like Indra's net of jewels, themirrors all reflect each other,

and the reflections reflect every other reflection

infinitely.

A change on one level simultaneously

affects all levels.

Some of these mirrors maybe left in the shadows

unless we are fortunate enoughto have a competent guide

to help us shine light upon them.

The truth is we don't know what we don't know.

Now, imagine that you shatter all the mirrors.

[music changes]

There's nothing reflectingyou back to yourself.

Where are you?

When the mind becomes still,the mirrors cease to reflect.

There is no more subject and object.

But do not mistake the primordial state

for nothingness or oblivion.

The immanent self is not something,

but neither is it nothing.

This source is not a thing.

It is emptiness, or stillness, itself.

It is an emptiness that isthe source of all things.

Form is realized as exactly emptiness.

Emptiness is realized as exactly form.

This source is the great womb of creation

pregnant with all possibilities.

Samadhi is the awakening ofimpersonal consciousness.

Just as when you are havinga dream, upon awakening,

you realize that everything in the dream

was just in your mind.

Upon realizing Samadhi, it is realized

that everything in this worldis happening within levels

upon levels of energy and consciousness.

It is all mirrors withinmirrors, dreams within dreams.

The you that you thinkyou are is both the dream

and the dreamer.

Whatever we say in this film, let it go.

Don't capture it with the mind.

The soul is dreaming,dreaming the dream of you.

The dream is everything that is changing.

But it is possible to realize the changeless.

This realization cannot beunderstood with the limited

individual mind.

When we return from Nirvikalpa Samadhi,

the mirrors begin to reflect again,

and it is realized thatthe world you now think you

are living in is actually you.

Not the limited you, which isonly a temporary reflection,

but you are aware of your true nature

as the source of all that is.

This dawning of higher wisdom--

the embryo, prajna, or gnosis--

is what is born out of Samadhi.

According to the Book of Job, Chokhma, or wisdom,

comes from nothingness.

This point of wisdom is both infinitely small

and yet encompasses the whole of being.

But it remainsincomprehensible until it

is given shape and form in thepalace of mirrors called Binah,

the womb carved out by higher wisdom which gives shape

to the embryonic spirit of God.

[MUSIC - INDIAJIVA, "ABWOON D'BASHMAYA, THE LORD'S PRAYER"]

[singing aramaic]

[music playing]

The existence of the mirrors,or the mind's existence,

is not a problem.

On the contrary, the error, oraberration, of human perception

is that we identify ourselves with it.

This illusion, that we arethe limited self, is maya.

The yogic teachings say that to realize Samadhi,

one must observe the meditationobject until it disappears--

until you disappear into it or it into you.

Although the language in the various traditions

is dissimilar, at their root, they all

point towards a cessationof self-identification and

self-centered activity.

The Buddha always taught in negative terms.

He taught to investigate directly

into the working of the self structure.

He didn't say whatSamadhi was except that it

was the end of suffering.

In Advaita Vedanta, there isa term, "neti neti," which

means "not this, not that."

People on the path to self-realization

inquire into their true nature,or the nature of brahman,

by first discovering what they are not.

Similarly, in Christianity,Saint Teresa of vila described

an approach to prayerbased on the negative path,

or via negativa, a prayer ofquiet, surrender, and union,

which is the only way to approach the absolute.

Through this gradualprocess of stripping away,

one drops anything that is not permanent,

anything that is changing--

the mind, the ego construct,and all phenomena,

including the hidden layers of self.

The unconscious mustbecome transparent in order

to reflect the one source.

If there is some deep knowing or some self operating

in the unconscious, then our lives

remain locked into alabyrinth of hidden patterns

that comprise the undiscovered self.

When all layers of self are revealed as empty,

then one becomes free from theself, free from all concepts.

[music playing]

A turning point in your evolution

is when you realize you don't know who you are.

[MUSIC - DANIEL SCHMIDT, "GATE GATE,

THE HEART SUTRA DEEP VOICE CHANT"]

Who experiences the breath?

Who experiences the taste?

Who experiences the chant,the ritual, the dance,

the mountain?

Witness the witness.

Observe the observer.

At first, when you observe the observer,

you will only see the false self.

But if you are persistent,it will give way.

[singing sanskrit]

Inquire directly into who orwhat experiences unblinkingly,

piercingly, penetratingly, withthe full force of your being.

[singing sanskrit]

[music playing]

There is no self that awakens.

There is no you that awakens.

What you are awakening from is the illusion

of the separate self, fromthe dream of a limited you.

To talk about it is meaningless.

There must be an actual cessation of the self

to realize directly what it is.

And once it is realized, there is nothing

that can be said about it.

As soon as you say something,you are back in the mind.

I have already said too much.

[music playing]

We normally have threestates of consciousness--

waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.

Samadhi is sometimes referred toas the fourth state, the ground

state of consciousness, aprimordial awakeness that

can become presentcontinuously and in parallel

with the other consciousness states.

In Vedanta, this is called turiya.

Other terms for turiyaare Christ consciousness,

Krishna consciousness, Buddhanature, or Sahaja Samadhi.

In Sahaja Samadhi, the immanent self

stays present along with the full use

of all human functions.

The stillness is unmovingat the center of the spiral

of changing phenomenon.

Thoughts, feelings, sensations,and energy revolve around it

at the circumference.

But the degree of stillness, or I am-ness,

remains during outer activity,exactly as in meditation.

It is possible that the immanentself will remain present,

even during deep sleep, thatyour awareness of "I am"

does not come and go, even asstates of consciousness change.

This is yogic sleep.

In the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon,

from the Hebrew Bible, orOld Testament, it reads,

"I sleep, but my heart waketh."

This realization of the eternalimpersonal consciousness

is reflected in the wordsof Christ when he said.

"Before Abraham was, I am."

One consciousness that shinesthrough countless faces,

countless forms.

At first, it's like a fragile flame borne out

of the polarities within you--

masculine penetrating consciousness

with a surrender, oropening, of feminine energy.

It is delicate and easily lost.

And one must take great careto protect it and keep it alive

until it is mature.

Samadhi is simultaneously atimeless state of consciousness

and a stage in an unfoldingdevelopment process, something

organic and growing in time.

As one spends more and moretime in Samadhi, in the now,

in the timeless, one takesmore and more direction

from the heart, the soul, or atman

and less from the conditioned structure.

This is how one becomesfree of the lower mind, free

of pathological thinking.

The inner wiring changes.

Energy no longer flows unconsciously

in the old conditioned structures,

which is another way of sayingone is no longer identified

with the self structure,with the outer world of form.

To realize Samadhirequires an effort so great

that it becomes a total surrender of one's self

and a surrender so encompassing that it

is a complete effort of one'sbeing, all of one's energy.

It is a balance of effortand surrender, yin and yang,

a sort of effortless effort.

[music playing]

The Indian mystic and yogiParamahamsa Ramakrishna said,

"Do not seek illuminationunless you seek it

as one whose hair is on fire seeks a pond."

You seek it with your whole being.

During one's ego transcending practice,

it takes great courage,vigilance, and perseverance

to keep the embryo alive, to not fall back

into the patterns of the world.

It takes a willingness togo against the current,

against the inexorable crush of the matrix

and the grinding wheels of samsara.

Every breath, every thought, every action

must be for realizing the source.

Samadhi is not realized byeffort nor is it effortless.

Let go of effort and non-effort.

It's a duality that only exists in the mind.

The actual realization of Samadhi

is so simple, so undifferentiated that it

is always misconstrued through language,

which is inherently dualistic.

There is only one primordial consciousness

that awakens as the world, but it

has been obscured by many layers of mind.

Like the sun hidden behind theclouds, as each layer of mind

is dropped, one's essence is revealed.

As each layer of mind is dropped,

people call it a different Samadhi.

They give names to different experiences

or different types of phenomena.

But Samadhi is so simple thatwhen you are told what it is

and how to realize it, yourmind will always miss it.

Actually, Samadhi is not simple or difficult.

It is only the mind that makes it so.

When there is no mind, there is no problem,

because the mind is what needsto stop before it is realized.

It is not a happening at all.

The most concise teaching of Samadhi

is perhaps found in this phrase--

"Be still and know."

[music playing]

How can we use words andimages to convey stillness?

How can we convey silence by making noise?

Rather than talking about Samadhi

as an intellectual concept, this film

is a radical call to inaction,a call to meditation,

inner silence, and inner prayer.

[throat singing]

A call to stop--

[music stops]

--stop everything that is drivenby the pathological egoic mind.

Be still and know.

No one can tell you what willemerge from the stillness.

It is a call to act from the spiritual heart.

[music playing]

It's like remembering something ancient.

The soul wakes up and remembers itself.

It has been a sleeping passenger,

but now the emptinessawakens and realizes itself

as all things.

You can't imagine what Samadhiis with the limited egoic mind,

just as you can't describe toa blind person what color is.

Your mind can't know.

It can't manufacture it.

To realize Samadhi is to see in a different way--

not to see separate things,but to recognize the seer.

Saint Francis of Assisi said,"What you are looking for

is what is looking."

Once you have seen themoon, you can recognize it

in every reflection.

The true self has always been there.

It is in everything.

But you have not realized its presence.

When you learn to recognizeand abide as the true self

beyond the mind and senses, itis possible to experience awe

at the most mundane.

We become awe.

Do not try to be free of desires,

because wanting to be freeof desires is a desire.

You can't try to be still,because your very effort is

movement.

Realize the stillness thatis always already present.

Be the stillness and know.

When all preferences are dropped,

the source will be revealed.

But do not cling even to the source.

The Great Reality, Tao, is not one, not two.

Ramana Maharshi said, "The self is only one.

If it is limited, it is the ego.

If unlimited, it is infiniteand the Great Reality."

If you believe what is beingsaid, you've missed it.

If you disbelieve, you've also missed it.

Belief and disbelief operateon the level of mind.

They require a knowing.

But if you enter into your own investigation,

examining all of theaspects of your own being,

finding out who is doing the investigating,

if you're willing to live by the principle

"not my will but higher will be done,"

if you're willing totravel beyond all knowing,

then you may realize what I'veattempted to point towards.

Only then will you taste foryourself the profound mystery

and beauty of simply existing.

There is another possibility for life.

There is something sacred, unfathomable

that can be discovered in thestill depths of your being,

beyond concepts, beyond dogmas,beyond conditioned activity

and all preferences.

It is not acquired by techniques, rituals,

or practices.

There is no "how" to get it.

There's no system.

There's no way to The Way.

As they say in Zen, it isdiscovering your original face

before you were born.

It is not about adding more to yourself.

It is becoming a light unto oneself,

a light that dispels the illusion of the self.

Life will always remain unfulfilled

and the heart will always remain restless

until it comes to rest in thatmystery beyond name and form.

[music playing]

[MUSIC - DANIEL SCHMIDT AND VICKI HANSEN,

"OM SHREEM LAKSHMI"]

[singing sanskrit]