Thursday, 04 March 2010 20:54
Written by Nirmala
I very often get email questions asking about the contradictions found in all of the spiritual teaching out there, not to mention all of the contradictions in life itself! This can be very confusing to the mind, so i thought I would post this response to one of the questions I received to perhaps help sort it out:
First I would point out that whenever anyone writes or speaks (even spiritual teachers) they are at best speaking half of the truth. It is just the limitation inherent in words. Most of the time we all speak much less than half of the truth.
So when you read words that seem contradictory from different spiritual teachers or even from the same spiritual teacher, this is because it is necessary to contradict yourself to fully express the truth. There are many levels and dimension and perspectives within consciousness and they are all valid.
The real gift of any teaching is when it points out the part of the truth that has not been seen or is being overlooked. And it is natural when we discover the part of the truth that we have not known, that then we want to hang onto it and even deny or reject the opposite truth. So as challenging as it may be to accept, dualistic teachings are correct, pure nonduality is correct and everything else is correct to a greater or lesser degree.
Just to be clear, some things are true but not very true at all. So very narrow, bigoted perspectives may have an extremely tiny piece of truth, but that does not make them important or very helpful or worthwhile. A simple example of something that is true but not very true is a lottery ticket. It is true that if you buy a lottery ticket that you can win, but it is not very true. In fact it is a ridiculously small truth!
What really matters is whether someone's words expand your own experience of the truth or not. And the way you know is that anything that adds to or expands your experience of truth also opens and softens your heart, quiets your mind, and expands your sense of your self. So when words do this, you can savor them and ponder them to fully absorb what they are pointing to. And if anyone's words (even spiritual teachers) cause the opposite effect of contracting your heart, making your mind busy, and making you feel small or inadequate, then you can know that truth is not important for you. You do not need to reject it or make it wrong, just let it be there and move onto something that is truer for you.
