The Literal Truth
La Verdad Literal
A student shares experiences of sensing subtle energetic presence in another person, leading to a discussion about the nature of literalness in spiritual teaching and why direct pointing is so often misunderstood.
The Literal Truth
A student shares experiences of sensing subtle energetic presence in another person, leading to a discussion about the nature of literalness in spiritual teaching and why direct pointing is so often misunderstood.
Something happened that I was reminded of when you were talking. It's happened several times. My partner and I would be walking along, or one time we were actually swimming in the ocean at night, so it was dark. I would feel this thing. It sounds really strange, but this is truly and literally my experience: I felt like he was looming. There was a location, somewhere in the air above us, between us, and I kept looking over like, "What the hell is that?"
Before he woke up, I used to say to him on several occasions, "I feel like your center of gravity is right there, four inches above the top of your head." And I used to get annoyed. I'd say, "You're in your head. Where are you?"
But this particular experience was after the shift, and it happened several times. It kept pulling my attention beyond, outside of my own wish for it to do so, and I'd think, "What is that? Where are you?" And he said something somewhat cryptic, like, "How do you know that's me? Maybe that's you." I thought, okay, well, maybe it is. What happens if I feel into that as if it's me?
The first time I remember doing that was when we were in the ocean. What happened next was really dramatic. There was a huge amount of feeling that just welled up and released, and then this really beautiful, peaceful state. The second time it happened we were joking about it. He said, "Well, how do you know it's me?" And I said, "I don't know it's you, but I know where I am." And he said, "Yeah, well, maybe that's the problem." It reminded me of what you were talking about: "Is it the teacher? Is that you?" But it's so literal. That's why I was laughing earlier about the books on the shelf. It's so literal.
When he says, if you read Nisargadatta or something and it sounds like this pure, beyond simplicity: it's just literal.
But please, also explain the orb in the middle of the air.
The literal thing is what I want to talk about. I'm going to go back to my teacher, because he spoke in all kinds of styles.
That's interesting to me too, because we've often talked about you being quite a literal-minded person. And that maybe it actually helped you. Do you think so?
I don't know. Probably. I really can't know. I think for me it might have helped, but it might not for others.
But what is that literal-mindedness? If you could say what it is in your experience to be literal-minded, what is that?
The value of precision
I don't know. To me it has to do with an interest in clarity, precision, and truth at a certain level, not absolute truth.
Like direct experience.
Yes. It has to do with very direct pointing. I think you could say "direct pointing" is literal. Things that can be said briefly and that seem very true, or as true as you can say in words. Like "this is it."
To me, "this is it" was like, wow. "This is it." Sure, that's inspiring and sounds good, but no: it's literal. It is the answer to all your questions. It's this. But what is this? It's this. Every time, it's this. And that's very literal.
When directness is mistaken for nonsense
There are many things that could be said in that way, in different forms. There was a video on my YouTube channel that got a comment saying something like, "Yeah, anybody can use nondual speak and sound brilliant. What idiots." Very critical. I thought it was pretty funny, because the video was exactly that: being so literal.
The video was titled "There Are No Objects," and I was holding a cup, saying, "This is not an object." I think the commenter's reaction was, "Of course that's an object, you idiot. You sound brilliant, but you're an idiot because you're saying there's no object while holding one in your hand."
For me it was funny because that's exactly the problem. It literally is not an object. It is a direct pointing. The experience is that this is not an object. Now, we can talk about it at the level of direct experience, which is where I was speaking in that video. But then conceptually, yes, that's an object. There is a relative dimension where that is an object.
I used to read or hear that kind of thing and think, "Oh, this is the experience of a person who has that kind of realization, and it's just peace and love and butterflies all the time, and they're in this incredible state, and that's why they speak this way." Now I don't think of it that way. I think they're just seeing what is.
To me it's like: do you know what that is? Yes, we know it's called a cup, but do you know what that is? No, you don't.
One teacher titled one of his latest meditations, "Meditation is when you are in a place of not knowing."
Energetics and not getting distracted by them
Well, there are just a lot of wild mysteries around energetics in this work. The reality is that this experience, whatever this is, has all kinds of energies moving through it. I could write a book on all the really strange esoteric energetics I've encountered, but I wouldn't, because it's totally a distraction. There is just so much of it. I've learned to respect it and not care too much about it at the same time: to let energetics move, not deny them, not push them away, but let that be what it is.
It wasn't really an orb anyway.
I know. It's a joke.
It's not just a joke, but we don't have to talk about it.