Truth

2025, November, Issue 177

It’s not out there

Look within, look

At mind, within

confidently

As much, so much,

every chance you get,

with a confident gaze,

even though, even though

you cannot yet see what that is,

know

beyond a shadow of doubt,

look within, gaze at mind

As much, and much more,

As it is

in here,

this truth

this reality beyond,

beyond all extremes,

beyond belief,

beyond doubt

this truth that begins

with this simple spark of truth,

this

Aspiration

to

Awaken;

This truth beyond that is

The only truth,

Ultimate Truth,

Our natural condition,

Ultimate Truth,

Which cannot be harmed

By a question,

By not knowing,

By anything we do or

can imagine;

Truth is found

In a mirror;

Truth

Is

Not

What

You

Think.

A poem by Robert Aho © 2025

When we Aspire to Awaken, we are generating Bodhicitta. This is the spark of enlightenment mind itself. It is Ultimate Reality. Even though we don’t know what that is when we begin, we can say to ourselves that truth is something that will always remain untarnished by our worldly affairs. Truth exists, despite all of our unenlightened activities.

Sometimes people have this attitude that the truth is somehow out there someplace. It is something that will require a long journey in order to discover. There’s this attitude that other people know the truth or speak for the divine. This is an incorrect assumption, a tragic point of view, because the truth is not something that we can ever discover outside of ourselves, we must look within. That is where we find truth. Everything that we need is within.

If we ask someone else to tell us the answers, we will be at risk of misunderstanding what it is that they are saying and also believing something that they say that is not true, even though it might be quite convincing. This happens all the time. In order to discover reality, we must look within. We must consider for ourselves every nuance of truths as they are uncovered. Ultimate Truth can only be accomplished by our own efforts. No one can ever tell us what that is. It is ours to discover.

Now, people in general who are trapped in cyclic existence, ordinary beings, are not concerned about truth. Seekers have some idea that truth exists, and so they search. Those who Aspire to Awaken, however, have some understanding that this enlightenment mind is here now.

These are important distinctions, because we can see how ordinary beings are completely helpless, how seekers are confused about how to search or where to look, and how those on the Path have touched Ultimate Truth, holding that as most precious. When we step onto the Path by Aspiring to Awaken, we hold that same truth as the fully enlightened ones, even though we may not really know what that is. By holding this spark of truth, we gain confidence, we gain mastery over our own mind, we gain unlimited potentiality.

It’s important to make the distinction between relative reality and Ultimate Reality. When we see things from a relative point of view, we utilize relative reality. We go from one idea to the next, thinking this or that might be real, discovering what might seem somehow factual to us. Even though we might discover very profound truths, when we really investigate, we discover that nothing whatsoever can hold together, if it is bound together with concepts, beliefs, ideas and thought. This is simply the way it is with relative reality. Relative truths fall apart, simply because such truths are part of a relative point of view, something that is prone to constant change.

When we start to catch a glimmer of Ultimate Reality, we start to understand that there is this truth that cannot be tarnished by belief or concept. We start to understand that something unifies reality, something that has eluded us from time immemorial. Ultimate Truth is found within each moment, beyond space and time. It is discovered in a very simple way, by simply remaining at ease, by recognizing our true nature, by opening our heart and mind completely.

Since we are really energy, we sort of meld with the eternal energy that surrounds us. We look within, finding our inner essence has everything that we need. This is our intuition or Buddha Nature. It is the discovery that we have never been separate and that we have been perfect from the beginning. When we make this discovery through intensive meditative practice, when we develop the ability to have insight into mind, we reveal many layers of delusion; and, as the layers are peeled back, a little bit more of this ineffable condition becomes apparent.

When it comes to Spiritual Practice, many possibilities emerge through meditation, chanting, dream yoga and simple intellectual investigation into all phenomena. Don’t think for an instant that any part of your life is not part of your Spiritual Practice, once you have Aspired to Awaken. If we have this most precious aspiration, then every single appearance becomes a teaching, something that we can utilize to awaken.

Truth is discovered by leaps and bounds, or through examining various appearances. Truth, we discover, is this Aspiration to Awaken. Truth is the essence of awakening.

Blessings in Light,

Robert Aho