Why do we seek Truth if it is true and already the case?

“Why do we seek Truth if it is true and therefore already the case?”
That’s the whole point. We keep seeking because we feel inadequate, insecure and incomplete. However, it is through understanding our seeking that we awaken our true nature which is complete, adequate and fulfills our every desire and meaning.

Let’s explore how and why we seek, and then, rising above seeking we see its futility and we find what we have always wanted.
Whether we realize it or not, we are always seeking love since love in its ultimate sense is the Oneness of all life.

The ways we seek love are the ways that guilt is built and have no idea, ordinarily, of this incessant seeking. We seek love through the need for approval; the need to be loved and appreciated; the need to be recognized as important; the need to be powerful; the constant need for attention (and this starts early in childhood); the craving for self-identity; the need to be better; the strategies and manipulations we use to gain advantage financially and socially; the hunger for knowing we are okay, feeling-good, have self-worth and so on – all these are the driving force of the human being towards his true Home called Oneness.

The unconscious drive to seek
The way we seek differ according to the type of sensitivity we have unfolded, for example, a physical-oriented person would seek sexual expression and/or physical contact. A mental-oriented person would seek communication, knowledge, information, being smart. An emotional-oriented person would seek security, warmth, love-relationship. A spiritually-oriented person would seek deeper meaning of love such as oneness, God, True Love and so on.

The paradox of seeking, which is the whole drive of the human being, is often unconscious. This drive is the very essence of being knocking at the door of its true goal – inner fulfillment or Home. While the human being cannot help this seeking, yet, it is this very seeking that creates all our dysfunctions due to the build-up of guilt inherent in the seeking itself. For example, one can’t help seeking love in any of its various ways simply because his/her nature is love knocking fo recognition. However, since the seeker is 95% unconscious to its acts, behavior, moods, emotions and thoughts there is the buildup in the subconscious mind that believes one is lacking love. The subconscious doesn’t know the difference between the real and unreal and produces (materializes) whatever we believe to be true. This means that we are telling our subconscious mind, “I need love because I lack it.” This is, of course, a lie, a great deception since it is our true nature of love (oneness) that seeks itself to bond with itself. Again, due to unawareness of this great truth, we feel we need love because we lack it. This lack-feeling creates a nagging hole in us that keeps saying, “I am not-good-enough” “I am missing something” “I feel incomplete but don’t know how” and so on. This is the guilt that emerges from seeking what we already are in our true nature.

What creates the problem?
What creates this problem? The ‘problem’ of guilt is created because we seek in the world what we already are inside us. Every act, thought, emotion and belief towards this need to fulfill a lack exacerbates our guilt – the feeling of being incomplete and not-good-enough. And, this is why every worthwhile teacher encourages us to look within for the ‘answers’ that can never be found in the world ‘out there.’ Also another reason why we can’t find the answers in the world is because the world is the creation of the mind. What we see in the world is what we have created in our own world.

Look at the world that seems so real and solid and you will see guilt in action – corrupt officials and governments; crime, violence, wars, dictatorships, and man’s inhumanity to man. When we look for answers ‘out there’ we end up frustrated, confused, bewildered, frightened and hopeless. We seek hope and meaning ‘out there’ where none can possibly exist.

Turning inward
When we start to awaken to our own seeking and its futility to bring us what we truly crave, it is then we start turning inward toward ‘answers.’ But then, we look for answers within the same way we did when we sought in the world. This is, of course, an inevitable process of conditioning. We believe that answers come in words and sentences. Our greatest ‘answer’ is One and it is known as the Silence of pure awareness. It is through this pure awareness that we find the meaning we had long overlooked for it is the Oneness itself.

We can’t stop seeking anymore than we can stop breathing, however, our awareness of our futile seeking is itself a pull inward towards the Truth of our Being. Our seeking doesn’t stop altogether but reaches deeper and finer forms of expression until it becomes directed towards the One Love – our true Beloved, which is the Spirit Being. It is all we ver wanted and needed but didn’t know it.

You are a human being
You are a human being. The human is a seeker for the Being. Since you are already a Being, the human part of you is seeking itself without your surface self (human) knowing it. This unawareness or surface self is called ‘ego.’ Ego may seek knowledge, practice and study but it can’t see beyond itself to what is Real. In other words…

The human is the seeker in us but it eludes the human how all it is really seeking is the very Being that is itself appearing as human.

This unawareness of how we seek the Being (which is love) creates the emotional suffering known as unconscious guilt. There are nine ways how we seek the Being known as love or Oneness (one and the same thing). We will discuss these in a moment, but first let’s explore the most essential knowing, which is this –

We do not seek or learn spirituality since it is already who we are – we unlearn the unconscious guilt built through the seeking ‘out there.’ It is through the healing of guilt that we find the Truth.

There’s nothing to do but SEE!
When Gurus and Teachers tell their students to study or practice or do many various things to attain true spirituality, they are merely giving the student something ‘to do’ because it is the ego that believes in ‘doing’ rather than ‘being.’ When a student is ‘ready’ (and any teacher knows and sees that in a student) then there is no longer ‘doing’ but inquiry into the nature of why we have to do anything to unfold that which we already are. It is this inquiry that awakens the inner LOVE we already are and leads to the recognition of Oneness.
The best Inquiry I have ever seen was advocated by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, by Byron Katie and by the Course Workbook lessons. They ‘force’ you to look at what is obvious here and now and thus wake up from the guilt through knowing one’s true nature as innocence.

What is the unconscious belief that compels guilt?
What you are about to discover is so unconscious that you might have never even considered it, and it is this – it is the belief in wrong! It is so subtle and devious that the guilt in us forces us to pretend and deceive ourselves into believing there is no wrong so that we can indulge in it. Here’s one example, a woman asked me, “Sometimes I feel sad and I want to cry, there’s nothing wrong in that, right?”
My reply was, “Of course not, there’s nothing wrong in anything. However, the fact that you are sad and want to cry, although in itself is not wrong, yet it is a clear indication that you believe in wrong”. In other words, The need to cry is itself coming from the belief that something is wrong.

The belief that something is wrong or could be wrong is the lurking unconscious guilt that is always ready to deceive us and trick us. Another instance is the great power of forgiveness, which is the most effective way to rise above guilt, and then guilt uses forgiveness to keep itself feeling guilty – How? By going through the motion of forgiveness so that one can indulge in self-concern, self-pity or sadness and crying spells.
In hearing about this belief in wrong a woman asked during a session, “Now whenever I feel sad or want to cry I will feel even more guilty because I feel I shouldn’t!”
Another devious deception of guilt is this continual need to keep feeling wrong – there are no ‘shoulds’ in reality. There is only what you are feeling in the moment and then to look at it without going unconscious into its story or conditioned response. Guilt will try to force us to feel guilty for feeling our feelings. There is no wrong in anything! To repeat, there is no wrong in anything but the belief in it. Therefore, if the feeling to cry arises, do not stop it or think anything about it but simply take a deep breath and LOOK at it. See what is propelling it into its existence.

The story of the Garden of Eden is a tremendous good story about guilt when both Adam and Eve were naked (innocent) and the snake (guilt) compelled them to eat from the fruit of good and evil and thus they were thrown into suffering. It is a story how the ‘devil’ is guilt and engorges us with its influence to the point of believing we are it.

Meaning of forgiveness
The true meaning of forgiveness is this – seeing clearly that there’s nothing to forgive since the nature of life is innocence. It is the subtle unconscious belief in wrong that sustains our egoic preoccupation.
Guilt is the unconscious belief in wrong. This is a hard one for the human to fully comprehend because when it looks at the world and sees what is going on, it convinces itself in wrong, and this conviction happens because of the unconscious guilt itself. So you see here how devious and cunning unconscious guilt is! The world is as it is because of guilt.
If we looked with innocence and clarity we would see that the world is a mess because it is motivated, directed and propelled by guilt.
The greatest healing is learning the true art of forgiveness, which is the undaunted drive for the truth. Truth is innocence; it is the ‘now’ without a past or future just like the sweet child who sees only goodness. In Reality goodness, love, joy and happiness are the truth itself. This sounds like polyanna to the human ego but to the Being in you it is Heaven itself. Forgiveness is the only sanity because it sees only the true spiritual essence behind the appearance of evil. The word ‘evil’ is the reverse of ‘live’ and there is no life as long as there is the belief in wrong.

Byron Katie, one of the purest spiritual teachers in our world wrote, “Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there’s nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here and now.”

Another subtle deception of the spiritual seeker is the belief that they think they know Truth, as if Truth was ‘something.’ Truth is Spirit-essence; it is not information from a book but an inner peace that our true essence is Oneness. Truth is emptiness, Silence, peace, love, happiness. In an nutshell it is innocence.

The question arises, “Okay, I have read this before but what can I do if Oneness is the Truth—there is no individual doer?”
That’s it! There’s nothing to do but to allow yourself to see that you are guiltless and innocent despite the sadness and emotional turmoil that still takes over. There’s nothing to do but see the momentary deception as it happens, to look at it with innocence and say, “It is forgiven because it is not the truth of who I AM!”
This continual vigil arises from your sincerity and honesty and with repeated affirmations of forgiveness when guilt is experienced, it will eventually become such a part of you that grace will bring you the awakening of your Being.

The nine ways we seek
The following are the nine ways in which unconscious guilt builds. Do not under-estimate guilt. When someone commits suicide it is always the overwhelming guilt that finally commits that act. It leads to insanity, dysfunction and criminal behavior when guilt reaches its summit. It is important to note here that your true nature is guiltless. Guilt builds by believing that there is something wrong with you. It projects this guilt outwardly into the world and blames ‘others’ for this deep feeling of unworthiness. The love sought becomes self-hate and reaches for its own self-sabotage. We awaken when we see this grand delusion of humankind. This is the only human suffering.

The nine ways we seek love and bring guilt:

1. We seek to be good and right in what we do. This need to be right becomes more important than happiness itself. It leads to perfectionism and the feeling that we are never satisfied. The Course asks us, “Would you rather be right or happy.”

2. We seek love from others by loving them hoping to get approval and confirmation of our sweet nature. It never works and this need for approval becomes an overwhelming need for self-identity that haunts us incessantly.

3. We seek to achieve, accomplish and success becomes important to us. We have believed as children that getting straight ‘A’ in school guaranteed love of our parents and teachers. This brings shallow values and attachment to body and image.

4. We seek emotional affection and attention for our authentic nature. We want to be real and believe we are special. This brings bitchy behavior for not being understood.

5. We seek knowledge through information and we are proud of our basic intelligence. We also seek privacy and aloneness but suffer identity problems such as inferiority or inadequacy.

6. We seek security and are very loyal. We make everything either black or white, right or wrong and do not see the in-between. We usually develop paranoia. Many policemen, firemen, government officials belong to this level.

7. We seek optimism and have future hope and dream a lot. These people are often shallow dreamers and can often resort to drink or indulgence.

8. We seek power and control. These people are often aggressive and extrovert. They can be in your face and they seek control over others.

9. We seek peace and harmony. This seeking brings fear of conflict and thus often escape facing the truth if it entails facing anger in others and oneself.

All humanity belongs to one of the above ‘seeking-modes’. This seeking becomes our natural way of being in the world to the point of believing it is the way to be.
When we start challenging our needs and desires without any attempt to control them or even overcome them (which is NOT necessary) then they start to fall away by themselves through the light of ‘seeing.’
To discover what has been troubling you is a great step. To discover that it is all an illusion is an even greater step, but to start seeing how beautiful and innocent you really are despite the thoughts and emotions, then you have taken a giant leap towards your true nature.

“Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there’s nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here and now.” ~~ Byron Katie ~~

Note: If you have questions or need guidance then email me for a face-to-face Skype interview and to arrange the time and fee required.
With love, Burt