WHAT IS THE ONE TRUE THING? – BE STILL AND KNOW GOD
Letter to Gilles
The theme of our own self-realization and what keeps us going is a very profound and deep message.
As a student of Paramahansa Yogananda for now over 40 years I can truly say He is one of the most influential teachers on the path of deathlessness and the One Truth along with the Dalai Lama and Ramana Maharshi and other great saints and Masters.
The “One True Thing” as you put it can be viewed from two perspectives.
One is that the “One True Thing” is something you are searching for, so the answer must lie there, in the “farther shore” in the shape of a Divine Source, Unconditional Love or God.
The other way is that the “One True Thing” is unknowable and un-nameable by the “I” that has created the whole search in the first place, and that to get to the “farther shore” practically, one has to totally surrender everything, including the “I”, that as Yogananda says, has created the veil that hides God from you.
Yeshua said the same thing “If you would be perfect, give up all you possess and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me” (Matthew 19:21)
This means giving up everything, including the notion of self.
The self is the veil.
As Ramana Mahashi (paramguru of Mooi) says
“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.
Your duty is to BE.
Not to be this or that.
I AM THAT I AM sums up the whole truth.
The method is summed up in the words “Be still”.
What does stillness mean?
It means destroy yourself.
Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble.
Give up the notion that “I am so and so”.
All that is required to realize the Self is to be still.
What can be easier than that?”
“Be still and know God” (Psalm 46:10)
“The most vital part of meditation, the whole crux of the matter in attaining the ultimate goal of God consciousness is stillness” (Yogananda)
Practically speaking it means the secret to unity is to be able to access stillness at any given moment.
As Eckhart Tolle says
“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.
When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness.
This is the I AM that is deeper than name and form.
Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form.
But then, it is not really a thing and it is not of this world.”
So to find the “one true thing” we need to need to let go of form and use the universal bridge across forever, stillness, to access the portal of being and “travel” across worlds, free of form and self and “I” to the universal realm of love, the I AM THAT I AM, אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה ’ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh that God spoke to Moses of in Exodus 3:14
Perhaps it is notable dear Brother that your current search is leading you so clearly to the land of Moses and Aaron and Exodus, because they, like you, like Yogananda, the Dalai Lama, Ramana Maharshi, Eckhart Tolle, Yeshua and Mary Magdalene and all saints and Masters, realize the truth is so very simple.
Be still and Know God within.
“We need no wings to go in search of God, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and still and look upon God present within us”
(St. Teresa of Avila)
Love and Light and Blessings
Altair and Mother